troyhobbs

Ya I'm just going off memory too so could be throwing non factual things out there a little loosely. So long as a couple people buy it...

That's awfully presumptuous. How many HRS did Dozier hit when he was 23?

They were tailspining before Sano was called up and then tanked at the end of the year again but he did provide a brief surge. More so than any other individual in the lineup anyway

Remember Sano carried this team on his back the 2nd half of last season and was a big reason why they almost made the playoffs, meanwhile Dozier was scuffling pretty hard. It could be that Dozier is having his best year and Sano is having his worst.

Hope's and dreams has been the mantra of mgmt the past 5 seasons. One would expect guys like Sano, Kepler, Rosario, etc to replace those HRS and pitching is way more important than a handful of solo HRS. The board is also ignoring how bad the bullpenext is.

Where do we find that guy?

Ya from tied for last place to outright last place

Santana's ERA is 3.54 and he probably won't win 10 games this year. So the Twins need like 4 more Santanas, or at least 2 studs better than Santana, and/or a loaded bullpen to actually contend. Flirting with .500 is not contending. If Santana isn't demanding a trade at seasons end he's only in it for the money (and that's cool).

Kepler spent a lot of time at 1B in the minors, Rosario bounced between 2B and CF, Sano to RF was a major head scratcher, Escobar has been forced into a UTIL role, as has Danny Santana (and Nunez), Dozier and Plouffe used to be SS, Mauer was C, etc. So you got like 2 or 3 positional players on the roster that play the same position they played coming up through the minors. Total system failure....

Also not trading Plouffe. TR was determined to "add bats" while assembling the worst defense behind the worst pitching staff in baseball. So now you have a slightly above avg lineup and that looks like the bad news bears when they take the field. What's the over under on 90+ losses in '17?

That's what Terry Ryan would do but don't think anyone has the patience to watch that strategy play out again.

Sarcasm. Point is Mauer sympathizers would need much thicker skin in a more vicious market and Joe is actually treated pretty well by fans and media in MN.

The ONLY reason Joe catches flack is because of his contract yet by and large Minnesotans adore him. If he was in almost any other city he'd be one of the most hated players in baseball. If Joe (or others on his behalf) can't handle a little criticism then they're not aware of the reality of professional sports.

Grossman and Santana better start mashing then. Arcia probs a better option than those 2, not to mention Buxton...

Seeing the struggles of top prospects like May, Meyer, and Barrios makes one leery about what else is in the cupboards.

If Gibson is not in the rotation next year, I'm not sure we'll like who is there in his place. Sadly there aren't a lot of obvious better choices. I think they need him as a placeholder for next year at a minimum pending future circumstances....

I'm not a huge Gibson fan but that's a lot of unproven talent to be clearing room for. Pretty sure they need Gibson until proven otherwise. Off that list I'd keep him, Presley, and probably Santiago, the rest can go. Put Polanco at SS full time until Dozier is gone and Veilma or Gordon or whoever pushes him over to 2B. Probably fine moving on from Escobar.

So if I'm looking at that right, Buxton is on pace to have a better WAR than only Brooks Robinson, so 1 HOF player. A lot of those guys debuted as teenagers too. Nobody hates Buxton, the guy just has terrible MLB numbers....

Isn't anyone vs Buxton (except for maybe Danny Santana) a no contest at this point?

What got Ryan fired was signing bad contracts and extending crappy veterans to supplement the other crappy veterans already on the roster and never fully commiting to a youth movement. If the Twins were fighting for 2nd place in the division and not 10 games back from 2nd to last in the division then, sure, let's build around Dozier. I don't fully endorse a youth movement per say either, just that he should be traded for youth or MLB talent at a position of greater need since Polanco appears to be just fine for a club about to lose 100 games.

The twins have 3 streaky backend SP and 2 question marks in the rotation for 2017. Instead of trading away young talent to build around their one veteran asset wouldn't it make more sense to trade an aging veteran for more young talent or mlb talent at another position of need given Polanco's presence? It's not all that different than the Plouffe situation of last year.

Ya the twins need him unless they sign someone who can play better D. Maybe they can flip him next year if he and Buxton are both playing well but doubt Buxton climbs out from below the mendoza line to set the world on fire so better keep Grossman around.

Agreed. Dude can drive balls that are over the plate no doubt. It is frustrating watching him flair at terrible pitches.

He played in 122 games last year, almost had 500 ABs and his stats are nearly identical from last year's "smaller sample size" to this year. Slightly improved actually, which is progress, slight but progress none the less.

He's still better than Buxton and the best CF option in the system. At least he's got the talent, hopefully the discipline comes in time.