Dantes929

I am thinking 5 Carews and 4 Killebrews might be the best mix.

If you want to just go by OPS+ then Shane Mack beats Hrbek, Puckett and Mauer (though he doesn't quite have enough at bats to get to 3,000 but not really his fault). I am certain no one thinks Mauer post bi lateral and definitely post concussion was one of the Twins best. Same with Oliva's injuries. Carew only played 8 seasons with the Twins so how about ranking them by OPS+ for each players best 8 seasons. OPS+ does adjust for park played. Then you have Killebrew at 159, Carew at 150. Oliva at 140.6. Mauer at 138. Hrbek at 136.4. Puckett at 134.6 and Allison at 132.5. Knoblach way back there Now almost no one would put Puckett ahead of Hrbek on the all time list but I wonder how much a Leibrandt hanging curveball and a great series against the Jay has to do with that perception. Should it? No shame in being the Twins 6th best hitter of all time. I was a big fan of all of them though Hrbek annoyed me a little. Always felt like baseball ranked behind wrestling, eating hunting and fishing with him. He was changing batting stances all the time and was always trying to pull the ball and hit moon shots. Those were fun to watch but leading the league in distance past the fence doesn't mean any more than the guys that barely cleared it. I seriously thought he had the talent to add 20 points to his average while still hitting more homers. He had the talent to be in the HOF. I'm not saying he squandered the talent because he was definitely one of the all time Twins greats but I am saying he might have got more out of it.

I'm all right with that list. Morneau probably 6th. Would have been nice to see what Morneau, Mauer and Oliva would have done without injuries.

I don't think anyone looked right in the Pirates uniforms in those days.

Don't forget that it wasn't just 28 innings in the majors but another 135 innings in the minors combining for 163 innings of below 2.00 ERA. Predicting progression, regression or maintaining isn't really that much different that looking at Berrios' body of work and predicting he will advance to the next level simply because other pitchers with his history did make the leap. I wasn't kidding when I said Dobnak should be #4 to start the season and Bailey, and others should be fighting for the #5 spot. The idea that a guy that used to pitch well but has been somewhere between ok and bad the past 5 years is more likely to pitch well than the guy that actually pitched well last year makes little sense to me. Sure, give the #5 spot edge to Bailey. #4 spot edge should be to Dobnak.

Do you know for sure that players don't get paid? I can't find it anywhere and not getting paid for a strike is no semblance of proof that they don't get paid for Covid19. Players get paid for being injured during Spring Training. I would say this situation is way closer to that than a strike. I also think it would be very reasonable for the suspension to be reduced, not game for game, but in proportion to the shortened season.

Ok, seriously, Ball Four was great. I still quote stuff from that one. I remember really liking The Southpaw and Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris. My favorites by far when growing up though were the Chip Hilton series by Clair Bee. Nine of the 24 books in the series were about baseball and they were all my favorite.

Catcher in the Rye is my favorite baseball book.

Widely believed that the Spanish Flu originated on an army base in Kansas.

Since this is unprecedented it probably wouldn't hurt to start lobbying now for Pineda's suspended games to decrease at least on a ratio to the shortened season or even better, to just count for every game not played.

To be fair, there are tons of people that had that first knee jerk reaction to this virus in comparing it to the flu. Its kind of like saying back in 1982 "its not even possible for Ripken to catch Gehrig because Gehrig has only played in 162 games".....Ripken was just getting started........ 2nd everything I have read is that if unchecked this is more contagious than the flu but like Riverbrian says is even worse because of slow incubation period...... 3rd, is this.... "you know, this virus has lower mortality rates in first world nations than the flu." I guess it depends on how you define rates. Yes, more people have died from the flu but the current death rate for the flu this last year is 1 death for every 2000 cases. The most optimistic rate I have seen for the Corona virus is 1 death for every 100. The best available data says 2-3 for every 100. That's Spanish Flu territory. Its also a scary thought that getting the virus does not immunize you from getting it again. I don't know if that is definitive but the theory so far is that the anitbodies don't have a very long shelf life once they have been activated..........Lastly, if you are concerned about the flu, there is probably nothing aside from vaccines that will have a bigger effect on combating the flu than the good hygiene habits that this scare has promoted. Kind of the equivalent of you don't have to believe that man made pollutants cause global warming or even that global warming is real but isn't it a good idea to have cleaner air and conserve our resources anyway. This scare has huge short term consequences in every aspect of life right now but it is conceivable that the reaction can have some good long term benefits. As Brock says the best possible outcome is that people are so careful that people say "See, it was all a bunch of hoohaw about nothing" The next best outcome I guess would be for them to actually be right. Either way wash your hands and cover your coughs.

Wait, you can't catch it by drinking Corona? That's a couple weeks I won't get back. Well, I guess adapting is a good thing anyway since I discovered Stella is much better.

I like the outside the box thinking but seems like all we have are big bats and some of them have pretty good splits.. Stacking means there will be times the other team can bring in a righty when you have three right handed batters in a row and then bring in a lefty to face three lefties in a row and you never have a favorable matchup. I never mind our guys being intentionally walked. Its an automatic 1.00 OBP and OPS.

Well, I'm not in favor of Dobnak as our 5th starter to start the season because I would have him as our 4th starter. Bailey in the lead for 5th.

Ok, we are all wondering if Arraez can sustain the success he had last season. Along those lines, anyone think Kiriloff can sustain his current OPS of 1.836?

For starters, Revere really wasn't that bad. In fact, if my memory serves, he was good enough that there was some dismay when he was traded. Weak arm and low power were the knocks. I always said if his OBP was near .350 he would be very useful. Didn't happen. As pointed out earlier, their minor league stats were similar but not identical. Arraez has him beat on every stat I looked at. Still, the same standard applies. Get on base near .350 is acceptable. Higher than .350 is plenty to keep him in the majors and an asset on a power team. Not to mention, in a tight spot late in the game where you needed a hit or just to put bat on the ball, it wasn't Polanco, Kepler or even Cruz that I wanted up there. Last year late it was Arraez.

Two ways to think of that. One of his injuries was making a throw. That can happen no matter where you play. One of his injuries was a pulled ham string running to first. This kind of injury is probably less likely if you are playing in the field. Without Donaldson, Gonzo plays 3rd at least 30 games and Sano plays first or gives Cruz rest at DH. No way was he playing 150 games at 3rd. Personally, I think DH is going to be Sano's position maybe as early as next year. 3rd base isn't really a big at risk injury position though.

I'd have been fine with keeping Sano at 3rd for another year or two and having Kiriloff up to play 3rd base. I hope Donaldson is everything everyone hopes he is and I hope he's that for another 4 years.

With a fair dose of luck. Three runs single late in the wild card game saved the Nats from elimination before they had a chance to get hot. Same for the Royals in a wild card game before that. The fact that the wild cards since the start have a winning record tells you SSS evens things out. One of my favorite seasons ever was 2006 with 2008 and 2009 up there as well. I have been a fan since the early 70's and what I want is what I always want. Meaningful games through September. Being out of the race in mid August makes for a long wait til next year.

I don't necessarily agree that Berrios is definitely the best starter. I liked some of the break I have seen on his curve ball this spring and think he could be the best starter but last year I had more faith in Odorizzi to give us a good start. The plus with Berrios was he could go longer but that means less with a bullpen of guys with sub 3.5 ERAs. Maybe it still pushes him slightly ahead but not in the definite territory in my book. I hope he changes my mind this year.

Whoop! Just to clarify. I appreciate everything else about your post. Unrelated note, I thought Buxton was cleared to play a while ago but has not appeared. Anyone know his status? As alluded to earlier, I don't place a lot of value on how players do this time of year because I don't know what they are working on but I do think its important to get the reps.

Spring of 2006 Santana, Liriano, Radke and Guerrier all had ERA's north of 4.6. When someone says this time of year "I know its early..." it reminds me of my son's 4th grade basketball team when a parent would say "I know they are volunteer refs...". You should probably just stop right there. Or in the case of the volunteer refs you may continue with "and I appreciate their efforts".

Nah, best two words in baseball are Opening Day. Granted I am always more of a journey than a destination guy. You can't win the World Series in March. You can't win a playoff game in March. You can't even qualify for the playoffs in March. It may have been an abstract goal in 87 and 91 but no one was saying it out loud. They went about their business and it just developed. I remember them talking about it in ST of 2010 for all the good it did them. Its great to be confident and have goals but why put the pressure on yourselves. Its enough pressure just to make the playoffs. Win one playoff game, then start shooting higher. Can;t do that in March or April.

Power may come naturally and he seems to have a pretty good idea when to go after it. Some how Mauer did also but I have never seen so many beautiful powerful swings that resulted in foul balls straight behind him. I don't care though. If we were down 1 with bases loaded in the late innings Arraez was the one I had the most faith in on the entire team. If we were down 1 with no one on he would still be the one I most wanted at the plate because there was a good chance he got on. I would take .320 with .400 OBP and a bunch of doubles and not care if he ever hit another home run in his life.

As far as Berrios you can see that the curveball in the clip is nasty but is more horizontal than vertical. Most of his curveballs last year seemed to be more horizontal. If you just face him once he could make you look really bad. I wonder if that is easier to track and lay off as the season goes by and more film and at bats accumulate. I only saw a small clip of ST this year but the one I saw was more vertical and way nasty. Just that small change of plane can make a ton of difference. I know in high school there was a guy from Delano that threw a ridiculously huge breaking curve ball but after your knees buckled the first few times if you stuck in there you could hit it. A good 12-6 curveball is tough to hit even if you know its coming.