Last year when Dozier went into the HR hitting contest at the AS game should have been the first clue. The fact that he hits only one pitch, to one spot in the seats should have been another. It seemed to take pitchers longer than usual to figure out that of the 9 spots on a hit chart, he only consistently hits in two of them. Anyway, once they found out that he would not move the away stuff to right field, and had a hard time laying off the breaking ball, the results were fairly easy to forecast. He became in reality a better fielding version of Arcia. His problem was very succinctly summed up by the Chief, a regular TD contributor. His take: BD thinks he's a home run hitter, but hes not! I concur! Conditioning is always an easy unquantifiable excuse. If BD does not change his approach next year, look for post AS game numbers to be the norm.

Last year when Dozier went into the HR hitting contest at the AS game should have been the first clue. The fact that he hits only one pitch, to one spot in the seats should have been another. It seemed to take pitchers longer than usual to figure out that of the 9 spots on a hit chart, he only consistently hits in two of them. Anyway, once they found out that he would not move the away stuff to right field, and had a hard time laying off the breaking ball, the results were fairly easy to forecast. He became in reality a better fielding version of Arcia. His problem was very succinctly summed up by the Chief, a regular TD contributor. His take: BD thinks he's a home run hitter, but hes not! I concur! Conditioning is always an easy unquantifiable excuse. If BD does not change his approach next year, look for post AS game numbers to be the norm.

While for the most part I'd agree, this is somewhat unfair. He doesn't cover the entirety of the zone well, but he's made a living doing what he does for the majority of the past two seasons. Although he is a dead pull hitter, he's figured out how to get by. Pitchers didn't necessarily attack him differently in the second half, but he seemed to sell out more. I wouldn't say he needs to abandon the approach, but he has to figure out how to make it more sustainable.

Ovrall, it is a strange team. No pitcher won more than 11 games, yet we contended. No one put up great numbers in stolen bases, average, strikeouts (except as batters) or any number ofotehr categories. Yes, led in doubles and triples categories, hit a few more homers than expected. But, yes, Perkins faded, Mauer just never took off, Dozier did some goodthings, Plouffe was Plouffe, some rookies showed promise, others sucked bigtime from alst year. The bullpen was a mess. The games worked by many is astounding. But it must faze a manager when you have absolutely no idea what to expect and you need a reliever who will egt a ground ball, or one who can strike guys out, etc. etc. etc. Stange season statistical-wise.

Ovrall, it is a strange team. No pitcher won more than 11 games, yet we contended. No one put up great numbers in stolen bases, average, strikeouts (except as batters) or any number ofotehr categories. Yes, led in doubles and triples categories, hit a few more homers than expected. But, yes, Perkins faded, Mauer just never took off, Dozier did some goodthings, Plouffe was Plouffe, some rookies showed promise, others sucked bigtime from alst year. The bullpen was a mess. The games worked by many is astounding. But it must faze a manager when you have absolutely no idea what to expect and you need a reliever who will egt a ground ball, or one who can strike guys out, etc. etc. etc. Stange season statistical-wise.

I think as a collective whole, you hit on a team more than anything. The 2015 Twins competed because of what the sum of the parts was, not what any one individual provided.

That scenario shouldn't play out as heavily with a full season of Miguel Sano in 2016, but this club is likely never going to be top heavy as other playoff teams may be. Minnesota will win like the Cubs and Royals, and looking at those two teams, that's a great recipe to follow.

Dozier should have been dropped in the lineup - not from the lineup.   But we have these crazy unwritten laws - Dozier at the top of the lineup for the entire second half makes no sense.  Escobar was better than him in the last half.  But ultimately it is pitching that is the issue and we have to look for change next year even if it means eating the contracts of non-effective starters.  Perkins should have sat and they need to think about next year - which perkins will it be, is Jepsen the answer, is Tonkin ready to step up?  Or will be surprised by Burdi or someone else in the minors.  Duffey showed us that young arms can be effective and Berrios probably would have done the same.