Riverbrian

I agree I do not know who is making the decisions, who are the advocates and who are the dissenters, who are the loud voices in the room and who are the quiet ones but all of those people you list have jobs with important duties and are no doubt a part of any equation. I can only assume Molitor because the Twins were doing the same crap in 2016 and Molitor is the only common denominator in 2016 and 2018 and he has the type of role that would normally influence player usage. However, in the end... If you got a problem. You start by focusing on the people who hire the people.

Better options?... How bout Equal options? Because we had plenty of equal options, just go ahead and pick one. Just so I'm better understood. BTW... I am not making an "overuse" claim... Others are. It's possible that overuse factored in to the June versions of Pressly and Reed, however, everybody has different thresholds that I am not privy to. My point is simple... We didn't have a single reliever that was better than the other relievers all year. So if relievers were indeed overused... why were they? You are asking me to name someone better... I can't... but, I'll return the question to you... Can you name someone better? Look at the numbers... you can't either.

I'm not knocking Pressly but Reed went sour and stayed sour for quite some time. Hildenberger has been really sour lately and he is currently getting more save chances than the others. They were not the best relievers that he had. They were the best relievers according to him and those relievers made him look like he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Do we not have anyone else to turn to... or do we not turn to them? If you compare the stats of Reed and Magill there is no CURRENT statistical reason to trust Reed over Magill. It is Magill with the better numbers. So why did Molitor trust Reed and not trust Magill? Reed went belly up on us for a long stretch. Molitor's solution to that was to keep handing Reed the ball in key situations and say I trust you. My point is: If you are going to overuse a bullpen arm... I get the temptation to do so. BUT... that overused arm better have Adam Ottovino type production otherwise you are wasting average production from the back end of the pen in order to overuse below average production from the front end like we did with Reed. This hard headed, stubborn, Hubris that makes a manager think: Reed is my set up guy, Magill is my long guy regardless of the results and this has hurt us. Molitor is too slow to adjust to the changing conditions and I hold him responsible for it. If you want to play Morrison every day... OK... but Morrison needs to produce like an every day player. If you want Reed to be your main set up guy... OK... but he has to deserve the job. If they don't... then a manager must adjust and it shouldn't take 3 months to come to these conclusions. Molitor might as well make out his lineup cards for all 162 games on March 28th and put his feet up for the year and see where fate takes the team because it's out of his control. This is my issue with Molitor... He stuck with the players and I'm not buying the argument that we had nobody else. Every single player on the roster had the ability to out produce Morrison. Every single pitcher on the roster had the ability to out produce what Reed was doing. I know most of the TD Crew doesn't like Grossman. However... Grossman was out performing Morrison and Buxton and Molitor chose Morrison and Buxton... Now we have Austin out performing Grossman and he is choosing Grossman. It's like he is playing the guy producing less on purpose just to drive me crazy... Like he is waiting until someone (Austin) actually out performs Grossman before he gives Grossman playing time. He does the same stuff in the bullpen.

I'm a big fan of out of the box thinking. We are not going to win the world series. Try new concepts. Seth... You should start your own club. The "Piggyback" or "Dual Starter" Club.

Here's another thing. Now that Grossman is back. Is Austin going to be limited to facing left handed pitchers? 3 games into the return of Grossman it looks that way. I don't mind players sitting on occasion and I don't mind Grossman playing but if Grossman is going to take the LIONS SHARE of Austin's playing time... I'm... I'm... not sure what to say. I know i'm not going to be able to defend it. Tyler Austin's OPS the past 15 days is 1.049 so yeah... umm... I got nothing.

When it comes to bullpen usage. I get the temptation to overuse certain relievers. If a guy is lights out, a manager is gonna want that guy with the ball in his hand. So I can forgive Molitor for this. However... my question is gonna be... which of our overused guys has been lights out? If you got Andrew Miller.. the manager is gonna want to use him. If you have Adam Ottovino... the manager is gonna want to use him. Dellin Betances... the manager is gonna want to use him. Managers may overuse these guys because they want batters out and those guys get batters out fairly consistently. Our overused guys... Are nothing like these guys. I was all for signing Addison Reed but when he is being overused and his production is 4 blown saves, 4.53 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and a 7.5 K/9, you gotta wonder why. Trevor Hildenberger... I like Hildy... I do. But he is overused with a 4.48 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and a 8.5 K/9. If a reliever is gonna be over used... His production needs to be better than the guys who are not getting used and this is isn't the case. These guys are not Andrew Miller but Molitor plays them like they are and it has cost us games. Molitor stays with his guys until it's too late. His bullpen management is just like his lineup management. Assign roles, lock them down, throw away the key and finally when it gets unbearable after a couple of months... starting looking for the key.

I like to think of myself as somewhat reasonable and I really try not to talk in absolutes when I'm standing hip deep in nuance, so I'm hoping that I'm not giving the impression that I think new school managers are guaranteed playoff teams every year. Maddon's 100 loss year aside... I prefer the new school manager over the old school manager every day of the week and twice on Sunday. There is no doubt that Baker had a much better year in 2017 than Martinez had this year. I still prefer the Martinez style or what I assume is the Martinez style because of his place in the Maddon tree. I did ask Counsell... BTW... He told me to let you know that you spelled his name wrong. He also said that you are right, Managers are always happy with talent infusions but he also thinks it is important to not go down with the ship when the talent isn't performing, he says it is ok to play Ryan Braun less when players pulled off the waiver wire like Jesus Aguilar are playing better. He says it is OK to play Jonathan Schoop less, if it isn't working out. I was also amazed that my call went straight through to him at 5 in the morning.

I'm lumping Molitor in with the old school managers. He goes in the same bucket as Mattingly, Baker, Hurdle, Bochy, Showalter, Gibbons, Gardenhire, Renteria and Scioscia. That may be an impressive group of managers with a lot of major league experience but, those guys aren't the ones I would choose to lead my team. Give me a Maddon, Roberts, Counsell, Martinez, Cash, Hinch, Bannister or Kapler new school type.

Garver... I've been asking for his playing time. I'm getting it and I guess I gotta take what comes with that. Wow... It's like his brain just went to sleep. I'm not angry... It made me laugh.

Those pointing out sample size caution are spot on in my opinion. On the other hand... those who are already labeling them as AAAA or replaceable are disappointing to me personally.

Archer came with another year of control plus two option years so it's a much different price tag. Gibson won't fetch Meadows, Glasnow and Baz. Gibson gets you maybe one of the young Atlanta arms.... Maybe and I'm guessing of course. So now... I'm not sure what you accomplish for next year.

What you are saying has logic. However... the team that will pay the worthwhile price to acquire Gibson with a year left in free agency is a team that believes it is a contender. The White Sox are not going to pay the worthwhile price. Therefore... if the Twins consider themselves a contender in 2019... they should keep Gibson. If they don't consider themselves contenders... well yeah... trade him and Rosario. Sell high and let's load up for the next wave. Personally, I think this team can contend and would be flat out exhausted if the front office decided to rebuild.

I have no idea what his Family arrangements are other than Wikipedia... which states that he owns a home in Miami. For all I know... his family is still in Miami. A lot of Baseball players are merely in a hotel during the season so I'm not sure of the level of uprooting. I wouldn't be PO'd in the slightest... because that's baseball and I'm already planning on being a Free Agent and would understand that a non-contending team will either get something for me or get nothing for me and every team will take getting something for me over nothing. Besides he gets to join a team that is fighting for a World Series over playing with a team that is playing out the string. Unless he was hoping for that qualifying offer which I kind of doubt that he was hoping for that. Like I said... if he took that personally... his agent will explain it to him and if he still takes it personally... then he should have signed an extension... if offered. Which he reportedly was and didn't understandably sign. This off-season... Escobar will be looking for a team that is the best combination of money, playing time, location and World Series opportunity. If the Twins are that team... there is no reason to think he won't be back. The trick is being that team. But again... I have no idea what Escobar's personal situation is.

Besides Santana our rotation was pretty healthy this year. Next year? Who knows but typically there are multiple DL stints in the rotation that make pitchers 6 through 9 important. When it comes to pitching. You can never have enough.

I also make trades in my sleep. I once, traded my pillow for a jar of peanut butter.

No Because depth is nice.

Doesn't have to be an actual injury... It could be the possibility of injury. If I was Mike Chernoff of the Indians, I'd give my old friend Derek Falvey a call and ask about Forsythe. I'd want some IF insurance for the playoffs. Kipnis would have to be considered an injury risk. Forsythe won't dent the farm system to acquire and his presence would probably make Francona happy. The A's could use some insurance depth as well. Lowrie and Semien have injury history.

This might be the post of the year.

I don't know for sure. But I'm gonna guess yes.

If I had to guess. Morrison made the decision, to give it a go and Morrison made the decision when to shut it down to get himself ready for next year. I'm sure the medical staff was in the room and part of the discussions, I'm sure there were a lot of opinions but at the end of the day... Morrison was willing to tough it out so he was allowed to tough it out. It was probably very difficult for the medical staff with specifics to make recommendations on shutting him down earlier especially if Morrison is saying his pain is a 3 when he should be saying 7. I can see how this is a hard decision, IF... IF Morrison performed to a level that made it hard. Morrison did not play to that level. At some point much earlier, they needed to take the awareness of the injury, the variance of pain and pain tolerance, the opinions of the medical, the players competitiveness. Considered it all... And then looked at the actual production and said... "Shut him down". I believe Morrison shut himself down, for his benefit and it was too late for us when he finally did. I'm making assumptions though. Either way... if healthy he should have been slowed down... if injured he should have been shut down. His performance was not major league quality. Way too much playing time in consideration of everything.

Yep... acquire your assets when you may.

Amen

Who knows what Escobar is thinking and feeling. I have no idea and everybody is different. But, we all need to think about this logically. During his entire career... he had no control where he has to report. He was 17 when he chose to sign with the White Sox. Since he signed that contract as a teenager, it has been 12 years of having very little control. He can't just pick up the phone and call the Mariners to try and get the open shortstop position like the rest of us. After 12 years... would any of us give up the chance to finally make your own decision? Unless there is a perceived over pay, I know I wouldn't. We shouldn't read too much into "Escobar's unwillingess to sign an extension"... if an extension was indeed offered. I'm pretty sure I'm not signing an extension unless I'm convinced it's the best I can do. As far as being upset because he was traded. I'd guess that he knows why he was traded so he is not taking it personally and if he does take it personally... he has an agent who can explain it to him. The Twins have the same chance as anyone else to sign him. Perhaps better because he knows the players and coaches. But it will be his choice for the first time in his 12 year career. It's up to the Twins now to show him exactly how much they want him.