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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Rocco's gotta pinch hit Garver for Jeffers!
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Pull Berrios to try to bait Baker into removing Urquidy.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, Bauer might be a decent bet for that too. Especially if you buy him some drones to play with.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Kepler, postseason career: 1-for-16. He does have 7 walks, though.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Is this your first postseason as a Twins fan?
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    His stats were fine this year until July...
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Cave's not that great. Kirilloff could be better, especially at the plate vs this starter. But he's never played in MLB before so it's hard to know. If you start Kirilloff, you at least have Cave as a safety net if you need him (at worst, he is a likely pinch runner and/or defensive replacement). If you start Cave, then you lose Kirilloff's potential better-ness because he's basically just an emergency option at that point (no safety net if you bring him in late).
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    It's risk/reward. There's risk in playing Kirilloff, both at the plate and in field, but if you have Cave on the bench ready to come in, that mitigates the risk significantly, while still letting you capture the potential reward. It's much harder to bring in Kirilloff later in the game. Obviously if you just want Cave, you just start Cave. But we don't just want Cave, we're trying to find the best way to fill the absence of Buxton.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    If not for Buxton HBP right after they sent down Wade, then Kirilloff wouldn't even be on the roster. And I think Baldelli isn't starting Kirilloff over Cave, as much as he wants a backup plan while Kirilloff is in the game. Once Cave enters the game (and he will), I think he'll be in to stay.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I had the same thought, but I'll forgive him if he wasn't really listening to the announcers. Frankly I usually don't either.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    That's why I'd expect to see Cave too at some point.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think it's a binary, black or white thing. Maybe he had mild symptoms that he thought he could manage and play through but turns out he couldn't -- there were a lot of starts and stops in the recoveries for Mauer and Morneau, for example. edit: coke to twinbythebay!
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    That wasn't a bad hit from Cruz, but he got an assist from Reddick on that double.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    I'm guessing the thought process is, it's safer to start Kirilloff and replace him with Cave if you need to, rather than the opposite.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I think he is saying, we'd have to win a postseason game vs the Red Sox to break the curse. Not sure how that curse works exactly, but I'm not an expert in curses (at least not in breaking them).
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Optimism, pessimism, and indifference -- all in one post! Good work.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Bats are obviously #1 in terms of blame, but I don't think the pen would be proud of their showing here either. Duffey had 2 outs, nobody on in the 7th, then gave up 3 straight singles to tie the game -- that's not just one mistake, that's a consistent failure to miss bats and put guys away. (And was perhaps bailed out of further damage by a baserunning blunder.) Same in the 9th with Romo -- 0-2 leadoff single, followed by another single. Yes, Polanco's error hurt, but in a quality relief appearance, there is more margin for error. The box score called them all "unearned" that inning, but Polanco's error alone shouldn't lead to 3 runs.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    That pitch wasn't called a strike half the time this game -- the top of the zone was very tight. And when you consider how short Altuve's strike zone is (it wasn't near the box on TV), it was clearly a ball. I don't even think Romo was mad with the umpire about it, just mad with himself. Here's the zone from yesterday: The pitch to Altuve appears in the zone here, near the top, just to the right of center -- but this is likely an error due to Altuve's short strike zone. Here's how it looked with the box on TV, and on the right for comparison is a pitch in the same relative location to Rosario in the 6th -- the only pitch at that level or higher that was called a strike, per Baseball Savant: (Sorry I didn't get the two pictures in the same scale.)
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    From your first sentence, it sounds like there is also a 4th area needing improvement today -- managing!
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    If that's what you want Astudillo to do (assuming he is even capable of flipping that switch), why not just let the scheduled batter Avila do it instead? Lefty-lefty isn't ideal, but Avila is more than capable of taking pitches, and there was only 1 out. You could even tell Avila not to be afraid to take strike 3 if necessary to avoid the DP and take your chances with Marwin.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Twins did have a lead when they lifted Maeda, albeit only 1-0.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Quoting myself... I know that last point seemed a little harsh -- I am sure Baldelli wasn't trying to lose the game yesterday. But while the Astudillo move was compounded by earlier Baldelli mistakes, it was still pretty questionable on its own -- heck, with one out, I'd rather send up Avila in that situation and just tell him not to swing. Avila has a good eye and the zone had been tight, so maybe he works a walk. Worst case, he strikes out looking for the 2nd out and Marwin gets a chance, representing the tying run, with Arraez and Buxton to follow if he reaches base.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I just posted in another thread how it was a little odd how Baldelli used Garver as pinch hitter on Sunday too in a similar spot -- tie game, late innings, leading off an inning vs a LHP. Jeffers was available to take both PAs (and that was when we were still ostensibly trying to win the game Sunday, before the White Sox officially lost). It seems like Baldelli is either ignoring 2020 results that he keeps relying on Garver at the plate over Jeffers, or he's just trying to give Garver reps to get his bat going -- which might be fine in a non-critical regular season game, but was decidedly not okay yesterday.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    What was weird about this game was how closely it followed the same script as our final regular season game on Sunday: - Mostly low scoring - Each SP gave up only 2 hits but 3+ walks - Twins pen gave up a run to tie the game in the 7th inning - We pinch hit with Garver to lead off an inning, late in a tie game, when we could have used Jeffers instead - Romo and Thielbar (mostly Romo) pitched in the top of the final inning, still tied, and gave up 3 runs - Twins brought the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the final inning - Baldelli pinch hit for the last batter of the game almost as if he wanted to lose (Adrianza for Arraez on Sunday, Astudillo yesterday)
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Yes. I guess it makes sense that the 10-day option rule would affect playoff rosters this year, because otherwise a team could option a bunch of guys on the last weekend (especially pitchers after they've thrown, like Berrios etc.), effectively breaking the 28 man roster limit with no penalty. In a normal season, teams can't option players after Sep. 15 or so because the minor league seasons/postseasons end by that date, so it's normally a non-issue. I suspect if Buxton had his HBP scare a day earlier, we would have found a way to keep Wade on the roster instead of needing to add Kirilloff?
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