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jmlease1

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Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    He's coming off a significant injury, not sure I'd read too much into it? Fun if he comes up, but it also might just be a day off for a guy who had a major surgery last year. Tough night for the law firm of Morris & Lewis. I'll be interested to see how the react to it. been a while since either of them got beat up like that. Great to have Brock Stewart actually pitching. Looking forward to getting him back in MLB: be nice to have another guy in the late innings to go to, maybe take a little pressure of Jax.
  2. jmlease1
    I think Morris' time in AAA will start to show where's he's actually at and give him a bigger sample in a single level against which to evaluate him. He rose really really fast last season, but does seem to have some questions about his ability to finish guys off and/or hunt K's. the increase velocity should help, but he probably need 2-3 more months in AAA to get a really feel for where he is as a potential starter. he's definitely showing some talent, and I think his increased velocity is a very good sign. the Winder comp maybe isn't ripe (yet); Winder had some real challenges with health as a starter in the minors as well.
  3. jmlease1
    Yeah, I'm not advocating pulling or demoting Jax at this point, just wondering if anyone is seeing anything mechanical that might be screwing him up or if it's just a matter of a guy not hitting his spots. Hope he finds his form soon: we are much more capable of holding leads and finishing off games when he's at his best.
  4. jmlease1
    seems right. they clearly weren't comfortable going to their 4th or 5th option at 3B and digging further down into the minors. might as well have a guy that's a bit more acceptable on the left side than asking someone like Gasper or Julien to fill in (or seeing if France could survive back there for a game or 3)
  5. jmlease1
    Nice to win a series, especially against a quality team. Bummer to lose Wallner to the IL, but looks like Correa might be ok? better be if Castro is dinged up. no breaks for the left side of the infield! Wonder if there's something going on mechanically with jax, because good grief. he's giving up a lot more loud contact and is not looking reliable right now. Glad we have an off day. Hopefully he can get things straightened out soon. (anyone heard a timeline on brock Stewart?) Festa did the job. fair to pull him there, but at some point we're going to have to trust him to see a lineup 3rd time through or we're going to burn the bullpen out every time he pitches.
  6. jmlease1
    I don't think the twins necessarily need to go chase a SS if Correa is out for a while: Lee can handle it with Castro at least as well as any option they might pull up from AA or AAA, or from a free agent on the street. But it does thin out the infield quite a bit with Miranda deservedly demoted and injured, Royce still not close enough to returning, Keaschall not in a position to handle 3B even he'd had experience there, Martin (also not really a 3B option) injured...they could definitely use another guy who can play one of the spots on the left side of the infield and the choices aren't good. Severino had 2 errors in 2 games at 3B for the Saints, and their regular at 3B (Alvarez) ain't hitting and is the definition of minor league filler (sorry, mah dude). Eeles having knee surgery and not being back is just one more log on the fire. Sometimes you just get bad luck when all your injuries end up in 1-2 spots. Right now we're probably looking at Gasper as the emergency 3B? Maybe Jeffers? oof. I'm less worried about the OF if Wallner is out for a while (though his bat will be missed indeed). Bader gives us defense, and it would be an opportunity for Kiersey to show he belongs. And if they wanted to give McCusker a shot as an OF/DH, there's room on the 40-man for that if Emma or Keaschall isn't deemed ready. The depth was fine to start the season on the left side, and then we had injuries to Royce, now Miranda, with other SS options in AAA being out and a possible injury to Correa. Might have to gut check through for a week or 2 with Lee & Castro and hope no one tries to spike those guys.
  7. jmlease1
    Great to see Zebby cooking and showing top end velocity. Sure looks like he's added to the fastball again, and it'll be interesting to see if he can maintain that all season. i think it's complicated to yank Paddack this early in the season, though I would have preferred to let the kids cook and have Paddack reinforce the bullpen from the jump. we're literally talking about 3 starts, and Paddack was good in his last turn out (Game Score of 60, not his fault the offense took the day off). Zebby has been great and looks to have a bright future, but he's still only started 7 games and thrown 34 innings in AAA. It's not a sin to give Paddack another start and let Zebby build confidence. Amick is making a case for early promotion to AA. It's still early and 10 games is a small sample, but boy he's been good. If he keeps scorching it like this for another month, send him to Wichita. keaschall & Rodriguez haven't shown a lot of power yet, but I'm not too worried about either of them. I'd like them both to get more time, so hopefully Correa & Wallner were pulled more for precautionary reasons rather than needing to dip down now.
  8. jmlease1
    I think that's right. It certainly did look like Julien got in his head last season when struggling at the plate and instead of just making the play in the field, he was thinking about it. That's when he starts double-clutching on throws, etc. So far this season I think he's been doing better, and if he's hitting he doesn't need to be a special defender to be valuable. Keaschall is almost certainly going to be a better defender. It will be interesting to see where everyone fits when Royce comes back especially if Lee & Julien are hitting.
  9. jmlease1
    What has he done to show he deserves more time? I like his speed and defense, but he hasn't hit. And please, let's not talk about Mike Trout in the same discussion as Kiersey. Putting down a bunt when asked to is the sort of thing that a player like him needs to execute on to earn more opportunities. He's got good speed and a track record as a baserunner, so when he's asked to pinch run, he needs to take the extra base, swipe a bag when the steal is on, and not get himself thrown out when running. he needs to show good range and a steady glove when he's an as a defender. So far, he's been good enough defensively. But missing that bunt was a moment for him to earn more time and he didn't come through. I'm rooting for him, but he's a fringe player who isn't going to get tons of chances absent injury and needs to come through to earn more time. Missing a fundamental play like laying down a bunt doesn't help him.
  10. jmlease1
    He's been ok? I mean, I think a positive result for Julien in the field is for him to be unmemorable. If he's steady and consistent while swinging the bat well, that'll be just fine. Good to see him with no errors the last 2 weeks, and hopefully it continues.
  11. jmlease1
    Hope it's nothing serious on the injuries; the lineup is a little thin right now and offense wasn't exactly the team strong suit. Need Wallner & Correa out there. Really disappointing to see Kiersey botch that bunt attempt; he's a speed guy, it's not like they were asking Jeffers or Wallner to lay one down. I get he hasn't been playing much, but he needs to execute. Ober pitched ok, but danced on the edge a bit. The Alonzo hr wasn't great; he's killing fastballs right now and that one was very hittable. The Soto one was a little less bad, but when Ober is homer-happy it doesn't usually end well. Glad he was able to scrape through. Welcome back Brooks Lee! Tough to come in mid-AB, but he handled it well and the homer added a very needed run. Can't believe we had another botched throw from a pitcher. Those are starting to really stick out.
  12. jmlease1
    Happy to see Festa get another start. Hope to be able to catch at least some of the game, would definitely like to see how he's throwing. I'm still a big fan of the Slim Reaper and his development has been quite good. His biggest problem in his first stint was handing out too many free passes, and he was also a little bit too hittable. In his first outing he was on top of both of those things, even if he didn't get out of the 5th. I thin if he can limit the baserunners, he's going to do just fine and this will be a good test for him. I would say it's probably the right move from an organizational standpoint to give Festa another start rather than tap Matthews, even though Matthews has been on it so far and looking very sharp in AAA. Once the decision was made to go with Festa for the first start, there's not a good enough reason to swap him out for Matthews at this point and some good ones to give Festa another start, not the least of which is Festa pitched pretty well. I'm sure we'll see Matthews at some point, but I'm excited by Festa's potential as well. Be interesting to see if he deploys that sinker, or if it's not ready for prime time yet...
  13. jmlease1
    Some nice hitting performances at cedar rapids to start the season. Good to see things going well from Amick, deBarge, GG, and Culpepper (hope he's not out long!). The early season injuries in the minors is a bit concerning. hope there's nothing too significant?
  14. jmlease1
    Neither Buxton nor Correa are playing up to their capability right now and we need them to do much better at the plate. But just stop with the Arraez nonsense. Dude has an OPS+ of 78 right now and doesn't play a lick of defense either. There's a reason SD shopped him this offseason. Ryan did a good job grinding through 5. Too bad his pitch counts climbed so high so fast. But he's been quite good this season and showing no problems coming back from the injury. Alcala is very disappointing. He's simply too inconsistent to continue right now: it's all or nothing with him right now and that's just not going to work, especially since everyone in this bullpen will pitch and pitch often.
  15. jmlease1
    I've never really understood it either. Julien had a bad season in 2024, but was excellent in 2023. he also put up some big hitting numbers in the minors and shown some skill on the basepaths. Maybe it's just a style thing? I expect him to have some struggles this season, at some point, because he looks more like a good player than an all-star and very few guys get through the long grind of a baseball season without some struggle. But I think he can be a quality hitter and this team needs as many of those as they can squeeze into the lineup.
  16. jmlease1
    3rd on the team right now in OPS+. yeah, we better rid of him.
  17. jmlease1
    What counts as a regular? In 1991 Pagliarulo only made 112 starts at 3B. Also, Gladden played a lot, but wasn't very solid...
  18. jmlease1
    Sabato is on a rehab assignment, isn't he? sadly, there's been very little to suggest he's going to make it. Winokur was ice cold to start, much better lately. he's definitely got some work to do, but he's also the youngest hitter on the roster, so grace is warranted. Really like what we're seeing out of GG to start the season. Hopefully he stays healthy and keeps swinging a hot bat. be nice to get some real value out of the Polanco salary dump. (congrats to Jorge for having a good start at the plate this season as well, though I don't think it's going to end well for them if he plays too much 3B...) Looks like CHS Field and the International League are still pretty hitter-friendly environments? not a great start for E-Rod in Saint Paul, and clearly getting Cartaya right is going to be a process. but it makes it harder to evaluate someone like McCusker, i think, who appears to be hitting well...but is it enough to give him a look at some point? Just don't know with the inflated numbers at CHS, especially with guy who isn't going to give you anything else.
  19. jmlease1
    It's great to see Julien make the necessary adjustments and start to hit hit again. The peripherals have been looking good this season even when the results weren't there, so it's good that he's been able to stick with the change and start getting the result he and the team might have expected. I do think he's taken his struggles at the plate out into the field with him at times, so while I don't expect him to be a plus defender I think we might see improvement still at 2B. But frankly the team can handle him being below average defensively if he's putting up an OPS+ in the 110-125 range. I would expect pitchers to adjust to him again; if he can keep from chasing it wouldn't surprise me at all to see the walk rate start climbing back up, even if the K's go back up a bit more too. Miranda has some work to do. Previously when he's struggled in MLB it's been more injury related; there really doesn't seem to be that issue for him right now. He's just a mess at the plate in every way, swinging at everything, while not getting the barrel on the ball like he needs to. You look at his launch angle and it shows a player who needs a big ol' reset. Hopefully he can go back down to Saint Paul and find himself again. He's never going to be a player that takes lots of walks, but he can be a guy who makes lots of good hard contact. It's interesting, since he doesn't appear to big fighting an injury this time, to see whether he can get himself out of this. Wallner pulled it off last season and when he returned he was a damn good hitter for the Twins. Hopefully Miranda can as well.
  20. jmlease1
    I loved Bremer, but let's not pretend he wasn't a homer. Part of that was Dick is Mr. Positivity, but still. And Bert wasn't much different that today's crew when it came criticizing Twins players and basically never took a poke at the manager or front office. When Dick & Bert were in their prime, it was great, but you're clearly not remembering the last several seasons with Bert, where he was mailing it in and frankly dragging Bremer down with him. Bremer got a second wind when he got new partners.
  21. jmlease1
    Julien is a good fit for the leadoff spot if he's made the adjustments that will keep him hitting. Nice to see him doing well right now, and hopefully he's got his confidence back. Reasonable choice to pull SWR; I suspect they might have let him go longer if it was a bigger lead. He doesn't dominate, but he keeps the team in the game. Hope Ryan can go deep against the Mets, and the offense can generate enough to give us a chance.
  22. jmlease1
    Good to see DeBarge showing some pop. He's off to a nice start. Bummer to have Culpepper going to the IL; he was playing well and injuries to top picks just make me twitchy as hell at this point. Happy for Tanner Schobel to see him off to a good start. It had looked like AA had flummoxed him and he might have hit his ceiling. long way to go, and he'll need to keep hitting, but this is a real crossroads season for him: if he can't hit AA pitching in his 3rd shot at it at age 24, then he's probably cooked as a prospect. But maybe he just needed a little more development time and a key adjustment to get it going. Wichita is interesting this year in that most of the lineup are guys who are 24-25. (only 3 under 24, only 1 under 22) It'll be interesting to see where the average age lands in AA this year, I think. Just happy to see Prielipp apparently healthy. Hope to keep seeing results from him into the summer. Very nice job by Dasan Hill. Twins are clearly being careful in trying to build him up (which I have no problem with at all--he's only 19) but boy oh boy the stuff looks good. He's going to be fun to track this season as he makes his professional debut.
  23. jmlease1
    No one is saying that a bad manager can't cost games, or that a superior manager can't win games for their team. It's the scope that's the issue here. Baseball managers simply don't have so much impact on the game that their decision-making makes them responsible for 20 wins or losses. They're not calling every pitch, they're not personally positioning every fielder on every play, and they're not making swing decisions on hitters like a video game. Lineup selection & construction matters, as does when to go to the bullpen, who to send it and how many batters to have them face, pinch-hitting, defensive replacements, etc. But those decisions are also in the context of what the players actually do, which is always much much more impactful. A great manager making perfect decisions simply can't take a team with the talent of a 70 win team and make them a 90 win team.
  24. jmlease1
    Great to see Soto have a dominant start. So much talent there, but it doesn't always translate. Soto is really impressing at 19. His starts should be appointment viewing for Cedar Rapids. It's going to be interesting to see how the Twins manage his innings this season. There's no real injury history there, so maybe they'll handle him differently than someone like Raya? It's an interesting group of hitters at Cedar Rapids right now. Feels like Iowa is the prime spot for Twins prospects right now. Amick keeps raking: it's only 7 games, but it's everything we could have hoped for from the 2nd round pick. Would love to know more about what his defense is looking like at the corners?
  25. jmlease1
    Hard to feel good about the decision to pull Festa there. Yes, he'd surrendered the lead, but he'd been pitching well. Not Festa's fault there was an error in there. Not much faith there from the manager. Only 64 pitches thrown, multiple clean innings, he's throwing strikes and there's 2 outs in the inning. Instead we burn Coulombe for 1 batter and after Alcala implodes ask Blewett to go 2+ to finish so we don't use 5 relievers to finish out the game? I don't blame Baldelli for Alcala imploding; that's on the player. But Festa isn't in his first go-around, and the quick hook is a mistake. Feels like Baldelli is managing scared, trying to keep his job and instead is making it worse.
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