ericchri

If he pulled a Dozier and made our SS spot in the lineup suddenly look acceptable as opposed to really bad, and could pull that off while drawing a wash in the defensive department with Florimon, that would be a good catalyst to a turnaround for the Twins. Hoping this analysis works out to come true. Thanks!

For current lack of a "like" button, I'll just quote that part for my fervent agreement!

Polanco will "stay" at shortstop? Does that mean he's getting a chance to prove he's a full-time SS instead of just filling in when Goodrum isn't playing? Would that indicate Polanco might start at Ft. Myers, but Goodrum might start out the season back in Cedar Rapids?

I wasn't suggesting the Twins do that, just had the thought cross my mind wondering if it could even be done. Not they have reason to worry per se, but if the Red Sox were certain the Yankees were most likely to get him, could they pull that off to prevent it?

Wasn't sure if this really warranted a new topic, so I'll tack it on here as the discussion of Tanaka involves posting fees. Just wondering if you could abuse the system to "block" a player if you were worried about him signing with a rival. Make a huge bid guaranteed to win, but then offer a terrible contract the player won't sign, thus preventing him from coming over here. Just wondering if there's anything that would prevent that, like the Japanese team keeping XX% of the posting fee regardless.

With Willingham and Doumit already on the roster squeezing Arcia for playing time, I can't see much reason to pick up Kubel. I always liked Kubel, and I must have only watched his better games in the field cause he never appeared as bad an outfielder to me as he is generally regarded as being. He moved and throws much better than Willingham ever has from what I've seen, not that that's a huge bar to get over.

Aside from being from the rival University an hour south, I couldn't agree more with your post (shortened the quote due to its length). Watching the fight to save the Fighting Sioux nickname became a case of bewilderment for me. My high school nickname when I went to school was the Indians, now it's the Huskies. They changed it a couple years after I graduated, and after an initial bit of disappointment that lasted about 10 minutes I moved on and accepted that it was probably for the best and it had absolutely no bearing on my support/love for my old school. They were still "my team", regardless of nickname.

This season had to be a pretty big increase in innings over anything Melotakis has ever done before, right? I'd be curious if he wasn't somewhat "pacing himself" knowing that was going to be the case, and that next year you might see a little bump from him as he's better conditioned for the workload. I'd definitely give him another season as a starter to see what happens.

It's about the same for me, I was 15 that season and really not a baseball fan until that point. I've been one ever since, though.

I probably agree with you for the most part, I wouldn't want to straight up trade Rosario for 1 year of Bailey, knowing that Bailey was gone after the year for certain and I had nothing to show for the trade but that 1 year of him pitching. But it's along the lines of not knowing what will happen next year and taking a chance things will break right. Cleveland was good this year because essentially their entire starting pitching staff all improved simultaneously. There's no way you can expect that to happen, but apparently it can. The question comes down to how much do you really have to give up for that 1 year. Would it be similar to what KC did to get Ervin Santana for the year, maybe a little more? I'm not good at guessing that type of thing. But if you trade for him now, you get a chance to convince him this is the kind of place he'd want to sign for longer. If you wait til the offseason you're just bidding against everyone without anything to show in favor of Minnesota (arguments about how our team is lousy right now is kinda beside the point I'm trying for at the moment). If you still don't have any success getting him to want to sign a long-term contract and the team is lousy again, trade him at the deadline to get something back. Different piece than what you traded to get him, but still something. If we come back next season and Hicks has learned how to hit, Gibson knows how to pitch in the majors, and Plouffe, Willingham, and Arcia start bombing home runs, maybe having Bailey there to front the rotation makes them competitive. It's a long-shot of course and I certainly don't expect it to happen, but weird things happen sometimes, and if you can find the right deal for Bailey it's worth trying.

Seems to me that if you go get him, you try like mad to get him to sign an extension. If he doesn't, he's gone at the deadline for some return prospect (yeah, it might not be quite what you gave up, but assuming he's not terrible it would be something) to make room for Meyer/May if they're not up already. Not sure the Twins operate that way, but that's what I'd like to see them do.

Thielbar was the most consistently good for the entire season, and with this crop that probably earns him the honors. Here's hoping for improvement from all of them. Even tiny improvements from all of those players leads to a fair bit of improvement for the team.

A part of me wants to see Hendriks get another chance cause he seems like a good guy who could still develop into a serviceable pitcher. I've kinda reached the point, however, where I'd really like to see the Twins actually wash a few guys like this out of their system. Not because you don't need some AAAA fill-ins available to you, but because we're swimming in them right now, and I'd prefer to move on looking for guys with more overall talent. He's had chances and done little with them, I'm ready for somebody else to get their chance to sink or swim who hasn't gotten multiple chances already.

I've been thinking the same thing. I guess it depends on who makes up the rest of the roster, but it seems possible that leads to a better defensive team next year than with him at 1st, as the prime candidates to man the corners right now might be Willingham and Arcia, neither of whom looks particularly good defensively. Of course this leads to needing to fill 1B with a legitimate hitter, but that seems doable.

Yeah, I'm a huge Dozier fan from even before the season started, and it's still Mauer in my book. Can't discount those horrible 2 months of hitting Dozier had at a time when the Twins were actually mildly competitive despite him. Mauer is just so much better than everyone else on this roster right now it's not even a competition. Next year may be different, but not yet.

Completely irrelevant since he's a pitcher, but does Thorpe's profile actually say bats Right, throws Left? That can't be common. Wonder if it just defaults to batting right and since he pitches there's no data to make the change in the report. Regardless, nice to have a lefty starter who profiles to be pretty good someday.

I always thought removing the trees was one of the stupidest things they could have done. Our players didn't like hitting with them there, so you would have to assume everyone else's wouldn't either. Our guys would get used to them eventually, though, where other players who only visit on occasion wouldn't. Thus we removed a potential home field advantage that was also a very attractive feature of the park because a few guys on the team lost a few points in their batting average. Bring back the trees.

I wonder if arm strength would have anything to do with it? Revere's arm was obviously terrible, but Span's never seemed great (average at best). I wouldn't be surprised that guys with better arms are also willing to play back another step or two knowing they still have a chance to throw guys out. I do know it's a whole lot easier to run while looking forward than it is while looking backward. I would find anyone who naturally wants to set up shallow making themselves go back more often to be a little odd. Just a natural comfort thing, really. Really neat topic, I love the little off-the-wall things you can look at in baseball.

I'm probably in favor of robots calling balls and strikes. I'd be curious about the Technology though. How fast can it determine the call? I know Pitch f/x or whatever it is they show on TV is fairly quick, but there's a big difference between 1 and 3 seconds. How long does it take to calibrate itself for different batters (since the zone should vary depending on the size of the batter)? Regardless, get the Technology to work and I'm on-board with the robots.

Weird, Denard Span and Ben Revere top the chart and Aaron Hicks is bottom of the chart. Kind of hard to point at it being Twins coaching a specific way. Granted Revere and Span aren't with the Twins anymore, but they spent their entire careers before this in the Twins system, it would seem odd they would make a massive change in the way they set up. But apparently if I read it correctly, playing a deep CF appears to be the more beneficial method, so Hicks is doing it right.

I think this year is proof that you may have an opportunity to start all season for the Twins (Pelfrey, Correia), where going someplace else you may have to fight for a job. That's what the Twins really have to offer at this point. It may not be much or enough to sway some guys, but for some that is very enticing. "Go to the Twins and be their #1 or #2 pitcher, or go to the _____'s who are competing for the playoffs and be their #5."

I agree, I think the Darvish bid actually makes it more likely Tanaka gets a huge bid, maybe even something similar. Texas massively outbid everyone else, supposedly, but the fact that they did means any future GM's are going to have that in the back of their mind for someone like Tanaka. You have to decide between bidding what you think he's worth as opposed to bidding what you think it'll take to guarantee you win the bid, and the two are likely not to be close.

I suspect I'm basically on the same page as this, even though I'm one of the "trade him now" advocates. It's not so much that trading him now is any goal I have, or that I think now is the perfect time to try and trade him. I don't know what we could get for him, obviously, but I'd sure be interested to find out when it looks like we could end up with two really good 2B who need to play by the end of next season. If nobody offers anything of value then it's irrelevant, but I wouldn't blanket rule out trading him.

I'm also a little puzzled by all the "wait" comments. We desperately need good starting pitching of any kind right now, so if a deal is available, you have to take it. That doesn't mean trading Rosario (or Dozier) for junk, but if something really good is available, go get it. Good starting pitching gets us better sooner and for longer than a good starting 2B does.

If anyone is willing to trade back a legit pitcher in return you start a trade package from our side with whichever of Dozier or Rosario they like better. Not much reason to hesitate from my point of view. Heck we've still got Polanco coming up in the system looking like a really good 2B prospect as well. We need to start bringing in top-flight pitching, and if that's what it takes, so be it. Sano, Buxton, and Meyer are the only guys I'd be unwilling to trade. I'd throw Kohl Stewart on that list too, but he can't be traded until a year after he was drafted/signed, correct?