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jkcarew

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Everything posted by jkcarew

  1. jkcarew
    I think he has some pop. Pretty high percentage of his hits have been for extra bases...for instance, has more combined HR and triples than Lewis despite significantly fewer hits. So, I suppose that, along with the patient approach earns a lot of walks. (And a lot of deep counts and resulting K’s). It will really be interesting to watch his development.
  2. jkcarew
  3. jkcarew
    Ah, the NBA...where the first day of free agency is 10 times more interesting than the playoffs.
  4. jkcarew
    Cool photo! Could we see that photo with Target Field as the backdrop some day?
  5. jkcarew
    I have no problem extending Escobar for a fair price. Sano could move across the diamond, or Sano could continue to struggle. But if there's a non-zero chance you can't extend him prior to free agency...or, he indicates at all a desire to expose himself to the open market...then you have to trade him. In that scenario, trading him does not materially impact your ability to get him back. He'll end up with the team that offers him the best overall deal. If that's the Twins, then that's the Twins.
  6. jkcarew
    Molitor is neither as good as the second half of 2017 indicated, nor is he as bad as the last couple months would indicate. I said before, I don't think he was the best choice when the Twins hired him. And don't feel differently now. Twins have made a few high-profile decisions with a nod to (at least a bit) of provincial thinking...Morris (he was coming off a pretty poor '89/'90 stretch), Mauer vs Pryor, Molitor. As Michael Lee Aday once said, "Two out of three 'aint bad".
  7. jkcarew
    I know it's easy to pile on Sano right now, and there's not much question Sano's future is trending decidedly down and Rooker's up. But just in an exercise in perspective, and also to remind ourselves that Sano is worth significant salvaging efforts...here is how Rooker's half-year at Chattanooga compares to Sano's half year there.. Sano, 22 years old, HR% 5.2; BB% 13.3; SO% 23.8; OPS 918 (Sano was coming off a missed year with Tommy John) Rooker 23 years old, HR% 4.3; BB% 6.9; SO% 28.5; OPS 813 Rooker seems to be making very steady progress, especially with the K rate. Encouraging.
  8. jkcarew
    The 1 K in 6 innings for Romero is curious...the swings and misses were down in his last few starts with Twins. Maybe something to keep an eye on.
  9. jkcarew
    Agreed he has the right to not pick up the phone, be he will...or his agent will. It’s not all that common for a player to return, but there is plenty precedent for where it does. And when it doesn’t, it’s not because the player had his feelings hurt. These are professional adults operating in a big-time, big-money business.
  10. jkcarew
    But nobody...nobody is saying Lewis has a hit tool comparable to what Mauer had coming up...and you have Lewis arriving almost one full year younger than Mauer was when he debuted.
  11. jkcarew
    So, you have him not only reaching AA, but conquering it, by age 20. To arrive in the Majors at age 20 and 3 months? All while learning to play SS which he never played until he was 17 years old???? I like the way you think!! (But I’d definitely call this a hope, not an expectation.)
  12. jkcarew
    $18M is a lot...and more than Escobar should be able to command...especially if he regresses at all in the second half. But it’s not that close to what Machado will get, right?
  13. jkcarew
    Trading him guarantees a prospect, and a chance to sign him besides. A QO guarantees a prospect (who will be further away), does NOT guarantee Escobar signs, and totally prohibits the chance of ending up with both Escobar and a prospect. Why would you do that? Because you really want Escobar and don’t think anyone would match the QO?
  14. jkcarew
    I wish this generation of ball-parks would have been built with larger dimensions. It's a good example of the law of unintended consequences. There was a deliberate movement, heading into the 90's (when the current generation of ball parks started to pop up) to promote the HR. But what has happened is that lead-off hitters, and no. 2 hitters...and 7, 8, and 9 hitters...all physical/agility profiles can reach the fence and justify the launch, walk, or K approach. If a larger number of 'less strong' players couldn't reach the fence as readily, I think we'd see more players deploy a contact/put-the-ball-in-play approach. And of course, you'd have the natural outcome of more base hits falling in as outfielders have more territory behind them to cover. I do think there may be possibilities to 'soften' the ball (or at least reverse any trend to keep making more lively)...but the outcome would not be quite the same or impactful as it would be if the outfields were simply larger.
  15. jkcarew
    Let's assume the Twins want/need Escobar next year. I guess the question to ask is..."will the cost be significantly higher to sign Escobar if you have traded him in the interim"? I doubt it. Not significantly. So, I absolutely trade him. It's a sell-high opportunity. With the understanding that...depending upon where Sano and the first-base position are...I maybe have to go out aggressively for a major-league capable 3rd baseman in the off-season. Escobar or whoever.
  16. jkcarew
    Can’t make it up. Rochester is the worse hitting team by a mile in the International League.
  17. jkcarew
    Only taken 4 called strikes in four at-bats. Clearly something’s wrong.
  18. jkcarew
    Maybe...but he’s been playing 3rd base pretty exclusively. It’s THE position where teams most hate to compromise on defense...not just the Twins. But I agree that we’ve reached a point in the season where I’d like to just see Garver work on it...or see if someone like Astudillo would be viable.
  19. jkcarew
    Except Astudillo hasn’t been playing catcher for some time now. He’s been playing 3rd base. And we can assume there’s a reason for that.
  20. jkcarew
    Rosario. Escobar.
  21. jkcarew
    Let’s play “Name the Twin with a lower ops than Ehire Adrianna”!
  22. jkcarew
    I don't share your optimism... 1. Buxton has been a completely lost from day 1. And is currently completely lost at the AAA level. 2. Polanco will be replacing Adrianza (847 OPS in June while the Twins have continued to sink) 3. Castro had been awful offensively from the beginning of the year. The cost will not be 'low' for a Ramos rental. 4. Sano is not coming back any time soon. That has been made pretty clear by where they sent him. 5. Hanley Ramiriz? I think hoping for May Morrison to come back for July would be a better bet 6. Joe's been about the same player this year that he was in 2014, 2015, and 2016. And he's 35 years old now. It's really, really unlikely that anything in here (even we added a potential Dozier reawakening) would be enough to account for making up 8 games against Cleveland. I guess, you never know unless you try, and all that. But I wouldn't pass up on any opportunity to add even marginal value at areas of major league or organizational need...not to mention, to learn more about certain prospects by promoting them.
  23. jkcarew
    I think this is pretty fair/objective. I mean, you might bring Mauer back as a bench/depth player. But the challenge there is that he doesn't provide any defensive flexibility, which is critical with the number of pitchers on the modern 25-man. You might keep Dozier (price is looking lower every day)...say, in the unlikely event, for instance, that you used Gordon to obtain a real mlb catcher. I guess you could trade Kepler or Rosario (in a sell high)...but it would have to be for a good or very good right-handed hitting major league outfielder. Unlikely. Buxton or Sano would be too much of a sell-low scenario to be worth it. And the only reason I wait to sell closer to July 31 is if I think that gets me more leverage. So, yeah. This.
  24. jkcarew
    Nice! Super interesting to remember, that early in their amateur careers, when the scouts only had their eye-balls to go with, there were more hitting concerns with Sano (contact) and Buxton (hit tool in general) than there were with Rosario. That all went out the window when Sano and Buxton started to put up video game numbers in the minors...and we found out that Rosario swung at every pitch no matter what. To be fair, Buxton and Sano both have (have, not had...please!) generational tools, and Rosario never had that. But score one for the eye-balls. Rosario can flat get the barrel to where the ball is. Here's hoping that we have, even yet, not seen Rosario's hitting ceiling! And we know that he still has room to grow in other facets
  25. jkcarew
    Which means that leaving one-third to one-half of the infield completely open has lead to lower BABiP. Try explaining that one to the baseball novice. Of course true SLG guys aren't going to give in...nor should they. On the other hand, a whole lot of guys that are getting shifted are not in that category.
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