diehardtwinsfan

Horrible year to pick at 6... Then again, the last time there was a really weak class, the Twins picked at 2 and picked up Buxton, Berrios, Duffey, and Walker (along with a few others).

You're right, the guy was awesome last year. Problem is that pitchers have adjusted and he hasn't. His defense is suspect (we all knew that), but his bat isn't making up for it. He needs time in AAA. He could still be a very good SS, but right now, Escobar is an upgrade on both sides of the field and we can bring Vargas back up to upgrade DH as well. It's good for everyone.

I tend to think that this team is playing a bit over their heads right now, but at the same time, they have reinforcements on their way, particularly where they are weaker. I still think they will finish around .500, given the start, maybe a bit more. I wouldn't call them contenders just yet, but I do think that with some key promotions, they should be able to stay in it. The pen is terrible, but there's good reinforcements there. Vargas or Arcia should instantly upgrade DH. That right there would keep them in the hunt for a while I think.

OK, that makes more sense. You're talking Tulo potential at this point, and that's an asset at SS.

I thought Bregman was a glove guy who might have an average bat. Pass on that at 6. I'd rather go upside in Tate or Allard.

If I'm going to give someone an extended look, it's going to be a young guy with upside, not an older guy on the wrong side of his career who hasn't performed well 2 months into the season. I'd rather keep Tonkin and DFA Stauffer or Duensing. Heck, I'd probably DFA them both and bring up Oliveros as well. Neither are high leverage guys at this point, so you may as well give extended looks to Oliveros and Tonkin in those roles. Both need time to adjust to the majors, as I suspect both will eventually be decent relievers.

I think they need to get a real DH. Several guys in AAA right now qualify, all of whom have had some success in the minors. I'd probably bring Vargas up and send Santana down with Escobar playing SS for the time being.

I'd put Escobar at SS and let Santana work out his bat issues in AAA personally.

I could see it if they had a ton of aces, but the only real young arms are Gibson and May, both of whom have enough mileage on their arms where that won't be an issue. I think it's more likely that they bide their time till someone gets hurt or trade someone at the deadline.

yeah, there's help in the minors too, and these king of guys can be acquired relatively cheap via trade. I would think this is something that needs to be addressed very soon.

I guess he doesn't excite me that much when I read this a bit more. I don't see front line potential here, though he can be a very good pitcher. Think I'd rather have Allard or Tate.

I think it's time for Stauffer to go. It's practically June at this point and he's not producing. Fein for Tonkin for sure. Don't mind the idea of Arcia DHing for now. I'm not against optioning him as well and telling him to go work on his defense and bring Vargas back to DH.

He just came back a week ago. He pitched a couple days ago and had a very good start. I'm guessing that person was thinking of his previous injury.... unless someone else knows otherwise.

Not trying to make him sound selfish. That's my bad for coming across that way. I do think it would be wise for him to play more back there, and I also think that's a risk that anyone playing catcher takes. Someone has to play it. Why is it that Suzuki has no problems playing C at his age? Since Pinto has had concussions, should he be moving too? Problem is that Mauer is no longer hitting well enough to be a 1B. Now hopefully that changes and we see the Mauer of old, but with his contract and production, he's not really an asset right now (and to be clear, this is coming from someone who likes Mauer) and he's blocking a potentially sensible move of Vargas or Sano at 1B to let Arcia DH more. Mauer is a borderline HOF guy as a C right now. A few more years there and I think its a shoe-in. Not so much at 1B. That being said, I'm not saying that the team is asking him to move back and he's not. That decision was made. Not sure anyone is revisiting it, even though I think they should.

I think the misogyny is a bit overblown personally. For all the comments about 14th century France, the reality is that this is a 14th century culture with Dragons and magic. I expect that to an extent. Perhaps Martin just doesn't know how to write women... who knows. But at the same time, I don't see a lot of flawless characters. I think that's intentional. I do agree that there's a handful of characters I'm interested in... Dani, Jamie, Tyrion, Jon, etc. I also see characters reacting to what's being presented to them. Sansa and Dani are teenagers in the book who had to go through a lot more than a typical teenager. They act accordingly with teenage idealism... and it bites them hard. I think most teenage girls and teenage boys thrust into those types of situations would make some pretty drastic mistakes.

Mega Hunk Joe Mauer. That takes me back a few years Dave. Perhaps we should find Dan and have him post a thing or two just for fun

I think the pen is a time bomb. It needs upgrades. Fortunately, there are some in house and you can always trade a marginal prospect for a decent, non-closing reliever. Pinto for Hermann should be a nice swap. Much better offense and can complement Suzuki. Sano for Mauer would be even better, but it won't happen b/c Mauer won't move back to C. I wish that would happen. I really do. A Mauer/Suzuki tandem would be a pretty good catching option.

I saw the scores on ESPN... 10 games over .500 right now too. They are playing good ball and have some great reinforcements on the way. Enjoy the ride!!!!

You've presented plenty of conjecture as fact, as Brock and I have pointed out on several occasions in this thread. I don't have an issue criticizing the front office as you know, but I also think that we need to be real careful in thinking that we can (by a few stats) gage a person's readiness for the big leagues and discount the front office every step of the way. There's a level of arrogance there. I get that we like baseball, and that many people on this site are baseball savants in comparison to a lot of people. But we don't live this 24 hours day/7days a week for many many many many years. I think the front office just might have a few lessons learned along the way about promoting too soon, too late, and some of the characteristics that a player needs to be 'ready' for the next level, and not all of them has to do with K rate and ERA. If it was that simple, Trevor May would have dominated last season. We are sitting here rehashing the same old 'Twins are slow to promote' schtick IN A BERRIOS thread. Given his age relative to the league, I cannot help but think of the irony here.

Gonsalves with 11Ks through 5 IP. 2 hits on the night too. Quite the night.

wow. Not much else to say...

It's been raining so hard here in Tampa that I have a tough time believing that it could not be raining somewhere else.

First things first, would you rather the Twins not talk at all about the reasoning behind promotions? Second, I don't have a problem with any of the promotions as they currently are. The older guys have more urgency. The team needs to figure out what they have in them. That might be a few months of them in a worst case scenario flailing away at a higher level, but at that point, it makes it clear who to DFA as opposed to just skipping them. Guys like Hurlbut and Duffy also deserved them, where guys like Gonsalves and Hu are still in the 'building arm strength' category even though they've done well. It isn't life Duffey was horrible in AA. He was quite good. He's also improved his peripheral numbers with each promotion. I'd give him a look. I think he's more than a back of the rotation arm right now, and I think you do too. What neither of us knows is exactly what type of arm he is. He has mid 90s stuff and is striking out more than a batter per inning while minimizing the walks. That's a good thing, and we all know this. But to address my original point, the idea that playoffs in the minors would surpass the major league team needs IS MOST DEFINITELY a red herring. You know this. There's far more to a promotion than this. The fact that Ryan makes it known publicly that this is part of it hardly makes it the sole reason, nor does it mean that the Twins don't care about their major league performance... but again, I think you already know it. That's my point Jokin.

Here's what I would do. First, I'd probably promote Sano to AAA come mid-June assuming he's continuing to hit the way he's hit in April. I'd have him finish out AAA and likely give him a September callup to DH and play some 1B and 3B on occasions. I'm assuming (a reasonable assumption, but one that could be wrong) he does well enough to earn consideration for the 2016 season, and if that's the case, you have these options: 1) Trade Plouffe, who I think would net a top 100 prospect that is relatively near ready and quite possibly more. Like someone else said, a C prospect would likely the most obvious option given the lack of good talent there, but I could see high end pitching or an up the middle prospect as well. Plouffe is that valuable. 2) Move Mauer. I realize that the chances of this happening are slim, but I really think that Mauer needs to go back to C. At his current numbers, he's an above average catcher and played some decent defense there too. You could put Sano at 1B and help him acclimate to defense in MLB as 1B and 3B are relatively similar (minus the long throws). Consider bringing Sano back to 3rd when Plouffe's time is up. 3) Keep Plouffe for 2 years shuffling Sano in and out of the majors, offer Plouffe arb with the expectation that someone snags him in FA and gives away a 1st round pick or high second round pick. There's a benefit here in that Sano can fill in for injuries to Mauer or play DH if we continue to see ineffectiveness from Vargas/Arcia. I'm not sure what I'd do here. I can see pros and cons to all of these. The truth is that Plouffe is going to be on the downside of his career in the near future. I think it's reasonable to expect him to maintain a good level of production for 2 more years, at which point arb might work. Trade would guarantee a good piece now. There's risk/reward for each option. I think if Sano destroys opposing pitchers in his callup, I'd probably trade Plouffe, even though I really like him.

More like Red Herring. I highly doubt the Twins care more about the minor league playoff hopes than the majors, especially since most of these guys will get promoted to AAA anyways. Besides, I've heard on this forum over and over and over again that the team needs to build a winning culture. Getting them used to a playoff run and encouraging that culture does have value, and as others pointed out, the extra 3 weeks isn't going to be a detriment to the player.