jkcarew

My goals for the season have shifted from playoffs to simply wanting to see as many of the younger guys as possible pull it together and show progress...including some promotions for the prospects. Pretty much all of the young guys on the big club (except Kepler) have taken steps backward so far this season. Not good. Having said that...we're 3 1/2 games down with 139 to play. Stranger things have happened. Maybe Cleveland isn't going to be as good as we thought. But first, we just need to see a month of decent to good baseball.

My mother told me, "If you can't say anything nice"...

Just need to survive until the schedule softens and reinforcements (Polanco, Santana) arrive. There are a number of ways the twins can survive until then...smarter roster/bullpen, Sano/Buxton/Morrison playing and hitting better, trade for right-handed outfielder (or LaMarre continuing to surprise), Granite turning back into 2017 Granite. Not all of these need to happen...but some of them will have to.

The eskimo thing is hard to interpret. But I think we can all agree that Seth needs to leave Sano alone, and let him focus on hitting. Let's hope this is the turning point that we've been looking for with Miggy.

This from today's very entertaining (as always) Matt Johnson Twins Almanac... Luke Hughes hits HR in first Major League at-bat: Leading off the top of the third, Australia native Luke Hughes lifts Max Scherzer’s 2-2 pitch to right for an opposite field home run in his first major league at-bat. Hughes had originally come up to bat in the second, but Delmon Young was thrown out attempting to steal third for the third out of the inning. I'm reminded I'll take Eddie being Eddie.

I'd always rather try to win today.

Sorry. I ran out of breath.

And this was a good game to rest Sano....why? Doesn't matter what Sano is doing (as long as he's playing a serviceable 3B, which he has been...because you're replacing him in the lineup with Adrianza...in a game you know you're going to have to score a bunch...and he had shown signs of making decent contact the previous game...and he's the number one guy you need to get going...and...

First game against a power lefty all year, with fairly predictable results. 5 baserunners in 7 innings. Was going to be a challenge even if Sano was swinging it.

1 for 1 so far, huh? It’s an extremely small sample size...but who knows, I remain optimistic for you.

They were teammates for 10 games in Rochester in 2011. I’m sure that’s what Dick was referring to.

Seams reasonable, but this seems to be a different argument than what was being made in the post-game thread. That argument seemed to be that the Twins should have gone with LaMarre instead of Grossman against Archer last night. But, the Grossman choice against Archer was easily defendable. And, in fact, the results were fine...Grossman contributed offensively, and his error was completely meaningless (...and, fwiw, LaMarre made a very bad play by throwing home in the 9th...which also ended up being meaningless) "I do believe that there are Tommy Pham stories all over the place. Players who never got a chance because the people who control their fate never gave them a chance." I don't know about the "all over the place" and "never got a change" part of that. Byron Buxton gets more changes than Tommy Pham. Royce Lewis more than Brian Dozier. And, mistakes can be made. But the incentive to ultimately be right and not wrong is astronomical. Tommy Pham is a mistake, but I don't conclude that mistakes/oversights of that magnitude are common. If we picked the next dozen most 'Tommy Pham-like' minor leaguers and 'gave them a change' with 1000 PA's...I suspect we would be hard pressed to come up with even one instance of anything close to Tommy Pham results. Having said that, I'm with the tenor of this thread. I'm not going to have a problem with LaMarre playing instead of Grossman in many scenarios...to see what happens. LaMarre DH'ing against tough left-handed pitching? Hmm...I guess...try it. But, I'd much rather have an additional infielder with offensive potential on the 25-man...and have Sano (even the current version of Sano) DH'ing in that scenario.

Lot of things working against the club right now with the injuries, struggles, weird schedule, etc...and now the very back end of the rotation getting exposed, followed by a trip to Yankee Stadium. There are points, even for contending teams, where it's good enough to simply avoid the catastrophic losing skid. Feels like that's where the club is right now. And so far, so good: six of the last seven starters faced by the Twins: Verlander, Keuchel, McCullers, Kluber, Carrasco, and Archer. Record: 3-3. Survive to thrive. Live to fight another day. It's a marathon. What am I forgetting?

Not ideal, for sure. I'm fairly sure that the original plan called for Granite to be the 'full time' replacement for Buxton...that he would be the 'nearly every day' replacement if one of the big three went down. But, I think that plan had already changed before this injury. Granite has simply has been too hopeless offensively in 2018 to put in a ML lineup...and it's been right from the beginning of spring training. It's not just the awful numbers so far, it's how he's looked in the box and swinging the bat. Maybe we'll find out he had been injured from the very beginning?

Thanks again for posting this stuff, I would never get around to seeing it otherwise. IMO, KLAW is missing the point on the early 2018 version of Berrios. And the point is not the stuff. The point is using the same stuff that has always been there for 'strike one' and forcing batters to be more aggressive earlier in the count. Sure, the BABiP will regress some...but not as much as one might expect if the improved command becomes consistent and real. For the fun of it, when you'all might have the time, look at Sandy Koufax's numbers through 1960, and after 1960. Same stuff.

Strange season so far, to say the least. But it's nice to be banking wins (and against some good opponents) when so many things are...not ideal.

This is a funny joke, but for those bringing up the rear when it comes to linguistic buenoness...we should set the record straight... EL NINO means 'storm'. and LA NINA means 'bad storm'.

I don't think it was so much a limit...or even the coach wanting to be cautious...as it was that Romero had already thrown 81 pitches, only 48 strikes, had walked his 3rd batter that inning, the score was 2-2, and the manager wanted to win the game. I have no problem with it. He'll come around...but in AAA, he is actually pitching against more polished hitters than several of those that he dominated in spring training games last month...and in much cooler weather (54 at first pitch last night).

I appreciate the post. I think the color barrier being wiped out represents probably the most dramatic and rapid transition from one era of baseball to another. Of course, in terms of the larger social picture in this country, it was even more impactful than it was for baseball. But having said that, baseball always evolves. If the point is that Babe Ruth wouldn't have had 714 home runs if he had had to bat against the best black pitchers of his era...or that Ted Williams wouldn't have hit 406 in 1941 is he had had to face the best of his era...then I think that's a reasonable argument. If, on the other hand, the argument is that Babe Ruth or Ted Williams would not have been among the very best players of their era or any other era, then I would disagree. After all, during the color-barrier era, African Americans represented 10% of the population. What the great players of Ruth's and (early) Williams' eras accomplished, they accomplished against the very best from a pool of 90% of the population...virtually without any of the siphoning of elite athletes to other sports that started in the 50's and accelerated from there. So, I prefer to view the color-barrier era in terms of the tragedy and travesty for the black players, not as an invalidation or marginalization of what the great white or native players accomplished. The tragedy is that from the 10% that were excluded, there were undoubtedly players that should have been placed right along side the Ruth's and the Williams' of those eras...maybe even above them. Thankfully, MLB has at least gone to some effort to recognize who those players were....players like Josh Gibson, who may have been, for a 10-year period starting in the early 30's, the greatest player alive...or that ever lived. But baseball always evolves, and it's always extremely problematic to compare numbers across eras. Would Hank Aaron have ended up with 755 home runs if he had taken +10% of his at-bats against Dominican relief pitchers throwing 97 mph? Probably not. (MLB started to open the door to Dominican players right around 1970.) Would Kershaw already have 2000 strike-outs if he had played in an era where putting the ball in play had value? Turned around: how many more strikeouts would Nolan Ryan have ended up with if he had started his career in 2010 instead of 1969? And so it goes. I don't think my thoughts contradict anything in the post. I enjoyed the post and found it interesting enough to share my thoughts.

Vikings don't have control over what happens and doesn't happen in US Bank. That is governed by the Minnesota Sports Facilities Authority. So, if MLB and the Twins wanted to play a game at US bank, the Vikings wouldn't have anything to say about it. Having said that, as mentioned above, the baseball configuration does not meet MLB standards. It's fine and super convenient for college and high school, and in March and early April it is not unusual to have 4-5 games per day booked some days. I've gone to many such events/games at both the Metrodome and US Bank...although, the last games I went to at US Bank were last April, haven't gone this spring yet. The dimensions aren't great, and there are other factors as well. There are no dugouts...just 'cages' off to the side, similar to what you might see on a youth or municipal field. Also, there are no dirt areas surrounding the bases (at least as of last April)...dirt only around home plate (and the pitching mound)...so, in effect, no sliding area (although there was sliding) at either first, second, or third...which would be a non-starter right there for MLB. I'd post a picture if I could figure out how The configuration really doesn't look anything like what you see on the Stadium website.

Dick Allen, Woodie Held, Lance Johnson and Willy Garcia?

Big hitter, the Lama.

Last year Joe improved to the point where his wRC+ (116) was only slightly below league median for first-basemen (about 123). If this year Joe can get that to league median or slightly higher...across 600 PA, like last year...that could be very significant for the club. I agree that this type of output now seems realistic for Joe...or at least way more realistic than it would have seemed 12 months ago.

It's reasonable to expect that Kepler's launch angle would continue to improve as he improves, even without any change in swing/approach. Simply improved pitch recognition with experience is going to lead to him being on time more often...less getting ahead with his hands and rolling over. Given he's denied any changes to the plane of the swing, I'd say this is what we're seeing...simply being on time more often. Amazingly, he has only 5 PA against left-handed pitching through the first 10 games. In a perverse way, I want to see him face lefties more often...just to figure it out, which I think he will at some point.

I think the most significant early trend impacting the Twins is LAA's start.