Taildragger8791

Probably because we still have at least 4 more innings to pitch and we're in the bottom half of their lineup.

Has there been any sightings of Tyler Jay this spring? I saw he had one rough outing with the big league club but has been off the radar otherwise. I thought they would be evaluating him for a push to the majors (which was the purpose of switching him back to relief in the first place).

Probably meant he could be traded by then, or lost to free agency in 3 years. Alex being fully MLB-ready in 3 years would be fast for a guy who hasn't played in A ball yet. He'd have to conquer at least 1 level per year. Doable, but it would require good health and mean that he's on an elite prospect development timeline.

A guy with as much power as Sano shouldn't need to sell-out to swing for the fences. 420 feet counts the same as a 480 feet almost everywhere. Maybe he can improve his bat control/contact ability/pitch recognition by dialing in an appropriate swing effort for the pitch count & situation. That could be a very beneficial tradeoff if it works. Might help avoid nasty back back problems and muscle strains as he ages, too.

Way too early and too small of a sample. Hardly anyone is hitting yet. As long as he can play he'll mash a lot of taters and probably be top 5 in the league in strikeouts (or strikeout rate). That's just his game, and as ugly as it may be that's the way the league is going. That's also why I'd rather see him in the 4 hole than the 3 hole, but we probably don't have a better candidate for batting third.

Love the signing at that price. Hopefully this means a little less Grossman in the full-time DH slot. I assume this will bump Vargas from the 25-man, and I assume this means Sano will be forced to 3B even if he's a dumpster fire over there all season. Hopefully he gets his legs back in a hurry.

Those pictures are a year or more old, and he looks considerably better in them. I'd be comfortable with him at the weight he was at last spring if he could maintain it throughout the season. I'd be interested to see a full body shot of him today, but so far all I can go off of are reports from his team and pics of his newly grown jowls (I kid).

And his hamstring injury in 2015. And the other hamstring injury in 2016. And for 2018 spring training, the 'generous carriage' his GM notes will limit his spring activity. Yes, I'm aware that's connected to the shin injury but a little dietary discipline could have mitigated that and had him ready to go sooner. Athletes in other sports don't gain significant weight due to lower body injuries, because they know that's not an option. Maybe all those injuries and recovery times were unrelated and unaffected by his conditioning/fitness, but why put yourself in a position to even wonder? You're right we don't know what his ideal weight is, because as you said every body type is different. Maybe he really will be the outlier that sustains excellence for many years at 280-300 lbs. But it's hard to bet against history, and I can't look at the pictures in this Star Tribune article and not think he's ballooned quite a bit from even previous seasons: http://www.startribune.com/twins-miguel-sano-healthy-and-happy-but-heavy/474439303/

No, he doesn't. And that's not what I said. I'm not being unreasonable and saying he needs to be 225 or get to 5% bodyfat. I just don't see how pushing 3 bills on the scale can be considered normal and sustainable just because he can still hit a baseball hard today (and probably for a few more years). I've mostly ignored this topic in the previous iterations because I didn't think it was going to be an actual problem and he'd settle into a normal playing weight to extend his time at 3B, a position he claims to want to keep. But that's not happening, so it's fair to start being concerned about another year of trending in the wrong direction. Ultimately, only time will tell.

Dwayne Johnson reported his weight at 262 last year, at an inch taller than Sano. He also lifts for show, not for go (i.e., maximum lean bulk, not athletic performance). And he's still 30 lbs lighter.

Obviously us at home don't know with certainty what his healthy baseline weight is, but there's just no way it's 290 at 6'4". 250-270 is a reasonable. He'd have to be an extreme outlier (and probably the only athlete ever) to have a lean body mass anywhere near 280-300. Also, Sano has a track record of gaining weight after spring training starts. Not losing it. He'd have to show he can reverse that trend before anyone should expect it.

Those guys played between 250-270 over the years, so still less than Sano is already sitting at by quite a bit. Papi had major foot problems as a result, and to his credit he put a ton of work in to overcome that just to play every day. He also got on a pretty strict diet in his later years to keep the weight down. Both have tried to keep their playing weight closer to 250, so even they recognize that anything much over that is excessive and wasteful.

You know full well that comparison doesn't make sense. Judge is 3" taller, looks trim, and doesn't have a track record of steadily gaining weight. He also plays the outfield decently, unlike most guys (including Sano) who would be a clown show out there at that size. Nobody is a natural 290 lbs at 6'4", even with a large muscle mass. I didn't expect Sano to be in top form after his leg injury, but gaining 30 lbs as a professional athlete just because of an injury is a little ridiculous. He usually gains weight during the season too, so I don't expect improvement in 2018. Weight control starts with the diet and he's not gaining that kinds weight from grilled chicken salads and egg whites. Just because the weight isn't a 100% definite problem yet doesn't mean the increased risk should be acceptable. He's already battled hamstring issues in 2015 and 2016 (something often caused by insufficient conditioning), and if he carried 30-40 less lbs then maybe he recovers better from his shin injury. If Sano continues to experience back or lower body injuries throughout his 20s and it limits his performance I doubt folks will still chalk it up as some unavoidable bad luck or genetics. Why wait until then to address it? Maybe this is all much ado about nothing and he whips into shape or plays fantastically at 300 lbs for the next 10 years. But the story of the overweight slugger limiting his ceiling has played out too many times before to not be at least a little bit concerned.

That’s because our slow iso-heavy ball-control offense with our talent works against a lot of teams but it can’t keep up with the explosiveness of the true contenders. Especially with our inconsistent defense and total inability to guard or shoot the 3, or slow teams in transition. Side note: Wiggins could become the worst contract in Minnesota history and his max deal hasn’t even kicked in yet. He got benched in crunch time tonight for Crawford of all people, and has been invisible on the court way too frequently. His shooting and passing is somehow getting worse. I don’t know how you salvage him but you have to find a way.

Do the 60 days not start counting down until after opening day?

Insurance doesn't do anything if a guy is healthy but just plain stinks. And I believe it typically only pays out a negotiated percentage of the salary, not the whole thing. But yeah, at this point I don't think a 6th year should be the big sticking point as long if the AAV comes down a little bit with it. He's talented enough to be effective even if he's overpaid in those last years.

It's interesting seeing the coaches, vets, and older prospects talk so much about perfecting or altering mechanics contrasted with Kiriloff's comments. I assume his position on that will change as he matures and faces better competition, unless he's just a natural "see ball, hit ball" wunderkind.

It's pretty normal for a typical player to lose a half-step every few years starting in their mid-20s, which they have to make up for through gains in technique, experience, and growth in other skills. Most NFL "skill" position players (WRs, RBs, DBs) rely on extreme athleticism early in their career, but those impressive 40 times and combine numbers degrade pretty much every year after that. That doesn't stop a 39 year old Terrance Newman from covering guys nearly half his age. Rosario doesn't worry me because he has the proifle to still become a very good player despite only having average speed in his prime (if he keeps developing).

I don't see how those are even comparable. Gibson is 30 and his brief periods of success basically amount to league average performance for a month or so at a time. He's never going to cost a fortune if he finally clicks, so there's not much of an advantage for the Twins to lock him up. He doesn't even have a ceiling as an all star. Buxton is 24 with a crazy high ceiling and already is elite on D and the basepaths. If he starts hitting consistently over a full season then his contract demands will skyrocket 6 months from now. By the time you've waited for him to prove it he's got the leverage to jack his price up 50%. I don't think you'll ever get Sano to sign an early deal like that. There's a reason he went to Roc Nation as soon as he could. He's got his sights set on big things and taking a cheap deal to get locked up in Minnesota through his prime isn't part of that. That, and I have a suspicion he sees himself as more like Harper/Machado than as the "3 true outcomes" injury-prone slugger he's shown to be so far. The value gap between those two types of players is too enormous to close right now.

I understand the concern, but Royce is far to inexperienced and raw at SS to really get a feel for his projection right now. He only played one year in the hole in high school, didn't he? With his athleticism to fall back on he probably didn't even learn the fundamentals of the position. This next year should hopefully give us a much better read on his infield ability.

To be fair, when a prospect plays a full season at one level they tend to end up near the top of the lists in counting stats. He led the Southern League in plate appearances and had nearly 100 more ABs then his next closest teammate.

No, but it’s still not an optimal use of resources if he’s perfectly capable of playing another position. Why limit your roster flexibility unnecessarily? That mistake would only be compounded if he doesn’t turn into the best DH in baseball, but instead continues to be a low average / high strikeout “three true outcomes” hitter.

It’s a little crazy that they wouldn’t give him a 1B glove for a while before resorting to DH. He’s way too young and athletic to clog up the DH spot already.

My concern is we could lose several games in what should be a competitive season while throwing stuff at the wall. And it leaves us with no depth if things go wrong. I'd hope we could be better prepared than that. Let the minor leagues sort out the depth and wall-stickiness and then supplement mid-season with whoever forced their way to the top.

It looks good at first glance to throw a list like that out there, but a plan based around that can fall apart in a hurry. Duffey was very inconsistent this year. Chargois isn't and may never be healthy. Moya is largely an unknown. Jake Reed still has control problems. Melotakis was removed from the 40 man roster for a reason. Jay is a health risk and didn't exactly light the AFL on fire. Nick Anderson is a lotto ticket. Rodney is...Rodney. The that leaves you with 4 young unestablished relievers that you're counting on all performing this year, which can quickly fall to 2-3 due to injury or non-performance. And those aren't the kinds of arms you should be taxing when your starter only went 4-5 innings for the 4th time that week.