Loosey

In regards to the bullpen I am not concerned with "blocking" young prospects. I think they will be up soon and perform well if ready. For now I would get the best arms in the pen I could possibly get. If that means 3 year $18M deals, so be it. If there does become a log jam at some point there is no rule against trading positions of surplus. In addition to this, the "Big Three" in our pen are questionable in my eyes. May could be called on to be a starter again at some point, Jepsen performed well but can he consistently do it this year again? Perkins has really struggled the last two years in the 2nd half. So any one of them could be out of the pen at some point due to injury, back in rotation, regressing or traded if need be. Bring on some arms and let them fight for their spots. The Twins should not be guaranteeing spots to anyone at this point. Get the best arms you can get.

I don't think Buxton's injuries are "Dumb Injuries". He seems to be the type of guy that goes 100% all the time. I like that. He just needs to learn to harness it a little bit better and know when to reign in it. He thinks he can get to every ball hit to the outfield and I want that mentality. Now with some experience he will hopefully learn that crashing into the wall with nobody on and two outs in the 2nd inning isn't the best option. With a game on the line maybe he might learn to take that risk then.

Do these metrics take into account where the fielder is positioned? Or is 2nd base a fixed starting position and the range goes x amount left or right? I think that can skew results. If he is shading a guy 3 steps right and the play is to his left and he doesn't make it that is not due to range or ability, but to situational positioning. How is that accounted for?

#1) When I a was about 8 my next door neighbor, who's son went to Cretin in the 70's and was very good friends with Paul Molitor invited my family to her son's Christmas party in St. Paul. When we got there her son, Sean welcomed us and then came up to me to tell me there was someone who really wanted to meet me. As a confused 8 year old at a "grownups" Christmas party I had no idea who would want to meet me. When we got downstairs he said, "Pete, this is my friend Paul Molitor." I couldn't believe it. I got to hang out with him all night long, talking baseball and hockey. I got my picture taken with him and a few autographs. It clearly had an impact on me as its now 27 years later and the moment seems like it was yesterday. I finally realized years later my parents obviously knew what was going to happen that night but never told me. I still have that autographed ball and a 2nd ball my neighbor's son got Molly to sign for me again since I brought the first to show and tell and somehow got ruined. The one thing I remember him saying was he had hoped to never leave the Brewers and wanted to work in the front office when he retired. #2) My dream memorabilia would be to meet and get Ken Griffey Jr. to sign my Mariners jersey to be a wall centerpiece for my basement bar.

The more I think about it I believe my dislike of May being in the bullpen is more me feeling bad for him because he wants to be a starter and has earned the chance in my opinion. That being said, this team is most likely a better team with him in the pen and Milone starting rather than vice versa.

I think the floor for ABW will be super high quality bench bat. Would be nice to have a pinch hitter come in the late innings down a run or two knowing he can put the ball in the seats on any given pitch. I think the ceiling is poor man's Chris Davis. Most likely lower OB and batting average, less walks, similar strikeout numbers, probably slightly less HRs, more versatile defensively.

My concern is him hurting Buxton in a collision or himself and Buxton. That would be a very Minnesota sports thing to happen. Two biggest prospects in a generation run into each hurting themselves in the process.

According to a scout on that site on his takes on Kirby Puckett was "Good base stealer, free swinger, makes contact, No power, weak arm, good range but uses reactions instead of instincts." I thought that was interesting especially since it was written in August of 1985 during his 2nd season. The following year: 31 HR's, A Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger.

If we are going to go that far back we can pretty much say every reliever in baseball was a failed starter at some point in their respective careers. I can't recall many kids growing to saying, "I hope to be a middle reliever". Starting pitchers get the glory and the money, when they aren't good enough to do that they move on to the next step which is reliever. If they are really good in that role they move into a better relief role (back end relievers) and build themselves nice careers and end up getting paid that way.

But to get Storen the Twins have to give up assets other than money. The Free Agent relievers could essentially be bought for multiple years with cold hard cash. Storen will require a player, and then if the Twins want him for longer than a year they will have to ante up the cash part. And there is no guarantee he will stay here even if we make an offer, so the Twins could possibly just give away a prospect for 1 year use of a guy.

Thank you for the honest and open article. I agree 100% with every take you made and have the same feelings of doubt and skepticism. The fact the Twins had no interest in the best bullpen arms make me question Terry Ryan and if he really has a plan.

Remember the last time the Twins had a catcher named Brian?!?! He was pretty good and the Twins won the World Series! Good interview, Seth. Was he old for Elizabethton or is he about average age? Either way it's nice to see catcher in the org that may develop into a decent hitter. Hopefully he can continue to develop as he progresses through the system.

I think completely changing swings is not a good thing. 1st of all the player was drafted, traded for signed, etc because they had success in some regards. To go ahead and change that swing they have become accustomed to in order to fit into a mold the "Teacher" feels more comfortable teaching tells me it is more on the coach not knowing how to coach all swing types. Yes, I agree there are flaws in swings that can be removed, swings shortened a bit, hitches, etc. But the foot down philosophy just seems to be a hinderance to power and driving the ball. If the bat can get through the zone on the right plane with a good amount of speed don't mess with it, adjust as necessary. Think of golf swings. Jim Furyk is the prime example of a "what the hell was that" type of swing. What matters is he gets the club in the slot and generates the plane, speed and power necessary to be successful. Should be the same with baseball swings. Let them wiggle and shake and use a leg kick. If they can make good contact leave it be and let them learn the advanced pitching with one less thing to worry about.

May might never be a #1 starter type, but I think he will be a very good starter. One other thing which is totally a guess by me (I'm not a Dr or body type analyzer - Is that a thing?) he has a build which looks like he could pitch a lot of innings without fear of injury. Just has that "strong" type of look on the mound to me that he could be a consistent 200+ inning guy that actually performs well too.

He had that one start late in the season when they put him on pitch count and he pitched 3 innings. That was the 16th start.

Using ERA can make some points but I don't think it works in this argument. Trevor May is a young pitcher who was improving as a starter at the ML level. Hell, if you just take out his first start of the season in which he got shelled by KC, he ERA drops down to 4.06. Also he started 16 games and had a 4.36 ERA in those games. On the flip side Mike Pelfrey had a 3.86 ERA in his first 15 starts but ended his last 15 starts with a 4.77 ERA. Basically the point I am trying to make is sometimes the numbers alone don't tell the whole story or take into account nuances such as young starter who is learning vs veteran who is having best year of his career and much of it was based on luck.

Example, although not a free agent, would be Drew Hutchinson. He is still very young so highly unlikely to happen. But hear me out. As a starter the kid strikes out 8+ per nine. His ERA is inflated vs FIP. He could be a monster out of the bullpen in 1-2 inning stretches.

I want to see my best pitchers pitch the most innings which is why I want May to start, not relieve. Ideally the Twins would know what to target in the Wade Davis mold. Instead of May, why don't the Twins target a FA starting pitcher that has had minor success as a starter and throws hard, but just can't get over the hump to be consistently good for 6-7 inning stretches. I'm sure there is a metric for it, but somehow target a starter who can dominate innings 1-2 and use FIP, SO/9, etc and see if you can convince that player to give up being a starter and sign him to pitch out of the pen.

I still hear on occasion about how great of an athlete Mauer still is. Wouldn't moving him into a platoon role in the outfield/1B make more sense and give the team more flexibility? Mauer can platoon with Rosario/Hicks in OF and at 1B platoon with Plouffe/Park while Sano plays 3rd/1st and DH. I know it makes for an unstable consistent lineup this seems to in my head to make most sense. I do agree though that Mauer does seem to be the piece that is clogging everything up right now.

I would prefer Arcia as well, however, I don't think any team will trade for him knowing the Twins current situation at OF and DH. He has to make the 25 man roster otherwise he is out of options and will be on waivers. So unless they really really want him they can wait to see if he even makes the Twins roster which could be a stretch at this point given the current log jam at his spots.

Well, with the Park posting Vargas may have become suddenly available as the Left Handed Bat, + Plouffe and Nolasco. Maybe Polanco as well? There are 3 of their needs right there for Shields, Kimbrel and Norris? I would say unlikely but on the track to getting there. I also wonder how active San Diego will be in the trade market this year after last years cupboard emptying resulting not very good results.

I agree that Twins fans overrate Plouffe. Especially since he seems to be the best of the expendable players on the roster. I would rate Plouffe as a top 15-20 third baseman in the league, probably closer to 20 (so bottom half). But I think the piece that would make him more valuable than other players of similar ability to him in terms of hitting would be his contract and the fact he is a very reliable defensive third baseman compared to other strong hitting ones. But as Nick said I wouldn't just trade him to trade him. The best option may be to wait for one of his multi-week hot streaks during the season and trade him then.

Seth mentioned how to the Twins can get to $25M of room to potentially sign a guy for that salary. What I am about to say is based a lot on hindsight but also is based on planning and building the team for the future. 2 years ago the Twins were, bad. Really bad. They then went out and signed 2 decent (at the time) starting pitchers in Hughes and Nolasco for $9M and $12M. Then last year they signed Santana for $13.5M ($34.5M Total) Most likely Ryan knew the Team was not going to be competitive in 2014 and most thought 2015 was going to be another 90 loss season. 2016 was always the year in which the team was going to hopefully be able to start to be competitive again. If Ryan had that thought process wouldn't it have made sense to sign some lesser priced pitchers in 2014 for shorter term deals so for this coming year instead of having $34M locked up in 3 mid rotation pitchers the team could now go out and get an true ace type pitcher and have some money left over to build a pen and surround the Ace in the rotation with guys like Gibson, May and Berrios and Duffey. I know it's very much a hind sight thought and there is no guarantee you can get an ace. But looking at it this way wouldn't the team be in a great situation. The other side of this is the Twins wouldn't sign a high priced guy because that $34 was never been earmarked on 3 mid rotation guys since the signings never happened or they would do the same type of thing in 2016 and just sign 3 Mike Leakes and Tim Stauffer.

Defining an ace is hard. But in my opinion the Twins have only had 1 in my adult life. Johan Santana. When I think of an ace I think of a guy who I have no doubt is going to go out and win. Every time Johan was on the mount I just assumed the Twins would win because he would shut down whoever they were playing. I never once thought, he gives them a chance to win, I assumed they were going to win and because of him. For a brief period that was also Francisco Liriano in 2006 too, but sustained it was Johan.

2 years ago.