Shane Wahl

Absolutely they should try to do it.

Question: does anyone else find Gardy's like of Jekyl and Hyde great/bad Florimon over the steady non-flashy consistency of Jamey Carroll a bit puzzling? What was the Castro/Bartlett nonsense about back in the day (I repressed that memory)?

Sometimes being forced to play over your head means not getting a fair shot. He was just in A and AA ball last year! He needed more time to get it together in Rochester. He should have gotten 250+ plate appearances before any promotion. Failing that, he certainly should have been sent back down much earlier in order to get back on track. And THEN he should have been playing 2B in Rochester, then called up and gotten time at 2B for the Twins.

Herrmann needs to be the 3rd catcher because every at bat counts and we need the top 25 players on the field but you want to take AB's from Doumit, Mauer, Willingham and give them to Herrmann? If Butera's 100AB's are so important then so are the 50-100 AB's you're trying to assign to Herrmann. You can't have it both ways. So that just bring us back to the 8 extra trips to first base that you get with Herrmann instead of Butera and thus my point that this is a silly point to be stuck on. A: I was not aware that Clete Thomas and Erik Komatsu had no plate appearances this year! B: I am not "taking away" anything, but I have some reservations about repeating the very good health of Mauer, Willingham, and Doumit. I think Willingham will likely DH a bit more too, anyway. C: It is possible to think of Herrmann as the LH 4th OF. D: One scenario that I don't like, but might very well happen is that the Twins trade Denard Span. In that case, the primary OF lineup looks to be Willingham-Revere-Parmelee. Late in the game, defensive subs of Herrmann and Mastroianni would likely be wanted when the Twins are ahead. This might not mean a plate appearance, but certainly some innings played. E: If Morneau is gone, this clears up more DH time for Doumit anyway, so I would expect more catching time for Herrmann because of that as well. F: So, I will play kind and grant you only 12 more trips to first base. Now let me ask you this, is 12 more than 0? Might a couple of runs end up meaning 1 more win, or even 2 wins? Isn't a 1-2 win difference actually significant when talking about the 24th or 25th roster spot?

A libertarian and a Republican Party puppet walk into the Twins Daily Sports Bar . . .

Now, after this Romney video with its scathing criticism of 47% of the country as essentially parasites (an Ayn Rand term, I know, but Paul Ryan IS his running mate), I think PseudoSABR might be right with the 358 prediction.

haha. Wow.

Replace Dice K with Shaun Marcum and this isn't bad at all other than Pavano. The Twins should sign one and trade (Morneau) for one.

No that Thomas vs. Arcia/Hicks part was a qualification on the "25 best" on the roster thing. It is understandable that prospects shouldn't be up too early when fill-ins are available. Yes Herrmann is a fine OF. Why convert him to catcher? Because also is at least an average catcher. I don't expect "a lot" but I expect an improvement on the roster (no Butera, Komatsu, or Thomas, for instance). Herrmann is also a different hitter than Thomas.

It is doubtful that Herrmann would merely get 100 plate appearances. Without a big drop from Doumit to Butera offensively to deal with (Herrmann probably cuts the difference in half), he can catch some more. Also, as a 5th outfielder, he would get more plate appearances. And Butera is clearly not a pinch hitter, but Herrmann could be used as one. He could get around 150-200 plate appearances. A .250/.330./370 slash is not at all out of the question with him. Even at .230/.310/.360 (probably the bottom for him), that is a significant improvement over Drew Butera and the Thomas/Komatsu debacle.

How do you resolve these two opposite sounding statements Shane? If starting pitching is all that matters why the hatred for Buteras 100ABs? The first quote has to do specifically with Florimon-Dozier-Carroll. I don't know of another MI in the Twins system who is better than those three. Maybe Escobar could be, but he isn't now. Starting pitching is all that matters in terms of acquiring new players. On the other hand, Chris Herrmann is a better player than Drew Butera. Sure "all" that matters is an overstatement.

In reality the Twins need to "weird science" these three and take Dozier's brain and bat, Florimon's range and arm, and Carroll's fundamentals and plate discipline and make one SS . . . model. Impossible? Well, just as likely as the Twins signing a FA SS or trading for one.

I would be pretty shocked if De Los Santos isn't released. He is completely terrible. I am not worried about Levi Michael for the time being. Beresford has a low ceiling. He's basically a better fielding Jamey Carroll. Danny Santana might be the best of the bunch and I am very curious to see what he does at AA next year.

Hey GM Shane! What did you get in trade for Morneau? Depends on the team. Boston: a top 10 Boston pitching prospect (AA-AAA) and some position player . . .

They didn't give Dozier a fair chance, actually. Players should have to demonstrate success at AAA before be thrown into a position for that long while continuing to struggle. The Twins were BIZARRE with him this year. Florimon might be fine, but Gardenhire's comments about him are obviously ridiculous.

I don't understand the sentiment that, generally, the 25 best players shouldn't be with the Twins. There are a few cases where it makes sense in terms of developing prospects (Clete Thomas was NEVER better than Aaron Hicks or Oswaldo Arcia, much less this year), but Butera isn't top 40 in the organization. Gray isn't top 40 either. Butera is a nice guy to pay a nice salary to stick at Rochester until he's 40, catching and working with prospect pitchers (but as a catcher, not a coach). The 25th guy doesn't make or break the team, but that doesn't mean that they should just give the last roster spot to anyone. Of course, that 25th guy MIGHT make or break the team in the playoffs pinch-hitting if the Twins get back there every again. Chris Herrmann is in that top 25. And he fits in nicely next year with Mauer and Doumit, and as a fifth OF. Never again will Ryan Doumit ever have to play OF as Herrmann is a good OF defensively. And any defense lost from Butera to Herrmann behind the plate (not as much as one might think, though Butera seems to have most of his value in working with pitchers--see that whole AAA thing above) is made up by a minimum .100 OPS increase (likely .130-.160 increase) and defensive versatility.

Very interesting and nice work. It would make for a good article, and serve to quiet some of the worries about Levi Michael and Angel Morales.

Also with regard to Drew, I had him in my fantasy league in 2007, 2009, and 2011. So, I can't be trusted with any assessment of his value for the Twins . . .

With regard to Stephen Drew, from 2008 to 2010 he was a good hitter for his position, and every year other than this he has been significantly better than any other option the Twins have. And even in 2012 he has been better than some of them. With regard to Florimon, he seems to really get down on himself. This is the opposite of Casilla who doesn't appear to care. Florimon is a make-the-spectacular-plays-and-miss-the-routine-plays kind of shortstop and Jamey Carroll is the EXACT opposite. Pick your poison defensively. Carroll is creeping up offensively as well. Florimon has only 99 plate appearances with the Twins this year. Calm the hell down. With regard to Dozier, obviously he is a second baseman. That has been clear this year. It's a good thing the Twins called him up again to play there in September. Oh wait. Well, it's a good thing after his demotion to Rochester he played 2B. Oh wait. What the hell? Anyway, it is a bit clownish to worry about this right now. Starting pitching is all that matters right now. There is nothing wrong with a Florimon-Dozier-Carroll MI situation next year. Willingham and Plouffe provide RH power, Doumit and Parmelee will supply some LH power, and Span, Revere, and Mauer are the table setters.

It's not. Drew Butera is a historically bad MLB hitter. End of story. Yes, this is obvious as well. There is no excuse for this, just silliness. Maybe he can at least pinch hit today!? Is that really so much to ask for?

Oh my god, finally Ben Revere is back where he belongs. It's a good day. Some Revere-Span-Hicks action next year at times would be nice (Willingham DH/day off).

No one in his or her right mind could make a serious claim that he is better as a starter. WE ALL KNEW THAT COMING INTO THE SEASON!

Well perhaps that goes back to developing too slowly . . . The Twins approach with Parmelee and Benson was fine up until 2011 when they both should have gotten a taste of Rochester. Hicks' movement through has been good. Arcia's movement is much better. They could have kept him in Fort Myers for the whole year in the name of proper development and "seasoning" but they rightly didn't. Joe Benson's cumulative at New Britain in 2011 was not so great as to say he was overqualified to be there. His 28 games at Rochester this year showed he did not belong there this year. Prior to 2011 he moved through a couple of levels every year. Developed too slowly? Don't think so. In 472 plate appearances in 2011 at New Britain: .285/.388/.495, 28 doubles, 3 triples, 16 homers. Not sure what on earth you are talking about. Between 2010 and 2011 he had 900 damn plate appearances at New Britain with 39 homers and an OPS around .874. So, again, I don't know what you are talking about. With regard to Rochester in 2012, first he was injured, second he has 108 plate appearances. The appropriate decision was to let him overcome struggles in AAA. AAA still is the closest to the majors. He's a top prospect . . . demoting back to a level where he was great at for 900 plate appearances prior to 2012 is terribly stupid. First off, I said overqualified. Benson had very good numbers at New Brittain. They were not good enough to make him an All Star for the Eastern league. All reports I read and can go back and find deal with Benson having an attiude at Rochester. There is no mention of an injury. The hand soreness developed after he was a New Britain and could have well been caused by him punching a wall yet again. His performance with a bat at Rochester was poor. 100 plate appearance is an adequate sample size to give him a chance to work it out. Some big-time speculation here. Conversation over.

I am not sure if what I saw was official, as ESPN sometimes makes a mistake. But let's put it this way, Butera is STILL in the damn lineup (FYI, Chris Herrmann has hit lefties surprisingly well) and Escobar is batting second instead of Mastro. Escobar is a middle infielder, you see, so . . . I swear if he were playing third and Plouffe playing second, Plouffe would be batting second . . .

Exactly. Herrmann replacing Butera's time, filling in a bit more for Mauer and Doumit (esp. if Morneau is no longer on the team) as the catcher, and being a 5th OF should get him about 200 plate appearances and he can be very effective in the role for the Twins through the duration of Doumit's contract.