Platoon

A better idea for today would have been for the Twins and Yankees to have simply not played. The Twins take a forfeit and have a nice day with the families. Rocco gets to change the babies diapers. The teams then take all expenses associated with said game and donate that sum to reputable charities! Idiotic you say? Foolish Pollyanna babble you say? If you think the Twins spending many thousand of dollars, and a full day of travel to go to NY is rational I heard that bridge in Brooklyn is still for sale. The only competitive question left to be answered in this "rivalry" is exactly how many runs would the Twins need to lead by that would allow them to eek out a one run squeaker?

Some of this can be explained thusly: In 2019 more than several players had career years, especially offensively. In 2021 many did not. Basing your hopes on a best case scenario is most often a loser. Basing it on a worst case scenario often leaves you pleasantly surprised. The injuries didn’t help, but much of the hype and hope for this team was based on offense. Definitely the hardest talent to repeat and replicate.

Actually the game threads years ago were a hoot, especially when the team sucked. Discussion ranged from music, to old movies, to where to get the best burrito in Chicago. Gallows humor reigned supreme. It sort of changed when the Twins started winning in ‘19 and posters started treating this like a baseball discussion. We got too serious, expected too much, and got to critical.

I meant will bringing him up affect his service time, ie cost the Twins a year of control?

Is this about service time?

Sano reminds me of a guy who used to play for me. He swung in the same place all the time. If you were unfortunate enough to throw one in that area, small as it may be, he could really kill it. Keep it out of that zone, and he would just keep flailing!

No matter what the final outcome is remember this. If the MN Twins make a decision on who they will call on to play SS for next year, you can guarantee one thing. They will bleep it up! I was all for signing Simmons, and somehow we turned one of the best fielding SS’s in history into a blah player. Or I should say he turned himself into one, probably because of the lack of interest due to being out of the race on April 7th? Be that as it may, an infield of Polanco and Arreaz should make baseball purists flock to MLB to watch! ?

Inning?

If Sano is a guess hitter, then he is the worst guess hitter of all time. Anyone else want to guess what the 1-2 pitch will be from a RH? The bottom line may be all he wants to do is hit HR’s? He shows no inclination to going the other way. But, I am I’m pressed by his ability to get his SO rate into the 30’s! Bottom line, is that nothing will convince me that a player striking out 30-40% and plays mediocre defense is helping you win ball games. Which lest we forget is the whole theory in any sport.

Skating without sticks every 4 minutes would be silly! Without a stick what would the players use to hit each other? Better idea is have removable blades on the sticks, making the hitting of the puck more like a pitchers BA? And to make the comparison of the two sports even more realistic, how about one player skates with only one skate and one tennis shoe? Making him similar to a pitchers base running abilities? I still like the strategies of working around the pitching/hitter decisions. Plus, remember pitchers don’t hit 4 times a game. Maybe twice, the rest are PH for.

I have nothing against the Nelson Cruz’s of the world, but I would get away from the DH if I had the choice. One reason alone is it opens up the game to more discussion over managers decisions with the moves a non DH game requires.

TiVo! Flip through the game. 3/4 of the time you can FF to the inevitable 2-2 count and pick up the action. I just can’t sit and watch a 3:30 game live anymore. Since the vaccine I have also rekindled my interest in amateur ball. Legion, VFW, and some town ball. Needless to say the quality isn’t the same, but there is 3 times the action. Btw, sometimes in Legion ball the outfielders actually hit a cutoff man!

The Twins seem to lean heavily on offense as a basis for their roster. Whether that’s for financial reasons or in house theory is hard to say. But, pitching is extremely expensive, for a reason. I think 2019 was the outlier, everyone had career years. 2020 was such a fluke year how would one know. We spent the entire season playing in a very weak division. This year the injuries did pile up. The roster decisions did not pan out. And a significant group of players are not having career years. But the sad fact is that it appears this present group which was to lead us from the wilderness isn’t ever going to. Some just may not be that good, Kepler. Some can’t stay on the field, Buxton. Some just can’t be figured out, Sano. Then there are those who can hit, but whose defense deeply cuts into their effectiveness, Garver and Polanco. On the pitching side, the starters are "analytically" held to short starts. So the game can be turned over to a bullpen which couldn’t hold a chihuahua, not to speak of a bull. Sooner or later the Twins organization will find out you need pitching to win. Frankly I think they know that, but for whatever reason won’t expend the resources to make it happen.

Not to be a Sano apologist whatsoever but the Twins still ended up with the same situation, man on second two outs, IIRC? The Turtle kept running to second, good base running. This doesn’t negate Sano’s grade school base running though. The other team inexplicably ran Sano to the forward base, not the back one. Basically something taught to infielders in Jr. high school. I had to check to see whether it was Detroit or the Twins who committed that bungling mistake?

I agree with your post, but not with Pohlad. He can use whatever name he wants for next season, but trust that any use of any word will be solely based on season tickets sales perception, not reality.

I would not know if JP has put out a salary cap or not. Nor would I know if Bill Smith had one? I wonder if Bill Smith knew? ???

I believe that Buxton is everything everyone says he is. And I believed it when he was struggling in the past. He is one of the players in the game that changes a team when he is on the field. I don’t believe the assertion that his injury history gives the Twins a chance to sign him on the cheap valid. I doubt a player of Buxtons age, or ability, looks at himself as vulnerable to age or injury. Despite recent history. I get the uninformed perception that he doesn’t want to stay here. Only he, and people far closer to the situation know if that’s true. If it is, money won’t do it. After that I agree with wsnydes. If you don’t think you can sign him, trade him. Get the best deal out there. Do not keep him through 2022 and maybe get a comp pick. That would simply add to the loss.

I am not sure what these stats refer to? You mentioned stats for passed balls in your first paragraph. Btw, neither of the pitches I referenced were passed balls. They were definitely wild pitches, which he didn’t block. While he’s generally bad at that task, he’s particularly bad to his right. I will say this about both him and most MLB catchers, MLB coaches and their FO types are not doing their catchers or pitchers any favors by making the one kneed thing so universal. The idea that a "stolen" low strike is more valuable than moving up two runners in that situation isn’t very sound. Possibly with a solid base and level footing he knocks one of those down, changing both the situation and the pitch selection? Who knows. Every play changes a game!

I think that’s one of the frequently missed parts of the Twins conundrum. 2019 hangs over this team like it’s the norm for this group. It’s not. As noted above so many players had big years. Also, the FO tossed out a bat first lineup all over the field on a year when MLB decided golf balls made for good baseball(s). If you want to treat this year as an outlier, then you better be ready to treat 2019 as one also.

Garver has become predictable. He will hit the long ball. And then not block the low ball. One could say neither missed block made a difference. Or one could say that the second one virtually guaranteed a tie game. Not to overly defend Berrios, but no pitcher can have confidence really working the ball low with the tying run on third with that kind of defense behind the plate. We traded a glove first catcher for a bat first catcher. We giveth and we taketh away.

Brock wanted to move him somewhere for salary relief. I offered the option of the witness protection program, in neither of these instances would have the amount of runs he gave up today made any difference. ?? But I do agree, if he had given up one run we still woulda lost.

Maybe a better move would be to the witness protection program. He could disguise himself as a MLB pitcher. Not a soul would recognize him.

I realize this is a Twins site, but lost in the gloom is a good baseball play, just not by the Twins. Schoop running all the way, not dogging it, on a game endiing ball with an expected .000 hit possibility. Good baseball.

The Twins canning afford to miss out on playing Detroit. We need to clean up on teams that are worse than we are! WHAT? We are behind Detroit in the standings? How can that be?

Only the front office has a feel for whether they can actually re-sign Berrios, Rogers, and Buxton. As for what JP said about the topic, that and $8 gets you a Big Mac meal deal. What else was he going to say? I don’t think this is about whether the team should keep them, it’s about whether it can. If they will return, and JP will cough up the cash for them, sure keep them. If not, then it’s a no brainer to move them for something worthwhile while they are at their most valuable. And remember, this isn’t as simple as one of them. If for example Berrios and Buxton aren’t going to re-up, then Rogers value you to us is limited.