Baseball’s Best Outfield Is In Minnesota

[jmlease1]

39 minutes ago, Jeff D. said:

While I anxiously await the 2023 season to begin, I remain extremely skeptical about our Twins and the leadership.

What I do wonder about is our centerfield position, our strikeouts, our hitting coach, our starting pitching durability, how our RF'er will hopefully improve with the shift gone, Baldelli, how Arraez not adding 200 hits will affect the on base %, our catching spot and a few more tidbits.

That being said, GO TWINS!

Twins Geezer, OUT!

since this topic is about the OF, I'm going to skip over all the other stuff, but I'm unclear why you're wondering about our CF position. Buxton is an elite player when he's on the field, Taylor is an elite defender in CF and starter quality at the position (and he's the backup), they have 3 other guys on the 26 man roster right now who can play CF in Gordon, Gallo, and Kepler, and Celestino is waiting in AAA. This is the deepest CF we've had in quite a long time. So what exactly are you wondering about?

[MarcF]

You can't be serious. Repost this on April 1st.

[MarcF]

And this continuous elation about having Joey Gallo in the lineup. The guy is AWFUL. A great fielder? Okay. He can't hit. Period. The Yankees tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. The Dodgers tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. Before them, Texas gave up, too. He cannot hit. Period. I don't care how great of a right field he plays. When a guy hits .150, .160, hey, even give him a .170, with 200 k's, he doesn't serve a spot on the roster. And $11 million? He got a raise for his complete lack of production last season? Joey should be with Sano this season, wherever that is.

[bloggymcbloggerson]

they were 13th in MLB in OF fWAR last year so, uh, forgive my skepticism

[bloggymcbloggerson]

i don't think "kepler being parted out" was the metaphor you wanted there

[dxpavelka]

Now factor in that Buxton & Taylor will likely never be on the field at the same time and that Gallo may play a bunch of first base.....

[dxpavelka]

1 hour ago, MarcF said:

And this continuous elation about having Joey Gallo in the lineup. The guy is AWFUL. A great fielder? Okay. He can't hit. Period. The Yankees tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. The Dodgers tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. Before them, Texas gave up, too. He cannot hit. Period. I don't care how great of a right field he plays. When a guy hits .150, .160, hey, even give him a .170, with 200 k's, he doesn't serve a spot on the roster. And $11 million? He got a raise for his complete lack of production last season? Joey should be with Sano this season, wherever that is.

Actually between Joey & Sano, one's a .234 career hitter and one's a .199 career hitter.  Convince me we are rostering the right one.....

[Nine of twelve]

5 hours ago, MarcF said:

And this continuous elation about having Joey Gallo in the lineup. The guy is AWFUL. A great fielder? Okay. He can't hit. Period. The Yankees tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. The Dodgers tried and tried to let him break out, to no avail. Before them, Texas gave up, too. He cannot hit. Period. I don't care how great of a right field he plays. When a guy hits .150, .160, hey, even give him a .170, with 200 k's, he doesn't serve a spot on the roster. And $11 million? He got a raise for his complete lack of production last season? Joey should be with Sano this season, wherever that is.

My understanding is that the author of the article was referring strictly to the best defensive outfield. The title of the thread was misleading about that, and even the article itself wasn't completely clear until the last paragraph.

[Jeff D.]

So what exactly are you wondering about?

I guess I could have been more specific. I am, and have been concerned about our fragile Center Fielder, Byron Buxton (he would call me a bad fan), and how we consistently view this guy as our team's key. He is fragile and this is a fact. I guess that is it. No ill thoughts about Taylor or Celsetino or Gordon in CF. In my view only, he should DH where it may be safe for him. Let Celestino/Taylor/Gordon play. 

GO TWINS! Twins Geezer .... out!

 

 

23 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

since this topic is about the OF, I'm going to skip over all the other stuff, but I'm unclear why you're wondering about our CF position. Buxton is an elite player when he's on the field, Taylor is an elite defender in CF and starter quality at the position (and he's the backup), they have 3 other guys on the 26 man roster right now who can play CF in Gordon, Gallo, and Kepler, and Celestino is waiting in AAA. This is the deepest CF we've had in quite a long time. So what exactly are you wondering about?

 

[jkcarew]

And you can find him wearing sweats at the far end of the dugout….or DH’ing…in a city near you!

[Minny505]

On 2/3/2023 at 5:01 PM, JD-TWINS said:

V, LH pitching:

Taylor CF - Buxton DH - Correa SS - Miranda 1B - Polanco 2B - Farmer 3B - Gordon LF - Jeffers C - Kepler RF

Reserves:

Kiriloff - Larnach - Gallo

Vazquez has to sit for back up Catcher. He’s the only other RH hitter.

Moving Buxton around in OF when we have 3 guys that can play RF …..………….He’s going to hopefully play CF 80 games & DH 50 games & sit 30 games. If we get this from him, it’s 13 more games than any other year in his career (117 best so far). 

 

I suspect you are accurate about what they will do, but it may not be optimal. 

Putting Buxton in RF means Vazquez/Jeffers can DH, which is likely a 100 basis points of OPS upgrade over any LHB you stick in RF. 200 bps over Kepler.

Speaking of Kepler, I never want to see him have a PA against a LHP in a close game ever again. Due to injuries this may not be possible, but he is the last OFer on the 40 man that I want to see in the lineup against a LHP. I'd start Farmer in RF before Kepler. He is nearly Andrelton Simmons circa 2021 bad at the plate when it comes to LHP. 

I like Kepler. He's a fantastic strong-side platoon role player who plays very good RF defense, but that defense is not so good that he should be in the lineup vs LHP.