Doomtints

The Brewers are contending and their middle infield might be the worst in the league. The Brewers have a couple of serviceable pitching prospects. Brandon Woodruff, projected #4/#5. Might be ready now, but more likely ready at the start of next year. He is moving up through the minors very fast, so there is something that the Brewers love about him. (Best value). Luis Ortiz, #4/#5 ceiling, but probably a heater bullpen guy. Would be ready mid-next year at best. Josh Hader - #4/#5 ceiling, realistically a bullpen arm. Worst case a LOOGY. Should be ready when the rosters expand. (Quickest value). Tommy Milone. (haha) In any case, the first three names here can't be worse than what the Twins already have.

He was great last year, but this year he has 4 utter meltdowns and 3 more bad performances on top of those 4. It looks like he is missing the strike zone v. righties. He's trying to be too fancy. His velocity is up a touch, if he slows down a bit so he can have better control he should be fine. But games like the last one, he's gotta stop that. .

Hicks has been named the starter. The collapse is imminent.

I see your point, and a three team trade might do the trick. We'll see.

But trading Dozier for a P prospect makes more sense. Santana can stick around while the prospect learns the ropes. Trading Santana for a prospect is moving backward.

I was advocating patience with both Molitor's bullpen management and the pitching staff. Things are becoming far too predictable now, however. This type of mismanagement is unfair to the Twins players who are playing hard and winning in spite of it. if Molitor can't manage a pitching staff, he needs to fall on his sword, admit he sucks at it, and let the pitching coach make the decisions during games. It's clear that there are a couple of pitchers on this team who can't pitch. let them go. Replace them with anybody who can keep an ERA around 5, which would be a huge improvement. Recent retirees, minor leaguers, converted starters, whoever. When you have a position player pitching as often as this team has, that's a screaming flashing red alarm that needs to be addressed.

Molitor made the wrong value judgment a few times this game. Broken record there, no point in getting into it.... Yes you're right about this not being a stellar performance. Unfortunately he might be one of the better arms on the staff, though, assuming he sticks around, and as first starts go, he did OK.

That's the past. There is no telling what will be on the table in the future. Imagine if a baseball GM spent his time second guessing everything as you are now.

Gibson and Turley are not even the worst of the problem. You still have Santiago and Hughes to contend with.

If he had stayed in to complete that inning, it may have been 3 runs in 5 innings. Not good, but serviceable, esp. as start #1. And yes, I would call 4 in 4, or 3 in 4, an OK first crack. Not sure why you don't.

Can the Twins win without Dozier? I think they can. This makes him expendable in my view. How much worse do you think the Twins would be without him?

No idea. Not seeing any metrics there. Care to provide some metrics?

Right. If someone already has Santana, they're not going to trade for Santana. If pitching is the need, trading away pitching won't help unless one wants to concede another couple of years....

This type of performance and management is becoming too predictable. Someone is in over his head.

Yep. If Santana and Berrios keep it up, all they will need are a couple of "acceptable" starters. Mejia might be one of them. The bullpen is another story, and luckily a little easier to fix, assuming Molitor knows how to manage a bullpen. it's a shame this was not addressed a little bit over the winter.

If they had kept him in all game at that rate, it would have been a 1-run game. He played better than those who followed.

Hurley wasn't a complete disaster. However, this bullpen does not have enough team players when it comes to trying to give young or struggling pitchers a chance. We are approaching time for the Twins to make a decision, however. The Twins either need to find another guy who can start or a few guys who can back up the starters in the pen. The latter is probably wiser.

True. And we will make another thread just like this one the next time he has a bad game. Lemmings, I tell ya.

Statcast isn't really "analytical" -- it's data. Until all of the data becomes publicly available we will only be scratching the surface of what the data is saying. Teams are no doubt able to look at this stuff more than we can. It's in baseball's best interest to release all of the data, unless they don't trust it. It will start a new age of baseball analysis and increase fan excitement.

Right. I don't know we we go down these rabbit holes so passionately and take such offense. 95% of what we talk about regarding trades is impossible. We take things too seriously.

I didn't say he was bad at defense. I'm saying his defensive numbers are way above his career norms.

He looks as lost as Aaron Hicks used to look. I'm glad they are giving him extended time in the majors, but he is another year away from being consistently productive at the plate.

Isn't this what we say every year? Do any of the free agents improve upon the 5.50 ERA, 7.50 WHIP that much of this staff has?

Castro's OPS is an enigma. Don't expect it to last. Same goes for his defense.

That's terrible. They would be better off going free agent shopping in the offseason.