Danchat

I'm just happy we took 2 out of 3 against the Red Sox and our pitchers held them to just 3 runs in the first two games. But yes, as others have said, time to get some AAA arms up here. And I think we can safely say goodbye to Bobby Wilson... people complain about Buxton's bat, but have you seen Wilson at the plate?

Well, Berrios was giving up baserunners and he was looking gassed. I'm not sure if he would have been able to take on Benintendi-Bogaerts-Martinez another time.

Well, the main reason Molitor pulls guys around 100 pitches is because that's when they typically wear out and start struggling. How many times have we seen Molitor send a starter out to start the 6th or 7th and see them allow baserunners just to pull them? Berrios is the only one I'd trust to be effective past 100 pitches.

Adrianza is easily having his best season in the majors... but that's due to his track record being bad and also not playing very often.

Hopefully Gordon and Gonsalves can reach the majors by the end of the year... though maybe Gonsalves needs to finish the season at AAA. We can afford to be patient with him with the starting pitching in the majors being solid.

Holy cow, Rosario is in 5th place for the AL batting title hitting .323. I never thought he'd be a guy who could hit for average, but he's got a knack for hitting lasers all over the field and he's got legitimate power in that bat. Definitely worthy of being an All-Star. It would be pretty nuts to sweep Cleveland... but I still don't buy this team. They can only beat one team this season, and though that team is in first place, I expect Cleveland to improve. I would be making trades for relievers this very moment if I were Cleveland's GM. Also, can we option Rogers and call up Busenitz/Duffey/Moya? We've seen about a full year of mediocre baseball from him and I think we could use a fresh arm in the bullpen after overusing Pressly and having Magill go 3 innings.

Yeah, it seems like Motter is just a placeholder until Polanco gets here. He has a little upside and it doesn't seem like the team is willing to give any of the younger guys an opportunity, so it's back to the scrap heap. The Twins position players just can't stay healthy... and now Polanco's cutting his hand on a car door... bleh. Rogers just hasn't been the same since facing the Dodgers in July of last year. Here's his stats: 2016: 3.96 ERA, 2.3 BB/9, 9.4 K/9 2017 before Dodgers series: 2.15 ERA, 2.4 BB/9, 6.45 K/9 2017 after Dodgers series: 5.00 ERA, 5.5 BB/9, 11 K/9 2018: 5.13 ERA, 2.1 BB/9, 8.5 K/9

You mean back to AAA, right? I don't see anywhere that they've re-added him to the team. I don't think Astudillo is going to be viewed as a utility infielder... I can't see him backing up 2B, SS, and 3B.

Plus they claimed Taylor Motter a little while back, so I imagine they'll call him up to be the utility infielder. I don't think we lost much by DFA'ing Petit.

Cave getting demoted probably has more to do with him being the 5th OF and not "effort struggles". Also, his 162 OPS+ comes with a tiny sample size that he isn't going to continue. I think we'll understand the move more when a second player is brought up. With Sano going down and Petit gone, they need another infielder. Probably Motter?

At the time I slightly preferred Lovullo over Molitor, mostly because he would have been an outside hire. I do wonder what would have happened if we hired him.

I mean, I can see them having a hot streak and finishing the 2017 season a few wins above .500, but that's not going to earn them a ticket to the playoffs. It seems to me that the last month has been filled with "let's just wait for these guys to get hot" and it hasn't happened. Time is running thin and if we're this many games below .500 come mid to late July, it'll be time to talk about trading our upcoming free agents and figuring out how we can make a playoff run in 2019. 2018 looks like a lost season with Sano and Buxton fizzling out and injuries plaguing the lineup, and while it's not quite over yet, I simply don't see this team being able to get over the hump... and certainly not being able to conquer any playoff teams.

Oh good, they listened to me and promoted Wade. Hopefully we won't have to wait another year and a half for his next promotion.

I feel like the bullpen is masking the problem that the hitters aren't scoring enough runs. You're not going to win games when you score just two runs. Also, it's nice to see Lynn turn back into the pitcher he once was. These last few starts for him have looked like the guy I thought the Twins signed. He's clearly worked hard to improve his game after starting so dreadful. I don't feel like this team should be 6 games under .500 with a rotation like this. So Cave is coming up for Duffey... why? What is it going to take to get Busenitz up here? They could really use another bullpen arm, but for now they'll go with less relievers...

Rooker is going to help his K/BB ratio with a 4 BB game. How much longer does LaMonte Wade need to be at AA? He's more than ready to play at AAA.

I highly doubt one prospect's development cycle is going to change how the new regime develops their own prospects. It seems they're going to take their time with him, but it's probably not related to Buxton.

Wow, six pages in just 8 hours? Talk about a hot topic! I would like to weigh on a few things some here have said but there's too much to quote, so I'll just drop some thoughts here. Sano's defense according to Fangraphs at 3B this season: ranked 55th out of 59 players (min. 60 Innings) with a -3.1 Def rating. Meanwhile, Dozier ranks 30th out of 56 players at 2B with a +0.3 rating. By the way, I think some here are very down on Dozier, but you/they may not realize that he's currently slashing .247/.326/.430 with a .756 OPS. That's not bad and it's actually close to his career line (.250/.327/.451/.778 OPS). I don't think it's because of lack of effort - he's a streaky player who's going to hit a bunch of solo HRs for a few weeks and will have some very pronounced slumps. However I will say his 25 RBIs are very disappointing compared to his 99 and 93 RBI seasons in 2017 and 2018 respectively. (part of it is his below average clutch hitting, but I do believe it's also because the Twins bottom of the order are black holes, can't get RBIs when nobody's on base). Also, I would like to travel to the alternate dimension where the Twins signed Yu Darvish. Obviously it's too early to call him a bust, but I can only imagine the vitriol here. It was kinda crazy how many here were lamenting how the Twins failed to sign him but I haven't heard a peep since the season started (I don't mean to call anyone out, more of looking back and seeing how silly we all looked in hindsight. I was on board an extension for Buxton!). Turns out the Twins aren't just an ace away from being a world series contender, huh? One more thing: Pressly's on pace to pitch 83.1 innings this season. Please give him a break, Molly! Oh, and: Pressly March-April: 0.59 ERA (pitched on zero day's rest twice) Pressly May-June: 6.00 ERA (pitched on zero day's rest 8 times!!!!) This reminds me of a very similar problem with Belisle last year... he was much more effective when he had at least one day off.

Nice article. Yeah, the Twins could really use Gordon... the only downside appears to be his glove. Having Adrianza in the lineup almost every day has hurt this team, and Gordon could be the spark-plug this offense needs, but the closer Polanco gets to returning, the less likely I see Gordon coming up as a starter. I'm not sure if Gordon really needs much time to develop at AAA before he's ready to go in the big leagues. Claiming Taylor Motter made some sense as they've stashed him at AAA with an open 40 man roster spot, probably to see if they can fix his bat. If they could improve his hitting, he'd be a solid bench player and a definite upgrade from somebody like Gregorio Petit. However, if the Twins need to make a move, they could probably DFA him and sneak him through waivers. And don't get me started about the Pressly/Reed overuse situation. Meanwhile Busenitz is crushing AAA for the second straight year (0.47 ERA in 19 IP!!) and not to mention that Moya and Curtiss are dealing and ready for another shot.

My thoughts: It's probably too early, but Berrios would be my #1 extension candidate. I would like to see the Twins lock in his arb. years and try to buy out a year of free agency. After that, I'm tempted to say Rosario or Escobar, but I think I'd wait on Rosario. As for Escobar, I would offer him a 3 year $30-36M deal once the season ends, and if he doesn't find anything better in FA, he can come back and take the deal. I wouldn't extend him the qualifying offer because I think there's a high chance he accepts it. He's made around $12M in his whole career, so I think he'd take approx. $18M to play just one season and hit FA at age 31. But who knows, maybe other teams out there are ready to offer him more, and he could decline it. I want to say Kepler, but he's in the middle of his second average season in a row and I've been waiting awhile for him to explode at the plate, but it hasn't happened. It's probably too soon to extend him. Over the offseason I would have said Buxton was my #1 priority, but um, well, y'know. Regarding Dozier, I know the current forum consensus seems to be that he's having a disappointing season, but I'd still offer him a deal around 3 years $36-40M. However, I think he's going to take the biggest deal offered to him, so I think he declines the qualifying offer (that they should offer him) and he signs a bigger deal elsewhere.

Probably because of his 2.42 ERA at AA last season in a substantially bigger sample size. Oh, and at AAA he's had a 2.57 ERA with 1.07 WHIP and 9.6 K/9 in a slightly bigger sample size than his 2017 AA one. The 23 IP at AA this season is basically the only negative you're going to find on his stat sheet in the past 3 years. Though I do think it's fair to say he's not ready for the majors quite yet and I think he could use the rest of the season at AAA.

Huh, that sounds good for a 10th rounder, hopefully they can sign him. For what little I know about the process, it seems to me that the Twins have been able to sign most of the guys they draft (that matter, of course).

You do realize catchers have a massive impact on MLB games compared to kickers, right?

Wow, I didn't even realize Hjelle was getting drafted. I went to school with him for a year or two back in high school. Now I have two Mahtomedi kids to pull for (Baumann with the Orioles) in the minors. Great stuff!

Palka has been pretty good in his first month or so of his MLB for the White Sox... Plus even if the pick isn't BPA, they can spend more money on the next draft pick. That worked out really well last year.