mikelink45

So sad. I really hope Miguel gets his life straightened out.

I also enjoy the fact that in the Kepler/Buxton/Sano/Polanco era - it is Eddie that rose to the top while absorbing all kinds of criticism in his first years for lack of plate discipline. Way to go Eddie, now just keep it going through a full season.

The toe injury for Buxton seems to get less attention than it should. Check out how a toe injury ended the career of HOF Dizzy Dean - https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/tht-live/the-dizzy-dean-injury-cascade/https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/tht-live/the-dizzy-dean-injury-cascade/ I can only hope healthy bodies allow the team to coach the basics and concentrate on BB.

Seldom do teams have two players so highly regarded rise to MLB at the same time like Buxton and Sano, then struggle and fail at the rate that they did. You are right about the need to keep working with them, to let them rise - we know that 27 is usually the time of maximum production - but there really needs to be a plan for how to help them succeed. So far the hit and miss and miss system that we have employed with their development and major league career has been a disaster.

Wanted: Manager Preferably someone so analytical that you can create a bullpen and rotation out of thin air, make our key players produce despite injuries and suspensions. You should be a manager who knows how to use great stats to replace great players and is especially good at dealing with misfits that the FO picks off the waiver wire or old players who are past a prime that were never that great. You must know how to play defense with a SS that has off and on days, find a 2B - somewhere, juggle 1B between players that are not known for their glove and will replace someone who was. Need to have a speed dial for weight watchers to keep 3B viable and be a psychologist for a potentially great and never really produced keystone CF. If you feel qualified and have some connection to the Indians who always seem really good but can't win the big one - send your Stats to the Twins FO. Job to begin in 2019.

I guess you need less proof than I do. The roster construction still leaves me cold. The players Molitor has to work with was a mess. Molitor takes the blame and all the other coaches and experts that were brought on and surrounded him skate home free? Nope. I am not behind this FO. I am not buying in to the thought we are better off than we were two years ago when we also thought we were better off than we were two years before that. Lets see some results before we crown them as saviors of Twins baseball. Put me down on as not one of the informed that you included in your statement - "Maybe it's because of my follower base being of the more informed variety" - not do I twitter or follow any on twitter - I just watch baseball. Personally I really enjoyed this article from MinnPost https://www.minnpost.com/sports/2018/10/by-firing-paul-molitor-the-twins-got-rid-of-a-problem-they-didnt-have/?utm_source=MinnPost+e-mail+newsletters&utm_campaign=df21657975-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_10_03_04_39&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_3631302e9c-df21657975-124131045 It captures a lot of my perspective.

I was surprised to read 20 rookies and then tried to figure out who they were - I remember the great promise and performance of Romero and only wish we had seen more of him before the end of the season. Garver is a great choice because I almost forgot he still had rookie status. Cave would also have been a really solid choice, but the catcher position is so demanding that it would be hard to give it to an OF when Garver handled so many different pressures. I hope we have a most exciting award because that would be owned by Astudillo. Now as to those other 16 rookies? I know we had a boat load of pitchers in September - is my count right that we had 10 rookie pitchers? A September call up should not be rookie of the year, but Call up of the year should be Stewart who I have to admit I had written off. I did not see him turning it around like he did. Good for him. The relief pitchers that we called up distinguished themselves by mostly being not ready for MLB and at their ages they should be. So who are the remaining 6? Did the come and go that quickly? I just do not remember other rookies at bat. Are Austin and Field rookies? Help me out.

As a person who spoke against the FO and not against Molitor I am not surprised, not does it please me. What I want is a true evaluation of all the coaches that were brought in - for example, what exactly did Pickler contribute? I also want an examination of the Front office moves - Molitor did not bring in Bobby Wilson or trade him for Giminez, Molitor did not sign Belisle, Molitor did not sign Morrison or Lynn or Reed or Duke...but he had to use them. Was it Molitor of the FO that brought back an injured Buxton and then refused Buxton a September show case? Who made the decision for putting Sano in RF? Who signed LaMarre and Field? Who constructed the 40 man roster? Who coached the pitchers? Who was hired to coach pitchers, bullpen, sat as bench coach and yet said nothing if Molitor over used a BP pitcher? Managers get fired, that is part of their job description, but I want the Twins to succeed and I want them to do so with leadership from FO/Coaches/manager and I would like a well constructed roster. I am not interested in simply moving people out so that we can get former Indian coaches. Good luck Molitor I know this really won't hurt you and I am not saying these things to defend the managing performance, but because I see an awful lot wrong and I have watched managers as scapegoats for too many decades.

Joe Mauer the catcher was HOF, Joe Mauer the 1B was not. It is unfortunate that an injury derailed his career, but that is the story of baseball. It is littered with those kinds of tragic stories. Joe was lucky to be able to change positions and continue and he fulfilled a good role with the team. I appreciate him, but I cannot go overboard in praise.

I really enjoyed Escobar, but this career year, could also be a bubble that bursts next year. His production went down after the trade and I fear our memory of his half season with us may taint our judgment. I do see him as an excellent utility player and that might be important since Polanco's glove goes missing at times, 2B Forsyth had a great start and immediately dropped to his normal level, 1B is our easiest fix, and 3B has to be held open for Sano at this point, but will need a strong back up. Right now Adrianza is the utility player on the roster and he really did an excellent job in 2018.

This is an excellent choice, but Garver would have been equally good. Garver rose to the challenge of being the number one catcher despite having to split time with Bobby Wilson. He hit as we would have wished, but more important, perhaps, is the fact that his pitch framing and defense continued to improve throughout the year and we should now depend upon him to split the time with Castro and pick up more ABs at 1B and DH,

Nobody should appreciate Mauer more than the FO -his maybe retirement let the fans focus away from the overall product and the future.

I have not been a big Trevor May fan, but I think Rogers and May look like the best we have for 8/9. Reed and Hildy in 6/7 and forget the opener.

There has to be a reason to be loud and this team, this year, has not provided it.

This maybe my favorite September post. I love Berrios ending on a high note, Cave has looked great and may be a number 3 not #4 OF, Grossman has done amazing with the bat and patience - if we had a reasonable number on the bench there would be plenty of room for him. And Astudillo just astounds. If the FO does not plan to give him a chance next year they will have completely lost me.

The talk for September has been primarily Astudillo. Is the FO listening. Sometimes you have do something for the fans - Astudillo deserves a spot next year - even if he gets sent down later. He has done everything on the field that they have asked and he has carried fan interest to the end of the season too.

Nicely done. Developing pitchers has to be a priority. We have Gratol and Thorpe in the minors and we have to continue to groom them as well as figuring out what to do with what we have do to rescue our highest level prospects.

This teams FO really has to answer for the use of injured players. What is their philosophy? What is there plan? Using hurt players in games with no meaning is inexcusable.

I think Cave has made next years roster, I just hope Molitor has not given up on Buxton. Adrianza may be pushing for SS if Polanco moves to 2B. But one win out of three cannot be taken to far in our need for optimism.

I am frustrated that Vasquez did not get to pitch to a few batters and get over his jitters. Don't they want him to succeed and have some confidence? Astudillo is a wonderful energy guy and we need energy. Polanco continues to prove he should be at 2B. He is just not consistent enough in the field to be SS. Hildenberger has been among my frustrated posts for the last few weeks. He might not be intimidated in the ninth, but he also is no good in the ninth.

It is September call up season. Other teams have as many relief pitchers and pinch hitters as you could ever want, but not us. Be careful of starting the clock on the players, don't sit the old veterans. The only thing that could have made this game better was having Belisle close the game.

I guess it is interesting, but I am having a hard time reading anything in to this. I guess that the conclusion would be that Kepler is far superior to our other outfielders. Is that the intention, the interpretation? I think the data must be mixed with other metrics to give us something to judge.

What do we make of the Twins bullpen in this era where bullpens have supplanted starters? Closers, Openers, Lefty and righty specialists, relievers for innings 5,6,7,8,9. Lots of warm ups, lots of wasted time. In my world we would not have openers and we would limit the teams to 4 pitchers per nine innings which would really make the manager think about who to bring in and when - if they are on their third pitcher in the sixth inning. We might have to teach starters to learn what starters in the past learned – how to conserve themselves, who to put max effort into, and to think about quick outs instead of 6 – 9 pitch outs. But my dream does not count so what should the Twins do about their 2019 – 2020 Bullpens? We have the following players in our current Bullpen: Belisle – overused – even if it is once a week or once a month Hildenberger – overused and should not be in the ninth Reed – Can he be what he once was? May – just to make everyone angry, I will tell you I think he is overrated. Drake – Not on a good team, but are we a good team? Magill – Nice surprise can he keep it up? Busenitz – running out of chances Rogers – finishing the best of all Mejia – Not sure what to think of him in BP Goya- Our opener specialist Duffey – Hope your next team can get you effective again Curtiss – okay, but Vasquez – Nice to see the advance, but do they really expect him in MLB next year? Gimenez – I know he is a ringer Which ones do you want to keep? They are all on the 40 man roster. Who would you DFA – I would choose Gimenez, Belisle, Busenitz, Duffey as my for sure DFA group, but would not mind if we could move up from Curtiss, Magill, and Drake. Then in the minor leagues we have: A different Reed Anderson Moran Stashak Molina Harper All were included in Seth Stoths minor league reliever of the year. Only Vasquez, Moya, Curtiss, and Busenitz were called up from the entire list. Why not all of them in September? I know service time, etc. Anyone you want to predict will be on the roster in the next two seasons? Go ahead and move starters in if you want, I have not seen enough of the young pitchers to want Gonsalves, Stewart, Little, DeJong in my pen. Here is the Relief pitcher Free Agent Class for your shopping pleasure – but remember that very few relief pitchers can sustain their effectiveness and seldom to they come in and shine for their new club: Adam Ottavino (33 years old, 2.2 WAR) Jeurys Familia (29, 1.8) David Robertson (34, 1.3) Craig Kimbrel (31, 1.2) Sergio Romo (36, 1.0) Jesse Chavez (35, 1.0) Oliver Perez (37, 0.8) Jake Diekman (32, 0.7) Tony Sipp (35, 0.7) Brad Brach (33, 0.7) Zach Duke (36, 0.7) Joe Kelly (31, 0.6) Justin Wilson (31, 0.6) Mark Melancon (34, 0.5) -- Can opt out of the two years and $28 million remaining on his contract. Tyler Clippard (34, 0.4) Andrew Miller (34, 0.4) Kelvin Herrera (29,0.4) Tony Barnette (35, 0.3) Aaron Loup (31, 0.3) Bud Norris (34, 0.3) Jonny Venters (34, 0.3) Adam Warren (31, 0.3) John Axford (36, 0.2) Greg Holland (33, 0.2) Shawn Kelley (35, 0.2) Jerry Blevins (35, 0.1) Santiago Casilla (38, 0.1) Fernando Salas (34, 0.0) Ryan Madson (38, 0.0) Zach McAllister (31, 0.0) Blake Wood (33, 0.0) Daniel Hudson (32, -0.1) Zach Britton (31, -0.1) Jorge De La Rosa (38, -0.1) Jeanmar Gomez (31, -0.1) AJ Ramos (32, -0.2) Jim Johnson (36, -0.2) Matt Belisle (39, -0.2) Randall Delgado (29, -0.2) Boone Logan (34, -0.3) Brad Ziegler (39, -0.3) Cody Allen (30, -0.3) Hector Santiago (31, -0.4) Peter Moylan (40, -0.4) Junichi Tazawa (33, -0.6) Blaine Boyer (37, -0.9) Josh Tomlin (34, -1.3) David Phelps (32, N/A) -- Hasn't appeared in the Majors in 2018. Joaquin Benoit (41, N/A) -- Hasn't appeared in the Majors in 2018. https://www.mlb.com/news/2019-mlb-free-agents/c-293292274 Not easy because we are not blessed with great arms like some teams and we have not shown an ability to develop them. With the average now close to 4 pitchers per game per team and going up can we get by with 8 relief pitchers – five starters and that makes 13. Can relief pitchers come in every other game? https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/how-bullpens-took-over-modern-baseball/ Don Mattingly got steamed https://www.miamiherald.com/sports/mlb/miami-marlins/article218196470.html on September 15 when the two teams – Phillies and Marlins used a total of 15 relievers in one game! No pitcher recorded 6 outs in the game. So what happens next – that was a September open roster game, but will we start to see rosters with a second catcher, a utility man and the rest pitchers? Stay tuned. Give it a try – who will you depend upon?

I would like to believe Rortvdt and Jeffers would be available in 2020, but not sure. That seems ambitious and does not fit the Twins style.

I suspect the team expects Tyler Austin to be at 1B and Sano at 3B next year. I have my doubts and the number of Ks will drive me crazy. If we go back to Buxton,Rosario,Kepler in the OF does that make Cave the DH when he is not in the field? I am not seeing that as a contending lineup. But right now 2B and SS are the real questions - have they had enough of Forsythe for them to believe in him for next year? And if they do can Polanco improve his fielding to go with his bat? Is there a good SS out there or are we waiting for Lewis and Rooker and Kiriloff to answer all these needs? Yes sign Berrios, use caution with Gibson, at his age he can go down as quick as he came up. Do not trust Pineda to make it through the season, put Romero in the rotation no matter what else happens. I would also question an extension for Odorizzi, but he would be part of this five man rotation. The BP is number one in terms of needs. We are in the BP era of baseball, it has become the most important part of most rosters now and we do not have the shutdown guys that teams crave. That needs to be addressed.