Lenny Green

Hard to watch last night's game and not think that the Yankees might like to see Buxton patroling center for them. One of the few teams that could afford him to play 80 games a year.

If you look at the Kepler stats highlighted in the article, including WAR placing him as a top RF-er- it seems to me all the detracting commenters simply confirm/verify that he is in fact an underrated player.

Seems to me you buried the lead late in this article- "Odorizzi is no Cole." Which to me implies that it is unclear if the Twins in fact "have shown the knack." That said, I'm all in on Falvine and believe they'll keep on improving the entire Twins franchise.

At #29 I'm pretty sure they were pointing out the similarities between Arraez and HOFer Rod Carew.....

Thanks for doing the heavy lifting Tom! I was at Twinsfest Saturday, so saw a couple of these interviews. I wasn't going to be listening to the replays, so appreciate your work here. As an aside, Target Field just doesn't lay out well for that event- pretty claustrophobic while I was there. Super excited about Rooker- the Twins need that bat sooner than later.

Un f-ing believable re: Park. Easily the best story coming out of spring training. I'm rooting hard for Falvine, but they peed down their leg on this early decision. I understand valuing their assets, but you need to come out of the gate with your best foot forward. I have a trip to Mpls in early April and was looking at attending the Indians game on the 17th- I'll pass, thank you very much.

Wasn't Terry Ryan working with McPhail in the mid-80s when they brought up the entire Hrbek, Gaetti, Viola gang and let them learn the game together? That seemed to work out pretty well.

"I think he'll probably be okay, as I've said, but it's definitely not an "oh, it's just right field at TF, anybody could do it" sort of situation. If he's NOT okay, if he pulls a Hanley (speaking of small outfields) or a mid-career Dunn out there, it'll really hurt." If he pulls a Hanley, I hope it is unrelated to his calf muscle.........

I'm also suspicious of the top end velocity on some of these guys. I saw Clay start later in the year in Cedar Rapids and my recollection is that he had just modest speed, say topping at 90-91. It looked like he'd need a running start to hit 97.

Somehow we need to get creative in dumping Nolasco. I'd look to a National League team and package Nolasco and some younger player (Vargas, Santana, ....) and literally ask for nothing in return. It's time to turn the page.

I traveled to Chattanooga this past weekend to take in the Buxton show and it was well worth it. I saw both the Friday and Saturday games and he put on quite a performance. Beyond the six hits (including two doubles and two triples) it was his speed (watching him hit the extra gear rounding second on the way to third was amazing), the arm (throwing a guy out at first who strayed too far off on a relatively routine fly ball), it was just the way he carries himself. This is a very special athlete- and we shouldn't be worried about how the early Hicks experiment failed. Having said that, I'm hoping for a June call up for Hicks, with Buxton moving up to AAA- and then see how it plays out.

I made the trip this past weekend to Chattanooga (800+ miles...) and saw the games Friday and Saturday. What a great looking team and it was terrific to see Buxton really finding his stride- in the two games he had 6 hits, including 2 doubles and 2 triples. It won't be long before he's in Rochester and then Minnesota. He's the real deal! As far as Dalton Hicks, it's great to see him building his resume, though he only had one hit in these two games. However, he is a lumbering hulk of a man, and didn't seem to be much of a first baseman.

The site indicates that tickets are no longer available. Too bad, I will be in the Twin Cities this weekend........................

Given Sano's hitting prowess and the fact it might not be clear what to do with the elbow, why not exclusively DH him for the first few months? No throwing at all allowed for some time, then get surgery after the year if it doesn't get better.