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tony&rodney

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Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    The two players (Julien & Lee) are not a clean comparison. Julien is two years older and has only been a second baseman. Lee has experience mostly at shortstop where he has done well but projects commonly as a third baseman in an ideal scenario. Too many people are living still with the often comical bungles of Julien when he first arrived to play second base last season. In fact there has been marked improvement in all facets of his defense and it would be mere stubbornness on the part of people to not see the changes. A number of tough evaluators have remarked on the progression. Julien has greater lateral movement right now than any of the others who have taken up that position in the last few years for the Twins. His transfers are still short of where one might want them to be but still remarkable better than last July and at the very least average or better for an MLB second baseman. Right now Julien is really in a struggle with his swing and breaking balls are tearing him up. The major concern for Eddy is his bat at this time. The glove is not an issue at all at this time. Before Julien gets a chance to regain his job he has to straighten out his at bats. As far as Lee and Julien hitting, just compare their work at AA and AAA prior to this year. Brooks Lee has a ways to go with the bat before the Twins give him a look. Hopefully both of these players find a way to excel at the major league level. Corbin Carroll is back in the lineup for the Diamondbacks and hitting .200 now. MLB is extremely challenging.
  2. tony&rodney
    Maybe Brooks Lee can play second base but it is a stretch to think he is a natural for the position. Julien is really struggling with a piece of wood in his hands and oddly is looking quite comfortable wearing a glove. There is a near zero chance Julien plays first base in St. Paul. The position battles will come down to who can hit. The Twins are not hitting now and this run to the break in July should reveal who is ready to be in the lineup and who still needs AAA at bats.
  3. tony&rodney
    The Twins need to start feeling better about themselves at the plate. They look like they don't expect to hit. The Saints are practicing the same habits unfortunately. Julien and Lee seemed like a pick me up but are not looking like batsmen. In other news, the Royals are the fun team. They came back from 0-8 to walk off the Mariners, 10-9.
  4. tony&rodney
    RpR, you need to have some level of intelligence and fair-mindedness when discussing or commenting (thumbs down, etc.) on baseball players who you do not personally know. I cannot be completely objective about a couple of guys I have known for decades and refrain from any comments, even words of support in times where others use crazy thoughts. All young players are not created equally and veterans do lose skills. MLB is a very difficult profession and Corbin Carroll is just one example of what some refer to as the sophomore jinx. Defensive metrics are pointless and tell us that Carlos Correa is an inferior shortstop. Really? Kyle Farmer is genuinely liked by his teammates (if we just take their word on it from interviews and articles) and fans alike. I think Santana, Margot, and Vazquez are likely decent people as well. Vazquez seems to still be a good catcher but the others have seen a decline in their skills. Farmer, especially, is not the player on defense that he once was a couple of years ago or even last year. There is really no debate among professionals that Julien plays a better second base in 2024. Julien does need to make an adjustment at the plate to breaking pitches and be more aggressive on borderline pitches which is why he was sent to play for the Saints. Just try to be somewhat objective, unless you are related or have a deep personal connection which naturally would make one favor a friend/family.
  5. tony&rodney
    Wallner and Julien are totally different players with only tangential similarities. Wallner does not seem to be working on closing the holes which MLB pitchers exposed and he also does not really have the knowledge of the strike zone that Julien possesses. Julien is working on his weaknesses, based on watching him swing the last few days.
  6. tony&rodney
    I watch minor league games via milb.com and listen to the Twins on the radio more often these days. AAA uses the ABS system three times per week and a challenge system on the weekends. The strike zone is very clean in my opinion. I have heard a number of comments listening to the Twins games that referenced the AAA strike zone as tighter and do not agree with the MLB umpires choosing their own strike zone. Hitting is really tough at the MLB level and the inconsistent zone leaves a fraction of doubt for hitters. This favors the pitchers which naturally will depress batting averages. In addition it seems odd that the Twins announcers will comment on the AAA strike zone because they never see AAA games. Naturally, this topic is ongoing with no solution short term because Manfred and the umpires are holding the game back.
  7. tony&rodney
    Angst blooms every time the Twins play the Yankees and support peaked after the series victory over Toronto. The Twins were seen as a team to win somewhere between 83-88 games in 2024 and they look like this is fair. So 85 wins seems preferable to what fate is in order for many teams across baseball. Couple of side notes: Stroman often benefits from a wide strike zone and gained no favors last night which exposes him. I like to listen to the twins games while watching several minor league games. Paul Molitor provides insights that no other person can. His knowledge of the game is unmatched. Molitor will drop an insight nearly every inning. I enjoy his contributions.
  8. tony&rodney
    There is some correlation. Even on weekends when the umpires call balls and strikes in AAA, there is a challenge system in play. However, the main issue with Julien in May was an inability to get base hits or make strong contact on breaking pitches and those pitches on the very edge of the zone. Julien is a player to benefit from the ABS system but he needs to make some adjustments to return to where he was last season. MLB is a tough business as Corbin Carroll can tell you.
  9. tony&rodney
    Wallner must give the Twins fits. The eyes see him flail wildly, take strikes, and then flip his bat for towering home runs or opposite field doubles. Sometimes these hits come on pitches well out of the strike zone while he misses pitches right down the middle. I'm wondering how the guys in charge of evaluating Wallner see his path back to MLB. The at bats don't seem to be any different in terms of a player making subtle changes to close the holes that major league pitchers exploited. By contrast, Julien is consciously swinging at pitches on the edges of the strike zone thus far in St. Paul.
  10. tony&rodney
    The Twins are winning about at the pace predicted in the forecasts coming into the season. A season total of 83-88 wins was pretty standard. While the bulk of the blame has tended to fall more to the Pohlad's decision to balance their budget, it was Falvey who made the decisions about signing players and trades. That discussion is tired but the end result is the team on the field and it seems to me that the Twins are doing just fine in consideration of their offseason. The next 34 games going into the July break should be a more favorable schedule for the Twins than the last month and an opportunity to improve their current position of being the Wild Card in a playoff game.
  11. tony&rodney
    Always fun to construct lineups and no true exact answer except for the one Baldelli delivers to the umpires before the game. Castro - 2B Lewis - 3B Kepler - RF Miranda - DH Correa - SS Kirilloff - 1B Jeffers - C Larnach - LF Buxton - CF Defense looks shaky.
  12. tony&rodney
    There have been a number of interviews with players and coaches/managers. My thoughts are based on watching at least an hour of AAA baseball 4-6 times per week via milb.com. My opinion is that MLB is watching the AAA games very closely and discussions are ongoing. Tuesday-Thursday is strictly electronic and Friday-Sunday uses the umpire with an ABS challenge system. The strike zone used, to the best that I understand (there is no absolute statement that I am aware of), is the one from the rule book. Yes, it changes based on the size of the batter. Strictly from a totally unprofessional viewpoint (mine), the system in AAA is working just fine. Perhaps other people have significant more knowledge or thoughts on this subject. I will add that several years ago I was opposed to all reviews and believed there should be a higher bar for umpires that resulted in promotion/demotion along with significant pay rewards based on excellence. Reviews are a regular part of nearly every inning, if only for the manager holding his hand up or someone discussing whether the umpires could "at least talk it over", and it seems time to wholly embrace the technology that already exists.
  13. tony&rodney
    For those who want an electronic strike zone I believe that it is years away due to comments from Manfred and likely the influence of the umpires. There really isn't any reason that baseball cannot have the ABS challenge system put into place. The lame arguments of how to cue the strike zone have not shown in AAA. At a minimum, the use of an ABS challenge system reduces complaints about ball/strike calls and rewards or punishes players for their knowledge of the strike zone. Two years ago I was not convinced that the use of an electronic zone would be beneficial. There were irregularities at that time which have been totally cleared up. The issues with balls and strikes is virtually nonexistent in AAA. It makes for a cleaner game. MLB could actually use it next year if there wasn't politics involved in the decision.
  14. tony&rodney
    I'm happy for Rooker. The Twins could use that batting line from a regular position player but there was never any way Rooker was going to get regular at bats until he landed in Oakland. I guess the question is would the Twins use a single player as a DH. Nelson Cruz was the last guy to be a DH for the Twins, although the team does have players whose defense makes them suited for DH duty.
  15. tony&rodney
    I said several times in the offseason that Buxton needs to rework his swing. He is too much all or nothing and I would never fear pitching to a guy with that severe cut. Buck has a long term contract and the Twins need to insist that Byron move towards a different approach or a .700 OPS is his ceiling. Does anyone believe that Buck is a threat in the batter's box at this time?
  16. tony&rodney
    No worries because the Twins are done with the Yankees after tomorrow.
  17. tony&rodney
    Ober was, indeed, exasperated because the strike zone seemed to move from inning to inning. There is nothing more frustrating for a pitcher than to not know what the umpire is calling a ball or a strike. Still, except for pitch count which is very important, the bad calls did not necessarily influence the game. We have all seen egregious calls for the Yankees, especially in New York. This pretty much happens from time to time to all teams when they play the Yankees in New York and I don't believe it is a conscious decision by the umpires. Such is life.
  18. tony&rodney
    Not sure there was any favoritism but the umpire was all over the place with his zone. It seemed to favor New York though because those glove side pitches mid height favored Gil and the pitches in the zone for Ober hurt his pitch count. On TBS there was some nonsensical discussion that the ABS system is still several years away because they don't know where the strike zone would be calibrated for players from Altuve to Judge. Apparently, Manfred and MLB doesn't have access to modern technology.
  19. tony&rodney
    I believe that there isn't a real good book on Lewis at this point and until he has played a few games pitchers are experimenting with him at the plate. The minor league pitchers were getting him out with breaking balls in the zone, in a small sample. Give Royce credit for staying off the breaking balls and sitting fastballs. That doesn't always work but tonight it did.
  20. tony&rodney
    A pretty good game actually. I like Kepler in the outfield but he really should catch that ball by Torres. He was there and seemed to misread the height of the ball. A 12 inch vertical and it is an out. The announcers noted that it was a home run in .... only Yankee Stadium. Luis Gil threw the ball well. I did think the Twins could have taken a few more pitches, especially Vazquez with Castro on first base. Thielbar committed a cardinal sin. You cannot throw an 0-2 pitch in the strike zone to a big swinger. Oh well. I thought Ober looked really tough. That double by Judge was a fluke and landed on the line. The odds of shutting out the Yankees right now are not real high so the bats need to produce. Oh boy, did Royce give some major ammunition to those who have anointed him the savior. Keep it up RL. Tomorrow?
  21. tony&rodney
    Sorry, but I just say no.
  22. tony&rodney
    Lewis is super-hyped by Twins fans. The grand slams and home runs in the playoffs caught people. Royce can gather fans quickly, as he did with his two at bats on Opening Day. Baseball is a slog though and hopefully Royce Lewis can play in 90 of the next 103 games and prove himself to be a full time regular at the big league level. I'm thinking positive thoughts about where and how Lewis can contribute to wins for the Twins but I'm also aware that he hasn't had a full year of baseball yet and am also aware of how difficult many MLB players have found it to adjust to adjustments. Good luck to Royce.
  23. tony&rodney
    The Marlins may ask for EmRod or Jenkins or Lee or Festa or some combination with one or more of those guys plus others from Minnesota for Luzardo, but there is a very close to zero chance that happens. The Twins need dynamic position players far more than they need pitching. If any of the Twins top position prospects have a chance to be above average major league players, Falvey should not consider trading them. I guess I am specifically referring to EmRod, Lee, and Jenkins with Keaschall in the background. This means we can forget about Luzardo unless Miami decides that lesser prospects bundled are worth gathering for their future.
  24. tony&rodney
    Matthews is a good choice. I have enjoyed watching Nowlin pitch quite a bit.
  25. tony&rodney
    Do the Twins need starting pitching or better position players? I'm not seeing a trade for Luzardo but sure, why not send off Gonzalez, Raya, and Schobel.
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