Greglw3

I think he’s just struggling to adjust to a very quick adjustment pitchers have made to him in throwing a high percentage of sliders and breaking balls. I think he’ll fight through it eventually and be a star. At least I hope so.

I would not want to trade Rooker - 23 home runs on the season, strong walk rate and super impressively hit titanic 3rd deck home runs in back to back games this week. I’d play him regularly the rest of the season and then re-evaluate.

Yeah, so many good hitters have struggled early in career. An example would be Torii Hunter and I’m pretty sure he had to be sent back to AAA at least once. Byron Buxton very slow to develop. Robin Ventura started career ~1 for 41. I agree it depends on the person’s ability to withstand failure. There is some point where you just have to return them to AAA. We’ll know if that time comes when it’s "for sure".

I’ve been thinking Gary Gaetti as a comp for Miranda. I remember Gaetti in AA and how he projected. Miranda has been unwaveringly making me feel that’s a comp. We’ll see, I hope so.

Twins have had a spending problem ever since free agency started about 1975. Calvin Griffith was totally overmatched and Carl Pohlad, while a little better than Griffith, was still not willing to spend to be a serious power, My impression is that Jim Pohlad is the least penurious of all 1975 forward Twins owners but I could be wrong. One example of a team that truly did buy WS title was the Florida Marlins in their 5th year. An Amazon link shows a book about that team. They sold off most of their winning assets after winning the WS.

I agree with everything you say above, Brock. He should be able to do it but for whatever reason, he lost it very quickly in the 7th. I saw Thielbar warming up and I thought-- it’s gonna be too late.

I guess I’d much prefer to hear him say, I want to be with the Twins. I think Cruz had that attitude last offseason and so did Brad Hand as well. Are they really offering him pennies on the dollar? When I heard Jim Pohlad say he could sign both (just recently), I was assuming that for a guy that’s been owner or the son of an owner for almost 30 years, that he knew the approximate value of both players when he said yes. He has the power to step in and say yes to Buxton and Berrios just as he said yes to the reporter’s question. This is all so very confusing to me.

Hey Brock, I hear you about the fans that think he pulls pitchers too early and that in aggregate, that is annoying to people to have both sides argued by the totality of Twins fans. But I don’t think the fans that think he pulls pitchers too soon should have any impact on the merit of my argument and of GoBlue48, who I quoted. But your opinion is just as valuable as mine. I’ll site an example of a manager who relieves his pitchers properly. Terry Francona. So different than Rocco! I see your point about Berrios having thrown only 87 pitches entering the 9th but pitchers getting deep into a game can lose it suddenly and completely and that’s what happened to Berrios. A quicker hook and I think the Twins have a doubleheader sweep of their rival.

I agree with you and it’s refreshing to finally see someone who notices the trend of Rocco leaving in pitchers who are getting shelled from the start (Shoemaker 2021, 9 run 1st and M. Perez 2019, 8 runs in two innings) or are gassed like Berrios was last night. A competent manager would have noticed that after 1 or 2 batters and relieved him and would have had a bullpen arm warming up sooner than Thielbar appeared to be. Quite simply, Baldelli leaves in pitchers who are either gassed or just don’t have it, both starters and relievers too long on a consistent basis for all three seasons! This often puts them too far behind for the stage of the game to come back. He shows little in the way of a sign that he’s going to change this or even realizes this incredibly long hook is losing games. They may have won 106 in 2019 if he would relieve pitchers properly. The Martin Perez example is only 1 example from 2019. When your team is the greatest hitting HR outfit in the history of baseball some of those managing missteps are covered up. No longer. Falvey and Levine have blundered away so much talent since then and made such poor acquisitions that the talent can no longer cover for Rocco’s abysmal pitching staff management. I think it’s the worst I’ve ever seen from any manager and I’ve been following the Twins since 1964! I don’t take pleasure in this blunt assessment due to Rocco seeming like a nice guy, good with players. But the position of manager is a position that is merit based and his pitching staff management is killing us. His extra inning management has also been poor, IMO. For all those reasons I think he should be relieved of his duties ASAP. I’d prefer to lure Jim Leyland out of retirement than see Rocco blowing games for the Twins by leaving pitchers that are getting blasted in too long. It almost hurts to say it but that’s the cold hard truth as I see it.

I agree 100%. To be perfectly blunt, I don’t think the Twins have a single every day player worthy of even being discussed for a gold glove. That would be different if Buxton was healthy but he’s likely missed too much time. No one else comes close IMO.

I think Berrios is worth that, assuming the top 100 picks aren’t both top 10. If they were 50 and 40 and the pre-Arb, that would all be fair, IMO. I just read Berrios’ comments that started with, "The Twins can do whatever they want," and they turned me off. It sounds like he doesn’t care if he’s here. That attitude makes me feel more amenable to a trade that brings the pre-Arb and two top 100 prospects. I would like to keep Nelson Cruz, so maybe trading Berrios, Simmons, possibly Robles (I would keep Robles since trading him after his improvement seems nearly tantamount to giving up Trevor May). I would be inclined to move Donaldson but it sounds like they won’t. A top 10-ish pitching prospect plus salary relief for Donaldson would be two positives and they could slide Jose Miranda in at 3rd. I think it’s time. I’d still try to sign Buxton but if the vibe coming back is like Berrios, I think they’d have to trade him too. Even if they are forced to trade those two and say Donaldson that could bring back as many as 4 or 5 pitching prospects and they do have Winder and Balazovic who look nearly ready and possibly Charlie Barnes as well. I would keep Cruz because he has been excellent and appears to be a psitive influence as well. He’s added class and prestige to the organization. I think his teammates love him and so de we fans. I think for the good of the organization, it would be a great achievement o have Cruz finish his career as a Twin. Who knows, maybe he reaches 500 homers. He just isn’t slowing down at all and there are no signs that he will anytime soon. I’d get my trade value back from the other players mentioned. Perhaps Pineda could be in that group too. And I would charge very hard after a #1 or #2 free agent pitcher like Robbie Ray or Marcus Stroman.

While not a fan of the new wave of SABR statistics, especially WAR and FIP, I do think most of those SDIs ring true. They peg a defensive slide to Donaldson, which I think is correct. Were I think the reality of one of the Twins' actual contribution and the SDI depart and the SDI is very misleading is in the case of Simmons. I think he has been a huge disappointment both offensively and defensively. He’s made atrociously weak throws to 1st base at times on routine plays. Dropped a noticeable amount of balls and generally not made very many spectacular plays at all like the great Ozzie Smith did or even our own Greg Gagne did. On the spectacular play that stands out most on a double play, it was actually Polanco who made the stunningly spectacular diving stop. Simmons made a good relay but Polanco was the one doing something special. I do think the shifts are making it a lot harder for a SS to stand out like Smith, Gagne or Vizquel. It just may be that because of the shift, the range of a SS is not as important as in the past. I know some people prefer these new defensive statistics over the eye test but I’d prefer to have an evaluation of a veteran baseball observer who has seen hundreds of SSs play. I think that has always been why scouting is so important. Just my opinion but I think Simmons has turn out to be a poor acquisition and would trade him or release him. Then I would put Polanco back at SS (where he was when the Twins won 101 games) and use Arraez and/or Gordon at 2B.

I like that idea!!! Id like to see Cruz retire a Twin!

With Miranda, I just keep thinking Gary Gaetti as I was already a long time fan by the time Gaetti was in AA. I think Miranda’s gonna be a cornerstone!

I was thinking that was what they should do. A respectable base and then if he meets all incentives, he gets paid like a superstar. We do need to sign him. However, if he rejects it, I’d trade him now.

Totally agree. Arraez is a thousand miles from Carew. Rod Carew is my favorite baseball player in the history of baseball. However, remember that none other than the future Hall of Fame manager Terry Francona predicted that Arraez would win multiple batting titles. I was really simply making the point that to be a very valuable player, you don’t have to have power. The greatest hitting HR team of all time was eliminated in 1st round. I don’t necessarily buy comparing OPSs or OPS+s. The first thing is that, to my understanding OPS+ compares a player to all other players, regardless of position. The second and most fundamental thing is that a player that has a .199 average but has a .720 OPS largely because they have 65 walks at the all-star break is not equal to a player who has a BA portion of the statistic of .296. For the simple reason that walks, a very large percentage of the time are less valuable than hits, even singles. 1st to 3rd won’t happen with a walk. Only infield singles might be equal to a walk but often, on infield singles, runners advance because of rushed throws. So give me the .300 hitter with a .720 OPS over the .220 or .240 player who walks a lot to get .720. Further, you’ll never drive in a runner from 2nd with a walk but will most of the time with a single. Another thing about Arraez isn’t measured in any SABR statistics that I know of. That’s how he wears down opposing pitchers with long at bats with his immense contact ability. If the rest of the lineup has a BA .020 higher due to 4 or 5 Arraez at bats stressing pitchers physically and mentally, how do we measure that? I definitely would not trade him. All that said, if Arraez ever becomes Rod Carew, it would be a miracle. But a very special player, yes. I know I get more excited for his at bats than any other player.

You've got first dibs!

Neither did Rod Carew until 1977 when he had a lot of power but IMO Rod Carew is possibly the greatest hitter of all-time. To hit .350, .359, .364, .388 in a five year period, when you consider how much better he was than his peers, there’s a strong case. He won that 1977 batting title by 52 points, over his teammate Lyman Bostock. Honus Wagner would be another strong contender. I don’t want Arraez to have power except for maybe 30 doubles. Give me 9 Luis Arraez’s and I think it would be a killer offense, now and even moreso in the future.

I agree about the positional depth but I think: 1) Arraez has potential to be a top 5 hitter in Twins history. 2) I think he’s a plus defender at 3B. 3)He’s hitting .296 on those knees and he’s young. Only if offered a top 5 pitching prospect would I even consider it and the scouts would have to be convinced he’s a projected #2 or #1 with a high degree of confidence.

I just plain would not trade Arraez. He can easily be one of the top 10 hitters in Twins franchise history and maybe top 5.

IMO ready shortstops are Polanco and possibly Gordon. Arraez and Gordon can cover 2nd base when Polanco healthy.

Simmons would be the first guy I’d trade. No future plus open up more playing time at 2B for either Arraez or Gordon.

He's been a huge disappointment. Better we hadn’t signed him and played Polanco at SS with Arraez at 2B.

I would agree with you and I think both Winder and Moran could pitch in the big leagues this season,

I would keep Cruz then. He can do more positive for the Twins this year and maybe next than an A ball player. I think the Twins and Cruz have been a great marriage. Just my opinion.