stringer bell

I agree that Santana is the best of the free agent veterans and that the Twins should have a veteran in the rotation, but Hughes and Nolasco are both under contract next year and even if Hughes can't pitch right away (or ever) there's still Ricky. If they can get something for Erv without paying his entire salary, it is probably best for the player and the team.

I agree that learning stadiums will help his health and also probably help his fielding. Call me skeptical, but I'm willing to bet that there is some injury from these collisions with fences that will end up disabling Buxton. I'm especially skeptical of the most recent diagnosis of "contusion". My guess is that when the swelling subsides, they will find something more than a bruise. I really hope I'm wrong, but I've seen it too many times with too many players. Edit: espn is reporting that Buxton will have an MRI today (Saturday). I expect that will clear the air about the extent of his injury.

Agree with most of what you said above. However, when Buxton is "slowing down" he's still running faster than I ever did in my life. I think it will take a little time for him to be amazing in the OF, but he is by far the Twins best right now. Specific to running into walls, Buxton needs to learn how to protect himself while going to the wall. Sometimes it isn't possible, but a slight angle change could have averted the brunt of his last three duels with the fence IMHO.

I think avoiding 100 losses is an achievable goal. I am with the optimists that believe there is quite a bit to build on and I don't really think the Twins are that far away from contention. The young outfield of Rosario-Buxton-Kepler, with Grossman as the 4th OF, looks really good to me. The Twins need better pitching and that's what should come back if any of their roster is traded at the deadline.

Regarding Kepler's defense: I am not impressed by his arm, so far. Especially true when he rushes. I wonder if the OF evolves into Kepler-Buxton-Rosario that perhaps they put Kepler in left and Rosario in right?

The most important thing here is Allen's health--mental and physical--after his relapse. I hope he is able to come back and do a good job.

Congratulations to Eduardo Nuñez, the Twins' All-Star representative for 2016. In this trainwreck of a season, Nuñez has had a fine and consistent year.

I haven't paid close attention to the goings-on in Chattanooga for much of the season. I checked to see how the catchers were doing, especially Turner since he's reputed to have a major league mitt already. It looks like a lot of good things have been happening lately. The "other" catcher, Mitch Garver was 3-3 today with four runs scores, a homer and two RBI. He's currently hitting .268 with a .774 OPS, not great, but pretty good for a catcher. He also bring positional flexibility, having played first and some outfield IIRC. Stuart Turner had a quick start the first couple weeks, but was hitting below .200 recently, he's up to .229 with a .671 OPS. I'm believing he would be backup material, with as mentioned above, outstanding defense. Others of note with much better season statistics: Zach Granite (love the name!) is hitting .302, playing center field and currently has 32 stolen bases. The OPS is only .724, but with that kind of base stealing speed and center field defense, he has to be on the Twins radar. Daniel Palka hit his 21st homer today, that must be the most in the organization, and his OPS is .909. I don't know what kind of defender he is, but he has some speed as evidenced by his stolen bases (24 last year, seven so far this year). Palka has struck out a ton, but 21 homers in less than 300 ABs is pretty tantalizing. On the pitching front, Aaron Slegers has been pretty effective, Mason Melotakis has been healthy, didn't allow an earned run in June and is fanning almost a hitter per inning. The reclaimed Zack Jones has thrown four scoreless innings for the Lookouts, walking two and fanning seven. Welcome back Zack! Finally, Lookouts closer Trevor Hildenberger has been outstanding--0.67 WHIP, 0.95 ERA, four walks and 31 Ks in 28+ innings.

If Plouffe is ready to go after the fifteen days (or maybe a few more) he probably gets regular playing time. The other 29 teams know what a healthy Plouffe brings-probably a bit above average both at the plate and in the field. If he shows he's healthy and swings the bat acceptably, I don't think his trade value is any lower than when the season started.

Yep, the Twins are bad. They almost certainly will lose 100 games and finish last in the AL Central. Management has been trashed regularly on Twins Daily and has deserved the scorn of the fan base. Articles have been written and several threads have discussed trading just about every veteran on the roster. I submit to everyone that the position players aren't that bad and not that much needs to be done. There is enough talent to score plenty of runs. Pitching, on the other hand, is a problem. The only home grown pitcher in the rotation for more than a year is Kyle Gibson. Tyler Duffey has had a couple of moments, but his numbers this year don't inspire confidence. There is talent but I don't know when or if it will ever develop. The bullpen has evolved a bit this year. The supposed end of the bullpen has imploded almost completely--Glen Perkins has a career-threatening injury, Kevin Jepsen was just DFAed, and Trevor May has been both injured and ineffective. I think that reforming the pitching staff is Problem #1 and Problem #2 is defense. All of that has to do with suppressing runs. Last year, for whatever reason, the rotation and bullpen performed much better than it had in all of the 90-loss seasons. They ranked in the middle in runs allowed. This year the Twins are last by a long ways in runs allowed. They are something like 1-34 when they score less than four runs. Too many veterans occupy spots in the rotation and too much money is invested in them. Some of those guys need to go. They are over thirty and most likely will never be better than they are now. The Twins bullpen has traditionally carried several guys who depended on their defense to make plays behind them. The bullpen has evolved somewhat, but isn't that effective. What transactions need to happen? I think at least one of Nolasco/Santana has to go. The live arms in the minors need to be tried, even if they aren't that effective. On the trade front, several players could go. I just saw an article on mlbtraderumors.com that lists Kinzler as a sneaky trade candidate, Abad could be on several team's radar and several position players might be gone--Nuñez, Suzuki, Plouffe (if healthy), perhaps Grossman--and most of this is addition by subtraction or moving on to the next season. The team could get better fast in scoring runs if Sano, Buxton, and Kepler live up to the hype and become solid regulars or better than that. Maybe the pitching and defense can get better fast. IMHO, it's harder to project pitchers than position players. I don't think it's a rebuild, it is a recasting.

Read through most of this thread and the same thing keeps coming to me: The Oswaldo Arcia that has graced a major league uniform has power, but has too many holes to be a good hitter--he gets beat on high fastballs and they don't have to be 95+ and he can't lay off breaking balls in the dirt. That makes him more reliant on getting a mistake to hit than most major leaguers. To me, that makes Arcia mostly more of a suspect than established player or prospect. I don't think he's better than Kepler or Grossman now and probably not as good as Rosario either. The Sano experiment moved him down another notch. Could he be a DH? Sure, but they have Park for this year and two more years and they have Mauer. And there's Sano again, if he can't play third or right, then they have to make him a DH. As has been written here (voluminously), Arcia has demonstrated enough potential offensively and stuff happens that give bench players a chance (look at Eduardo Nuñez), but it didn't happen for Arcia. Further, IMHO, Arcia would be a terrible "bench bat" inserted into the lineup occasionally or used as a pinch hitter. He needs to play regularly (not necessarily every day) to be an effective hitter and the most consistent thing about Arcia is that he's going to hurt a club on defense. If we're beating up the Twins, there is plenty to criticize: 1) Poor use of options. 2) Probable misdiagnosis or underappreciation of his hip injury last year. 3) Improper role on the major league team. 4) Not trading him when his value was higher. 5) For whatever reason no one was able to convince him that liners to the gap beat hitting an extra homer every 60 at-bats or so. Maybe he'll turn into a functional player. I'm not satisfied by his performance in Tampa that he is going to be a new man there, but it could happen. Sometimes guys need a new start. I hope that's true for Arcia. Too bad it didn't work out for the Twins.

You're right. The issue with Arcia was a 25-man issue, not a 40-man. Since Buxton was recalled, it was evident that Mastro's days were numbered, but they couldn't outright him until he was off the DL. There is no reason right now to add anyone in their system unless he is promoted to the majors. The Jepsen DFA created one spot and Mastro's creates a second. The Twins can claim first on any AL DFA/waiver amiright? They should be able to make a good claim or two.

OK, what happened there? There is an infield fly rule, so if it was really of pop fly, shouldn't Butler be out?

I forgot about Butler on the A's bench. Hmmm, maybe the Twins could pick him up, DH-1B can't have enough of those guys.

Huge play. What do Corey and Gladden think? Ooops. I now know what the replay umps think.

Time for a zero from Mr. Gibson.

I know a lot of players had great months of June, but Dozier should be considered, Besides the extra base hit streak, he hit .364 with an OPS of 1.140. Dozier totaled 18 XBH (most in the AL) with seven homers and 19 RBI. Dozier went from .215 BA with an OPS of .632 on June 1 to .264 with an OPS of .824 through today. Other good months for the Twins included Suzuki (.377 1.011 OPS), Escobar (.302 .850 OPS), and Nuñez (.282 .768 OPS).

I think both Milone and Duffey are still on the edge, that is a bad performance or two and they're out. I'd love to see the Twins part company with at least one of the two veterans--Santana and Nolasco--and make room for May. Gibson, Berrios, May, and survivors of Duffey Milone, Santana and Nolasco.

Nice job Mike!

I said before that I was a Dozier fan, but that Polanco might be a better fit for the club. I think that the Twins chances this season were predicated on having a lot of homers from a lot of players. If they continue to get low power production from first, center and catcher, they need the additional power production from second base (Dozier). My previous thought was that the Twins have a lot of right handed hitters whose best asset is power--Dozier, Plouffe, Sano, Park and that having a guy like Polanco, who looks like he could have pretty good on-base skills, might be a better fit. Don't know which theory is the right one right now, but Dozier has certainly come alive. Good on him!

Near unanimity! I backed the club's move to put May in the 'pen believing a)May would be a lights-out setup man and b)that the Twins had a chance to contend. It is time to give May another chance in the rotation.

If Dozier were to maintain that OPS, it would be the best of his career by quite a bit. I guess maybe we shouldn't write off players after a bad stretch.

What did you win, a bus ticket out of town for Plouffe?

The Twins need to get down to 12 pitchers. They should have Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, and Grossman with Santana as the fifth OF/25th man. Whatever pans out from the four outfielders is the way it should be with Grossman certainly getting at-bats against every left hander and occasional starts against right handers. If Buxton truly isn't ready the DanSan can be the fourth OF with a starting trio of Grossman, Rosario and Kepler. I am on board with trades of Suzuki and Nuñez with Murphy and Polanco getting recalled. Again, just play it out and whoever is better gets the playing time. Finally, if Plouffe isn't traded, then Park needs to go down to Rochester, making room for Sano.

The only huge position player problem is Plouffe/Sano/Park/Mauer for three positions. The rest of the infield can shake itself out on merit--be the better player, you play. There aren't any untradeable guaranteed contracts to deal with. Same in the outfield, the best three play--I suspect Grossman becomes a pretty good fourth OF option pretty soon. Murphy needs to be recalled and start his season over. There, that's position players. Plouffe must go or take a seat on the bench more than half the time, Nunez should be traded after he represents Minnesota in the All-Star game and Buxton needs to solidify his position the rest of the way. Pitching is the major problem. The back end of the bullpen has totally imploded, the original starting rotation has more disabled list stints than wins (I might be exaggerating) and the biggest prospects for the mound haven't been able to get it done with the big club (SSS). The veterans aren't getting it done and because of their contracts are standing in the way of younger higher-upside talent. Get pitching back for every transaction. Trade Abad if there is a market (I think there is), trade or release one of Nolasco or Santana. Trade or release Jepsen. Stretch May out and let him start. Last in pitching isn't going to change until there are new faces in new roles.