jkcarew
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Everything posted by jkcarew
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Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I heard a rumor that Carlos Correa is going to walk when he hits free agency in 2022 because the Astros took the immoral/disrespectful/unnecessary/deplorable/legal-but-still-really-icky action of exercising their leverage by only offering a $4.2M bonus to sign Correa out of Puerto Rico as the top pick. He's ticked that the guy picked AFTER him got $6M to sign with the Twins. -
Is it just my imagination, or did an inordinate amount of our top hitting prospects fade in the second half? Some longer/worse than others...but still. Lewis faded pretty dramatically in August...Rooker faded...even Baddoo some. Don't know if I'd call what Gordon and Wade did at Rochester a 'fade'...more like they were overwhelmed by the level...Gordon more so that Wade, but Wade struggled pretty dramatically as well, slugging .336 It will be nice to see Lewis get a chance in the playoffs to end the season with an exclamation point.
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Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I disagree with this decision...but can’t quite muster the sky-is-falling angst that seems to be the theme taking over the thread. If Buxton gets “pissed” and turns into a player that can hit major league pitching and stay on the field...and we control him for an extra year...that’s the downside? He’s currently a 79 OPS+ guy with 1000 PA. If he turns into a good major league hitter, the Twins were probably not going to be able to keep him anyway. If he continues as the hitter he’s been (overall) he’s not valuable enough to obsess about losing. And the ‘nobody will ever sign with us after this’ hysteria, I don’t buy into. It doesn’t work that way. -
Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I said I wanted Buxton up. And durability is a real and valuable quality...independent of effort. There are a ton of players that hustle for my entertainment and play 140-150 games a year. -
Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
No. No he hasn’t. You can’t lose something you never had and that was never guaranteed to you. This year of service was never guaranteed. And Buxton is at least partly responsible for being in the position he is to lose it...both in terms of lack of durability and performance. Does Cave deserve losing at-bats to Buxton this fall? Would we be even noticing this if Buxton was the scrappy journeyman 6th-rounder and Cave were the 2nd overall pick whose greatness had been proclaimed since 2014? And yet, I want Buxton up. Life isn’t fair. -
Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
And if Buxton had gotten the service year, and decided to sign elsewhere when he hit free agency...despite the Twins having made a ‘fair’ offer and having ‘stuck with him’ during his months/seasons of struggling.... would that then be poor form on the part of Buxton? Or would that be Buxton exercising his rights under the terms of the CBA? It’s a business, has been forever. -
Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I simultaneously want Buxton up, getting as many MLB at-bats as possible....AND at the same time, don’t have a problem with a FO making a decision in a scenario similar to this based on service time. I just wouldn’t have gone this way with Buxton. -
Article: Hardball, the Twins, and Byron Buxton
jkcarew replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
The career OPS+ sits at 79. That speaks for itself...and he was looking worse than ever. -
This seems to be the consensus. Then again, 8 hits in 5+ innings...you can expect to give up a few runs. Bigger picture, I think Romero is wearing down a bit. Game logs/numbers since about mid-July not particularly fantastic. For the year at Rochester, the K/9 pretty significantly down (6.7 K/9 in the last 10 starts)...missing fewer bats. Probably partly a function of working on lowering the walk rate (mildly successful) by throwing more balls over the plate early in the count. But I do think he's wearing down a bit similar to last year...at about 140 innings overall....basically, the number of innings Jake Odorizzi has already thrown. To me, it's too early to say whether innings/endurance are, or are not, going to be a concern for Romero in 2019.
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- fernando romero
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Article: Matt Magill Making His Improbable Case
jkcarew replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Oh, come on now...it's not that bad. Think of all the clicking as we rush to disagree with you! -
Article: Matt Magill Making His Improbable Case
jkcarew replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
"Above average exit velocity" Just kidding. I like the stories on the long-shots. Keep them coming...I pull for these guys. The harsh reality is that they are long-shots for a reason and will 'fail' 9 times out of 10. But I have no problem toggling between by 'Twins' perspective and my 'big-picture' perspective. For 95+ percent of young men that commit to professional baseball, never getting to the majors...or failing at that level, is the reality. Through that lens, Magill is doing great and I'm happy for him. It's an understatement to say that guys playing in AAA are good players and accomplished a lot in their career. These are true statements. -
Article: Week in Review: Mauer Passes Carew
jkcarew replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Yes...I'm not one for "Mauer without concussions take". What about Puckett without glaucoma? What about Oliva without devestating, crippling really, knee injuries? One had his counting stats severely truncated...the other say his productivity numbers nose-dive as he attempted to play for seasons without legs. You are what you are, you did what you did. Joe is not nearly the first to have a 'reason/excuse' (whatever you want to call it) for not having 'even better' numbers. With regard to Carew vs Mauer...both were ridiculously great for a few years. But, Carew sustained the "really goodness" for more seasons than did Joe. I have no problem with people that feel Joe's 2009 was better than Carew's 1977 based on the fact that Joe caught 105 games that season. (Joe only caught 100+ games in 5 seasons.) Joe is to be congratulated for his milestone accomplishments. He's lucky in that he is in a situation where he should be able to complete a full career with his original club...an opportunity Carew would have loved, but wasn't offered in any serious manner. I think Joe appreciates this. FWIW...someone gave Carew credit for a Gold Glove earlier in this thread. He never won one. Wasn't ever really considered that strong of a second-baseman. Good range, a bit stiff around the bag, making the turn, etc. Average hands...which seems ironic given what they did with a bat. He ended up being an above-average first-baseman. Also, Carew missed the better part of an entire season, as well....1970. Early in his career also missed significant games with mandatory/periodic exercises with the Army Reserve (or was it the National Guard)?- 42 replies
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- joe mauer
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Article: Week in Review: Mauer Passes Carew
jkcarew replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
The thing with Buxton is I'm not hearing anything about tearing his swing down and building back up from scratch. It's more...well, he's feeling better, so let's start throwing him out there. If that's the case, I want as many of those remaining 2018 PA to be in the majors. I'm way more concerned with 2019 than I am the last year of control in 2022. We have no realistic confidence level that the combination of his health and performance will even warrant caring about the additional year by the time it comes around. His career OPS+ is 79. I'd just as soon not waste one day between now and the beginning of 2019 in terms of seeing if he can figure out how to hit major league pitching.- 42 replies
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- joe mauer
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Boy, it seems like all the full-season guys are hitting the wall at the same time. You know it's bad when Kirilloff is down to one hit per game! Can't find any news on Luis Arraez. Just have to wait to see if he's in the Lookouts lineup tonight?
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- byron buxton
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Article: OAK 6, MIN 2: Austin Goes Deep Twice in Loss
jkcarew replied to Tom Froemming's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Or 20. Or 15. -
I didn’t see much to be encouraged about with Gonsalves, honestly. To play in the majors, His stuff is going to require great command. And he has the opposite of great command. Was incredibly lucky last night for as long as you can expect to be lucky. Still glad he’s getting a taste...and who knows. Reports were his command has improved, especially this year, so we could be seeing nerves playing a factor.
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Article: MIN 6, OAK 4: Twins Top Red-Hot A’s
jkcarew replied to Tom Froemming's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Then the reason we’ve seen so much Wilson and relatively little Garver behind the plate since the Castro injury is that they have Garver on an “innings/games count” so he doesn’t get tired legs? If that’s the case, I’d be even more frustrated than I am under the alternative assumption that Molitor simply would rather have Wilson behind the plate.- 22 replies
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Article: MIN 6, OAK 4: Twins Top Red-Hot A’s
jkcarew replied to Tom Froemming's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
It's probably useful to remember that Garver was not really aggressively developed as a catcher in Minors. As little as he's played catcher for the Twins this year...he'll still probably end up the year having caught more games this season than he had in any minor league season. And that's why I can't really understand why, at this point of the season, he wouldn't be catching 5 of every 7 games (or 5 of every 6 on weeks with off days).- 22 replies
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Fun with numbers... Rooker in about 520 PA for Chattanooga: 828 OPS Jaylin Davis in about 220 PA: 831 OPS (Davis is a year older. And I'm not saying that Davis is going to be better. But, still.) Also, Rortvedt now OPS'ing 720 with an OBP of 347. At a place/league were offensive numbers are typically a bit depressed. In his 20-year-old season. As a player that most (not all) analysts have considered a glove-first catcher up to this point. I would have to think that this is viewed as a very encouraging year for Rortvedt within the organization.
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- jacob blank
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His overall K % in 2018 is almost 40...no? Probably worse against RH pitching? SSS...agree he’s looked better than that with the Twins. A solid “we’ll see”...more intriguing than the options we were deploying...who warrants a good long chance because when he hits it, it lands on the other side of the fense.
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Article: Twins Daily Roundtable: Grading Molitor
jkcarew replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Lots of thing to like and admire about Molitor, IMO. To me, a manager's value is primarily in two places: the demeanor/attitude of the team; and in-game decision-making (which includes lineups). The former is hard to assess and very dependent upon what information makes it's way to the assessor. My guess is he might be pretty decent in this arena...but not inclined to defend that...I'll not go there for now. The later is easier to assess/observe. I don't think Molitor is a good (say even top half of the league) in-game manager. I think he's gotten better. Do I think there are better over-all options out there? Yes. -
I hope the FO does't fall in love with any of these guys. Austin is intriguing, but with his K-rate, he's right on the edge of Chris Carter'ing himself out of baseball. Cave strikes out a ton for a guy that figures to have middling power...and he's left-handed. I don't even pretend to know what Drake is at this point. These guys were better solutions that we were deploying...but are they going to move the needle for a contending team? Maybe. Likewise, the losses of guys like D. Rodriguez, R Rosario, and Chargois are not particularly offensive, IMO. There were legitimate reasons for choosing not to carry these guys. I'd put all of the above in the category of normal season-to-season roster shuffling noise IMO. You always win a few and lose a few.
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Cave's K% is 31%. Grossman's is 22%. Just saying.
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Article: Twins Minor League Report (8/21): Rooker Slam!
jkcarew replied to Steve Lein's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Kenny's has been pretty bad all year. He was OPS'ing .657 on August 7. Despite an insanely hot streak, he's at .729 currently. Rooker definitely slumping for the last couple of weeks. That was only his second HR since July 28. On the positive side, his walk rate has maintained and his K% has not ballooned. Two things noteworthy with Rooker lately. One, he has developed absurd home/away spits this year (in favor of home). Weird. Probably just SSS anomaly? Second, whereas in the first half of the season he seemed to have been 'converted' to a first-baseman...lately, he's been playing outfield significantly more than 1B. We'll see if Wiel's promotion changes things.- 22 replies
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Also, Acuna had more than 500 PA at AA/AAA when the Braves pulled the trigger. And yes, Soto was a fairly significant risk, warranted given the desperate straights Washington was in regarding their playoff race. (Although, FWIW...what Soto was doing in small samples at A+ and AA were a whole 'nuther level as compared to even what Kiriloff is doing.)
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- edwar colina
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