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jkcarew

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Everything posted by jkcarew

  1. jkcarew
    Also not a fan of Rodney in a closer role...not for a team that expects to win a division or wild card. In a game like this, you were going to use him sooner or later, though. Odorizzi encouraging. Addison Reed very encouraging, but overall bullpen doesn't seem poised to be a strength. As a team, the offense should come around.
  2. jkcarew
    One body available to back up 3 positions (3B, SS, 2B). If you were to DH Sano you have zero bodies available...without losing the DH. Rosario in an emergency? Does this seem sustainable? The Granite move makes sense. His bat has zero value on the bench. We’ll see him play plenty if one of the big three goes on the DL.
  3. jkcarew
    8/8/87: Steve Carlton gets the 329th and final win of his Hall of Fame career as the Twins beat the Athletics 7-2 in Oakland. Matt, this game was at the Metrodome. I was there...(unless I dreamt it) Not that I remember all of these cool details...mainly remember wanting to see Carlton...and Puckett’s performance.
  4. jkcarew
    Either way, it's good to be the Sire!
  5. jkcarew
    Granite's biggest question mark is the bat, not his health. (Although the story may be his health to protect the ego, etc.) Given the profile of the starting outfielders, the bench OF role is bat-first, not defense first...don't need late-inning defensive flexibility as much as you need a bench bat that can actually hit. And Granite's bat has been truly awful in two small samples (including this spring). Also, with only two catchers on the 25-man, expect that Garver can be used only conservatively as a bench bat (when not starting). Hence, the desire for another right-handed bat...almost ANY right-handed bat. Enter Ryan LaMarre into the conversation.
  6. jkcarew
    The Gladden trade was the third significant move of the 1987 offseason. In February the Twins had acquired Jeff Reardon and Al Newman in separate trades with Montreal. They would trade for Joe Niekro on June 6, Dan Schatzeder on June 23, Steve Carlton on July 31, and Don Baylor on September 1. Value of '87 acquisitions (in terms of winning a WS).. 1. Reardon: could argue Gladden, except two words...RON DAVIS 2. Gladden 3. Don Baylor: post-season alone 4./5. Niekro and Schatzeder: Niekro more valuable in the regular season, Schatzeder in the postseason 6. Newman: a backup and barely replacement level (but a great guy!) Ironically the best player of the bunch by far, Carlton, provided no value...he was pretty much done, and wasn't on the postseason roster. However, I was at the Metrodome for his last major league win, and one-and-only win with the Twins. Puckett was 4-4 with 2 doubles and a HR. Early August...would have been a couple weeks before he went nuts at Milwaukee. He was pretty good. Thanks again, Matt!
  7. jkcarew
    The fact that we are talking about two 25-man spots confuses the conversation. At least it's puzzling to me. If the Twins are looking at this last spot being another outfielder, I can understand why they would consider LaMarre. They're considering LaMarre simply because they (presumably) have the roster spot, and because they'd take almost any right-handed bat at this time over Granite. So would I. On the other hand, what I expected is that the last spot would go to an infielder (who doesn't exist...at least yet). If something happens along those lines, the 40-man spot is taken, and LaMarre is at Rochester along with Granite. Unless you want our primary bench bat, and right-handed pinch-hitter and emergency DH to be LaMarre. That would be truly ballsy on the part of the Twins. Who gets the starts/innings if one of the big three goes on the DL is a completely different discussion.
  8. jkcarew
    Where would the roster spot come from? Grossman has been as good against left-handed pitching in the majors (or better) as LaMarre has been in the minors. Meanwhile, Grossman actually is a year younger than LaMarre. Weaken your bench 5 or 6 days a week so that you can have a better defender in a corner outfield spot one or two days a week?
  9. jkcarew
    No. No, it isn't. It's taking the stance that stances shouldn't be taken, because we don't know what happened. Period.
  10. jkcarew
    It works both ways...but the opposite of how you describe...at least, ideally.... No eyebrows should be raised, neither in the direction of Sano nor in the direction of the accuser. We don't know what happened...people whose job it is to find out, and who had access to whatever information existed, couldn't determine with any certainty what happened. That's the point. Moving on...
  11. jkcarew
    I agree with you, Kinley is going to get his shot. On the other hand, it seems weird to me that Granite would be the beneficiary of the Polanco suspension. With options, and needed development, why have Granite sit on the bench with the big club 3 out of every 4 games (at the least)...not needed for late-inning defense, not pinch-hitting? But sending Granite down and replacing him with an infielder, messes with the 40-man. Sometimes it's just better to defer that as long as possible. But there will be one person on the bench that can play 2B/SS/3B. That hand might get forced sooner rather than later.
  12. jkcarew
    We don't know what did and didn't happen. Anyone can accuse anyone. Some accusations can be substantiated, some can't. Confused by posters that had an expectation regarding an outcome without a clue of what actually happened. The only thing worth saying, IMO is....."now, we move on".
  13. jkcarew
    Sano's unique power comes from the acceleration (and the mass) of his hip turn...not the way he uses his arms. In other words, that power ain't going anywhere...it's a combination of being huge and extremely flexible and athletic. So, I agree that the strike-out improvement need not materially affect the HR's. Just needs to make progress with pitch recognition and a more consistently disciplined approach (he's shown flashes)...and maybe a willingness to wait for the ball to get deeper with two strikes, which would reduce his number of HR hit with two strikes maybe, but not much I don't think, as he can reach the fences in any part of any park. I'd love to be Sano.
  14. jkcarew
    Thanks, Seth. Is that a decision that's been made: both Javier and Lewis start at Cedar Rapids? If so, that will be very interesting in terms of defensive lineups. The move of Lewis to CF comes quicker than many of us thought? I'm interested to see two of our position prospects come back from missed seasons. Kirilloff and Luis Arraez. Arraez's on-base skills sure are intriguing, as are Kirilloff's overall hitting arsenal.
  15. jkcarew
    Agree with others here that feel he will sufficiently figure the LHP thing out. Everything having to do with his family background and overall story suggest that he will have all the tools required for "figuring things out" in his profession. He'll eventually max his physical gifts, and that's what is the encouraging part for me.
  16. jkcarew
    To me the question regarding whether it was accidental or intentional is irrelevant. It's a super competitive business...we all know of the incentives for pushing the envelope. But irresponsibility is always willful, either in act or omission of act. This need not impact his career drastically long-term. He's 24 years old. 24 year olds have time to atone for bad mistakes (thank God). Nor do I fear greatly that his 2nd-half performance was necessarily artificial. There are a lot of possible variables contributing to improved performance for a 24 year old batter. I'll be pulling for him when he comes back.
  17. jkcarew
    Just noticed Baseball Reference for "most similar batter through age 23"... Larry Hisle. Boy, I'd take that. Buxton would be top-10 MVP many, many years if he develops offensively as did Hisle (and stays healthy). The floor is Paul Blair. For those of you that weren't around for Vietnam or the Civil Rights movement (but can remember exactly where you were when Kanye dissed Taylor at the VMA's )...let's just say that that's a good floor. You can eat off that floor.
  18. jkcarew
    The rules are part of the collective bargaining agreement. The union agree to them. So, if we're going to throw around derogatory comments regarding any race or age, you need to sling some mud in the direction of the players that represented the union and signed off on this....or settle for holding the players accountable for following the rules.
  19. jkcarew
    Thanks for the reminder. DFA'd, not yet waived. As many have stated, the left-handed thing is weird. Just stockpiling value...you'd think some will get moved at some point...but I guess no harm/no foul (for now) when he comes will the full compliment of options.
  20. jkcarew
    Thanks. But if something else was up, they could have simply DFA'd Vargas and deferred adding Cave to the 40-man, until they wanted/needed him on the 25-man. Curious. I guess the only thing that's clear at this point is that 30 years from now both Vargas and Gil will be in the Hall of Fame.
  21. jkcarew
    Still not clear on if Cave automatically (or otherwise) is added to the 40-man.
  22. jkcarew
    The stuff definitely looks good in the 3 (of 8) innings I've seen. The 3 innings I saw were against mostly minor-league players. But let's see him do it at least at the AAA level for a while, before we assume he's going to be immediately better than Gibson. His demonstrated dominance in the minors was at the single-A level. At AA last year, hit/walk rates both took a hit and results were not 'knocking-on-the-door' results. If he's made the sustainable break-through with a pitch, let's see it in at least AAA results before we throw him into MLB games that should matter in terms of a playoff chase.
  23. jkcarew
    My gut tells me Joe would be willing to come back with limited role...almost regardless of what his results are this year. A lot of currently unknown variables regarding whether that would make sense for the 2019 roster. It won't be the end of the world if he ends his career elsewhere. There are two statues at Target field of guys that didn't end their career with the Twins.
  24. jkcarew
    You mean feet per second... This is a great example of bias based on what a player looks like. You assume (you are not the only one...not close to the only one) that these times are slow because these guys are so large. 26.9 fps is in the top half of speed for ML third-basemen. In fact, 26.9 is close to the average speed for MLB overall...all positions. (Incidentally, Vargas's time is easily in the top half for first-basemen.) Not that strait-line sprint speed has much to do with playing a quality 1B or 3B. https://www.mlb.com/news/sprint-speed-shows-fastest-at-each-position/c-238290228
  25. jkcarew
    Super nice write-up. Thanks. Concur with Dr. Wu that Hatcher was a fun player. Unorthodox in everything he did including his body language and facial expressions. Cut late in spring training in '87 when Kelly decided to give the left-field job to an acquisition from Giants...Dan Gladden. Needless to say, I didn't end up missing Mickey as much as I thought I would.
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