Yoke

I do wonder if he would have been drafted into the Twins system under the new leadership if anything would have gone differently. The reason I wonder is that the first year or two in the system seem like they'd be the most important ones. Get in, get to work on the mechanics, and try to move up quickly. He would have spent 4 years getting instructions from the older style, which maybe didn't have the ability to tap into his potential. Or, this just is who he is, everyone did their best to get him to a MLB level pitcher, and he just didn't have it.

Suzuki was my pick for catcher when I saw the headline and started thinking about my own version of the team. I couldn't remember off the top of my head how much time Mauer had spent at catcher. There's not much to argue about with it, really. There have only been one or two guys at each position for the last 10 years that you'd put on a good baseball team, and they're all listed.

I'd keep him at SS for the future, but sprinkle in some games at 3B and in the OF to keep him fresh with it. The more position flexibility a player can have the better. I do think that he makes his MLB debut as a 3B, unless Polanco is injured.

My plan would be to sign one high level starter and a strong RP, trade an OF for a starter, and re-sign Romo and Odorizzi. That leaves the 5th starter spot open, and the OF spot that can be filled in-house. You could talk me into signing two RP, too. You wouldn't have to try hard, either.

Really ran the gamut there, eh? F word...alright...oh damn...OH DAMN...happy F word.

With his situation that allows him to pitch in the minors, is he somebody that is allowed to get promoted to the MLB, or does he have to stay in the minors until after the Olympics? I guess he could go to the MLB, then leave for the Olympics, but that doesn't seem like something that would actually happen.

Kiriloff, Grzelakowski, Lewis, Rortvedt and De La Trinidad are all on the roster and above .700. Then there are two guys between .690 and .700, too (Blankenhorn and Costello).

I think this would be the way to go for September. Get the younger starters some more experience, and really see what you've got. It would also help with offseason plans, and maybe with trades, too.

I think Austin could turn out to have value in the long run. The other two fill their current role nicely, but I don't see them bringing much to the table in the future.

If you can get Buxton to be a .240 or .250 hitter, I’m fine with him out there every day. He brings so much to the table defensively. My plan would be to sign Forsythe to a cheap deal to bridge you to 2020. Also, if he’s cheap and goes down the tubes, you can release him without much of a hit to the pocketbook, and hope that he’s gotten you far enough that Gordon is stepping up or Arraez can come up and give it a shot for a couple months. 2019 infield is Sano, Polanco, Forsythe, Mauer/Austin. OF is Rosario, Buxton, Kepler. 2020 infield is Sano, Lewis, Polanco, Rooker. OF is Rosario, Buxton, Kiriloff.

I wouldn’t be mad if the Twins signed him for another season at a super cheap number, especially if they can’t get Escobar back. Gordon isn’t ready. There isn’t anyone at AA that’s ready to play 2B in the majors. Might as well let Forsythe be a placeholder until somebody shows that they can take the job and run with it. Really, you give him one more year and Lewis could be ready for 2020, especially if he keeps playing this well in AA and AAA. Then Polanco can switch to 2B.

Hopefully somebody claims Morrison on waivers. The trade could be for just about anything, and I'd be happy. Couple buckets of gum, maybe a half eaten bag of Skittles....really, the options are unlimited.

1.) Where are you from? Champlin, MN, but now I live in the St. Michael/Albertville area, because everybody from Champlin Park seems to be moving there. 2.) Age Range? 33 3.) What brought you to Twins Daily? I followed Seth here. 4.) Highest level of baseball/softball played? Summer after 7th grade was my last year of baseball. Meant to just take a year off then get back into it in high school. Never got back into it. Just slowpitch leagues and tourneys now. 5.) Favorite Twins Player, and favorite underappreciated Twins player, and if you want, favorite current Twins player? Kirby Puckett and Justin Morneau are probably my two favorites. I don't know if I have a favorite underappreciated Twins player. I liked David McCarty when I was little because he came to my elementary school. My favorite player right now is Eddie Rosario 6.) Favorite non-Twins Daily site/authors? 7.) Favorite Twitter follows? Michael Russo for Wild news. There are a bunch that I like for hockey, baseball, wrestling and comedy. I still like Twitter, and use it more than Facebook. 8.) Other interests outside of baseball: Hockey is my main thing. I like it more than baseball. Kind of geek out for pro-wrestling. 9.) Favorite part of Twins Daily: The daily minor league reports and the minor league forum. The major league forum I don't read much. 10.) Tell us what we can do better. What features or other topics would you like to see in-season or out of season? In season Q&A's would be cool, or even getting a minor league player to come on and answer questions in a thread, like a Reddit AMA. Just hope they don't read the threads where there's the one guy telling them they suck. 11.) Have you been to any of the Twins Daily "events?" Nope.

I think he'd fit in really well as the 4th OF. Seems like he has a little pop, and he plays solid defense.

The only thing I would do is DFA Adrianza and call up Gordon. It would have been the move to make when Sano went down, and I hope that it's what they would have done had they known Sano was going to be out for more than 10 days. Sending down Buxton will get him crushing AAA pitching, but hasn't he done that before, then came up and done nothing? Let him figure it out.

They're on a bus

I don't care if he raps, plays the banjo, interpretive dances or knits kitten mittens in his spare time. What's important is that he produces when he's at the ballpark. If he can't, there is somebody that will take his spot.

Thank you for doing these. I look forward to listening tonight or tomorrow.

Gotcha. Basically weighted towards guys at the higher levels. That makes sense. I lean towards potential a bit more, but use levels/age as more of a tiebreaker.

With the idea of looking at prospect rankings as who is closest to MLB vs. potential, wouldn't that make somebody like Royce Lewis rank outside the top 10, maybe top 20 in a prospect ranking? I think looking at it that way would bump AAAA type players a lot higher on a list than potential impact players. It's also possible that I'm misunderstanding, but it seems like ranking on how close they are to the MLB is more of a depth chart than a prospect ranking.

Hard pass on everyone but Tillman. That one's a soft pass that I wouldn't love or hate. With most of them, I'd rather just go with somebody in the system, and spend the money on top notch relief pitching.

The schedule so far has been good for the team, but it sucks as a fan. So many days off, it really has been hard to get into the season.

Contractually speaking, it might be for the best. You can put him on LTIR for the end of his contract, and the parts where him retiring would really hurt the team, they wouldn't be in as much of a cap bind. The team still has to pay him, but you would probably be paying him anyways to come around and do stuff with the team PR wise (though, you'd pay him way less for that). I hate to see him hurt though. One of my favorite players to watch. It most likely will be something that he misses a little time for every year, like Twins33 said.

The stuff came out yesterday about Parise's back bothering him, and he could miss the beginning of camp. Hopefully it's mostly just being cautious, and not a big deal.