Loosey

Why did they have the infield in with 1 out a guy on third in the 2nd inning? Just get the out and deal with giving up the run.

Trevor Story: 7 HR, 7 Runs, 12 RBI Twins: 4 HR, 12 Runs, 12 RBI

But Sano is supposed to be a very fast guy for his size and a great athlete. That's why they said he can play RF. But he can't run 3 bases?

That's crazy, 42% of their plate appearances have come with runners on base and have only scored 12 runs! That's statistically an anamoly that should change. Hopefully a 10 run onslaught against the Sox will get things going.

I think being a HOF player is part of it. He is always thinking and trying to get an edge. It's just sometimes over-thinking things causes issues (trust me, I try not think whenever possible). Just let the game come to you and adjust. He tries to change the game through managing. He is in the moment it seems, and needs to think of what if scenario's. What if they come back and my "best" hitter is now unavailable.

Blowing leads/opposing teams coming back from behind is not the point of my post. Those are always possibilities. Molitor has over-managed in some of those situations and not given the team the optimal players to make a comeback of their own if those happen, and has wasted the bench players use as well.

I agree it can't continue (at least it shouldn't), but as of now this is the reason why they aren't scoring when they get on base. And as you mentioned it is really odd to have such extremes in those situations. Hopefully they will break through in a game or two and take some pressure off of themselves in RISP situations. Yesterday they had the leadoff guy on almost every inning it felt like and only managed to get 3 runs hopefully not sustainable. Since I don't know how to look it up, someone should check out the Twins Strikeout rate with RISP and with guys on base. I would bet it's 50%+.

Whoo boy! 0-6 start to the season, yet the Twins were in all but one game. A combination of blown leads, terrible situational hitting and over managing has led the Twins astray in their first six games of the season. The bullpen blowing leads and crazy amount of strikeouts are obvious things to notice early in the season but something I have seen (even going back to last year) is a tendency to over-manage in late game situations. Over-managing situation #1: Friday night the Twins were up by one going into the bottom of the 8th inning when Molitor brought in Rosario as a defensive replacement when Sano would be up 4th in the 9th inning if the Royals were to tie or take the lead. Sure enough the Royals took the lead. In the 9th Mauer got on and Rosario batted for Sano and struck out on what seemed like 2 pitches. Over-managing situation #2: Thursday against Baltimore, Sano again. Sano singles in the top of the 8th and is immediately ran for by Nunez. Nunez is immediately caught stealing to end the inning. And Sano is now on the bench the rest of the game in which he was DHing. Over-managing situation #3: Sunday. And I don't know if this is over managing as much as it is just not what I would do. Again in the 10th with one out Nunez gets hit by pitch. Then immediately once he is on 1st base is caught stealing 2nd. Now we have 2 outs nobody on. To make matters worse this was an opportunity for a challenge and Molitor chose not to use it when the odds of having to use one later would be minimal (I wish he would use this mentality for pinch runners). But Murph proceeds to pop out to end the inning then as we all know the Royals go on to win in the bottom. Maybe it's just me and my frustrations, but some of the decisions have been questionable to say the least.

#5 will continue if the strikeout rate continues. Yesterday's game (Sunday) they should have scored 5-6 runs if they would have been able to put the ball in play in a number of situations. Runner on 2nd and no out and not scoring occasionally is fine, but to get a guy on 2nd base then have 2 of the next 3 batters strike out consistently is a problem which will hopefully be addressed. I am not a big proponent of giving up an out and bunting guys over. But until this team can prove they can take a professional at bat with RISP I think they need to bunt and hope someone can at least put a ball into the outfield before the next strikeout.

Referring to multiple posts here but from watching these 3 games, SSS I know, it almost seems like situations are lost on the hitters. The Dozier batting with no outs and guy on third and striking out example is one. I've seen him do this in the past, he treats each at bat the same and hacks away. I don't understand why these guys don't shorten their swings up in situations where are run is a given on a ground ball or average depth fly ball. Instead they swing for the fences when an 110 foot ground ball does almost as much.

In three games the pitching staff gave up 11 runs. 3.66 runs per game. Pretty solid especially given the bullpen had to pitch in 7 innings in the first game and had to come on early in the 3rd due to rain. Once the bats get going they would hopefully be able to get more than 2 runs. 2 runs per game and 11 + K's per game won't cut it though. Hopefully a lot of this can be attributed to cold weather, stopping and starting games and just not having timely hitting/slow start.

Nice Work.

I tried to drink the "Twins Kool-Aid" I left in the garage last season next to my awesome AIWA boombox. But I think the Kool-Aid was radiator fluid. The dizzyness and vomiting will go away on it owns without medical attention Right? Also, Ricky Nolascccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccccc

I like the theme music. I also like the first topic since it was my question last year!

If his strikeouts are in the 150-160's range I think he could be a monster. But if he gets into the rare 200+ range the lack of putting the ball in play will likely negate the plus power from him.

I'm more impressed with how well Danny has pitched this spring.

Thanks Seth.

I know it's still Spring Training, but I was hoping the Twins were going to maybe not lean on Dozier so much and give him a day off here and there so he doesn't wear out in the 2nd half this season. Maybe it's just me, but he sure seems to be playing A LOT in Florida (Like every game). So, basically I am wondering if I am just imagining it or is he playing quite a bit for a veteran, especially one who seems to be in regular season form already. I see he is in the lineup again today. What is everyone else's thoughts? Maybe I am over-reacting but compared to someone that needs as many as bats as possible (Buxton - Who is out of the lineup today) he sure plays a lot.

Piggybacking on the OP but going in the opposite direction. At what point do the Twins/fans decide Nolasco is having a successful season? At what point do they attempt to trade or hold onto him for the long haul. Here are my scenarios: Worst Case: Starts horribly in his first 4 starts in April. Has an ERA of 5.5+ with very few strikeouts and tons of walks. - In that case it may be time to cut him Middle of the Road: Is getting about a k/9 of about 6.5 and ERA of 4.00 and in general is keeping the team in the games through 6 innings. - In that case I would say he is "average" and may be able to get rid of him to a team in desperate need of starting pitching and make way for Berrio's, etc. Best Case: He is lights out. Very few walks. K/9 of 8+, ERA in the 3.00 range, ERA+ of 100. In this case I keep him all year long and trade him after the season on the assumption its a one year wonder type of season. In all scenarios I do think he is off the team by the start of 2017 season though. I hope he has a career year though for a multitude of reasons.

Bobby Bonilla was a big salary cut. Although the Mets are still paying him . . . .

.270/.356/.530 (.886 OPS) 36 HR, 34 Doubles, 90 walks

I will say it's better than him struggling and somewhat encouraging. But again like everyone has said, ST numbers don't matter. It would be interesting to see the pitches he has been getting. Are veterans just working fastballs on him or are they really trying to strike him out like it's a real game. I bet we will know for sure if he is back to "Old Joe" in month though.

If 2014 hadn't been a trainwreck I assume he would be ineligible for ROY this year. But I get what you are saying. I still think he can and is one of the top ROY candidates. Look at his improvements from the first week of Spring Training until now. He still is Strikeout prone, but from "the eye test" he looks night and day better.

I'm going to do this somewhat differently. I think Buxton will basically have two seasons within a season (Poor man's 2006 Justin Morneau type season). In 2006 Morneau on June 9th was batting .235 with a .295 OBP. Then against the Orioles he hit 2 HR's including a Walk-Off blast in the 12th inning. He then went on an absolute tear the rest of the season. So my prediction will be like this: First 81 Games: .242/.281/.396 12 Doubles, 5 triples, 5 HR's Second 81 Games: .278/.323/.459 15 Doubles, 8 triples 6 HR's Full Year:.261/.304/.429 27 Doubles, 13 Triples, 11 HR's Very Optimistic, but I think we should be about him.

After reading this blog post: http://twinsdaily.com/blog/356/entry-8246-todays-kepler-article-symptomatic-of-td-poor-spring-training-coverage/ I wanted to go in the complete opposite direction. Since Spring training is winding down I wanted to thank the admins and contributors to TD for the exceptional coverage of Spring Training. I'm sure most on this site are aware but I will point it out in case some don't. The people who run Twins Daily have day jobs outside of this site and do this on top of their "real" jobs. The amount of time and effort you all put into this over the past few years has been outstanding. I use Twins Daily as my go to source for all things Twins related. And there isn't even a comparable source for Minor League coverage. The site continues to improve and the content is getting even better as TD is becoming more respected and gaining more access. Add in the value of being able to allow anyone to contribute stories on the forum and create your own blogs (even negative ones about the site) makes this a one of a kind information source. So basically I just want to say keep up the good work and THANK YOU! I go back to thinking about 10 years ago when Francisco Liriano came up. I don't think I had heard of him until he started dominated the few months prior to his call up. Now I know more about the backup AA first baseman than I did about the the back Twins first baseman back then.