Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Thebigalguy

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    244

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Thebigalguy

  1. Thebigalguy
    It's an interesting question. If there's an upgrade, take it. If not, sign him. Sano at first? Gonzalez at third? Is Gonzalez signed? Lots of variables here. In other words, I don't think he's essential, unless there's something about his clubhouse presence that I don't know. I'd probably prefer two IB/Outfielders to provide more options for the lineup when Buxton inevitably injures himself trying to make an impossible catch; 2019 was such an outlier, except for pitching needs, that I don't think anybody can predict, except statistically, how the offense will fare next year. I want them spending every available dollar on pitching.
  2. Thebigalguy
    I agree with the criticism with the proviso that it ain’t over until it’s over. We’ll have an entire offseason for autopsies. Meanwhile, I remember the Yanks with a 3-0 game lead on Boston. Remember what happened? Hope springs eternal until the last inning.
  3. Thebigalguy
    Thanks for this analysis. It gives me hope. It's not clear to me, though, why Baldelli would employ his lesser relievers when the game was close. I guess he has faith in them all and isn't BS-ing when he says so. He's a rookie manager and it showed, in my opinion. On the other hand, if a pitcher makes the postseason roster, he should be available and should come through. Littell was like a deer in the headlights. That happens to some pitchers in media town. Remember Steve Trout? "Trout's acquisition by the New York Yankees in a mid-season trade proved to be a disastrous trade for the Yankees. Though his last two starts with the Cubs were complete game shutouts, and his ERA was one of the best in the National League, with the Yankees he proved unable to locate the strike zone. He walked 37 batters and threw 9 wild pitches in 46 innings and lasted an average of only four innings a start in his nine starts Yankee starts" The limelight can do that to some people. You make me hopeful that today the team can redeem itself and, like a recent President, keep hope alive.
  4. Thebigalguy
    The good news is that it's a best-of-five series and not a one-off wild card game. Baldelli is a rookie manager and it showed. Arraez shouldn't be on the field with his ankle except as a PH. Littell? Stashek? When he put Gibson in, with his ulcerative colitis, it was clear Baldelli had thrown in the towel for Game One. In that case, why waste Graterol? Suppose we pretend Baldelli knows what he's doing and that after Game One we have the Yankees exactly where we want them? That would mean he trotted out the lesser relievers so that he can sit them the rest of the series, having honorably given them their shot. That being the case, today we'll see a different team destroy Boone's Savages with Bomba-time efficiency and bombs-away bases-loaded mayhem. It's going to be a game for the ages. Nah. Baldelli's a rookie. It showed. The team is confident and will regroup. I think Game Two tells the tale. Down 2-0, they won't make it back to New York. Tied 1-1, they have a shot. I'll be there, windblown and hoarse, with shrimp and salmon and baguettes to butter. The wine will be a Malbec, the beer an amber ale with some IPA for aficionados. We'll pound the table, but no homer hankies. If we have to cry, we'll cry into our beer.
  5. Thebigalguy
    Tough call. I'd start Berrios Game 1 on a very, very short leash. Recently, we have no idea what we get with him on the mound, but at his best he's the best we have. Our strength is our relief pitchers this year since the All Star game. Game 2: Dobnak. Go with the hot hand. Let's take advantage of that. Odorizzi: Game 3. Finish off the Yankees at home with Jake. If we don't sweep, we use our best, the relief pitchers, in the last two games unless Berrios shows us what he's made of. It's catch as catch can against the Yankees. The taste of that game we led 8-2 and lost 14-12 hasn't disappeared yet. As far as I'm concerned, everybody on the pitching staff is on a very short leash.
  6. Thebigalguy
    Congratulations to the boys of summer. (And when I look at that celebration, with plastic sheeting covering the walls and goggles on everybody's face, I do mean boys.) Once again, it looks like the Yankees, but this time it's a five game series. Go get 'em, guys.
  7. Thebigalguy
    Methinks this young man is a batter to conjure with. How did he put that spin on the ball that fooled the holy bejesus out of the Cleveland third baseman? Magic, my fellow rubes. Magic. I would argue against trading him unless his defense becomes an embarrassment. I would even argue that using him leadoff is worth thinking about.
  8. Thebigalguy
    Good analysis. Cron is adequate. Cleveland is ascending. We need better than okay. Buxton’s return should ease the situation with Gonzalez at third sometimes. With late inning relief that actually holds a lead, we make the playoffs. IF adjustments can help but can’t keep balls in the park.
  9. Thebigalguy
    I love MLB, but not the pea brains that some big leaguers bring to the game. The pitcher should be thankful Cave swung; it could just as easily have been an out. Interesting he didn’t hit the K-Man until it was 3-0, unless that too was intentional. Too many athletes are too seldom disciplined for their immaturity and ethical failures.
  10. Thebigalguy
    It's a brand new season. Losing four in a row for the first time should wake them up. I agree that Buxton needs either to learn how to avoid too much risk or to be outfitted with padding and a helmet. We need him. The only good news is that Rogers and Romo are rested (thanks for the chart). Right now Cleveland has the arms and the bats. That was us the first half of the season. No way to win often if the bats need to produce double-digit runs every game. We need quality starts. If an opener can help, let's do it. May? Duffey? It could also backfire. Like many of you, I wish we'd done more at the trading deadline, but clearly Falvine didn't want to mortgage the future despite the year the Twins are having. It's a brand new season. We're 0-0 with 74 wins as far as the division race is concerned. Let's do it.
  11. Thebigalguy
    Sure, Cleveland has come from 11 1/2 to 3 back. That makes next week's four game series all the more exciting. Our pitching is worrisome. The hitters get runs and the pitchers often give them right back. But that 11 1/2 lead gave the Twins a chance to test out numerous arms in the pen. We know what we have. As for Dyson, we all expect better from him, but he blew one game and almost gave away a second. Tommy Lasorda said even the best teams lose a third of their games and even the worst win a third. It's the other third that determines division winners; we've blown too many late-inning leads. I have hopes that Rogers and Romo, the R boys, can shut down opponents the way Joe Nathan did. If not, we're toast.
  12. Thebigalguy
    Thanks for the insights. I agree that the Pressly trade, even at the time, made no sense. They had him under control this year, though I agree that there was no way Falvine or anybody else could predict the team's success. It's a woulda-coulda-shoulda situation, unfortunately. What's done is done. He would have been worth extending at a premium price and the fact that Falvine couldn't see that is one of the few things on the deficit side of their business acumen chart. With the bats in the lineup, the team's primary weakness is that we don't have a lockdown set up guy and dominant closer. The best teams don't let eighth inning leads slip away.
  13. Thebigalguy
    "No reason to get excited / The thief he kindly spoke." Minnesota's Bob Dylan, a great baseball rube, put it best. For the Twins in the playoffs, it's what you see is what you get. I have to tip my new pink fight-breast-cancer hat to the Indians, who clearly put themselves in a place where a three-game lead is tenuous for the Twins. The head-to-head matchups between the two teams will probably decide who wins the division unless the Twins mop up on bad teams while the Indians come down to earth against the better teams in the league. I don't mind the team trading second-tier prospects before 3pm today for better relief pitching, but the Pressly trade last year is the one that still haunts the team and might be their Waterloo this year when he whiffs somebody with the bases loaded and the series-winning game on the line. That was dumb and made me think Falvine was doing somebody down in Houston a favor. The team we have is the one we have (40 man roster, not the 25 currently in The Bigs) and the pitchers, starting and otherwise, have to regain their best form if we hope to beat the Yankees (can't win giving up 14 runs) and compete with the Astros,
  14. Thebigalguy
    Great piece. You reap what you sow. The Twins traded Pressley; I still think it was front office payback. How else explain trading away your future closer, and for what? My guess is front office has already identified the prospects they’re willing to trade. I think they’ve been caught by surprise. They thought they had another year to figure it out.
  15. Thebigalguy
    Thanks for this. It's an interesting way to take a look at one of baseball's current greats and a team that cumulatively is whacking the cover off the ball. My takeaway is that it's better to have guys all up and down the lineup who can contribute than a single superstar, though of course Trout is not the only potent batter in that lineup. It's quite possible we'll see them in the postseason.
  16. Thebigalguy
    I'm pleased we came back yet again on the strength of the offense, but a historic season will go the way of the dodo bird if the starting pitching (and sometimes relief pitching) keeps breaking down. How many times can the offense rescue a bad start? Every team has its collective slumps, of course, and the Twins aren't immune, but with the lineup in place this year, I think there's always one or two or three able to get on base or whack one out, so it's pitching that will make or break a post-season run. Perez has three of the better mentors in the game: Wes Johnson, Johan Santana, and Oddorizzi, who's taught him how to exploit the cutter. He's got to do better on a consistent basis. Gibby needs more consistency, though probably his mistake this time was not getting enough sleep after the 17-inning win because he wanted to party with the boys of summer. Oddorizzi has the right to a sub-par start with the season he's had, though afterwards he seemed truculent that the Royals had the good sense to work the count and hit singles instead of swinging for the downs. They might have discovered a weakness in a pitcher who's never broken a radar gun. Time will tell. The bottom line, though, is that the Twins are way good enough to beat the sub-.500 teams more often than not, but aren't ready with pitching to take on the Yanks, Astros, Sox, and one or two other teams they'll need to beat in the postseason to make it to the promised land, where, if there's no cheating, they'll be free at last, free at last, free at last.
  17. Thebigalguy
    We all like Sano and would love to see him develop into Big Papi and stay with the Twins in the long term. In the short term, he absolutely needs another stint in the minors, at Rochester this time, where he can focus on what counts, plate discipline. As Ted makes clear in this article, he's not that far from where he needs to be, though he's a very long ways from Big Papi. It's just not true that a strike out is like any other out; other outs score runs in the right situation, and the problem we're discussing here is Sano's production with runners on base. I say send him down when the injured ones return to the roster and let him dive deep himself into what he's doing wrong so that he can fix it and contribute to what might be an historic season if the starting pitching stops breaking down so often, but that's a topic for another day.
  18. Thebigalguy
    If it’s not broke, don’t fix it. Yes, Kepler’s OBP isn’t sky high, but Polanco compensates in the two spot. Kepler as leadoff is an odd choice, but we can’t argue with the results so far. I say tinker with the lineup when the inevitable team slump comes to pass. Until then? Play ball!
  19. Thebigalguy
    A win is a win is a win. (Glass of wine?) But leaving all those RISP is difficult to watch with a straight face. Berrios wasn't all that sharp, but would have won if our offense could have plated a few of those baserunners. That inside-the-park home run was unacceptable. Fortunately, we won and there are many games left to play. So far, so good.
  20. Thebigalguy
    Thanks for this. I have only two words and one sentence to add: Ryan Pressly. What were they thinking?
  21. Thebigalguy
    Didn’t know I could bring my own food. Thanks for that tip. What is an appropriate container? I think this year’s team has the potential to delight us all. Optimism is an opening day hazard, but I’m hoping the team will help us forget ice dams and blizzards with a rainstorm of hits and homers. I won’t be at opening day, too cold for baseball, but later, if the boys of summer grow into poised young men, I’ll be there to razz them on.
  22. Thebigalguy
    Maddux? Greg Maddux? He was very effective, 15+ wins a year, until he was 40. Age caught up with him only then. If I thought that in Keuchel we were getting Maddux, I'd tell Falvine to grab a ballpoint pen (oh, excuse me, a Montblanc Classique) and get his signature on the dotted line for a five year deal. But he's not Maddux, who was indestructible. Otherwise, I agree with your analysis: a one-or-two year deal could work out if we don't have the horsepower among our younger staff. I'm optimistic about the season and expect the starting pitching, with or without this guy, to be decent. It's the relief I'm anxious about. Play ball!
  23. Thebigalguy
    Thanks. That was fun. I expect the team to light a fire under fans and it won’t be a dumpster fire. There’s a good chance for more than a rebuilding year. With so much youth and card shuffling, however, I expect that it will take a while to get the ball bouncing our way. Bounce our way it will, though, and we make the playoffs or come damn close. You heard it from Al, and you can call me that, since Paul Simon did.
  24. Thebigalguy
    Thanks for the analysis. My own sense of this year's team is that Falvine expect the youngsters to step up big time. Instead of bringing in the cavalry, they've hired a coaching staff designed to get the most from the talent already on the team. It's a fair play, I think, don't you? The pipeline is full of hotshots on offense, along with the obvious projects where the sky is the limit. Even the pitching staff has a chance to make good noise if the youngsters learn from their past mistakes and pitch to their potential. We saw what happened after 1987 and 1991: nothing much. If Falvine's strategy is long-term consistency, so that the Twins become the New England Patriots of MLB, I'm good with that. Not saying, though, that Baldelli is Belichick. He has a lot to prove, but he's part of the Falvine team, which is why they let the great Molly go, to have total control. They've got it. This is it. I'm excited. Spring training!
  25. Thebigalguy
    I don't believe this propaganda. As mentioned above, it's probably an agent or agents stirring the pot. Falvine's entire long-term strategy depends on avoiding a Mauer-type contract and maintaining short-and-midrange flexibility. We all saw what happened to Joe, who was well worth the contract when he signed it. Of course, Harpado aren't catchers, where the danger is higher of career-changing injury, but too many variables in a single player's ability to contribute at pre-contract stats after the money's been exchanged. Besides, I see the Twins competing without such a coup.
×
×
  • Create New...