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Dantes929

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Everything posted by Dantes929

  1. Dantes929
    I don't watch every game but my view is different than yours. I have not seen over and over that Buxton is bad at bunting. Two years ago it was his best offensive weapon until he got hot swinging away and I wish he would continue to bunt often for base hits. I'm not saying he is great at it and sacrifice bunting is different but the only sacrifice bunt I remember seeing from him was one right back to the pitcher that he beat out anyway.
  2. Dantes929
    Not necessarily arguing with you though I don't really consider Parker one of our best relievers. I would rate him 5th or 6th and that is where his ERA (a respectable 3.70) would put him on the Twins, the Astros and the Yankees. Valuable but not at the top. Twins are 2nd in the major leagues in save %. Yankees and Astros have twice as many blown saves and are 13th and 14th in save percentage. Maybe they should start using some of those top relievers they have in save situations.
  3. Dantes929
    To be clear, I was defending the bullpen though in a tongue in cheek kind of way. How can a bullpen do better than 6 scoreless? . I have said in those other threads if all we do is add one guy like Kennedy, Giles or Smith or ? I would be ok with that. I think this bullpen has done a remarkable job this year and could go over game after game to show why. I would like one more dependable guy to help than continue to do well. I would not expect that guy to never give up runs. Every reliever in every bullpen gives up runs.
  4. Dantes929
    Six shutout innings by 5 different relievers in a close much needed win. Just think how much better we could have been tonight with a good bullpen. Is it my imagination or are the Twins making a lot more errors now than they were earlier in the season? Nice win.
  5. Dantes929
    I don't know how the rest of the season is going to go but sometimes I like to look at our world series and division winning years scores and results on baseball reference to imagine what fans would be posting back then. Actually, I don't have to imagine some of it because I saw what was posted in the 2002 to 2010 years. When the Twins went up 11 games a third of the way through the season I never thought they would be 18 games ahead at the break or 40 games ahead by the end of the season. Any thought that they might bored me rather than excited me. How would the fans now have reacted in 87 when the Twins were up 5 late in the season and then lost 9 of 10 to be in a tie. How about the 91 Twins who were up 4.5 and then lost 7 of 8 to be tied on July 3rd? I am sure everyone at the time was saying "that's ok, we'll win the World Series and Jack Morris who was 21-32 the last two years, is now 36 with a 4.00 ERA will pitch a shut out in game 7." I never thought everyone on the Twins would just continue to be smoking hot all the way through. It is nice to know they are capable of being that hot for an extended period of time.
  6. Dantes929
    Kind of reminds me of the off season where posters say they expect or hope for 3 proven aces, three proven relievers and three proven position players.n Instead we get a .760 OPS 1st baseman that we hope has a career year (Cron, he has so far), A 2nd baseman that we hope has a rebound year from a .202 2018 average (Schoop, he has so far), an aging veteran like many in years past where we hope he has a little left in the tank (Cruz, he does) a career 4.6 ERA guy for the tail of the rotation that we hope can do better (Perez, he has so far) and one functional reliever (Parker), My point is you can be greedy all you want but getting 2 elite relievers probably isn't happening. I would be happy to get Kennedy and be done because that is my minimum reasonable expectation and I think one guy would really help this pen. I would be happier to get Smith or Giles because either one of those guys is more than I expect we will get. Just like the offseason, getting less than we want may still be all that we need. I still have hopes of Graterol helping us in the pen. Any word on his outlook?
  7. Dantes929
    Thorpe paid for walking the guy in front of the home run but the home run he gave up looked like a really good pitch. I don't know how the guy hit it out to center. Nice play by Chicago pitcher to get Buxton at third and I will give a little credit to the Sox for the 3 singles in a row. Duffy apparently didn't have it today but I will call this a good game where Chicago just beat us. By the way Matthew....... "Even on Moncada’s two-run home run he hit the spot Garver gave him, but unfortunately Moncada loves the ball low and away as a left handed hitter where he has slugged .571 in 2019". He was batting right handed against Thorpe, a lefty.
  8. Dantes929
    Time will tell but how is that selling high? To me its selling low and buying high. Chris Archer is a great comparison (or Yu Darvish). He would probably be our 5th starter right now and with Pineda trending he would just be depth in another month. Probably the same with Syndergaard. Anyone read about the 4.55 ERA (NL bhw), the injuries, the reduced strikeout rate, the drop in velocity. How are Syndergaard, Archer or Quintana aces on any team based on how they have pitched this season? Not quite the same level as Sale? He's not quite the same level as the level (or two) below Sale. All star starting pitcher? He was #8 in the Cy Young that year and that was 2016. Not an all star last year and definitely not this year.
  9. Dantes929
    Kind of the role I would like Stewart to fill. I agree it would be nice to have a Swarzak kind of guy to throw a few extra innings if needed.
  10. Dantes929
    Definitely joking but in the past I have seen the domino effect from games like these. I have defended this pen but the truth is they have mostly had the luxury of being well rested. A short stint from a starter and then close games lost happen and you can usually see the cause and effect. I hope I am wrong but I suspect the All Star game break will be very welcome.
  11. Dantes929
    I was thinking the Twins should maybe just intentionally walk 4 guys in a row and be done with it in the 12th. Sometimes these games have longer lasting effects because of how many pitchers are used and it can't be great for the catchers either. When teams slump you can often point to games like this and see the ripple affect. Kind of wish the All Star game was a week earlier. I was wondering why Harper was not used. I suspected it was because he had pitched two in a row already and was happy they were leaving him out of it. Of course, he beat himself as much as the Rays did. You can't give free bases like the Twins did starting with Harper and expect to escape forever.
  12. Dantes929
    Base hit doesn't score Castro. We know that because the next batter got a base hit and it didn't score Castro. If Schoop gets the bunt down then a base hit likely scores Castro and Cave and lesser stuff scores Castro from third. If sac is successful you only need one guy to come through to score two runs (in this case Arraez) instead of two guys (Arraez and Cruz) , 7th inning is late enough in the game for me to start thinking about 1 or two runs. We didn't score in the 8th or 9th. If Cruz didn't come through there and we lost the game I would have considered the failed bunt attempt to have cost us the game rather than the decision to bunt with the one major caviat you mentioned about knowing your personnel. If Schoop is a lousy bunter that changes things. Again, I'm not advocating sacrifice bunt in that situation but I don't think it is a horrendously stupid play. I have seen too many strike outs, pop outs and ground outs with no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd followed by fly balls that would have scored the run if the runners had been moved over. Before the 7th inning? No. I really wanted one run there and was hoping for two. Three was just a bonus. Didn't you feel just a little annoyed when Arraez came through that Schoop hadn't advanced the runners? You certainly didn't know Cruz would come through.
  13. Dantes929
    Well Tom, I was annoyed with the bunting as well but in a whole different way. He let a strike go by and then jabbed at a pitch foul. He didn't advance the runners but if he had then Arraez base hit scores both of them. To me Cruz didn't bail out the decision but rather the lack of execution. Nice job once again by the bullpen. One run in 3 and 2/3 innings in a close win.... I was really lamenting the Rosario injury. Not only did his out prevent at least one run from scoring but it put a lousy defensive outfield out there. Of course the first guy hits one that Rosario probably catches fairly easily, but Odorizzi did a great job getting out of it. Man, that is a lot of outfielders that have gone down in a short period of time. Anyone know the likely order of the return of players on the IL?
  14. Dantes929
    Give me that stat line for both Buxton and Arraez and I would write them in with ink at #1 and 2 for the next 6 years.
  15. Dantes929
    However he does it I would accept a .360+ OBP. I would also like a high OBP guy to lead off. I had hoped that guy would be Buxton but would be fine if it were Arraez. I agree though that pitchers will adjust and we will see his numbers normalize. Not ready to put him in Mauer or Gwynn category. Right now I think his comp is Ben Revere though I hope it is Ben Revere 2.0 (new and improved)
  16. Dantes929
    Rooker?
  17. Dantes929
    Nice win coupled with an Indians loss. I have no problem whatsoever with Gibson's performance and take a little issue on his behalf about the wheels coming off. How often do we hear that he nibbles too much and needs to attack the zone and how often have I commented that all the big innings against us have at least one walk contributing to the mess. In this case, Gibson struck out the first two batters and then proceded to throw strikes which is exactly what I want him to do with a 7 run lead. Four hits in a row for three runs may have involved some not so great pitches but I give credit to the Rays batters rather than any problems with Gibson. Wheels coming off usually involve walks, wild pitches and hit batters. He gave up 3 runs? Good on the Rays. Twins win comfortably? Good on the Twins.
  18. Dantes929
    People value different stats. I kind of like the quality start stat and ERA but don't really believe there is a gold standard of stats for pitchers. I also try to look a little bit at circumstances. Perez didn't start out the year as a starter cuz of the schedule. Gibson got off to a slow start presumably because health. If Pineda's first and last 7 games were switched around I wouldn't be defending him. His 6 week stretch before last night was more in line with a #3 or better. Again, the average ERA in the AL is 4.52. The quality start percentage is 37% and Houston is the only team that has over 50%. Place them however you want. I am quite comfortable putting either against pretty much any other teams #4 and 5 and in many cases #3.
  19. Dantes929
    I love battles to the end. 2006, 2008, and 2009 were awesome though it is a little more satisfying coming from behind than watching leads dwindle. I am more about the journey than the destination games that matter in September are all I ask for, but yes, watching a hot streak in May and June is fun also. I hope you are right in all you say. He is young after all and likely to improve but walk rates don't improve in the majors especially when we are talking singles hitters. They will not walk guys that can't harm them with extra bases. You are talking about the #17 Twins prospect doing better than Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn. I think a Ben Revere comparison will be more likely, though hopefully favorably. Anything over .350 OBP would make him very useful.
  20. Dantes929
    I wouldn't mind those uniforms showing up more often.
  21. Dantes929
    Pineda missed an entire season and understandably started slow but as was pointed out has been a different pitcher since the beginning of May. Major league pitchers on average in 2018 had quality starts in 79 of 162 games which is just below 50%. So far this year AL pitchers average 29 quality starts in 77 games which is way below 50% and the average ERA is 4.52. Pineda in his last 7 games had 5 quality starts and missed out on 7 of 7 by just an inning and a third. That is as the 5th starter!...I can understand saying you have to include even the bad innings in a performance but why would you dismiss the latest 7 starts. 1 of his first 7 starts were quality and 5 of his last 7 were quality. That still averages out to better than replacement but hardly tells the whole story which is that in the last month and a half he has been much better than the average major league starter. Better than the average major league starter is more than all right for a #5.
  22. Dantes929
    In 2006 the Twins were double digits back for much of June and July and were still 10.5 back on August 7th. In other words they were farther back way later in the season and came back to win on the last day of the season. Did the Tigers collapse? Maybe in the last 4 games but they won 95 (and got to the WS as a wild card btw). How can you call that a collapse? If the Twins win half their games from this point they will have 93 wins which very likely gets them a wild card spot. You just cited several reasons why Cleveland will be getting better so why would you call it an epic collapse if they were to catch them with most of the season left to play? Most here thought the Twins might win 85 games or so. I never thought the Twins were a shoo in for the division. Just too many guys playing too well. Hard to sustain that. Much like at an individual level Arraez cannot sustain what he has been doing. I can still imagine them winning 95 or more but can also imagine them winning 90 or so. Its baseball. It doesn't have to be a collapse. It can be someone else getting hot.
  23. Dantes929
    But so did Astudillo. He had a .315 avg in the minors and is still batting .298 in his major league career. Everyone seemed to think he was the real deal a short while ago and were demanding he play every day. Of course Arraez should be playing as much as possible but if he is at .529 OBP right now what are you going to say when he has a month of .300 OBP, because of course he will. Nothing wrong with that but nothing wrong with Astudillo having a slump either. Maybe Arraez will be great and I am ok with projecting him as our 2nd baseman for years to come but what you are seeing right now is a hot streak which a lot of people have been capable of from Buscher, to Punto to Casilla.
  24. Dantes929
    Berrios, Cave, Sano and the bullpen. Rogers didn't do great but you never know how many you have to score or prevent. The pen seems to bend a lot but doesn't break too often. May also came up big shutting them out in the 9th and Parker with the save. We are nearly half way through the season and the pen still hasn't blown as many as Perkins and Jepsen did in two weeks a couple years ago. Yes, we could use a good one or two but if they were as bad as everyone says then we wouldn't have the most wins in the majors. We haven't won every game 15-8.
  25. Dantes929
    Cave and Sano.
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