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tony&rodney

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Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    In a comment to someone earlier this week I said the same thing ... when. One wonders what Cleveland or Kansas City would do if they had McCusker. However, I'm a Twins fan since 1961 and despite not understanding much of what passes through Falvey or Baldelli's heads, I'm still hoping the team does well. Tough team to watch.
  2. tony&rodney
    Prielipp is likely going to get a week off from competition while working to tweek a couple of his pitches and further refine his delivery. It serves as a rest, recovery, and reset period. We all like to guess so I'm expecting Prielipp to resurface in St. Paul on June 2.
  3. tony&rodney
    I think what you meant to say was Happy Birthday Carson. McCusker is 27 years old today, finally, after being called a 27 year old for the last half year. I tell my mid 30s daughter that she is nearly 40 so it's all good.
  4. tony&rodney
    Hey now, let the young pup live in the present. He is 26 years old for another day.
  5. tony&rodney
    Totally agree. I love Target Field and the North Loop. I was merely trying to lay out the challenges faced with any consideration of a viable dome stadium, cost and space. I do think it is possible to build a stadium that has a roof which can be fully hidden, although it would likely more than double the cost. Yes, I'm a fan of outdoor baseball.
  6. tony&rodney
    The problems were twofold: money and a site with enough space. The city, state, and population did not have an appetite for the outlay for a dome and a more expensive site. The current site where Target Field sits is way too small to include a dome. A dome could be engineered that retracted significantly in order to give views similar to Target Field, but that costs much more. The Metrodome was built on budget, was totally a soulless space, but was spiced up enough and used often. The HHH Dome made money in the final report. My own take is that a futuristic dome that fully retracted out of sight could have been a real boon to the area and used year around. My only beef would have been a desire to have natural turf, which may have been problematic. Target Field is fantastic but rain, snow, and cold weather are alays going to be a thing. From my experiences it seems worse for the players than the fans. But, yah ... it is cold and very wet today.
  7. tony&rodney
    Morris and Prielipp have always been starters in their careers. Some pitchers have a difficult time transitioning to the bullpen because their arms need more than two days to recover before they can throw again. Currently, both pitch once per week which would not work in an MLB bullpen. Watch to see if either of Morris or Prielipp is used differently as the season goes on. This will give us a clue.
  8. tony&rodney
    110 mph off the bat beats every RF in Twins Target Field history save for Max.
  9. tony&rodney
    Looking for a very strong performance from Bailey Ober.
  10. tony&rodney
    Here's the thing, as a person who played , coached, scouted, and managed for 50 years and devised my own metrics I'm more interested in watching a player and seeing if they offer something and very much not into the analytics. It's just a personal thing and totally unimportant, but I'm always hopeful for the call-ups.
  11. tony&rodney
    Comparing anyone to Buxton? Hmmm? The most obvious comparison is still a rather loose comparison, which is Matt Wallner. There are some similarities including that Twins Daily was down on the lefty slugger when he arrived. Wallner is better at drawing walks by a smidge and gets HBP often helping his OBP. The minor league K rates are similar as are the power numbers. McCusker gets the edge in BA. Wallner has a better arm but Carson gets better jumps on fly balls. They are different players with SOME similarities. I'm not understanding the hangup a few people have with both age and prospect status. My personal take is that the Twins are in need of a bat with a little pop to it. The timing is perfect for McCusker and the Twins may have something in him. Nobody can be certain how he will produce at the MLB level but this is also true for guys like Jackson Holliday (he is having a fine year in 2025 thus far). Patience and positive thinking is my mantra for McCusker. I would really like to see him in the lineup every day until it is necessary to bring back someone from the IL or sit him due to a lack of performance. Giving McCusker plate appearances seems like a win-win to me.
  12. tony&rodney
    Would Bubba Chandler be a lousy AAA pitcher? I'm not sure what he can be but i have seen him light up some highly thought of AA and AAA pitchers.
  13. tony&rodney
    Yes, you could be correct. This may be especially possible because the Twins do not have much invested in McCusker. The Twins did call him up though and I laud that decision. My only thought on your comment or similar thoughts from others is one of curiosity .... how many times have you or anyone else seen McCusker play. Seems hasty to judge him if one has not seen a couple dozen games where Carson has played.
  14. tony&rodney
    Agree with this. McCusker has shown an ability to adjust to pitchers. His .350 BA is a sign of someone who can hit. Hitting the ball hard makes it nearly impossible for teams when the infield is in witha runner at third base. Carson has 11 doubles to go along with the 10 home runs and a pile of RBIs as well. The K rate is just under 30% this year. Comparisons to Judge are not at all a good idea but it is worth noting that Judge ran a 44% K rate in his first look at MLB pitchers. In any event, McCusker is not Judge but has some solid skills: he hits for average and power, runs the bases decently, and plays a very fundamentally sound defense in right field. Of course there will be rough spots but the payoff could be worth giving Carson an honest run as a regular. The Twins are not in a good spot in the outfield right now with Bader needing to heal and Keirsey Jr. looking overmatched at the plate. I like how Larnach is battling at the plate but he is very weak in the outfield. Finally, Castro is also banged up and not exactly at full strength.
  15. tony&rodney
    When Eeles is ready and if he looks good, I would slot him in at second base on a daily basis to see what he can accomplish. The road back for Julien is getting harder unless he goes on an absolute tear and begins to reduce the strikeouts significantly.
  16. tony&rodney
    Someone mentioned in a comment elsewhere that it takes time to reboot a swing. Wallner was the example. I can agree with that. Does anyone see either of Miranda or Julien working on change? I watch the Saints but don't see it. Furthermore, it seems like both take bad plate outcomes into the field. Did anyone else see Morales give a piece of his mind to Julien when Eddy let a pop up drop in the fifth inning? Morales, Holland, and others are playing hard hoping to get noticed and trying to win games. I always spoke up for both Miranda and Julien, as some will remember, but they don't seem very enthusiastic right now. Maybe I'm overreaching though. Morris looked really good against a baby Cubs lineup that had hit the ball hard in previous games. The Iowa Cubs have a number of highly thought of prospects and players with prior MLB experience.
  17. tony&rodney
    Twins are playing well right now. Guys like Clemens and others are enthused. Julien and Miranda were referenced, but they are both taking poor plate appearances into the field. Julien had an unfortunate non-play of a popup and the right fielder was visibly pissed at him for letting a routine ball drop for two bags. These two need to make major turnarounds or get run out by their teammates. Meanwhile there is quite a bit of optimism in the two recent call-ups: Fitzgerald and McCusker. They can help the Twins. It all comes down to pitching though and the Twins arms are looking sharp.
  18. tony&rodney
    The Twins are playing good baseball. That catch by Chourio was pretty sweet and sealed the deal for Milwaukee. Alcala looked good. He was squeezed a bit considering the zone all through the game. The wild pitch was his bad mistake. The bullpen looks like it will be set up for the Cleveland series and if the starters can go six innings us fans can hope for positive outcomes. Matthews clearly needs some refinement within the zone. He can throw strikes but is often in the same region of the target which allows batters to narrow their swings. Inexperienced pitchers learn from their outings and rebound. One has to like the velocity and general ability of young Matthews. Expect improvement and learning. McCusker was too eager to swing. I believe the mound visit was to throw Carson breaking balls down out of the zone with a goal of letting him be too eager. On off speed, low let it go. Hope McCrusher gets a start tomorrow. Today was the best we have seen Royce Lewis in a long, long time. He was frisky in the field and his swing was on the ball. Keep it rolling RL. Bader looks like he is hurting quite a bit. Both at the plate and in the field Harrison did not have his usual bounce. I'm expecting Ober to be very good tomorrow coming off of his last short start.
  19. tony&rodney
    Good game. Twins had a nice run ... time to compete successfully versus Cleveland now. Hopefully McCusker gets RF tomorrow with a LH pitcher on the mound for the Guards.
  20. tony&rodney
    Best play I have ever seen Royce Lewis make as a player. He is feeling better which is great news for the Twins.
  21. tony&rodney
    No doubt the Twins are red hot, but Peralta and a rested Milwaukee bullpen will test the Twins batters today. We can hope for some bloops, broken bat hits, a key walk or HBP, and a timely blast along with Matthews being efficient and stingy to hold down the Brewers. Today will be quite a test.
  22. tony&rodney
    The pitching is better with mol the same cast of arms. The minor league pitching depth could also help. Baseball always starts with pitching. Bader was a solid signing as a defensive replacement outfielder. He has produced thus far with the bat which is a bonus. Lee and Clemens are better, but not exactly stellar, at second base than what was available last season. The jury is out on Lewis at third base but he has looked better so far. Can he hit? France has been pretty decent and a surprise over Miranda. The key to the team hasn't really changed too much though for the position side. Correa and Buxton will need to be on the field and play well if the Twins are to sustain a run. A few weeks ago when the Twins were in the dumps, I couldn't get too concerned because the team still looked like the 83-85 win squad that entered Spring Training. 88-90 wins was always a ceiling using the cast that began the season. I expected a .500 record by early June, which one person thought was way too optimistic. The underlying problem of defense and team speed has been slightly improved with all of Miranda, Julien, and Gasper playing in St. Paul. I'm not sure either Fitzgerald or McCusker are ready to play significant roles for the Twins but they both are more athletic and promising in the field and on the bases. Larnach has been swinging a reasonable bat but he needs to be the DH more often than in the field. The Twins may still get some contributions from Castro and Wallner too. The Twins will need strong pitching, better defense, some improvement in running the bases, and the leadership of Buxton and Correa if they hope to catch Detroit. It can happen. The season hasn't even reached the 3 summer months so we should remain patient and hopeful. There is plenty of baseball to play.
  23. tony&rodney
    I'm very excited. Carson McCusker is by no means a finished product and he just had his worst day as a St. Paul Saint, but he works really hard and has adapted to pitchers. I have been watching as many of his at bats as possible since last May. In general I'm not a huge fan of high strikeout batters, thus the tony&rodney byline. Nevertheless, there is a sort of magnetism to McCusker. I'm hoping he nails his opportunity. I believe he can play a very solid right field too.
  24. tony&rodney
    This is an interesting observation. Have you been watching the games? What did you see that brought you to this conclusion. Just interested in your thoughts if based on observations of the game action.
  25. tony&rodney
    I agree with this. His first step is really quick. He also looks really good in CF.
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