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tony&rodney

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Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    I watched the Saints game until Matthews was done pitching. Zebby was crazy good: fastball, slider, and cutter were difficult for Omaha batters and their entire lineup has MLB experience. Matthews is ready. The only nitpick would be that he needs more stamina but I believe some of that is on the organization for not stretching him out to 100 pitches yet. It can be suggested that the Twins wanted to take it slow with Matthews because they anticipated a need before or by the start of May. The injury to Pablo Lopez almost certainly means Matthews is dropped into the Twins rotation next time Lopez's spot is due. None of the Saints batters look very good thus far. Martin battles and Keaschall is getting some good experience at recognizing pitches but they both need to make better contact. Emmanuel is trying too hard to be superman. Once he settles down he should be fine. Hopefully. Emmanuel does play a good outfield. I wish the Saints/Twins saw fit to use Carson McCusker on a regular basis. He is best as a DH but is not as embarrassing in the outfield as some others and his bat has wicked line drives in it.
  2. tony&rodney
    Gasper was one of Falvey's big moves this offseason. Because he doesn't make $3M or more, it is possible that the experiment ends soon.
  3. tony&rodney
    About the "Calling Brooks Lee". I think the Twins will. He played 2B tonight and made a nice play. At the plate, Lee grounded out to shortstop, blooped a hit into right center, and hit a slow roller to first. He looked like he was hitting off his front foot and he is so slow, but the Twins are counting on him, so expect it. Witt Jr. is fun to watch. He hits one back to the pitcher (routine) and easily makes it to third hustling all the way right from his first step out of the box. The Twins are rostering a large pile of DH batters so it is hard to escape balls falling, slipping through the infield, errors, or throwing it around. It is possible to hide two or sometimes three guys but the ball keeps eluding or finding the weak spots. Is that 4 losses to defense? These guys better figure it out. There really isn't anyone to call up that will step in, field, and hit though. Tomorrow should be better. Right?
  4. tony&rodney
    The Royals and Tigers are better baseball teams with better talent and Cleveland might be too. Falvey made his bed complete with a pile of DH players and the Twins will struggle to win low scoring games. They will hit, eventually, but it will be quite a challenge. Blaming Julien for his play at second base tonight was precious, seeing as he was the DH. The whipping boy. Lopez looked really good. If he goes on the IL, Matthews steps in next turn. Zebby was fabulous tonight. Keeping with the organizational goals, the Saints played a DH/1B in right field because it must be the pitcher's fault if a fly ball is hit out there. One was, it landed, and Zebby gets charged for the runs. Matthews absolutely owned a lineup of AAAA Omaha players who all have a fair amount of MLB time.
  5. tony&rodney
    Looking over the lineup for tonight's game ... oh my, oh my. Ragans has to focus on the task at hand, while the Twins need to visit a chapel ahead of their work day.
  6. tony&rodney
    I really appreciate how hard Bader is working at the plate and at an unfamiliar position in the field as well. According to BR this year is the first time Bader has played left field. However, if a player signed to be your Buxton insurance policy and defensive outfielder is looked at as a central figure on the team, there may be some underlying issues with the roster.
  7. tony&rodney
    Perhaps an unpopular take, but the Twins seem to be working hard. Right now the bats are just not able to score runs and the defense is about what can be expected for a team built for offense. I'm a little amazed that some folks were not able to appreciate that Simeon Woods Richardson pitched a pretty tough game. An average defense and he only gives up 2 runs. Finally, Kansas City is a pretty good team. Line up the Twins and Royals position by position and pick your team. Did you pick 2 or 3 Twins? Weight shifts to Pablo tomorrow but I'm giving SWR a big hand for tonight.
  8. tony&rodney
    Yes, I know. The failure to give errors on 3/4 of all errors means earned runs and fewer errors, making the pitcher look less capable and the fielder looking better. Unless one actually watches the games it is nearly impossible to understand the game from the box score. There was a time when errors were charged. Bobby Witt Jr. is arguably the best shortstop in baseball today. He is fantastic. He had 705 assists in the last 2 years and only 27 errors. Zoilo Versalles was the AL MVP in 1965 with 487 assists and 39 errors. Ozzie Smith put up crazy numbers and was given a pile of errors. The fields are better today and I'm not judging Bobby Baseball, but it is relatively safe to suggest that errors were once commonly given where today there needs to be a clear egregious physical mistake to rate an error.
  9. tony&rodney
    ERA and errors statistics are not really legitimate as seen in inning one.
  10. tony&rodney
    Bader is a good centerfielder. not so much a good left fielder. Kind of feel sorry for him out there. Guess it is all the Twins got.
  11. tony&rodney
    There is not a need to replace any players. The players on the roster need to make the plays and perform. No offense to either the suggestions or the players but the three noted are lesser options that the current guys. When and if the time comes for wholesale changes, the Twins will need to make significant trades and promote prospects. Does anyone see that occurring? I don't see that happening. The team is still expecting to win half or better of their games. Is it too early to be pessimistic for the Twins to be a contending team? That elusive opportunity dissolved several years ago when the current roster plans were birthed by the current front office. The Twins can potentially still contend in the AL Central and 84 wins is still a reasonable forecast.
  12. tony&rodney
    Nobody needs to be sent down. The 4 available relievers are plenty adequate. Panic is not much of a plan. Going forward the Twins will need to think about where Paddack realistically fits, but Falvey won't allow that change yet. Falvey sets the roster, Baldelli decides who plays.
  13. tony&rodney
    A while back there was some discussion of how many batted balls that should be outs actually wound up as base hits or errors. Well today was a game lost because of well below average defense. It is easy to see the number of runs scored and conclude the pitchers didn't do their jobs. That is only partially true. You can tick the box that puts this loss down to the defense.
  14. tony&rodney
    Twins fans need to find some hope somewhere. The infield has Carlos Correa and a band of maybe can get betters. Line them up however you want: France, Gasper, Miranda, Julien, Castro, Lee, and Lewis. We can pick the 1B, 2B, and 3B out of a hat and be as correct as spending days searching for the right combination. Most people will automatically choose Lewis and even Lee because they were high draft choices and are identified as more valuable. Lewis does promise more but his availability and performance are no guarantee. Eventually it just comes down to who can deliver average or above average results at the plate and in the field. Those who suggest one or two are better than than another are merely toying with small sets of numbers and their own bias. None of these players has proven themselves as full time MLB players who deserve their name in the lineup for 2025 yet. Perhaps the Twins need to force the issue by identifying who is the starter at each position and remove the others via trades. Of course the time for that decision was each of the last two winters. The Twins are in a tough position because these players all take the field with less than full confidence from management. Lewis is likely an exception. Julien is the whipping boy of the group. Edouard must eliminate the demons of doubt if he is to have any success. Despite my concerns about Julien, the Twins will struggle more if he does not produce. I do think that Julien will lose his roster spot if he doesn't hit before Lee and Lewis return to the team, which won't be a positive move for the team. The front office designed this mess and I believe the team needs Julien to rule again in order to have a good year. While I hope it happens, I'm not putting much faith in it because I don't see Baldelli giving Julien the run he needs.
  15. tony&rodney
    Personally, I love Keaschall's approach at the plate, but he has been swinging and missing a ton. Thus far he and Rodriguez look like they are trying to pull most everything into the third deck. They should both, hopefully, settle down.
  16. tony&rodney
    Sounds like people believe that Royce Lewis is the only chance the Twins have. Where does Royce rank among AL Central third baseman? In a draft for the 2025 season, what players would you choose in which order to play third base for your team?
  17. tony&rodney
    Yikes.
  18. tony&rodney
    Festa had a very difficult time putting batters away. Tons of foul balls. Tough game for the Saints batters as well. Weather is ridiculous this time of year. I chuckled seeing the looks on the faces of the players (both teams).
  19. tony&rodney
    The front office sat around and waited to sign or trade for an aging veteran or two the last couple of years. There were opportunities and it is hard to believe that no organization in baseball is willing to work out transactions with the Twins. So, here we are with the same team speed, below average defense, and iffy bats. Transactions/trades are difficult but rolling back the same team is tough too. I guess we just wait for a sale of the team when the house gets cleaned out.
  20. tony&rodney
    Finding joy in someone's failure is a strange condition, one I cannot relate to.
  21. tony&rodney
    If Walker can just let the game come to him, he will be a star. The swing is gold. Yes, people have said the swing looks very similar to Joe Mauer. Mauer didn't press or get too excited. He just hit a ton of line drives. I sure hope Jenkins stays healthy and thrives in baseball.
  22. tony&rodney
    Great trade because it has generated a ton of articles and comments about Margot. Who even knew Margot would ever be that important in Twins history?
  23. tony&rodney
    I can't exactly disagree with you on this but will suggest that Cleveland focuses on defense. We had this discussion a bit in March and someone would actually have to watch and code every game to find a decent way to judge the importance of defense. It would be more acceptable to have a handful of people watching a game and coming to an agreement on every play. Would that even work? I'm not a fan of the plethora of numbers inputted by a host of people as accurate of much because what is the chance that two, much less several dozen, people see the exact same play the same, especially when these guys collect their information from different places and in wildly different manners. I coded two games to start the year and the Twins rated very poor in the field but decided no way would I keep that up. So it is complicated. Yesterday, less than stellar defense allowed 3 runs to score (balk, infield in, misjudged fly ball). Even there, someone would argue. However, you are correct because the Twins not scoring pretty much means a loss most of the time. time for the offense to step up. Maybe the Twins should get players who are top defenders at every position who also win silver sluggers for their position.
  24. tony&rodney
    Varland gave up a run because Bader took a few steps back and couldn't get a read on a fly ball out. Bader is a good outfielder but he is new to the corner outfield. He is playing fine, but no run scores if that simple fly ball is caught. Varland may not pan out as a relief pitcher but I'm guessing about 29 other teams would love to have him. On a similar note, Ryan gives up 2 runs on a single with the infield in on the grass in the 4th inning. I guess Rocco already knew the Twins were not going to score again but watching other games across baseball there aren't any other teams using that practice, at least in my SSS of a couple dozen games. The blame goes to Ryan for the balk but it might be an idea to concede a run in the early innings in a belief, perhaps false, that the Twins might score some runs.
  25. tony&rodney
    Looked like Ryan wasn't settled on what to throw and he began his motion as he tried to step off. Brutal balk. I don't think Jeffers and Ryan seemed on the same page at times. Would have liked to see Jeffers call time there but Ryan takes the credit for the balk. A missed pitch to Walker and the balk were about it. Twins pitchers were good.
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