stringer bell

Hunter has helped the 2015 club, but he should not be re-signed. The Twins will have Hicks, Arcia, Kepler, Rosario, and Buxton available as outfielders, there is no need for Torii. That salary could help in improving another position. I'm not sold on Polanco as a shortstop and his play in the minors hasn't provided any reassurance. Jay and Rogers are left handed and the plan has been for Jay to convert to starting in 2016. I sincerely doubt that Graham makes the club in '16, without the Rule V tag.

Kepler is currently leading his league in all categories of the saber triple crown--OBP, Slugging, and OPS. He's 22 and also has 10 triples and 13 stolen bases. To me, that is domination. He's held his own since Buxton, Sano, and Polanco left the league. As mentioned above, his BB/K ratio is excellent. Der kid is breaking out, no doubt about it.

n 2016, barring a trade, the Twins will have five players under the age of 26 who profile to be good or better outfielders. Five of these players will have played for the Twins, and the sixth (Max Kepler) might make his debut this September. Here's a look at all six, with my view of strengths and weaknesses: Oswaldo Arcia--Strengths: Big Time left handed power. In 853 Twins' plate appearances, he has 36 homers and a .437 slugging average. Pedigree of hitting. Going into this year, Arcia dominated the minor leagues, hitting .314 with a .375 OBP, and played each level young for his age. Charisma. He's an emotional player, who loves to do well and celebrate his success. Weaknesses: Fielding. Watching Arcia in the field has ranged from entertaining to embarrassing. He has a good arm and covers enough ground, but has let several balls clank off his glove or fall to the ground. He has been guilty of taking bad at-bats to the field, losing focus and playing fundamentally unsound defense. Strikeouts. Even in this high-K era, Arcia qualifies as a strikeout machine. He has whiffed 259 times in his 853 PAs, well over 30% of the time. Platoon splits. Arcia has struggled against lefties. His OPS+ vs. port siders is 67 with a batting average of .231. Byron Buxton--Strengths: Tools, Obvious to all, Buxton has a wealth of athletic tools. He is the fastest man to ever wear a Twins uni, he has impressive bat speed and plentiful strength to hit for average and power, and a fine arm plus great fielding instincts. Work ethic. With all the tools, Buxton is both coachable and a hard worker. He profiles as a leadoff hitter with 50+ stolen base speed who would transition to the middle of the order. Weaknesses: Unproveness (is that a word?). Buxton has only 40 plate appearances and didn't thrive, hitting under .200. The slowest to develop of Buxton's tools are his hitting. He has started slowly at each level.Injuries. Buxton missed almost all of last year with three injuries. He only played a handful of games for the Twins before going on the DL. Aaron Hicks--Strengths: Again, tools. Hicks profiles as above average in all five tools. He isn't off the charts in any category, but is a fast runner with a cannon arm, he can reach the seats and reach base and cover ample ground in the outfield. Selectivity. As a hitter, Hicks chases less than most young players, and has always drawn his share of walks. Since coming back to the team this year, he has remained selective, while being a more aggressive as a hitter. Weaknesses: Platoon splits. Hicks lifetime average vs. right handers is below .200 (.568 OPS), while hitting almost 100 points higher vs. lefties and has an OPS of .860. Looking only at 2015, the splits are still there. he's hitting .237 (.639 OPS) against right handers, but continues to have a dominant side, hitting .404 with a 1.092 OPS against left handed pitching. Previous struggles. Hicks was a failure in 2013 and a disappointment in 2014, if he slumps will he tumble back to that level? Max Kepler--Strengths: Projectable sweet swing. From the start Kepler has always looked the part of a fine hitter. He hadn't played much baseball when signed by the Twins and needed plenty of time to get things in order, but he's always projected as a fine hitter.Athletic. Kepler is tall, but fast. He might lead his league in triples (passing Buxton) and has stolen 13 bases in 2/3 of a season. League Dominance. As of yesterday, Kepler led the SL, in hitting, on-base, slugging, and OPS. Versatility. Kepler is a lefty all the way, but has played all three outfield positions plus first base. He projects as a good defender at the corners, Weaknesses: Two levels to go. Kepler is only at AA, he hasn't played an inning at AAA or in the majors. Injuries. Max has had his share of injuries, which probably slowed his development to this point. He missed the Futures Game with a sore shoulder. Platoon splits. Going into this year, Kepler had struggled against left handed pitching. He has solved lefties this year, with an OPS above .850. Lack of Power. Kepler has only six homers this year, three in the last week. Power is often the last tool to come forward, but it is possible that at his peak, even if he blossoms, his line might more resemble Joe Mauer than Bryce Harper or Mike Trout. Eddie Rosario--Strengths: Solid Stroke. Eddie has been viewed as a solid hitter and carried that to the major leagues. Stands in against lefties. No discernible platoon splits. He's able to hit for about the same amount of power regardless of which hand the pitcher throws with. Aggressive. Rosario gets his hacks, plays in the field and runs the bases aggressively. It has caused some outs on the bases and a couple of errors, but the net has been positive. Versatile defender. Rosario has started multiple games in all three outfield positions and done fine at all three. He has enough range to play center and enough arm to play right. Weaknesses: Over aggressive. The flip side of Rosario's aggressiveness is that he chases pitches, runs into outs and takes too many risks in the field. Not dominant. Doubtful that Rosario will ever be a slugger or contend for a batting championship. He profiles mostly as "good", but not elite. Strike against him. Eddie was suspended for a drug of abuse, meaning that any other infractions would cost him a season. I am assuming that Kepler will be ready to help the Twins by sometime in the first half of next year, if not sooner. With the DH, the Twins could carry four of these five guys and have enough at-bats for all of them. However, five outfielders needing more than 500 plate appearances is one too many. Do the Twins deal one of these guys to get bullpen help, a catcher or a shortstop? Since they are all young, I would think that they need to choose one guy and give him up to address positions of relative weakness. My pick would be Arcia, mostly because of his struggles in the field. A case could be made for Hicks, Rosario or Kepler.

Green light for victories with the TD crew here to cheer them on!

Kepler has taken a huge step. He has to be considered for a recall at the end of the AA season, if not before. The Twins could use a capable LH hitter in the outfield, it would be great if he hit some homers. He hit his fourth yesterday. Two more homers today. Kepler leads the Southern League in hitting and OPS. In fact, he leads the league in OBP, slugging, and OPS. He's still only 22 years old. Gotta love the potential.

Oswaldo is 5-36 in his last ten games. Didn't play against a lefty yesterday. Sure, 2014 Arcia was good enough to help the Twins, but her hasn't done much at AAA. Hmmm, that might start a little conversation.

OK, OK, let's not panic. Stringer is back in Minnesota. I left Minnesota for a family visit after the Twins beat the Yankees 10-1 on Friday. Since then, the team has tanked and the competition has added parts while the Twins have done.........well nothing to stop the bleeding. A terribly disappointing Mariners team shouldn't have too much fight and, of course, the Twins won't face Felix this weekend. However, if Seattle gets a lead in games, they might build some momentum and knock off the Twins a few times, probably knocking our Twins out of that #2 wildcard spot. I am hoping my team rolls through Seattle at Target Field and keeps it interesting for the next several weeks.

It is fairly easy to understand why Plouffe is overlooked. He isn't on any leaderboards, he hasn't been an All-Star and since his home run explosion in 2012, there has been gradual evolution towards a complete all-around game. As I said last year, a team with nine Brian Doziers would be formidable. Likewise a team with nine Trevor Plouffe's would be pretty good, too. Tom Kelly once commented that once a player reaches a stage where the manager and coaching staff don't have to watch them all the time, it makes it a lot easier for the manager. I think Plouffe has reached that plateau. Put him at third, in the middle of the lineup and let him play. It is refreshing because even as recently as last year, it seemed Plouffe would not make that transition, but now he seemingly has.

Nah. Bunting should be part of the offensive game for the fast guys and against overshifts. Getting the third baseman in will get a few more down the line and in the hole. Tomorrow, they need to bunt a couple times on CC, I think that's a rule.

C'mon Chief, there's an egg shortage, she has to get more than $.99 per dozen.

Catching up, but I'll comment on this--they should bunt for hits more (and more efficiently) and bunt to advance base runners much, much less.

Doggone it! I was going to predict a Sano coming-out party vs. the Evil Empire. I will predict at least two homers, including one for distance..

A-Rod & Tex get hits, but Hughes pitches a scoreless first CBU.

The last two years the team has been better on the road than at home. This year, they have been one of the best home teams, but not improved on the road. They are playing the Angels at the wrong time and it looks to me like at this point they (LAA) are just as good, if not better, than KC. That could change, for sure, but to me the two best teams are the Royals and the Angels. The Twins were a blooper away from going 2-1 in Oakland, but this series in Anaheim reminds me of the first series against the Tigers. No contest.

Maybe not.

Here we go?!?

OK, I'll give it one more inning, then off to bed.

What is Gibby's (pitcher) BABIP tonight? I think it's about .545 right now.

Bases loaded, none out for Albert. We could all get some extra sleep. Pujols is in scoring position at the plate.

Five singles for the first 10 batters. Doesn't look good.

Turner is again coming on in the second half of the season, as he did last year at Fort Myers. He's hit .295 in July and .286 in the last 30 days. I don't know if he'll ever be more than a backup, but from what I've seen myself and reports I've read, he is a fine defensive catcher. I wonder if he can get off to a good start that it might flip the switch for his offense.

First of all, managers are reluctant to make any pinch-hitting moves unless the game is tied or the hitting team is behind. Benches are too small to lose a bench player early and when your team is ahead. Secondly, pinch hitting numbers in the AL should be more closely examined. When the Twins pinch hit for a regular in a laugher, it isn't the same as hitting for Santana with the Twins down a run in the eighth. I know Gardenhire was skewered for not wanting to expose his backup catcher, but that is exactly what Molitor has done. I can recall him pinch hitting for Herrmann in one AL game and doing a double switch in an NL game, but I don't think he hit for Suzuki all year. Suzuki and the shortstop would be about the only players it would figure to pinch hit for, unless Robinson started the game. Every individual pinch hitter would have extreme SSS, but if I recall correctly, Robinson has gotten on quite a few times as a pinch hitter.

The Twins rank in the middle for runs scored and their team OPS is in the middle (9th last I looked). They have outpitched their peripherals by much more than they have outhit their underlying metrics. Further, three offensive changes have been made since April-May, two of which are undoubtedly positive. I expect the offense to be at least middle-of-the road the rest of the way. I am not as optimistic about the pitching.

Four more hits for Swim. I know he's versatile (C, 1B, OF) and he hits line drives. Will he ever reach the seats?

Duffey is a right hander. Rogers is a left hander with dramatic L/R splits.