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arby58

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Everything posted by arby58

  1. arby58
    It's hard for a pitcher to change mechanics in the middle of a season - particularly when you're also dealing with a nagging hip issue. My guess/hope is Ober/Twins staff are aware of this and will fiddle with things in the offseason or spring training.
  2. arby58
    He did - and the slugging percentage was similar from A+ to AA to AAA. Pretty impressive for 5'11" and 165 pounds.
  3. arby58
    A similar 'top 10' of Twins trades would be interesting. The Tovar trade was a good one, as was, obviously, the Cruz for Ryan trade. I'd still put the Pierzynski for Nathan, Liriano, and Bonser as number one. The Shannon Stewart trade was also excellent.
  4. arby58
    From the comments so far, a lot of wannabe commedians who definitely should not quit their day jobs.
  5. arby58
    Hope or hype or something in between? I'm not sold yet on Hill - far too many walks, and the step up to A+ wasn't pretty. A good year in 2026 at Cedar Rapids could change that, and he'll just turn 20 on Christmas day. Emma is an enigma wrapped in a riddle. Can he ever stay healthy? Quite frankly, at this point, I'm more pumped by Gonzalez - IF he can repeat last year's performance, he should be at Target field later in 2026. Finally, there is Walker Jenkins. Agree he looks the part of a bona fide big league star, but the lack of HR power in the minors is something of a concern. At 6'3" 210 I would have expected more than 10 HRs last year (or 6 the year before). Still a lot of questions to be answered.
  6. arby58
    There was a similar column at the start of last season extolling the team's starting pitching depth and suggesting using that in a trade for a position player(s). Then Lopez and Ober went down, and then Festa went down . . . so much for starting pitching depth. Ober is coming off a poor year, his velocity is down, and he's 30 - he's not bringing anything back of note. Better for the Twins to work to bring him back to past form. I still don't understand the general disdain for SWR. Other than Ryan, he was their best starting pitcher last year - 22 starts, 4.04 ERA, 7-4 record, about a K per inning, and he's only 25 years old, inexpensive, and controllable. I don't care if he's out of options, I'm putting him in the starting rotation at the start of the year and keeping him there. As for the rest, they will necessarily need depth, and none of the others has stood out enough to get much in return anyway.
  7. arby58
    Steve Adams at Baseball Trade Rumors isn't high on Vientos. In a question in his mailbag from a Mets fan and 'trade, start, bench' for three players he responded: "I don't think any of the ...three (Vientos, Maurico, Acuna) are all that likely to be big league regulars, but I prefer Vientos' bat to the other two." Sort of damning with faint praise, as he finished with "Also doubt any of Vientos, Maurico or Acuna is more than a complementary part of trade package at this juncture. No one is giving up much to acquire them."
  8. arby58
    McCarty wasn't a kid in his first job - he was 23 years old his rookie year with the Twins. It's not like Kelly didn't give him a chance - he had 371 plate appearances his first year and produced a .542 OPS and 46 OPS+ for a -2.7 WAR. McCarty bounced around a lot - also played for the Giants, Mariners, Royals, Rays, A's, and Red Sox, and he missed two entire seasons. His first six MLB seasons, he never had an OPS+ higher than 79 - as a first baseman. As his manager, I wouldn't have liked him much either.
  9. arby58
    Actually, Duran was good right out of the gate. His first season was 2.0 WAR, 1.86 ERA, 0.975 WHIP, and 89 Ks in just under 67 innings. Nearly as good the next year as well. I'd take those stats for any first year relief pitcher every time. Jax' first year as a relief pitcher was also pretty good. He had a 1.0 WAR, 3.36 ERA, 1.051 WHIP, and 78 Ks in just over 72 innings.
  10. arby58
    Duran, Jax, and Varland are just the latest in a long line of Twins relief pitchers that were converted starting pitchers. Some of their stellar predecessors were Eddie Guardado, Rick Aguillera, Glen Perkins, Latroy Hawkins, and Joe Nathan. About the only decent 'relief pitcher only' pitchers they've developed in recent years were Ryan Pressly and Taylor Rodgers. They've got plenty of promising arms in the minors. My bet is on at least two of Raya, Festa, and Prielipp playing important roles in the bullpen.
  11. arby58
    This is a somewhat different debt story from what I have seen elsewhere, which is that the debt was largely from non-baseball real estate losses (albeit tied to COVID). As a finance professional, this seems more plausible - if the $300-$500 million debt is accurate, it would be hard to rack that up because of 'continuing to pay players and staff' during COVID. Yes, the lost TV revenue was an issue, but they also reduced payroll in the aftermath. I'm still betting a lot of the debt is non-baseball-related businesses.
  12. arby58
    That's simply not true - review the game logs. He played in 37 games. Game 2, 2/4; Game 6, 1/4; Game 10, 1/3; Game 11, 2/3; Game 12, 1/1; Game 15, 1/3; Game 16, 1/3; Game 17, 1/4; Game 18, 1/4; Game 23, 2/3; Game 25, 2/3; Game 26, 2/3; Game 27, 2/3; Game 30 1/4; Game 32, 1/4; Game 34, 2/3. Yes, he had a nice stretch games 23-27, but he also had a nice stretch games 10-15 and ok Games 30-34. He did finish the year on an 0 for 10 stretch, but what player hasn't?
  13. arby58
    Arraez had a .292 batting average last year, and a .327 OBP. OBP 'overcomplicates' things? That's nonsense logic - getting on base is a key part of scoring runs. Bell had a .237 batting average and a .325 OBP. In essence, they were on base about the same percentage of the time. Are you seriously suggesting that Arraez was as valuable offensively when 77% of his hits were singles, and only 4% were HRS, compared to Bell's 64% singles and 20% HRs? Math is beautiful too, and baseball has lots of math imbedded in it.
  14. arby58
    I don't understand why people aren't giving Jackson credit for a pretty good 2025. The Twins don't need to 'fix' him, they just need him to continue to perform at his 2025 level.
  15. arby58
    Career, yes, but not last year. Granted, it was only 100 plate appearances, but Jackson had an OPS+ of 111, an OPS of .763. He also had 5 HRs and scored 17 runs - that's pretty efficient production. Vasquez, in contrast, had an OPS+ of 52, OPS of .545. He also had more than double the plate appearances (214) yet scored fewer runs (14) and hit fewer HRs (3). Last year, really no comparison.
  16. arby58
    I don't 'get' all the complaining about advanced analytics - you look under the hood at what are acknowledged as the great players, and their underlying analytics are similarly great. What about Arraez' performance stands out to you? The .292 BA last year? It only translated into 66 runs scored - that's about as many as Trevor Larnach last year, and Larnach had far fewer plate appearances.
  17. arby58
    Why? Arraez' OPS+ last year was 99, Bell's was 110. Arraez' 'advantage' is a higher batting average that supposedly translates into OBP - except last year it wasn't. Arraez was .327, and Bell was .325. Arraez doesn't run well, so all those singles take a lot of additional effort to translate into runs. Arraez last year had 675 plate appearances and scored 66 runs - a run per 10.2 platea appearances. Bell had 533 and scored 54 - a run for every 9.9 plate appearances. OK, so maybe all those hits drive in runs? Bell actually had 2 RBIs more than Arraez in far fewer plate apperances. Then there is the difference in HRs - Bell had 22 versus Arraez' 8 in far less plate appearances. I 'get' that people like to watch him battle against pitchers, but the one thing he should do is score runs - and he doesn't really do all that well in that category.
  18. arby58
    I guess I'm missing your point. You have both Keaschall and Lee starting for the Twins, and Wallner most certainly is next year as well. So 3 out of 4? Seems pretty good odds. If you were expecting them all to be superstars, then your world is different than mine.
  19. arby58
    He was the Twins minor league player of the year - and the OP is talking about trading into the same posiiton AND giving up our best starting pitcher to do it. If I'm doing that, I want it to a position where we don't have an heir apparent, and that is 1B or Catcher.
  20. arby58
    If Culpepper is expected to be ready in late 2026 or 2027, what is the point of trading Ryan for a 'near ready middle infielder? I'm not even sure a very good/major league ready middle infielder would be my target IF the Twins were to trade Ryan (and recent events suggest they are not). I'd be looking for a young 1B 'thumper' or catcher.
  21. arby58
    To be fair, that isn't what the OP implied. It is a pretty common move when a shortstop doesn't have the arm or range (paging Jorge Polanco, Xander Bogaerts, and Jonathan Villar). I, too, was much more comfortable with Lee at 2B - and probably the Twins as well. They didn't play him regularly at SS until it was absolutely necessary. He started 15 games at SS prior to 8-1 (and 5 of those were while Correa was on the injured list), and 49 from then until the end of the season.
  22. arby58
    Drew Burress is an inch taller than Kirby Puckett was, and he turned out ok. You've got to like that both Burress and Gracia walked more than they struck out last year, and Lebron's K rate was a bit higher than optimal. That said, the Twins love drafting shortstops, so Lebron probably gets the nod - and the prediction lists I've seen (MLB.com, ESPN, Bleacher Report) have the Twins taking the Alabama shortstop.
  23. arby58
    You think there were better options in AAA? They called a bunch of them up, and didn't get stellar performance from them either. Nearly every Twin hitter (with the exception of Buxton and Martin) regressed in 2025. Players are responsible for the playing aspect of the game. It's been said by far smarter baseball people than you or me that managers get too much credit when a team wins, and too much blame when it loses.
  24. arby58
    Agree about Culpepper. Fedko scuffled through his first year in A ball and his first year at AA. Not sure a GM is going to take a 26 year old outfielder on the strength of performing better at his second shot at those levels. I will grant you he did well last year at AAA, but it was only 164 ABs. I wouldn't be shocked if someone took a flyer on him, but I'd bet the under.
  25. arby58
    Based on past experience and outcomes, the Twins don't value high end relief pitchers the way they do starting pitching. It appears they believe you can take a starting pitcher who can't quite make the grade in that role and make them a stand-out relief pitcher. That has been the case recently (Duran, Jax, Varland) and in the past as well (Nathan, Aguilerra, Guardado, Hawkins). Some of these were sudden moves - Hawkins was solely a starting pitcher his first four years with the Twins and then never started another game in a very long major league career. Guardado was primarily a starting pitcher his first two years with the Twins, transitioned to the bullpen in year three and then didn't start another game between 1996 and 2009. My guess is they will experiment with relief pitcher roles for at least a couple of their young starting pitching, thinking of Festa, Raya, Prielipp, and maybe Matthews. Not all will transition to the bullpen, of course - they will need some starting pitching ready at AAA.
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