Trov

The prospect I want to see most, that we have not seen already, is Gilberto Celestino. I want to see if can at least be replacement level bat and if his defense is as advertised. Not that he will be full replacement of Buck, but if he can have above average defense and replacement level hitter, that frees up moving on from Buck. I love to watch Buck play, but that only happens for about 80 games a season, we play 162.

I would agree with the list, for the most part. I would disagree with Simmons. For me, to be disappointed, you need to expect more than what they are doing. Simmons did not come here to hit, unlike Cruz and Donaldson, who bats are why they hit top of line up. Any offense you get from Simmons is bonus for most part. He came here to play defense, and to my knowledge he still can do that. Overall, most of the team has been a disappointment though. They need to figure out how to not strike out so much. Personally, I am done with Sano and want him dealt to any team that will take him. Give his position to Kiroloff. Once Buck comes back find a team that will give up a top prospect, if one is out there, and send him on his way. He may have MVP talent, but he lacks the most important ability, avail-ability. I worry his numbers in April will cause Twins to give him a deal more than they should and he keeps spending half his career in the trainer room. The most recent injury is a muscle injury, and they pop up time and again. I expect as he ages they will keep on coming and it will always be the, if he can stay healthy thing. After this long you just have to accept, he cannot stay on the field for 150 games a year, barely can for 100.

Is he forgotten, or just getting passed over? He had a chance to start year with team and run with it. Instead he played himself to the minors, where he has not forced is way back to the majors, despite having a lot of injuries to corner outfield guys. I read some of the comments about Rooker by the powers that be when he was sent down. They were very down on his lack of defense. So unless Rooker can hit at a level that is so above replacement he will not be playing too much in the future. We have two guys that have shown much more at the plate the year that just passed Rooker over for playing time. It happens. My guess is Rooker may get a chance again with Twins, or he gets DFA after this year and gets picked up by someone. It is too bad he has not been able to have his bat take off this year.

Duran will need to start building up some innings and pitches. I know he is coming off of injury but 4 innings per start is a little short.

I am not going to get too excited over wins against one of the worst teams in the league. Yes, we had been losing to everyone, so maybe things are looking up. Just keep taking it one game at a time until we get back to .500 then I can get excited.

Do the Twins have a clear replacement if they trade Berrios? On paper most likely not, but at the same time at some others will take the mound if he is not there. Will they be as good, who knows. The question is, do you sign him long term, keep him another year and get very little value in a trade if needed, or keep and he walks for a draft pick, or trade him now for peak value most likely? To just say any replacements at this time would not be of equal value so you should not trade him is narrow minded. One, we do not know if any of the prospects will do well or not. Maybe all our prospects will do better than Berrios, maybe they will all be flops at MLB level, hopefully not. However, if the FO feels they can accept whatever replacements and bring in greater value than what they would be losing, you do that. If they feel any deal is not a good one and they keep riding Berrios in hopes of signing then you do that. If you just look at replacing Berrios and if you cannot then you keep him for now, that is not a good way to look at it, because you may be missing improving other areas of need much more in a trade.

He has always been a guy that gets on a hot streak and we all say he figured it out. Then he gets in huge slump where he cannot even touch the ball. I think at this point he is who he is. He will have long stretches of terrible hitting and then good stretches of MVP level hitting. You cannot count on him carrying your team, but he can do it for some time. You just need to accept you will want him to be benched for weeks at a time.

I am pretty sure Mr. Veck has tampered with the radar gun a little. No way are guys hitting 102 with regularity. It sure looks exciting for the fans though.

I really think during this year and next year is when we should start seeing some pipeline payouts. The new FO was never going to just snap their fingers and players were going to start being top pitchers in the game. I am hoping the returns will start coming in though. When you look back at old FO we had what 2 quality MLB level pitchers for long lengths, and may high draft busts. The recent signings for the pen have not gone too well this year, but pen signings are always a crap shoot.

Glad we finally won an extra inning game, not happy it went to extras with another blown save. We need to figure out who can pitch in the 9th inning and actually get outs. No matter who we send out they give up runs.

I had similar thought. One game shutting down a bad offense does not turn us around. The Twins will need to have some very good months going forward to be competitive down the stretch. However, Nationals a couple years ago got off to bad start and eventually turned it around to make playoffs and win. Not saying Twins will do it because we are in a deep hole already, but you never know what might happen.

I fully agree the "unwritten" rules need to go. I have been sick of them for years. The no swing 3-0 when up big rule is dumb. There is no auto ball on 0-2 when the hitting team is down big to give them a chance to come back. Other "unwritten" rules that make me mad. The no bunting late in game during no hitter. Why does it matter when in the game? If someone bunted for a hit in 1st inning and that was only hit of game would people be all upset that someone bunted early? The hitters job is to get on base, and to me that means by any means necessary. If that is by bunt late in game so be it. If a bunt was a hit every time, everyone would do it. It is only an attempt at a hit. How about too much celebrating after HR. Who cares. You do not want to seem them celebrate, do not give up the HR. I see pitchers get pumped from big strike outs but almost never see that fist bump or scream was too much, he should expect to have someone charge him. But if the hitter "shows" up the pitcher, he is free to throw at him or the next batter? What sense does that make. Stop with the old, "unwritten" rules already. If a hitter is to not swing 3-0 late in games with big lead, just put in a mercy rule to let the losing team not have to get anyone out anymore. I mean that is basically what is being asked about. You up big late, so it is expected you will not go out of your way to try and pile on runs, well just call the game then so not to hurt the feelings of the losing team. Well people will say the game is not over the and losing team could come back. Oh is that true, well then let the winning team add more runs to make that less likely.

I agree with all the hitters are huge regression. Kepler has good defense, but he has never adjusted well when teams started attacking him differently, and that has been his issue. Sano, I have no answer for he has just been terrible and should not be back next season regardless of contract. Garver has also failed to adjust to how teams pitched him. He snuck up on teams two years ago, but they figured him out and he has not made the adjustments needed. Duffy, his numbers are not good, but pen guys always have up and down years and stretches. You need to expect it. Very few bullpen pitchers are top notch year in and year out. If you count on a pen guy to be always great without backup plans you are making a large gamble. Only the all time greats do it every year.

I am happy to see Cavaco doing well so far. Still short sample but much better than what he did as a rookie out of high school. The other two I will wait to make much judgement, our pen first 6 games, outside of Colome was not too bad either, it sure turned quickly.

I think people have been wanting Polonco to be more than he is. Other than last year, and the start of this year he has been a good player. We have been wanting him to be a great to MVP level player. He is not that, but who should he be replaced with? I bet you will be hard pressed to find too many second basemen to say you would want playing over him on both sides of the ball. He has improved the overall defense being at 2nd and has been doing find on offense. If you do not look for him to be more than he is you will not be too disappointed.

When I saw the title I thought you were ranking how you trusted each pitcher, not the order you trust them compared to each other. I would agree with your rank, but I have zero trust for them right now. I assume every pen guy will blow whatever lead we have.

It is a little early to start looking to sell everything. Our team can perform much better than they have. So many teams have gone on long runs this year both winning and losing, it has been a crazy year in baseball for that. We could go on a long winning streak or winning even 8 out of 10 type streaks to get back into it. That being said, if we do not start to turn around quickly, I would look to sell any piece that you can get a decent return on that you do not plan to bring back next year. Buck and Berrios I would hold off until off-season to see if you can bring back, they both have a full year after this so teams will still look to take them in trades. You will not lose a ton of value for waiting in my opinion. Pineda could fetch a nice return and Rodgers could bring back maybe a piece. Cruz, he will have limited landing spots being he will only DH, but if you can get a prospect back and you are out of the hunt do it.

These numbers are sad to look at. No wonder our pen has been getting rocked late in games. They need to fix this and fast or call the season a complete loss reload for next season.

I will put most blame on players. They are the ones failing to get hits late in games, or in big situations. The extra inning record is on the players mostly. They have only scored 1 time in extra innings when Buxton hit a HR, and we still lost that game, but every other time we did not get it done. We have lost games because of defensive plays not being made, even when not an error the player still failed to make a play they could have. Rocco should get some blame as he has made some interesting decisions, but he uses data being fed to him from FO for certain situations which will affect his decisions. I do not put a ton on the FO, but they do deserve some because they put the pen together, which has been a huge issue. We have had so many late leads blown this year. So many saves and hold just out the window. There are a few other options we could have tried to go after, like keep May, who is doing well so far this year. We do not know who they were all in on and lost out, or what trades were looked at. I do put some blame on the front office. Overall, the players need to start getting it done. Getting hits late and in key spots. Also, pen needs to start holding leads late, or starters need to start going deeper too.

I am most interested in following Keoni Cavaco this year. He did terrible in his short season then no season so I want to see how much he developed. I hope he gets up to high A by end of season. He is the biggest wild-card of prospects right now in my opinion.

I want to know when Acala will get a chance to pitch late in games. Last night would have been perfect spot to throw him in the 9th. Rodgers was pitching in back to back, and not that he did "good" the day prior. Yes, if Donaldson makes his play we win, but Rodgers still failed overall. We need to figure out this pen situation quickly, or start having our starters pitch more than 90 pitches a game and ask them to go into 7th. We keep using too many pen guys each night. I do not understand using Waddell again in the 10th, he did terrible the day prior against the same guys.

My biggest thing from last nights game was the home plate ump was all over the place with balls and strikes. I am surprised no one was tossed or more arguing. Pitches he was calling 0-0 were different later in the count. That is frustrating for both hitters and pitchers.

Looking forward to my daily catching up of minor league ball. I missed them last year. I thank all the people that take the time to do a dive into these games for good reporting.

The team has been hitting the ball very hard, even the outs have been hit hard for the most part. I am not concerned for our bad start, I think we will iron out the rough spots and be just fine.

"Reaching base has been one of the greatest struggles for the Twins this season. Before the game, only seven AL teams had a lower team on-base percentage than Minnesota (.304)" So we are struggling to get on base but still in the top half of the American league? I love how you can use the same numbers but as you change the words things look different. You could have had a more positive spin on it saying, Twins are in the top half the American league for on base percentage, but instead you said only seven are below them. That aside, Kiriloff had two outs that were hit hard, but Donaldson hit some of the hardest balls you will ever see hit for outs. The offense and defense looked to be clicking yesterday. Lets hope we can have a stable lineup for a good winning stretch soon.