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My point was that by playing these guys this year, it will prepare them better for next year. Why not get the rookie jitters out the=is year, so they can all be a more polished and experienced bunch next year. After all, it seems most of those guys are MLB ready, or close to it.

I've posted it several times in different blogs or comments over the last couple of weeks, but as much as I'd love to think the twins can compete this year, I don't think they are going to. However, I do think that the Twins can win 80-82 games, and at least be fun to watch, and the recent surge of minor league talent flooding the big league team has kept me very interested in the big league team despite a losing month of June. I've watched the major league debut's of Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton, Alex Meyer and look forward to watching Miguel Sano hit a 430 foot bomb tonight against the Royals. My opinion is that the twins FO is doing things right, and I hope and pray that they don't trade away any valuable future prospects this month in an attempt to win 4 or 5 more games. I strongly believe that we have the talent to be a .500 team within our organization, and I hope that the front office believes that as well, and sees that trying to please the fan base by making the playoffs is not worth sacrificing any of our potential future stars. I think I speak for most of the twins fan base in saying that what would make me more happy than getting to the playoffs and then losing in 3 games...or maybe even 1, would be to finish around .500 and continue to see glimpses of who we will be next year, and for years to come. With this in mind, what would you like the 25-man roster to look like by years end? Below I have put the current roster on top and my ideal roster underneath. Below that I have put down what I would like our lineup and starting rotation as well as our bullpen to look like down the stretch in August and September. Catchers Kurt Suzuki Chris Hermann Infielders Brian Dozier Joe Mauer Trevor Plouffe Eduardo Escobar Eduardo Nunez Danny Santana Miguel Sano Outfielders Torii hunter Eddie Rosario Shane Robinson Pitchers Phil Hughes Kyle Gibson Mike Pelfrey Tommy Milone Trevor May Blaine Boyer Aaron Thompson Ryan Pressley Glen Perkins Alex Meyer JR Graham Casey Fien Brian Duensing Catchers Kurt Suzuki Chris Hermann Infielders Brian Dozier Joe Mauer Jorge Polanco Trevor Plouffe Miguel Sano Eduardo Escobar Eduardo Nunez Outfielders Byron Buxton Eddie Rosario Torii Hunter Oswaldo Arcia or Max Kepler...(whoever the twins see as ready, and part of their future) Pitchers Phil Hughes Ervin Santana Kyle Gibson Trevor May JO Berrios Alex Meyer J R Graham Taylor Rogers Blaine Boyer Casey Fien Logan Darnell (if the twins want a 3rd lefty in their bullpen) otherwise AJ Achter or Tyler Duffey Glen Perkins Ideal Starting rotation: Hughes, Santana, Gibson, May and Berrios. We'd have Alex Meyer for a spot start if needed and trusted, or Milone in AAA. Long relievers: Meyer and Graham. Either of these guys could be used in higher leverage situations if they prove capable over the next few weeks/months. Mid relievers: Meyer, Graham, Rogers, Boyer and either Darnell/Achter/Duffey Setup relievers: Fien and possibly Boyer and Darnell/Achter/Duffey And we all know who the closer is. Ideal starting lineup Buxton CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B (if Mauer continues to progress. If not, swap him with Rosario, but you need a lefty here) Sano DH Plouffe 3B Rosario LF Hunter RF (Arcia every 3rd or 4th day) Polanco SS Suzuki C That would be an exciting lineup and pitching staff...one that would keep me watching through September.

This is what I want to see done. I am not very well versed in the minor league rosters, so I probably will not see the corresponding moves that would have to be done to accomplish this. 1. I still like Danny Santana, but think he needs to rebuild confidence. Send him down to AA, let him get that confidence back. Let Escobar (who is playing better lately) and Nunez platoon at short for now, and send Polanco up to AAA. I'd love to see Polanco in the lineup by sometime in August...I think his bat belongs there, and would be very happy to see Buxton, Rosario, Sano and Polanco in the big league lineup for several months to end the year. 2. Cut Duensing, Send Aaron Thompson to AAA along with Alex Meyer or Ryan Pressley. Neither have been good lately, so give them each a couple more shots and keep whoever fares better. 3. By narrowing our pitching down to 12, we can open up a spot for Arcia if he continues hitting well in AAA. The more I look at what we've got in our farm the more I realize Arcia probably won't be with the twins forever, but let him play up here, even if only 2-3 days a week to build some value so we can get something for him this off season in a trade. 4. Starting rotation for now should be Hughes, Santana, Gibson, Pelfrey & May. 5. Trade Pelfrey ASAP for the best catching prospect the market will bring...biggest position of need in our farm system. 6. Once we trade Pelfrey, move Milone back to the rotation and give Meyer another shot in the big league pen. 7. Bring JO Berrios to the major league rotation sometime early to mid august if he lights up AAA over the next month. If he does not, we have a better than adequate stop-gap starter in Milone. That's my two cents. I don't think we're going to make the playoffs this year, and even if we did we wouldn't make it very far. But, I'm hopeful that by getting our young guys experience this year, maybe we could win some games in October next year.

Also, Santana did not develop his devastating change up until 2002 when the twins sent him down to the minors to work on it.

Just to clarify, I wasn't trying to compare styles. I was more trying to compare numbers and minor league/early career success levels. Here are some of their minor league numbers...Meyer's are to date including the rough start to this year. Santana left/Meyer right. 68 games, 60 starts/82 games, 76 starts 350.2 IP/387.2 IP 350 hits/338 hits 357 strikeouts/448 strikeouts 3.4 BB per 9 IP/4.0 BB per 9 IP 4.70 ERA/3.48 ERA 1.372 WHIP/1.313 WHIP Those are just a couple. We see that Meyer has actually had a significantly higher level of success in the minors than Santana did. Probably why Santana ended up being a rule 5 pick. However, my point was, I think its far too early to count Meyer out, and in fact its time for him to have a shot out of Minnesota's bullpen. And every MN fan knows that those bullpen numbers that he's posted over the past couple weeks, even if they doubled would be welcomed in the big league pen as he continues to develop. And to reiterate my point further using the Santana example, by putting him in the pen does not necessarily destine him to a career long reliever.

Johan Santana pitched in 30 games (5 starts) in 2000. He gave up 102 hits in 86 innings, while walking batters to a tune of 5.7/9 innings pitched, and managed an awful 6.49 ERA. Over the course of the next four years he split time between fill-in starts when needed due to injury, and bullpen work. In 2003, his last year before becoming a full-time starter (and winning a CY Young award) He had worked his numbers down to 127 hits in 156 innings, a 3.07 ERA, and 2.7 BB/9. We all know what happened after that. Santana was 21 years old in 2000 when he came up with the twins, and they stuck with him through his struggles and let him figure it out in the bullpen. Meyer is now 25 years old...I say bring him up before we waste any more years of his potential. It took Santana four years of pitching at the big league level to figure it out. His last effective year was his age 31 season. If we are comparing apples with apples, and Meyer follows the path of Santana (not saying they are the same pitcher, but their numbers and styles look similar to me) than as we stand right now, Meyer will be 29 by the time he fully hits his stride, with just 3 effective years in front of him. I say call him up, and don't waste anymore time. And in the mean-time we have an option in our bullpen besides Perk who can actually strike someone out!

There have been dozens of threads on TD over the last 10 days about whether the twins should be buyers or sellers. Whether they should make a trade to attempt a push towards October this year, or maintain the long-term trajectory and hold to the rebuilding strategy the FO seems to be holding to. My question and thought is, is there a possibility we could do both? I've seen people calling for catching help, and I've seen people calling for bullpen help. Those seem to be the two main positions of need. I would add that we need DH and shortstop upgrades as well. My question is, how can the twins attempt to be relevant this year, while not sacrificing the hopes of building a long-term competitive team? I will attempt to answer my own question with as few words as possible...which doesn't come easily to me. I think the first step IMO is to call up Sano, Polanco and a combination of one or two of the following relief arms that the organization deems to be the most ready. Achter, Oliveros, Meyer or Burdi. My reasoning is Sano may not bat to his future potential this year, but he is advanced enough that its not going to hurt him, and he will be significantly better than what we are getting currently out of the DH position, even if he can only manage to bat .250/.300/.475 with 15 home runs over the rest of the year. My thought is DH him 3-4 days a week, then give Mauer off a day or two a week, and slide Plouffe to first so that Sano can continue to get reps at third to see if he can stick there. Play Polanco at short. His bat is advanced enough that he deserves a shot, and will upgrade the position offensively from Escobar/Nunez. Don't get me wrong, I like Escobar and think he's a great utility infielder, but would prefer Polancos bat. I think he at least deserves a shot to prove whether or not he should stay at short, and why not let him prove that in Minnesota, where the fans can watch him hit. As far as the bullpen help goes, sub one or two of those previously mentioned guys out for Duensing for sure and then maybe another for one of the other rarely used relievers. I still have not addressed the catcher issue, and don't know realistically if that can/will be addressed this season. However, by inserting Sano and Polanco into the lineup you can then bat Suzuki/Hermann in the number 8 or 9 spot and they will be much less of a liability than they are batting 5th or 6th. Again, I don't think anyone expects the twins to win the world series this year. While that would be nice, its just not going to happen short of a couple dozen miracles. However, I don't think that its out of the realm of possibility for the twins to play .500 ball the rest of the way and end up with 85 wins and a shot at a hard-fought division title, or maybe within reach of a wild-card spot. If nothing else, they would be relevant and fans would stay interested. They don't need jaw-dropping changes, just slight improvements, and by getting a little more production offensively from the DH and short stop and removing the bullpen liabilities while adding some guys in there that can actually be of some help, I think we would make ourselves better this year, while not jeopardizing, and in fact continuing to develop talent for the years to come.

You might be right above moving Dozier, maybe his numbers would fall off a bit batting second or third. I would imagine pitchers would start pitching him differently if he were batting more often with men on base, and with his extreme pull tendencies, that may prove detrimental to him...good point. Good point with Vargas as well. If he continues to struggle I think its time to give Arcia another shot. Bring him up and play him 3 or 4 games a week, platooning between left and DH. I don't think its time to give up on him quite yet, and if nothing else, it would give him a chance to build some trade value.

I am new to Twins Daily, and this is my first blog posting on here. With the most recent news of the Twins calling up Byron Buxton, I figured what better time to write my first blog post. I, like all other die-hard Twins fans have suffered through four long years of extremely disappointing and hard to watch baseball. While I don't view him as the fix-all savior for this team, I do believe he is going to be a key fixture in a very potent lineup for years to come, and am pretty pumped and optimistic about this move by the Twins FO. My question is this year, what impact will he have? How much better will the Twins be with him playing center and in the lineup every day? Here's my stab at answering that question. And while I may be an optimistic fan, I don't think I'm too far off base. I think the Twins need to have Buxton play every day as their lead-off man. While Brian Dozier has been solid there, I am a firm believer that your team leader in home runs should not be your lead-off man. Dozier has been the most consistent hitter in the Twins lineup, but is only 4th on the team in RBI. You've got to think that if he had been hitting second or third, that he'd be competing for first in RBI. I'd also love to see him start hitting some 2 and 3 run home runs instead of all those solo shots. Not to fault Molitor in any way, Dozier has been the most consistent table setter, and they really have had no other options...up until now, that is. Joe Mauers' struggles have been well documented, but the one thing he has done well is hit with runners in scoring position. So having Buxton and Dozier batting in front of him, makes me optimistic that we can hopefully see more of those situations in which Joe seems to thrive. We may not see him hit .325 again, but if we can at least consistently get guys on in front of him and watch him drive in 90-100 runners, it makes that $23 million salary a little more palatable. Plouffe is not anyone's dream clean-up hitter, but he is consistent enough for now until its Miguel Sano's time to shine. And he seems to be climbing out of his slump ever so slightly over the past couple of games.Personally, I really like Plouffe, but my guess is the Twins deal him at the end of July for a pitcher or a catcher if they're still contending...or for couple of prospects if they've fallen off the map. I would expect that would be the time Sano gets his call. That leaves you with Torii batting fifth, instead of second, which makes me much more comfortable. Betting sixth, you've got Kennys Vargas. This might be the biggest improvement in my opinion. I heard on the broadcast today that Vargas is hitting below .200 when batting 4th or 5th. But he is batting right around .350 when batting 6th or 7th. By having Buxton in the lineup, now the Twins can bat Vargas in a less high-pressure spot, allow him to get comfortable, and then down the road they can consider sliding him back up in the lineup where his (hopeful) power will play better. You've then got Rosario batting seventh, Suzuki eighth, and E2 batting ninth. To me, that's all of a sudden a lineup that doesn't make you want to shut the game off after the number 5 batter hits. Anyway, just my two cents. Statistically wise, not quite sure what line Buxton puts up this year, but I'd be happy with him leading off the rest of the year and putting up a line around .280/.350/.450 and stealing 10-15 bases. His defense I think, will make the Twins significantly better. Personally I'd love to see Hicks stick around as the 4th outfielder, splitting time with Torii Hunter in right. I think his defense is good enough to earn him that platoon role (with the exception of last nights disaster he's been pretty good). An outfield of Hicks/Hunter, Buxton and Rosario seems better than anything we've seen so far this year. After this afternoon I'd be just fine with never seeing E2 in the outfield again, and hopefully this move makes that possible. Anyway, please chime in with thoughts on how you expect Byron Buxton to contribute to, and better this team.

2-5 with a double, a run scored, and two run saving catches in center