d-mac

I hope this is sarcasm.

Then why not fire the coaches? Like today.

WTF is going on around here?? Seriously, if this isn't damning in regards to the player development and major league coaching staff I don't know what is. Gibson and Duffey regressed, Berrios, Chargois, and Meyer have all really struggled at the major league level and let's not forget the mishandling of Trevor May.

Well, I hope his recovery is short. I want to see what he can do when fully healthy.

Depth has improved because we are drafting higher from all the losing.

Yeah, a 36% K-rate in AAA basically prevents him from having any major league success. That's a high K% than Sano's career rate in the majors.

It's not reflective of his career numbers. Previous years he's rated as average defensively in left.

If I were running the show, here's what I'd do: -I'd have Buxton down in AAA for most, if not all offseason. I'd try to sign a veteran CF to hold down the position until Buxton forces himself into the starting role: I'd target Gomez, Rajai Davis, Michael Bourn, or Jon Jay and see if any will take a one year deal. -I'd try to trade Dozier for a young starting pitcher, probably not Teheran though, he's a national league pitcher with suspect peripherals. If a deal can be swung, Polanco is the starting 2B, with Escobar at SS. If not, Polanco is at SS, with Escobar on the bench. -For the love of God, let's give Sano a full year at 3B before we write him off. The Twins did him no favors with their failed outfield experiment. As long as arm holds up, I think he'll be passable there, he's made some difficult plays, but he struggles with the routine- hopefully he'll clean that up with experience. -As far as DH goes, I'd like to see how Park can do when he's fully healthy, sounds like he's been battling a nagging wrist injury all year. No doubt that's affected his bat speed and production. The winner of the Vargas/Park battle in ST will get the starting DH spot. Vargas will be on the bench if Park wins, if Vargas wins, I'd probably stash Park in AAA in case of injury or failure by Vargas. If by mid-season, both are raking I'd try to trade one for the best return. Of course if Mauer turns into a pumpkin, we'll need Park at 1st and Vargas at DH with Mauer moving to a part time role. -I'd dip my toe into the FA catcher market too. If Ramos or Wieters can be had on a reasonable three year deal I'd take it. But that's unlikely, so I'd try to sign Jason Castro to a two year deal or Hundley on a one-year deal. But I'm not going to overpay. If the catcher market is too rich I'll roll with Garver/ Centeno next year.

And if Sano can't hack it at 3rd, Polanco goes to 3rd and Escobar is at SS. Not ideal offensively, but it's likely a defensive upgrade, and the Twins aren't competing anyway next year. But by keeping Plouffe necessarily will come at the expense of Vargas or Park. I'm not ready to give up on either just yet.

You're too caught up on return value. Does he fit in the plans two years down the road? No. Then we shouldn't pay him $10 million to take away opportunity from Sano/Polanco at 3b and/or Vargas/Park at DH.

In the post-steroid era, 31 is the new 41.

I think Grossman is not as bad as the metrics are making him out to be defensively this year. Between 2013-2015 there were 35 players to log at least 1,000 innings in LF. Grossman was 12th of 35 in DRS with +3, 7th in RZR with .911, and 19th in UZR/150 with 0.8. In a comparable number of innings Josh Willingham was 28th in DRS with -8, 5th in RZR with .916 (apparently he was good at making routine plays), and 30th in UZR/150 with -10.1.

Well, that's a bummer. I've thought in past situations with TJ surgeries, players going on the 60-DL stayed on all off season.

As far as players I'd non-tender: Santiago, Plouffe, and Milone. Pre-arb players I'd dump: Albers, Dean, O'Rourke, Landa (He's a 22 year old reliever in High-A with a sub 2 K:BB ratio.) Keep: Centeno (we need the depth and he's proven to be a decent ML back-up), DSan (He's not valuable, but I don't see any reason to dump him until we need the roster spot), and Randy Rosario (I'd give him one more year to see how he comes back from TJ, but I'm not super high on him- K:BB ratios are not inspiring). Keep in mind that we won't need 40-man spots for Hughes or Perkins until they are ready to come off the 60-DL. Which might not be until next spring. So that's 10 open spots, with DSan and Randy Rosario pretty easy decisions to remove if needed.

No doubt that affected his swing all year. I'd like to see what he can do if he gets that wrist fully healed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=863fYC-Mb_Q

Who wouldn't want a shot at the World Series? And trading him now won't prevent him to coming back to the Twins if he really wanted to.

I think you vastly underestimate how often top picks reach the majors and make contributions. From 2002-2009 all first round picks (including the first round supplemental picks) reached the majors 64-82% of the time. Going earlier than 2002, most first rounders reached the majors at about 55-65%. Nearly every top ten pick at least gets a cup of coffee. Heck, since nearly every first round has 40+ picks when including the supp round, if the 20th pick doesn't reach the majors that's a bad pick. 73% of all #6 picks have reached the majors (78% if you remove the three most recent #6's.) and average 14 career WAR per major league player. There is a reason why Andrew Miller was seen as a draft bust.

Think about it from Suzuki's perspective. He's going to go to a winning team with a chance to be in the playoffs. Reward him for toiling along with this putrid team the past few years. And you and I have very different conceptions of what nothing means. A bag of balls is something. Letting Suzuki walk as a free agent is getting nothing for him. Teams that are rebuilding don't usually let their free agents walk for nothing. Furthermore, players will be had for very little if they are worth very little on the market. Demand dictates how much they are worth. Trading away Suzuki will have zero bearing on future trades. And lastly, if you are willing to bench Suzuki to play Murphy and Garver, why the heck do you want to pay him to set on the bench? Let someone else pay the remainder of his salary and give him an opportunity play a role on playoff team.

What in the world did the Twins do to him? His swing looked quite a bit better as an amatuer than now.

Well, it's better than his current career trajectory.

FWIW, in the 8 games since being sent back to AAA Buxton is hitting .222/.300/.370 in 30 PA with a 1/5 BB/K ratio. I think the Kepler vs. Buxton comparison is quite enlightening. It highlights how important plate discipline is for a hitter to have success at the major league level and how much the prospect gurus are willing to overlook such a major flaw in a hitter.

In a season where we're losing 90 games why does it matter? I'd take whatever we can get even if it is a bag of balls and can of warm Coors Light.

Podcast? I don't have time to listen to that, so I'll just take your word for it. lol

Why? He offers no value the rest of this year and will be a free agent.