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Otaknam

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Everything posted by Otaknam

  1. Otaknam
    Hoping Prielipp’s success continues and he is the firsts call up when a starter struggles or gets hurt.
  2. Otaknam
    LeBron, Flora and Emerson are all possibilities. Flora as a potential top line starter would deviate from what they usually do. But given his success this year he could be the guy.
  3. Otaknam
    Bell is a switch hitter w proven power, so a right handed bat was needed with the lefty dominated roster. Larnach should have been the odd man out, but for some reason was not released.
  4. Otaknam
    Agree. Let’s find out which young arms will emerge when given the chance since they are in rebuild mode. My hope is that someone, maybe Abel, seizes the opportunity and can become at least an effective and consistent number three starter.
  5. Otaknam
    This is what any team has to do when their bullpen has been traded away. Sign a whole bunch of scrap heap free agents in the hope that a couple of them still have something left. It’s not unprecedented for baseball players, especially pitchers, to rebound after a poor season by developing a new pitch, better velocity, or more movement.
  6. Otaknam
    At least Banda isn’t a scrap heap reclamation project. And now the Twins have three lefties in the bullpen. Now if they could actually develop a lefty starter, hopefully Rojas.
  7. Otaknam
    What are the odds that Buxton gets hurt playing in this event. Nothing is more predictable that, costing him a month or more of lost playing time.
  8. Otaknam
    “He held his own over his first 101 professional plate appearances, where he struck out at a 24.8% clip and he walked 6.9% of the time.” I’m not sure why striking out 25% and a strikeout to walk ratio of 4/1 is holding his own.
  9. Otaknam
    This success of this trade depends largely upon how Rojas develops, hopefully as at least a number three ML starter. Let’s hope we all get surprised and Roden proves to be a solid big leaguer. He’s known as a better defender than Wallner or Larnach, despite Wallner’s rocket arm. Maybe they will trade Larnach and open a spot for Roden to save money.
  10. Otaknam
    No to trading Mick Abel. His potential as a number 1 or 2 starter is too important to give up on, considering that the Twins don’t have a true number one starter, like a Verlander type pitcher. If Abel throws consistent strikes he has that upside, and he’s major league ready.
  11. Otaknam
    “There was never an indication that he didn’t want to field a great team,”. An odd comment by the writer. ALL GMs, managers, coaches and players want to field a great team.
  12. Otaknam
    The one thing that makes me somewhat optimistic about the Twins is their young starters working towards the big leagues. It’s always good to have a lot of high potential arms because, as mentioned, some will fail and some will get injured. The Twins do have a lot of potential starters, but they need an ace to emerge. To compete for a strong playoff run you better have a real ace like a Francisco Liriano, Roger Clemens, Viola or a Verlander, someone who can be counted on to stop a losing streak and win 20 games. It seems like strong mid rotation or traditional number two starters are being elevated these days to ace status by some.
  13. Otaknam
    “Until ownership is willing to examine its own role in the franchise’s struggles, the cycle will continue. There are no scapegoats left, except the ones in the mirror.” The Pohlads deserve lots of criticism, but the coaching staff is not guiltless despite the lack of financial investment that has hamstrung the team for the past two years. The best example is Baldelli playing Earl Weaver ball, just waiting for the three run homer instead of trying to manufacture runs, even when the team would struggle for weeks to score. This became very apparent once the roster was blown up by trades. All of a sudden, with two months left in the 25 season, the team started stealing multiple bases a game after four months of Baldelli concrete in their shoes. That’s on Rocco and his adherence to the management by computer algorithm analytics the front office insisted he follow.
  14. Otaknam
    Dumpster diving for the bullpen to see if an arm or two can help is better than moving young starters into a bullpen role, which is usually permanent. Given that developing effective starters is the biggest challenge in baseball, give the young guys every chance to succeed as a starter, and if they aren’t successful THEN move them to the bullpen. Varland is the best recent examples.
  15. Otaknam
    Trying to makes sense of this. They traded Paredes, a good defensive catcher with options who also hit a bit, to make room for Alex Jackson, who has no options left. That means they have to keep Jackson as a third catcher on the 26 man roster or lose him to waivers, which is likely. The lack of apparent strategy of this front office is on full display.
  16. Otaknam
    Outman didn’t show anything w the Twins last year. I cannot imagine him suddenly becoming a functional hitter in 2026. Roden might surprise, however.
  17. Otaknam
    With all the analytical tools available, how was Lee viewed as a polished college hitter, but now has so many flaws in his approach: slow bat, flat plane, not good at controlling the strike zone, slow foot speed, “chases pitches outside the zone more than an average batter, and doesn't make much contact when he does.” And his primary hitting asset is that he can barrel the bat on the ball, so he will hit some homers. This is a systemic failure of the scouting staff to overrate Lee. That said, Lee can add strength to improve his swing speed, and maybe even improve his foot speed. He will hopefully be bypassed by Culpepper this season, rendering Lee as a utility infielder. That would be a good start to improving this team.
  18. Otaknam
    A well deserved honor for a terrific play by play guy and all around great guy! Too bad they didn’t let him choose his own retirement date instead of forcing him out. But Dick rose above that disappointment because he is a good guy who had a great run!
  19. Otaknam
    Larnach and Outman do appear to be the odd men out on a roster redundant with left handed hitting outfielders, including in the minors. Larnach is at risk for trade because of how the rosters is built, his inability to hit lefties, and below average defense. And Outman showed nothing of real value last year. A team looking to add a power left handed bat should be willing to take a chance on Larnach in exchange for a mid level prospect, saving the Twins money and removing one redundant player.
  20. Otaknam
    Another excellent article, Cody. Hopefully, Culpepper forces their hand this year with a great start to 2026. Sorry, but nit picking here as a former teacher. Instead of writing “at some point this season is far from unrealistic.”, why not just write “is realistic”? It makes the same point without feeling overstated.
  21. Otaknam
    Caratini seems like a solid catcher with decent offensive upside. But he’s getting paid more than Jeffers, so this is a head scratcher for me. With Josh Bell on the team and likely the everyday DH, that will limit DH opportunities for Jeffers. It only makes sense if they plan to trade Jeffers before the season.
  22. Otaknam
    Offending your best and most underpaid starter over $500 K is so predictable for this poorly managed franchise. The ghost of Calvin Griffith has arisen and still lurks to hold the Twins back. $500 K in baseball is a small enough figure that they should be able to get something done. That fact that they didn’t speaks volumes of the ongoing penury of this bunch.
  23. Otaknam
    Yawn! Another non move to put the few remaining fans asleep. This guy has a long enough history to know he can’t hit big league pitching and has no power. So the appeal must be that he can play a lot of positions well enough to function defensively, but those guys are all over the minor leagues.
  24. Otaknam
    This isn’t really a question, as it applies to every player. If Quick pitches really well he gets moved up commensurate with his success. If he has issues work on, such as control, he pitches at a lower level until he improves. Just like very player. And, with the Twins belief in their young pitching depth, there is no reason to hurry him.
  25. Otaknam
    The 2026 season will be the turning point for this franchise. They will either successfully integrate young players from their “highly rated” farm system, who perform at the major league level, or this regime needs to be replaced. Falvey is now in his 10th year as GM, with lackluster results at best. So this is on him.
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