Trov

I want this outfield for years to come, all can run and throw well, and hopefully over time will read balls better and better, the main issue they have had. Cather I am not worried about either guy we have both are known to be good defenders and the reputation can be just as important as the actual results, until the reputation changes. Infield will be the main issue this season. Joe may field his position fine, but he has never struck me as a guy that will save bad throws from the rest of the team all that well. Dozier we all know he makes the flashy plays which looks good, and he makes some heads up smart plays, but overall he has limited range. Sano, I still cringe when a pop up goes his way and hope anyone calls him off. He won't have much range but does have a good arm for the bunts and slow rolling balls. The most interesting one will be Polanco. He was signed same year as Sano and was supposed to be a good defender. He has bounced between SS and 2b his whole career and now just being stuck at SS. I think he will get moved to 2b once an adequate SS comes up later in his career, but unless his defense starts costing games he will stay there because he hits too well. Overall, I hope a lot of fly balls are hit because the outfield will track them down but I am not too sure of the infield defense this season.

1: The competency of the team as a whole. I know SSS but last year there were no times you felt good about the team, whether the defense, the line up, or the pitching staff, especially the bullpen. 2: The line ups. I love the new approach to the game, when Gardy was here forever the game was starting to change and he was not willing to make the change. Molitor has jumped on the train for change. Willing to move guys up and down the line up based on match ups is huge, no more he is my ex hitter and does not matter who is pitching. 3: CASTRO: I loved the signing when they made it, and beginning to look even better, again SSS but he seems to bring something that Kurt never did. That being known for his defense. Last year teams ran all day on Kurt, so far this year it has slowed down, despite his two times in one game failing to even get off a throw. I think a pitcher knowing he has a good defender behind the plate helps their confidence to go after the hitter more. In terms of offense of course he will not do this all year, but he has shown he is a pro hitter up there willing to hit to all fields and work the count. 4. Defense. It all starts with defense. If you field well you will pitch well, unless you have a huge strikeout rate, which no Twins pitcher really does. Only Sano has made terrible plays so far this year, and everyone has made some solid to great plays at times in the field. 5. Buxton. I say no more down to AAA just roll with him, most likely near the bottom of the order until he starts hitting. I say this for the fact he has nothing to prove down there, and his defense is too important to the team, and until he starts actually costing the team as a hitter he helps too much as a fielder. Mainly because of the domino effect it will have taking him out. He sits that means either Santana or Grossman has to play in the OF. Neither of witch are very good and will cost games in the long run. Going back to pitchers having confidence that their defense will make a play goes a long way to pitching well. If his defense starts to drop off and still hitting like this then revisit but if his defense stays this good he can't sit, defense wins championships.

Stewart is such an interesting prospect. He has all the tools you want out of a pitcher, but cannot seem to strike out people. Strikeouts are not required to be successful, but sure do help. I would like to know the percentage of solid contact against him over his career. It must be very low. It will be interesting to see how he fares against MLB prospect talent moving forward. Hopefully, he does learn a swing and miss pitch over the next few years. He does not need to become a heavy strikeout guy, but needs keep hitters honest out there or the top talents will start teeing off on him, I would imagine.

It is so hard to project two years form now with the new baseball minds running the show. With Joe off the books that gives a huge contract to sign someone too if they want from outside the organization, and many potential trades will be made and prospects getting figured out. This year and next I think a lot of potential movement to the new style of player the new minds want. It also takes a whole shift in organizational teaching of prospects.

In terms of the lineup. I do not see an issue with it. I am thinking there must be some analytics behind it. Sure when Cleveland last year had Santana at lead off people were saying, "What the hell!" Baseball is changing and so is the "traditional" way of doing things. People think Buxton should lead off because of speed, but what else does he bring for lead off, not much. Sure Joe will never hit many HR, but I think the article brings in good points with Buxton at 3 spot his single will be doubles and Joe can drive in with single. If for instance, it is three up three down first Joe, a high OBP leads off second in front of Sano instead of bases empty. I would not be surprised if you start to see many more interesting line ups that say screw tradition.

I think the deal is decent, the seven day games is a bit of an issue for many people. As long as can take a seat after an inning or two and the ushers won't care then it is a great deal.

Yes, of course it is always the persons decision to do surgery or not, but the Twins medical staff will have input to help make the players decision. In terms of your question I myself opted to have surgery to a repair of ligament over doing just rehab, because I was informed the surgery had higher level of success and long term health benefits. Had I been informed by my doctor that rehab was the best route then most likely would have chose that route. For me it came down to the information that was provided to me. As Heezy provided a helpful link to suggest the information is rehab is the proper route, which was what my question was asking. As for your take that the Twins had control over the decision that was not the intended take from my comment, but what kind of recommendations the Twins staff was giving the players to help make the players decision.

Thanks for the link, very informative. It just seemed to me in recent past Twins took the rehab approach and then spent months doing that before going surgery route, but this shows there is valid reason to go that route. My guess is when rehab did the work it is not as big of a story is not noted as when they end up having it. Again thank you for the link.

I am wondering how many people avoid the surgery by rehabbing? The Twins always seem to go for rehab for a long time, then always go with the surgery after several months.

From all I read I want Greene, but I would use him as a fielder first, as long as he has good hit tool. From what I read he has the heat, but other pitchers are behind, as expected from a HS pitcher. If he fails as a hitter you can change to pitcher easier than from pitcher to hitter after missing so much time hitting, being he would never hit in the organization. For those thinking outside the box, why not use him as a hitter then dabble with him in the bullpen as a potential closer down the road. He plays game as a position player and 9th comes along and he takes the mound. I do agree one should not split what he is learning but better option than going from starter to position player. Overall as it sits now, I would take Greene start him as a hitter and if he falters move him to the mound.

I want to know why the article did not even mention his AFL time? I believe many of the national rankings are based on those numbers. He has been a streaky player in his career so those may just be SSS, but why would the article not even mention that he played in the AFL and touch on the great numbers that he had there?

The article does touch on his defense some. It says he has good enough speed to play center and a strong arm to play right, where he has played so far. He has played some first as well. Sounds a lot like Kepler. In terms of comparing to Young think that is little early. Young was a first overall pick for one, and unlike the work ethic of AK, Young was always over weight. He was only put in OF because he was younger player and could not defend any position so much like many hitter heavy guys try to hide in LF. As for walk rate others are bringing up. I am not worried about low walk rate when K rate is low. At this point in his career I would be more interested in is swing and miss rate, along with chasing balls out of zone. He may just be a guy that attacks early in count and not take strikes right down middle like some players do. Now if he was chasing a ton or missing pitches in the zone then that is more of an issue.

I seem to be seeing people are split in two camps, those that want a top hitting catcher and those that want a top defensive catcher, sadly both are very rare and cost 25 mil a year, or more. For those that want top hitting catch see where Kurt ends up. There is a reason no one wanted him at the trade deadline, despite him being one of top average hitting catchers. It was because he was terrible behind the plate, not just throwing out runners but getting strikes called.

I think this will greatly depend on who the new GM will be. If they are like Ryan and long time Twins style he starts in AA and moves up to AAA. If new GM is like Marlins or Mets he may break with the Twins. Also, will depend on who if any new pitchers come to the Twins.

Buxton's struggles was the knock on him all along before the draft, which was considered a weak draft with lack of top end talent. He was a big fish in a small pond in high school, and sure his speed contributed a bit to his success. The problem with him from what I see is his swing is so long. My biggest worry is that it is not like he is chasing everything up there for strikeouts, yes he is chasing a bit, but he is also missing fastballs in the zone for a lot of strike outs. A player can learn to stop chasing, but if he cannot hit pitches in the zone that is a problem. Still think he will be a good player, but maybe not as great as we all hoped.

Gonzalves may even threaten the rotation next year depending on who is the GM. I don't expect it, but we cannot assume a new GM will operate like Ryan and sit guys in minors as long. Not saying he should come up, but you never know what will happen.

My only issue is the Rosario deal, I understand need to trade talent to get talent, but my worry is the defense going forward. Joe moving to right, or having ABW or Palka, who I do not know either to be that good defense wise, would hurt our outfield defense moving forward, and our offense may not be any better. Eddie has shown an improved approach at the plate, and even admitted he was pressing when got into a early slump. I am a big defense first guy, so that is why I would want to keep Eddie.

I like the improvements of the players overall. Park may have relaxed down in AAA or he may just be a AAAA player, which would not surprise me either. Sure he will have a HR here or there in MLB but overall will be over-matched with the pitchers there. Palka and ABW will both have to cut down on K-rate, as both have risen at each level. ABW has more speed than Palka I am guessing, reflective of his SB in the minors, and success of it, but do not know how their defense is. Overall the twins have about 4 players at one position and none of them have jumped out as the front runner moving forward. I would expect a lot of jumping around for Park, Varges, Palka, and ABW all bouncing up and down to DH next year. This is if Sano picks up his defense at third and Molitor does not decide he is to liable at third, then we will have a lot of power off the bench rotating through, when Sano is full time DH.

Tanking is hard in baseball, unless you bring up players that are no good. Players have too much to play for, money, spot on team, or playing time. I agree they should trade away any player with any value, as long as deal is fair, and we feel that player is not going to help down road or no replacement to call up.

I have been a fan of defensive metrics overall, because they take into account more than just errors, but situations, and how those errors occur. I remember when they first came out people were shocked because they turned the whole good fielding thing on its head. I believe defense is key to having a good team. It is the one part of the game you can't put numbers on that easy, but affects pitching so much. Good defense keeps pitch count down, and ERA because good defenders take hits away, or at very least do not turn outs into hits because they had a bad read or made a bad decision that did not result in an error.

Had not seen the press conference. What scares me is a guy who has been owning a team for several years, and basically was owning before his father passed, is NOW brushing up on how other clubs run their front office, by looking at their media guides. This is ridiculous. I always liked TR overall, but do feel he got stale and stuck in the old way of doing tings. He did not appear to make the changes needed in the changing world of baseball. I hope the Twins go for innovative thinkers when they look for new front office people. No more of the this is the way it was done for years kind of thinking.

To me he is progressing just as expected. He needs to pick up his fielding a little bit his range is up a little but his fielding percentage is down, could be a product of the increased range making throws he is not used to. His hitting is coming along just as many scouts expected. He was a small kid that needed to fill out, and hearing he is doing that. Looking forward to the future with him.

Not only when will the pitchers move up to AA the Twins should start looking at Gordon. I expect he will spend full season in high A or be a very late call up to AA since he is so young. However, he is sure showing that he is the prospect the Twins hoped for when they drafted him.

For the Buxton leg kick part, it is common for most teams to try and get guys to drop the leg kick when they enter the pros. This is because they fear the leg kick will cause them to be late on the now plus fastballs they will see unlike in high school or college. The problem with that is that this makes your body have to relearn how to hit after taking thousands of swings one way your whole life you are told it is not good enough anymore and have to change it. To me good coaches make little changes as problems come up, not make guys change what was working for them all along.