Can Trevor Larnach Solve His Problem with Soft Stuff?

Have Larnach play Pepper an hour a day, with pitcher just throwing (slow) breaking balls.

This activity helps the batter with the small muscles of the hands, arms and shoulders.  It is also a concentration exercise for the brain (prob the most important); the batter "sees" the pitchers arm going through with a "curve ball" motion.

Someone need to develop a batting simulator (like golf) that helps a batter become proficient at adjustment to different pitches.  

5 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

They have them already, actually. They have video screens that show the pitcher going through his windup and "throwing" a pitch that comes from a machine. The machine can be set to specific pitcher's spin and velo or to just different pitch types. Can have it throw all breaking balls or add in fastballs or whatever they want. It's pretty cool stuff.

Lock Larnach in that room until spring training starts 😂

It’s a problem as old as baseball itself and has been the downfall of many hitters. My only slim hope is that he’s been so injured he hasn’t had a consistent long stretch of playing time which would help him adjust if that is possible. Having said that I wouldn’t count on him coming through. 

If he can't hit a breaking ball, and/or the Twins don't think he can hit a breaking ball...then just trade the guy. Give him a chance somewhere else and start to clear out the log jam we have with lefty outfielders. Start moving some of these pieces instead of stock piling them. 

I think he can get better and it doesn't take much improvement to get him back on an MLB roster. Can he get enough better that he can be an above average offensive contributor as an outfielder? That's more doubtful.

Every year a few guys figure it out and become productive major leaguers. See Brent Rooker. That is the difference between AAAA and major league hitters. I am rooting for the guy and won't give up on him until the Twins do. Did i read that he has 1 option remaining?

Larnach has shown signs of being a legitimate MLer. Certainly won't give up on him yet.  He offers good depth.  Nothing saying Martin, Rodriguez, Jenkins will be any better. 2024 will be a big year for him as well as Kiriloff imo. They both need to prove themselves or we might need to think of trading or moving on.

He was almost exactly league average last year.  His OPS was .726 and wRC+ was 99.  Are we being a little hard on him.   Seems pretty reasonable he could make some tweaks and be above average.  That might look pretty good as a bridge to Rodriquez and Jenkins.

If he doesn't drown in the number swamp... sure, he might make a step forward. I hope he becomes a superstar. 

I think TL will be a solid big league ballplayer when it is all said and done. He is still young and learning to adapt and I get the sense he could be a later bloomer.  

I don’t see him as a knock the cover off the ball guy, but could see him evolving to a solid Nick Markakis kind of player with a little more development.  I think the Twins swing for the fences too much rather than taking what the pitchers give you and getting on base.  Just making contact and putting the ball in play forces defenses to work. I think they need to focus less on power and more the fundamentals.  With the bases loaded or a runner on the pitcher is more forced to throw strikes as well.  

On 1/10/2024 at 8:55 AM, saviking said:

I would love to see someone study what percentage of any off-speed pitch is thrown for a strike. In the study, you would add any pitch thrown outside the strike zone, even if a batter hit it.

I'm going to guess they throw two balls for every strike, which puts the pitcher at a disadvantage if you sit on the fastball. 

Well there are percentages in the aggregate and then there are what individual hitters see. When there's no book on a hitter then the aggregate will apply, But when it's utterly clear that someone can only hit FB or never recognizes a change or whatever then professional pitchers will ruthlessly exploit that.  Larnach may only ever face "tease" fastballs to try to get him to expand the zone until he demonstrates that he can hit the breaking stuff and offspeed pitches in the zone.  If he, for example, slows down his bat and starts hitting everything away then the pitchers will adjust again and bust him up and in. It's a constant battle of adjustments and he still has to make his first changes to prove he belongs.

I say he's still quite tradable.  MN could take lottery ticket young arms or an injury-prone vet at little salary from a weaker team with playing time to let him work it out. PIT, OAK and COL all need talent without high costs and would happily take him in. 

It's interesting that when Rooker first came up he was mashing the ball. Short time in and he gets hit on the wrist breaking a bone. If that didn't happen things could've been much different. He might still be a Twin. That injury may have hurt his production and had something to do with why he bounced around for a while. This game has tiny margins.