Hot Bat Earns Miguel Sano Twins' Player Of The Week Honors

Interesting about his defense.  I wonder if rust is a factor there too.  I remember in 2013 he made a lot of errors in the first half of the year and turned it around in the second. 

If he doesn't cut down on the errors, I have a hard time seeing him stick at 3B.

Trevor Plouffe made plenty of errors in his first season at third. Above that, he also had to work on his first step. Developed into a very decent third basemen. Sano could wind up doing the same. 

I am guessing you mean 2012?  He played in 95 games and made 17 errors.  One every 5.5 games.  Sano has 10 in 33 games, one every 3.3 games.

I think he could do it and I am not writing him off here. Just noting that he needs a dramatic improvement upon this rate.

I know that he was likely committed to his rehab, and position players don't have nearly the recovery time that pitchers do, but I have to assume that he'll continue to get better as he A: shakes off the rust offensively and defensively and B: continues to strengthen and grow accustomed to his repaired elbow. He was out of baseball for a long time.

Point with Plouffe is that the Twins do have patience for players to work through some shaky play. Look at Danny Santana right now as well. Sano's got a high error rate but it doesn't have to be a position-killer.

 

Corey Koskie - Age-22 season (A): 36 errors in 109 games

Miguel Sano - Age-20 season (A+-AA): 23 errors in 120 games

 

Again, errors are dumb in defensive evaluation. As the clip shows above, Sano has decent athleticism. Hopefully he can improve the decision-making/concentration in order to keep from making the routine errors.

Just curious, what defensive metrics exist for minor league players?  Outside of errors.  Didn't think much existed...

Three and four years ago in ST, I got the chance to watch TK work with Sano on one of the smaller infield skins. Interesting couple of sessions a year apart. Both in how Kelly works, and how little progress Sano had made over they year in between. (He got hurt after that.)

By my eyeball test, Sano may never be 'average major league caliber' defensively. I'm not piling on here, but there has hardly been any discussion on why folks think he could be called up to play 3rd. That would be a grave mistake at this point. He's young, and it could work out someday, But not in the very near future, imo.

No doubt in my mind that Sano CAN be an MLB third baseman. As Parker wote above, it's more about concentration because he is a good athlete, and he has decent range, and he has a very powerful arm.

 

Will he play there? I don't know. That might be dependent upon other things, such as how good Plouffe has become and will be. 

 

I have little doubt that Sano will become a very good MLB power hitter.

When you see the clip that Parker included, how can anyone even dispute his defensive chops? For a third baseman, he's really the total package. I am in agreement with others, including Terry Ryan, that the errors are not even a concern at this point. It is interesting to ponder though. Why do we make mistakes? Seth, you attribute it here to occasional lapses in concentration. I suppose that's certainly possible. But consider this: a hundred thousand times you stop at a red light, but one time you blow through it. Were you concentrating in that moment, no; but were you really concentrating any more during the hundred thousand other times? I am a carpenter, and say I make a hundred thousand accurate measurements in month, but once in a while I inch trick a measurement- I don't think I am concentrating any less in the instance that I make the mistake. Further, it's the kind of mistake I made much more frequently when I was less experienced- even though I was probably concentrating harder on that type of task than I do now. My point here isn't necessarily to say that Sano's proclivity for defensive mistakes are not due a lack of concentration (who can know what's another's mind at any given time?). My point is to suggest that it is rather (or additionally) lack of experience. Maybe even as simple as muscle memory. Even on plays that appear routine, there must be infinite possibility for subtle differences. It would take countless in-game repetition to become automatic. Sano has only been playing third for a couple of seasons, and the difference between third and short is significant. I will say, as a middle infielder, I wanted nothing to do with third base. It's weird over there. Seth, as you say he is an athlete, he has the hands, he has the arm. He's going to be a third baseman. In my opinion, his bat is ready now. I don't think that what happens with Sano is dependent at all on Trevor Plouffe. Plouffe will be, what, 29 this summer? He's playing really well, as he should, being in his prime. Do we have reason to project continued improvement and increased production from him? Perhaps? I don't know, but it seems to me most players begin trending downward once they reach their thirties. A down-trending Joe Mauer is palatable, and certainly Torii Hunter seems to have bucked the trend altogether, but a down-trending Trevor Plouffe with a lurking Miguel Angel... no way. 

These awards are the kiss of death. Button is lauded for his bat finally coming alive and he immediately goes back into the toilet. Sano wins player of the month and he immediately goes 0-8 with 6 k's. Apparently talking about minor league hitter's streaks is tantamount to talking about a pitcher's in-progress no hitter.