Leaderboard

I read this report almost every morning and just wanted send my appreciation out to all those who put the work in putting it together. Great read.

I agree. If there is one thing this team does not need it's another left handed power hitter!

The outfield train may have left the station. The defensive potential of the Hicks, Buxton, Rosario trio is too great. A combo of #2 & 3 would be ideal. Trade Plouffe to SD for catcher Austin Hedges. Arcia makes the Twins as a DH next spring. Then, by the middle of next season, we could see a DH platoon of Arcia & ABW in Minnesota. WHOA!!! MATCHUP MASHING!!!

Byron Buxton hit his first Triple-A home run on Sunday afternoon, and later delivered a walk-off hit in the 12th inning, finishing 3-for-6 to raise his batting average to .404. The rise of the 21-year-old phenom has coincided with the decline – and gradual phasing out – of 40-year-old Torii Hunter in Minnesota. And in many ways, that's fitting.While Buxton was pushing his hitting streak in the minors to 11 games on Sunday, Hunter was sitting for the Twins, again. The veteran has been out of the starting lineup for six of Minnesota's last 18 games. It's not clear whether the increased rest is more attributable to Hunter's performance or his physical state, but I suspect the two are closely tied together. To his credit, Hunter had a very nice first half for the Twins, and his monster month of May was a big factor in the team rattling off 20 wins. Since the end of May, however, Hunter has hit .206/.262/.388, and since his 40th birthday on July 18th he's batting .156. Outside of one strong game in Cleveland in which he went 3-for-5 with a homer, he is 1-for-31 in the month of August. Frequent days off should continue to be routine for Hunter the rest of the way, perhaps even more so as the season winds down, and that will set the stage nicely for Buxton to gain experience as a September call-up as he prepares to take the reins as everyday center fielder in 2016. The expectation is that Buxton will rejoin the Twins when rosters expand – maybe on September 1st or maybe a week later when the Red Wings season ends. Buck might not play every day, and doesn't need to, but should get plenty of time in center with Aaron Hicks spelling Hunter and Eddie Rosario in the outfield corners. The benefit there is twofold, because Hicks needs to get used to playing in left and right if he's going to stick around in Minnesota. At this point there's little reason to have Hunter as a daily fixture in the lineup, and Paul Molitor already appears to be acknowledging that based on his usage patterns. But the wizened vet will still be present in the clubhouse, and that was at least a part of his perceived value to the Twins, who paid a hefty price to bring him aboard for one year. I have to imagine that having three young outfielders like Buxton, Rosario and Hicks playing alongside one another in September while having access to Hunter's influence is what Terry Ryan envisioned when he offered the contract. Click here to view the article

Tweeted this last night: Nick Gordon is 2-4 with a double so far tonight. In his 67 games since 5/22, he's hitting .307!

Good to see Gordon continuing to hit. His month to month splits look great after a horrible May OPS by month April .652 May .538 June .711 July .772 August .902 Nice to see the improvement month to month. 19 is pretty young for midwest league right?

His career OPS is 4 points higher than our slugging all star. I see 2 options. 1. Close the book on 2015 and let him legitimately compete for a job next year. 2. Let him go somewhere else, develop and make us look stupid once again.

Arcia's poor play has actually been fortunate for the Twins this year in that it has enabled ample playing time for Rosario and another chance to look at Hicks - both of whom can also field their positions.

He's out of options, so he's going to be on the roster or released. I suspect he'll be on the roster as TR doesn't like to give up on prospects, and given Arcia's minor league success, it would be silly to let him go. Personally, he's my opening day DH/occasional OF or the RF if Rosario has a sophomore slump. That said, I hope it's his hip, as that would explain a lot. Not that I want the kid injured, but an injury explains the poor performance. I haven't seen guys who destroy AAA suddenly be unable to do it again.

Striking out is a good way to break up the double play!

If his instagram feed is any indication, its not booze/women/lifestyle. Pretty much 90% of the photos are of his kids. I would guess nagging hip injury. Maybe a stubborness about being coached, or a failure of coaching at some level.

Nick, I've gotta believe it's all 3, exactly in that order. I haven't seen video of Arcia plate appearances lately, but the recurrence of the hip injury certainly would explain the good July and sudden failures again. I don't know anyone how wouldn't sulk, at least a little bit. And probably lead to #3. I'm not 100% up on his contact, but believe his options are up and Twins lose him. I'd be tempted to try to sign him on the cheap and see what plays out next year.

In addition to Parker's #4, he is also by far the worst defensive OF on the roster. I would say that he lost his spot in the lineup due to his defense and continued struggle against lefties. He also was hot dogging it a bit, which is not what you expect from a guy on thin ice. He was sent down and other stepped up, like Hicks and Rosario. Then Sano came up and took the DH spot. Not overly complicated. Moving forward we have a few options options: 1) Give him another shot in a corner OF spot. The issue is how can you take out Rosario or Hicks at this point? 2) Give him a shot at DH. This would involve a Plouffe trade and moving Sano to 3B. 3) Platoon. He has always been in the upper .700's in OPS against righties. Last I checked that means about 80% of the games. 4) Trade him. 5) Hold on too long and DFA him or trade him for a bag of peanuts. Sorry guys, but methinks it will end up being #5. #3 would be ideal but I don't think the Twins will ever devote a roster spot for a platoon player.

4) Terrible approach vs lefties. .183/.250/.282 in 80 PAs this year. One of the things Brunansky stressed this spring was fixing Arcia so that he would be able to hit against same-sided pitching. Getting him to take better at bats vs lefties. Rosario isn't great vs LHP but he sames to have a clue in the batter's box.

They didn't have to "sell the farm" to improve the roster. Everyone knows that would've been stupid but there had to have been something in between selling the farm and Kevin jepsen.

This team won 72 games last season and most of us predicted a win total between 72-81. Yeah, this season can be a success without making the postseason. We can also be disappointed the front office didn't push for the postseason a little harder in July.