Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

cmathewson

Provisional Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,290

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by cmathewson

  1. cmathewson
    Fair enough. I didn't have a bug on the mound. But it was a long talk. Joe went back into his crouch. No signs, just three pitches in quick succession. Strikeout. The rest is interpretation. But that's part of the fun of watching baseball. In contrast, it can be really sterile if we restrict ourselves to numbers.
  2. cmathewson
    Three things he's doing now that he hasn't always done: He's mixing up his pitches well, he's moving his pitches in and out and he's keeping the sinker down. If he can keep this up, he'll give us the innings we need. One moment from last night's game gave me particular joy. The hitter was Bourgos. Harris was on second after the Arcia error. Two outs. He got 0-2 on fastballs over the inside and outside corners. Then he threw a slider on the outside corner, which Bourgos was looking for and fouled off. Joe went to the mound and had a long chat with him. When Joe got back into his crouch, Correia threw two four seamers as hard as he could above the letters. Bourgos didn't bite. His last pitch of the night (#102) was the same slider on the outside corner (maybe a touch more outside than the first one), which Bourgos swung and missed for the final out of the 7th. Clearly Joe told him how to set up the hitter and get the strikeout. I doubt he's had a catcher with that particular ability in some time.
  3. cmathewson
    The surprising thing for me is how quickly Wilkin came back. I guess the idea of a prospect like Arcia taking his place on the big league roster motivated him to come back ahead of schedule.
  4. cmathewson
    Link?
  5. cmathewson
    Arcia with an error. Time for Gardy's doghouse, son.
  6. cmathewson
    The most important thing is not how he's doing now, it's how he was doing then. And by all accounts, he was doing poorly. So we got rid of him, as did three other teams. Like I said, I hope he thrives now. But guys get a limited number of opportunities with a team before the team decides to go in a different direction. Guys who ran out of chances with the Twins but ended up succeeding with some other team are too numerous to list. Mark Portugal and Paul Abbott come to mind. This past Sunday, Lavell had a list of former Twins on other teams that shocked me. Brendan Harris? Really? And I see how he even hit a homer off Correia tonight. It's part of the game. Guys lost it, leave, find it again, and lose it again, only to find it again with some other team. Octavio Dotel has pitched for everybody except the Twins it seems. None of his former teams have any regrets.
  7. cmathewson
    A knock in his first at bat.
  8. cmathewson
    Parmelee is about sixth on my list of concerns among Twins position players. He has hit better than his numbers and shown surprising competence in the field. If you want an easier one to poke at, poke at Doumit, who was supposed to be the guy sitting tonight until Willingham came in sick. Prior to the illness, the easy thing was to move the Hammer to DH and make Doumit the bench bat. I still favor that longer term, perhaps not right away, though.
  9. cmathewson
    I will never argue in favor of Blackburn. That signing is one of the 10 worst moves in Twins history, just behind the Joe Mays signing. But at least in the Mays signing, they could blame ligament replacement. Blackburn just sucked (well, he did have bone chips and the wrist thing, but his peripherals weren't good even when his innings pitched and wins were). Just because they screwed up with Blackburn doesn't mean they should have screwed up with Slowey. I'm glad he's doing better. But he would have been horrible the last few years if we had signed him to a deal comparable to Blackburn's.
  10. cmathewson
    I wish Slowey nothing but the best. But I am sure glad we got rid of him when we did. I have little love for the medical staff at the time, but he didn't handle it well either and became a distraction for the team. The fact is, he hadn't pitched well even when healthy for some time prior to his departure. When he butted heads with the coaching staff in addition to the medical staff, he was basically asking for it. He was given an opportunity to pitch out of the bullpen and he certainly did not embrace that. It was the logical choice for his career considering how poorly he pitched the third time through just about every order he faced. Again, he could have embraced the role. Instead, he complained of not being able to get loose. Now we have the revisionist history, that we got rid of a great asset because he wasn't ground bally enough or whatever. Well he certainly hasn't lit the world on fire since his departure, not like R.A. Dickey or Matt Garza or Kyle Lohse or ... Three starts is what you call small samples.
  11. cmathewson
    Finally some facts. The postponement yesterday likely bought them an extra game with Arcia. The only question is, was Ramirez placed on the list after Saturday's game? If after, Arcia has the whole Angels series. If before, he just has two games.
  12. cmathewson
    Personally, I hope all this success at Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids doesn't make us too eager to promote guys like Buxton for a few months anyway. Hopefully, they keep playing this way and dominating their leagues before getting the call-up. One question Seth: Have you heard anything about the health of Morales the last couple of years? I have heard rumors, and I know he was hurt in 2011. But I was as shocked as anyone when he struggled so badly last year, especially with the spring he had. I can't help but I think he had some unreported injury.
  13. cmathewson
    The main reason it's him is they need an outfielder and a bat and the only other option on the 40 man is Joe Benson, who's been about as cold as Aaron Hicks to start the season.
  14. cmathewson
    Glad he's healthy and productive. That was the issue that caused his departure, with the former medical staff discounting his injury and calling him a whiner.
  15. cmathewson
    That was a failed experiment if there ever was one. Just because Gardy was comfortable with it for a few games doesn't mean it's a good thing. I personally would rather have Parmelee in center than Cuddyer. I hope Arcia is better than Cuddyer, and by all accounts he is much faster anyway. He still isn't likely good enough. But it's better than the worst center fielder ever to play out there for the Twins.
  16. cmathewson
    He'll produce more runs than he'll give up relative to Hicks if they just put him in CF. At this point, the production would not be that hard. I'd like to see him play out there at least one game during the next series, just to see what kind of jumps he gets on balls before I say he's better, all things considered.
  17. cmathewson
    I believe Morales struggled through injuries that last two years. I don't know how open he's been about his health, but the old medical staff didn't exactly encourage openness, either. Anyway he seems healthy now. Hopefully he can be consistent as well.
  18. cmathewson
    My only worry is he goes 4-4 and 3-4 and they feel a need to keep him and send someone else out. Three days isn't going to do anything to his development. Getting a taste might even make him hungrier to file off all the rough edges and get up here for good. But if he gets an extended look, I worry about his long-term development. I'm not all that worried, though, 'cause the scenario is an extreme long shot.
  19. cmathewson
    It's easy to say: "We have a dearth of talent at position X, ergo the FO had no good plan on position X." It's quite another to say "we should have acquired player y for position X before the season." But of course, that is not what you do. You pick easy targets when things don't go well after the fact. Again I ask you, whom should Ryan have acquired as Plan B?
  20. cmathewson
    Plan B was Mastroianni. He's too hurt to play everyday. Plan C was Joe Benson. He's too hurt to play at all. Hence the need for another outfielder. It's pretty simple. Of course, they could have held onto Revere. But I don't know anyone who complains about that deal, cause center field was an area of depth and starting pitching was an area of great concern.
  21. cmathewson
    I've never seen Joe expand the strike zone like he did throughout that series. It worries me.
  22. cmathewson
    I'm for it. Thomas isn't a center fielder range wise. Boggs isn't either, really. Getting Burbon would take the pressure off of Hicks, who could go down and get his head on straight. Hopefully, Burbon would only be a short-term fix. Hicks should be ready sometime this year. But I don't see any other options, besides letting it ride with Hicks. That is getting less and less viable by the day. And I realize I was high on Hicks in ST. I'm as shocked as anyone that it has come to this. I thought he was ready.
  23. cmathewson
    Seth is now comparing him to Trout, after watching him for four days recently.
  24. cmathewson
    It might be a situation like Steinbach. They've had an open offer to him for four years, but this is the first year he was ready to leave home so much as his daughters are now in college. I don't know because those things are private. But being a roving minor league instructor might suit him better at present.
  25. cmathewson
    Good post. One question: Do you think the weather affected players ability to hit? It just seemed like nobody could see the ball well.
×
×
  • Create New...