jokin

Yup. And really, you can extend that sense friendly competition to all 5 starters*- seems like they all have a chance to one day help out the Twins *(or as I've coined previously- Los Cinco Maginificos)

Huh?

He's an OBP machine. A real sleeper particularly considering that he's a 9th rounder.

How can anyone possibly write the book, case-closed, on how Buxton's career is going to play out?

And the Sox have had a succession of "up and coming 3Bs" who failed at the position.

There's a mid-to-late-20s catcher with Murphy's profile playing at the major league level or AAA who is looking over his shoulder at his replacement or his equivalent on virtually every team in the league. The Yankees have 2 or 3 guys that were gunning for Murphy's job. It's a similar situation for bullpen pitchers- in terms of supply and demand, anyway. How many RP arms are there who: A) will soon go to arbitration or; become too expensive on their existing contract; every single year? Many, if not most teams are calling up multiple younger, live arms more quickly and conducting real-time "tryouts" for RP positions while paying minimum salaries for the first 3 years of service. For many teams, it's a very cost-effective methodology. In retrospect, I'm thinking the Boston Red Sox right about now would have loved to have traded from their surplus of slightly-above-replacement level catchers and arms for Plouffe instead of now being stuck with Panda's big contract.

I think the OP meant that Buxton struggled initially at each level.

A back-up catcher and ordinary RP arm isn't much, but that would have been sufficient in trade... in order to re-deploy Plouffe's salary dollars... and simply to just "move on".

I think the Twins could have gotten a Murphy-level catcher, plus a medium grade bullpen arm in trade for Plouffe- not very much, but they'd be better off for having done so in the long run.

Kohl Stewart one-ups Gonsalves tonight- 6 IP 6 K 1 BB 1 Hit Love the friendly competition, shaping up to being an awesome starting five.

Sure... you might think that's true, but you're discounting the cunning genius in this move... when he flips Murphy for a no-hit minor league catcher and a sore-armed reliever at the deadline...

Speaking of going back in time....

I don't think all of the blame should be on the FO. Again, I cited the chance that how he is being coached to his hitting approach may also be a factor- the statistics suggest that there's no doubt that he's "using all fields" and has slowed down his swing. And certainly, time and focus spent teaching Sano the finer nuances of an entirely unfamiliar RF take away from time and focus spent on adjusting to the League pitching adjustments against him.

Really, it doesn't require looking that hard- but such a radical position change after 7 years exclusively at another position in the infield is really the "elephant in the room"- resulting in a drop in focus at the plate, with how he's being coached to hit, perhaps a close second. So... maybe it does require taking a harder look... Do teams really have a "better book" on him or is there something else going on? Consider: After 8 games, Sano's comp numbers to last year- Sano's BB%: 2015- 15.8% 2016- 20.1% He seemingly has a better eye for the strike zone this year- by over 26%. And yet, look at this data: Pitches in the zone: 2015- 42% 2016- 50% Fastballs thrown: 2015- 48% 2016- 67% Fastball MPH velo: 2015- 93.3 2016- 92.6 FB-4 Pitch Val/100: 2015- 2.18 2016- -1.53 FB-2 Pitch Val/100: 2015- 5.92 2016- -0.82 Zone Contact Rt.: 2015- 76.3% 2016- 61.1% Sano did poorly against Sinkers, Cutters and Sliders in 2015, he's doing even more poorly vs. those same pitches this year... and yet all three pitches have been thrown less to Sano this year- in favor of significantly more FBs. And many more FBs in the zone. Here're 2 more interesting stats- Hard hit balls: 2015- 43.2% 2016- 9.1% Infield Fly %: 2015- 7.4% 2016- 20.0% Many, many more FBs, more FBs in the zone, drop in velocity and yet his "hard hit" ratio has veritably fallen off the cliff? And his "just missed" rate has skyrocketed? One more interesting thing to consider: Pull rate: 2015- 44.4% 2016- 36.4% Oppo rate: 2015- 26.5% 2016- 36.4% His pull rate and oppo rate are identical this year, even though his out-of-zone swing rate has plummeted- on Plate Discipline, Sano deserves an A+ grade- he's not chasing balls out of the zone and flaring them into RF: O-swing rate: 2015- 25.8% 2016- 19.1%

FIFY (Gonsalves does it again, challenges the rest of Los Cinco Magnificos to match him.)

Just more evidence that things are just a little too cozy with respect to accountability for certain vets who have demonstrated "loyalty."

Let's see if the warmer weather helps the velo a bit.

Not even Van MIl, Runzler and Kintzler? (Gotta admit, it kinda sounds like an insurance agency...)

But.. there's also... Hey!...Not to forget... "Loyalty" is unshakingly rewarded and is a two-way street at One Twins Way... (after all, it's why most players never want to leave here- is there a team in all of baseball that finds it hard to let go one mediocre player after another, and keeps declining veterans until there's little value left?). Newsflash, when you're rebuilding and one of your top assets with the most value is a closer- you trade him to further the rebuild- whether he's a "loyal" local boy, or not.

Who doesn't?

Again, Nunez was hit on the wrist on Sunday, he was holding the bat pretty feebly with his right hand on Monday (despite DickNBert saying it was just a "bad bruise"). Not sure if he should have been swinging at all on Monday.

Polanco? (The Twins seem to be pretending that Sano never proved himself at 3rd all of those years in the minors).

Bingo. I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday. Nunez took a pitch directly to the wrist on Sunday, but like a good trooper (and 25th man whose job is always on the precipice), trotted out like a good trooper as the last man standing and feebly struck out. Methinks there might be a level of disagreement between the GM and the manager over what Arcia's role might be defined.

What do you think, Seth? Has Jorge gotten entirely past his previous years of struggles and inconsistencies? Has he re-positioned himself enough to finally make a move into Top 10-15 Twins prospect status? Has he had any uptick in velocity? Is he physically strong enough to become a major league SP candidate?

You're not as excited as DickNBert were... as they scrambled futilely throughout yesterday's drubbing in search of silver linings...