kab21

Except you used one month of WAR numerous times to show that Suzuki was one of the worst catchers in baseball. It's not what you do.

I am using career stats.

The best case for this rotation is that there should be fewer games where the Twins are down 3-4 early in the game. But this still isn't a good rotation. Pelfrey and Gibson have 5 K/9 career rates. This is usually a 4-4.50 ERA pitcher in the best case. Nolasco on the other hand has never pitched as well as his stats and that was when he was healthy. I'm not optimistic for a <4 ERA. Mays is kind of a wild card but I wouldn't expect <4 in his first season. Hughes should be much better than he has pitched but overall I see a lot of mediocre but at least that's an improvement from previous seasons.

I think we might be jumping the gun a little by planning out 30-40M/yr contracts for Buxton. Those types of contracts will be given to the most elite of the elite players. Right now it should be considered a moderate success if Buxton turned into an early career BJ Upton. He was worth 3-5 WAR/yr as a Ray. Yes, Buxton has the chance to be Michael Trout but many of these elite prospects never reach that potential.

If Sano is raking then he will be able to make room with Arcia, Rosario, Hicks or Vargas in the OF or at DH. I don't like the idea of moving Plouffe and putting Sano at 3B. I'm okay with Hunter's defense for a year but long term I like the idea of setting up a good defense and I am not an optimist that Sano will be anything better than below average.

I don't think he will be promoted until the end of June or into July. He is probably the best option in CF right now but prospect development is more important than getting Robinfer out of CF right now. I think it's pretty important that Buxton gets a solid half season of hitting at AA so that he doesn't lose confidence right away since he had several months of recent success to fall back on. I also think that the Twins didn't look to hard or invest too much into CF because Buxton was in their plans this season.

Where exactly do you Plouffe rank as a 3Bman? Guys above him in no order Donaldson Rendon Arenado Carpenter - maybe not this good Seager Beltre - almost finished? Bryant - not yet but will Guys that seem in his tier (in no order) Frazier headley Machado Longoria - yes, Longoria is in this tier Pablo Wright Chisenhall Lawrie Probably a couple of others He seems to be establishing himself as a top 10ish 3Bman and could move up that list a little. Right now I don't support moving him from 3B and putting Sano there in the future. This seems ironic since there has been so much analysis about how bad the Twins defense is, critical comments of torii's signing and ideas for improving the said defense. Let Sano continue to play there since it looks like he might not come up this season. Anything can happen and perhaps the Twins don't have Plouffe in a year or two or he gets injured. I also think that Plouffe should be signed to an extension. He is only two years (after this season) away from FA and if he does establish himself as a top 10 (or top 5) 3Bman then he is going to be very expensive to sign.

I thought going into the season that the Twins were a 75 to maybe 80 win team that began transitioning into a playoff contender. After the slow start I thought they were headed towards another top 5 pick. now I think they are back to being the 75-80 win team. I would consider the season to be very successful if they ended up .500 and several young players began stepping up and showing that they would be average or better players in the future.

Did Neil Allen just teach Pelfrey to not strikeout anyone like in today's game? Pelfrey is the same Pelfrey that he has always been and those wheels will fall off soon. May on the otherhand seems to have relaxed after being overwhelmed in the majors in his initial callup. This is exactly what Brandon's article is about. May is back to doing the things that made him successful in AAA last season.

I think we will be seeing Buxton in July. It's very unlikely that 3 of Hunter, Arcia, Robinfer, Hicks or Rosario are playing well and healthy. This does mean that Buxton needs to be healthy and playing really well (like .850 OPS sustained).

actually they did. With all of the listed players (possibly not Radke) they signed contracts buying out arb years and one year of FA.

It's too bad they couldn't tack on an option year at 12-15M but it's hard not to like this from the Twins side. It's also much, much less than people were predicting for his arb years.

Having two utililty players is kind of redundant though. I hate having a bench with a backup C (that can't hit), two utility IF'ers (that don't hit much) and a utility OF'er (that doesn't hit). Great they can defensively cover anything that is thrown at them but they don't have one bench bat that can actually hit. If Vargas, Mauer, Hunter or Arcia need a day off for a random injury then Nunez is getting the start as a DH. Awesome... So far I'm glad to hear that SS is basically Santana's position to lose. This says something about playing for the future and imo Santana at SS is the short term future.

I think we are headed towards an international draft but I'm not sure it's the best idea because the global pool of players is so much larger and spread out. It's not like in the US where teams have personally scouted most of the players (to some extent) in the first 5-10 rounds. Just like the MLB didn't expect (or did they) the consequences of the current penalties as being enough to discourage teams from spending over their cap I think there could be really big consequences of an int'l draft. The only thing that is need to make the current system work is to put a hard cap on the bonus pools that teams simply can't exceed or find a really significant penalty. Nothing wrong with the current system other than the slap on the wrist penalty that they thought would be enough. Really excited if the Twins sign Javier.

How is 3B a new position? He might have played a little SS his first US season but he's been at 3B basically his entire MiLB career (a short one). He might not play the new position well but it's a position of less damage. 3B is pretty important defensively.

Why are people so insistent to rag on the poor (or dreadful in their words) OF defense but willing to overlook the impact of Sano's poor defense? His bat plays everywhere and is potentially elite everywhere.

I think people will be saying different things about Sano's defense when they actually see him playing in MLB games. And I think it will be an overreaction at that point but I completely expect the analysis to change. Sano doesn't lose much value by moving off of 3B. He has huge potential due to his bat at any position. Playing a bad 3B isn't the boost to make him an all-star level player.

I have never said that he was not good defensively. I have clearly said that we don't really know how good he is defensively. There is absolutely no information out there that indicates that his defense is anywhere close to MLB ready as you claim.

I remain unconvinced that the Twins could have easily have gotten a player that was good at anything (defense or offense). I think that there's a good chance that the Twins could have done worse than Hunter. The important thing is that Hunter is on a one year contract so he won't block any prospects. When you are shopping in the one year stopgap category you really can't afford to be choosy. I expect the Twins to be looking for long term solutions that improve the defense. That doesn't mean that they should overreact when looking for a one year stopgap and end up with someone that is awful.

Willingham isn't here anymore and there really isn't an internal option to replace him. Nunez started 16 games in the OF/DH. Colabello got 220 PA's between DH and OF. Herrmann started 15 games in the OF. Kubel got 176 PA's between DH and OF. That's a lot of AB's to guys that were almost certainly going to be bad players. I think it would have been great to get a really good player with a future but do you have any idea how hard that type of player is to find or acquire. In addition to that I'm not sure the Twins need to spend the money or trade assets on that type of player with several guys that should be ready to be promoted in the next year or two. Hunter is cheap (really he is) and he's on a 1 yr contract so he doesn't block anyone long term.

No. Recent scouting reports matter. CS% and F% are incredibly poor metrics to use to evaluate a catcher's defense. At this point we don't know how good his defense is. Just because he was rated good defensively as a HS'er doesn't mean that it translated to the pros and there is absolutely nothing to suggest that he should be pushed through the system when his bat (with upside) has shown that it's not ready.

Your sources are 2-3 years old. Yes, he has good defensive tools but that in no way suggests at all that he is anything that you billed him as. In addition to that all of those articles suggests that he has really good offensive upside and continuing to promote him when he has struggled offensively doesn't help the bat progress.

After last season (or several seasons) I would be happy to have a middle of the pack (23/45) OF'er on the team. No more Nunez, Clete Thomas, Wilkin Ramirez, and other AAAA/utility IF'er types starting please.

What are the sources that suggest he is nearly MLB ready as a defender? Navarreto was a raw but physically talented HS catcher that fell in the draft due to makeup issues. He supposedly had good to great offensive and defensive tools but I seriously question that his defense has progressed to the point that he is nearly MLB ready.

I still don't understand the complaints about signing Hunter. 10M is not a hefty amount on a one year contract. He might be a bad fit in some ways but the alternative was fielding an OF Arcia, Schafer, Hicks, Rosario or the AAAA types that we have seen in recent years. I highly doubt Hunter is taking at bats away from legitimate players of the future. Aoki and Rasmus might (and only might) have been better fits but also shouldn't be considered part of the future (even the young Rasmus). But the more important part than the marketing angle and fan interest is that it puts a veteran in the locker room that shows players how to play the game right. That might sound cheesy but young players need strong role models even if those role models aren't great players anymore.