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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
    I think a meaningful question is how often is Statcast wrong? If statstat is only accurate to within 1 in., does that mean Statcast sometimes turns a 16 plate into 14 in. plate? Or maybe an 18 in. plate sometimes? What about the top and bottom of strike zone? Is it the same for every hitter? What about the depth of the plate? Is Statcast set a the front Or the back of the plate ? Either way, how many times does a breaking ball go over the plate but miss the box? I will be more inclined to support automated strike zones when I am convinced they aren't likely making nearly as many bad calls as the umpires do.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Jim Hahn
    This is not entirely true. While some pitchers couldn't be sent down, there were was certainly a shuttle between AAA and the big leagues. There was also a constant picking up of dfa guys and then trying to shuttle them. One can argue there wasn't enough true major league depth, but there was shuttle. Duffy was was on it as well as others.
  12. Jim Hahn
    Oh the the Twins have been doing this for quite awhile now. One could argue even during the last few years of the previous regime. It it partly a by product of short starts. Also somewhat a result of short appearances by relief pitchers. Even if a relief relief pitcher is only facing a batter or two, there are only so many appearances he can make in a short time frame. The 3rd factor of course is when a reliever makes an extended appearance like deJong did, he also becomes unavailable for at least a few days. Most organizations are genuinely trying to protect their pitchers arms, so this has to happen. It just happens a little less if you have a strong group of starters.
  13. Jim Hahn
    This seems to have become the norm with the Twins and many other teams. An almost constant switching out of the back end of the bullpen to serve the perceived needs of the next day or so. I almost miss the days of Terry Mulholand, who served all those needs in one person.
  14. Jim Hahn
    I agree with this. Span likely could be still, a useful big league hitter. A good hitter without much power doesn't seem to be valued much. There maybe other factors in Span's case. It is possible he isn't interested in playing for close to the major league minimum. Since his production, in theory anyway, can be matched by someone making close to the minimum, that could be one factor. He maybe also viewed as a player whose age suggests he is due for drastic decline in productivity.
  15. Jim Hahn
    I suspect that there could be quite a bit resistance from any number of managers from time to time. When you can and will be fired for failure, you may may very well resist suggestions you don't agree with. When those suggestions are clearly more than suggestions it puts a manager in tough place. When playing time and other things concerning player usage are no longer really under the control of the manager, it can be pretty easy to lose control of the clubhouse. I think there are plenty of interesting and potentially difficult aspects to the blurring of lines between the front office and the on field management. There are a lot benefits potentially available to the manager, but there are any number of potential pitfalls as well.
  16. Jim Hahn
    It's hard to know what pages the front offices and managers are on anywhere in major league baseball, right now. With liaison men on the staff, with people in the front writing out lineups, with managers carrying scripts in their pockets; lines are getting pretty blurred. It looks with catchers constantly looking into the dugout, somebody is trying to call the games too. It used to be front offices largely concerned themselves with assembling the roster, making changes to the roster, etc. Managers managed. Now it is harder to tell who is making what decision. With analytics, concencious building, and thinking outside the box; decisions could be coming from anywhere.
  17. Jim Hahn
    I would tend to agree with this description of Castro. Or at least he seems below average. He doesn't block pitches well. He seems stiff back there. His arm is probably average but his release seems slow. His throw out % seem to reflect that. His framing is overrated. Pitchers seem to like pitching to him, which is very important. Unfortunately his offense appears to be declining as well. If one of the catchers needs to go, I would prefer it to be Castro.
  18. Jim Hahn
    I was slightly surprised Austin made the opening day roster. There is plenty of right handed power on the roster, more when Sano returns. Too much of it figures to be low average, high strike out guys. Austin is pretty redundant even if it were possible to carry 5 bunch bats all year. I suppose Austin could be viewed as insurance for Cruz or Cron. If the bench shrinks to 3 as the season goes on Austin would make little sense as a bench player. If Cruz or Cron miss significant time, I think I would prefer someone with more positional flexibility than Austin. Possibly a left handed bat since the Twins appear to be a bit short of left handed power this year. Finally, I really don't see the upside in Austin that many of you do. I don't value power unless it paired with at least one more skill.
  19. Jim Hahn
    Would you count 120 warm up pitches he also threw under this scenario?
  20. 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.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. Jim Hahn
    You are right, it is not a good argument for not trying. The Twins in 1987 may not of been one of the 10 best teams in baseball that year. They certainly weren't considered that good before the season started. Still, it would be hard to claim they went all in that year either. Mostly they recycled a bunch of over the hill guys trying to supplement a pretty good core. One hopes that if this team shows a pulse in July, they will be willing to push a chip or two into the pot to make a run. Just because there are 3 teams that look much better on paper in March doesn't mean there isn't a chance to do damage in October.
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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