Thrylos

I think that it might be another Killebrew situation: He might think that he has another year in the tank, the Twins know that he does not, and will try to prove himself right at Kansas City or Chicago or some other place close.

Career 80 OPS+ and 2018 4 OPS+ might tell you how terrible Buxton has been with the bat. 20% worse than the average MLB hitter in his career and 96% worse this season. Last time I checked, baseball did not have a designated fielder...

Buxton is a AAA player. The message was delivered by his boss, the AAA manager and his agent. That is the chain of command. Too much reading into it, regardless how special and different than the rest of AAA players Buxton might believe he is entitled to be. I bet that none is complaining that Falvine did not call up Jake Reed to tell him the same news.

Do tell why it is worse for the team and its fans to have extra money to spend for a top of the rotation pitcher and/or a real closer because Buxton will wait a year to get his money. Also, do tell why it is worse for the team to have another year of control for Buxton instead of him taking meaningless PAs in a team that is going nowhere If he needs PAs, he should do like the rest of the minor leaguers do: Instructs and/or winter leagues.

Nobody was playing on a broken foot.

2018 MLB numbers: Johnny Field: .196/.235/.339 (201 PA) Byron Buxton: .156/.183/.200 (94 PA) Quick: Who has performed better at the MLB level this season and merits a spot between these two?

Not quite. Buxton in a package can bring an ace. Hicks was traded 1-1 for a AAA C. Unless it was Ryan & Co.

This felt like a Spring Training game in September

Maybe they don't want him to hit .150 again and trash his trade value even more, before they flip him in a package for an ace this off-season. 4 seasons: 1074 PA, .230/.285/.387, 79 OPS+, .298 wOBA, 84 wRC+, 31.7 K% He had enough time to prove himself. I'd rather see him be someone else's problem starting this off-season.

He has a change up that he has been throwing for about 10% of the time, which is improving, but still below average pitch. The problem has been that this curveball went from plus last season and the beginning of this season to an average pitch.

Berrios: 2017: 3.89 ERA 3.84 FIP 2018: 3.92 ERA 4.05 FIP Slight improvement in K and BB rates and WHIP but the latter is based on lower than league average BABIP. He hit a wall in July. He was much more improved in April-July that last season and then things went downhill, esp with the breaking ball. If I were the Twins, I'd shut him down, figure out what's up, plus let someone else show what they can do.

Or additional time to see what Cave and Kepler and even Rosario can do at CF. And since it took Buxton an additional season of development (at least) before performing the way the Twins want him to perform, the Twins are fairly taking this season back. If he performed the way expected he would had not "lost" service time. I think that it will be better for him and the Twins to finish the season at a high note at AAA instead of coming in the majors and hitting .175...

100 L managing a team with the 7th best ERA in the league and Stanton raking, means that they did the right thing...

I think that it is complicated, and the grade I give the FO right now is I (Incomplete). Why? I believe that the came in with a 5 year plan to turn a pathetic team into a contender, and the 2017 unexpected quasi-success aberration threw them off a bit (more on this later). I will wait the 5 years for a grade other than incomplete. That said: Things that this FO did well: Take a $ hit to get rid of players like HughesDL people right away to have 25 able bodies with the team instead of 21 with a bunch of day-to-daysTrade people in season and get something before they leave for nothingGo out and be a player in high level FAsTake risks and cut the cord when they don'tMuch better in season roster management; the above, plus rotating arms via the minorsGo out and get players in the off-season (but, see below)Promote players even when not ready (but, see below) Things that this FO did not do well: Kept too much of Ryan's staff around, including proven disappointments like the head of the player personnel and the head of the draft, and even the head of player development; areas the Twins have proven to be behind the rest of the leagueLikely misguided by 2017 but keeping Santana and Dozier in the off-season was a disappointmentGoing half ass with pitching instead of going for proven arms when they did not get what they wanted in FA; again likely misguided by 2017 and/or an effort to put butts on seats. Their closer is a 7th inning pitcher in a competitive team, their star FA starter took 2 months to throw strikes, and their opening day trade is a 5 in a competitive team on a good day (but they were all inexpensive)Expose non-ready players with major flaws (like Gonsalves) thus potentially dropping their value in a trade.Yet to see: The ability to trade prospects to fill holes, such as an ace or all star level closer.Cutting ties with Mauer for baseball reasons vs re-signing him for " PR reasons

I agree 100% with Reusse: This front office needs to get rid of people like Radcliffe, Antony, Deron J, etc who proved that they do not cut the mustard the last 20+ seasons. Or something.

There is at least another article on the TD home page that does mention that...

To put Mauer's achievement in prospective relative to the two Hall of Famers: Carew & Puckett achieved their numbers in 12 seasons to Mauer's 15. Carew ended up playing 7 more sasons with the Angels and got 968 more hits. By no means Mauer passing Carew as second best in the Hits parade under a Twins' uniform puts him in a Hall of Fame discussion...

He started the season playing 11/15 games for the Yankees hitting .289/.386/.553 From May 1 to June 15 he played in only 15 games (about 1/3) and hit .153/.190/.305 Since he came to the Twins he played in all but one game hitting .316/.357/.658 (before today) Looks like a guy who needs to play pretty much every day to get and keep his rhythm. He could not do that for the Yankees. Hopefully the Twins got a steal here.

A. Did you see Acuna's celebration of his home run in his previous PA including his bat flip at the Marlins' ballpark? B. Did you see where in the batter's box Acuna has been sitting when he was hit? Half of his body was out of the box and on top of the home plate. Here:

If Derek Shelton helps the Twins win a World Series or two, that will elevate the Twins' brand much more than having a Minnesotan Hall of Famer as their manager

Here is my beef with Molitor: - He lost the clubhouse. This has been a very unmotivated team. - He has been playing favorites. For example, he kept a sub .300 OBP guy hitting lead off for 3 months, because that was his preference - Bullpen usage has been bizarre to say the least. That said, I'd take him over Gardenhire any day of the week. Still, he has to go. The Twins need some new blood, preferably outside the organization and preferably with a huge aversion to losing games

I would argue that they did not move the needle that much yet because even if they did (which would had cost additional assets) wouldn't be enough by itself for the team to contend deep in the postseason, and it is worth to save those assets to move multiple needles when they deem that the team can.

That's about what I am thinking with the exception of Mauer and the rule 5 pick, which will give them 7 spots for trades + free agency (not only FAs). I'd also sub Magill and DeJong for Duffey (he really is a gone) and Curtiss (ditto; if interested, he'd be up by now). Will need to see who else needs projecting. Jay maybe or some of the new acquisitions. Still think that there will be some turnover before Thanksgiving, when the additions will need to be made to protect players from the Rule 5 draft

You do realize that Gonzalves looked worse than both Stewart and Littell, correct?

Have you seen where he has been ranked in certain prospect lists? Not all teams scouting players 20 times a season. As soon as there is MLB film, game is over.