Loosey

I'm just excited he is healthy this year and is showing that he can hit AA pitching at least in this somewhat small sample size. I think once he learns the mental aspects of the game such as how to work a count and be a step ahead of the picture he will be a force.

I wasn't saying trading Revere or Span was a bad move and caused this mess. I was more or less using it as a time frame reference. However, the Twins should have had a plan in place to replace them. And, even with his noodle arm and .660 OPS I would take him any day over the two we currently have. He does hit around .300 every year. If he can mix in a few walks here and there it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for him to be a .700+ OPS guy.

CF has been a black hole since Span and Revere were traded. Buxton hopefully is the future there but Robinson and Shaefer are not the current answers. However I do not agree with giving up top 20 prospects to fill a position that will have a long-term answer there shortly (Buxton). Signing a Rasmus type player deal on the other hand would have been a good move, some money and short years. Even if that player would have overlapped with Buxton in the big leagues, who cares, it's called depth and it is something the current Twins seem to be unfamiliar with. The other options would be Hicks. Keeping him in the minors does nothing for him or the Twins in my opinion. We know he can be a good Minor league player. I think giving him one last shot on the Twins roster would have been the way to go. Maybe you catch lighting in a bottle and create an asset you hold onto and move to a different position or create value and trade at some point if Buxton comes up and proves himself the player we all hope he becomes.

In regards to Granite are we talking Ben Revere from a hitting the ball aspect? Or will he most likely top out somewhere in the Minors? I've been hearing about him these first few games and he sounds exciting.

Who doesn't love a good conspiracy theory? With the 2015 season starting off with questionable roster decisions, two nearly unwatchable games which resulted in shut out losses and now pitchers getting injured I thought some conspiracy theories might be in order to save us from the harsh realities of this season's awful start and most likely just as awful future. Conspiracy Theory #1: Paul Molitor is really a patsy. Longtime baseball fans and Minnesotans liked the idea of giving Molitor the chance to manage the team he grew up watching. And to appease those people TR hired him. Now however TR is building a terrible MLB roster with journeyman veterans and a questionable pitching staff. The reason you may ask, Doug Mientkiewicz. Dougy Baseball is the man the Twins really want to be their long term manager. So the Twins stick him down in AA for a year with their future MLB star players; Sano, Buxton, Berrios, etc. With his roster they dominate and he looks good doing building a rapport with them youngsters. Meanwhile up in the big leagues Molitor's team struggles to reach third base and the pitching staff falls apart. Who is to blame? The Manager, Paul Molitor. Ryan convinces Molitor he is not a MLB Manager and Molitor resigns after the Twins lose their 104th game of the year. Two days later Doug Mientkiewicz is names the Twins interim manager, eventually manager. The young studs come up and the 2016 season starts of with all of the excitement and changes people hoped for in 2015. Conspiracy Theory #2: The Twins are still cheap. Ricky Nolasco is not living up to the expectations he came with and now 3 innings into his 2nd season, elbow pain, and surgery. Good thing the Twins listen to that insurance salesmen and bought insurance and Nolasco's contract. And just like that the Twins recover a large chunk of Nolasco's salary from insurance. Nolasco never pitches for the Twins again and they keep on taking the insurance money. Conspiracy Theory #3: Terry Ryan wants to get fired. Of course he could quit, but then he looks like a quitter and I assume gives up the remaining money on his contract. So he concocts a plan to put an atrocious team on the field that doesn't even include the Twins young prospects. Hoping the Pohlad's get furious because of dropping attendance and decreasing revenue he thinks this plan will get him canned. I know these are dumb but I need these to deal with what I have witnessed the team doing the last few weeks. Although I do somewhat believe/hope #1 is trueish.

The original poster mentioned we should talk about the MLB roster and not focus on the minor league prospects, yet at the same time be positive. I know its only been one game but that one game was pretty brutal. Our minor leaguers are the bright, positive spot in this organization. And if the front office, which has done a great job of compiling lots of high grade prospects, gets over their strange fear of failing with the young guys we could have more things to be optimistic about. I spoke about this a few days ago, but I think the FO is afraid of the young guys failing. Because if the team fails with veterans that have never been successful before that is to be expected, but if they bring up the prospects now and they fail to live up to expectations, it might turn into a "oh no, now what do we do" scenario. The longer they stay in the minors and are only prospects the longer we can all say wait until the prospects come up, once they do come up the that clock to be starts ticking everyone will want success soon after.

Maybe it's just me but it seems to me that the Twins are afraid of failure (Even though they have been failing for 4 years now). But in terms of letting inexperienced players fail. No matter how much success or how many innings a player plays in the minors they will not know what the big stage is like until they get there. It's almost as if the Twins want our minor leaguers to be major leaguers playing in the minors before they finally bring them up. Now I'm not for bringing up someone who will completely and utterly be in over his head on the big team, but if someone like Meyer or May comes up and fails this year, what does that hurt? If they ruin their confidence then clearly they aren't ever going to be ready for the Major Leagues. If I were GM/Manager this is the year I say, "you know what, eff it. Lets have fun and see what these kids can do". Because in reality what is the difference if they finish the 65-97 or 75-87 beside one place in the division?

in limited playing time (350 PA): .237/.270/.326 2 HR, 13 Doubles

Must be thinking the plate discipline is really coming around and will walk 125 times.

.264/.310/.489 27 HR, 32 Doubles

.266/.308/.397 9 HR, 28 Doubles. If he plays most an entire year in the bigs I think he gets to this. Speed will get him a respectable Batting Average. Without his speed I think he is a .240-.250 hitter. But he has speed and infield singles count the same as lasers to the outfield.

.274/.313/.406 (.719 OPS) 15 HRs, 25 doubles. Big drop off at the plate last year, and I can't imagine him improving that trend when he is going to be turnng 40 during the season. If he hits this slash line, I will call that a successful season for him. However, I will call it a disappointing season as well because that means the Twins will be giving a 40 year old 550 plate appearances in a season they should be rolling out their future.

I know it's impossible to do but I would really like to know what the general consensus would be on Joe Mauer if he never had his outlier 2009 season. That season drove up the per year value of his contract and gave people an unreasonable expectation of what he is capable of and since he contract was largely based on that season, the majority of fans expect him to live up to those numbers. When in actuality he is the guy weve seen the other 10 seasons. Put his 2008 season into 2009 and it changes the way we think about Joe. 2008 he his .328/.413/.451 (.864) with 9 HR's and 43 doubles. Given that he was still a catcher that would have been enough to get him a very large contract. Instead of $23M per year maybe he would have been given $17-$19M per year. Would everyone still expect .365/.444/.587 28 HR's and 30 doubles. Basically what I am saying his, I personally think Joe has lived up to expectations. Just not the new expecations he received once he had the 2009 season.

.257/.311/.431 30 doubles, 18 HR's. This is based on a decline in Plate Appearances and At Bats because I am assuming Sano will debut during the Summer and take away some time from Plouffe at 3rd base.

Based on the fact he has not hit .250 for an entire season yet, I am not on board with him hitting almost .280 like Seth. However, I would like to see (and think it can be attained) a slash line of .263/.350/.445 with 38 doubles and 22 HRs. Getting that out of a 2nd baseman will be phenomenal especially if he continues to steal bases and play good defense. I think these are fair expectations if you if you take into consideration the his career trajectory so far in his 1st three seasons coupled with his new contract. Marginal improvements year to year will be fantasic.

My guess is he becomes 2012 Joe Mauer again. Maybe even have more power given he's healthy and not catching. So here is my VERY optimistic guess: .308/.401/.480 - 40 doubles 19 HR's.

I'm not sure what the Twins are trying to prove/do here. First off all do they really think this roster gives them the best chance to win? Second, even if this roster does give them a better chance to win more games than other options, what good does winning 75 games do over winning 70 games with young guys? I do not agree with TR/PM on most of these moves. May has nothing left to prove in AAA. Will he get hit hard in the majors? Probably, but so will Milone and Stauffer and Pelfrey. Why not groom the guys who will be on the roster when they are ready to compete. It's almost as if TR is in denial about them not being a playoff team and thinks experience = better.

The Twins rebuilding plan makes no sense to be. Why not get some young guys out there to get them seasoned? Milone gets 5th starter spot because he only sorta sucked, instead of really sucking. That's setting the bar high. Light hitting CF'ers that most likely are not in long term plans. Every young arm goes to AAA. At this point I would much rather watch our farm teams play. Actually that's been the case the last few years. I really thought with Molitor managing we would see the team do things differently, go young, take our lumps but be exciting. Not sure what percent is Terry Ryan making the call and Molly going along with it, but this team is going to be very bad and not even be a useful bad. At least be bad and get the young guys up.

I always loved how he used the hard Metrodome turf to skip balls all the way home from right field. It was ugly but surprisingly effective, however, I believe he tried it in Chicago a few times and was ridiculed by fans pretty badly.

I like the long-term view the Twins are taking on this move. It tells me the Twins are being honest with themselves and know that they aren't going to contend this year and most likely won't be next year. However, 2017 could be a different story if the young guys develop like we all want them to. With this move they have a very good veteran presence to anchor a young rotation in a year when they may contend. 2017 could see a rotation of Hughes, Berrios, Meyer, May, Santana/Gibson. Good move in my opinion. Plus they got what could be a very big discount.

My feeling has always been the Twins try to get the best value out of their 1st round picks. Instead of shooting for the stars and going all in on a high school pitching prospect that has a 50/50 chance of either bombing out or becoming a super star, they take the "safer" college pitcher with less upside but only a 25% of being a complete bust but a 75% of being a #3 starter. Whether this is right or wrong I don't know, I do know however that a team full of #3 starters isn't going to win many World Series. . . .

Or the Twins organization could act like "Big Boys" and keep an improving Morneau as well as spend some money on pitching and instantly be in the Central Division conversation next year. I'm not talking about other team "ace" type pitchers, I mean sign two quality starters and go from there, $10-$12M a piece guys.

Looking at this gives me hope for next year and beyond. http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?901-roster-payroll Pavano and Capps and Baker's salary will all be gone. That's $20MM. taking at least of a fraction of that and spending it on a solid reliable pitcher would help this team greatly.

I don't think most people are saying "ineffective", they are more saying why hasn't he been effective as it seems he should be. Here is an counter example to your stats above. BB% With Bases Empty Mauer - %11.0 Willingham - %11.7 Both guys seem to be equally patient as batters when nobody is on. BB% With Men on Base Mauer - %17.0 Willingham - %13.6 When runners get on it appears that Willingham is able accept a few extra walks when he gets pitched around but seems to keep the same approach. Mauer's differential is so much greater that one must assume his approach at the plates changes and he becomes more passive. Now add back in Willingham's OBP and Batting average and Mauer will be looking much better again. I don't know about you guys but I would rather he gets on base than swing at a pitcher's pitch and make an out.

Tell me if I am wrong in this analysis of Mauer's game: He isn't going to try and do something he can't or wouldn't normally do. For example in this at bat. There was a pitch that was close but not what he wanted to hit or was looking for. Instead of trying to be a hero and then tapping a roller back to the pitcher or 2nd baseman he was patient and waited for his pitch which never came and yet he got on base to extend the inning (if any other player in baseball were to do this it would celebrated as a good at bat). When he waits for his pitch he is basically waiting for the pitcher to make a mistake. And when the pitcher makes a mistake he is pretty damn good at taking advantage of it. 1 out of 3 times he gets a base hit. If he were to change his game he would become something he isn't and probably would become a worse hitter. I'll take the .330 hitter with the .400+ OBP over the hitter with the .260 average and 30 HR's. Besides, the Twins already have that guy you wish Mauer was and he was the batter right after Joe who ended the game with a swing.