Loosey

Teams in need of a starting third baseman is small, but Plouffe is a pretty good 1st baseman as well. I don't know if any team would do it, but I could see Plouffe as a full-time 1st baseman. I wonder if there are any teams in need of a first baseman with some pop in his bat . . . . ?

Maybe someone has already asked this, maybe this is a dumb question but I am going to ask it anyways. With the team vying for a playoff spot and starting pitching being as spotty as it has been, why haven't the Twins brought up every 40 man arm they have? They just played 2 extra inning games and a double header. Wouldn't it be in the teams best interest to have as many arms available as it can for situations like this. Where is Meyer, Where is Darnell, where is anyone. Even bench spots for pinch hitting and running, why didn't Arcia get called up? I would rather have him pinch hitting than giving Hermann at bats from time to time. Don't they want as many options as they could possibly have in times like this? Does anyone know the reasoning behind not bringing them all up?

Extend, Extend, Extend! Using crude math I am assuming over his next 7 years he will make about $55M through is rookie deal and arbitration years. If I were the Twins I would offer him this: 11 years, $135M That's an average of $12.27M/Year Years 1-4 $3M $5M $10M $12M Years 5-11 $15M per year

I wonder if the Twins real concern is if they don't resign him he will take his smoke machine and disco ball and go home? Who would be dance party coordinator?

I would hate to see Mientkiewicz bolt as well. I personally don't see Molitor as a guy who would want to manage long-term. Even if the Twins have success (pure speculation here) I don't envision Molitor as the type of guy to be a 5 year manager. I can see him doing this 3 years or so and then going to relax somewhere while helping out in Spring Training to get his baseball fix. Again this is just my opinion.

So when the top prospects in baseball rankings come out this winter, where do we expect to see Kepler on that list? He has to be close to becoming a top 10 prospect in all of baseball, right?

He is good. That is all.

I have disagreed with the pinch running decisions most of the season. Especially the times he has done it in tie games with 2 outs. That being said, last night I agreed with Nunez for Sano with no outs. Even Trevor with no outs made sense. They just couldn't hit a fly ball until there were 2 outs.

I was worried about him even when he was tearing it up in the first half. He is an extreme pull hitter especially on high pitches. I was always confused as to why pitchers kept on pitching him high and inside when that is what he was looking for. Now it seems that he isn't getting those pitches anymore and is still trying to pull what he is given even if it is an outside pitch. Basically, he needs to learn to adjust and face reality that he really isn't a home run hitter. I would gladly give up some HR's for a guy who can get on base a lot more.

I completely agree with this. It seems like he is not swinging with his legs and only his arms in order to make contact and not strike out. Essentially he is giving up power in order to hit the ball right now. Once he figures out how to hit the ball with a full swing I think we will see some pop.

Jr or Sr?

He also has been taking a lot more walks lately, which after having 1 through the first month of the season is a good sign in my opinion.

The (rhetorical) question then becomes would you rather have the Twins in playoff chase or have Buxton getting 100% of the reps in a 90+ loss season. I hope the Twins can continue to balance winning with getting Buxton experience out there.

I put that chart up because I wasn't comparing him to other prospects. I was using established players as a metric to measure his future "goodness".

I hope to you are right. That would be so fantastic.

I like it. . . . ALOT. It makes winning a division much more important now too. If we are having fun watching the Twins try to get into that 2nd Wildcard spot, imagine how much fun the Astros and Ranger's fans are having watching them fight between a 1 game wild card game birth and winning the division to secure at least a 5 game playoff series.

Coming into this season Byron Buxton was a top 2 prospect in all of baseball. He had been the #1 prospect in all of baseball at different points throughout the last 3 season with expectations of greatness. After being drafted #2 overall in the 2012 draft he was already basically a major league ready outfielder with hitting being his area that would need to be brought up to his super elite fielding level. I would say expectations for a high school outfielder were tempered since many young outfielders never live up to their draft position billing. Then 2013 happened. Between low and high A he batted .334/.424/.520 (.944 OPS) and stole 55 bases while continuing to field at an elite level. Now the hit tool was moving up towards his fielding skills. People began comparing him to Mike Trout due to both playing in Cedar Rapids and both putting up similar lines. Expectations for Byron Buxton from that point on went through the roof. Since that amazing 2013 season the numbers have come down to earth as the level of competition has increased and injuries mounted up (all but ruining his 2014 season) but the tools were still there and as he got more experience at each level he started showing glimpses of what he did in 2013. This season starting in AA Chattanooga he along with teammate Miguel Sano showed signs of rust both hitting terribly out of the gate. But as the rust got shaken off and he gained more experience in AA the #1 prospect in baseball started to show signs of why he was so highly regarded. He played well enough that an injury to Aaron Hicks gave him his shot at the big leagues. Buxton has struggled to play up to his billing in his first 34 games in Minnesota, striking out at a historically high rate while not making the solid contact you would hope to see out of the #1-2 prospect in all of baseball. So after having the expectation of being the next Mike Trout just two years ago what is Buxton's expecation level now that we have seen him play against the best competition in a very small sample size. Using Mike Trout as a reference he also struggled to a .220 average with 30 strikeouts in his first 40 games in 2011 although he was only 19 year old. Can Buxton reemerge next year as the 2016 version of the 2012 Trout? Using the rudimentary chart below which level of current player would you expect Buxton to most closely resemble as a hitter during his career and at what level would you consider it to be disappointing? I still think he can reach the Adam Jones level of player which would be an all-star caliber hitting Centerfielder with the added Buxton factor of being a Gold Glove caliber fielder. I would be disappointed if he became the an Adam Eaton hitter or below. What should we expect?

I think the determination has to be made on if he is suspended or if he is just ineligible to play. If he is considered suspended I doubt he would be allowed in the dugout, if he is ineligible to play I would assume he could sit in the dugout/bullpen.

What happens in a possible 3 way tie for the 2nd wildcard? Does one team get a "bye", then two teams play a game 163, then the Bye team plays their game 163 against the other game 163 winner which is now their game 164? Did anything I say there make sense?

Are you ever scared when you go there that it will say "Yes."? I was and I was pretty certain he is alive. The site confirmed. He is alive.

If Brewers ever offered up the idea of Plouffe for Lucroy the Twins would most likely instantly say "deal", followed by "no backsies".

I don't see much of a reason for either team to do this deal. If the reason the Padres want to trade Shields is to get out from under his contract, why would they want to take on another bad contract? If that were really the case they would trade him purely for prospects and young guys with upside. On the flip side, the Twins have a glut of 30 year old + pitchers already and most are expensive. Why would they get rid of one old expensive guy to take on another older more expensive guy? Especially when the Twins have a handful of young arms who are waiting in the wings right now who are less expensive with much higher ceilings than a declining Shields.

I'll be ok if the Twins have Ace 1A and Ace 1B. But in all seriousness I think right now Berrios is the better prospect. But I think Gonsalves is going to be great. Berrios has proven he can dominate at high levels of the minors while Gonsalves has dominated the lower levels and pitched well in high A. As he hones is craft he could also dominate the higher levels as he moves up, but he hasn't yet. I have read that Gonsalves was basically blowing guys away with fastball in MWL and had to start throwing a better curve in FSL. I think the increase in walks can be attributed to working on throwing curves as well as better hitters. As he develops that pitch I wouldn't be surprised to see early season Fort Myers results similar to what we saw in Cedar Rapids last season before a bump to Chattanooga next season.

I have similar feelings. As few hits as he has been getting he looks more confident at the plate. I can see him hitting a huge clutch home run (over the fence or Inside the park) in the coming weeks and he will just build on that.

Gardy is hard to peg as good manager or a bad manager in my opinion. When he had teams with talent they usually succeeded but when he had teams with little talent they never overachieved. Based on that I think he was an OK manager, he didn't stray from the norm in most situations and just let things happen. That was fine when his players were good, once they weren't good he still stayed in his comfort zone and never made things happen that weren't "supposed" to happen. Get him a proven closer and Nick Punto and the Tigers will be back to competitive in no time!