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Bailey Ober takes the bump as the Twins try to halt the losing streak. Come join the discussion! ×
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jmlease1

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Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    Great for him if this for real...not sure that it is. Let's see where he is in another month or two and no one bothers throwing him a fastball for a while. But maybe he can ride this for a while. Still feels like a AAAA player to me?
  2. jmlease1
    I hope Joey Gallo keeps proving me wrong all season. He's off to a great start.
  3. jmlease1
    He's doing great, but he still has stretches where he struggles to finish off a hitter (the Anderson AB last night was a perfect encapsulation of this) and he's been a little fortunate (which is why his FIP is sitting at 3.03 while his ERA is at 2.37). I'm still very happy with everything he's done this season, especially with how he's generally kept the walks and HRs down. If he can keep on this kind of a run, he's going to be fighting for an all-star slot, though!
  4. jmlease1
    Was Ryan cruising? the 6th wasn't an easy inning at all for all that he only faced 3 batters. a 12 pitch AB that ends in a walk is a real win for the hitter and it took a nice double play to end the inning. probably a 50-50 call there on whether to leave Ryan in or not...and I'm sure the hindsight folks would have buried Rocco if Ryan had been the one to surrender the dinger. But using Lopez in the 7th makes a ton of sense if you're holding Duran to lock it down for the save: the 3-4-5 hitters were up and Lopez has been excellent this season and a prime choice to take the high leverage situation. I definitely prefer the Twins attitude of having their best relievers face the other team's best hitters in the late innings than trotting out the "closer" to pitch the 9th just because it's the 9th, even if the 7-8-9 guys are coming up. This is actually old-school thinking for relievers, before Tony LaRussa convinced everyone that you were better off using your best pitcher to throw one inning and only in a save situation in the 9th (along with agents who convinced players (correctly) that they would get paid more if they were "closers" and insisted on having that defined role)
  5. jmlease1
    Correct. It's a very reasonable strategy when you're the home team and can play for 1 run to win, but tactically it's a more significant risk for the team in the top of the inning to play for one run, which is essentially what you're doing with by bunting the Manfred Man over to 3rd and surrendering the out. Chicago could bunt the guy over because there was no risk for them to lose and one run walks off the game. The road team doesn't have that advantage.
  6. jmlease1
    yes. sigh. typos are not my friend!
  7. jmlease1
    Because the 3-4-5 hitters were up in the 7th? I'm sure the thought process was to have Lopez (who has been excellent this season) face the heart of the order while trying to preserve the lead in the 7th, have Jax take the 8th, and Moran available to lock it down in the 9th for the save. With the score tied, I'm guessing they were looking at Stewart to run the 9th so that if they scored in the 10th they could again have Moran nail it down for the save. This is all fairly normal bullpen management. The real issue is how little the offense did last night; 3 hits is pretty miserable. They've got to do better even in cold weather...but dang it Correa only needed about another foot to put that ball out and then we're in a whole different story. Ryan did very well last night overall, although i was a little concerned about his inability to finish off a couple of hitters. He got the job done, but there were a few long ABs in there and that's really about the only thing holding him back right now from taking another leap.
  8. jmlease1
    Yeah, let's see how he's doing in another month after pitchers start throwing him a diet of sliders. Or just gets to 200 ABs or so. He's on a huge tear and good for him, but there's a reason SD traded him for a backup catcher (who got waived in the offseason) and KC waived him so Oakland could pick him up for free. Maybe he'll turn into the next David Ortiz, an elite slugger who broke out later after every team in the league had a chance to grab him...but I kinda doubt it.
  9. jmlease1
    Hate to say it, but it wasn't really that big of a contract. Whether Lopez is actually an "ace" or not is almost immaterial, because that deal is more like the market rate for a #2 or #3 starter these days. Look at what someone like Marcus Stroman or Chris Bassitt is getting on the free agent market these days, and neither one is an "ace". (BTW, Buxton is sitting on a 143 OPS+ right now and is on pace for a career high in HRs. He seems fine, even without adding anything on defense so far) 2 games are a blip; everything in Lopez's peripherals suggest he's going to be just fine this season. Why evaluate Lopez just on his last 2 games? Why not his first two games? Or his middle two? If he fires 7 shutout against the ChiSox this weekend does the extension go from "bad" to "good"?
  10. jmlease1
    nice to see several of the college pitchers drafted in 2022 doing well to start the season. That said, I would hope that college pitchers would be able to push people around in low-A. Zebby Matthews has been very good so far, but he's also 23 and taking care of business against a lot of guys who are younger and less experienced. (same goes for Lewis and Jones) I am curious to see if the twins are taking advantage of some marketplace inefficiencies, though in targeting college pitchers in later rounds (often from smaller or northern schools it seems). There may be guys out there who if given more intensive coaching, training, and a higher level of expertise and attention can develop into quality starters from these late round picks and players like Matthews, Lewis, and Jones (much like the way Festa has developed or Varland) could become interesting prospects and potential major leaguers without ever getting very high on anyone's prospect list.
  11. jmlease1
    I normally root for the ChiSox to lose at all times, but I was weirdly happy to see them steal a win against TB. Just felt like it would be classic MN sports luck for a team in an epic losing streak to break it against us and win a series. Going into the season, I didn't think the ChiSox had done enough to address their offense and that seems to be playing out so far. Sure, they've had some guys miss time, but they're also just not very deep and it's showing. the pitching is a bit better than it's shown so far (Kopech is better than this and should get it going soon, hopefully not against us!) but they were always asking for a lot in counting on Clevinger and Lynn. The whole staff has been very very hittable, so if the twins batters stay within themselves, and stick to their plans at the plate, they should be able to pound out a lot of hits. they're clearly missing Hendriks in the bullpen, but adding one stud to the back end won't fix their problems. the team WHIP is just rotten. That said, a series win would be great. Go on the road, take 2 of 3 against a division opponent and life is good. Would love the sweep, but I'll be very happy with a series win. Especially looking forward to seeing how Varland does, assuming he's the one who slides in for Mahle.
  12. jmlease1
    Still on the injured list. fractured thumb, I think?
  13. jmlease1
    Severino is showing why the Twins went after him hard when the Braves cheating opened the opportunity. Yes, the Ks are something to watch out for, but he's also drawing walks, and the power is impressive. He was good last season at Wichita and right now he seems determined to prove it wasn't just small sample size. I expect Cossetti will advance quickly if he keeps pounding Low-A like this. Yes, he's a bit older as a college bat, but the FSL is still a tough league to hit in, so this is a good sign. (I wonder if this is the kind of production they thought they were going to get from Sabato?) Contreras is a tough eval. He's off to an excellent start, but he's also 28. He was just ok in AAA last season, and didn't impress in his short stint in MLB. But it's a great start. Does he just need an opportunity, or is he a AAAA player? Think it's going to be tough for him to get any run in MLB this season with Kirilloff and Wallner ahead of him as lefty OF bats. not surprised to see Wallner doing well in AAA. Probably good for him to draw even more walks. Shuffield is doing well, but at 24 he needs to get out of the FSL and needs to stay on the field if he's going to make it as a utility guy. But probably not a lot of time available in cedar rapids right now
  14. jmlease1
    Tough break for Mahle. I'll admit to being very concerned about this injury and whether he's able to recover from it with rest/therapy and avoid surgery. We've been through this dance before with pitchers where they try to shut it down for a while and get right and avoid the knife and eventually they end up having the surgery and get knocked out for the year, so I am afeared we're facing that again. (I'm not saying it's the wrong decision to try everything you can to avoid surgery; you should always try to avoid the need for surgery if you can. It's just that the odds seem poor.) Thank goodness we have the pitching depth for the rotation to deal with this. Thankfully, Sonny Gray got his regular program in and isn't already on the IL with a bum leg. Thankfully, Joe Ryan is a horse. Thankfully, there's been no problems with Pablo Lopez. We knew Ober and Varland were going to get chances this season. their time is now.
  15. jmlease1
    Not a surprise that the return of Polanco had a significant impact on the offense: he's a heck of a player and going into the season he was clearly the 3rd best position player on the roster. Losing him for several weeks was always going to be a bit of a drag. Great week for the Twins. 5-2 is a pretty nice record. Only blemish is Mahle: that injury doesn't sound good to me, and we're very fortunate to have Varland and Ober ready to go. (I'm a little less concerned with Maeda, who I always expected to miss some time and the injury feels less serious) Big week coming up with division foes, lots of opportunity to put some real distance between us and the rest of the central.
  16. jmlease1
    That does seem to be the way this team does things: if someone needs a kick in the butt or be given some pointed instruction, etc they do it out of the view of the fans and the press. They're much more of a " keep things on an even keel" sort of squad for the most part, especially for the coaching staff and front office. That's frequently less satisfying for fans, but it's probably seen as a real positive by the players. Disappointing loss, but hopefully the team comes out on fire on sunday and takes the series. a split would be disappointing, but taking 3 of 4 would be just ducky. Ober did pretty well, looks like a major-league pitcher. Can he have a healthy season? I'd feel much more confident in him if he could get through a full season and throw 140-150 innings...
  17. jmlease1
    I've been told repeatedly on this site that we must send starters deeper into games. I'm sure Rocco would have been absolutely buried if he had lifted Lopez after 5 innings and a low pitch count with a 6-run lead. I was surprised to see Lopez have two consecutive struggle innings in the 6th and 7th, and I'd argue that Vazquez didn't do him any favors by continuing to push the breaking stuff. Good to see the offense rolling a bit right now. Jumping on a pitcher early is never bad.
  18. jmlease1
    Is there a reason this post has been at the top of the website for like 3 days?
  19. jmlease1
    there really isn't anything sacred about pitching the 9th inning. Tonight we had probably our best available pitcher facing the top of the KC lineup in the 9th, which is how it should be. Unfortunately, he picked tonight to be very shaky. But a win is a win.
  20. jmlease1
    Good grief, please shut these idiots down. But this is baseball, and even garbage teams win 40 games from somewhere. Would hate to be one of them after building this lead!
  21. jmlease1
    Disappointing start for Lopez tonight. He looked solid early but surrendering 6 earned to KC is kind of dire at home. Polanco hit a great bomb at the plate, but has been a bomb in the field tonight. Tough night for the defense which has been pretty good so far this season. If the bullpen can't lock this down this game will be a bit infuriating.
  22. jmlease1
    Very nice win, offense took control and got it done. Hope Mahle isn't seriously hurt and it's just a precaution; that's pretty much that only real negative. He was pitching pretty well too. Nice to have the bullpen pick him up though.
  23. jmlease1
    Some nice baserunning from the Twins to start the game. Nice to see guys going first to third like that, and Gallo did a nice job legging out that double and scoring on the groundout.
  24. jmlease1
    I think this is right. Even an utter trash fire of a major league baseball club is going to win 40 games from somewhere (which is pretty much the pace the Royals are on) and while I'd love to collect a sweep, it'd be no shame to take 3 of 4. KC's offense has been pretty rotten, but they're probably not as bad as it's been so far. The rotation isn't good, but it's not horrible (Singer has been their worse performer to date, but he's their best starter). Twins will have to be patient at the plate and not try to win the series on one swing. We are definitely sending out a good collection of starters to try and shut down the Royals! Good opportunity, be fun to see if the players can execute.
  25. jmlease1
    It was a good series for the Twins. They've still got some things to work through, but having a top three of Pablo Lopez, Sonny Gray, and Joe Ryan has me more confident in this rotation than I've been in a very long time. Tyler Mahle hasn't been bad (in previous years we would have been thrilled with his production), he just hasn't been as great as the others. Maeda is definitely struggling, but how many years have we been worrying about our #3 starter struggling instead of our #5? Polanco being back has made a significant difference. I felt going into the season he was the Twins 3rd best position player so there's no wonder that his bat was missed. And with Farmer out and Nick Gordon having a nightmare start to the season we've really needed him back and he was a huge contributor in the wins against the Yankees. It's early in the season, but it sure looks like I was wrong about Joey Gallo. I didn't think he was a good fit for this team, and he's been a fantastic fit so far. he hasn't just bounced back from a dreadful season, he's looking like Texas Joey again. Great to see him hammer a couple of dingers against the Yankees. he's been great, and I've never been so happy to be wrong.
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