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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    The best player would need to be someone who is willing to pitch in with the unglamorous jobs. I suspect our man Jorge would do just fine, with minimal internal arguments along the lines of "I'M not the clone who has to catch, YOU'RE the clone who has to catch."
  2. ashbury
    The Eddie currently batting .050 at AAA for the Braves? That guy? I don't think he's relevant to any questions about Larnach.
  3. ashbury
    This major league roster needs 25 more guys like Jorge Polanco. Hopefully some of them can play catcher, and pitch a little bit, otherwise we've got a logjam at second base.
  4. ashbury
    If there's a bear with you, that will make it even worse! Get Well Soon!
  5. ashbury
    When he first came up he looked so relaxed and the game came easy to him. My hopes were up but it's not too surprising if the pitchers found the necessary adjustment. I expect he will adjust too.
  6. ashbury
    I was thinking bypass the Twin Cities entirely and head straight to Cooperstown?
  7. ashbury
    In any event we can always replace them with Jonas and Cannon.
  8. ashbury
    Some assets are getting nicked. Could Vincent and Gordon be nickst?
  9. ashbury
    It's the same as for most two-pitch hurlers. If batters aren't forced to respect a breaking pitch that will just cross the strike zone, then they will simply sit on the heater. If he's leaving those fastballs in the middle of the zone, so much the worse. Command has to be there every outing, or he's just another arm in somebody's bullpen. Most of baseball is complicated at the major league level, but I think this is one instance where it isn't.
  10. ashbury
    Of course I don't hold Jeffers to the same level of blame. It's just as I watched the video, it felt like there were 3 legitimate opportunities to limit or end the damage, and none panned out.
  11. ashbury
    Concur about not testing the line where it comes to blocking the plate, and also that Kiermaier made a major league slide. And the runner being fast, plus the cutoff man's arm being slow, also means my eyeball test of the ball being there just in the nick of time could be off. I just don't know the fine points* of catching mechanics on this play. *Or, to save everyone the trouble: probably the basics either
  12. ashbury
    Enjoy.
  13. ashbury
    Even with all the tomfoolery in RF and the cutoff, I thought the ball reached the plate in time and reasonably on-target. Was the positioning not up to snuff, or was Jeffers somehow a little slow with his lunge? Any catcher technique expert with an analysis?
  14. ashbury
    Didn't watch live, but a bit of a clown show tonight on defense, from what I'm piecing together.
  15. ashbury
    I dunno. Can he lull opposing pitchers into feeding him a steady diet of fastballs on the perception that he is old and can no longer catch up t-... oops, never mind, does Jake catch up to fastballs anyway?
  16. ashbury
    There was genuine initial confusion, so anyone doing a remote writeup under deadline was guaranteed to get snared. Complete fluke that I was tuned in. I haven't used my milb.tv account as much as I expected, not that I don't enjoy it. There was discussion elsewhere about Martin getting HBP, so I got curious whether he crowds the plate or something. I tuned in, it was late in the game (middle of the eighth), and I saw that Martin was due up in the top of the ninth so I stuck around. I was pretty excited for the HR, and likewise failed to notice it was #17 at the plate. The scoreboard did not reflect the change, so the call was initially for Martin and I assume whoever was relaying the play-by-play went with that. To his credit, the video announcer did notice that it wasn't Martin who scored. Why they pinch-hit for a prized prospect at the end of a blowout game is a mystery that maybe will be revealed later.
  17. ashbury
    Weirdly, it was not Austin Martin with the homer in the ninth for Wichita. That was the initial call by the broadcast, but no one had informed the scoreboard operator there was a pinch hitter. Leobaldo Cabrera.
  18. ashbury
    There's a limit to how much even an airtight defender can contribute with the glove. At a site called the Fielding Bible I found Simmons's DRS given as 9 runs, good for a rank of 3rd. I'll assume whichever source you use has something similar. Conventional analytics has about 10 runs worth a win, either in terms of what's added over a season or what's saved. So our starting SS has saved approximately a win versus a replacement player from AAA. Meanwhile his bat is somewhere around 0 wins, relative to the same replacement level. An average MLB player is about 2 wins above a AAA replacement. Giving Simmons credit for similar rate of production for the remainder of the season, he's still not average. I.e. below average. I can't see investing in a declining asset if we're trying to win anything next season.
  19. ashbury
    You attempted a bit of satire in the middle of an otherwise serious paragraph - always a risky strategy, as I can attest from hard experience. But I figured the smiley face was enough of a clue that I had fielded your short-hop. And I highlighted the one line because I didn't want misunderstanding about what I was reacting to. Then, the main body of my response was a pretty measured and temperate take, suggesting we're not actually that far apart. You want to give them some rope; I'm willing to give some rope. I'm just not willing to curtly dismiss with satire those who offer less rope than I do.
  20. ashbury
    Wow. Yeah, I think you might be able to scrape together a majority view, in that scenario. I can't believe you'd really set that low of a bar in any other business, or that long a timeline. Me, I haven't called for firings at the top. I have said that I now think the topic is on the table, for the first time. By that I mean that something additional could push me over, such as some kind of fatuous new 5-year rebuilding plan now that we're approaching the 5-year anniversary of their tenure - we're past the trading deadline and that hasn't happened thank goodness. At the other end of the spectrum, I would sit still for a complete "stay the course" approach on their part, but then the results at the end of 2022 (not 4 or 5 more years) could not be like this again. Something in the middle, such as mostly standing pat with the process but deciding that the pitching coach's "best if used by date" has expired and thanking him for his contributions these past seasons, might impress me more that the higher-ups are holding everyone to a high standard.
  21. ashbury
    There are few major league players more irregular than our Tortuga.
  22. ashbury
    "Um, I'll have what he's having!"
  23. ashbury
    “The goal here is straightforward and measurable,” Falvey said. “It’s to build a sustainable and championship-caliber team and organization that Twins fans across Twins Territory will be proud of. "
  24. ashbury
    We're getting hung up on a fuzzy term, 'fine'. MLB average R/G is 4.49, AL average is a tick higher at 4.55, and the Twins have 4.60. Top teams are above 5.00. Well above. If 'fine' is meant to suggest a .500 record is the goal, then sure the offense is fine and the defense/pitching is what's dragging us down below that humble benchmark. But for me the aim is pennant contention and hopefully being able to go deep in the post-season and maybe even win it all. The offense is not 'fine' by that kind of standard. There is NO phase of the game right now that is satisfactory toward what the FO has stated to be their goal, sustainable success.
  25. ashbury
    The Little Hurt.
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