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jkcarew

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Everything posted by jkcarew

  1. jkcarew
    Agreed. FWIW, the offense is right about at league average overall, and the pitching overall has been solidly below league average. Record-wise, they’re right about where they should be, I think. As a group, the pitchers (the ones that get the most innings) are also ‘solidly young’ for low A.
  2. jkcarew
    Pull, pull, pull.
  3. jkcarew
    So, they looked at the first halves of Rooker and Gordon and INCREASED the gap between the two from Rooker +2, to Rooker +6. I get that probably no real difference in expectations from 70 to 100....but that still looks mighty foolish.
  4. jkcarew
    “Third-basemen that played SS for at least a day in the majors” for 100 please, Alex This trio is known as the “Iron-man”, the “400-million-dollar-man”, and “the man who coaches youth baseball in Wayzata”
  5. jkcarew
    I don’t know...I’d rather see them get aggressive unloading Dozier (been a big fan, but it’s the right thing to do now) and keep Gordon’s range in the middle, presumably 2B. Escobar is at 3B...and/or a FA at 3B next year. (Assuming Sano moves to 1B.)
  6. jkcarew
    No, I wouldn't bet on that continuing. I'd just as soon see Kepler in center and Wade or Cave in RF. But, it's pretty obvious from the lineups the last three nights that the first option/plan is to have a center fielder in center field. They started LaMarre in all games since Buxton's unavailability, including yesterday against a right-handed pitcher after he had gone a combined 0-7 with 4 strikeouts the first two games. As long as that approach is in place, it's LaMarre or Granite. So, LaMarre. I guess until he fails offensively more/faster than he has to date. As for having Wade/Cave up, but still playing LaMarre (or Granite) mainly in center? I just see this as less likely, especially in the case of Wade. You just don't often see AA/young prospects come up to supplement bench/depth. Can you figure out how to mix and match in that scenario so that Wade is playing most days? Debatable....probably easier with Mauer out for an extended period. Should that even matter? I don't feel strongly one way or the other. But it usually matters to those that have the job. Again, based on my (lengthy) record for deciphering what's going through the minds of the clubs brain trust, I'd say it's pretty much a lock that Kepler will be in center and Wade or Cave will be up within the week.
  7. jkcarew
    Looking at last night's box score. I notice that at the end of the game, LaMarre has the highest OBP of any Twin that appeared in the game. And he bats right-handed...and he's a real center fielder. Inconvenient facts. I'm sure he'd apologize for all this if given the opportunity. It just doesn't seem likely that LaMarre is going away real soon. Seems more realistic that it would the the scenario that I think Mike mentioned where you'd have Wade basically replacing Grossman...playing somewhere, including turns at DH, almost every day. That's the key for Wade, there has to be a scenario for him to play most every day before you're going to bring him up. I think. Granite has really only hit one year of his professional career. Not optimistic that he's going to be a player that you want in the lineup every day.
  8. jkcarew
    The dilemma is that I don’t think the Twins want to play Wade in center field. I mean, they aren’t even playing him in center ar Chattanooga, so it just seems really unlikely that they’d be willing to play him in center for the big club. At the same time, I don’t think they want to play Kepler in center every day either. And if that’s the case, we’re looking at LaMarre or Granite...neither of which do much for my excitement level. At a corner, Wade is behind our two healthiest and steadiest performers. There, I’ve done my part....Wade will be called up any day now.
  9. jkcarew
    Interesting question. Cincinnati fans maybe lamenting the beginning of Votto's decline. His SLG is down to .430 and his wRC+ down to 132. But, it never ceases to amaze me the analysts that live in the past with regard to Mauer's greatness...or maybe confuse his goodness of recent years with the greatness of his early years. Mauer has 2 full seasons since the 2009 mvp year that would match what Votto is doing this year. And since the move to 1B, Mauer has 5.9 WAR and Votto 21.6. The only thing these two have had in common is the high OBP and their age. Thanks again.
  10. jkcarew
    Aren’t the agents paid to prevent their clients from making fools of themselves in this manner?
  11. jkcarew
    Promising signs of professionalism. True professionals committed to excellence share many ‘high-character’ traits...the ones that lead to results.
  12. jkcarew
    Right...he was a complete mess at the plate from game one...has nothing to do with his foot. This has everything to do with hitting the reset button and giving him an 'excuse' (saving face whatever you want to call it) to spend some extended time in the minors. Probably not a bad idea to start completely over. It really has been that bad.
  13. jkcarew
    His WAR is inflated by defensive metrics which overstate the value of his defense...even as outstanding as it is. No matter how outstanding a center-fielder's defense is, he's just not going to have any real value if he hits to an OPS in the 500's (and well below) for months and half-seasons at a time. Having said that, I agree with those that suggest it's already too late to trade him. Too little reward on selling low on a top prospect, with too high risk of regret. We just did this with Hicks...albeit on a somewhat lower scale of reward/regret. At some point, something will have to give. But for now...play him, play him, play him. If history's any indicator, he'll be at least serviceable offensively in the 2nd half. I'll look forward to that. But I'd love to get 6 months of Paul Blair...or even Gary Pettis, at this point. We could win with that.
  14. jkcarew
    It’s factually incorrect to say Sano is slow. He isn’t. The data exists. Even in 2018, when we can all agree that conditions haven’t been great for him to show it...there have been more than 20 3rd baseman with slower max speeds than Sano. Some of the names would astound you.
  15. jkcarew
    Charger nailed it. Twins were kind of stuck. He was always behind having to do with the conversion...but you could always tell that he had a chance to eventually get there. Happy for him...he grinded and grinded. Would have been easy to give up...maybe even more so, in light of the shadow dad's career casts.
  16. jkcarew
    I have to agree with I tend to agree. The bar has sagged pretty low here pitching-wise. Basically, we finally have starters that, more often than not, are giving us a chance. The starters are slightly above average by most measures. We're definitely not used to that, and it's encouraging heading into the heart of the season. Meanwhile, the bullpen, while not a disaster, has so far been slightly-to-solidly below average by most measures...so, not sure how we get to a description of excellence for the bullpen. Although, this too should be improved, at least from a depth/options standpoint, as the season progresses.
  17. jkcarew
    I don’t suppose now would be a good time to mention that Jon Jay was the 74th overall pick in the 2006 amateur draft.
  18. jkcarew
    That was 4 innings in 1 hr, 20 minutes...with no runs, no pitching changes, no injuries, no replay reviews.
  19. jkcarew
    It's a skill, that until now, only seemed to be found in Dominican players.
  20. jkcarew
    It's a sign of how desperate we are that we're spending time lamenting how much offense we can squeeze out of the catcher position. That position didn't figure to provide much offense in 2018. But now that about 5-6 other position players are producing offensively what you might expect from a catcher...and at least one producing offensively what you'd expect from a pitcher...yeah, might as well find out how much Garver can improve defensively.
  21. jkcarew
    Two "likes" for dying (and counting). We really need to start hitting, and soon.
  22. jkcarew
    Since the door has been opened, who would we bring in for Buxton's ghost? Mario Mendoza? Maybe more position-relevant....Jordan Schafer? Sam Fuld? Peter Bourjos? The idea that player A has inferior attitude, work ethic, or self-discipline because he's "fat" or because he has a certain type of body language or even because someone said he did something bad...and that player B necessarily has superior attitude, work ethic, self-discipline because he's fit, or because he "looks like he's always trying really hard", or because "he never gets in trouble"; that failure for player B is acceptable, but not acceptable for player A...I feel this when I read some articles and/or responses here. It's a dangerous and slippery slope...simply because we don't know. We think we know. But we don't know. Results are the only thing that matters and the only thing verifiable. No matter how talented you are, it's hard to be a great MLB player. It just is.
  23. jkcarew
    "The two first-rounders have accounted for a disproportionate amount of Cedar Rapids’ offense." Well, they are the number 2 and 3 hitters in the line up. But, I think it would be a more accurate portrayal of the Kernels offense so far to say something like "Kirilloff has been head and shoulders the best offensive player, while Jordan Gore, Akil Baddoo, and Lewis have been good." Gore has a significantly better slash line than Lewis (in a few fewer games played); Baddoo's OBP is over 400, and his OPS is basically the same as Lewis's. Lewis's OPS is sitting at 739, with almost zero power, which is not surprising for an 18 year-old SS playing in the Midwest League. As a team, pitching has been as much of a 'problem' as hitting. It's been very mediocre...league average ERA as a team, poor WIP, poor BA against, and last in the league in strike-outs.
  24. jkcarew
    I'm not happy. But I'm kinda happy for Niko. He grinded his way to the majors. Also, I'm sure many watching him this week remember with fondness watching his dad play very good football for the Vikings for a number of years.
  25. jkcarew
    With that 315 OBP and 25-35 HRs per year...K% at 'only' 32%...Rob Deer was ahead of his time. Be an all-star today.
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