Twodogs

Dozier is doing great, but elite status?? I mean he is hitting like .265, Mauer the guy everyone talks about is washed up and done is hitting about 5 points lower is all. I mean could you imagine if Mauer upped his average to .275 and people started talking about him approaching elite status? I think he is All-Star Caliber. I think he could potentially continue to improve over the next 3 - 4 years and even be better, but I don't think he is elite as of yet. He has nice pop, he plays solid defense, and he is one of the best sticks on the Twins right now, but that doesn't equate to elite in my books.

I could get used to this winning stuff.

I think the Twins really need to consider using Santana in CF against Lefties, and putting Escobar in at SS. At least then the Twins can get Escobar's bat into the game which I think is a plus over Schaffer??

Most valuable when you have an awful bullpen and need to go directly to the set up and closer to get wins. 8 innings a game didn't mean much for the Royals last year with that stud bullpen.

Boone?

Yep, exactly. And the pitcher needs to have confidence in his fastball that he can get the hitter out with it and the hitter needs to know that also, when that happens the hitter has to approach the situation where he needs to be thinking that the fastball is coming.

The change up is Milone's favorite pitch??? I think it's like his only pitch. Ha ha just joking. I think the change is awesome and Frank Viola mastered it. Likewise however, the most important thing is locating the fastball, pitching it where you want to. Even Viola admits that when he became more confident that his fastball could get people out then his circle change became even more dangerous. I think he said that one of his catchers, maybe it was Laudner or Harper, not sure which one, but they told Viola that he was only going to use his fastball one game. That catcher called every pitch a fastball all game long and I don't completely remember the outcome but paraphrasing Viola won like a 3 - 1 game or something like that. Basically the catcher, whoever it was, was trying to tell Viola that he can get outs with his fastball and when he became even more confident in that pitch his change up became even more dominating. I'm pretty sure Viola didn't care who he threw his change up to. So I like the idea, changing speeds will win the Twins a lot of games. There have been a lot of pitchers out there who have been very successful without having a super dominant fastball, but location and changing speeds keep hitters off balance. I am looking forward to this year with a new pitching approach, because changing speeds is definitely not the same as pitching to contact which drove me nuts with the old Twins methods.

Chillin in the FLA aint a bad thing if they are payin ya??

Yeah I don't think it was all even just Hicks hitting that got him. I think he didn't field particularly well either.

May got rocked in his last start, and yeah he has great strikeout totals but guys are hitting him, hard. So it is probably better to have him, like you said work out his issues now in AAA. I don't necessarily think that getting rocked in April and being sent down in June is the best thing for a young player, a la Hicks.

I wonder how many games Santana will start in CF with Escobar at SS??

I would expect him as a Twin to Battle his Tail off too,!!!! for that 5th spot in the rotation.

What will it take for the Twins to contend? It will take winning more than they lose

Well Maybe Shaffer found some undetectable HGH for this season and they can start him in Center and use Hicks as the 4th OF'er. Giving Shaffer a couple of nights off in Center and Hunter a few nights off in Right and Arcia a night or two in Left. Then if Hicks proves he can hit then maybe slowly but surely he steps in and takes over in Center more full time. Putting HIcks back down in the minors is a waste of time as those spots need to be used by the guys who have potential still. Hicks would be just blocking someone else's progression. I don't think Buxton is ready yet. I think Buxton will need a full season at AA or AAA and then be the Twins successor for 2016. I think they should use Shaffer as the primary about 65 - 70 percent of the starts in April and use Hicks all over the place to get some at bats. Then if Hicks performs decently start to dwindle Shaffers at bats down and start increasing Hicks. If both hit .180 up till June then put Santana back out there for the rest of the season Until Buxton is ready in 2016, hopefully

Closer by committee that worked out very well that I can remember was the Nasty Boys in Cinncinati.

Late inning gas is coming, get ready. I know, I started bringing Tums with me to the games about 10 years ago. I don't know if it was the hot dogs or the beer or Joe Mays but I wasn't able to stop the late inning gas anymore. So I started eating Tums and some Kaopectate, and it got better. Ha ha

This doesnt look too bad for a starting lineup SS Santana .300 hitter 2B Dozier .250 hitter some pop 1B Mauer .300 hitter LF/RF Arcia 20 Hrs LF/RF Hunter .280 hitter some pop DH Vargas Unknown but lots of power 3B Plouffe .250 hitter with some pop C Suzuki .270 hitter CF Hicks/Schaffer/Buxton (July) Rosario (July) Not much of anything out of this group Rotation Hughes Nolasco Santana Gibson Milone/May/Meyers Bullpen Perkins Fein Meyers Pelfrey Theilbar Stauffer Duenseng May/Milone, if Milone goes to BP then I'd gues Duenseng is gone Bench Schaffer Escobar Pinto Nunez

Are we really worried about what his autograph looks like? If he hits .275 with 30 Hr's every year I wouldn't care if he used a stamp.

Two years ago coming out of ST it seemed like Hicks had good power but once people figured him out he had trouble making contact. Seemed like that first year he actually put balls out of the park and was hitting solid line drives, (when he hit the ball), last year it didn't look like he could hit the ball out of the infield. Looking at him pulling away from the pitch in that video of his swing he looks really confused. Hopefully he can figure it out and put some wood on the ball. I don't think anyone would question his fielding as much if he hit around .250 with some doubles power and an occasional Hr. It is pretty much all about his hitting and it seems as though he has been reluctant to accept coaching, at least from the Gardy regime, but Bruno was part of that regime also. So I hope he comes through and grows out of his funk, but I'm not holding my breath. I hope he is desperate enough to go and seek out help to better his hitting, but that would mean that he has matured and that is really probably the main question with Hicks. Maturity.

I see what you are saying, but the original poster makes a lot of sense when they mention the Marlins and the Cardnials and all of the talent that they already have playing in the bigs. Part of that is often the Twins philosophy of keeping their young guys down to develop, whereas at least the Marlins didn't have much chioce but to bring the guys up and see if they can produce. It seems that the Twins will continue to bring on guys like Schaffer, and guys like that that seems to impede the prospects road to the big club. I think that the Twins are ready to shed all or most of the dead weight and they need to start considering bringing up the young guys to see if they can produce. I remember they held Morneau down for an extra year or so, because they had scrappy Doug Mienkiewich in the way. Who by the way pushed out David Ortiz who I think hit another 35 homers this year while Dougie is coaching A ball. In JR's defense, I feel that the scenario that I just described was a Tom Kelly and Ron Gardinhire ordeal and not really the fault of Ryan's. TK thought that Ortiz swung like a slowpitch softball player, and Dougie was the epitome of Gardy's battling his tail off. So when I see guys like Lirano doing a servicable job in Pittsburgh, not to mention Worley doing a better job in Pittsburgh than Pelfrey, or Swarzak or a slough of other rag arms that the Twins have drug out there on the hill, It occurs to me that Ryan had those guys in Minnesota and they were completely failing under the daily guidance of Gardy and Anderson. Not to metion guys like Gomez, Hardy, bla, bla, bla, bla, it goes on and on. It seems to me that Gardy was not getting the best out of the limited talent that he had; because by all accounts most of those guys are doing better now that they are on other teams than when they were with the Twins. So maybe a new manager will get more out of the talent that is presented. If the talent isn't there then it becomes JR's fault. JMO

When it comes to moving prospects for major league talent that is all fine and well unless we get Tommy Herr'd and they leave as soon as they can. So Im all for moving pieces for sure things, but then again, nothing is a sure thing out there you need some luck. As far as emulating the Royals, I'd rather not wait another 30 years for a playoff appearance.

I would love to see Paul Molitor as the next Twins manager. I think that he could find someone in the baseball world that would be a good pitching coach. Stienbach is a good candidate also, but I have been hoping for Molitor so that he can bring back some agressive play on the field.