Defensive Reactions

Adding Drew Stubbs fits the description as well.  Great speed/defense.

 

Is JB Shuck a defensive specialist?

If Stubbs could regain his offense circa 2009 - 2014, he could be a great addition.  And a nice rotational player for days when the Twins face left-handed pitchers. 

If we go with Adrianza at SS, how do we get Polanco at bats? Play him at 3B, Sano at DH, and Vargas on the bench?

I'm thinking, with the new front office, Vargas may not be guaranteed 40 man guy.  We shall see.....

If we go with Adrianza at SS, how do we get Polanco at bats? Play him at 3B, Sano at DH, and Vargas on the bench?

Again, they are absolutely not going to DH Sano.

I will never, ever understand this. Kid is 22 years old and numerous fans want to DH him already. Watch Sano enough in the field and you see something there. He has not had much chance to play third in the majors because he initially came up as a DH for a playoff run and then the Twins made the stupid decision to keep try him in right field. 

Give Sano a spring training at third and put him there the first few months of the season.

Personally, I find it doubtful that anybody but Polanco is the starting shortstop. At least for the first few months of the season, you stick him there and see if he improves. If it doesn't work, you find a trade partner for Dozier and put Polanco at second and Adrianza gives you a glove at short.

Again, they are absolutely not going to DH Sano.

 

I will never, ever understand this. Kid is 22 years old and numerous fans want to DH him already. Watch Sano enough in the field and you see something there. He has not had much chance to play third in the majors because he initially came up as a DH for a playoff run and then the Twins made the stupid decision to keep try him in right field. 

 

Give Sano a spring training at third and put him there the first few months of the season.

 

Personally, I find it doubtful that anybody but Polanco is the starting shortstop. At least for the first few months of the season, you stick him there and see if he improves. If it doesn't work, you find a trade partner for Dozier and put Polanco at second and Adrianza gives you a glove at short.

The Sano at DH take is a visceral reaction to Miguel not being able to catch infield popups. He does have some talent there and an arm. It's just hard to lose the visual of those botched catches.

The Sano at DH take is a visceral reaction to Miguel not being able to catch infield popups. He does have some talent there and an arm. It's just hard to lose the visual of those botched catches.

That and his lateral movement is weak.  

Of course, when he does make a fairly routine play on a ball like, say, going three steps to his right, fielding it, then taking 3 more steps to stop his momentum to plant and throw (barely getting the runner because of his great arm) the play is regarded as awesome :-)

The Sano at DH take is a visceral reaction to Miguel not being able to catch infield popups. He does have some talent there and an arm. It's just hard to lose the visual of those botched catches.

I get that, to an extent. The Sano-as-DH thing began even before those pop-ups were dropped. A lot of people view him as a DH because of his size.

Here's the thing, though: You WANT Sano to be a third baseman. A 40-homer third baseman is a lot rarer than a 40-homer first baseman or a 40-homer DH. And he has a ton of value if he simply plays average defense. 

I think the Twins painted themselves into a corner and therefore Adrianza with likely stick on the 25 man. Having Sano and Polanco on one side of the infield is very scary for Twins pitchers. We don't strike out a ton of hitters and Polanco doesn't get to a lot of balls. My totally unscientific opinion is that it will be better for our pitchers to overindex defense at SS. Could be that Polanco starts the season at SS but after a short period of time will fill in at 2B and 3B, still getting plenty of AB's.

How often do you plan to bench Dozier, for that to work?

Not that I will be given the option to fill out the lineup card , but I would have Dozier in the lineup close to everyday. 2B, DH and even via giving him a 1B glove and telling him to spend time in spring training learning the position.

3 year/24.5M is not a big contract. It's a rather small FA contract for a starting veteran player.

He was worth over 9M last year and over 11M in each of the two previous seasons (and I doubt his pitch framing skill was included since it's based on his WAR which didn't have framing included).  If he's not really a low 1 WAR player like Fangraphs says, and more of a 2-3 WAR player when taking into acount the framing like Baseball Prospectus attempts to do, then this deal looks extremely good for the Twins.

Given he's a former SS, why not short?  Polanco is a natural 2B.  Dozier moved over there b/c his defense wasn't good, but his defense originally wasn't good at 2B either. He got better. Would it translate the other way?  I'm spit balling a bit there, but I'd think the occasional game at SS might be a good thing, especially if he keeps hitting. If he shows he's adequate defensively, he's suddenly far more desirable at the deadline.

Did he move off of SS, because of arm strength or range? If he didn't have the arm for SS I don't think you can move him to 3B.

I agree with the FO strategy here. I think SS and CF specifically should value defense over offense.