dxpavelka

You may be more right about than you think. Maybe what he needs is an off-season of NOT reading about how his 2014 performance is not sustainable. Sometimes young ballplayers, especially young Latin ballplayers are a little bit like kickers--once you get something in their heads it's hard to get it out of there. Santana, Arcia, Vargys. Anyone see a trend? We need to figure out a way to develop these guys rather than throw them away.

I realize it was a small sample size but Arica's big league final average last year finished ABOVE the "every Twin except Eduardo Nunez" line.

See: Kershaw, Clayton

Especially if your goal is to have an OF that combines for 35 home runs next year.

Why would you move your best offensive prospect in a generation(s?) to a defensive position he's played 3 times in his life? Let him play 3B, be comfortable offensively and IF he struggles defensively, deal with that down t he road after he's established himself with the stick.

OR, you could be totally off base. I guess we'll have to see what happens.

So would Dozier not reacting to the All-Star break like it was Kryptonite.

After extensive research I've learned that he's only 21 years old AND that MANY much ballyhooed prospects don't become dominant major league baseball players at the age of 21.

Stands to reason that a team with 94 wins is going to look better on paper than one that will finish with between 83 and 86 wins.

Confused. Perkins has a no doubt All-Star 1st half, half a dozen terrible outings in the 2nd half and we want to replace him. Dozier makes the All-Star team because of an injury, is so bad in the 2nd half that he actually manages to LOWER his sub .244 career batting average and we're still pissed that it took an injury for him to be an All-Star?

I'm going bold and calling for a move of Kepler to catcher. Not many at bats likely to be available between OF & 1B in the coming years. Send him to the AFL to convert and since he's probably going to need to start next year in the minors he might as well be learning to play a position of need while doing so. Should be an upgrade over Hermanson/Fryer by June. Could split time with Suzuki after than and hopefully hit well enough to force his way into more playing time.

Actually I looked at BOTH of their minor league stats. Neither put up huge run scored or driven in numbers. The two combined for a total of 1 double digit home run seasons. Both hit far more doubles than home runs. Career minor league slugging % were within 6 points of each other. Mauer hit for higher average and OBP. Kepler struck out at a higher rate. Mauer walked at a slightly higher rate. Except for position & Mauer having a significantly higher batting average they're quite similar. I personally would be thrilled to get Mauer type production from him and think we will except for the batting average but am not sure most Twins fans would be.

Agree but it's a start & a route to big league at bats. The spots he currently projects at don't appear to have many available AB's. Not looking for him to be Johnny Bench just an upgrade over Hermanson & Fryer and good enough to share the position with Suzuki.

Not sure some Twins fans are gonna like this but what he brings to the plate is Joe Mauer with slightly more power and speed. The speed difference is why he's an outfielder not a catcher. Won't hit for as high an average as Mauer did for most of his career. At his best he's Joe Mauer with the same warts. Like it or not. And here's a thought--If our OF is as stacked as we've been led to believe for the past few months and if a logjam exists there, and we know Mauer's not going anywhere for a few more years our biggest position of need is catcher why not send him to the AFL and make him a catcher?

The Indians don't hold the key to the Twins sucess or lack thereof. The Twins do. The Indians may have a say in whether the Twins are able to put that key into the lock, but the Twins hold their own key.

Not sure about trading for a guy who obviously doesn't NOT want to be a closer. Yes, I understand there are some questions with our incumbent closer but if those are answered there is very little doubt as to who owns that role here. If those questions linger we also appear to have a second viable option. Not to mention potential option or two on the farm horizon.

At the beginning of the year I think some folks thought Pinto could / would be part of the eventual equation behind the plate. Not sure why but he was viewed as such.

Good article showing how you win with a TEAM performance. You can hope one guy steps up and carries a team on his shoulders but the reality is that such events happen very seldom. Yes, they can be legendary when they DO happen but you can't count on them. More often than not your best bet is to win as a team. If one guy struggles, someone else picks him up. If the bats are cold the pitching is hot. If the bullpen is cold the starters are on, or vice versa.

Good point about Dozier's last chance to lead the team in home runs with Sano no onboard. Maybe if he had a few less meaningless home runs and a few more meaninful base hits the team as a whole would benefit. Just sayin

I'm as big a fan of both Hicks & Rosario as you're going to find. I was calling for Rosario to be promoted for a year and a half before it happened and was one of the few folks around these parts not wanting to move on from Hicks the last 2 years. That being said, I think the need for bats will/should outweigh the desire for stellar corner defense over the next couple years. This is a team that ranks no higher than 11th in the big leagues in any significant offensive category and in in the twenties in most categories. We realistically have 1 guy who can be classified as a legitimate all-star caliber hitter at this point and he's got less than 200 big league at bats under his belt. Our 1B lacks power, our 2B would be ecstatic if he could hit .250, our SS projects to be a journeyman for the next few years, Neither Hicks nor Rosario drive in significant runs. Our CF has been compared to Mike Trout but has a LONG way to go to get to that point and most likely never will from a power standpoint. I love both guys and love having a great defensive outfield but if you can't score runs you won't win.

I'm not disputing the need to bring in outside help but the results of such moves have not been great. We'd better hope for at least 2 or 3 guys from within who haven't been up yet making positive impacts.

Agree with the need for a patient approach. I preached all off-season and well into the the spring & summer about the need for just that with Hicks. Sometimes you've got to give talented hitters a thousand big league plate appearances before giving up on or cutting them loose. At the time Hicks had less than 600 such appearances and Vargas has less than 400. As far as where he fits, he's your DH, unless Arcia (who also fits the under a thousand appearances mark and thus is still deserving of another shot) overtakes him. No need to jettison Plouffe either. Put the kid at 3B, Vargas and / or Arcia at DH with Vargas rotating in at 1B on occassion. Give Plouffe 5 starts a week between the 2 corner IF & OF spots & DH. Too many good bats is not a problem for this team yet.

Not exactly true. If you're referring to the Wild Card play in game then yes that statement is true. But if you're referring to an actual Game 163 to determine who advances to the Wild Card game, that game is actually considered a regular season game, counts in the regular season standings, as do the player statistics, and as such Santana would be eligible to participate. And while he may not be meeting expectations at this point, our ability to reach a Game 163 might just hinge on his pitching at a higher level from here on out and if that happens I'd not have any reservations about pitching him in that game and using up whatever he may have left in the tank since it would be his last start of the season and / or post-season.

Just need another 5 week run like the one we went on 4 months ago. Look back 4 months and tell me which team you'd rather have: That team that went on that monster run or the current team. 4 months ago when we got hot we DID NOT have Sano, Buxton, Hicks (I know, we don't have him now either, but it sounds like he'll be back right at 15 days) or Rosario or Jepson or Duffy or Santana (still think he'll pitch some big games down the stretch). We still had Danny Santana playing short & Vargas trying to DH. This team SHOULD be better than the best squad we've put on the field all year and fully capable of playing good enough ball to make a serious run. Whether or not that will happen nobody knows but at least it could be fun.

Assuming Buxton doesn't get called up in time to get enough plate appearances before September 1 to make 2015 his rookie year, I count 7 rookies. Not that I mind but I would not expect to contend with 7 rookies on the roster.