laloesch

Agreed. I think everyone has noticed Molitor's managing techniques. In some ways' he's cut from the same cloth that Gardy was. Doesn't like to give time to young players over veterans and not necessarily good ones at that. That's a problem for a rebuilding team. If you don't give the youngsters a chance you never figure out what kind of hand you've been dealt.

I think they'll be right around 70 unless we see a big turnaround later in the summer.

That would be my hope as well. if this team is still stinking it up by the deadline, put up the "FIRE SALE" sign for heavens sake. Enough of the partial rebuild mentality and go full bore. Hughes, Santana, Nolasco, Gibson, Milone and Perkins (if he's healthy): for sale $10 each. Dozier, Plouffe and Suzuki: for sale bag of baseballs or best offer. In all seriousness it's pointless to move forward with this group of veterans if they can't win period.

Is it too late to see if Mauer can catch part time? I mean if he's only doing it 20-30% of the games, it should help him stay healthy right? I'm being serious. This organization needs to think outside the box and find a REAL catcher ASAP. I think it's gotten to the point of desperation. Murphy is yet ANOTHER over hyped mediocre Yankees prospect. The problem is NOBODY wants Suzuki vesting option to kick in. That means the Twins have to limit his games the rest of the season. Unfortunately, Murphy has been an absolute total bust behind the plate and in the batters box, far worse than any of us could possibly have imagined. He makes Butera look like an all-star to be quite blunt. Hear me out. If Mauer catches 20-30% of the games we prevent Suzuki from vesting and Murphy is strictly backup until they figure something out. On the days Mauer is behind the plate, Park can slide over to first, which is not a bad thing. What do you think the Brewers would want for Jonathan Lucroy? Gibson plus Meyer? The Brewers are in desperate need of starting pitching. I'm willing to bet they would ask for Berrios, but the Twins have plenty of other starters to offer. Thoughts?

what was Meyer's pitch makeup his first two starts? Was it mostly fastballs? Did he mix in any sliders or changeups. Part of his problem last season was that he was throwing so many fastballs 75+%.

God i hope so.

100% Agree. Forget payroll, forget seniority and veteran's preference and go for it. Let's see what these two can do good or bad. And for that matter let's see what May can do when given a real shot. Look we know what we've got in Milone. A soft tossing lefty #5 starter. He's not a difference maker and certainly not worth holding back more promising starters for. Same can be said of Nolasco. Guy is history after this season regardless and with his hot start you can rest assured they are dangling him to whomever first comes asking. That frees up two spots. Gibson. I like Kyle, but if he lands a good catcher or 3rd baseman in a multi-player trade i think you have to go for it. We have the starters to move some pieces around and acquire much needed parts. I'm ecstatic that Meyer was called up and now Berrios is on the way. It's about freakin time!

I hope your right, because we need him.

Maybe he has.

I hope Buxton stays in AAA for most of the season if not the whole season. It's painfully obvious that he's overwhelmed and over matched up here and is flat out NOT ready. Do him and the team a favor and season him in Rochester. There's no reason to rush a raw 22 year old when we have a bunch of other guys waiting to get there shot like Kepler and some stop gap options like Mastroianni. I understand the frustration and how disappointing this seems but in all seriousness he can't handle off-speed / breaking ball pitches and doesn't seem to have a discerning eye at the plate. He's also a free swinger and certainly doesn't have the build of a power hitter. All those things coupled together and you have a sub .200 hitter. Teams will exploit his free swinging tendencies over and over and over again if given the chance. The problem is that A LOT of these recent call ups seem to have the same issue to a certain degree. Buxton, Rosario, Sano, Arcia, etc. all struggle with pitch recognition and swing for the moon every single pitch. They don't seem to understand that striking out all the time is a big problem. Some of these struggles can be attributed to the transition from the fastball dominated minor leagues to the majors were a much greater percentage of breaking balls are thrown. But some of this falls on the coaching staff and manager. Guys that show no plate discipline should be benched or sent down IMMEDIATELY. It's not acceptable to go into the batter box and do your own thing all the time when games are on the line. There has to be discipline and it is lacking. I know it's way early to be casting judgement on Buxton, but to be perfectly honest i just don't see the signs off a top five draft pick let alone a five tool player beyond his crazy speed. I hope i'm wrong but the warning signs were everywhere. Kid plays out of his mind for a tiny school in the middle of nowhere Georgia against inferior pitching. And while the minors are a step above high school he still didn't see much off speed / breaking ball pitches and was able to conceal that gaping hole in his game (pitch recognition). The result, he swings at everything and anything and looks totally lost in the batters box. What the Twins saw? A speed Gonzalez outfielder with a slap hitter physique. It was like deja vu to Terry Ryan, back to the mid 2000's piranhas with Jason Tyner, Nick Punto, Luis Castillo and Jason Bartlett and he was hooked. Bust pick IMO.....

Time to start turning over the starting staff. It's simply unacceptable to have slow starting starters year end year out. Let's give Berrios and Meyer a shot and see what they can do even if the offense doesn't produce.

We could see that coming quickly. Rosario and Buxton swing at EVERYTHING. I think it's highly probable that this team breaks it's own single season record for K's (1121 set in 1997). Especially if Park, Sano, Rosario, Dozier, Buxton stay in the lineup for most of the season. Those guys are ALL strikeout machines. Collectively the team has 72 already!

Why the hell would he say that? I don't get it? Why call him up then and get his service clock ticking? Stupid.... Maybe he's messing with people.

i concur. Gibson is a valuable trade chip. We have gluts of starting pitching. Duffey, Berrios, Mays and the next generation Gonsalves, Thorpe, Jay, Stewart.

Why are you posting this? It's not accurate at all. She easily weighed 30-40 lbs. more in the initial photo then the second. She hasn't put on enough muscle mass to weigh 155 in both. Just look at her waist.

I absolutely agree. As someone who was similar sized in highschool, I'm 6'-5" now at 35 years and about 220 lbs.. In highschool i fluctuated between 175-225, but i was constantly running around playing football, tennis, soccer and basketball at different points and put on weight mostly in football because i had to. Now the dopers were able to do it in dramatic fashion, but they were dead giveaways with all the body and facial acne outbreaks, as well as the crazy rate they added muscle. It's pretty obvious that Sano is a very eager eater, and he probably has self discipline problems at the table. He has put on A LOT of weight (and most of it is not muscle) in six years. For him to be 270 lbs. at age 22 is WAY WAY too heavy. Could be big trouble down the road for him.

I don't need to be. Just look at a BMI chart for a 6'-4" man. Plus i'm 6'-5" and played three sports in high school and went on to play basketball in college, so yeah i have an idea on the subject. But no sweat, nothing personal, never was meant to be. And my mistake that you didn't post the 15%. I'll i was doing was pointing out an OBVIOUS miscommunication that was being perpetuated with each message in this thread and a number i've seen thrown around in these forums. We should all be saying 25% BMI. BY the way 25% is not obese, it's upper end normal to slightly overweight. if he was 30% then he'd be obese. I'd actually be more worried if he was 11-15% BMI as that would be unhealthy for a man his size doing what he's doing. If your at 11-13% body fat you have to be careful with your nutrition, because you could easily start burning muscle mass.

Dave there is NO WAY he's 15% body fat. That's approaching six pack territory. Sano is 260's at 6'-4", has a ponch and has quite a bit of junk in the trunk and thighs. Ain't no way he's 15% body fat. I'd guess he's probably closer to 25% if not a tad bit more.

He's looked great so far this spring. I'm excited about that . A lot of guys never come back from the sophomore slump but some do. Perhaps Santana is one of those guys. Kid has pop to his bat too. If he hits anything like he did in 2014 I'll take it. the awesome thing about him is his ability to effectively play the outfield and infield. In fact is anyone intrigued by a batting order that includes Buxton, Santana and Rosario?

Didn't he have TJ surgery already.

I'm okay with this for the time being IF.....IF it's only temporary until we find a trading partner for Nolasco. What i fear is he pitches well and the Twins procrastinate and decide to keep him through the conclusion of that contract holding back Duffey, Berrios and May. At SOME POINT they have to start clearing room for these young starters. Otherwise you might as well trade them.

WTH are the Twins doing? Are they insane? Eliminating two quality pitches from a guys repertoire. It's like shoving a square peg into a round hole. If you want a two pitch or less reliever see Duffey and possibly Meyer. Are the Twins FO brass that dumb?

pleasee,,,,,

I guess if it's a matter of seeing, experiencing and learning to hit breaking balls and other offspeed stuff, MLB is a much better place for him to do that. AAA is mostly a FB league not nearly as much as AA and lower, but enough to make it a shock when transitioning. And how many levels did he transition last year, three? If pitch recognition truly is a problem for him, I think we'll continue to see him flail at offspeed stuff. I'm not overly concerned at the moment because he's 22 years old. But if things don't progress by seasons end we might have reason to worry.

What if he drowns?