ewen21

I think the market has spoken. I think that DeLeon along with Alvarez (or Stewart) is enough to make deal You don't need to agree. I'm ok with that.

Three seasons down the road as in the future. As in if we hold Dozier we'd need to resign him 3 seasons down the road. Dozier is a NOW guy and should not be held. We came in last with him and we can come in last without him. We need to examine the market thoroughly and find the best deal in order to surround the young nucleus we now have with younger talent. Not sure why you isolated on that singular phrase.

I can't say one way or the other whether I'm satisfied. It's too early. I agree with the poster who said, "if DeLeon and Alvarez are on the table you take it" I am afraid the Twins brass a) overvalue Dozier's worth to the team, and because of this no deal is going to be made because c) they will ask for more until all deals are off the table. This makes no sense to me. After a 103 loss season there isn't a veteran that can't be replaced. I think the market has spoken here. If you can get two strong prospects who can join the young nucleus you do it. Dozier is the best piece and we already have a replacement in Polanco. We need to think three years down the road. Doziers contract is up by then. Move on and get pieces to build for 3 seasons down the road. Dozier is 33 and on the decline by then

Oh, they absolutely have. Pohlad is so far off his rocker. He wants style points for being "loyal" His perception of loyalty is so far out of whack. He wants cronies and cohorts. He wants an inner circle and he has created this country club environment where everyone in his little circle covers for each other. It's childish and it's offensive to witness

I want to post an excerpt from a Pioneer Press article that was run a few days ago: “We all know it’s not critical for him to play every day, but I think part of his desire is to try to finish the season,” Molitor said. “When he can play, he’s trying to play.” It’s the manager’s hope that Mauer’s teammates take note of this. “I’m not sure if you go through that clubhouse how many of those guys can see that and respect that,” Molitor said, “and maybe begin to understand those are some things they may need to consider about how you go about your job.” Is Paul actually suggesting teammates should take note of what Joe is doing now and do likewise? I'm done with Molitor. He jumped the shark right there. And Mauer is a problem for this organization going forward. He actually has been for a while, it's just he is the elephant in the room the Twins brass can't address. It's actually sickening to watch

Really? He's more in line with Oliva, imo

I disagree. I don't see many similarities between the two at all. First of all, Mattingly has only 239 more plate appearances than Mauer going into tonight's game, but managed to drive in nearly 300 more runs. He drove in over 110 runs in five different seasons. That matters. Joe's big thing is he walks. Mattingly hit for average and slugged up until his back injury. I saw plenty of Mattingly being that I am a 50-year-old dude living in upstate NY (lived in Oneonta where Mattingly played in '79). I have seen plenty of Mauer. I am not partial to either, and although it would be impossible to exaggerate how much I hate the Yankees I have to say... Mattingly did damage for about six or seven seasons. Joe did damage for one season in my mind. In just 239 more plate appearances Mattingly has 676 more total bases. Of course, Joe has 226 more walks in 239 LESS plate appearances. If you want to bring up positional value during Mauer's best years and put it up against Mattingly's best years. OK. I would say advantage Mauer for that moment in time. Looking back in their careers? Mattingly is the better hitter in my mind. And no....Mauer will not get in the Hall. Not the way he cratered at age 30.

Is it all "negativity" or is it just people talking about what is going on? The complaints are mostly warranted and sometimes it provides comic relief. Some people laugh at the absurdities of life as a means to get by. I think the reaction to the "negativity" is as bad or even worse in some cases. That's just me, though

Those are 3 small, compartmentalized stints in AAA. Those BABIP numbers are freakish and cannot be sustained. No doubt his speed helps him out a lot more against weaker defense. No doubt luck is involved. The thing that concerns me is that he isn't putting the ball in play all that much in this second stint. He's struck out 25 times in 15 games against AAA pitching. One other thing that concerns me about Buxton is his durability. He has come down with the flu three times in the last year and a half by my count. Each time he missed multiple games. That is a little strange. I am also concerned with the injuries. I think he plays (and runs) in a kind of reckless way. Watching him run the bases he looks so out of control. Like he is an injury waiting to happen. I hate to sound so glass half full, but if we remove the hotshot prospect label and just watch the guy on face value he has a lot of work to do.

Huh? Facedesk? What kind of reaction is that? That implies my post was not worthy and yet you agree with most of it. I don't get that. You're saying I'm off topic? Are you saying we should be talking about whether or not Brian Dozier learned something from Bruno? The title "What happened to our Twinkies?" seems to suggest to me that it is about all of those things and more because there are SO MANY things wrong right now. I dunno man. Just wondering

There were so many decisions made by the Twins I didn't like going into this season and I was not alone. There were a few things that made me nuts. The idea to take Miguel Sano and put him right field because Trevor Plouffe HAD TO be a Twin was crazy. They couldn't see this coming? Sacrificing Sano for Trevor Plouffe was straight up ignorant on a few different levels. It moved Kepler to the background. Bidding for and getting Byung Ho Park when Kennys Vargas could give you the same thing for less was a waste of time and resources for a question mark that didn't even fit. This was monumentally stupid stuff and me saying this isn't hindsight. I (and a whole lot of other fans) didn't like any of that right when it happened. That's just a drop in the bucket. What about the Twins inability to raise starting pitching? The last halfway decent pitcher the Twins drafted and developed is Matt Garza. This isn't happening because they are getting things right. What's going on with Buxton and Berrios right now takes the cake. Especially the Berrios situation. You got Bert Blyleven coming out of the booth injecting himself into the situation? Berrios already had a few guys working with and Bert and his enormous ego gets involved? Acknowledging the Twins got something right at this point is like acknowledging a student did well on a small part of the test that he failed. I think the Twins deserve A LOT of criticism now. Let the floodgates open.

When talking about how disappointing Buxton has been we need not be reminded about his speed and defense. The disappointment is obviously with his offense with the caveat being........if you can't hit major league pitching then you ain't a major leaguer. HIs bat has been such a liability and he has looked so bad against major league pitching that the Twins had no choice but to send him down. It's as simple as that Quite honestly, he needs more time in AAA. Going into this season he had only 240 at bats in AA and 59 in AAA. This after coming off a season where he had 124 at bats total. 121 at Fort Myers and and 0-3, 3 K game in New Britain that ended him by being carted off the field. We can talk gum drops and lollipops, sunny times and glass half full all we want. THe fact is he really didn't "dominate" AAA before this season started and he really never had a full season at AA. 59 at bats at AAA at the end of the '15 season amounted to 13 games. Brant Alyea and more recently Glen Williams both hit over .400 in that many games as a Twin. At the major league level. Does anyone look back and say Glen Williams dominated major league pitching? All in all, I am very disappointed in him. I read an article shortly after he was demoted and he was happy to be back with his "family" in Rochester. I don't want to read too much into that, but it surely is a head scratcher. FOr a guy with his talents he should not be referring to his AAA teammates as "family". Part of me wonders if he got too comfortable being the hotshot prospect. It seems like he would rather be that right now than be a major leaguer. A big part of his struggles is pitch recognition and swing mechanics, but a big chunk of it is mental, imo. A lot has been made about how humble he is and how much he "respects the game" but I am not liking his not ready for the big leagues mindset. Kepler's mindset is completely different. He appears comfortable with being a big leaguer. He has struggled lately, but I wish Buxton had a little more of what Kepler has with regard to attitude and mindset.

You aren't actually disputing any Mauer related points I made

Berrios is brutal to watch. It looks like his skin is crawling when he steps on the mound. He is way out of his element, just like Buxton. What is it they are doing to these kids? Honestly. We hear so much about the work ethic, the talent, the character........and then they get here and they look like they want out. Let Berrios and Buxton sit together on the bus. I am so sick and tired of hearing about them. Might be nice if those two names were banned for a week. No one mention them.

One thing I don't understand about Joe...... Every hitter goes up there looking for something. Every hitter has a "happy zone" where they look to crush the pitch. Joe almost NEVER does that. You rarely (if ever) see him lay serious lumber on a fat pitch. He is more likely attempt to slap that pitch into left field. There is a time and a place for that, but Joe started doing it an he never ever stopped. He has so much bat lag going through the zone that when his reflexes slow down a little more he will be completely cooked.

I have seen people reflecting on Joe's career and making statistical comparisons about where he ranks against other players ever since he had that dreadful year in 2011. It is as though the epitaph was being written when this all started with the premise being: has Joe done enough to secure his legacy? I'm sorry, but who cares? Why all the looking back for these last several years? He had a handful of tremendous years and then he cratered. We can speculate forever as to why this was, but the fact is he doesn't contribute a whole lot to actual wins and losses. He hasn't since Target Field opened. I see a guy who comes up in big situations looking to walk. It's as though he is deathly afraid of looking bad. It's been especially noticeable this year. For anyone who watches the game and isn't trying to kid themselves, Joe Mauer takes a very passive approach to hitting. ESPECAILLY when runs are needed at crucial times. He has 86 plate appearances in close and late situations. In those at bats he has drawn 20 walks (including 5 intentional passes) with a .182 batting average. On the flip side, with the run differential greater than 4 he has 53 plate appearances, but only 4 walks. He is hitting .408 in those situations. He's looking to do damage then? THere is a reason why no one can name a single "Target Field moment" for Joe Mauer......he is more interested in getting a base on balls when he should be looking to do damage. I guess his biggest TF moment would be that walk off walk several weeks ago. What a thrill that was! Now his quads are sore. OK, how does that happen? It's not like he has pulled a muscle It is more of the old "general soreness". Last week he was interviewed and he said he saw something on video that made him change his approach at the plate. He never actually attempted to articulate what he saw or what he is now doing. He simply said he found something and it is making his legs sore. Huh? Another head scratcher. Within two days of that article he was out of the lineup. I am ambivalent to Mauer at this point and I have seen enough of these career retrospectives. There isn't much to wonder about anymore, but we've been getting them for several years now. What's the point in it? To counter some just criticism of how he has gone about his business? We heard so much about his workout routine and the Star Tribune ran a joke of an article with him "working out" at Mauer Chevrolet. It think he had two five pound plates on the bar he was squatting. Absolutely ridiculous. All that work with the fat stretching guru and his legs still are sore? I'm more interested in the here and now and I am more interested in the Minnesota Twins than I am Joe Mauer. These last few years have not been that good. Let's call a circle a circle and a square a square. I don't care about the name. I don't care about the contract. He is an odd piece for this baseball team. He really doesn't fit, imo. The old Mauer is an entirely different player and it only lasted for about five or six seasons. If we are going to do a retrospective then there needs to be two separate stories.

Bryant has as much to do with Sano as what the weather in Istanbul has to do with the price of eggs. Reusse ran that up the pole and I have no idea why. To cover for his buddy Terry Ryan?

It was a bad move on the surface. I hated it instantly for a few reasons: 1. Kennys Vargas was not a terrible as the Twins made him out to be last year. He had a down sophomore year, but he is everything Park because he'd already proven himself to an extent. Park had NOTHING as far a track record went. 2. The Twins acted as if they HAD TO have him so they went out of their way to bid for him and waste time, energy and resources on getting this guy when all of it could have been better spent addressing other issues, i.e pitching or a stop gap FA outfielder 3. They already made that idiotic decision to move Sano to the outfield. That caused Kepler to get crowded out and then created a scenario where if Sano were to fail in the outfield (more likely than not) we'd have Park stealing his DH spot. The Park move was so unnecessary and I don't think the guy will ever amount to anything. Hated the deal from Jump Street and a lot of other Twins fans did as well so I don;t want to hear about "hindsight is 20/20"

It's cringe-worthy at this point with the way this team works out starting pitching. If the point of the OP was to mock people who had the gut reaction to "send him down!" after that start, I gotta say......"he will be fine" after that is probably more ignorant. If by "fine" you mean someday he could be Kyle Gibson then you're setting a low bar. What exactly does "he will be fine" mean. Is it like the old Alfred E. Newman line.."What me? Worry?"

I didn't like the extension from jump street. I am not a Perkins fan and this team needed a "closer" at that time about as much as it needed to give all players free iPads. There were much bigger fish to fry and bigger things to address. Ryan wanted to make a headline so he handed out an extension to a guy he was "comfortable with"....also throw in the fact that he's a Minnesotan so the team looks good. Talk of Perkins being "an elite closer" at that time was absurd to me. Losing Perkins means absolutely nothing for the short term and long term. Let's just move on and forget about him

The most annoying thing about the "Arcia Experience" was that a) managment never really was all too fond of him. He was portrayed as a brooding, hot-tempered player, they couldn't find a position for him, c) he has offensive talent and upside so because of a and b we could have gotten rid of him a few years ago instead of letting this play out. He will probably be a lot better off in Tampa, which is a much looser environment. On a side note, I will never forget reading a blurb in the ST from LEN 3 about how Arica was removed from a game in 2013 at Rochester because he didn't run out a ground ball. That was a total fabrication. I was watching that game and in his only at bat, Arcia struck out and the ball did not get away from the catcher, so there was no such situation for him to display a lack of hustle. What REALLY went on that day was that Drew Butera was called up during the game. Arcia blew a gasket when he found out he wasn't being called up. And that to me was justified anger on his part because he had an OPS over 1.000 and we called up Drew. I found it very telling that the mistake about him not running out a grounder in that game was never corrected. It's actually slanderous. It also drives a player's value down and makes a guy like Arcia (not the sharpest guy around) brood and play with less confidence. The Twins have been leaders in this regard. They are on the cutting edge of it

If he ends up on the bench now then it's tough luck on him. I wanted him to log more time in AAA, but the Twins called him up. I didn't want him called up yet. Now that he's up we have a problem. If he struggles it becomes an issue. To what extend to we leave him alone? The kid just struck out 7 times in his last 9 at bats and has been on a 4-40 run. At some point you have to say time out

I have to agree with this to a certain extent. Take a look at his numbers against NY and BOS during this homestand: 0-19 with 12 Ks. Against NY he had 7 Ks in 9 at bats. Let's not act like these games for him are any old game.

Not sure why you're asking me that. You think I want him benched? Not at all true. Ideally, Buxton shouldn't have been called up.in the first place. They rolled the dice again and hoped he could take the job out of camp. He couldn't handle it and was sent down OBVIOUSLY because he needs more development time. I don't want him sitting down. He was called up because the roster is so darn thin. If I had my way I would have allowed Buxton at least another month down there, maybe more. I also think he is having a hard time letting go of the hotshot prospect tag and that this next jump is mostly mental. Not everyone jumps from AA to the majors. He needed more time in AAA or even AA because his bat just isn't there for whatever reason.

i would hope they evaluate on an ongoing basis. Simply throwing them out there does little for their development. They need to be taught.