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They are at 8-4 since the beginning of the White Sox series. In those games, they are 5-3 against .500 or better teams that either are or could be playoff contenders. It may not be the most fun way to watch our team win baseball games...it would be much more fun to watch them score 8 runs a game. But if they’ve won 5 of 8 against playoff contenders without their offense clicking I think that’s room for optimism if anything, because I too agree that things will get better offensively. Their starters have started pitching competitively and their bullpen has somehow managed to hang onto a lot of narrow leads. Let’s go twins!

I was pretty impressed with matt magill tonight. First time ive watched him pitch. But if he is our “blow-out and mop-up guy” and pitches like that, thats a pretty good weapon. Many other plusses from the game tonight...we beat a good team, not just the white sox, rosario continues to be on fire, and Romero looks awesome! Figured id just call out the guy most likely to be the unsung hero of the game.

I would be happy with that deal for Sano. I'd like to lock him up through his age 31 season, so that would mean buying out another two years on top of what you threw out. I think the twins should do 20-25 million a year for those free agent years. This would likely put the Twins north of 100 million, but for what will likely end up being the prime of Sano's career, it could end up being a bargain.

Just saw the lineups. Its Buxton, Escobar, Dozier, Plouffe, Rosario, Hunter, Nunez, Suzuki, Robinson. Come on. This is suppose to be a defining series against a good team and no Sano or Mauer in the lineup? I understand they need rest, and Mauer is not that great right now, but at least lets alternate their days off!

This is more out of curiosity than thinking you have an answer. But if we cut him, would another team pick him up? Also, if we moved Sano to 1st, would we extend Plouffe to be our long-term third baseman? Cause I don't really see any promising options coming through the minors.

Yet another opportunity to play Sano at third, and Molitor for some reason can't seem to play him there. I guess we need to justify paying Nunez? Or is it more that we have no one else worthy of being a major league DH? Our other options would have been Robinson or Fryer...and nobody wants to see that. Still, I'd rather see Sano at third and Nunez at DH.

I'm not absolutely sure about that. I'd like to see Sano play at third some more before destining him to be a lifelong DH, but he'll have value wherever he plays. Do they keep Plouffe around long term then? If not who else do they have for third?

IMO Graham has been surprisingly solid in his role. At 7.2 K/9, he is sadly one of the better strikeout pitchers in our pen. I think he can continue as a productive long reliever and occasional 7th inning guy. If someone else steps up and proves he can be more effective, I'm all for that. Until then, I'm happy with Graham in that role. To address the outfield situation I think they view Torii next year as more of a DH than an outfielder. I would hope they give Sano time to improve at third much like they did Plouffe, mainly for the reason of they have way too much depth in the outfield to convert a third baseman to play there. I think Arcia will be their primary 4th outfielder and occasional DH, and hope he gets some chances to pinch hit. I would then predict he is traded by the deadline, and Kepler is with the team by mid year. I think ABW makes an appearance at some point as well when Torii can no longer catch up to a fastball and takes over as DH. I could see him having an impact similar to Kennys Vargas' impact in 2014 toward the end of the year. Speaking of Vargas...much to my dismay I think the twins give up on him and ship him somewhere in a trade and then watch him develop into a slightly less powerful Adam Dunn/Ryan Howard type of a player.

The one big off-season move that I think will happen is that Trevor Plouffe gets traded. As much as I love him, and many twins fans do, I do not think he fits long-term, or is in their long-term plans. I'd love to see him stick around, but our corner infield spots are just too crowded. I think eventually they move Sano over to first, but I doubt they do that before 2019 due to one Joe Mauer locked in financially through the 2018 season. So here is what I would like to see done with Plouffe who is a productive MLB third baseman and controllable through two more years. The twins must address the situation at catcher, and I would think they should be able to get a valuable catcher via trade for Plouffe and maybe one minor league player. If I had my way about it, I would go shopping for a catcher out on the west coast. The Giants have Andrew Susac pinned down behind Buster Posey, but I would imagine they move Posey in the next year or two out from behind the plate, and would like to keep Susac in line for the starting job when that happens. Also it does not appear that they have a pressing need at third base. The team that might have a use for a veteran third baseman/first baseman for a couple of years is the San Diego Padres. While their situation is not a dire one, Plouffe could serve them well. I think a straight up trade Plouffer for Derek Norris trade would be great. He is young and has team control for several years. He is good on defense and holds his own with the bat. If they won't trade straight up, then maybe adding in a mid level reliever prospect would do the trick. The one other move that could shore up the catching job would be to bring in Matt Wieters who will be a free agent this off season. This could allow us to use Plouffe as trade material for a top-flight relief pitcher to shore up our bullpen...a Darren O'day or Jake Mcgee type of guy, not another Kevin Jepsen. This is less likely, as the Twins are pretty reluctant to go get big name players on the free agent market, but I'd be happy if they could land him. If they were able to land Wieters, they'd probably need to free up some salary space for him, and I would hope they could find some team in desperate need of a 4th or 5th starter who they could dump Nolasco and his 12 or 13 million on for basically just a salary dump and maybe a couple young low-level prospects with maybe a bit of an upside. Would mostly be looking just to free up his salary for someone who will help us compete. I might prefer the first move for Norris, as Wieters has struggled with injuries the last couple years. Either way, I think catcher is the position of biggest need heading into next season and the Twins must find a way to upgrade. Next up will be the bullpen. I think one top flight reliever would do the trick. A dominant Wade Davis, Darren O'day, Mark Melancon type to lock down the eighth inning. I don't know how we get that, as most teams don't have guys like that to spare...unless your the royals. But Trevor Plouffe trade to a team in need of a solid defensive third baseman might get it done. Maybe Arcia or Vargas or Santana can rebuild enough value through the rest of this season and maybe the AFL that they could be packaged for a good reliever. O'day and Bud Norris are also free agents this winter along with several other good relief pitchers, so maybe we make a splash in free agency here if we don't have the trade chips in place because we used Plouffe for a catcher. Anyway, I view those as the two most important positions to upgrade in the off season. I think there are a number of other positions that could be upgraded as well. A lot of people will plead for a shortstop, but I personally think we need to give Polanco more of a shot. Two games twice a year are not enough to prove whether you belong or not. You'll also see Hunters name in the roster below. Regardless of your opinion on whether or not the twins should extend him another year, I think they will. I think they really value his leadership, and they will still be a really young team. My guess is he'll be an occasional DH, fourth outfielder, and bench bat with some pop. Here is what I would like the 25 man roster will look like to start the year in 2016. C- Derek Norris 1B- Joe Mauer 2B- Brian Dozier SS- Jorge Polanco 3B- Miguel Sano RF- Aaron Hicks CF- Byron Buxton LF-Eddie Rosario DH- Hunter vs lefties, Arcia vs. righties. Bench Arcia Escobar Suzuki Nunez Starters- In no particular order Hughes Santana Gibson May Berrios Relievers Graham Pressley Jepsen Perkins Best LH option in system Best RH option in system- Not sure at this point who these two would be. Oliveros, Achter, Burdi, Jay, Duffy, Rogers...kind of a toss-up at this point. top flight reliever via trade or free agency So what are your thoughts on the moves the twins should make this off season, and what their roster will look like to start 2016

I may be old fashioned, but I think all the new defensive metrics make a decent fielder look a lot worse than he really is. According to new defensive metrics, Derek Jeter wasn't a great shortstop, but we've all seen him play, and would all agree, he was pretty good. All that to say, Escobar has proven he is the best option we have right now. He made some good plays last night, has proven that he can hit the ball to the gaps, and can do it in high pressure situations. http://goo.gl/YZAQqs He is a league average shortstop...lets be happy with that and appreciate that he is significantly better than Santana right now. At this point, I'd be happy with a league average shortstop for the next three years until Gordon is ready. If Polanco pans out, great...I'd love his bat. If not, we've still got a league average shortstop right here on our roster.

I agree times 10. Tulo is has been a great player, and probably will continue to be above average as a shortstop wherever he ends up...when hes healthy. But with Nick Gordon and Jorge Polanco on their way, there is simply not room for that contract. Spend that money to lock up Sano this off-season, and Buxton next year. We already have enough aging veterans blocking our prospects, lets not do it again. Lets learn a thing or two from the tigers...old guys only last so long, and if you spend everything to get them, when they fizzle out, your left with nothing, not even a farm system.

I hope to see him again. Not sure if he'll be the right fielder of the future for them, but I think he needs a shot to prove if he should stay while we get a better look at some of our other prospects and how they develop. If nothing else, hopefully he can build some good trade value by getting some playing time.

With eight MLB at-bats under his belt, its not fair to say we've seen what Miguel Sano is made of yet. He is hitting .375 with a double, an RBI, a run scored and a .500 slugging percentage. Those look pretty good, but his 50% strikeout rate does not. All that is simply to say that he has not shown us enough to judge from his stats what kind of a player he is going to be. I have noticed several things from him though aside from his stats about the way he plays the game, and they make me feel pretty optimistic about his chances of being here for good. 1. He is not afraid to hit MLB pitching. We saw Byron Buxton debut several weeks ago and he looked positively over matched against big league pitchers. Even though Miguel Sano has struck out 4 times in 8 at-bats, I don't think he has looked over-matched in a single one of them. He has the look of a guy who knows he can hit at this level and hit off these pitchers. As much as I hate to say it, Buxton looked overwhelmed and over-matched. The three fastballs that Guthrie threw by Sano late in the game was simply an instance of an eager young batter in an RBI situation late in an important game, and a savvy veteran taking advantage of that. I don't think pitchers will be buzzing three fastballs by Sano for very long. He barely missed all three of them, and had he connected, the twins would have won that game 4-2. 2. He is surprisingly athletic for such a big guy. Sano's first major league hit was an infield hit to a good shortstop. He beat it out with no room to spare, and looked good doing it. Vargas would have been out by three steps on that ball. His second hit of the night last night was a rocket that he stung over the head of Alex Gordon. Again, had that been Vargas, you have to believe he would have been thrown out as Sano barely beat the tag. And he also had a clean, athletic, injury-free slide that looked really good for 6'4" and 260 pounds. I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays third, as he looks to me to have too much athleticism to spend his career as a DH. For now, though, I'm just happy with him in the lineup. 3. He does not plan on going anywhere anytime soon. The way Sano has played, and the confidence he has shown look like a player who thinks, and intends to prove that he belongs here at the big league level. We have seen with Danny Santana, that confidence is key, and Sano looks like he has it. So what are your thoughts? Do you expect Sano to stay in Minnesota for the rest of the year? If so, why? And if not, why not?

My point was that by playing these guys this year, it will prepare them better for next year. Why not get the rookie jitters out the=is year, so they can all be a more polished and experienced bunch next year. After all, it seems most of those guys are MLB ready, or close to it.

I've posted it several times in different blogs or comments over the last couple of weeks, but as much as I'd love to think the twins can compete this year, I don't think they are going to. However, I do think that the Twins can win 80-82 games, and at least be fun to watch, and the recent surge of minor league talent flooding the big league team has kept me very interested in the big league team despite a losing month of June. I've watched the major league debut's of Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton, Alex Meyer and look forward to watching Miguel Sano hit a 430 foot bomb tonight against the Royals. My opinion is that the twins FO is doing things right, and I hope and pray that they don't trade away any valuable future prospects this month in an attempt to win 4 or 5 more games. I strongly believe that we have the talent to be a .500 team within our organization, and I hope that the front office believes that as well, and sees that trying to please the fan base by making the playoffs is not worth sacrificing any of our potential future stars. I think I speak for most of the twins fan base in saying that what would make me more happy than getting to the playoffs and then losing in 3 games...or maybe even 1, would be to finish around .500 and continue to see glimpses of who we will be next year, and for years to come. With this in mind, what would you like the 25-man roster to look like by years end? Below I have put the current roster on top and my ideal roster underneath. Below that I have put down what I would like our lineup and starting rotation as well as our bullpen to look like down the stretch in August and September. Catchers Kurt Suzuki Chris Hermann Infielders Brian Dozier Joe Mauer Trevor Plouffe Eduardo Escobar Eduardo Nunez Danny Santana Miguel Sano Outfielders Torii hunter Eddie Rosario Shane Robinson Pitchers Phil Hughes Kyle Gibson Mike Pelfrey Tommy Milone Trevor May Blaine Boyer Aaron Thompson Ryan Pressley Glen Perkins Alex Meyer JR Graham Casey Fien Brian Duensing Catchers Kurt Suzuki Chris Hermann Infielders Brian Dozier Joe Mauer Jorge Polanco Trevor Plouffe Miguel Sano Eduardo Escobar Eduardo Nunez Outfielders Byron Buxton Eddie Rosario Torii Hunter Oswaldo Arcia or Max Kepler...(whoever the twins see as ready, and part of their future) Pitchers Phil Hughes Ervin Santana Kyle Gibson Trevor May JO Berrios Alex Meyer J R Graham Taylor Rogers Blaine Boyer Casey Fien Logan Darnell (if the twins want a 3rd lefty in their bullpen) otherwise AJ Achter or Tyler Duffey Glen Perkins Ideal Starting rotation: Hughes, Santana, Gibson, May and Berrios. We'd have Alex Meyer for a spot start if needed and trusted, or Milone in AAA. Long relievers: Meyer and Graham. Either of these guys could be used in higher leverage situations if they prove capable over the next few weeks/months. Mid relievers: Meyer, Graham, Rogers, Boyer and either Darnell/Achter/Duffey Setup relievers: Fien and possibly Boyer and Darnell/Achter/Duffey And we all know who the closer is. Ideal starting lineup Buxton CF Dozier 2B Mauer 1B (if Mauer continues to progress. If not, swap him with Rosario, but you need a lefty here) Sano DH Plouffe 3B Rosario LF Hunter RF (Arcia every 3rd or 4th day) Polanco SS Suzuki C That would be an exciting lineup and pitching staff...one that would keep me watching through September.