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Jim H

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Everything posted by Jim H

  1. Jim H
    I think Cody's statement about power being hard to develop isn't quite right. Many minor leaguers have power. Trying to develop enough contact ability to go with the power often is what is hard. Lack of an ability to make enough contact is what is derailing Sabato's career, for example. The power is there. Matt LeCroy is another example of great power, not enough contact. There are many others. I think it is sometimes easier to go the other way. If you have great contact ability, many players develop power as they get older. Puckett was a good example. Hrbek hit around 300 as a rookie with limited power and became a power hitter as he got older.
  2. Jim H
    The real take away here, is that the Twins struggled against all pitching last year. Changing the back end of the lineup probably won't change things much. Either the almost established youngish vets will improve, or they won't. We are all hoping the next wave of prospects will change this, eventually.
  3. Jim H
    Implying Wallner is in their class? Both those guys hit over 40 home runs a year with batting averages over 250 and sprinkle a lot of doubles in there as well. If Wallner can get over 30 home runs he would provide some value. But, these advanced stats seem to overvalue home runs compared to other hits, in my opinion. It looks like Wallner is going to get a chance to prove he can be a little more consistent and maybe provide more than solo home runs that don't seem to be particularly clutch.
  4. Jim H
    For me there are 2 basic problems with the bullpen. Right now they no one really that fits the roles that Duran and Jax filled the last few years. Maybe they find they are able to fill those roles by the end of season, maybe not. The other problem has more to due with how baseball has evolved. With starters covering fewer innings during the course of the year, and more relievers being locked into one inning roles, it has gotten harder to cover the extra innings between those roles. Most teams end up using nearly 20 different relievers to fill in those innings. This creates a shuttle with AAA, and a near constant dip into the waiver wire. So what we see now is marginal relievers giving away winnable games on a weekly basis. As long as teams are stuck in this usage pattern there are limited ways to fix the problem. One way to deal with this is to have an very deep pile of effective relievers even at the AAA level. I don't really think the Twins have that right now.
  5. Jim H
    I read those articles, I am not sure they helped me be optimistic for the upcoming season or increased my confidence in Zoll. I watched the first game and enjoyed Ryan's performance. I was impressed with Baltimore's defense and wishing we might see some of that from the Twins this year. I was hoping that after Baldelli got fired we wouldn't have to see the backup catcher forced into the lineup, especially on the first game of the season. I was also hoping that the team would be strong enough that the manager wouldn't feel it necessary to pinch hit for whoever he chose to bat leadoff. It also seems you can't just snap your fingers and have a quality bullpen. Otherwise I am looking forward to the upcoming season.
  6. Jim H
    This is exactly right. I am not complaining specifically about Outman or Larnach. Its what is the plan here? The team added Outman, Mendez, and Roden to the 40 man roster at the deadline last year. They appear to be redundant on the current roster. There is no obvious way for any of them to get a real run at proving them could be a major league regular at this time. They could be fitted in as a backup and/or a short term injury replacement maybe. So why were they acquired if they aren't better than what you already have in your system? This what I wonder about. You just aren't going to be able to give all these outfielders a fair shot to prove they are major league regulars. There are too many of them mostly with nothing left to prove in the minors.
  7. Jim H
    I don't think it much matters which of these two makes the roster. It will be rather sad if they both do. Neither of these guys will contribute much to a winning team and whoever makes the roster will likely play too much, much like the previous bench options have the past few years. I want to see the younger guys who make the roster play as much as possible to see if if they have potential to be actual full time major league starters. Turning them into platoon options so I Kriedler or Arcia can play more is a fool's game.
  8. Jim H
    I am not sure why anyone is upset about the Twins letting Hendricks go. The Twins were trying to catch lightning in a bottle here. Hendricks was not a long term answer or even a medium term answer. In fact, he was unlikely to survive the entire season without injury or even manage to be effective that long. The Twins are going to have build a bullpen from mostly their pool of failed starters. Digging people off the waiver wire and finding older relievers trying to comeback to a former level of effectiveness is a stopgap plan. It took awhile to build the mostly effective bullpen they traded away. It will take awhile this time too.
  9. Jim H
    You are right. Velocity is nice but you can succeed as a starter without an upper nineties fastball. While Ryan's fastball has some unique characteristics, a lot of his success with it is due to location. That is also true of other pitches as well. If you throw too many pitches waist high in the middle of the plate, major league hitters will make you pay. No matter the velocity or the movement.
  10. Jim H
    To me the,the thing that works for Ryan is his fastball. He throws it over 50% of the time and he can throw it when batters are expecting it and still get strikes or outs with it. Sure, he has developed other pitches but they work off his fastball. I think that is the difference between Ryan and the other potential guys in the rotation. If you can't depend on your fastball to set up your other pitches, pitching gets a lot harder.
  11. Jim H
    It's true that great offense trumps iffy defense. But using the early 60's Twins as an example: they had great offense even setting a Twins record for home runs that stood until 2019. They didn't start winning until 1965 and big factor in that was better team defense. Killebrew became a fulltime 1st baseman where he was pretty good. Most of the key defensive positions transitioned to better defenders. Even Tovar became a full time center fielder. You can play a poor defender like Poland a ss if his offense is great and you don't have better choices. It works, but It was always obvious that Polanco's best defensive position was 2b. It could also be pointed out that when Polanco was a ss they left him there and didn't move him around to other positions. He did improve there, but his poor arm was still a liability.
  12. Jim H
    Jorgensweet, I was wondering about that aspect of the abs system as well. You might get more consistency in the strike zone from the abs system than a human, but by taking away the depth of strike zone you will likely penalize those pitchers with excellent command. I think it possible that the umpire will actually be right often but the abs system will over rule him. I suppose someday the system will be advanced enough to call strikes in 3D. Then everyone will have to adjust to that.
  13. Jim H
    I don't agree. Nothing makes sense until they prune some of the corner outfielders. After you figure out who your starters are, then you figure out the bench pieces.
  14. Jim H
    Context matters. Usually an average defense infielder who provides above average offense for his position, is going to be more valuable than a corner outfielder that provides above average defense and the same offense. That is one reason to keep Keashall at 2nd if you can. Until you find a 2nd baseball man who is better at both, why move him. The other reason to keep him in the infield, is the Twins really need to sort their corner outfielders. Till they figure out where they are going with that, there isn't much reason to be moving infielders to the outfield. Other than emergency situations, just put Keashall at 2nd and leave him there.
  15. Jim H
    This is completely correct. They don't have any dominant relievers right now. Maybe they will develop one of the failed starters into to one, but that will likely take awhile. It will be mix and match and hope to begin the season.
  16. Jim H
    I have no idea what record the Twins might achieve this year. I have also decided I won't worry about that. What I want to see is a pursuit or path that will lead, eventually to something better than aimless wanderlings of what the Twins leadership has been doing for the last few years. I am tired of the overarching pursuit of versatility that puts people in their 4th best defensive position to create a very marginal platoon advantage that vanishes in the 4th inning when the other team changes the pitcher. I hate the large collection of players whose best position. is dh. I dislike seeing young players not being put in good position to succeed when promoted to the majors. I could give examples of what I think the Twins should be doing. But all I want to see is the Twins to move toward practices that will make the team more watchable and will lead to a team that has a better chance of becoming a championship contender.
  17. Jim H
    I have a question about the abs system. Is this right? The system converts the 3 dimensional strike zone to 2 dimensions. It is supposed to be centered in the middle of the plate. If I am right about that, my 2nd question is why are they centering it in the middle of the plate? Since most hitters actually hit the ball well in front of the plate, wouldn't it be fairer to center the zone at the front edge of the plate?
  18. Jim H
    Some people tend to define power based on home runs. If Houston can develop gap power, that is doubles and triples, and raise the average to above league average, he could be very valuable. When Arraez was with the Twins he had enough doubles and triples to get his slugging into a respectable range. If Houston can use his speed to create some extra base hits, home runs won't matter for a guy with exceptional defense.
  19. Jim H
    Nobody should be a lock for this bullpen. Some are more likely, including Topa. It is too early to worry about the composition of the bullpen right now. If the end of the season bullpen resembles the beginning of the season of the season bullpen, i will be shocked. There are virtually no arms right now who should be a back of the bullpen option. Maybe that'll change as the season goes on.
  20. Jim H
    I certainty don't want to defend the Twins after allowing 17 runs. I would like to point out that of 10 pitchers that appeared in that game, only Sands has much of a chance of starting the year with the Twins. It is early in spring training.
  21. Jim H
    Not sure War is best way or on!y way to compare all the players in Twins history. Leaving pitchers out of it there are a lot of players who had better or at comparable Twins careers to Buxton. That might not be true without all his injuries. Off the top of my head: Hunter, Gagne, Battey, Koskie, Gaetti, Kubel, Smalley and maybe a few others. I think we need to have a few more healthy seasons from Buxton before we vault him too far up a list like this.
  22. Jim H
    Traditionally, the GM decides who's on the roster in consultation with the manager. I suspect it is more complicated than that with today's front offices. Still, there is not much point to have people on the roster that the manager doesn't want to use. This assumes the manager actually gets to decide so gets to start on a daily basis. Deciding who makes the 26 man roster based only on spring training never happens. Track record matters, as do a lot of other things. The problem here is that 40 man roster is unbalanced and without making changes to that will likely lead to decisions that many of us will not like very much.
  23. Jim H
    This is an odd article to be writing at this point of spring training. Still, none of Roden, Martin or Funderburk have anything to prove in AAA. I wonder what the long term Twins future might be for any of these guys. If it is decided that there is no current place on the roster for any of them, they should be traded or released. If you have 4A type players or 30 something guys on the roster ahead of them, they have little or no value to the Twins. This is the one point in time where the can take a good look at Martin and Roden and perhaps figure out what role they might have on a good major league team. Keeping them around as injury replacements and bouncing them back and forth to the minors would be counter productive. The Twins have a glut of corner outfielders. They need to make some decisions by the end of spring training. I hope they are good ones.
  24. Jim H
    I would like to visit Cooperstown some day. I doubt if I would spend that much time looking at the busts. The history part would interest me more. It is after all called the Hall of Fame. Nothing in the title suggests that you have to be one of the best players according to some predetermined criteria. I don't know if Oliva, Kaat, or Blyleven are really among the best players ever. I am rather glad that are considered famous enough to belong in the hall.
  25. Jim H
    If you seriously think Rodriguez, Jenkins, etc will force themselves to the majors fairly quickly this season, why not trade both Larnach and Wallner? Neither one has proven to be much more than serviceable corner outfielders. Start Martin and Roden in the corners. Use Clemens as a corner backup, if you really want him on the roster. It reduces the clutter in the outfield, it sends out a couple of guys who don't appear to have a long-term future with the Twins. Also you might find if Roden and Martin are more than major league backups
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