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h2oface

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Everything posted by h2oface

  1. h2oface
    None can stick on a MLB active roster. Even if someone takes them, they will be back unless the Twins won't take him back.
  2. h2oface
    What a tease. Care to elaborate? If you are making that claim, how about the goods? I, for one, am curious.... about stuff.
  3. h2oface
    Yup. Jeffers could be on a quicker "path". Smith was also blocked by Grandal and Barnes (who has been streaky), but when Barnes couldn't get back to his best last year, Smith was called on and is the starter, now. I think Jeffers will be ready if called upon midseason. That is my call, regardless.
  4. h2oface
    I look for Jeffers to be up by midseason, and being a force, ala Will Smith of the Dodgers. So a generous 1 year contract just might keep Castro for a year, especially if you wants to be a part of a winner, and still make some money. He just might bet on himself. If Astudillio is still part of this team in 2020, I feel the FO is not doing what it can do to improve this team. Injuries are always looming, and Castro could be a needed piece, or he could be a great trade at the deadline, too.
  5. h2oface
    I like the way you think. Go Tarheels, too. Not world, but NCAA will do.
  6. h2oface
    yuk. At least they aren't the spandex no button jersey of the same colors.
  7. h2oface
    Liam Hendriks, first team......... Nick Anderson, second team. Whoops (add that to the FO ben franklin lists). Lance Lynn, third team. Thanks for nothing, Lance.
  8. h2oface
    Based on my opinion, and watching him play in LA, especially in the post season of 2017 and 2018. He was very streaky in LA, but when he was hot, he was a force. Hey, I may be wrong, but I may be right. Catchers tend to fall hard and fast. We will see......
  9. h2oface
    My bet...... the big Grandal regression will start this year, and continue. I am on the record. This contract is an albatross. Grandal and his agent are the big winners here. Did we sign Bumgarner yet?
  10. h2oface
    Why am I not enamored with the pen yet?
  11. h2oface
    It could have been DJ LeMahieu that was signed! A way better choice, even with Arraez, which is still a question, with little power. Oh well. Looking forward. Schoop was signed with great hope. Too bad he couldn't return to his previous form. He was part of the early mix, and had his time..... so I would say he didn't really hurt, and didn't really help. Do they call that a replacement player?
  12. h2oface
    Grandal IS a good backstop, and maybe one of the top 3 or 4 by today's options. Living in LA, I follow the Dodgers as a hometown team, by default. But, so far, when the games were the most important, and in the playoffs, he was one that could not get it done, and even played poorly. That may all change with his next opportunity. I think he is not the direction to go for the catching tandem for the Twins. $ and history. I have faith that we will have a catcher to team with Garver when the season starts that will be very desireable, but it won't be Grandal. That is why I like Bumgarner of all the pitchers available. He has proven he can and does step up when the lights are the brightest. He reminds me of Jack Morris, and I think and would bet on a resurgence with the Twins through his early 30s, and he is one to have in the playoffs - and we all know we could use someone like that when we get there.
  13. h2oface
    Do you then, consider that sign stealing is not a part of the play, even though it happens in real time (and with no video sometimes from second base by the runner), the same as trying to fool the umpire by moving the glove happens in real time? Certainly they are both efforts to affect the game, in real time, no? I will always feel that it is up to the defense to figure out a way to communicate, and if the opposition figures out a way to uncode that, it is up to the defense to come up with a better, more fool proof plan. I may be in the minority, but I was in the minority calling for robots to call balls and strikes many years ago, too. Passing secret signs is a talent I can get behind.
  14. h2oface
    I respect your opinion, and acknowledge that is what this is. Your opinion. I think that boxing (and other types of fighting", which in my opinion, has been one of, if not the most "fixed" sport there is or ever has been, still gets a lot of action, and while the interest has shifted from the heavyweights, it generate$ a ton of intere$t. Baseball, with it's "unwritten rules", is curious indeed. I don't like "cheating" at all, hence, my disdain for pitch framing. But when it comes to sign stealing, I feel it either is, or it isn't cheating, and there are not degrees of it that make it different. Sign stealing is sign stealing. At present, there is no rule against it, but the directive of quailifying it with penalties. Perhaps there should be a concise, well developed rule in the future.
  15. h2oface
    When all the lights were shining on Grandal in the 2018 World Series and Playoffs (and 2017, too for that matter, they totally went to Barnes after futility toward the end of the season that carried into the playoffs)....... Grandal couldn't hit and couldn't catch the ball (3 passed balls in the NLCS, and that was being generous, as I remember several WP that he should have caught). That is hard to forget. Just like it was for Darvish pitching (in 2017). Crazy to trade Cruz if he continues to hit like he always has and did last year. I don't know how many years he has left, but I am sure glad we have him for 2020. No need to value Cruz over Garver, or Garver over Cruz. We can have them both for 2020 at least. Some (not you) will probably never give Garver his due, and only think he is a fluke, and predict he will not continue to get better, but regress. Time will tell. I have always thought Garver could be the catcher, even when Turner was the darling of many of the writers, and was always being placed ahead of him in their prospect ratings. He is getting better behind the plate, and at the plate. No reason to think he will suddenly start getting worse instead of maintaining in his prime, or improving. And Cruz is an enigma, and lucky for the Twins, he is our enigma for 2020.
  16. h2oface
    I guess it depends on what type of cheating, as many still want Pineda resigned, and many don't seem to care anymore about the PED cheating by Polanco and Cruz, and again, love pitch framing. Not the same thing. I know, I know...... but the fans are still loving the game. And my sympathies to Vegas.... who never ever stack the deck. Personally, I feel stealing signs is stealing signs. Period. It is up to the players to figure out a way that they can't be figured out, or even fool the other team with them, and have them constantly changing. Once they put it out there, it is in the public domain, and the signs are fair game, however they get communicated and used by whoever wants to use them.
  17. h2oface
    I like Eddie. I like Twins that were Twins from the farm from the beginning and make it to the show succeed, especially with great aplomb. I also will always give credit to RBI. Sure, hitting 4th and coming to bat with people on base have a lot to do with it, but you still have to rise to the moment and drive them in. I also embrace advanced stats, and they don't lie. If our guys, including Nick, see the limitations of his play, so will any team that would trade for him. I also think it is folly to think that national sports writers have a better take on his play than those that see it daily. No way. We see all the warts, and even probably dwell on them to a fault at times, more than we should, and lose site of many of the players positives. (Just visit a game thread on this site, daily!) All this talk could very well be noticed by Rosario, and he could have the best year of his life this coming season, the best focus of his career, and harness the plate awareness he has not embraced, and be more valuable than ever. I definitely don't trade him right now, unless the return is crazy good. Crazy good. The prospects could pass him, and could be one injury away from the opportunity to be the guy you can no longer not play everyday, ala Arraez. But for this year, until something like that happens, keep Eddie and hope he wakes up, focuses, and has the best year of his career, offensively and defensively.
  18. h2oface
    I find the team that becomes a kid's team really is not that much about the proximity, but about who their parent's team is..... and it trickles down. It could have been the Braves. The "brainwashing" affect. Baltimore, and Cincinnati were often choices for the folks that lived around there, too, for proximity, from my experience of living up the mountains in Blowing Rock in the 80s. But I don't know him..... I am betting it mostly hinges on the $, and the deal.
  19. h2oface
    Good for Baldelli! Let's hope the season after is much different than the year after Molitor won his award.
  20. h2oface
    With all the regression predicted, it seems the FO has no need to spend big on pitching, and the window is already closing fast. Gone are the days that players can get better 2 years in a row. Time for a rebuild. SELL!!!!!!!
  21. h2oface
    Blasphemous to steal signs, or try to, but a great talent to steal the pitch and fool/cheat the umpire with pitch framing. One maybe gives the batter an advantage. The other cheats the actual outcome of the pitch. OK to steal signs with no tech, but criminal to steal signs with tech. OK to figure out a tell, or how a pitcher tips his pitches, and then share that, but criminal to figure out a series of 10 hand signals with video. Sometimes I just don't understand the outrage, or the distinctive difference, on what is a great talent to quantify, and what is "cheating". I hate pitch framing cheating the most, and it is still a thing, when it can easily be eliminated.
  22. h2oface
    I guess central North Carolina, south of the Blue Ridge in the piedmont between Hickory and Lenoir ...... is close to where he grew up? Atlanta was the closest professional team. But personally, not really that close all in all, and not even in Georgia.....
  23. h2oface
    To me, it is another weapon a championship team needs. The don't have to be league leaders, but they definitely should not be the worst in MLB! With the speed this team has, it is pathetic that they don't steal more bases, and steal them with a high percentage of attempts. Whatever needs to happen to develop the base stealing talent again, I am all for it. It isn't always the fastest player that steals the most bases. Counting on the big hit as the only option in playoff games leads to being swept. We all that story.
  24. h2oface
    Bumgarner. Bumgarner .Bumgarner. Bumgarner. Bumgarner. Dobnak, Smeltzer....... and that other guy that starts with an S..... can you say Scott Diamond? Depth, for a fill in when needed until they blow up, just like Hildenberger and Harper. I can't wait to be out of the old mentality of the "good story" and have great pitchers. Pitchers are mentioned as still young at 26 and 27, but are too old at 30? I would much rather have a healthy aging??? Bumgarner pitching in the playoffs than even Kershaw or Verlander or Price .... or even Cole, regardless of how his season went.
  25. h2oface
    That big time curveball IS a strike! It is a great pitcher's pitch, just what the game is supposed to do.... encourage the talent it takes to be able to make a pitch like that, that just barely makes it into the zone! To make a pitch that is a strike and the hitters can't hit! That is baseball. That is what a pitcher is supposed to do! Just because the umpires are too inadequate to make the right call, instead of the wrong call on those pitches, does NOT mean it isn't a great pitch, and a strike, and always has been, regardless of the umpire's error. This is like saying an umpire "was consistent", and that is OK, even if he was consistently wrong with his own imagined strike zone all game. Amazing how one can call a pitch from a video from behind the catcher with the view of the ball totally blocked. I will not be one of the "you" that will hate the change. If the system goes down, the ump just steps in and makes the call with no delay. He will already be standing there, just like the court judge is sitting in his chair at a tennis match. Not a big deal.
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