2018 Minnesota Twins In-Season Thread

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Hard to feel sorry for a guy that has played more than 92 games in the majors ONCE in his four years in the bigs and hit .156 in 2018, in a whopping 28 games.
 

I think what some people are trying to express is this:

Buxton was the 2nd player chosen in the 2012 draft. When you draft a player that high, that is a major investment, and the question is whether the Twins are handling their investment correctly. Yeah, he was drafted under the previous front office, but Falvine inherited him.

It is in the Twins' best interest for Buxton to become a productive player - if not a star. As others have noted, with his defensive abilities, if he can just hit .250+ with some HR's, he can be a big part of the team's future.

Falvine may know analytics, but can they handle people? for me, the fact that they made this move - and neither Falvey or Levine ever spoke to Buxton in person - speaks volumes about their approach.

This whole deal just comes off as odd. I have a strong suspicion that there is something going on behind the scenes here that I don't know about.
 

Brian Dozier has one hit in his last 22 at bats. He is now hitting .196 for the Dodgers and .220 for the season.

Escobar is hitting .276 for the Diamondbacks and and .275 for the overall season.
 

Iceland12 said:
Brian Dozier has one hit in his last 22 at bats. He is now hitting .196 for the Dodgers and .220 for the season.

Escobar is hitting .276 for the Diamondbacks and and .275 for the overall season.
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Dozier being the streaky player he is may just time it right and crush in the play offs.
 



tikited said:
He better or he's dead to me..
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He's pretty much dead to everyone.

Dozier is zero for September. He's had 22 plate appearances and got on base twice, with a walk and HBP. It's been a LONG slump for him. Over the last 30 days he's hit .159. That's 88 at bats with 14 hits, 13 of them singles.

Escobar is down to hitting .246 for Arizona. A buck-twenty-nine to show for his 35 plate appearances this month.
 

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Win Twins!!
 

Twins try to clear the air with Byron Buxton

The Twins in recent days have been in contact with outfielder Byron Buxton to make sure there is no lingering resentment after they didn’t call him up in September.

There have been phone conversations with him as well as face-to-face meetings when Buxton was in the Twin Cities last week to collect some belongings before heading back to his home in Georgia for the offseason. It was during this time that Buxton was able to reconnect with teammates as well as staff.

The Twins believe that the air has been cleared since his initial reaction to not being called up. Conversations were described as positive, and they have been able to explain to Buxton that he remains part of their long-term plans.

Buxton could not be reached for comment on Sunday.

Twins General Manager Thad Levine announced on Sept. 1 that Buxton would not be called up at the end of Class AAA Rochester’s season, stating that Buxton and his agents weren’t pleased.

“I think as much as we would like to believe that all the relationship-building here to date will carry the day, we understand this is a blow to the player, a potential blow to the relationship and we’re prepared to try and stay as consistent as we can and reinvest in that element of this because we realized this was information that was not appealing or certainly collaborative,” Levine said.

http://www.startribune.com/twins-try-to-clear-the-air-with-byron-buxton/492822311/

Win Twins!!
 

The Twins led the Yankees 10-1 in the 6th tonight. And very well might lose. Lol.
 



BTW - saw a tweet that Dozier reportedly is claiming now that he's had some kind of a knee problem since April........checked and it's legit. Dozier told an LA paper that his knee has been bothering him "all season." Which may be true, but ----- #1 the Dodgers might have been interested to know that before making the deal......and #2 - convenient that this comes out now when Dozier is in a bad slump, even by his streaky standards.
 

My knee’s been kinda bugging me for a little bit too now that you mention it
 

This makes no sense to me, but whatever...

STrib: Twins' 'opener' plan is a work in progress
The Twins intend to keep attempting the plan — having a relief pitcher pitch two innings followed by a "primary pitcher" — in September.

The Twins’ third attempt at using a relief pitcher to handle the first two innings went far better than the first two. But they left room for improvement, too.

“In a perfect scenario, you get the first six hitters out, and your primary [pitcher] gets [hitters] 7-8-9 in his first inning of work,” manager Paul Molitor said. “That’s not very likely, but that’s probably the ideal scenario.”

Tyler Duffey, selected to make his first “start” since Sept. 30, 2016, though limited to two innings, came relatively close to the ideal. Duffey faced only seven hitters in two innings of the Twins’ eventual 10-5 victory over the Yankees, but he gave up a run. After getting a double play in a three-batter first inning, Duffey surrendered a one-out triple to Didi Gregorius in the second, followed by a Gary Sanchez sacrifice fly.

But he turned the game over to Kohl Stewart to face the bottom of the New York lineup, and Stewart shut out the Yankees for three innings before loading the bases in the sixth, ahead of Didi Gregorius’ grand slam off Trevor May. Stewart earned his first major league victory, despite pitching only 3⅓ innings.

“It’s kind of crazy that I felt worse than I have all year up here, and ended up getting the win,” Stewart said. “I honestly just didn’t have much feel tonight. You can’t walk five guys like that and expect a victory.”

He will likely get more chances, though. Molitor made it clear that the Twins intend to continue to try the first-inning reliever concept over the next few weeks. The idea, he said, is to use a pitcher particularly suited to a certain opponent in the early innings, in hopes that the “primary pitcher” can pitch multiple innings without facing the best hitters three times.“It’s not something that we’re flippantly trying to experiment with,” Molitor said. “We think it has merit. We’re trying to see how it plays out.”

http://www.startribune.com/opener-plan-is-a-work-in-progress/493019501/

Go Gophers!!
 

short ornery norwegian said:
BTW - saw a tweet that Dozier reportedly is claiming now that he's had some kind of a knee problem since April........checked and it's legit. Dozier told an LA paper that his knee has been bothering him "all season." Which may be true, but ----- #1 the Dodgers might have been interested to know that before making the deal......and #2 - convenient that this comes out now when Dozier is in a bad slump, even by his streaky standards.
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He's 2 for his last 29. OPS of just .665 since the trade. The Twins appear to have gotten the better end of this deal.

I might have to go find some old tweets where I was criticized by many because I suggested it was a good idea not to extend Dozier before the season.
 



Shama: Twins to Explore Free Agent Market

Twins president Dave St. Peter said the club will look at the free agent market this offseason, but that won’t be the main path for improving a team that had Central Division title ambitions last spring but is 12 games under .500 with the schedule ending September 30.

St. Peter said in an interview with Sports Headliners this summer that the roster core in the future will be comprised of players with the club now and in the farm system. He expressed confidence in the personnel already under the franchise’s contractual control.

Although the results and impact weren’t significant from the club’s free agent shopping last winter, St. Peter termed the efforts “aggressive.” He also debunked speculation that for whatever reasons free agents aren’t interested in coming to the state and playing for the Twins.

“I don’t think there is anything that detracts free agents from wanting to come to Minnesota,” St. Peter said. “I think that’s a fallacy. I don’t think it’s accurate. We haven’t played significantly in that space (pursuing free agents) so there really isn’t a lot of track record.

“I can assure you this past offseason we spent a lot of time talking to some very prominent free agents and they were all very willing to come to Minnesota. Normally, it comes down to dollars. That’s ultimately the driver.”

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Win Twins!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Shama: Twins to Explore Free Agent Market

Twins president Dave St. Peter said the club will look at the free agent market this offseason, but that won’t be the main path for improving a team that had Central Division title ambitions last spring but is 12 games under .500 with the schedule ending September 30.

St. Peter said in an interview with Sports Headliners this summer that the roster core in the future will be comprised of players with the club now and in the farm system. He expressed confidence in the personnel already under the franchise’s contractual control.

Although the results and impact weren’t significant from the club’s free agent shopping last winter, St. Peter termed the efforts “aggressive.” He also debunked speculation that for whatever reasons free agents aren’t interested in coming to the state and playing for the Twins.

“I don’t think there is anything that detracts free agents from wanting to come to Minnesota,” St. Peter said. “I think that’s a fallacy. I don’t think it’s accurate. We haven’t played significantly in that space (pursuing free agents) so there really isn’t a lot of track record.

“I can assure you this past offseason we spent a lot of time talking to some very prominent free agents and they were all very willing to come to Minnesota. Normally, it comes down to dollars. That’s ultimately the driver.”

http://shamasportsheadliners.com/

Win Twins!!
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this gets back to my central question about the new front office: what is the plan?

If the plan is "build through the farm system," then why did they sign guys like Morrison and Lynn? Yeah, I know it's easy to criticize moves that don't work out - but my point is that those signings seem like stop-gap measures. As in - "our best players in the farm system aren't ready, so we need to get some warm bodies in here to get through the season."

the blueprint is there from the World Series teams. the Twins built up the team from the farm system, and when they were ready to make a run, they supplemented the roster with timely trades or free-agent signings. (Reardon for the closer role in '87 - Jack Morris for the starting rotation in '91, etc.)

if that's what Falvey and Levine are planning, fine. I just wish they would spell it out a little more clearly.

And as far as free agents being willing to come to MN - pay someone enough money, and they'll go to Bumf*ck, Idaho. Just a question of how much you're willing to overpay.
 

short ornery norwegian said:
this gets back to my central question about the new front office: what is the plan?

If the plan is "build through the farm system," then why did they sign guys like Morrison and Lynn? Yeah, I know it's easy to criticize moves that don't work out - but my point is that those signings seem like stop-gap measures. As in - "our best players in the farm system aren't ready, so we need to get some warm bodies in here to get through the season."

the blueprint is there from the World Series teams. the Twins built up the team from the farm system, and when they were ready to make a run, they supplemented the roster with timely trades or free-agent signings. (Reardon for the closer role in '87 - Jack Morris for the starting rotation in '91, etc.)

if that's what Falvey and Levine are planning, fine. I just wish they would spell it out a little more clearly.

And as far as free agents being willing to come to MN - pay someone enough money, and they'll go to Bumf*ck, Idaho. Just a question of how much you're willing to overpay.
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Because the team unexpectedly made the playoffs in 2017. So they made a few low risk, short-term moves during the off-season to try to make another run. Lots of things didn't work out this year so they traded most of them away and got some solid return for players that weren't going to be on the team next year anyways.

I think it's obvious they are going to try to build from within for the most part. They're stockpiling prospects, hoping a few turn out to be very good around the same time and then fill in the holes in free agency or trades. It's what KC, Houston, and Chicago did recently to win titles.
 

STrib: Postgame: Astudillo "wanted to show that chubby people also run"

Astudillo will be remembered far more for his hitting — and especially his baserunning — than his catching in this one, however. The rookie cracked a two-out single in the seventh inning to score Jake Cave, his ninth RBI in just 18 games with the Twins. And when Max Kepler followed with a long drive to left-center that Aaron Hicks dove for, unsuccessfully, Astudillo raced around the bases, his long hair blowing in the wind after losing his helmet around second base.

“Man, I don’t know,” Molitor laughed at the play. “That was painful to watch that jaunt around the bases.”

OK, so he’s not Usain Bolt, but you have to give Astudillo credit for chugging along as fast as he could.

"I just wanted to show that chubby people also run,” he joked. “I saw the outfielder. It was going to be an uncomfortable play for him to make. And it was two outs, so I just hustled.”

http://www.startribune.com/postgame-astudillo-wanted-to-show-that-chubby-people-also-run/493124341/

Win Twins!!
 

Enough of this nonsense that the Yankees only succeed because of their payroll.

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Is it too early for the 2019 Draft watch, as far as which slot the Twins will end up in? I think not!!

Realistically, the Twins could end up with as high as the 9th overall pick or as low as the 12th. Not as big of a deal as it is in other major sports drafts but it still matters.

I'm hoping for more results like yesterday; one of the young players (like Kohl Stewart last night) shows some promise and has a great game but they blow it in the end.
 

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