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Rod Carews Birthday

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Everything posted by Rod Carews Birthday

  1. Rod Carews Birthday
    The Bears franchise is basically inept, so I would take it all with a grain of salt. Since I moved here in 1994, there have been at least 4 or 5 instances when they were "ready to build" a new stadium and it didn't happen. The move to Arlington Heights to the former racetrack property was just a silly attention grabbing stunt. The bottom line is that Arlington Heights wasn't going to be willing to foot a bunch of the bill for the Bears (medium sized suburb, much smaller budget than the Chicago Park District) and the Bears weren't willing to do it without. I'll believe it when I see it that the Bears are putting in big bucks. This (video partway through the story) is what the Chicago Park District proposed a year ago when the Bears were running away from Chicago. It would be amazing and if I were the Bears I would BEG them to do it. https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/sports/nfl/chicago-bears/photos-proposed-soldier-field-renovations-would-add-dome-to-stadium-new-transit-center-to-lakeshore/3039801/ As to the White Sox renderings, I think that's a pipe dream as well. None of the surrounding nice stuff has been built, nor is it likely to be built. Given that Chicago is a Bears, Cubs, Bulls, Sox/Blackhawks city -- in that order -- the odds of that happening are nil. In fact, Jerry Reinsdorf was at the capitol in Springfield lobbying state senators and the governor for money and he pretty much got his head handed back to him.
  2. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think he has potential. His minor league stats don't warrant a rush to the majors. He's been solid, not great. Nothing so far suggests superstar. Superstars have stats that look like video game numbers and stick out above everyone else. He hasn't done that, YET. He is growing, and that's what the minors are for. My ultimate worry (for all of the hype created) is that he comes up and is "solid" but never a star. That can happen to a guy with a high floor but a possibly limited ceiling. That's not a useless player, but it would be disappointing and it could easily happen.
  3. Rod Carews Birthday
    Excellent article. While I understand that players with the hitting profile of Matt Wallner are prone to more strikeouts and thus more regression, there isn't anything specific that makes me think that he is any more likely than anyone else to regress. Even though there is are a lot of Wallner doubters on TD, I'm hoping and thinking that Wallner can hold down a corner spot for years to come, whether that be left- or right-field. There are enough guys around that we can figure out the future when it appears.
  4. Rod Carews Birthday
    It is really difficult to know what to do with players whose path was once that of a major league starter or even star but who has fallen to the point of possibly not being in the team’s (or any team’s) future. When at least part of the issue is tied to health/injury issues, it becomes even more difficult. If they can come back and duplicate their best early numbers, they are stars, but they can’t seem to show that it’s possible. It’s a conundrum for the player, the team, and the fans. I have the most faith in Kirilloff returning to form, since his latest injury seems to have been more minor and he has had the most recent success. I’m less sure about Miranda and I’ve learned to never bank on a pitcher (Alcala) having any predetermined production. The good news is that the Twins are mostly insulated against poor production from any of these players. Two will be at St. Paul, and one has lost much of his starting spot to Carlos Santana. Even Kiriloff’s supposed landing spot at DH can be covered by other players, possibly even another top prospect who has fallen from favor in Trevor Larnach.
  5. Rod Carews Birthday
    Or even crazier, imagine if they just let Julien keep playing 2B! I think it is hilarious that it is just assumed that Julien is not long for the position. He may just claim it, keep it and frustrate everybody!
  6. Rod Carews Birthday
    Well that’s confusing! How are all of the TD prognosticators supposed to make meaningful rash judgements if the team is going to sow confusion like that?
  7. Rod Carews Birthday
    High school pitchers (or international signings of that age) are terribly difficult to wait for — especially for fans. I remember waiting and waiting for Berrios, as he was the “next big thing” seemingly forever!. Even if they are really good pitchers, it takes years for them to even hit AA, let alone the majors — and that assumes that they don’t get injured along the way. Between building up innings and developing pitches, there are so many pitfalls to avoid and overcome. All of that said, college pitchers are also far from a sure thing because they may or may not be developed well or properly. I think that taking a few of each is a reasonable play as a draft strategy. I certainly don’t have the statistics to back this up, but pitching seems to be much more difficult to draft than position players, but I don’t really see any way around the problem.
  8. Rod Carews Birthday
    First of all, Castro and Farmer are backup players. They are neither assumed to be nor projected to be stars. They are, however, experienced and have proven ability to cope with inconsistent playing time across multiple positions while still maintaining solid offense and defense. That’s why they are valuable and currently a better fit for the team and actually, comparing Lee to them is a red herring, as they aren’t calling him up to sit on the bench. That would be short sighted and shameful. Second of all, what is it about Brooks Lee’s performance so far in the minors that makes you think he is ready to be “a superstar”. I like Brooks Lee. I think he might be really good at some point. I can’t see why he would have a giant breakout in the majors this year. Let’s compare: Eduard Julien had an OPS of .839 last year in the MAJORS. His career OPS in the minors was .924, including .932 at AAA St. Paul. Brooks Lee has a career OPS in the minors of .814 with an .808 OPS at AAA St. Paul, or more succinctly, lower in AAA than Julien had in the majors.. Lee has never sniffed a .900 OPS, while Julien’s lowest OPS at any minor league level was .891 over a half season at Cedar Rapids in his first taste of pro ball. Lee will improve. Give him time to do it so that he can be truly ready when he hits Target Field. If he comes up, rakes, and becomes the star we all hope, then someone will either need to find a new position (maybe him) or be traded for starting pitching (also maybe him).
  9. Rod Carews Birthday
    True but Pedro Florimon didn’t have Carlos Correa’s historical production or talent. With some health I’m pretty confident about Carlos Correa.
  10. Rod Carews Birthday
    I believe we should sign his brother, Joey Chestnut. He could be a real innings eater!
  11. Rod Carews Birthday
    We may need to rush a pitcher this season if we have some injuries. Let’s hope that’s not the case. Since Brooks Lee probably isn’t an immediate upgrade over who we have playing in the infield currently, (which is unrelated to whether he will become a good player on the team in the future), it is better to save the service time, and continue the learning curve in St. Paul. We need to wait until the player is truly ready so that we don’t stunt his development. See Gomez, Carlos. He was rushed. We played him for a while unsuccessfully and then he left and became a star. Some additional time in the minors would have been useful, but desperate times called for desperate measures. These are not desperate times.
  12. Rod Carews Birthday
    What I understand is that his age has nothing to do with it. By that measure it’s already too late because Mike Trout and Bryce Harper debuted at 19. Even Butch Wynegar was up by 20. Davey Lopes debuted at 27 and was an all star. He will be ready when he is ready. There is no hurry here.
  13. Rod Carews Birthday
    Of the Twins’ shortcomings, depth at 2nd base is absolutely the least of them. That’s actually part of the reason that he ISN’T going to break camp with the Twins. Both Farmer and Castro are perfectly acceptable second basemen and would likely be starters on lots of teams. Julien, meanwhile, is a budding star who has proven that he belongs in the majors and there is no need to supplant him at the position. As to Lee’s hitting in the minors. He’s been solid, not great. Great minor league numbers are OPS’s in the .900 to 1.000 range or even higher. If he were in the majors with his current numbers, that would be excellent for a rookie, but he’s not there yet. Be patient. If the Twins are in search of a Rookie of the Year award (which they shouldn’t be, because that’s not always what’s best for a prospect), they should leave him in St. Paul all year and (hopefully) watch him really rake while getting more experience all over the field and learning to hit left-handed pitching. Then, next year when they bring him up, he will be fully ready and actually have a chance for that to happen. Most of all, I want him on the Twins team when he is ready, when there is a place for him to play on a daily basis, and when he will be able to be successful and not sent back to minors for more seasoning.
  14. Rod Carews Birthday
    Even though he’s had his share of injuries I think that Carlos Correa can be counted on for a few things. 1. 100% effort. 2. Leadership. 3. No excuses. If he thinks he’s healthy, I’m willing to bet on him being a major part of the Twins’ offensive and defensive production this year. There are no sure things anywhere, ever, but he seems about as solid a bet as the Twins have.
  15. Rod Carews Birthday
    Sign me up for this. I like guys who keep improving and really honing their craft.
  16. Rod Carews Birthday
    So the last week or two of the season and the playoffs is the forward determiner for his career? His partial season is already a fairly small sample size but limiting it to a couple of weeks seems a little over the top. I don’t think that Wallner is going to be Babe Ruth, but he certainly has looked solid so far. There are going to be growing pains, not to mention a little nervousness at his initial call up. (If the Twins called me up, aside from proof they don’t want to win, I would be so nervous that I probably couldn’t even put my glove or shoes on properly.). His defense isn’t as good as a Buxton, Taylor, or Gallo. That describes most of the league’s starting outfielders. He’s not a butcher out there.
  17. Rod Carews Birthday
    It has also been said that young pitchers are throwers and old pitchers are pitchers. With age often comes wisdom, or so I have been said to believe. While he may no longer be what is considered the athletic apex (which I'm certain varies from person to person), he certainly hasn't been worn out by too many innings and has plenty of physical ability, plus he's a "tall pitcher" and they take a little longer to develop. Randy Johnson went from "good" to "awesome" at age 29, so there is nothing to prevent Ober from going from "possibly good" to "very good" at a similar age. Johnson is a hall of famer and Ober won't be, but Ober could definitely have a lesser version of that kind of development. Johnson later proceeded to go from "awesome" to "ridiculous" at age 35, so chronological age isn't the only determiner of success.
  18. Rod Carews Birthday
    I agree with this, and most certainly he will not be called up to be a full-time DH, even if he somehow forces his way onto the team. I think he will be in St. Paul for at least 1 to 3 months and then will get his shot, unless there is an injury that gives him a chance earlier.
  19. Rod Carews Birthday
    It's kind of like back in the day when Charles Barkley said that he knew that if he was leading the SEC in rebounding, his grades would be fine. In the same way if Kirilloff puts up a .900 OPS, his defense will be fine. The problem is multifaceted. He's occasionally be very productive, but he's been hurt a lot, which makes him unavailable. He was drafted to be a bat first player, and when he stops having the bat to make up for the glove, he becomes a lot less valuable and his defensive prowess (or lack thereof) starts to matter a lot more. I agree that this is probably it for him. He either hits (and is healthy), or finds himself replaced by another player who will. The presence of Santana is not a big deal, but the Twins have plenty of good infielders who might take over 1B and never give it back.
  20. Rod Carews Birthday
    Actually, that was back in the days when the Twins were teaching players to go to the opposite field and put the ball in play Punch and Judy style. The complaint that Ortiz had was that they weren't letting him be the power hitter he was, and when he got to Boston they let him swing away. Presto. . . he's a power hitter. So, no. Those aren't the right dots to connect. This isn't an either/or scenario. We need players like Arraez and we need players like Max (the 2019 and last half of 2023 version) in order to have the maximum effect. In retrospect, they were certainly wrong to try to make Austin Martin into a power hitter, but they didn't know that at the time (and neither did anyone else). It was a gamble they took so that they could take someone with a good hit tool and add the power tool. Without it, Austin Martin is likely to be somewhere from a fringy major league utility guy to a decent MLB player. With it, he could be a big star. That's the gamble they took and in this case they lost. They did the same with Buxton. It took awhile, but it seems to have worked, even if he can't stay healthy, but that's a different subject.
  21. Rod Carews Birthday
    I like the idea of getting more of the "younger" voices involved in the broadcast team. However, it would be great to grab some of the oldest Twins alumni -- i.e. Kaat, Carew, etc -- and have them stop by for just a game or two. Some of these guys may not be around that much longer and it would be a shame if we missed out on them one more time.
  22. Rod Carews Birthday
    You might be correct. For me though, having Lewis in the OF is likely to result in a better, more athletic OF defensively (he’s certainly more athletic than Kirilloff or Julian), while keeping everybody in the mix offensively. I don’t think Rocco wants a full time DH unless something obvious forces his hand like a Thome or a Big Papi. He would like to use it as the half day off for key contributors. I think Buxton’s parking place there at the beginning of last season was one of the reasons for the team’s slow start offensively.
  23. Rod Carews Birthday
    Correa certainly has enough of a track record to give a person faith that there will be a bounce back offensively, and probably defensively as well. It’s a beautiful thing to have a shortstop who is good enough to be at least OK while having the worst offensive year of his career. That’s a pretty great floor level. Lewis, on the other hand, hasn’t had that kind of major league track record. All signs point to success, but you never know what will happen going forward. I’m thrilled to be at the point where we can speculate about a situation like this. One of the things that I hope is happening with the Twins is that we are developing players whose floor in their worst season is still more than playable. Simply put, not everyone has to have a career year to go far in the playoffs. A couple of people likely will have that career year, but it won’t take the whole team doing so in order to have success. My hilarious example for this is the 1965 Twins. Harmon Killebrew, arguably their best player) was hurt part of the year and had arguably the worst year of his prime (and still managed a 145 OPS+ (!!!!!), over 4 WAR and MVP votes) but the team managed to win a bunch of games and make it to seven games against the Dodgers in the World Series. There were plenty of other seasons that went extremely well for players (ahem, Mr. Versalles) but what an amazing team that was to sustain through an injury laden season for their biggest star.
  24. Rod Carews Birthday
    WOW! That’s a ridiculous level to maintain! Count me in!
  25. Rod Carews Birthday
    I have a tremendous amount of long term faith in Lewis to become a star, however, like all of last year’s rookie crop, there will likely be some speed bumps along the way — hopefully none of them are injury related and the fans exhibit some patience (!!!) with them. I think that in time Lewis may get moved off of third base (or not, and that’s OK too). I think a lot of whether he gets moved actually depends on Kirilloff. If Kirilloff displays star level talent at first base, then I think he keeps that spot and Julien stays at second, with Lee becoming the likely third baseman and Lewis going to the outfield. If Kirilloff doesn’t step forward, then I think Julien is destined for first base, with Lee at second and Lewis at third. The first situation would be unbelievably great, and the second would be OK as well. This season will tell a lot about what happens long term.
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