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tony&rodney

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Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    Yah. Manfred is ..... manfred. MLB wants to expand at the same time as two teams play in minor league venues and a host of other teams struggle. Meanwhile the Twins cannot find anyone to televise their games, but they have plenty of company.
  2. tony&rodney
    Did you watch the games? Red the comments related to the games?
  3. tony&rodney
    I cannot agree with international expansion of MLB. If leagues in other countries want to play series after the seasons end between various teams, fine. The recent LAD-CHC series smacked of imperialism in many of the comments. The history of imperialism should be avoided - nearly no good comes from it. I also thought using those two games as regular season contests was unnatural. The teams used their pitchers differently than if they had a 3 or 4 game series with another series to follow immediately, which does not mirror regular season action. Japan has their own leagues, as do other countries, with specific differences in play and fan experiences. It is enough to have exhibitions or traveling teams play in the offseason and a type of World Cup every four years. My cent.
  4. tony&rodney
    I wonder if Bader ever imagined that he could be compared to Max Kepler? I'm quite sure Max Kepler never imagined himself as a LH Harrison Bader. It is an odd comparison, but serves to keep Kepler alive in our minds and hope for the best.
  5. tony&rodney
    Sometimes I wonder how much confidence is lost by certain players from the Twins roster configurations. MLB is a difficult business for the players, coaches, scouts, and trainers. People need to earn their keep. When an opportunity arises it is go time. We are likely to be seeing the last of several Twins this year if the opportunities presented do not result in strong performance. All of the guys you mention may be marked. Will they perform?
  6. tony&rodney
    A legitimate question would be - How many ground balls do Twins infielders take each day in ST? How many each week during the season? The same question could be asked on pop ups and fly balls. Fairness would require an answer to the same questions from other MLB teams? However, I don't believe a player like Carlos Correa (or Byron Buxton) needs the same number of repetitions as all of the other Twins position players.
  7. tony&rodney
    Nice play by Varland to run down grounder and flip to first base. Perkins suggested that "very few" pitchers in baseball could make that play. Varland must have called early for the ball because it looked like an easy 3-1 putout off the bat.
  8. tony&rodney
    No, that is not what I'm saying. The Twins emphasize offense, even if that affects the defense. There are a pile of options at second base, none of them are good defensively. This is how the Twins put a roster together. Actually, as I stated in another thread, second base is way down the list of my concerns. Play Julien and if he doesn't hit and the Twins lose all confidence in Eddie, the team can simply release him. There are other options. The comment on Larnach doesn't make sense unless you saw it. It was reflective of how the Twins run the bases. Last season, the Twins were arguably the worst base running team in baseball. The roster on the whole is pretty slow. In the play, Larnach was on first base with two outs and just stopped at second base on a two out slow roller to the rightfielder. Any player in baseball could have gone first to third on the play. I like Larnach and hope he gets 600 plate appearances this year. The comment was more about how little the Twins practice or care about details like base running. The starting pitchers and the bullpen are really going to be good in my opinion. I'm hoping the Twins bats are solid because there isn't much to fall back on with the gloves.
  9. tony&rodney
    Bats alive on Monday thus far.
  10. tony&rodney
    Rest easy on Julien because that is all the Twins have. If Julien doesn't hit he is off the team and the Twins finish fourth. Unless a healed Keaschall or Eeles steps in magically. I see Julien as among the least of the Twins concerns, probably down around #10 of possible issues.
  11. tony&rodney
    My sources include zero defensive statistics. Julien is not a good fielder, period. The others are not either.
  12. tony&rodney
    Crusading doesn't change much in reality. While Julien is a poor defender, he is much better than Gasper and has better range than either Castro or Lee despite Eddie's bobbles and poor throws. If he was as bad as you suggest the Twins should have released him in the offseason. The Twins Plan is not focused on defense. We don't get a say in that. Trying to promote one bad defender above another is futile.
  13. tony&rodney
    Brandon Winokur can play centerfield, true, but he is the second best shortstop (behind Carlos Correa) in the Twins system. Winokur has a ways to go with his bat but his athleticism is off the charts and he has the highest ceiling of any player in the organization. He is very inexperienced at this point in time but one to watch. Announcers from opposing teams have raved about his quickness, smooth fielding, and huge arm in 3 Spring Training games this March.
  14. tony&rodney
    Naturally, you must also be aware that 1B is even worse and LF/RF are also below average. I guess the Twins could use the backup CF in a corner OF spot. Given that a first baseman is involved in more plays than elsewhere in the infield, we can rest easy knowing that 2B is not the worst problem in the infield. Brooks Lee is the best option at 3B but Miranda is not worse than Lewis at 3B. Rest easy, stay calm, everything is under control.
  15. tony&rodney
    MAT, Margot, Bader, ?
  16. tony&rodney
    The Twins dodged a bullet today. Winokur was making a routine play when Gasper ran into him. Winokur is super athletic and evaded injury. That could have been a season ending injury to Carlos Correa in a nightmare scenario. The front office and Baldelli need to think a little more seriously about who they put out on the dirt.
  17. tony&rodney
    The Twins are not a good defensive team. The injuries sure didn't help but they aren't as big a deal as people make it out to be either. Lee is projected as a decent third baseman but is average on his best days elsewhere. Lewis might be good eventually but he isn't yet. Gasper is a catcher. He really is out of position in the infield and he tried to prove it on every play today. Even Julien never had such a weak showing and that is something. Castro is a utility player who can actually be ok at third base. Julien is a DH. Miranda dreams of hitting but does well enough in the field for us to ignore his weaknesses sometimes (MN compliment). The front office designed their roster to have layers of players they saw as competent bats. The bats will need to show themselves. It seems pretty pointless to worry about defense when the rostered players were a front office dream. France, Julien, Correa, and Miranda may cause the pitchers the pitchers to throw a few extra pitchers and strive for extra outs at times, but the design was always for the bats to bash enough to make up for the glove deficiencies. You might not like it. I don't. But it is The Plan. Go Twins. Smash ball is back .... we hope.
  18. tony&rodney
    Dom Smith should move on to a senior men's league. As for who hits RH pitching, that would be Jose Miranda if Ty France falls down.
  19. tony&rodney
    Seems like the wheel of fortune has pointed to the Twins needing Miranda and Julien to perform at their best, whatever that is, all offseason for success in 2025. The idea that the Twins would allow a rookie a lineup position was never a consideration even if one was available and one needs to squint pretty hard to see the bats of Lee or Castro being much above average. Gasper was fun for a week and will be kept around after he heals if others fail. Time will tell, but it looks pretty certain that Miranda and Julien have an opportunity. How they react will largely determine their careers.
  20. tony&rodney
    Either use the ABS system on every pitch or don't use it at all. If MLB does not use the ABS system, reward the umpires financially for excellence and train/ demote those who don't meet a certain mark. We have already seen umpires appear a little edgy on so many correct challenges on very close pitches and when the challenges ran out the calls were sloppier. I don't believe the umpires like the challenge system. I think they would prefer another setup. On my height, I'm 6'-6" and 140 pounds since I can just lie about it.
  21. tony&rodney
    Does Jeferson Morales make the team?
  22. tony&rodney
    There was people who wondered about how many plays affect outs. ST game, not all starters but here is a report on just a couple of innings. Martin made a running catch that only Bader makes (so a plus). Gasper doesn't react on a single. makes a bad throw, and runs into Winokur on ground ball (so a minus 3). Miranda has a poor reach on a bad throw (I'm giving him a minus 1). Alvarez with a base running mistake. While I'm not using the system I once used as a coach it is reflective of how I scored plays and tells a partial story. BTW, no errors from official scorer for Twins. Sadly, Gasper was injured and had to take the cart to the clubhouse. Hope he is ok. Gasper is a fun story and was set to make the team at the beginning of the day.
  23. tony&rodney
    Well, everyone is either out smoking dope or gobbling gummies.
  24. tony&rodney
    Winokur gives the lineup an actual player we can look forward to watching on both sides of the game.
  25. tony&rodney
    Lee to IL means Gasper is a Twin (most likely). Where he plays is a question since the Twins are stuffed at the DH position (Buck, Carlos, and Wallner from time to time along with the other fitted there: France, Miranda, Julien, Larnach, Martin, Castro, and Gasper). Rocco has his work cut out for himself.
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