Doomtints

So keep doing the same formula that caused them to hit rock bottom? I believe that's called insanity in some circles. It's not like the team signed five Vogelsongs and are blocking people. *If* Berrios is not ready -- and let's face it he probably won't be -- go with Vogelsong for a few weeks/months. We're not talking about Armageddon here. Vogelsong solves a temporary problem.

As he is competing with Berrios and Duffey for a spot, it would be fair to throw their numbers out there too. The other two names you mentioned in your earlier post as 'competing for the spot' don't have a snowball's chance in hell of making the opening day roster. I don't think anyone expects Vogelsong to finish the year with the Twins. Should he start the year with the Twins? Definitely, if Berrios is not ready yet.

103 losses.

Moving Buxton up to leadoff should be the goal, but he has to be ready. We don't know if Polanco will be up to the task either, and in any case he would be the placeholder for Buxton. For a guy in the team's long term plans, I don't know if it makes sense to monkey with putting Polanco at leadoff only to move him off of it later. As the leadoff position at the start of the year is just a placeholder, go with Grossman (assuming he makes the roster) and hope he does not fail. If he does, revisit at that time. In the meantime, keep grooming Buxton for the job.

If you want Berrios or Mejia to be the #5 and neither are ready right away, Vogelsong absolutely makes sense to start the year. If Vogelsong is mediocre, let him go when either of them are warmed up, which would hopefully be sometime in May or June. If Vogelsong is pitching well, ride it out and enjoy the depth. Someone will get injured at some point.

: mic drop :

On this ides of March/ides of the week, be especially careful around noon -- the ides of the day -- as this will be a triple ides and nothing good can come out of that.

No disagreement there. Buxton has to prove he can do it first.

Fair enough, but which is better: 1) Buxton hitting a single or double with Polanco on base 2) Polanco (or anybody else) hitting a single or double with Buxton on base Remember, Buxton is as fast as it gets. Buxton could score on hits when anybody else ends up at 3rd.

Don't be so sure. Buxton was the fastest runner in the league last year. Blink at the wrong time and you may miss one of his triples.

The only people hard on Rosario are Twins fans. He's a solid player and a solid athlete. His struggles are normal struggles for a young player, esp. for one who may be meteoric once he figures things out. Twins fans did the same thing with Dozier's first couple of years. Young players are almost never perfect, you gotta let 'em play if you want them to get better. Pulling out the regression card every time a rookie strikes out is wasting everybody's time.

I can only imagine White Sox players boxing over who gets to go into the batter's box first.

Seeing as the real question here is who should bat leadoff until Buxton is ready, here's the problem. - Buxton probably won't be ready -- but maybe he will surprise us. - The only person on team who has shown he can do it is Dozier, and he is wasted there. This means the Twins have to take the plunge based on whoever exits spring training on a hot OBP streak. This isn't ideal, but it's all they've got. This team is young and the Twins don't know who can handle the job and they simply need to roll the dice on someone. This means these would be the candidates right now: 1) Matt Hague. Will he make the team? Who knows. If he does, we will have to listen to a lot of criticism about the Twins having their DH hit leadoff. (.524 OBP right now, which will surely drop dramatically). 2) Robbie Grossman. (.355 OBP). 3) Buxton (.333 OBP). Hm. Maybe he will be ready soon after all, or at least he is better than the rest of the candidates. High OBP players in ST so far who the Twins should not slide into the leadoff spot: Rosario, Park, Mauer. Rosario K's too much (though less than Dozier, who is the reigning leadoff hitter...), Park (power guy), Mauer (couldn't do it).

The Twins tried Mauer at leadoff last year and he responded by hitting .156 at the position. They won't put him there again. He will be batting 2nd or 3rd for the rest of his career as long as he can still hit.

Yes. Ideally Buxton is the lead off hitter. But he has to be ready. No one is done any favors with him batting leadoff but failing. If he's not ready within a year, he's a bust. Being a high OBP guy is the only scenario where has a long career.

I'm not disagreeing. As of today, Polanco is more likely to be able to handle the job over Buxton. But is that ideal? This means Buxton still isn't playing as advertised. Regardless, neither of them have yet proven themselves well enough to do it. In the ideal world you would want Buxton to be the guy who is good enough with his bat to be the #1. He has the tools to be a high OBP guy if he ever calms down in the batter's box. Almost all of the responses here are pie in the sky lineup cards. Right now, the only guy who has proven he can hit leadoff is Dozier, and Dozier's run production is wasted at that position in the order. My pie in the sky dream is for Buxton to be good enough to hit lead-off. I'm as skeptical of that happening as the next guy, but it's still what this team needs regardless of my opinion of whether he will ever live up to expectations. If Buxton still isn't good enough to be hitting lead-off by the end of 2017, he's a bust. Full stop.

Why would you put the speedier Buxton behind Polanco? The dude could hit 40-50 doubles + triples a year if no one is in front of him. That's a hell of a leadoff guy.

Oh believe me. The Twins can ignore anything they want.

This is what Molitor said last year. Park seemed to be ahead of pitches. When he tried to adjust, he was then behind. Usually this happened in the same at bat. His timing was just off. ST won't tell us anything about Park. He exceeded my expectations last year in ST but then could not hit during the regular season.

It certainly would be nice if someone can step up and be productive in the leadoff spot so Dozier can move down. But someone's gotta show they can handle it. It's not Mauer. It would be nice if it could be Buxton or Polanco. But I think at this point we would take anybody who can do it who isn't supposed to be in the middle of the order (Sano, Dozier, Vargas/Park). If the Twins can't solve this problem in 2017 let's hope they admit they can't solve it without help. They are already overdue with signing a high OBP free agent who has proven he can hit leadoff. This problem has gone on since Span/Revere were traded for chaff.

He looks like the exact same guy. 5 IP, 4 ER. That's Hughes. At least you know what you're getting with him. How many times have we seen that box score. Not sure why they have him going 5 innings already. No one else is!

I really hope this makes a difference. It would be painful to read endless discussions about his pitch framing awesomeness if the Twins still lose 95+ games behind terrible pitching. I can already see the arguments.

There's a reason scouts have started a new distinction -- #4 pitchers, and #4 pitchers for the Twins. Mejia is slated to be a #4 pitcher -- for the Twins.

Still a ridiculous argument. Should I list every pitcher who has pitched consecutive games who did not have back problems and torn UCLs?

And right down broadway. Granted, Twins coaches have been telling pitchers to just throw strikes for years. But if you're throwing nearly every pitch right down the middle, you're going to get burned.