Nick Nelson

An unlikely bullpen savior. A front-runner to become the first Minnesota Gold Glove winner since 2010. And a manager who just might stick around after all. Let's dig in on these three trending September story lines...* Michael Tonkin. Pat Light. J.T. Chargois. Neil Ramirez. Alex Wimmers. These are all right-handed relievers that the Twins tried to bring along last year, with little-to-no success. Minnesota's whiff rate on bullpen reinforcements (and the lack of significant offseason moves on this front) is a primary reason the unit developed into such a frustrating liability – one that went unaddressed at both the July and August trade deadlines. But in Trevor Hildenberger, the Twins have found a rare internal solution, and a player whose impact exceeds anything they could've hoped to acquire in a deadline deal. When the team shipped out Brandon Kintzler, it looked like a move that could cripple an already vulnerable unit. His departure left behind a group of righties who were all either extremely inexperienced or extremely difficult to trust. Some members of that latter category – namely, Matt Belisle and Ryan Pressly – deserve plenty of credit for stepping up, as does another rookie newcomer, Alan Busenitz. But no one has been quite as impressive as Hildenberger, the side-arming slinger who hit the ground running in late June and hasn't slowed his pace since. Hildy's overall numbers are stellar: 35.1 IP, 2.29 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 58.5 GB%, 36-to-4 K/BB. But what has really stood out are the moments. The 26-year-old rookie has been used in numerous high-leverage spots, where many green arms would wilt, and he has consistently delivered. Friday night may have been his most dazzling performance yet: he entered in the seventh inning with the bases loaded and no outs, and somehow escaped unscathed. Then he cruised through a clean eighth, the sixth time this year he's given Minnesota two full innings out of the pen. According to Win Probability Added, Hildenberger has been the third-most impactful Twins pitcher behind Ervin Santana and Kintzler. Hard to argue if you've been watching him put out fires over the past few months. His delivery might be deceptive (especially with his quirky tendency to switch it up on occasion) but his numbers are not. The young right-hander has a strong recipe for sustainable success, with outstanding control, a feel for missing bats, and the ability to get grounders on command. Whether he's a future closer or setup man, the Twins are extremely lucky to have him. Hildenberger single-handedly changes the outlook of the bullpen going forward dramatically. * For a long time, Twins players were regular fixtures on the Gold Glove ballots. Thanks mostly to Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter, Minnesota was represented in the awards for a decade straight, from 2001 through 2010. No Twin has taken one home since, and while we can certainly criticize the voting system that elects winners, it's hard to deny that this is an apt reflection of the team's plight over the past six years – bad defenses making poor pitching staffs look even worse. The Gold Glove drought is almost certain to end at the conclusion of this 2017 season, because Byron Buxton is essentially a shoe-in for what will likely be his first of many. We all know that GG voters are creatures of habit, but Tampa Bay's Kevin Kiermaier, the AL's center field honoree in each of the past two seasons, missed 10 weeks this summer with a wrist fracture, which should take him out of the running. (Though this is not a guarantee; Hunter won in 2005 despite playing only 98 games.) Buxton would be the deserving recipient anyway. He's been all over the highlight reels, he dominates defensive metrics, and his contribution to Minnesota's stunning improvement this year is well known nationally. He further solidified his case on Friday night with a game-changing grab at the warning track to end the fifth inning and preserve a slim lead. This recent tweet from Aaron Gleeman puts some context behind what Buxton's glove has meant to the Twins this year: Wow. The Twins could easily have multiple players earn hardware. Joe Mauer should be at the top of the list for first basemen, and there's a decent argument to be made for Brian Dozier. But I'd rate each of their chances at less than 50/50. Buxton, though? He's got this thing wrapped up. Now let's just hope his hand starts feeling better soon. * Lame duck. It's a term no manager wants attached to his name, but Paul Molitor wore it openly and candidly coming into 2017. He has never shied away from the stakes of this season for him personally, with 2016's scars still fresh and a new front office group likely eager to install its own preferred choice for the gig. The year started on a redeeming note for Molitor and the Twins, but as the trade deadline came and went, the skipper's outlook began to take an ominous turn. The team was sinking out of contention, and while he was still on track for a big step forward, it wasn't necessarily the type that would save his job. But Molitor's role in the turnaround we've seen over the past six weeks should not be downplayed. Sure, there are some things to take issue with from a tactical standpoint – the propensity for bunting and some occasionally head-scratching bullpen decisions come to mind – but to the extent that a manager functions as captain of the ship and motivator of men, there is really no knocking the work he has done. This Twins team has proven incredibly resilient, rebounding from setbacks time and time again. Even when things have looked grim, the players haven't gotten down and fallen into a funk the way they did in 2016. His club's response to the deadline sell, a 20-win August, was quite the statement. We know ownership likes Molitor. And his players have been going to battle for him in a big way. With both those things being the case, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine may be hard-pressed to go another direction, especially if this strong late-season run culminates in a postseason berth. If the team re-ups with Molitor, I do hope that Falvey and Levine have a long sit-down with him during the offseason to go over run-scoring matrixes, statistical probabilities and sacrifice bunting. Click here to view the article

Yeah, I think if things continue to go the way they are, the smart plan is to keep Dozier for 2018 and offer a QO. I like him and I'm obviously very impressed with what he's doing right now, but throwing down huge money to lock up him up in his mid-30s doesn't seem like the savvy move with so much quality middle-infield talent rising through the system. Hopefully by the time Dozier's contract expires we'll see some of the younger guys stepping into that vocal leader role.

He leads off in the lineup. He leads the club in home runs. And most importantly, Brian Dozier is leading by example."Leadership" has always been an ambiguous term in pro sports. It's one of those intangible, immeasurable factors that is impossible to quantify. But no one can deny its import, especially on a team full of inexperienced players still learning how to be big-leaguers. Many in and around the organization have suggested that a leadership void was, in some way, responsible for the disaster that played out in 2016. Torii Hunter's absence in the clubhouse was felt, says this line of thought. Upon taking over the front office, Derek Falvey and Thad Levine almost immediately cited this as a need. You could excuse Dozier for bristling a bit at this talk. All he did last year was go out and hit 42 home runs, a Herculean individual effort amidst a total organizational failure. He did his job and then some. Still, it does appear that he's taken it upon himself to embrace a more vocal and commanding role as clubhouse leader this year. In spring training, he rarely camped at his corner locker, instead spending nearly all his time moving about and interacting with other players. When the Twins decided to sell key assets at the deadline, he expressed frustration on behalf of the group – "It does suck ... I can speak for everybody and say that." On at least one occasion this summer, he has reached out to a local writer directly to express displeasure over what he viewed as unfair coverage of a young teammate. I'm not going to say these things are out of character or unprecedented for Dozier, but from my view he's shifted it up a gear noticeably. How much of an impact has it had? Who knows. Again, it's impossible to quantify, and pretty pointless to speculate about, especially from the outside. But what's been truly striking over the past month is the way Dozier has let his play do the talking. When he griped about the front office, it fell a little flat; the Twins had fallen to seven games out of first place by dropping five of six on a West Coast road trip through LA and Oakland, and Dozier had gone 5-for-29 (.172) over the two series. In the last game before the deadline, he struck out five times in an extra-inning affair they lost by one. A week later, I pondered whether the Twins could really make a run with Dozier and Joe Mauer, their two most-tenured players who both have contracts expiring after next year. The conclusion was that for this to happen both would need to raise their level of production and turn from role players to driving forces. Both veterans have done just that, answering the call when things were slipping away. Mauer suddenly reverted to vintage form in August, slashing .336/.405/.458 in 28 games. And Dozier? Just a couple days after announcing "No white flags here," he embarked on an epic power binge with five home runs in six games (the Twins went 5-1). His OPS since the deadline sell is over 1.000. On Wednesday, with the Twins again on the ropes after losing five of six to the Royals and Rays, Dozier confronted the urgency of their series finale in Tampa: “It’s a game we really need to win." So what does he do, coming off an 0-fer in Tuesday's dispiriting 2-1 setback? He goes out and rips a leadoff homer, setting the tone in a much-needed 10-6 victory. These Twins have proven to be, above all, a tremendously resilient team. They're just following the leader. Click here to view the article

Where in that article was it implied I expected Sano to be anything other than a liability in RF? The idea was that if he hit enough, voters might be inclined to overlook it or even credit him for doing the club's bidding, as silly as that bidding may have been. Had you clicked on the link in the first sentence of that piece, you'd have come across this remark in bold lettering: "Yep, the Miguel Sano in right field experiment is going to be rough."

He wrote it while Sano was bumbling around in right field, creating the impression that the player -- not the team -- was at fault for his all-but-certain failure at a position he was grossly unequipped to play. Timing was very much a factor in the reaction to that column.

I'd argue that the "when" was more impactful than the "who" or "what" in this case, but let's not act like Souhan hasn't earned a reputation for being unfair to injured players.

Well yeah, it is his job. The point of that post was to give Souhan a little credit, and dispute the notion some people seem to have that he just made it up. I'm not sure what the "cuts both ways" comment is about here. My issue is with the idea that having those relationships is essential to creating credible content about the team, or that writers who don't routinely go into the clubhouse/press box due to full-time jobs and life commitments outside of blogging don't do so because they're cowards.

'Here are the people you should and shouldn’t listen to when it comes to the Twins.' With that, Jim Souhan laid out his rigid directive in a scattered rant about the pitfalls of independent blogging and new media. I won't respond to the post (John did so with eloquence yesterday), but I thought I'd offer up a more comprehensive and balanced guide to quality Twins content, with the team giving us plenty to discuss late in the season.For starters, let's get this out there: You don't need me to tell you what to read. You're smart enough to make that decision for yourself. These are simply my suggestions, with the underlying current being this: read everything! We are lucky to have access (er, Access?) to so many different perspectives and voices in this market. I consider myself an enthusiast of writing even more so than baseball, so I tend to evaluate the craft as much as the analysis/reporting when I read. Maybe that's why Souhan's clumsily constructed diatribe struck me in an especially bad way. But Souhan is, in most cases, a pretty dang good writer. So I'll lead with him. Jim Souhan, Star Tribune: He was right about this much in his blog post: Souhan has been covering the team intensively for decades. He's written many great columns. That, much more than having Tom Kelly's phone number, earns him credibility. He also has his occasional off-days and whiffs, as we all do. The profile linked below is undeniably stellar work. Piece Worth Checking Out: Twins' Corrigan a Hall of Fame scout who can't quit the game Patrick Reusse, Star Tribune/1500ESPN: Like Souhan, Reusse has been around the game forever and his writing is colored by a depth of experience few can match. One of the most enjoyable parts of being in the Hammond Field press box is Reusse occasionally passing through and announcing his latest hot take to whomever will listen. He's an entertaining guy and a quality scribe, even if he falls into the vitriol-stirring trap a bit too often. Piece Worth Checking Out: Falvey's smartest move? Bring back Molitor Phil Miller, Star Tribune: I have had the chance to read a lot of different beat guys and gals regularly since first taking an interest in baseball as a kid. I truly don't think I've ever encountered a better pure writer than Miller. His words capture the magic and spirit of the game so effectively. It's always a joy to read game stories and longform pieces. Piece Worth Checking Out: Talented Twins outfield trio has finally come together La Velle E. Neal III, Star Tribune: The longest-tenured Twins beat writer and an institution in the press box. A veteran journalist and a pro's pro. Piece Worth Checking Out: Rebuilding White Sox waiting for tide to rise Mike Berardino, Pioneer Press: Mike's a hustler who grinds all day, and serves the hardcore baseball junkie like no one else on this beat. The amount of content he churns out, on his own, is truly amazing to me, and he has strong writing chops as the Bartolo Colon column below illustrates. Piece Worth Checking Out: Bartolo Colon provides levity, wisdom in Twins clubhouse John Shipley, Pioneer Press: I haven't seen many people talking about Shipley this summer. Maybe it's because he doesn't go out of his way to attract attention. I hope he's not being overlooked because I believe he's been writing some of the best Twins columns of anyone in the mainstream press. Piece Worth Checking Out: Twins are ticked. They should be, says Derek Falvey Derek Wetmore, 1500ESPN: Derek does a nice job covering the beat in a full-digital format, and manages to find unique story lines others miss. His article linked below – discussing a delivery flaw that Byron Buxton spied while standing in against Kyle Gibson – uncovers a great nugget. Buxton went from being unable to recognize any pitches in April, to diagnosing critical issues in Twins pitchers in September. That tells you how far he's come. Piece Worth Checking Out: Byron Buxton may have helped Kyle Gibson take the next step Jake Depue, 1500ESPN: You may know him better by his old moniker, "Curse of Punto." Depue is a success story for the blogging age: he toiled anonymously to hone his craft and develop an audience, then eventually found a prominent platform. He deserves it, and his presence gives 1500ESPN's minor-league coverage some teeth. Jake is currently in Tampa covering the Twins/Rays series so keep an eye on his stories. Piece Worth Checking Out: Zack Littell, prospect in Jaime Garcia trade, prides himself in command, durability Rhett Bollinger, MLB.com: Rhett is pretty much everything you could ask for in a team-employed beat writer. He tweets a bunch. He's very interactive with fans. He provides useful insights, routinely supplementing the viewing experience with Statcast measures and other tidbits. He doesn't dogmatically toe the company line (evidence). We're lucky to have him. Piece Worth Checking Out: Buxton returns, records fastest triple in 2017 Aaron Gleeman, Baseball Prospectus: His days of churning out daily Twins content on his own site are long gone, but AG still frequently focuses on the team in his columns at Baseball Prospectus, and he's got a book coming out next spring. Forever one of the most skilled writers and sharpest analysts on the local scene, he's a must-read for the hardball intellectual. [insert Cinnabon joke.] Piece Worth Checking Out: A Child Shall Lead Them Twinkie Town Team: Myjah runs the show and fosters a playful, light-hearted atmosphere with TT's big stable of writers and commenters. Stu's weekly satirical submissions (like the one linked below) are always worth your time. Louie Opatz also does really nice work. Piece Worth Checking Out: Area woman realizes how many of her kids she likes less than Byron Buxton Zone Coverage Team: Tom Schreier's venture into New Journalism has produced Zone Coverage, which functions as a hybrid of the modern and traditional media models. It's access-driven beat-style coverage without the space constraints of print, and with heavy multimedia infusion. Schreier and Brandon Warne work hard. Piece Worth Checking Out: 9/3 GAME NOTES: Swing, Swing, Swing — Twins Drop Game, Series to Royals with 5-4 Loss on Sunday Twins Daily Team: You're already here, so if you're new I'll encourage you to explore the articles, blogs and forums, and judge for yourself. We take a lot of pride in the community we have here – smart, passionate baseball fans from all over the globe. It makes engaging with people on TD a truly enriching experience. Plus, there is simply a ton of high-caliber writing to be found virtually every day. Whether it's Seth, Jeremy, Cody, Ted, Steve, Tom or one of our many other frequent contributors, you're going to find something worthwhile. I highly recommend staying up on Mr. Froemming's daily game recaps and all of the minor-league reports. Piece Worth Checking Out: The Perfect Crime: A Look Back at the Twins' Trade for Joe Nathan by Dan Wade I'm surely still missing some (and would love if you all added them in the comments section below) but this is a quick-and-dirty list I put together of prominent local people writing regularly about the Minnesota Twins. They've all earned their platforms and there's no need to bicker about hierarchies or velvet ropes. There are a lot of content sources out there. The good news is that there's a hungry audience, and it's likely to grow in the coming years if the product on the field continues to trend the way we all hope. The guiding mission of Twins Daily has always been to highlight and promote great Twins writing, wherever it resides – whether a downtown skyscraper or mom's basement. Here's to more and more talented folks entering the scene and adding to the well. If you'd like to try your hand, I can't urge you enough to utilize the blogging feature on our site and get your own thoughts out there. There's never been a better time. Click here to view the article

Let's be clear: Souhan didn't make up these things about Sano or Perkins. There are people within and around the organization saying these things and expressing these concerns. You don't have to be in the clubhouse, or deeply immersed in sources, to hear it. The issue is with the judgment displayed by how he timed and executed the column (and the Perkins potshot). People (at least those who know what they're talking about) aren't accusing him of lying, which is why his "defense" misses the mark.

FWIW – Gibson's swinging strike rate in his first September start was 12%, right in line with the exceptional mark from August.

Great piece, John. That blog from Souhan was quite incredible. Especially this excerpt: Since people don’t seem to know who to believe, let me help. Here are the people you should and shouldn’t listen to when it comes to the Twins: ... Columnists: It’s our job to write opinion. There are two columnists in town who have covered the Twins for decades, who can call up Tom Kelly or Hrbek or Torii Hunter whenever we like, who have spent hours jousting with Andy MacPhail and Terry Ryan about things we’ve written. The two: Patrick Reusse and myself. Nothing here about the quality or credibility of his own writing. In a strange, self-important rant filled with typos and specious reasoning, he argues that he and his buddies are the only writers worth paying attention to, solely for one reason. In a diatribe about accountability, he deflects criticism (which came from many sources, including City Pages and NBC Sports) and acts like the backlash against his column was solely from "untethered bloggers," and not from readers – whom he evidently respects so little he believes they need him to tell them what's worth reading. He obliquely addresses the fair points that were widely made against his original piece, but instead of saying "I could've done this better," he turns it into an opportunity to rehash the same tired "Access" argument that no one really cared about to begin with. That's not accountability. It's either obliviousness or something worse.

I didn't really focus that much on results, and that was intentional. What I'm looking at here is the underlying trends, and what it might mean about Gibson's efforts to get right physically and fine-tune his revamped approach. It's not about the results, it's about his execution, his big increase in whiff rate, his velocity (highest since he was a rookie). To say, "Gibson hasn't been good over the past two seasons so he's a bad pitcher" is an oversimplification for the reasons laid out. Anyway, at no point did I say that he's locked up a job for next year. Only that he's setting himself up well to do so in September.

WHIFF. Ahh, that sweet onomatopoeia: the sound of a pitch whooshing past a bat untouched. Music to a hurler's ears. It's a song Kyle Gibson hasn't heard as often as one would hope, or expect. Until lately.In 2005, the Twins used their first-round pick to draft Matt Garza, a pitcher who has gone on to throw 1,700 major-league innings in an altogether successful career (albeit one spent mostly outside of Minnesota). Since then, the organization has used 10 first-round selections (including supplemental picks) on arms, with a woefully low hit rate. The list is a collection of washouts, disappointments and case studies in the perils of prospecting young pitchers – with two exceptions. Jose Berrios and Kyle Gibson. The former has entrenched himself as an ongoing rotation staple. The latter had seemingly erased himself from that conversation during the past two seasons. But now, when the team needs him most, Gibson is making a late case by – at long last – getting the most out of his stuff. I've always counted myself as a Gibson fan. I remember on draft day in 2009, when the Twins landed him with the 22nd overall pick, thinking what a steal he was. Following an outstanding career at the University of Missouri, he slid to the late first round due to concerns about a forearm issue, enabling Minnesota to snag a talent worthy of going in the Top 15. He was the prototype of a quality pitcher: tall and lanky, with a hard sinker that careened downhill from his big frame. He made the Twins look smart with a phenomenal first year in the pros, rising all the way to Triple-A in 2010. He was on track for a fast MLB debut before Tommy John surgery in 2011 stalled his momentum, but came back strong and joined the big-league ranks in 2013. Gibson followed the same progressive path that many young players do. He struggled mightily in his first exposure to the majors, then showed moderate improvement in Year 2, and finally seemed to come into his own the following season (Byron Buxton, anyone?). That third year – 2015 – signaled that the right-hander was putting together all the pieces: he ranked among the top 10 grounder rates in the majors, posted the best strikeout rate of his career, and averaged more than six innings over 32 starts. At age 28, he appeared poised to keep growing in 2016, but much like the team as a whole, it was Total System Failure for Gibson. All of his promising trends turned the wrong way as he struggled through a tumultuous campaign, finishing with a 5.07 ERA and 1.56 WHIP. Afterward, he acknowledged he'd been dealing with back and shoulder discomfort for much of the summer, even outside of his five-week trip to the disabled list. He battled through 25 starts, frequently relying on anti-inflammatory meds. Searching for answers, Gibson went through an offseason program that involved completely overhauling his routine and mechanics. As Star Tribune's Phil Miller put it, the revamp was "an entirely new way of delivering the baseball, about as fundamental a change as a pitcher can make." Sounds like something that could take a while to coalesce, but during spring training it looked as though Gibson's efforts were paying immediate dividends. In Grapefruit League play, he was as good as ever, dominating opposing lineups while flashing electric stuff and, by his account, feeling great. Once the season started, however, things went totally off the rails for Gibson. He didn't record a quality start for the Twins until June 8th, spending much of May in Triple-A. By late July, when he and his 6.08 ERA were sent back to Rochester in order to make room for newly acquired Jaime Garcia, it appeared Gibson had essentially played his way out of the team's plans. But in August, the embattled starter came back with a vengeance. With an excellent outing in Toronto on Sunday, Gibson wrapped up the best month he's had in a long time. Suddenly, he had resolved the issues that plagued him for the better part of two years. He was throwing in the zone (seven walks in five starts). He was keeping the ball down (only three homers). And most notably, Gibson was finally missing bats. His 12.8% swinging strike rate towered over his career norm, and is in line with the season rates for top-tier strikeout artists like Stephen Strasburg and Zack Greinke. In his August 22nd start against the White Sox, when he tossed seven innings of one-run ball, Gibson induced 17 swings and misses. Only two Twins have produced more whiffs in a start this year: Ervin Santana (26 in a complete game win against the Padres on 8/2) and Berrios (19 in his 11 K game against Colorado). With his hard sinker and sharp slider, Gibson always seemed like a guy who should get more hitters to miss. This month, it's been happening in fairly consistent fashion, and the results are beginning to reflect a pitcher with renewed confidence and legit comfort on the mound. Is it possible his alterations and adjustments just took a few months to fully reach fruition? It is still too early to draw such conclusions, but lately Gibson is truly looking as good as he has in years. And he's doing it at a time where the Twins, in the thick of the postseason race, desperately need it. Whiffs, grounders and wins. Music to their ears. Click here to view the article

That's a reasonable critique, but I want to be clear: I am NOT saying I have an issue with negative media coverage, and I don't think columnists or writers should be required/expected to serve as cheerleaders for the team. Not by a long shot. I would hope anyone who's read my articles for any length of time understands that. I just think criticism should be fair and warranted. I don't see these examples as such. Have Souhan and Reusse heard rumblings to this effect from within the organization? I have no doubt. Does that mean they're exercising good journalistic judgment by publishing them with so few supporting quotes/facts, and with such extremely questionable timing? Not in my belief. I'm certainly not suggesting Sano will leave one day because he's pissy about a column Jim Souhan wrote. But over time, these kinds of pieces contribute to the overall fan perception of a player. It aids the negativity bias. I see Joe Mauer as a clear example of this. It can. I just haven't seen any remote evidence of it being the case here. There was none presented in the column. The injury was sloppily thrown in as some way to build timely relevance for his point, at least as I read it.

Putting his numbers with runners on next to his numbers with the bases empty and pointing out the sharp contrast is not negativity bias or "cherry-picking," it's analysis. If all I ever did was harp on Dozier's weaknesses you'd have a point but this isn't the case, is it? The only other thing you pointed to was someone else's HR total prediction for him. I'm not saying there's no validity to the concern. The issue, as others have noted, is with the timing. Reusse's column dropped while Sano was bumbling around in RF last spring, making it seem like a lack of preparation was responsible for the disastrous outcome rather than the terrible idea itself. And now Souhan's piece comes out right after Sano goes on the DL due to a foul ball in the shin, while alluding with no evidence that his weight contributed to the injury and a slow recovery. Thus, an idea is planted in readers' minds that Sano's weight is negatively impacting the team right now, rather than potentially limiting his long-term ceiling (and even that still isn't very "obvious" to me).

Phrased that way, sure it is. But here's an honest question: what if working toward those goals sapped some of his power, or prevented him from focusing on improving his strengths? "David Ortiz is a good player. That said, it would be nice if he hit the ball the other way more."

Interesting. You should check out the dozens of replies to the Strib's tweet linking to the article. I'm hardly the only one who perceived it as such. Huh?

We've been down this road before. Miguel Sano comes under siege from a local columnist who finds specious reasoning to grind an ax over the young slugger's purported lack of commitment. Patrick Reusse did it last spring, and a week ago Jim Souhan published a similarly toned piece. Are these scribes calling Sano lazy? They'll say no, but the columns undoubtedly lead the reader in that direction. Which is ironic, since what's truly lazy is the story line these veteran newspapermen keep peddling.Sano is an easy target for errant criticism, because he is big, and he strikes out a ton. You could argue both are inhibiting factors, but they are part of who he is. Every player has his inhibiting factors, and in this case, they also contribute to what makes Sano great. And let's make no mistake about it: he is great. Already, at age 24, and he's likely on his way to becoming even better. There is much to celebrate about where Sano is and where he's going. He surpassed 70 career home runs when he went deep twice against Arizona last weekend, just before going on the disabled list. He reached that mark quicker than anyone in franchise history, by a longshot: Sano's historic power is enabled by his size and strength, his ferocious cuts – the very same things criticized by anyone who's looking for a grievance to air. "He's getting too big." Well, that's who he is, a large man. "He strikes out too much." Well, that's what he is, a hard swinger prone to strikeouts as well as tape-measure shots. It is well established in psychology that humans have an implicit negativity bias; we are more apt to remember something bad than good, an evolutionary trait. It is, as the linked article states, "the same reason political smear campaigns outpull positive ones." By hounding upon Sano's ostensible weight control issues, these columnists are guilty of succumbing to negativity bias, while also planting it in the minds of their readers. The Strib platform entails a certain level of responsibility, and there are consequences for actively working to shape perceptions like this. I much prefer the way new Twins GM Thad Levine is openly embracing the overwhelming positives of the Miguel Sano experience. Here's how he talked about his inherited All-Star at the Baseball Prospectus Target Field event a few weeks ago: I will tell you, he wants to be great. This is a guy who has an amazing amount of energy, loves the game of baseball, is smiling from ear to ear. Leaders come in different shapes and forms, but I'll tell you, from an energy standpoint, this guy's love of the game is palpable and will get us through a 162-game season. That, and he also can hit the ball a very, very long way. The key to that statement: "Leaders come in different shapes and forms." Sano's physical shape and form do not define him, nor do they preclude him from being productive or healthy. I'm sure people made the same "dietary discipline" remarks about Prince Fielder but from age 24 through 29 he missed three total games and hit 200 home runs. Sano is, in Souhan's own words, "remarkably agile for a large man." He gets the job done at the hot corner and moves well enough around the base paths. He leads the Twins in OPS, and even during his slumps he's still a relatively solid performer, never a liability. His absence has certainly been felt since the DL move, with Eduardo Escobar representing a severe drop-off in the cleanup spot, and games like Thursday's 5-1 loss to Chicago feeling strongly impacted by his non-presence. But Sano had played in 111 of the team's 121 games before going on the shelf due to a foul ball in the shin. He has taken approximately 35 fastballs to the left wrist, and kept on chugging along. To write these kinds of columns for a Minnesota sports audience almost feels treacherous, and hugely ill-advised when you think about the big picture. We should all collectively be trying to woo this generational hitting talent into sticking around. One day in the not-too-distant future, Sano will be approaching free agency, and will more than likely have suitors lining up for his services. If he chooses to go elsewhere, Souhan and Reusse will surely be lamenting another star player who left the small market via free agency to chase the spotlight and the big dollars. Maybe they could've tried harder to appreciate what they had, while they had it. Click here to view the article

Those two will get their chances eventually, it's a matter of when not if. But with guys like Turley and Melville, it's kind of now or never, so pushing them ahead in line makes sense in the scope of seeing and evaluating as many arms as you can.

During his ball-playing career at Trinity College, Derek Falvey was a pitcher – albeit not a very good one, by his own admission. He hasn't thrown baseballs for quite a while, but since taking over the Minnesota Twins front office, Falvey has shown a proclivity for throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks, particularly where the club's pitching staff is concerned.When he made his Twins debut in starting the first half of Monday's doubleheader, Tim Melville became the 34th pitcher to make an appearance for Minnesota in 2017. We've still got a week left in August, but already this team has shattered the franchise record for pitchers used in a season (29), set last year during a catastrophic 103-loss campaign. It speaks to the willingness of the new Chief Baseball Officer and this new front office to experiment, which I personally enjoy. Falvey has a reputation as an exceptional pitching evaluator, so there is value in having the opportunity to see these players first-hand and assess them against big-league competition. The Twins have acquired arms through just about every avenue imaginable: major-league trade (Jaime Garcia), minor league trade (Dietrich Enns), free agency (Bartolo Colon and Dillon Gee), home-grown prospects (Felix Jorge and Aaron Slegers), independent leagues (Melville and Nik Turley), waiver pickups (Adam Wilk and Chris Heston), Rule 5 draft (Justin Haley). Frankly, it's the right approach with a staff that last year was one of the worst in team history. All options should be on the table and all channels should be explored. I'd be less enthused with this pattern if the Twins were consistently trotting out garbage, but – with a few exceptions – pretty much everyone that's gotten a shot has carried some level of legitimate intrigue. Even guys like Melville and Turley, who have struggled mightily, have flashed impressive enough velocity and spin rates to make you think there could be something there. The previous regime had a tendency to stubbornly adhere to a non-working plan, and showed little imagination when it came to searching for solutions, so this newfound creativity is refreshing. Finding pitching is hard, especially in-season, but you give yourself a chance by playing the numbers game and trying out as many interesting arms as you can. The key is in evaluating those arms and deciding which ones are keepers. Falvey and Co. will have the next six weeks (and maybe beyond?) to appraise what they have on hand before heading into their first full offseason running the show. They'll have no shortage of impressions to draw from as they proceed. Click here to view the article