Twins Fans Should Be Excited About Jorge Polanco

Trade Gordon for pitching!

 

Nice article!

He's been the Robin to Sano's Batman ever since they signed.  Here's hoping he gets a chance to play a significant part on this team for the next few years.  Can he play third base?  

I will likely get flack for this, but he is why I would have, or still would trade Dozier for the best arm out there, or package Dozier. Slide Polanco to second, put a glove first SS out there, until one of the younger glove/bat SS prospects develop. While Polanco won't hit the HR's BD will, he will be a better pure hitter. Some of Doziers value as a HR guy is lost in his insistence on leading off. And the added defense at SS will mitigate the offensive loss. But then again that's just me.

I’m not excited. He’s not an “exciting” player. He doesn’t have the blazing speed of Buxton. He won’t hit homeruns like Dozier. He’s not Ozzie Smith on defense.

 

Polanco may be the least exciting player on the team. And that’s okay.

 

Because you know what he will do?

 

Win games for the team.

From August on, Polanco hit .316/.377/.553 (.931 OPS), but we know he’s not that good.

Says you.

Every few years I get an inexplicable feeling about a certain player. This year it's Polanco. Of course, I could turn out to be very wrong, but I think he'll be similar to last year's Eddie Rosario, doing much better than most people think he could.

 

I will likely get flack for this, but he is why I would have, or still would trade Dozier for the best arm out there, or package Dozier. Slide Polanco to second, put a glove first SS out there, until one of the younger glove/bat SS prospects develop. While Polanco won't hit the HR's BD will, he will be a better pure hitter. Some of Doziers value as a HR guy is lost in his insistence on leading off. And the added defense at SS will mitigate the offensive loss. But then again that's just me.

I've always liked Polanco's potential, at the plate and at 2nd.

 

I like Dozier, but the insistence on hitting leadoff kinda rubbed me the wrong way. 

I will give Dozier credit for one thing. He knows his strengths and exploits them. A lot of his numbers yell 3 hole. But he clings to the leadoff spot. I have always thought it's simply because he feasts on get em over FB. The only place you may get more of them than leadoff is 9th. I know analytics value highly the extra PA a good hitter gets for each notch up in the order. But I have never been convinced the loss of RBI type AB has been worth it. Whether BD's numbers would be as good in a 3-4 slot as leadoff is hard to say, but it's likely we won't find out. As for the original OP, I really think Polanco can and will just flat out hit. He would not be my SS, but he would be in my lineup somehow.

I also agree: very good article. Hopefully, Polanco can match his second-half numbers from 2017 for the entire coming season. Remember how down on him people were earlier last summer? And then he caught fire. I hope everything clicked and the fire continues!

 

I feel that the death of Jorge's grandfather, Maximo on June 6, 2017 played a large part in Jorge's mid-season slump. It is understandable that Jorge was sad. His grandfather raised him, taught him to swim, taught him to play baseball. They were extremely close. It took time for him to work through this tremendous loss, which is understandable. Molitor said Gene Glenn hit grounders to Jorge for hours before the games. Molitor said he had not seen anyone work harder on his fielding then Jorge Polanco did during this time. I imagine it helped Jorge feel normal again, after his world had been rocked by the loss of his grandfather He fielded those grounders, hour after hour. I'm sure he appreciates Gene Glenn's time and kindness. He dedicated the rest of his season last year to his grandfather. I hope he is at peace and I wish him well. 

Beautiful comment. I do remember that time, and it's a good illustration of how something like baseball can help people cope with personal tragedy. Along with his baseball talents, Jorge Polanco appears to be a very decent, sincere person. 

When he first burst onto the scene, Jorge Polanco immediately impressed me with his cool under pressure. The Show did not overawe him at all. 

 

Since that time, Polanco has been a model student of the game, working quietly on all the little details, like refining his footwork and positioning at SS to make up for just moderate arm strength. Last season it resulted in remarkably solid performance from a guy many thought could not stick at short. 

 

This season I expect Polanco to remain steady in the field, and also add some pop at the plate. He has improved his plate discipline, which means it's more likely he'll be getting better pitches to hit. 

 

Now if Polanco and Grossman could rub a little of that plate discipline off on Rosario. Whoa baby, that would be cool. 

I can totally see 20 home runs coming out of Jorge's bat.  For some reason, I always saw him as having a little bit of Robinson Cano in him. Don't know how or why his options got burned up so quickly.  

I doubt Dozier insisted he bat lead off, but my guess is that he stated he liked batting lead off.  As we all know Bull Dozier does not write out the lineup...Paulie3K does based on a lot of variables. However I do not think Dozier should be batting lead off. But hey, what do I know. I've only managed some Little League teams and my job wasn't on the line when I did it.

A Strib writer (apologies for not remembering who) put forth a couple prospective opening day lineups. In the course of that exercise he made note of how Doziers insistence on leading off made one of his presented options, not his first choice. Add to that conjecture, Mauer was said to have resisted for several years moving out of the 3 hole, despite his post concussion struggles and it seems Molitor might be prone to accommodating a veterans desires/demands. I have also never managed anything past a low amateur level. But I just can't see myself acquiescing to a players demands for playing time, or position. I manage, you play. Frankly if you do this with all your players fairly and consistently, you will have less problems than coddling a select few.

Great stuff on Polanco, who is very likeable as a person and player.

 

Also not a bad hitter for someone who was signed as a defensive specialist.  How things can change when dealing with 16 year old kids.

 

A Strib writer (apologies for not remembering who) put forth a couple prospective opening day lineups. In the course of that exercise he made note of how Doziers insistence on leading off made one of his presented options, not his first choice. Add to that conjecture, Mauer was said to have resisted for several years moving out of the 3 hole, despite his post concussion struggles and it seems Molitor might be prone to accommodating a veterans desires/demands. I have also never managed anything past a low amateur level. But I just can't see myself acquiescing to a players demands for playing time, or position. I manage, you play. Frankly if you do this with all your players fairly and consistently, you will have less problems than coddling a select few.

I don't doubt that Molly has done some bootlicking for Dozier and Joe

I will likely get flack for this, but he is why I would have, or still would trade Dozier for the best arm out there, or package Dozier. Slide Polanco to second, put a glove first SS out there, until one of the younger glove/bat SS prospects develop. While Polanco won't hit the HR's BD will, he will be a better pure hitter. Some of Doziers value as a HR guy is lost in his insistence on leading off. And the added defense at SS will mitigate the offensive loss. But then again that's just me.

Flack, flack, flack.