tcttejtf

He reminds me in some ways of Catfish Hunter, who gave up a ton of home runs but were mostly solo shots. Ryan's walk rate is similar and if he can avoid putting runners on base, he can be effective, even giving up 30+ dingers per season.

Julien is rapidly improving at second base. Roughly twenty years ago Corie Koskie was below average at third base and made himself into a much better fielder. through thousands of reps in the field. Tom Kelly and the staff worked with him and he might have wound up being one of the top players at his position in Twins history if it wasn't for concussion issues a few years later. Julien has the talent to do the same.

At lest one commenter has suggested that the Twins could not have realistically done better in the Polanco trade. I agree. A veteran starting pitcher, a veteran reliever, a 20-year-old top-100 minor league hitting prospect and Bowen, whose numbers are promising. All in exchange for a switch-hitting and defensively below average second baseman on the last year of his contract.

This is not a bad deal. It gives minor league prospects another year to develop and his clubhouse leadership will help young Twins currently on the major league roster. Management is playing the odds with only a five million dollar payout, but Santana's odds of being more productive than Gallo at less than half the price are pretty good.

The Twins do have a minor league option for DH, and his name is Yunior Severino. They might want to give him a shot, and at the league minimum salary. He tied for most home runs in the minors last year with 35, his batting average & OBP are decent (.272 & .352), although he strikes out a lot (173 strikeouts and 51 walks in 467 at bats). He is average at best at first, second, and third but is a switch hitter. Severino will probably start the season at AAA, but if he plays like last year it won't be long before he is in the show.

Julien is a lot better defensively than he gets credit for. Corey Koskie sucked at third until he logged thousands of practice reps. Julien is well down that path and was noticeably better at second base at the end of the season than he was at the beginning.

I saw Camilo Pasqual throw a five-hit shutout in 1962 against the (expansion) Senators at D.C. Stadium. In his prime Camilo had a curve equal to Blyleven's in his prime. It should be a tossup between Camilo and Johann for starting pitcher. Also Harmon hit the longest homerun ever hit in that park up to that time. If it wouldn't have hit row five of the upper deck in left field on its way up, it probably wouldn't have come down until the next day. D.C. Stadium was no bandbox, either - I think it was 400 feet down the left field line. Carlos Correa is the best shortstop in the game IMO. Chuck Knoblauch is probably the Twins best second baseman, but for some reason Twins fans threw trash at him when he was a Royal. At third, Gary Gaetti was a huge RBI man, unmatched during his tenure by any other Twin, and had an absolute gun for an arm. Kirby, Torii, and Bob Allison is a pretty good outfield, Joe's the catcher, Killebrew's at first, and Nelson Cruz is the DH.

Kepler DID play above AA, but not a lot. He got in 30 games at AAA before being called up to the Twins in 2016.

It seems to me that players develop at different rates. Sandy Koufax pitched five nondescript years with the Dodgers before becoming an all-star. Happily for the Dodgers they didn't give up on him. Nelson Cruz was also a late bloomer. It is often a marathon and not a foot race.

Comparing Gallo to Sano might not be fair. As was mentioned, Gallo generally has good at bats, which was more than could be said about Sano. I don't have the stats, but I'll bet that Sano had considerably more three pitch at bats ending in a strikeout than Gallo.