Jump to content
Our MLB mock draft board has updated to 90 names, click here to check out the list! ×
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Rod Carews Birthday

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,705

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Rod Carews Birthday

  1. Rod Carews Birthday
    I'm hoping that they activate him and put him back in St. Paul for a few weeks. This has been quite the long ordeal for him (for the fans too, but even more so for him) and it would be great if he can really get raking for a bit to get his confidence back and to get rid of any hesitations that he might have coming off of this process. I'm actually very pro-Kiriloff, but I want him uber-healthy and ready before they throw him into the fire. I think that's the best way to insure a successful situation in July or August, by sacrificing May to the minors. Let him go down and hit .400 with a quadruple digit OPS for a while!
  2. Rod Carews Birthday
    Polanco is an excellent baseball player but is often overlooked when one considers the Twins' lineup. When he's been healthy he adds a ton on both offense and defense that makes his presence felt in many tangible and intangible ways on the field. He's not a hall of famer, but he's a hall of really good and really consistent for quite a long time member. I'm hoping that they don't trade him anytime soon. Those prospects need to develop in the minors before we crown them stars and starters on a good baseball team.
  3. Rod Carews Birthday
    I'm not sure whether the magic number is 4 or 6 or 12 or 26, but I'm quite certain that the Twins have taken steps to go in the right direction with the overall talent level of the club -- particularly on the pitching side of things. Lopez, Ryan, and Duran are locked up for several years, which should guarantee the floor being a little bit higher. On the bat side, certainly Correa and Buxton are important cogs, but as we have seen lately, it is often unsung players, like Jorge Polanco or even Kyle Farmer that are the missing ingredient sometimes. On the hitting side of things, there are lots of options, but one or two more need to step forward and produce at a high and consistent level to be a part of any core. The key is not necessarily to have the top two players in the league, or the Angels would have World Series wins on their resume. It's more important to have players that are very good in all or at least most positions to really make consistency happen.
  4. Rod Carews Birthday
    I’m actually a little on the fence about the subject of stealing bases. It actually is a bit of a dilemma. On one hand, the chart shows that we are average plodders, but many of the teams below the Twins, like the White Sox, steal bases. The younger players in particular know how to do it, because they were much more likely to have done it recently in the minors. So, why not? On the other hand, protecting Buxton, et al from injury means we should be afraid to run, but does it actually do anything to prevent injury? Players do get injured and Buxton seems to pick up more than his share, but I’m not convinced that being careful necessarily prevents injury. Sometimes playing “not to lose” means you also can’t win. I think the more Byron Buxton is involved in the game, the better he will play, whether that is through playing CF, running the bases, or anything else. Right now he’s not playing CF, not stealing bases, and also not really hitting. It’s time to change it up and get him moving.
  5. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think it's very sad that they are (apparently) making the move. There is a pretty substantial history with the Oakland franchise, but the last several years have been abysmal, with mostly a bad product on the field and a terrible old stadium to boot. I would rather they find a way to build a new stadium in Oakland, but remember, the Oakland Athletics were the Kansas City Athletics before they were in Oakland. I guess we'll get used to the Las Vegas Athletics (Gamblers? Cash? Craps?) and it may give them a better chance to put a good product on the field, if the owners actually choose to do that.
  6. Rod Carews Birthday
    Argh. Yes!
  7. Rod Carews Birthday
    Seemed like an OK time for Headrick (or even an early Pagan for 2 innings) to come in and get his feet wet, although none of it matters if you don't have some bad defense and lousy offense tonight.
  8. Rod Carews Birthday
    Ha! Ha! Maybe! Especially if you keep writing articles that I agree with! I was mostly reacting to the people who have already decided that Gallo will strike out more often than they like so that makes him a bum. He's a professional ballplayer who has had some pretty strong success and I think that he deserves the benefit of the doubt. I live in the Chicago suburbs and deal with way too many Cubs and Bears fans. They have a very similar knee jerk reaction that sometimes changes every day and their team/player is either the greatest the world has ever seen or a complete idiot that should be run out of town. I lived through a friend of mine (Cubs fan) hoping that Kerry Wood and Mark Pryor would retire the same year so that they could go into the Hall of Fame (yes. . . the Baseball one. . . I know. . . ) together as Cubs teammates. I'm pretty sure that their combined careers don't merit even one entrance ticket. I just don't want the Twins' fan base to go down that same road.
  9. Rod Carews Birthday
    Happy to take two. Just keep winning series and the standings will turn out just fine.
  10. Rod Carews Birthday
    Gallo doesn't need to be in MVP contention to win the comeback player of the year award. He just needs to go from terrible (which by all accounts he was last year) to pretty good. That would involve playing good defense and hitting decent amount of homeruns while not batting a buck eighty. He is certainly capable of that, particularly getting out of NY and back to the land of normal baseball. He's done it before. I don't really care if he wins it or not, but I would really love to see him put up a good year and be in the conversation. It will mean the Twins got good value out of their free agent pickup. Will he strike out a lot? Probably, but he'll also walk a lot, and if tendencies play out he will also hit some balls very very hard. Strikeouts are really no worse than weak ground balls and there are plenty of players on the team who hit plenty of those. After all strikeouts lead to less double plays than weak ground balls.
  11. Rod Carews Birthday
    This is an outstanding signing that is easy to get excited about. He appears so far to be as good as (maybe better than) advertised and this deal locks him in through the next four years, which should really be his prime. I think it is fantastic that the deal could work out nicely for both sides -- for the Twins for obvious reasons, and for Lopez, who will get to test free agency at 31 years old and likely get another good contract. Hey! Who knows? Maybe that's with the Twins too. The fun part so far about this trade is that we are delighted in having Pedro Lopez and the Marlins are equally thrilled about having Arraez on their team. Got to give up something to get something!
  12. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think so too, absolutely. That being said, aside from an excellent short season from Maeda and a couple of pivotal appearances for Graterol, the overall numbers from both sides are pretty underwhelming. I guess that makes the trade a wash between the two clubs, but I think both teams had much higher hopes than that at the time the trade was made. Nobody got fleeced here.
  13. Rod Carews Birthday
    This is a terrific move by the Twins. He had an excellent year last year and so far this year seems to be even better. Undoubtedly his ERA is going to come back down to Earth and he's going to have a few rough outings also, but Lopez appears to be the best pitcher we've had on the team since J. Santana. Also, unquestionably, when he has a bad game here or there, he will become the latest target for those fans who believe that a bigger contract must carry with it perfection in all things. Welcome Pablo Lopez! Glad you can stay awhile!
  14. Rod Carews Birthday
    True, but it's what comes up first on the MLB website so the illusion of the official line is still there. I recognize that NY is where the money is and the coasts are where the eyeballs/eardrums/$$$ are, but the blindness to the rest of the teams in the middle part of the country gets out of hand sometimes. OK, I'm done shouting at the clouds. Thanks for letting me vent!
  15. Rod Carews Birthday
    Nothing to see here. . . . https://www.mlb.com/news/domingo-german-stymies-twins-on-jackie-robinson-day Seems a little whitewashed to me. Check the first two paragraphs. Yikes. At least it's better than the first draft of the story, which had Anthony Rizzo hitting the wrong number of home runs. The coverage truly does infuriate me sometimes. Twins won last night, article talked about how the Yankees couldn't hold a lead. Sheesh!
  16. Rod Carews Birthday
    Well that was fun! Nice start from Varland. Good bullpen work all around. It was nice to have Taylor and Buxton be the guys on base when Correa got the double. No doubt those guys were going to fly all the way home! Twins Win!
  17. Rod Carews Birthday
    So far, they have weathered the injuries well, (Larnach, Farmer, etc. have really stepped up) but the holes in the lineup continue to get deeper. These next couple of weeks, when hopefully we get a few guys coming back and hopefully picking up where the replacements have left off, will be a big indicator for how this team will be able to handle adversity. Along the way, we're finding out a bit more about Solano, Farmer, Julien, etc. and you've got to like what we see so far. The pitching staff has responded magnificently and if we can keep them healthy, it takes a lot of heat off of the hitters -- I can't believe I'm typing that about the Twins! Let's leave the injuries on the lineup side. They are somewhat less dangerous to replace.
  18. Rod Carews Birthday
    Nice break down. Unquestionably, a stronger season from one of their outfielders would be very beneficial, but that's not quite the entire story. Realistically, Buxton is likely to be successful in a manner similar to last year, and with Taylor around, the urgency to have him play center field isn't as intense. Taylor, for his part, looks like he will be a model of "OK"ness with the bat, which is also fine along with the as advertised defensive chops. Larnach looks to be beginning to truly break out. Kepler and Gallo are real wildcards, although Gallo in particular looks to be making some progress. However, at the end of the day, it depends as much on the situational aspect of their hitting as anything. Taylor was extraordinarily valuable in the game yesterday, but on another day, his contributions wouldn't have made the difference. If the offense ever starts to all wake up at the same time, they could be excellent. This is the time of year when patience is hard to have, because we are looking at the small sample size low batting averages and OPS's and going crazy. Give it three or four more weeks. We'll know a lot more then, plus some of the reinforcements might be closer to ready by then.
  19. Rod Carews Birthday
    This article is far too sensible and level-headed. You are absolutely right in that we do tend to sweat over the most minute details as though those were necessarily going to be the difference between an 80 win team and a 100 win team. I'm with you. . . if I'm really going to enjoy Twins baseball, I need to step back, watch, and relax. Smile when things go well. Maybe curse a little when they don't. But it's a lot less stressful and a lot more pleasant than the alternative. Go Twins!
  20. Rod Carews Birthday
    The good news is that the team is winning games and mostly looking pretty good. The pitching has been mostly as advertised, even if there are still questions out there (Name a team that never has questions about at least one member of their starting rotation). Holding down the opposition means that even though the Twins' hitting has just been "OK", the team can still compete. Good start, now let's keep it going through the tougher schedule coming up!
  21. Rod Carews Birthday
    Well. . . it would speed up the game! But yes, too different.
  22. Rod Carews Birthday
    Excellent article. Let’s see. . . Some injury concerns? Check Several prospects passing him in the pecking order? Check Good “stuff”? Check Maximizing the personnel on the roster? Check Looks like he could be successful in the pen? Check Twins have had success converting starters to relievers? Check He checks all the boxes for me. Give him a key to the bullpen door!
  23. Rod Carews Birthday
    In my (former) world, as a band director, we were forced to find ways for data to drive everything we did. That's a fine idea when the question is "How many math problems can Johnny do correctly on this test?" but not always useful when describing someone's consistency in producing a quality product in music or art. So, as fine arts teachers, we are faced with using anecdotal data, meaning what and at what level do we observe something and and do we observe it frequently. As the teacher/manager/director/coach you develop a "feel" for how someone can perform something. I don't think that's better (or worse) than a good healthy statistical analysis. There are things that anecdotal data describes very well and things that it does not. In fact, I think that the best knowledge comes from having both statistical data and anecdotal data, but that's not always easy or even possible. In the case of the mental part of the game, anecdotal data may be the best (if imprecise and inconsistent) way of measuring it.
  24. Rod Carews Birthday
    Thanks for doing these every week. It’s great to tie together a longer narrative than just following the daily grind, which can be overly depressing or overly elating depending upon the day. Go Twins!
  25. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think most of these are on the money. Gray, Mahle, and Taylor are going nowhere, and shouldn’t. In fact, I think one of those pitchers plus possibly Taylor get resigned/extended. Gallo. If he keeps hitting like today, he’ll play all 162 games and we’ll be happy he is doing it, regardless of what the strike out counters say. I actually think that Kepler has a shorter leash than he does and we trade him for a prospect and a bag of balls if he doesn’t start hitting soon. Maeda is such a wildcard. If he could pitch like it’s 2020, it’s a no brainer to keep him around, but if he is slow to regain form or is just ineffective, he becomes Chris Archer. I think that the first “demotion” would be to the bullpen, but he’s got to be effective to keep a job. I actually think that Solano will be the first guy to go, either as a minor trade or a cut. When Lewis gets healthy/someone else forces the issue through strong performance at St. Paul, he’s the logical guy to go. Pagan. Argh! Nuff said. I don’t think anyone else is going anywhere unless the team is in a lot of trouble.
×
×
  • Create New...