jimbo92107

I don't know why, but when I was at the game on Monday night, the Twins seemed to lack an attitude of confidence against the Angels. This might have to do with the lack of power hitters in the lineup. Power hitters are like having bullies on your side. The Twins are a bunch of nice guys, where the Angels have some bully in them - big, muscly guys like Pujols and Trout and Calhoun, guys that can knock the snot out of the ball. The Twins had Dozier, and not much else. Singles hitters with low averages. Nobody that terrifies the opposing pitcher. Throw curves and low outside stuff to Dozier, and this team is toast. It was as bad as the last four years. They had no chance. Bring up Arcia, Vargas and AB Walker. Even if these guys mostly ride the bench, even if Walker whiffs at a record pace, at least they have the advantage of an intimidating look and a really hard swing. Arcia can help protect Sano from righties, Walker can help protect Sano from lefties, and Vargas can do both. Each of them provides a legitimate home run threat as a late inning pinch hitter. A baseball team needs two or three bully boys, or they get pushed around by the studs on the west coast.

I was at the game (thank you, glunn), walking around the stadium concourse (they have a Panda Express!) when Blaine Boyer was called into the game. As I walked along, I thought, "Well, here comes a home run." The crowd erupted in wild cheers. Home run. Boyer is so done, it's sad. Whatever he had in the first half, it's gone completely. Opponents are just teeing off on him. Same with Casey Fien. I didn't actually watch that much of the game because I was having a great time chatting with Glunn and H2OFace, both great guys. What I did notice was that the whole Twins team looked troublingly similar to the punchless bunch we all enjoyed so much over the previous four 90-loss seasons. Gibson actually didn't pitch that badly, kept his team within reach, but Twins hitters seemed to have no chance against an Angels starter with an ERA over 4.5. The Twins need more than just a great SS like Tulo. They need a good starting catcher, and they need some guys with better bats. But before they trade away promising prospects, they need at least one real, legitimate ace starter. Not a rental like Cueto, but somebody they'll have around for several years. Before that happens, trading away prospects seems really irresponsible. On the other hand, Kurt Suzuki looks worn out. They should either start platooning him 50/50 with Fryer, or trade for a better catcher. Find somebody that can be around for at least five years, while this group is peaking. Either that or promote guys like Turner, Garver, Swim and Navaretto to the next level asap, and then draft the best college catcher available in the 2016 draft.

There's the rub. Even if you pick up Tulo and a good catcher, this Twins team still doesn't have the one thing they really need to win a Series - a top flight ace starter. The teams they'd be facing in the playoffs and Series would definitely have at least one ace, or they won't get there, either. I don't make Tulo-sized moves until AFTER I have one or two ace starters. Before that, you might as well hang onto all your blue- and red-chip prospects. This Twins team will NOT get past KC or Houston with the bunch of #2's and #3's they have now, and they certainly won't beat a team that can march out Greinke and Kershaw twice in five games.

The answer to that is Paul Molitor. He was Danny Santana's hitting tutor in the minors, and he's loathe to give up on the kid, even if Santana just isn't going to be another Paul Molitor. Even if Santana is destined to "figure things out," at some point, it ain't happening on the mlb club. Santana needs to go down to AAA and build himself a plan at the plate that's not just "I hope I get a hit." Meanwhile Jorge Polanco already has a pretty good plan at the plate, and it's hard to say his defense is any shakier than Santana's. Twins don't have much to lose by giving Polanco a shot for at least a month. I'm not saying Polanco is better than Tulo, either. I'm saying the price the Rockies will want for him is too steep. The Twins will need some of these guys to keep the team stocked with good talent over the next decade. If you trade away the talent in AAA and AA, you strip the team of its future.

Gosh, what a bad idea this trade is. Especially when you've got a good prospect in Jorge Polanco just waiting to be tested, and you give up nothing for him.

So you take the best defensive 2B in the league and put him at a position he's not used to anymore, then take a minor leaguer that's not quite an mlb ready SS and put him at 2B, where he hasn't been playing. Or Rosario, who also didn't show much at 2B. Going for a high 1st round pick in 2016?

Back to my two themes for this year. 1, don't sell farm before harvest, and 2, keep experimenting with early call-ups. Send Danny Santana to AAA, bring up Jorge Polanco. Do it this week, and let him play SS for a month. Have him work with the fielding coach just like Santana did to smooth out the footwork. Santana's biggest problem still is his approach at the plate. Better for him and the Twins if he works out those problems in AAA than to be a hole in the lineup. Meanwhile, Polanco showed signs of being an exciting ballplayer, another spark plug for this team.

Dereck Rodriguez, Elizabethton Twins (W, 7.0 IP, 2 H’s, 0 ER’s, 0 BB’s, 3 K’s) Call him up!

A lot of line drive outs in this one.

This is what Ervin Santana is supposed to look like. Easy peasy.

Blend half a cup of strong coffee with a handful of walnuts, mix into the vanilla ice cream. Yum.

Le Grande Salame.

Once a week make them scrub their feet with Clorox Cleanup, and every other day spray their toes and shoes with Lysol. You'll never smell foot funk again. Dangerous chemicals rock!

Lewis Thorpe will come back a better pitcher in 2016, and dominate the minor leagues. He will be as determined and ambitious as Brian Dozier and Trevor May, studying how the great ones work their magic, and from that bag of tricks he will choose his own repertoire of ways to win. And it will be as cool as this rock I found: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c9/16.42cts_Lightning_Ridge_black_Opal.JPG That's what I'm hoping, anyway. ;-)

This Twins team isn't a flash in the pan, but it lacks the depth and experience to make a serious stab at a title. Once again, don't sell the farm before the harvest. There are waves of good players and pitchers arriving within the next two years. Let this birth happen naturally, don't force it. Least of all, we don't want some expensive short-term rental relief pitchers that won't be around when the full harvest is done. This has a chance to become a powerhouse team for a decade. Let the young players make their entrance and learn to play together. It's going to be a long, enjoyable ride.

Acne and foot odor, the nightmares of every pitching prospect... ;-)

Fantastic summary, Seth. One topic that might be interesting is all the comeback stories in the minors, from demotions to TJ surgeries. Hell, just the TJ stuff could cover a huge write up. Would you be interested in doing an article on "Comeback Kids" in the Twins system?

A little justice. Well deserved, Brian Dozier.

What puzzles me is why pitchers don't feed Dozier nothing but heat and sliders and changes low and outside. Why tempt fate with anything else?

Twins need to find a team in the same situation they had with Mauer/Ramos. Great starter blocking a promising guy stuck in AAA. Any teams like that? Cubs? Cards? Giants?

If I were Glenn Perkins, I would reserve the change up strictly for ninth inning save situations. Imagine hitters gearing up for his 94mph heater, then getting an 86mph change. Good recipe for a back ache, or a bat broken over a knee.

I would look for a shrubbery, but nothing too expensive. No, this is not the year for a surprise playoff run and a shock-the-world Series victory. This team isn't solid enough. Remember who will be waiting in the Series. The Dodgers or the Cardinals. The Twins are not in that class of team, not yet. Two years from now, maybe...

LOOGY. Man, baseball's got some strange quirks.

Cool thing about Trevor May coming in for extras... Now the Twins have a guy that can go six or seven innings if the game is tied at the end of nine. That saves the bullpen a huge amount of work. The other thing about May is, he's built so durably, he looks like he could pitch a couple innings every game. They won't use him that way, but in a pinch, they could for a few games. Milone could do that, too, but May's fastball is better suited than Milone's for relief work. Not sure if Pelfrey could handle pitching that often.