Riverbrian

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.

I may have been misunderstanding you a little but at the same time... I've kinda always known that you felt this way. The only thing I can say. There are not a lot of needle movers (in that sense) that will be easily attainable.

From your fingers to God's Eyeballs.

If forced to compare Cron and Austin as 1B/DH only. I dont see massive improvement if any but i like Austin. If Austin can play OF. Then the dynamic really changes and Austin wins hands down but you could still roster both and still sign anyone you want with the DH spot to play with. Ultimately I would have preferred a 3B/OF over Cron but Tampa didn’t release one.

A game or two or ten. Whenever the need arises due to rest, health, poor performance or great performance or specific matchups. Cave? Yeah sure if Cave is on the roster and hitting balls into the gap and over the limestone in CF but what I really envision is signing Cutch or Brantley and needing an escape hatch in case all 4 OF’s are performing. What I don’t want and am frankly scared to death of is this: we can’t or won’t sign Cutch or Brantley because the organization or Manager cant figure out what to do with 4 quality outfielders. If they stop themselves because Kepler is too good defensively then we got the same nightmare potential in 2019 that we had in 2018, Buxton and Kepler playing everyday and playing at or below replacement level with Michael Reed to turn to and the manager won’t turn to him because he isn’t Cutch or Brantley. This brings me back to my original point. If you get 25 players who can play... teams will be forced to adopt flexibility to accommodate and any fear of flexibility will stop teams from adding that 4th OF because they don’t have a place to play the other 3 and therefore don’t sign that 4th OF. Ultimately if Cave can play 1B... it makes sense to keep Kepler in RF for his plus defense. I want a manager who can make common sense decisions like that. Flexibility shouldn’t be willy nilly but it has to be more than a single utility guy who became the utility guy because he didn’t win a starting job. The Dodgers and Cubs have figured this out. The rest of the league has to catch up. I only mention Kepler as an example. It could be anybody but my true poster boy is Tyler Austin with the addition of Cron. If anybody needs some OF time for career survival it is him. If I’m Austin I’m calling Baldelli everyday and telling him that I’ll play any where and work day and night at it. And if I’m Baldelli... I’m letting him.

We agree And here is how they did it. They dont tolerate bad play. They didn’t buy it with money like most assume. Back when Dozier was playing like crap for us, I stated that the Dodgers wouldn’t tolerate it while the Twins tolerated that sort of thing all the time and have for decades. Well... Dozier gets traded to the Dodgers and they didn’t tolerate it and it was Kike Hernandez playing 2B the majority of the time.? It can be argued that the Twins had no choice because of Ryan LaMarre and whatever. But the Dodgers replaced Dozier with their versions of Ryan LaMarre. The Dodgers created a full roster of talent because they gave playing time to players who played the best. It wasn’t money that gave them Taylor, Muncy and Kike. This how they created depth and flexibility allows them to keep it all. The Twins will be handicapped trying to create depth if the team continues to be satisfied with bad play getting everyday time or nervous about Kepler playing 1B to handle over flow in case you decide to try and create overflow. And if they can’t create depth... we will be victimized every single time we have players like Dozier playing like crap. The Dodgers didn’t buy it. The Dodgers simply said... you must perform and didn’t care about the pedigree of those who were or weren’t performing.

You don’t have to move Rogers to the rotation. All you gotta do is increase his innings from 60 to lets say 100.

I'm going to simplify my thoughts the best I can... and that is really hard for me. For example... If you put a roster together with 25 players who can play. If you do that... all organizations will be forced... and I mean forced... to adopt positional flexibility to accommodate all the talent. Necessity is the mother of invention. The Dodgers are over loaded with talent and they have to move pieces around to make it work. If you are fearful of the side-effects of moving Kepler around to playing 1B for a game or two. You immediately restrict and put parameters on flexibility and the eventual result of that is: You don't sign a 4th outfielder and are then forced to hope and pray that Kepler becomes the RF we need him to become and if he doesn't... Grossman is the guy waiting on the bench. Flexibility is a natural by-product of having a talented roster. Fear of flexibility prevents you filling out your roster to the brim with talent. Just adopt the idea of flexibility and fill your roster.

Why can't Romero throw 150 plus innings out of the pen? The only reason he can't is because of past baseball conventions that you have a 5 man rotation and a bullpen full of guys who throw one inning at a time. He could start in the 5th and pitch until the 8th out of the "Pen" and do it twice every 5 game stretch. The Rays, A's and Brewers (and Twins) kinda showed everybody that the 5 man rotation is about to go away for teams that keep trying and dying to find 5 competent "Innings Eaters" to absorb all those innings in the traditional way. They are growing tired of throwing a 5 plus ERA starter every fifth day trying to get through a season with 5 designated starters.

All in all... I agree with every word you saying about Astudilo. His bat plays... I'm a believer. The only place where I disagree is going to come down to the definition of "Stashed". If starting in Rochester means that he won't see the light of a major league day then I agree with you. However, my definition of stashed is... he comes up when someone is playing poorly or is injured. With his flexibility... he could be the first call up for poor performance or injury at Catcher, 3B or 1B. In other words he wouldn't have to stay there long and if he performs like he did last year. He wouldn't have to be sent back and you have now created depth. The alternative to that isn't appealing to me. That would be to give Astudillo a 25 man roster spot because he earned it (he kinda did). Count on him doing it again... and if it doesn't work out due to poor performance or injury... now you got to go with Bobby Wilson #2 who was signed as Farm filler. The Twins are in much better position for all eventualities if they have Castro and Garver with Astudillo waiting for a phone call. If you hand Astudillo a 25 man spot... (I get the temptation, I'm half way there myself) you are not as strong nor prepared for failure. It also needs to be considered that every time you hand a 25 man spot to someone with options like Astudillo... It closes the door on adding someone else to the 25 man roster because he got the available spot.

I’m some cases it may be ability and some cases it is about the quickest access but the majority of cases (in my opinion) its because of an arcane sense of specialization.