Miraclebat

Please, please quit while you're behind.

The stats say different. below average arm, way below average stolen base %. J Ryan Murphy was bounced down to AAA for poor hitting...but basically hitting like Castro's average the past three years. And JR is a better defensive catcher AND actually a better pitch framer. (And I'm NOT a JR Murphy fan)

What position do the Twins expect him to play?

I can't believe the article didn't bring up the fact that Falvey has already improved the pitching staff by signed a weak hitting, poor defensive catcher.......who can frame the S out of a pitch. : )

How much will Falvey help? To sum up the article with a two word answer...... "Not much."

Well said!

Yeah...but how does he frame a pitch? Probably ....pretty darn well!

Umm, Always, read that again? The girl...it is Terry Ryan's granddaughter. Falvey's way of keeping a link to the past.

to be sure, some of the "misuse" was out of necessity....but Molitor has made a lot of questionable decisions that leave you scratching your head (Danny Santana the last two years,) which leads me to believe that Falvey and Molly ultimately won't end up on the same page.

Seems like several of these guys had numbers that suffered from "misuse." I think Molitor will have a short leash this year. Another guy I can see gone from the organization is Trevor May...he never has been able to put it together and the new regime has no botched trade connection to him as an incentive to give him one more try.

How can you not be optimistic? With the poor defense but excellent pitch framing abilities of our new catcher......I think you can realistically bump up each of these pitchers scores by at least two full letter grades! (yup...tongue in cheek.)

Agree with this except for the fact that Castro is generally a poor defensive catcher who also can't hit. He is an excellent pitch framer though. He is below average throwing out base runners, passed balls, etc. But....he is a hell of a pitch framer.

Why all of the caution as far as innings "build up" is concerned. Any good HS pitcher pitched over 120 innings in high school and then summer ball. Unless they were injured (Jay,) it is a crime to have our top prospects throwing so few innings in the minors.....especially when several of the other 5-6 starting pitchers on those clubs would be clasisfied more as journeymen and/or have no real shot of making it above AAA.

It also makes me cringe when I see all the love for May. His upside is a 4.5 ERA and a #4 starter on a good team. Moving him to the starting rotation...back to the bullpen...... He should be thankful he has no options to be sent to AAA.

That seems like a contradiction...it would be a bigger story if Minneapolis was NORTH of Toronto...which it isn't. The even bigger story is that Seattle is NORTH of Duluth! This is the reason the Mariner's catchers are poor pitch framers!

"Go fish."

lalo nailed it! If this is an upgrade at catcher then it only highlights the disaster the previous regime was because we had Herrmann and Butera who both HIT better than Castro and both are better defensive catchers than Castro(blocks, caught stealing, etc.) Not sure how those two compare to Castro in "pitch framing"....but I bet they were fairly close.

Ramos may not play much at all in 2017 due to his knee so he will either wait until he is healthy to sign or sign a 3 year deal now with a club hoping they will get a nice return on their investment in years 2 and 3.

Agree on the pitching needed...but we had similar catching prospects (to Castro) in Herrmann and Butera....except they both hit better than Castro over the last three years.

If May was dominant in 2015...then Gibson was Cy Young level that same year. Not sure how all of the conversation regarding May is warranted. He has a better chance of being sent to AAA than turning into a "solid" #3 starter. I would love to have him turn into a solid #3 or #4....but the track record (so far) says probably not.

Hard to argue with any of that. I think you could say the same thing about Santana and Grossman...and protect a couple of more players with the potential to be a part of a contending team in the future.

If Sano is able to do the same thing that Plouffe did "turn himself into a solid defensive 3rd baseman" Then.....this move needed to happen if there were no trade partners.

Not seeing the sense in the outright release of Walker. Toss him into a trade (if any) and he could have been the difference in making the trade or not. The fact that he got gobbled up right away might lead one to believe that others thought there was value there. It is all about what OTHER teams think ....in trades.

Agree! Terrible infield defense and would anyone disagree that he is average to below average in the outfield? Never really hit in the minors. Except for a good 2-3 month run 2+ years ago, never hit in the majors. This is a head scratcher.

Garver and Murphy will both hit considerably better than Castro will this year (Castro's stats the last three years are terrible.) That being said, if Garver and Murphy's defense is bottom 1/4 in the league....then that will be an issue.