Minnesota Sports Forum

The other problems is Grossman is like 4th in league in OBP. and Rosario is so good in left and Mauer has to play everyday so there really is no spot for him to play everyday.

jester1534 wrote:The other problems is Grossman is like 4th in league in OBP. and Rosario is so good in left and Mauer has to play everyday so there really is no spot for him to play everyday.

That's a good point. I think if he or one of the other power DH guys were up here Molly would find game here and there for him to play and maybe pinch hit etc but yeah they probably wouldn't be playing everyday unless they were really hitting. On the other hand when Polonco is back they have 3 infielders that all have been ranging worthwhile (Polonco) to not terrible (Adrianza with Escobar somewhere in the middle) with the bat so putting them at 3b and Sano at first when they want to give Mauer a break isn't a bad option. It's kinda weird the Twins went through a stretch where they could barely find 1 or 2 undeliverable that were decent and now they have a decent bunch of them (Dozier is really good) and even were able to sell high on Nunez last season.

I think Vargas needs more at bats also, and as a minimum needs to be playing every day a lefty faces us. Jeez...Kepler's hitting .130 against LHP and Mauer is .200...one of them has to be on the bench whenever a lefty starts to allow Vargas' .300 Ba into the lineup. But I'd like to see Vargas get some at bats against RHP too. Since Grossman can play the OF (although it's not ideal), Buxton, Kepler or Rosario can be given an occasional day off to allow Vargas to DH. Essentially we have 6 guys (Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Grossman, Vargas and Mauer) for 5 positions...not a difficult situation to keep everyone happy even when all are healthy. They should all be playing 5-6 games a week, and that would keep them all fresh. Yes, Vargas does struggle against the breaking ball and high fastball, but he absolutely crushes mistakes. And he's still young, so there is upside to his improving in his weak areas. As Big Papi says, let the kid hit!

longstrangetrip wrote:I think Vargas needs more at bats also, and as a minimum needs to be playing every day a lefty faces us. Jeez...Kepler's hitting .130 against LHP and Mauer is .200...one of them has to be on the bench whenever a lefty starts to allow Vargas' .300 Ba into the lineup. But I'd like to see Vargas get some at bats against RHP too. Since Grossman can play the OF (although it's not ideal), Buxton, Kepler or Rosario can be given an occasional day off to allow Vargas to DH. Essentially we have 6 guys (Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Grossman, Vargas and Mauer) for 5 positions...not a difficult situation to keep everyone happy even when all are healthy. They should all be playing 5-6 games a week, and that would keep them all fresh. Yes, Vargas does struggle against the breaking ball and high fastball, but he absolutely crushes mistakes. And he's still young, so there is upside to his improving in his weak areas. As Big Papi says, let the kid hit!

But Vargas is like a career .170 batting against LHP

Jester1534 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I think Vargas needs more at bats also, and as a minimum needs to be playing every day a lefty faces us. Jeez...Kepler's hitting .130 against LHP and Mauer is .200...one of them has to be on the bench whenever a lefty starts to allow Vargas' .300 Ba into the lineup. But I'd like to see Vargas get some at bats against RHP too. Since Grossman can play the OF (although it's not ideal), Buxton, Kepler or Rosario can be given an occasional day off to allow Vargas to DH. Essentially we have 6 guys (Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Grossman, Vargas and Mauer) for 5 positions...not a difficult situation to keep everyone happy even when all are healthy. They should all be playing 5-6 games a week, and that would keep them all fresh. Yes, Vargas does struggle against the breaking ball and high fastball, but he absolutely crushes mistakes. And he's still young, so there is upside to his improving in his weak areas. As Big Papi says, let the kid hit!

But Vargas is like a career .170 batting against LHP

I think you may be looking at that backwards, jester. Vargas has a .302 lifetime average against LHP with an .834 OPS. Over the same 2014-6 period Joe Mauer has only a .257 average and a .670 OPS against lefties. I can't see any reason Vargas shouldn't be DHing or playing 1B every time a lefty is on the bump.

longstrangetrip wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I think Vargas needs more at bats also, and as a minimum needs to be playing every day a lefty faces us. Jeez...Kepler's hitting .130 against LHP and Mauer is .200...one of them has to be on the bench whenever a lefty starts to allow Vargas' .300 Ba into the lineup. But I'd like to see Vargas get some at bats against RHP too. Since Grossman can play the OF (although it's not ideal), Buxton, Kepler or Rosario can be given an occasional day off to allow Vargas to DH. Essentially we have 6 guys (Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Grossman, Vargas and Mauer) for 5 positions...not a difficult situation to keep everyone happy even when all are healthy. They should all be playing 5-6 games a week, and that would keep them all fresh. Yes, Vargas does struggle against the breaking ball and high fastball, but he absolutely crushes mistakes. And he's still young, so there is upside to his improving in his weak areas. As Big Papi says, let the kid hit!

But Vargas is like a career .170 batting against LHP

I think you may be looking at that backwards, jester. Vargas has a .302 lifetime average against LHP with an .834 OPS. Over the same 2014-6 period Joe Mauer has only a .257 average and a .670 OPS against lefties. I can't see any reason Vargas shouldn't be DHing or playing 1B every time a lefty is on the bump.

My bad your right but I just looked at his 2017 stats only 25 at bats but Kenny is batting .080 against lefties this year.

jester1534 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:

longstrangetrip wrote:I think Vargas needs more at bats also, and as a minimum needs to be playing every day a lefty faces us. Jeez...Kepler's hitting .130 against LHP and Mauer is .200...one of them has to be on the bench whenever a lefty starts to allow Vargas' .300 Ba into the lineup. But I'd like to see Vargas get some at bats against RHP too. Since Grossman can play the OF (although it's not ideal), Buxton, Kepler or Rosario can be given an occasional day off to allow Vargas to DH. Essentially we have 6 guys (Buxton, Kepler, Rosario, Grossman, Vargas and Mauer) for 5 positions...not a difficult situation to keep everyone happy even when all are healthy. They should all be playing 5-6 games a week, and that would keep them all fresh. Yes, Vargas does struggle against the breaking ball and high fastball, but he absolutely crushes mistakes. And he's still young, so there is upside to his improving in his weak areas. As Big Papi says, let the kid hit!

But Vargas is like a career .170 batting against LHP

I think you may be looking at that backwards, jester. Vargas has a .302 lifetime average against LHP with an .834 OPS. Over the same 2014-6 period Joe Mauer has only a .257 average and a .670 OPS against lefties. I can't see any reason Vargas shouldn't be DHing or playing 1B every time a lefty is on the bump.

My bad your right but I just looked at his 2017 stats only 25 at bats but Kenny is batting .080 against lefties this year.

It's worth remembering he is a guy with less than 650 career MLB ABs over 4 seasons now. It's not the greatest sample but it's what we have. His first year in 2014 he had 234 ABs and he crushed RHP. The following years 2015-2016 he hit lefties better. Now he is back to hitting RHP better. So...um yeah figure all that out and get back to me. Lol

I only watched the condensed game but I thought Turely actually looked intriguing. Personally I thought the Giants starter looked like he was throwing batting practice when the Twins were hitting him. They should have scored more runs off him. Turely had some pitches that really moved through the zone. He at least gave them a decent chance. Of course the reason they lost was Breslow and Belisle coughed up a bunch of runs. I was hoping Belisle was getting on track with a few good outings. I don't know what to do at this point.

Last night's game wasn't pretty. Above the only really positives were Dozier had a good night at the plate and Boshers had another good outing. Breslow is struggling hopefully he can get back to being solid again because they need anyone in that Pen who is decent. I saw Wimmers is going down and Pressly is coming up. Hopefully he has figured out some issue or made some adjustment etc.

This Jose guy might be pretty good.

Escobar might be on one of his crazy hot streaks he has at the plate.

Gimenez with 2 HRs. I think he has been a really nice vet pickup.

Buxton you expect him to catch everything out there and it's kinda surprising when he doesn't.