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jmlease1

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Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    The guys who put up huge innings numbers in the 70's are also something of a fluke, but the reality is pitchers today are throwing harder by a lot and causing more stress on their arms. You're also ignoring the guys who blew out their arms early and never made it because they were expected to throw 250 innings every year and had pitch counts going past 140. Hells bells, just look at what Lasorda did to Fernando with those kind of inning and pitch counts. Done as an elite pitcher at 27! But hey, he threw a bunch of complete games. Did you work on the coaching staff at Rice? (still haven't forgiven them for wrecking Canterino's arm)
  2. jmlease1
    do you really think it's a good idea to have him throw 115-120 pitches to get through 6? And 130-140 to get through 7? Taj pitched effectively but not efficiently, and I don't think he had a single inning under 15 pitches. It made perfect sense to pull him after 5 with a 6 run lead and him at 97 pitches. (Especially considering about a month ago he was on the IL) If he'd been around 70-80 pitches through 5, he'd be out for the 6th, and if he was still under a hundred after 6 he might have gotten a 7th if he was in a groove. But he didn't and wasn't, having walked a guy in the 5th and averaging nearly 20 pitches an inning. The math isn't that hard, and the last thing this team and it's injury history needs is someone doing a Tommy Lasorda and running our starters out there for huge pitch counts.
  3. jmlease1
    I think DeBarge got too much hype last season because of all the steals he was piling up in Cedar Rapids, along with the minor league gold glove. He hit a wall last season as a hitter and they promoted him anyways, and he's predictably struggled. He's been correctly moved down on the top prospect list, and will likely move off it soon unless he starts hitting again. Which may take some time and significant adjustments. They took a risk on him and it may not be playing out, but he's still got time, since he really hasn't spent that much time in pro baseball yet. There's a lot of misses at #33, more than say the NFL.
  4. jmlease1
    Nice to see Quick have a good start. Honestly, I haven't been that worried about him. The stuff is excellent, I think he just needs innings. He's really pitched very little at the college/pro level so far, so there's going to be some bumps and he'll need development time to find consistency. But the pieces are there. It's ok if he pitches the year in Cedar Rapids, IMHO. Like seeing Winokur hitting. Not enthusiastic about him still getting run out at SS. He's having a pretty good season overall. Nice to see Diaw get an xbh in AA; I'm sure there will be more coming. he's doing just fine on promotion I think. I find him fascinating as a player with the C/CF split. If he keeps hitting they'll find a spot for him. Glad to see Mercedes have a good day. He's struggled with the new level a bit; he's not getting wrecked, but he's clearly getting a challenge. Will be interesting to see where he lands at the end of the month.
  5. jmlease1
    Morris is doing a nice job; starting to look like we've got something there. Still need to get some more help there, but nice to see that he might be a guy who will be cheap, effective and under team control for several seasons. Liked seeing the offense pile up the walks again; feel like that's been a consistent good sign for them. If they're taking those free passes, making the opposition pitchers really work, get lots of baserunner, and good things will follow. Excellent run support. I continue to be a Taj Bradley fan. Would like to see him get more efficient to get deeper in games, but he does have dominance in him. He's been a little less consistent since coming off the IL, but might have just needed some games to start getting a rhythm again. Series win is always good. Road series win is even better.
  6. jmlease1
    good grief, he might actually BE Captain America! :D
  7. jmlease1
    Please don't be injured Culpepper, please don't be injured Culpepper... Have to admit, I'm starting to get intrigued by this Fragoza kid; it's been quite the power explosion in Ft. Myers for him! Very nice game by Walker Jenkins. Please stay healthy, mah dude.
  8. jmlease1
    Fragoza will have to control the strike zone better as he advances, but a .619 SLG% in the FCL is no joke. That's some loud contact. He's playing all over the place right now, wonder what his future position will be? Good start for Sprock, but college hitters should be able to perform out the gate in Low A.
  9. jmlease1
    Sure is nice to see fewer prospects on the IL! Here's hoping July is a hot month for a lot of guys.
  10. jmlease1
    There isn't actually any good research that shows a substantial increase in workload season over season causes injury; that was just some Bee Ess that Tom Verducci tried to sell because he half-assed some "analysis" after seeing a couple of pitchers break down and tried to make a name for himself with his fake 20% rule. They should monitor Prielipp closely, be careful on his high stress innings and overall pitch counts, and the plan of finding him extra days off seems wise...but there's no real reason if he's feeling good that they have to shut him down early this year. Yes, it will be a significant leap if he goes from 82 2/3 innings in 2025 to 120-140 innings in 2026...but he's on that path because he's healthy. And we'll all feel better about his rotation prospects for 2027 if he pitches a full season in 2026 as a starter and actually throws over 100 MLB innings... He's always had tons of arm talent; the issue was health. Seems to be healthy. Let's roll.
  11. jmlease1
    Pretty much sums up the game in one sentence. Waiting for someone to pop in and "explain" how Zebby's last 3 games are meaningless because he gave up 7 runs each in starts 4 & 6 "proving" that he's just another Twins prospect that all hype and will never be good in 3...2,,,1... Could have used a few more baserunners in front of those homers, but any time you put up 5 runs you're giving your team a good chance to win. Caratini having a scorching June after a poor May; while I don't expect him to keep raking like this it's been nice to see him work out of a real slump. Will definitely take his season average going forward...
  12. jmlease1
    There aren't very many "young" position players on this roster. Literally 2 who are 25 or younger: Lee and Keaschall. Lee still in the infield, has potential to be very good at 3B. And of course, Keaschall can also play CF with his speed and athleticism, so not limited to just corner OF. So not exactly accurate. I've been disappointed in Keaschall's progress at 2B; he's got good enough tools to be better than what's he's shown, but the performance simply hasn't been there. Part of me still wonders if it's still mostly a matter of reps so that he stops thinking about every play and can just react and play, but maybe that's improvement that needs to be done in the offseason. He's looked fine in the OF in the minors and should be able to handle RF once he learns the oddities of Target Field a little better. But I tend to agree that he plays up better in LF or CF than RF, since his arm is still a liability.. They sure seem to be prioritizing Larnach's comfort level, and you'd think Larnach would be more suited to RF, even if he's played much better in LF this season.
  13. jmlease1
    It's been a pretty miserable season for DeBarge. Hope he can get it going at the plate again. Winokur had a scorching May, but has cooled off again in June. The good thing is this month didn't have the same kind of contact woes that wrecked his April, but the pattern does seem similar. He needs to find more consistency. Batting averages in Wichita are so bad that Marek Houston's .250 looks pretty good, but would like to see him start cracking xbhs again.
  14. jmlease1
    Prielipp is quite talented. How nice that he's finally healthy long enough to show it to everyone. We've definitely needed him. Rockies aren't very good, but last season they put the last nails into the season. Better to get the series win for sure. Morris is giving signs that he's a reliever that can be counted on, which is nice. Can we find 3 or 4 more?
  15. jmlease1
    So hard to know whether there's anything there with Sabato. He's certainly able to punish mistakes, but he also K's a lot and the OBP isn't exactly lighting the world on fire. But the power is impressive? That last jump is treacherous. Considering all the LH hitters we have lurking in AAA it'd be nice to see a RH slugger emerge, but it's taken Sabato so long to even get to this point. That said, he's been better at AAA than last season, so clearly he's a guy who can improve year over year... GG is on a heater right now, speaking of RH hitters. He's had a bit of an odd season, but seems to be rounding into form. Wouldn't mind seeing him get another look this year; we've already burned the option, so hopefully he gets a more extended look at some point. Would like to get a better idea of what he could be next season.
  16. jmlease1
    Funderburk has been ok this season, overall. Orze? meh. But there simply aren't a lot of options in the bullpen since they didn't invest anything in it. Morris is showing something though. Would have been an awful game to lose after building such a nice lead with Bradley so good through 7. But the wheels can come off quickly when you have few reliable arms in the bullpen. Maybe Raya will help.
  17. jmlease1
    You can choose to look at it however you want. If you want to look at the negative and presume that no Twin can possibly be good, go ahead. His stuff looked incredible in spring training and his last two starts were dominant. You want to believe that the first two are who he is rather than the last 2, go ahead.
  18. jmlease1
    Super bummed about this, as Abel had made a real leap forward this year. He wasn't looking like a back of the rotation guy, but a playoff-caliber starter who could really kick butt. Hope that it's a relatively minor clean-up procedure and there's nothing structural found in there. Maybe one of these days we'll catch a break on this stuff. But better to do it now than try and grind through the season on and off the IL and try and deal with it in the off-season..
  19. jmlease1
    Can't really include him until he actually gets back to pitching. I'm rooting for the dude, but he's coming back from a serious and complicated injury with poor success rates. He's closer to Matt Canterino right now than the bullpen.
  20. jmlease1
    Quentin Young is going to be a divisive prospect over the next couple of years, I think. He's very much a high ceiling, low floor prospect with impressive physical gifts and intriguing tools that may take a while to translate into consistent production on the field (if they ever do). He's very young, very unpolished, and very frustrating. Patience required. I kind of feel like putting him in the bottom quartile of the prospect lists and mostly ignoring him except for like check ins and reports every 2 months or so. The day to day won't tell us much. I don't think he'll stick at SS, but there's probably little harm right now in letting him play out a season there. Diaw is a player I like. I really would love to get some insider info on what the organization thinks of him as a catcher and what his future position might be. Someone that has the ability to play both catcher and CF is an unusual combo of athleticism and it's fun. It's been all singles so far at AA, but not terribly worried about that; power develops later anyways, and he seems to have a good line drive approach that will generate enough xbh even if he's not a significant homer threat. Maybe he can start unlocking something on the basepaths? Intriguing player. But I like his progress so far, and he gets on base.
  21. jmlease1
    Much rather see them take a look at Raya, figure out what works and what might not, see if he's ready or needs more work in AAA than throw games and innings away with guys like Voth. There's real upside here. I expect him to impress at times and struggle as well, but he could be a very useful piece going forward and it's something we need to start figuring out now so we can try and get some of these pieces locked down in the bullpen.
  22. jmlease1
    He's organizational depth. Probably too many limitations (rough contact rates, poor defense) to take the next step, but you never know. No problems with him moving up to AAA, and maybe he'll be able to keep refining things, getting better, and positioning himself to get a chip, a chair, and a chance. Good for him to keep forcing the issue, and working his way up. But he's still behind Jenkins, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, and Mendez in the OF prospect pecking order and is unlikely to be thought of more highly than Fedko, just for different reasons.
  23. jmlease1
    I don't think so: he's really talented, but also pitched very little in college, so has a lot of work to do in refining his game. It's why I've been fine with him being in Cedar Rapids, when some people were pushing for a promotion to AA after a couple of good outings early. He needs innings and experience right now to work on his command. But he's rated pretty appropriately, IMHO. Nice debut for Rosario. Always happy when a guy gets a couple of hits upon promotion, I'm sure that's helpful for their confidence. GG had a poor start to the season, and wasn't exactly lighting it up in May, but he's on a real heater right now. Hope this means he's gotten locked in, is feeling good, and starts pushing for promotion as well.
  24. jmlease1
    It's possible that he's the sort of player that keeps making incremental improvement as he gets more experience and makes adjustments? The question then is at what point does that top off and whether or not the growth is enough to support his roster spot. He was always seen as a high floor player, and we may be seeing some of that now, especially if he's off SS for good and can start generating some defensive value to go along with improvements at the plate. A league average switch hitter who can add defensive value and positional flexibility around the infield has real value, even if it's not star power.
  25. jmlease1
    Wallner still needs to show he can catch up to not just fastballs but the faster ball. He's punishing mistakes, and hitting lower velocity fastballs, but hasn't shown that he can catch up to stuff in the upper 90's which is where he will get hunted in MLB. Martin isn't hitting but has started getting on base again over the last couple of weeks in his reduced role; he might have earned more time. Fedko has played so little since coming up it's hard to say what he deserves or doesn't, but his RH bat helps balance the squad a bit. He's the most likely candidate to get dropped again, but replacing him with Roden does raise some issues of lineup balance and vulnerability to LHP. Not sure there's that much urgency yet; the offense was humming until the Dodgers shut things down. For, you know, one game.
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