jimbo92107

This year, and the next two years after that are when the Twins need to find where the top prospects and surprise overachievers fit into the contending teams of 2018 and beyond. That's why experiments like bringing up Jorge Polanco don't bother me, and shouldn't bother anybody else around here. At TD we love to speculate how this or that guy would fit in this or that position. Now's the time to start finding out for real. We should also realize that more unexpected things could happen. Polanco could flop at SS, or fail to hit. Santana could get hot at the plate, or start "figuring it out." More likely we'll continue to see the same kind of oscillations that are common for young players as they test out ways to deal with playing at the highest level. Terry Ryan realizes this, of course. Clearly he's looking for reasons to call up Polanco, Sano, etc. But we should all keep in mind that the long-term plan for this team is still more important than our immediate gratification. Plus, Ryan doesn't want to disrupt a surprisingly good season with a team slump caused by a bunch of rookies flailing at sucker pitches (Buxton, Vargas, Santana), getting hurt because they don't know how to protect themselves (Buxton), making tons of embarrassing errors (Polanco?), or pipelining BP fastballs because they have no command (Meyer). I put a question mark beside Polanco because we don't know he's going to look like a shaky rookie at SS. Maybe he'll look really good, like he did late last season. BTW, notice I didn't mention Rosario in the rookie problems department? He doesn't play like a rookie. He plays more like Dozier. Still working on stuff, but right there in the game mentally. He's not afraid of anything, but like Dozier, he plays within himself. Eddie's going to be very, very good.

For me, it's always been cigarettes, and cocaine. Whenever I feel down, one of those two will usually do the trick, and the more the merrier. I don't swing a bat like Joe Mauer, but man, I feel great! ;-)

Alex Meyer as a pitcher reminds me of Byron Buxton as a hitter. Clearly talented, but very raw. Seems odd that a guy that practices nothing but pitching would still look as awkward (not quite clumsy) as Meyer. I know he's very tall, but supposedly working every day with pitching coaches should refine that motion to something more precise and repeatable, including the finish. I did not see that in Meyer. Seemed like each pitch was different in some way. Leg drive varied, timing varied, arm slot varied. Sometimes he'd fall off to the left, sometimes not. The result was zero consistency and zero command of the zone. Meanwhile, Brewers hitters simply smiled and waited for Meyer to groove a fastball down the middle, so he wouldn't walk another guy. Compare that to Joe Nathan in his prime. Nathan would finish perfectly on balance, the same way every time. He was like a tightrope walker who's so good, the rope doesn't even wiggle. That gave him precision with that mid-90's fastball, which he could place within about one inch of all four corners. Meyer doesn't look like that at all. He's all over the place with his balance, and his mechanics. He may be many thousands of reps away from having mechanical consistency. On the other hand, his physical build reminds me of a taller Satchel Page. A couple years from now, if Alex Meyer isn't completely ruined by the impatient, unrealistic nagging of us fans, he might develop into a pretty impressive pitcher.

I would much rather see the team continue with these rookie callups than to trade away promising mid- or upper-level guys from the system to bolster a dubious run at the playoffs. Last four years, we joked about how many variables had to go right for the Twins to look respectable. That included stuff like, 'If Gibson shines, or May shines, or Pelfrey shines, or Vargas catches fire,' etc. We were all hoping that Joe Mauer would magically develop a power swing like Adrian Gonzalez. We were hoping Alex Meyer would be the next Justin Verlander. Of course, almost none of it turned out the way we hoped. Guys got hurt, or failed, or got suspended, and Mauer still hits flat line drives. He tried half a season to pull and elevate, and all he did was top a bunch of grounders to second. Gotta step in when you pull the ball, Joe, or you'll top it. Now the needle of overall progress has slowly edged above the mediocrity line, so naturally we all want more. However, this team could collapse. It's not robust enough to weather a couple injuries to a couple starters, much less Brian Dozier, the lynchpin of this team. Therefore, this year and the next couple years should be thought of as transition years, not pennant years. Now is the time to give untested rookies a taste of the bigs, and see what goes wrong, which it will. We see that Buxton needs to wear hand protection on the bases, and he needs to learn to hit more difficult stuff. We see Alex Meyer still has control problems, tho his first outing should be dismissed as nerves. He's not going to be Justin Verlander, but he might be dominant in his own way, eventually. We see a steady, reliable pro in Eddie Rosario, and genuine promise in Danny Santana. We see possible mid-rotation stalwarts in Gibson and May. We see a possible future superstar power hitter in Vargas. However, there is still a lot of volatility in these guys. Santana tends to ride himself, so can get discouraged and in a funk. Vargas, same thing. Buxton needs Judo lessons, so he learns to avoid smashing into things and breaking himself. May is doing really well, but will one embarrassing outing injure his confidence? Is Meyer ready to enjoy pro baseball, or is he dreading his next outing? This team is building a very talented core, but it's still far too prone to slumps and wild pitches to consider it a serious contender for a playoff run. This is no finely tuned Cardinals or star-chocked Dodgers. This Twins team features some future stars that currently are flailing at sucker pitches, grounding into double plays and running into walls. If the young guys survive and learn from these minor disasters, in a few years we could be looking at quite a baseball team. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the Twins for what they are, but not pretend they're ready to conquer the best teams in the majors.

No, thousands of wildly cheering Brewers fans. They were really happy to see some big, raw kid throwing flaming heat right down the pipe, so their boys could swat home runs like Babe Ruth. For two glorious innings Brewers fans could forget that their season is already in the dumpster.

Message to Alex Meyer: Look at the bright side, kid. You just made thousands of people very happy. Seriously, the main thing here is to get that first appearance over with, so next time out he has a chance to control his adrenaline. He had great looking stuff today, but zero command of the strike zone. Thus, he was forced to throw it down the middle, and BOOM. Best thing for him is to get gently ribbed by Glen Perkins, then get back to work with Neil Allen. Welcome to the bigs, Alex Meyer. Hitters love 'em down the middle.

Alex Meyer gets his low-leverage situation...in the 1st inning, 1 out, 6 to 1 Brewers. Well, with the game already blown up, go ahead and show us some flames, kid.

I can't wait for Alex Meyer to work with a smart tactical catcher like Kurt Suzuki. He'll show Meyer just the right combinations of pitches to shut down every hitter...one time. This is the right thing to do with Meyer. Give him exposure to the bigs, but with less information to process, a simpler plan. Isn't this how the White Sox developed Chris Sale? I seem to recall that Sale started as a flame thrower out of the bull pen, then later worked on becoming a starter. Sale was younger than Meyer is, but it was the same idea.

It's Paul Molitor's responsibility to make Byron Buxton wear hand protection when he's running the bases. He should also make him wear a chin strap if his helmet keeps flying off. What good is the helmet going to do him in a collision at second when it's rolling onto the outfield grass between first and second base? Clearly Buxton needs to learn to protect himself better from the repercussions of his own blazing foot speed. Jujitsu lessons?

For those of us that thought Ervin Santana was the second coming of Johan Santana, I'm afraid it doesn't look like it. Ervin was impressive this spring, but now he looks like another fairly good starter.

As Buxton freely admitted, he never faced anybody in the minors with stuff like Chris Sale's. It may take a while before he can hit balls that curve like that, at that speed. Frankly I was impressed that anybody could get a hit off Sale, the way he was pitching. That was a surprising win.

Now that it has happened, it does seem like it was inevitable. Adding Alex Meyer to the pen means that the relief staff has a power arm even stronger than Graham. That can be really important in middle or late game situations. Basically, everything Tonkin is supposed to do, Meyer is supposed to do it with another 5 mph. The difference between a well-spotted 93mph heater and a well-spotted 98mph heater can be pretty stark. Plus, Meyer's supposed to have a great slider, too. It also doesn't hurt that Meyer's release point is about six inches higher, creating that nasty downward plane. Let's not be surprised if Meyer has a few rough spots while his emotions settle down. I know he's 25, but this will be his first exposure to major league cheers and boos. I hope he can handle it. Good thing a veteran like Perkins is there to keep him on an even keel.

I have no objection to a 6-man rotation. After the third day of rest, each starter could be available for long relief, so you're not really losing a reliever out of it. A guy like Milone could do that easily, and so could May, and Pelfrey was preparing for that role before Santana's suspension. If a guy does do a stint in long relief, you just push his next start back a few days. On a team that shuffles guys around like the Twins, a 6-man flexible rotation should be no big deal.

Alex Wimmers, Felix Jorge, and Greg Peavy. These pitchers seem to be stepping on the gas lately. Really cool seeing Wimmers come back from all the crap he's been through. Now he's becoming a strikeout master in AA with a good K/BB ratio. September call-up? I didn't realize how good Max Kepler was getting. Talk about him always revolved around his massive potential, and now it looks like a lot of that is actually happening. How's his defense? A lot of his game sounds like Rosario's, with gap power and excellent foot speed. All those triples are intriguing. Does he steal bases, too? Der Kid is becoming Der Man!

"In Wimmers’ past three starts, he has thrown 21.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He has given up just eight hits, walked seven and struck out 23. Overall, he is now 5-1 with a 4.31 ERA for the Lookouts this season." You know, Alex Wimmers isn't all that late to the party. There's still a little beer in the keg. If he keeps pitching like this, maybe Wimmers will be in the discussion for a September callup... :-)

Now we are seeing the problem with having a team full of really young players. When things go wrong, they snowball out of control. Wild throw from the catcher allows Vargas to score from third. If he takes his time, he still gets the out at second.

In a possibly related story, every minor league player in the Twins system has simultaneously been called up to the majors and added to the 40-man roster. ;-)

I know exactly what Byron Buxton needs to do at the plate. Before each at-bat, flip a penny. Heads: Sit on the fastball. Tails: Sit on that pitcher's best secondary pitch. The best that an opposing pitcher can do at that point is to get lucky with what he thinks Buxton is sitting on. The very first pitcher Buxton faced refused to give him a fastball. Buxton, hoping against hope for just one heater, flailed. At this point, pitchers are setting up his expectations from one at-bat to the next. One way to confound their schemes is to randomize what Buxton is looking for. Then, at least for a couple pitches, it's even. After awhile, the coin flip could just count for the first pitch, and by that time, it won't matter anymore.

I guess AAA for Walker does sound about right. His plate discipline definitely needs work, so the next higher level would give him more of a taste of what kind of pitching he'd see in the show. The Twins outfield is turning into a logjam right now, anyway. Rosario stays, Buxton probably stays, and Hicks will stay when he comes back. Arcia might rebound, and Robinson is still a good forth guy with his glove, plus some offensive production. Hunter stays for this season, but I assume he won't be back next year with all the young guys up.

As long as there's a pronounced difference in the rules between the AL and NL, these periodic match ups will be entertaining, tho sometimes rather embarrassing for AL pitchers. I liked Trevor May's summary of it, where he said getting guys out was his job, but hitting could be like a hobby. Nothing wrong with taking some swings in the old batting cage, just to keep short to the ball. Might come in handy!

The model for Meyer should match the great job the Twins did managing J.R. Graham. They began by using him in low-leverage situations, then very gradually upped the ante. Now Graham is much more confident, and he's pitching great. In Graham's case it was about coming off an injury, where Meyer is still honing his mechanics to reduce walks. The same careful, gradual approach should work for Meyer, always with the proviso that they can back off and give him a break from the pressure.

Very good point, I hadn't thought of that. Vargas may be a switch hitter with a bit higher average, but his power numbers are nothing compared to Sano's. As a DH, you could have Sano hit forth right away, and work in his off time with Gene Glynn on fielding. Then gradually get him some time at 3rd or 1st base.

Sano knows what he needs to do: Bash a bunch of home runs, and play good 3rd base. Do that for a month, and wait for that plane ticket... ;-)

This is why Bryce Harper was shifted to the outfield. He could have been a great catcher, but this way, he'll last a lot longer. 20/20 hindsight for the Twins.

I like Tom Brunansky, but I think he may have blundered in his approach to trying to get Joe Mauer's power game amped up. Mauer perfected his inside-out slashing stroke and used it for years, letting the ball get deep in the zone and hitting curved drives to left field. There's a big difference between Mauer's most grooved stroke and the one he and Bruno have been trying to develop. If you look at a premiere power hitter like Toronto's Jose Bautista, he meets the ball a full two feet farther in front than Mauer does. But the most important thing is the weight shift. Bautista takes a pronounced stride forward into the ball, where Mauer keeps his weight back, just pivoting his front foot. The result is, when Mauer tries to meet the ball farther in front to pull it, his bat head rises too much, topping it, where Bautista's bat is carrying smoothly forward through the zone, catching the ball flush. In other words, for Mauer to pull the ball consistently with power, he'd have to develop a pronounced forward stride, a completely different thing for him. I'm not saying he can't do it, but right now clearly it's not working. Also it appears that Mauer reverts to his normal approach when runners are in scoring position. In "RISP mode," Joe looks remarkably like his former self, albeit with a bit less power. Could be that Mauer's problem isn't so much concussion related as it is a mistake in training. He simply needs to learn a different swing than he's used to, and that includes a definite forward stride. Otherwise, he'll just keep topping balls to the second baseman when he tries to pull it. I remember how coaches like to say, "Keep your weight back, kid." Yeah, keep your weight back, if you don't want to hit home runs like Jose Bautista. Big home run hitters all have a very pronounced weight shift into the ball. They also know how to keep the bat cocked until the last instant, then snap their wrists really hard.