Riverbrian

None of this is shocking. There was a lot of what I considered "not on the same page" stuff happening last year. I have no idea how decisions were or are made at 1 Twins way but i'm fairly comfortable in imagining that Molitor would be part of the dynamic. Everyone in the room is part of the dynamic and ultimately Terry Ryan is responsible for that staffing. When Paul says "some people" he may have been part of that "some people" group just because he wasn't able to influence the outcome or agreed with the assessment. There are many times in my career where I have accepted responsibility on the basis that I failed to convince others. "This is my fault because I wasn't able to convince you". Manager change is a change beyond a new guy in the dugout. He is a new dynamic in advocacy. In my opinion... the Twins for the past 5 years have struggled as a whole to plan for future potential needs at the MLB level. SS, DH/1B, 3B, the bullpen, the rotation and CF CF CF CF CF... I'm typing CF 5 times because the approach to CF has been shortsighted and awful and they never changed course. They just kept trying the same stuff over and over. It's on Ryan... I don't see the Polanco error as fatal but It's on Ryan... and Molitor has to accept some blame as well for either agreeing with the assessments or failing to convince others. I think that's fair.

I'm not sure what Randy Levine was thinking when he started speaking publicly afterwards... I can't imagine what his words accomplished for moving forward in a positive direction. He had to make the healing process much harder if not impossible and future retention more difficult. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-yankees-may-have-just-ran-dellin-betances-out-of-town/ In my opinion... Betances may have lost his arb case and only got 3 million but I'll bet any of those arbitrators 100 bucks that if the Yankees were to trade him right now... The Yankees would get more than 5 million in value back. What was Levine thinking... The kid just lost an arb case because of saves which he has no control over since the manager assigns the roles and now he's staring up at Chapman so he can't get saves for future arbitration and after you've kicked him in the teeth during the arb process... you take another shot at him publicly. This makes no sense to me at all on many levels.

I think about it a little different (like most things I guess) I don't think Polanco's defense will determine if he's the regular SS...It will be his offense. If Polanco is clearly hitting the ball well... He will get the chance to play defense often and hopefully get better at SS. But if he does any kind of sophomore slumping at the plate... His defense then will not be able to save him and therefore... the Twins might as well go with Adrianaza for the defensive upgrade. Polanco will have to hit to keep the SS gig. Of course Molitor may not take into consideration any of these factors... So I guess... this would be how I would do it.

Hats off to all of you and congrats to the vision, guts and creativity. May you reach 99 John along with this site. That would be 4 or 5 years in the future I suppose? I don't know... I'm bad at guessing ages. And Glunn and his efforts. He is easily one of the most worthwhile humans that anyone could meet. He is an automatic upgrade to any culture.

It doesn't look a day over 4

As long as the ball continues to leave his bat at 471 MPH... Optimism is easy.

Vargas Grossman and Park are currently DH options so I don't think its a total potential punt.

Some clearly are not that high on him and that's ok with me. To be honest... I'm not even asking for 500 PA 's in 2017. If he is struggling... So be it... do what you mast do. I will be looking at 2017 as a prove it year for the majority of the roster. I'm only asking that if he is getting the job done... let him continue. I don't want to see a guy with OPS over a grand benched when a low OPS Vet comes off the disabled list to reclaim his job that he was struggling with. I've grown distrustful of the evaluations that are leading to decision making that causes the benching of a player who has an OPS over 1.000.

Yep He goes on an incredible tear and is benched as a reward. Hard to build up those good numbers when your good swings are cut short by the guy who holds your fate in his hands. He struggled in 2015 no doubt but there are many who did the same in year 2. I'm not going to declare him a sure fire superstar... He may end up on the scrap heap of baseball history but he's earned the right to try and have a career and not be put to sleep by some manager with an opinion of what he should be doing that isn't matching up with what he is doing. Let him play himself out of a job when someone actually out produces him and that didn't happen in 2016. Molitor flat out pissed me off last August 4th. I honestly didn't care that much about Vargas prior. Now he's my poster boy. Polanco and Kepler sitting on the bench while the regulars drove the team out of contention by the end of April was when I started thinking that Molitor just might be incapable of adjusting his pre-formed opinion on the fly. His public apology to Brian Dozier for finally sitting him down for one (or two) games after a lengthy period of the struggles at the plate was when I was pretty sure that Molitor might Have locked himself in to pre-opinions. His treatment of Vargas certainly removed any lingering doubts. Let me conclude by saying that I have no idea if Vargas will make it or not if given regular playing time. I just think it was indisputable that Molitor benched a guy who was red hot in favor of someone who wasn't even luke warm.

I am suspicious about pitch framing overall but in an attempt to stay open minded... I will say this: The Good Framers appear to be Good Framers year after year. So... the skill sure seems to show some consistency. However... in an attempt to stay closed minded. I still contend that if Pitch Framing truly saves enough runs to pay millions for the elite. You would see correlations between pitch framing and CERA and I don't really see those correlations. In the end... Falvey/Lavine have my support and they obviously buy into the value of pitch framing and I won't stand here and say they are wrong. In a Q&A with Rand of the Trib back in November. Thad Levine stated that he felt the Twins were a little behind in the resources provided to the staff. He mentioned that the first step would be in systems and resources and the 2nd step would be evaluation after everyone has been provided with those resources and tools. He was talking about the staff at the time but the pitching staff also need the advantage of improved resources before being evaluated. For the pitching staff... Castro is a tool.

I still like the signing of Park for the simple reason that the Twins went out in the IFA Market and competed against everyone else and completed a deal. The Twins need to take these type of risks to compete. I was also never concerned about the logjam because there is no logjam unless multiple players actually perform at a major league level and that hasn't happened yet so gather your assets where you may. Having Mauer and Vargas should never prevent you from adding someone who might be better yet. No matter how this ends... Overall... I'm happy with the signing. But... I sure wish we were better at this. Nishioka was perhaps the worst scouting assessment possible and with Park... the concerns came kind of quick. I remember listening to Tom Kelly on the radio with Ruesse last March. Tom said that Park was noticeably struggling with the increased talent level and he was wasn't sure he'd be able to adjust. I like the signing... I just wish the Twins were better at it.

I believe that Peralta and Carpenter are comparable to what most fear Sano and Polanco will be.

I have seen Belisle pitch a few times... I remember liking his slider and he seemed to throw it a lot... but I've always thought of him as a good low leverage guy. You feel more comfortable when he came into games with the bases empty.

"Wins Above Santiago" That could catch on Who wants to make t-shirts?

Personally... I wish Mr. Pohlad would have listened to Nick Nelson last year when he posted back in May? Nick suggested the idea to hire a POBO and it should have been done ASAP after determining that you were going to make a change. Because by waiting... New POBO and GM are brought on board after the world series and the off season is here before they have their socks put away in a drawer. Assess the operations... the players... Whose scouting reports do you trust and use? Do yo have a new way of doing things? If you do... a head start window was passed by when they delayed the hiring of Falvey or any other POBO. When you consider the timeline of the hiring and the internal groundwork that has to be put in place. Falvey and Levine have very little choice but to listen to the same advocates who got us where we are right now... Molitor... Antony... the Western Regional Scout and the traveling secretary are still in the building. This off-season was destined to be a disappointment because Pohlad and St. Peter decided that it could wait until the end of the season. WIth that said... GO GET SOME RELIEVERS... I'll take Blanton and Smith please.

Well deserved Are Our greatest manager ever!!!!

Yeah Sadly Yeah

I remember being against signing him as a free agent. I wasn't a Hughes fan... I felt he lacked a certain... toughness on the mound when I watched him pitch for the Yankees. It seemed like every time he needed to make a pitch in a big spot... he didn't. For full disclousure... I remember wanting Nolasco and being simply OK with Pelfrey as a 5th spot guy. The guy I wanted instead of Hughes was Kazmir if I remember correctly. Once he signed with us.. He was impressive. It's debatable if he was extended to soon however... I think Terry Ryan was wrong only in hindsight. At the time... it made sense. It's pitching... if someone shows you something... go ahead and roll with it. Fast forward to today... I'm hoping big time that he rebounds and helps us out. I won't dismiss it as a possibility. With that said... perhaps my biggest hope is that he isn't simply handed a spot in the rotation... I hope he has to legitimately compete for it. I want multiple people competing for the rotation... From Hughes to May to Taylor Rogers. I simply want less toleration of 5 plus ERA's overwhelming the rotation. If Gibson has to be moved to the bullpen or waived... so be it. 2017 needs to be a show me that you have fixed whatever the hell went wrong in 2016 year.

5? I just thought I'd throw in a guess.

I was hoping for aggressive bullpen shopping. Still hoping for it but it isn't looking good

Normalize Cano's 39 like he suggests and Dozier is back on top

Do you normalize the low?

I understand your point... and I wouldn't call it an argument because that sounds so... I like to call it a discussion... If you are going to take out Brian Dozier's best year... You have to take out the other second baseman's best year as well to be fair. Cano shouldn't get to use his 39 last year. Gyorko shouldn't get to use his 30 last year Kinsler shouldn't get his 28 last year Tulowitski should lose his 25 in 2014 and Hanley should lose his 30 last year After you inflict the same damage on everybody else that you want to inflict on Dozier... We are back to Double Digits again.

Dozier led middle infielders in home runs if you take 2016 away and just use from 2013 to 2015.