tony&rodney
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Everything posted by tony&rodney
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Just to be clear, I have no idea if Falvey has any idea what he is doing because I don't see any consistent actions from him since he was hired in 2017 that points in any direction. I fully understand that the majority of people who visit and/or comment on Twins Daily feel differently and point to the Pohlads as the primary driver of roster deficiencies. I recommend differences of opinion in life. You call out DaShawn Keirsey Jr. and others mention Austin Martin. What organization is responsible for their play. Yesterday, I saw Aaron Sabato both in the field and at the plate. He looks like the poster of what this team desires. It then occurred to me that I wasn't sure who was the last Twin rookie to be put in the starting lineup on Opening Day and named the guy and subsequently given 3 months before judgment. Who was it? I also wondered if the Twins would have been better off the last 8-9 years if the team had operated on a budget that was closer to those of teams like Milwaukee and Tampa Bay. Perhaps then creativity would have been an actual thing. These are just thoughts that occurred to me watching the Twins yesterday. Simply stated I have no idea what is going on but things don't make sense to me. I'm thinking any success will come in spite of instead of because of.
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Patience. Also, "your guy" comment? I would be perfectly fine with Keirsey Jr. as a fifth outfielder but nowhere have I discussed him. Maybe you confuse me with DoctorGast. My guys are Emmanuel Rodriguez, Luke Keaschall, and David Festa.
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Enjoyed watching Twins baseball today (watched parts of various games the last two days). Early and thus unimportant observations - it is ST after all. But still..... Several Twins pitchers looked pretty good, including Festa and Castellano's curve ball. Twins didn't run the bases well, choosing not to steal in a couple of clear spots and ran into an out. A couple of throws to the wrong base, an awkward miss of a ball thrown on a hop, and an unusual cut mixup. Some players looked decent on plate appearances too: McCusker, Keaschall, martin, and Miranda come to mind. Others looked uncomfortable batting. Florida sun will always get somebody on a fly ball. Reading into it being Martin is just funny. Agree totally with Francona's take on ABS. Let the minor league players practice in the minor league games. MLB players can get to it when it is actually adopted. The strike three call on Cartaya was kind of mean by the umpire. The ball was clearly inside and Cartaya has used the last challenge on a previous pitch. It looked like Cartaya, looking into the dugout, was encouraged to challenge a close pitch and he did. No way to know unless someone says something but a guy picked up in trade off of waivers isn't likely to be challenging pitches called by an MLB umpire. A month of practice and games should sharpen the team and I like the Twins pitching.
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Oh, ok, thank you. I saw that too but since there wasn't any quotes I just attributed it to Cody guessing like we do and not to anything that actually was taking place. I just haven't seen anything reputable put out on an asking or buying price other than the estimated values by Forbes and a bunch of other sites, none of them having any more legitimacy than you and I as sources. Well, you would be better than me as a source since i only know what I read.
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- justin ishbia
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I have understood this from the very beginning and stated such. MAYBE use Rube Nation for our national politics but it isn't fair or accurate to lump the many differences found among us on Twins Daily into one piece.
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I apparently missed the articles that ran down the haggling over price. Where did you read those?
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- justin ishbia
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My mistake. I didn't realize that an organization's depth was restricted to the 40 person roster. The 40 person list could easily have 3-5 changes by the end of March as well. No reason to put Morris or others on the 40 until necessary. Thinking too positively, the Twins may only need 7-8 starters this season (alas, I have Paddack as #8 on my list of SP). Rationally, that number is 7-11 SP. If the Twins make a suitable offer to Philadelphia (essentially a trade) and Castellano is no longer a Rule 5 guy it is my understanding that he can then be optioned. There is also a long, long history of Rule 5 players finding themselves on the IL lists. MLB consistently makes threats about closing this loophole and warns against abuse of it but nothing is ever done. The abuse is widespread. (FWIW, I think the Twins should complete a transaction with Philadelphia if they believe strongly in Eiberson.)
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A wild guess here is that folks who click and/or comment on Twins Daily follow sports much more closely than the vast majority of people in the general public or who even attend Twins games. Another guess is that if the Twins play an exciting brand of baseball and win at a reasonable pace, attendance will be up. These two guesses could be wildly wrong. My concerns are more towards the Twins playing baseball in a watchable manner much more than whether the Pohlads do this or that. Either way, I have zero control. I can watch other games, the minor leagues, and go to local baseball games at the VFW, Legion, college, and amateur levels though; all good choices. Lastly, Carl died in 2009 and the current family members have not shown an inclination towards business in the same fashion. I imagine the remaining Pohlads are as eager as their most vociferous critics to be rid of the team, based on how seldom we hear their thoughts or see their faces. There is some responsibility to sell at market value and that should occur in due time. Patience is the tone to adopt.
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Really enjoyed watching Marco Raya pitch the last couple of years. This season will be interesting for Marco. I'm going to make the time to watch him on several occasions and hope he has an excellent campaign. I do expect him to be a late inning relief pitcher at some point, maybe next season.
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You forgot a player you don't like too much, Andrew Morris. Morris slots above Castellano. If Castellano looks that good, the Twins will keep him, either in the bullpen or in AA via a trade. You also forgot Cory Lewis and C. J. Culpepper. However, I get your point that if Lopez, Ryan, Ober, and a couple of others are injured and miss significant time, the Twins are in trouble.
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Good luck with that argument. Maybe you will have better luck, but I have tried that several times and been clobbered. Most recently, the consensus was for Paddack in an article and in another article related to whether Simeon Woods Richardson deserved a starting slot. To sum up the argument opposed to putting together the best team, Spring Training isn't important and options mean that veterans earn first shot. Of course, all ideas need to be considered. I have been quite high on Matthews and Festa and hope they stay healthy and make their next opportunity to pitch in MLB something that solidifies their positions. I'm a fan of talent first team building.
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Funny, but that question followed by that exact answer is what got me onto the question. It might be an interesting survey type thing to do at a Twins game.
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So, I get that all of us Twins fans want a positive outcome, whatever that means, to this ongoing saga but I was wondering about something. If you walked around various areas, we can just call it downtown, of Rochester, St. Cloud, Duluth, Moorhead, St. Paul, and Minneapolis and asked a couple of hundred people in a random fashion trying to maintain some semblance of balance between age and gender ..... How many people could accurately state the owner(s) of the Twins? Vikings? Wild? Timberwolves?
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Odd that people would be surprised by this news. Yes, it is always a good idea to be hopeful but there are other teams with more potential to buy in MLB. The Twins have had it pretty sweet in the AL Central since the current front office came in 2017, spending more money than any team in the division. This will almost certainly soon end as it is reasonable to expect both Detroit and Chicago to bypass the Twins due to potentially higher revenue sources. Each year I have been hopeful of several moves that sometimes included one addition of a somewhat spendy free agent but attempted to keep a payroll within site of the other fellows in the region. There isn't any reason to believe the team won't sell this season and we all hope it occurs asap. However, in any event the Twins will soon find themselves needing to resort to a more efficient system of acquiring talent because their spending is not likely to continually eclipse that of their foes. Creativity will be the password. Don't lose faith, the team will sell. It might take a few months or a few years.
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Jorge Alcala has all the stuff to be a shut down late inning reliever. He plays for a team that wants him to throw more than an inning. Seems like a clash of capability versus desire. The Twins can start the season with Alcala in AAA but gain little unless they feel that any of Topa, Varland, or Castellano have better pitches which seems unlikely. If that occurs and when Alcala is called up he can no longer be optioned after five days of service time in MLB. At that point the Twins would be just playing with Alcala's head and he is gone. So no the Twins need to keep Alcala until they no longer want him on the team.
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- jorge alcala
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This hypothesis is what needs to be examined by one of the Twins Daily writers who love to dissect numbers and graphs to be looked into in a complete fashion. I too felt his swing looked different when i watched him play for St. Paul when he was first sent down in early June. I'm not not really buying he can't hit this or that type of pitch. Were the Blue Jays and Astros just throwing cookies to Julien or did MLB teams not have any information on Julien before mid May of last year? Watching him in minor league play before he was promoted to MLB, Julien had little problems with too many offerings that I noted. There really isn't any disagreement that Julien was a hot mess last season and I don't know why. My guess is it was a combination of increasingly poor swing mechanics, a loss of confidence, and perhaps depression from how rapidly he dropped in his play. I can't remember the game exactly, but Julien was hesitant on going first to third on a single down the right field line where he wound up reversing ground to second base. I remember thinking his head was in a bad place. Who knows. I doubt any answers are out there but perhaps there is evidence of drastic pitch offerings to Julien that suddenly began in May of last season.
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Thank you. My sense is the same as yours concerning Lewis and hope he does well this season. Since last October, I have asked numerous times why the singular focus on Julien, who seemingly has a greater degree of difficulty to return to favor, as opposed to the repeated reference to and expectation of core production from Lewis. This is the first response and I too believe an analysis is due on a player who has put up the same general worth as Julien. Lewis did not fall as far as Julien last season but ended the year poorly. Julien and Lewis were roughly even in 2023 with various numbers favoring one or the other; pretty similar.
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Ok, fair enough. Do you also expect a similar article that dissects Royce Lewis?
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While I don't disagree with you about Julien's 2023 and 2024 and also hope that Edouard can return to relevance, I can't help but compare Julien and Lewis despite their obvious physical differences. Didn't the league catch up to Royce? Was he tired? Out of shape? The lack of analysis of Royce Lewis who I hope has a monster season in 2025 is absent while the critical looks at every weakness of Julien are continual, to include thoughts of needing more AAA or just trade or release the guy. BTW, I picked Payton Eeles for 2B. We know that won't happen.
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Two talents or two sports – these athletes stand out.
tony&rodney commented on mikelink45's blog entry in mikelink45's Blog
Mauer, I believe, was the first high school kid named Player of the Year in two sports in the same year. He was the consensus #1 rated football player in the country and also good enough at basketball to be a D1 guard. Bill Musselman talked Winfield into playing basketball after watching him play in an intramural game at the U of M. He was drafted by teams in the ABA, NBA, NFL, and MLB. All of them made their pitch but Winfield was a baseball player from near birth; he chose the Padres. I first saw Winfield play when he was in 9th grade. What an athlete and competitor. -
Two talents or two sports – these athletes stand out.
tony&rodney commented on mikelink45's blog entry in mikelink45's Blog
Local guys, Dave Winfield and Joe Mauer, would not have had any problem playing another sport if that had been their wish. -
Cuddyer?
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For those who enjoy trivial details, watch where the first baseman has his foot on throws to first base. They have been taught to begin in the middle of the bag and slide their back foot left or right depending on where the throw is directed. Remember, the bag is even bigger than it was in the past. Fortunately for the Twins, Correa pretty much puts every throw chest high to the middle of the bag where all the first baseman has to do is catch the ball. Julien, however, requires a skilled guy because his throws are left, right, and bounced. Joe Mauer, among others, would have caught every single throw by Julien. This in turn reduces anxiety and eventually the throws become right on target. Something to watch for those interested. FWIW, Sano was brutal on this detail but managed some of the other first base skills adequately.
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Of course it is stupid when Baldelli has guys like Bundy, Archer, Paddack, Gallo, Margot, France and others who can lead the team. Then again different strokes for different folks .... Cleveland has had players receive votes for ROY every year from 2019-2024, but were too stacked in 2017-2018 with All Star players. The Twins have had only Luis Arraez and Edouard Julien receive any votes since Falvey took over the team. The teams have different philosophies, it's just the way it is. Meanwhile, all of Twins fans continue to hope for the best and think positive each year. One of my nephews, now in his fifties, asked me if I have ever not predicted the Twins to win the World Series. Hope.
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