Article: Oswaldo Arcia And The Limits Of Patience

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Lots of good contributions to catch up on overnight (the tyranny of time zones). A couple of observations:

 

Nick suggests Molitor has gone out of his way to give Arcia a platoon advantage by ensuring 82% of his at bats were against RHP. Given Mauer (77%), Plouffe (78%), Dozier (81%) and Sano (85%) are all in the same ballpark, it looks more like a normal distribution of L/R opposing pitchers than any supportive plan to make the most of a platoon on Molitor's part.

 

If they had really wanted to make "advantageous" use of Arcia, maybe give him more than back to back games to get his timing right/feel comfortable at the plate and in the field. Only 3 times this season did Arcia get more than 2 games in a row:

 

April 15-20: 6 games .967 OPS 2 HR

April 25-29: 4 games .563 OPS 1 HR

May 4-10: 5 games .917 OPS 1 HR

 

There looks to be at least some basis for giving the guy a run of games instead of jerking him around.

 

Last season was a strange one for Arcia. He hit OK to begin the season without really impressing, before the injury/rehab stint. And he absolutely sucked for the last two months of the season at AAA.

 

But he had destroyed AAA in 2013 (1.020 OPS) and 2014 (.962 OPS) and maybe felt he had nothing more to prove there. At the All-Star break he had just hit his 7th HR in 11 games and had an OPS of .840. If any other prospect with that AAA track record had gone on a similar run, the call-up noise would have been deafening.

 

I don't know what caused the post all-star break slump for Arcia last year (injury? attitude?) but being disillusioned is somewhat understandable, if not to be condoned.  To his credit, he seemed to fix up his approach over the winter and by all accounts dedicated himself well in the offseason.  I wouldn't blame him for feeling he has held up his end of the bargain and been let down by management.

 

If memory serves me right, his injury last year was a hip injury, which are notoriously difficult to just bounce back from.  I doubt he sucked in AAA b/c he felt he didn't belong... likely more b/c it hurt to swing. 

 

That said, my biggest beef is consistent PT.  There's no excuse for Molitor to have gotten Arcia as little PT as he did.  None.  A day off now and then wouldn't have been hard, and it wouldn't have been hard to get some others guys days off to get Oswaldo in the lineup more.  There's enough positional flexibility on this team to have accomplished it.

[Comrade Bork]

Sano, Buxton, and Kepler. Keep watching!

Buxton was an elite defender before he was drafted. Sano feels like he is an elite hitter despite the twins and Kepler does feel like a successfully trained and molded player.... I'm so conflicted!!! Lol

[frightwig]

Btw, I'd also like to note that on May 6, after the first game of a series in Chicago, Arcia was hitting .281/.359/.491.

 

He played the next two against the Sox, going 1-6 with 2 walks.

 

He then played just one game against the Orioles (0-4), two games in Cleveland (0-8), then for some reason appeared only once--a pinch-hitting spot--in Detroit.

 

Coming home, he played twice in four games against the Jays (1-7), then just once against the Royals (2-3), then played twice in Oakland (0-6 with a walk).

 

That brought him to the end of May, where after a 3-week slump in spotty playing time (8 starts and one PH app after Chicago), his line had fallen to .217/.301/.370. And that's where the Twins apparently gave up on him.

 

After not playing at all in the first week of June, he had two starts in the Marlins series (2-6), made a pinch-hit app in the Red Sox series, and finally had a start in Anaheim on June 14 (0-4).

 

Really, they gave up on him because of a 3-week slump covering 8-10 starts in May. One of their better prospects of recent years, and WHY? To make room for Danny Santana. Because Terry Ryan said, "We need him. It's as simple as that."

 

FFS.

[old nurse]

 

There's been a lot of comparing of Santana to Arcia, but no one has pointed out that DanSan has played 32 of his 35 starts this season in CF.  Santana is not taking AB away from Arcia, at least not this season.  

maybe some of these people want Arcia in CF

[diehardtwinsfan]

Honestly, it's a lost season, I'd have played him in CF just to keep his bat in the lineup and see if he can adjust to major league pitching.  Would one or two more losses b/c of it really make things worse than what they are now?

[jimmer]

 

There's been a lot of comparing of Santana to Arcia, but no one has pointed out that DanSan has played 32 of his 35 starts this season in CF.  Santana is not taking AB away from Arcia, at least not this season.  

Ok, so, Santana doesn't just play CF.  He's plays corners too.  If Santana was gone instead of Arcia, all that would mean is that Buxton and Kepler would be 1-2 for CF with Arcia taking a corner spot when he played (or LH DH). 

 

So, instead of Buxton, Santana, Kepler and Grossman, it'd be Buxton, Arcia, Kepler and Grossman.  Leaves two people who can play CF and 4 OF who can play corner (with Rosario eventually, who can also play all 3 spots)

 

It's not that hard to figure out why people are asking why are we keeping Santana over Arcia.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Honestly, it's a lost season, I'd have played him in CF just to keep his bat in the lineup and see if he can adjust to major league pitching.  Would one or two more losses b/c of it really make things worse than what they are now?

Especially if you're not using any young promising SP right now, who might get discouraged by bad defense.  (Although even then, you're unlikely to need Arcia in CF -- most folks advocating more playing time for Arcia are also advocating a starting job for one of Buxton or Kepler, or perhaps Grossman or even Nunez or Escobar if their bats remain hot and they get forced out of the infield by Polanco.)

[stringer bell]

Santana is Plan B in center field. Kepler would play center if both Buxton and Santana are out of a game. DanSan has started one game each in right and left IIRC. I would anticipate he will get a few more infrequent starts on the corners and subs more regularly for Buxton.

[alarp33]

 

Santana is Plan B in center field. Kepler would play center if both Buxton and Santana are out of a game. DanSan has started one game each in right and left IIRC. I would anticipate he will get a few more infrequent starts on the corners and subs more regularly for Buxton.

 

Right. He is plan B in Center. He shouldn't be is the argument

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Especially if you're not using any young promising SP right now, who might get discouraged by bad defense.  (Although even then, you're unlikely to need Arcia in CF -- most folks advocating more playing time for Arcia are also advocating a starting job for one of Buxton or Kepler, or perhaps Grossman or even Nunez or Escobar if their bats remain hot and they get forced out of the infield by Polanco.)

 

yes... then again, it might encourage those young guys to focus more on getting ahead in the count and striking out the batter

 

I'm just saying at one point, given that we won't be doing anything this year, we may as well focus on figuring out what works. In Arcia's case, getting him in the lineup every day should have been a requirement. 

[laloesch]

 

Ok, so, Santana doesn't just play CF.  He's plays corners too.  If Santana was gone instead of Arcia, all that would mean is that Buxton and Kepler would be 1-2 for CF with Arcia taking a corner spot when he played (or LH DH). 

 

So, instead of Buxton, Santana, Kepler and Grossman, it'd be Buxton, Arcia, Kepler and Grossman.  Leaves two people who can play CF and 4 OF who can play corner (with Rosario eventually, who can also play all 3 spots)

 

It's not that hard to figure out why people are asking why are we keeping Santana over Arcia.

 

 

Perhaps the Twins have plans for him to play some shortstop in the near future.  

[Vanimal46]

 

Perhaps the Twins have plans for him to play some shortstop in the near future.  

Boy I hope not. I saw enough of the failed experiment at SS last season to never want to see that happen again. 

[jimmer]

 

Perhaps the Twins have plans for him to play some shortstop in the near future.  

shoot me now.

[SwainZag]

 

Honestly, it's a lost season, I'd have played him in CF just to keep his bat in the lineup and see if he can adjust to major league pitching.  Would one or two more losses b/c of it really make things worse than what they are now?

 

This is sarcasm, right?

[Otto von Ballpark]

This is sarcasm, right?

Mostly. Obviously no one would make Arcia the everyday CF, and he would probably never need to play the spot if guys like Rosario, Kepler, or even Grossman were also on the roster -- but keeping Arcia's bat in the lineup should have been a greater priority than giving reps to the veteran backup CF or utility guy du jour (Thomas, Mastroianni, Schafer, Robinson).

[Jham]

This thread is pretty interesting to see the similar debates around the league as to the move without all the Danny Santana grandstanding clouding the decision.

 

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/06/twins-designate-oswaldo-arcia.html

7 or 8 days into the DFA, and no claims or trades?  Could Arcia go unclaimed?  Would that be good or bad?  I sort of think Ryan was exposing Millone and now Arcia to waivers because he thought teams might try to move up the waiver order and trade for them.  If no one claims them, great, we hold on to Arcia with no 40 man issues...  of course that means that players who aren't even the worst players on our team aren't even worth rostering on any other team.  No wonder Grossman looks good in comparison...

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

This is sarcasm, right?

 

Yes and no.  It's contextual more than anything else.  You have a high ceiling young OFish guy who clearly isn't a CF but does have some real roster crunch issues making it harder for him to get PT.  An occasional game in CF (think Parmelee a few years ago) isn't going to hurt anymore than it already does.  Yeah, not good long term for pitchers, but then again, it's probably costing an out every game or two, which is while it sucks will give the team a chance to see if this kid could have been a cornerstone bat or the very least up his value so he could be flipped if the team is sold on Park (why he hasn't been optioned at this point is another issue).  

 

Bottom line is that Arcia needed at bats, and he didn't get them consistently in what was a make or break season.  In a season where you're going to lose 100 games, this is (in my opinion at least) inexcusable.  It would be far more understandable if this team was in the middle of a race for a playoff spot, but they weren't.  Arcia's release comes down to a complete failure to recognize what was clearly obvious after week 2 and a failure to adjust to this reality in the name of the long term health of the organization.