clone52

What 5 positions are you talking about? Really only 4 to rotate them through. Should be pretty easy to do though. Give each guy 1 day off per week

that would work too. On the other hand, everyone knew it was only a matter of time before Rosario got sent down. It wasn't think one play that made it happen.

Whats the reward for stealing third in that situation. A base hit scores you from second either way. There are 2 outs, so there is no chance of a sacrifice. The only possible reward is scoring on a wild pitch/passed ball.

Trying Plouffe in the OF isn't a bad idea. There is the opposite side to this though. A pretty common thought has been that Sano can't stick at 3B long term. If thats true, and he does have to end up in the OF down the road, then its probably better to give him a taste of it early in his career. Personally I think he will stick to 3B for his career, but I can understand the other train of thought.

Why does this make it dimmer? Its an interesting idea. I'd like to know how people can invest in the players, but going to their website, you have to create an account before you see anything and I don't want to do that. If I invest $100 in Tyler Duffey, I'm risking that money for a potential return. If I invest $100 in Boeing stock, I'm risking that money for a potential return. I don't really see the difference.

All very good points. Not to mention it is great insurance for Duffey. If his career ends tomorrow, he gets to bank that $2 million dollars. Sure, if he earns $50 million, he'll lose out on almost $3 million, but he will have made $50 million. On top of that, Duffy can take the $2 million he gets right now, invest it and make up that $3 million lost or even more.

The Twins are kind of in a tough position. The easiest way out is for Plouffe to get healthy, stay hot with the bat and get traded. It looks like Park is legit, Mauer has bounced back and Sano obviously can hit, so they aren't really hampering their lineup if they do trade Plouffe. They can't just give him away, though. They need to get something for him. In the mean time, they have to deal with having Plouffe and Sano. Everyone keeps saying play Sano at 3rd and move Plouffe. Do any of us know how Plouffe would do in the outfield? Maybe he would be even worse than Sano is out there. I wouldn't have a problem with them trying Plouffe in the outfield, but its no slam dunk. If Plouffe is bad in the outfield, or the shift to the OF messes up his hitting, you could really hurt his trade value. Even with his size, Sano does look like he can stay at 3rd base though. I wonder if the Twins could get a decent RP and a lower level C prospect for Plouffe.

Its post like these that illustrate how ridiculous people are. You really think Nolasco pitching lights out is just as bad as Nolasco pitching horribly?

Its nothing like putting Bartlett out there. Their process is, we already have a solid 3B and we have plenty of question marks in the outfield. Lets put Sano in RF so that at least we don't have a question mark about our OF offensive production. Bartlett was put out there because we had no one else. He was a question mark. Its not like people were clamoring for him to be the everyday SS or something.

Maybe their huge mistake in judgement is thinking Arcia is hopeless and finding out in Spring Training that he has rededicated himself and is ready to become David Ortiz.

Fair enough. If Arcia puts in the work in spring training and shows some maturity, I have no problem with that. Molitor did just say he doesn't expect Sano to play 3B. Expectations can change in a week or a month or 3 months from now.

I would have no problem with Sano at 3B full time and Arcia or someone else in RF. We are are talking about days off for Plouffe, so we are talking about Arcia in RF or Nunez at 3B.

I wouldn't have a problem with that either, if Arcia is actually maturing and putting the work in.

They would blink an eye. If he said that was the plan, they would be questioning Molitor on why they aren't having him take reps at 3B in spring training if they are planning for him to play there. There is nothing stopping them now from saying in April that Sano is getting more comfortable in RF so we are having him take some reps at 3B so he can fill in as necessary.

Is Arcia a starting-caliber player? His defensive WAR was as bad as his offensive WAR was good in 2014. He was basically a replacement level player.

And his defense gave up as much as his offense provided.

Fair enough on the process. I don't really have an issue with the timing. Look, if you are coaching Sano this spring, there are 2 options. 1. Have him concentrate on RF only and not work on 3B at all. 2. Have him mostly work on RF, but have him also work out at 3B to keep sharp there. Whatever their process was, they decided to go with Option 1. Since they decided on that, no reason to try and keep it secret. If Molitor had not answered the question or tried to say all the options are open, then reporters noticed that Sano wasn't taking reps at 3B, they just would have answered more questions.

What the heck has Arcia done to prove he deserves a shot like that? Play awful, awful defense in RF. Just put on a homerun show during batting practice when coaches want him to work on his flaws? Whine and play like crap when he gets sent down to AAA? There is very little evidence that Arcia is going to get it together. I've already said that if he does get it together, your idea of Arcia in RF and Sano to 3B when Plouffe sits makes a lot of sense. However, Arcia is going to have to prove he's matured before he's given any benefit of the doubt.

I'm talking best case scenario. Other people want to do that, so why can't I?

Its the career OPS+ of 89 for Nunez.

I'm bouncing between 2 different scenarios. If they ever trade Plouffe, I'm 100% on board with Sano to 3B. No doubt about it. If we're talking about 20-25 games at 3B when Plouffe sits, then I'm 90% on board with not putting Sano there and letting him stick with RF.

Thats right. They have given him a huge distraction moving him to RF. No need to pile more onto it especially when there isn't an obvious advantage to using Sano at 3B when Plouffe rests. If you're looking at WAR, you are actually better off playing Nunez at 3B than 2014 Arcia in RF.

I can see your point. If Molitor had come out and said that Sano would get some spot starts at 3B I wouldn't have had a problem with it. I guess the point I'm trying to get across is that there are reasonable arguments to both sides of this and I don't really understand blasting Molitor or the coaches for making the decision they made. I'm going to side with the judgement of guys paid to win games rather than message board posters.

I don't know if you're a WAR guy, but even in 2014, Arcia was barely above 0 WAR offensively and defensively. Nunez has been a slightly positive WAR guy for the Twins and is already comfortable not playing every day.

Options are good. However, when you are weighing all the potential lineups you need and options you need, I just don't see the need for an option of Sano at 3B. Obviously the coaches have looked into it and don't see it as an option they need and prefer to have Sano concentrate on RF. Letting a young player concentrate on a single position isn't just about having them comfortable defensively. Its also about them not having to think about too many things and letting those distractions affect them offensively.