mikelink45

Moo - not Boo

If I am not mistaken, SS is where you improve the infield, not 3B.

I am frustrated by this line just as I have been with the Rosario posts. Sano is still our 3B. He is just below average, but which is more important in defense - 1B or 3B. I await your answer and will be ready for the debate. Should we move for a slightly better 3B to have a slightly worse 1B? I don't think so. Has anyone checked in with Sano to see what he prefers? I remember a wonder and failed experiment with RF. Why mess with someone who has the potential to be a star? I keep thinking - what is our real need (I won't repeat, because you all know).

I suspect that there are many ways to add to the staff besides the big six FA

Wonderful story - Happy Thanksgiving to everyone

Jeffers is, Sano is still at 3B, and Astudillo can still be the third choice at both positions. If we wanted Castro we could have made an effort to resign him ( I would have), but these positions are not where I want the big signing.

Am I the only one who does not care what they wear? I know this is revenue - more jersey's more sales, but does it really matter? The A's wore the ugliest uniforms in history, but their wins still counted, the White Sox wore shorts and no one remembers or cares. Baby blue, St Paul Red and Minneapolis Blue, Minnesota pin stripes, wild rice grey, does it matter? The Timberwolves is a wonderful symbol, but the poor wild animals are embarrassed by the long term tameness of the NBA team. Is it the United or the loons that kick that ball around and score only once every 90 minutes. The Lynx has been honored by some real power. But the Twins represent what? Are the cities really Twins? Have they ever played a game in St Paul? Maybe if they had we would not have the Independent league Saints bringing memories of the Dodgers history in the cities with their historic AAA name. What does TC Bear have to do with anything? Well time to wrap up this stream of consciousness - thanks to Ted for the stimulus. But wear baby blue or baby pink and all I care about is did we win or did we lose.

I am confused by all the 3B, C postings when the team produced all it needed to do in the lineup - we need pitching. Is this just because nothing is happening and speculation at least keeps the stove hot?

Give me On Base Percentage - the most important stat for measuring worth. Forget the power measurement. He is a SS. Tell me range, arm, speed, and whatever else matters now in the age of shifts. I am still a fan of the Ozzie's, Vizquels, Aparicios of the world. It is not power that will make him a valuable SS or force him to move.

In one of the discussion entries I saw the question - what will happen to catchers when the Robo ump is put in place and the quick hands ability to steal (frame) a strike is no longer a vital skill. This got me thinking about what are the other attributes of a good catcher. My first thought is the ability to call a good game, to put the pitcher in a better position to fool the batter. Of course the Houston Astronauts are pushing for a change there too. Maybe we will have head phones on the catcher and pitcher and the pitching coach will become the defensive coordinator calling all the pitches. If so my criteria will change again. However, for now I will take the intellectual impact of the catcher and say that this was the most important and least appreciated of Joe Mauer's skills. The ability of Joe and others to call a game is not easy to judge. For example; if you have Scherzer, Paxton, and Strasburg does their success make you a great game caller? Or if you have Nolasco, Hughes, and Milone are you a bad catcher? I guess we have to ask (world champion) Kurt Suzuki. If you call for a pitch and the pitcher cannot deliver it as a quality offering it does not matter if it was the right pitch or not? How do we decide on this skill? I do not know, but pitchers should have some idea - I wonder if that is why some pitchers have designated catchers who are not the regular catcher. Of maybe those catchers call what the pitcher wants rather than what should be called. I do not know how to decide. So with the current conversations possibly eliminating those two qualities we get to the hockey goalie attributes - who lets the most baseballs get by for Wild Pitches and Passed balls? Here is a list of the most passed balls - https://www.foxsports.com/mlb/stats?season=2019&category=FIELDING+II&group=1&sort=7&time=0&pos=0&qual=1&sortOrder=0&splitType=0&page=1&statID=0 16 by Flowers in 83 games is atrocious - 226 innings - 0.07 pct . Grandal had 9 in 412 innings - 0.02. pct. Garver had 8 in 225 innings - 0.035 and Castro had 7 in 210 innings - 0.033. Former Twin minor leaguer John Hicks with Detroit had 3 in 244 innings 0.012. Former Twin Suzuki had 6 in 209 innings 0.0028. Former Twins minor leaguer Wilson Ramos had 10 in 338 - 0.029. According to Baseball Almanac Astudillo has zero passed balls in 37 games as catcher. I could not find out who allowed the most Wild Pitches. But the Angels - 98, Boston 81, Baltimore 75, Seattle 75, and Oakland 74 - were the top five teams in Wild Pitches for the 2019 season. Minnesota was number 8 with 70. Those catchers were - Angels - LuCruy ,Boston -Vasquez, Baltimore - Severino, Seattle - Narvaez, Oakland - Phegley. Was it their fault or bad pitchers? Then there are errors - I am not sure how everything is figured. I assume bad throws to the bags, but is a PB an error? (not according to MLB.com - A passed ball is not recorded as an error, but when a run scores as the result of a passed ball, it does not count as an earned run against a pitcher) and that makes no sense to me, so other errors would come from fielding bunts and taking throws on runners trying to score and catching the strikeout pitch (?). When I went to see the errors the first thing I saw was fielding pct and it made me laugh - these are 1000 fielding catchers in 2019 - Willians Astudillo, John Hicks, John Ryan Murphy, Drew Butera, When I look at the serious list of full time catchers the thing that stood out is Realmuto's 9 errors! How did he get them. I am still confused by catcher errors. Juan Castro had 1. Mitch Garver had 6 and Grandal 8! The catcher's most striking attribute in the past was his arm, but in this day of no stolen bases that positive element seems like it has been removed by the current metrics. I hope it comes back strong - give me Ricky, Coleman, Wills, Brock, Aparicicio and the other speedsters! If we look at current stats Mitch Garver tops the league with a .162 caught stealing rate - followed by Wilson Ramos .153. Not much to look at because there were so few attempts. Fangraphs WAR has Realmuto with 5.7, Grandal 5.2, Gaver 3.9, Vasquez 3.5. Tom Murphy 3.2. I hate to say it by I did not even know who Tom Murphy was. In case you do not know him either - he is a Seattle Mariner. Garver gets his WAR points from offense. Fangraphs has points for Offense and Defense before calculating WAR. Realmuto, Hedges (Padres), Vazquez(Red Sox), Grandal, and Perez (Indians) rate the top five in Defense by fangraph measures. Mitch Garver is 22nd. and Castro is 17th. Suzuki is 33rd out of 37 catchers rated with 250 ABs minimum. Astudillo in 52nd out of 68 when I drop the ABs to 100. Garver is first by a wide margin when rating catchers with 250 ABs in offense with Contreras second and Grandal 3rd. Castro is 14. Astudillo is number 41 of 68 when I drop the ABs to 100 and look at offensive ratings. So what is the future catcher's requirements: Stamina Quick reflexes Good arm Good bat Able to handle a runner coming in from third Sounds like Garver will fit the future and I like Jeffers coming in to back him up.

Jeter and Walker are my only choices. How can you say that Bonds and Clemens would have been in without steroids? Boston thought Clemens was done. They traded him and he suddenly got great! Wow what magic.

Take whichever one that's available to us. That is whichever one is willing to sign with us if you don't want Sano on 3rd. Otherwise sign a pitcher.

I know there is a lot written here but it's not an area of concern for me. Astudillo and Jeffers is fine. Get some pitchers.

Maybe we can trade him for George Clooney or Hugh Jackman

I take a slightly different look at these players (except Duran who is a stud and will be a star at some point). But Chalmers and Raley are trade bait - do it soon and get something good. On the other hand Celestino is the guy we are using as insurance for CF if Buxton continues to reside on the injured list and Blankenhorn is the 3B back up if Sano is shoved over to 1B.

I see this as stupidity. We want baseball to be more popular, but we are going to eliminate the arm of baseball that reaches out into the communities and states where MLB cannot exist. Is this considered smart? Lets just juice the ball some more and watch Home Run Derby, lets forget about developing dreams of reaching the majors, lets eliminate how many players???? Yes this is eliminating players and fans. How many rounds are there in MLB draft? With this reduced number of leagues we can go to the NBA two rounds. So MLB wants more independent leagues. Do enough and we can get a Major Independent League and forget the millionaires league (sorry - billionaires). This is another really frustrating development. If they had eliminated one league or even a dozen teams it would have slid by, but baseball likes to be stupid in a way that everyone can see.

No. Avila is the only one I would consider. I want any signing we do to move us beyond what we were last year and Avila would plug in to keep us the same while the others do nothing for me.

The over use of RPs means that few teams can have a pitcher only face 1 batter. Too many innings need to be covered

The rankings have it right. I suspect that Raley was put on the 40 man so he could be traded rather than Rule V. Rooker with Sano would be too many Ks. To bad they are not CFs, which is why Celestino is on the 40 man. What team needs the bats of Rooker and Raley and have a pitcher we would want?

The question of whether he goes to 1B or stays at 3B is really the question of who else will play either of those positions. 3B has never been considered a defense first position, but that was before all the shifts that put the 3B at traditional SS so often. So enlighten me on the positional importance. The question of who goes there if Sano doesn't really seems like the big issue. Adrianza had a career year, I do not see him repeating it and his bat is not what we traditionally want from 3B. Gonzales is not a 3Bman. So who is coming up to 3B? Is it Blankenship? Is it Lewis? Do we move Polanco there? 1B is traditionally the spot you dump big bats, but we have an excess of options for that position - listen to all the people who want Garver to play there more often. So Sano can fit there, but who do we remove from the lineup by shifting him to the right side? And who do we put in the lineup with that same shift. The question is not just about Sano defense.

Harmon was the Gonzales of the Twins - LF/1B/3B - but he was most known for 3B which is where he started. I do appreciate your post. By the way, Rollins was a good player! In his career Harmon played 791 games at 3B and 969 at 1B plus 961 in OF, 11 at 2B, and 158 DH. He was more of an all around player than most people remember.

I have no head for the ridiculous money's that are spent on players in FA so I will confine my statement to this - I want him. He is exactly what this club and rotation needs.

Celestino is the one I am least surprised by. He is the eventual insurance for Buxton. We need CF players more than corner fielders. I do not see Raley prospering here, but he could be part of a trade package. If they thought he was going to be taken they would know that there is a potential market that they can exploit. Duran and Celestino are the only two I would truly want to protect, but I would expect there are other considerations for protecting them.

Not ready to say he is HOF, but he has the tools to follow those greats and fielding can improve with some good coaching.

I am not worried about home runs, doubles do well and getting on base on a team of power hitters is an amazing and welcome talent. I think Gwynn and Carew are good comparisons as is Nellie Fox of the old Go Go Sox and Ichiro and Wade Boggs. If he is a throw back, he is a very welcome one for me. As young as he is he has a lot of potential to continue improving and I look forward to it. Because of his discipline I am not expecting him to have a sophomore slump.