Marlins 5, Twins 2: Bats Disappear Again, Bullpen Melts Down, Miami Wins the Series

[Battle ur tail off]

8 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

The problem is the guys they (and we) relied on the most are not hitting with the exception of Buxton.  Polanco is out.  Correa, Gordon and Miranda have been very unproductive.  Those four guys are not anyone we would want replaced so to say the problem is they “did nothing” ignores some very obvious facts.

They will come around IMO. One thing though, Correa started slow last year too before turning on at the end. Hope it doesn't take half a season for our #2 hitter to get going. 

 

[LA Vikes Fan]

4 hours ago, stringer bell said:

Specifically, it won't break my heart to see Castro sent to the minors, but he could be a Triple A All-Star IMHO and someone that steps in somewhere as a truly valuable and versatile super-sub. About the only way that would be in Minnesota would be if Nick Gordon fails or gets injured. That is because Gordon is cheaper and can't be sent to the minors without being DFAed.

Also because Gordon is a much better hitter. 2022: .Gordon - 272/.316/.427(.743), Castro - .241/.285/.357 (.651).  Career: Gordon (673 PAs) .257/.303/.396 (.699), Castro (1100 PAs) .243/.290 (.668).  Castro may indeed turn out to be valuable, but Gordon is already the superior hitter and on his way up, while Castro has most likely plateaued where he is after 1100 PAs. But how about defense - Castro- career -1.6 dWAR, Gordon -0.7.  Gordon slightly better, in essence a wash. 

Bottom line, Gordon is the better player now and has more room to develop. That's why we keep Gordon over Castro. 

[Major League Ready]

30 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Also because Gordon is a much better hitter. 2022: .Gordon - 272/.316/.427(.743), Castro - .241/.285/.357 (.651).  Career: Gordon (673 PAs) .257/.303/.396 (.699), Castro (1100 PAs) .243/.290 (.668).  Castro may indeed turn out to be valuable, but Gordon is already the superior hitter and on his way up, while Castro has most likely plateaued where he is after 1100 PAs. But how about defense - Castro- career -1.6 dWAR, Gordon -0.7.  Gordon slightly better, in essence a wash. 

Bottom line, Gordon is the better player now and has more room to develop. That's why we keep Gordon over Castro. 

Hopefully, they both get squeezed out by some combination of Lewis / Julien / Martin / Wallner and Lee.

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Gordon is already the superior hitter and on his way up, while Castro has most likely plateaued

Don't know why you think the 27-year old is on his way up yet the guy who's still 25 can't improve.

Personally I think both "are what they are" pretty much, and we might have seen Gordon's career-year in 2022.  Admittedly I've been slow to embrace Nick as a fixture on a major league squad, and every little bump on the road has me diving off of the bandwagon for safety.

[stringer bell]

9 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Also because Gordon is a much better hitter. 2022: .Gordon - 272/.316/.427(.743), Castro - .241/.285/.357 (.651).  Career: Gordon (673 PAs) .257/.303/.396 (.699), Castro (1100 PAs) .243/.290 (.668).  Castro may indeed turn out to be valuable, but Gordon is already the superior hitter and on his way up, while Castro has most likely plateaued where he is after 1100 PAs. But how about defense - Castro- career -1.6 dWAR, Gordon -0.7.  Gordon slightly better, in essence a wash. 

Bottom line, Gordon is the better player now and has more room to develop. That's why we keep Gordon over Castro. 

My point was and remains that at the age Castro is now, Gordon presented an inferior profile to Castro. Take away Gordon’s age 26 year and what do his numbers look like? I do think it’s entirely possible that if given the chance that Gordon had, he might thrive. He switch hits, runs well and has some power and he has experience in right field and third base that Gordon lacks. With three plus years of service he might never find the team and role to develop and no one is at fault here. He’s probably not now and maybe never good enough to be an everyday player. 
 

I don’t think we can count on Nick G to get better or maybe put up numbers as good as last year.  

[Danchat]

2 hours ago, Battle ur tail off said:

I would say you are right and it goes back to injuries. Get Polanco, Kiriloff and Lewis back and we will see if it looks any better though. 

We’ll see about Kirilloff and Lewis… but my long-term concern is that more injuries are going to mount over the next few months like they have the past two years.

[LA Vikes Fan]

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Don't know why you think the 27-year old is on his way up yet the guy who's still 25 can't improve.

Personally I think both "are what they are" pretty much, and we might have seen Gordon's career-year in 2022.  Admittedly I've been slow to embrace Nick as a fixture on a major league squad, and every little bump on the road has me diving off of the bandwagon for safety.

I think Gordon is at least potentially "on his way up" because of his 674 plate appearances. Tom Kelly used to say that it takes 1000 MLB at bats to really see what a player can be. Gordon still has about 300 or so at bats to get to that level.  Unfortunately, he is 27 because of previous illnesses and injuries.  

[ashbury]

9 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Tom Kelly used to say that it takes 1000 MLB at bats to really see what a player can be

I think Kelly's quote was more cautionary than hopeful, and he wasn't advocating giving every prospect 1000 AB.  He was talking about sophomore slumps after a good rookie year.  Highly touted outfielder Joe Benson never got his 1000, for example.

[dxpavelka]

14 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

That's not what you said.  You said the problem was that they didn't do anything.  That's your go to move.  Management is stupid.  The facts is that the players that we all expected produce are not and Polanco is hurt.  

Just because they made some moves doesn't mean those moves will make them better.  You say the players you expected to produce are not doing so.  Are there players you did NOT expect to produce?  Aren't all players expected to produce every year?

[stringer bell]

Six games is not nearly enough to be making pronouncements about a baseball season. I like some things about the club, but see plenty of potential flaws. Time will tell. The schedule gets tougher, but the team will be at home. Let's see how they do.

[Major League Ready]

7 hours ago, dxpavelka said:

Just because they made some moves doesn't mean those moves will make them better.  You say the players you expected to produce are not doing so.  Are there players you did NOT expect to produce?  Aren't all players expected to produce every year?

You certainly do like to avoid any factual reference and then drop these pearls of wisdom.  You also changed the entire conversation from why they have not scored runs so far to what they may or may not do going forward.  I listed the performance of their acquisitions to date.  Those acquisitions have performed better than the guys we most rely upon and that reliance is definitely not equal among all players in the eyes of fans here.  Actually, your argument is that we should have "done more" instead of relying on players like Larnach.  He not someone anyone here was saying we could rely upon during the off season conversation.  The most productive players to date are the acquisitions and guys that people like you said we should not rely upon and now you are avoiding any form of fact so that you can continue to insist "the problem is they didn't do enough" to bolster our core guys when the problem is the core guys.  

[dxpavelka]

10 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

You certainly do like to avoid any factual reference and then drop these pearls of wisdom.  You also changed the entire conversation from why they have not scored runs so far to what they may or may not do going forward.  I listed the performance of their acquisitions to date.  Those acquisitions have performed better than the guys we most rely upon and that reliance is definitely not equal among all players in the eyes of fans here.  Actually, your argument is that we should have "done more" instead of relying on players like Larnach.  He not someone anyone here was saying we could rely upon during the off season conversation.  The most productive players to date are the acquisitions and guys that people like you said we should not rely upon and now you are avoiding any form of fact so that you can continue to insist "the problem is they didn't do enough" to bolster our core guys when the problem is the core guys.  

Do you REALLY think that what we have done so far has no likelihood of portending what we might do going forward?  Do you REALLY think that half a dozen games worth of production by a few guys is more likely to foreshadow what is to come than better than half a decade of production by others?  The only FACT in play here is that they didn't score many runs last year, haven't scored many thus far this year and have shown nothing to make us inclined to think they might going forward, two games of Joey Gallo notwithstanding.

 

[dxpavelka]

On 4/6/2023 at 8:34 AM, Major League Ready said:

That's not what you said.  You said the problem was that they didn't do anything.  That's your go to move.  Management is stupid.  The facts is that the players that we all expected produce are not and Polanco is hurt.  

So was Solano batting cleanup nine games in part of the plan?