Jump to content
Our free agent ranking is up to 100 names, and now you can filter by player position! Click here to check it out! ×
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

ThejacKmp

Provisional Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,113

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    4

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by ThejacKmp

  1. ThejacKmp
    Depends on the market. If you're in LA, NY, Bos etc., I think you have more latitude to bring in free agent pitching and reclamation projects. In a small market like the TC though, you need high-upside ace potential.
  2. ThejacKmp
    There's more than one way to skin a cat. The Astros pen wasn't remarkable last year. The Yankees have had insane pens and not made the World Series. The Cubs had Chapman and a lot of guys you didn't feel great about the year they won. The Twins have a pen that can play in the postseason right now. It lacks the elite shut-down arm but it has depth and quality. Just gotta get there.
  3. ThejacKmp
    Right now the Twins bench is Adrianza, Petit and Wilson. They can't go to a two man bench of Adrianza and Wilson. That's insane. Petit will likely go when Mauer gets back (LaMarre when Buxton, Adrianza when Polanco) but for now he's needed. Duffey should go down if the Twins want to get Buesnitz up
  4. ThejacKmp
    Why are the Twins and White Sox doing a DH tomorrow? They’re both off today and both were at home yesterday. Seems strange they didn’t schedule the game for tonight. Is this just the team thinking it’s fun to do a doubleheader?
  5. ThejacKmp
    Not Adrianza's fault he got thrown out on that one. That was Gene Glynn making a terrible call to send with one out in the eighth.
  6. ThejacKmp
    Adrianza's days seem numbered though. When Mauer, Buxton and Polanco are back, three guys have to go. LaMarre and Petit are two of them but Adrianza is the obvious choice for the third (likely when Polanco is activated).
  7. ThejacKmp
    Thorpedo is an important prospect for the Twins who flies under the radar a bit. He’s got top-of-the-rotation stuff with the K rates to back it up. He’s not that far away from the majors either. He’s given up a ton of HR this year, hopefully that’s small sample size and not a reflection of more advanced hitters exposing weaknesses. I know Petit is out of options and you might lose him but he’s barely playing. With Polanco back in less than a month and Sano healthy, I’m surprised the Twins haven’t dropped Petit for Granite/Cave/Wade. They’d make a nice platoon with LaMarre while Buxton is out. Gregorio is super replaceable. I guess he allows you to DH Sano and not have to lose the DH if an injury happens but I imagine Rosario could play 2B in a pinch if it really came down to that. Or Garver could play 3B for an inning or two. Seems like a waste of a roster space.
  8. ThejacKmp
    Months are a completely arbitrary way of delineating something. Players don't say "Hey new month! I'll do different things!" He had a terrible first three weeks of the season and has been decent since. He'll play less with Mauer coming back Thursday (knocks on wood) and hopefully won't be so overexposed. He has a track record that it isn't elite but isn't this bad.
  9. ThejacKmp
    That should even up in the long run though right? Especially since the Twins pen isn't fundamentally flawed in any way? The two of them beating each other up does help the Twins. You want them to split their remaining games against each other while the Twins go on a heater. Everyone should have my optimism. It's really great up until the moment it comes crashing down. And then it sucks.
  10. ThejacKmp
    I thought about Torii as I wrote this actually. Two points with him: 1) Torii was considered high-character later in his career but not as much early. Character seems to be something you develop as you become a veteran. :-P 2) It’s interesting that Torii was seen as high-character since he was pretty openly homophobic during his career. That doesn’t fit with a modern, liberal morality. Kind of draws me towards that concept that character is a reflection of an older, more conservative concept of morality. A big part of it also seems to be how well-spoke a guy is, something Torii Hunter always was. Joe Mauer, lily-white MN family boy, is rarely talked about as high-character. He’s not low-character but you don’t hear a lot about his awesome character. These tags get dropped by media and scout types who are used to talking to all kinds of players, many of whom may not be great communicators. Maybe it’s a short-hand way of saying, “This guy is well-spoken” and then we equate that with a good family etc. That also raises some of those race/national orientation issues. Sano may be very well-spoken in Spanish but not so much in English but we don’t even know. And maybe we have different standards for players who are ethnic minorities than those who are not (in ways that might benefit them or hurt them). I dunno, could just be a load of B.S.
  11. ThejacKmp
    Agreed they're not catching the Yankees. That's a great team. But they can certainly catch the Angels or Mariners. The Angels are top-heavy. An injury to Trout (which seems to happen each year) might sink them. Or Ohtani might hit a wall. And the Mariners lost Cano and have some big holes in the lineup. King Felix isn't King Felix and who knows if Paxton is an ace-light or a guy having a hot two months. Both of those teams are eminently catchable. Especially since they play each other (and the Astros) a ton while the Twins get to play the Tiggers, White Sox and Royals.
  12. ThejacKmp
    Also important to note that not talking just about your comments, more the overall tenor and level of pessimistic panic on the boards :-) Firmly disagree this team won't be in the wild card mix. They're nine to ten games out but the teams ahead for the 2nd WC are mostly flawed (Rays, Jays) with the possible exception of the Angels and Mariners. Neither of those teams is so good that a Twins team with a Woke Offense couldn't track them down. If we're down 9 at the break, I'll start thinking division-or-bust. But no way are we as out of it as everyone assumes. You think a pen is as important as the hitters? I'm surprised by that - I don't have any stats to back it up but an offense over 9 innings seems much more important than a pen over 3 innings. Could be wrong.
  13. ThejacKmp
    I understand if this is not the place for this discussion. We can certainly move it or ignore this.
  14. ThejacKmp
    I always feel a bit weird about the "character" concept. I get that it’s a thing. We’ve all worked jobs and played sports and have realized how important personality and how you handle yourself can be. Talent isn’t everything and emotional intelligence matters etc. That said, it always seems like character is applied to people who fit a general concept of what a player should be. Goes to church, nice family, leadership skills, quiet and modest etc. It implicitly indicates that other players lack character or are somehow deficient because they like to go out, are loud and brash etc. I guess I just think the correlation we draw between high-character and doing well is not as strong as we make it – perhaps because we like the narrative and perhaps because it’s subjective so we only apply it to people with talent (no one lauds Drew Butera’s character because he just isn’t that good). There’s another reason I always feel uncomfortable with that word. I hesitate to even make this point because it may be divisive but I’ve (unscientifically) noticed that when we apply character, we tend to do it with white players. I’m not calling anyone racist or anything, I think it’s normal. Our concept of Morality tends to be driven by cultural norms from movies and Americana – the aw shucks John Wayne/Audie Murphy-type who just gets ‘er done and is kind and polite. That cultural figure has almost always been white – just like Hispanic characters and black characters have been portrayed in other ways. When we bring a cultural concept like morality or good leadership into things, we’re going to bring in that understanding too. This maybe got a bit discombobulated but that tends to happen with this subject because it’s uncomfortable for us straight white dudes. I just always cringe when I hear people talking about character when describing a prospect because it just feels like implicit coding for something else and it feels uneven.
  15. ThejacKmp
    I love that we've moved from "The Twins should cut Rodney" to "Rodney needs to be in high-leverage situations" in a month. That's what's so great about baseball.
  16. ThejacKmp
    Interesting concept. If you were to pick which coach is least data-driven, who would it be? And who would be most? I may be wrong but the pen coach has always seemed like more of a rah-rah, build-a-team-out-here kind of guy. He’s certainly working with guys on mechanics but a lot of it has keeping guys on track to be ready and dealing with egos/confidence etc. I can't think that Molly is leaning on Eddie for who to send in or who to warmup or who has the best chance to get Lindor out. For most data-driven I have a hard time. I can see bench coach with the importance of shifting. I can see pitching coach with breaking down hitter performance. Batting too, though maybe less since hitting has a lot of rhythm and confidence to it rather than running the data.
  17. ThejacKmp
    Its that "salvage the season" I don't totally get. It's May. Let's pretend the Twins bats take off at the same time Cleveland's pen gets better. Doesn't that basically make this a brand-new season but shorter? (I know Cleveland is up 4.5 but the teams play each other a ton and offense is more important than bullpen so you'd think improvement of both would help the Twins more). And doesn't a shorter season mean more variability of result? Doesn't the worse team on paper benefit from variability? (e.g. The Cavs would love to make the Finals a winner-take-all game while the Warriors want to make it a best-of-21). I think parts of the Twins season have been bad. The offense has been bad. But I look at the standings and the potential of this team and I think, "The Twins are going to be in 1st place in a month."
  18. ThejacKmp
    To a point I agree. Bullpen performance is extremely variable so it's hard to see the Cleveland pen being this awful. That said, bullpen performance is extremely variable and Cleveland has leaned on a dominant pen for the past few years. Maybe the pendulum has swung the other way. Andrew Miller is on the DL and has been bad – maybe he’s not the shutdown guy he was, especially with a big workload the past few years. Bryan Shaw signed for more elsewhere (and has sucked) and the rest of the guys don’t have a great track record. Not crazy to say that Cleveland’s pen won’t be great. And they don’t have the farm system/payroll to go find expensive solutions. Dozier has hit for three years now and has been streaky for large parts of it. Sano has had his K rate go up but his BABIP is also way down over his career norms. Buxton, who knows? Polanco coming back should be a huge boost even if he isn’t August Polanco. The Twins solutions are all internal (with the possible exceptions of a minor backup catcher/4th OF upgrade). I think I’d bet on the Twins offense putting it together more than the Cleveland pen becoming a strength. My bigger concern is if the rotation can continue to be this good. I’m cautiously optimistic since improvements by Lynn/Santana should counteract any regression by Romero/Odorizzi.
  19. ThejacKmp
    Agreed. Totally different if Buxton was hitting 9 and you've got Dozier/Sano/Rosario etc. coming up. Then hope for the double that Buxton scores on. But with Adrianza and then a pinch-hitter coming up, you have to send him one of those first pitches.
  20. ThejacKmp
    Baseball Reference doesn’t have yesterday’s game up yet but 4/26 to 5/28 is .779 OPS. Not sure why you’re upset about that? Those are the numbers. Yeah they start with a good game. That’s the way you do it when you’re saying someone has turned it around after a slow start that makes their overall numbers look worse than they actually are. Just like how you pick May to show Robbie is struggling and ignore the end of April. That is not Grossman’s only solid game: 4/21: 2/4 with a 2B 4/26: 3/4 with a 2B and HR 4/27: 3/4 with a 2B and BB 4/30: 2/4 with a 2B and BB 5/07: 3/4 with a 2B 5/08: 1/4 with a 2B and 2 BB 5/11: 2/4 5/13: 2/4 with a 2B 5/19: 1/2 with 2 BB 5/21: 1/2 with a BB and a SF 5/28: 2/4 with a BB Robbie Grossman is miscast being an everyday player. But the Twins have had significant injuries to Mauer, Sano and Buxton and that’s mean more Grossman than you’d ideally want (4-5 times a week and a lot of DHing instead of 2-3 times a week and a lot of pinch hitting). That doesn’t make Robbie Grossman a bad player or the scapegoat for the Twins struggles. He’s just had to play out of role. As Mauer comes back and Buxton (hopefully) starts to hit, you’ll see Robbie fade back into a more natural role – 1 or 2 OF starts per week and some PH duties when the Twins need a solid professional at-bat.
  21. ThejacKmp
    I guess I just don't understand the concept "The Indians have been underperforming but the Twins are a bust because this is who they are." Seems like there are two assumptions there: that the Indians are a good baseball team and the Twins are not. This could be who the Indians are and this could be a blip for the Twins as the bats take off in June and the pitching stays solid (or improves with Santana back and Lynn improving).
  22. ThejacKmp
    I almost agree. But then I think of Cole DeVries starting and I shudder. And then I think about being excited for a Sam Deduno start and I whimper. I think I prefer it this way. At least you're always in a well-pitched game.
  23. ThejacKmp
    Grossman since April 26th: .779 OPS. That's fine for a bench player, not ideal for a starter (but certainly not awful). The issue is that Grossman is DHing too often due to injury. Hopefully with Mauer back Thursday and Polanco back in a month Grossman will have a role that fits his talents better. Logan Morrison since April 27th: .827 OPS. That's with a .284 BABIP that is in line with his career stats so it's not like he's getting lucky. He's likely not going to be the guy he was last year but that .827 OPS would be about halfway between normal Logan Morrison and 2017 Logan Morrison. Logan Morrison has not been the problem for the last month.
  24. ThejacKmp
    Are the Indians underperforming or is this who they are? You're comfortable saying the Twins are a bust but not the Indians? I'd be more worried if the Twins pitching was imploding. I trust that the bats will get rolling at some point. There's too much talent for them not to. Hopefully in a week, this is a distant memory. Let's not get too pessimistic.
  25. ThejacKmp
    Not really. He steals second, gets bunted to 3B and scores on Morrison's fly ball. It was the perfect time for some small ball since injuries have made the bottom 1/3 of the Twins lineup so feeble.
×
×
  • Create New...