Dantes929

I would be quite happy with a rotation of #2 guys and very satisfied with a rotation of #2 and #3 guys whatever that means. I look at Hughes, Santana, Gibson, and Duffey (I really don't know Berrios) and even Milone and don't worry about what # they are. As long as I have a reasonable expectation that they can throw a shutout or one run game at any given time I am less worried about whether they are considered an ace. Anyone is tradable.

Ok, fine and I am ok with trading and a little less so with free agent signings but can't you make the same list of guys we let get away. If we never made trades or signed free agents but signed our own guys we would still have Garza, Loshe, Morneau, AJ, Cuddyer, Ortiz, Ramos, Span, Revere, just off the top of my head. I have never heard the myth that you refer to. I know all teams play the musical chair game.

Twins don't trade a lot and I am ok with that. They don't make big splashes on the free agent market and I actually wish they made less splash. If you think about it trades and free agent transactions are just a big game of musical chairs. One team loses a pitcher so they go and get some one that a different team lost. Team A will lose a batter that they think is asking for more than he is worth but somehow see sense in paying a different guy from team B that was asking for more than team B thought he was worth. We have what appears to be good talent right now that should develop into a good team. I am fine with holding pat as long as we keep them for a good amount of time. Not opposed to getting a catcher or reliever if the price is right but I like a mostly home grown product.

Always seems like people think we could have kept both Gomez and Hardy when we got Hardy for Gomez. I don't really lament getting Hardy for Gomez and don't conclude that the Twins gave up on Gomez. . It made a lot of sense at the time but giving up on Hardy a year later made no sense. Unproven Valencia and Casilla with even less proven Nishioka just left too much margin for error without a stabilizing guy like Hardy and I am not lamenting the offensive explosion that came after but the very good defense with competent offense that I thought we were losing at the time. .

Oddly, he has been exactly what everyone predicted he would be which is a light hitting utility player while also being exactly the opposite of what everyone predicted in that he has been very good as an everyday player.

I have been a proponent of Hicks/Arcia platoon for quite some time. Arcia's defensive liabilities and Hicks diminished playing time because of the majority of right handed pitchers abated somewhat by replacing Arcia with Hicks in late innings when appropriate. I would be ok with Hicks/Kepler as well. If anyone protests on the basis of it blocking everyday potential of any of those I say so what? These guys are being paid a ton of money and the Twins should do what is best for the Twins. I would be just fine with a platoon for the next several years. Despite his struggles Hicks maintains a .808 OPS against lefties. Of course a big if is Arcia (who I picked to click this year) can regain his form against righties. I would be just fine with a platoon OPS of .8075.

I agree. It is a little damning with faint praise. This wasn't a good year for Mauer in any respect except for how he did with RISP. It just wasn't. On the other hand, while Mauer did not do a great job getting on base he was still 35 points above the team average and it was still better than the other guys. To sum up on a team that starves for OBP you should probably think twice about dumping a guy that has led the team in that department for pretty much his entire career. Compare it to a scramble golf team that has three good guys tee to green that can't putt to save their lives and one guy that isn't that great a player but is a decent putter. The team needs that guy putting. Even if he isn't an elite putter that is the area of greatest need that he is best able to fill. If this were the 2010 team the current Mauer should be PH or batting at the bottom of the order. Currently he is best suited on this team to bat 2nd. Hopefully he can get it together to be that guy that is best suited to bat 2nd on almost any team in history.

Preaching to the choir here. It is not about velocity but about stuff of which velocity is just a subset. Its not that the Twins of the past pitched to contact. Its that they did it so poorly. Blackburn and DeVries and many more all threw harder than Milone but a staff full of Milone would likely have decreased the ERA of those teams by about a run a game. Not all 88-92 mph guys are created equal and should not be considered as such. As far as playoff velocity goes, in the Giants WS years they were no better than middle of the pack in fastball velocity but also threw fastballs less often than anyone. Milone would not be my first choice for a playoff pitcher but his playoff ERA is 1.5. Ok, small sample size but playoffs are small samples. Also his ERA against KC is 3.3, St. Louis 1.29 and against Texas 2.7. Make the playoffs and I am happy to take my chances with anyone on the mound.

"I usually feel like I'm the only one defending him, and the decision to sign him." Here's the fun part. Not only did all those that you are defending him against demand that he be signed at the time, they also are the ones that clamored for the Twins at various times to sign at least 4 of the guys that are ranked ahead of Mauer on the worst contracts list.

In theory sure but historically spring training is for training rather than competition and for good reason. Rarely is that time frame predictive of regular season results. I would point out a couple really bad ST by Morneau followed by monster years or Hicks great ST followed by regular season struggles but there are literally hundreds if not thousands of such examples. Spots should be based on prior year. Mauer does not have the strongest case but as pointed out above he was 2nd on the team in OBP and Kepler and Vargas just do not have enough experience to pass him by.

You shouldn't ever have to defend the decision to sign him. If it were possible to view the archived trib pages at the time you would see that there was NO ONE against the decision to sign him at the time regardless of how many say they were against it now. I was most lukewarm on the idea and warned people he would not be an MVP every year but I was fine with the signing because he was a really good player and I don't care how much he makes. I just said they should write off much of his contract for public relations rather than player salaries. Because so few of his homers that year cleared the fence by more than a few feet I didn't expect big power numbers but loved his OBP. I still defend him though it has been harder the last couple years. I still think he can make a come back and aside from a half season by Sano Mauer again led the team in OBP which he has done every single year but one when he got on base .402 to Thome's .412. I never thought he was a #3 batter but definitely like the Twins better with him in the lineup. On a team that was starved for OBP to the tune of 28th in the majors it is not a bad thing to have a guy that gets on .035 more than the team average. Just put him at the 2 spot and hope he gets better the farther he gets from the concussion.

No doubt very true. Koufax prime example and also guys like Gibson and Blackburn appeared to be more effective when not given too lengthy a rest which resulted in higher velocity but less break. Prime example of a Twin losing velocity though is Hughes. Hard to make an argument that his loss of velocity was by design or that he has gotten more movement by throwing slower.. In fact, I imagine there might be some pitches that can break better with higher velocity or greater arm strength anyway such as sliders and cutters. Hughes appeared to be getting by at the end by being more of a pitcher in changing speeds and mixing things up. Best result IMO is for him to get the velocity back but still incorporate what he has learned this season.

"Last year, Clay's fastball was continually 92-95 mph when he first joined the Twins. They jokingly said that's the Twin's for you. I asked them what they meant and they said happens a lot with Twins pitchers." Did they have any theories on that? I defend pitchers like Duffey that have stuff and command even though they don't have big velocity but I would rather they have stuff, command and velocity. I do not believe the Twins teach them to throw slower.

I am ok with guys that can often pitch like aces. Gibson in his career has not been a 6 inning 3 run kind of quality start guy. His quality starts are near the league norm but in very few of those has he given up as many as 3 runs and most are just 0 or 1 runs. This year he did a little better job of staying with it when he wasn't on. HIs game where he gave up 4 in the first and still completed the game was an example of him battling a little better this year. His slump WAS due to command. You could watch just the pitches without knowing the outcome and see the difference. The guy that has the best chance of being an ace in the whole organization is still May who has the best stuff and has had better command as time goes. Santana, Gibson, May and Duffey should be locks (I know they won't be but they should be) for the rotation next year with Milone, Hughes and Berrios in that order competing for the last spot..

I have nothing against power. Sano does appear to be a pure power hitter and probably elite and I don't want to change that. I liken it to my golf game. When grooved I swing effortlessly and hit the drive 250 yards and consistently. Often I find myself swinging much harder for less and less consistency. I may hit the occasional 270 by swinging really hard but the trade off is no where near worth it. In golf at least when I do hit 270 there is a benefit. When Arcia hits it 100 feet beyond the fence there is no additional benefit compared to hitting it 1 foot over. I am not criticizing Sano's season here. I loved it. I want him to fall in love with the quantity of home runs not the distance. The distance will be there anyway from swinging well.

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.

I despised Baines, Buehrle, Knoerko, Thome and Crede because they were White Sox and wish they all had been Twins. Glad we got Thome and Crede for a while.

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.

I agree with you completely. It is more of a compliment to Kipnis.. Sometimes it is more strategic in terms of setting up double plays, but this was not that case. In this case, Kipnis is free to feel respected which is not mutually exclusive to Ramirez feeling slighted. Without the preceding walk I would be ok with the Twins being angry. Given the intentional walk I think it is just minor tit for tat.