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stringer bell

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Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    I'd agree if the team keeps seeing 50% LH starters, but the reality is that a right handed platoon guy only ends up playing about 25-35% of the time. I think Martin's skill set would wear pretty well whether there is a lefty or righty on the mound. If Larnach is on the roster, I'd rather see him DH.
  2. stringer bell
    I would like to see that as well. He offers speed and on-base skills that are lacking in most of the rest of the roster.
  3. stringer bell
    Despite their "success" to this point, it is tough to believe too much in the bullpen. Because of that, it is easier for Shelton to go longer with his starters. I do think Shelton has done a very good job mixing and matching to get his relief pitchers through innings. Twins prospects haven't hit much and the Saints haven't won much since their Opening Weekend sweep. Here are some numbers: Jenkins .154, Gonzalez .171, Roden .243, Kreidler .214, Wagaman .121. Arcia, Culpepper and Rodriguez are doing better, but no one is knocking the door down for promotion.
  4. stringer bell
    My seat for today’s festivities.
  5. stringer bell
    Martin didn't play a full game and had a pedestrian line, but he was impactful. I thought a very key play in the first inning was Martin beating the throw on a force play, making it a bases loaded-no outs start to the inning. He foolishly challenged the first pitch of his at-bat in the first inning and he got picked off first, but he managed to stay in a rundown long enough for Buxton to score a run and he made one very nice catch in left field and made a couple of other catches look pretty easy that a slower OF might have struggled with.
  6. stringer bell
    Twins are 8th in MLB in runs scored despite being 22nd in batting average and 17th in OPS. It seems other teams struggle with runners on base and have trouble advancing runners. I’ll also predict that this might be a high-water mark for the season compared to the rest of MLB.
  7. stringer bell
    In theory it makes sense to have more than one LH bat, but the Twins don’t have anyone that is good enough to play every day that hits lefty. That guy might be at St. Paul (Rodriguez or Walker), but right now Wallner seems to be the only LH hitter that can be even okay against southpaws.
  8. stringer bell
    Splits against lefty pitching have improved dramatically, and they did it the hard way, by facing Framber and Skubal. I know Gleeman did a piece about how it should be expected that the team would struggle vs. lefties, but I don’t think that has to be. If the switch hitters can be average (.700-.720 OPS) and the the Twins regular RH hitters (Keaschall, Lewis, Buxton) do well when they have a platoon advantage, the Twins don’t need lefty killers to platoon. All three switch hitters are a mixed bag against LH pitching. Bell has fairly neutral splits in his career, but was lousy against lefties last year. Caratini has not hit lefties as well in his career, but last year in a small sample was better against LH pitching. Lee has always been a better LH hitter, but last year was better from the right side. Keaschall, in a small sample, hasn’t hit lefties well, but there’s no reason why he should continue to struggle in that split. Sorry if I went off on a tangent.
  9. stringer bell
    Twins are tied with Baltimore for the first wild card in the AL. 😀
  10. stringer bell
    The bullpen has been far from bulletproof, but IIRC, they are really to blame for one or two losses. Everybody has had a bad outing, but the aggregate has been better than expected (I expected disaster).
  11. stringer bell
    Lewis has had an interesting first twelve games. The BA is low, but he’s gotten a bunch of walks so the OBP is good. He’s driven in his fair share of runs and his OPS is a very nice .859. Lewis had about a four game lull defensively, but I think he’ll be fine at third.
  12. stringer bell
    Austin Martin had an interesting game. Plus—reached twice (hit and HBP), beat a throw to second on a force play (underrated play in the big first inning), one very good catch and a pretty good catch in the alley. Bad—terrible challenge on the first pitch of an at-bat in the first inning, couldn’t get a bunt down. Mixed—Picked off first, but Buxton scored in the rundown. He still hasn’t gotten an extra base hit. He really isn’t doing enough to be a full-time player, but he makes some impact.
  13. stringer bell
    I've got a feeling that Detroit is going to have a lot of base runners in the next three innings.
  14. stringer bell
    We had a poster named "Halsey Hall" who lived in Ft. Myers a couple years ago. I wonder what happened to him.
  15. stringer bell
    Can Ober really be successful as a jumbo sized right handed Jamie Moyer? There just doesn't seem to be much margin for error, but when he's on the black and gets good movement, he seems to be tough to hit.
  16. stringer bell
    Framber looks like he's finding it after the rocky first inning. The Twins had a bunch of lucky breaks in the first. To their credit, they took advantage.
  17. stringer bell
    I guess the question is whether he is broken. He put up really good minor league numbers with plenty of power, but stuff happens and sometimes injuries can add to adjustment problems and CES has been injured a lot in the last couple of years.
  18. stringer bell
    Who are these guys?
  19. stringer bell
    The Twins' recent history is filled with <6 ft. first basemen. Luis Arraez, Carlos Santana, Donovan Solano, Ty France and two of them won Gold Gloves. As noted above, a feature of the ABS system is that all players are measured and are listed at their actual height. I was certain that Arraez was shorter than 5'10'', but his height is in fact measured at 5'10".
  20. stringer bell
    Wasn't Dobnak's deal a really low-dollar amount? What it ended up doing was allowing him to go back and forth to St. Paul even though he was out of options. For these pre-arb and pre-debut deals, the player needs to have a floor of major league regular and a ceiling of superstar for the team to guarantee money through the arbitration years. We have seen that those type of players are pretty rare.
  21. stringer bell
    I'm guessing they will use the exact same lineup 1-9.
  22. stringer bell
    Another tough assignment for the hitters. There have been some signs, but still a lot of frustration, particularly against left handed pitching. I didn't think they'd see .500 again this year, but a win tonight puts them at 6-6.
  23. stringer bell
    Christian Encarnacion-Strand has been DFA'd by Cincinnati. There was a lot of hand-wringing when CES was part of the trade package for Mahle, but the only significant player in the trade has ended up being Spencer Steer. I'm not posting this in the Former Twins thread because CES never played for them, nor did Steer for that matter.
  24. stringer bell
    Time for some of the RH bats to get going. It won’t be easy the next couple of days, but a lot of guys are due.
  25. stringer bell
    CBA negotiation or not, this club looks like they will be a <$100M payroll team in the immediate future. Their functional payroll at present is in the $70M range, no veteran players beyond Buxton have a contract beyond 2027. They have transitioned from close to middle of the pack to one of the lowest payrolls in MLB. The “team control” guys just haven’t done enough to keep the team competitive. Hopes for competitiveness would need steps huge steps forward from the likes of Lewis, Wallner and Lee and contributions from unproven arms. I’m not holding my breath, but I haven’t given up on all of them. How many of that group survive to mix with the rookies will be the team’s identity for the late 2020s IMHO.
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