d-mac

Tommy Milone's replacement will be a regional Walmart-like store? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meijer Also, I've never heard of this Pat Licht before, maybe he is recent Twins signing out of Germany to make Kepler feel more at-home.

Raul

Suzuki is a free agent after this year.

Well now, we're getting nothing for Plouffe. Happy? At least a bag of balls and warm can of Coors Light would have been something.

But Buxton is not there yet. I'm just making comparisons based on a equivalent number of PAs. Bradley hit better than Buxton over the same period. Which, probably explains why Boston was more patient with him during his struggles. But they still sent him down eventually. Would he have figured it out the MLB level? Possibly, but we don't know that. We only know what they did and it worked. FYI, by the time Bradley came up for good in 2015 he had 1,032 PAs between AA and AAA. Buxton has had 459. Neither were ready for the show. There is no harm in admitting that as long as it's rectified.

I think Bradley has more in common with Hicks. IRC, they came up at the same time and were constantly compared to one another.

Bradley Jr, still had a 66 wRC+ over his first 353 PAs of his career. Buxton's struggles are painfully rare.

The issue isn't about some fantastical future where everything works out. Because it doesn't. Buxton is overmatched. He clearly has talent, and based on his age it is certainly possible for him to overcome his struggles. However, he has been so bad, I really fail to see how flailing away in the majors (hitting worse than Santana, a replacement level player, mind you) is going to help him. The question then becomes how do we fix these issues? None of us has the answer, but we have ample evidence showing that what the Twins are doing now isn't working. Something different must be done.

To humor people Here are the first 350 or so PA's to start the careers of recent Twins CF'ers in wRC+: Revere: 356 PAs: 61 wRC+ Span: 354 PAs: 124 wRC+ Gomez: 352 PAs: 79 wRC+ Hunter: 355 PAs: 68 wRC+ Hicks: 355 PAs: 62 wRC+ And none of them had a K% approaching 40. Hicks' was only 25.9%.

I don't think everyone does. Very few hitters that are this bad to start their career, ever become productive players.

I think with survivor bias, most hitters that are this atrocious aren't going to get a whole bunch of second chances to prove themselves. My thought is that it's mostly a non issue in this circumstance.

Correct, but Buxton doesn't have place on an MLB roster either. He's an offensive blackhole.

Bingo.

Griffey Jr had a wRC+ of 106 (6% better than league average offense in 1989, 506 PAs) his rookie season. Buxton has a career wRC+ of 49 in 356 PAs, 70% of Griffey's first year, with offense that his less than half of league average. Yes, most superstars don't come up and become superstars day one. But most are at least productive major league players from day 1. Buxton's struggles are historically bad: Since the end of WWII, there are 3,386 non-pitchers with at least 350 PAs in the majors. Buxton's career 49 wRC+ is tied with 15 other players for 74th(!) worst. That's bad.

D. Santana career fWAR: +1.6 Buxton career fWAR: -0.4

They've gotten it wrong before and will again. The dustbin of baseball is full of "can't miss prospects" that missed.

A lot of meh, especially with the group converted to starters. Maybe drafting college relievers isn't a sound strategy after all. Shocker.

I'm a fan. Definitely seems like more of a LF'er than a CF'er, but he has some tools and shown the production that he could be a productive player for the Twins in a year or two.

Agreed. In a vacuum, both the Abad and Nolasco trades where fair, but unfortunately that's not how trades are made or how they should be viewed. Neither help us much in the 2018 and beyond time frame, which is where the direction Twins should have been looking to go. May, Duffey in the rotation do help us, maybe they won't pan out, but they get next year to gain experience/ work on establishing themselves while we still aren't competing. They can be moved the pen relatively easy if they don't work out. And who knows, we could get some young, cost controlled starters that could end up in the #2-4 range.

Like I mentioned earlier, the return of each individual trade I felt is fair, the Twins got a marginally better ML starter back and gave up a marginally better prospect. But, it's the direction they went with the trade is why I'm not a fan. Edit: Added missing words

it's hard to repeat mechanics, have a consistent release point, etc with levers that large. Which is why the Twins' love for ridiculously tall pitchers is weird. It's not any kind of market inefficiency, like short pitchers.

Seems, really anti-Twinsian. Don't they want pitchers to attack with runners on base? I think he'll be giving up the grand salamis in no time with us. The Twins staff as a whole has the 8th highest HR/FB ratio and 28th worst in LOB%.

I'm not sure where to post my thoughts on the deadline- I've been M.I.A. for the past few days, since my father-in-law suddenly passed away over the weekend, so I've been disconnected from the Twins and the baseball world for a bit. I liked the Nunez trade, we sold high on a player that doesn't fit into the picture long-term and got back a young, cost controlled SP option for the next few seasons. However, I'm definitely of the dissenting opinion in that I'm not a fan of either of the Abad or Nunez trades. Here's why: These moves didn't clear 40-man roster space that we needed and seem to be geared toward competing next year, which seems like utter fantasy. Despite what I think were fair returns, I don't agree with the direction they take the team. While Abad got a C+ prospect close to the majors, It doesn't really fill an area of need- we've got plenty of our own internal relief options for next year and beyond. Chargois and Hildenberger look like they can be real late inning weapons as early as next year. Not to mention guys like Melotakis who could also help next year. I'd like to see the internal guys be given a chance first- thus I'd have preferred if the Twins would have targeted a player lower in the minors, with more upside and not one that requires a 40-man roster spot. At first glance, I was actually pretty impressed that Antony got creative and was able to move Nolasco, as I figured he'd be dumped in August for a PTBNL and salary relief. However, once I dug into the trade, I didn't like it. We essentially swapped out our starting rotation deadweight for another team's deadweight- I'm sure it's been talked about, but Santiago's peripherals are UGLY. He's an extreme flyball pitcher that walks a lot of batters, has an average K%, allowed lots of hard contact, is going from a top 10 defensive team to a bottom 5 defensive team (Angels are +13 in DRS, Twins -34; Angels +3.4 UZR/150, Twins -4.8), and going to a less pitcher-friendly stadium and division. The only things Santiago has going for him are that he limits line drives and induces infield flies at an above average rate; SIERA has been a little bit kinder to him than xFIP. He might be a marginal upgrade the rest of the year and next year, but that doesn't make up for the fact that he has only two years left of team control, and takes a rotation spot away from either May or Duffey, I would like to see them both get a shot in the rotation for the entire year next year before declaring them to be relievers for the rest of their careers. Yes, I realize Santiago could be non-tendered in the offseason, but when was the last time that the Twins non-tendered the centerpiece of a deadline trade the offseason after acquisition? Are the Twins that enamored with left-handed pitching in their rotation that they are willing to block out younger, cheaper options with more control and more upside? Or are they that delusional that they truly believe that this year is just a blip, and last year's record is more indicative of their true talent level that they are willing to make a marginal upgrade for next year at the expense of the long term future of the rotation? And on top of that we exchanged Meyer, for arguably a lesser prospect: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/projecting-the-prospects-traded-yesterday/ According to Chris Mitchell's new and improved KATOH projection system for minor leaguers, Meyer, despite being slightly older and not-pitching much this year, still likes him better, pegging him to be worth 1.9 WAR over his career, vs 0.4 for Busenitz. Plus, the same criticisms I had for being against acquiring Light in the Abad trade I'd give here. If they were going to include Meyer, I'd have asked for a prospect lower in the minors (and yes, farther away), but with more upside. Furthermore, the fact that they didn't pull the trigger on Suzuki or Kintzler trades, which seemed like relative no-brainers (especially with demand as high as it is for C and RP this year) to me are huge failures. Plus, not selling Santana as pitching is always in demand at the deadline, despite getting Mejia and Santiago as rotation pieces seems incredibly short-sighted and gives additional credence to the idea that the Twins see themselves as competitors next year.

I would have him rotating around the diamond for the rest of the season. Then trade Dozier in the offseason and Polanco is my starting 2B next year.

Devon Travis is pretty good. Also, Adam Frazier seems like he'll be a young cost controlled piece for the Pirates going forward. Neither would likely be fits for Dozier.