d-mac

Based on his production from 2012 on, the first half of 2014 seems like a complete outlier. I doubt he'll reach that production ever again in his career.

OPS of .610 last year. That's not basically the same level as his career.

Does it matter what Suzuki's career splits are when he hasn't consistently produced at that level in 5 years? Based on his age, projecting his production based on his career production seems foolish. In other words, his career numbers are inflated based on his productive years in Oakland in his mid 20's, thus are a pretty poor tool of comparing different options.

Apart from a BABIP inflated 4 months in 2014, Suzuki hasn't had a OPS over .650 since 2011. And that includes an OPS of .610 last year. Nunez has never had a season where his OPS was below .650. Don't kid yourself, Suzuki will likely be the worst hitter on the 25 man roster this year.

It seemed to me Sano's bat had gone cold in late in spring training. It appears to have carried over to the regular season. A lot of swinging through pitches he had made contact with last year.

Might be something to this. His career xFIP splits by month: Mar/April: 5.20 May: 4.09 June: 3.30 July: 3.93 August: 4.45 Sept/Oct: 3.69

I think pitchers throwing harder, plus greater emphasis on pitchers that can get K's has more to do with the increase in K's than batters trying to "muscle up" on every pitch.

It's not necessarily who is faster, if you're taking to mean top speed. Top speed doesn't me jack if you can't change direction to react to a slicing line drive and cut off a hit in the gap or near the line, come to complete stop and then turn to throw to the middle infield. I played RF at the varsity level in high school. So, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about.

I'd rather have Park at first, he's probably superior than Mauer with the glove. But Sano is just so HUGE, that despite being athletic it takes him so long to change directions or stop when running at full speed.

How do we know? I doubt he'd be worse than Sano.

Are you sure, is he? Sano looks like Delmon Young in the outfield to me. I think the downgrade from Plouffe to Sano at third is less than the gain from Plouffe over Sano in RF.

Based on his BB/K last year, I'd say his plate discipline is a pretty great "tool".

Both would have worked. I still think Murphy could be majorly league average for a catcher both offensively and defensively. I just think between Rosario, Santana, and Sweeney, those are some pretty good options to handle both LF and CF until Buxton is ready.

Pressly has some nasty stuff. If he hadn't gotten hurt last year, he'd probably be in a higher-leverage role right now.

So? If he's on the roster use him or DFA him. It's time to s*** or get off the pot.

Maybe they shouldn't have released Sweeney despite a hot spring.... Hmmmm...

1. Yeah, definitely. 2. Totally agree. May is probably the best pitcher on the 25 man roster. 3. If only he walked just a little bit more... But seriously, with that BB/K rate he should be a (negative) regression candidate, right? But where would he regress? I can see him hitting for less power this year. But his BABIP numbers weren't out of line from what we'd expect based on his minor league career. He didn't walk much, but his K% wasn't that much more than league average where it'd be a red flag. -Sort of off topic, but not really, I'm kind of annoyed with how suboptimal the line-up construction is this year. Sabermetrically, the #3 hitter is the least import of the first six spots in the line-up because it is the most likely comes up with 2 outs and rarely leads off an inning. Thus, it should be occupied by a high slugging, lowish OBP player. Ideally, we'd have a pure lead-off hitter and Dozier would be a perfect #3 hitter, but since we don't have a better lead-off candidate, Rosario is the next best option. Conversely, the #5 hitter is the most likely to lead off an inning (other than the lead-off batter), thus it should follow that a high-er OBP hitter should be in that spot- in-other-words, NOT ROSARIO. Sano is a pure #4 hitter. The line-up should go: Dozier-Mauer-Rosario-Sano-Plouffe-Park-Escobar. I know, Sano-Plouffe-Park is very righthanded, but that only matters maybe on average once a game. And isn't that why we have Arcia on the bench? We're giving up runs the other 3-4 times through the order. 4. I'm a huge Escobar fan. 5/6. I think Plouffe in right, Sano at 3rd would be better defensively. Sano would be less bad at 3rd than RF and Plouffe would be superior to Sano in RF. Plouffe has averaged over 3 fWAR the past two seasons, which means he's an above average major leaguer. The problem is third is loaded by historical standards in baseball right now.

Also, Mauer has continued his improvement from spring into the regular season. i believed in him so much a used a late round draft pick on him in my fantasy league.

Pretty much sorta the same observations I had. I think catcher and CF are going to be a black holes offensively this year. Suzuki is washed up both at the plate and behind it. Murphy needs to be starting 2/3rds of the games. Buxton still needs more time in AAA. The Twins are repeating the smae mistakes with him that they did with Hicks. I think Fien is a weak link in the bullpen. His velo readings were down 2mph from where I remembered him last year. I am a big believer in Escobar at short. I think he'll surprise and be one of the better SS in the AL this year. Also, I think Park will transition nicely, he's had good at bats, time and time again.

Exactly. Plouffe has averaged 3 wins the last two seasons. The problem is 3rd base is historically LOADED. Some of the best all around players in the AL are at 3rd. 10 years ago this was probably the opposite.

He's not going to learn plate discipline by bunting, though.

I always thought Hamilton's speed was more highly regarded as a minor leaguer. Sort of Hamilton... then everyone else. Buxton (legit 80 speed) was the top of the everyone else pile.

Billy Hamilton has more than elite speed. He's the second coming of Ricky Henderson. Why is he even in this discussion?

I meant plate appearances. 59 AAA plate appearances is a small sample size. 268 AA plate appearances his half a minor league seasons worth. Both of those came in 2015. Why does being injured in 2014 have to do with rushing him through the upper minors?

Great, step 2 is realizing the flaw in your logic. Buxton could turn out to be one of those players, it happens to top prospects all the time. Baseball is a hard game. This ain't football, chief.