The Twins Way

[TheLeviathan]

The contact, no walk pitchers are fine if they can pitch like Lackey did the other night against the Twins. Doesn't matter if they are strikeout pitchers or not, the Twins need no fat pitchtossers.

 

Well, that's the problem. It can certainly work - it's just dramatically less reliable. Odds catch up in a long season, so citing specific successes isn't a very good argument.

[ThePuck]

I disagree. Buscher had zero value. Thome was the best hitter on the team in 2010. The problem is when you sacrifice defense for sluggers that don't slug like Delmon, Doumit, and Plouffe.

 

Delmon had a very good 2010...

[Kwak]

"The Twins Way", means "the cheap way". Strikeout pitchers are like HR hitters, there is a big salary premium for these guys. Using "TTW" as a guide, means for the Twins to have K-pitchers or HR hitters these guys must have very few years of ML experience. They have been big believers of minor league experience--more is better.

[Kwak]

I disagree. Buscher had zero value. Thome was the best hitter on the team in 2010. The problem is when you sacrifice defense for sluggers that don't slug like Delmon, Doumit, and Plouffe.

 

Thome was strictly a DH, so his defensive limitations weren't much of an issue.

[Guest USAFChief]

The difference between the best corner OF defenders and the worst just isn't worth worrying about.

 

As for playing their OFers deep, the Twins have done that throughout the Gardenhire era, it wouldn't matter who they had in the corners, they'd be playing deep. They had Revere play a deep RF.

 

The Twins defense hasn't been real good this year, but that's primarily because of the IF, not the OF. And they're losing because of pitching 1st, offense second, and defense a distant third.

[notoriousgod71]

Thome was strictly a DH, so his defensive limitations weren't much of an issue.

 

 

That's the point. It really doesn't matter if you can field a lick if you're going to OPS 1.000 but when you're Delmon Young or Brian Buscher you're not long for an organization.

[greengoblinrulz]

The 90 plus losses have come around as Gardy has started to not care about defense. He got away with Delmon/Cuddy for awhile but its finally caught up with em.

They preach defense but dont expound on it at all.

One of many reasons that Im fed up with him.

[old nurse]

Well, that's the problem. It can certainly work - it's just dramatically less reliable. Odds catch up in a long season, so citing specific successes isn't a very good argument.

odds catch up on any pitcher that does not throw the ball well

[spideyo]

I disagree. Buscher had zero value. Thome was the best hitter on the team in 2010. The problem is when you sacrifice defense for sluggers that don't slug like Delmon, Doumit, and Plouffe.

 

I'm not saying we should have kept Buscher over Thome. It just didn't make sense to me at the time to take away a bench spot from any possible defensive person.

 

Obviously in 2010, the choice to go Offense first worked well. In 2011 and 2012, it did not. My whole point is that it appears that they have made that conscious choice, and as we've seen when the sluggers don't slug and you don't have top-level pitchers, it doesn't work well.

 

Now, if all our sluggers were hitting at the top of their game, and we had gotten Grienke and Peavy, no one would give a damn about our defense