Riverbrian

Absolutely!!! Honestly, I want Tyler Austin... and I'm so flexible with this hope that I'm willing to play him at Catcher just to get his bat up here for a look-see.

As far as I can tell... the options are: 1. The newly signed Johnny Field 2. The just traded for Tyler Austin but they haven't played him in the OF in Rochester so... I doubt it. 3. Adrianaza for Emergency OF duty in the big leagues which opens the door for anything.

We were pretty bad offensively prior to the deadline and therefore hard to not improve. Almost anyone was going to improve over the output that Buxton produced. Sano being a decent player since returning from Ft. Myers is like getting a new player with talent. Polanco coming back and playing well is like getting a new player with talent. It would be difficult for Morrison to get worse or stay at the very disappointing pre-deadline level. And even if Brian Dozier is about to go nuts for the Dodgers... He didn't go nuts for us. So it's not like we lost much from the first half production that Dozier provided. There are times in baseball history where sellers become better after selling and the reason for this is the reason they ended up being sellers in the first place.

Just like the person who doesn’t water his flowers and finally brings the watering can after all the leaves fell off.

I was at the game. Great seats to the left of behind home plate. 1. Sano is looking great. I don’t care about home runs right now. I am absolutely enjoying what seems to be a new found discipline. 2. I couldn’t help but wonder how good Cave would look if he could walk more and raise that OBP. Probably cut down on some K’s in the process. 3. The only way the Royals were gonna touch Berrios was how they did. Berrios losing the strike zone for a moment. 4. Morrison hit the ball a long long long way. It may have reached the Kirby Statue. It was jaw dropping distance and I couldn’t help wishing that it was Tyler Austin who hit it.

This is a fantastic post.

I'm not so sure I agree that the Twins "handled Darvish well" but I agree with your overall point. If you want the player... You have to pay the price. It's how free agency works. It's really that simple. If you want the player, you got to get serious about it and go pay the price it takes. You have to acknowledge the risk and that risk has to be baked into the process. Every team by now is fully aware of the possibility of large chunks of dead money on the payroll when you offer multi year deals and no GM is going to put all their eggs into a one free agent basket. The cost it took to sign Darvish is the cost you have to pay if you want Darvish. I wanted Darvish... I admit it and his season this year hasn't made me hide from that wish.

I've been doing what I call an "autopsy" on what went wrong this season since I've walked from the game threads and I've been posting a lot of opinion lately on what I'm running across with the hope of others taking similar notice for discussion. I've been doing this without inside information and it should also be noted what I'm looking for is very tainted by my own personal opinion. With that said... I try my best to stop at the waters edge when it comes to assessing blame toward anyone since I don't know the dynamic of the decision making rooms today and yesterday. Basically, as I started looking at the issues of this season, it naturally led me to the issues of past season. In other words, "what went wrong" didn't just happen under the eye of Falvey and Lavine. In my opinion "what went wrong" has been a culmination of mistakes made in the past decade in all avenues of talent acquisition, playing time allocation, along with assessment and development. Since this is a Brian Dozier thread... I believe that there were things that could have been done to increase Brian Dozier's trade value which may be laid at the feet of the past regime and there are things that could have done to minimize the damage of his pro-longed slumps.that can laid at the feet of the current regime. Getting back prospects that may or may not pan out for a player about to hit free agency... I have no problem with that and feel like it should mandatory in consideration of the current situation. I just want to make a notation that the Twins were more active during this trade deadline then I have ever seen in all my years of Twins obsession and am encouraged about the future if that is how they will handle things. As for the prospects in return... I will wait until they (if they) ripen to MLB status before I pass judgement on the acquisitions received in return.

It all came crashing down in 2011. Next year will be 2019. When you look back at each way talent can be acquired. I'm not so sure we can check any boxes in the satisfactory column for the organization. Including talent acquired at the trade deadline during what has been a long stretch of out of contention at the trade deadline seasons. Falvey and Lavine are clearly a different animal at the trade deadline then what we had before.

I still believe that Sano and Buxton being sent down was when they assumed they would be pulling the plug. When Romero was sent down... that was when they actually pulled the plug. They then held the plug in their hand for while while the team went on a little winning streak before the all-star break and they thought about plugging it back in. But decided to drop it on the floor and walk away after Kansas City swept us out the all star break. The team has been kinda plugged up this year. Belisle... If I had to guess was the answer to the question. Paul is there anyone you would trust so you don't turn Pressly, Hildenberger and Reed into cinders and that is why Belisle is here. I have no proof of anything I'm saying.

Maybe 20 are

Great idea... It wouldn't hurt to experiment a little.

Sano I agree with you. Getting him right is huge. His plate discipline has been better since his return which is encouraging but if he starts chasing crap again, Paul has got to sit him down for a game and say "take a seat, you are chasing crap again". By no means have I given up on the guy, nor will I, but we still need a safety net because of how he looked this year. Start him at both 3B and 1B throughout the rest of the season. Mitch Garver Unless we are planning on Wilson for 2019... Mitch Garver should be starting 7 out of the remaining 10 games. Hire a catcher coach that can quiet him down... make Garver stay after school. If pitchers are requesting Wilson as a personal catcher, let Garver hear that. Have a come to jesus meeting with the pitching staff, let them all work together on the problem. Let the pitchers invest in Garver and his development. Byron Buxton We better not see Buxton the rest of the year. He should remain in Rochester so we can get the lost year of service time back in case he figures it out. Max Kepler I agree... continue working with Rowson so he gets better handling pitches up in the zone. Addison Reed I'm not worried yet. He is back next year... how he performs in the next couple of months is not critical in my opinion. Players have up and down years all the time. If he has had a drop in velocity maybe decrease his role in the pen and let him coast to a finish this year. Fernando Romero I think he is going to be critical to our future and therefore not critical at all in the next two months. People disagree with me but I would rather prepare for the possibility that he might be the above average arm I think he could be. Keep him down in Rochester for the rest of the year and keep him out of Super Two status... that decision made right now could be worth a lot of money and that money could be worth a player when we are clicking. Let's see Gonsalves instead. Michael Pineda Disagree with critical... I'll like to see him throw in September if he is ready but his first performances might be rough and I don't think we should be judging him or labeling his starts as critical. Just call it step one. The names I'll add are: Tyler Austin - Get him up here and give him a run and please give him a healthy dose of Outfield Play. Jake Cave - Give him a run... Give him a chance to show something sustainable. Ervin Santana - Got to make a decision on him for next year. Aldelberto Mejia - Got to make a decision on him for next year Trevor May - Got to make a decision on him for next year.

Garver has his visable defensive issues that Wilson doesn't have. However, The team was starved for offense, the team died from that starvation and are currently donating the organs. Garver OPS .760 Wilson OPS .480 Garver provided more calories. Now Garver is getting playing time? I question the decisions.

How about Johan? http://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2745346

I am saying that (during the season) I believe it is quite possible that teams will not negotiate with one player because another player's feeling will get hurt. Yes I am saying that. I believe that there is nuance and nothing is cut and dried but I believe it would be smart to have a general rule to not negotiate during the season and the primary reason for that rule is because somebody either the player involved or the guy in the locker room next to the player involved may end up acting like a jealous brat and I believe that it has probably happened numerous times in the sport we love before front offices just pulled the plug on it.

Dozier January 20th https://www.mlb.com/news/brian-dozier-would-sign-extension-with-twins/c-265076680 Dozier March 5th http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/22653546/brian-dozier-says-a-free-agent-fall-no-contract-talks-minnesota-twinsDozier March 5th I know Dozier loves Escobar and they are great friends but imagine his reaction to Escobar getting an extension after a hot 1st half of 2018 in consideration of Brian Dozier's past 3 years. I've seen normal people completely shut down over a $20 reimbursement.

During the season... that is what I meant. http://www.eagletribune.com/sports/local_sports/mason-dave-dombrowski-says-don-t-hold-your-breath-on/article_6308339e-69ac-5f1f-84f6-62e2095f2397.html

I think the reason they don't negotiate during the season is because the agents will bump the price during every hot streak but honestly I have no idea because I've never negotiated a major league contract. However, teams typically do not negotiate during the season and they usually say something about it being a distraction. Believing that someone else could be upset over another getting an extension is a lot easier to believe than players being distracted by... (insert whatever theory here)?

What if Dozier's agent was a little aggressive in the numbers on the extension? What if they would still like to sign Dozier to an FA Deal? Wouldn't signing Escobar to an extension be insulting to Dozier? There are reasons why clubs don't do a lot of negotiating on extensions during the season.

We didn't hit our sales goal once and corporate declared that we would have to let someone go as a consequence. (Non Sales Position Of Course). Everybody was pretty pissed about it but we hit our goal the following years.

He was born July 28, 1995 (GOD AM I OLD) He was signed December 3, 2014. The cutoff is 19... He was 19 when he signed.

I was thinking the exact same thing. Houston was probably going to lose him anyway. I'm not knocking the acquisition with those thoughts because I have no idea how anybody down on the farm is going to perform until they reach the big club and just because a guy goes rule 5 doesn't mean you are going to get him. I'm just assuming that if I was trying to make a trade... I'm going to try and give up the players I want to give up. A guy about to reach rule 5 on a team like Houston with very little roster space would qualify as a guy that I would want or even need to give up. However... none of these thoughts are reasons to assume that we got duped. I wanted Pressly for next year and all I can do now is assume that the Twins scouts identified the players they wanted and felt that Houston overpaid enough for us to lose a 2019 player.

The position flexibility of Cabrera made him a better fit and that is probably why Escobar was the rumored guy to Philadelphia. The Phillies could use upgrades at both SS and 2B but perhaps more so at SS. If I was the Phillies I wouldn't stop at Cabrera. I'd still be talking to teams about another infielder.

It will be interesting to be able to compare what Dozier brings back and what Escobar brought back. Position Flexibility vs. the 2B only guy Current Season numbers vs. Career season Numbers