mikelink45

Berrios should get three innings and a plane ticket to join the Twins. Arcia, Walker, and Vargas would get my nomination. Potential on the bench is worth something and calling them up does not hurt anything. Third catcher is something that our current list does not really give us except Fryer. Another relief pitcher and that is all I can see.

Hicks showed what patience can produce. Bring Vargas up in Sep and let him demonstrate his improved approach.

In the playoffs domination counts and we do not have a dominating pitcher. Remember when Washington decided to rest Strasburg because, of course, they would be back every year! Get our best pitcher up and let him get some meaningful outs.

They are the proverbial spare tire - patches all over the place when a new inner tube or tire is needed. The veterans are not going to do and right now the young are not either, but the Astros showed us that giving the young a year to fail together could lead to a year where they succeed together.

Look at the Twins season - tell me a real reason for keeping Berrios in the minors? Some kids are ready at 21 and do not look back - JO looks like one of them. No more Duffey, Jepson, Achter... bring this kid up and even if he has to go down again the ride to the top will begin.

Confusing conclusions in a confusing season. Arcia is a case in point - what are we doing, Duffey, but not Berrios? Not moving Pelfrey for something? Jepsen for any anything? What was that all about? This is a strange set of facts just like May in the Bullpen, Graham, Blaine, and Duensing in the pen? Terry what is your plan?

Disappointment is his specialty. Someone in the marketing and upper management should remind Terry that this is a business and you might want to do something to make your clients happy.

doing nothing would have served us better. Cn't se just develop those minor league arms and use them?

Experiment - bring up the young players and rotate them through the rest of the season, see if someone develops the hot hand that Santana had last year - Polanco? The catchers are either going to cost too much of the future or be a step back (A J ) and we do not need another old Twin reunion. We have Suzuki and mediocre back up, but hopefully we will develop something before the contract for Suz is up. I am not big on trading from the stable of prospects. I would not mind Gibson for Tulo since Gibson is more likely to regress than star, but Berrios is a big NO.

NO - let's build from within. Do not trade the future for mediocrity or short term. We have done that in the past and there is no plus.

This is one position I have no issue with. I did not like the way that they dealt with Pinto in the past, but right now he is not an option and no one else is ready. I assume Suzuki is a place holder and eventually one of the minor league catchers will emerge - just not this year.

We have waited four years to see our prospects and this year we are starting to see why the wait was worth it. Trade vets - Suzuki, Pelfrey, Millone, Mauer, Plouffe, but not the prospects. Lets bring more up. The bullpen is a mess, but can't we start rotating minor-leaguers in there? I agree with the writer who says we cannot compete with the St Louis level of team yet and that is where we want to get. Going back to one and out should not be our playoff goal.

Having seen Tonkin struggle for two years of up and down, I am trying to understand why so many see him as a good relief pitcher. I wonder why we keep going to him and not experimenting with some of the others who are also getting good minor league stats. Stauffer was just a mistake and I am pleased that they are moving on. Now the question mark for me is why Duensing continues to get used and is not subject to the same criticism. He has under performed all year. Finally, it is time to scrutinize Boyer - hope for the best to continue, but his recent outings have shown some bad signs.

You can write about any Twin and Mauer will show up. We still have him for a few years and what can we do about it? Drop him to 7/8 in the line up? Plouffe has put himself in the line for a long time too and deserves it, but he is a number 6 hitter. What is our problem getting the transition from minor to major leagues? We have Arcia, Vargas, Sano, Walker if we want power, but the question is - how do we get them to produce their minor league numbers in a major league line up? This article got me thinking about Mauer's contract - when it is up who will sign him? Is he near the end? The Twins cannot cut the contract to his true value so they have to drop him and then - will anyone be interested? Such a shame - from HOF candidate to a sorespot on the roster.

If Rosario can make the adjustment and if Buxton is the player we have all anticipated I would bring him up - give him a few at bats - send him down if needed. Polanco comes up twice for quick shots at the majors, can't we give Byron a small taste too?

Maybe he is one of those players who peaked early and we now have a career of average Joe

Our trades have not been great over the year, but if we truly have log jams of quality trades can be a key to success. The A's are down right now, but over the last decade or two they have shown how to trade high value players and leverage players who were ready to compete. We need to open space, bring up new players from the minors and then we will need to replace them so that the next wave gets put in place.

Now is good. I would have taken Hicks over Rosario, but on the other hand it this is just a two week call up for Arcia then it would be a great time to give Buxton a look at the majors and if he is ready they will not be able to send him down when the time comes.

Let's call up a new GM! The idea of filling the roster with nice safe guys is getting old. Hicks should get the Rosario call up and see if the lessons are in place, Beresford should get a seat on the MLB bench, Olivaros should be in the pen and in June we should see Buxton. Let's get a GM who is willing to make some moves that feature youth.

All the arguments over journeyman miss the real story line. In today's world we call them replacement players - the ones that score zero. They fill the places and are neither positive or negative. Plouffe is a replacement player and has value as that. He is not a journeyman, a star, an all-star, but he is good and he has a place.

It is true that they are young and the pitchers are older, but the really good ones get to the bigs when they are young and I am having a difficult time finding a record of Twins getting young players to the majors and seeing them take off and succeed. Beyond the Box Score had an article why has MLB been getting younger. Could be an anamoly but the Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, George Springer examples are starting to become more prevalent than in the days when Griffey jr. surprised everyone. In Baseball prospectus an article called Overthinking it states: Grant promotions too early or too often, and they risk jeopardizing his future by burying him on the bench or subjecting him to the mental and physical rigors of major-league life before he’s equipped to handle them. Delay advancement too long, and they threaten to sabotage his development in a different way, blunting his talents against inferior competition while more expensive players with shorter shelf lives take up space on the big-league roster. After some good graphs we get this eye-opening statement: As expected, the Twins led the pack in being slow to the bigs. Twins position-player call-ups accumulated an average of 2617 minor-league PA before making it to the Metrodome, roughly 200 more than the next-highest organization (the Angels) and a full season’s worth of action above average. For all of us who think the wait has been too long, this says a lot. Trying to remember that these reports are about a lot more than Buxton and Sano there are a lot of things to think about - like new management (not manager) at the top.

I think we have a real development problem with the Twins. We have the number 1 rated minor leagues and have had for a few years. Yes Buxton and Sano were hurt last year - we they the only reason we were number 1? Where are the break out guys. Arcia has moments, Santana has moments, Vargas has a September, Gibson is on and off, May - we hope will be good. But we have problems in starting, relieving, fielding, hitting - see the stats, Mauer leads with 269 and most would love to reach the Mendoza line. We have a bad outfield, our SS is the subject of this concern...We have had 4 terrible years and still nothing exciting. Houston blew it up, Cubs blew it up and they are hoping to rise, we brought in players like we only needed a patch and where are we and what is our hope?

Hicks is the only answer. So what if he failed the last two years - it is not the first time that has happened to a player. Get him in there and let him play center and bat 9th. Of course with the Twins batting averages - we have Mauer as our leading hitter with a .269 average (ESPN stats) Trevor Plouffe and Hunter .234. Suzuki .216 and the rest 200 or less and we are worried that Hicks might not hit when he gets up here! Anyone that can catch a ball would be refreshing. Hicks is batting 250. (Rochester website) Of course there is Pinto who is batting 314 And do not trade. We want Buxton up by July and anyone TR trades for stays and blocks - see the pitching staff.

Okay the Twins have had some success on the homestand, but please make us happier and start the transition. The minor league bullpen pitchers look ready, the major league - not so much. Lets start there.

I suspect he did, but is the bench the way to motivate Arcia? I do not know anything about him, but his talent has not evolved in the Majors and I put that on the coaches and the team. Figure it out. If you have a valuable employee help him reach his potential.