Danchat

Polanco is hitting .182 since returning from the IL...

Weird, I'm used to the whole month of September being AL Central matchups. We're already done facing the Tigers and Royals, huh? Still 6 more against Cleveland...

As someone who was super high on Larnach as a prospect, I concur. He's been given several lengthy stretches of MLB playing time that have either been cut short by injuries or dismal play. He's incredibly streaky, and in all 3 stints he's gotten hot and been one of the team's best hitters for a few weeks, then cools off and becomes unplayable. He's almost 27, the clock is ticking and it's probably best for both parties if he is moved to get a chance elsewhere.

If I used just Simmons' statline with the Twins, then it begins to paint the picture that the front office is not very good at finding capable hitters at SS rather the subject of the post being Correa. Let's try this, then: Correa .228/.301 .696 OPS Player A: .260/3.72 .882 OPS Player B: .245/.317 .772 OPS Player C: .243/.296 .679 OPS Player D: .256/.334 .796 OPS Player E: .284/.414 1.050 OPS Player F: .286/.418 .915 OPS All statlines are from the first year of $30M+ per year deals. The players are Bryce Harper, Corey Seager, Manny Machado, Trea Turner, Aaron Judge, and Anthony Rendon.

The point is that 2023 Correa is playing like Adrianza / Simmons in those spans, chosen in a way that shows that we're basically paying $33M a year to a defense-first and below average hitting shortstop so far. If I took Simmons' stat line with the Twins it'd be apparent how horrific he was at the plate, but he was known over his career for being more mediocre rather than horrific. That's a good point, Turner is also having a dismal year and Bogaerts is doing marginally better than the two. Gotta hope for a Corey Seager-like turnaround (.915 OPS in last year with the Dodgers, .772 in first year in Texas, 1.070 in second year in Texas).

I wanted to do one of those "guess who" statlines, guess who each player is! Player A: .249/.315 .691 OPS, plus defender at short Player B: .228/.301 .696 OPS, plus defender at short Player C: .263/.312 .678 OPS, plus defender at short Player A is Ehire Adrianza's career line as a Twin, Player B is Carlos Correa 2023, and Player C is Andrelton Simmon's career line. 🤢

From what I've read it sounds like Pace will likely be used in some special passing down formations where he'll blitz or probably play a bit in coverage, but Hicks and Asamoah are the starters. Hicks is the one with the green dot (calling plays to the other players) and appears to be locked into an every-down role, which is curious given how he was a massive liability in coverage last season and even Donatell started reducing his snap count in favor of Asamoah last year. Maybe Flores knows what he is doing, but they could have saved $5M by axing Hicks and signing one of many decent to good LBs on the market (they instead got Hicks to take a $1.5M pay cut).

No, he's a 3-4 ILB and has been practicing there - he's even been taking some 1st team snaps from Asamoah. Flores is known for using blitzing ILBs, and when we signed Pace I saw someone comment about how Pace was a logical fit for this role. Hicks has also been an effective blitzer through his career, too. They're putting a ton of faith in a late 3rd (Blackmon) and an early 4th (Evans)... I'm getting 2020 vibes when Vikings media tried to convince us that going with Mike Hughes and Holton Hill as our top starters was a good idea. Maybe this regime can actually develop CBs, I did really like Evans as a prospect but the 3 concussions last year scares me. Williams is probably just a backup (4 mediocre or injured years with Belichick coaching him) but he's having a good camp. Booth Jr is already veering towards total bust, he's reportedly been getting torched repeatedly in camp and keeps getting injured. I think he knew what he was getting into, Donatell wasn't 100% of the reason why the 2022 defense sucked at the end of the year, personnel was a big part of it. And now without Tomlinson and Z Smith, too. I don't think that will daunt Flores, he inherited a bone-dry Dolphins roster in 2019, who were tanking so hard they traded away their 2018 1st round stud Minkah Fitzpatrick for a future 1st, and got that unit to be competent in 2020. Of course, his 2019 defense was the worst in most categories, but that's hardly his fault. I have similar expectations for him, I expect small improvements in 2023 and bigger ones in 2024, assuming we use our future cap space to sign a bunch of defensive free agents.

For those wondering on Cano - the past month he has a 2.84 ERA, 9 K/9 rate, but he is giving up a few more walks and hits than before. Still a very good reliever. Jorge Lopez, meanwhile, has given up 3 runs in 5 innings with a fourth run unearned - 8 hits in that stretch. Flipping him for Floro seems to be a win so far.

Here's my latest depth chart for those interested, based upon the unofficial depth chart that recently came out. (Grades are from PFF)

Disappointing to see Winder as a struggling mop-up reliever, I had high hopes for him as a #4/5 starter.

He was considered a 4th-5th round prospect who some thought was too short (5'11") to play LB. They offered the most guaranteed money to him ($240K I think) and seem poised to reap the rewards. I don't get why teams don't spend a 6th/7th on a guy like this, who clearly had a higher ceiling then most of the guys going in the final two rounds.

Alright front office, you win on this one for ignoring us fans and sticking with Max. However, their same persistence with Gallo hasn't worked.

Good thing we didn't trade for Sewald, I guess!!

Because he's looked really bad lately? Perhaps the plan is to give him a short break from closing, or at least closing one run games.

KEPLER!!!!!!!!!!!

Get Moran to AAA already!

7 Ks on the last 8 PAs… But the pitching retired 15 men in a row! Probably good we didn’t trade Maeda away.

7 Ks on the last 8 PAs… But the pitching retired 15 men in a row! Probably good we didn’t trade Maeda away.

Picked a good game to go to! Great to see this lineup erupt. Jeffers is crushing it right now, it’s hard to remember how rough 2022 was for him.

That last pitch didn’t look like a strike, but we’ll take it.

Thanks for the bunt!!

Eh, for a guy whose niche should be mashing lefties, his career line isn't very impressive. He's basically a lesser Kyle Garlick in my eyes.

If that's all it takes to write-off a season, then this front office will be around forever because injuries / funks / regressions are going to happen to every team.