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JD-TWINS

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Everything posted by JD-TWINS

  1. JD-TWINS
    He’s 23 …….other Teams try to turn our order around all the time by switching pitchers ……….,what’s the problem? Okert got left handed hitter and 4 clean outs. Don’t get the constant scrutiny? Our starters, excluding Ober’s 1 1/3 outing in his opener & Varland’s 4 starts, average 5.47 innings per start - pretty normal. If any of the other 4 veteran starters got pulled with a shutout, I get the angst. The Team is trying to keep a 23 year old unscathed and fresh enough to keep taking the ball every 5th day. I thought it was a bit weird, but understand what the background is with this specific guy. Am aside: Okert & Thielbar both with clean outings - hooray!!
  2. JD-TWINS
    Pretty sure the announcers said Splinker - missed it - they would have made a bigger deal out of another curve.
  3. JD-TWINS
    Concerned. Cleveland, velocity wasn’t a concern at 100 & 95 with Splinker (down a touch)……..his velocity yesterday started at 97 - 98 …….,something seems to be bothering him. Can’t imagine issues between his ears over past couple rough outings would affect him, but who knows. At 99Mph on last couple fastballs Wednesday. Hopefully, they get him a second day off on Friday and he can regroup. 3 straight outings with HR is a bit alarming, no matter who is calling the pitches.
  4. JD-TWINS
    That directed at who about what? ………the Manager gets interviewed 1-2 times every day - he’s the face of the Club …….he’s supposed to support Duran’s comments by saying, “yep, we shouldn’t have had asked him to throw his most successful pitch”?? Duran’s comments were chicken sh.. stuff, from any clubhouse at any level of baseball. Shake the guy off or speak up on the mound conference OR make a quality pitch!! Whose fault was the home run on Wednesday v. Nationals - the hitting coach - some fan yelling - weak comments by Duran outside of the Team construct!!
  5. JD-TWINS
    His historic numbers are better than our other options from left side v. LH pitching. If guys don’t play in their optimal circumstances it’s impossible to get their “average” to where it’s supposed to be………I never said anything, and could care less about the smile! He got a hit and hammered a ball to the track in right and to CF - both caught, but it’s promising. I don’t love his results to date but he’s 12 points in BA behind the wunderkind Eddie Julien and level with Kirilloff. Not trying to lower the bar - just saying he’s not the only issue. Jeffers average has dropped 60 points in 10 games - alarming! June 5th-15th - Kiersey & Lee & Lewis displace Kirilloff - Julien - ???? unless something dramatic happens. Thoughts? I was dead set against trading Julien - assumed his talents were “can’t miss” offensively. Even with probable regression - expectation at minimums were .240 BA - 20 HR - .340 OBP ……..he’s struck out 56 out of 143 AB’s. He plays a lot more than Margot…..it’s a problem! Kirilloff is hitting .198 …….he needs to start heading north with that number TODAY or why not give, with hesitation, Wallner another shot? At least Kiersey!
  6. JD-TWINS
    Julien has is hitting .210. He has struck out 56 times in 143 AB’s …………this is against (principally) a protected approach of just facing RH pitching……..why/how is starting him against LH pitching a good idea? Kepler has/does start v. LH pitching occasionally. He needs a day off once in a while BUT he has seemed to have decent success in ‘24 v. LH arms!
  7. JD-TWINS
    He’s on the 26 man - he’s going to play v. LH pitching All the time………can’t that just be assumed? Him being the first (OF) guy replaced once a RH pitcher enters the game by Larnach - Kepler - Kirilloff, the point made above is reasonable IMO.
  8. JD-TWINS
    The Vazquez floating target as an excuse seems really weak to me. If a pitcher isn’t locating based on a faux target, the pitcher has a problem. If it’s that big of a deal, have to assume there has been communication about this during/between games. The coaches and pitchers and catchers all see the video as well and they are professionals…..,to assume they don’t understand or pick up on details that are affecting a guy’s location just seems silly to me. Duran missed Location twice in 2 games with his curveball. Got hammered both times. The second was after a four fastball - zero strike at bat……poor Location. Lopez has missed spots - he knows how & where to throw pitches, his command (ability to locate) has been seriously off in 2-3 games. Completely agree on your premise that Location is king!
  9. JD-TWINS
  10. JD-TWINS
    For all the analytical fans out there - Lopez had the best xWOBA against in ‘23 (I believe .258) than any pitcher in the game. This is a Brian Kinney stat from MLB TV. He picked Lopez as his Cy Young candidate in March…..not just locals drinking the Kool Aid. That’s not meant as a slight - his stats backed up the adoration. It’s not solely a reaction to a couple really solid playoff outings. He’s not right, consistently, in ‘24. It’s May 21st though so lots of starts left to get things squared away.
  11. JD-TWINS
    Haven’t played 50 games yet……last year the Team that won in first round of playoffs was 58-57 in mid August. Guardians and Royals aren’t playing .653 & .612 ball for next 4 plus months. If Twins are similar to now - 3 games over .500 in 3-4 weeks and Lewis comes back fresh 40% into the season, I like our chances a bunch. 32-30 after next 14 games & then we play the remaining 100 games at .560 clip …..that’s 88 wins. I think we’re in the play offs. If we get to 91 wins we have a great shot at Division Title. All just opinions & guesswork at this point…….we’ll see.
  12. JD-TWINS
    I get your sentimentality with Jorge. I wish him the best of success. Last week he was hitting .192 and needed to sit due to hamstring tightness…….at the time his 53 strikeouts were highest in the League. He was pushed out of 2B - no other way to look at it IMO. He played 104 games & then 80 games over past 2 seasons. It would have been poor judgement to think he would be healthy and productive going forward……no matter how much one likes him & respects his previous contributions. You can rationalize his results in Seattle to date and say it’s because his heart is in Minneapolis. It’s professional sports - guys not performing at high levels get traded or released. It can seem cold but it’s reality.
  13. JD-TWINS
    The change is 1.2Mph in splinker velo and 1.8Mph on fastball…….just not a big deal. If they started in mid-90’s and he dropped to low 90’s there would be concern. His stuff is still HIGH VELOCITY, elite and is effective. He hung curveballs in back to back games after not giving up a run in 6 outings.Kot cool but it happens. It’s a command issue and focus issue. Nothing to do with velocity drop.
  14. JD-TWINS
    It’s the 21st of May at 7:00 Central & they are up 6-0 after 5 innings……on the a.m. of the 13th they had just won 17 of 20, the hottest team in the game…….and everyone should get released or fired. Hope you are self employed OR the perfect employee OR you have the most forgiving boss in the world. Valium is still legal.
  15. JD-TWINS
    Same hitters and same coaches that won 17 of 20………averaged 6.5 runs per game ….,…guys need to get their act together……..players play. Collectively they have sucked over the last week - that’s it!!
  16. JD-TWINS
    Right handed batters grow up in the game batting against predominantly RH pitching - so do Left handed hitters. That’s what they are both used to seeing a huge % of the time. It’s pretty obvious the Twins play the numbers by platooning. The Athletic did an article with a specific Twins focus prior to the season…….it showed a history of OPS for approximately 15 LH hitting Twins across the Team’s history. Pretty sure only Carew & Mauer were above .800 OPS v. LH pitching for their careers. Kubel, as I recall, was around .760 OPS …..Hrbek was in low .700’s ………,Oliva was around .670. It was a testament that the present day platooning makes perfect sense based on hitters across time - mostly good LH hitters. The fact that Tony Oliva was arguably as good of hitter as could be found from ‘64-‘71 in the entire game and he was a .670 career OPS guy v. LH pitching was “eye opening” for me. They showed Wallner - Larnach - Kirilloff - Julien & even Kepler - their career numbers (couple guys just 1 season) and their individual & collective performances were really poor. It’s not “the Twins” and it’s not “Baldelli’s spreadsheets” it’s history over nearly 60 years and it’s consistent. Carew & Mauer are the outliers in this instance just as they were across the board with their offensive performances through their careers. FANS w/o data and only an opinion……Can’t keep saying “guys just need an opportunity” and they’ll improve………statistically, it doesn’t happen. I wish I knew how to access the article - it was very well done.
  17. JD-TWINS
    Completely agree……$50M to two guys is a commitment and not a bad thing considering the talent level! Switching gears and reverting to 2021 payroll total is a problem
  18. JD-TWINS
    Only comment is that when Lewis comes back the roster needs to be trimmed - seems to me that is Miranda as of today. Right? Who else? Not who do you want to be trimmed, realistically, who is the guy?
  19. JD-TWINS
    Shake the catcher off OR make a good pitch. Period. Duran has full responsibility here! …….all the other stuff is noise. He’s got the same coaching staff and catcher he had all of last year and through his first 6 (scoreless) outings of this year. Look in the mirror Jhoan.
  20. JD-TWINS
    NOBODY ELSE WAS AVAILABLE & Alcala, unfortunately, got a bad call that should have been strike 3 but wasn’t. Then he didn’t get anybody out. I don’t understand why he has no responsibility in the length of his outing (pitch total)??? He went down because he needed a break and he has options - many others do not have options. Tired of the poor Alcala comments - it’s professional sports. He’ll be back shortly…..,,wish him nothing but the best!!
  21. JD-TWINS
    He’s gotta execute his pitches - his being told what to do & failing is a WEAK excuse. He didn’t give up a run in his first 6 outings - gotta assume the coaching was from the same brain trust for those games as well………it’s only an issue when guys screw up?
  22. JD-TWINS
    He needs to be on the field, he was out for 15 games - has only played in 30 games of the 47. Another 7 games to go to get to the 1/3 of season mark. He’s a .272 career average hitter - at .267 as of today. He’s averaged 19 HR/yr over his 9 year career……,,.to be fair, those averages come with an average expectation of 115 games per season. He’ll be OK……..,my assumption is there was no expectation for Correa to become something much higher than his annual output over his career when signed for $35M per year.
  23. JD-TWINS
    Can’t argue a lack of productivity from these 2 that should be elevating the team! Buxton needs to stay in the line-up, he was out 2.5 weeks, and he’ll get to a power rhythm. Correa can still hit 18-22 HR …..he was out 3 weeks. If Buxton hits .240 & Correa hits .270 they’ll both be productive power guys as well. Comparing to Brent Rooker is fine, as I’ve seen from others here, but when Brent goes on the 2-33 slide that is nearly inevitably coming we should point that out as well………it’s May 20th. Rooker had a very solid ‘23 with a 126 OPS+ ……. a .329 OBP ……30 HR. An All-star! This year he’s improved on this numbers - I don’t see him maintaining these levels through the year, as he declined over a few weeks here and there in ‘23. Correa is hitting 21 points higher - OBP is 30 points higher - OPS+ is 2 points lower. Doesn’t have the HR’s yet ……….he also plays SS every day and isn’t a DH. Buxton hit 17 HR & 17 doubles last year in 85 games ………hopefully, he’s got 85 games or more in him through the balance of ‘24. He’s at 43 points higher BA than last year with 8 doubles & 1 HR to date. If he can duplicate what many would consider a poor 2023 over the balance of this year he’ll hit .230 with 25 doubles and 18 HR. With him in CF, that’s worth $15M!
  24. JD-TWINS
    Other guys throw 100Mph plus a few tenths and they are viewed as absolute flame throwers ………..going from 102 down to 100.5 is a silly thing to describe as a problematic area for a pitcher! (94 down to 92.5, OK) Duran didn’t locate Sunday with his fastball - it was plenty fast enough - 4 straight out of the zone was the problem. Having a prolonged at bat with a Top 5-10 hitter in the game on Friday was challenging. He hung a curve and it got ripped - 1 poorly controlled curveball. That’s it…….,,Sunday, he started a guy with a hanging curve and then after the game said he didn’t want to throw it - he’s gotta man up!! Shake the catcher off - locate the curve better (down a bit) and in either case there’s no issue. Players play - bottom line - he didn’t execute either mentally, with the shake off nor physically, with the lack of command. Velocity being down 1.5 Mph on his fastball and 1.2Mph on his splinker as an alarm or an excuse, to me, is nuts! Pitch mix and location were the issues. Last, he often comes into a game principally throwing 2 of his 3 pitches. If it’s a curveball/fastball night, teams pick up on it and sit in the slower, only hittable pitch. To me, that’s what happened Sunday.
  25. JD-TWINS
    I too agree that his pitch mix, trying to fool people with his curveball is over done! At the very least, he needs to routinely Show his fastball!!! However, he’s given up runs in only 2 of 8 outings. He was essentially flawless prior to Friday. “If Duran were on a different team, he’d be lights out” ????? …………can’t get any better than 0.00 ERA through 6 appearances. DURAN hung two curveballs in Cleveland, not the coaching staff. If he locates the curve down 6” from the release likely neither pitch is hit. AGREED, if he throws a fastball on Sunday prior to the curve, the hitter has a much different level of success. Friday, Ramirez worked the count for a bit and got on a hanging curve. A curve up in the zone, from anyone, often gets punished in the SHOW! He knows how to pitch - how to locate - how to get guys out………not on the coaching staff!
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