stringer bell

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.

Half hour 'til game time, here's the lineups: Seattle Mariners @ Minnesota Twins, 7:10 P.M. ET Mariners 2B: Ketel Marte 3B: Kyle Seager RF: Nelson Cruz DH: Robinson Cano LF: Seth Smith CF: Austin Jackson 1B: Jesus Montero SS: Brad Miller C: Mike Zunino SP: Mike Montgomery Twins 2B: Brian Dozier CF: Aaron Hicks 1B: Joe Mauer DH: Miguel Sano 3B: Trevor Plouffe RF: Torii Hunter LF: Eddie Rosario C: Kurt Suzuki SS: Eduardo Escobar SP: Kyle Gibson

It's my generation! Roger, Pete and me!

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.

Danny Ainge.

Since the start of the season the Twins have added Sano, Rosario, and Hicks to the everyday lineup. They also have promoted Byron Buxton, who probably will be in the majors to stay in one month. What is left in the system is less than great prospects. Two outfielders in AA are having noteworthy seasons and Polanco has had several cups of coffee and looks like he can hit at the highest level. Only one pitcher has stepped up (Berrios). I think that the trade for a player under team control for next year (Jepsen) has something to do with the failures and lack of improvement of top level relief pitchers.

It has been apparent since Spring Training that Molitor wanted to go with the more athletically gifted Santana at shortstop. For this season anyway, that hasn't worked out. While Escobar isn't dazzling, he makes the plays at short and has plenty of arm to make the long throw. I do think it is time to install him as the regular and let him play. I think he'll hit well enough and play well enough in the field. Shortstop wasn't one of the Twins' problems last year and they played Escobar there more than half the time. If they are serious about gaining the wild card, they need to go with the best option for today. That option is Eduardo Escobar.

The trade was about what I expected. Especially when it was revealed that they wanted someone they could control beyond this year, I assumed that they wouldn't spend big on a reliever and in the long view Jepsen is an upgrade over what is available right now. I expected much more help from the minors than they have. Many of the top bullpen arms have not performed well, especially at Chattanooga. Getting a guy who can help the remainder of this year and next year might make sense. Jepsen has been good recently (last year) and perhaps a change of scenery will help. The change to Tampa didn't go well. Jepsen isn't ancient, still throws harder than anyone in the 'pen and will strike out more guys than anybody but Perkins. Relievers are volatile, going from effective to crap and back again. Can Jepsen be what he was in LA? Sure, but there's no guarantee. The Twins, at this stage, shouldn't have sold the farm in order to maybe contend this year. The most glaring hole was in the bullpen and they took a small step to improve there. Not enough, IMHO, but a step nonetheless, and they did nothing to hurt their prospects for 2016.

One more: Gene Conley

More from the NBA-MLB theme: Dave DeBusschere.

Former NBA player and Chicago Cub and Dodger (also and actor) Chuck Connors.

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

Last year Turner came on late in the season. It looks like the same thing is happening. He's lifted his OPS to the mid-.600s and it is climbing. A .700 OPS for the year is not out of the question and would be acceptable for a 23-year-old.

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.

For 2015, the Twins need to improve their bullpen above anything else. I liked getting Clippard and would welcome Soria. Frankie Rodriguez would be an okay get. Getting AJ for the rest of the season would be fine. Don't trade for a shortstop.

Houston Jimenez

Hughes' former team almost called him lucky after he blanked them for seven innings last night. Headley and Girardi both made remarks that they hit the ball better than the final results. I thought they got some good swings in, but Hughes kept them just enough off-balance that they couldn't dent the scoreboard. Much like two of the games on the just completed road trip, it was "one of those days" where nothing is going right, this time for the Yankees.

The Twins have survived a disappointing road trip with their playoff status intact. They currently sit in the second wild card spot, four games clear of the competition. Tampa and Toronto are at .500, the next best records. I have periodically checked Playoff Probability through mlb.com, and currently they are ranked as the sixth most likely team to make postseason, trailing the four teams ahead of them in the standings and the Blue Jays. For the teams with playoff hopes, it appears that most, if not all, teams who think they can make postseason would rank the Twins as the team to pass. The Twins tough schedule combined with their overperforming in the W-L department make them a target. The best way to counter this perception, of course, is to keep winning. Toronto promises to be active at the deadline. I don't know how many other teams in the AL feel like they can make a big investment in this year. The Twins have certifiable weakness in the bullpen, catcher and shortstop. If less teams are buying, they should be able to get quality to help them this year without mortgaging the future.

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.

I named Fred a while back. I read his bio when he passed away. Born in New Ulm and a resident of Sleepy Eye, he made one appearance with the '61 Twins and failed to retire a batter.

The Topic Title is Right Handed Power but could as easily be Left Handed Lack of Power. The Twins power is concentrated in right handed hitters. Dozier, Hunter, and Plouffe are all right handed and the far and away leaders in homers. The top left handed home run hitter is......Mauer. If I have the numbers correct for the switch hitters, the Twins have gotten 64 homers from right handed hitters and 15 from lefties. Arcia could help balance that disparity. Another part of this is the fact that left field seems to be much more reachable for long balls at Target Field. Should the Twins be concerned about their lack of power from the left side? I think so, but OTOH, a homer is a homer no matter who hits it.

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.