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Jim Hahn

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Everything posted by Jim Hahn

  1. Jim Hahn
    This is true, in that relievers were used that way in 70's and 80's. Whether you want to use relievers that way today is an open question. A lot of relievers were burnt out at young ages from that kind of use. Starters also threw complete games then, giving their bullpens breaks, fairly regularly. Starters on good teams anyway also got deeper into games. One last problem, is that a greater percentage of today's relievers are max delivery guys. How many of them can bounce back quickly from multi inning use is another question. We will have to see but I really hope the Twins can coax more innings out of their starters. I doubt if the best relievers on the Twins will be able to stand up to this workload if it continues like this the rest of the year.
  2. Jim Hahn
    For a number of years it has seemed to be the policy of the Twins to limit their minor league catchers time behind the plate. They may play other positions or appear at DH, but you don't seem To see any of them catching more than the half the games. I assume that there are reasons for this. My guess is that catchers can get pretty beat up in the minors, because so many pitchers have control issues. I don't know the actual reasons. Maybe Seth or one of the TD experts knows more about this.
  3. Jim Hahn
    I agree with this. It is hard for me to understand why more major leaguers aren't better at bunting. Especially when it doesn't take a particularly good bunt to give you a "free" hit. Since teams hardly work on defending a bunt anymore, you would think more players and teams would want to get better at bunting. I also wonder about players or teams worrying about changing their swings to take advantage of shifts. I heard Rod Carew say that he had 3 different swings. Clearly Carew was a pretty special player. But if he could work on and maintain 3 different swings, you would think modern players could make adjustments to take advantage of the shift without destroying their swing.
  4. Jim Hahn
    So far, Wade has played 8 games. Raley has the fewest with 5 and the fewest ab's with 16. Wiel is in the mix somewhere as he has 6 games and they aren't all at first probably because of Rosario.
  5. Jim Hahn
    Actually, Andreoli seems to be playing center most nights. The other outfielders are rotating thru the DH spot. So all 4 are in the lineup most nights.
  6. Jim Hahn
    Ok, and that might happen. But Brock is right. He could easily break in moving around from outfield to 1b to DH. Eventually somebody likely gets traded. Just who doesn't have to be decided now. It would be better to decide that when you actually have too many players for not enough positions.
  7. Jim Hahn
    I don't agree/understand this. If Kiriloff turns out to be as good a major league hitter as it appears he might, you can certainly afford to play him at first rather than OF because he will be as good or better than any 1b you are likely to develop or be able to find. The other problem is If you refuse to play him at first before he has proved he is that hitter, you will have to trade him for less than he probably going to be worth. It can go either way, but trading minor leaguers who have a good chance to be impact players, does not often turn out for teams who can't buy their way out of that kind of mistake.
  8. Jim Hahn
    Part of the problem for Austin is that during his option years he received little big league opportunity until traded to the Twins. While with the Twins, he showed off his strength(ability to hit home runs at a good rate). He also revealed some weaknesses, strike zone judgement, poor contact skills and weak defensive ability at 1b. Hence Cron, who is at marginally better in all those areas except home run rate. Now, i agree with Riverbrian, that Austin hasn't had sufficient opportunity to prove himself at the major league level. Maybe he will get that chance in San Francisco. But for the Twins he was not a particularly good fit. Even before Cron. There is plenty of right handed power in this lineup, even before Sano. There is a shortage of on base skills and contact skills, hence Austudillo's increased playing time. I don't know how much Cron improves the lineup's weaknesses, but he is likely going to do better in those areas than Austin, in 2019. After this year who knows, but there should/could be other options by then. Austin's lack of options hurt his chances of remaining a Twin, but it wasn't the only factor.
  9. Jim Hahn
    Of course you are right. The best hitters on this team, Cruz and Polanco use the whole field. So does Rosario when he is going good. Those hitters aren't shifted as much, and when they are, it isn't as effective. You can see it in their spray charts that they get hits to all fields. Even Ortiz got a lot of hits to the opposite field. He played ping pong with the Green Monster a lot.
  10. Jim Hahn
    Would you count 120 warm up pitches he also threw under this scenario?
  11. Jim Hahn
    It is possible that either or both of Enlow and Balazovic are ready for high A. Sometimes if you want to keep a starter starting, you might have to keep them back a level or even push them ahead of the ideal level. It is a pretty group of starters at Fort Myers. Since these 2 are pretty young, it was probably the best option to have begin the year at low A. Years back, the best arms were kept as starters long as possible. Mostly to get them more innings and a better chance to develop secondary pitches, even if it was thought the guy's future was the bullpen. Development seems a little different now, but i think they still like to keep guys with mlb starter potential, starting. Even maybe when you can't put him at his ideal level.
  12. Jim Hahn
    What I noticed is Garver down on one knee (his right knee) during both of Partner's wild pitches. Since he was trained to do this by the catching coach this spring, I am not criticizing Garver. I do wonder if this position makes it more difficult to get to pitches that wild. I wouldn't criticize Baldelli for having Parker out there in the 9th. This is what is going to happen with "flexible" bullpens. Your best relievers get used up earlier in the game for "high leverage " situations. You don't save them for the 9th inning or save situations. Of course right now we have no idea who the best reliever is going to be.
  13. Jim Hahn
    To me the goal shoul2d be, to get a strike called a strike. A catcher can help that by giving the umpire a good look and controlling his movements, i.e. moving smoothly etc. Stealing a strike is good, but sometimes that strike you think the catcher is stealing, actually is a strike, due to the fact the strike zone has depth. The other thing about getting strikes called strikes, is some of that is on the pitcher. A pitcher isn't going get strikes called on the inside corner when the catcher is setting up on the outside or visca versa. Also when pitchers fail to establish a rhythm and take forever between pitches, that effects umpires as well. It is hard enough to keep concentration over 3 hrs. and 250 pitches without the pitcher fooling around and shaking off the catcher. I think some of this pitch framing thing is a bit overblown and pitch framing stats may oversell the actual value of stealing strikes. That being said, getting in good position and properly catching the ball is a very real skill.
  14. Jim Hahn
    I agree that this team could hit a lot of home runs. Setting a team run record means nothing to me. That 1963 Twins team wasn't very good. The Twins got better in the mid 60's when they added more complete hitters, better defenders and more pitching. I hope this Twins team has enough of those other things, besides home runs.
  15. Jim Hahn
    I think the point is Pressly would be the best reliever on the Twins, with the possible exception of Rogers, right now. Will it turn out to be a good trade for the Twins? There is good chance that will happen. But right now, the Twins sure could use a dominant late inning reliever. Maybe all the guys being counted on will come thru with productive years. Maybe if they don't, Romero or someone else will come up and be dominant. The problem is right now, Pressly would look pretty darn good in the Twins bullpen. There is certainly nothing wrong with people pointing that out.
  16. Jim Hahn
    I am not so sure the save stat ruined baseball. There is a reason managers found guys to finish games and not every reliever thrived in that role. There were relievers who typically finished games long before the save stat was invented. There is nothing more deflating than going into the ninth inning with a lead and then losing the game. Not every pitcher handles being the goat that well.
  17. Jim Hahn
    Perhaps. I suspect that it is mostly the richer teams that are in position to make significant trades to acquire true difference makers in August. I really don't have a problem with a harder deadline. The difference between a typical waiver pickup and whoever you have available in the minors usually isn't much, factoring in the variability of fringe major leaguers. The other thing is that if contenders are sort of forced to call up their best prospects, rather than play games with their service time, well that wouldn't be a bad thing either.
  18. Jim Hahn
    Ok. Fair. But people do use WAR as a semi-definitive way of comparing players. I see it on certain MLB Network shows where WAR is used as a cutoff for Hall of Fame consideration. I don't mind that if you dig deeper into the stats. That is the point. I believe if you only use WAR as your comparative stat, you are probably missing things.
  19. Jim Hahn
    Certainty this rule will force teams to pick a direction earlier. They won't be able to hedge their bets as easily by using the waiver/trade rules in August. As far as injury replacements go, teams just may need to be sure they have quality reinforcements in the minors. Waiver pickups will still be available as well. I think teams may be forced to be a little more active before the July 31 trade deadline. I doubt if that is a bad thing.
  20. Jim Hahn
    TOM, I am not sure I agree with you that power is typically very expensive. I think power needs to be paired with at least one other skill to be expensive. In their prime, guys with good power and defensive ability are expensive. Having good on base skills paired with power can be very expensive. It is possible that an additional roster spot will change that, and one dimensional sluggers will tend to occupy that spot. It might be that spot will go to guys like Arraez, guys with minimal positional flexibility but good contact skills. The other possibility is that they will just add another pitcher unless MLB limits the number of pitchers.
  21. Jim Hahn
    I found it interesting that hitting off a tee is being de-emphasized. On the MLB Network, many former major leaguers emphasize the value of hitting off a tee when doing cage work. I wonder if some the new ideas are still in the experimental stage, and we will see things change, perhaps dramatically again, over the next year or so. This was an interesting article. I do agree, that buy in from the players is most important. It does seem that we are quite a ways removed from the see the ball, hit the ball philosophy of Tony Oliva. (I am not implying that there wasn't more to Tony's hitting philosophy than that.)
  22. Jim Hahn
    I seem to have derailed this thread, unintentionally, by my use of the word "subjective". As Mr. Walcott said rather well above, my intent was to point out that WAR and FIP are subjective in the CHOICE of which stats they are constructed from and also the WEIGHING of those stats. Hence the different versions of these stats. Agsin, I am not claiming these stats are WRONG. Merely that these type of stats are more like opinions about the value players bring to their teams. Back when I was young, there was debate about who was the best player on the Twins, Killebrew, Oliva, or Carew. They were hugely different players, bringing much different skill sets to the game. Two were Hall of Fame players, the 3rd probably would of been except for injuries. You could use WAR to "settle" this debate. Except that this would still be an opinion based on what someelse thinks are the most important stats, weighed in a manner to reflect his veiws of which is more important. That view is not WRONG. It is merely an opinion. You can agree or disagree with. I think some people use WAR as a conversation stopper. WAR says, so it must be right. To me, it is more of a place to start. It gives you one view of how players compare. You are free to come up with your own view. By the way, Oliva was the best player, if for too short of time. In my opinion.
  23. Jim Hahn
    The problem with WAR is that people like it. It allows them to do things that are otherwise difficult to do. Like comparing players that play different positions. Or even comparing the value a pitcher brings to a team with the that of a position player. The issue with this is that WAR is a subjective stat. It is taking stats that someone thinks are important, weighing them to emphasize the most important, and then combining them and putting them on a scale. Assuming the math is legimate, we are when using WAR, agreeing that the author used the correct stats, and weighed them the way we individuals would if we were comparing two or more players. That is nonsense of course. Not everybody on this site would agree on something as simple whether ob% or slugging % is more important for example , much less what stats we should use or which are most important. WAR is largely a lazy way to compare players. Since it is subjective, it is not WRONG, merely an opinion about how players compare. Many of the new stats like FIP and most defensive stats, are like that. They are subjective stats that give you an opinion about what value players bring to their teams.
  24. Jim Hahn
    I don't think there is anyone with great on base skills who is projected to be on the opening day roster. The best might be Cruz, who will likely bat further down in the order. Polanco might be the best fit, but as a good all round hitter, he fits well in the 2nd spot right now. Kepler might fit into the lead off or 2nd spot, but he needs to hit better. In truth, Buxton would be a great fit in the lead off spot, if he can hit anywhere near 300. He has shown patience in the past, and his speed is very disruptive for opposing team. Until somebody comes along who is a better fit(Lewis) or somebody on the team makes some strides in on base skills, I would like to see Buxton leading off. Of course he has to hit some for that to work.
  25. Jim Hahn
    This isn't quite right. For the primary to complete 6 innings he would have to finish the 7th inning. 21 outs plus 6 runners left on base or runs means 3 times thru the lineup. That is a pretty tidy game. Even if the opener pitches a 1,2,3 inning-that is pretty tidy pitching by your primary. Personally, I expect that if the primary can typically get through 6 innings as a primary without facing the top of the order, he doesn't need to be a primary and should be starting.
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