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jmlease1

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Everything posted by jmlease1

  1. jmlease1
    Can't wait to get Keaschall back and push Clemens to the bench where he belongs. Would love to have Lewis back and push Bride off the roster. Going to have to be patient on Pable & Zebby, and that sucks, because we need them both right now.
  2. jmlease1
    LOL, this is where fanbase irrationality comes into play. Falvey is well-respected across the league. While he might not immediately get a new job as a GM (there simply aren't that many of them), he will be in demand from other parts of the league. The same applies to Rocco, who is not viewed by people outside this market as being the worst manager in the league. Remember, the rest of baseball sees us as being a poor market, more akin to Tampa Bay than say St. Louis. But the team stinks right now, so expecting rationality out of the fanbase is almost certainly a bridge too far. Also, if anyone thinks they're sending the franchise a message by quitting the team, forget it. The team is for sale, and ownership doesn't care about you. Hells bells, it's the Pohlads: they've never cared about you as a baseball fan. They don't care about the baseball (well, except for someone like Joe...who doesn't appear to actually be good at the business or PR sides of it and likely has little to no say in the baseball aspects either), they care about the asset, and they just want to claw as much money as possible out of it. I'm guessing Falvey did it thinking the team is being sold and wanting to protect his manager a little from the inevitable "new owner change" (which while we all crave, but can create new problems; as much as we were interested in Justin Ishbia, his brother Mat's Phoenix Suns are in deep trouble from a basketball standpoint). I respect the loyalty, but it's a bad look and not helpful to the team.
  3. jmlease1
    No. It's pretty clear that Molitor was let go because he wasn't on the same page with the front office. Information that they wanted passed on to players was stopping at the coaching staff, strategic input was being ignored, etc. You want to tell your boss to @*%#$ off, you better win a LOT, and Molly didn't. I wouldn't have extended Rocco, regardless of when the option was picked up. Last season ended poorly and the team is up for sale. Why add the obligation on the books now? If he pulls things together, maybe he gets a nice extension from the new ownership, but are we really all that concerned about Rocco being a free agent and getting poached by another team? I'm not one of these people who blindly hates the manager, but he's one of those guys who looks good when his players are healthy and playing well, and bad when they're not. That's 60-70% of the league. He's hardly elite tactically, but also not the embarrassment some people prefer to frame him up as. He seems to do a good job of running his clubhouse, managing personalities, etc. But hasn't done enough recently to show that he deserves an extension, really, and I don't buy the theory (which has been pushed into the media by coaches, who have a vested interest in people believing it) that a manager can't be effective in their walk year.
  4. jmlease1
    Oof. I suppose it's a positive that Ober only looked unplayable in ONE inning? Not sure this policy of letting him try and iron out his mechanics in live fire exercise is working out. I mean, great that he cut down the the walks, but if it means he's still grooving pitches to get launched into the seats then it's not going to work. He's now given up 10 HRs in his last 4 games, and that's just awful. I think I've seen enough of the Joey Wentz Experience. DFA the guy. Would much rather see Travis Adams in this role as a long man; at least he might have a future with the Twins. I didn't mind them taking a shot on Wentz as the last man in the bullpen, see if they could find something there from a pitcher relatively recently converting to the bullpen, but he looks like he needs a lot of work. Disappointing effort from the offense; need more than 8 baserunners. Maybe time to drop Wallner down in the order until he starts connecting again. Can't wait for Keaschall to get back, because Clemens has fallen off the cliff. He's been awful for a month now. Good to see Brooks Lee still hitting though.
  5. jmlease1
    Props to Sabato for continuing to grind. He's been labeled a bust for a couple of years now because of his low contact rates, leading to tons of Ks and low batting averages, limiting his ability to let his prodigious power show out and he didn't have the tools to contribute in other ways. But dang if he didn't keep working, and finally cracked AA, and earned a promotion to AAA. He's done fine since joining Saint Paul too. He's kept the K's reasonable, still drawing walks, and has a couple of dingers to show for it. I wouldn't say he's played his way back into the Twins plans...yet. If he keeps this up, then he might get there, though. He's shown some mental toughness in hanging in there through injuries, through failure, through being labeled a bust...and turned it around for himself. I like that.
  6. jmlease1
    It's hilarious that you've included Cincinnati in this list. Talked to many Cincy fans over the last few seasons? They've been begging ownership to sell the team, and have struggled mightily for a decade. After 4 years in a row where they were dead last in their division, they've followed it up with exactly 1 playoff appearance, threw in another 100 loss season, and haven't won 90 games since 2013. They're barely above .500 this season. They're not even particularly young as a team outside of De La Cruz and Greene, and my god they have Pagan as their closer (which is working out so far this season, but would you feel good about it?) I've been getting the texts from a Reds fan for a decade about how much they suck, how hopeless the franchise is, how stupid the management is, and even this season it's been a deluge of "Elly is amazing! Greene is elite!! why doesn't anyone else on this team give a damn?!?" The grass is not always greener. I'm fairly uninterested in an attempt to retool midseason until the team is sold. Because it's fairly likely that the new ownership will bring in their own people, even if someone like Falvey might end up staying for at least a season or two. (Rocco seems like the most likely candidate for a new ownership "splash" move where they signal that things are "going to be different" by firing the manager) New ownership is probably going to retool as well and retooling after retooling almost guarantees that one of them will go badly. Get new ownership in. The fish rots from the head.
  7. jmlease1
    I'm nervous about this, because it seems like any kind of "arm strain" has been the first sign indicator of pending Tommy John for this club. Doesn't mean that's the case here, but the organization is uninterested in giving out more detailed injury information (assuming they even have any to give), and with all of the pitchers who have had significant injuries over the last 5+ seasons, it's hard not to assume the worst. Hope it's nothing serious, because Morris is a real talent, but...
  8. jmlease1
    I think he can hold down a corner spot. It'll be a little iffy at times because he's below average to average out there, but he's not a butcher. He's also probably a little short for 1B? I'd like to see him stick in LF as much as possible and see if they can improve his route-running through repetition and just let him get comfortable there. Obviously, his bat is his path to MLB, but he can be as good as someone like Larnach out there. He certainly better than Delmon or Willingham. (IMHO) He's a really tough out right now, and it's fun to see.
  9. jmlease1
    This is part of the problem we're seeing right now: as soon as a young player wobbles a little, suddenly people are declaring him a bust, time to get rid of him, move on to the next shiny new thing. Lee seems to be figuring it out right before our eyes, but he gets bagged on regularly, Wallner can't have any slumps ever or he's trash, etc. I definitely agree: getting older doesn't fix this team's issues and certainly doesn't position them well past this season. I'm sure keaschall will start every day when he gets healthy, but god help him if he has a bad week.
  10. jmlease1
    Amick looks ready to return to Cedar Rapids, I'd say. Raya did great. But he needs to do this in 3 of his next 4 as well. Time to show some consistency. The talent and stuff are there, but he's got to do it more than one time in a row. I'll admit, I don't even care what Walker Jenkins stats are for the rest of the month, just that he's playing. :P I suspect he'll be fine if the ankle is ok and he can stay on the field. Should be fun to see him in Culpepper this summer in AA. (best part of the rain delays was getting some Wichita action during the broadcast) Every time I check the prospect reports GG has another fine day, it seems! He's really in a nice groove, and it's fun to see. If he keeps rolling like this, the Polanco trade will end up working just fine, frankly.
  11. jmlease1
    Yes, ownership torpedoed fan interest last season and have done nothing to improve the situation. The utter botch on the tv last season and the borderline unprofessional roll-out of a tv deal this season has hurt the team badly with casual fans, especially when added to an awful collapse at the end of the season and a poor start to this year. Add in more hard-core fans being fed up as well and it's hardly a surprise that attendance is in the tank. About the only way to lose more fans if for the Pohlads to announce they're pulling the team off the market and that Joe will be in charge for at least the next several years. *shudder* Regarding the game: Festa was bad. you simply can't give up 12 hits in less than 5 innings, especially with 3 walks on the tally. Unfortunately with injuries to both Lopez and Matthews, we don't have a lot of other options right now, with raya struggling in AAA and Morris battling an injury. Maybe Adams gets a shot, but they don't seem that excited by him as a starter. Nice to see the offense wake up and score some runs, but a shame that 3 of the 4 Twins homers were solo shots. That's just bad luck though. Nice to see Lee & Correa both have 4 hit games. Buxton is just a monster right now, and it sucks that we seem to be wasting a great Buxton season.
  12. jmlease1
    Culpepper seems to have no interest in cooling off! good for him. and GG is definitely moving up the prospect ranks when they inevitable midseason adjustment are made by the esteemed Twins Daily panel, right? He doesn't look like the 13th best prospect any longer. Dude just keeps hitting.
  13. jmlease1
    Or it's just easier to blame the manager, where there's no objective standard for if they're "good" or not? Even for the front office, you can find plenty of reasons to ignore win-loss record to assess their achievement or lack thereof, so you can always bury both of them and it simply comes down to opinion on whether you like them or dislike them. Bader making that error was an absolute shocker...but it's also one that he absolutely can't make. He's not a rookie, he's not a fringe MLB guy, and at a time when the team simply can't afford these kind of mistakes and veteran need to step up to pull the team out of the doldrums, he made an awful mistake that he never should have made. Now, that happens. and I'm not going to make any assumptions about Bader's personal character or anything. But it was pretty impactful, and people are ignoring it in favor of bashing away at the front office and the manager, neither of whom were on the field today or yesterday, when the team basically looked like trash. It's why it's hard to take some of the criticisms seriously to me, because the performance of players on the field is always always always going to be far more impactful than anything the manager does strategically. the front office had very limited resources to work with in the offseason, and spent most of them on Bader...who again, seems immune to criticism. And he's worked out, overall, even with today being a disaster...so, did the front office get it right or are they stupid? (the rest of their money they spent on Coulombe, who has been very good overall and France who has been ok-ish, but certainly isn't a high K, big power, no defense player like people act like this front office only wants) This team is better than they're playing right now, not as good as when they were on the big win streak. But right now they're a mess and losing in every possible way you can come up with. Good players are falling apart at the worst time, making absurd errors, melting down out of nowhere, and everyone having bad days at the same time. Fire the manager if you like, throw out the whole front office...but you can never turn over the whole roster unless you eat a lot of money, which we know will never ever happen. So it's on the players to do better or the season will go into the tank (it's far from over yet), but organizational philosophy is far from the biggest problem.
  14. jmlease1
    what a disaster this team is right now. Bader making an enormous botch like that...what the hell? (weird that no one seems to care about that and is focusing on organizational philosophy in the game thread) The offense only getting 4 hits, yuck. players need to perform. you want to fire the manager...whatever. I doubt it makes much difference? A new manager doesn't make Bride or Kiersey useful. A new manager doesn't prevent the bullpen from melting down or puts more guys getting on base. A new front office right now won't actually get new players in to help out, because the ownership isn't going to open the purse strings. Will firing Rocco make more fans show up? Again: not unless the team starts playing better.
  15. jmlease1
    congrats to Kaelen Culpepper on his promotion to AA! Looking forward to seeing how he does against more advanced pitching. He's done really well so far this season and has definitely improved his prospect status. He earned his way up, and I'm looking forward to having the firm of Culpepper & Culpepper at Wichita. :P Happy to see Walker Jenkins healthy. Hope he stays that way and gets to let his talent shine. He's looked fine since coming back from the IL, and must be feeling good if he's swiping bags like this. Very impressed with the run GG is on too: he's really hard to get out right now, and I love it. Going to be interesting to see how Sabato does in AAA. It's taken him a long time to get there, but so far he seems to be continuing on with a good season. For the first time in his career, he's making enough contact to let his power play and be a real threat. I wonder if he can get himself on to the 40-man? He's still got a lot to prove after disappointing for most of his minor league career (he's the poster child for getting promoted on scholarship before this season), but maybe he's finally figured out how to show the talent the Twins saw when they drafted him? Long way to go, but credit to him for continuing to grind. Twins could certainly use some right-handed power.
  16. jmlease1
    Not a good game last night; inside the stadium it felt like Ryan was getting squeezed a bit, but YMMV. Credit to MKE: they kept fouling pitches off and ran up his pitch count inning after inning. Frankly, I'm just happy he wasn't seriously injured when that bat shard went flying at his head (impressive concentration in fielding the ball with a chunk of wood coming at him like that). Twins hitters struggled against the rookie, but also just missed holes or had well-hit balls come up short. Everything MKE hit bounced through a hole or landed in a gap it seemed. Hated seeing two position players "battle" it out in the 9th. Not exactly sure why this game is Rocco's fault, really: the lineup didn't hit at all for 6 innings, Ryan was just ok, and the bullpen sucked. Players have to play, and the team wasn't good. Coulombe has been excellent all season...and gave up 2 hits on 3 pitches. Topa had been solid this season and picked last night to give up 4 singles and a walk. Wentz was bad, but by the time he came it it was already 5-0 and the offense looked like they were no-showing on the game. I'm curious what manager fixes that? Crowd was at least 50% Brewers, might have been closer to 2/3. Credit to them for traveling well, but lots of Twins "fans" sold their tickets for sure. It really felt like the fanbase has quit on this team, is fed up with everything (especially the ownership) and simply does not care. An indictment of ownership, and felt like evidence that you should not have a team sale lingering on for months and months, because it causes fans to check the eff out. Twins are still right around .500 and it felt more like they were 20 games under with that atmosphere. I'm guessing if we get new ownership, Rocco and the front office will all get fired. If we don't, Rocco probably takes the hit under the banner of "we have to do something" and the ownership won't want to pay too many people not to work. While I no longer care much if Rocco stays or goes, I don't think it fixes the malaise.
  17. jmlease1
    Glad to see Walker Jenkins back in AA. Hope he stays healthy for the rest of the season. Julien seems to be getting back on track in AAA. Wonder if/when we will see him back in MLB? I'm rooting for him, and if someone gets hurt in the infield, he might get another chance. Bride has done so little, I wouldn't mind seeing Julien get another shot to hit in MLB again. He at least might have a future with the Twins and Bride doesn't. Hell, Julien runs the bases pretty well.
  18. jmlease1
    Great game from Buxton, who is playing like an all-star indeed. It's so nice to see him playing without pain. Really gave the team a lift today. Be nice if this explosion gets some guys rolling for a few weeks. Hope to see the offense carry the load a bit. Normally, I'd want Paddack to go 6, but with his velocity down, gutting through 5 seems fine. Hard to know if this is a red flag or not; he's had this happen before where his velocity dropped in a game...and then the next time out he was back to normal. We shall see; right now we need him.
  19. jmlease1
    We can't because the debt is almost certainly a significant barrier to sale for the Twins, regardless of how it was accumulated. If a big chunk was piled on through non-baseball related activity it's an obstacle to sale because the new owners aren't going to want to be responsible for it and hand the Pohlad's a windfall. If it's been piled on in the last 5 years (as Pohlad-connected sources have suggested) then it indicates some concerning issues about sustainability and revenue generation. And regardless of where it came from, if the expectation from the Pohlad's is that the new ownership assumes all of it, than it impacts what the real asking price is for the team. $1.7B plus $425M in debt is much more like asking for $2.1B than $1.7B. I'd be curious to know how much debt TB is carrying and whether the new ownership there is taking that load on with them (they're almost certainly carrying some, but whether it's $50M or $300M is an open question). Regardless, I hope a deal gets done, because I'm exhausted by the Pohlad's. They're not the worst owners in MLB, but they're far from the best. They've lost the fan base, been mediocre at best in terms of growing the business, and outside of Joe (who has stepped in it multiple times as the face of ownership) don't actually seem to love baseball.
  20. jmlease1
    Those first couple of innings...he really doesn't look right. He's never been this hittable, he's struggling to get K's, it's easily his worst season in MLB. Feels like he'd be heading to the IL for 2 weeks rest, some hip rehab, and mechanical tweaks if Pablo and Zebby weren't already hurt. Seeing Spenser Steer (who has been bad this season) look like an all-star against him tonight really sold the idea that he's not right and it's significant. Oof. It's a depressing run right now. Best part of the game was Hawk's take down of the punks who made threats against Ober and talked about how he'd had to face things like that in his career. I thought he was really good in the booth last night: smart and passionate, shared some personal experiences, and did a really good job talking about things like pitch sequencing. Thought it was Hawkins at his best; when he's cooking like that he really adds a lot to a broadcast, and he worked very well with Provus (who even did a bit of Uecker!). But I hate it when the commentary is better than the Twins play...
  21. jmlease1
    I think this is the issue. If you don't have a position where you can be roughly average defensively, than you really need to hit to get a chip, a chair, and chance. Gasper is a guy who will give it his best shot anywhere, but no one seems to have any confidence on him as a catcher, he's not good at 1B, and makes Ed Julien look smooth and confident at 2B. Haven't seen him try 3B, and while I'm sure he'd be game, I'm not sure it would go well. And for all that people around here crap on Baldelli and the front office for "not caring" about defense...they definitely value it up the middle, which is probably why they're uninterested in replacing some Vazquez time behind the plate with Gasper. Now, would I still give Gasper a chance? Over Bride, why not? He's not adding anything and is eminently replaceable. With Lee and Castro we have a couple of guys who can play 3B until Lewis is back, and Clemens can play there if needed. Let Gasper get some DH time, maybe a little 1B, but actually PLAY him. I'm not saying hand him a starting job, but give him a start a couple times a week and more game time than just a couple of pinch hit jobs and see whether there might be something there. Give Clemens a night or two off, now that his hot streak is over. Bride was an emergency pickup at a time the left side of the infield was really thin. He hasn't done anything, so why not try and add some offense? Because a guy like Bride the definition of replacement level: you can get that guy off the street. Gasper might be nothing more than a Quad-A guy (hell, he probably is) who never figures it out against MLB pitching, but there's very little to lose here. Gasper in his 17 appearances only got 9 starts and played a full game 6 times. Only got 5 games with at least 4 PA's. Hard to really know what you have in such a small sample and inconsistent PT. Not sure we learn anything by watching him destroy pitching in Saint Paul either.
  22. jmlease1
    He's obviously not going to sustain a .500 BABIP for the rest of the season. You can argue that pitchers are going to start giving him more things off the plate and he'll start chasing and watch his BA tumble...or you can say they'll stop throwing him pitches in the zone and he'll start taking more walks. Do you want to see Brooks Lee struggle or succeed, because that might inform your answer. It's pretty normal for players on a tear to not be taking a bunch of walks, because they are swinging the bat more because they're getting good results. Virtuous cycle. We're not seeing Lee chase, so as long as he's taking good hacks at balls in zone, sure he's going to drop back some, but he's not going to fall off the planet. We'll see. With K's being so prevalent in MLB these days, a high contact player may have some room to work. He's also shown enough pop in his bat that pitchers are going to be reluctant to groove one in there. Bringing up Arraez is a little tiresome, because of how it sparks the same tired arguments about how good or not good he is, but there is some usefulness in the comp here, because it highlights what could make Brooks Lee an effective player even without a ton of bat speed and maybe without taking tons of walks (I suspect Lee will take more walks and get fewer hits, but it'll even out somewhat). But Lee is also a fine defensive player at multiple positions, so even if he's not hitting over .300 and sustaining an OPS over .900 he can still be a very useful and effective player manning multiple spots in the infield and running a slash line like .275/.315/.400. I think there might be a little more in the tank for Lee as a hitter than that, which is why is nice to see him swinging the bat so well right now and getting good results.
  23. jmlease1
    Yeah, I used to bitch about guys crowding the plate wearing body armor, but with so many pitchers throwing upper 90's or better and the control not always being there...wear whatever you like. multiple guys breaking their arm on a HPB this season? Yikes. Happy for GG, glad he's keeping the roll going. If he keeps hitting, he might get a cup of coffee in AAA this season. Him being healthy is making all the difference this season, and I think we're seeing the player the Twins were hoping he could be when they traded for him. It's impressive to see him do this at AA; the pitching is more advanced and a lot of guys struggle in their first exposure. He's not having any trouble at all. Interesting to see DeBarge get tossed, but how to handle it when you think the ump is screwing you is an important part of development too. Sounds like he's got a little edge to him, which I'm fine with.
  24. jmlease1
    I think that's right, but Hall has got to get his walks down. He's simply not going to be able to keep advancing if he's walking this many guys. The WHIP is way too high. Very good outing, because the name of the game is to keep runs off the board while going deep into the game, but he's not going to do it often walking 4 guys in a stint.
  25. jmlease1
    GG continuing to rake at AA; if he can add some additional xbhs to his allotment he's really going to be a nice-looking hitter. Pretty impressive that against more advanced pitching, in his first taste of AA he's got 9 BBs and only 10 Ks so far at Wichita. Still a long ways to go for him, but you can see why the Twins liked him as a prospect. He's healthy this season and it's made a real difference. Congrats to Sabato on his promotion. It's been a long road for him and he's had a lot of down moments where it looked like he might be El Busto. Maybe he still won't make it to MLB, but for a while it looked like he was only getting promotions on scholarship and this one he earned. Be interesting to see what he can do in AAA and whether he's really figured something out. The power potential was always there, and this season he's been making enough contact to have it play. Maybe he'll hit well enough in AAA to get an invite to spring training next season and become a potential option for a 40-man spot. You just never know. Culpepper looks ready to move up to AA. Hope they promote him soon, would like to see what he can do there. Not sure he's got much left to prove at Cedar Rapids. He's shown he can handle it, let's test him some more.
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