Blackjack

Until other players on the Twins roster are clearly better than Mauer, Molitor will continue batting him high in the order, with a few more days off against lefties thrown in. Buxton, Polanco, Kepler, Rosario should all be in the bottom half of the order, let them gain confidence and earn a higher spot. Lets also see how Mauer and the young Twins players do, maybe this discussion will have more relevance in September and next year.

Good analysis Tom!!!

My thoughts: Make Gimenez the backup catcher. In order for the Twins to improve, the pitching has to improve - a lot. Having two veteran catchers would help a lot. And I suspect thats why Falvey brought him in. Scrap Grossman and go with a defensive reserve outfielder. Again, in order for the Twins to improve, the pitching has to improve, and good defense will help the pitching. Put Buxton at the bottom of the order for at least the first two months of the season. Put him in a position to succeed without the pressure of leading off. Play Polanco at least once a week at second, make Dozier take a day off now and then, keep him rested, so he isn't so streak prone. Ideally May and Berrios would be in the rotation but if its pick and choose, put May in the rotation - see if starting will keep him healthy - and Berrios in the bullpen, where he can gain some confidence. He has nothing left to prove in AAA.

Thanks for the very interesting report!!!!

I think they should leave Buxton at the bottom of the order for at least half a year, or even a full year, let him gain some confidence, let him learn how to handle slumps without the pressure of leading off. Take the long term view of whats best for Buxton's development. I also hope he stays healthy....

Why do people think that Kepler should be in left and Rosario in right?? And why haven't the major league coaches and manager done the change???!

Patience grasshopper. Aside from a Dozier trade, it wouldn't bother me if they did nothing between now and the 2017 trade deadline. Give them time to evaluate the players in spring training and early in the season THEN they'll have a better idea of what they have and don't have. That better than making some hasty moves and then regretting it later. Patience.

With Buxton's speed, he should have been ordered to bunt at least once every game when he was coming up thru the minors. That speed does no good if he can't get on base.

a) 10% chance 60% chance I hope they get a Dozier trade done this off season, he'll never have more value after his 40+ HR season.

I can't believe I just slogged thru the bickering in this thread. Is the glass half full or half empty?? The new Twins front office signed a player that they think will improve the team. I'm thinking that's a positive and I'm curious and looking forward to any other changes they make. Its going to be an interesting 4 months until the season starts and I'm going to give the new management every benefit of the doubt because no matter what they do it has to be better than what we've seen the last 5 years. Now on to a news site to see what the Trumper is up to, something that really is important to our future.

If you can't get a good offer for Dozier, keep him, with the idea/hope that some contending team will have an injury at 2nd base, making them more willing to offer a good deal before the 2017 trade deadline.

Ryan always built a bullpen by going to the scrap heap, signing 3-5 guys that were coming off of injuries, bad years, etc. and bringing them all into spring training, seeing if any would stick. It will be interesting to see how the new GM/front office guys builds a bullpen.

People badmouth Gibson but you notice he's second on Nick's list -- the Twins don't have a lot of options. They need him to eat up some innings and hope that he turns the corner and becomes more consistent. He has talent but just can't string together 3-4 good games.

I had to go listen to that for old time sake!!!

Good article Seth!!! I was wondering how the 'Polanco experiment' was going!!! Dozier only has one more year on his contract, correct?? If he's not traded in the off season or at the trade deadline, it won't hurt to have Polanco get more ML at-bats before he moves to second base in 2018.

So if you can see that he's tipping his pitches, why can't the Twins coaches???!!!!!!!!! Head shaking...

Lets revisit this next year at this time, if he's still hitting at the same pace, then maybe I'll be convinced. Right now is too small of a sample size. Pitchers are going to try different tactics, lets see if Byron can adjust. Not convinced yet. It will also be interesting to see at this time next year how much time BB spends on the injury list. There is fine line between playing hard and playing smart and I don't think he plays smart. Diving for every ball and running into walls is going to get him hurt. Are you better off having a great player play 100 games a year (with 50 on the disabled list) or are you better off having a very good player play 150 games??

Hoping the young guys develop and hoping that the starting pitchers have a few goods starts is enough reason to listen to the last few games. Plus the fact that after Oct. 2 they won't be an option. On Sunday afternoon I was in my tractor mowing, listening to the Twins, Cory mentioned the Viking score, so I did tune in and listen to the 4th quarter -- and then turned it back to the Twins. That Viking announcer has to be the worst....

I knew you'd ding me on starting a blog, that it isn't that hard to do. Some day, when I'm bored and have time, I'll try it. I just wanted to point out that most sites all you have to do is click on the 'new topic' button and you're off, and since most sites are sorted by date, if its a good topic it stays on top - or it fades away. Easy peasy.

Chitown, Several thoughts and comments: This is a great forum for info on the Twins, to get the latest news, updates on the minor leagues, and to hear other people’s thoughts on the Twins. I followed Seth over here from Seth Speaks and I’m impressed with the all the in-depth Twins info – I’ve learned a lot!!!!! I participate in some other forums on birdwatching, fishing, tractors, hunting, food plots, cooking, etc. – you can find a forum on just about anything nowadays -- I’m going to use that experience to comment on this forum. 1) You know and I know that people will say things behind a keyboard that they wouldn’t say to your face. You have to learn to have a thick hide. You learn in a hurry which ones are knowledgeable, those you pay attention to, and which ones are blowing off steam – all the time – those you ignore. I’ve even felt that on this site I’ve had a couple of people ‘stalking’ my posts, tearing them apart because I’m commenting as a fan, not as a stat nerd. That’s what happens on the internet, people are braver behind a keyboard than they would be to your face. 2) Part of the problem is that people are almost too passionate about the Twins and it boils over into their posts. Other forums are more helpful, if you ask a questions, people jump in and help you. Not here. They nitpick everything that they don’t agree with. It’s just a game people!!!!! Kids are getting bombed in Syria!!! Baseball is pretty irrelevant compared to the rest of the problems in the world. 3) This site is moderated very hard, harder than any site I go to. It’s kind of the nature of the beast in comment sections for the topic to wander off topic, then it dies out, then you move onto the next one. It’s your choice, it’s your playpen, you can make the rules but then live with the ‘extra’ work. I can leave a topic on page 2, come back the next day and skip to the last page, see if its still interesting. You as a moderator have to slog thru all the drivel to see if some silver-tongued keyboard devil has written something ‘bad’. You make that choice, live with it. 4) Most sites, once you have a login, all you have to do is find the right topic and click on the ‘start new topic’ tab, and you can start a topic or ask a question, here you have to start a blog – too complicated for my taste. Not going to do it. There’s times I’d like to ask a baseball question but not jumping thru the hoops here. 5) The ‘English police’ have mellowed out. That’s good. When it first started every bad phrase and misspelling was jumped on. Don’t take my comments personally!!! I’m just sharing my observations and experiences as related to other sites!!

The Twins aren't going to contend in 2017, trade Santana while his value is high. Trade him for a catcher or other position player - that can be flipped for pitching. Trade Dozier for pitching and trade him while his value is high. Commit to a rebuild, play the young guys next season, and hope they develop by 2018.

Gibson isn't going anywhere. Good starting pitching is too hard to find and as he proved last night, he has the potential. I wouldn't hesitate to extend him for 3-4-5 years either. He may not be an ace but he can be a consistent starting pitcher for years to come.

The Twins seem to like to teach them at the major league level where games count rather than using the minor leagues. Think Plouffe coming up as a shortstop and all of a sudden its "oh shoot, he can't make the throws". Polanco -- played all year a 2nd base and when he comes up, "lets see if we can play him at short, we didn't notice he was blocked by Dozier". Headshaking.

I'm not saying Berrios is a bust by any means, its just that its obvious that its going to take months and years before he becomes a top end reliable starter. So then the rest of these 'top' prospects are in AA and lower, its depressing. Pitching is what the Twins desperately need in order to be competitive and most if it is years away. Depressing.

Kind of depressing since we're seeing how poorly our highly rated prospects Buxton and Berrios have done, none of these lower rated players can reasonably be expected to help the Twins any time soon. As Nick said, trading Dozier for pitching should be a top priority. Dozier won't be a factor when the Twins are finally competitive.