jmlease1

I was unaware that wins against KC and Oakland count for less than other wins in the standings. Interesting. 🤣 Maeda's velocity and movement were fine last night, but he just couldn't locate consistently and finish off hitters. Maybe he's one of those guys who gets rusty when they get extra time off? Nice work by the bullpen...with the exception of Duran, which has usually gone the other way. I'm not worried about him per se, but it would be nice to get a good stretch of clean innings again. I'm exhausted with the inconsistent strike zone this year, it just seems to be a constant refrain where you get these games where it sticks out like a sore thumb. Everyone had something to complain about last night so I guess it was "fair", but this is another game where it is objectively reasonable to talking about the strike zone and I'd much rather not be talking about the umpires at all.

Seems really doubtful that Julien is a solution to any of our production questions in the OF. Part of Julien's problem in the infield is his arm is terrible (poor strength and poor accuracy on throws) and that would be a problem for him in the OF too (he might become an average-ish defender in terms of range and catching flies, but people would run on him all day) I do think this FO struggles with sunk costs when it comes to under-performing veterans, especially in-season. They usually seem to want to give a player more time to turn it around and recoup some value. (there are exceptions, of course) And after last seasons collapse where they ran out of credible MLB players, especially in the OF because of injuries, I get the hedging (it's not like we have a clean sheet on injuries this season either). but at a certain point you end up hurting the team more and it's hard to keep acting like a player is going to turn things around or change. (I don't think the Twins are the only front office that struggles with this, especially smaller markets) I wasn't wild about signing Gallo, but a lot of it was about signing Gallo when we were keeping Kepler. Having both is increasingly problematic, because neither is hitting enough. Gallo's really fallen off after a hot start and his defense has been disappointing (though his versatility has been appreciated). Kepler's offense continues to be below par, and while his defensive value is greater than Gallo's right now, he's not a superior player out there any longer either. Gallo is probably the easier one to simply cut: he hasn't had a good month since the start of the season, he's adding less defensive value, he's in a deep slump, there's no obligation after this season, and he's got no track record with the team. (the other side of the ledger is he seems like a good clubhouse guy, he's shown willingness to play wherever asked, he had a couple of minor injuries which may have hampered his defense, and we'd be eating more money on his contract) But it seems hard to keep going to the Gallo well, unfortunately. Kepler shouldn't be safe, though. There's little to suggest that he'll improve; these 2 week bursts where he looks good have always been followed up with stretches of total ineptitude at the plate. He not bad defensively and still capable of making plays, but he's not looking like an elite player out in the field any longer, and he seems restricted to RF. But he's not going to be any real help on offense. He'll be lucky to finish the season with an OPS+ of 95, and it seems highly unlikely he'll reach 100, which is league average. 2019 was a fluke year. I think I would release Gallo now and give either Wallner or Larnach a real shot. I would hold Kepler to see if they could trade him for anything (even if it meant eating some salary, or getting nothing but an A-ball reliever), and try and keep him away from any lefty until the trade deadline. Maybe he's a throw-in on another deal from a team that wants a lefty bat who can play good D. but I have no expectations we'll get much for him (I do think he has at least some trade value or at least less negative trade value than Gallo at this point), and if he can't be dealt, then I'd think long and hard about cutting him too unless Waller/Larnach immediately flopped on recall. We need more offense, and Gallo and Kepler aren't getting it done.

That's probably a little bit of a challenge for some of these elite HS hitters: they could expand the zone and swing more and rack up more hits and HRs against that level of competition, but they also are trying to develop good habits and take walks, show they know the strike zone, etc. Winokur is an interesting player. Should be fun to watch him develop. With a bunch of HS kids entering the system I think it's going to be very interesting to see where the Twins place them in the minors and how fast they adjust and advance. (also how fast the franchise pushes them too; I don't think there's any clear pattern for them on how aggressive they are with younger players. Plenty of examples of them going slow on a guy as well as aggressive moves, so with a guy like Winokur he could be playing complex ball this year and be in low A next season...or he could do an extra season in the "rookie" leagues)

I'm always enthusiastic about pitching prospects with a deadly changeup. It's such a fun pitch. Interesting that the twins drafted him once and are returning there after college for him. I hope that means they know more about him than other clubs and are getting a steal!

That's more value to the franchise and its bottom line, not more value on the field.

I love the fact that he puts Target Field on for HitTrax. That's just kinda neat. I love Target Field and it's cool to hear a high school kid who has never been here throw a little love on it. He seems like another prospect who wants to work, wants to be coached, and has the drive to succeed. here's hoping for good health and success!

Really interesting prospect. Always a fair amount of risk with high school pitchers, but there's a lot to like about Soto and things that might mitigate the risk. Having a big fastball that isn't flat at his age is impressive. It seems really likely that he'll add weight and strength in the next couple of years that can hopefully help keep him strong and healthy (maybe even add velocity to an already impressive fastball?). It'll be really interesting to see how his command and control develops in the minors and what his pitch mix starts to look like as the Twins work with him. heavy fastball, circle change, and slider is a nice base to work from. I do think it's cool that he's already been coached by LaTroy Hawkins and has connections to players already in the system. Lot of potential with this kid, and he sounds like he has his head on straight.

For a college player, he's still on the the younger side, which might increase the upside potential here. Definitely some hitting talent here and he should be fun to watch.

Tough break for him. But you have to take some chances in the draft. And he could still work out, but this is a significant setback for him. Hopefully he can get his arm right and come back next season.

nice run on college pitchers right now for the Twins. No objections to them digging around in the college ranks to see who they can find that might take another step up with their coaching and program; they've had some nice results mining smaller programs too.

Yeah, I think the twins have a bunch of guys in the organization right now at the position, just not anyone that is a breakout guy or projects comfortably as a big-league starter. But there are several guys that might be able to hit their way up clustered in A/AA now. They're missing higher ceiling projection guys right now, which they're not finding late in the draft.

There were a couple of college pitchers left from KLaw's list that i liked, but we're getting in the territory where I've never heard of a lot of these guys, so gotta trust the scouting.

That would be unbelievable. (especially if he's healthier) Larry Walker was a ridiculously great player and a worthy Hall of Famer. I get that comps like this are projecting out to a maximum ceiling, but it sure is fun to think about our own version of Larry freakin' Walker out there. (seriously, that guy was crazy, crazy good)

So far last year's draft is coming along nicely! Now, they did focus on college players in that draft (first 13 picks were all college guys) and I would expect those to have a greater chance of initial success in pro ball, due to their greater experience and development than a HS kid...but it's still an impressive hit rate so far.

That's an interesting statement; they seem to be saying that they don't like Soto that much because his stuff doesn't work up in the zone which is where modern analytics are telling pitchers to go...but one of the things a progressive team is also thinking about is not needing to have every pitcher be the same guy. On Keaschall that kinda reads like they don't have a great reason to downgrade him but want to anyways, so they're picking "competition". By that measure, every HS player should probably get a ding? I'm not really sure why they were surprised by these picks: none of them are a reach, all of them have some standout abilities on them...did they just expect the twins to take a chunky college slugger in all their mocks?

there are 4 college pitchers on KLaw's top 10 "best available" list, and it would be great if one of them slipped to the Twins today. (I'm personally less enthusiastic about the HS shortstops sitting out there on that same list, but YMMV) I think we'll see the Twins take some college pitchers from smaller college programs again, and I'm fine with that.

Blew it? Feels a little harsh. And if Carrigg doesn't stick at catcher (and notably, his primary position this spring was CF) then what is he? KLaw had him all the way down at 70 on his big board because he doesn't make hard contact and expands the zone too much (and as a result doesn't get on base enough). If he's the 2nd best college catcher, why didn't he play there for SDSU this spring? Keaschall has the speed for CF, so if he doesn't stick on the dirt he's got another position when he can add value on defense. I just don't think you can try and draft for need and be successful in the MLB draft, unless the players are pretty close in terms of overall evaluation; then it makes sense as a tie-breaker, but right now it doesn't look like Carrigg is seen by many evaluators as a serious catching prospect and there's some real questions about his hit tool in comparison to other guys who were drafted ahead of him.

Looks like a good pick. The velocity is impressive, and it sounds like he has 2 off-speed pitches to refine already; I'll admit I'm always a little biased toward pitchers that have a change-up. Lot of HS pitchers don't really have all that much in that area: they can overwhelm kids with the velocity and then any kind of off-speed pitch, even if it's not really all that great still looks like it's falling off a table. So it's good to hear that he's got two in the arsenal that are already developing and he won't have to create one from scratch. It'll be interesting to see what the team can do with him to refine his command and control early? he's likely to get stronger working as a professional, so I wouldn't be surprised to see the velocity tick up a bit more, so if he can find the zone consistently he could do very well.

Hopefully he gets signed quickly, passes all the medicals and can jump into some rookie ball games in the complex league immediately and the teams can really get to work with him. Assuming reasonable health and so forth, I think it's likely he starts next season in Ft. Myers at Low-A and from there his advancement will be driven by his performance and development.

I do find it funny how several of the national prognosticators & evaluators were very sure that the Twins weren't going to take a HS player with their first pick because of their "clear preference" for college bats and were going to go off-script, blah blah blah overreachingcakes.

Nice tribute to Mike Radcliff, classy move by the Twins there. Nice group of Day 1 picks, should be fun to watch them develop. Glad the Twins didn't try to get too cute with their first pick and took one of the consensus top 5 guys. I get the strategy of picking guys based on slot number and using some early savings to get more highly rated talent later (and it's seemed to work for the Twins before), but there's also real advantage to getting one of the consensus 5 best players in a draft.

It would be great. I definitely had him in "bust" category going into this season, but maybe he's salvaging it.

I think it's kind of amazing that midway through Brooks Lee's first full season in professional baseball you've already decided the Twins blew it and his ceiling is only as a backup infielder/utility guy. He's the youngest player on the Wichita roster, he's barely played a hundred games in pro ball, and he's having a solid season in AA after hardly spending any time in A-ball. Maybe we could give him at least one full season in AA before deciding he won't be a star hitter.

It's all part of the package, and I think I do get to complain about it. It's not about whether it cost the game or the mistakes even out: it's about getting it right and getting obvious calls wrong is bad for baseball, especially when there are solutions to fix it that won't slow down the game. Gray might have walked in the run anyways, but we'll never know because the ump made a terrible call. He called an obvious strike a ball, and literally everyone knew it. But the only way we're going to see baseball (which is still the slowest to change of any of the major professional team sports) do anything about it it is to keep pointing it out and complain about it.

Odd game. All the O's hits were in one inning, and it's not like they were bashing them off the walls. Julien missed a play that he probably should have made. Ump makes one of the most inexplicable ball 4 calls I've seen this side of Phil Cuzzi. Frustrating. If you'd told me before the game that the Twins were going to out-hit the O's and lose by 4 runs, that the O's would have zero extra base hits and the Twins would have 5, my response would have been what in the holy hell happened in the game?!? And I was there today, and I still only kinda understand it. But you know what? Today was still a lovely day to be at the ol' ballpark.