Ruven

Tony Oliva led the American League in hits 5 times in his first 7 seasons. For Twins hitters, at least, Tony’s mark is untouchable. By comparison, Puckett led the league in hits 4 times, Carew 3 times, and Arraez 2 times, though neither time was Arraez with the Twins when he did it. Another Tony, Gwynn, led 6 times, all with the Padres, but that was in the NL and it took him 14 years to do that.

> Do you think Taylor can help strengthen the outfield defense, particularly when it comes to Matt Wallner and Trevor Larnach? < No. You can’t catch what you can’t reach. Both these guys are plodders. They are good enough defenders when they can get to the ball. But you gotta get to the ball, and the speed that made Mr Taylor a top-notch outfielder cannot be taught. Hiring Taylor to improve the outfield defense of Larnach or Wallner would be an act of planned failure. So the Twins aren’t bringing Taylor in to work with Larnach and Wallner. I mean, they’ll say he is, but let’s not get taken in. Maybe the guy they want him to work with is Austin Martin? That has some possibilities. Or maybe he can help the young guys on the rise, ERod, G Gonzalez, and Walker J. Those would be good reasons to bring Taylor in.

A ball to the bigs is rare. I think Hrbek is the Twins player to make that leap most successfully.

Lee is not and is never going to be good enough at shortstop. Full stop Playing him at short until Culpepper, Houston, or PlayerX is ready is an option, sure. But that’s like driving on the highway knowing that car can’t even get to the speed limit on the highway, Occasionally there’s no choice, agreed. But going with that as Plan A makes failure unavoidable. Planned failure is not fair to the player or the team.

Maybe Rojas will be just fine and nothing will come of this concern, but he has the same issue with his release as Liriano did pre-TJ: a stiff front leg on the follow through such that most of the energy of the motion/release must be absorbed by the back and the arm. There’s a price to be paid for that. Liriano was great until his Tommy John. After it he was serviceable. Seeing where Rojas has the same action in his release, the likelihood of the same result, eventually, is worrisome.

> The Twins have potentially drafted their replacement for Correa. If Twins Daily can be trusted the Twins are in need of a replacement at shortstop for Correa yesterday:

TL;DR — Culpepper with some power and a solid obp will be much more valuable at short than at third. ______________________________ Regarding Boggs: context. In Fenway other positions can be looked to for power. In 1984, to pick one season early in Boggs’ career, the Red Sox catcher, all three outfielders, and their majority DH all hit 20+ HRs. and other guys hit double digit HRs. The 80s Red Sox could “afford” a low-power obp machine at third. Is it a requirement that 3B be a slugger? No. Not in Fenway, or in lineups that get power from non-traditional contributors, like the Twins had when Dozier was homering tons from second base Now, most teams would be better off with a near .400 obp guy (Arraez, Mauer) taking up a power position instead of some lesser slugger because “power position”. And if the Twins had an obp guy like that (Julien, for a minute) and would not play him we’d all be irate. But note! Playing a Boggs-like hitter at a power position means the lineup will [probably] need to compensate for that lack of power from a traditional source by getting it elsewhere. Home runs matter. We’ve witnessed in this first third of the Twins season the negative impact to an offense when little or no power is generated by the traditional power positions (C, 1B, 3B, LF, RF, DH). Jeffers, Vázquez, France, Miranda, Bride, Lee, Lewis, Bader, Kiersey, Wallner et al have all underperformed in the power numbers, for various reasons — approach, health, talent, whatever. And other than Larnach and Buxton, and Castro lately, no one has hit for power. And the Twins have too often struggled to score.

The Twins are moving toward an entirely homegrown rotation, and that’s alright with me. For now trade acquisitions Pablo, Ryan, Paddack, and SWR are of course welcome to hold down the fort, maybe for several seasons, but the once mythical pitching pipeline now has a pulse. And that means it may become possible down the road to trade away (if necessary) the more expen$ive pitchers (Paddack & Pablo now, Ryan & Ober eventually) for rare, needed parts (RH power, high .OBP speedster) that are close to plug and play because quality arms are ready to step up. Good times.

Optimism flows when the home nine can be counted on to plate 5 or 6 runs most nights. This squad hasn’t convinced the masses that will happen. Yet. It might, but we’re in a wait and see mode on the offense Pitching isn’t sexy, and homegrown may be an acquired taste, but I believe fanbase optimism will abound by Mother’s Day because the Twins have an excellent staff — a deep rotation of guys and the makings of a top-notch bullpen, and several promising arms in the pipeline when someone (inevitably) breaks down. . I have high hopes for this squad already. Winning will generate optimism in the Twins fanbase.

Tonkin is the weakest member of that prospective bullpen and he has no upside. IMHO if the Rule 5 guy is relegated to mop up and other low leverage outings until he proves himself, that would be preferable over Tonkin.

Great stuff. Well done. Really clear. Here’s my request to the numbers guys. Baseball is played in feet, not miles. Miles per hour is not the optimal unit of measurement to describe bat and ball speed. Using mph for pitches and batted balls gives no context within a ballpark or the diamond or the battery except as a relative standard. It would all make more sense in feet per second. Eventually everyone would understand (intuitively, if not as a witness) the difference between a fastball coming out of the pitcher’s hand at 140 fps vs an off-speed pitch approaching at 120 fps, and what that meant for the batter, or that a ball rocketing at the third baseman at 150 fps was scorched while a grounder trundling along at 100 fps was utterly routine. That is, fps is better than mph for easily translating that unit of measurement to a baseball field. And here’s to good health for all.

Giants won the WS multiple times a decade back with strong pitching*, solid defense, and an underwhelming attack w one HoF stick: Posey. Not quite George and the Seven Dwarves of the KC/Brett era, but they were not much better. Until the Twins’ young hitters all arrive — and that might never happen — these Twins are at least primed to be competitive with the same approach. Figure good health, some natural growth and improvement on offense with maybe a career year from one or two guys, and 90+ wins is in reach. That pretty much puts them in the postseason and that’s all that matters. Long way around to say offense from a platoon fourth outfielder is nice but, if Buxton is your starter, a backup centerfielder is an absolute requirement. * Lincecum and Bumgarner were better than any two starters the Twins can run out there, but the Twins starting depth and bullpen are true assets. There is hope.

He had a good run. Time to make way for the guys coming up. Preferably with a WS win to close it out. TBD

> The most pressing need lies in bolstering their starting rotation. Despite a solid core, injuries and inconsistency have plagued the staff. < Injuries and inconsistency have plagued Varland, Paddack, and Festa the fifth starters. To fix a fifth starter the Twins need to sell the farm? Let’s hope not.

Not at all what I expected. I heard 6’5” and rising fast through the system and my mind leaped to the thought we had another bean pole like Gibson (6’6” 200) or Festa (6’5” 185), but Zebby is 6’5” 225 and built more like Verlander (6’5” 235). Good. Nothing against bean poles, but we haven’t seen a real power pitcher around here since early Erickson (6’4” 220). Looking forward to Zebby’s arrival.