Twins7

What is the norm?

Sano's playing through an injury right now, and striking out a lot... 9 times in his last 10 PA's of the Houston series, 2 times yesterday (though he did draw a couple of walks). Do we give him a couple of days off to try to heal up a bit? Hate to not have him in the lineup, but perhaps giving him a couple of days off will let him get his legs back under him. This is relevant: "Asked before Saturday’s game if it looked as though Sano didn’t have his legs under him, Twins manager Paul Molitor said he 'didn’t really see that.' He then opted to play Sano on a day game after a night game for the second time in as many Sundays against the Astros. '(Trainers) think it will be slow to improve with playing time on a regular basis,” Molitor said. “We’ve had a couple different people look at the MRI. Generally people think we’re at a very minimal risk of doing something substantial here, as long as he plays intelligently. 'Something freakish could happen. You’re playing the game. If he’s going about his business the way he has when he’s been in there, I would like to think over time it’s going to get a little better where he can give us a little more. I’m hoping he gets gradually better.'" http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2015/09/06/postgame-twinsights-strikeouts-piling-up-on-gimpy-miguel-sano/ Proper treatment of injuries isn't an exact science, and I have no idea what the best way to handle this is. Hopefully it is minor enough that it can heal without having Sano miss any time, but it also could be pretty devastating to this season if it gets worse while he tries to play through it, and we lose him for the stretch...

Well, also that 2012 draft that netted us Buxton, Berrios and Duffey...

Good year for Berrios, impressive stuff. I'll be excited to see how he progresses next year!

Fair enough, it's possible that the trades were done to make room for hicks. I just interpreted them differently. We were in rebuilding mode, and span and revere were among our top assets. We needed young pitching desperately, so Ryan pulled the trigger.

I don't think that TR was aggressively shopping span and revere purely to open up a spot for hicks... I think it's more likely that other teams approached him with an interest, and he went for some young, talented arms because our pitching depth was so terrible. Doesn't seem like TR is very aggressive in the trade market. Agreed, though, I think trading plouffe for the right package would be a good idea, to open up some roster spots.

I do like the idea of a hicks-Buxton-Rosario OF...

So does Buxton go down when hicks returns?

Ah, forgot about the FAs. Yeah, looks like it wouldn't be a problem at all to add him. Thanks!

Yeah, that's right. Nolasco will need a spot when he comes back, though.

Actually, looking at the 40-man roster, it looks like wheeler and Darnell are a couple of guys I could see us cutting. Perhaps pressly, since he's on the 60 day dl. If you look at the twins 40 man roster (http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/team/roster_40man.jsp?c_id=min), they list 42 guys because pressly and nolasco are on the 60 day dl. If we called up Berrios today, how would you handle the 40 man roster decision? Keep in mind that nolasco will need a spot when he returns. And, if we give berrios a spot, does that mean that we have to keep him there? When you drop a guy from the 40, he can be claimed by waivers, correct? I'm not arguing that 40 man roster considerations would be prohibitive to berrios being promoted, just curious as to what it would cost us.

Yeah, you're probably right. Any official word from the twins on an innings limit for Berrios? I wonder if it's a combination of service time and protecting his arm. Not sure they'd want to start his clock for 1-2 starts in the MLs, especially if it might take him that long to adjust to the competition... I'm intrigued with him as a bullpen guy, but not necessarily in high leverage situations out of the gate. Might be good in long relief for a while, but again, what's the point of calling him up and starting his clock for mop up duty? My gut is that protecting his arm is TRs number one priority for berrios, and I'm ok with that. I wouldn't be surprised if he found a way to get him some innings with the big club, but I also wouldn't be outraged if he remained at AAA for the remainder of the year. I'm not convinced that he would be the difference maker in us missing or making the postseason.

Is berrios in AAA right now because of service time issues? I thought it was because they didn't think he was ready to provide an upgrade over any of our current, more entrenched pitchers (though these last couple of outings might be evidence that he is ready). Who in the rotation is he expected to replace? Santana? I think there needs to be an injury to get him in the rotation right now. And, not sure how many more innings he's expected to pitch. Bullpen might be a different story, but it might take him a week or two to get him ready to pitch in that role.

Yeah, I've been thinking that plouffe ought to be traded, but I saw a post recently that suggested that he was top-3 in the MLB in some defensive stats measuring range... That gives me pause. I agree, though, that there's a logjam with plouffe, Mauer, and Sano on the team, and Vargas and Arcia in the minors. Plus, the OF is stacked with Buxton, hicks, Rosario and Kepler waiting in the wings. The best way, IMO to deal with this logjam would be to deal plouffe and an OF for a good young catcher, or perhaps a good young pitcher. Tough deal, though. It'll be interesting to see how it all shakes out at the corners, OF, and DH next season...

Just pure innings totals... A starter pitches more than double the innings compared to a reliever. Having 2-3 dominant relievers is huge for a team; it can add a bunch of wins in close games. So, I'm in favor of May in the bullpen this year, to provide that lock-down option in the pen here for the stretch. But, if we can get that performance from another option next year (Meyer? Burdi? Jones? Chargois?) May is best for us as a starter. He has the stuff to give us 175 innings at a 3.5 era, which would be huge.

Hah! Just made a post about this in the announcer thread. I'm also a firm believer in clubhouse chemistry, and I think TR is as well. The young core have all been playing together through the minors - Sano, Rosario, Buxton, Vargas, Kepler, Duffey - and winning! I think that they want to win together, to drag the franchise out of the depths together. Baseball seems like just the sum total of a bunch of individual battles, and that's how the top statisticians model it, but players can have a big impact on each other's performance, just through creating a welcoming atmosphere, fostering a positive group attitude, and working towards the ultimate goal of winning it all as a group. Tough to quantify, tough to build, but you won't find a coach or manager that doesn't do his best to create it.

Devil's advocate here. I like the RBI and Win stats. I am a firm believer in "clutch" performance. Not that some players are more "clutch" than others, that some confluence of events lead players to get it done when it matters. Especially a good clubhouse environment, where the players have strong emotional connections, and really truly believe in each other and want to beat the hell out of those damn Yankees together and represent the great state of Minnesota. Just that spark, that feel of a team with a chip on its shoulder who want to show the world what it can do. Yeah, maybe that team will have a good ops and drs, but they'll have good numbers with risp and a bunch of rbis, and a lot of wins late in the game. Dunno, I just like RBI and wins because they're better connected to the human aspect of the game, the love and emotion that comes with winning, as opposed to war and uzr and drs that seems to dissect a players performance into isolated compartments solely based on the individual's talent. I think that a lot of what happens in baseball is heavily affected by emotion and comraderie, or lack-there-of. And rbis and wins frame the narrative that way, even if they don't measure performance as well as other advanced stats.

Using May in the pen this year doesn't prevent us from starting him next year... Teams (including the cardinals) will do this with young guys to get their best arms in the game during a playoff race. May isn't necessarily banished to the pen for life. And, agreed with kab. We have five starters who can give us similar quality starts as may. We don't have a 7th-8th guy with an arm like mays. Plus, the dude is a strikeout guy, and iirc, wasn't especially efficient starting (hopefully it's something he can improve in the future).

What? KC clinched a playoff spot already? That's not right. Excited about the twins, though, think they can make some noise these last few weeks. Seems that they've stabilized the bullpen a little bit, and the kids are up and contributing at the plate.

Yeah, that's what makes me so hesitant to deride TR, despite how bad we've been in the last few years. We, as fans, understandably expect TR to put together a winning team every year. But, players are controlled and developed over much longer time scales, upwards of 5 years. If you can't spend 200- 300mil a year buying the best players, you've got to try to acquire and develop premium young talent, and it seems that TR and co. has done a pretty good job of that in the last few years. That 2012 draft has the makings of a legendary draft... And, the big organizational weakness has clearly been pitching - from philosophy (PTC), to talent, to managing injury. It seems that the FO has recognized this weakness and has made strides in trying to get better, from drafting more velocity, guys with less mileage on their arms, Duffey with his curve, and going outside the organization to the rays, a team with historically good pitcher development, for a new top pitching coach. Plus, they've shown a willingness to take on more expensive FA starters, although they haven't all worked out and they haven't acquired any premium talent. Our pitching staff has been markedly better this year, as opposed to the worst in the league over the last few years.

Here are the free agent catchers for 2016: Alex Avila (29) Chris Iannetta (33) Dioner Navarro (32) Brayan Pena (34) A.J. Pierzynski (39) Matt Wieters (30) Wieters would be an obvious upgrade, but he'd be expensive and go for a long contract. Avila and iannetta would probably be upgrades, but would also go for a few years in their contracts... I sort of like having Suzuki for the short term, while we see what happens with pinto/turner. He won't win us any games, but he also won't lose us many. And, we don't really have an long term commitment to him, which would make it easier to transition to the young guys. I am intrigued by guys like Susac and plawecki, but they might be expensive gets. Unless we could pry one of them away with plouffe+hicks or Kepler or Rosario, allowing Sano to slide over to 3B, whoevers hotter of Vargas/Arcia at DH. We'd just need the acquired catcher to upgrade C offensively for it to make sense. Use positions of strength (3B/OF) to upgrade a position of weakness ©.

I was referring to Escobar as the other prospect, but fair enough. I'd argue that the twins were over .500 late in July largely because milone, pelfrey, and Gibson all had sub-3 eras for long stretches. And, Boyer and Thompson were excellent in the 7th and 8th innings. I think these guys regressing had a lot more to do with our fall than week to week management of the roster... The only real mistakes, in hindsight, that i can remember is choosing Santana over Escobar for so long, sticking with Boyer in high leverage situations, and not replacing hunter with hicks when buxton came back (going with a Rosario-hicks-buxton OF). Oh, and batting Mauer so high for so long... What am I missing (besides not trading for Tulo or price or hamels, which is its own can of worms)?

Vargas was replaced by Sano, which I think was totally justified in hindsight... Sano's arguably been the best hitter on the team. http://www.twincities.com/sports/ci_28416286/twins-send-kennys-vargas-all-way-back-double Arcias been blocked by Sano, Rosario, hicks, Buxton, and hunter. And maybe Vargas. Mauer in the mix too. When all of these guys are around, tough to get Vargas and Arcia in the lineup. There's just more of a log-jam at Arcia and Vargas's position than at SS. Not sure why you're getting so worked up over giving Santana an extra few weeks at SS, even if he was brutally bad. We have two prospects at SS, both got an opportunity. Maybe Santana was kept two or three weeks too long... Big deal.

Girsch, though... Man that would be a good get. Cardinals are the franchise we ought to emulate. They really are impressive. Good pitcher development, excellent trading, just good roster management all around. Seems like they (and SF) have some sort of edge on this game, unless they've just been getting lucky.

Ha! From hoyer's wiki page: " In November 2003, he accompanied general manager Theo Epstein to Arizona to persuade pitcher Curt Schilling to accept a trade to the Red Sox, spending Thanksgiving at Schilling's home in what was eventually a successful effort." Bet TR never put near that much personal touch into pursuing big free agents. Not sure how we could steal the cubs gm away, though... Wouldn't that require some tampering?