stringer bell

The way Gardy does things is that you don't move your regulars. That went for outfield and infield. Escobar was (and probably still is) considered a utility guy, as was Bartlett.

This is the last weekend of the minor leagues' regular season. Three Twins' farm clubs will be in the playoffs, with Rochester having a chance to sneak in as well. New Britain was eliminated, but is two games over .500, hopefully they can finish above the break-even point. Here is Rochester's scenario to make the International League playoffs: The Red Wings must sweep second-place Pawtucket in a two-game series (at Pawtucket) and have division champ Syracuse win at least one game against Buffalo. The Red Wings lost last night, after Alex Meyer's short start, 3-0. The victory for Buffalo put the Bison ahead of Rochester in the standings, so now the Red Wings have to pass two teams in the final two days.

With one game to go in the month, here are the Twins' hitting statistics for the month of August: http://espn.go.com/mlb/team/stats/batting/_/name/min/split/44/minnesota-twins Who is the player of the month? Arcia has the power numbers, but Plouffe has put up a very good overall month and has the better OPS. The Twins have scored exactly as many runs as they have allowed. They've been outhomered by four, but have stolen more bases than they've allowed. Schafer has had a really nice month, getting on at a .400 and of course stealing those 10 bases. Dozier hasn't hit for much power, but he's drawn 25 walks in the month and scored 23 runs. Of the nine regulars, seven have an OPS over .800, then Escobar (.723) and finally Suzuki (.653). Edit: This is after games of 8/31/14

The idea of trading Plouffe and putting Escobar on third really bothers me unless Sano were to be called up before Memorial Day. That would leave the Twins with low-power regulars at third, first, catcher, and probably two outfield positions. I like the idea of having long ball potential sprinkled throughout the lineup and this plan would do exactly the opposite. I remember listening to Souhan on the radio over a year ago and at that point he was calling for Plouffe to be run out of town. So it comes as no surprise that he still is not a fan of the Twins' third baseman. I think he has evolved into a pretty good player and I do think if he started somewhere between 70 and 75% of the games in left after Sano arrives, that his hitting and fielding would be satisfactory. Long term, though, I would like to see big-time range in at least two of the Twins three regular outfielders. We've seen poor range tolerated for most of the years since the Twins had the "soul patrol" outfield. Hicks is hitting .246 at Rochester (22 games) with a .658 OPS. I think he has the tools to be pretty good, but maybe he just can't hit. Certainly, the Twins have to have a backup plan beyond Hicks for 2015.

Astros are in the AL.

Jim Souhan has suggested some moves the Twins should make to go forward in 2015. While I don't agree with many of them, it is interesting to see other possibilities put out there. http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/273336881.html I do know that Souhan has not been a fan of Plouffe for quite awhile. Maybe he is Halsey! I'm not willing to take away Escobar's versatility and have a single digit home run guy playing third. Finally, I am not convinced that Santana will be able to play defense well enough at short. The other thing is that either Aaron Hicks is injured or he can't beat out the likes of Eric Farris, Chris Rahl, and Chris Herrmann.

I missed Santana's first two at-bats. After that, he had perhaps his worst game w/ the Twins.

K Silver lining: The staff only had to work 8 innings.

Much like the last KC game, I am trying to come up with a scenario where the Twins can pull out a victory not involving a pitcher on the verge of being DFAed. Can't see it.

That at-bat by Mauer bore a striking resemblance to a hit w/ a runner in scoring position.

Just noticed that he got pulled when I checked the minor league scoreboard. A thread is started in Minor League Talk.

Meyer started the game and allowed a run in the first inning. He faced two batters in the second and was pulled (28 pitches). Does anyone know why?

I know you were making light of the woebegone Senators, but another factor IIRC was that their home park, Griffith Stadium, had deep dimensions, especially to left field. Harmon managed to win one HR championship despite a stadium where it was something like 350' feet to the fence down the left field line. I found a site that talks about ballparks and Griffith Stadium had "unique" configurations in it's history. For most of it's existence it was over 400 feet down the line in left field. At one point, it was only 320' to the right field wall. When Killebrew led the league in homers, the fence was at 350' down the line.

Only seven of 'em. Seven got to face the Cubs.

BTW, I just read the Twins website's account of Plouffe's historic homer. The Twins are the sixteenth club to hit 10,000 home runs. Now think about that. How many clubs were there in each league before 1961? That's right, eight in each league, so I guess the Twins are the last of the original 16 franchises to get to 10,000 long balls.

Mauer the DH two days in a row, after a day off? Hmmm, I smell injury and at this point maybe shutdown.

I wonder if they DFA him and immediately sign him to a two-way contract, knowing that he would make more in arbitration than he would on the open market. $2M is not too much if he plays anything like he has so far. It is too much if he doesn't make the team (and ties up a 40-man spot).

Isn't Milone's situation much, much different from May? He's older and had established himself as a member of the A's rotation until they super-sized it. Further, if Milone fails, there is really no option of putting him in the bullpen, while there have been comments about May becoming a bullpen arm since his acquistion .

Best wishes to Samuel. He'll probably get a pretty good shot to make their team next year. Perhaps he'll get another chance to start. There's something there, but what? five organizations haven't been able to get more than marginal productivity, and he's almost 31.

Aaron Hicks is hitting .246 with a .658 OPS at Rochester. I don't know if that screams "promote me". Last year, in the same number of games, he hit .222 with a .650 OPS. While the Twins might need another outfielder and Hicks has an upside, I don't see anything that shows Hicks is finally "getting it" at AAA. Herrmann is hitting over .300, so I guess if any rostered player has earned a promotion it is him. Pinto has slumped the last week, but he has been Rochester's best hitter and is catching about half the time. Of the non-roster guys, Oliveros, yes. Achter, maybe. I don't think adding guys you intend to DFA at the end of the season is very smart, especially if they've already been DFAed once before. They can declare free agency rather than accepting assignment. I know that Oliveros, Romero, and Guerra have all been on the 40-man, so if they are promoted and DFAed again, they can become free agents. In a typical year, I would say Beresford should get a look. However, the infielders have all been pretty healthy, and I think the Twins want to see Santana some at short and maybe see what they have in Nuñez. Plus, Escobar deserves to get playing time.

In today's major league baseball, we have 12 and 13-man pitching staffs, which means that benches are three or four players. That bench contingent usually has a light-hitter backup catcher and a couple more players. Despite their poor record, the last several weeks have seen the Twins evolve into having a near-set lineup. The bench has been three players--the light-hitting catcher (Fryer) along with Chris Parmelee and Eduardo Nuñez. Yesterday, both Parmelee and Nuñez started the get-away game in Kansas City and both guys had good games. I am not advocating that space be made so these guys can start, but I think they could be part of a pretty good bench, not only for the balance of this year, but also for next year. It appears to me that neither Parmelee nor Nuñez will get a real opportunity to win starting spots next year if they are retained, but I believe they have the makeup and necessary skills to be decent bench options. First of all, not everyone can be a good bench player. I suggested on another thread that Jordan Schafer would be the example of a guy who might need to play regularly in order to help his club, basing this mostly on his miserable 2/3 season as a bench guy for the Braves. The Twins appear to be using both Parmelee and Nuñez in bench roles, having them sit for three or four games and seldom starting more than one game in a row. Both have pinch hit a fair amount and both have demonstrated some extra-base sock, although neither would be classed as a slugger. Parmelee (first and the corner OF) plays three positions and Nuñez has been used sparingly at second and in right along with left, third and shortstop. Nuñez also offers plus speed. Neither guy is a glove-first type. I think the Twins will go into 2015 hoping to contend. If they do proceed in this manner, they may well have a bench of Nuñez and Parmelee, even thought these two guys don't have the highest upside. Having versatile, experienced guys coming off the bench and playing sparingly might be the way to go.

I've been interested to see what you might have to say, Ben. It is still a ridiculously small sample size, but Schafer has demonstrated undeniable tools that the Twins are missing. Not only is he fast, he is aggressive in stealing bases. I can see that his routes to balls in the outfield haven't always been picture-perfect, but his speed covers the deficit nicely. So far, he seems to have a very good approach at the plate, he 'll go the other way, take a walk, but he has hit some mistake pitches hard.

Red Wings did win the game vs. Buffalo to move past the Bison in the standings. They still trail Pawtucket by 1.5 games and must sweep the Pawsox in order to make the playoffs (2 game series). I suspect the tight race is keeping May or Milone from being "optioned" so that the Twins could add a reliever to their bullpen for the rest of the Baltimore series.

Trevor Plouffe w/ #10,000!

I went away and all of a sudden, it's 8-0. Then I see that blue gave Young an undeserved homer. I have watched baseball over 50 years and never seen a second baseman catch a ball where Schoop caught Vargas' looper.