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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?

There have been dozens of threads on TD over the last 10 days about whether the twins should be buyers or sellers. Whether they should make a trade to attempt a push towards October this year, or maintain the long-term trajectory and hold to the rebuilding strategy the FO seems to be holding to. My question and thought is, is there a possibility we could do both? I've seen people calling for catching help, and I've seen people calling for bullpen help. Those seem to be the two main positions of need. I would add that we need DH and shortstop upgrades as well. My question is, how can the twins attempt to be relevant this year, while not sacrificing the hopes of building a long-term competitive team?
 
I will attempt to answer my own question with as few words as possible...which doesn't come easily to me. I think the first step IMO is to call up Sano, Polanco and a combination of one or two of the following relief arms that the organization deems to be the most ready. Achter, Oliveros, Meyer or Burdi. My reasoning is Sano may not bat to his future potential this year, but he is advanced enough that its not going to hurt him, and he will be significantly better than what we are getting currently out of the DH position, even if he can only manage to bat .250/.300/.475 with 15 home runs over the rest of the year. My thought is DH him 3-4 days a week, then give Mauer off a day or two a week, and slide Plouffe to first so that Sano can continue to get reps at third to see if he can stick there. Play Polanco at short. His bat is advanced enough that he deserves a shot, and will upgrade the position offensively from Escobar/Nunez. Don't get me wrong, I like Escobar and think he's a great utility infielder, but would prefer Polancos bat. I think he at least deserves a shot to prove whether or not he should stay at short, and why not let him prove that in Minnesota, where the fans can watch him hit.
 
As far as the bullpen help goes, sub one or two of those previously mentioned guys out for Duensing for sure and then maybe another for one of the other rarely used relievers.
 
I still have not addressed the catcher issue, and don't know realistically if that can/will be addressed this season. However, by inserting Sano and Polanco into the lineup you can then bat Suzuki/Hermann in the number 8 or 9 spot and they will be much less of a liability than they are batting 5th or 6th.
 
Again, I don't think anyone expects the twins to win the world series this year. While that would be nice, its just not going to happen short of a couple dozen miracles. However, I don't think that its out of the realm of possibility for the twins to play .500 ball the rest of the way and end up with 85 wins and a shot at a hard-fought division title, or maybe within reach of a wild-card spot. If nothing else, they would be relevant and fans would stay interested. They don't need jaw-dropping changes, just slight improvements, and by getting a little more production offensively from the DH and short stop and removing the bullpen liabilities while adding some guys in there that can actually be of some help, I think we would make ourselves better this year, while not jeopardizing, and in fact continuing to develop talent for the years to come.

There have been dozens of threads on TD over the last 10 days about whether the twins should be buyers or sellers. Whether they should make a trade to attempt a push towards October this year, or maintain the long-term trajectory and hold to the rebuilding strategy the FO seems to be holding to. My question and thought is, is there a possibility we could do both? I've seen people calling for catching help, and I've seen people calling for bullpen help. Those seem to be the two main positions of need. I would add that we need DH and shortstop upgrades as well. My question is, how can the twins attempt to be relevant this year, while not sacrificing the hopes of building a long-term competitive team?
 
I will attempt to answer my own question with as few words as possible...which doesn't come easily to me. I think the first step IMO is to call up Sano, Polanco and a combination of one or two of the following relief arms that the organization deems to be the most ready. Achter, Oliveros, Meyer or Burdi. My reasoning is Sano may not bat to his future potential this year, but he is advanced enough that its not going to hurt him, and he will be significantly better than what we are getting currently out of the DH position, even if he can only manage to bat .250/.300/.475 with 15 home runs over the rest of the year. My thought is DH him 3-4 days a week, then give Mauer off a day or two a week, and slide Plouffe to first so that Sano can continue to get reps at third to see if he can stick there. Play Polanco at short. His bat is advanced enough that he deserves a shot, and will upgrade the position offensively from Escobar/Nunez. Don't get me wrong, I like Escobar and think he's a great utility infielder, but would prefer Polancos bat. I think he at least deserves a shot to prove whether or not he should stay at short, and why not let him prove that in Minnesota, where the fans can watch him hit.
 
As far as the bullpen help goes, sub one or two of those previously mentioned guys out for Duensing for sure and then maybe another for one of the other rarely used relievers.
 
I still have not addressed the catcher issue, and don't know realistically if that can/will be addressed this season. However, by inserting Sano and Polanco into the lineup you can then bat Suzuki/Hermann in the number 8 or 9 spot and they will be much less of a liability than they are batting 5th or 6th.
 
Again, I don't think anyone expects the twins to win the world series this year. While that would be nice, its just not going to happen short of a couple dozen miracles. However, I don't think that its out of the realm of possibility for the twins to play .500 ball the rest of the way and end up with 85 wins and a shot at a hard-fought division title, or maybe within reach of a wild-card spot. If nothing else, they would be relevant and fans would stay interested. They don't need jaw-dropping changes, just slight improvements, and by getting a little more production offensively from the DH and short stop and removing the bullpen liabilities while adding some guys in there that can actually be of some help, I think we would make ourselves better this year, while not jeopardizing, and in fact continuing to develop talent for the years to come.

I am new to Twins Daily, and this is my first blog posting on here. With the most recent news of the Twins calling up Byron Buxton, I figured what better time to write my first blog post. I, like all other die-hard Twins fans have suffered through four long years of extremely disappointing and hard to watch baseball. While I don't view him as the fix-all savior for this team, I do believe he is going to be a key fixture in a very potent lineup for years to come, and am pretty pumped and optimistic about this move by the Twins FO. My question is this year, what impact will he have? How much better will the Twins be with him playing center and in the lineup every day? Here's my stab at answering that question. And while I may be an optimistic fan, I don't think I'm too far off base.
 
I think the Twins need to have Buxton play every day as their lead-off man. While Brian Dozier has been solid there, I am a firm believer that your team leader in home runs should not be your lead-off man. Dozier has been the most consistent hitter in the Twins lineup, but is only 4th on the team in RBI. You've got to think that if he had been hitting second or third, that he'd be competing for first in RBI. I'd also love to see him start hitting some 2 and 3 run home runs instead of all those solo shots. Not to fault Molitor in any way, Dozier has been the most consistent table setter, and they really have had no other options...up until now, that is. Joe Mauers' struggles have been well documented, but the one thing he has done well is hit with runners in scoring position. So having Buxton and Dozier batting in front of him, makes me optimistic that we can hopefully see more of those situations in which Joe seems to thrive. We may not see him hit .325 again, but if we can at least consistently get guys on in front of him and watch him drive in 90-100 runners, it makes that $23 million salary a little more palatable. Plouffe is not anyone's dream clean-up hitter, but he is consistent enough for now until its Miguel Sano's time to shine. And he seems to be climbing out of his slump ever so slightly over the past couple of games.Personally, I really like Plouffe, but my guess is the Twins deal him at the end of July for a pitcher or a catcher if they're still contending...or for couple of prospects if they've fallen off the map. I would expect that would be the time Sano gets his call. That leaves you with Torii batting fifth, instead of second, which makes me much more comfortable. Betting sixth, you've got Kennys Vargas. This might be the biggest improvement in my opinion. I heard on the broadcast today that Vargas is hitting below .200 when batting 4th or 5th. But he is batting right around .350 when batting 6th or 7th. By having Buxton in the lineup, now the Twins can bat Vargas in a less high-pressure spot, allow him to get comfortable, and then down the road they can consider sliding him back up in the lineup where his (hopeful) power will play better. You've then got Rosario batting seventh, Suzuki eighth, and E2 batting ninth. To me, that's all of a sudden a lineup that doesn't make you want to shut the game off after the number 5 batter hits.
 
Anyway, just my two cents. Statistically wise, not quite sure what line Buxton puts up this year, but I'd be happy with him leading off the rest of the year and putting up a line around .280/.350/.450 and stealing 10-15 bases. His defense I think, will make the Twins significantly better. Personally I'd love to see Hicks stick around as the 4th outfielder, splitting time with Torii Hunter in right. I think his defense is good enough to earn him that platoon role (with the exception of last nights disaster he's been pretty good). An outfield of Hicks/Hunter, Buxton and Rosario seems better than anything we've seen so far this year. After this afternoon I'd be just fine with never seeing E2 in the outfield again, and hopefully this move makes that possible.
 
Anyway, please chime in with thoughts on how you expect Byron Buxton to contribute to, and better this team.

I am new to Twins Daily, and this is my first blog posting on here. With the most recent news of the Twins calling up Byron Buxton, I figured what better time to write my first blog post. I, like all other die-hard Twins fans have suffered through four long years of extremely disappointing and hard to watch baseball. While I don't view him as the fix-all savior for this team, I do believe he is going to be a key fixture in a very potent lineup for years to come, and am pretty pumped and optimistic about this move by the Twins FO. My question is this year, what impact will he have? How much better will the Twins be with him playing center and in the lineup every day? Here's my stab at answering that question. And while I may be an optimistic fan, I don't think I'm too far off base.
 
I think the Twins need to have Buxton play every day as their lead-off man. While Brian Dozier has been solid there, I am a firm believer that your team leader in home runs should not be your lead-off man. Dozier has been the most consistent hitter in the Twins lineup, but is only 4th on the team in RBI. You've got to think that if he had been hitting second or third, that he'd be competing for first in RBI. I'd also love to see him start hitting some 2 and 3 run home runs instead of all those solo shots. Not to fault Molitor in any way, Dozier has been the most consistent table setter, and they really have had no other options...up until now, that is. Joe Mauers' struggles have been well documented, but the one thing he has done well is hit with runners in scoring position. So having Buxton and Dozier batting in front of him, makes me optimistic that we can hopefully see more of those situations in which Joe seems to thrive. We may not see him hit .325 again, but if we can at least consistently get guys on in front of him and watch him drive in 90-100 runners, it makes that $23 million salary a little more palatable. Plouffe is not anyone's dream clean-up hitter, but he is consistent enough for now until its Miguel Sano's time to shine. And he seems to be climbing out of his slump ever so slightly over the past couple of games.Personally, I really like Plouffe, but my guess is the Twins deal him at the end of July for a pitcher or a catcher if they're still contending...or for couple of prospects if they've fallen off the map. I would expect that would be the time Sano gets his call. That leaves you with Torii batting fifth, instead of second, which makes me much more comfortable. Betting sixth, you've got Kennys Vargas. This might be the biggest improvement in my opinion. I heard on the broadcast today that Vargas is hitting below .200 when batting 4th or 5th. But he is batting right around .350 when batting 6th or 7th. By having Buxton in the lineup, now the Twins can bat Vargas in a less high-pressure spot, allow him to get comfortable, and then down the road they can consider sliding him back up in the lineup where his (hopeful) power will play better. You've then got Rosario batting seventh, Suzuki eighth, and E2 batting ninth. To me, that's all of a sudden a lineup that doesn't make you want to shut the game off after the number 5 batter hits.
 
Anyway, just my two cents. Statistically wise, not quite sure what line Buxton puts up this year, but I'd be happy with him leading off the rest of the year and putting up a line around .280/.350/.450 and stealing 10-15 bases. His defense I think, will make the Twins significantly better. Personally I'd love to see Hicks stick around as the 4th outfielder, splitting time with Torii Hunter in right. I think his defense is good enough to earn him that platoon role (with the exception of last nights disaster he's been pretty good). An outfield of Hicks/Hunter, Buxton and Rosario seems better than anything we've seen so far this year. After this afternoon I'd be just fine with never seeing E2 in the outfield again, and hopefully this move makes that possible.
 
Anyway, please chime in with thoughts on how you expect Byron Buxton to contribute to, and better this team.