jkcarew

Oh, come on now...it's not that bad. Think of all the clicking as we rush to disagree with you!

"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.

The jab at the FO for Belisle, and the relievers that have seen the 25-man this year is fair. Molitor can't use them if the FO doesn't sign them and agree to put them on the 25-man. Also, it is somewhat amusing (in a sad way) that so many connected with the Twins (not just the Twins) seem not to have had a back-up marketing plan when Buxton became a total non-factor...which was about one month into the season. Still seeing more Buxton spots (or at least as many) as I see Rosario, Berrios, or anyone not named Joe.

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)?

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.

Defensive flexibility is good. Did the Yankees move him from the outfield to first because he can't play the outfield (the corners in Yankee stadium are among the smallest/easiest to cover in baseball)...or because they were significantly more thin organizationally at first? Agree that now would be the time to experiment.

To me, the moral of the above story is the affirmation that Forsythe's BABiP needs to maintain at about 400 to be on a par with what could be considered 'normal' (not hot) Dozier production. And Forsythe's BABiP will not come even close to doing that (it's 301 over his career). I'll take the position that there continues to be no hurry to offer/sign Forsythe. The Twins should be able to do better in the off-season.

You don't move a player that OPS's 850-900 from the least demanding defensive position (1B)...so that guys that OPS's 750 can play there. If Austin can play the outfield, that's another matter. But then, I'd want the Twins to go get someone else to play 1B/DH that has a realistic shot at OPS'ing 850 or better. Of course we don't know if Austin is that hitter at this point. His K-rate with the Yankees this year: 40%. 40 percent. Since joining the Twins: 26%. He's going to hit home runs. If he's going K at 25%...you play him every day...somewhere.

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?

Or 20. Or 15.

Let’s all bow our heads for a moment and pray that Buxton stops being like Dyson, and starts being like Cain.

Sometimes the box score doesn’t tell the story...today he hit the ball all over the yard and will end up with about the same box score as the DH, who didn’t get a ball out of the infield in 5 trips. But do agree that he had been K’ing too much again.

There’s the trump card.

Not swinging and missing as much as feared (not nearly as much as he had with the Yankees). I’m going to go with his most recent SSS

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.

The beaning of Puckett at the end of his last year was absolutely unpreventable because it was completely accidental. And it had zero, zilch, nothing to do with the end of his career. I can’t think of one alleged intentional beaning in the history of baseball that caused a serious injury. Just guessing, I’d say considerably less than 5%...probably closer to one or two percent of HBP are even alleged to be intentional. Having said that, I thought the Urena play was stupid.

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.

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).

Huh? Hadn’t heard the wrist thing regarding Austin....nor do his minor league numbers seem to reveal any such gap. How long ago was this? I’m pretty sure the Yankees fans have a different opinion right now . But Bird is left-handed (in that ballpark) and a year younger. I think it’s a fair point on Lewis....and Kiriloff’s bat does seem a full notch ahead of Lewis’s as well. But the wildcard would be if the Twins found themselves desperate for a middle infielder or a centerfielder. Twins seem more stable in the corners...of course all that could change significantly by the back end of 2019.

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.

Easier to find than I thought. Bottom line...the Twins THOUGHT Oliva was born in 1941 which might explain the slower-than-needed ascent to the big club. This SABR article does a great job....https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/244de7d2

If I had more time, I could do a long(er) response on this....instead, I'll look for a source and provide a link...if I can figure out how to do that! The bottom line is that Oliva's birth date is disputed. Oliva maintains he was born in 1941. BR and some others give it as 1938. It is pretty well documented that Oliva came to his first Twins camp in 1961 on his older brother Antonio's passport....as he had been signed just weeks prior to the beginning of spring training and he didn't have a passport of his own. Hence Tony became "Tony"...despite the fact that his given name is Pedro, and he has a brother Tony. Presumably little was know about Oliva when he was signed. He was signed by the Twins/Senators long-time Cuban scout...but only on a recommendation to the scout from someone he had signed years earlier, and that was back playing in Cuba and had played with Oliva in some league along the way. This would better explain (at least to some extent) the prolonged look in the minors once he came over. Also, the Cuban revolution comes into play in the story....fascinating story...I will look for it, and provide a link if I can.

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.

To be fair, the poster was not suggesting Rosario was on a par with Oliva...only that the numbers suggested that Oliva was "a little better" than Rosario. I only called it out because of the relatively unique way Tony arrived at his career numbers. Oliva also had MVP voting results of (in no particular order) 2nd, 2nd, 6th, 4th, 10th, etc. I'd love to be able to say that that's only a little better than Rosario. And maybe we will be able to say that in 6 years. I'll not high-jack this thread further.

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.