Brock Beauchamp

If you mean "fix their 2020 catching situation", then that might be possible. But any 2017-2018 fix is going to have to come from outside the organization. Even collegiate catchers spend a fair amount of time in the minors, as it's hardest job on the diamond.

The guy has 650 MLB PAs. He has a career 135 OPS+. He has a 2016 121 OPS+. He's 23 years old. Miguel Cabrera had a 141 OPS+ through his age 23 season but already had 2400 plate appearances, improving on his numbers every season. I'm confused why we're even suggesting Sano lacks motivation. What are we expecting here, Ted Williams? Is anything short of a 200 OPS+ a failure?

It'd be foolish not to bring him up. Flailing at MLB pitching is better than sitting at home or taking hacks in a cage.

In my opinion, Sano sticks at third until he's played there consistently for 100 games. Then evaluate and make a decision. Also, I'm not quite ready to call Dozier a below average fielder. He's having a down year and he's getting older but he's right on the fringe of average, sporting a defensive ranking of 15 out of 24 qualifiers on Fangraphs. And there's still over 1/4 of a season left to play. He's no longer a plus defender, though. That's for certain.

Even at their low point, I figured they'd climb to 4-5. Now I think it might be more like 6-7. There are just too many bad NL teams. The Twins could stay in the AL cellar and still pick fourth pretty easily.

Hell, I'm not even sure we can lay Buxton at their feet. Yeah, I think a better hitting coach/manager combo gets a bit more performance from Byron but the guy has 356 MLB PAs spread over two seasons. That's barely half a season. The guy is still 22 years old. I don't know what ails Buxton, whether it's his swing, mental state, injury history leading to sporadic playing time, or how he has been yo-yoed between the minors and MLB. Some of those things can be laid at the feet of the coaching staff but I'm not ready to lay all of them at their feet.

While I'm not a fan of either Bruno or Molitor, dissecting the performance of a hitting coach is nebulous at best. I'd be fine with either/both getting the boot after the season but dropping the Kepler example on them is unfair. Max Kepler's OPS bottomed out at .518. It was his 17th game of the season and the 20th game of his MLB career. Ten games later, his OPS stood at .750 and he hasn't looked back since that time. I'm not going to "blame" the hitting coach for a rookie struggling for three weeks.

Sure, if you do that to one player, it can make your team better... But we've seen people all over the diamond the past few years, often at positions they cannot play. It's one thing to wedge a guy into the lineup because you need that specific bat taking swings on a daily basis... But the mish-mash of players and positions isn't an isolated incident with this franchise.

Oh yeah, tons of overlap but what used to be more solidly Republican demographics are broken this election. Two obvious groups are Catholics and Mormons but there are others as well. While I whole-heartedly agree that the historical GOP base is more reliable than the Democrat base, I'm not sure that will be the case this election. If Trump sticks with the election, I think there will be massive no-shows in what was once the foundation of the GOP. Sure, Trump may make up some of that ground in the CrazyTown demographic he's been courting but I don't see anything better than the two canceling each other out. If Trump continues down this path of alienating the GOP, I think this election is going to be chaotic and the Democrats will win down the ballot (I think that's what scares the GOP most right now... I suspect they've all but given up on the White House at this point). Still time for Trump to salvage some pieces, though... But given his arrogance, I don't think that will happen.

I think both you and Levi have valid ideas about the accuracy of polling but you're missing one GIANT component of Trump... I think you're conflating the GOP with the rural white vote. Together, they're a powerful force in American politics but if we've seen anything from the past two weeks, they are not the same thing. Trump has turned pure red states such as Utah and Arizona back into the mix. He has broken what was once a party of unity (largely based on the rural white vote) into a fragmented mess of indecision and argument. Whatever Trump gains in "uncounted" voters is likely to be offset and then some by the discord he's causing within the GOP. For example, the GOP once counted Mormons as one of their most ardent supporters (something like a 90/10 split) and now they're not even lukewarm to Trump, they're vehemently against his nomination. All those voters... They'll either turn up to vote for Johnson or they'll stay away from the polls entirely. I predict the GOP will lose badly all the way down the ticket this election if Trump continues this fiasco. There's a reason why the GOP is wondering if they need to supplant the man. It's not only about the presidency, it's about whether they'll lose a significant portion of Congress.

I expect it from an athlete. No one is going to say they're less than they were before now.

It's hard not to appreciate more about him after reading his thoughts on his approach. He's not wrong about anything he says other than maybe prime age.

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted. Dozier is saying smart things in this short interview: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/brian-dozier-on-extra-base-hits-and-creating-runs/ I appreciate any player who acknowledges advanced metrics and embraces them, even if we get frustrated with the daily results.

It's not about protecting his image, it's about not dreging ourselves into the muck. Other places can take their shots at A-Rod (or any other player), we strive for a higher standard. One can't claim high ground if one doesn't lead to high ground, even for those we despise.

Yeah, that's the general point. Those first 40 games can't be erased but given how they played out, they weren't entirely indicative of the talent of the 2016 Minnesota Twins. Since that time, they've been mediocre. In the past month, they've been quite good. That tells me this is a team on the right track, one that should think about investing in its immediate future. And a team that should never, ever be declared hopeless as one ESPN write did recently (I think it was ESPN, I could be mistaken). This is a team on the upswing.

Not necessarily "good" news, but news contrary to the deep depression found in much of this forum. This thread is tied into where the Twins will be in 2017 and 2018. It's reasonable to expect them to turn into a competent team in the near future and we shouldn't write off the advances we're seeing from key players today.

Seth, this is an honest question, not an accusation: What is the expected outcome of this decision? Is Buxton really going to learn anything by teeing off on AAA pitching again? The guy dominates anything that isn't MLB pitching. We all know in our "common" lives that one doesn't learn when one is (not just a little but massively) superior to everyone around him.

Yes, we should. I'm not defending Gibson here, I'm only pointing out that if you have to include a partial rookie season of a guy coming back from TJ surgery to illustrate a point, maybe your point kinda sucks. Given how Gibson has pitched lately, he looks a lot like a #4. I was hoping for better. But let's not discount the value of a guy who throws innings that keeps the team in the game. There is a reason why many "contender" teams go with a three man rotation in the postseason. Their #4/5 guys simply aren't good enough for a postseason game. That doesn't mean those players were worthless during the regular season.

Blech. It's my theme of the day.

I had a response typed and deleted it. I'm just going to regurgitate: Blech.

Blech.

I don't think it's that simple. I created a new thread about this very subject, please contribute your thoughts. http://twinsdaily.com/topic/23492-they-are-who-we-thought-they-were-denny-green-memoriam-thread/

Don't think too hard about it or you'll go blind. (on a related note, I don't think Molitor is nearly as smart as I thought he was going into the season)

I intended to start this thread at the 3/4 season mark but decided it works now as a continuing thread throughout the season, much like I started a thread last season with a +wins from the 2011-2014 squads. My hypothesis is this: 1. The Twins were badly managed this offseason. I held my nose at Sano transitioning to the OF, stating "the front office knows Miguel better than I do, this decision will live and die with them." The bullpen was left mostly unaddressed, which was a huge sticking point with me. Park, at least to me, seemed superfluous and confusing given the roster. In short, mistakes were made. We saw them, the front office felt differently. Well, to varying degrees, many posters on this forum were right. Water under the bridge, mostly. That's not the point. 2. The Twins were horribly unlucky during the first quarter of the season. Yes, some of that was deserved. Yes, some of that was due to varying inconsistencies with the lineup. But there's no way you can make the argument the Twins were lucky last season and not unlucky this season. Around a quarter of the way through the season, I remember a thread where the Twins had something like 17 home runs with the bases empty, two homeruns with men on base. They were near the top of the AL in OBP with with bases empty, near the bottom with men on base. That's not bad roster construction (at least mostly), that's just crap luck. 3. The bullpen completely imploded. Many forum posters saw this coming and fretted over it during the entire offseason but even the most jaded poster didn't expect Perkins, May, and Jepsen to collapse simultaneously. That's bad luck. Back luck that could have been mitigated with a better offseason but still bad luck. With that said, let's look at a few numbers: BaseRuns: while I haven't kept records of this through the season, I don't remember the Twins being lower than -7 wins in BaseRuns, which is where they currently stand in 2016. I've been checking pretty regularly so it's unlikely they have moved much from the -7 wins they established in the first ~50 games of the season. That means they were horribly unlucky to start the season and pretty much luck-neutral since that point. That leads into my main point: The Twins are who we thought they were. Most of us predicted the Twins to be a 75-83 win team mainly based on the progression/regression of young players. Yes, the first 40-ish games happened. They obviously count in the standings... But they're not indicative of where the Twins are today or will they will be in 2017. And yes, 75-83 wins is a big swing... But that's what you get with a young team and that prediction covered at least 80%, maybe even 90%, of this forum's predictions going into the season. If the Twins play .500 ball for the rest of the season (more on that later), they'll end up with 72-73 wins. Given the beginning of the season... That seems kind of amazing, doesn't it? The Twins are who we thought they were. So, with this thread, I'm going to track the plus or minus low point of the season. I'm also going to track the quarter mark of the season and how it compares to the rest of the season. Low point of the season: July 1st: 25-54, .316 winning percentage Today: 45-66, .405 winning percentage +/- Wins/Losses to .500: +8 Quarter season mark (using 40 games for simplicity): Quarter season: 10-30, .250 winning percentage Today: 45-66, .405 winning percentage +/- Wins/Losses to .500: -1

I cringe at the thought of a Sano/Polanco left side of the infield. Defense matters. If you want to see Polanco play, it will have to come at third or second.