Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

jmlease1

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5,746

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    32

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    Remember when people were losing their minds around here that Akil Baddoo got picked in the Rule 5? Rosario having an epic August. Good for him, hope he keeping raking until the season ends. Still think he'll slip through the Rule 5, because he can't defend like Baddoo did and will be hard to stash on a MLB roster, but you never know. Like seeing Jenkins stay patient, but I get nervous when our star players get plunked. Just want all the top prospects to stay healthy for once.
  2. jmlease1
    Buxton and Ryan seem bound and determined not to let the Twins lose 90. While it'll hurt the team's chances for a draft pick, I like the pride. Impressive for Ryan to hold down this lineup this effectively. The error wasn't great, but Lewis did well at the plate. Would like to see him run a few more of these kinds of games in a row, maybe feel better about him as a hitter going into the offseason. If Martin can keep getting on base (and clean up his mental mistakes) he might have a future.
  3. jmlease1
    Gaetti was a fine player, but he wasn't better than Buxton. (healthier, sure. Not better) Gagne was drafted by the Yankees (he did get finishing school in MN after 3 seasons in the Yankees system). Brunansky was drafted by the Angels and made the majors before becoming a Twin. Gagne & Brunansky weren't stars; good players, not not stars. Bruno was a 1-time all-star, and Gagne a zero-time all-star. Neither has a case to complain about being overlooked. L:et's maybe take off the rose-colored glasses. 1 star is not an enviable record; of course, the Twins do have other stars in Lopez & Ryan, and developed Duran & Jax into star relievers before they were dealt. And maybe Keaschall & Jenkins add to the mix. Not arguing that the current farm system has developed enough talent. They've also had some bad luck with injuries that have wrecked some pretty talented players.
  4. jmlease1
    Abel has plenty of arm talent but the command has to improve. After having a high-stress first inning out there, he really could have used a break, but the offense went down meekly in the bottom half and he got pounded in the 7th. The uncharacteristic error from Lee definitely hurt him. I don't mind the attempt to try the piggyback and get all of our starters innings. I certainly don't want to see most of our bullpen... Bradley did pretty well. 5 good innings and showed good stuff. Can he deploy it consistently? That's the real question on him, and a reason to track him through september at least. Twins offense was pretty quiet. Didn't have Outman getting 2 base knocks on my bingo card. Don't like seeing Royce flail; he simply can't find a rhythm from game to game right now. Offense clearly needs more work.
  5. jmlease1
    Have you been injured by your team's ownership? The firm of Culpepper & Culpepper is here to help. :P The Bad Bohorquez showed up yesterday. His stuff is hard to hit and he hunts K's effectively, but the 3 walks and 2 HBP says what his control was looking like. He's still quite young, though, and patience is required. Have to like the arm talent. Much as you'd like Walker Jenkins to immediately start pummeling opposing pitching in AAA, I'm not worrying about a 1-15 start. He didn't destroy AA pitching when he got his first taste at the end of 2024 and turned out just fine this season. Just stay healthy mah dude.
  6. jmlease1
    Nice to see Zebby go 6 and put up a good start. And good effort from the bottom part of the lineup too. SD is a good team, so beating them is nice. I still don't think Larnach has much of a future here, mostly because the Twins are cheap and next season he won't be any longer, but if he hits like this down the stretch the decision will get tougher. Would really like to see Royce pile up a bunch of games like this and build confidence for next season.
  7. jmlease1
    Here's the thing though: hardly anyone defending Wallner (hell, I dunno if you can find anyone around here at all) is saying he's the next star. People like me are saying "he's a good hitter! we need that!" in response to the seemingly increasing numbers of people who think he's trash. Wallner's not a star. But he has been and can be a good starter and dangerous hitter. An interesting case has been made here for looking at why Wallner's production at the plate might not be the best judge of his true value...but even then I don't think Matthew is suggesting dumping Wallner.
  8. jmlease1
    I'd take that bet: Wallner has had an OPS over .800 every season in MLB where he played at least 75 games. But you've already given yourself an out to discount it, so... I am looking at his overall stats, and the OPS+ of 122 is a little disappointing from Wallner this season, but it's still well above average. It would be ideal if Wallner hit for more average, played better defense, etc. But he certainly can "survive" with even his current production. If he gets back to his career averages he's a dangerous threat in a lineup that needs more scary hitters, not less.
  9. jmlease1
    You realize that there's only 30 guys in all of baseball who are both hitting .280 or better and qualify for the batting title, right? If you add 50 pts of BA to Matt Wallner he's basically Juan Soto. If the only acceptable answer for whether a player should be on the Twins is "he must be an all-star" then you're going to be disappointed forever. Wallner isn't perfect, but he's a very useful hitter, especially against RHP. I'd love it if some of the guys in the minors came up and played so well that it pushed Wallner into a DH role. But we're not there yet, and the idea that he's part of the problem is absurd.
  10. jmlease1
    I'll believe it when I see it. Not getting taken for a ride by these crappy owners again. I mean, it's logical. Of course, if the owners get what they want after locking the players out and change the financial landscape for the Twins long-term where they can easily generate net revenue every year...why would they sell? 3rd Generation Joe can keep playing with the fancy toy and the rest of the family keeps cashing checks. If they've solved their liquidity problem, they might just keep the appreciating asset. I'm certainly not going to trust Shill Shooter's "reporting".
  11. jmlease1
    yes, because RBI's are a good evaluator of how good a player is. 🙄 And not "bad at every facet", because you're ignoring his ability to hit for power, which is seriously valuable. Is he a bad baserunner? He's not fast, for sure, but he doesn't make big mistakes on the basepaths either. Hell, he even swiped a bag the other night. His arm doesn't grade out below everyone; it doesn't grade out quite as high as maybe it should considering how strong it is, but he's obviously not below average out there with the arm because you see guys hold up rather than challenge him. But I get it: you don't like a player with his profile: too many strikeouts and you'd rather have a Nick Punto-type bunting more from your RF. I'm not pretending that Wallner is an all-star, but he's an above average starter and we need more guys like that on the Twins, not fewer.
  12. jmlease1
    No, career OPS+ of 133 is why. I don't care if he's from Forest Lake, I care that he can hit on a team that needs it. Sano was a good hitter for the Twins when he was healthy (and when they didn't do stupid things like play him in RF). I guess some people just hate strikeouts so much they'd rather throw away a good player that watch a whiff. I don't understand why it's so much more important for some people that a guy hits 40 more easy outs than strike out. It's still an out.
  13. jmlease1
    Rosario is absolutely locked in right now. Good for him! I love it when a player pushes the organization. Make them put you on the 40-man through sheer performance. How do we feel about Winokur's season? He's been pretty inconsistent this season and has struggled to make contact in Cedar Rapids. He's also only 20 and been moved fairly aggressively. Time to move him off SS for good, maybe let him concentrate on 3B or CF while he works on his hitting? I'm very high on Morris, but he needs to stay healthy.
  14. jmlease1
    titles can't be tongue-in-cheek or sarcastic? yeesh.
  15. jmlease1
    Buxton. Deserved all-star this season, and not just for his defense. Dude has a 135 OPS+, which is good at any position and great in CF. If this is close to who Keaschall actually is as a hitter, he'll be a star. His bWAR pace over 162 games right now is an awesome 7.8, which is nearly MVP levels. Since he can likely improve significantly defensively, there's a potential star in there at least. That said, I'd like to see him do this for more than 27 games... But stars are hard to find and rare to emerge from the farm system. It's why people are so excited to see Walker Jenkins rising. It's why plucking Joe Ryan from the Rays was such a great move. People talk about the Twins having a great farm system because they have a lot of depth and players with the potential to be stars. They're getting a lot of prospects to majors, which isn't easy. How do you define a star? Dozier played at an all-star level for several seasons, was he a star? If you're only judging on MVP-level players you're going to be pretty disappointed...
  16. jmlease1
    It's not that people are actually confusing them for being the same person. It's that they treat them as if they were producing the same on the field. They get lumped together all the time as being lead-footed LH sluggers who can't defend and don't hit enough and aren't very good. That's the point. It's not that people actually mistake for being the same person. 🙄 Hells bells, you're doing it right here, saying you're fine with either Larnach or Wallner at DH. You should not be fine with Larnach's production for DH. It's been far worse than Wallner's, and that's the point.
  17. jmlease1
    This is the challenge with adding any of these guys for the rest of the season. we're only going to get 1 position player with the tiny roster expansion, and the only semi-logical candidates to send out are Julien (who you kind of want to get the same long look at, because if he hits he could still be with the team), Outman (who is getting this kind of look to see if he has any future with the team), and frankly Clemens (who has tottered back down to earth with a poor June and a terrible august sandwiching a good July and an excellent May). Gasper is the backup catcher right now, so you could swap him for Cardenas? But this is also the first time Gasper has gotten more consistent ABs to see what he can do too. Sabato hasn't earned a shot with the way he's hit in AAA (pretty average for the Int'l League), and until Eeles shows he has some pop back in his swing coming off the injury, it's hard to say he's earned the MLB nod either. I'd give Fedko the September promotion, and if you want to sell me on swapping Gasper for Cardenas, I could be convinced.
  18. jmlease1
    I think the author didn't want to single individuals out on this website, which is more than fair. But if you've been reading Wallner does get lumped in with Larnach frequently as a player that Rocco and/or the front office has "failed" to develop. If you read any thread where the topic comes up about the team's inability to develop position players, someone will put Wallner in the same category as Larnach, almost always because of Wallner's high strikeouts or low batting average. I simply don't have time to go back through various threads and quote people (and I'm not interested in calling out individuals any more than I already have), but it happened in a discussion I was having on this site yesterday.
  19. jmlease1
    Wallner has a career OPS of .912 with runners in scoring position. With 2 outs and RISP it's 1.048 Larnach has a career OPS of .762 with RISP, and .807 with RISP and 2 outs. It's a pretty substantial difference. 2025 Matt Wallner may be below his career averages, but we're only talking 52 ABs, so maybe the issue is more about the Twins not getting enough runners on base in front of Wallner than him being missing the mythical "clutchiness" gene or something.
  20. jmlease1
    They do fill a similar role, but Wallner has been so much better at it that while talking about them in the context of the role is fine, treating them as if they're similar players who produce similar results is the problem. Wallner is a good player, a productive hitter who brings elite power to the table and a solid OBP. Larnach is a platoon LH bat who doesn't abuse RHP enough to make up for the fact that he's unplayable against LHP. They can be linked by role, but not treated as if they're the same player. the numbers are really clear.
  21. jmlease1
    As noted above, you have to get guys on base in order to run, but also you're probably not going to ask guys like Wallner & Lewis to run when they're coming off leg injuries, Correa is very slow, France can't run worth a damn, etc. Martin, Julien, and Keaschall are more capable of running than Correa, France, or Jonah Bride. (or even Castro, who had slowed noticeably). They're more capable of getting on base than Kiersey. And while I'd love to have Buxton run even more, at this point don't you have to trust him to go when he judges it right rather than sending orders? You have to have speed in order to use it. Twins have been pretty slow with guys like Larnach, Wallner, Correa, Jeffers, Vazquez, France, Santana, Lee etc. They're getting more athletic and looking healthier, but they're still not one of the faster teams.
  22. jmlease1
    I think that's right. If you drop Rosario's dreadful start, his profile looks at least as good as Fedko's at the plate, but April did happen. And while I don't think Fedko should really be playing CF, he's a much better defender than Rosario at this point. I suspect the Twins will try to slip him through in the Rule 5, which is probably fair. Even if he's taken he'll be hard to keep on a 26-man roster. But I still like a lot of things about Rosario, and finding some RH thump to balance all those LH outfielders could matter.
  23. jmlease1
    Rosario looks like he's finishing the season strong. That awful (and it was truly dreadful) April has pulled down his overall numbers quite a bit, but he's really raking right now. His monthly splits are instructive, I think: when he's taking his walks and not hacking at everything, he does well. If he loses that patience he gets into trouble. He's had 3 good months, a not so good month and an awful one, and in the good ones he's taken 18+ walks. In the bad ones, he's been in single digits. Wonder what his evaluation looks like from the Twins at this point? I think he has to get added to the 40-man this season or be exposed in the Rule 5? Wonder if they'll try to slip him through? He's not a good defender, and his bat probably isn't going to be good enough to hang on a squad all season, but he's still an interesting prospect.
  24. jmlease1
    Offense was really good last night. Nice to not get smacked around by any lefty that takes the bump for once. Not a good day for the pitching staff; we sent out 6 guys and only two of them got the job done. SWR in particular can't give up hard contact like that. He looked rusty for sure. Keaschall continues to look good at the plate and wobbly in the field. He's got some work to do out there. Be great if Sands is back on track, because we are desperately short on bullpen options.
  25. jmlease1
    Some nice performances from the prospects. I don't really care that Walker Jenkins didn't crush it in his first game with the Saints; I find it exciting that he's already in Saint Paul, and is there based on performance and merit, not just because of his draft status. Nice to see a Big Fly from GG; he's had a good week and hopefully he's getting on track. Hasn't been a ton of power from him in AAA so far, and he needs to keep drawing walks like he did earlier in the season. If he's swinging too much he could get into the Miranda trap. But he's having a nice season and showing why the Twins wanted him in the Polanco trade. Good to see Culpepper have a 2 hit game. He's been scrabbling a lot lately, and is probably feeling worn down. Be great if he can get a day or two off down the stretch, gather himself and finish strong. He's done enough this season to make me think he'll be starting in AAA next year, and hopefully he can get on a good offseason program that helps him handle the long grind of a pro season. Happy birthday to Eduardo Tait! Lots of potential with this kid. Hopefully he can start showing a little more patience at the plate, but he's doing just fine in high A at his age.
×
×
  • Create New...