Twodogs

Nolasco will have a good season. I think only having pitched parts of the last two seasons his arm will be strong combined with what will be stronger legs after getting surgery. I have a feeling that he will be good. I know everyone wants to unload someone to make way for the younger guys, but I think the only way the Twins get rid of him is if the team falters and he actually pitches pretty well and they dump him at the deadline in August.

I think he will be fine, but with 161 strikeouts he appears to at best be a Jay Bruce type, 25 - 30 Hrs and about a .230 BA. Seems like we have a lot of those .230/.240 type of hitter at this point in time. I mean Mauer is supposed to be one of those guys who hits .300 but he sure hasn't been as of late. So I'm not totally sold on him as far as how well he fits in the Twins lineup. I'm just speculating that if he K'd 161 times over there that should be at least the same or maybe a little more in the bigs??

Hey they already have Tim Laudner working there.

Shows a lack of confidence in Perk, walking a lefty

Looks like the Twins are in a tough situation, Houston is up on AZ by 5

I don't know, I am trying to be optimistic here, because none of us really know what Nolasco will do next year. But over his career he doesn't seem to walk a lot of guys as he has had seasons with a 1.10, 1.21, 1.28, 1.25 WHIPs. He has always given up a lot of hits, but when he is going good he seems to limit his walks which seems to keep his WHIP down. So I'm thinking realistically the best he could be is Brad Radke ish. And Radke was pretty good usually. But he always gave up a lot of hits and always seemed to have one bad inning, but overall was very consistent. Nolasco has been nothing close to consistent, but he has basically had parts of two seasons off, to the point where I think his arm should be well rested and maybe he can get back and have one of those age type 27 years instead of an age 34 year, just because his arm should be strong next year, hopefully with the ankle injury healed up he can get his leg strength back too. I think he is a candidate for a rebound year, I am hoping for one because I realistically don't think anyone will trade for him, never nohow. I would hate to see the Twins dump him and watch him win 15 games for Toronto, Milwaukee, or some other team that gives him a chance all the while the Twins are paying for him.

I totally agree. If Meyer has figured out the strikezone and becomes dominant the bullpen could become very dangerous, in a good way

Oh, I haven't followed his minor league numbers, I just know when he was up he was hitting .276 with a .338 on base. So maybe attitude is affecting performance?

Why don't I see Arcia being called up?? I mean he is decent was projected to hit 20+ Hrs this year. I just cant believe he isnt one of the 30 some best players in the organization? Maybe this belongs on the whining thread?

Proof this year, you cant have enough starting pitchers. With all of the guys we had going into this season the Twins have Duffy now starting? So I'd say lets not rush anything until we know how everyone is going to perform. Personally, the pitcher I am worried about is Santana. He has been a PED guy all this time, (Possibly) Now that he has been caught he will be on the radar and will have to stay clean. I question whether his arm holds up over a full season without the use of PED's? Fact is that Nolasco should for the most part be all healed up by next year and actually be pretty well rejuvenated with only parts of the last two seasons pitched. So we really should just wait and see. Here is what the Twins have coming back for next year Hughes Nolasco Santana Gibson May Milone Duffy I dont see pelf coming back, I can easily see Santana coming up injured, Hughes is injured right now. Duffy is too young to count on right now, have to see him come out in Spring Training. That leaves Nolasco, who should be completely healthy, Gibson, May, Milone. Berrios may take a little time to get used to coming up, so next year could be a year like May or even Duffy are having this year for Berrios. I don't think cutting Nolasco would be very smart right now.

Yeah, Justin is a great guy. I was really glad when he won the NL batting championship last year. I hope he has another good year in him somewhere, seems Colorado is the perfect place for him.

Yeah, only thing AJ really has over Joe is that he is still a Catcher and doing pretty well at it for such an advanced age. I just saw he was 3 for 4 today while I was watching the Twins and came up with this. Mainly just because Joe isn't a Catcher anymore. Fact of the matter is that Joe is still fairly productive, only Sano from the regulars has a high OBP than Joe this year and Sano hasn't played for very long. I think what most fans get upset with is that he isn't real productive as far as first basemen go and he has such a big contract. Yeah it is a little upsetting that Hicks has a many homeruns as Joe. It's a little upsetting that he is hitting in the .260's. But he is still one of the better Twins performers and if his BA was up in the .290's to .310's everyone would be happy, for the most part. I just thought it was funny that AJ was still catching and was doing pretty well at it for so long. What's even more amazing is that he hit 27 bombs as late as 2012 he had an .827OPS that year. Close to 400 doubles and Close to 200 Hr's with a .282 lifetime BA. And he is still catching? People complain about peoples contracts when they are older, but what about when these guys are younger and the Twins get them for relatively nothing? I hope Joe bounces back and has a few good years, too bad he can't catch anymore.

So in hindsight, who was the best "Catcher" Joe Mauer or AJ Pierzynski??

I kinda remember that Garza was a malcontent, anyway, however, Fernandez would in my opinion be a huge get in a trade. But I don't see the Twins trading Buxton, nor should they. I mean when talking about prospects you have to give them some time. Having Carlos Gomez around here for the past 3 - 4 years would have looked kinda nice.

Yeah, I think it is too late to shop him, looks kinda like a dead arm situation again? I mean he was lights out at the beginning of the year and now he is just average, or maybe a little worse

seems to happen against the Yankees a lot?

Hot smash??? Maybe according to Harry Carey at the end of his career, everything was a hot smash to him at that point, especially when his metamusil would work. But I mean, the grounder that I saw was just a normal ground ball to the shortstop, I mean I even kinda thought it was sorta slow and I was thinking the extra couple of hops because it wasn't hit hard may have caused the bobble. But that play needs to be made, the infield was positioned perfectly for that play that they needed. And Perkins gave them the ground ball they needed too. I didn't think that was a very hot smash. IMO

You know, the managing tonight had that infield in the exact right spot to turn a home to first DP. Perkins has been less than stellar for the last month also, but he was probably in the game at the right time for what he is supposed to be able to do.

I was worried about it when I was in Minnesota this summer at my wife's lake cabin and they have no TV and I was watching the Twins vs Oakland on my phone. At that time I was shocked that Perk wouldn't throw his fastball in that game, that was his first blown save in a long time. But it seems that he hasn't been the same since. The Twins should have gone after Paplebon, I know, hindsight.

Now, if he were the bullpen catcher.............................

Prospect to prospect a position player is always worth more than a pitching prospect because pitching prospects are always very suspect. I don't get why anyone would give up on one of the highest prospects in all of baseball? I mean I am sure Sano's value dropped a bit when he got hurt last year, but he obviously bounced back.

guys like arcia, meyer, vargas, etc... are already proven to have flaws; if they didn't, they'd be with the Twins right now?? the twins will never get anything for players that have proven to be ok but have flaws. they Twins, if they are going to trade anyone for value need to trade one of these guys before everyone including ourselves actually see their flaws. they need to trade someone while they are still highly regarded prospects. But everyone wants to hold on to everyone and the twins end up realistically getting nothing for their once highly thought of prospects, think back to names like restovich, buck buchanan, etc...once all of us can see that arcia is oft injured and a defensive liability then so can everyone else and he essentialy becomes worthless, except for the twins, hopefully he can capitalize on whatever opportunity he will get with the Twins and become a little bit better than even we thought at the skills that he does posses.

well lets hope the twins start bringing some of those guys up to see if they can get the job done better than what is in that pen right now. hope they do it fast so they can see if they need to go and get someone or not. im all for bringing up someone if they can get people out in big situations.

a team like the phillies will often take whatever they can get for guys like paplebon, i mean what good is he to them at 29 wins on the season. especially as the deadline looms, guys like that will get moved; look what the twins got for liriano, no big giant named guys. the twins need a move for relief pitchers and they need to be active because it will kinda come down to who blinks. now on to position players such as ss and c's teams wont let good guys like that go without a fight, so i dont see any future catchers showing up any time soon; but i think they could get some good bull pen arms without getting rid of any tier 1 type prospects, but they will have to give a tier 2 or a couple of tier 3 type of guys. jmo

but when you put yourself in position to win a game you should have lost, and then blow it, that is kinda frustrating. especially when we pretty much all know that the team that pulls out those types of wins will be the ones playing in october. it seems like kc has been pulling out games they should have lost all over the place lately.