Dantes929

.345 would be better than any of the last 4 seasons for Denard Span. I would take that from my leadoff hitter in a heartbeat. The main free agent I want us to get is Stephen Drew who has a .331 OBP which also isn't great but is still 50 points higher than Florimon's. .345 from Dozier, .331 from Drew, .400 from Mauer and .350 from Willingham and at least we are on the right track.

I'm not worried about Dozier's power. Its his OBP that I want to see improved. His minor league numbers in this regard were WAY better than his major league numbers so far, so I am somewhat optimistic he can do it. I still think the possibility exists that he could be adequate at shortstop if Rosario earns his way to the bigs. Of course that only makes sense if there are 3 good guys in the outfield. For 2015 I have Buxton and Arcia penciled in to the outfield. Whether Hicks or someone else emerges in 2014 will probably impact where Rosario plays

Jim Cricket. I advocated the switch for Mauer several years ago, but that was when Morneau was holding the 1st base spot. I no longer am in favor of it but I believe he could make the transition and be adequate in a short period of time. I also believe that if he had made the switch 3 years ago he would be way more than adequate by now. In other words I think he has the talent set to be a GREAT 3rd baseman just based on his talent set as catcher and his general athleticism. I consider skill set to be a different category and that is what would take time to develop and it just no longer makes sense so I agree it would now be a bad idea.

Only reason to move Dozier anywhere is to shortstop if Rosario pushes him out of 2nd base. Won't happen this year and unless Hicks rebounds I see an outfield of Buxton, Rosario and Arcia for quite a while.

Seth I agree with your opinions a lot but the reactionary part is all in Mauer's favor. You don't get to be a Gold Glove at catcher without being quick and agile and at 6'5" he was an anomaly at that position as well. Great hand eye coordination, sure handed and strong arm make him ideal for 3rd base. He should have switched there a couple years ago and kept Ramos for catcher. I believe Mauer would be much better at 3rd base but also believe he would be way better than Sano at 1st base which is why you would keep him there rather than switching them. Not because Sano would be better at 3rd. Just my opinion.

I understand it is intuitive that if you shift your infielders you would want to pitch them according to that shift but really, since the shift is based on the batters tendencies of how you normally pitch him, pitching him differently will create a whole new history of tendencies. For example, you don't want to pitch a left handed pull power hitter inside just cuz your fielders are there. Likely, his tendency to hit ground balls to the right side were a result of pitching him outside off speed pitches. I know its easier said than done but the pitcher should not be adjusting his approach just because the fielders change their approach.

Innings per appearance seems to be of marginal value in determining the quality of a bullpen. # of appearances is significant but really if you have an extra 100+ innings to spread around and your innings per appearance is average then you simply have to use more guys you don't want to. If our starters consistently give 6 or 7 innings with the short starts being rare then you have fewer innings and appearances to deal with and a larger share is being done by your best pitchers. I don't thinks its a myth. We have a good bullpen. Maybe not great but plenty good and if they had the KC rotation and handling they would show it. Remember how Guerrier would get dead arm when his pace for a season was over 70 appearances. KC had zero relievers with over 70 appearances. Twins had 3. Goes back to my theory that it is much easier on a relievers arm to pitch 2 innings every third day than it is to pitch 1 inning twice every 3 days. The fact that the Twins have league average innings per appearance is a very bad thing when considering that they had that many more innings to pitch. That just translates to more appearances which to me means overworked.

Twins have and will have plenty of power. In fact at the major league level that is the category they were closest to league average. OBP and batting average on the other hand was pathetic and the main reason they did not score runs. OBP excites me. Gap power is just a bonus. We need guys on base and guys that make contact with guys on base.

I think it should be pointed out that while Verlander was always on the elite side just because of his good control and fabulous stuff he was 7-7 against the Twins at one point. He has only become really elite since he dialed down his fastball most of the time and only amps it up when really needed. A bit like Sandy Koufax.. He still has a lot of strikeouts but it comes from great control and using other pitches. Bat missability doesn't just come from throwing hard. Pitching to contact works just fine and the Twins have won their fair share of games before 2011 doing it but the Twins have just done a terrible job of it since then. Throwing a good curveball on the low outside corner will still get a lot of hitters out. Falling behind in counts and throwing any pitch down the middle will not succeed in the long run. .

"I'd think his ceiling is a nice, right-handed bench bat." So you don't agree with Laroosh who apparently thinks there is no ceiling?

Ok, I understand sample size and all that but his minor league stats have been very good and if ever you can say someone dominated a league you can say it of Roberts in the Arizona League. By comparison, Hicks has not had that kind of stretch at any point in his development, hit ..286 in his best year which is last year in triple A and hit .202 against the same competiion Roberts was facing in the Arizona League. Do you think if the season had been 150 more games Hicks would outperform Roberts? If so, then case closed. If not then why wouldn't Roberts jump beyond Ft. Myers or New Britain? They were both facing AA and AAA competition and Roberts shined while Hicks did not even after a good and well publicized start.

Not a big deal Seth but I did a double take when you said his OBP was 1.226

. Fans perceptions are all out of whack. The range of ERA's for the best 30 starters with 120 innings is 1.57 by Medlan and end with Jarrod Parker at 3.44. Scott Diamond ranks as a very high #2 with the season he has had. Baker with his 2011 stats would rank as a solid #1 but should probably be considered an average #2. Most people think an ERA has to be well below 3 to be a #1. In 2012 that means only 4 pitchers in the american league would qualify. Good luck getting Verlander, Price, Weaver or Hernandez to the guy that says the Twins need to get a #1 and #2. If there was a factory that produced starters that were guaranteed to have a 4.00 -4.3 ERA, no more and no less, most teams would order 3 of them immediately. Rely on Baker and Diamond to do better than that, Hendriks and Gibson to fall somewhere in there and get another guy that is probably going to fall in that range as well and use all the other guys as backup and relief. So in summary I guess we already have 2 #2 guys in Baker and Diamond since the definition was up for interpretation and hopefully at least a #3 guy in Gibson. Do not overlook the value of having good #4 and #5 guys. A solid 5 ERA from your bottom two guys isn't all that bad. Most of the season we only had one guy in our top 5 that was below 6. That explains why we were 17 game under .500 after our first 47 games. Its not that we had a bunch of #4 and 5 starters. Its that we had a bunch of guys that weren't even that. I don't know who to target. When Jamie Shield as over 4 ERA I thought he would be a good value. Now, I have no idea. A # 1 and #2 would be great but you might as well just ask for 5 #1's.

Yes, aces are that difficult to get. According to one of the Strib blogs there only exist 12 aces in all the majors.

Blackburn has been wildly inconsistent. If you look at his career month by month you will see 10 months with ERA above 5.00, 2 moths betwee 4.00 and 5.00 (one would think this is where he would be most months), 6 months with an ERA between 3.00 and 4.00 (which is very good) and 6 months with an ERA below 3.00 which is fabulous. It all combines for a 4.50 ERA which is very good for a back of the rotation MAJOR LEAGUE starter and pretty close to the MAJOR LEAGUE average.

"allowing that much contact in front of a substandard defense led to a league-worst 1,086 hits allowed." They also walked 100 more batters than in 2010. It was just a horrible year all around. However, this is almost the exact same rotation as the team that won 94 games in 2010.