Ncgo4

The Twins are a mess from top to bottom. They are, however, almost certainly making money. Importantly, though, they may be underfunding some of the family trust funds. This could be the issue that finally motivates the Pohlads to shake up the front office. I know my wife gets pretty bitchy when my hours at WalMart drop and we have to reduce donations to the grandkid's trust funds. Rock bottom? Hardly. Molly could lose the team completely and they could go down from where they are. Nunez and Grossman could return to their "norm" and Mauer could fall off. Think of the possibility that you inherited a baseball team. Who on the Twins would you trade for based on results so far? It may be that the Twins are over achieving. Well...maybe not. What was it that the owners said about the Twins when they were 8-20? "A failure from top to bottom"? Something like that. Well guess what? Since then they've gone another 8-20. Sound like a team that's getting better?

There were a lot of legitimate beefs about Kelly. One thing, however, his team always, ALWAYS, played great fundamental baseball. I recall players complaining that the beginning of spring training always started with training on baseball fundamentals. Simple things that we were taught in little league. It may have been beneath some of his millionaire players, but by gosh, they didn't try to steal 3rd base with 2 out and down in a game. They seldom missed the cut off man, either. It was a fun lesson to watch them play.

I don't think it's disdain. I hope not, certainly. Rather it's a recognition of his true skill level and his cost. $7 million for an OK fielding poor hitting 3rd baseman with very little upside is not good. Having him in the line up thus forcing one of the 2 best prospects the team has had since Joe Mauer into a position that risks his health AND who makes a fraction of the money is bad. Most importantly, this is bidness. No one should feel sorry for Trevor. We're paying him $7 million this year and he will make that next year as well. The Twins have made him an extremely wealthy young man. A little cold hearted management is needed. This team is really terrible. Give up the season and work solely on the future. The last thing we need is for Trevor and Brian and Suzuki to stay in the lineup all season and each to get into a short hot streak, win 15 of 18 games and take is from the 1st draft pick to the 5th while doing absolutely nothing for the development of the team's future.

Sano is the biggest player to ever start in the outfield. Ever. It is now firmly established that he has hamstring issues. He has also fully demonstrated he cannot field the position. If any one ever puts him back into RF they s/b fired on the spot. There can be no reason ever for him to be put back in the outfield.

Baseball is a very peculiar sport, driven by the fact that careers are so long when compared to, say, football. As a result, young players are almost never payed what they are "worth", but when older are way overpaid. This is particularly true for pitchers and catchers, positions that rely on pure skill and physical condition. Look at Joe Mauer and some of our current pitchers. For fully OK players such as Plouffe, as that player ages a ball club has a difficult choice. Do they pay an acceptable player a salary way, way beyond what a 25 year old acceptable player makes? Specifically, do the Twins pay Plouffe $10 million next year to play 3rd base reasonably OK or do they play Sano very much less to play the same position about as well but with much more upside on the offensive side? If they go with Sano and he becomes the super star slugger he may become, then paying him huge money for several years makes complete sense. In my mind it makes no sense to pay Plouffe $10 million under any circumstance. It seems very cold, but it's not like they are firing a bus drive at 40 because he's missing work occasionally because he's developed hemorrhoids. They would be giving an outright release (or making an "undervalued" trade) to a guy that has been paid $ millions over the last several years. That is now wealthy by any standard. I doubt the Twins will do this, however. Our management has an absolutely proven history of comfort with older "proven" ball players and have been willing to overpay them and play them. Even if they are only "proven" to be mediocre and even while playing them they are blocking younger players with more potential.

Yeah, just what we need...another road block keeping our minor league pitching staff from moving forward.. Of course, we've got TR's great history of negotiating great deals with pitchers so at least we could feel good about that.

He's injury prone because he's got a 22 year old mind telling his 280 lb. 2 axe handled wide rear ended body to run around like it was a normally shaped 22 year old's body. Wait until he's 27 and has filled out a bit. This is a train wreck that will continue until our Mr. Sano decides (or doesn't) to take care of himself. I'm guessing he'll figure this out quickly. I think he really wants to be a star. Let's see if he can take charge of his life.

This should put an end to the misguided attempt to have him in the OF. Now the twins will be forced into some real decisions, given that they now have about 9 players for 1st, 3rd and DH. Moving Kepler up shows just how bad our FO is. They earlier called him up to sit on the bench when someone went down rather than keep him in Rochester learning his craft. You, know, by playing baseball rather than watching it. Then they send him back down where he doesn't do particularly well, gets injured and one day after coming off the DL they call him back up. This FO's obsession with trying to catch lightening in a bottle to somehow miraculously save a lost year, even at the expense of their prized prospects, is just plain nuts. Maybe Buxton and Max will light it up. I certainly hope so. Never the less this is not the right way to handle the top prospects in the system.

Let's see: Dozier .200 Plouffe .252 Arcia .233 Escobar .266 Santana .255 Park .224 Sano .221 Mauer .276 Yeah, Mauer's our biggest problem.

Great article, thanks for posting. They should call up the whole core of the Richester team and let 'em play together. When I wrote that it was intended as a tongue in cheek. Then I looked at the standings and what the hell could it hurt?

Our boy, Buck maybe a little motivated after being demoted. Just homered again in1st inning! Now batting .340! Go Buck!!

If I were under contract for $2 million I would feel great, too. In fact I could probably say, "In all honesty, I've never felt better in my life!"

Excellent point. I watched a game earlier this week and never once did I notice Molly talking to a player. It was even more strange than that, he very seldom spoke with another coach. Granted, the cameras are only occasionally on the dugout, but...

This talk about last year being so exceptional is a wee bit overstated. We had one crazy month where we hit about .450 with RISP. The rest of the year we were not very good at all. If the Twins had played sound fundamental ball all year, ran the bases well and were consistently in the right positions and hitting cut off men, etc. Well, OK then, but that's not the way it was. That team was often a mess, except for about 4 weeks when it wasn't.

I agree with this, but unfortunately Twins Mgmt and Coaching, for personal financial reasons, very likely do not want to admit defeat and throw in the towel for the season. Unfortunately for them, the players at times look like they've already done so.

Our young SS is hitting like crazy. I find myself checking the MILB site every morning to see what he did the previous day. But then I look at the fielding numbers to see if he has committed any errors. Some days, how many errors. He now has 11 in 30 games. Is this a fixable thing? Are his basic skills at SS good and he just needs to concentrate or is he misplaced at short? He's an exciting prospect but they need to get him in the right place. But, hey, they've got Sano in right so whose to say?

I put this here rather than the MLB site because it is about sending him down. Perhaps it better belongs in the other site, I don't know.

With the exception of 2 very short but very productive streaks, 1 in each of his 2 years in MLB, Miguel Sano has not been a valuable asset to the Minnesota Twins. If he didn't walk so often, he would be total disaster. Last year from August 12, through September 2. Sano batted .329 with a slugging % of .800 for an OPS of 1.129. The rest of the season he was .201/.397/.598. Fortunately, during this time he walked enough to raise his OBP to around .350. This year from 4/18 to 4/29 he batted .342 with a slugging % of .639 for an OPS of .981. The rest of this year his number is .186/.336/.522. His OBP this year (during the bad streaks) is less than .300. When Sano is not hot he doesn't cool down, he goes into a deep freeze. This has happened now for the second year. Not being a baseball coach, I don't know what it implies. With his walks a case can be made, I suppose, that he has plate discipline. But boy, it sure seems like something isn't clicking. It may be the frustration with playing right field, it could be that he's trying to hit everything over the fence since no one else is driving him in. But something ain't right in Mudville. When putting numbers together, I could not find HBP's, SF's or on by Errors so some numbers are a bit off, but I think the analysis holds. The question is, should he be sent down to get his focus back?

We've had a consensus top 2 or 3 minor league system. Sano, Buxton, Arcia, Rosario, Kepler, Vargas, May, Meyer, Berrios. Each a consensus high prospect. They each did well coming through the minors then got to AAA and the Twins and went to hell. If it were 1 or 3, I'd say we overrated. But every darned one of them? Me thinks something is wrong in the dugouts. At some point you must look at Molly and his staff and ask what the heck is a goin' on around here.

Want to really know? Ask yourself, if you owned the Braves, who on the Twins would you want to acquire? The only team in MLB that's worse than us and you might not take any of them. That's what you can look forward to next year.

This is a team that through a little over 20% of the season is bad by any historical measure. There's no one in the wings to make a significant improvement. Management hasn't a clue what to do. Bad decisions with prior contracts have handcuffed any ability to make housecleaning decisions. And, finally, I hope they don't improve enough to give team management a new lease on life. This basically just sucks.

Kepler is not yet hitting in Rochester, though in recent games he's showing some signs. It makes no sense to move him up at this time. I really think he could be a star, but let him work some things out in AAA. When they do move him up ...play him!!!

Buxton is going to be a major star. He's a kid who was rushed to face major league pitching after 50 AB's in AAA. He's now starting to hit in AAA and if they have a bit of patience before bringing him back up all will be just fine. Just wish they'd send Sano back down to join him. Then in about 30 days they could bring Sano, Buxton & Kepler back at once.

It'll be tempting for the Twins to move him up real wuickly given the dumpster fire at Target Field. I hope they don't over rush it. Give him at least a full month in Rochester.