Molitor's Thoughts On Some Minor Leaguers

[John Bonnes]

Paul Molitor, who is heading to Fort Myers on Saturday, talked a little today at the fundraiser about some minor leaguers. Just a couple quick reactions....

 

1. He mentioned he was going to see "3 infield prospects" at Fort Myers - Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and.....

 

Levi Michael. I was a little surprised it wasn't Kennys Vargas. Is Michael playing shortstop or second base? If 2B, how are they juggling him and Rosario?

 

2. He didn't seem very optimistic about Sano staying at 3B. Hinted this is a make or break year defensively for him.

 

3. Went out of his way to talk about Byron Buxton. He really likes Buxton. He thinks the Twins may have really underestimated just how ready he might be.

 

Like I said, nothing ground-breaking, but interesting to hear his thoughts....

[Steven Buhr]

John, do we have any sense of how much input Molitor has these days with regard to these guys? The whole "he's interested but we don't think he's a fit for a coach's spot" thing during the offseason still puzzles me a bit. He stayed "involved" with the organization as a Spring Training instructor, but just exactly what is his ongoing role in the organization?

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Michael is on the DL currently, so there is no juggling. I would guess he'll play both MINF positions (primarily SS) while Rosario gets a game or two a week in the outfield. Michael could probably also play some 3B if/when Sano gets a day off or a chance to play elsewhere.

[Mike Sixel]

Funny, I thought anyone suggesting Sano might have to move knew nothing about baseball.....move him to first now, and get his bat moving through the minors quickly.

[jay]

2. He didn't seem very optimistic about Sano staying at 3B. Hinted this is a make or break year defensively for him.

 

Two more errors last night. If he moves, where's he going? 1B or RF?

 

Baseball America scouts his arm as a 75 on the 40-80 scale, so I'd hope RF. Granted his speed is graded at 40, so then you question if he'd be quick enough to get around out there...

[IdahoPilgrim]

Paul Molitor, who is heading to Fort Myers on Saturday, talked a little today at the fundraiser about some minor leaguers. Just a couple quick reactions....

 

3. Went out of his way to talk about Byron Buxton. He really likes Buxton. He thinks the Twins may have really underestimated just how ready he might be.

 

Like I said, nothing ground-breaking, but interesting to hear his thoughts....

 

Are we talking Michael Trout-level here?

[TwinsFanInPhilly]

Funny, I thought anyone suggesting Sano might have to move knew nothing about baseball.....move him to first now, and get his bat moving through the minors quickly.

 

What does this have to do with the thread? Why antagonize other posters?

[jokin]

What does this have to do with the thread? Why antagonize other posters?

 

Actually, it has everything to do with this thread. If this is all it takes for you to feel "antagonized", welcome to Twins Daily, home of a solid minority of easily-offended homer sensibilities.

[nicksaviking]

Molitor's involvement with Ft. Myers just highlights why the Twins need to stop making the Midwest league a full year pit stop for the young HS draftees. I know Arcia got an early bump, though as it has been pointed out he was on a rehab assignment and they simply decided to keep him there once healed. Hopefully the standard Midwest layover is over.

 

If the Twins are going to have an unwritten rule about keeping prospects at a certain level for one full season regardless of performance it should be Ft. Myers where the best facilities, weather, coaches and instructors are.

[ashbury]

1. He mentioned he was going to see "3 infield prospects" at Fort Myers - Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and.....Levi Michael.

 

It may or may not be a positive thing for him to be scouting Michael. They could be considering trading him.

[nicksaviking]

It may or may not be a positive thing for him to be scouting Michael. They could be considering trading him.

 

I'd like to hear more. It doesn't seem likely they'd trade a prospect for a vet at this stage of the rebuild and I wouldn't think he'd have much value if they wanted to trade him for a similar prospect but perhaps you have an angle I haven't thought of.

[bird]

Funny, I thought anyone suggesting Sano might have to move knew nothing about baseball.....move him to first now, and get his bat moving through the minors quickly.

 

Molitor is certainly knowledgable, but he's not observing Sano every day. Perhaps there are coaches who see him every day that hold out more hope than Molitor. I don't recall anyone suggesting that people know nothing about baseball because they believe he "might" have to change positions. They would have to include Ryan, Molitor, and most of the field staff. We do have to concede that some pros who are closer to the situation may know somrething we don't. And how do people here know Sano's ready for the next level with the bat? And what about other factors, such as his maturity and professionalism? What can anyone her tell us about that? My guess is that Molitor's pessimism may have almost as much to do with these things than whether Sano can improve skills-wise.

[70charger]

It may or may not be a positive thing for him to be scouting Michael. They could be considering trading him.

 

Or maybe it isn't a trade. Maybe it's something more like a decision about whether he's organization filler or still a prospect worth investing in. Are they coming up on the year where they have to consider putting him on the 40-man, or is that still a year off?

[nicksaviking]

Molitor also may be underestimating teams' current willingness to suffer through poor defense for an offensively talented player, espcially at third. There is no talk of moving Miguel Cabrera, the Red Sox are going to give Will Middlebrooks every chance as are the Pirates with Pedro Alverez. Heck, even Lonnie Chisenhall is getting his tenth chance and he hasn't even shown any offensive promise. Nor has Chris Johsnson who has found a third team to send him out to play terrible defense every day.

 

It's no secret that teams are counting on strikeouts more (well 29 teams) which takes more balls out of play which in turn minimizes defensive deficiencies.

[cmathewson]

John, do we have any sense of how much input Molitor has these days with regard to these guys? The whole "he's interested but we don't think he's a fit for a coach's spot" thing during the offseason still puzzles me a bit. He stayed "involved" with the organization as a Spring Training instructor, but just exactly what is his ongoing role in the organization?

 

It might be a situation like Steinbach. They've had an open offer to him for four years, but this is the first year he was ready to leave home so much as his daughters are now in college. I don't know because those things are private. But being a roving minor league instructor might suit him better at present.

[cmathewson]

Are we talking Michael Trout-level here?

 

Seth is now comparing him to Trout, after watching him for four days recently.

[Han Joelo]

Actually, it has everything to do with this thread. If this is all it takes for you to feel "antagonized", welcome to Twins Daily, home of a solid minority of easily-offended homer sensibilities.

 

Home to a solid minority of frequent tone-deaf posters whom, on a daily basis, endlessly chase their tails debating hypothetical minutia and seem like they would be much happier and less angst (and "snark") ridden if they were instead Tampa Bay Rays fans.

 

Welcome from the silent majority who either avoid your BYTO threads altogether or read them for the flat out sociologic fascination they provide.

 

Not everybody has time to post 25 times a day, as the pot calls the kettle black!

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Funny, I thought anyone suggesting Sano might have to move knew nothing about baseball.....move him to first now, and get his bat moving through the minors quickly.

 

I thought it was the other way around. People that have seen him thought he was raw and could improve enough to have the chance to stick.

 

Nobody has seen him as much as Moliter, though, who worked with him every day in Spring Training.

[Seth Stohs]

Molitor will visit each of the full-season minor league affiliates 2-4 times throughout the season, so don't make too much out of him going to Ft. Myers as opposed to somewhere else. He'll get to Cedar Rapids, New Britain and Rochester too.

 

His input is very much valued in the organization. He receives daily updates on the games and the players from each team each day as well. He gets the same information that is going up to Terry Ryan, Rob Antony, Brad Steil, etc., and he is filling out reports on what he sees as well.

 

As far as seeing Michael, he's going to see where he is health-wise, and if he gets into games yet in EST. Don't forget Molitor will also be involved in Extended Spring Training while he's down there. Michael is going to get an opportunity to play some SS in Ft. Myers, but has been brought up, he'll also play a little 2B and Rosario will get a few games in CF still.

 

Jim Crikket will likely agree with me, but when we were sitting at the Cedar Rapids games last weekend, the Buxton/Trout talk was definitely a pretty big part of the conversation. It's not really fair to put that kind of expectations on Buxton because what Trout has done is rare, but I saw what, in my opinion, is the Twins top prospect playing Cedar Rapids this weekend. And that's no knock on Sano. I think he's a top prospect and should remain at 3B as long as possible because he's such a good athlete that he'll figure out another position well enough in no time. Buxton is pretty special.

[Seth Stohs]

Seth is now comparing him to Trout, after watching him for four days recently.

 

I full acknowledge that the sample for me on Buxton has been 4 days and for Trout was 2 or 3 days three years ago. Trout stood out on the field. He looked great at the plate, showed patience, got on base, stole bases, played great defense and had a great arm. Buxton stood out on the field. He looked great at the plate, displayed patience, got on base, stole bases (is faster than Trout and likely has equal or more power), played great defense and showed a great arm.

 

Both just looked like ballplayer, played the part, and frankly, made a lot of the game look easy.

 

Again, I'm not going to say that Buxton is going to be up next July and put up a 10+ WAR in 2015 or anything like that. I'm just saying that as good as a prospect as Trout was in the Midwest League, I think Buxton is his equivalent. We'll see how he develops, but it is exciting to follow!

[nicksaviking]

Seth is now comparing him to Trout, after watching him for four days recently.

 

I'm just relieved we got a comparison of a white player and a black player. Now Buxton doesn't have to be Andrew McCutcheon and Trout doesn't have to be Mickey Mantle.

[beckmt]

Molitor needs to see where these Ft. Myers players are. Hopefully many of them will move up a level this year.

[gunnarthor]

I'm just relieved we got a comparison of a white player and a black player. Now Buxton doesn't have to be Andrew McCutcheon and Trout doesn't have to be Mickey Mantle.

 

That's actually one of the things I like about Ryan, he's crossed the color line to compare players, fairly often.

[boney]

Hopefully Sano can stick at 3rd. I love a 3rd baseman with a cannon arm and a little agility. He's definitely with the right manager imo.

[greengoblinrulz]

any word on BJ Hermsen recently.....is he still in EST?

[ashbury]

I'd like to hear more.

 

In the unlikely event you mean from me, on this forum I am the very model of an irresponsible poster and rumormonger; it's a nice break from work.

 

Actually 70charger elaborated in a way that expressed what was behind my terse comment. In his short time in the Twins organization, Michael hasn't shown me a lot at the plate to make him look like a future starter (good fundamental scouts might strongly disagree). JB's thread-starter expressed surprise that Molitor included him in the list of players he's looking at. I believe it's true that you can't trade a draftee in his first year, but now Michael is tradeable, and if some other team senses a higher ceiling than the Twins do, maybe the Twins would want to cross-check in some fashion; I could see packaging him with Willingham to snag a stronger prospect than Willingham alone.

 

Of course, you wouldn't publicize this if it were true, so actually I don't put the odds very high. I was just commenting that lumping Michael together with Sano and Rosario in that context might not mean he's on a par with them as a prospect.

[Halsey Hall]

Molitor will see just what he expects from Sano, he's a clutz with a glove. I saw him have 4 and what could have been 5 errors in 2 innings this spring, and 2 in the first inning last night. I met Miguel his first day here in 2010, and lucky me, he gave me his bat. He always says hello and this spring spotted me before I saw him, and came over and greeted me. I just get this hollow gut feeling watching him in the field, he's just not good.

 

A guy Molitor should be watching down here is Kennys Vargas. He's polished his skills at first and can swing the bat. And the way he interacts with everyone reminds me of David Arias so much. They even call him "little big popi". He's one to keep an eye on.

[jokin]

Home to a solid minority of frequent tone-deaf posters whom, on a daily basis, endlessly chase their tails debating hypothetical minutia and seem like they would be much happier and less angst (and "snark") ridden if they were instead Tampa Bay Rays fans.

 

Welcome from the silent majority who either avoid your BYTO threads altogether or read them for the flat out sociologic fascination they provide.

 

Not everybody has time to post 25 times a day, as the pot calls the kettle black!

 

So, mark you down as one of the antagonized homers, then?

[Steven Buhr]

The Trout/Buxton comparisons were inevitable in Cedar Rapids because this is where Trout came through in Angels organization. We saw his potential immediately (it was impossible to miss) and the locals are going to immediately leap to Trout comparisons. It's going to happen in CR as long as Buxton is here, for better or worse.

 

I agree we haven't seen enough of Buxton yet to fairly judge. I was a little concerned he might get off to a terrible start or something and would immediately be unfairly held up to a standard that he had no part in setting. I'm relieved, more than anything else, that he's started out well. Now we can settle in and see how he handles things the next several weeks.

[drjim]

So, mark you down as one of the antagonized homers, then?

 

Clearly he just needs more of your enlightenment. I can't understand why more people wouldn't think more like you.