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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    The only negative reaction I've ever had to wearing my Twins gear to a game was in KC. K freekin C of all places! 2019 maybe, when they were en route to 103 losses? Weird team to flex over, bro. 😀 Jake Cave had something to do with the scenario that afternoon. I think I've told that one before. Jake is dead to me.
  2. ashbury
    If Greg Maddux could bottle what he knew how to do and sell it to others, he'd be a millionaire. Oh wait, he already is. 😀 Oh, and I agree, good chat.
  3. ashbury
    Pretty sure Chief doesn't need a smiley emoticon, in a game thread of all places, to tell him when I'm kidding.
  4. ashbury
    I'm not going to knock the "other poster" (bean) per se. I generally enjoy their posts. And I actually think they perceive correctly the general direction our FO takes regarding defense - namely that in the eyes of most fans it's overrated, and you can get more wins out of a great bat by coaching up his defense a bit, than by starting with a great glove and coaching up the hitting a bit. It was a long post I responded to and I took issue with one particular aspect. I hope (as always) it was taken constructively, even if (as too often) a bit blunt and direct.
  5. ashbury
    Sounds a bit like the really old Pitching In A Pinch strategy, which certainly has its merits. Purposely throwing "just off the plate" starts to sound like "nibbling", which is a similar strategy that has fallen into disfavor, at least in TD-land. And a typical pitcher's command/control isn't as fine as we might hope, for that to work. The more you avoid clipping the strike zone, the higher the pitch counts become, which may become an issue - throw enough of the low-stress pitches and it's a question of how much if anything you are saving in terms of wear and tear, because every pitch causes some stress. Getting a swing and a miss outside the strike zone is of course to be desired, but maybe you need to display a bit of your "stuff" to make that happen, and now we're back to wondering about which pitches cause the least stress. If a low-stress pitch has the stuff and gets outs, sure, great. I suspect the catcher and/or the bench already take your ideas into account when calling the game, and moving too far from their mix would end up counterproductive, not just in terms of game result but also arm health. Throwing 120 pitches per start and wriggling out of jam after jam to eke out 5 innings could be bad for the arm even if most every pitch is nominally "low stress." Of course I'm painting the opposite picture from what you're proposing, but I think it's in the realm of possibility. Depends on the pitcher.
  6. ashbury
    Benchwarmer even at AAA? Harsh assessment.
  7. ashbury
    Julien played nowhere but at 2B in Wichita during 2022. He played nowhere but 2B at St Paul in April 2023. He came up and looked stiff and awkward - "adequate" would be a kind description. By the end of 2023 he was perhaps "serviceable" and maybe approaching "average". We saw improvement though I fear we are overstating it due to wishful thinking. But I also don't believe it's as simple as "practice and repetition at a single position" since he was doing that for more than a year, and yet something rapidly seemed to click when coached daily by the major league staff.
  8. ashbury
    Still no, Do I have to pull this car over?
  9. ashbury
    No.
  10. ashbury
    He pitched a capable three innings and then Rocco left him in too long. Maybe Rocco will learn to rely on his strong bullpen and quit overtaxing the starters.
  11. ashbury
    Tony's the only HoFer in that group, by a long ways. But all four had significant major league careers, which you can't take for granted on an old Topps card, so by that measure Tony's in pretty good company. Strong incoming Freshman class. (There are others of course. Wally Bunker, Rico Carty, Richie/Dick Allen, and Jim Ray Hart earned RoY votes alongside our Tony.)
  12. ashbury
    Don't forget Dylan Questad whom they took in the 5th round after snagging Soto; they had to overspend a little to sign him, so I guess they really wanted him. Like Soto, he hasn't pitched yet; they clearly have a process in place for the young'uns. Marco Raya from the very short 2020 draft is also a high school draftee who is very well regarding around these parts. / edit - I see he was mentioned above, with a minor misspelling that caused me to not notice earlier.
  13. ashbury
    It is good to think in terms like this, and I'm no medical expert, but I think the issue is micro-tears in the muscle tissue, and it takes longer than 60 seconds, or whatever period of time you seem to have in mind, for those tears to knit back together. Less stress to result in fewer tears would be one avenue, but then I suspect the hitters tee off on those cripple pitches - then the pitcher goes to the showers sooner where he can begin to rest up, so I guess there's that.
  14. ashbury
    Get the leadoff guy on first (huh, I thought everyone on this team strikes out), then three sac bunts bring him home - or for style points, two bunts and then a sac fly. Oh wait. Baseball really is a beautiful game when you think about the various way it's balanced.
  15. ashbury
    Guess that makes Winder an even longer shot. 😊. Thanks for the correction.
  16. ashbury
    It's true. But the trick is to do it without consuming too many major league innings in failed projects. IMO the Twins aren't quite at the point of having to do it the wrong way, but they're cutting it close. By my review of the 40-man roster a few weeks ago, these are the pitchers who can't be sent to the minors (service time, or 0 options remaining): Pablo Lopez Chris Paddack Anthony DeSclafani Brock Stewart Caleb Thielbar Steven Okert Jay Jackson And these are the optionable pitchers who are locks to come north anyway: Bailey Ober Joe Ryan Griffin Jax Justin Topa Jhoan Duran That's 12, and leaves room for one of these conventionally strong candidates (a month ago): Jorge Alcala Kody Funderburk Josh Staumont Louie Varland Anyone who believes one of these is a lock, believes we have our 13, and there's no room for a "find." Even with just the first 12, there's not a lot of room for maneuvering. If those four don't make the grade, these are the longer-shots: Matt Canternino Brent Headrick Cole Sands Josh Winder Simeon Woods-Richardson Zack Weiss If a non-roster invitee makes the cut, then Weiss or Sands probably gets DFA/waived. Anyway, there's not a ton of wiggle-room for letting a long-shot do his thing. Of course all this is "barring injury", which means it's not really definitive at all. 😀
  17. ashbury
    But in this scenario what have they actually got? 😀
  18. ashbury
    I'm slow on the uptake sometimes, and so I merely clicked an emoji yesterday but it didn't occur to me until now that the photo they posted is a supremely intentional act I really appreciate Ryan and his wife Lexi allowing this personal moment of grief to be shared with the public, when it's natural for most people to look inward and keep it private. TD probably isn't a place Ryan will check for words of condolence, but his caption indicates he knows that by sharing the photo, they are now closely connected to many, many people. And I'm there with him and her in spirit, like everyone else. There is a beauty to that photo that surely they can't appreciate now but I hope someday will.
  19. ashbury
    Depending on the exact nature of Staumont's unreadiness, perhaps they could use the (non 60-day) IL, followed by whatever number of days of rehab allowed, if they want to preserve the value of his minor league options. OTOH the value of options for a 30-year old pitcher is not as high as for a guy in his mid-twenties, so maybe it's not worth playing those games.
  20. ashbury
    Reading the Tea Leaves. Your summary of what has happened so far is great to see. The inferences you've drawn sound good. Dangerous to read too much into spring play but conversely there isn't much 4-D chess going on and what the manager is doing is probably pretty straightforwardly what they want to find out and/or practice for.
  21. ashbury
    Just checked in. First two batters scored? Season Over. Stopped looking. I'll check in again later.
  22. ashbury
    Wait, wait. We need to think outside the box, here. It doesn't have to be specifically a horse. You know who could be great on the bench? Or would be great as a swing man, ermh, swing equine? This guy:
  23. ashbury
    I agree with Riverbrian. Pinch runner. I know, I know. Hear me out, please. With only slight modifications, a horse could be a great pinch runner. Okay, I thought there would be more to say. I'm done now.
  24. ashbury
    The injury risk for Kirilloff may be high, but if the concern is "what happens to the team if Player X is injured and how likely is that," then for Kirilloff the answer may be "oh well, maybe someone else steps up," while for Buxton and Correa the answer is more like "hope our Plan B is solid, because there's going to be a dropoff even in the best case."
  25. ashbury
    I almost mentioned Vazquez because he was just about as bad as the two I named. I made a mistake, though, by overlooking Buxton, who in 2023 was even worse than Gallo or Taylor. I looked at the bottom of the list and saw mostly small-sample players like Garlick and Stevenson, and flat-out missed Buxton with a .357 OPS with two strikes. The good news is that, like any stat where you're going on 100-200 PA, there is fluctuation from year to year, and in 2022 Byron had been better than league average with two strikes. Maybe it was the nagging injuries that account for it in 2023 and we can hope for a bounceback from him in every dimension including this.
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