Riverbrian

So don't bench them and make them atrophy. Promise them that if they out-perform the others they will get the playing time. If I could change baseball... I'd strike the word "back-up" from the lexicon. I'd call them players who didn't play as well as the others.

First of all... I'm not sure where you are getting .750 from? Second of all... If you are making a projection that he will produce a .750 OPS and if you are right. Adrianza becomes just another example in my eyes of how the Twins screwed up again in 2018 when it came to playing time decisions and playing time allocation. .That OPS is Grossman and Field type production. Third... Murphy, Asdrubal, LeMahieu, Lowrie, Dietrich and Desclasco are all middle infield players who were all legitimately over .750 last year and available right now. Kinsler, Schoop, Harrison, Beckham and Dozier have been over before. Fourth... If the free agents are just too expensive. We could simply mention bargain basement acquisition players who hit that magic mark with at least 300 AB's. I'll include some 200 AB's candidates because Adrianza wasn't supposed to get 300 AB's in the first place. Braves: Culberson Cards: Yairo Munoz D-Backs: Marte Dodgers: Muncy, Chris Taylor, Kike Hernandez Mets: McNeil and Flores (I cheated... Flores was only .736 but Adrianza was only .680) Orioles: Villar (I cheated... he was only .729 and I'm only counting 200 AB's with the Orioles and not the Brewers but... Adrianza got stretched to .750 so... he's on my list) Pirates: Adam Frazier Rays: Wendle and Robertson (throw in Brad Miller... he's inexpensive now and looking for work). Red Sox: Holt Reds: He's expensive now but Scooter was once bargain basement. Tigers: Our favorite Niko Goodrum was close at .747 Also Aledmys Diaz who was traded to Houston for a 24th ranked prospect. He cleared the .750 mark with the Jays last year and was paid 2M. Fifth... The reason it's hard (For the Twins) to find a middle infielder who can't surpass .750 OPS is because they consistently settle for guys who produce at a .680 clip. If they can't find better offensive production than Adrianza... there is no reason for me to get up tomorrow morning.

Obviously, the front office likes him. They were not very active their first off season but one of the few moves they did make was bring him on board and it's two off-seasons now and he still has a contract. So... obviously the front office likes him. If the front office or any fan makes the claim "He's just fine as a "Back-up" "Bench Player" "Limited Role"" or anything of sort. They are really making the claim: That they don't anticipate any injury or sub-par performance from the starters. They are making the claim that there are no circumstances that would cause that player to go from Back-Up, Bench Player or Limited Role to a full time role. If Cron and Austin end up on the roster together along with Adrianza. Adrianza becomes out of necessity our back up for Sano because we have limited 25 man roster space. In that context... the million dollar contract doesn't look so good. They say that anyone who lives near the water will eventually end up in the water. If you live near the Adrianza... you'll eventually end up in the Adrianza.

I gave this a like because I like positive people and your post is full of positivitee. However... it does read like "I'm excited about the future of the American car industry" at the most recent General Motors press conference.

As for the original question. Where are we now? I'm in Grand Forks, North Dakota waiting for a move that makes me hopeful. Derek or Thad... either one... give me a call.

He didn't make an assumption that they'd bust... In my opinion... he was not assuming they won't.

Yes

They didn't adequately man third base last year.

When you say not everyone is an everyday player. What if Polanco gets suspended or the 2B signed to an FA deal hits .200? What is Adrianza if our starting SS this year? What if the one of the "starters" gets hurt? If Cron and Austin remain on the roster... the role that Adrianza is going to play will increase 10 fold as a result.

Exactly... Cuddyer was created out of necessity. The Twins didn't plan for it... it just had to happen due to circumstance. I'd rather they just plan for it. Seek these type of players out and if they can't find them... start creating them. The single utility guy on every roster has been around for decades. What the Dodgers and Cubs are doing right now is different and I've been sold on it since Friedman and Maddon started doing it in Tampa. Depth and Flexibility could have mitigated some of the disaster that happened last year with Buxton, Sano, Morrison, Dozier and the like. 2018 was the last year that i'm going to put up with horrible play getting rewarded with every day playing time. I have invested a lot of time in my Twins, every single summer and I'm just not going to invest that amount of time if Morrison type performance keeps getting shoved down my throat. Either the front office or manager has another option to try or I'm not going to try. I've been studying the solution and I've come to the conclusion that the only way you can avoid 2018 is through depth and flexibility or everybody performing to expectation. Everybody performing to expectation is such a rare thing... so rare that I've decided that depth and flexibility is the only reasonable approach.

Yeah I know but I still have dreams.

With defense it depends on which year you are looking at. He wasn’t strong last year but the year before he was fine. In my opinion... he is at least adequate across the infield.

I like the idea of Schoop but only the idea of Schoop playing like he is supposed to which he hasn’t been doung. Signing Schoop is fine with me but only as a replacement for Adrianaza and Schoop will have to beat a legit candidate for playing time out. Beckham remains the guy from the non tenders who could be a sensible replacement for Adrianaza. His floor is close to Adrianaza’s ceiling but Beckham Ceiling is much much higher.

Yep... And fast forward to today and we have controversy if someone should play a different position. Back then they had to... We didn't have the DH for Harmon to slide into. The Manager would look at his choices and say... Got Don Mincher or Rich Reese at 1B... Harmon go play 3B. Cesar Tovar became a utility player because he wasn't a starter in 1965 or 1966... had to play wherever the manager asked him to and he performed well so he became a plus. I also remember one of the best defensive 3B in history starting out as an OF for our Minnesota Twins. Mr. Nettles. Anyway... No DH plus double switches and that's why flexibility has become more of a necessity in the National League. However, it's still necessary in the AL. It just got misplaced over the decades because the game lost it's mind over specialization.

It's basically what we did last year. Mauer and Morrison could only play 1B... One was the 1B and one was the DH and they played almost every day. Sure... they could do that again. I'm not going to be investing as much time watching them this summer though. Because over investing in a defensive position that almost anyone can play basically guarantees that you will have players getting lots of AB's that you don't want getting that many AB's. I'll call it now. If the Twins start opening day with Austin at 1B and Cron at DH and if that is the plan for 2019. If those two man those positions exclusively like they did with Mauer and Morrison last year and if they can't play anywhere else. I'll make a wager that Adrianaza will get over 300 AB's. Because he is now the only one who can backup 3B, SS, 2B.

Why does Adrianaza have a deal for 2019 while Tim Beckham has been non-tendered? Wouldn't Beckham fill the current Adrianaza role better than Adrianaza has/does or will?

Each roster spot needs to be treated like Gold. A contending team can't afford to hide Rule 5's and they can't afford to absorb the same position. Each signing is one roster spot less to sign someone else. If Cron for Austin is indeed the swap they just made. The front office better be right about this. They paid 5 million and gave up years of control to place a bet against Tyler Austin. The reason Cron and Bour and other unmovable 1B types are being non-tendered during arbitration is because there are guys like Tyler Austin available.

I'm going to ask two questions for everyone who reads this. I believe that if everyone truly thinks about the questions I'm about to ask, any concerns will float away but I ask that everyone truly thinks about both questions. (I apologize for answering the questions... which I will but please consider the questions anyway). 1. Why do Joe Maddon and Dave Roberts move players around? Additional question to this question (still the same question)... Why did the Brewers move Shaw to 2B and Why did the Indians move Ramirez to 2B and Kipnis to CF? 2. Did it hurt them? Think about those questions. Here are the answers. 1. It allows them to put the best possible lineup together every single day. Cody Bellinger is most likely better at one position or the other. The odds that he is exactly equal as a 1B or CF defensively is pretty low yet he plays both positions frequently and the reason is that it allows the team to move Muncy to 1B or Taylor to CF based on match-ups, slumps or whatever. The response I get back is usually... "Yeah but the Twins don't have Ian Happ, Javier Baez, Ben Zobrist, Kris Bryant, David Bote, Cody Bellinger, Chris Taylor, Austin Barnes or Kike Hernandez. My response to that would be... And we never will if we continue to be paralyzed by slight defensive differences and fail to adopt the concept. And I'd follow that response with... It is the off-season, this is the time to acquire players like this and if you can't acquire them because everybody wants them now... then you do like every business in America does when they can't find qualified applicants. They create their own. 2. Obviously not. The Dodgers and Cubs have been ahead of the curve for years, they have been acquiring and creating as many of these players as they can while everybody else stood still. They possess a tactical advantage over every other team as a result. The other teams have to catch up or become dinosaurs. Sometime I get a response saying, the Twins and Tigers have utility players. They really don't especially in comparison... they have one guy who didn't win a starting job and became that one designated guy... just like teams have been doing for decades... one utility guy who plays on Sundays. Adopting this concept is more important and will do more for the Twins than acquiring Harper or Machado. Besides we can't acquire Harper because we have no place to put him with Kepler, Buxton and Rosario locking down the OF spots and un-moveable to a different position.

If there are indeed only two types of true utility players. You have just put your finger on the problem. Baseball has trapped itself in specialization so severely that only two types exist in what should be an infinite amount of possibilities. Baseball needs to stop placing players in boxes and locking the box. What is Nick Castellanos? He was a 3B. The Tigers acquire a new 3B from the Cubs and now Castellanos is a RF forever all of a sudden. Old school Gardenhire and Old School Avila will never play Castellanos at 3B again. If Candelario gets hurt... I’ll bet you money right now that Castellanos remains in RF while the “True Utility” guy Goodrum plays 3B and the Tigers will do this regardless if JaCoby Jones is DH’ing for consistency I guess. This two true types of utility thing is handicapping teams. If Maddon was managing the Tigers. Castellanos would play whatever position he could best help the Cubs on a given day. The Tigers are throwing away a flexibility advantage for specilization/consistency because that’s the way baseball has done it for years. Baseball has been wrong!

Bingo I have never advocated the forcing of moves. I want the manager to DH the lesser of defensive choices when constructing lineups but and I mean but... the door must be opened (it hasn’t been) for the eventual deployment of certain players in other positions in anticipation of circumstances that can’t be predicted such as injury, match ups, poor performance or honest to God logjams created by multiple players actually kicking ass at the same position. Having two 1B’s cranking homers and a .500 OPS RF is handled if one of those 1B can play RF decent enough and vice versa. The alternative is to sit one of the homer cranking 1B’s while the .500 OPS RF plays and this is how the Twins and a majority of teams have operated for decades. Considering the possibility of flexibility where it makes sense is preparing for the unpredictable success and failure at the same time. Having an outlet for overflow allows teams to staff the entire 25 man roster and allow for competition for playing time across the diamond. Having an outlet for overflow allows teams to call up the most deserving candidate from the minors when injuries occur. For example let say Nick Gordon is tearing up AAA and the team has an injury to Eddie Rosario. Without a little flexibility, Nick Gordon will not get the call. It will be Wade with his average numbers in Rochester as the team just does a position to position thing. With a little flexibility... Nick Gordon can play 2B while Marwin Gonzalez plays LF. All a team needs to do is prepare for it in advance like the Dodgers and Cubs have been doing for years instead of waiting for the team to start bleeding before forcing a move mid-season. Just open the door. That’s all. Once the door is open. The manager gets to earn his money by putting the best lineup on the field every day.

I only use Kepler as an example and he becomes an example because of past experience at the position. The Dodgers and Cubs have some players locked into positions. Not everybody has to learn a new position. Like your point about Kepler. Playing Buxton anywhere else but CF would be stupid. My point is that someone has to be able to shift on occasion. It doesn’t have to be Kepler. If I’m Cave... If I’m Austin... I’m asking... begging pleading for the chance to play a different position just in case the team needs it. The front office can hire 100 analysts and the 100 analysts can all agree and make awesome projections but the simple truth is this. The front office with the 100 analysts won’t be able to predict what the team needs until the team actually needs it.

I believe you are saying that if Kepler isn’t hitting moving him to 1B takes away the only thing he is good at. If that is what you are saying. I agree 100%. Maybe I can connect my point with that agreed upon conclusion. I’m saying if there is danger that Kepler doesn’t hit and I believe there is a real danger. Along with Buxton. Then we need a 4th OF but then if you have a 4th OF. Kepler or one of the OFs need to be able to play a different position in case they all hit. In that scenario... Kepler at 1B or another OF somewhere else on occasion won’t hurt at all because the OF is covered in their repositioning or absence. And perhaps most importantly. If you have a fear of playing Kep at 1B for the reasons we may agree upon. You won’t get the 4th OF. And even more important still. If you don’t get the 4th OF. Now Kepler has to hit because the team can’t replace him and the team dies with him.

I’ve always like Eovaldi. Even when his numbers sucked. He had has stuff. However. The time to get Eovaldi was when his numbers sucked. Right now you are paying for a small window of greatness coming on the heels of a ton of injury time. I’d rather the Twins look for the next Eovaldi type with stuff but numbers that ain’t so good and that smaller price tag as a result and then take the money you’d spend on Eovaldi today and get a little closer to a sure thing.

I think they are trying to compete. You don’t even talk Cano if considering a rebuild. Syndagaard rumors are probably an attempt at balancing the roster. Position of strength/Position of weakness thing. They will probably only move him if the return brings back MLB ready talent. Otherwise... yeah it doesn’t make a ton of sense.

Need more Child's Play I suppose.