Major League Ready

I brought it up because I thought I had read something once that this was a concern at 3B given his size. It sure looked to me like it was a strength but I wondered if my eyes deceived me. Are you a believer he can get to average in terms of more routine grounders? My gut on that one says he could if he is willing to put in the work. I would love to see a report about how hard he is working on making these routine plays. I would like to see him stick because its fun to watch him throw on a line across the diamond and it's usually a strike.

Good call Mike. I saw him pitch in the Arizona Fall League Championship game. He has an unusual sidearm delivery that seems to be quite deceptive. He does not throw real hard but he might be one of those guys that is consistent at the back-end of the bullpen for years because hitters have a hard time dealing with delivery. We could sure use it. Not sure when we will see him. There are just too many variables to predict his arrival on the Twins.

Corey Koskie was horrible. Dan Gladden was on 1500 today and he said Koskie worked very hard with Gardenhire and became an excellent defensive 3B. He simply took a ton of IF practice. Keep in mind that Sano does not have to be great to be more valuable as 3B than a DH. DH/1B types that can hit are waaaaay easier to find than guys who can hit and play acceptable D at 3B. He is also has a cannon that will make up for some of his other shortcomings. He appears to be quite good at making the play on short balls, part of that being able to throw very strong on the move forward. I have no statistical evidence, This is purely by observation and an admittedly SSS. What say the rest of you on his ability to field a weakly hit ball or a bunt?

That's pretty damn insightful.

If you think two weeks is any different than one week and if you think we have adequate information to drawn any hard conclusions, we will have to agree to disagree. A demotion to the pen is also a blow. My experience in what is granted only roughly similar circumstances suggests this is not just bad practice to mess with peoples careers (in a negative manner) with events on the very near that are very likely to impact the decision you just made. Obviously, the situation can also change due to circumstance beyond control in professional sports but that's not the case here. Would you want to work for an organization that acted with disregard for you and your career. If you think the high profile guys you want to retain to care about how you treat their teammates, we again will have to agree to disagree.

Are you saying you think the week before deadline for a team that is an obvious seller is the same as any other time of the year?

Now you are just grasping at straws. Are you really say, that the premise I am advocating here is faulty. Do you really believe this team should be moving around pieces this week when it is very likely to change next week. What's the benefit. One game at the MLB level for Berrios. You are going to jack around someone else in this manner for one start. I would add you are making a giant assumption that Berrios is ready by looking at statistics. I seriously doubt you have seen him in person. Keep in mind Milone had better stats Berrios so stats are an iffy proposition when making these decisions. We also don't know what the coaches are saying. Maybe they made a change in Berrios mechanics that is really helping him but the coaches want another week or two of reps under the supervision of the coach that implemented these changes. Of course, there are any number of other things potentially influencing this. Yet, you and others want to believe you have a superior understanding of the situation and what should be done. I realize this delusion of grandeur is part of being of fan let's get real. People here look at stats and think they have a better understanding of what should be done than people that have more information, experience, and credentials.

Because the point I have made since the start of this debate is that making a decision or taking action when you know that things are going to change is bad management practice. It does not matter if it is in MLB or a company that sells widgets. The point is also that many people here want to evaluate management practices when they don't understand something this basic. Using my organization as an example was simply making an example that is valid to any other organization.

Do you really think this is even a remotely parallel situation. Let's list just a few of the differences. 1. Houston is in contention 2. They are Buyers not sellers. Therefore this is no different than them trading a prospect for someone who will help them right now. This prospect just happens to be good enough that they expect immediate impact like we expected and got from Sano. 3. He is abandoning his natural position to fit into the team. 4. This is not going to be undone in a week which in itself makes this a very different scenario. So, no, I would say that the situations are so different as to offer no parallel comparison. I can only conclude you did not attempt to look at this in an unbiased manner when you offer an example that is so vastly different. I will jump to your side of this argument in about a week. However, right now, it would be exceptionally poor management practice to make a move.

Because you don't understand the answer does not mean I did not answer your question. Here is what I can tell you for absolute certain ... If a mid-level manager who worked for my organization did something like this I would make sure that his boss explained why it is a very bad practice to make a major decision or take action when we are about to be in a position where we have better information and are in a better position to take said action. I would also instruct his boss to monitor that person to see if they continued to demonstrate poor decision making. If a member of senior management did something this impetuous more than once, it would likely be a resume generating event.

You and a couple others are simply refusing to see one extremely simple point. There is absolutely no point in disrupting things when you expect you will have to change it back in a week or two. You don't act period with a major change expected in a week or two in any business. You wait to make that decision until you have the additional information which is eminent. This is an entirely different conversation if he is not up shortly after the deadline. It’s not like Berrios went down and was dominant from day one. It’s also not like he did not have command issues to work. Therefore, it’s not like he has been ready for a 6 weeks and just sitting there in AAA. It would also be idiotic to send Milone down when he has also earned a promotion, has proven to be competent at the ML level and you are also trying to trade him. It’s pretty hard to tell the other club he is a solid SP and you would like a good return while at the same time demoting him. Surely, this is not a difficult concept for anyone here to grasp. How incompetent would it be to do this a week or two before the deadline? Competent leaders don’t make these kinds of decisions with an expected change on the horizon that will undue the action you have taken, especially when you are impacting your employees lives. You just don’t screw with people like that and you don’t send a message to everyone else that you don’t care about what you put them through. Skilled / experienced leaders don’t do this sort of thing. This is the sort of thing is the product of fanaticism. This is so management 101 I can’t believe we are having this conversation.

Getting demoted is a huge deal and demoting Duffey or anyone else a week before the deadline is the equivalent of telling Duffey and anyone else who is not a top prospect you don't give a damn about them. They all earned their way to the ML level and it's probably safe to assume even the players who are not in danger of being demoted don't appreciate their teammates being treated that way. If Antony wanted to prove he had no leadership aptitude whatsoever, this would be a great way to demonstrate said ineptitude to Jim Pohlad.

After August 1, this becomes a different conversation. Right now, the team is anticipating losing a SP or hopefully two with the next week. Now is not the time. As a matter of fact this is management 101 stuff. Making a change RIGHT NOW would be absolute incompetence. Let the week play out and then make informed decisions. If you are frustrated that they are waiting until the deadline plays out then you are bound to be frustrated. Keeping him in AAA After August 1 is a different story. I MIGHT buy that they are working on something that is better done at AAA instead of at the ML level but I don't have the experience and knowledge necessary to challenge their thinking on what's best for the development of Berrios as a ML SP.

I like the idea but the Twins would be crucified if the media ever found out they gave that mandate. They would be portrayed as having no regard for the health of the players and there would be some validity to that portrayal. The question in my mind is will they ever say ... Thanks for your contribution Joe but you are not part of the solution and we need to move on. We would rally prefer to work with you to orchestrate early retirement and buyout of your contract. If not, we will be forced to waive you. He is a good defender but we cant have he level of production at 1B. He has looked really bad in some ABs lately. How much longer are we going to hope he bounces back?

I hope you are right and I hope that it happens even more. I would find it much more entertaining to watch if they moved May back to the rotation or gave Rogers a shot at starting regardless of the results. Move them back to the pen if necessary. Heck, I would rather give Wheeler a shot a starting than to watch Nolasco.

That's what I was thinking. They gave up the #1 pick for him and now want to deal him 2/3 of the way through the first season with him. Something smells. Absolutely no way I trade Gibson for Miller. We have a couple other guys that need to be upgrade before Gibson. Now, if they would do it for ABW, great!

His BA is 2nd to Nash Knight who is 5 years older. He leads the player with the 3rd highest average by 29 points. There is a lot of risk with any prospect, especially one straight out of high school but how can you not be excited about the way this young man has started his professional career.

Moving Sano is very short-term thinking. We MIGHT be better this year as a result but this is the same tired scenario that everyone has complained about and now that TR is gone is somehow becomes a good idea? Having a guy who hits like Sano play a premium position like 3B is extremely valuable. It’s easy to come up with a DH or 1B and we have all kinds of depth. I would keep Sano at 3B until he proves he can’t play the position or Mauer’s contract is up or we are willing to buy out his contract, whichever comes first.

God lord, a few games and a little hardship and we should give up on the guy. I realize Plouffe was great there right away. Oh wait, he was pretty bad too. Sano is a considerably better athlete than plouffe and if there is a better arm at 3B in MLB, I have not seen it. What's the hurry? At a minimum, give him the rest of year. You could not ask for a more ideal situation than we have right now to give the guy a chance. What would you do with 3B? Keep Plouffe? That's the kind of thinking that made for a deeper hole.

He has been on a nice roll at AAA of late. Let's hope this can transition to the ML level.

Fair enough. I really did not stop to think too much about it with him because he was a popular Twin. There are many other better examples. Moving him to the outfield was still better than him going through his career as a DH, bench bat or whatever reduced role he would have played had he not been moved to the outfield. I also think defensive stats are not the most reliable as stats go.

There must be a great deal of stupidity in MLB then because this is something that has happened often and there are many success stories. Seemed liked it worked out pretty well for us with Cuddyer. What if KC would have thought this way with Alex Gordon. How about a very current example named Ian Desmond? The Rangers made this move with a guy that is 30 and its looking damn smart right now.very I would bet the baseball junkies here could name two or three dozen successful transitions at the MLB level of the top of their collective heads. I don't quite know what to think because Sano looks great and then terrible at 3B. However, an experiment in the OF in a lost season is a heck of a lot smarter baseball decision than relegating someone as athletic as Sano to DH in his early 20s. Personally, I would have waited it out just like they did with Plouffe but this is hardly an uncommon practice and there are certainly plenty of success stories to warrant these experiments.

Keep in mind that I am just reciting things I read and my memory could be off but I read an article last year that I thought said the lowest paid GMs made over $1M/yr and the top GMs were $5M+. Again, just an old recollection of an article so take it for what its worth. Now I am curious. Might have to search for some articles this weekend. I don't know how Jim Pohlad could possibly make the decision to keep RA Why fire TR to hire RA? Just tell him he is retiring at the end of the year and RA is taking his place. Why create the drama?

Fair point! I think this medium has a tendency to blur the degree of certainty implied. You are correct in that I can’t know this in absolute terms. It’s not a math problem where we can prove it. This sort of question does not lend itself to an absolute conclusion as is the case with most business issues. On the other hand, the very limited number of available positions implies something that is absolute enough to be called a law (Law of Supply and Demand). Which is also why the position pays so well. The GM position in MLB pays quite a bit more than positions with similar responsibility in most corporations. It’s also something I am very familiar with because I inherited relatively dysfunctional organizations every time I was hired into a similar role. Problems and challenges are to be expected. It goes with the territory.

Like Alex Meyer?