mikelink45

I do not disagree with you - see my response to the other posting on this blog. Jake Cave gives us a third OF so we are in better shape there, but we are in terrible shape if Sano does not step up. We have no decent 3B in the minors and there are not a lot of options for filler like the scrap heap OFs that they kept grabbing during the season. 3B is essential and hard to fill. We can talk about swinging Polanco over there, but he is at SS because we do not have a good option for him there. His bat would play okay at 3B. But Adrianza and Torreyes are not fit to be starters. I really want a contending team. When the real first rung teams have a hole they fill it and if they have too many good players they deal them, or deal with the consequences. We have been playing with two hands tied behind our collective backs for two years. Something has to happen and I would love it if these players came out and starred this year.

I do not want to give up on them, nor do I want to give up on two seasons of my teams potential. Yes there are better players at all positions, but the players we had at those other positions played and contributed - Buxton and Sano did not. I would have rather put them on extended injury reserve and make some moves that kept the team playing well. As we watched, Sano went to A ball and came back and did very little, Buxton went down and we did not even let him play in MLB in September. I want a better set of options. It would seem that DH and 1B are the ultimate places for Sano according to all I read, so get a 3B and start that movement. Right now we have no 3B replacement at any level worth considering. So what happens if Sano can't play again, just does not make it, gets injured? Shouldn't there be something in place? With Buxton I guess Jake Cave is the designated filler so we are in better shape there. I would have liked to have gotten Billy Hamilton so we had speed and defense in CF or off the bench.

I appreciate your optimism and I hope you are right about the behind the scenes improvement, but I am not really able to see that. Maybe I will. At the same time, it is owed to the fans to have a better product on the field while building for the future.

My annual waiting for Buxton and Sano patience is wearing very thing. It reminds me of waiting for Godot! No, he is not a baseball player, Spark Notes tell us - "Two men, Vladimir and Estragon, meet near a tree. They converse on various topics and reveal that they are waiting there for a man named Godot." "a boy enters and tells Vladimir that he is a messenger from Godot. He tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming tonight," "The next night, Vladimir and Estragon again meet near the tree to wait for Godot." "the boy enters and once again tells Vladimir that Godot will not be coming." https://www.sparknotes.com/lit/godot/summary/ Nothing ever happens because the two men just keep waiting. I think it is wonderful that we all have such patience with Buxton and Sano and that we can keep recycling our just wait columns, but in the mean time life happens, seasons come and go, and fans die, move away, or go and watch the Lynx and United. These are two men on a 25 man active roster, a 40 man potential roster. We have a FO that is supposed to deal with contingencies. We are not supposed to shut down the team for two players. Lots of teams have injuries that take their best players and they make moves. So we fill 3B and CF with really good players and suddenly Sano and Buxton look like superstars that we have all imagined. Great. Trade someone and continue to make the team better. Don't write off season after season. I posted in a comment section the following which is what I have seen from the FO (I have not included the manager and coaches changes because in the long run they do not matter - we need players): Here are the players that they have signed or traded for in 2017 and 2018, there are 54 and I skipped a few from 2017.So this is more than a 40 man roster - how much have these moves pushed us forward?What is the strategy of the FO? Lynn, Reed, Castro, Rodney, Morrison, Schoop, Torreyes, Adrianza, Cron, Austin, Cave, Odorizzi, Pineda, Haley, Paulsen, Field, Rucinski,Hague, Schuck, Tepesch, Vogelsong, Greenwood, Miller, Tracy, Giminez, Belisle, Breslow, Kinley, Duke, Pacheco, Buss, Curtis, Magill, Wilkins, Heisey, Sanchez, Rodriguez, Carter, Villalobos, Motter, Rupp, LaMarre, Raley, Smeltzer, Forsythe, Duran, Alcala, Celestino, Maciel, Trinidad, Costello, DeJong, Rijo, Drake,Adams, So Falvey and Lavine sat on a bench and said "We are waiting for Sano and Buxton." Twins Daily came out and said shouldn't we improve the rest of the roster? Falvey and Lavine sat on a bench and said "We are waiting for Sano and Buxton!

This is not an answer to the posting asking for a three year plan from one of us. Give me the money and resources of Lavine and Falvey and I will come up with a plan. All I can say is waiting for Buxton and Sano year after year after year is getting quite old. I am waiting for Lavine and Falvey and every year I am told they have a plan. What is their plan? Here are the players that they have signed or traded for in 2017 and 2018, there are 54 and I skipped a few from 2017. So this is more than a 40 man roster - how much have these moves pushed us forward? What is the strategy of the FO? Lynn, Reed, Castro, Rodney, Morrison, Schoop, Torreyes, Adrianza, Cron, Austin, Cave, Odorizzi, Pineda, Haley, Paulsen, Field, Rucinski,Hague, Schuck, Tepesch, Vogelsong, Greenwood, Miller, Tracy, Giminez, Belisle, Breslow, Kinley, Duke, Pacheco, Buss, Curtis, Magill, Wilkins, Heisey, Sanchez, Rodriguez, Carter, Villalobos, Motter, Rupp, LaMarre, Raley, Smeltzer, Forsythe, Duran, Alcala, Celestino, Maciel, Trinidad, Costello, DeJong, Rijo, Drake,Adams,

Okay we signed Schoop after a disasterous year where he had 85 OPS+ 15% below replacement. But better than Forsythe who was 65. Schoop's fielding rating does not give us much to get excited about. So, yes we filled the position, and we hope he comes back strong, but if we do he is a free agent after this year. Hard to really get excited or give a grade to this transaction

Schoop had an OPS+ of 85! His total fielding runs above average is +1. Last year he was a replacement level player at best. His 21 HRs is the only stat that stands out. Unless Arreaz is a shocker or Torreyes and Adrianza shock the world, Schoop is our 2B. Until I see the turn around I cannot envision him helping us go anywhere in the division. His biggest contribution at this point is giving us a live body at 2B. Baseball Reference projects him to have a 750 OPS. If he does we are better, but not dramatically. It was a good signing compared to what we have, but whether it was the best choice we had for 2B is yet to be judged. But one thing for sure, he is better than Logan Forsythe who has a career OPS+ of 95 - not just one bad year - and last year he was 65 OPS+.

Just not sure where Kohl fits, if he does. September is a fun month to experiment, but it is not an experiment that carries a lot of weight.

I am sorry to read about this speculation. If Garver is not able to catch he is really not valuable to the Twins future. A very sad thought.

Here we are December 6, 2018. We are almost a week after my birthday and what a week. I waited 73 years for all this to happen. We fired Molitor - he mishandled the bullpen which had all of three good relievers and we needed 4 per game. We let go the pitching coach even though Gibson and others out performed the past. We kept the hitting coaches even though our superstar, can't miss projects continued to flail at the plate. We fired Pickler the guy the front office said would provide new age stat information to the manager. We kept the bench coach who obviously shoulders no blame for the season that got Molitor fired. Then we lost Johnny Field to the cubs and Oliver Drake to the Rays even though they were good enough to prevent minor leaguers from auditioning in September. Great move. We showed other teams how good the players we did not want were. Then to show that we cared about pitching we signed Erasmo Moreno and Preston Guilmet to be our new right hander pitchers. Some real action to get November warming up. Randy Cesar was signed to give 3B depth, Zack Weiss signed to give even more right handed depth, and LaMonte Wade was put on the 40 man even though he was not good enough to come up in September. And Nick Gordon was added to the same 40 man even though he too was not good enough for September - glad we kept Field and Oliver on that roster. We traded Nick Anderson to the Rays and got another 3B Brian Schales, to push Sano. He must be worried that is two 3B players in one month. Having a strong BP we released Alan Busenitz. Then we added Luis Arreaz to the 40 man because we did not know Schoop would be there for the next season and we signed C J Cron and released Robbie Grossman making a completing unremarkable change in our batting talent. Then December came and we though that Ronald Torreyes should challenge Ehire - thereby pushing our talent level on more notch towards the championships we dream of. Is anyone else excited?

I had hoped to have some really meaty transactions to mull over for the Twins this year, but Cron, Schoop, and Torreyes have not moved the meter. I wish them all luck, but I wonder how much has Cron improved us over Austin? How much better is Torreyes than Adrianza? Is Schoop the player we need? Schoop's fielding is replacement level according to what I saw on Baseball Reference, his hitting is not. Now we will continue to have Polanco at SS which is certainly not the best fielding situation. How strong are we in the middle with these two playing there? So far we are filling the roster, but have we improved? How many wins will these player give us?

Does not do anything for me. If we send Cron and Austin in exchange I am fine. Of if we have excess players we are not going to use like Curtiss that is okay too. But in an exchange like this how much does the team gain? Cron 2 WAR, 253/30/74 traditional stats, 816 OPS, -12 Total Runs above average fielding. Santana 1.7 WAR, 229/24/86, 766 OPS, +3 fielding. So based on last year, the only gain we would get in Santana would be in fielding and yet the discussions say his is only a DH now. Put me down in the not excited column.

They tried, but they did not react. Sorry but the FO is still on my questionable list.

The article really brings up the question of roster construction and that all revolves around pitching and especially the bullpen. In the olden days there could be a big bruiser like Johnny Mize or Enos Slaughter who could come in for a late comeback. There were players like Felix Mantilla that were like Ehire and succeeded. We had back ups for all positions, defensive specialist, pinch runners, etc. If baseball is going with this change in rosters its time to expand the roster. Make it 30 or 28 - I do not care. The same number are in the field as always, but the manager can wake up again because there are other options beside intentional walk and change of pitcher.

We are now at a point where there is no bench - just a reserve catcher. Lots of BP so what used to make sense no longer does. I long for the 10 pitcher rosters.

I do not know if we should have moved on anything yet, but all the coach maneuvers are not about to excite the fan base, if they care about the fan base.

If Falvey and Levine did not know this they are not as smart as everyone says. They saw this and still thought they could succeed.

If I ever needed a reason to question WAR - you just gave it to me. Byron has a career 230/285/387. His WAR for 4 years was 6.9. Since I think defensive WAR is as questionable as other defensive stats I have to look at this with some skepticism. I know he is really great in CF, but so was Billy Hamilton. I want Buxton to be a star, but so far he is not.

It is like blaming Molitor for the team frustration when the FO gave him the players. We really do not know the ownership restrictions.

To add to my concerns about Buxton and Sano. I know we have been told to be patient and to wait, they are young, but I keep seeing young players coming in and setting the league on fire. Here is an ESPN article about all the 25 and younger new stars: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25417893/young-players-officially-taken-major-league-baseball We keep waiting and hoping, but we still have to be ready to be realistic. Something went wrong and I wish I knew what it was. But when I keep seeing everyone write we should be going after it in 2019 I think about what we have and this summary was really good, but also "Buxton struggled early and then broke his toe and was never really given a chance to recover properly. But when healthy and with his legs (and feet and toes) under him), he's the best outfielder in the game." Which is not the case. He has the potential to be the best in the game, but it has not happened except for very short stretches. I want us fortified if Buxton and Sano are busts and if they are not - all the better.

Last year the Twins struck out 8.2% of their at bats. Sano 38.5% Cron 25.9 % Austin 35.4 % Imagine that as the middle of the lineup! I can't. All stats from Fangraphs.

Defense up the middle is essential to any team and particularly to the pitchers. If we want good pitchers we have to do more than frame their throws. Fix SS and 2B. We do not have the answers right now. I am not a fan of SANO at 3B either. Lets hope we start to see something from him with new coaching. I am content with the 5th pitcher options. In fact I think Romero belongs in the top four and we should be ready to trade Odorizzi, or Pineda or Gibson if they look good this spring. Pair one of them with one of the other fifth starter options and move us up in talent. OF worries me because I am not convinced that Buxton can make the transition from Billy Hamilton light to a full fledged CF star. Of course I hope, but the signs have not been there. The BP is really light on talent. Time to change the SP candidates to RP. The RP prospects we have been developing have not been shining when called to the bigs.

Lets work on our own hitters. Forget the launch angle and start working on the contact skill and an eye for the strike zone. The players listed will not lift the team. This is a challenge and it is an important one, but we have to hope our new gurus fix it internally.

I like this even if there is a hint of sarcasm. Terry Ryan, at the end of his reign needed to be replaced, but that does not mean he was not smart and did some very good things for the organization.

http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/25420487/billy-hamilton-jonathan-schoop-non-tenders-looking-work Read this before getting too excited by the bargain bin players. Some are worth having on a team, but none are players that will put us to the level we want.