bean5302

I don't know why people are losing their minds over our bench guys not being All Stars.

Very concerning results with Tonkin, but he lost out on a lot of ST. Velo way down in his first game, but it popped back. I think these are tune up games for him. What we need is a starter who can give us 6 innings reliably, like most MLB starters who go at least 6 innings in at least 1/2 their starts.

I've watched the play, it wasn't a bad hit. Keaschall misread the movement pretty bad as he was preparing to swing at it. Hit his back arm as he pulled his lead arm up close and out of the way once he realized it was well inside. Sub-90mph pitch so he had plenty of time (relative) to get out of the way.

Lewis is probably 5 games away or so. Seems like the Twins are expecting Castro back soon despite the nature of obliques. Spending big to get guys isn't going to happen, I don't think. The players practically outnumber the fans in the stands...

It's beyond ridiculous at this point.

Could Varland improve his pitches? Possibly. It's awfully hard to improve stuff as every single pitcher in MLB is trying to do it, but very few are successful. Can he dominate with pitches which don't move? No way. His changeup grades very poorly. By Stuff+ ratings, it's not even MLB worthy at a score of 76 so far this year (35 grade on 20-80 scale). Varland might improve results by dropping his weaker pitches, but his good pitches might not play as well without the repertoire. Varland does not have even one "plus" pitch right now. He's getting good results (better than he will get long term), but I see no reason to conclude he can't stick in MLB as a solid reliever for a long time. He's just not going to be closing out games or setting up a closer. Is Jax a reasonable comparison? Absolutely not. Jax's slider was as good as anything Varland has out of the 'pen right now, even when Jax was a starter. Jax now has a group of pitches which are near "plus" rating as he's made major adjustments to his game. It's important to note Jax is currently throwing 5mph faster than he was as a starter as well. Louis picked up 2mph.

Not sure what you're disagreeing about here? I'm not worried about DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. I just don't think having 4-5 guys hoarded on a 30 man active roster who don't get a chance to play is fair to the players who are team controlled. It doesn't have to be position players, either, as others have eluded to. What if the roster was 30? Do the Twins return Eiberson Castellano (0.90 ERA, 2.43 FIP in AA right now) or do they just put him on the bench and play him once a month while they coach him up and shield him from other teams who might be interested? The reason the 40 man and 26 man rosters exist is for the benefit of players, not teams. It's to prevent teams from hoarding talent and manipulating team control. Guys who are in the situation Blewett is in are very rare birds. There are literally 1,000 players on MLB rosters every year. Of all those players, like 5 guys are in this situation. Want a REALLY REALLY prime example? Brent Rooker. Rooker was treated like Blewett. If KC could have kept him on the "30 man" and just let him sit on the bench using him as a pinch hitter once a week, what would have happened? Dude just landed a 5yr $60MM contract after being an All Star. This year he's a dark horse MVP candidate. He would have remained a nobody, probably forever without the roster rules we have.

Also helps prevent each team from having 4-5 DaShawn Keirsey, Jr.'s on the roster they use as pinch runners once a week.

They're using the system rather than abusing it in my opinion. The system is working great for players because it gives them a chance to catch on with any team that has an injury issue. After all, injuries are the reason guys like Blewett get service time since they don't earn a 26 man spot out of camp or get MLB offers thrown their way. The blunt way of putting it is he is not good enough for an MLB contract or a long term spot on the 26 man roster, but MLB teams are not allowed to take advantage of his AAAA status by shuttling him back and forth between AAA and MLB forever and with no risk. What if the Twins didn't have any injuries this year? Would Blewett have gotten a 40 man and then 26 man spot? Nope. He'd have spent the entire year in MiLB. This is exactly the discussion the forums have had about Randy Dobnak. Instead, because of injuries, Randy Dobnak & Scott Blewett got their numbers called and opportunities to pitch at the MLB level to showcase their skills to every other team in MLB. The Twins then DFA the players when the immediate injury need has passed or another need comes up. On the waiver wire, any other team in baseball who has an injury need can make a claim and have the player pitch in the big show. Rinse, repeat. It means a guy like Dobnak or Blewett or Tonkin gets chances to fill an emergency need for all 30 teams at pretty much any time. If there is any team with an injury need, the Dobnaks and Blewetts of the world get a shot at it. Basically like independent contract employees.

Jenkins had a light sprained ankle he aggravated. Estimated return on Roto is 5/1, which seems pretty reasonable based on a 3 week recovery timetable. Eeles is a secret agent. He doesn't exist and no information can be published about him. You'll need to look for his alternate identity, Clayton Kershaw. You have to piece the puzzle together. It's reported that "Clayton Kershaw" (nice fake name) also underwent knee surgery and he was making starts off the mound in AA for the Dodgers. It's all a cover story since Eeles isn't a pitcher and doesn't play for the Dodgers... or does he? In a secret operation designed to protect the Twins from AL Central team scouting and planning to defeat Payton Eeles, the Minnesota Twins have made a secret deal with the Dodgers to allow Eeles to operate under the fake name "Clayton Kershaw." Further confusing the scouts, Kershaw is listed as 6'4" while Eeles is barely 5'4" tall. It's a brilliant plan.

@chpettit19 said Varland's EV's, barrel and hard hit rates are worse than Pagan, not better. I'm not sure what Louis Varland will wind up turning into, but I'd bet more on the solid middle reliever area. In that 3.50-4.00 ERA/FIP/xFIP territory. Varland's pitches just do not move well. The velo helps him with batter swing timing, but if the batter times it up well, that ball is in the seats because it's going to be right where the hitter expects it to go.

I wish it was just a single pitch like his really poorly graded changeup causing the EV issue. Unfortunately, pretty much all of Varland's pitches have a lot of very loud contact associated with them. The changeup is special though. It's truly boom or bust this year at least. Either guys really miss or the absolutely annihilate it.

I'll be rooting for him! So will a lot of other guys. It seems like he made a pretty big impression on guys in the clubhouse considering his limited time with them. If it's a J.T. Chargois type of career, it'll be cool, and even if he just gets one appearance, it'll be a victory he can look back on as a potential near millionaire in his 20s. Sounds like he's a very smart guy, and I'm sure he'll be successful outside of the baseball world when he takes that route in the future sometime as well.

Looking for a problem to solve, here. There is no real issue here. Blewett is a AAAA pitcher who is getting the opportunity to play in MLB. You're misleading people by making up impacts that don't exist. MLB players do not move their families when they get traded mid season, and players like Blewett have their family (if they have the wife/kids situation) based in a singular location. It boils down to him having a job where he travels a lot. Maybe we need to address this catastrophic travel situation with airline pilots who are away from home and they have to move their family to every location they spend the night. It's tragic. Every night, Delta Airlines pilot, John Smith, is forced to relocate his family to another random city Delta has him flying to. Think of the children!!!!! Blewett can choose to quit baseball any time he wants. Scott Blewett is a 29 year old chasing his dream of playing MLB. He gets paid $750k / year while he's on an MLB roster. At AAA, housing, meals, per diem, travel, and $50k per year is provided by the team. With the kind of guard rails you want to put into place, Blewett would never make anybody's 40 man roster, and you would have killed his dream.

Varland has been far more effective than I expected, but it is a small sample size as is the nature of relief pitching. The exit velocity remains way too high, and Louis' weakness has always been lots of loud contact, but so far, it hasn't hurt him. It won't be long now, though. A 17% barrel rate in MLB is astronomical.

I'd honestly be very surprised if he ever made an appearance in the majors. He'll miss all year with the shoulder surgery with a typical recovery time of 12 months, though Paparesta said it might be longer due to how many problems Canterino has faced with that shoulder. Mid next year is probably the earliest he could be ready to appear at the MLB level provided there are no setbacks, his rehab goes well, and he looks great in AAA. Canterino's never pitched above AA and he'll be 7 years removed from a healthy season at that point. Say things go great and Canterino is ready to begin throwing off the mound in April, 2026. The build up will probably be through May because he's going to miss ST. His assignment to AAA starts in June, and he'll probably be at AAA at least through the All Star Break. That also assumes he's good. His stuff is working and he has control and command of his pitches. That's a whole lot of ifs. It'd be perfectly reasonable if Canterino wasn't ready to start throwing until July, putting him in a position to maybe get added to the 40 man and get a call up in mid September where he'd be ineligible for the playoffs. https://www.mlb.com/news/matt-canterino-undergoes-surgery-twins-set-rotation

Correa struggled with hitting way too many grounders in 2023, and it seems like he's back into that mode again right now. As far as the hard hit rates and exit velocities, he's been mostly okay. There was a relatively small rough patch in mid-April, but otherwise his average EVs have been around 90mph with plenty of 100+mph balls coming off his bat. The sample sizes are just awfully small. Correa's bat speed is down quite a bit on the low end of his swings, but the highest end looks normal. That might correspond to struggles mid-month or the wrist bothering him. Pitchers are focusing HARD on the down and away location of the plate, and Correa is topping and missing balls down there way too much. If he can't him 'em, he needs to lay off them or make an adjustment. As a veteran who has been vocal about effort, Correa has put a spotlight on himself. It's time to suck it up, and do what he needs to do. If that means putting his emotions aside to play smarter at the plate or go on the IL because of the wrist or whatever, he needs to get it done sooner than later.

I didn't reference any previous post, and I didn't really read them because it's not relevant to how I feel. Just how I try to keep my personal outlook. Derek Falvey fired Paul Molitor as soon as he possibly could. One of the conditions of his hiring was the Pohlad's required Falvey to keep Molitor as the manager for 2017. It's not like Falvey could fire Molitor after making the playoffs for the first time in 7 years and having Molitor win Manager of the Year. It would have been a really rough look. I'm not sure what to expect out of the ownership group right now. If the Twins play this way all year (61-101) record, I'd say Falvey is just as at risk as Baldelli considering statements by ownership as recently as mid-2023. I'd like Rocco to be fired, and I think there's a very high degree chance he is fired during the course of this season, but Falvey will just put Rocco ver. 2.0 into the manager position.

Morris certainly has a little cult following around here. Average exit velocity against Morris is 92.0mph, and you typically see a +1/2mph jump between AAA and MLB. Anything above 90.0mph at the MLB level gets iffy. He doesn't strike guys out and he issues a fair number of free passes. Ground ball rate is good, but hardly great. It's a small sample size, but I guarantee you, a 2.00 WHIP will eventually put a whole lotta runs on the board against you. Hopefully, Morris can get his stuff to generate some weaker contact or a few more misses as he works into a rhythm. Given the black hole at the plate status of Cartaya and Camargo, it'd be nice for the Twins to give more time behind the dish to another player. I don't care who that player is, really. Winkel, Gasper, Morales, even shifting up Olivar. The Twins are in absolutely desperate need of at least a backup caliber catcher at the MLB level. Nice to see McCusker continuing to hit. Gotta get keep proving it a while longer, IMHO. 3 errors in the field for the Saints staying true to Minnesota's quality defensive reputation!

I'd like competitive play. Actually, I'd like to see the Twins win the World Series while Ty France wins the MVP and Bailey Ober wins a Cy Young, Rocco Baldelli wins Manager of the Year, and every single player I'm less bullish on has an amazing season to the point I look like an idiot based on my comments so far. Hoping and wishing for the team to fail, and for guys to have miserable seasons so I can be "right" on the internet is messed up. Ownership has proven they don't make decisions based on sound business strategy so I don't think there's really any amount of suck which would actually fix the underlying issues anyway.

This is what the announcers said. "The ball was absolutely rocketed off the bat! The way it sounded and came off at a great angle, a perfect long fly ball, I thought it was landing way up into the outfield seats for sure. How does that not wind up in the stands? Was the wind gusting in just for that hit? Man, that should have been gone!" But, the announcers provided the information in a way somebody familiar with the game could image in their heads rather than with descriptive superlatives. It's not like launch angles or exit velocities are hard to understand or visualize with 5 minutes of thought and a couple references. While I agree that most people prefer the superlatives because it's artistic and colorful, the "math" they did was little more than just a colder, but more accurate description of the play.

I posted some helpful info here, but it looks like it got deleted. Oh well.

Nice.

Healthcare in the US has a few underlying issues. Obama did his best to demonize the insurance industry, and it's easy to point fingers at them because they're the most visible frustration in the process. Health insurance isn't profitable. Most major carriers have bailed out of health insurance in the past 20 years to focus on financial products (life insurance, retirement services, long term care insurance, etc). Health insurance profit rates have typically been in that 5-8% range. Life insurance 10-12%, Retirement services 12-14%. It's led to a lack of competition and innovation in the industry, and the ability to create terrible policies. The Affordable Health Care Act gutted health insurance plans for larger companies as well as it gutted ERISA. The lack of simple policies still prevents a lot of people in the US from carrying/qualifying for health insurance. The AHCA didn't truly address any of the problems, but it did create new ones while partially mitigating some of the underlying problems. Doctors and nurses in the US make 50-200% more than their counterparts in leading European countries. The compensation rate for medical staff in the US is astronomical, and that cost gets passed on to consumers, regardless of whether or not the payor is an insurance company or an individual. Malpractice insurance. Colossal rewards for every "mistake" a jury decides was actually made has led to surgical coverage approaching $250,000 of premium annually for a single provider. Americans are pretty lousy at understanding the money doesn't just fall out of the sky when they award damages. There is no workers comp fee schedule table for malpractice, and it leads to tons of frivolous lawsuits and outrageous rewards. Medical equipment. The US has the best. Period. No questions or debate about it. The technology used in the United States is simply better, more cutting edge and more capable than anywhere else on Earth. It's also more expensive. A private (out of pocket) scan will typically be 5-10x more expensive here than for our peer nations. That cost gets passed on to consumers. Pharmacy. Yeah, this one is downright crooked. The FDA is ploddingly slow, and thus brutally expensive to obtain approvals, and the licensing and the market is rigged to favor big pharma. A huge underlying issue of the cost of medical care in the United States is... education. Want to be a doctor? 4 years at a for profit college for the BS. 4 years of medical school at a for profit college for the Doctor of Medicine. 2 years of internship (residency) where you get paid slave labor working 80hrs a week while also preparing for the state medical exam/license. Then onto the fellowship path which can take years longer. Ludicrous. It leads to doctors graduating with $250-500k of student loan debt. That has to be paid back somehow... which leads to compensation rates being so high, and procedures costing way more as institutions promise to repay student loans as golden handcuffs which lock a doctor into a residency with the threat of immediate financial ruin if they leave.

I wouldn't. Obliques are often 8-12+ week injuries as they're very slow to heal for a variety of reasons. Not putting Castro on the IL immediately when he hurt it was not a logical decision. Even in a best case scenario, you'd expect Castro to be out a couple weeks, and you certainly don't want him returning early because if he aggravates it, it could be after the All Star Break / Trade Deadline before he's ready to return. Just my opinion, though.