stringer bell

We had a poster named "Halsey Hall" who lived in Ft. Myers a couple years ago. I wonder what happened to him.

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.

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.

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.

Who are these guys?

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".

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.

I'm guessing they will use the exact same lineup 1-9.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Roden and Martin played a lot of center field in Spring Training. I don’t think either one was really poor in CF. Between them, they should be able to cover center for Buxton’s time off. I would think Outman’s leash isn’t very long. Lee hasn’t earned a long runway either, but I think a little patience is justified.

Buxton recently passed 900 games, so he’s averaging just over 90 games per year on the roster. Think if he’d averaged 50% more (135 per year). At the same rates, he would be around 250 homers, 180 steals and around 45 WAR. As it is, he was a worthwhile #2 overall pick in his draft year and someone to look up to as a player and a person. I haven’t been his biggest fan, but as time goes on I’ve respected his desire and commitment more and more.

It’s early. A 4-4 game would change the perception on every position player on the roster. That said, the trends are not good. Trevor Larnach has been among the team’s best hitters, but he should be DHing and he hasn’t done that so far. If Larnach is a platoon LF, then Martin becomes a short-side platoon player. Outman has essentially assumed the Keirsey role, pinch running and playing defense and this year more than last, more is needed from the 13th position player. The definition of base clogging is having Josh Bell, Ryan Jeffers and Victor Caratini hit in succession—three of the slowest runners in MLB and subpar base runners to boot. Ground balls are going to routinely be double plays with those guys. i think Shelton has to decide if he wants Martin to be more of a regular, and if so, what to do with Larnach. Another decision is how much rope to give Lee and maybe Lewis. The pitching staff is a different mess. They don’t have any real late-inning, high leverage guys for the bullpen. There is going to be a lot of shuffling and guys like Funderburk and Banda are going to be asked to get out a lot of good right handed hitters. Abel has not clicked and Ober has only gone four twice in a row. Sim has a small margin for error and Bradley has a history of not living up to his potential and stuff, but he’s been great so far. A lot of puzzles to solve and not a lot of apparent answers. Maybe promoting prospects will provide answers. Contention seems a pipe dream.

Pitchers, particularly the bullpen, are walking a tightrope because they don't have much talent. 94 mph fastballs are substandard these days and that is about all most of these guys can produce.

It seems to me that you have to regard the current roster as a team in transition. The fan base will have a much better view of the future after the All-Star break and trade deadline. It is also very evident that the club has changed from a mid-market team to a small market team. Since the "right sizing" comments, the Twins haven't issued multi-year contracts, and haven't pursued players in the top third of salaries. We are looking at a club trying to compete with a real payroll number of considerably less than $100M. Right now as @UpstateNewYorker pointed out, they don't have enough of anything to have an identity or brand of baseball. It is a collection of potential and loose ends with little connection. The addition of the top position player prospects some time this year as well as subtractions might give the team more of an identity. I expect the current group will slog along until those changes are made. The 3-6 start is unfortunate in that several guys the Twins thought reliably could contribute offensively have sputtered out of the gate (Buxton, Keaschall, Jeffers and probably Lewis). With better production from those four, the record could easily be 5-4 or maybe 6-3. Long term, this club has issues that won't permit them to be good--lack of team speed, defensive soft spots and a jigsaw puzzle bullpen,

I think they were talk in’ ‘bout the six-pack.

7.5 innings and only 8 Ks. Sorta like the old days.

Shelton unable to change the trend where the Twins are the absolute worst hitters at the start of the season.

Nothing since first pitch? Well, not much to comment on, outside of a good outing for Woods Richardson and a Walker solo blast. Late innings tilt the Rays’ way, but 1-1 in the seventh.

Are you inventing these numbers? I don’t remember Jeffers being charged with a single passed ball.

Congrats to Buxton on reaching ten years of big league service time. Rogers is next, in two weeks.

Why do I feel that for every start, Sim is flirting with disaster?

As long as he's hitting, he could give Lewis and or Keaschall a day off with all the consecutive games coming up. Good for Tristan Gray so far.