mikelink45

Not sure where to post this today, but as I look at the Twins record for developing some of their talent - like Buxton - I saw this posting on ESPN and continue to hope that the new FO has fixed the system: The New York Yankees' other mashing outfielder. Aaron Judge is hitting .326/.427/.680. He's getting a lot of attention. He deserves the attention! Teammate Aaron Hicks, after going 4-for-5 with three doubles in six RBIs in a 12-2 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, is now hitting .317/.437/.579. Hicks has been the club's fourth outfielder, but has been playing every day of late with Jacoby Ellsbury on the DL. Ellsbury may be the fourth outfielder when he returns the way Hicks has played. He has eight home runs and 30 RBIs in just 126 at-bats, numbers that project to 25 and 95 over just 400 at-bats. With one of the strongest arms in the game and decent range, he may even be a defensive upgrade over Ellsbury. Give Brian Cashman credit for this one. Hicks had been a first-round pick by the Minnesota Twins, but over three seasons with them he hit just .225. Still, he had good discipline -- some scouts considered him too passive -- and the Twins had kind of fooled around with him, never running him out there for 500-plus at-bats in a season. The Yankees got him for backup catcher J.R. Murphy, currently hitting .225 in Triple-A. How much of this is legitimate for Hicks? The stat I like is 28 walks and 27 strikeouts -- one of only a handful of players with more walks than strikeouts, a list that includes Buster Posey, Mookie Betts, Joey Votto and Anthony Rizzo. While there is some good fortune going on -- his average exit velocity is league average and his launch angle is below average -- there's some real improvement. The rich just got richer. (Written by Schoenfield) http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/80070/real-or-not-adam-wainwright-is-awesome-again-yankees-have-a-great-outfielder

We speculate about bringing up and losing the pitchers we should bring up and so we settle for Wimmers because, as one writer puts it - we can DFA him in the future. But the team is not going to get better by looking for Wimmers and Wheelers that we can shuffle up and DFA. The fact that we can continual DFA players and then resign them to the minors is not exactly a positive reflection on the club. Lets get over the risk aversion and put players in place that might have a real future and real potential. Where is Melotakis, Curtiss, Busenitz, Hildenberger? What are we saving them for?

Where does Goodrum fit in the Twins plans? He seems to have worked his way through the minors like he is supposed to and clearly shows talent, but I see no discussions on where he will fit, if ever, on the major league roster. Busenitz sure seems like a better call up than Wimmers. Why the hesitancy? In fact why is Melotakis not called up? Do we have such a great pen there is no room for these arms (yes that is sarcasm)?

This is the place where I see some real potential, but Kirilloff would not be in my top five. Old fashioned as I must be I have to see players play their way to the top of the list and until he gets back and puts things together again I would drop him from the top group. The starting pitchers look like they are ready and I do not think AAA should be a prerequisite for hitting MLB. Next is the nice problem - Gordon is close to being ready for the Twins, but the positions in the IF are filled. Where does he go, where is the shuffle? Dozier/Polanco/Gordon - what is the outlook?

Lets send more relievers down and out and put this list in the bigs! Make the moves and get some excitement back in the pen - excitement about the pitcher and not the home runs and rallies that they allow.

I believe that a good relief pitcher would spur the team. It is at this point the GM needs to find some medicine to help an ailing team get well - quick. Just lucky for us that Trout is down and we get to face two former MN pitchers.

Two writers have jumped on my thoughts - the catcher. Last year I wrote about our pitching coach and he is still here and still not showing me anything, but I guess he and Paul are a team. Pressly is the latest of a long list of players not making the transition and prospering in the MLB. This winter we kept the pitching coach, but changed the overall system according to articles - I cannot judge and we brought in a pitch framing machine and his side kick to turn our pitchers into something they have not been. So what has happened? Berrios was the big disappointment last year - this year he has shown what we wanted in games one and two and slipped in games 3 and 4 - MLB tutelage? Pressly should be throwing what the catcher calls and that is why we have two Mendoza line hitters behind the plate, but wait his selection is poor - whose - Pressly or Castro? We have watched a sequence of relief meltdowns. One is expected, but not three in a row. What happened? Why has Belisle (who is said to be a good influence for the bullpen - was he hired as a counselor?) lost his ability? Where did pitch framing take Gibson? Has Santiago turned the corner (the wrong way on a one way) with his relief stint and recent starts? Sorry to see him fail, bring on the next guy for the Twins Gambit! Maybe they will be lucky like Wheeler - Hey good news, you are now on the 40 man roster and we are bringing you to the show. You know how you have started all your career, but now you will relieve. Great news. Oh, now we are going to DFA you and drop you from the 40 man. Hope you enjoyed your ride.

Blankenhorn would be my biggest question on this list. All the reports through TD have done nothing to get me excited about him so far. There are interesting names, but if Jay is not going to make it until 2018 and then as a reliever I am consider that the list demonstrates the low status of the current minor league system.

The Twins seem to be doing the one thing I did not expect - ignoring the relievers in the minors that are actually succeeding. I need therapy, the new FO obviously is using metrics I do not understand.

It is not about Molitors use of Pressly, it is about the bullpen he has to work with. Why we do not bring up the minor league arms is a puzzle to me. What are we gaining? What is the benefit of our Boshers, Rucinski, Pressly, Haley merry-go-round? The young arms are there. The minor leagues are the back up for the majors - call them up. We have young relievers and they bring up a starter (Wheeler and make him a reliever - are you kidding?) The new FO is not shining at the moment.

This is a list of role players unless Palacios can pass up Vielma and Gordon at SS. I see more value in Granite than in Palka - I am not a fan of the big K rate and I do like defense. Granite would have been a nice fill in when Buxton came out with the cut hand. We have Grossman, Vargas as bats for DH and what we need is a good right hand/left hand combination for that position and the bench. I would like to see Adrianza as a good fielding infielder (until they bring up Vielma) and Granite as a good fielding OF on the bench. I am not sure how Garver is going to get in to the mix. He is not a starter and right now the team seems to really like Giminez (maybe because he can pitch). Hopefully Jorge will continue to rise - we need to see so more starters coming up.

It is interesting that Rosario does not get a mention because in his initial full year he looked terrific, but I find less superlatives being used to describe him in the field now. Is there a reason for that? The importance of defense is really obvious and another reason I questioned our short bench not having an adequate fourth outfielder when Buxton had to come out. Adrianza is good in the infield, he does not belong in the OF. If Grossman is going to be the DH lets put Granite or some other good fielder on the bench. Our bench management might seem a minor issue, but to me it has become an important issue over the last week. Since we had Jim Kaat acting like a fifth infielder for years and watching Greg Maddux dominate from the mound I am wondering who would be our best mound gloves? You will find them one and two in this fun Youtube fielding list (no data to support list, but interesting names) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l24mknymfys I like this discussion about the best defensive teams of all time - the 1984 Twins team is in the discussion which means it must be our best or closes to our best defensive time - how will this group rate with them? http://www.espn.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/67824/the-best-defensive-teams-of-all-time Keep up this discussion and the defensive prowess of the team. ESPN has us second by standard defensive rating for 2017 http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/fielding

This is a discussion that is more about our fan frustration than anything else. We see what seems to be obvious and cannot do anything about it. This FO supposed addressed the bullpen - what are their collective actions so far - Belisle, Breslow, Wilk, Justin Haley, Nick Tepesch, and Ryan Vogelsong - all pitchers were added. How did they work out? We have a boatload of injured pitchers in the minors and do not seem willing to bring up those who aren't unless they are named Buddy Boshers. Wheeler is brought up but not used - please start him instead of Gibson. Gibson is retained and Vargas is sent down despite the fact that at a minimum Gibson would not pitch or contribute for four games. I am looking for a Clue, but so far can only find Mr. Mustard with a hot dog in the bullpen. And, by the way, I read about the bullpen overuse and it reminded me of a forgotten old Twin - Mike Marshall who three times pitched more than 90 games in a year. http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/marshmi01.shtml Or Al Worthington who averaged 50 games a year for us http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/w/worthal01.shtml

This is really a bigger frustration than many other issues because the bullpen is the one area that this FO did attempt to address - Breslow, Busenitz, and Belisle (maybe they need a bigger alphabet - B is not working). Meanwhile we are burning up arms in the minors. Seth's list of top prospects reads more like a hospital role call. Whatever arms are working in the minors need to be in the majors. If you are going to wear them out, do it where it helps the TWINS. Pressly has been a bust - he is the personification of potential. We all love that fastball, but his track record does not match his velocity. Belisle on the other hand has the unfortunate status of his work matching his velocity and that is not good. Rucinski and Bosher have had multiple one game call ups - have they read the prospect list that Seth puts out? I know that the team bemoans the long game the night before last, but relievers are expected to occasionally pitch back to back and Santana took care of all but the last two innings. Of course they could have sent Gibson down after his performance and brought up another minor league arm. What good does Gibson do the team when they are short handed and he would sit for four days? Then they bring up Wheeler who is a starter. I am very confused. These last two games are key and we cannot afford to let them start us off on the wrong path.

They moved Wheeler - who is a starter and how will they use him. If he takes Gibson's place the shuffle is even more inexplicable.

This list is really disappointing. Ranking 16 - 20 and three arms that are not even throwing pitches, one so young we really have no idea what he will be and one highly drafted pitcher in Stewart that looks like a #5 rotation talent at best. I would slide all of these to the end of your 40. I am looking forward to the next five and hope that they are not in hospital beds or recovery units.

Is Wheeler taking Gibson's place in the rotation and if so why wasn"t Gibson instead of Vargas sent down? Is this what you would have done? I watched the blowout loss to Houston - actually the Bullpen loss and in that small sample did not see anything special about what Rucinski offers, from your reports I would think we have better minor league options - what are your suggestions?

Not yet. We have a long way to go to prove we are worthy of trading prospects and locking in another vet on a too expensive contract. I would rather that they push one of the young players - rotate a few in and out and see if anything clicks. The number five slot is a loss now and will be for a while. Actually the number three slot is the loss since Santiago is a 4/5 and right not Mejia is too. But this surprising team is not getting ready for a push in the playoffs so I am very cautious about what another starter might cost. I have also seen enough of the starter trades over the years to see that very few actually make a big difference - often times they hurt the team that acquires them. Here is a good reminder of how things can go wrong https://www.si.com/mlb/2016/07/29/midseason-trades-baseball-history-jeff-bagwell-john-smoltz And for more buyer beware - https://www.axs.com/news/buyers-beware-mlb-midseason-trades-don-t-always-work-as-oakland-ups-th-13944

He is not the only one - Gibson could be sent back down too and unlike Vargas would not be needed to pinch hit or fill in.

It is time for Melotakis and anyone else you can find in the minors under 26 years old with a live arm. Tepesch is not the guy and the junkpile pick ups like Wilks, Haley, etc are not doing it. Put the young arms out there and lets stop juggling the mediocre with no future. I hated to see Vargas go down, even though I think the pitching circumstances warrant a change, but what is the message - a bad day at the plate and you are gone - he needs confidence. On the other hand Gibson has demonstrated that his brief AAA time only confirmed him as a AAAA pitcher and he can move down without affecting the bench and still allowing the arms to come up.

Nice to see Jorge get a good start. As such a highly rated prospect we need him moving upward - Kyle Gibson is anxious to give him a slot in the rotation!

Let me throw some cold water on this discussion. Castro and Giminez are framing Santana, Santiago, and Berrios really well. Not so well - Hughes, Gibson, and others. I am fed up with the framing crap. Santana is doing what he did last year, Santiago is doing what he has done the last few years, and Berrios is doing what we all expected. The rest of the starters - yuck. I hope Mejia addresses that. Bring up Garver. He deserves the chance.

Not sure where to post this so I am just grabbing an opportunity. This was in the New York Times today: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/sports/baseball/minnesota-twins-are-weighing-their-early-success.html?emc=edit_th_20170528&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=27551192 I guess the team is holding its winning ways long enough to get some attention away from the Coasts!

To create a perspective for this we would have to go through all the teams and remove their top hitter and top pitchers and see what the results would be. Take out a Bumgarter or Kershaw or a Mike Trout and what happens to their teams? In other words; this article does point out the importance of an ACE and a Quality hitter, but what would the standings be if everyteam had their top two removed? That would be the judgment of the supporting casts.

Very sad news about Burdi. He has had terrible injury luck. I had been hoping to see that he was in MLB and not the hospital this year. It reminds me of the fact that arms have only so many pitches in them and that is why I would like to see our quality relievers called up sooner rather than working their way through the levels of the minors like starters and we have a few pitchers like Belisle that should be replaced by Melotakis and others in the system.