Switching Gears: Eddie Rosario

[jay]

Rosario hasn't proven a thing at the big league level - Dozier has. Assuming Dozier will play SS as well defensively as Florimon, and that Rosario will be as good at 2b as Dozier, is a dubious proposition.

 

If Dozier falls flat on his face next season, it will be nice to have someone to take his place, but otherwise, how long has Rosario played OF as opposed to 2b, and how big a deal would it be for him to switch back? Probably not hard at all.

 

If Dozier continues to perform as he has since May, 2B is his. If Rosario shows in AAA that he is clearly ready for MLB, I think we need to have this conversation then. Neither of those are a given and could very well not happen at all.

[cmb0252]

If you aren't going to keep Rosario at 2B because you feel Dozier is the 2B of the future, trade him. The Rangers refused to trade Profar, who is a significantly better prospect than Rosario, and look how that experiment turned out. Dicking around young players isn't a smart idea. As I say this I'm not confident in Dozier with out seeing him produce like he has for another year.

[Rosterman]

It means Rosario will spend another full season in the minors before the Twins bring him north sometime in 2015.

[AROG]

You keep Dozier at 2B. He has proven he is very capable there and hopefully that will continue. With Rosario, you keep him at 2B for several reasons. 1) He has proven that he can play a more then capable OF defense and doesn't need to practice there for the sake of practice. 2) Say we get to the enviable position of having to find space for Rosario, having the ability to play MLB defense at 2B and all 3 OF positions make it easier for him to be a Ben Zobrist and find playing time in a lot of places. 3) It dramatically increases his trade value.

[darin617]

How about they just let him start the season at AAA and if continues to rake then we worry about that. Dozier has been one of the very few bright spots this season. Hopefully the Twins treat Aaron Hicks the same way they did Dozier last year and he comes back with some desire to "earn" a position, not get one handed to him for having a few good spring training games.

[twinsin17]

Rosario should start next season in AA. Unless he kills AFL pitching and has a stellar spring I don't see a move to AAA until he improves his performance against AA pitching. Double A pitching has proven much more challenging than what he has seen in the past. After moving from A+ to AA this year his K% increased from 12.6% to 21.4% and ISO decreased from .198 to .128. We have no reason to rush him to AAA then to the Majors with Dozier looking good for now. Best case scenario is he rakes AA to start the year, earns a promotion to AAA, continues to hit and gets a late season September call up. Worst case? We rush him to the bigs, he whiffs 30% of the time, shows no power and less than stellar D at 2nd.

[Boom Boom]

Don't move Rosario from 2B. Even if you're sold on Dozier as a long term building block at 2B, the Twins already have loads of outfield prospects. You'd be limiting infield options and compounding a logjam in the outfield.

[freshinthehouse]

Personally, I am hoping for Hicks-Buxton-Kepler. I'd like to see Dozier get a crack at SS again next year (it's a lost year anyway probably as well) with Rosario staying at 2B. If it works - awesome. If it doesn't, then we adjust.

 

Agreed. Next year is gonna be another learn-on-the-job season, so we may as well try Dozier at SS if Rosario is belting in AAA. Rosario's bat has the potential to be All-star caliber at 2nd. The same cannot be said if he's a corner outfielder.

[h2oface]

I like Rosario to stay at second and see what happens. If the Twins bring back Gardenhire (would they really??), then it shouldn't matter. Gardenhire loves to have the prospects play positions they didn't play in the minors, anyway. Hey.....he loves to have anybody play positions they didn't/don't play.

[Steve Lein]

I could see a Rosario, Buxton, Hicks outfield in the future if Dozier keeps this up. But I wouldn't move positions with Rosario or Dozier until it's apparent one of them is the long-term answer. I don't think we will know that until after next year.

 

Dozier has been awesome this year at 2B defensively, and has been really good with the bat in the 2nd half. I wouldn't mess with that by moving him to SS. That didn't work the first time, what makes you think it would now? When he was coming up through the minors playing SS, nearly every prospect guy/scout in the world said he would make a better 2B than a SS when talking about him. I'd say this year has corroborated that.

[Shane Wahl]

I like the scenario where the Twins can trot out Hicks, Buxton, Arcia and Rosario in the OF, then also use Rosario to give Dozier an occasional break at 2B. It also helps that the new guy, Alex Pressley, can play all the OF positions and is a good lead-off hitter. Dozier's improved hitting seems to fit better second in the order, where he can drive in a high on-base guy like Pressley.

 

Alex Presley is not a high OBP guy. He is another example of a guy succeeding in AAA and then not doing so in the majors.

[Shane Wahl]

Well Rosario is not going to be starting with the Twins at the beginning of 2014, so there is time to figure this out. I don't really know what to do other than move Dozier to short permanently, start (whenever Rosario comes up) with a platoon with Rosario and Dozier at second and when Rosario is in play Dozier at short or third, OR either make Rosario the starting LF (why is Willingham still with the Twins, again?).

[bird]

I'm glad the Twins were "forward looking" enough to have patience with Dozier when most of us had written him off about two months ago, and "forward looking" enough to move Dozier (and Rosario) to 2B where they're both thriving. But I'm in the camp that wants to see how things play out for both players next season. Hopefully, we have two tradeable assets.

 

Maybe we can get Billy Smith back as GM so he can pull off another great trade...

[Steve Penz]

You keep Dozier at 2B. He has proven he is very capable there and hopefully that will continue. With Rosario, you keep him at 2B for several reasons. 1) He has proven that he can play a more then capable OF defense and doesn't need to practice there for the sake of practice. 2) Say we get to the enviable position of having to find space for Rosario, having the ability to play MLB defense at 2B and all 3 OF positions make it easier for him to be a Ben Zobrist and find playing time in a lot of places. 3) It dramatically increases his trade value.

 

Yes please. Rosario should stay on his current path. If the Twins end up with 2 guys who can play 2b and hit and hit and therefore room has to be made then so be it. That is how we can get more pitching. If that surplus happens it would be a great thing. Dozier has only been like this since May and Rosario is quite young. Give it time next year but stay on the current course.

[ashbury]

Alex Presley is not a high OBP guy. He is another example of a guy succeeding in AAA and then not doing so in the majors.

 

Age 24-27 MLB: 715 PA .263/.302/.419

Age 24-27 AAA: 1242 PA .309/.377/.460

 

This looks to me like a pretty typical difference between the two levels, particularly a dropoff in getting walks, even allowing that the uneven mix of when these stats were accumulated makes comparison hard. The AAA bar needs to be set higher for "succeeding" if you want more than this from a player in the majors. And if he keeps up an OPS around .700 with decent CF defense, he'll have a job in the majors somewhere for a while longer; depends on what you call succeeding.