Dantes929

I do not believe Sano is a permanent fixture out there but I guess if those three, Park, Mauer and Plouffe hit like all stars and Kepler is stuck in the minors its not all bad. Just like if the rotation performs so well there is no room for Berrios would be a good thing. More likely, things happen and eventually both get their chance.

Buxton's swing last year reminded me of Molitor's with the no load, still head and quick bat and while I would be ok with Nixon's numbers this year I would be thrilled with Molitor's. The problem is that kind of swing still has a rhythm to it and Buxton struggled to recognize pitches and appeared to be indecisive resulting in late and weak swings. I am just hoping for a good start. I think veterans know the hits will come and don't freak out about an early low batting average but rookies press. I always thought Valencia's good year was spurred on by a few infield hits and bloopers in his first couple weeks. It allowed him to relax until he squared up a few. On a separate note I always wonder about broadcasting your approach in the papers. Opposition might be reading these papers as well.

With how many people are skeptical of Sano to the outfield I would say you are in the majority. Personally, I would say I am with you depending on what pieces Trevor brought back. If it was a good reliever or two I would have been all over it but Plouffe is an asset I wouldn't want to give away for noting. He did lead the team in RBI the last two seasons. People will say it was mismanagement but I really think the Twins were planning on Saon as back up third baseman and back up first baseman and primary DH. That would open up outfield spots for Arcia or Kepler. Ryan said they liked Park but weren't expecting to land him so really that set in motion the whole Sano to outfield thing simply because among Plouffe and Park and probably even Mauer he is best suited for it. He does seem pretty fast. If Park hits and Sano can't hack it in the outfield then things will have to change.

With Atlanta Nixon hit .278 with a .351 OBP. and while fast he wasn't Buxton fast. I would be just fine with .278 and .351 OBP from a lead off hitter with blazing speed and great defense. I hope Molitor and Bruno realize this kid isn't Mike Trout and end up turning him into the next Willie Norwood. I also don't think the mistake was shipping out Gomez for Hardy but rather Hardy for nothing. Not to mention it is quite likely that Gomez would have done just fine with Twins if he had been here several years also.

Livan'd, Corriea'd, Blackburned,

I am all for Nolasco having a career year. It would only take a few good outings in a row to get everyone on his bandwagon. The real fear is that he is given the spot when he has done little to deserve it and pitches just well enough to keep in the rotation but not well enough to make anyone like him.

Duffey's was just as good in my opinion while he was up last year. He was buckling guys knees for called strikes and getting them to chase out of the zone. How much better can you get? I was a fan of Blylenven but just from the eyeball test Duffey's was as good or better last year. This isn't sacrilege. For a while Scotty Diamond's was really good also. Blyleven was special because he had a great curveball. He was HOF special because he had a great curveball for a really long time. Diamond's lasted one year. Duffey's lasted 10 games so far.. Ok, I really shouldn't have put Diamond in there because it wasn't on this level but wanted to to make the point that it was good and he couldn't maintain it. Duffeys's was great and we will see. Blyleven's was great and he maintained it.

In my book it wouldn't be May for Duffey. It would be May for Hughes. Hughes often relies on one pitch which works better out of the pen. My rotation would be Santana, Gibson, Milone, :Duffey and May. Nolasco in long relief and the #7 starter behind Berrios. Just my opinion.

I agree it is a shame about May though he has had a rough spring as well. Really, So what? What third pitch did Blyleven have? As far as I could tell Radke had a fastball and a changeup. If his curveball has the same bite and his fastball has the same pop and his command sharpens I am not too worried.

Except it still is about the process. Nolasco had a great outing today. Does this all mean Nolasco is going to contend for Cy Young and Duffey will be a 9.00 ERA guy in the minors? Slowey used to dominate spring training, Buscher would outhit Barry Bonds and Morneau would bat below the Mendoza line. Its actually good that he sees guys sit on his curveball now so he can figure it out.

I have no idea if he will be successful in the outfield or not but I am guessing in a 40 yard dash Sano would beat Ploufe by several yards.

That has been the knock on him even in his batting title days but there is science to it. Back when they Mauer was beating Cuddyer and D. Young by 40-80 points the three of them had pretty even splits for the various counts. They all mashed when ahead in the count. There is only one way to get ahead in the count and that is by taking pitches. Now I always thought he should swing at a few more just to keep the pitcher honest because I was as annoyed as anyone when he would watch nothing fastballs down the middle of the plate but it wasn't all the time which is why he was able to get ahead in the count more often than anyone. He was a good 2 strike hitter but you don't bat ..320 when behind in the count so it obviously didn't happen all the time.

For his power numbers I think everyone would be happy with a combined 20 homers. Even if he hits 4 more in the next couple weeks.

it wouldn't surprise me. I have been pretty high on Dozier from the start but it would surprise me if he were to have a better year doing the same thing he did last year. Delusional is a good way to describe his analysis of the two halves. I would not need stats to back me up that he was less effective. I could easily tell just by watching but the stats definitely do back up the huge difference in splits between the 1st half and 2nd half. I also don;t care what side of the field he hits but I do care that with the heavy shifts and pitchers throwing to the outside corner that he is trying to pull that ball over the left field foul pole. In his good year Willingham strode toward the pitcher with good balance looking like he could hit anywhere but his natural pull swing sent it to left more often. In his worse years his stride was a little more to the left and it looked like he was trying to pull everything. That is the difference I see in Dozier's two halves as well as well. If he commits to plate coverage he can still pull most balls but he shouldn't be trying to pull the ball. There is a difference.

Even in his best year he probably should have been batting 2nd because guys weren't getting on base in front of him anyway. Now its a no brainer. The lineup still looks better with him in it. A large part of this is OBP. Even in his worst year he was 2nd on the team at getting on base. Sure seemed like a lot of home runs by Sano were with Mauer aboard. I expect him to have better OBP than last year. I'm not betting anything so I will go ahead and predict another batting title.

Wow, how is this thread still alive? I love your binary quote.

I hope most of us. Averages out to 32,500 per year for 40 years. Of course May will make many times this so I agree that I don't feel sorry for him but agree also that it might influence his decision to stay when the time comes.

Prune colored glasses IMO. I don't know why Oakland gave him up for so little but I know he wasn't happy with being demoted after a 3.55 ERA and 6 quality starts in a row. Oakland had a staff full of #1-3 and were able to acquire another one so Milone was odd guy out. Kind of a unique case. I think he is solid. I know I am optimistic but also find it odd you rate our staff on average as a weak 3 or worse and are happy with it. 3 is average and I think we can be a strong 3.

I don't think people here know what that is. I have read for 15 years how the Twins have had Santana and for a short time Liriano as aces of the staff and every single other pitcher has been a #4/5 type. I think for a short while Radke was considered a #3. How they won division titles or competed last year with all back of the rotation guys is beyond me. Ok, yeah that was snarky but for example I have read often of Milone being considered a AAA guy or a #5 guy but at least based on ERA his last year and career he would be considered solidly in the #3 spot. I think we have a rotation full of solid #3 guys and May had potential to be more and maybe Duffey and Berrios do as well.

Are you gong to say Hughes has a walk rate miles below his career average or do you just say he now has excellent command? its the same with May. His walk rate in the minors in 2014 very good. Yes, I completely disregard his major league stint as jitters. His command was excellent the whole season before that and its been great since then. I look at him as a front line guy because he doesn't walk guys and has at least three very good pitches. I think he can be a very good starter. 6 of his last 9 starts were quality and I think we would have seen good progression as he went along. Very good stuff with great command = a strong likelihood of being a front line starter.

Should have been obvious but was not until after I responded. Being a Twins fan and wishing a guy who is not a Twin to have success are not mutually exclusive but I was just curious about what motivated it. Of course I am going to come across as cold and unfeeling but he really is just another millionaire playing for some other team to me and I literally wish you well just as much as I do Hicks. I am more of a baseball and Twins fan than I am of any individual player and there was noting all that compelling to me about Hicks, either as a player or as a person to favor him over any other player that has left. I wish Murphy well because he plays for the Twins and while I have no animosity toward Hicks and in fact often defended him I don't want him to fail but have no desire to see him do fantastic and see more irrational criticism of Twins management in these posts. Maybe I am cold.

His exact words were "I'm hoping Aaron Hicks has a fantastic career as a starting player." so yes, Hicks was mentioned and in fact the focus of the entire post. As a world view I guess I want everyone to be happy and productive but if Hicks is a full time player it just means someone else is not and I am not really more attached to that unnamed player than I am to Hicks now that he is no longer a Twin. I honestly would be just as happy if you were the starting outfielder for the Yankees and Hicks never played another inning in the majors. Its not wishing Hicks to fail but rather not caring if he does or does not now that he is not a Twin. I am way more of a Twins fan than individual player fan so if we trade Hicks for Murphy it is Murphy that I want to succeed and Hicks is as irrelevant to my life as Luke Hughes. That's nothing against Luke Hughes but I don't spend my time hoping he has a fantastic career as a starting player. . I don't know why a Twins fan would want a not Twins player to have a fantastic career as a starting player unless there is more than just the connection that he used to play for the Twins. Am I cold and unfeeling? I did give you an endorsement for being the Yankees starting outfielder.

Of course I might be missing something but a bench should serve these purposes. 1. Give regulars occasional days off, 2. Provide late inning pinch running. 3. Provide late inning power or R/L matchups. 4. Provide late inning defense 5. Guard against injury. 1. Arcia or Park can give Mauer or the Sano breaks and you will then have Mauer and Sano as bench players plus two other guys for other positions not counting catcher. 2. Plouffe is the only obvious guy here for pinch running replacement along with the DH's and you have Santana and Nunez for this. Shouldn't happen more than twice a game. 3. Late inning power is still provided by whoever didn't start at DH and this isn't the light hitting Twins of old. There are no obvious guys like Punto or Butera that beg for late inning pinch hitting replacements but again you have the sitting DH and Nunez. 4. Late inning defense will be limited to right field. Santana is plenty adequate for that. 5. Insurance against injury is not really that big a deal. Any injury is likely to happen before all the bench has been used up and in that case the makeup of the bench is irrelevant anyway. All of these things pale when considering cases like Hicks and Arcia who have splits of .800 plus OPS from one side and .600 or less from the other side. Since the non platooning player becomes a bench player little is lost. If we had the personnel such that the splits were that different but complemented each other I would be just fine with up to 3 spots being on a platoon basis. A daily improvement of .200 OPS in three different spots more than makes up for any perceived loss of utility of the bench. I know I am simplifying and missing stuff but again a difference of .200 OPS in a platoon is pretty huge.

I wonder why. Not in a judging way but curiosity. I was hoping he would have a fantastic career as a starting player for the Twins . Or as a fantastic platoon player for the Twins. Now I hope Murphy has a fantastic career as a starting player.

I always thought Hicks and Arcia would make the perfect platoon for right field. Arcia would play the most but Hicks would come in the late innings defense and Hicks was probably major league ready from the right side a while ago and may never be ready from the left side. Basically , the platoon player (Hick) would fill the role of 4th outfielder. He could spell the other outfielders occasionally quite adequately. I I