Without his Minnesota ties and history with the team would there even be a debate about bringing Mauer back. How attractive would a 36 year old 1B/DH coming off a season with an OPS in the low .700s actually be if he wasn't named Joe Mauer?
The Twins should have just shut Buxton down after he went on the DL with the wrist injury recurrence. At that point it would have looked legitimate and could have been justified.
When Cave dropped that flyout my first thought was here comes a big inning, but a nice recovery to force out the base runner kept Oakland off the board. Hopefully Gonsalves can find the strike zone a little more consistently next inning.
What the heck happened to Reed? The past few years (and even earlier this year) his fastball was sitting 92-94 mph, since coming off the DL he's been at 88-90 mph. If there's something physically wrong with him he really needs to be shutdown.
The Twins would have to take him off the 40 man roster for the rule 5 draft to be a concern. I think there would be a pretty good chance somebody would claim him if the Twins made a 40 man roster move. It seems clear that if the organization believes in him they keep him, if not he's probably gone.
It's surprising how well Stewart does with basically only fastballs. Its somewhat impressive that even when the hitters can sit on the fastball, he can still hold his own. If he ever develops even decent control of one or two off-speed pitches he could be pretty solid.
If a deal for a real prospect comes along take it, otherwise keep him. The Twins don't have anybody at AAA or AA that stands out as ready to take over at 2B, so I wouldn't trade him just to add a borderline C level prospect.
I'm not sure what benefit the team is getting from starting Santana. His stuff is clearly gone and he seems unable to find success as a junk baller, so why not just shut him down. I see virtually no chance anyone would want to trade for him so there is no reason to keep running him out there. I'd much rather see his starts going to Mejia/Romero/Gonsalves/Stewart/Littell/Thorpe.
Stewart's fastball is a pretty good pitch, for as often as he throws it there is very little hard contact with a lot of the balls in play on the ground. His problem comes because he doesn't have the off-speed control to keep hitters off balance. Right now it seems like all the batters are sitting on the fastball, so if he had a change-up, curve, or slider he could throw where he wanted it would make a huge difference.
Stewart needs to be able to control at least one of his off-speed pitches, so far almost all (of the very few) off-speed offerings haven't even been close.
Stewart with a nice first inning. Interesting he only threw one off-speed pitch in the inning, hopefully we'll see more off-spead stuff as the game goes on.
Really looking more and more like Mauer is done. I can't see bringing back a 36 year old 1B with concussion issues who is coming off a sub .700 OPS season.
He's not been all that sharp and when his fastball sits at 88-89 mph any mistake gets crushed. I'm really seeing echos of Phil Hughes in that Santana just can't survive as a junk baller.
Adrianza had a really nice June at the plate (.861 OPS in 25 games) that made me start to think he might be able to hold down a middle infield spot until Gordon is ready. Unfortunately, he went on the DL in July and since he's come off the DL he's been truly awful at the plate.
I am wondering how many more starts the Twins will give Santana. He's not raising his trade value or helping the team win, so why not shut him down and give starts to Romero, Mejia, Gonsalves, Littell, Stewart, and/or Thorpe.