mazeville

What "defensive lapses?" What "poor bullpen management?" What "base running gaffes?" Are these your perception or do you have data to back up your contention? The defense has taken a hit this year. But you lose a Byron Buxton and a Jason Castro from a team for most of the year and your defense will take a hit. People complain about bullpen management. I don't see that at all. What poor bullpen management? From what I can see, the problem has been mostly pitchers who should be entrusted to pitch an inning haven't done so often enough. And if you're talking overuse, which some people think is the problem, only two Twins are among the top 50 relief pitchers in games. So I'm not sure where people are getting that. The baserunning? I don't even know what to say about that. And injuries are going to make ALL of that worse by forcing the coach to insert replacement players. The good news for the Twins has been the emergence of Eduardo Escobar as an offensive force. But when your center fielder is Ryan Lamarre, your team is going to have some problems. Back your contentions up. And if you simply point to the team's record, which is legitimate, you have to take into account injuries. Tell you what: I'll take that into account. The loss of Ervin Santana, Byron Buxton, Miguel Sano, Jason Castro and Jorge Polanco removed 17 wins above replacement from the starting nine. As roughly, what, 40% of the season is done? That's about seven wins. Twins would be in first place, theoretically, with those players in the lineup, playing simply at the level they performed last year. And we aren't having this conversation.

The injuries are a massive factor this year. Not just "A" factor. This team has four members of its starting lineup our in some form or fashion and its No. 1 starter. Please explain to me what team would not be reeling from losing more than half of the starting nine from the opening day roster. Please. And keep in mind that three of those five are supposed to be the players who form the core that would lead this team to the promised land. Two of those three were the two single biggest factors that led to that run to the wild card last year. And now you're blowing off last year's wild card simply to shoehorn last year's strong performance into your thesis that Molitor sucks. That was a strong improvement with relatively little help in the way of players from the front office. If you're going to hammer him for the 103 loss season you have to give him credit for the strong season last year. I will not argue that Molitor is perfect. But I sure as hell am not going to suddenly turn on a manager who helped get this team to the playoffs last year after the sheer number of problems the Twins have faced. Beyond that, please explain where he's the problem.

Wow. The comments. Let's take a step back here and look at what's happened in 2018: 1. His biggest power threat spent the offseason recovering from surgery on his shin and getting investigated for sexual assault and has been terribly ineffective all year; 2. His No. 1 starter had offseason surgery and still hasn't thrown a slider; 3. His shortstop was busted for taking drugs and is out until July; 4. His catcher is out for the season; 5. His otherworldly centerfielder has been injured, is currently at rehab, and has been ineffective when he's been in. As I count it, that's five -- FIVE! -- starters that are currently out of the lineup. Add to that the ineffectiveness of Logan Morrison and Addison Reed, two big free-agent signings, and you have a recipe for a team that is not doing well. Hit the brakes on the bad manager talk. For crying out loud I think it's a wonder they're close to first place as it is. And for those of you yearning for Doug Mientkiewicz just stop. Stop.

Well that sucks. J.T. Realmuto would be one hell of an addition and would help the offense. But he'd be expensive. Not even the Marlins would give him away.

I don't know I see much of a problem, to be honest. As people have mentioned, they're winning ball games. They won last night 4-1 against a good St. Louis team. I like the idea of calling up Nick Gordon and having him play shortstop every day while Miguel Sano is out. Beyond that I don't know what to do. This team just needs Byron Buxton's defense too much, and he'll ultimately get his timing back and be fine (he always starts slow). Otherwise, the best way to fix the offense is to get guys healthy. This team is down three players from its starting roster and a fourth has a gimpy toe.

I'd rather have him up with the Twins. His bat is struggling, no question. And at this point he's not the player we expected -- not even close. But his defense is too important. So is his energy when he does get on base. So I'm OK with this. Rehab or not, he's going to risk further injury. Might as well risk it while helping the Twins' outfield.

UPDATE: I have now picked him up after reading this thread, which means I've guaranteed that he will go back to his no-strikeout self.

We use quality starts rather than wins. Quality starts as a statistic sucks, but at least you get rid of cheap reliever wins. As I said, I was tempted. And if I was not a Twins fan I probably would have grabbed him without hesitation. That K/9 is really good.

No. Been a fan way too long to do that. But I was tempted.

I was looking for a free agent pitcher for my fantasy baseball team, and searched for available pitchers with the highest strikeout rate. There was Kyle Gibson, right at the top. Nearly fell off my chair.

Came here to say this. What a disappointment. Phil has been a good guy, just injured and unable to recover. I hope the bullpen experiment helps him build strength and regain some velocity. But after two surgeries I'm not confident.

I loved the Twins' offseason. So did most observers. I'd still rather have an offseason in which the Twins spend their money on multiple pieces, rather than one big piece like Darvish. But, at the same time, Sano was injured. Then Santana had surgery. And then Polanco was suspended. Add Buxton's injury, ineffectiveness by Lance Lynn, Fernando Rodney and Logan Morrison and you have a recipe for a pretty bad month. For the Twins to overcome those other issues, they need those guys to turn it around. Personally, I'd like to see the Twins put Sano on the DL and call up Nick Gordon. Put Gordon at short and move Escobar to third. That would shake things up a bit just like putting Romero in the rotation should.

No. It doesn't. It means that once Buxton comes back and Santana comes back the team should be better. Sano will eventually break out of his slump and, well, can't do anything about Polanco. Do I think they make the playoffs? Probably not. But nor am I going to freak out on April 30.

Everybody should step away from the ledge. I'm as frustrated as everybody else. This is not what I expected. Not by a long shot. But it's only April 30. On top of that, the Twins are without: 1. Byron Buxton. Is it a coincidence they've won just two games since he went on the DL? 2. Their top starting pitcher. 3. Their starting shortstop. 4. Miguel Sano. OK, he's been playing. But he was out the past couple of games and has been in a major funk since the start of the year. Add to that major slumps by Logan Morrison and subpar performances by Lance Lynn, Zach Duke and the Fernando Rodney Experience and you have the recipe for the Twins' pathetic season. They can recover. And if they don't, they have some pieces that could be traded at the deadline for some decent if not good prospects and they can try again next year (honestly, I'd trade Addison Reed in a hot minute).

MLB could re-open the investigation if it gets new news on Sano, per Heyman: https://twitter.com/JonHeyman/status/977286086199250944 For what it's worth, I'm bothered and saddened by the result of this, happy as I am as a fan that Sano will be in the lineup. I just hope that there are people throughout the Twins organization who are stressing to this young man the importance of treating people with respect.

He's going to get these complaints everywhere else he goes if his team says he should get down to a certain weight and he doesn't. It's common, and it's perfectly acceptable these days for teams to push better conditioning on their players. Regardless, I wouldn't want the Twins to sign Sano for 10 years now, anyway, because he hasn't performed like a player worth a 10-year contract. So the point is moot.

Huh. Guess we should ignore the "generous carriage" comments from the Twins' GM then? Because he doesn't "look fat" on Internet pics? Kinda looks like he has a generous carriage in this picture here: http://www.startribune.com/twins-miguel-sano-healthy-and-happy-but-heavy/474439303/

I can't like this comment enough. I really want Sano to thrive and succeed. It's not ripping him. It's wanting a young player to put in the commitment that comes with the job so he can do well at the position he wants to play.

It's not about weight. It's about conditioning. (Aaron Judge is clearly in better physical shape than Miguel Sano) Sano showed up to camp with some extra weight, according to the team. The team wants Sano to get into better shape. That is a legitimate concern for a player who struggled to come off of what was supposed to be a short-term leg injury, and who has seen his performance diminish in the second half of each of the past two seasons.

Got it. But according to the Twins his ideal playing weight should be around 260 and according to reports I've seen it's closer to 290 or 300. That's the concern. 230 at this point is probably unrealistic. Regardless, my personal issue is that the Twins and fans are right to be worried about his conditioning. And I'll admit that I'm worried about this for entirely selfish reasons: I want Miguel Sano to be a regular all-star and a fixture in the middle of the order for several years. His best chance at accomplishing that is by improving his conditioning, regardless of what his ultimate weight is. (Maybe he should hang out with Matt Birk, who went from 310 pounds to 235 pounds ...)

I don't think he necessarily should be 230. 260 is far more realistic And he could be expected to put on some weight recovering from surgery. But 290 is an awful lot.

I would argue that it is. In 2016, Sano had an .823 OPS in the first half, and a .738 OPS in the second half. Last year, .906 OPS in the first half, .742 in the second half. Maybe that's not conditioning. Maybe pitchers figure him out. But man he went from Jose Abreu to Ryon Healy last year. By the way, Sano's .844 OPS would have been 13th best among the league's first basemen. Right behind Yonder Alonso and ahead of Mark Reynolds. It would have been 9th among third basemen. His bat plays better at third.

Sure. But 290-300 pounds? Are you kidding me?

Yes. He can get in better shape, genetics or not. Sano struck out 36% of the time and has taken a long time to recover from that foul ball off of his leg (which was supposed to be healed well before the end of the season). Maybe that had nothing to do with conditioning. But man it's hard to ignore that. (And yes, weight does have an impact on injury recovery time, especially when you're talking about the legs.) Regardless, that conditioning makes it more likely he stays at third where he definitely has above-average potential and a cannon for an arm. His value at third is far higher than it is as a DH, which some people on here oddly seem OK with. What bugs me is that the moment you mention "Sano" and "conditioning" in the same sentence we get odd responses with phrases like "BMI police." He's a professional athlete! If he didn't want to have his bosses hound on his conditioning he should have been a sports writer or an accountant. Want a good comparison? Try Pablo Sandoval. He had an OPS of .847 or above in three of his first four seasons. He clearly didn't have Sano's power, but he hit over .300 in those three seasons. He was an all star twice and received MVP consideration once. He's not an all star any more. Now look at him.

... while increasing his injury risk.