Doomtints

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.

This is how the Twins should be thinking.

By "due time" I mean within a month after the surgery, if not half that...... As for what's monitored, as I've said I'm not stranger to weird/freak injuries. Every doctor has said to do whatever I feel comfortable doing. I doubt any doctor will forbid the guy from playing video games if he feels up to it......

Lots of us wanted him to be those things so badly that we imagined them to be true. None of this ever was true. I'm not saying he did not have potential, I'm saying he never lived up to our desires. This isn't his fault, as far as I can tell.

Do you think his early career had anything to do with Santana's arm injury? Did you see how many arms his last manager shredded before learning the hard way to start using innings limits and pitch counts?

I'm not stranger to injuries. I have a connective tissue disorder. At any given time my knees, hands, feet, hips, or elbows can give out. I'm sure that, as an athlete, May will be able to play video games in due time. He's probably playing them right now.

May is a back end guy too, but you believe bouncing him around destroyed his arm. I'm not getting you today, at all.

Let me know when Sheehan backs up this 4 year old article with some research.

Nope. He went between starting and relieving for four full years.

Normal, painless mobility comes back quickly after such surgeries, a matter of weeks. Tossing at 80-90 MPH takes a year, not usage of the arm.

Johan Santana worked out fine.

I'm not seeing any statistics there to back anything up. Until someone measures this, it's just an opinion. And in my eye it's a weak opinion.