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stringer bell

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Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    Yeah, if he ran directly to the bag, he would have had a scoreless inning.
  2. stringer bell
    Has there been any discussion about Willi Castro taking over at shortstop? This is something I thought should be happening because of Farmer's limited range and weaker arm (surer hands probably) and also why I didn't think the Twins should have kept Farmer as a bench player this year.
  3. stringer bell
    Great Correa out, looks like an oblique muscle.
  4. stringer bell
    Good at-bat for Julien.
  5. stringer bell
    Good at-bat for Julien.
  6. stringer bell
    Four missed calls by the ump IMHO. All benefited the Twins.
  7. stringer bell
    Skubal throwing strikes. Two of three made contact.
  8. stringer bell
    ESPN says rain delay. Any projections for first pitch?
  9. stringer bell
    I couldn't find starting pitcher information, but last year Cleveland faced left handed pitching for over 31% of their plate appearances. The Yankees, OTOH (literally I guess) faced left handed pitching at a 19.6% clip. There are limits to the gamesmanship, of course. I'd definitely rather face Tommy Milone or Dallas Keuchel than any of the starters that the Twins used in 2023, but clubs will do what they can to maximize an advantage. After some further research, it appears Cleveland faced 59 left handed starters (36.4%) last year. Maybe 40% is out of range, but 35% might be about what a heavily left handed hitting roster might face.
  10. stringer bell
    I think of the Cleveland teams in the last ten years, where teams would save their lefties or bring up somebody from AAA (Devin Smeltzer) specifically to face their LH hitters (and turn Ramírez around). If the Twins had as many as six lefties or switch hitters in the preferred daily lineup, they might be facing closer to 40% left handed starters.
  11. stringer bell
    It is still incredibly early. There has been promise in Vázquez' plate appearances, but the results have been minimal. His throwing has been outstanding, but again, small sample size. The Twins have gotten the calls and great tags to turn those plays into outs. Correa has looked very good, in all facets of the game. At 29, this should be a peak season for him.
  12. stringer bell
    Kepler is an interesting case. In his two best years (2019 and 2023), he did very well against same handed pitching (.880 OPS in 2019 and .751 OPS in 2023), despite otherwise struggling against lefties (.645 career OPS vs.LHP). For all the information, stats and data points available, I don't think there is an answer why a guy would spike in his platoon stats as Kepler has in his two best years. @Riverbrian also brings up a great point--subtracting Kepler, but adding Jenkins and Rodriguez (and switch hitter Brooks Lee) would give the late 2020s Twins a real left-handed lean and probable vulnerability against left handed pitching.
  13. stringer bell
    I mostly agree that players shouldn’t be pinch-hit for in the middle innings, but I’ll be a bit of a devil’s advocate here—sometimes the game situation is in the middle innings. Getting a solid right handed hitter to face a lefty who might be the seventh or eighth best bullpen arm might be the best opportunity to win a game. This year, as last, the right handed options are more veteran, lower upside and better defenders than the hitters they would replace. I hope that Kirilloff and Julien prove they can handle lefties well enough that they aren’t pulled. I have less hope for Wallner.
  14. stringer bell
    Farmer has a BA of .000, but he’s drawn four walks.
  15. stringer bell
    Odorizzi released. https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2024/04/rays-release-jake-odorizzi.html
  16. stringer bell
    In another thread, I speculated that right handed hitters have less severe platoon splits. I suppose there are stats somewhere that either validate my thought or or refute it. I checked the platoon splits of top Twins hitters and found that right handed hitter splits were less severe than for left handed hitters. I checked the top four left handed hitters in Twins' history and the top three right handed hitters in Twins' history plus Paul Molitor and checked their career OPS splits. All eight hitters hit better with the platoon advantage. Of the top lefties, only Rod Carew had a disparity of less than 100 OPS points and Tony Oliva had a spread of .200 (.890 vs. RH pitchers, .690 vs. LH pitchers). All time great right handed hitters didn't have splits as great as the lefties. Kirby had a disparity of .094 (largest) while Harmon Killebrew had the smallest--.058. If somebody has more information on this topic, I'd like to see it. It might explain some of Rocco's willingness to pinch hit for Wallner, Kirilloff and Julien early in their careers.
  17. stringer bell
    The wins scoring rule has been the same for at least as long as the Twins have been in existence. I really don’t have much of a problem with it, but the value of a win for starters has diminished and as long as everyone understands that, I don’t think the rules should be changed.
  18. stringer bell
    I’d like to see Martin’s sprint speed. He has a rep as a speed guy, but it seems it is more about instincts than raw speed. Castro’s legs really helped last year, but so far he has a caught stealing and was picked off as a pinch runner.
  19. stringer bell
    According to the report, SWR retired the first nine batters in his second start, but the roof caved in for his fourth inning. Personally, I’d like to see Woods Richardson get the call for Saturday and stay in the rotation for three or four turns and see if he can do the job for the major league team.
  20. stringer bell
    No Pablo Day today. The game will be made up on Saturday as part of a doubleheader. I assume the Twins will call up someone to start one of the two games on Saturday.
  21. stringer bell
    Well, Kirilloff has been good and with Buxton at DH, he has to bring a glove. Rocco could sit Santana and play AK at first or else put AK in an outfield corner. He’s chosen Santana over Wallner twice when BB has DHed.
  22. stringer bell
    I think there’s an idea that RH bats are less affected by platoon splits, probably because there are so many more RH pitchers.
  23. stringer bell
    This is the second time Wallner has sat when a righty started the game, both times Buxton has been the DH.
  24. stringer bell
    Losing the platoon advantage by benching struggling players makes sense to me. The combined OPS for the 7-8-9 hitters is just over .900, so an average of .300 for each veteran at the bottom of the order.
  25. stringer bell
    The Pohlads are hoping internal improvements keep the team at the same level or improve despite spending much less on payroll. It could work or it could blow up in the front office’s face. Injuries and let’s call it what it is—bad performance—have sucked all the good feeling from the last season including a postseason run. Attendance could fall dramatically if they keep playing like like this for another month. I am confident it won’t be this bad for much longer, but the vaunted bullpen depth is gone and few guys have stepped up (Kirilloff, Correa and Buxton has shown positive signs) on the offensive side. The players are who they are—we’re seeing the Mr. Hyde in Julien, Wallner, Jeffers and Castro, to name a few and it isn’t pretty.
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