Jump to content
If free agency is too rich for your blood, click here for the 35 players most likely to be traded this offseason. ×
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Dantes929

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,166

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Dantes929

  1. Dantes929
    Pitchers give up runs. 1 run in two innings to the Yankees is below average especially, according to advanced stats, in the first two innings. Also, to be fair to Duffey, Cave misplayed that ball in the 2nd inning turning a double into a triple and thus a run vs a runner stranded on 3rd. Not advocating the Opener but I thought Duffey pitched pretty well.
  2. Dantes929
    If you read the article, read the comments below. Some of them kind of funny.
  3. Dantes929
    Which is why you don't use Rogers as an Opener. If there is one guy aside from Berrios that you would choose to pitch one inning with confidence it is probably May. The fact that he failed is on May, not the theory. If all the things the advanced metrics show created a difference of two wins over the traditional way of doing things it would be silly not to do it. The problem is two wins difference over the course of a season means many games were lost by not doing it the traditional way and many games plus 2 were gained by doing it the new way. Many would be won or lost using either method. There is no way to know which is which. In this case, May failed but I am not going to just assume that Stewart would have thrown 5 scoreless innings if he had started the game.
  4. Dantes929
    I am not a huge fan of the move but I think you are missing the point. The egg heads as they are called show that a higher percentage of runs are scored in the 1st inning because the other team's best hitters are lined up to hit that inning. The 6th, 7th, or 8th best pitchers are not the ones that should be opening. Its the one's that have the best ERA for one or two innings. In this case they had May who had an 1.88 ERA coming in as their Opener. He arguably was the best pitcher on the team for a one inning stint. Its a lot like those that argue that your closer shouldn't just automatically come in in the 9th inning when there are higher leverage situations in the 7th or 8th innings. It makes sense. Rather than compare this strategy to the A's small ball it should be compared to KC's championship run when they used relievers earlier than ever before or Cleveland who brings in their best pitchers at various stages of a game. There is no way a sample of 2 games or even 50 games would be conclusive one way or the other. "Meanwhile, it does no good to reduce the number of runs surrendered in the second and third innings (or sixth), if you give up even more in the first." Goes back to my earlier post. The strategy is to increase your odds to give up the fewest number of runs in the first inning. The execution was poor. Not necessarily the strategy.
  5. Dantes929
    Small ball, Power ball, Closer, Opener, Pitch to miss bats, Pitch to contact. Take nearly any approach you want and if you do it well you will likely succeed. In this case, May did not do his part and it failed. If he throws a good 1st inning maybe we win 2-1. Its like being green side in golf. You can putt it, you can chip it, you can pitch it, you can flop it but if you choose any of those options and chunk it or shank it you fail. Now I know odds are involved in all of it but the execution is still the key.
  6. Dantes929
    I think that is some of it. I think it is more pressure and nerves and adrenaline and some wrong thinking involved. I don't think a .320 hitter in the minors becomes a .230 batter in the majors (Buxton) because of the better pitching. The change is in the batter himself. Yes, the pitching is better but its not 90 BA points better. Likewise with pitching. I haven't seen Buesenitz pitch that much but I saw it in May and Berrios when they first came up. They didn't become 6 ERA pitchers in the majors because they were facing better hitters. It was because they weren't throwing the same way. They would throw a strike or two and then overthrow breaking balls that were truly waste pitches since they didn't even tempt the batter and now ahead in the count becomes behind in the count. Yes, major league batters are better but I am guessing the minor league batters were chasing breaking balls much closer to the zone. Its more Buesenitz changing than level of competition changing. How often do you hear "trust your stuff"?
  7. Dantes929
    I see him trying to pull the ball still and pulling off the ball as a result making him vulnerable to the outside breaking stuff. I think he is working on it but it is just a tough habit to break. Seems like most of his homers since the callup have been to center or right field. Cut down on the swing and try to hit the ball up the middle. Not saying he shouldn't pull the ball. That will take care of itself. Almost every power pull hitter including Oriiz stepped toward the pitcher. Cutting down on the swing is tough to do. I've been working on doing that in golf for years.
  8. Dantes929
    Right now Mauer is 2nd on the team in batting and #1 on OBP. Pretty sure by the end of the year he will be the top in both. His BA is 33 points higher than the team average and his OBP is 40 points higher and 23 points higher than the next guy. (Garver). Forget how he rates with other 1st basemen. This lineup just isn't the same without him in there. He is a rock amid a team of streaky guys. I want him back and not just as sentiment. I don't think he has had such a bad year and I like him in the #1 or two spots. Fans don't seem to like table setters anymore. I still do.
  9. Dantes929
    I'm with you in everything you said but maybe you can clarify. I have understood that if any part of the ball touches any part of the zone it is a strike. In that case the chart above shows either 7 or 8 strikes that were called balls and maybe one ball that was called a strike. If the majority of the ball has to be in the zone he was then on the bad side of 7 strikes that were called balls and 5 balls that were called strikes. Either way he wasn't in the 95% area. I counted less than fifty pitches.
  10. Dantes929
    I agree with both of you. I only saw a little bit of the game but while I was watching it sure seemed like Gibson was not getting calls on really good pitches. Ball 1 instead of strike 1 so often leads to guy on first and no one out rather than no one on and 1 out. HUGE difference. Not the difference in this game but usually when I notice a pitcher on our side getting squeezed it is Gibson. Ask him if it evens out. It doesn't. I'm not completely sold on the catcher framing thing but in Garver's case I agree. He must know what pitch is coming since he is calling it but sometimes appears not to know with the way he catches it.
  11. Dantes929
    I think you are wrong but I am not sure. Batters have been consistently unable or unwilling to adjust their approach and go the other way figuring the occasional single isn't worth giving up home runs for. Sano and Dozier like the ball middle in but even if I put the shift on I am not going to pitch them middle in because history shows if I throw them outside breaking balls they will still try to pull the ball. If they happen to hit a single now and then the other way I am not going to change that approach. If they do it constantly I will.
  12. Dantes929
    "Wish us luck" is not going to be the slogan but could be as far as I am concerned. I have been wishing the Twins to have some luck for 45 years now and sometimes they do. Puckett, Hrbeck, Viola et al were together a lot of seasons and sometimes it worked and sometimes it did not. Its really not such a stretch to think Buxton and Sano will have good seasons and that some pitchers will as well? Romero wasn't bad at all and I am guessing Gonsalves is way better than he has shown thus far. Get May back in the rotation and be lucky with a few more guys having good seasons and I will look forward to next year.
  13. Dantes929
    I will always cut the Twins slack for signing and trying Nishioka. Slow start. Strange and new environment and injury soon after starting. Maybe if Ichiro had come over a couple years earlier and had some bad luck he wouldn't be a shoe in for HOF. What I didn't and don't cut the Twins slack for is trading Hardy and putting all the eggs in the basket of unproven Castilla, Plouffe and Nishioka.
  14. Dantes929
    I heard that the Yankees teach all their guys to slap balls weakly to the opposite field no matter where it is pitched and that Austin finally feels free to swing away.
  15. Dantes929
    Not shabby at all. Pre concussion it was about .320. As far as HOF goes it might be one of those rare cases where longevity hurts his chances.
  16. Dantes929
    100% on Garver for not throwing to 2nd. I still put a good chunk on Sano for a lousy throw and for backing up for the return throw rather than getting out of the way. Maybe he was wondering if he had backup. The run down is ideally between home and third. Yes, Garver should have checked home and then thrown to 2nd. I understand hesitating and then freezing. Anyone else ever make a bone headed play?
  17. Dantes929
    I get the confusion a little. Usually when two guys are on the same base they just stay there accepting that one will be out. I am guessing that Garver didn't want to compound the error by throwing to second and letting the run score because as you suggest he wasn't sure home was covered. The run down you want is the one they had which is the one between home and third. I'm sure when he saw them both on the base he thought he had an automatic out and just relaxed. Bone headed but I will cut him some slack. Sano definitely did not play it well either. He should have waited a little longer to throw the ball and the throw was high and soft. Then he should get out of the way and circle back to back up third rather than back up to get the return throw. I hold him just as responsible. I don't think Garver has great baseball instincts. My memory is that he cost us a game back when it really mattered when bases were loaded and there was a ball barely hit down the line. Garver should have just jumped on it and tagged the guy coming down the line but instead kind of hesitated to see if it went foul and when the opportunity to actually get an out passed, grabbed the ball when it might have still gone foul. Just bad baseball all around. That one I was more annoyed about.
  18. Dantes929
    Stewart 4. Odorizzi 4. Gonsalves 5.2. Over. Its a fair over/under. I would probably put $10 on the over in Vegas. Oakland has a pretty good offense even though they don't have anyone challenging .300 either. Not even close.
  19. Dantes929
    This doesn't really mean that much. Yankees, Red Sox, Astros, Indians and A's don't win 60% of their games because they have winning records against each other. Twins are 3-4 against Boston, 8-8 against the Indians, 2-1 against the Astros and 3-1 against St. Louis. IMO, the Twins started the year with way more talent than they had last year. They still have to perform. Maybe next year they put it together. Maybe the year after that. Some fans say wait til next year as some kind of dismal and futile battle cry. (cry being the key word). I say wait til next year and look forward to it. Yeah, I'm a homer. Doesn't mean I am unrealistic. I consider myself an optimistic realist. This team could have been way better if the players had played better. I don't think the talent was so low that they were incapable of playing better. Hrbek, Gaetti, Puckett and Gagne went through some pretty rotten years.
  20. Dantes929
    I think it was Bert Blyleven. Just kidding. How about Fernando Romero this year? 5.667 innings of shutout ball. I'm sure there are others.
  21. Dantes929
    Just trying to put lipstick on the pig. While I was watching it looked like his fastball, slider and changeup were all high and only his curveball was kept low. I would hope that as he gets his adrenaline under control the changeup and slider will be brought down a bit.
  22. Dantes929
    Well, his strike outs/9 is somewhere around 24.5. The hitters fouled off a lot of decent pitches and certainly he had some bad luck. His stuff looked good but his command was poor. I am guessing he was too amped to slow down the change up and the location of the change up was pretty high. Definitely looking forward to a few more starts for him.
  23. Dantes929
    Mauer still leads the team in OBP and is 40 points better than league average. I haven't been as disappointed in his season and like him leading off. This lineup definitely was diminished when Mauer went on the DL. He might not be the best hitter on the team but he is still one of the best.
  24. Dantes929
    Paul Molitor,Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit, Jamey Carroll, Kurt Suzuki, Ed Nunez, Robbie Grossman and even Tori Hunter wasn't too bad. Who were the failures? Morales and Morrison? Tommy Herr? I don't consider Morrison signing to be a mistake. It was a good move that simply didn't work out.
  25. Dantes929
    Ok, that argument sways me. Another homer (3 run shot) and a double tonight for Dozier though. 21-5 Dodgers. Should have traded him on an incentive basis. OPS+ from time acquired of 90 gets us their 19th best prospect and every 5 points above that we get our pick of their next two best instead.
×
×
  • Create New...