stringer bell

Turner was in the organization on August 31st, so he could be added.

Way back this spring, I thought that Turner was a standout behind the plate, compared to any other catcher in the organization. Oftentimes defensive reputations are exaggerated, but Turner has very good defensive tools. I think Turner will get a look with the Twins at some point next year. If Suzuki is unavailable for more than a day or two, he probably would be recalled so that the Twins could pinch-hit for both Herrmann and Fryer.

I would like to see Dozier step up and carry the club. He's been in the doldrums for a while and he's a good player who still is able to help the club in the field, on the bases and with the bat. Mauer still might have a white-hot week or two in him, as well.

I do pretty much agree with what Jimbo said above. Pelfrey's fastball is OK, but it isn't dominant. His breaking ball isn't a plus pitch, so he went with the split-finger. However, he's never had command of the split, he got a lot of people to swing at it, but not many were in the strike zone. The key here is that in order for the split to be at all effective, Pelfrey needs to be ahead in the count. It seems he has been 2-0, 2-1 almost all the time. Both control and command of his fastball have been issues in the second half of the season.

I see that the Twins will use the off-day to skip Duffey's next start. To the point of the OP, Pelfrey absolutely has to pitch well tonight or they will go with other alternatives. I don't see May starting any more games while the Twins have a chance to make postseason, especially with the injury to Perkins. They need him in the bullpen. Darnell did not impress me when he pitched for the Twins last year. He started shaky at AAA, but was very good the last couple months, including about a month as a starter. To me, he is a AAAA guy, as are Dean and Bowden, and perhaps also Rogers, although I think Rogers can be a solid bullpen option.

There was a thread about a month ago when Rosario was going pretty well and the overwhelming consensus was that Rosario might regress, but his performance wasn't fueled by an out-of-this-world BABIB, as Santana's was. I don't expect Rosario to ever be a patient hitter, but I expect his discipline will increase after he has seen most of the pitchers in the league. He's already been a good player for the team as a rookie. A little fine-tuning could make him better, but not a superstar. Rosario's defense undoubtedly has value, not only for the extra outs he generates by throwing out runners, but for runners not taking an extra base, respecting his strong accurate arm. Not all assists are the same and I would say Rosario has had more than his share of "wow!" throws, rather than getting an assist by hitting the cutoff man who catches a runner wandering too far or trying to catch the Twins napping.

Can't do it. He has used his last option this year. If he doesn't make the Twins, they would have to DFA him to get him to Rochester and with the success he had the last two years, someone would claim him.

My very preliminary 2016 roster has Arcia as the fourth OF, getting at-bats as a DH as well to start the season. If Plouffe isn't moved, there is really no place for Vargas. I am pretty sure Kepler won't make the team out of spring training, but I do expect him to make his debut early in 2016, if not when the Southern League playoffs are over this fall.

I see numbers like ERA (for starters, not relievers) as showing what players have done. FIP and xFIP are predictors, sometimes on the button, sometimes way off. FIP and xFIP predict the Twins starters to be pretty lousy going forward. Given the composition of the rotation, I can't dispute that. Through the All-Star break, the pitching staff (and starters in particular) had overperformed their predictors considerably. Regression has occurred and stung Pelfrey and Gibson particularly hard. There are 24 games remaining, each one (I hope) will be crucial. The manager has to determine which guys will give him the best chance of winning. He's giving the ball to Pelfrey tonight, a pitch-to-contact pitcher against a pitch-to-contact lineup. I hope Pelf holds them down and the Twins can score a half dozen again tonight.

Buxton has one trip to AAA, he was sent there for rehab and then optioned. If he were optioned to start (wouldn't surprise me), that would be his second trip to Rochester. Buxton goes back far better than Hicks in center, and seems to get better jumps, so with his speed he is a pretty terrific center fielder. The hitting will take awhile, but I fully expect him to be an offensive weapon sometime in 2016. BTW, comparing Hicks to Buxton isn't apples to apples because Buxton is still just 21 years old, Hicks didn't make his debut until he was 23 and was optioned the last time at age 25.

I expect Texas to overtake Houston. The question is will Houston lose enough for the Twins to overtake them? The Twins are 3.5 behind the Astros who have to play Texas seven times yet.

Overtaking the Twins? Or just beating them several times now in crunch time? Absolutely Cleveland is playing its best ball now and they'll be a tough test in all seven games remaining with the Twins. I can't see the Tribe sneaking into the playoff picture, but I do expect they will be real trouble for the Twins.

There are four games in October that look like they are going to be very important. Add one road game against Cleveland and three home games against the Royals.

I don't agree with everything written above. I will agree that the roster is flawed. Their power is almost exclusively right handed, their best position players are above average power, below average batting average guys. They don't have catching depth and the incumbent catcher has a history of being a poor thrower and pitch framer. There is a crying need to get more high-percentage (and high OBP) guys on the roster, hopefully left handed hitters, like Joe Mauer, prior to last year or perhaps like Max Kepler next year or the year after, hitting before or after Miguel Sano. As far as the pitching goes, I don't know that it is predictable. Except for the elite of the elite, pitchers are really unpredictable. The Twins have a lot of middle-of-the-rotation arms and maybe one or two will be better than that going forward, but if that happens they are beating the odds. The bullpen didn't get help this year from the ballyhooed power arms that started in Chattanooga this year, maybe next year. Also, they added Jepsen and moved Alex Meyer to the bullpen, so perhaps the Twins will join the hard-thrower movement for their bullpen next year. What has changed is defense. Going from Arcia, Schafer, Hunter to Rosario, Buxton, Hicks is huge. Outfield defense might go from biggest weakness to biggest strength. The infield defense is fine, but not particularly rangy and Suzuki is regarded as a good game caller, despite his poor marks throwing out runners and framing pitches. As far as the bench, the Eduardos are pretty good bench players, although Escobar seems to have become a regular. Robinson filled his role very well this year, but he can't be overexposed. The thing is that most of the season, they only had three bench guys and one of them was the backup catcher. They didn't have room for a bat-first guy with power potential. I'm pretty confident that will change over the off-season.

I like Dougie Baseball, but he did have Polanco, Buxton, Sano, Walker, and Kepler and more in his lineup to start the year. If I got them all to the park on time, I'm pretty sure they'd win a lot of games for me. None of those players were disappointments and a couple took steps forward, but they were viewed as top talents coming in.

Is Dean another Anthony Albers or Logan Darnell? I know he's not a hard thrower, but he was very successful at the highest level of the minors. Or is he another Tommy Milone, a lefty without a big fastball that knows how to pitch. On that point, can a rotation afford to have a Milone and another "soft tossing lefty"?

Way to go, top of the order.

I don't know. The ball clearly beat Mauer. Perhaps the ruling was that Conger wasn't blocking the plate because Mauer wasn't yet close enough.

Duh, Pelfry struggling.

While the schedule is pretty tough and the Gophers won't sneak up on anybody, they look pretty good. I'm with Ben, win the axe and hold all the trophies.

Maybe not Good, Bad and Ugly--(Good, Bad and Lukewarm?)--the Twins starting lineup: Good (right now)-Sano, Escobar, Suzuki Bad (currently)-Hunter, Buxton, Plouffe Lukewarm (could change)-Dozier, Mauer, Rosario I caught the game at 4-0 and predicted that despite all the hits that Plouffe, Hunter and Buxton hadn't done anything. Unfortunately, I was right. Right now, not-so-fast Eddie, Sano and Zuke are really going good (Suzuki is going good compared to April-July).

Remember who the two players were in 2009 who scored and drove in the winning run in game 163? Both of those guys had gone from regulars to bench players over the course of that season. I am speaking of Gomez, who scored the winning run and Alexi Casilla, who drove him in.

I got off the golf course and the score was 4-0. I watched on my computer and Chicago scored five straight runs, sat down and watched my TV and Sano homered, then came the nice little three-run inning. I guess I'll stick to watching my TV.

The Twins did very well against left handers early this year, but not so much lately. Their power is basically all right handed, but the power hitters haven't put up big platoon splits.

I hadn't really considered Hamburger, but he has been excellent since some early batterings. Regarding a third catcher, I've been hoping the Twins would make a trade for someone, anyone who can, you know, both catch and hit, bonus points if they can throw out somebody once out of three chances. On Berrios, it seems that all are convinced that he will be an improvement. I don't think it's a guarantee that is actually the case. I'm sure we are undervaluing the necessary roster moves and overvaluing any contribution Berrios would make, but if the club wants to gain ground a secure a wild card a chance should be taken.