jokin

Still waiting for you to post your links from all the garnering done by the national media. The local media, and the staff at Twins Daily, does a pretty thorough and comprehensive job, being close to the situation and all, of identifying what is, and isn't working, within this organization- given that they are paid to "ganrer attention" upon the Twins full-time and all. BTW, I'll take some "panicking" of the type that the Red Sox and Indians did over the last 12 months, anytime, over what the Twins have done over the last 22 months. Heck, I hear both clubs have garnered their own shares of "national media attention."

I've been beating the drum on these 2 for years. Central Division bona fides, bilingual, record of individual performance and team excellence and toughness and durability, familial ties in the case of Pudge, and treasure troves of baseball experience to impart to young, impressionable players. And they both have been available in the recent past. And speaking of Latin catchers, someone with more experience, Central Division ties and also"manager-ready" would be Tony Pena- but it would probably take too much effort to lure him to Minnesota for the Pohlads.

Going by your numbers, the Twins simply are not going to turn over 67%-75% of their position players------> if Twins managment stays in place. I can quickly name 8 position players who almost certainly will return- Willingham, Doumit, Dozier, Florimon, Escobar, Arcia, Pinto, Presley. (And if 1 or 2 are traded or sent down, I can think of at least 3 others who would be retained to take their place(s)....ie, Hermann, Plouffe, Mastro....).

It's made a lot of sense and has gained a lot of credence in Oakland. Josh Donaldson is tied for the WAR lead among 3rd basemen with Miguel Cabrera at 7.7WAR- and that 7.7 WAR is the third-best WAR total in all of baseball. Much, much, much less chance for concussions, seems to make a lot of sense to me to strongly consider moving Mauer there for the majority of his games next year.

I don't see your "mitigating good performers" at catcher. Pinto has gotten a great start to his major league career, but 23 games doesn't make him a shoo-in for 2014 (remember Parmelee 2 Septembers ago?). It looks like the "the book" is already identifying how to attack his hitting weaknesses- and he's definitely a work in progress behind the plate.

Joe Torre went to 3rd at the age of 30, and played 161 games at the position despite barely having played there ever before (just 73 games the previous year), and oh, BTW, he won the NL MVP award. We all know about Killebrew and Cabrera, so no, definitely not impossible, IMO, it should be the Twins first option for consideration. Moving Sano to an easier position would make his transition to the major leagues that much smoother.

Same page, my friend. (Or at least I think so:D).

Amen. I've been advocating that the Twins, in their highly favorable position with a new stadium and vast new revenue streams, should have employed just this strategy the last 2 off-seasons. A mixed strategy, employing elements of what Cleveland/KC/Red Sox/Jays did leading into 2013 would have kept the Twins avoiding sailing into the never-to-return-to-relevancy Bermuda Triangle, anchored in Laughingstock Harbor. Sadly, for a franchise's GM who thinks his best move ever was dumping Scott Erickson for nothing, I hold little hope that the barnacle-laden Ship of State has any intellectual dynamism left in the cranial cargo hold to undertake such a strategy.

The drive may be as strong, but the effort to accomplish the feat is far easier to attain in one instance over the other, and much less impressive and personally satisfying.

What's true for RH, is also true for LH. What's more important is the number of chances for a corner OF and the obvious need for a better arm in RF. Both LF and RF end up being virtually identical in the number of chances, which is just a shade under 4/game (close to 3.9/gm.). Once Buxton is in CF, the zone the LF will be responsible for will shrink significantly, it's definitely the position where Arcia will do the least damage.

I agree with everything stated, particularly the glut of AAAA players. But signing and retaining a glut of those types of place-holding players at AAA and AA with the promise that their continued mediocrity will give them a shot at a cup of coffee on the Twins active 25-man roster has been Ryan's demonstrated area of expertise, now, hasn't it? My one exception to your hypothoses is that I harbor my extreme doubts about Ryan's alleged and suddenly re-discovered "magicianship".. Sadly, you're evidently willing to admit that the FO has been lying in wait all this time and now Ryan is somehow going to do a magic trick, and in one "decisive" fell swoop, make the miserable memories of the last 3 seasons all go away. Let's check back on that notion next February.

Good points, all. Also, when did MLB approve of home plate umpires setting up their line of sight a foot or more wide and off the plate (seemingly in order to better "see over" the bigger catchers)? When they set up that far away from the center of the plate, they of course inevitably, and frequently miss the low, outside strike.

So following your logic....are you actually saying that beating the Dodgers or the Red Sox is equivalent to beating the Marlins or Astros?

3 great points with which I generally concur in the case of Oswaldo. There are guys who work very hard at their weakness on defense and become very proficient, Corey Koskie comes to mind, but those are few and far between. The best to realisitically hope for with Aricia is that he becomes serviceable enough in the OF to make his bat a big plus.

Once a "culture" has been established, and I think 3 years now, means it's pretty firmly established, makes it's very difficult to change an object in motion- the Law of Inertia and all....sorry, nicksaviking is right, new leaders in managerial roles as well as player roles are sorely needed to break the bonds with the recent past. And I don't get the part about "International losing being a different type of losing", in my book, that's certainly not a good reason for "celebrating diversity".

3) Can I think about Albers, in your "Current Starting Rotation", instead?

When will the Twins get a couple of those "sell highs"? I wish that that kind of "luck" would "cycle" around here more often than once a decade. And why are you proud of taking a comment out of context, labeling it false based on your out of context opinion, because it's "done all the time on TD"?

69 ABs in April, 65 in May before he went to the DL and 53 in June, so actually your comparison of month to month is somewhat faulty. And I would be the first to state that Plouffe is wildly erratic at the plate- which is why I pointed out his hot/cold history in 2013, which mirrors his past career performance, which also makes it highly problematic that he will be around for long, possibly moved in the offseason to avoid arbitration. Yes, Plouffe had an awful July, but consider these numbers for July: Plouffe: .189/.223/.300 Manny Machado: .196/.226/.314 (ranked #4 in WAR @ 3B) Evan Longoria: .194/.288/.347 (ranked #3 in WAR @ 3B) or August: Plouffe: .196/.264/.330 Kyle Seager: .194/.303/.340 (ranked #7 in WAR @ 3B) Todd Frazier: .180/.247/.337 (ranked #8 in WAR @ 3B) The above 4 counter-examples show that even the best in the game have disastrous months. Plouffe isn't one of the best in the game and close monitoring and intervention is necessary to both maximize his value and prevent him from hurting the team when he's clearly struggling. I suggested previously what a more creative team might do with him, accentuate what he is very good at (kills lefties/can possibly move into a super-utility role), and minimize and tweak in the areas where he has a history of struggling mightily- ie, tough RHPs and prolonged slumps being two of his major weaknesses (Danny Valencia has earned himself strong consideration for continuing his specialist role with the Orioles in 2014, what with his .1063 OPS against lefties this year, for his career, Valencia's slash against lefties is strikingly similar to Plouffe's, with a .517 SLG and .884 OPS, compared to Plouffe: .505 SLG and .856 OPS).

It seems you're feeling less confident on your over/under win-total guess back in April, RB?

Not a bad guess....hey, the guy is a man of many talents.... already trilingual (love his accent-free Spanish) ...

You know it's a dire situation when the mob is calling for Cassel....or, gulp.....Tebow.

To keep our viewing interest at a heightened level.....it might be time for a PPPP (position-player-pitching-pool) contest.....Doug Bernier or Eric Fryer first-up in the mop-up spot tonight?

KC, Cleveland and Toronto had more hope than you do.

And Gibson...and Meyer....and May.

But that's really a distinction without a difference though, isn't it?