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jmlease1

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Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    well, people do like finding as many reasons as possible to crap on the former Twins President...
  2. jmlease1
    Sure, but Gagne also had a career OPS in the minors of .738 in an era when shortstops were expected to hit their weight, and the only season he had an OPS+ of under 73 in MLB was his rookie year. A few more walks per season and Gagne could have ended up a lot closer to league average (those seasons where he had an OBP of around .280 really hurt). Houston is off to a solid enough start in Cedar Rapids, and I'm happy to see he's not getting overwhelmed like he looks in a brief stint last season. But the bat will define whether he's an occasional backup or something more. Keep in mind, Ryan Kreidler has a career minor league OPS of .744, can really defend at a bunch of different MLB positions, and has never charted more than 35 games in MLB in a season so far. I'm rooting for Houston, but it's really hard to make it in MLB if you're all-glove no-hit. I'd like to see more as a hitter from Houston before I start making noises about him being a top 100 prospect.
  3. jmlease1
    Happy to see the prospect bats in Saint Paul generally all have good days. Hopefully they really get rolling and force the MLB club to make some hard choices. Kala'i Rosario seems to have gotten himself together after an icy start; first 7 games: 2-27 with no xbhs and only 2 BBs. next 7 games: 8-24 with 3 xbh (all homers) and 5 BBs. Hopefully the cold start is over and he's settled in. I still don't know if he has enough to make it, but I still find him intriguing, especially now that's he's consistently swiping bases and trying to add things to his game. I mean, we need more RH bats and all and his power is real. He's correctly dropped out of the top 20 prospect lists, but I'm still keeping an eye on him.
  4. jmlease1
    I mean, I'm not aware of any elbow problem with Abel so this is just more horrible luck. This just sucks. Was really exciting to see Abel starting to figure it out and look like a guy that could be a real piece to the puzzle. Maybe we'll get lucky and it'll calm down after a few days and he start feeling better, and MRIs will show there's no structural damage...but Twins have not exactly had that kind of luck with anything injury-related for, I dunno...20 years? Guess we know exactly why both Rojas AND Prielipp are going to NY...
  5. jmlease1
    I hope you're very very wrong. He's a talented kid and the speed should help him steal an extra hit or 3 while he's figuring it out at least. And he's not doing a terrible job at taking walks when they come to him at least? But he's definitely in a significant slump and had some rough ABs in that last series.
  6. jmlease1
    Rojas isn't really an option to start right now anyways, since he's still ramping up after an injury. Having him in the 'pen with Funderburk on paternity leave isn't going to torpedo anything and giving him and Prielipp a taste of an MLB road trip in May is fine. Rojas will be back in Saint Paul ramping up as a starter in a week and Prielipp will as well. In case you missed it, the rotation has been fine (with the exception of SWR) and they're not going to be looking to make a change there in April, especially with everyone healthy so far. With Ober finding ways to be effective at lower velocity and SWR deserving more rope to find himself the rotation depth isn't going to be tested yet. The bigger issue is we simply don't have enough HP in the bullpen. Need to find some additional help there so we don't throw away more winnable games, like the miserable Reds series.
  7. jmlease1
    The starting pitching is still holding up its end of the bargain (SWR is the only one who hasn't put it together yet) but the offense is starting to wobble and the bullpen is coughing it up. (the defense is poor, but it was also expected to be poor, so...situation normal?) Hopefully the reinforcements make a difference, because the Twins need some higher octane arms in the bullpen. Frustrating to see good starting pitching jobs not get backed up by enough offense or decent bullpen performances. Coughing up a lead 2 games in a row is disheartening and not getting any offense for Ryan was very disappointing. Nice to see homers coming from a wide variety of the lineup, but Kaschall and Wallner need to get on track. Not sure what's going on with keaschall, but he's really struggled. 4-21 with no walks and 1 xbh over the past 5 games isn't going to cut it, especially since he's still not up to par on D. Hopefully the day off and maybe a run of not seeing 824 LHPs will make a difference for Wallner, but he's shown that expecting him to endure the LHP parade isn't helping anyone. Maybe spread the pain around a little.
  8. jmlease1
    Good for Ben Ross! I'd say the only reason he's not getting an early call up to Saint Paul is they don't have anywhere for him to play right now; you don't want to take playing time away from Culpepper, and it's reasonable to want to hang on to Arcia for a while longer if there's a need for another infielder in MLB right now. But he's making a damn good argument for promotion and you love to see it. Of course, he's never hit like this before, so it's also fair to see how much he can keep it up. Houston seems to be settling in pretty well at Cedar Rapids. I'm happy to see him hitting. (He's oddly been terrible against LHP this season, but I'm guessing it's just small sample size noise) Hope it's nothing serious with Roden. I'd like to see him get another opportunity in MLB; he seems to have little left to prove in AAA. Cory Lewis can't catch a break it seems. He was a fun story a couple of years ago and had shoved his way into the team's plans as a starter, and it's all fallen apart for him. Rotten year last year and struggling to get healthy. Dang. Hope he can get healthy, get back on the mound and find himself again.
  9. jmlease1
    I mean, this best argument for this is it would mean the Twins are no longer tethered to Outman and might add some roster flexibility in that last slot to respond to team needs. Kreidler probably still can't hit, but since neither can Outman, at least Kreidler is right handed and might run into one. But the Twins might also be more willing to punt Kreidler back off the 26-man if he has a month where he can't land a hit, even in a limited role and give someone else a chance. You have to assume the Twins aren't going to keep facing LH starters 50% of the time the rest of the season, but swapping a terrible LH bat that you never want to start for a poor RH bat that can play more positions is probably the right move. It's a marginal move, but when you're not a great team every positive you can get out of a marginal move adds up to elevate the floor. I have little expectations of Kreidler (the homers might be the high point for him already) but there's no sign that Outman has any idea what to do at the plate nor that the Twins trust him to figure it out with more playing time, so what's he doing here? If they're not going to call up Roden, Fedko, Rodriguez, Gonzalez, or Jenkins yet (and to be fair, only Roden & Rodriguez have shown they deserve a shot to date) probably because it is such a limited role...why not Kreidler?
  10. jmlease1
    Seriously, people are blaming Wallner for last night's lost when Luke Keaschall had that performance at the plate? (BTW, he missed on a challenge too something people seem to be perpetually mad at Wallner about) Keaschall stunk at the plate yesterday and has been bad for a month. They desperately need him to hit LHP and he's simply not getting it done (while being even worse against RHP). While I still think Keaschall will be a good player, he was bad last night, was the single biggest reason they lost, and it's really not very close. Wallner wasn't good (but at least he reached base) but if anyone is going to take heat right now it should be Keaschall who simply isn't doing the job he's supposed to be doing and that they need him to do. Ryan was good, so it's disappointing to get him so little support. Heck, even the bullpen got it done. Shame to have such an offensive shortage when the pitching was there. But you need more than 5 hits. Keaschall had plenty of opportunity and didn't get it done...which is a story we're seeing a lot of right now. A .541 OPS is awful; he's the worst hitting regular on the team right now and the only one with a lower OPS is the appropriately named James Outman. Ouch. Keaschall needs to get it together or when Lewis comes back he might be looking at taking a trip to Saint Paul for a re-set.
  11. jmlease1
    I mean his FIP in the first appearance was 4.37 and he ended up with an ERA of 13.50 after that, so these things do even out a bit, right? He's off to a fine start, especially out of the horrible weather conditions, which hopefully he's mostly done with until Sept. We'll see how he looks in a month, but it's looking like he's moving in the right direction. He only had 8 MLB starts last season. It's not like there's a pattern at this point of "Mick Abel looks good for 2 games before sucking for a month and then has 2 more good games fooling people into thinking he's good" or something. Starters coming up, showing some promise but mostly struggling as they try to get acclimated to the far far better competition of MLB is hardly a new story. He appears to have made some adjustments and it's showing some intriguing results. His last 2 games were awfully fun to watch...why not get a little excited about his upcoming start against the Mets?
  12. jmlease1
    There's simply not enough evidence to show that Shelton is all that different from Rocco in handling the rotation. Especially since Pete Maki is still here and is very likely the driving force on how the starters are being used. Rocco got a reputation for being a quick hook when he was pulling crappy starters like Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy, and for the most part have looked to protect someone like SWR. But they weren't dogmatic about it across the staff. When they had the horses, they let guys go deeper. (it's notable that Sonny Gray pitched more innings for the Twins in 2023 than he had in years, and more than he's pitched since, but you still hear people around this joint complain that Rocco drove Gray away with how poorly we supposedly treated him as a starter) Pablo hit career highs for innings in a season with the Twins, and hasn't thrown a single pitch for Shelton. Reality is right now the Twins have a pretty good looking starting rotation and a lot of limitations (I'm being charitable here) in the bullpen. That's probably driving the decision-making more than anything philosophical that people have pre-determined about Rocco v Shelton. They've had a reasonable pairing of offense and pitching as well, which simplifies some of it. It does look like they're more flexible this season on when relievers enter and exit games, which may be about matchups and a need to adhere to it more, or it could also be Hawkins influence on the staff as well. Probably too soon to tell; but it would be interesting to see if there's a real uptick in how often a reliever comes in mid-inning and/or carries over to the next from this year to last.
  13. jmlease1
    I know Seth is a big fan of his D. I'd say whether he can stick there depends on who you're asking. Prospect evaluators are frequently skeptical of anyone sticking at a premium defensive position, IMHO. I think Ross has the tools and skills to stay a SS; the issue for him has been his bat, which has been pretty bad until this season. Batting Average isn't the most determinative stat in the world, but when you can't crack .220 at AA in 2 consecutive seasons, it's a real question if you'll hit enough to even be looked at as a utility guy. What he's done so far is wildly out of character for him. (that said, more power to him if he's figured something out and starts raking!)
  14. jmlease1
    I dunno, considering how easy it is for prospects to bust/struggle there's no reason for him to stop play OF. Now, should he be getting more time at 1B, seeing as how the Twins need more options there and it would be an area where he could succeed (especially since he's no great shakes in the OF)? Totally agree there. But Wichita is in a bit of an interesting spot: Amick is getting plenty of starts there, which I think is good for him to split time between 1B and 3B, and Salas is also playing 1B now too (I'm assuming they think his bat has potential and it's either 1B or 2B for him as he slides down the defensive spectrum?). Mendez isn't a good OF, but I think there's actually a bit of a logjam at 1B with multiple players they want seeing time there in Wichita right now.
  15. jmlease1
    Could be, but the BB make me a little nervous. I won't make a fuss if he stays in FL for another few weeks. Nice start by him, though.
  16. jmlease1
    In fact Ben Ross is almost 25, and this is the 4th season he's spent time in AA (he had a cup of coffee in 2023 as well). He's reaching the "up or out" stage of his minor league career, but maybe he's figured something out.
  17. jmlease1
    While it would have been nice to sweep a mediocre Red Sox team that's not playing terribly well, at the end of the day we won the series and if you keep winning series you're going to have a good season. Not a great performance by SWR; he simply can't be that hittable, regardless of whether Keaschall is making a hash of it behind him or not. At the end of the day, SWR gave up 6 earned runs, so it wasn't just the defense. Too bad Morris wasn't available; Twins could have used him here and might have been able to shave a run or two off? Banda has been more of a "pour gasoline on the fire" guy rather than putting anything out lately: that's 3 outings in a row where he's bombed, and none of them have exactly been high leverage. Seems like a candidate for demotion sooner rather than later? Appreciate the offense not quitting on the game and putting some runs up in the 9th, but it's pretty tough when you generate so few baserunners the first 7 innings. (Twins really can't catch a break with the LH starters, can they? 2 more coming with Cincy! Yeesh.)
  18. jmlease1
    You literally said Falvey deserves no credit for acquiring Abel and that if he's actually this good it's all because of the coaches. You don't know how the trade went down, and the idea that it was all the Phillies just handing over prospects and being the only ones with agency in this is pretty ludicrous. But even if Philly came to Derek Falvey with the whole trade packaged up just as it went down...he still was the guy at the end of the day who said yes. No one is seriously proposing Falvey as executive of the year, but reasonable people are willing to look back at the deadline deals and based on the performance so far say things like "hey, he might have made some really good moves for us." Claiming he deserves no credit if these deals work out is bizarre.
  19. jmlease1
    To be fair to Lee...so far he's shown continuous improvement on offense each season he's been in MLB. Now, he started low enough that it wasn't exactly a high bar to clear...but you do like to see it. (OPS+ of 64 as a rookie, 80 last season, and 104 so far this year.) If he can start adding some walks to those hits he's been generating (he does have good contact skills and has shown the ability to turn on a ball), maybe we'll have something. He's a very smart player, but I do wonder if he gets too far inside his own head at the plate at times.
  20. jmlease1
    Wichita is going to be an interesting group to watch this season. It's not exactly a group of youngsters, overall, but there are some guys who are decent prospects, and some other guys who are trying to regain a little luster to their stock. Amick is doing fine in his first try at AA, but the K's are a little concerning. DeBarge had a great start, but has really tailed off. Nice to see him smack a double, but 1 for 6 isn't great and he's been looking like end of season DeBarge again, which is worrisome. At least he's still taking walks? Mendez is doing very well; you'd think he would have been promoted to AAA this season after a successful year, but if he were in Saint Paul, where would he play? (similar issue for Rosario, but he's off to another frigid start to the season. This happened to him last year as well, and it's a little concerning that he's off to such a slow start two seasons in a row) The Outman Experiment that the MLB club has been mucking around with has impact beyond just MLB; roster spots are valuable and poor use of one can create logjams. Now, the guys in Saint Paul haven't covered themselves in glory so far this season either, but it really shouldn't be a "goal" for guys to not debut until they're 25-27...
  21. jmlease1
    There's no question he's swinging the bat better. What remains concerning is not swinging; he hasn't drawn a walk during this hot streak and only has 2 for the season. But he is improving offensively. We'll see if it's enough.
  22. jmlease1
    So Abel is in the rotation and doing well, but Falvey deserves no credit for the acquisition? I suppose he doesn't deserve any credit for grabbing Joe Ryan either, because Ryan wasn't a high enough prospect in the Rays system? This is just weird, blind hatred of Falvey.
  23. jmlease1
    Abel was fantastic. Even when the BoSox got a runner on, you didn't feel concerned because he was pitching so well. Boy, if this who he is now, we are going to be smiling a lot. Really terrific start. Caratini did a nice job calling that game too: Sox looked confused the whole night. Only knock on Abel is his dugout interview was pretty low energy and bland. Come on, mah dude! You crushed it out there! Love it when Buck gets on a roll. He was locked in tonight that's for sure. And very nice to see Lee turn on one and send a ball out from the left side. He's looking better at the plate. Winning the series was great. Love to see a sweep!
  24. jmlease1
    It's a start? For me the rubber meets the road when we see what they do with payroll, what they do to grow the fanbase and market the team, etc. The biggest failure of the Pohalds as owners has been the almost impossibly bad decisions on the business side of things. They have totally failed on the media side of things, between failing at their attempt to create their own network, lagging desperately behind on streaming, continuing to try to go to the well of the RSNs when they were obviously failing (and not really preparing for the collapse), failing to grow the fanbase regionally, etc. Has that improved? We'll see. Notably, their PR has been dreadful, mostly related to ownership: tone-deaf and stupid. That has improved, as Tom Pohlad is a far smoother and more polished messenger than Jim or Joe ever were. He's correctly acknowledged that they've lost faith and credibility, and while there's been some fakery, it's no more than I would expect from any team owner. Tom has improved the vibes, which is a start. The team surprising basically everyone by playing pretty well to start the season certainly is helping that a lot. I mean, the Tom Pohlad Presence didn't make much difference when we were losing series to start the season. But the visible and accessible presence does help. I still would have preferred they sell the team, but at least I don't feel like the ship is crashing with no one at the wheel. (I do feel a little bad for Joe, who seems like a very nice guy that actually loves baseball, but really didn't have the ability to be the front-facing owner...and at the end of the day probably didn't have the authority to call all the shots, either. Can't be easy to see the generally good things people are saying about Tom and how "things have improved" with ownership)
  25. jmlease1
    The concerning thing is that only 1 of these guys is on the Top 20 prospects list (Prielipp) and he's the one that probably least deserves the designation of being "hot". The K's are great, the stuff is terrific, but the walks are not. That WHIP doesn't exactly scream "dominant". He certainly doesn't look ready for his call-up. Ross has been excellent so far, but if he didn't look great in his FOURTH stint at AA (admittedly the first one was a cup of coffee), he'd be in the "hey kid, maybe it's time to think about coaching. Or real estate." mode. He's about to turn 25 in AA. Just sayin'. Eli Jones is off to a nice start, but you would hope that a college pitcher in his age 23 season would be able to handle A-ball. He needs to keep this rolling and earn a promotion to AA by midseason. He's way lower than usual on his walk rates and no one is hitting him much right now, despite relatively pedestrian K's. Is this sustainable? Basically, I'm not all that excited by this as the "hot" list.
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