Minnesota Twins Talk

Just announced. DFA'd after tonight's outing.

The Twins are doing well thanks to two players playing at MVP levels and the rest of the team being close to average. But how long can this last? Are we shaking the WAR model to the core? http://i64.tinypic.com/149mn3m.png

Great game.

http://www.startribune.com/after-that-awful-start-twins-outfielder-byron-buxton-is-on-a-roll/421869953/ "Since his tutorial with Torii Hunter, Buxton is 10 for his last 30 (.333) and has a .459 on-base percentage. Included in that stretch is a double, triple and home run — as well as seven walks to go with just six strikeouts. He’s scored nine runs in that span, getting a chance (finally) to show off his game-changing speed on a more consistent basis."

Kintzler and Rogers have each thrown 3 days in a row. This is the second time this year for Rogers. Its borderline if not definitely overuse and these guys are going to burn out. The solution is two fold IMO: one, add one legitimate bullpen weapon to expand Molitor's options (like Robertson). Two, institute a policy as Girardi has in NY: No pitching 3 days in a row and no pitching 4 out of 5 days. Duffey was available today, he could have thrown. Press could have thrown. With a 3 run lead he didn't need to lean on those two for the third day in a row.

So does tonight finally punch his ticket off the bench? I'd really like to see a more consistent rotation of Mauer/Grossman/Vargas/Rosario/Kepler in the 1B/DH/OF rotation. There is no reason Vargas can't be staring 3-4 times a week.

I know we are in a rebuild, but if we stay in contention through June and there are several potential aces that may be available such as Greinke, Darvish, and Cueto. Do we trade for one and what prospects would it take and we be willing to give up. Seems like we have 2 solid and a 5th starter in Santana, Santiago and Hughes. If Berrios comes up and succeeds we would just need 1 more starter. I would be willing to trade a Ss, bullpen, and maybe another prospect...maybe a package of Palka, Burdi, and Vielma....or if Thorpe or Gonsalves were needed to get someone would you do it? How much cash would need to be included in a Greinke trade?....

I didn't realize that Tepesch had an option remaining. That's good to have a guy at Rochester who can provide innings when needed.

We are all painfully aware of Byron Buxton's struggles at the plate to start the season (rightfully so). But I was curious about how he has been doing in the field. Just watching, he appears to be doing very well, but wanted to see if the stats were backing that up, and they exceeded my expectations! Per Baseball Reference.com, here is where Buxton ranks at this point in the season: Defensive WAR: .6 (5th) Putouts in OF: 2017 AL 82 (3rd) Fielding %: 100% (1st) Total Zone Runs as CF/OF: 2017 AL 11 (1st) Range Factor/game: 2017 AL 3.32 (1st) So it appears that he has not taken his issues at the plate to the field. And beyond that, he is having a "gold glove" sta…

An entire article on Fangraphs deserves it's own thread, I guess.... But, it is an instagraphs post, so it's short! Very short. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/instagraphs/behold-the-twins-defensive-turnaround/

In this thread we are operating under the assumption that the stars aligned this year and now is the time to "go for it." First, the facts: David Robertson is a 32 year old veteran of 10 years. He has a career 11.9 K/9 and 2.80 FIP. A righthander, he has reverse platoon splits owing to a hammer curveball that devastates lefthanded batters. He is in year 3 of a 4 year, 46m contract. He's owed $12m in 2017 and $13m in 2018. He had knee surgery in the offseason but is showing no ill effects. His curveball is getting whiffs at a 50% rate and his velocity is steady. A typical batted ball will be in the air with an exit velo in the high 80s. Last February there was heavy sp…

Former ESPN.com minor league writer John Sickels started a Community Discussion on his site (Minor League Ball) about Jose Berrios, his dominance at AAA and his extreme struggles in MLB... http://www.minorleagueball.com/2017/5/12/15631786/minnesota-twins-jose-berrios-discussion?utm_campaign=minorleagueball&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

http://www.twinkietown.com/2017/5/12/15629014/minnesota-twins-mlb-young-hitters-are-finally-mashing-the-ball-miguel-sano-byron-buxton-max-kepler Nice article.

http://www.startribune.com/twins-plan-to-keep-jose-berrios-in-minors-for-now/421102063/ Ugh. "“Command the fastball, yes,” manager Paul Molitor said, “but he needs the other pitches, too. It’s one of those things where we’re not trying to jump the gun. He needs to continue to polish. We have all been anxious to see young talent get up here in the past. Right now, I think continued patience is what everyone has a consensus on, for the most part.”" 35 starts already at AAA. Over 200 innings at AAA.

On Fangraphs, good article on communication. And analytics. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/chris-gimenez-on-non-sugar-coated-communication-and-analytics/

I think Gibson would be able to focus better on 1-2 innings. I'm worried about his ability to focus on pitching many innings as a starter. No amount of time in the minors will do it for him. It's time to convert him to a role in relief. He certainly has more ability than most of this putrid pen. No trades for relievers. Wait for Chargois, Burdi, Reed, Melo, Jay . . . Things will go better as some of these pitchers prove their worth as others prove their lack of it.

I enlisted a prospect writer friend of mine to help break down the future of the Twins middle infield for today's off-day column. As always, thoughtful comments are appreciated: http://zonecoverage.com/2017/twins/sorting-out-the-future-of-the-twins-middle-infield/

I say yes. Dude is absolutely playing out of his mind right now, I have never seen a player hit it as consistently hard as he does. His single earlier in the game might have been the hardest hit single I have ever seen.

I guess DanSan had some value. Link.

Seriously, stick a fork in all of them! Big fail by the new "regime" in not improving this pen at all. Other than Duffey and Kintzler, I'm not sure they have a single guy who deserves to be on the major league ball club at this point? Call up all of the prospects and let's see who sticks?

The Twins have finally made the move - Adrianza will replace Danny Santana as the utility bench player. With Kyle Gibson going down, Drew Rucinski has been added to the 40 man and was called up. Rucinski played a few innings with the Angels in 2014 and 2015 and was used out of the bullpen, but he was a starter for his last three seasons in AAA. He'll likely fill in as the long reliever until the Twins need to add a 5th starter. It stinks to have guys like Tepesch and Rucinski on the MLB roster just a month into the season, but with injuries (May, Chargois, O'Rourke) and rookie ineffectiveness (Mejia, Berrios), this is what they're left with. What are your thoughts?

I figured that Adrianza would start at short with EE at 2b and Polanco DH vs Sale with Dozier unavailable. If for no other reason than to give Polanco a mini-rest. Is this a matter of Molitor making a show of his confidence in Polanco at short after yesterday's game? Is it a bad idea to play the new call-up with the backup as the other middle infielder? Is this in preparation Dozier maybe needing a DL stay? Get the new guy in at 2b in case thats where he'll be playing? Thoughts? It's probable that I'm missing something obvious or overthinking the call, but that decision should have some reason behind it.

It's certainly minutiae -- aren't all sports, though? -- but I made a Spotify playlist of all the Twins music: https://open.spotify.com/user/brandon.r.warne/playlist/1zdkekeAOvcKCtsVAGpKjk

As incredible as it is, we're officially 1 month into the baseball season. We have played 27 or 16.7% of games this season and currently in 1st place in our division. I couldn't be happier. The young guys are really showing up. Sano is a beast. Rosario is on a 15 game hitting streak. Santana is on fire. Buxton is starting to show signs of life and Dozier hasn't even gone off yet on one of his patented streaks. We are going to contend. It may be this year it may not be but it will be soon. Hopefully we can get some pitching help soon. Anyway, it is much more fun following a winning team. Looking forward to the continued progress

He was in the Twins' dugout last night. Chad Graff added a little previously unreported detail in his writeup last night: Perkins' fastball was up to 78 mph during ST, and "his velocity has not increased much". Stick a fork in him. (Not that this is any news...)

Guess the date.... Berrios is up. Danny Santana is off the roster. Chargois is up.

To start this off, I want to see Berrios as much as anyone. I don't like most of this rotation and, going from a stat line, Berrios would look good in a Twins uniform right now. But the accusations I see floating around this board seem pretty extreme so I'm going to tackle them one at a time. 1. Berrios is ready. Is he? I haven't watched him pitch to more than a handful of batters all season and I'm not a pitching coach so I'm basically in the dark here. If someone can give me more substantial information beyond a box score why he's ready, I'd love to hear it. No snark, I'd honestly love to hear it. 2. The new front office is the same as the old. This one baffles me…

https://mobile.twitter.com/RhettBollinger/status/855916165142589442 http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/twins-justin-haley-lands-on-dl-with-biceps-injury/ Let the corresponding roster move speculation begin

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/228161150/twins-byron-buxton-shows-off-blazing-speed/ Here's what I don't understand... They said Davis' batted ball had a 73% hit probability, but Buxton's catch had a 49% catch probability. a) That adds up to well over 100%. How is anything other than exactly 100% possible When I see a "49% catch probability" that would me to believe roughly half the CF in the league would make that play and there really wasn't anything special about it. Also it gets a 4-star rating, which looks like it happens roughly on the order of once per day across MLB. Calling it 49% seems like a severe undersell. Also analyzed was his triple, which was th…

Bill Smith got a really really raw deal during his stint as Minnesota GM, however without him, the present and future would be much worse off more than likely. Thank you Mr Smith for the following: -Signing Miguel Sano (Most money ever spent by the Twins at the time) -Signing Max Kepler (Genius move to look to Germany for talent) -Signing Jorge Polanco (Gave him a good chunk of cash) -Drafting Jose Berrios -Drafting Byron Buxton (So so so so smart to go BPA instead of drafting for need: Gausman, Zunino, Appel etc) Also it should be noted that Bill Smith also drafted Aaron Hicks, who has turned into one of the better OF in all of baseball thus far this season. There als…