ShouldaCouldaWoulda

Part of this teams problem is that it's best non-Mauer players are all righties (Dozier, Plouffe, Sano, Suzuki) who mash vs lefties. We have faced lefties at a much lesser rate this year than last year. When people talk about BD and TP getting hot or cold...it's usually just byproduct of the handedness of the pitchers we have been facing, and not their overall hitting. With Rosario turning into the very much predicted on here Santana sophomore 2.0, we don't have many lefties we can count on, especially with Molly's unwillingness to bat him 3/4 vs righties, where he should. WTF did he ever say to Molly anyway?

I heard that Mauer was batting 1st while I was driving and I got a little exited that the team was going to start making smarter decisions, and then I looked at the overall lineup and scratched my head. So, they finally moved Mauer to #1, but have Dozie and Plouffe batting in front of Sano, Park, and Arcia- WTF?! I am okay with Dozier being in front of those 3 I guess, but probably at the #2 hitter I would think. With this particular 9 guys and Mauer batting #1 I think something like this would seem much more logical at the moment. 1. Mauer (L) 2. Sano ® 3. Arcia (L) 4. Park ® 5. Plouffe ® 6. Dozier ® 7. Nunez ® 8. Suzuki ® 9. Sanatana (S) ..But, think it would be better to get both or either Polanco and Rosario in there too. That is a lot of right-handed bats.

C'mon guys, have you not been paying attention to the script this year?! You should all know what is about to come next. It starts tonight. Berrios will look dominant at times, but have some bad luck that either gets him hooked around the 5th inning or give up like 3 runs after bad route to a ball that should have been caught with two outs. Berrios will then get sent back down in favor of Gibson. This is too easy to predict.

More importantly...is there ANY talk of top names in the '17 Draft?! Since we are currently drafting #2 then, and will likely at least stay top #5 then. I sure hope that is a top heavy draft of obvious picks.

86mph isn't that sought after, regardless of handedness.

....This type of thing is getting too predictable! I spent the whole night outside and with no radio. Came home and checked the score, and first thing I saw was Mastro 0-4 batting leadoff. Golden. How many crazy bad moves with this lineup has this forum called before hand, and been right....seems like way too often.

Meyer pitched better than just about every starter since his start, and better than most of the relievers since. That is not saying much, but if all are floundering on a bad team you have to keep trying to give the upside the chance...and NOT hoping that others can somehow regain what they no longer are, or only were for brief periods.

Disappointing. I am really not all that excited about very many batters in the Twins system at all. We need to get in on as much talent as possible, and this is the easiest way to go about that.

Doubling down on this call, even with more runs on the board for dirty sox.

Calling it now though...Twins win this game. Just feel it in my bones. Could be Zika though...it was near 90 today.

Well, I hope that Molly has a fitbit or iWatch to track his steps...he is getting some good walking in lately.

I actually think this would be a good thing as well for a while at least. Also, force them to focus on plate discipline and contact. These aren't big power guys, so they will need to get on base to be of value, along with their good defense.

We shouldn't be at all disappointed at any of the names recently put on waivers or DFA'd. They are all below average players with little to no upside. We have plenty of other guys like that who can be that bad. I actually like that they did this all at once. Smart by them to have to admit failure with the decisions to have kept and believed in these guys in the first place, rather than have to admit that 4 separate times with them. This just makes it look like they admitted to one mistake, not 4;)

I enjoyed the read. The only thing I disagree with is your thoughts on Dozier. He is currently and has been about average 2B in the league IMHO. He is trending in the wrong direction and I believe that the sample size of his failure is larger than of his success. Looking at his failures this year is legit, but yes its only a month. If you add this months failures to the failure of the second half of last year it is a big sample size of failure. If you use all of last year and this first month, he is about average to slightly bellow average overall for 2B. If you use this first month, all of last year, and the second half of two seasons ago all you have is one stretch of success and then surround by failure. His defense has been declining and is currently bellow average and probably not going to get any better. The "HOW" he was having success was pull power and "just enough" homers, although the walks are legit and positive. The pull power is not helping with him not striking the ball well and likely a continuing to dealing power/exit velocity as he ages. Those "just enough" homers then become some doubles, but mostly outs. He might still be an average 2B for a while with that profile, but we have to stop viewing him for his two good halves and consider "how" he was succeeding. He could be streaky good from time to time yet, but my bet is that he will be streaky bad more often than he will be streaky good. **He actually is one of my favorite Twins players, but just believe he is completely overrated by homers, both now and in the past. I like him, but now think we have missed our chance to get anything from him and will be stuck with a declining player who will be blocking others that might be ready. But, we certainly have bigger concerns at the moment and near future.

Sure, I agree that in that sense its fine....but, with the way rosters and lineups have been handled I wouldn't be surprised Mastroianni being plugged into the everyday lineup (batting leadoff or something like that.) It also would not surprise me if he lucked into some early results that give him unnecessary long leash at future below average results. He also is not that great of a defender, he just is not really bad. Regardless, hopefully Buxton keeps up his AAA success and comes up to start in CF anyway. By the way...how many days would Buxton have to remain in the minors for the Twins to gain any service date time?

Yes, the Santana was mostly luck was shouted out by many in here during that season and after...and we were right. Then, this past year many of shouted the same thing about Rosario, and many homers got mad at that...but again, we were right. You can't succeed by swinging at everything! The only guys that can have much value doing that have to have 65-80 grade power, which Santana, Rosario, nor Buxton have. You need to be able to make contact and take some walks. All 3 of Buxton, Rosario, and Santana are guys that CAN have stretches of awesome results through bad process, but overtime...bad process is going to lead to bad results more often than not. Santana getting hot, but not taking any walks will ultimately lead to the lucky landings stop and back to low avg/obp, just like before and Rosario now. I am very disappointed in the Twins overall ability to develop better plate discipline with their prospects. I get that some guys are just going to be free swingers no matter what, but some guys with discipline are also doing that all on their own and without being coached it as well. Seems like almost ALL of our "TOOLSY" prospects have terrible plate discipline, as if they are simply allowing them to succeed off of their athleticism in the minors, but that doesn't work in the MLB and then its too engrained in them. I have actually heard that said about the Twins and Buxton last year at either Baseball Prospectus or Fangraphs and it echoed my opinion.

Even more nuts is the way he has treated D. Santana, Rosario, and Dozier. They get treated way better than they should from him. He seems to like the scrappy athlete type, and will give them every chance in the world and put them in the best of situations for success, though unwanted.

Yes, most of this was said, but I believe you painted a pretty good picture of the chronology of events. Making the case that much more damning against the decision makers.

If this was the case...it was completely on the FO/Molly for putting him in a situation that he'd need a pitch limit. In which case only adds to the weirdness of their usage of him.

I have no problem with him being sent back down to start and get regular innings. However, I think the major frustration was on him being called up after only 2 starts and finding himself, to then just sit and watch. He wasn't used at all for so long, then got an inning, then was asked to start in a great hitters environment after 1 inning in basically 2 weeks of sitting, then got an extremely quick hook. The sitting and quick hook could have and should have been avoided, but the ballpark, non-homrun, and bad defense by Plouffe also did him no favors...which should be obvious to factor in to things when considering his performance. Would have been nice to see him get a Target Field start while being stretched out and on his due starting day. Oh, and others seem to get the benefit of the doubt while floundering.

Who is the best defensive catcher in the system? Slot him in there. Really, we are basically putting out bad defensive catchers that also cannot hit a lick, so might as well at least put in someone who can be a wizard behind the plate. Suzuki is not the answer, and we need to make dang sure that he does not reach plate appearance option.

I echo all the disappointing sentiments and comments in here and could feel this coming a mile a way. It is sad when things play out the way you facetiously predicted.

Did Milone get optioned after the game too?

Where was he sitting before?

Is it bad that I was cheering for the Springer bomb and for Milone to fail...only in the hopes that it maybe give Meyer another chance and puts more pressure on Molly for the quick hook.