Riverbrian

We can only hope.

BTW... It wasn't that I disagreed with your overall sentiment yesterday. Personally... I was just making fun of the way you daisy chained from the Escobar pop-up in the first inning to the end of civilization. It was all in good fun and I hope you didn't take it in anything other than that spirit.

This isn't a new development. The offense has absolutely killed us this year By dropping two games in the standings immediately after the All-Star break. It should kill any lingering thoughts that the 9-2 stretch before the all-star break was a smelling salt of some kind. Make yer deals

He was up for 19 games. He had 19 AB's. This roster move was the equivalent of finding a wet spot underneath the couch. You didn't know it was there. When you notice it, you sop it up with a paper towel and throw the paper towel away. However... it doesn't fix the underlying problem that caused the wet spot in the first place.

It's alright. The team is telling the front office what to do next. Make yer deals. Get ready for 2019. It's alright.

Hey Now... I said 2nd Half. I did not specifically mention July 21, 2018. Doesn't anyone read the fine print anymore.

I didn't realize that play in the first inning had that many serious implications.

I'm not sure how you can be confident they don't want him back. The Twins don't offer an extension could mean lots of things that are miles from "they don't want him back".

Agreed Most dogs don't have the ability to clean carpets. Dozier in the 2nd half is very impressive but also like being impressed by how amazing your dog is because it can almost clean all the dog whiz out of the carpet and forgiving that it was the dog who whizzed on the carpet.

I love the guy... He's one of us. When he gets on a hot streak it is a thing of beauty. But Yeah... Everyone knows he's a slow starter. We have the information by now... yet seemingly no way for the organization to prepare for it?

Perfect!!!

Then I retract my complete contempt and replace it with a disapproving head shake because you surely know how every Sano thread is derailed by such things.

I'm trying to restore my faith in humanity and sentences like this... just plain make it harder for me to do so. This is a Cheap Shot

We completely agree because I don't think the Twins will take my free advice either. I'm gonna keep saying it though just in case the Front Office is reading Twinsdaily. I'm hoping and praying that they have learned their lesson when they complete the autopsy of 2018 and stop making the same mistakes over and over. If they don't read Twinsdaily... I'm gonna hope that I change Chief's Mind at least. By my calculations without knowing the fate of Mauer, Dozier or Escobar. We have exactly one position that I would call stable... that would be Rosario in LF. A catcher with a .609 career OPS is not the place to start when fixing all of that. That would be like trying to fix Rosanne Barr's twitter problems by buying her a goat.

I know you don't see it like I do Mike and that's alright but the Twins need to get better everywhere. If I'm the GM... I'm not... but if I'm the GM... There is no way I'm counting on either Sano or Buxton. I'll put them on the roster but Buxton is going to 4th on my OF Depth Chart until he figures out how to use that wood thing in his hands. Once he proves himself, he'll get the playing time. Sano is gonna be a guy who plays 1B/3B/DH but I will have a 1st Base and 3rd Base ahead of him on the depth chart ahead of him until Sano proves that he isn't going to swing at sliders away every time. We will also have to find some middle infield because we don't know if Dozier or Escobar will be with us next year. I'm looking for 2 guys to replace both of them to roll with Polanco and compete for playing time. I'm not going to count on Gordon until someone gets hurt and he gets his chance. There is no way... I'm going to deploy Gordon without a safety net. I will not sign a DH only guy. The DH can be used to get your extra talent AB's. The Twins have been caught with their pants down like this for years. No more playing Morrison every day and dying with him. No more is where I'm at. Just look at the Dodgers Roster and how they do it. Look at the Brewers roster and all the options they have. They had an OF of Braun, Broxton, Santana, Thames can also play OF, Phillips... they were loaded and they still went out and got Yelich and Cain. If you struggle... they got someone else to give it a shot. No more throwing Gomez, Hicks and Buxton out there without a safety net and saying "We didn't make the playoffs again because we didn't get the performance we expected out of CF". Prepare for it! It happens a lot in Baseball. Catcher... Look at the numbers: An Average Catcher hits .220. Teams have learned how to make the playoffs and win a world series with catchers who hit .220. The Twins can improve at every position but that catcher who hits. 270 with 10 Home Runs... He's expensive and that same price can bring in a guy who hits 270 with 30 home runs.

Agreed. It is possible to over pay in Free Agency especially if you go to the top of the stack but that is only money and doesn’t cost you a Kepler who will play more often and potentially out produce a catcher. I’m comfortable finding a dime a dozen type defensive catcher to man the position. I hold no illusions of being one of those teams that has one of three Buster Posey type catchers. As for the Aaron Hicks trade. I hated it when it happened and I still hate it today. It’s the type of trade you make when you convince yourself you are desperate for catching. Murphy might be playing decently now for the D-Backs and that’s great for Murphy but he is splitting time with Avila and Mathis. He has 1 start in last 6 games. (Avila 3 Mathis 2 starts) If theTwins pick up Mathis... I’ll be happy. I’d rather the Twins spend resources on more bang for the buck at other positions. If I’m trading Kepler I’m not going to take the production loss to pay for position scarcity. Everybody is looking for Buster Posey and they have to pay through the nose to get it because everybody wants it. If the Padres will give up Hedges for a reasonable deal... absolutely. If you start talking Kepler... I’m out. I’m simply not panicked over Catcher. They just don’t produce enough at the plate to panic.

2 catchers is wonderful especially when you consider that catchers don't play every day. Also if you consider that some teams have 0 and if you only have 1... you are an injury away from 0. If I'm the Padres. I would have no reason to trade Hedges or Mejia unless a team is willing to overpay for either of them. If I'm me... I will not overpay for catching. Grab a Free Agent or build your own catcher.

I'd do something that very few would agree with but... I'm trading: Dozier and Lynn plus an appropriate prospect to the Brewers for Keon Broxton. Escobar, Morrison and Duke plus an appropriate prospect to the A's for a young infielder. (Mateo?) The A's may be crazy enough to do it. And of course the Brewers and A's will make these deals because if they don't... I have nothing hypothetical to offer. These players would fit into my plans to build depth and safety nets in 2019 and hopefully avoid repeating what happened in 2018. Honest to God competition for playing time in 2019 or bust.

I've been clumsily trying to zero in on this point for awhile now. I don't care about Niko Goodrum. Organizations have to make decisions on players and live with them... It doesn't matter to me. However... at some point, you have to take a look at it the whole thing and start to question a few things. 1. The term dumpster diving has been thrown around a lot here. We make frequent waiver claim pickups. Why can't we find a Brad Hand or a Max Muncy. My suspicion is that they are not given the opportunity. 2. While not caring about Niko Goodrum and able to move on from Niko Goodrum without blame... Any argument that the Twins couldn't afford the opportunity to give him more than 17 AB's is false.The Dodgers were able to identify, Max Muncy, Chris Taylor, Kike Hernandez and Justin Turner despite having a better roster on paper and more money to throw at established guys. My suspicion is that the Dodgers give them opportunity to prove themselves and become valuable to the team. 3. Trevor Plouffe had an everyday job... everybody is shoved aside so Trevor Plouffe can play everyday. The presence of Trevor Plouffe prevented them from moving Sano out of RF, The presence of Trevor Plouffe prevented Kennys Vargas from continuing a hot run and all of this happened during a year when the Twins ended up with the 1st pick overall. Trevor Plouffe went from everyday for us to quickly NOT WANTED by anyone in MLB. My suspicion is that the Twins over reward marginal veterans at the expense of anybody with something to prove. If I'm Jake Cave, Max Muncy or Chris Taylor... The Twins are the last organization that I would want to sign with or be with. The reason: You will get no opportunity to prove yourself while the organization tolerates sub-par play from the pre-season hand picked choices. I am 99% convinced that Max Muncy would not have gotten a chance to become the Max Muncy of today if he would have signed with the Twins. We are too busy turning to Belisle and Plouffe and whatever half assed vet we can roster. It's a down year... TRY SOMETHING ELSE. Morrison has had more than enough chances. The Twins have not been overwhelmed with extraordinary performances over the past decade. We should have found some diamond's in the rough by now. We should have identified some Palka's or Goodrums along the way. Robbie Grossman is the best we have done? We haven't created depth because we have been our own speed bumps by not allowing opportunity and we are doing it for no reason at all.

They do have to be strategic and the strategy clearly isn’t working. This is an organization that will play Plouffe everyday before The rest of the league identifies him as AAAA and not play guys like Palka before they make impacts on other squads. Something is wrong. The decisions are hard but come on. The Twins need to do a better job of finding and developing depth.

I don't think the high draft pick is the ultimate goal. Right now with the Astros, Cubs, Phillies, Braves as examples... It's hard to argue against the strategy.

It never pays to be brief. My argument doesn't equate to never trading for an impact player. My argument is specific to Realmuto. Although, I would execute your trade idea with no concerns whatsoever. I also believe Spycake is right and I don't think your trade idea would get the job done. I also believe that if Spycake is right... you will be creating additional holes for 2019 to the lengthy list of holes that already needs to be filled for 2019. Personally, at this time, I don't have Sano and Buxton as hole fillers that we can be confident in.

I'm not asking the impossible here. You are making it seem impossible by implying that I'm saying a manager should know when a hot streak begins or starts and manage accordingly. That isn't what I'm saying but apparently the impression I am leaving behind because it is what I'm always defending and I'm not saying it. Do we really have to wait until July before a manager realizes that Logan Morrison is not performing? Do we have to wait until June to determine that Sano shouldn't be in RF. (I was supportive of the move until I saw the results of the move). When you say mediocre what is your definition of mediocre? Is Eduardo Escobar Mediocre? Is there anything in past stats that indicate he was going to do what he has been doing this year. Is he still mediocre? Should he be moved back to a bench role when Sano comes back. Polanco is already back so I guess Escobar will no longer have a starting position because a manager shouldn't make adjustments based on how players are actually performing because it's impossible to predict when the mediocre comes back? I'm not asking the Manager to be clairvoyant and predict streak starts and stops... I'm asking the manager to STOP trying to be clairvoyant and let the players make the determinations for him. In the past 30 days: Robbie Grossman is hitting .324/.380/.500 Logan Morrison is hitting ..190/.238./.431 When Logan comes back does Grossman get bumped? I'm not asking this question after a 4 for 4 day by Grossman. I'm asking it after 30 days of data. Actually in Morrison's case... we can look at the entire first half for data. Past history from Molitor suggests Morrison will move back into his regular role when he returns. Who gets bumped? Grossman or Cave? Is there room for all to get AB's or is that some kind of unwritten rule that can't be broken? With Magill... I don't care about Magill anymore. I was taking a cheap shot at the Auto Pilot nature of Molitor with my post. I understand that he has been placed in some sort of 1980's traditional long man role. I'm personally not a fan of 1980's baseball ideology but the bottom line is that Magill isn't getting used and if he isn't getting used... we should let Magill go and get Molitor somebody he will use. If that's Belisle... I disagree with the choice but Molitor will use Belisle and therefore... what the hell.

Acquiring Realmuto would be a cannonball through the farm system. Which is fine as long as the Twins are prepared to fill holes with AAAA guys and they never have a significant injury.

I believe the rule was designed to stop catchers from blocking the plate and forcing the collision. I believe catchers can stand where the ball is arriving. I am also no expert on the rule either.