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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. Ya know, after all this joshing around, I felt a little bad, so I gave it a try to see if I could find any info online. But best I can do is "an establishment in downtown Fort Myers," which you already know, in this article from the Strib: https://www.startribune.com/minnesota-twins-pitcher-jordan-balazovic-jaw-punch-spring-training-fort-myers/600255197/ Cruise all the bars in downtown Ft Myers, bordered approximately by Bay St and Main St,, Hendry and Broadway/Dean - if you find yourself near the Goodwill Industries store you'll know you've found the right location for fun. I used Yelp and located about 30 possibles - based on the name, I'd give the Cowboy Up Saloon a try first. Good luck trying to get lucky like Jordy B did. 😀
  2. Nobody remembers Jose Barrios either. A first baseman for the Giants in 1982, who didn't hit and was sent on his way. Meh.
  3. And among starting pitchers the MLB ERA was a tick still higher than that, 4.45.
  4. To the team, a player's contract is just a tranche in an overall portfolio. The team can handle the ups and downs. To the player, the contract is the whole kit and kaboodle. You've taken the corporate stance by equating two very different things.
  5. In most businesses, "right-size" is just a cynical euphemism for layoffs. Layoffs of perfectly good people, whose lives get put into upheaval for no better reason than someone who will never miss a meal decided that a business decision three years ago should be summarily thrown out. I don't care so much about what effect it has on Twins payroll in 2024, since baseball is a totally different business than most. It's the corrupt cynicism that "young" Joe Pohlad has been steeped in, which came out when he was groping for words, that I find offensive.
  6. The Jaw, I believe. Yes, yes, I know, super unhelpful.
  7. I looked him up on b-r.com but stopped reading when I saw his nickname listed as Big Fudge.
  8. Brice perhaps? https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=brice-001aus
  9. Larnach is not ideal as a bench player, in consideration of the others on the roster, but I do want to find out if he can contribute in the majors. His numbers last season weren't too good, but we know there were injuries as part of the picture, and he finished strong, from late July on. He fits a pattern of someone ready to become a starter, and I'd hate to see him do that with another team if we give him up for pennies on the dollar. Can he stay on the field in top physical condition, though?
  10. Not to threadjack, but where does Buxton figure into your season-changing ranking?
  11. This is quite a relief. The commute time from Cincy to Brewtown was getting on my nerves.
  12. Not just a sidekick. A Close Personal Friend! Does Stringer have talent like Munson, Rivers, Randolph, and Nettles to work with? The turnaround could be quick! Who know,s, they might meet my Reds in the World Series sometime soon!
  13. Countless? The promotion didn't convert them to repeat customers at regular prices, at all? Then shhhhhhh, don't tell Dave St. Peter, because this is the best way to make sure they never run another promotion again.
  14. C"mon, man. Charlie Hustle was earning more than $100K a year! What's a GM supposed to do? Thank goodness Chief is made of money and can afford him, and I wish Rose well. I bet you anything that he becomes a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Great update. Is there a word for Nostalgia about things that you sort of remember but not quite the same way?
  15. I've also heard you don't know the meaning of fear.
  16. If the Twins do surprise us all and sign Cody, the short item in the Strib yesterday that "the Twins haven't ruled out a reunion with free-agent center fielder Michael A. Taylor" could indicate a bit of negotiation in public that went on.
  17. Twins were second from the bottom in the majors in 2023, lefty/lefty. The small samples added up. Disturbing that the four who put up the putrid splits were all the young guys - Kirilloff, Larnach, Wallner and Julien. Is current coaching a factor? Brian's focus seemed to be on just Julien, but improvement is needed across the board. I'm actually confident that some of this will correct itself (BABIP, SSS, whatever), and that coaching isn't blind to this and will direct appropriate instruction to the matter. This will let each of us claim credit for our POV having carried the day. 😀
  18. I just assumed Tanner Hall was the college dorm he lived in.
  19. We like to think that we pay someone above major league minimum for their baseball abilities, but the truth is that the FO calculates that salary to some degree against ticket sales. Normally if a player's abilities project to increase the win total, the assumption is pretty simple that the salary will pay for itself by maintaining or increasing revenue. For some players with extremely high salaries, the calculation must be more detailed - jersey and memorabilia sales, for instance. But in the case where you have reason to think signing a player might cause ticket sales to go down, the calculation gets even more complicated. I think that's the case with Bauer, to a potentially rather extreme degree.
  20. It's all interesting but I think merely serves to limit how good of a comp Kelenic is for Julien. The Twins had a problem with lefty hitters against lefty pitchers in 2023. Second worst OPS among all major league teams - Kepler was acceptable, as was Gallo (!) and Gordon (!!), all the others were below .500 (!!!). It may not be simply a matter of lack of opportunity, but somehow they're not being coached to succeed, in which case force-feeding isn't the answer and better technique (whatever that may be) is. Wallner for instance appears to be a fearless batter - he gets a lot of HBP which I assume means he won't back down, and I frequently bring up the AFL game Chief and I watched where he took a pitch off his jaw and he was back in the lineup a few games later and hit like nothing had happened. A tough guy. I don't believe he's flinching when the ball comes from that direction. And yet in his short MLB career his Right/Left split on OPS is .949/.442. That's almost an inconceivable split. It's still small sample size, and he didn't exhibit this problem coming up in the minors, so I don't claim to know the answers. But improvement is mandatory, Priority #1, Wallner and all the other lefties, because 13-man rosters aren't enough to platoon everybody. I don't think Rocco substituting or not substituting is the root cause.
  21. He hit better against lefties than righties in 2023. Doesn't seem like such a gamble as all that. Seattle already paid the price of the learning curve.
  22. Cross the bridge when you actually come to it.
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