bunt_vs_the_shift

To me, the whole "who's on 3rd?" conversation is less about Sano's defensive metrics than the net difference between Cron and his replacement. Sano is adequate at 3rd. He has a cannon and is surprisingly agile at times, but can't necessarily make all the plays you'd like. I like the idea about "position flexibility" more than having a firm stance about where he needs to play. Sano at 3rd gives you the option to experiment with someone like Kiriloff at 1st and with Sano at 1st, you could give Royce Lewis a look at 3rd (or shuffle around in some way that you could insert him). I don't know if either guy will be ready by spring, but a scenario where you could bat those guys down in the lineup and ease them along without a ton of pressure is ideal. I'm not saying that was their plan in the Schoop situation, but it worked out pretty well with Arraez...

I was thinking the same thing. Arraez has earned more at bats and Eddie hasn't. Loved watching Luis play out the game and grind out a double with 2 outs in the 9th. Give me a team of guys like that. Hated watching Eddie laugh at himself while he strikes out swinging at bad pitches out of the zone. Max looks like he could have used a week of game at bats to ramp back up but we obviously didn't have that luxury. I would bat him down to take off the pressure and give him time to adjust, but maybe tonight he bounces back. As I said in the other thread, for the love of God somebody show some fire tonight! These guys are showing you up, so act like you care more than I do!

It's on Rocco to do his best sports psychology bit to get this 15 game losing streak out of their head and it's on the individuals to play with some pride at this point. You've gotta get 1 before you get 3. I'm not delusional enough to think we'll just roll off 3 straight, but please don't mail it in! They still have to play the game - make them earn it! Our happy go lucky approach has been great for 162 games, but at this point for the love of God I'd like to see someone get mad and take this personally! Give me an unacceptably long home run trot... dugout stare down... or how about Jake O moving some feet?... We've looked completely shell shocked for about 15 innings. Show me a little fire and punch back!

Completely agree. As a young player, Wade has come in and had professional at bats. Without having enough data on his defensive metrics or speed vs. others, he seems to be an above average fielder with above average speed. To me, the net sum of his skills will be more useful in more instances than Miller's flat out speed, so I'd give the nod to Wade over Miller. That said, we will need a ton of pitching with the increasing likelihood of opener/bullpen games in play and I don't know if they feel we can get by with Kepler, Rosie, Cave and have Marwin and Arraez as depth?... That makes me nervous with so many guys coming off injuries, but with bullpen depth being such a part of playoff baseball I don't know how much they want to load up on that and ride with fewer position players.

I agree with the Perez take on needing him to be serviceable. I was also losing my mind last night wondering if I was watching the same game when the broadcast team kept going out of their way to talk about how great he was pitching. Four walks and 9 guys LOB in 6 innings? That was luck and I am happy with the outcome, but not the process. And that process does not give me any more confidence in Perez than I had before last night. I know we need to patch it together down the stretch but I'd love to see Thorpe get some more looks as a starter. I don't know what the analytics say, but it seems like his stuff will play. Perez and Smeltzer need to adjust to the adjustment if they are to have any future success.

I read in LEN's column that Arraez told Schoop he was stepping on 3rd and turning it if it came his way. Back in the 90s I believe Gaetti called a triple play before it happened too. Props to Luis for having the stones to sprint toward the bag and make an off balance throw to Schoop. Unbelievable turn by Schoop. In addition to being a sensational play, it was a confidence building game changer.

Nice article. Sano is still excruciating for me to watch at times, so this is very good perspective. I still contend that even if he shortens his swing with 2 strikes and opts for a little more contact, with his strength he can still hit 75% as many bombs and doubles as he could if he swings for St. Paul... I will say that he's been much more selective lately, which makes it much easier to watch and is shown in the numbers. I have less hope for Schoop, who seems to be an automatic out whenever someone is on base and would like to see Arraez continue to get reps. Wednesday aside, our pitching has been better and this is especially encouraging about Perez and Pineda. We're in a dogfight and we're going to need them both to continue to step up!

Are you surprised by my tears?... Strong men...also cry

Throw Rocco, Wes Johnson, James Rowson, Falvine and the Twins analytics department in there for me. It's always dicey to quantify coaching on team success/failure when they're not throwing the ball or swinging the bat. That said, in the FO, Falvine has hit on almost every one of their free agents, locked up Kepler and Polanco and they've definitely implemented an entirely new cultural approach. Overall, we're pitching better. We're hitting better. We're rotating guys and getting contributions from a number of players, including bench players and callups... I was skeptical on some aspects of the new approach, but these guys are killing it through the first part of the year and it seems like we've got some structure and process in place that could be sustainable. I'd like to give some credit where credit is due.

Good game, tough loss, some good talkers. First, the bunt. Like several others have stated, I don't love the bunt when our best hitter is up with 2 on in a clutch spot. That said, Polanco put it in play, made a close play of it and was about the first guy in 2 games to advance the runners with a productive out. He gave Cruz a chance to tie the game with another productive out. These last 2 games I've been screaming at my TV to advance the runners with guys in scoring position and he did. I would rather have had him swing away, but Polanco was not the reason we lost. The other thing I'd like to comment on is Parker in the 9th... I don't need to see him anymore in that spot, hope Rocco doesn't either. You can't throw Rogers every night so I'd like to see Harper get more of those looks if Rogers can't go. Other than that, maybe May, but I'm not completely sold on him either. Not many options to throw out there in high leverage spots that are currently on the team.

Respectfully disagree. It's impossible to attribute where specific money comes from for specific moves. You can say that they took certain money that came off the books from Player A and turned it into Player B. But how do you know that this player flipping money doesn't get invested into the analytics department, or the technology in Fort Myers, or something else of value... Sure, it may have gone towards a fancy cappuccino machine for Jim Pohlad, but I guess I don't really care because the Twins are 43-21 so I'm not going to bust their chops about trading Tyler Jay for cash. I'd like to think that cash went into the war chest, but who knows. Either way, I hope they turn it into some pitching!

If you are suggesting I'm slow on the uptake here... You may be correct! If I misread the venting for suggesting a different strategy, then that's my bad. I was just trying to make the point that it doesn't matter where he was drafted. The team has moved on, so no use in Jay taking up space and obstructing another player's development. Take the money. Next man up.

I understand the emotional reaction about not getting any value out of the #6 pick overall... That said, Jay is not part of the organizations plans. Shipping out a bunch of other "Jays" who will never be part of the major league plan, is exactly what they should be doing. Bank some money (even if it's not much) to spend on some guys who can help now and free up opportunities for guys that are in the plans.

I have no opinion on this topic

(Looking at my phone) Sorry, what?