yarnivek1972

I know the Indians signed a lot of their core players back when they dominated the AL Central in the late 90s (Ramirez, Thome. Vizquel, Alomar, Nagy, etc). That predate's Falvey's tenure there though. Holy ####, I just looked it up to see how old Falvey is. He's exactly one month older than Joe Mauer. Obviously, the risk is far smaller for position players. I'm not sure I would ever advocate signing a 1 year experience pitcher to a 5-6 year contract.

The other consideration from Sano's view is that would have him being a free agent after he turns 30. Meaning his next deal, if it isn't renegotiated sooner, could take a hit, given that guys his size usually have back problems sooner or later.

The Twins have only played 3 games since then. The one on Sunday they avoided using him because he had gon 1 2/3 the night before. Since then there have only been 5 innings by the bullpen, one of which was automatically Kintzler's. The other 2 Monday were match up determined and Duffey has not yet shown he is ready to pitch in tight games. Last night the Twins clearly wanted to get Pressly an inning in a low leverage situation and apparently felt Breslow needed to pitch as well. He hasn't pitched much. IMO it is far more likely that Tepesch start Friday than Duffey. Tepesch is already stretched out. But I think it will most likely be Gibson's last shot on Friday. If he fails to get to the 5th inning for the 3rd time in 5 starts, I think the Twins will have Tepesch relieve him and then take his spot in the rotation. That would be on May 3 against Oakland.

Sometimes it takes lefties a while to figure it out. Ron Guidry and Randy Johnson didn't become regular starters at the mlb level until they were 26. Not suggesting Turley has that ceiling. He's never even pitched at the mlb level. He never really had prolonged success at AAA either. But his numbers for the Lookouts are too eyepopping to dismiss. He needs to be moved up soon. Maybe a couple more starts in AA. If what he is doing translates to AAA he could be in line for a shot at the MLB level in July maybe.

Certainly not a relatively paltry amount like $750 K.

Hughes is going to give up a lot of hits. Even at his best. He's a poor man's Brad Radke. Except that he makes more than Radke ever made.

Umm. No. Escobar should not under any circumstances be starting the game as the designated hitter. That would be like having Jason Tyner DH. Oh wait... If Escobar is starting he needs to play a position. If for no other reason than he is the back up to at least 3 positions.

How would Plouffe's 3 errors look?

Gibson has posted an ERA well north of 5 since the 2015 All Star break. That's over 40% of his career. Do you really need another month to accept that that is simply what he is?

Kepler didn't start on April 11th against LHP Matt Boyd. He pinch hit for Buxton. 2 non starts in 18 games works out to about 15 or 16 in a season. I guess that's about right.

So, no Kepler tonight vs LHP Perez. Does Molitor not understand that Kepler isn't going to improve vs LHP if he doesn't play against LHP? Polanco hitting 5th between Grossman and Vargas? Am I the only one who thinks Polanco should hit second everyday?

I guess I'd have to know what you would call "imploding" by Hughes. I personally think he can still be a 6-7 IP guy with an ERA in the high 4 range. He did basically miss all of last year. It's going to take some time to get back into a rhythm. Is he overpaid for that level of production? Immensely. Is there thing one that can be done about it? No. So, smile, grit your teeth when he starts and hope for a 6-7 IP guy with an ERA in the high 4 range. I think the mistake in his last start was Molitor believing the Twins still had a chance to win the game when they were down 5-2. Made sense. Tomlin's been terrible. Realistically Hughes could have gone another couple innings and saved the pen a little.

I actually think you have to go further back. It started to turn to the crapper in the second half of 2015. 5.22 ERA in that half season. 5.07 last year. 9 so far this year. That's 40 plus starts with an ERA well over 5. That's approaching half of his career.

Well, Gibson isn't likely to post an ERA of 9 all season. I'll concede that point. But a career BABIP of .306 for a guy that gets 6 K per 9 is going to give up a ton of baserunners. And a 12% HR/FB rate seems concerningly high to me. Especially given that his GB/FB ratio has been trending the wrong way for the last two years. He actually allowed more fly balls than ground balls last year, which was a first for him, most likely at any level. Want to have some fun with sample size? Take away Gibson's first half of 2015. He posted a 2.85 ERA in 113 2/3 IP and everything was right with the world. Other than that 3 month stretch, he has posted a 5.17 ERA in 475 2/3 IP. So, ask yourself, which is the "real" Gibson and which is the fluke? My take is that the real Gibson is a guy with an ERA north of 5.

That'd be fine except that Granite is hurt and has not played all season.

Of course if you put Sano at first, you again lack a third baseman. And as far as I know, there is nothing at that position down the line. Maybe Nick Gordon could swing over to third. Because Jermaine Palacios might be nipping at his heals at SS. Not sure Gordon will hit enough to play third. A Polanco, Palacios, Gordon infield would be a lot of slap and giggle hitters. So that means the Twins will need to get power everywhere else. The only guy that looks like a legit 25 + HR guy is Sano. The only other player who might be north of 15 consistently is Kepler. Slap and giggle might work in the regular season, but it won't in the playoffs. You need quick strike ability because the pitchers are better. In the playoffs, you rarely see an inning with 4 or 5 singles leading to two runs.

March/April is one of his worst months. He has a career 5.76 ERA and a career .816 opponent's OPS. However, his actual worst month is August (5.91, .853) , so that kinda shoots that theory to pieces As for the notion that he might be better as a reliever, some have suggested it, his worst inning is the first inning (.810 OPS) other than the 9th, in which he has pitched just once in his career. Also, the second time he faces hitters in a game his OPS is .827. That sounds like it might support an argument for the pen. But then you look at the first time through and it is .719. That's still not very good. To me it comes down to him simply being unable to execute the pitches he needs to make. He KNOWS he has to keep the ball down to have any chance. He just. can't. do it. Not consistently anyway. I'm looking back at his game log from 2015 because it is undeniable that he was consistently terrible in 2016. He had a smattering of good starts, but by and large 2016 was a disaster for him. He was pretty bad in the second half of 2015. From July 21 to the end of the year, Gibson made 14 starts. He failed to complete 6 innings in half of them. He gave up 5 earned runs or more in 5 of them. His ERA coming into July 21 was an excellent 2.85. By the end of the season it was 3.84, up a full run. So, my Minnesota High School Math skills are saying that's 9 1/2 months of largely terrible pitching by Gibson covering more than 40 starts. How much more do his defenders need to see before they are ready to cut bait? The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. Allowing Gibson to continue to start and expecting him to do well is therefore insane.

But they continue to do a very poor job at developing players. This is where Falvey and Levine need to make an impact.

Rortvedt sure reacted like it was a ball in play. If he had heard contact he probably wouldn't have started chasing after it.

It wouldn't be surprising if Melotakis got sent down a level for a couple weeks for that nonsense. He clearly needs to learn what it means to be a professional. He isn't in junior high. His manager and the Twins brass needs to make that extremely clear to him.

The logical conclusion would be that Melo was chirping from the dugout, likely after one of Clemens' walks.

Sell high on Hector? I would think the Giants have to be looking for a fill in for Bumgarner.

I don't agree with that at all. He ranged several steps to the third base side. The ball was simply out of his range. Escobar isn't quicker than Polanco.

Makes me think of Dairy Queen. I like ice cream.

Which would be considered a low total for Cabrera. It would be the lowest he's had in a full season in his career.