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jkcarew

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Everything posted by jkcarew

  1. I’m with the Spy...I think Robo Ump in practice isn’t going to be as easy/“perfect” or as much of a material improvement overall as many here assume. I’m not one to buy that the human umpires exhibit bias over time...not on the basis of what uniform the player is wearing, anyway. And I find the ‘game’ aspects of the game interesting...Framing, pitchers having the command/consistency of location to influnce/stretch the strike zone a couple of inches, stealing/trying to steal signs, etc...not my ‘favorite’ aspects as the game, but still, aspects that add to the overall game in my view. At some threshhold does inconsistency within a game detract or cause material things to happen that you would rather never happen? Sometimes. So, in that regard, I’m not ‘against’ the concept. But I’d want to see how it handles some things first (like the vertical element)...and I think ball/strike calling is improving, not getting worse, and not a top priority.
  2. It’s like watching a knuckleballer...I cringe when he has to throw a fastball.
  3. 97 MPH on ball 4 to the .143 hitter . Far exceeded expectations tonight...some luck in play, which he took advice of.
  4. Reading my post..it was criptic. What I was trying to say.... Swinging earlier in the count reduces K-rate,...over time, you are less likely to strike out if you are hacking early. And I think the Twins have deliberately taken the approach to do that. (Albeit, probably for more reasons than to reduce K rate.) Currently the Twins have the 4th LOWEST K% in all of baseball....while seeing the fewest pitches per PA. It's early, but still not what I expected heading into the season.
  5. Agree that 'hiding' the bullpen is about to get much harder...irregardless of level of competition. Offensively, you can tell there's an obvious intent to be more aggressive and swing earlier in counts this year. Twins are dead last in baseball in pitches per PA. Swinging before you have two strikes has helped the K%, and hurt the BB%...as you would expect. (Still have a relatively high team swinging strike rate.) This hasn't hurt overall production so far thanks to extra-base hits and a pretty high (unsustainable?) team BABiP of 320. We'll see...but it does seem funner to watch. At least as long as the results remain favorable .
  6. I think it's probably Cave or Astudillo at this time. I don't think you say goodbye to Castro this soon. It would be bold, but also pretty risky. Having said that, it's not like Adrianza has been used much lately. But, barring an injury, there will be two moved, not one. I wouldn't be surprised if the move for the 13th arm comes before the addition of Sano. Although, I suppose they can sustain the AAAA pitcher "shuffle" for a bit longer.
  7. Depends on position...Cave is arguably the best defensive outfielder off the bench. I'd certainly rather have him out there (for defense) before Garver or Astudillo.
  8. Love what he has to say. Annoyed that I have to set the volume at 60 to hear it.
  9. Get it. But nobody else on the staff gave up a home run for every out they recorded...or even close. Then there were the HBP's/WP's. Wind or no wind...wasn't an outing that screamed "ready to come up any day now".
  10. I don't think so. But if you're right...then, never mind
  11. Agreed on the need to take the stats with a grain of salt going forward for a while. But, lest anyone think that Romero was anything but really bad in this appearance: he gave up one-third of the home run total, and retired 3 batters. Here was his sequence, starting from entering with 2 outs in the 4th... Caught stealing (to end the 4th), 5th: HR, HR, K (called), wind-blown single, HR, HBP, HBP, K (swinging), WP, ground-out. Even if the HR's should have all stayed in the part, that's not great.
  12. As the old saying goes...it's hard to steal first base. Between injuries and the career .288 OBP... Anyway, I think he's been reasonably aggressive...but yeah...can push it a bit more probably given the success rate, maybe missing some opportunities by waiting too deep into the counts, etc.
  13. The problem with the stolen base statistic, is that it still doesn't account for getting picked off. Outs on the bases are extremely damaging, and it's pretty weird that base-running statistics still don't (at least prominently) account for instances of getting picked off...(let alone other instances of getting thrown out on the bases trying to advance the extra base). Has Buxton been picked off during this streak? And if not, perhaps he already has the 'truer' record, or is closer to the record than we realize.
  14. I'm genuinely happy for him. Never fun to watch someone fail at that scale. And Orioles fans can cheer up. There's only a little over 3.9 years left on that contract.
  15. Junior can't possibly have the arm dad had. Because that isn't possible.
  16. Fort Myers BABiP so far: Larnach .280, Miranda .227, Lewis .200, Baddoo .143, Costello .125, Jeffers .118, Contreras .100, and Michael Helman .050. (Meanwhile Lewin Diaz is at .600 ) SSS, of course. But not THAT small...Helman's is the smallest...he's 1 for 20 on balls in play. Team OPS is .588 and they're 6-4... because the Pitching has been ridiculously good. Still, it will be more fun to watch this club when balls start finding the grass, as it's always a struggle to hit the ball over the fence in that park and that league.
  17. Rochester has the makings of a team that is going to be able to lose in all kinds of different ways. One of the more relevant thing that happened last night is that Ryan Jeffers finally had a game where he contributed offensively. Meanwhile, he threw out 2 or 2 would-be base stealers. He's now thrown out 3 of 6 on the young season. Rortvedt has thrown out all 4 who have attempted steals against him. I find it interesting that, so far (10 games), neither Rortvedt nor Jeffers has appeared in a game at a defensive position other than catcher. It's either catcher, DH, or bench for both. The time behind the plate seems to be split evenly.
  18. "Generating hard contact, like we discussed with launch angle, is not all that valuable in a vacuum." Misleading. Hard contact is always valuable. Always. Exit velocity has a high positive correlation with BA, SLG, BABiP...everything...even bullets hit on the ground. Launching is good. But, the data that shows results are better when the ball is launched is skewed (at least to some extent) due to the fact that the skill to put the ball in play to the opposite field is nearly extinct. The data is going to show it's especially ineffective (relative to pull/launch/K) when nobody can do it well...or that when it occurs, it occurred by accident by someone that was actually trying to pull/launch. If a twelve year old Rod Carew or Tony Gwynn were to come along today, there would be a coach changing his approach by the time they were 16.
  19. $3 to watch two different (well, mostly the same) world championship teams win games in about 2 1/2 hours. Yeah....that sucked.
  20. Yeah...when I see such awful results out of the gate, my mind goes to the same dark place...or that he has an injury that he's not disclosing. Hopefully, neither. But it sure would feel 100% better if he posted even one positive outing soon. The only things we (fans) have seen from him so far in 2019, including the ST game appearances, have been bad.
  21. After their first 250 at-bats (collectively), Fort Myers team BA is .201 and team SLG is .297. Was looking forward to watching them given the very large number of top-20 position players in the lineup, but so far in my two attempts it's been like watching paint dry. As a group, still getting their BB, and not striking out a ton...but still waiting for the base hits, and x-base hits.
  22. Aren’t the bullpen’s issues easier to take for the thousand or so of you that predicted exactly this?.......No? Fandom.
  23. Austin riding pine tonight against a right-handed starter. (His first two game with SF were both vs lefty starters.) Belt at 1B, Gerardo Parra in LF.
  24. Story of the game is lineup being dominated by Syndergaard.
  25. Yep...it's probably fair to call what they are do experimenting. Out of the gate they seem to have it like this (in terms of Left Field) Belt > Austin > Posey. Hopefully, the experimenting will result in somewhat regular at-bats for Austin so we can see what he can be.
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