Lonestar

It's important to understand the expected offensive performance of a corner OF vs a SS. Rosario 37.1 K% 2.9 BB% .107 Isolated Power Escobar 23.1 K% 1.9 BB% .101 Iso P Santana 26.4 K% 1.4 BB% .089 Iso P Last year Ecobar's BB% was 5.2% and Santana's was 4.4%. I support sending Santana to AAA.

FWIW, it's the questions that were bland (except for the one about what went wrong with 4 losing seasons). But yeah, I'm not surprised Ryan (or any GM) gives bland answers in an interview.

Please consider this principles: 1.While pitching is an inherently unnatural motion, throwing a pitch does not necessarily do permanent damage to a pitcher's arm. It's only when fatigue sets in (and a pitcher's mechanics start to waver) that continued pitching can result in irreversible injury. 2.There is a certain number of pitches that a pitcher can throw before that fatigue sets in. 3.Once a pitcher is fatigued, each additional pitch causes more damage, and results in more additional fatigue, than the pitch before. http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=2633 32 pitches in an inning is fatiguing.

Pinto threw out 17 out of 42 in the AA and AAA in 2013. That's 40%. I wonder why Pinto was victimized by so many offspeed pitches last year. Is that an aberration or special cause? Has anyone mentioned the umpire who said the difference in Pinto's framing was like night and day before he was sent down last year and after he was called up?

He's a catcher. Why not let him catch in meaningful games in A ball until the short season starts. Then make a decision.

What do you do if his AA line is .236/.344/.571/.915, he is striking out 30% of the time, and his 3B defense is as good as it was in 2013?

The OF is not crowded yet. Buxton has a pretty high floor, but there are serious questions about Hicks Rosario, Kepler, and Walker. Even with Arcia, there is the question as to whether he should DH or whether he should eventually platoon. Plouffe at 3B is much less of a question than any of those guys.

With their World Series run, the Royals should be sitting on a ton of money. With Shields' market shrinking, is their a possibility that the Royals sign him for a one-year deal?

IMO, catchers are called "backstops" for a reason. It's their job to keep the ball from rolling to the backstop. Catching defense is way overated because they play up the middle, they are involved on every pitch, and their defensive position is hard on their offense. [That doesn't mean that Doumit's defense was acceptable.] Consider pitch framing. If some of these catchers like Rene Rivera add so much value with their pitch framing, then their pitchers must stink. Here's the thing: Somewhere out there in cyberspace is a quote from an umpire that said there was night and day difference between Pinto's framing when he was sent down last year and when he came back up. His pitch framing should be serviceable. Until last year, Pinto was good at throwing out base runners. If there is no special cause, I tend to give him the benefit of the doubt. I honestly don't know what is so hard about calling pitches, especially when pitchers can wave off the call. Is it Pinto's English? I expect the Twins pitch sequencing to improve with the new pitching coach. [Look for Kyle Gibson to break out.] It would be helpful if bullpen coach Eddie Guardado was fluent in Spanish. So that basically gets us down to passed balls and blocking pitches in the dirt. Just how bad is Pinto at blocking pitches and allowing passed balls? Is he improving? The average AL catcher put up a .675 OPS. The unweighted OPS of the 6 AL catchers who qualified for the batting title was .709. I expect Pinto to beat that number by .100 once he settles in. That would allow for a lot of passed balls and unblocked pitches. Maybe some can do the math on that. If the Twins don't give up on Pinto too soon, the biggest thing that would keep him from displacing Suzuki would be Vargas' failure at DH.

Thrylos, I applaud your listening and your effort. Doesn't Wilmer Flores stink at SS? I don't think Stephen Drew's or Ben Zobrist's scores make sense, at least in terms of reputation and what the market is willing to pay for them.

I agree that keeping Duensing (especially at his price tag) is suboptimal. Regarding Johan: There is more to being a LOOGY than being left handed. He hasn't been especially effective against LHB's since 2008 because of the demise of his slider.

by the way, the closest thing the Royals had to a LOOGY on their post season roster was Tim Collins.

I disagree. It's suboptimal to have more than 1 LOOGY on a 12-man staff in the regular season. O'Rourke is a genuine LOOGY - at least in the minors. Thielbar isn't a LOOGY. He has been lucky. With Perkins closing, why would you need more than 1 LOOGY. LHRP's are OK if they are like JC Romero or Johan Santana were in 2002. RHLP's with strong splits against LHB's like Oliveros or Burdi would be better than LOOGY's. My two cents.

Seth, you left out the fact that his split in 104 plate appearances against RHB's in 2014 was .326/.398/.573/.971. Most definitely a LOOGY. Have you ever seen such a split differential. Oliveros put up the following splits vs LHB .168/.264/.206/.470 in 123 PA's vs RHB .212/.299/.316/.617 in 151 PA's So replace Duensing and Thielbar with Oliveros and O'Rourke. Then there's Michael Tonkin. Here are his 2014 splits: vs LHB .290/.336/.470/.806 in 116 PA's vs RHB .246/.310/.282/.592 in 161 PA's And here are Tonkin's 2013 splits: vs LHB .173/.259/.279/.537 in 116 PA's vs RHB .271/.315/.361/.676 in 178 PA's Is there a special cause besides small sample size?

Buxton's 2014 was injury riddled. That doesn't mean he is injury prone. His injuries were on the field of play. It's not like his knees are going out or his ankles or his hamstrings. A broken finger or sprained wrist on a diving play don't make him injury prone. One concussion does not make him injury prone. And reinjuring a mending wrist doesn't make him injury prone necessarily. Buxton's wrist and concussion did affect his offense in 2014 including when he repeated A+ ball and AFL on what were essentially rehab assignments. Will the wrist or concussion or plateauing affect him in 2015? He does need to regain command and control of the strike zone. Thrylos, Buxton did put up stellar numbers in above the MWL in 2013. Other than that, I understand you and where you are coming from. You do like to be bleeding edge: witness your rankings of Diaz (#9) and Minier (#6).

I've never heard of % of Putouts that were Double Plays as a defensive metric. It doesn't measure his ability to range to his right. It doesn't even measure his ability to range to his left. And it's very dependent on his second baseman. Does anyone else use this measure. I think a more releveant measure would be % of Assists that were Double Plays. Good shortstop defense is worth more than good CF defense. I'm not sure you have established point regarding Polanco, let alone Polanco vs Buxton.

xFIP- is adjusted for park. xFIP is not. It's not surprising he would have a differential. It was only 0.39 in 2014. Of course we are talking Small Sample Size of only 30-34 innings pitched. I don't think it's fair to include his xFIP as a starting pitcher anymore than it is to include Perkins'.

Jorgy, I agree with you on Duensing and Thielbar. Stauffer's xFIP- (which is adjusted for park and league) was 88 in 2014 and 85 in 2013 where 100 is average and lower is better. I like the signing. For perspective, Perkins xFIP- was 82 in 2014 and 66 in 2013. Fien's as 102 and 68. Thielbar's was 114 and 104. Duensing's was 118 and 94. Perkins has only had a K% above 28% once, in 2013.

I agree with your list as of now, Seth. It will be interesting to see how it changes. I wouldn't let Pelfrey have a rotation spot in April regardless of salary. Let him have Swarzak's old job the bullpen -- if he can handle it. Maybe he works his way into high leverage relief. Maybe he washes out. Milone has an option (and he's tradeable if healthy). I can see May or Meyer beating him out of a spot in the rotation. I would go with May as of now. I like Hicks. That is, I think he will qualify for arbitration (maybe even free agency) someday. I just don't know if it is with the Twins. Having said that, I would have his ticket punched for Rochester already. And I don't think a Schafer/Robinson platoon will work. I think that Sano, Rosario, Polanco, and Kepler are not yet ready for the Show. That means the only position player on the 40-man roster in Rochester will be Chris Herrmann. And he's on the bubble. As a Rule 5 draftee, JR Graham is by definition on the bubble. Aaron Thompson is on the bubble, too, and Caleb Thielbar should be. So there's room to maneuver. Rochester should have a pretty good rotation and bullpen.

I don't think there is room for both Pelfrey and Milone on 25-man roster. There isn't room for either of them in the rotation unless someone breaks. I would start Meyer in AAA to delay his service time -- not for arbitration purposes but for free agency purposes. I would rather have almost 7 years of team control than just 6, especially with a Boras client. I like the idea of signing McCarthy and Anderson. May and Meyer will work their way into the rotation eventually. Hopefully Nolasco regains his value and can be flipped.

I agree. My point is: It might be better in their minds to move Arcia for Hunter than to move Arcia for Sano since they will likely have to play together more than 1 year. On a different tangent, I don't know whether to hope the Hunter signing was Pohlad's and St. Peter's idea or not.

Ryan has already hinted that Sano could/would play the OF. It makes sense that he play OF since Plouffe is a better 3B. It makes sense that he play RF since he is more athletic than Arcia and has a better arm. It still doesn't make sense to sign Torii.

I think it will take guaranteed money + incentives to land Anderson. And I would do it. I would hope to add a team option if he makes some of those incentives.

I would sign Rasmus for 1/$12M but I've read he is more likely to get $24-$36M. I heart Hicks, but even I have targeted him for Rochester. What is your backup plan for Hicks? I like Pinto and think he will take over C (or maybe DH) before the end of the year. I think you are overly sentimental regarding Colabello. But the Twins are going to need someone who can fill in for Mauer - not necessarily on the active roster. Plouffe can do that for 1 game. If Masterson is all that's available at the end, 1/$10 can't hurt. I think he's more of a backup plan. But then I'm occasionally wrong. You are allowed 1 LOOGY. Neither Thielbar nor Milone are LOOGYs.

I would try to add Roberto Alomar instead of Ozzie. Alomar's hitting approach was much more sound. He did have the one spitting incident (with a special cause) whereas Ozzie was Ozzie. Alomar played with Molitor. I don't know how they got along. Of course Alomar has trhat special assistant job with Toronto and likely lifetime job security as well as opportunities to coach, so it might not work. It's easy to say you would sign Yasmani Thomas. How much would you be willing to pay? What's your back up plan? There are a lot more guys on the bubble than Niko and Parmelee, especially with Schafer's small sample size and Oliveros, Achter and Thompson already added. You may have posted this elsewhere, but who are you adding to the 40 man roster and who are you voting off?