ewen21

Dozier has been consistently horrible in close and late situations: https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats.cgi?full=1&params=clutc%7CLate%20%26%20Close%7Cdoziebr01%7Cbat%7CAB%7C On the other hand, when the run margin in greater than 4 runs he is much MUCH better: https://www.baseball-reference.com/play-index/split_stats.cgi?full=1&params=clutc%7CMargin%20%3E%204%20R%7Cdoziebr01%7Cbat%7CAB%7C There is enough statistical evidence to destroy any dismissiveness about how he performs in these situations. And if anyone thinks playoff teams are unaware of these statistics or are going to ignore them in trade negotiations they need to think again. This is more about the Twins than it is Dozier. He could have done better this year to command more value and demand and he choked in that area. Not the Twins fault.

He has been on awful teams he seems to always heat up as soon as the season is lost I am tired of his act as well. He ticked me off with his comments about CIsco bunting on us early in the season and did it again after Escobar was hit by Porcello. What the heck is this all about? Is this supposed to be "breaking chops" which allegedly equates to "keeping the clubhouse loose" i.e "leadership"? Not funny (especially in front of the camera) when the incident was still fresh.

Still not sure what the trouble is. But OK....life goes on

YES, we actually are in agreement here. Remember the Dozier thread last year? Seems hardly worth it to have a reprisal of what happened there. I would be interested to know what kind of prospect we'd get. I actually agree with beckmt. Hard to imagine doing much better than the QO. THat isn't what I want the Twins to do because I feel Dozier has to be moved at this point. He is not a fit here

The fact is Dozier couldn't fetch much in last year's market and he is going to fetch probably less this year. We saw the offer last year. What can we honestly expect when the guy has had a down year?

What troubles you about my post? Be specific please and I will answer you.

The real question for them would be how much better is Dozier going to make us? and Do we do a one year rental on a player who is having a down year? Generally speaking, the team dealing such a player is not in a position of strength.

Dozier will give us very little in return. He is 31, having a down year, there are a lot of good second baseman in the game and he is just a rental. Sorry to say, but teams aren't lining up for him and we are not in a position of strength

How players play seems not to matter. All this talk earlier in the year about just throwing Buxton out there and giving him at bats because he "isn't going to learn anything at AA" while he hits .150 in the majors was maddening to me. Don't call up players that are not hitting. Period. The problem is, Rochester is a consipiracy of ineptitude offensively

Huh?

An update: http://www.1500espn.com/twins-2/2018/06/derek-falvey-progress-byron-buxton-miguel-sano-jorge-polanco/ In five games with the Miracle, Sano’s hitting .250/.400/.300 with seven strikeouts and five walks in 25 plate appearances. The slugger was sent to the Twins’ complex in Florida to work on both his conditioning and pitch recognition. In a small sample size, the strikeouts are still high, but Falvey said his conditioning has improved since arriving two weeks ago. “We talked about the holistic plan around Miguel,” he said. “The conditioning has gotten better and better. He’s lost weight, done a good job. It’s not just the weight number, we want to make sure he’s strong. We’ve seen some things from an offensive standpoint in terms of adjustments. He’s progressing.” In two weeks his conditioning improved. As I said yesterday, he could have done nothing until New Year's Day and still come into camp in shape. If committed, given all the resources and time he had, it should have been a slam dunk. Even if he did nothing until New Year's Day!

Let's call a circle a circle and a square a square. He messed up this off season and there is no way around it. Doesn't make him a bad person. When I was his age I was a college dropout. Dropped out after my Junior year and damn near lost my mind for about six months. It took me almost a full year for me to get past whatever it was that caused me to struggle, but it was ALL ON ME and I pulled it together. Far be it from me to turn on this kid. I am not saying he is a terrible person or saying anything controversial by questioning his work ethic. It needs to be questioned because of where he is at. If there is some kind of compelling issue that impeded him from preparing for a season post microfracture surgery, I haven't heard of it. I have to simply take it on its face, and again....this is fixable. If he can push through this year and show some life, then come into camp next year refreshed and in good condition a lot of people will give him a mulligan.

Who cares? That is what you think and feel. That is what I am saying. If anyone thinks it is an assumption that he didn't work hard enough because he didn't care enough they are going to have to give me something concrete as to what else could have impeded him, otherwise they are making assumptions themselves. This is simple stuff. People don't fall into a situation like Miguel is in without being neglectful, irresponsible and far to sedentary. This idea that "you really don't know what he was doing" is ridiculous to me. I know when he came into camp the Twins and the media remarked immediately on his appearance. I know I reserved judgment until I saw him because there have been criticisms about his weight before and I did not think it was a big problem. That changed when I saw him this year for the first time. This is a guy that had microfracture surgery and for him to gain weight rather than rip down (not asking much, 10 or 15 pounds) is a terrible job by him.

"Matt Belisle is the man. When I saw that, I was pumped. I even texted Hildy. I was like, 'Dude, give Matty B a big old hug for me.' I was happy to see that. I love Matty B" Sorry, but Booze sounds like a dimwit here smh

Maybe you need to consider that the answer is actually more obvious than you want to think. It gets silly when people try to over complicate something simple. You want me to be more sensitive? I am quite aware of the circumstances Sano has encountered over his career and it all started with Pelotero Ballplayer (which I have seen about ten times). I don't think I could be more sympathetic to toward this player than I have already been dating back to the day he was drafted. I think the Twins were doing a terrible job with Latin players during the Gardy and Ryan years and when Sano got suspended in New Britain for that home run trot I was furious. I defended him like a pit bull and slammed the Twins for their insane overreaction. Before the year started there was plenty of discussion about Sano and I defended him again. I even expressed a lack of concern about his weight because I though he was strong enough. I no longer feel this way because we have hit a tipping point. I can no longer defend him. Seems as though you are accusing me of not thinking this through and you couldn't be further from the truth. I have explored a variety excuses in my mind trying to give him the benefit of the doubt for quite some time now and I cannot do that in this scenario because it is as simple as 1-2-3. Make whatever excuse you want to make for him, but in the five months of off season that he had he went significantly backward and the excuses are just not good enough, sorry. I understand his daughter died, but that was four years ago. He played through that back in AA with aplomb, but that was then and this is now. Are we to assume that there was some exceptional event that prevented him from eating properly and working out to a level that would achieve a reasonable level of fitness? Seems as though you want me to operate under that assumption. Sorry, not gonna operate under an assumption Everyone goes through times in their life where they need to do some soul searching and Miguel is there on his own volition. For a professional athlete to let themselves go the way he has is unacceptable. I defended him when a teammate made comments about him being a "ticking time bomb". I went off on Plouffe and May for weighing in on the #metoo incident. This is different. This is simple and cut and dried. Over the off season he let himself go and it isn't up to me to come up with the WHY. I have read people insist that it is genetic or his real problem has to do with mechanics (while the connection to his physical state and its affect on them gets treated like an afterthought). All of these excuses attempt to take the emphasis away from the fact that he was irresponsible and he let his team down (and himself down). Time for him to act like an adult. Have fun on the ballfield and style all you want when you hit a HR. Wear the dreads long and the doo-rag. Wear war paint if you want, I honestly don't care. But when it comes to doing your job and personal responsibility cut it out with the excuses. I don't want to hear the excuses anymore. This isn't rocket science. He has five months every off season to work on his body. If he had a reasonable diet plan (not that hard!) and worked out an hour and a half a day six days a week (also not hard given that is his only baseball responsibility) he would be a lot better off. Don't give me excuses because you weren't there either. It isn't like you know exactly what impeded him from doing what he needed to do. He has more control of this situation than what you suggest. I have been in his corner until now. Not this time. This is one area where a player can put his stamp on his career. He has all the talent in the world and what is he doing with it? Not much by the looks. The great thing is that this is fixable. If he comes back next year in excellent shape and a renewed spirit people will get in his corner again.

I don't see it that way at all. Not at all. He came into camp and there were rumblings from the Twins in the media right away before most of us even saw him. When most saw him it caused a reaction. No one had seen the guy for almost five months and he put on bad weight after having microfracture surgery on his shin. He had nothing else to do over a five month period but to eat properly and train effectively. He failed miserably in that department because whatever he did he didn't do nearly enough. YOu want to talk about maturity? I don't want to hear it. Take a look at other young star players in the game, guys even younger than Miguel, and you will see a great many of them commit themselves to being in the best possible condition they can be. Sano isn't an EMT, a police officer, a school teacher or whatever. He is a professional athlete and it is HIS JOB to be sure stuff like this doesn't happen. He didn't do what his employer needed him to do. SImple as that. The sad part is he could have done virtually nothing for three months and then whipped himself into shape over the last six weeks of the off season. I have done body transformations while I working a full time job, I have seen others with all sorts of physical limitations do the same. THis guy has five months of free time and he comes back needing time to condition himself? That was the Twins judgment and they are much closer to the situation than anyone else. I keep reading people are drawing conclusions they cannot draw due to lack of information. Well, apparently the Twins are concerned about his conditioning to where he is in A ball to get his body conditioned. If that doesn't tell us all something I don't know what will.

I defended Sano long enough. He is the one responsible for where he is right now with regard to conditioning. He was irresponsible in that area this winter. I don't where anyone can dispute that. If people want to call that lazy I don't understand what the problem is. I fell out of shape in my life and it was because I got lazy. He is a professional athlete and has all the resources you and I could ever want at his fingertips for months on end. He also had microfracture surgery on his shin.

My problem with this whole debate is the constant berating people get from those who believe nothing can be discerned about one's physical fitness through observation. This refrain I keep seeing.... "you don't know because you weren't there watching him" or "you can't say things about his character" is getting very annoying. I am saying nothing about his character unless you assume that anyone who is 30 to 40 pounds overweight has character issues. I do not make that assumption and I am not making an assumption or going after his character if I say he is out of shape and should have done a better job. People who noticed this early shouldn't be on the defensive and I feel anyone who has been critical of his conditioning HAS BEEN put on the defensive for a perception that his "character" is being attacked. With that I am walking away from this unless someone wants to quote me or PM me.

Holy overreaction. To say we know nothing about them, what they care about and how they work doesn't compute with me. HE didn't care enough to rip down in an offseason where he needed to because of the microfracture surgery. This is idea that we "know nothing" about what he did, cares about or how he works makes zero sense. It is pretty simple to draw conclusions about people if we are talking about fitness. If he were working hard and doing what he was supposed to do he would not be down in Florida conditioning his body DURING the season. He allowed this to get this way all by himself. That doesn't happen unless you go completely off the reservation for five months. Period. End of story. You and others seem to think people can discern nothing from hours, days, weeks, months and years of observation. You will remember right away there were questions about his weight and physical condition once he arrived in camp by the Twins and the media. Then we saw him and it was pretty clear he put on some weight after microfracture surgery on his shin. What does that say about his preparation? If ever there was a season for him to rip down and ease the load on those legs it was this season and he was ill prepared (to say the least) People want to say it is "mechanics" yet don't realize/accept/fathom that his physical conditioning (or lack of it) affects execution. It is so simple it is silly. 5 X 5 = 25 and that will always be, just as out of shape athletes are going to have a variety of problems 10 times out 10. At 25 years old he has a lot to learn with what it takes during the five or six months of off season that he has.

When it comes to weight some people are blunt about it with themselves. I know that I am when I am carrying like 10 or 15 pounds and I know other people who are the same way. The comments some people directed at Sano are things I heard many people (myself included) say about themselves. I don't see that as assailing one's character. Good people can have bad habits. Lord knows I have a few and I am VERY honest about them with myself and I will rip myself about these things to make sure I'm on the straight and narrow. I don't have coaches, five months and change of free time and an endless amount of resources like Sano does. He did a horrible job this offseason and you would hope he learns something from this

Anyone with two eyes and one serving of experience in life could have discerned this problem. The idea that this issue had nothing to do with his hitting was a big time assumption. There was an assumption that his conditioning was not the issue, but rather it was mechanics. Well let me tell you, conditioning effects one's attitude and ability to execute the hitting mechanics necessary to be successful. When we are talking about the hardest thing to do in sports it could mean only two clicks on the dial off kilter. To shut down conditioning as a possible root cause would be ignorant. The Twins commented on this right away and they are belatedly doing something about it. Oh well

I would be down with that if Wade actually deserved a shot. He isn't remotely in that area as of today

In my 52 years on this Earth I have been in and out of shape. When I was in shape I looked like I was in shape. Why? Because I put in the work with diet and exercise. When I was out of shape I looked like I was out of shape. Why? Because I got lazy in the area of diet and exercise and I in every case I readily admitted it to anyone when I got on the topic. I am sure there are a lot of people like me here who have been through this and understand that forgetting about conditioning and diet affects how we feel, our appearance and what we are capable of doing physically (in Sano's case it probably affects his swing mechanics, attitude and overall ability). If this calls into question his character then so be it. He has five to six months of offseason and he is a 25 year old professional athlete. IN this day and age you have to keep up with your peers, many of whom work out and get in amazing shape during the offseason. This is a fixable thing. He can change.,

THere was a lot of blowback about "questioning his character" when people made the observation that Sano was out of shape a few months ago. Can that please stop? YOu don't get out of shape working hard and being a go-getter. I wasn't watching him this winter, but I will bet he lived a little too high on the hog this past winter and who can blame him? He grew up with nothing and now he's enjoying the spoils of a life in the major leagues. At least half of this is on the Twins. Remember when he got suspended for the home run trot back when he was in New Britain? I always thought it was more about other things than him taking his time rounding the bases after a home run. The Twins went out of their way to make a point to him for "not respecting the game" as an indirect way to send a message to him about other areas of his game. Heaven forbid they call him out for his work ethic, or lack of a decent one. What is wrong with saying the kid needs to refocus and work harder? What is wrong with telling the kid that he lost his way? I was in my early 20s once and I needed some people to get in my face in order to keep me on the path. No shame in that.

That is nice that he did that, but I couldn't care less about those kinds of things. As long as the guy plays with heart, is a good teammate and contributes (check, check and check) he is A-OK in my books. If he signed autographs and was a "nice guy" but was a loafer and a clown? He could sign autographs and kiss babies until the cows come home and I wouldn't appreciate him one bit. I don't need players to talk to me or give me anything but 100%, some production and zero off the field BS. If a player can do that then that is all I ask as a fan