Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Rod Carews Birthday

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,695

  • 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

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Rod Carews Birthday

  1. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think it is interesting how much the Twins roster has changed in just the past few years. RF, LF, and 1B are three "power hitter" positions and we only sort of have that covered with Gallo/Kepler. Kiriloff might become that, but he's not there yet. I don't think that relatively a "2 WAR" player is bad, but those are the positions that tend to be occupied by stronger hitters than we currently have in place. So, compared to the rest of the league, we don't look very good here.
  2. Rod Carews Birthday
    Julien needs to at least begin the year in the minors. It will be better for his long term development. Playing well in spring training is great and useful but let him go down and rake for at least a half year. That will force the issue and be a wonderful problem to have on our hands. THEN, we can figure out who to trade/release (or who is hurt!) to make that happen. I want him to come up and stay up, not be doing the St. Paul shuffle because he can't figure out how to handle major league pitching.
  3. Rod Carews Birthday
    The problem with trading for a “#1/Ace” starter is that aside from a small number of names (probably less than ten - Johan Santana used to be one of those), you don’t really know what is going to happen and you wind up trading for the player that they were the year before . . . for another team. Pitchers are way too unpredictable and variable to bank on one name to do it all. In most cases, these #1 guys have a year or maybe two where they are that good (see Hughes, Phil and Mazda, Kenya) and are otherwise mortals. As I see it, the Twins have one guy in Gray who is going to be pretty good (but likely not an ace) and pretty predictable, one guy in Mazda who is recovering from injury and is a bit of a wildcard but could also be pretty good,, and three guys in Mahle, Lopez, and Ryan who are definite candidates to break out and be more productive than ever before. I prefer that to trading away half of the farm for a year or two of a guy who was previously really good for another team.
  4. Rod Carews Birthday
    As a manager, this has got to be the most exciting time for Baldelli. He is comfortably in his role. The team arguably has more talent than he's ever had to work with before. The key leaders are locked up for a few years. Whether that translates into playoff success is a great unknown, but it has to feel good going into the year like this. I don't think he's remotely on the hot seat either, nor should he be, but this really could be a time to create a legacy as manager of the Twins. Best of luck to you Rocco!
  5. Rod Carews Birthday
    Managing his workload will be the key. Obviously we'll be very happy if he gets to 120-150 innings with a reasonable ERA. For starter #5, that's pretty impressive and a lot better than anything that we have gotten from that spot the past few years (decades?). Somewhere along the way, he's going to need a break and a few skipped starts in order to limit his innings (assuming no setbacks/injuries). That will also be a great time to see what some of the starters down at AAA have to offer.
  6. Rod Carews Birthday
    In the short term, it would appear that Cleveland is our rival for the division, but don't count out Chicago. They could easily surprise if their young talent stays healthy. I've always felt that Chicago is the more traditional rivalry even though it doesn't really inspire the kind of other team hatred that is prevalent in other rivalries. As someone who lives in the Chicago area, I go to Twins/Sox games every year wearing my Twins jerseys and usually wind up in a really positive discussion with a random Sox fan about the teams this year. They are largely just real baseball fans who even cheer for the other team when something good happens. I guess most of the nastiness gets tied up on the other side of town for the Cubs and Cardinals.
  7. Rod Carews Birthday
    Thanks for an excellent breakdown. If he can maintain his late season numbers, Moran will indeed be extremely valuable and also be insurance in case there is any fall off from Theilbar from the left side. There are always plenty of innings to be taken care of by the bullpen so we’re going to need many good pitchers to step up and maintain consistency.
  8. Rod Carews Birthday
    Oops! Oh yeah. Forgot about that!
  9. Rod Carews Birthday
    Thanks for the update. My preference is generally for printed words but the little videos are a nice changeup from the usual fare. I would prefer some other background than walking around the outside of the stadium . . . maybe turn around and make a video with the game in the background? The Larnach injury could be concerning (or not, as they don't tell you the severity or nature of the injury). Hopefully it is nothing serious and he'll be back at it in a day or two.
  10. Rod Carews Birthday
    It seems like Cavaco and Sabato are already toast -- no reports of injuries, but no good production either. They would both seem to be on thin ice. I think Larnach still has a great deal of hope. When he has been healthy for brief periods Larnach has hit well and been a solid defender. Labeling him a bust is certainly premature, and if he doesn't make it because of injuries, that's not on the draft evaluators.
  11. Rod Carews Birthday
    First of all I think that Ohtani is an excellent pitcher. He was very good two years ago and excellent last year. I don't know if that makes him what people on the boards are calling a "true ace" or not -- 160 innings of 2.33 pitching in his very best year. $32M per year? Not sure. He's definitely not the workhorse that Justin Verlander is. As for a DH, again he is very good. $27M per year good for a pure DH? Also not so sure that's the going rate, and combining the two of those salaries puts it way too far over the top to be worthwhile. Someone may pay the man, but just because you can doesn't mean you should. Let someone else write that check.
  12. Rod Carews Birthday
    This is indeed encouraging for both of these pitchers. I am especially excited by Ryan continuing to develop (on the fly, in the majors!) into a better and better pitcher. He kind of strikes (pun intended) me as being particularly cerebral about his pitching, so I agree, with more pitches to go with his crazy good/deceptive fastball, he becomes a stud!
  13. Rod Carews Birthday
    Wow! Nice digging for some unexpected information. A few more batting average points for Buxton would be awesome. Let’s hope that happens!
  14. Rod Carews Birthday
    If we hadn't suffered through June, July, and August last year watching him implode, we would likely be pleased that they had "taken a flyer" on this Pagan fellow, who has had some success in the past and seems to have good stuff with a little turnaround at the end of the sason. This sort of stuff happens all the time to the Twins and other teams with relief pitchers. I say give him another shot, but this time let him build up his value from the bottom of the pecking order so he can gain some confidence and hopefully work his way into being a high leverage guy by the end of the season. If that happens, we'll all be here talking about how smart is was to hang onto him.
  15. Rod Carews Birthday
    Honestly, it would be fine if these were the guys that were outperforming the projections, but it really doesn't matter where the production comes from. A Cy Youngish season from one of the pitchers (Lopez? Gray? Ryan?) or a big offensive season from one of the hitters (a 140 game season from Buxton, Kepler remembers how to hit the ball?) would have a big impact on the team's overall chances. These four just seem like guys who could likely be poised to outperform, or maybe we just don't want them to be as bad as their projections. I will say however, that this might be Larnach's (and maybe Kiriloff's) last shot if they want to stay in the mix for playing time. If we hadn't seen such flashes of potential in the minors, we wouldn't be continuing to give them more opportunities this year.
  16. Rod Carews Birthday
    I like it. That puts all five of the pitchers in our projected starting rotation in the top 80 pitchers of MLB. Maybe our #1 starter isn't Cy Young, but having all five to be projected in the top 50% is pretty awesome. As much as Pecota was maybe a little bearish on the offense, it seems to be bullish about the starters (and the relievers look pretty good also). I'm going to avoid getting too excited about this in the same way that I avoided getting too depressed about the offense. Let's play baseball!
  17. Rod Carews Birthday
    How about a Mount Rushmore of Twins pitching seasons? It probably needs a limit of one per pitcher or It might be just Santana and Blyleven! Johan Santana 2006 Bert Blyleven 1973 Frank Viola 1988 Jim Perry 1970 OR Throw in a reliever -- Joe Nathan 2006
  18. Rod Carews Birthday
    Ouch. . . I just looked. The preseason Pecota prediction in 2019 was for 81 wins. If I recall, the end results were somewhat better. . .
  19. Rod Carews Birthday
    There are a number of players on the Twins that are very difficult to predict (Kiriloff, Larnach, Gallo, et al) due to previous injury or wide variation in performance. At the 50th percentile, many of the Twins players don't look that great but neither do other teams' players. It is the team whose players exceed the projections that will be successful. The law of averages says that half of these guys will outperform their projections and half will underperform. The degree is what will matter. If the underperformers hit their 45th percentile and a couple of the overperformers hit their 95th percentile the overall numbers look pretty decent. If the opposite happens, look out. We're in trouble. I'm betting on a team win total in the upper 80's, but hey. . . I'm an optimist. I would love to know what the Pecota projections were in 2019.
  20. Rod Carews Birthday
    The AK injury seems very worrisome, although as a previous article pointed out, the procedure has been done successfully before. Between AK and Larnach, this would seem to be the year that they either take a very large step forward or get passed in the pecking order. For all of their potential, they have yet to show any solid sustained production at the major league level. As for the pitchers, it seems likely that at least one them won't work out (wish I could tell you which) because that's how pitchers go. My hope is that there is enough depth to anticipate that happening and to be in place to prevent the number five starter from being a dumpster fire.
  21. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think that Megill is the potential surprise candidate for a breakout - not a Duran type breakout, but more like a Tyler Duffy breakout from a few years ago. As indicated, the stuff is definitely there, and he seems to be willing to keep working on his pitches as well. It would be great if he were really solid in a lower leverage role in the bullpen. That would mean that everyone else is doing their job and things are going well. Where it gets a little scary is if he is forced into a higher leverage situation than he is comfortable being in. That probably means that some of the rest of the bullpen is either injured or ineffective.
  22. Rod Carews Birthday
    EXACTLY THIS. At some point, we need to trust the talent evaluators and hope/believe they have done a good job in putting this together. One or two injuries to the wrong people derails the entire plan, but again, it’s the same for every team. Plus, it really is possible to build the bullpen on the fly at least to a certain extent. As to the naysayers about “this mediocre starting pitching staff” or “this disastrous starting rotation”, WHEN exactly have you as a Twins fan EVER seen a better starting rotation for the season on a MN Twins team? I only go back to the mid-seventies so if you hit me with Camilo Pasquale, Mudcat Grant, Jim Perry, et al, perhaps you may have a point, but since then. . . I don’t think so.
  23. Rod Carews Birthday
    I do agree that this is a make or break year for Jorge Polanco. I also agree that may have much more to do with the kind of pressure put on by Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, Brooks Lee, Edouard Julien, et al. If some of those guys start to force their way to the majors, Polanco becomes a logical candidate for trade, whether at the deadline this summer or next offseason. His value should be pretty solid, with two years of control after this year, and at a reasonable price. If he can be adequately (or superbly!) replaced by one of those players it will be time for the Twins to move on and cash in on any value that he has at that point.
  24. Rod Carews Birthday
    Actually it kind of is. That 0-18 record against the Yankees was compiled over MANY years by many different groups of players on both the Twins and Yankees teams. It is an anomaly if any team wins 18 in a row over another in baseball and winning them over a period of years is even more so. Baseball just doesn't work like that. At this point that record is kind in people's heads -- perhaps even more for fans than for players. I'm not saying that the Twins team will be some sort of juggernaut this year and go blasting through the regular season at record pace, but I do think if reasonably healthy they are certainly improved over last year's team. Remember in baseball, the worst teams win about 40% of their games and the best ones win about 60% of their games.
  25. Rod Carews Birthday
    I think that moving Miranda back to his original position, 3B, is reasonable, especially when you combine the fact that he was nothing special defensively at 1B and has much more experience at third. A slimmer version of him will likely be a little quicker and more nimble and will likely improve his defense. I also think that opening up 1B for a guy who seems to be very solid defensively there in Kiriloff, makes a good deal of sense. IF (and it's a big if) he is recovered sufficiently from his wrist issues, he has excellent potential as a hitter. If not, we have several backups there -- it's not the top of the defensive food chain. As to Miranda, slimming down does not equate to removing strength or muscle. Miranda carrying a few less pounds of fat will likely make him a better hitter with just as much power -- if not more if he gains some strength through more muscle. It would be trainer malpractice to tell players "Don't worry about your body. You don't really need to report to camp in your best condition."
×
×
  • Create New...