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ThejacKmp

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Everything posted by ThejacKmp

  1. ThejacKmp
    I think it's only going to take 83. Just gotta take 3 of 4 from the Tiggers this weekend and I'll feel very good. Try to take one in Cleveland and then head into that last series in control of your own destiny.
  2. ThejacKmp
    I think we're overacting a bit on this. Yeah they got swept. It wasn't great. But two of the games were close and the one that wasn't was a Colon game. He's not good enough to face the best teams. Hopefully the Twins will use the off day next week to skip him so he only has one more start, against the Tiggers. Teams get swept sometimes. The Twins swept the Indians earlier this year. Just gotta bounce back and take 3/4 from Tiggers.
  3. ThejacKmp
    Yeah this. I'm not against a bunt but when a pitcher gifts you a ball or two, it's time to pivot in the new position and swing away.
  4. ThejacKmp
    I predicted it time and time again. I pointed to his concussion, a weirdly low BABIP in 2015 and 2016 that had no root cause in line-drive rate and growing comfort with the position. I said there was no reason he couldn't win a batting title. Then again, I also made the same arguments in 2015 and 2016 and look where that ended up. Nothing makes you look better than making lots of predictions and really hammering home when you're right from time to time. :-)
  5. ThejacKmp
    2 out of 4. That was not a "phenomenal comeback". A phenomenal comeback is when you come back late in a game down big. The Twins were down 5-0 in the second and scored 13 runs. That's just a good game. Not every game is 4-3. The first game was a quality win. The second game was a quality loss. The third game was a spanking loss. The fourth game was a spanking win. That's what the Twins needed to do that series and they did it well. Some people just want to be negative I guess.
  6. ThejacKmp
    Kepler has an .837 OPS against right handed pitching. That's plenty fine for a 24 year old in his second season in the bigs. He'll hit lefties in time and in the meantime, Adrianza/Grossman are fine as a platoon. Not disappointed in Max at all, that second season can be hard. Rosario showed that last year and look where he is now!
  7. ThejacKmp
    1.) I thought they pulled Mejia a bit quickly. He'd been rolling and it wasn't like they were stinging the ball all over the place. It's also not like the Twins have an amazingly deep bullpen that you want to turn the game over to super early. 2.) I want to see a playoff start where the Twins run Mejia for the first three innings (getting the other team to get their righties in the lineup) and then switch to Colon. Both of these guys are great in short spurts and you'd give Colon a shot at a lefty-less lineup.
  8. ThejacKmp
    There have been many fine things about this season. Joe Mauer remembering the 2000s is one of the finest. It's been a few years since you had that confident "something good is going to happen" certainty when Joe comes up. I'd almost forgotten how great that feeling was.
  9. ThejacKmp
    It is a real issue for the Twins going forward. Granite and Wade are fine 4th OF . . . and both hit LH. Your righties in A ball and above are Travis Harrison (not coming off a good season), Aaron Whitefield (super raw, nowhere close to 2018) and Edgar Corcino/Max Murphy (not great prospects). Brent Rooker might move quickly but he's iffy as a corner OF - not likely to be a big improvement on Grossman, who is pretty suspect defensively. Safe to say the Twins have a gap at RH 4th OF. I'd like to see them trade Grossman this offseason and hit free agency for a decent corner OF bat (they have Granite if Buxton hits the DL and Rosario/Kepler for the odd game here and there). There should be someone available on a 1 year deal who can spell Kepler against tough lefties and be a nice bench bat. Totally off topic. I apologize.
  10. ThejacKmp
    And yet he's a lefty too and thus doesn't fit this iteration of the Twins well. Another guy who could be a nice trade piece this offseason.
  11. ThejacKmp
    Hard to see Granite working as a 4th OF since he hits left handed like Rosario/Kepler. Ideally, your 4th OF would be able to hit right handed. I don't know how much value Granite has on the market but I'd look and see if a team loves him and flip him for pitching.
  12. ThejacKmp
    A better question would be "When was Buxton thrown out?" I don't remember. Did he fall down halfway there? One issue might have been that he hasn't had time to study the guy's movement home. He was up early in the inning and the Twins haven't seen that pitcher much. There's groundwork that goes in and Buxton/coaches may just have not felt comfortable sending him with a lot of unknowns.
  13. ThejacKmp
    I think you play him against lefties next year from the get go. Not every day and not the really tough ones but you give him reps. Those reps just can't be during a pennant race. I do like that the Twins seem to find a way to get Kepler back in there once the starter gets pulled.
  14. ThejacKmp
    3.) Agree with you on Vargas vs. Garver, that error was awful. I hope Joe doesn't get too many DH days down the stretch here. The drop from Joe to the others is precipitous. I know they need to rest him some and DHing is a good way to do that but I get scared every time he's not in the lineup. Polanco's throw was off line on the DP but Joe makes that play every time. 5.) I'd go a step further and say that Adrianza has looked downright good out there. And his bat is playing this year. I don't know if that will last but he is 27 and he's getting the most regular MLB playing time of his career so it's no crazy that he might have taken a mini-step. I'd rather see Adrianza out there than Garver just about any day.
  15. ThejacKmp
    1.) He has a stress reaction, not a sore shin. Stress reactions are the precursor to a stress fracture. Those are no joke in the legs/feet of a big guy like Sano. They ended the careers of NBA players like Yao Ming and Amare (obviously much bigger but same area). This is a serious injury and should be treated as such - it's also something that isn't going to have a concrete timeline. 2.) He can't run without pain. He has to be able to run the bases, not just hit. I think that's the goal - given the Twins DH situation, I'd be surprised if he plays 3B again this season, barring the World Series (!!!!!). 3.) It's frustrating not to have him out there but the team is doing well so I'm okay with them making sure he's healthy enough to be back for the long haul. If the Twins don't make the playoffs, it won't be because Miguel Sano wasn't there. 4.) He's also a franchise-type player so I like erring on the side of caution. I'd be okay resting him until the last five days of the season. 5.) I hear your point about Dick's chat but nothing about Sano makes me think he's a guy who isn't gunning to be out there. He's in the middle of the celebrations, he's always been a guy who loved playing. I gotta think that's Dick, not the Twins or the reality of the situation.
  16. ThejacKmp
    I think this will change in time. He didn't struggle this much against lefties last year or in the minors. This is just a bad time for a guy to learn in the majors. I am confident that in two years Kepler will be playing every day.
  17. ThejacKmp
    Would anyone have predicted that this team of free swingers would be walking so consistently. I know some people want to get rid of Molly this offseason (and I am very much on the fence with it) but they need to keep James Rowson around. And Rudy Hernandez, his ability to connect with the Spanish speaking guys has to make a profound difference.
  18. ThejacKmp
    I have never heard of this and a quick Google search shows no indication of a bail out from the government. It also doesn't make sense - ESPN employs about 4000 people. That's nothing when it comes to bailouts. They have a miniscule portion of the economy. No one relies on them so there's no domino effect. There's no reason for a bailout. You have a source? Cuz otherwise I don't believe this at all.
  19. ThejacKmp
    Or you steal first two pitches and then have Rosario bunt him to 3B if the count is in his favor.
  20. ThejacKmp
    Well, it didn't necessarily prevent us from scoring runs, who knows if we would have. It certainly didn't help. The bunting, the freaking bunting.
  21. ThejacKmp
    I thought about that but I'd rather leave Mauer in just in case it goes on. That Padres team is terrible so even if you don't score, they probably won't. Mauer is hitting over .400 in September, you can't pull that bat. With two outs, he scores on most doubles. If Rosario had walked, I can see it more. Granite scores on any single from 2B.
  22. ThejacKmp
    Yeah, I went nuts in the upper deck about it. That stuff matters but that's Eddie - he plays super hard and sometimes that leads to mistakes. It also leads to the run in the second where he's hard nosed into third and forces a key error.
  23. ThejacKmp
    #1: We're not talking about one at bat last night, we're talking about late-inning at bats in general. We can all remember Eddie taking some terrible at bats in that exact situation. Like last week. His approach last night was great - that's the player he is and he's never going to be Mauer. But Mauer isn't going to be Eddie and that isn't a problem either. #2: No way that Buxton hits in that situation. They'd bring in Vargas/Granite etc. to hit lefty. And I think you've lost your mind when you say he shouldn't walk. It would be a way better situation - you'd move the runner into scoring position on a single. Let's look at it this way - if San Diego let Molly choose whether or not Rosario gets intentionally walked in that situation, he'd say yes every time. That should tell you about "smart baseball". #4: I can't remember an at-bat where I was like, "Man, Mauer had a terrible approach and looked lost." He's been through slumps, he hits too many ground balls etc. - but he never looks lost up there. You never get that Torii/Buxton/Rosario feeling on an 0-2 where everyone knows the pitcher is going to throw a slider down and away and ______ is going to swing as hard as they can and miss it by six inches. That's what I mean by Joe Mauer, Professional Hitter. He takes professional at bats. Always. And that is frustrating when you want him to swing for the fences late in a game but you have to step back and realize that's just not who he is and that what he is has incredible value.
  24. ThejacKmp
    But is he Eddie Rosario, Professional Hitter? You have to earn those capital letters.
  25. ThejacKmp
    Really disagree on several fronts. Mauer not being clutch late has always been a pretty bogus argument. 2 outs and RISP? .945 OPS.Late and close? .822 OPS.Tie game? .833 OPS.High leverage? .823 OPS.The issue has never been Mauer's performance late in games, it's been how we perceive it. Right or wrong, we see him as a guy not trying to make that big hit, to hit the big extra-base hit. I think that's wrong: 1.) How many times have you watched Twins players get themselves out in big situations trying to do everything all at once? That's typical of a young team but no less aggravating. Mauer is never going to take a bad at-bat late in a game. He may walk and leave it to the next guy but that gives the Twins a better position. He's the baseball equivalent of a guy making the extra pass to get a closer corner three instead of a three from the wing. 2) The Twins have never been in a worse position because Mauer draws a walk or hits a single instead of going for a home run. Putting a guy on always makes it more likely that the Twinkies will score. 3) To that tune, Mauer may not get the big hit very often but it's remarkable how often he's on base when that happens. There's value to getting a guy on base, making a pitcher think about a runner, having a first baseman move in to hold the runner etc. 4) Mauer's consistency is great as a teaching tool for young players. He never takes a bad at-bat - even if the Twins are up or down big. He's never up there guessing, he's never up there selling out for an inside fastball, he's never trying to knock the ball 500 feet. He takes every at bat the same and is a consummate professional. If we're going to give Torii Hunter credit for an indefinable leadership boost in 2015, I think it's only fair to do the same with Mauer in 2017. Rosario, Polanco and Buxton have all gotten more discerning and have cut down on those "that guy had no chance" at-bats. Obviously lots of factors but Mauer is without a doubt a great example.
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