I Was Skeptical of Joey Gallo. Now I'm Relieved to Have Him Aboard.

8 hours ago, nicksaviking said:

Sorry, not buying a career turnaround at his age. I think his inability to put the ball in play is going to be frustrating all year and we’re going to see him pinch hit for regularly, or we’ll be complaining about leaving men on base all season.

2 games in:  0-6 with 4 whiffs against a KC pitching staff that is NOT good.

1 hour ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Agreed. He gets 100 PAs before appearances before making a decision. By the way, so should Kepler but not more than that. I think the big question is what do we do in the likely event that it's May 1, Kepler and Gallo each have had roughly 100 PAs, neither one is hitting even .220, and neither has even 5-6 HRs? Maybe its time for Kirilloff to go to 1B or the OF, leave Larnach in LF, put Polanco at 1B with Gordon and Farmer platooning at 2B and bring up Julien to be a 1B/DH. Kepler and Gallo go to the bench. I have a feeling that the Twins are going to be quicker with the hook this year on non-productive veteran players. We've got some guys who may be ready; it's the right thing to do.    

The Twins spent a record amount of money (for them) to put this team on the field. They will both want to see what these guys can do and be more proactive if the results do not meet expectations. Any combination of players could be used by June to produce lineups conducive to competitive games. It should be a fun and interesting year.

10 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Joey G. - it’s Sunday afternoon v. the Royals & IMO, after 3-4 negative comments in this forum by me, you just bought yourself the rest of the first half of the season w/o me asking for your release!!!

107 Mph double off the wall

Solo bomb 431ft

3 run bomb …….all in 3 consecutive AB’s……3 runs scored with 4 RBI.

There’s some realized potential if I’ve ever seen it………raw power.

WELL DONE!!!!

OMG... I can't stop laughing... Three hours ago, everybody wanted Gallo's head.  Two games in and he needed to go!

Then today's game started and crickets...

Thank you JD for bringing some reality to this situation.

On 4/1/2023 at 9:24 AM, theBOMisthebomb said:

No thank you, still a hard pass on Gallo. The one game I've seen him in a Twins uniform is one game too many. I do hope he hits 38+ home runs and I'm wrong with egg on my face.  

On pace for 108 home runs.   So far, so good.

26 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Then today's game started and crickets...

Serving up crow 3 games into the year; the most dangerous game....

3 minutes ago, KirbyDome89 said:

Serving up crow 3 games into the year; the most dangerous game....

Thank you for making my point.  Passing judgement after a handful of games is terrible business.

23 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Thank you for making my point.  Passing judgement after a handful of games is terrible business.

2 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

Three hours ago, everybody wanted Gallo's head.

That is not even remotely close to a representative thought of those on Twins Daily. Yes, there were some totally opposed to his signing and just a few who have been a little quick after two games to draw conclusions, but most people have applauded the depth signing and held out some hope that Gallo would be useful and were especially lauding his defense and utility playing first base. More to the point it was a given by the vast number of posts that I have read that Gallo would not be even evaluated until June if things were poor and more likely July. It is a long season and the depth of the team will be important. Starting with this week, the Twins will get tested by a series of decent teams and pitchers. Hopefully nobody jumps before July due to the short term results. Relax and settle back.

I am more concerned about Kepler's lack of hitting since he is 0-9 and looks lost. In Sunday's game the pitcher threw him 7 pitches out of the strike zone in his last at bat and Kepler swung at 6 of them leading to his strikeout. The Twins cannot afford an outfielder who cannot hit. He had a poor hitting year last year and it doesn't appear he will get better this year. I understand it is very early in the season, but he has looked bad in almost all of his 9 at bats.

The move was never a head scratcher.  It was clear why they did it.  Nobody on the roster can stay healthy, and the “surplus” hasn’t proven they can sustain production at the MLB level.

If people can’t see the value in a player like Gallo, I don’t know what to tell you. Throw the offense in the trash, even though there’s significant upside:

The guy can play every position in the OF at a high level - a place we’ve been decimated by injury in recent years.

He can play third, a place we have an unproven Miranda (defensively).

He can play first, where our once top prospect has spent 2.5 years dealing with chronic wrist issues.

Back to offense:  We have no threatening left handed hitters (no, Nick Gordon doesn’t qualify).  We have next to nobody that can take a good, professional AB and work a deep count consistently.  We don’t have a ton of power.  If he can even partially bounce back from last year, he could check all those boxes.

The guy was a perfect fit for the Twins. Especially when you don’t want to lock yourself into a long contract.

Being optimistic is a good thing.  But, just blindly hoping that “surplus” of players would pan out givin their individual histories wouldve been negligent.  Letting that group ride is how you end up collapsing like we did last year.

33 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

That is not even remotely close to a representative thought of those on Twins Daily. Yes, there were some totally opposed to his signing and just a few who have been a little quick after two games to draw conclusions, but most people have applauded the depth signing and held out some hope that Gallo would be useful and were especially lauding his defense and utility playing first base. More to the point it was a given by the vast number of posts that I have read that Gallo would not be even evaluated until June if things were poor and more likely July. It is a long season and the depth of the team will be important. Starting with this week, the Twins will get tested by a series of decent teams and pitchers. Hopefully nobody jumps before July due to the short term results. Relax and settle back.

You are kidding right?  This signing has been DESTROYED by 90% of the posters here since Day one! 

- He is washed up.
- He is blocking the younger guys
- His defense is good, but not enough to outweigh is sub .200 average

Only since Kiriloff's injury was known to be worse than it is have people started to soften to the idea of him being here.  The responses to this article are still more negative than positive.  Then he has a monster game and the comments stop.  Don't even try to spin this any other way.

I am not a Gallo apologist.  I liked the signing at the time because I liked his defense, his flexibility, and the fact he is still young enough to turn it around.  I have never said he was the second coming, but the haters have either disappeared or done a complete 180.

4 minutes ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

You are kidding right?  This signing has been DESTROYED by 90% of the posters here since Day one! 

- He is washed up.
- He is blocking the younger guys
- His defense is good, but not enough to outweigh is sub .200 average

Only since Kiriloff's injury was known to be worse than it is have people started to soften to the idea of him being here.  The responses to this article are still more negative than positive.  Then he has a monster game and the comments stop.  Don't even try to spin this any other way.

I am not a Gallo apologist.  I liked the signing at the time because I liked his defense, his flexibility, and the fact he is still young enough to turn it around.  I have never said he was the second coming, but the haters have either disappeared or done a complete 180.

I'm not kidding. I was opposed to signing Gallo because of the strike outs, but have stated a number of times that he does add depth to the team. In fact, just recently  I wrote that Gall would get 100+ at bats before he was even re-evaluated by the Twins and stated my hopes that he could be a positive addition. I will still not be a Gallo fan at any point just like I have never apologized for being a Jorge Polanco fan. I don't believe you can put all readers ("everyone") of Twins Daily in one column. 

Perhaps someone could put up a poll to indicate to some degree where those who visit Twins Daily Gallo stand on Joey Gallo. My own take is that once he was signed we had to view him in the most positive light, hoping that Baldelli would consider his swings when putting his name in the lineup. The use of a pinch hitter in game two was a very small clue that Baldelli is watching the match ups and game situations.

I think the start of the season is representative of what Gallo brings to the table. Good defense at multiple positions with games where he doesn’t do a thing at the plate followed up by a game where he is a real difference maker at the plate. Just gonna have to get used to lots of swings and misses. 

31 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I'm not kidding. I was opposed to signing Gallo because of the strike outs, but have stated a number of times that he does add depth to the team. In fact, just recently  I wrote that Gall would get 100+ at bats before he was even re-evaluated by the Twins and stated my hopes that he could be a positive addition. I will still not be a Gallo fan at any point just like I have never apologized for being a Jorge Polanco fan. I don't believe you can put all readers ("everyone") of Twins Daily in one column. 

Perhaps someone could put up a poll to indicate to some degree where those who visit Twins Daily Gallo stand on Joey Gallo. My own take is that once he was signed we had to view him in the most positive light, hoping that Baldelli would consider his swings when putting his name in the lineup. The use of a pinch hitter in game two was a very small clue that Baldelli is watching the match ups and game situations.

You said it was not representative of Twins Daily, not you personally.  Anybody who reads Twins Daily and thinks that the large majority of opinions of the Joey Gallo signing were not negative (or borderline vitriolic) are being dishonest or do not read the site.

 

12 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

You are kidding right?  This signing has been DESTROYED by 90% of the posters here since Day one! 

- He is washed up.
- He is blocking the younger guys
- His defense is good, but not enough to outweigh is sub .200 average

Only since Kiriloff's injury was known to be worse than it is have people started to soften to the idea of him being here.  The responses to this article are still more negative than positive.  Then he has a monster game and the comments stop.  Don't even try to spin this any other way.

I am not a Gallo apologist.  I liked the signing at the time because I liked his defense, his flexibility, and the fact he is still young enough to turn it around.  I have never said he was the second coming, but the haters have either disappeared or done a complete 180.

In your previous post you said after two games emphasizing an over reaction. In this post you say from day one..

I've been critical of the Gallo signing since it happened & am still skeptical about what we'll get out of him this season. With that said seeing him make hard contact in three consecutive PA's & draw a walk all while not striking out was great. That was indeed a monster game as you said, but it is just one game the same as his first two games weren't good offensively, but were just a couple of games.

He is going to play a lot & a couple of months down the road the results should determine what happens. I suspect most people are concerned that if he were to struggle this year like he has for the past season and a half, hitting far below .200, OPSing below .700 how long do they stick with him. 

If by June he has an OPS north .800 & is playing well in the field (which everyone believes he will) I'm guessing most TD posters will be thrilled. I know I would be.

The guy will probably be hit and miss. This weekend he was hit. All or nothing. 

Royals are terrible though, so we will see. 

7 hours ago, MGX said:

In your previous post you said after two games emphasizing an over reaction. In this post you say from day one..

 

Context...
My first post was specifically about this article.  The response post was about the TD opinion as a whole.

I respect your opinion, it is shared by the majority.  I was a little more optimistic about the signing.  But one game does not make a season.  I would love to see it continue