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Buxton will always be a mystery to us as well as a player of great promise. I did not mean that he is a minor leaguer, just that he is rehabbing in the minors and I wondered how comfortable he is there. He came back for a few games and just blew away the AAA pitchers. But I have likened him to Pete Reiser who could have been a HOF inductee except for injuries. Pete Reiser I keep hoping for better, but so far his is a tragic story.

I know he did not play today, but a question about Byron Buxton since he is currently a minor leaguer. He is playing in the Twin Cities, he has done great when he plays there, just like in the minors. Maybe he just likes it there. If Ruesse is to be believed he is upset with the Twins.

I really liked this short essay. Yes we can say it is one of the first signs of throwing up our arms and admitting mistakes. But we have also had Tzu-Wei Lin DFA'd April 29 and everyone said - who cares, April 29 we also DFA'd Mr Riddle and got a league wide yawn again. May 7 we had a DFA for Brandon Waddell now with the one team worst than us - Baltimore. Derek Law was DFA'd May 18 and now he is a star in St Paul - leave him there. He was outrighted there May 20. Dakota Chalmers DFA May 29, a minor leaguer we could not develop. June 5 Minaya DFA and once again, no one cares. We have a lot of chaff. We need quality.

I am fascinated by all the contract amounts that the posts put out. They are so out of line with my life I cannot relate so I never put dollars in my posts. Baseball is a fantasy league even in MLB. Reality is suspended, worth is measured in velocity, speed, distance... Even with my old economics degree I could not begin to speculate on salaries. Pay him in bitcoins, they don't seem real to me either.

Nice summary. Looks like none of these starters is ready to rescue the Twins staff. But we do have some hitters that are looking good and if Donaldson continues to have calf issues Miranda looks like the man to take his spot.

Even though I did not use the names you suggest I still have to respond to your warning. On a site where your readers have a lot of emotions the ability to express them is important. I am against names that have racial, political, ethnic, and bully connotations I do understand the need to clamp down, but when I read your note about "Mr Spreadsheet" I do not see it hitting that category. I know there is a lot of angst between stat heads and non-stat heads, but that is part of the beauty of this site. My gut reaction to your warning is be careful, censorship is a brush that must be wielded with great caution.

I am delighted with this essay. You really hit this topic at the right time, but for Berrios agent it is the right time too. Berrios has been steady for years, he has been good enough that we have wasted a lot of time debating if he is or will be an ace. He is just a plain good pitcher. We have had a lot of good but not necessarily Ace staff leaders - Radtke, Viola, Perry, Kaat, Grant, Goltz and they have led the staff and team well. I went to Fangraphs to see where Berrios ranks with all the other pitchers in MLB and he is 30th in FIP, and K/9 but does not make the top 30 except in wins (which most except me do not count) where he is 7th. The reason that I do count wins is that it means he held the opposition down so that the last place team could score enough to win and he pitched long enough that the mediocre BP did not have a chance to blow the win. And somehow he kept Captain Hook Baldelli from yanking him from the mound. What I do not know is if this team and his agent can have the conversation that is needed to get this done. Take Berrios out of our rotation and we would still be in last place - no player (not even Mike Trout) can make a team great by themselves, But pitching is still the most valuable asset to any team and this teams choices from FA market have stunk and I agree with Ted - prospects and a free agent are not going to let us climb back up. Except for pitching I think we have the makings of another good run, but pitching is still the key and the dream of minor leaguers has to be tempered. I remember thinking Gonsalves was going to be a long term fixture in our rotation after reading all the prospect reports on TD. I though Griffen Jax would come up and show that he was ready (better than Bailey I thought based on what I read). I thought we had found a real diamond in the rough with Dobnak, that Thorpe might have turned it around, but they and Smeltzer show that the transition is not as easy as we all hope. The prospects we would get in return for Berrios would have the same difficulties. Prospects - Colina, Burdi, Graterol (now a Dodger) that throw so hard also find the IL to be their team. Now I dream of Canterino, Balazovic, Duran, Winder, Bailey and Berrios and hope that all the things I have read are accurate. But most important is that we keep what we have and the team may have waited too long to pursue this extension but I hope not.

Thanks for the continued discussion. I cannot argue with your logic. I came from an era when wins count and I also liked seeing my SP instead of my RP. We are now 68 games into the season - Hansel Robles has been in 30 games, Acala 28, Duffey 27, Rogers and Colome 26. 40% of the games played - At this pace Robles is in 77 games, Acala 66, Duffey 66, Rogers and Colome 61 each. Are those numbers sustainable? I will say it again, it is the number of games, warm ups, not innings that really matter. Of course RP are trained to go just one inning so that is what we expect until they change expectations. SP are supposed to go 5 - 7 (it used to be 9 innings). There is a reason why RP are hard to project year to year. We know that Rogers has a real issue with two days in a row. With Happ and Shoemaker around the RP demand is even greater so a good start should reduce the RP use the way that Berrios has done. But so far in the Rocco regime Berrios seems to be the only one allowed to go deep in a game. Sorry to rant, but I think baseball has to come up with another strategy for pitching and I do not mean sticky substances. If we want Ober to have less starts bring up another rookie - Duran? and go with a six pitcher rotation.

I understand, but I would say that with warmups before the game and at each inning the addition of an inning is less stress than another start. If they want to have him skip a start I understand, but when your pitcher is doing well and you have a BP that could use a day off I want to use the pitcher.

What I do not want is for Kepler to come back and bench one of these two players. I see Kepler in CF (not my favorite either) Celestino sent down and Kiriloff and Larnach surrounding him. Keep Arraez in the IF. Let Gordon back them up, then when given the opportunity trade Kepler, hope that Buxton tires of AAA and comes back where he belongs.

I just cannot stand Rocco's handling of SP. Let him pitch the fifth, let him qualify for a win, it was an easy game for him, stretch him out. Instead we bring in Thielbar who has been injured - he could have waited another inning. I understand why giving him a chance when we have a big lead is a good idea. Colome on the other hand, yuck, one inning, two hits, one run, one wild pitch, no Ks!!!??? He is just awful this year, put him in the Happ/shoemaker bin. Move on. Using Rogers and Alcala in this game made less sense. If Ober had one or two more innings they would not have been needed Theilbar and Colome would have ended the game. For all our injury prevention caution - Donaldson and Simmons pulled. It is not working. Just play the players, let them pitch, hit, field and when and if they get injured take them out then.

That's really hard to measure because we have had some really bad ones. But for a single year this one is certainly the most disappointing

We have plenty of deadwood on the 40 man so saving Enlow should be easy. Who to keep is the question. I enjoy these summaries and hope the young players can push their way on to the Twins roster and we stop picking up the flotsam that we seem to specialize in at FA time. Go Balazovic!

It is almost mesmerizing to watch a catastrophe up close. Not pleasing, not fun, but hard to look away. I could not even remember who our pitchers were last year - I had to look it up because I can not understand how our team has fallen so fast. Dobnak, Hill, Smeltzer, and Odorizzi with Pineda, Berrios and Maeda. Maeda's pitching has fallen off a cliff. Pineda, as usual, has ailments impact his number of starts. Dobnak had his pumpkin stolen, Smeltzer is shut down for arm issues. Odorizzi is 1 - 3 5.68. So what gives? Hill was in 8 games and did well, now he is with Tampa Bay and 5 - 2 3.38. I can only see Berrios and Maeda back next year. Then what? Griffen Jax has three terrible performances, why does anyone want to see him start? The BP had Romo who has a 5.56 ERA in 25 games, Tyler Clippard who is out for the year, Trevor May who is 2 - 2 with a 4.57 era, and Matt Wisler who is 1 - 2 5.48. Look at those statistics - none of them could help us. Although they are better than what we have in Colome, Robles, and the revolving group of cast offs. Who do we keep for next year beyond Rogers and Alcala? None? And do we miss Marwin Gonzales? I don't think so. Do we miss Eddie Rosario - I do think so, but I don't want to start an Eddie storyline, but he and Buxton gave us some energy, the kind we signed Donaldson for - its just that Josh gives us anger energy and it isn't working. Has Simmons saved the IF? Who do we trade? Who do we DFA? I would suggest that using Happ and Shoemaker to showcase them for a trade is a waste of time.

I am in shock - all Byron needs is an extra case of Sheboygan hotdogs. Just tell him they are not available anywhere else and we can get him to sign for a discount. As far as which team wants him - they all do.

Last night we got to see J T Chagois - nice reunion for him. I see a BP of Pressley, Hendriks, Kintzler , Anderson and Graterol (both on IL) and Littell in my dreams.

If the Twins pitchers are using a sticky substance I hope that it is banned, because it certainly has not worked. Robles last night was great for one batter - then he lost the game and he is second best in the BP if he is using a substance and it is taken away from him we might as well DFA him now. I believe this years spin is the FO trying to sell us this pitching staff.

I am sorry to say I stayed up to the end of the game. Disappointing. Somehow the idea of a relief pitcher coming into the game gives me no relief. I cringe and expect what we usually get - the worst. No criticism of the rookie OF - all three contributed mightily at bat - more than the old vets and learning the different OFs. all the travails of being a rookie are difficult. I like all three and Celestino getting up a year or two early is really learning on the fly and getting better each series. Isn't it time to start moving some more minor leaguers into the pen and rotation?

I don't understand the Twins choices either, but they must have other considerations, like giving a guy a pat on the back. This is just a wonderful presentation. Thanks for all the work. Like a previous post I drop Sabato like a rock - I am not impressed, Wallner is the hitter who needs to rise along with Miranda. Steer seems to really be impressing many, but I am not yet on his bandwagon. I know he will make the list, but lower half. I suspect this will be the first time the top ten is dominated by pitchers which will be nice. Is Bailey Ober due a big jump or will he stay in the bottom ten?

Not inspired. We need pitchers and Barnes pitched like he was already part of the major league staff. Oh please help - I am too old to keep suffering like this.

The only one that does not make sense is Astudillo. Everyone has complained about him in one post after another, but ne fills in, he hits, he is a bright spot and if he is one our best that might mean we are not very good, but at this point he is the one I would keep.

"I don’t know how much to read into the bullpen usage in this game. All three relievers have struggled mightily this year, but specifically using Dobnak and Shoemakers as relievers and leaving them out there when they were clearly struggling to get outs was interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see a move or two before the Twins leave for their six-game road trip against Seattle and Texas." Of course there is no surprise. What moves are left" This team just stinks. But what is left? Do we just DFA the team and start with minor leaguers? How the Hell did we win the last two years?

I am not interested in the discussion of whether he is an ACE or not, I want Berrios on our team for the future, not traded. We can look at this rotation and see how hard it is to have quality starters. Pineda will probably walk, Shoemaker, Dobnak, and Happ should not be in the future rotation and Maeda is a mystery. Trade Berrios and who is our number one? Take out his rookie year and he is 52 - 33. He has won 27% of our games this year. Rogers and Robles in relief. I would have had one go two innings. Who is now available for the next game?

I like the Dobnak story, I think I would really enjoy knowing Randy, but as a major league starter he is one of a long list of pitchers who rise like a helium balloon only to develop a puncture and crash to the ground. We can all give him love as another post suggests, but the other teams love is for his pitches and we need to think about the next replacement. When Maeda comes back who drops out of the rotation? Berrios and Pineda are set. Out of Dobnak, Happ, Ober who do you drop from the rotation?

Good review - Shoemaker is consistent from SP to RP. His starts were more like an opener as far as innings is concerned, but not results. He just does not have it. Why keep using him, is it just hope he will show something so we can trade him at the deadline? I saw an ESPN note on some of the teams that need pitching and the names from the Twins that show up are Pineda and Happ. No Shoemaker. There has to be an evaluator on the team coaching staff, which is larger than ever, who can see that Shoemaker does not have MLB stuff. Keep robbing St Paul, rotate everyone who can relieve until we find some real relief.