h2oface

Batting practice inning for Lopez. Lots of hard hit balls. But minor damage.

Get it tomorrow, too, and split the games in (and around) LA! Who is that Otani guy, anyway.

He's a Moniak, Moniak at the plate...........

He had started sliding feet first, and hurt his hip and knee!

These are the types of outings that your best reliever can get tagged because they have no intensity. We will see.....

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Harmon was really pretty fit. At least in his retirement. I got to spend some time with him before he did a clinic at Charlottesville High School in 1996 and asked him because he looked way smaller than I rememebered him or thought he was, and he said he was 5'10' and about 185 lbs! He looked great! I have seen him listed in some pages as 6'0" and 5'11", and 195 and 213 lbs. He said they always wanted me to be bigger, and he had shrunk at least an inch, though, and smiled and laughed. He was very generous and fun to be with. Impressive.

Yes. Trout thick.

Bartolo Colon on the mound.

Even the Angel annoucers are making fun of the umpire for that call. Laughing at him, and loving the end result.

I like the grass in the parks.

Panda at 3rd. But those guys are fat. Trout is just thick and muscular.

On the 5th day, are they really gonna let Duran Pitch? Don't get him in the close ones so you finally have to use him in a game you don't really need to because now he needs work, and then if you need him tomorrow......

Trout is the thickest center fielder playing the game right now.

Larnach can't slide either. It looked like he hurt his shoulder as his arm rolled under him.

The Twins need to make a soft and slippery sliding trainer for Buxton. He is the most ungraceful slider. Feet first or head first, he bounces. Feet first he bounces on his knee or slams it into the base, and face first he face plants and bounces. It is just painful to watch him. Didn't he used to know how to slide? Is he just too amped up because he wants to do something because he just sits on the doesn't really play the game anymore? Oh...... YES! Beat ya to it.

Maybe Jax just needs some Dock Ellis "luck".

Game Changing. I have always been a Buxton apologist. Still am, I guess. But all this just makes me sad. Game Changing. If what Buxton does at the plate and running the bases (which includes not stealing to his potential, and he doesn't know how to slide any more! He is totally ungraceful and whether he goes feet first or dives and face plants & bounces) is all game changing means anymore, then it is really a shell of what it used to mean. It used to mean hitting for over .300 (sometimes well over .300), OBP of over .400, well over 100 RBI a year, 40+ homers, a cannon arm, 40/40 potential, etc. Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams..... Tony O, Mike Trout, Joe Mauer, Albert Pujols, Kirby Puckett, Frank Robinson, and years like Rendon and Goldschmidt and Freeman and Betts etc have. Several years. Buxton has had a few, and it really is just a few, game changing months, not years, and those months weren't better than months that guys like Colabello and many others have had at the plate for month long runs! I mean, let's get real. So now game changing is just batting in 120+ games and hitting .230ish, 30ish homers, stealing a few bases, OBP of around .340, and OPS in the .800s - maybe, and not playing in the field when you are perhaps the best center fielder and outfielder in the game, but are too afraid (?) to actually play the game? Just hit, and run the bases. That is what Buxton is being saved for. Not all-star numbers, but good numbers only if you think OPS is the only way to judge a batter now, and career .777 OPS is by no means elite. We could sure use more of a game changer than that, even just at the plate, if it is all Buxton is going to do, or is allowed to do out of fear of loss. Watching Buxton be a shell of what he could be, is really sad for me. I bet it is for a lot of Twins' fans. And next year he will already be 30.

Yes. Anybody is going to be better than Hawkins. One for one trade?

If you want to go diving....... Aaron Hicks has been DFA'd and may soon be available for pro-rated league minimum. But do you? Want to go diving? He would fit right in with Correa's up the middle offensive production, and Aaron could even go to the Carlos Correa School of Off Season Mentoring so he is ready to bust out of the gate next year like Correa and Miranda were this year. 😇

Once again, the prognosticators all go with the shiney new object, and declare Lee the top prospect. I believe Royce is saying "bite me" with his performance, and at the higher level than Lee, too.

Buxton. The answer is very simple.

Very apparent for some time now that the Jax part of the plan is flawed. If Duran pitches today, it will be the first time in 5 days. On another note, Larnach is sure deficient in the field. That second run double as it turned out.... weak effort to get to the ball, misplayed bounce off the fence, and horrible throw to miss Correa as a relay, and Farmer took forever to get it to the catcher. Also, these outfield guys and relay throws a not even close to the plate these days. 5-15 feet off line. Do they practice these throws ever?

Another starter was Jax'd! I guess that is better than being Pagan'd. Management loves the predictive stats, and loves to quote them as reasons to spend on them and use them, even if they consistently don't perform when the heat is on. Don't ya love the mantra of "the advanced stats say that it will take care of itself, and they are really better than how they perform." It is just such a shame when you have starters performing, the bats don't, or the pen becomes a blowpen instead of a bullpen. I so hate games ending on a called third strike, especially with an 0-2 count when one swing can tie the game.

No. We should always trade away our best relievers and just dumpster dive for replacements and hope for the best.