Jim H

I wonder why people think that class A baseball is below the quality of baseball in the SEC. Everyone playing class A is one of the best college players selected from across the country, or one of very best high school kids who would of soon been dominating at college if he had gone to college, or international player who likely has been a pro for 3 or 4 years. The talent level is certainly higher in class A baseball even if the age level may not be.

I don't know if Wallner or Lewis have earned a return to the majors after a multi season stretch of not being very good. Most of the top prospects are injured or are deemed not quite ready for the majors. So, get him back to the majors, give both him and Lewis another chance to prove the belong in the majors. They haven't really earned a long runway, so if they don't perform like the middle of order bats they are supposed to be, I would like to see any of the top prospects that are earning an opportunity.

To answer your title question. It is pretty much the same reason Bell is playing everyday, Outman is still on the team, Lewis and Wallner playing nearly everyday for 2 months, Caratini played nearly everyday for a month, and now we have 3 utility infielders getting lots of playing. Roster construction, injuries, and not ready for prime time prospects have left few other choices. For what it is worth, I believe they should be playing Keashall everyday at 2nd base. Maybe eventually there will be a better choice, but for right now they need to find out what they got in Keashall. I don't think they should change his position either. 2nd should be his best fit skill wise.

Wallner seems to me to be the kind of player that is often overvalued. He reminds of the Dave Kingman or Joey Gallo type player. If you give them enough at bats, they will hit a significant number of home runs. Even major league pitchers make enough mistakes that players like this will get their opportunity to hit homers. They also miss a lot of their homer opportunities as well, when their timing is off, they're expanding the zone, etc. Guys like tis are generally very inconsistent even if they have good strike zone recognition. The reason that I feel this type of hitter is overvalued is that many of the most used stats including OPS, overvalue home runs in comparison to other hits. While I could write a whole post about why I believe that, I won't do that here. The real problem with a Dave Kingman type hitter is that when ou take out the games where they hit 1 or more home runs their contributions in all the other games is at best right around replacement level. You have a lot of games where they contribute basically nothing to potentially winning a game, especially if they are poor defensively. The best hitters in baseball combine power with hitting for average, and often add in a lot of walks as well. Most major leaguers can't really do all three at elite levels, so they lean into one side or the other, perhaps managing both power and average during their peak years. A good example is Kirby Puckett who came to the majors as a contact hitter, added in power for a number of years and was trending back to a contact hitter wen he had to retire. I tend to believe contact hitters are a bit more consistent and probably more valuable than most low average power hitters unless the power numbers are quite high. I could of course be wrong.

Well written post. Your no.2 is spot on. The eye test seems to say there is no real consistency with this team.I feel like there are too many boom or bust guys on this roster, too many platoon, guys, and not enough real hitting talent. It doesn't help that some of the guys who were expected to be at least big league everyday regulars, are not and may never be.

Calling Ryan "a major success of the Twins developmental process" is a it a bit of a stretch. He spent no time in the Twins minor league system and was an effective major league starting pitcher immediately when he joined the Twins. Lets settle for helping him refine his processes. As for the actual story, it is certainly possible the coaches got a little too cute with their adjustments. Ryan's stuff and command is good enough that even when a hitter is looking for a particular pitch he is usually difficult to hit. Major adjustments probably not necessary.

What i noticed from this list is that except for Paredes, every pitcher averaged less than 4 innings a week. Doesn't seem to matter age or level. Development is sure different from when I started following the Twins minor league teams years ago.

I haven't commented on this thread for quite awhile, haven't seen much point. A few observations. Even though the Twins have a losing record against left handed starters, they averaged more runs per game against them than against right handers. I expect part of reason for that could be that the 3 best hitters during the 1st quarter of the season were right handed, Jeffers, Buxton, and Martin. I am glad the Twins gave Lee, Keaschall, and Martin enough runway to prove they deserved consistent playing time. I appreciate the fact they did the same for Wallner and Lewis and also the fact they were demoted when they couldn't take advantage of the runway. I don't appreciate the fact that to this point, Bell and Caratini have been as bad of investments as I was afraid they would be. They along along Lewis and Wallner are the major reasons there is little consistent production or continuity from the 3-4-5 hitters. I appreciate the fact that all the career backups and platoon players currently on the roster play hard, take good at bats, and play most of the good defense we see from this roster. I don't appreciate the fact that nobody among our top prospects has been able to either stay healthy or play well enough to replace them.

Let's not be in big hurry to change his swing so he can lift the ball more. A 372 average with a ops over 1000 at AAA is just fine even if it is not "sustainable". I don't know why the Twins don't take Mendez and put him full time at 1B. If he is not good in the outfield as suggested, you probably aren't going to make him an acceptable 1st baseman without a lot of work, but giving him sporadic playing time there makes little sense. Commit to a path, trying to make everyone acceptable at multiple positions leads to the kind of defense we are watching on a nightly basis.

This is what I think as well. It is sort a thankless job. He is there to protect what is perceived to be more valuable arms, maybe keep the game close enough to make a come back possible. If he does well in a particular appearance, often he will be sent back to the minors for a different bulk pitcher, because he will be unavailable for 3 days. Maybe he will eventually get a chance to carve out a more valuable role, maybe not. At least he gets a chance to pitch in the majors.

I agree with this. Still, SWR has put the team into a bad position with his performance this year . you can't continue to start him and he doesn't profile as a good reliever. Transitioning to reliever for someone without a dominant pitch or 2 will probably take some time.

The NFL has parity. I believe they sacrifice quality to get that. A lot of NFL games are almost unwatchable. Parity isn't the only reason for that, but there is some that going on in baseball. The Twins have no middle of the order bats with Jeffers injured, they play at least 2 utility infielders at short, 2nd, and cf everyday, and their bullpen is still a mess. Yet they are still in position to qualify for the postseason if the can just play a little better. I want to see better baseball. Not just from the Twins. If a salary cap and a salary floor makes for better baseball, I am for it. I don't have any reason to believe that salary cap and floor will do that.

I don't really care about either. If you care about the players, change the 40 man to a 50 man roster and require that everyone on it is paid at least major league minimum. Also raise the minimum and change the 26 man major league roster to 28, 30 would be better. That would probably benefit marginal major leaguers more than a floor.

When/if Gonzalez comes back up to the majors with the Twins, I hope the plan is for him to play more than 1 in 3 games. If it is predetermined that he is a platoon bat, it will become another reason to wonder about the mindset of this management team.

I am not sure what ABS has to do with framing. Of course I don't think framing has much to do with how an umpire calls balls and strikes either. A catcher's glove is roughly 3 feet behind the back edge of home plate. A major league umpire is deciding whether or not the ball passed thru the 3 dimensional strike zone above the plate. Where the ball is caught is mostly irrelevant to whether the ball is a ball or strike. What ABS is showing is that there are a lot pitches close to edges of the strike zone. It is not clear to me that ABS is really any more accurate than the umpire on those close pitches, due to the limitations of ABS. What is clear is that umpires generally have a good idea where the strike zone is and are not particularly distracted by how or where a catcher catches the ball.

I also believe the deadline trades need to be evaluated separately. I also believe it is far too soon to have a firm opinion on how well the Twins actually executed the mass selloff. Several conclusions can be drawn about why they did what they did, however. First, they had no confidence in the catching prospects throughout the system. Beyond the 2 prospects they added at the deadline, they have continued to remake the catching even up to the major league level. 2nd, they have really added to their pitching "pipeline". Clearly, they weren't too confident in their near ready starter prospects too be able too cover their potential needs. Whether Abel and Bradley will be to continue to perform at a high level is to be determined. But they are ahead of anybody who was in system. That they added a bunch more arms at the deadline also suggests they lacked a certain amount of confidence in what was already in the system. Finally, I really am confused about why they added 3 more corner outfield left-handed bats at the deadline. Maybe they will make some trades to clarify that, eventually.

I think what this shows is that Abel is effective when he has control and command.. He is ineffective when he doesn't.

Since none of the 8 guys are obviously better than any of the others, they just seem to be rotating thru them without over using anybody while paying some attention to matchups. That is probably as good as anything else you could do with this crew. For a guy who had been DFA twice this winter, Laweryson had been working his way to a high leverage role, till he got hurt. Morris is interesting. He will probably get longer inning opportunities at least for awhile. Maybe he will be a closer candidate eventually. Using everybody else for 3-5 outs seems to be working, sort of.

If Tom Pohlad was responsible for Falvey leaving, that would be a positive from m point of view. Other than setting the budget and picking top management, usually the less involvement in the operation of a sports franchise by the owners as possible, is better for the success of the franchise.

I am not sure replacing Outman with Roden solves anything, directly. Using Larnach or Wallner as mostly fulltime DH, and using Roden as a fulltime corner outfielder would perhaps be a better look than current useage. Also trading either Larnach or Wallner would also open a slot for Roden. Replacing Outman with Roden without making other adjustments isn't the only choice here.

Ok. Just how are you implementing this compete for playing time idea? While I agree players need to earn playing time, one way you earn it is by dominating in the minors. So if you have earned a promotion to the majors I think they deserve an extended opportunity to adjust to the better competition. I also think there is a place on the roster for versatile backups who may not be good enough to play everyday but can contribute good defense at several positions, be a starter for short time when someone is on IL, and sometimes they even earn a full time or a platoon role. I think right now Larnach has probably played himself into a platoon role. The problem with that is Martin had an extended opportunity at the end of last season to play left field everyday and basically succeeded at it. My question for you is how does compete for playing time work in this situation? I want see Martin playing left field almost every because he's earned the opportunity and because Larnach seems to better suited to platoon dh. I also think that Martin may eventually prove he can't provide enough offense to be an everyday left fielder. I just don't want that decided before he has a reasonable chance to prove it, one way or the other. So what the Twins are likely going to do is try to get both of them "fair" playing time. Leaving one or the other on the bench for 3-4 games in a row, pinch hitting for one of them in the 5th inning, playing one of them in a position they usually don't play, or some other goofy thing. Now, I realize that none of this is what you are advocating for. I am just afraid that when the Twins try to allow "compete for for playing time" this is what you are going to get.

I don't agree with this. What you are proposing is pretty much what the Twins were doing under Baldelli. They chased small platoon advantages by moving people up and down the batting order. They would try gain a slight advantage getting a backup an at bat in the 5th inning when a new pitcher came into the game. they gave 400 pa's some years to career backups 30 years old or older, most of were gone the next year. So now we have a bunch of guys past their mid twenties who between injuries and being used to chase platoon advantages, nobody knows if they can be an everyday productive player. The right answer is probably not. Still, there is no good reason reason to force Outman, Gray or Caratini into the lineup at every opportunity. They are backups. They have spent years proving it. So take advantage of their versatility and play them when somebody has a minor injury, is sick or needs a break for some reason. When the next wave is ready or someone goes on the IL call up the next player and play them. The game hasn't changed, the competition is better. Trying to ease them into the lineup or protect them from platoon disadvantages is self defeating and delays finding out if they can compete at the major league level.

Just to clarify. Buxton, Jeffers, Ryan are not bit parts. They should play as much as they can handle.

I enjoy your posts. You usually bring a different viewpoint to many of these discussions. It is useful generally, to consider angles that are a little different than some of the narratives found here. I do think that having so many late 20's or older players with less than 3 years major league experience is concerning on this version of the Twins. There are very few true impact major leaguers on this roster. There are a few players who could still develop into an impact player but if you haven't done so by the time you reach your late 20's the odds go down dramatically. So I think you give full time opportunities to the handful of guys on this roster who have a meaningful chance to reach that not so lofty height. That probably means Martin. Keaschall, Wallner, Lewis, Lee and the youngish starting pitchers. Everyone else is a bit part and can treated as such. If they make something out of their limited opportunities, great. But lets not work too hard to get Clemons, Gray, Outman, etc. extended chances. Soon hopefully, the next wave of prospects will force themselves to the majors. When that happens, play them everyday. Don't treat them as a bit player to be danced in and out of the lineup with guys who have shown they should be used as backups. All that ever does is extend the amount of time it takes to figure out who can contribute meaningfully to winning.

Up here in North Dakota, the weather forecasters have, when the weather is bad, taken to tell us how to dress, how to shovel snow, how to drive on ice, etc. Apparently we are too dumb to figure these things out ourselves, or even look it up ourselves. I see the people at Target Field feel the need to do the same.