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Mark G

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Everything posted by Mark G

  1. Mark G
    Ouch! Ouch! OUCH!! That is what a 3 game sweep and 26 consecutive shut out innings feels like. But it IS only 3 games. 3 games from now, we just might be saying "take that!" Hope springs eternal.
  2. Mark G
    I concur completely. Problem is, the regular season is what gets you to the playoffs. And, as was said quite well by many posts above this, Rocco has way too many games like this in the regular season. And it's not his first season; it may just be time to accept the concept that he is a good clubhouse manager, but not a very good game manager. While the former may be very desirable, the latter is just as important.
  3. Mark G
    I would have liked to be a fly on the wall when the decision was made to let go of Bowman; that move is perplexing to me. I, also, believe he will catch on with another team and, if I were him, I would decline the move to St. Paul and hook up somewhere else. I guess brighter minds than mine will figure out that move, because I can't. Someone educate me? 🤷‍♂️
  4. Mark G
    It is an intriguing thought for a team that has spent years turning starters into relievers, but I would much prefer using him as a 2 inning closer than a 5 inning starter; we have enough of those already. My motto is, and always has been, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Let the man do what he does well.
  5. Mark G
    It is kind of like having a very, very bad cold. So you take a couple of weeks and go to Miami for a little medicine and a lot of sun, and just let the sun soak the cold right out of you. But the real test is when you get back home; do you still feel as good as you did in the Miami sun? Or do you catch a cold again? We should know by mid May, I would guess, one way or another how we are going to feel, and if the guys getting well now stay well then. In the meantime, the sunshine sure feels nice; soak it in while we can. 🫠
  6. Mark G
    Too bad we don't play the '62 Mets.....oops......the CWS 19 times a year anymore. An awful lot of our guys are looking a lot better this week; will it carry over when the Mets.....crap.....the White Sox aren't on the schedule until July? Let's hope so.
  7. Mark G
    Try not to laugh too hard, but why not take a look at Bowman? He threw, what, 46 pitches, or right around that, last week and last time I checked his arm was still attached to his shoulder. A lot of us thought he was going to grab an Uber over to St. Paul for an arm there that was able to pitch if needed, but they kept him around, so they must think something of him. His stats, limited though they may be, look pretty good. Why not take a look? Especially when you can put him up against the White Sox as a good first look. Personally, I am curious how he would do. Stretch him out a little more and see.
  8. Mark G
    I really do love these articles, and I mean no offense when I critique them, but...........we are 27th in this, 29th in this, and 27th in this. But wait! We are 7th in this, and 2ND in this; gotta have some good news in here somewhere. You know what? We are 4th in a 5 team division that was projected to be pretty weak. That's the only th I care about. In my line of work (mental health) we tell our clients " do you want something better in your life? Then it is going to have to be something different; 'cause if you do what you've always done, you're gonna get what you've always got." For this team to be better, it is going to have to do something different!! I just question if they want to. Thanks, though, Matthew for the info that most of us don't have. Where would we be without our writers? 🙂
  9. Mark G
    ( are we turning out to be the white sox).... We are about to find out in the next two weeks. 🙄
  10. Mark G
    "I'd request that Rocco adjust to use the hot-hand on occasion vs the strict lefty-righty approach all the time." You need to go right to the source and ask the horse (you need to ask the computer). It will give you the answer that you endorse...........seriously, you would have better luck asking Mr. Ed. 🤭
  11. Mark G
    "The piling on Varland is kind of weird IMO. he pitched 94 pitches which is generally more than all the other pitchers go (besides Lopez) and that should be in the pen? He gave up two earned runs in 5 innings and only 6 base runners". I am not sure what game you were watching, but in the game that I watched he gave up 6 runs (4 earned) and 11 hits in 5 innings. Not sure how they got 6 runs and 11 hits and only had 6 base runners; but then, I didn't see the same game you did. 😉 (just teasin ya.....I didn't want this to come out sounding mean)
  12. Mark G
    Let's see.......Bowman is going down due to not being available for 3 days, and Varland, who should go back to the pen where he is effective, can't right now because he is not available for 5 days. We need a couple of longer starts the next few games until we can straighten out the staff and refine their roles. The St. Paul shuttle bus might have to be tuned up, but it can't be the only answer. And we HAVE to straighten out this infield, or the pitching is the least of our problems. I was always taught that the 3 most important components of the game were pitching, hitting, and defense. Right now, I just wonder if we are putting our guys in the positions that best suit their skills. The powers that be decided on this roster, and we are going to have to dance with the date we brought to the dance, but are we playing the right guys in the right spots at the right times? Smarter minds than mine will ultimately decide that, but this old timer doesn't think so. Stop the musical chairs in the field and in the batting order, and put the guys in positions they can get comfortable in and are best at. That includes defined roles for our bullpen, not the match ups the computer tells us game by game and inning by inning. We have a decent team; one that can win this division. But they won't if they keep playing musical chairs in the 3 areas I mentioned above. Utility players are a special breed; not everyone plays the role equally. Yet we seem to think we have half a dozen regulars and an even longer list of either utility players or platoon players. How many rosters like that win championships? 26 players, position and pitchers, given definitive roles and allowed to do their best where they play the best, stand a chance. Has anyone seen that the first 15 games? I just hope that we see it as the season goes along, or it will be a painful season.
  13. Mark G
    The big 3, you might say, that we were counting on the most: Lopez is 1-2 and looks a little off right now, Correa is hurt (again), and Buxton is hitting .220 with almost no power. Add to that Wallner is 1 for the season, Vazquez is 2 for the season, and Jeffers and Santana are 4 for the season, all 4 of whom played last night and the offense showed it. Last, but not least, we can't continue to have the pen pitching 45% of the innings pitched forever. There was a post some days ago that questioned if spring training actually got this team ready for the regular season, or was just a necessary evil we had to get through to avoid injuries. He didn't put it into those exact words, of course, but I got the drift. And he was dead on: we were not ready for the regular season, and we better get ready in a hurry, before even more of the guys get hurt and it gets out of hand. This division is not as good as it looks right now, but it isn't nearly as bad as it was last year, either. There is still more than enough time to get right, but we don't want to wait until the All Star break this time around, because 2nd place isn't going to be 10 games under .500 this year. How about we start by winning 2 today?
  14. Mark G
    Speaking of which, does anyone know who the 27th man is going to be on Saturday? I can't find anything.
  15. Mark G
    Louie looked pretty good out of the pen last fall; not so good in 2 starts this year (9 runs in 9 innings). Time to reassess his role?? Anyone in St. Paul we might want to look at instead? If we are going to go with 12 pitchers for any length of time, we need more than 4 or 5 innings a start, and we are already being cautious with Paddock; how long can the pen throw 45% of our innings pitched? Will we get our offense going at the same time our pen fades from overuse? Stay tuned for these answers and more in the next installment of "As the Twins Turn". 😉
  16. Mark G
    I think Cody hit it when he talked about players being mentally suited for the role of batting only and not playing the field; a lot of time goes by in between at bats and staying in the game mentally is a challenge for some players. The Twins use the DH to a considerable degree as a semi rest game for some of our regulars that we want to give the day off in the field, but still want their bat in the lineup, and sometimes use specific guys more often because there is no place in the field for them that day, and that means some of the time guys don't go long stretches in the DH role, meaning they don't have to settle into a mind set that is long term. Personally, I don't care for using the DH for that purpose, as it is not the purpose MLB brought the DH into existence in the first place, but it does appear to help with the mental part of the position for our guys. Until we get another Molitor, Thome, or Cruz to grace us with their bat, it looks like this is the path we are on, so let's make it work.
  17. Mark G
    I guess I am one of those folks who don't consider a player who is 26 or 27 out of time. Their ages don't mean anything to me, other than if it means they are slowing down to a point of being ineffective, so I believe it is comparable. When we sign a 38 year old and give up on a 26 year old.......I guess I am just not smart enough to follow that, so I will leave it to much brighter minds than mine. I just hope they aren't giving up on those 2; we could use them if they can figure things out.
  18. Mark G
    Miranda has always crushed minor league pitching, up to, and including AAA. It is the bigs that test him. I would be surprised if he didn't perform extremely well in St. Paul, and I hope he gets another shot and finally succeeds. Larnach has always had good power, and is a nice threat to have in the lineup, if he can lay off the breaking balls he seems to flail at far too often. I would love to see him come up again, as well, and come to his true potential. I seem to remember a certain first baseman, who shall remain nameless but pontificates on Twins broadcasts regularly, getting sent down early in his career before he finally came around and became one of the best hitters we had. I wish Miranda and Larnach the same success; we could use them at their best.
  19. Mark G
    You have a lot more faith in Buxton's health than I do, but I sure do love the rest of that prediction. 😉
  20. Mark G
    I am sure of that. But it is like getting a new chair. Of course it is better than your old, favorite, comfortable chair, but you still long for that old chair. Dick was that for me, as was Herb. Cory will do fine; I just miss Dick.
  21. Mark G
    I always felt sorry for John Gordon, having to follow Herb Carneal; no one was going to be that good, but John did alright. I feel sorry for Cory Provus, now, as well; there just isn't another Dick Bremer. It is hard for me to watch right now but, as you say, hopefully I will get over it. In the meantime, Cory will do alright as well. Just showing my age, I guess.
  22. Mark G
    "Few players can stay healthy for the entire year........" Forget the entire year, we have trouble getting from FL to MN healthy. I hope our depth steps up like it did last year. Can't wait for Thursday!!
  23. Mark G
    I sense that this is one of those "low risk, possible high reward" moves by a team that has no fear of the division they are in. If he does well, great; if he doesn't, well......a game here and there isn't going to mean much in this division. "the Twins have signed one of the more beloved clubhouse guys in MLB." Maybe, in a division we expect to win, this is the value we see most of all. I hope he does well.
  24. Mark G
    It is ironic that immediately before I read this article on Jax, I was reading The Athletic. It had an article that interviewed Dr. Keith Meister, the orthopedic surgeon who is the team physician for the Texas Rangers. He performs surgeries on pitchers quite often, and he was trying to explain why pitchers today are more injured than any time in history; it is the spin they try to put on the ball, and the velocity they are trying to reach with virtually every pitch. And the next article I read says that is exactly what they are trying to do with Jax. The Athletic article is worth a read, if you can find it. It makes me pause and think.
  25. Mark G
    We may very well need to, but I still refuse to. Starting pitchers are not the ones redefining themselves; front offices and coaching staffs are doing it for them. I am a huge Sonny fan; he stood up for himself and called out the manager for not letting him pitch his game. I am a fan of his passion and his desire to do his job. But when it comes to starting pitching, this is all I need to know: yes, Sonny had a great ERA, and some other underlying stats that looked good beyond the record, but he was 8-8 and averaged just over 5 2/3 innings per start. And if Gerrit Cole had gotten hit by a truck on the way to the All Star game, he would have won the Cy Young award. That says everything that needs to be said about today's starting pitching in MLB. The most frustrating part for me, is that the less they produce the more they get paid. The best starting pitchers today command so much money they price out half the teams in MLB, and produce less than previous pitchers from the 1880's to the 1980's. I respect very much what you are saying, and I know I am a minority of.....oh, I don't know........maybe one, but 13 pitchers in two years (and some of the pitchers may have been one of the few in both years, so maybe not even 13) putting up a minimum of 200 innings pitched shows not just how much the game has changed, but how much the game has fallen. 20 million a year starting pitchers have to be bailed out game after game by 3 million a year relievers, and when they can't make all 32 starts, minimum wage minor league call ups start in their place. And yet we all crave the 20 mil starters, thinking about October (if we happen to get there). As the poet once said, it is to laugh. And, yet, it is still my 2nd favorite sport out there (behind bowling, of course). 😉 Nobody can relieve the bowler, and there is no defense; you go it alone. Starting pitchers could learn a thing or two spending a weekend with them. 😊
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