Doomtints

1) At the moment, the worst starter on the Cubs has an OPS better than six of the Twins starters. With the talent the Cubs have they have to be considered an exception. Anyone can find an exception to any rule. Find me a team with a similar talent level to the Twins, but with a better record, and we'll talk about it. 2) You want high OBP players batting higher in the order, generally. Did you look up Bryant's OBP? 3) Why would you cite articles instead of looking at the source data? Secondary sources are rubbish, and it's not like it's hard to find baseball stats.

I don't think he's "terrible" but I think he doesn't fully understand the job. If you want a concrete example, can you name any other team that used their power bat to lead off? And not just for a while, but for years? Even when he has a player on the team with a proven high OBP? If fans will buy into the idea that pitch framing -- getting 1 extra ball/strikes call a week go their way -- will amount to many more wins on the table, why wouldn't fans buy into more wins coming when a home run king is batting in a spot when people might be on base? How many losses did the Twins have when Dozier was the hottest?

Read "Three Nights in August" and you'll learn everything that a good manager does (in incredible detail), and what Molitor probably doesn't do. It covers what baseball managers do (or should do) in minute detail to prepare for an opponent, to understand his players, and to win a game or two.

He's not as good after the Twins traded away a lot of players and gave up on the season. I am SHOCKED.

Here's what I said from the tail end of last year all through the offseason: 1) Last year was a down year for the AL. Every team over .500 made the playoffs. There was a great danger in believing the Twins were better than they actually were. The Twins were not going to finish .500 again without a huge improvement. 2) The Twins built their pitching to match up against Cleveland but ignored everyone else. This would have been fine if the Twins were closer than they actually were. Having done this, the Twins record today is actually rather impressive, being as one dimensional as they became. 3) The organization has to stop treating certain players like outcasts. Sano, Vargas, Garver. The team has to be the supportive, inclusive family they claim they are or they need to stfu about it. These players will struggle as long as the team treats them with disrespect. Sano stumbled mightily in his personal life and the team apparently wasn't there for him to recover and be productive. 4) Signing Logan Morrison? Oddly I sense that many around here still buy into this one. He performed as I expected him to perform. 5) Pursuing Yu Darvish? I said all along he is too injury prone. The Twins dodged a bullet, but they could have used that time to sign Lance Lynn two months earlier and have Lynn be ready to start the season. 6) Thinking the young ones were "there" when they weren't (Buxton) is a mistake. They have to keep working on him, not just hope for the best. 7) Molitor isn't management material. He's PR material. He can't fill out a lineup card properly. He can't manage the bullpen. But hey, he's a local, he has nice sideburns, and he's nice to the press. The Twins had little control over Santana, Castro, and Polanco, but Castro was a mistake too, he's just a mistake from a year prior. Pineda? He might be good next year. But the Twins needed resources this year.

I lived in Texas in the 90s and 00s. What we saw this year with the Twins is what the Rangers went through every year, especially with pitching. Enjoy the ride....

CONGRATS TO JO MAURAER FOR PASSING RAJ CASHEW FOR ALL TIME BASE SMACKERS

There isn't enough data, not even close, to know anything about A-Stud's catching ability in the majors. However, the same could have been said of Wilson and Garver when 2018 started. I can see why they went with Garver (he was the furthest along in the pipeline), but Wilson? OK, he can pitch frame. Wow. Print up the pennants! As a side note, Molitor doesn't seem to like some players (Sano and Garver), which makes it incredibly difficult for them to succeed. Next year will be Castro again, along with X. X is probably Garver, but let's hope Molitor gets over whatever his hangup is so the kid has a chance.

This to me that Molitor thinks he already has his catchers, so if this guy is going to play for the Twins, it has to be somewhere else. Even if that's not true, no matter how you slice it, his take is nonsense. If you have a guy who can handle C, it makes no sense to move him elsewhere unless he suddenly can't play at C.

It's a strange comparison in my opinion. Mauer is not a Gold Glove at 1B and Austin won't compete with Mauer at 1B.

Mauer is all but gone. Who is a better option?

Mauer wasn't perfect right out of the gate at 1B either. Austin's -5.5 UZR/150 matches Mauer's -5.7 UZR/150 in 2012 with nearly identical innings played at 1B (so far), 258 v. 260. Mauer didn't become a really good defender at 1B until last year, in his 4th year of having the job full time.

The numbers I showed imply that, yes, he can play well. Approximately 1/3 of the time.

That's three years ago. Are you really saying he can do what he did at age 28 when he is 32?

Forsythe has an impressive run going, with an .850 OPS in August. Has Forsythe ever done this before? Yes. Months with 1.000+ OPS: 1 (2016) .900 - 1.000 OPS: 2 (last time in 2016) .800 - .900 OPS: 4 (not including current month, last time in 2016) .700 - .800 OPS: 12 (last time in 2017) .600 - .700 OPS: 10 (last time in 2018) Under .600 OPS: 14 (last time in 2018) He's pretty bottom heavy if you look at this way and the trend is downward. Other ways to slice it: Productive months, including this month (OPS .700+): 19 Unproductive months: (OPS .700-): 24 Productive months in past 2 years/3 years (including current month): 4/7 Unproductive months in past 2 years/3 years: 7/10 Ideally a "productive month" would be more like a .725 OPS or higher, but I'm not going to slice the data again, .700 is close enough for a discussion board. Verdict: Forsythe can be good from time to time but overall he is a net negative. His SO/W ratio is terrible so he should not work from the bench, as the Dodgers have learned. He peaked 3 years ago right at age 28 as would be expected. Trade if possible, do not offer contract for next year. As he is hot right now he could be useful to a contender looking for a short-term infielder, but on the Twins he is just a placeholder. "Small sample size" is a cliche. Luckily we have a huge sample with Forsythe and we can dismiss the small sample from his time in a Twins uniform.

I think they were always a .500 team. Some of us had really unreasonable expectations.

The Twins flipped players who were leaving anyway. They will add pieces in the offseason. Could they add a piece with more promise than Pineda? I doubt it. He'll stick around through at least the trade deadline next year.

Anyway, another thing to point out about next year's schedule is the games against the Mets, including a series in MN, apparently a quite rare event.

This "spring" in Chicago was the first year that I went from having the heater on to having the AC on with no comfortable days in between, though it has been a nice Chicago summer overall.

Austin has an .833 OPS against RH starting pitching, which is better than his hitting against LH starters. He struggles against RH relievers, probably because RH relievers tend to throw harder. *If* Molitor sat him for this reason, it would be another example of Molitor almost getting it, but not quite, and ultimately making the wrong decision. A better decision would be to have Austin start the game and use a PH later in the game if a RH reliever comes in and the game is close....

The pattern with Molitor is that he *almost* gets it, but never quite completely. The mistakes he makes are pretty stupid mistakes. A good comparison is Mike Tice, only worse. Mike Tice made every mistake one could possibly make, but unlike Molitor, Tice made his mistakes once. Molitor doesn't see his mistakes and keeps on doing them. Molitor might be the Terry Ryan of managers. He succeeds on the small things, doing just well enough to keep his job and keep people thinking about "What if we just give him one more chance...." I give him an F because as long as Molitor is filling out lineup cards, mentoring players, and managing pitching, the Twins are missing out on having a manager who can do all these things properly. In real life, you either pass or you fail, no one hands out Cs and Ds when you don't get the job done and don't learn from your mistakes.

Jake Cave has been astounding, but I keep reading: - He's too old (he's 25) - He's a platoon bat only - He'll never be a starter - Cave only looks good to the Twins because the Twins suck Fine, he strikes out too much. Rookies always do. Just curious -- if you are against Jake Cave, were you also one of the many people who railed on Rosario until this year? Or Dozier before his power surge? For the record, this was most of you! Follow up question: Why do people get stars in their eyes for people like Kepler and Morrison but look down their noses at players who actually look like they can be special once they work through their rookie years? I *want* my rookies to swing at the ball and strike out. It's a part of learning about the pitchers they face. You will never hit the ball with the bat on your shoulder all the time. Swing the damn bat, figure out what you can do against MLB pitching. If your OPS is staying over .700 as a rookie, you're doing great and you're only going to get better. If it's .793 like Cave, WOW. Rookies who start out boring and methodical have careers that are largely boring and methodical. You should only be methodical after you have experience in what you're doing, especially in a competitive sport.

Gonsalves said he was too nervous to pitch. The Twins really gotta think about easing new pitchers in by having them pitch their first inning out of the bullpen. Calling them up for these one-off starts whenever the schedule is wonky or a starter's arm falls off is too abrupt of a change and too much to ask for. If you ever have money to bet on a game, just watch for the Twins doubleheaders or makeup games. Molitor will call up someone from AAA to pitch every time.

I avoided this thread back in the day because I thought you all were on crack.

In this division, as long as the team can flirt with .500 they have a chance. Is this what we really want, however? I'd like to see this team win a playoff series someday, not just make the playoffs. Winning a playoff series seems like a much tougher hill to climb than making the playoffs.