Rod Carews Birthday
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Everything posted by Rod Carews Birthday
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Those are two really ugly tidbits -- the $425M debt and the desire to have a family member remain in management. The debt would certainly explain the desire to keep payroll in check, but I wonder exactly what/where that is from. Having Joe Pohlad stay in place would seem to be a ridiculous ask for a new owner -- it's not like he's some sort of baseball savant genius. I'm sure that's a non-starter. The really bad news is. . . and now we wait. . . and wait. . . for a sale to come through. -
I hope Varland has a lights out future ahead of him as a reliever, however, calling him a potential Liam Hendriks (who wasn't good at all when he was a Twin, plus a bunch of other teams) is probably misplaced. Give him time. He will be what he will be. The bullpens all over the league are littered with players who weren't good starting pitchers -- some are successful, some are stars, some wash out. Let's let the guy pitch.
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AKA How can you call people out without them realizing it!
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If Lee is down, it throws the defensive situation really into flux. The only spare good (OK, maybe just flexible) defensive player is Castro. He can certainly rise to the occasion as he has done before, but it does remove that ongoing flexibility. Offensively, it puts a fair amount of pressure on Julien, Gasper, and Miranda to be good -- which shouldn't be an unreasonable situation at all, but you never know. Definitely not an ideal situation, but this is why you have depth!
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- brooks lee
- jose miranda
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If we are gathering cult heroes, I would prefer not to compare him to Astudillo. I would choose someone (much?) higher on the food chain, but still kind of a cult hero in Lew Ford. He had one excellent year and kind of came out of nowhere, but stuck around long enough to accumulate 8.3 WAR. Astudillo is yet to find his way into positive territory.
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My hope is that Lewis can become a solid above average regular for the Twins, capable of starting on a playoff/world series level team -- which would make him a "core" piece but not a guy you build a team around (who is that really?). I don't really care what it looks like. Maybe he keeps moving down the slugger road and becomes a 35 home run guy. Maybe he turns into a doubles machine. Maybe he's good enough all around to make a few all-star teams. Take your pick. What I worry about is that people are grasping onto some VERY small sample sizes (like his playoff stats) as proof that he is an MVP just waiting to happen. If that's what you're honestly thinking, you should probably prepare to be disappointed. Let's hope he can get (and keep) himself healthy and productive so the thought of signing him to an extension makes sense for the team and for Royce Lewis. Right now, it probably doesn't, but the future could change that possibility either one way or the other.
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I get it, but I would maintain that the difference between articles is actually TD doing a good job rather than a bad one by presenting different viewpoints about a subject and letting those things guide the discussion. If they were just eternal pessimists or hopeless cheerleaders, that would be a much bigger problem in terms of honest journalism. And, as Twins history has taught us, players do go from essential cog to part time player to out of baseball (and sometimes back and forth) pretty quickly. It's not fun for fans or players, but it certainly happens all the time. There are certainly articles that aren't very good or are just bad clickbait (I think that's the nature of the beast these days), but there are plenty that are filled with good information and analysis as well. If people can have a reasonable (not without disagreement!) discussion, then that's the way people broaden their ideas and have stronger information to draw from when making their own decisions.
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I think we are falling into the trap of assigning very specific outcomes to prospect ratings. A difference of 20 spots or so is very subjective and isn’t especially significant. Let’s watch him develop. I’ll be much more excited about his production when he’s a MN Twin.
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Agreed. I'm also not sure that the overall optimism is that much lower than it has been historically. Sure, it was quite high after the playoff win a couple of years back, but there are lots of years in the past that looked much more bleak on the field than they do now. What we're witnessing now is probably more about the fans' impatience because they perceive an opportunity to win that doesn't necessarily line up with ownership's position at the moment. Hardcore (loud) Twins fans want more for their team and get frustrated when they think there is a missed opportunity. That's not wrong, but I don't really think it's about optimism or the lack thereof. I think it's more about people being passionate about their team winning it all.
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They will undoubtedly be pretty bad but they are still good enough to beat you once in a while. Last year, the ineptitude of the White Sox boosted the records of the other teams in the division enough to get three teams in the playoffs and a fourth close behind. Let's hope that pattern continues. Gotta fatten up on the poor teams so you don't have to beat the excellent ones as often.
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- luis robert
- justin ishbia
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Maybe. However, Liriano had his best season as a Twin (outside of his rookie year, when he really was great), but going into the season didn't really have a track record indicating that he would be that good. After that season, he was not good for at all until he made it to Pittsburgh. If I had to draft one to be my SP1, it would definitely be Lopez over Liriano (unless we're using the rookie season). I would probably also argue that Ryan was also better than Pavano. I will give you Slowey over Paddack, but SWR last season was much better than the 2010 version of Blackburn. So, yes. Deep. But I would argue pretty strong too.
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- pablo lopez
- joe ryan
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Shockingly, Wallner has above average foot speed. On the other hand, Max Kepler, who no one accuses of being slow, actually is slow.
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- matt wallner
- joe mauer
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I think they are going to be good, just not good enough yet. Last year, I think the Royals benefited from everything coming together at the right time. This year with a little less luck, I think they are a candidate from some regression -- not down to 70 wins, but probably down to only 80 or so. They are developing a good core and in a couple of years, look out!
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Another Lewis injury is a pretty ominous sign for his season. We’ve unfortunately been down this path before and the results have been pretty terrible. That being said, if we can shift Miranda to third in his absence, with Gasper and Julien able to fill in at first and second, we should be OK, and that’s without committing Castro to a long term spot. Sometimes I think we forget that while Lewis has had some short stretches that were nothing short of spectacular, the team has been without him (or without him hitting well) for most of the past few years. The cries of “OMG what will we do without Lewis!” are probably unwarranted. His spectacular moments will certainly be missed severely, but his impact has been blunted with equal severity by his limited availability. This is not the end of the world. It’s why people like Willi Castro are so valuable.
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- royce lewis
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Great overview of the Twins starting pitching situation. Indeed, the top three are really solid and I hope that one of them can truly take another step forward and really become that stopper that every team needs to guard against losing streaks. Remember, if the other team doesn’t score — you can’t lose. The younger talent - SWR, Festa, Matthew’s, etc. really looks the part of MLB starters, which is a big change from many past years when we were promoting guys on the basis of “has been a minor league starting pitcher” in order to fill one of three (or even four!) holes in the rotation to start the year. Honestly, it’s hard to be anything but optimistic about this staff. I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again, there are VERY few years in Twins history with a starting staff that looked this good. Let’s hope they deliver!
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- pablo lopez
- joe ryan
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Is Debbie Harry a Twins fan? I like Blondie even more now!
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All other things being equal, having a taller player at first base would be preferable. However, all other things are NEVER equal. There are certainly successful diminutive first basemen in the league. If you have a guy who's 5'8" that can hit the cover off the ball and play passable defense, he's going to be our first baseman and no one will care about his height. If he can't hit, his height will be more of a problem. . .
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This makes perfect sense, but honestly my first takeaway is “Holy Crap! The White Sox were BELOW replacement level last year WITH Garret Crochet!”
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Sorry but he is guilty by association. You didn’t list Mike Ford or Mickey Gasper.
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The Twins have had some successes — and also some failures, ESPECIALLY on the pitching side. Certainly MAT and Santana are great examples of excellent moves, but the failures prove that low level signings are low level ($$) for a reason. They are a crapshoot in terms of success for any team — and that includes the Twins. Also, I’m plenty intrigued by what Ty France has done so far in spring training, but anointing him a success at this point is pretty premature. Tap the brakes a little and re-visit this in about 3 months.
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- michael a taylor
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Real H.S. student excuse for being late to a pit orchestra rehearsal. . . . “Sorry I’m late. My flight from Paris was late and I had to run a case of napkins to Taco Bell on my way here.”
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Perhaps just the friendly nod.
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If you have a player like Nelson Cruz, it’s pretty easy to declare a full-time DH. It’s also easy to look at the players available and decry that we have no one who is good enough. However, rotating guys through with a couple of players (Julien, Miranda) serving as the primaries seems like a reasonable solution and will likely produce pretty good offensive numbers. Cruz numbers? No. League average or better numbers? I’m willing to roll the dice on that one.
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Let’s not get our heads stuck in the analysis. Yes, these stats are against a major and minor league smorgasbord of pitching. Yes, it’s early. BUT, all of the hitters who aren’t hitting well are dining at that same smorgasbord. Is he going to be this good? Certainly not. Could he be pretty good? He’s done it before and he’s not old and no longer injured. He just might. At very least, he’s on a hot streak. Let’s ride that out and see where it takes us. Hey, I’m willing to let him drop to at least a 1.200 OPS before I start calling for his benching!
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At some point, one of Lee/Julien (or perhaps both) are going to need to be part time bench players. We act as though their skills will fall apart with a bench role in MLB but they will develop into all-stars if they go back to St. Paul where they can play full time. Twins’ bench players play a lot. Whether you like that is a matter of personal preference, but it’s true — nobody (except the long reliever) sits for weeks at a time. So, they can both co-exist and based on MAJOR LEAGUE performance, a decision can be made about who will get the second base job. Remember, neither of them hit MLB pitching last year, but Julien does have the track record of hitting MLB pitching in 2023. Let’s find out what they can do in 2025 and reward the winner.
