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jkcarew

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Everything posted by jkcarew

  1. jkcarew
    Forget about 2006...that was a borderline great team littered with all-stars and they won 96 games. The 2009 team only had to win 87...even that would require this Twins team to finish 47-27....and you have to believe Cleveland only plays 500 ball from here on out, even though they have a ton of games remaining against Detroit, KC, Chicago. Sell free agents and play the young guys.
  2. jkcarew
    Yes, it was decent for sure...strikeouts a bit pedestrian for a power arm...a few more pitches. But only his second game at this level...and I suppose a starter will never see the 7th inning by the time Graterol is in his prime.
  3. jkcarew
    With regard to Jeffers, I don’t know that I’d say the Twins are “believers” in him behind the plate. I’d say it’s more like the Twins felt that it would be “worth a shot” to see if he sticks...given availability at 59th pick...and that if he doesn’t, he still would have a decent chance at providing value at DH/1B. It seems that if the scouting consensus had him sticking as a probability, he would have been long gone by the 59th pick.
  4. jkcarew
    Struggling horrifically with A+ pitching in his age 21 year...almost never walks, power tool showing little sign of development, and zero defensive flexibility. Yeah, Diaz might be a little too high.
  5. jkcarew
    A day well lived. Thanks for sharing!
  6. jkcarew
    True...but very few teams have rallied from a deficit after the 3rd out was recorded in the 9th
  7. jkcarew
    Only when trailing...and only late.
  8. jkcarew
    Put your hands in the air...and SLOWLY step away from the standings!
  9. jkcarew
    It should be very obvious by now that he wasn’t brought up to catch...and the Twins took some very specific steps immediately prior to calling him up that should have given that away...he was not playing catcher at all over a significant number of Rochester games immediately before being called up. Meanwhile, he’s been Richester’s best hitter (not saying much) pretty much all year.
  10. jkcarew
    Yeah...Wilson’s major-league OPS higher than Navaretto’s in the minors so far. Is good defensively.
  11. jkcarew
    It’s a concern, especially as the curve balls improve significantly as he ascends. FWIW...his K% has doubled to ‘only’ 25%...and his BB% has also managed to continue to improve and is now sitting at nearly 16% this year. It seems he can recognize, which would seem to be at least one of the important prerequisites for whatever adjustments he needs to make. And he hasn’t turned 20 yet. Definitely interesting.
  12. jkcarew
    I read the title and expected to read about a strong start from Graterol. I guess everything’s relative. One one hand, a half season’s worth of starts like that might actually slow his ascent. On the other hand, it was way, way better than his first start at Fort Myers. But the numbers ‘19’ and ‘101’ trump anything that appears in the box score. Understandably so.
  13. jkcarew
    Nice analysis. A lot of interesting data. In this particular case, I think conclusions are not obvious. Dozier’s walk rate is also down...at the same time his pitches per at-bat are up, his chase rate is down and his contact is weaker. Much of that is counter-intuitive. I think the simplest conclusion may be the only one that holds water...he’s simply not getting the barrel to the ball as frequently as in the past. His age profiles to where this starts happening. I think it’s been slightly compounded by bad luck...as his extraordinarily low BABiP (even for him) can probably not be explained solely by the marginally weaker contact.
  14. jkcarew
    Good for him! And good luck to him! Good to see him get another opportunity.
  15. jkcarew
    No, thank you. I’ve seen enough of Bobby Wilson.
  16. jkcarew
    Unless the play on the field is against Baltimore Orioles have averaged fewer than 3 runs every 7 innings, which is what they got off Gibson today. Baltimore has now scored 50 fewer runs than the Twins...with two more games played. Close your eyes for a moment, envision the typical Twins lineup and performance this year...and then contemplate a team being WAY worse offensively than that. That’s the 2018 Baltimore Orioles.
  17. jkcarew
    But why would we expect Kepler to turn into a league average BABIP guy? For some profiles (e.g. Dozier) it never normalizes to average, and Kepler shows every sign of being one of those guys. Never been even in shouting distance of league average...an easy target for aggressive shifts, rarely hits a ball hard to the left of center, etc. I don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to think Cave couldn’t be in the same neighborhood OBP-wise as Kepler, with the difference being who consistently shows more SLG.
  18. jkcarew
    Not to mention OPS in the neighborhood of 700 for the other 3/4 of games. Now, if he could catch....never mind.
  19. jkcarew
    This season is on the players mostly. Opening day starters that haven’t performed to their standard: Castro, Mauer, Dozier, Sano, Buxton, Kepler, and Morrison....and some of these performances haven’t just been poor...they’ve been catastrophic...oh, and the starting SS got himself suspended. While all of this has exposed an embarrassing lack of major league depth in specific cases ©, no organization is going to survive this many starters failing. Not saying roster weirdness (and on-field managerial challenges) haven’t made things more painful than they needed to be from time to time. Having said that, now is the time for the FO to come to the fore. The time for deferring to the manager’s methods/desire to win a game are past us. The moves with Sano and now Buxton were pretty drastic steps...now let’s see more of that. Sell and promote aggressively...learn as much as possible regarding young assets before this off-season.
  20. jkcarew
    If I can trust the defense of the other catcher. So...no. You’re up 3-1 in the 6th. The guy I pinch hit with has a 65% of making an out. And if I trusted the other guys to perform behind the plate and help protect the 2-run lead, I wouldn’t have started Wilson in the first place. He’ll be pinch hit for when behind...never when ahead. This is what’s going through Molitor’s head here...and in this case, I can’t blame him.
  21. jkcarew
    So, you’re going to have Garver come in to catch with a one run lead in the 9th? That strategy would be open to more criticism. Why Wilson wasn’t bunting to move the insurance run into scoring position I don’t get.
  22. jkcarew
    There remains very little evidence that the Twins brought up Astudillo to catch. We’ll see when Adrianza gets back. Until then it’s a moot point as Astudillo is serving as the only reserve infielder.
  23. jkcarew
    Helpful...thanks. So, another way to express what the power potential might be for a player who hasn't shown power yet. The analyst isn't exactly going out on a limb here given Arraez's 4 HR in 1200 PA. Crushable fastballs are accidentally thrown where you happen to be swinging more often than that. Then again, Kirby Puckett had 4 HR in his first 1300+ PA. We can dream.
  24. jkcarew
    Seems fair. Has to be a high BA guy to have offensive value (won't walk a lot), and the high BA guys (sustainable) seem to be very rare these days. The good news is that he is beginning to have an impressive track record of being that guy. I'd take that if it comes with decent D at 2B. Anybody...what does 'in-game' power mean? What other kind of power does the analyst think we might be interested in...batting practice? I'm amused by the term, but not sure what it means.
  25. jkcarew
    Don't know how toolsy he really is. He's already bigger than most that end up sticking at SS, and he really hasn't shown any speed (at least in terms of SB) yet. On the plus side, more mistakes and bigger mistakes are made on the very young players...and this kid was drafted at a very young age. Maybe we'll have a 6th-round steel. Nice to see him already doing well at Elizabethton.
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