chpettit19

Skenes or nobody as far as I'm concerned when it comes to taking a pitcher at #5. Somebody may get an absolute stud in Dollander if they can get him back to what he was last year, but I don't want the Twins taking that gamble at 5. I don't like shaky command guys at #5, and Waldrup walks too many guys. I want nothing to do with HS arms at the top of the draft. And I despise the idea of taking a "high floor, low ceiling" guy at #5. The Twins need to be taking the biggest homerun swing they can at #5. They need to try to find a star. So, from the pitching side, it's Skenes for me, and that's it.

My ideal OF dream for a while now has been Martin in LF, Buxton in CF, Royce in RF. The ground they'd cover would be incredible. That dream has been pretty well shattered, but Royce and Austin give me hope that we still have a shot at a stud in CF. It's going to be an interesting rest of 2023, and into 2024, to see how all the pieces start to fall together. And how quick the FO is willing to start handing jobs to young guys over vets (looking at you Kepler!). Exciting times! But lots of question marks we need to go the right way.

I've been driving the "Lewis to CF" bus for a long time. If Martin can get back to the type of player he was in the AFL, and cover CF (which I think he could) that'd be great with me, too. I don't like the idea of Royce being "stuck" at 3B instead of playing up the middle when we lack so much depth up the middle (moving forward, not necessarily today). But if Martin can be the guy we hoped, and cover CF, I'm happy with Lewis at 2B. Just want their best athletes up the middle. If you can get 2 way players up the middle you give yourself a real advantage.

If you think that's hilarious you should look at what Atlanta's been doing with their young, inexperienced players. Or Seattle and JRod. Or the White Sox and Luis Robert. Or Eloy Jimenez. Also Tim Anderson. Matt Moore with the Rays. Or Evan Longoria. Or Brandon Lowe. And Chris Archer. Or Wander Franco (those funny guys in Tampa sure don't know what they're doing!). Corbin Carroll just got paid this year after 38 days in the bigs. Salvador Perez in KC.

Certainly see if you can get someone to give you a lottery ticket for him if you eat his salary, but I'm not sure you'll find many takers. He's unplayable right now, and even teams who need OF bats like Cleveland probably don't see him as an upgrade (unless Cleveland thinks he can hit there like he has as a Twin, then he's an MVP candidate!). If I were the FO he wouldn't see another AB for the Twins. And I've liked Kepler. Think they did him a disservice by hitting him too high in the lineup most years. He was a solid 7-9 hitter with gold glove type defense in the OF. Instead they tried to hit him top 5 and he simply isn't that guy. His time with the Twins has come to an end, though. Time to move on. Also, A+ thread title.

That Austin Martin news is very nice to hear! Not just that he's playing, but that he's playing the field. Hopefully that means he's in a good place with the elbow. Maybe he's our answer in CF in a couple months?

Royce has publicly stated that he isn't as comfortable in CF. Basically he doesn't really want to play there, but he will if that's what's best for the team.

Agree on the general idea here, but Solano is their most consistent bat right now, no idea why they'd be looking to do anything with him other than putting him in the lineup everyday. Castro is the same age as most of the players you want to see called up (or at least within a year or 2), and has been their best overall player for the last few weeks. He's the player people want Gordon to be. He's a true super utility player, he shouldn't be going anywhere. Kepler and Garlick need to go for sure, though. I'd give Gallo some run when he gets back healthy and see if he can get back to the guy he was at the start of the year. Let's also be realistic with who Larnach, Wallner, Julien, and Miranda are. People act like they're stars in the making. That's not who they are. They all have serious flaws in their games. Kepler and Garlick should be replaced by Larnach and Wallner, but there's no real place for Julien and Miranda right now. Unless you're moving on from some of Polanco, Lewis, Kirilloff, Buxton, and Solano. Miranda had his chance, and blew it. While I think he's going to hit well, he fell apart and lost his spot. That's basically what we're asking for them to do with Kepler and Garlick. They had their chances and now it's time they lose their spots. Not sure why we should move on from any of the current IFers for Miranda after his early season performance.

Yeah, they have up the middle players for the now, even if I'd prefer Lewis in CF, but I understand why they won't be doing that anytime soon. I'm good with letting him settle in. And I'm a huge Polanco fan, even if he's not a great glove, he's serviceable at 2B. I hope they hold onto him for next year, too, assuming he plays to his typical level, and injuries don't become too big of a concern. I'm not amongst the fans who believe they should be moving on from him in favor of the young guys after this year. But the future of the middle of the Twins defense is looking awfully shaky right now. So I really hope they don't view 3B as Lewis' forever home.

For the future? CF and 2B, and SS when Correa moves to 3B (that may not be for another half decade, though). MAT is 32, he's not the future in CF. None of the other ready, or near ready, Twins prospects are CFers outside of maybe Martin, but can he hit? Is anyone confident Buxton is the full-time CFer for the next 5 years? I'm sure not. Could Lee defend at 2B? Sure, but wouldn't Lewis be better since he has more range, and Lee would then be the 3B, thus making the hot corner not settled for the future with Lewis? What other 2B in the system is near ready and can field the position? So out of 3 non-catcher up the middle positions they have 1 covered. So, yeah, I'm going to stick with the hot corner not at all being settled for the future when you have 2 up the middle positions that Lewis could cover unmanned while you have multiple possible options on the corners. Sticking an up the middle player on a corner when you have other corner players, and no up the middle players, isn't great resource management in my view.

Brent Rooker crashed back to earth so hard he's working his way to the molten core at this point. He's a great example of SSS judgements. I don't expect Cano to come back as hard as Rooker did (he hit 2 HRs with a .198/.290/.327/.616 quad-slash in May), but let's give Cano more than 2 months before we crown him the next Mo. Along the same lines, but not aimed at you, it's fascinating to see people complain about giving up the great Yennier Cano for the clearly flawed, half-season wonder Jorge Lopez. Cano is automatically great, and the Twins screwed up, because he's had 2 really good months, but it was crazy to think Lopez was any good after he had 4 good months.

I don't think the Twins view the hot corner as settled at all. I think it's settled for right now, but I don't think we're seeing them put Lewis at 3B and not think about it for 6 more years. Putting an up the middle defender at a corner spot and leaving them there with no questions isn't how most teams would operate. The Twins lack true up the middle defenders, and, if Lewis is one (yes, even in that death trap known as center field), they'll look for an opportunity to move him back to the middle. Even if it's Lee taking over 3B instead of Miranda taking the job back, Lewis would move to 2B over sticking at 3B with Lee at 2B. Having up the middle players move to a corner, and provide plus defense there, is obviously super nice, but not if it means having negative defense up the middle. Having corner bats capable of playing up the middle is a huge advantage. If Lewis is one of those players, but they leave him at a corner while playing lesser players up the middle, the Twins are wasting the advantage they have in Lewis.

Also did the whole "they blamed the minor league coaches (aka him) for the guys not being ready, but after they were in the bigs for a year they were in the playoffs" rant that doesn't make sense to me. So they weren't ready when they got to the bigs. Spent time with the big league coaches and. apparently, got better and were able to win. But he wants thanks for them being good? Don't follow that logic.

I'm little confused on who he's trying to blame. He starts off talking about "losing Terry Ryan," and it sounds like he's trying to say losing him was the problem. Talks about interviewing for the gig before they gave it to Molitor. Talks about Byron in A ball hitting leadoff vs 3 hole. Talks about "not needing a number." All these things sound like he's trying to take shots at the new FO. But the timelines don't work. Everything he's complaining about happened under Terry Ryan.

My worry about Buxton playing CF is no longer about the now, it's about the next 5 years. It goes without saying that Buxton in CF is the best possibility for this, or just about any, team. Every person employed by the Twins want to see Buxton in CF more than any of us here do. If they thought he could physically hold up to any time in CF right now he'd be getting that much time in CF. The medical people have, in my view, clearly told them his knee can't handle it. Watching him grimace and limp while just DHing seems to make that a pretty easy diagnoses from our cheap seats even. If he can play CF in the playoffs this year I'll be happy. I don't need to see him there for a single inning before that if his knee isn't right. My questions really just revolve around whether or not it's possible for that knee to ever be right again. He's got 5 years left on his deal after this one. If this is who he is for the rest of his career it changes this entire franchise's outlook. If him taking a trip to the 60 day IL gives him a real chance to get back to 100%, and CF capable, I'd do that. If him ending his season now and having 8 months of recovery time before next season gets him back to 100%, and CF capable, I'd do that. If there's no real amount of rest that can truly fix his knee then just keep DHing him until the playoffs and hope he can man CF then. Don't ruin his knee for the next 5 years just to keep his struggling bat in the lineup now. They can't be that shortsighted now. They can't afford to throw away 15 mil on him for the next 3-5 years (he has a full no trade clause for 3 more years) But just because he's Byron Buxton doesn't mean he has to hit in the top 4 of the order. DH him everyday to get his bat going again, but put him towards the bottom of the lineup. It's June. Performance needs to be the dictator of play now, not what you hoped a guy was going to be (also looking at that Kepler fella in right, and Correa's lineup positioning, and Garlick even being on the team).

I'd suggest taking a look around baseball and seeing what the rest of the league is doing. It doesn't match your desire for the Twins. Jordan Walker was the #1 prospect in baseball according to some of the public rankings coming into this season. he played 3B up until the end of last season even though they knew he wasn't great there, and was blocked by some guy named Arenado in St Louis. In the majors they switched him to RF. Gavin Lux played SS/2B for all but 18 innings of his minor league career, the Dodgers called him up and put him in CF. Trea Turner was a SS in the minors, he got called up and put in CF. Nico Hoerner, Manny Machado, Ronald Acuna, BJ Upton, Kris Bryant the list goes on forever. This is how it works. The odds that every MLB team is wrong about developing players is probably pretty low.

So you're upset that Rocco went and checked on his player who just wore a 97 MPH fastball and wasn't able to immediately just jog to first? Like, I don't know, literally every manager in baseball does? It doesn't take any guts at all to criticize moves around here. Go look at the nightly game threads, or the game recaps the next day. There's criticisms everywhere. But you'll definitely have people calling out criticisms that aren't really based on anything. The team announced, and Byron confirmed, that he'd be getting imaging done this morning. What more do you need to know? They generally don't do imaging for giggles. Buxton said, “I’d advise you not to get hit in the ribs, I’ll tell you that.” when reporters asked how bad his pain was. Maybe instead of throwing around accusations you should just see what info is actually out there and not assume the team is incompetent. There's even info about Royce Lewis popping into the trainer's room before his homerun to check on Buck, and Buck missing the HR because he was still getting fixed up.

For the record, Buxton doesn't hit better as a CFer. Not significantly so, at least. Last year in 230 PAs as a CFer he had an OPS of .853. In 148 PAs as a DH he had an OPS of .823. That's not a significant difference at all. Do we think the Twins believe he could currently handle playing CF, but they're just refusing to put him there? Isn't the far more likely answer that he physically can't do it, and that's why the team is deliberately choosing to not use their best overall weapon as their best overall weapon?

Totally get it. But that mentality also lead to Matt Harvey demanding to stay in game 5 against the Royals only to hurt the team, and lose the game. It's a fine line. I just really hope we're not seeing the end of Buxton in CF forever. He's way too talented for this to be the career he has.

I know people who have some chickens...

Fair point on the HR vs single situation. But I'd take Solano's chances of just getting a hit, or on base, and keeping the line moving over Buxton hitting a HR last night. Buxton had 3 HRs in May. He's not exactly a high likelihood to hit one right now. Why do you think you're not seeing that out of Buck? As you said in an earlier post, there's a spectrum of pain, toughness, whatever. How do you know we're not seeing Buck playing on the extreme end of that spectrum? When I watch him he certainly doesn't look like he's playing pain free. I think it's pretty clear he feels pain all the time. He "toughed it out" last year, and played while he was banged up, even when he stopped helping the team when he was out there. I hear what you're saying, and don't think it's crazy or anything. I just care more about what's best for the team to win games than seeing their star play at far less than a star level simply to say he's out there trying to help. I think we're not being told about a potentially career altering knee problem for Buxton. The team wants him in CF, on the bases, in the box, everywhere more than the fans do. If they thought he had any chance of holding up playing a game or 2 a week they'd play him a game or 2 a week. I think he's playing through real knee (or hip, or whatever's hurting him) pain everyday. And I don't like him doing it just to do it when he's not helping the team. I'd at least drop him down to the bottom of the order.

That feels like just needing to find something to blame his struggles on. There's nothing in his overall performance to suggest DHing is causing him to struggle. If he's able to stay connected in the non-key situations I find it hard to believe he's suddenly disconnected in the key situations because he's DHing. When he goes on his hot streaks, of which he's had a couple this year, including right out of the gate, we don't say "man, Buxton only DHing is really allowing him to thrive" so I'm not sure why we'd turn around and blame his struggles on DHing.

If you gave me the choice between Solano and Buxton last night to come up with a big hit late I would've taken Solano 100 out of 100 times. You add a 97 MPH fastball to the ribs on top of how he's currently hitting, and he gets even further behind Solano on the list of guys I trust right now. I also don't understand the desire to have him stay in the game "even though it hurts" when that wasn't what was best for the team. It's not motivating any of his teammates. He wasn't the best option to get a hit. I don't understand what good would have come from Buxton going up there and hitting last night. As for him hitting better as a CFer than a DH, his career OPS as a CFer is .770. As a DH it's .795. Now that takes into account his early career struggles, and those all came as a CFer, but last year his OPS as a CFer was .853 while his OPS as a DH was .823. Fewer than 100 PA difference (230 in CF, 148 as DH). That's not a line that screams he's struggling to adjust to being a DH. He's just not good right now.

30 current and future fielding grades for Julien. That's, uh, not good.

1. Correa- Don't know how it could be anyone else 2. Mahle- I thought he'd come out determined to earn a big contract in the offseason, and would be a #2 type pitcher. That didn't work out. 3. Miranda- Not so disappointing that he had some sophomore struggles, that's not rare, but how he came upon his struggles. Seemed to have lost all plate discipline, and his approach, completely. That's disappointing. 4. Buxton- My read is that his knee(s) is(are) are a real problem. I don't think they're DHing him to lower the number of ways he could get an acute injury, but because his legs simply can't hold up to the wear and tear of the field. I'm not positive on it, and maybe it's a short term thing. That's the only reason he isn't #1 on my list. If his knee(s) is(are) toast, he's number 1 with a bullet because that's franchise changing for 6 years. 5. Polanco- His performance overall has been solid, but more injuries is disappointing. The late start, and then another IL stint, makes me worried he's breaking down, too. He's a vital part of this team, and him breaking down changes a lot. I wasn't a big believer in Gordon so I'm not very disappointed in him, although, he was much worse than I'd have guessed. And Vazquez is here for his glove, not his bat. So not really disappointed there.