Dantes929

We are talking the difference between Rosario and Delmon Young or Hicks and Willingham here. I think it is quite reasonable that we are talking at least 30 fly balls here and while yes, some are singles but they are also singles that could have been outs. How many times is there two outs and guys on 1st and 2nd and a bloop single scores one and then the next guy hits a three run homer? Many varieties on this scenario but the point is that if the ball were caught in the first place there would have been no damage. I really don't know how to quantify it either but Rosario's range and 16 outfield assists that he turned into outs vs Delmon Young turn average plays into extra outs for the other team as well as bases makes me think it is worth a lot of runs over the course of a season.

I didn't care for what appeared to be Arcia and Vargas falling in love with the home run and particularly the distance of the home run and I hope Sano doesn't follow that route. I thought he often swung too hard and he just doesn't have to. 36 homers and a .385 OBP for a full season. If he can do that I don't care if he strikes out every other at bat. Love Rosario but hope and expect that he can get his OBP up over .310. HIs minior league numbers say he probably can. Duffey is most likely to be the guy to regress. Although he started out with a 27 ERA it was remarkable that his ERA went down with every single start but one. 3.10 would be awesome from him for a whole year. HIs curve ball appears to have more break than Bert which is saying a lot. May is most likely to beat his numbers next year. Great stuff and command just getting better and better.

Ok, Heyward would be a nice player to have. Good defense and good but not elite OBP skills (55th among those with 200 at bats or more). Paying that much money and that long a contract in place of who? Have we given up on Buxton already? or is it Rosario, Kepler or Hicks that you all want gone. If not Buxton then Hewards'd value diminishes if not playing centerfield. I just don't see it. If you are going to throw a ton of money at a free agent catcher makes most sense but the two youngest free agents played less than half the games in 2015. Good and durable catchers seem very hard to come by. People say just get a good catcher like they say we need a couple #1 pitchers. Sure would like to have a couple but there just aren't even 30 such players that exist. I like Suzuki and don't know how catchers fool umpires with framing but I could see that Kurt wasn't very good at it. I often saw anti framing by him.

I would never write a guy like Hicks off but did take the position that he would be best utilized as a platoon player given his splits. I also said I would love to be proven wrong. HIs 235/.302/.359 slash line from the left side does not prove me wrong but I think maybe sufficient to keep him out there full time for a while longer to see if he can improve upon it, especially with his defensive value.. His right side slash of .305/.375..495 would match up well with Arcia's .250/.322/..485 career slash line but of course for the defense. Anyway, I am glad Hicks performed well overall and hopefully continues to improve.

I agree about the contending part but fans are so impatient. I can easily see 2016 ending up around .500 as well. Plouffe is way better now than he was in 2011 and 2012 and we have a lot of young guys that still have to take their lumps like he did.. Think 1984 to 1986 or maybe 1988-1980 would be more apt. I knew Santana would regress just like I knew Valencia would in 2011. There was just nothing in their histories that said they were elite. Sano and Rosario and especially Buxton have a better minor league history to show they can maintain or improve. I don't think you go get guys anticipating current guys to regress or fail. Escobar now has two seasons in a row that says he is actually a better regular than he is a utility guy that everyone had him pegged for. I don't think we should get a shortstop because Escobar has earned his chance and no shortstop is going to want to come here with that in mind and we wouldn't want one that we have to play no matter what just because we are paying them more. Dozier hopefully works on using all fields but he is set at 2nd. I know many would like Mauer moved but it isn't going to happen. I am fine with Sano at DH with a likelihood of being the heir to Mauer in a couple years. I really, really want an outfield of Rosario, Buxton and Hicks though I also like the idea of a Hicks/Arcia or Hicks/Kepler platoon out there and don't want any other outfielders brought in. I really, really want a rotation of Santana,May, Duffey, Gibson and Berrios and that would leave Hughes, Nolasco, Milone, Boyer, Jepsen and Perkins in the pen. This is the one area I wouldn't mind seeing some dealing in order to get out from under Nolasco in particular and improve the back end. A good catcher would be great but I just don't see the guy out there I would give up a lot for or that fans would love if they were actually acquired. To sum up, there are a few spots that could be shored up but I have no problem whatsoever relying on the young guys. If they don't pan out we have more young guys. Find a good core and stick with it and tweak it and I think they have a good core.

While I think you overshot a bit with the 36 to 10 handicap being child's play, when I told a guy at Austad's I was an 8 he said "Well, as you probably know an 8 is way closer to a 12 than it is to a 6." its true.

In my memory the Twins have done pretty well against aces not named David Price this season. Would be nice to win tomorrow just to make the next two more meaningful.

Nice move by Molitor to pinch run for Plouffe. Once again Bert and Dick talk about how great an outing it was by Duffey while he is still pitching. Ok, 2 runs in 6.1 is a nice outing but stop doing that. How about some credit to the pen? 2.2 shutout innings while the Indians pen gave up the lead. To me, this series reflected the season. Twins pen gave up runs yesterday in a game that was probably lost anyway while holding tight in a close game. Its one of the reasons we have more wins than our Pyth formula says we should have. All relief pitchers give up runs and all relief staffs blow games. Its why I think those that say an extra reliever would have made a 6 game difference are wrong . It just doesn't work that way. .Anyway, nice win Twins.

We only scored 1 run anyway and were kind of due for a game like this. Good news is gaining half a game on LA and possibly half on Houston who are behind right now. A lot of grief given to the bullpen but really this is the kind of game where they tended (seemed so to me anyway) to give up most of the runs. The ones they were likely to lose anyway. Of course they lost some games for us but every bull pen does and frankly, it seemed like most of them were by our all star closer. They had a lot of 4 and 5 inning games where they kept us in it by giving up 1 or fewer.

Help me understand the logic or sequence here. Santana moved to the 1st base side on August 19th. The next 10 innings he pitched he gave up 9 runs. Then the magical ( I noted some sarcasm there) bullpen session and since then he has given up 7 runs in 43 innings but you still credit the move to the 1st base side as the more significant event? I don't know if the vertical release point changed much but if it kept him from falling off to the first base side it makes sense that he is more balanced and throwing from a more solid core base. The fact that it directly followed the bullpen session rather than the move on the rubber tells me the bullpen session was more significant.

Pretty sure we are not guaranteed a winning season yet. We are just guaranteed not have a losing season. Don't jinx us.

I know the Angels have been hot. They have won 8 of 10 which accounts almost entirely for their above .500 record. They have been a .500 team all year and even with their good play lately their most likely results are 4-3. Houston being a poor road team and having played mostly .500 ball also, their most likely record will be 3-3. If this happens the Twins need to go 5-2. This is actually the least likely to happen so again, if asked if I would take my chances with 5-2 right now I would bank it. I will not dismiss the possibility of 4-3 being enough. That would mean Angels going 3-4 and the Astros going 2-4. These are not likelihoods but hardly far fetched.

Fans have given up on Perkins before. I agree that his 2nd half has been horrible but next year is just that, a different year. What is wrong with Jepsen? I am ok with Rosario. I am ok with Escobar. I would also have no problem with Dozier. Dozier has a better OPS and though no fault of Escobar has done it for more games. Dozier, has probably been a little bit better defensively also. Forgetting what Dozier did the first half of the season is pretty short sighted and reactionary. Interesting stat and I am making no point here but just came across it. Suzuki is batting .314 in our wins. Anyone have any conclusions about that? Maybe he was the MVP. JK

I second guess managers almost never particularly about pitching changes. I know all the scenarios and usually call posters out about the hindsight second guessing thing. In this case though, Fien had thrown a lot of pitches particularly to :Davis. I thought he was lucky to get Davis out and really just didn't look like he had much left. I just saw very little downside in having Perkins come in to get the left hitting Gose and just downside to leaving Fien in. I am not big on the righty lefty thing but really didn't like turning Marinez to the right side given his ridiculous splits. I promise that if Molitor had brought in Perkins to face Gose and failed to get him out I would not have posted any criticism. I just had a really bad feeling after Davis flew out and he left Fien in.

Maybe 2 out of 3 times anyway. He swung at every pitch Kluber threw and not even half of them were strikes.

I wish people would get over this whole velocity thing. It is stuff that matters and not all guys throwing 88-91 mph are created equal. Velocity is an element of "stuff" but command, movement, change of speeds and break are all part just as big a part. 90 MPH is plenty fast if the other elements are there. I would love a guy that throws 97 with all the other elements but guys that throw 97 are not all created equal either and that guy that has it all is pretty rare.

I like the idea but also like the idea of the best pitchers pitching the most innings. If Hughes and Nolasco are among the best 12 pitchers then they should be on the team but I would also hope that salary considerations alone don't put them in the rotation. May, Berrios, Duffy, Gibson and Santana with Nolasco, Hughes, Milone, Jepsen and Perkins would be fine with me. I only want to be rid of Noalsco because I am afraid salary considerations will give him preference. I remember defending Liriano when people criticized him and wanted him gone because he didn't fit their definition of an ace. I said forget about him being an ace and confine your judgment to whether or not he is one of the 5 best starters or could be one fo the best 7 in the pen. Likewise with Nolasco. I don't care if he doesn't earn the contract. If he is useful as a relief guy then great. If he hates it and demands a trade that is all right also. If he actually earns a spot in the rotation that is all right also. If they give it to him because they are paying him a lot of money, then not so great.

How about 4 time champ first? Even though Sano missed a full season it is impressive that Kepler has made it this far this fast. Very anxious to see what he brings to the plate.

It mitigates the disparity among the divisions a little bit. In 1987 the Twins were one of the two teams in the American League playoffs despite having the 5th best record. Great for us but not so great for teams 2, 3, and 4.

I will never understand why a pitcher or a batter just gets inserted into the lineup after a month off. The rotation has been just fine of late but they pay Hughes a lot of money so they need to put him in there? Put him in the pen. See how he does there for a week in lower leverage situations and then see how he does. Duffey's arm is just fine as evidenced by how well he has thrown. Stop making such a big thing about innings. As Bert says, his arm hasn't fallen off and won't fall off. I am guessing he is more likely to hurt his arm in the first two months of next season than he is the last month of this season. I don't have any evidence to back up this statement but I doubt there is any to refute it. Arbitrary innings limits are just that. Arbitrary.

Without doing too much (any) research I would say this is spot on. A little spoiled by AJ and Mauer and while we complained ad nauseum about Butera he did land on a couple playoff teams which suggests that nearly everyone has issues with depth. If Perez went down Butera is who KC would be left with. I was fine with :Butera as a backup catcher but until I hear a clamoring of posters saying they wish we had Butera I am also not going to stress about :Ryan not having a plan B. What exactly is wrong with Hermann's catching. His arm is decent and he works hard. This all smacks of people saying Gardy shouldn't have played Punto or Tyner when those were his best options or saying Mauer should have been batting 7th (better case for that this year) when he was still leading the team in hitting and OPB so in other words there were not 6 better hitters to go ahead of him. . I want a better catcher. I can't tell you who that is or what it would take to get him so I am not going to complain about it.

I am ok with shopping anyone but do not see the urgency in deciding this offseason who the odd man is. I am fine with keeping them all.

First of all lets cut way more slack for Buxton. He has extremely quick hands without loading at all. Reminds me of Molitor in that regard. He has struggled to start at other levels as well. I don't know if Rosario is the real deal offensively. I don't expect this to happen but a platoon of Hicks and Rosario might be the best option. Who knows? Add Kepler and Arcia to the mix and the Twins have a lot of options and hopefully excitement for their future outfield.

Pennants are won based on everything. Being elite in defense in one area can be game changing. I would make the contention that last year Kansas City may have won the wild card spot on the strength of Gordon's defense. 15 assists means 15 runners you have kept from advancing while also recording an out. It can also mean keeping other runners from even trying. Now add in balls tracked down vs falling based on range and the conclusion seems rather obvious that the difference between Delmon Young and Alex Gordon or the difference between Rosario and Willingham can change the results of game which changes the results of pennants. I watched a 3 games series a few years back and saw plays made by Tampa that I didn't think possible and plays not made by Dyoung, etc that should have been made and they all seemed like high leverage plays. There was plenty of delta there and I believe it made the difference in two of the games. Of course offense is a huge component but its simple math. The guy that creates 20 runs above replacement offensively but gives up 5 defensively should be less valuable than a guy that creates 12 offensively and saves 5 defensively.

lol. Just about everything messes up my game. That part about effortless power is not myth but is a little like the Holy Grail. Difficult to obtain and harder to keep. Pretty much only happens when my golf pro is watching and disappears as soon as he leaves. Theory is still good.