Vanimal46

Thank you to all of the contributors for another season of minor league reports. This season was fun reading about Kiriloff making a mockery of single A baseball. Looking forward to reading about him, Lewis, and Graterol in Chattanooga at some point next season.

On an unrelated note, I hope this "opener" idea is a fad that goes away quickly... I believe developing good SP is one of the most important things a baseball organization should do. This "opener" idea feels like a cop out for failing to develop SP.

Yes? Check out how many times Craig Counsell has used non-pitchers in games this season... He also uses their backup catcher and backup infielder to pitch. The Brewers are what others strive to be from a rebuild and analytics standard no?

Digging into the data he sat out 8/15, 8/21, 8/23 now 9/2. Other than the time he sat out 2 games in a 3 day stretch he's played every day. Maybe he tweaked something, maybe he needs a mental break for a day. It's not like he's being egregiously mishandled during his time with the Twins.

Regardless, the game was 13-2 when he was brought in. They don't need a real pitcher out there when a game is that lopsided.

That's what the New Skool managerzz are doing. Saving an arm during s*** storm baseball games.

Austin also started 5 games in a row before today. 4th time he's sat in the last 20 games since he's been called up.

I am. September 2, 2018 isn't going to change my mind.

Romero is starting for Rochester today. He'll be added to the Twins soon.

IMO the argument shouldn't be about Molitor keeping Odorizzi in the game too long. The argument should be that Odorizzi isn't a starting pitcher.

I watched for a little bit too. The walk on QB went to HS in my hometown so that gives me something to root for. This team is extremely young. Can't imagine they win more than a game after the conference schedule begins

Odorizzi this year faces on average 22.1 batters per start. Yesterday he faced, what do you know, 22 batters. What I'm hearing here is he should only face 18 batters no matter the circumstance.

I would take Machado for either position, frankly. There's enough concern with Sano's bat where Machado can fill in there. Polanco is decent at SS and probably better suited for 2B. As far as payroll, right now they have $32 million in committed salary. The commits already are Reed, Castro, and Pineda. In a couple of months MLBTradeRumors will release their arbitration projections and they're usually pretty accurate. I'm guessing it will take $30 million or so to sign our arbitration eligible players. So that leaves the Twins around $65 million. I don't expect the Twins to match this year's payroll figure, but they have the ability to do so. They should at least be at $100 million so that leaves $35 million to work with. Machado's first year figure of $60 million doesn't have to be as a salary. They could be creative and offer a portion of that as a signing bonus. I am planning on the Twins contending next year. They almost have to in my mind. Chicago and Detroit aren't going to be this bad forever. If the Twins expect to do anything with the current core of players, something needs to be done.

We're so far down the rabbit hole in this discussion I don't remember what the point of this is. It sounds like your Ryan LaMarre Opportunity thread again. Go back and read your thread again, because you changed your tune and who you're blaming since then.

Also, what was his pitch count entering the 6th? 80 ish pitches?

https://twitter.com/AaronGleeman/status/1035242322471145472?s=19 Concur with Gleeman. Nothing to lose by experimenting on an Odorizzi start.

I was hoping for some sort of progression with Kepler's bat. Bad luck and that low BABIP seems to follow him around since 2016. There will come a time where it's not just bad luck, and this is who he is. The defensive value he's seeing this year will be siphoned away by Buxton next season... The stick needs to get better. Kiriloff is knocking on the door.

I'm not taking the bait, man. If it's that easy to scrape through the data I'm open to reading your analysis.

1. Molitor did use those players (Adrianza, LaMarre, and Grossman) to supplement bad play from the starting 9. You were leading the LaMarre opportunity club... He played good baseball for a week, and after that, he was not good for a longer period of time. Adrianza played more than anticipated because of Polanco's suspension and he did okay. Grossman is Grossman and manages to find his way in the lineup quite a bit. So what are you advocating there? That the Twins needed more alternatives in case of injury? I agree. The options were very limited and that's not on Molitor. That's on the FO negotiating contracts with the players. 2. Yep, they needed to acquire more help at AAA. Again, that's on the FO not providing a realistic MLB alternative. The Red Wings roster for position players is unacceptable. 3. The Dodgers and Cubs of the world have the luxury of picking up these guys and developing them in the minors. Muncy as I said before crushed in AAA for a full season and April 2018 before getting his chance. The Twins don't have a Muncy on roster. That is not Molitor's fault. All of these points make it appear in my eye you're blaming the wrong person. You should be mad at Falvine for not acquiring AAAA types that could be useful in the MLB. You should be mad that they're not constantly picking up waiver wire guys in hopes they turn into a Max Muncy. Molitor and the coaching staff aren't miracle workers here. They can only work with the talent they're given. And it hasn't been good for a long time.

Moving Sano from 3B to 1B takes away his valuable arm. His range at the hot corner may be limited, but he makes outs he has no business making using that laser arm. If he continues to lose weight and work on his defense, why can't he play 3B next season? His bat is an entirely different topic and I concur with spycake on that. I don't trust his bat enough right now for either position.

I posted secondary articles because those people took the time to look at sourced data. Teams want their best hitters at the top of the lineup so they can have more PAs. Believe it or not, Brian Dozier was this team's best hitter over the previous 4 seasons. If it's not hard, and you made the demand to analyze baseball stats, I look forward to reading your conclusion.

I'm sure it would be good, but I doubt they schedule a meeting with the Twins based off that proposal. $60 million is just for 1 season. During a year where the Twins have a ton of financial flexibility and can afford to front load the hell out of a contract.

Concrete evidence. https://www.theringer.com/2017/3/31/16040426/2017-mlb-preview-leadoff-hitter-revolution-george-springer-kyle-schwarber-2e49f6ff7c58 Also, this. https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-teams-putting-top-hitters-at-top-of-lineup/c-265696482 Maddon doesn't understand his job either, I guess by batting Schwarber and Bryant 1-2 in the lineup. Nor does Brian Snitker, who continues to bat Acuna and Freeman 1-2 in his lineup.

I anticipate my response to be long too, sorry for cutting yours off. I'm not sure why you keep dismissing lack of depth on this team when discussing Molitor starting incredibly disappointing players for months. That is a real problem the team has dealt with. For example, let's take a look at how the Red Wings were shaping up on May 31. That would be 2 months into the season where 6 of the 9 starters weren't producing at the MLB level. http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2018_05_31_rocaaa_dubaaa_1&t=g_box&sid=milb Who are the Twins going to create MLB depth from in that lineup? Taylor Featherston and his .189 BA? Jermaine Curtis? I suppose they could have called up Astudillo and Cave earlier than they did. Positional depth is a real issue, and was noted even during the offseason from individuals on this website. Heading into the season with LaMarre as the anticipated 4th OF and Buxton insurance was a bad decision. A decision made by the FO, not Molitor. In regards to the Dodgers and Cubs creating their own depth from unlikely sources, it's easier to do when they're actually producing at the AAA level. Max Muncy spent the entire 2017 season in AAA batting .309 with a .905 OPS. David Bote had 2 years of .800+ OPS production at AA and AAA. Where do you see that on the Rochester Red Wings roster? So where does that leave Molitor? How does he and others create MLB quality depth from a depleted roster in AAA?

No doubt Philly is in the mix. They wanted him at the trade deadline but couldn't figure out an acceptable deal with Baltimore.