jokin

Is putting him in the OF, ala Danny Santana in 2014, actually "giving up on his defense"? Moving Santana to CF last year was a stop-gap, desperation move to get through a stretch where there were literally no other options- and on a losing team going nowhere. Moving Sano to the OF for the remainder of 2015 could be a strategic shot of genius for a pennant-contender if his hit tool translates quickly. (Like Mike though, I'm not counting on my scenario as likely to happen anytime in the near future, barring injury).

Sano's HR%: Career: 5.9% AA (2013): 6.9% (career high) AA (April, 2015): 5.3% AA (Since then): 4.7% AA 2015 full: 4.9% (career low)

6'9" guys are never on a "comparable developmental strategy".

While Kennys Vargas has been recalled, as the Twins FO inevitably acknowledged that the current status quo for the Twins offense was untenable, how long will they maintain the 13 man pitching staff, if it becomes obvious that even more potential offensive production is needed? Although it seems impossible that Miguel Sano can do anything "quietly", without much fanfare, he has put up a very impressive set of numbers since his very slow start coming off of the 1.5 year layoff. And yet, the Twins are on record saying he's still not ready, overall. Rob Antony even acknowledged that he hasn't even begun working on OF throwing drills (with the presumption that a 2015 call-up would entail that Sano be assigned to a corner OF spot). But is he getting OH SO CLOSE to ready at the plate? Consider these numbers, through April 29, a very rusty Sano put up an entirely-expected sub-optimal line in AA of this: .150/.292/.333/(.625) ISO .183 wOBA .304 K% 27.8% LD% 12% OFB% 43.9% Here are his 2013 numbers in AA (276 PAs): .236/.344/.571/(.915) ISO .335 wOBA .397 K% 29.3% LD% 14.8% OFB 46.9% Since April 30 (134 PAs): .316/.396/.588/(.983) ISO .272 wOBA .439 K% 22.4% LD% 29.2% OFB% 31.4% After seeing Chattanooga play in early May, after watching Sano hit 4 OF deep flies at or near the wall, I wrote that part of Sano's troubles to that point of the season were possibly due in part to the high OF wall in the home park, plus prevailing winds in the park situated atop the city summit, that primarily blow in from LF and CF. Now refer back above and especially look now at the stats on the right side of the above batting lines, he's made significant adjustments from the first month. Pitchers have greatly reduced balls in the zone to Sano, from 50.5% in April to 36.5% since. But no matter, Sano is striking out much less even as he's swinging more (swing rate of 42% vs. 40.5% in April), all the while, he's really, really focusing on driving the ball. Yep, the ISO is down, so the HR rate is down, vs. the 2013 numbers in New Britain, but the results for this new version of Sano are still very impressive. Sano's opponents are trying to make him chase out of the zone, and yet Sano has become even a better hitter of late. Can the Twins continue to keep Sano down if he continues anything close to this pace over the next month or so?

Meyer will end up back in a starting role, although it's possible it won't be for the Twins, who just might lose patience and get an offer they can't refuse.

Actually, it's looked like he should have started out in the MLB pen since ST 2014.

None of them were 6'9" either.

I think the Twins have multiple openings in the pen. At the moment, with Molitor essentially playing Russian Roulette on a nightly basis, I would suggest the Twins conduct an open tryout.

Carlos Martinez, good example, pretty much only relieved @ the MLB level until this year. And while his K/9 has gone UP this year, and he has an Alex Meyer-like K/BB- K/9 10.02 BB/9 4.04 Add Michael Wacha, technically, who started in hist first 4 MLB appearances, went to the pen for the next 6, then started his last 5 games, back in 2013. Add Jaime Garcia who relieved his first 9 of 10 games in his rookie year.

I followed Rob Antony's quotes on the topic pretty closely last year, it was pretty apparent with the very strict pitch counts/innings limits, that the prime objective was getting his 130 IP for the season and 440 pitches or so per month, and then shut him down. I think he'll be back in the AAA rotation at some point, although I'd prefer to see him finish out the 2nd half of the season in the Twins pen.- and then re-evaluate his plan for 2016.

As was the 115% improvement in his BB%.

But Hosken said: "He had no command issues until about this time last season. That's it." Through June 7, 2014- Meyer's first 12 starts, his numbers in AAA are virtually identical to AA in 2013: Meyer 2013 (AA): K/9 10.80 BB/9 3.73 K% 28.1% BA .222 WHIP 1.27 Meyer 2014 (AAA): K/9 10.77 BB/9 4.02 K% 27.9% BA .215 WHIP 1.26 The difference in BB/9 from 2013 to 2014 is 2 more walks over 63 IP.

And there is the Torii Hunter factor to consider:

Yep, not much of a case....

A link would be helpful to your case.

And throw in Nunez in days previous. "Extraordinary claims require Extraordinary evidence." *** *** Except on TD

15?

Except that Vargas was hitting for power in May....

He certainly wasn't great, but Milone actually wasn't nearly as bad as the raw numbers look- other than the 2 gopher balls, there was a lot of bad luck and bad defense. Fenway's a pretty tough assignment for any lefty, and in a park where he's historically done badly, besides.

Ouch.

At a similar age 20, Berrios threw 140 innings last season (and yes, it was coming off of 100 IP in 2014, so it's not quite comparable). Assuming Gonsalves is in a 6-man rotation and/or skips a turn or two over much of the rest of the season if the Twins choose to go that route, it seems he could get 10-12 more starts, which with innings management, would only put him at around 105-120 innings. That's still a big jump over 65 IP in 2014, but as much as innings pitched as one consideration, with his fine control and easy delivery, hasn't he kept his pitch counts in check this season? (and would give him a shot at a taste of AA in August if he continues to dominate- aggressive yes, but a nice carrot for Gonsalves to shoot for, if properly managed).

Still hoping he does what he's done in the past, work out the bad habits in AAA, and then "flip the switch". The Twins combined OPS+ is 90, which is the second worst number in the AL. They not only lack an adequate #3 hitter (hopefully just for the time being), they are also severely deficient collectively in the three middle-of-the-order spots in the batting order (only Plouffe is just above league average in the clean-up spot). As bad as Arcia has been in 2015, his OPS+ is 100. Vargas had an OPS+ of 166 in May. It's hard to see how the winning ways and adequate run production can continue without someone else stepping up in the middle of the order.

Clubs pay millions of dollars to lawyers to negotiate creative labor deals with unions and agents in the hopes of saving them 10s of millions of dollars by creating labor-related loopholes and contingency plans for their most essential and perishable of commodities, the players. The Twins have made a decision that both hitters can help the team short-term, by NOT being on the 2015 active roster., presumably with the hope that a few days or weeks from now they will be even more help ON the 2015 roster. But, even if they don't plan on keeping a player long-term, his value in trade is based on both potential perceived production and acquisition costs. It would seem, for mid-market teams especially, decisions around the cost-controlled years of each player's career are carefully weighed, considered and scrutinized with the intention to derive and obtain maximum benefit at minimum cost. Arcia struggling in the short-term, with an added trip to the DL, seemingly tipped the scales and made the option decision an easy one. The Vargas situation is less obvious, and more curious, but each day at AAA makes the decision to have him stay at AAA a little longer more of a potential outcome.

Arcia was 1.132 in service time going into this year, the Twins demotion is shaving off perhaps a couple more weeks of service time and would safely put him well below the estimated Super 2 threshold for this year. By my count- and if I understand the Super 2 rules correctly, Vargas has around 100 total days of MLB service, with 0.172 days constituting a full year. It seems like he'd need to play full-time all next year, and the year after, plus about 40-45 more days this year to safely breach the Super 2 threshold in 2017 (based on this year, in which the threshold is estimated to be 2.140). That would mean the Twins would have to decide if it's worth keeping him down until late August- or around 3 full months- as part of a strategy to avoid the threshold (and assuming he has no more demotions in 2016 and 17). If he continues raking at AAA, Vargas definitely should be back a whole lot sooner than that, but less likely so if the new-found need for a 13-man pitching staff stays in effect. Just not enough roster spots for the two sluggers, and Arcia having seniority, could possibly be the first one on-call.

Hicks has his role, ie, to go get most everything in his area, and all the guys who flank him have theirs in backing him up.