Riverbrian

Totally agree on Tampa being in the group. I can't believe I forgot to include them because, I believe they were the originators of the group. Friedman and Maddon started slowly with Zobrist and Sean Rodriquez in Tampa. Epstein saw this and got Maddon over to the Cubs and now Maddon has taken it to another level. Friedman and Roberts are probably at the point where they have even out-distanced Maddon. Meanwhile the Rays have continued this approach. Bauers plays 1B and OF, Robertson is all over the infield, Wendle will bounce around. Keirmeier plays CF... Period because he is elite. Cron plays DH or 1B because he is not. Maddon isn't crazy... Rizzo only plays 1B and Almora seems to only play CF and Russell is the SS when he is in the lineup but Baez, Zobrist, Happ and Bryant will move around. Maddon decided that Schwarber will play OF just to get his bat in the lineup and he survived it. The next club to join the club will be Washington. There was no reason to go from Old School Baker to New School Martinez unless this is where they want to go. Martinez was Maddon's right hand man. Unfortunately, Martinez didn't get a chance to do much because they had extreme injuries issues that made it impossible. I look for Washington to retool for flexibility if they don't fire Martinez for missing the playoffs. On your point of it's tough to do once they hit the majors... I agree but... it's when all the positions switches seem to happen.

Two things happened last night that I’d like Derek Falvey, Thad Lavine, Paul Molitor and the rest of the front office advisory council to strongly consider. First, Eddie Rosario was forced to play 3rd Base, a position, to my knowledge, he has never played before in the big leagues and he made an amazing play while doing so. Second, Mike Moustakas was traded to the Brewers to play 3rd base, which caused the Brewers to announce shortly afterwards that Travis Shaw was moving to 2nd base, a position, to my knowledge, he has never played before in the big leagues. Now, before I get started… I want to make it clear that I fully understand that Rosario making one play doesn’t mean that he can play the position long term and I also want to make it clear that I realize that Travis Shaw hasn’t played 2nd base yet and the results of his abrupt shift to 2nd base during a playoff chase has yet to reveal itself. With that said… I believe that we can clearly see representations of new school thinking and old school thinking in today’s roster management and we are reaching the point where enough information is out there to start concluding that old school thinking might be wrong. I couldn’t decide if I should post this in the “Other Baseball” Forum or the “Minnesota Twins Talk” forum but I’m going to focus on the Twins and more people read the Twins talk forum and I want the discussion. The Cubs, The Dodgers, The Brewers, The Astros, the Rangers have all embraced the idea of position flexibility and two of them have won the last two World Series titles and four of them are in contention in 2018 and the other team, the Rangers have had some pretty nice years prior to this year. Point being, it hasn’t hurt them. Out of fairness, I will also put the Cardinals into this group and also acknowledge that position flexibility may have been something that has hurt them. I still wonder if they failed to be sensible in the approach by being consistently sub-par defensively at a key position like SS, or if they tried to force it by acquiring a bunch of sub-par defensive players like Gyorko or failing to acquiring elite defenders outside of Molina at all. Please don’t mistake my thoughts for willy nilly just play em anywhere sentiment. If a player is elite defensively at a position… leave him there. If you have Buxton… he should play CF period. If you have Arenado… he should play 3B… period. Simmons should be SS only… Period. However, in my opinion, there are a large chunk of great athletes who are merely average defensive players that have the skill set to switch positions or play multiple positions at the same average level. I suppose there will always be degrees of better and worse but are we costing us bigger matchup offensive advantages by weighting what could be slight defensive improvements of average heavier? Admittedly, most teams lock in with dedicated positions with maybe one utility guy in the old school mentality and I understand the benefit of getting an everyday feel for a position however, I can’t help but take a look at the Cubs and Dodgers and think: Is the benefit of getting an everyday feel for a position bigger than the benefit of being able to move players around so you can get the best players into your lineup on a daily bases, according to match-ups, hot play or whatever? This all brings me to the Twins, obviously not practitioners of the new school practices that I am talking about. They are in the other much larger group of teams that don’t. When I look back at the recent history of Twins position switches, I end up with more questions than answers and I start to question the Twins ability to assess. Here are some examples off the top of my head. Eddie Rosario – Played 2B in the minors, he was moved to the OF so maybe he struggled at 2B or maybe he was blocked by Brian Dozier so they tried OF to get Rosario to the majors quicker. Either way, he has done well in the OF but isn’t elite out there so I’m wondering if old school thinking has prevented Rosario from being someone who can play a little OF or 2B on occasion or 3B if he isn’t good at turning the double play or something. Again… I’m not reacting to last night one play sample size. Has there ever been a time when you had 4 outfielders that you couldn't wedge into 3 outfield spots and a hole in the infield? Brian Dozier – Came up as a SS, struggled a little and was reinvented as a 2B. We had trouble trading him last year because he is 2B only and there wasn’t a lot of need for 2B across baseball. We may be having trouble trading him at this deadline because we are running out of teams looking for a 2B and that is the only position he plays. I think Dozier is a fantastic 2nd basemen but he isn’t the 2B version of Byron Buxton and I can’t help but wonder what his trade value would be if could also play a little LF or 3B in addition to open up more trading partners. Was 2B the only position that he could have possible shifted to at the time or was it the position that was open at the time and he was just left there because he did fine. Yeah, I know… his arm is gonna stop those ideas. His arm is not that weak and that is how you talk yourself into locking them down at one position and making sure his arm restricts his value. Sano to RF – I was all for it, I’m all for position flexibility so of course I was all for it… Until I saw it. He wasn’t the right guy to try this and it left me wondering why they didn’t know this before they tried it. The Twins forced the move because they signed a DH in Byung Ho Park while Trevor Plouffe and Joe Mauer were at 3B and 1B and neither of those guys were considered for position flexibility of any kind to accommodate the presence of Sano. No matter how bad it looked out there… the Twins stuck with the idea and did not deviate until… Plouffe got hurt. Then they ended the experiment because they had some place else to put Sano. This isn’t proof that you shouldn’t try it, it is an example of an organization that assessed badly in the beginning, kept doubling down on it stubbornly before admitting defeat. This isn’t the fault of the idea of position flexibility, it is the fault of the assessors and then used against the idea of position flexibility. Trevor Plouffe – He came up through the minor league system as a SS. Played his first games with the Twins as a SS. I consider SS a key position that requires the range to play SS which Trevor didn’t have. Why was Plouffe allowed to come up through the system as a SS. On the other hand, if he did have the enough athleticism to stick at SS throughout the minors, why couldn’t he have the athleticism to play 3B, 2B or OF? Why did the position switch have to happen at the major league level? I got a lot of questions about Plouffe that make me question the ability of those making assessments. Jorge Polanco – He played 2B in the minors and the team was hesitant to play him at SS in the majors and it almost stopped them from finally giving him a chance. A couple of years later… he is still our everyday SS and even with a supposed better defensive SS option in Adrianaza on the same team, it is Adrianaza that moves to 3B or other positions if they are both in the lineup. Is he still miscast for the position, maybe but he’s done alright and this leads me to two more questions. Was the assessment that caused fear over Polanco at SS a sensible assessment? What is wrong with setting up for the future Polanco position switch by moving him to another position now instead of Adrianaza doing all the moving? Adrianaza is supposedly a better defensive SS so we have already compromised ability for what… consistency? Josh Willingham and Ben Revere – I remember it being reported that Josh Willingham wasn’t comfortable playing RF therefore the weaker armed Revere played RF. It’s not that I was against Revere in RF and I know that the ball spins different but this was pretty ridiculous in light of what is being done today. Returning back to the new school: Let’s look at the Dodgers. Bellinger 1B and CF and RF Muncy 1B and 3B and 2B and LF Forsythe 2B and 3B Taylor SS and CF and LF and 2B Machado SS and 3B Kemp LF and RF Pederson LF and CF Hernandez CF and 2B and SS and LF and RF and 3B Grandal C and 1B Barnes – C and 2B Dear Falvey, Lavine and Molitor, Are the Dodgers seeking these players or developing them? Has it hurt them or helped them? Can the Twins join the club in baby steps or one large leap? Why shouldn't they? I think it is an important discussion.

Agreed The best thing about Wrigley was the terrific guide that we had. When I went to Guaranteed Rate, I have 3 Nephews and they told me we were going to Racine for something, which turned into we got nothing going on so lets go get some pizza in Chicago which turned into, "Hey, look what I found in my pocket, Tickets to the Twins game". It was a pleasant surprise for me and I was also pleasantly surprised that it was nothing like 1990.

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.

Thanks for publishing your list. I'm absolutely jealous of you right now but I will get there some day. I have never been to spring training in Ft. Myers so I have a plan in my head to go there in late March and then do Miami and Tampa if they would both be so kind to open the season at home some year. I also have a plan in my head that if I ever see a road trip stretch where the skies open up and Colorado, Arizona, San Diego, Dodgers, Angels and A's have home games that lineup perfectly with a road trip without having to bounce out of sequence to accomplish it. I may drop everything and do it. Before I do those things... I have to stop my kids from getting married and going to college so it feels like I have some extra cash to do it.

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.

Congratulations!!! What you have accomplished has been an on-going goal of mine that I have yet to accomplish. I still have Florida and a big western swing to make along with some pockets where the teams were not at home when I was nearby. My Rankings of stadiums that I've been to: 1. AT&T Park - It's hard to describe other than I'd just call it perfection. There is something about the sight lines that I don't understand but we sat in RF and I could tell what the pitch thrown was from nearly 400 feet away. 2. Fenway - The Green Monster just hangs over the park and gives it character that no other ball park has and the atmosphere outside the park makes it a different world by itself. 3. Camden Yards - Eutaw Street alone is enough to catapult this stadium up my list. The rest of the ball park is top notch. 4. PNC Park - I fell in love with Pittsburgh during my visit there. I was expecting dirty and industrial and what I found was one of the most beautiful cities in America. PNC just fits everything that surprised me about Pittsburgh. 5. Citi Field - I didn't think I was going to be impressed by Citi Field but I was. You get the bonus of watching the underbelly of very large planes flying over every inning. 6. Kaufman Stadium - It's getting to be one of the older stadiums as time goes by and it has held up well. Absolutely beautiful stadium. May they never tear it down. 7. Miller Park - I've often seen Miller Park down on many rankings and I don't understand it. The only problem I have with the stadium is that it is a long walk to get the stadium from wherever you park. Otherwise I love it. Looks like a giant spaceship as you drive by on the Interstate. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I think it's beautiful. 8. Target Field - 8th seems harsh but it really isn't... Target Field belongs in the list of my top 8 stadiums visited, I could easily rank it #5 ahead of Citi Field and there is a steep drop off to #9. 9. Globe Life Park - Lots of great seats here. I liked it but we are going to run into a stretch of mediocre that don't require a lot of comment. 10. Progressive Field - Been here maybe 3 times. There is nothing wrong with it. 11. Turner Field - Nothing wrong with it... other than they don't play baseball here anymore. Someday I will hit Suntrust 12. Comerica - Nothing Wrong with it... Nothing great about it. 13. Guaranteed Rate Field - I was visiting family in Milwaukee when my Nephews and I just spur of the moment got in a car and drove to Chicago for a game. Nothing wrong with it... Nothing great about it. 14. Safeco - I see this stadium up higher on most lists. I'm not sure I understand why. It just goes in my average stadium section and near the bottom of that section because I hated that damn train horn. Scared the crap out of me... I spilled my beer. Loved Seattle though. 15. Wrigley Field - I've only been here once and I was extremely happy to be there because it is Wrigley after all but in the end. You have to look around Poles and Ivy isn't that impressive. It ends up being just an old stadium but I was honored to be there. 16. Metropolitan Stadium - I barely remember details about the place because I was pretty young the couple of times I saw a game here. The only thing I remember was the excitement of being at a Twins game. 17 - Old Yankee Stadium - I have to see the new stadium... the old one was old and you get distant from the action really quickly. 18 - Tiger Stadium - I liked the overhang and the closeness of the action but Detroit is a mess. 19. Comiskey Park - They were building the new stadium across the street when my wife and I saw a game here in 1990. We were actually on our honeymoon road trip on the way to Niagara Falls when he stopped in Chicago for a game. It was before GPS so my wife was trying to navigate with an atlas and she isn't the best at that. We ended up driving through some neighborhoods with massive tenement housing with no windows and people clearly living in them. Neither of us had ever seen anything like that before. I had to convince my wife that I would protect her if she would just get out of the car. We survived... I noticed that the area is much safer looking these days. 20. Rogers Centre - Horrible all the way around. Build a new stadium now. Give the city of Toronto something it deserves. 21. Metrodome - There should have never been a baseball game played in this place. You leave with a neck cramp because of the seat orientation and you lose the ball in the roof and the food was the worst. It's gone and we are all better off for it... But... Thank You for the World Championships!!!

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

You'd think but Moustakas going to the Brewers may force Shaw to shift to 2B. Whose left? Red Sox?

His birthday is in 6 minutes or Today on the East coast. I wonder if he likes his birthday present of a trade to Chattanooga.

I came to peace with the idea of selling before we even hit July. I didn't want to trade any 2019 guys but... I guess I'll have to adjust.

Rosario is going to know this is a fake because you spelled Thad correctly.

You are such a show off.

I know the answer to this question but you disqualified me from answering it with your pre-qualifications.

Hopefully it will help recruit some new members to the "Baseball Player Positional Flexibility" Club.

He said "like Realmuto". You don't have to make him choose his adjectives or player representations that carefully. While my personal trust in the front office evaluations is struggling through waves right now. I'm going to assume that they liked these guys and chose them for the potential to develop so I'm hoping that they think it will move the needle down the road. If you are thinking about trading for a "Like Realmuto" type right now then yeah... of course but I didn't assume that is what he meant.

Yes he did and I believe he meant it. You are kinda splitting hairs on the definition of "impact when you jump immediately to Royce Lewis.

I have no idea who these guys are or what they will become but if this guy from Brazil hits his ceiling of Inciarte. Maybe we can package him in a trade for Shelby Miller in the future. Impact players don't have to be Realmuto expensive.

True... But increase in quantity increases the chances that someone of quality develops.

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Teams that intend to contend are looking for players like Pressly. If we are going to trade Pressly, it's going to be teams that intend to contend that willing to make the deal. Teams not in contention will deal players like Pressly. So what are we? I intend to contend. Not sure if the front office feels that way. I say Keep Pressly and go get me another one just like him.

I would trade my wife is someone wants to over pay for her but... what are the odds that someone is going to over pay for her... or... Ryan Pressly? If we do not intend to contend in 2019... go ahead and trade Gibson, Rosario, Pressly or anything not nailed down and let's go Padres or White Sox on this thing and tear it down to the rafters for the rebuild. However... If we intend to contend in 2019... We already have a bunch of free agents departures needing to be filled so I'd be really hesitant to create more of them. So... Let's make deals for the guys who are not under control for 2019. Call it day and start working on who will be here in 2019 and make the team as competitive as possible. Once again... if some one wants to over pay or send back a clear 2019 major league player in return... OK... but I don't think that is going to happen. I'm going with absolutely not with an impossible condition that won't be met.

Does the batted ball/pitch level data take into considerations the over stated shifts that Morrison was hitting into frequently? As for Buxton and Sano... I agree but I'm questioning why it took them so long? As for Dozier... I agree but I'm adding that I would have sat him down for a couple of days and told him that I was going to give someone else a chance to out perform him.

Yes I am quoting Slash Stats for demonstration purposes but I am aware that sometimes line drives are caught and bloopers fall in. A good manager should be able to tell the difference. However: Byron Buxton didn't look good in the slash stats... he looked hopelessly lost and he played every day. Miguel Sano didn't look good in the slash stats... he was visibly lost to all who were watching and he played everyday. Logan Morrison didn't look good in the slash stats... He was either striking out with runners in scoring position or pulling the ball into that over stated shift at bat after at bat and he played every day. Brian Dozier didn't look good in the slash stats... He was consistently pulling off outside pitches to weak grounders to short and weak pop ups and he played every day.