August J Gloop
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Everything posted by August J Gloop
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At this point, I think Twins fans' best hope is that Lewis will be the primary 3b from May 29 / June 1 until he leaves as a free agent or retires. It's a good spot for his talents and with the work, he could be up there with Machado, Chapman and Arranado defensively. With no shifts, short will still work, as he won't have the pivot to risk that ACL. But overall as far as potential 3B options go in the system, Lewis is the best. He doesn't look well suited to the OF in general outside CF. And even there, the team would be trying to put a square peg in a octagonal hole. It would fit, but how well? As for Gordon's replacement, it will likely be Contreras and ultimately Kepler. Kep is gonna have to play CF to keep his streaky bat in any MLB lineup. He's of minimal value to the Twins who are replete with RF options, unless he can be an average to plus defender in CF. The team has a situation where they have too many LHH corner bats and not enough corners to put them.
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Batting Average is the worst offensive statistic in baseball
August J Gloop commented on arby58's blog entry in Arby58
BA is a bad predictive stat for a simple reason: it can't differentiate between the instances that a batter made contact 'worthy' of a hit and when they got a hit because of luck. It does work well in the context of OBP to tell how often the player got on base vs an opponent. Arraez doesn't get many hits due to luck, but he does get hits because of risk avoidance. It would be quite easy to turn Arraez into a .200 hitter by playing the outfield in about 7 steps. But that would be bonkers, because he could burn you any time with a slightly deeper fly that led to extra bases. It wouldn't be worth the risk, since giving up a single to Arraez is not generally that bad with no runners on, due to pretty terrible base running. If the Marlins had two consistent hitters behind him, Arraez would be scoring more. Gallo gets walks because he strikes out. Pitchers are willing to test him, since going in the strike zone 3 times increases the likelihood of a deep fly. But since Gallo's best swing profile results in frequent whiffs, the risk/reward of walking him is OK. It beats the alternative of a computer breaking bomb. My guess what broke Joey in the Bronx was a philosophy change (maybe internal, probably a mix of that a organizational) that valued trying to make more contact. But as he tried to alter his approach, he just made even less contact and of it was also less good contact. The pop up homers in Yankee stadium everyone dreamed of never materialized. And by the time they flipped him to LA, the season was lost for him. I'd rather have Arraez and Gallo and Lopez, but if I had to pick two it would be Gallo and Lopez. I just prefer power and pitching to singles. I wouldn't even start Arraez in a Twins lineup. I'd hold him for a key situation in each game where he could get 1-2 runs with an at bat runner at 3rd, tie game? Arraez time. Bases loaded after the 7th? oops look who it is. -
Griffin Jax, the unluckiest man in baseball
August J Gloop replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
His walks are up a lot and his strikeouts are down a tiny bit. This is a big part of his luck. I assume that several of his walks this year are because players know they can't hit his sweeper with any authority, and the ball travels out. His next trick will be to read the batter that's in take mode and drop a sweeper on the outside corner. That will get the swings again. He's given up 6 earned runs and somehow got 4 losses. That's wildly bad luck. -
The Tyler Mahle Trade Was Still the Right Trade
August J Gloop commented on Matthew Taylor's article in Twins
It wasn't a bad trade because of the injury. It wasn't a bad trade because of the prospects they gave up. It was a trade you don't make again because Tyler Mahle was like bitcoin, consistently predicted to explode in value but ultimately doomed to crash. The Twins obviously preferred him to Luis Castillo for some reason, since the only meaningful difference in the Castillo trade was an extra not very good minor league pitcher. The funny sidebar to all that is essentially the Reds traded their two best starters for four infield prospects. Noelvi Marte was the headliner for Castillo and his prospect ranking took a tumble, and looks to be the 3rd best overall prospect in the deal now. Anyway, if the Twins had not been locked in on Mahle, they easily could have beat the Mariners to the punch with something for Castillo instead. It's likely that CES and Steer and Hajjar would have been on the move in that deal as well as probably Enlow. It's weird that they prized Mahle so much over the clearly better Castillo. Of course, there is the not zero chance that Sonny Grey played a part in that. Perhaps there was some scouting or other inside info that lead the team to buy into the bump on Mahle rather than the consistently good performance in Castillo's career. In the end, though the prospects surrendered aren't that big of a deal since CES and Steer would likely still be behind Miranda in the Twins depth charts. Hajjar already got dumped by the Reds, so no worries there. It's just too bad Mahle didn't get to play for the Twins in any meaningful way.- 53 comments
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- tyler mahle
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Byron Buxton: No longer a center fielder?
August J Gloop commented on Ben Reimler's blog entry in Ben Reimler
They have Joey Gallo at first, and Alex Kirilloff waiting to come play there, too. Both of them are good first basemen. Gallo could very likely find himself with some gold if he keeps 80% of his current plate production up. Bux is on a pace for 2.8 WAR as a DH. That includes the terrible slump in NY. Now that he's hot, who knows where that number could get to. Obviously, we want him in CF playing healthy cuz then he's an MVP candidate. But he is functioning well as a DH. -
The Twins Bullpen is Missing a Starter
August J Gloop replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Ober just hasn't been that great to kick Kenta to the pen for. Madea piched about as well while hurt in 2021 (106.1 IP, 4.10 FIP, 1.2 WHIP. 9.6 K/9) as Ober has for the duration of his MLB career (149 IP, 3.92 FIP, 1.13 WHIP, 8.8 K/9). It seems like a waste to have him at AAA, definitely. I just don't see how you don't wait til Kenta has had a couple starts under his belt to be sure he's not getting back to normal, first. Hard to hold his last start against him in the 'can't go deep narrative'. In the other two he'd gone 5 and then 6 innings. If he can't go 6 in the next couple, we probably have something to worry about.- 32 replies
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- kenta maeda
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After last night, they're on a pace to score 693 runs, surrender 486 and win 99 games. Which would be 9 or 10 games under their pythagorean expectation based on the runs. That does track, since they're currently 1 game under the expectation. Safe to say we all know which game it was. I think we can cool it with the 'on a pace' stuff, since single games still play pretty heavily into the pace. Heck, yesterday EJ was a failure. Today his OPS+ is 121, with a pace for 46 homers and 70 singles. Several key contributors have hit way below career averages. It can (and should) be argued that Solano, Gallo, Vazquez and Jeffers have been better than career based expectations. Julien's contributions weren't figured in, so that makes 5 people giving more than you could expect. Maybe Larnach is right around where you might expect. Kepler and Taylor are definitely around where most would think. But Bux, Miranda, Correa and Gordon? Way below. The offense will improve just through regression and some of these reinforcements. The pitching probably will decrease a little because of the same. However, P Lopez and J Ryan have added to their arsenals so improvement is very likely sustainable. The other three have been solid throughout their careers. While I think 99 might a big number, we are looking at what would (if healthy) should be a 90 win team this year.
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Preview: Minnesota Twins v. Boston Red Sox
August J Gloop replied to Sherry Cerny's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I would assume Julien as he and Gallo are kind of redundant hitters. Eddie has a good idea of what he needs to work on at AAA and go keep the rake on for when they need him again.- 16 replies
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Good to remember this is the first major injury outage for Polo. It might be a big one that has damaging impacts on his skills, but he has shown great durability until now.
- 64 replies
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- alex kirilloff
- jorge polanco
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I just wanted to check that you seriously were using 4 games to draw a conclusion on a hitter who has shown great promise and is 24 years old. It's good to have a baseline for any conversation.
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- alex kirilloff
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Analyzing the Pablo Lopez Extension
August J Gloop replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I heart this deal. It keeps the rotation solid. It's cost controlled for next year which won't put them out of the running for a high end free agent pursuit.- 19 replies
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- pablo lopez
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Turn out like Julien? Assuming you're not trolling, how do you mean? To say they're surely going to fail is no different than being sure they're going to go great. There's no doubt that the prognosis for AK is bad. I can't imagine anyone is actually counting on him ever contributing again until he's had a few months of health after these terrible surgeries. Polo has had one season since his suspension where his OPS+ has been below 110. If he's healthy, there will be good offense there. Lewis has done nothing to suggest he isn't going to be a valuable player. Aaron Hicks had 4 straight really good seasons with the Yanks, and now injuries are getting him. Even Rooker is raking in Oakland right now.
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- alex kirilloff
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I would peg the chance of Brooks Lee appearing in MLB before September somewhere between 'fat' and 'zero'. He probably won't hang around AA much past May if he keeps up his current pace, but will need to work on 3B & 2B and rake at St Paul to get up to Target Field. He's clearly a talent and will be making the team start to consider plans. Of course a Correa injury changes the calculus, but let's not think about that. If we see him at St Paul taking reps all over the diamond, then we can start getting excited. an INF of Lee (2B), Correa, Lewis (3B, let's watch that ACL on DP turns) and Miranda (1B) seems like a real offensive boon and good defensively as well. Although, this year, I'd probably vote for Miranda staying at 3B, Gallo at 1B and Polo at 2B. Bux in CF, Lewis in LF and Larnach in RF. It's cool to have so many options. I probably will have changed my mind by the time I hit submit.
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- alex kirilloff
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Reviewing the Kenta Maeda Trade
August J Gloop replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Graterol has more impressive stuff, but Maeda has been as good a pitcher since the trade, apart from the whole injury thing. Even this year, they're taking different routes to the same place. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/kenta-maeda-628317?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/brusdar-graterol-660813?stats=statcast-r-pitching-mlb- 27 replies
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- kenta maeda
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Twins now in grace period with Diamond Sports group
August J Gloop replied to David HK's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Did you buy the BSN stream directly or did you authenticate with your other service creds? The second way has no blackouts, the first as far as anyone knows can't carry the Twins games live. Considering how well run BSN is, it isn't beyond comprehension that they got the twins to agree and just didn't make a thing out of it or are just violating the agreement anyway. -
Kenta Maeda's Discouraging Spring
August J Gloop replied to Cody Pirkl's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Kenta has thrown 9.2 innings, Ober 6. It is 100% ridiculous to draw any conclusions on either from that data. Both are coming back from injury damaged seasons. Both will need time off this year to be as healthy as possible for the hopefully long playoff run. And no, the Twins didn't get hosed in the Maeda trade. He and Graterol have provided roughly the same number of good innings for their teams since. All that being said, I do think the Twins will want Maeda as a relief ace toward the end of the summer, but because he's actually been good at it. And it would be a smart move for him for the end of his career.- 36 replies
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- kenta maeda
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I have my doubts this dude will ever throw a pitch for the big club. I don't think his standing is too high or anything, I just get the bad luck vibe from him and his situation. This is the sort of vibe I hope I'm totally wrong about. He also reminds me of the jock character in a high school drama who antagonizes the lead until the third act reversal and becomes the best friend in the sequel.
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Rumor: Falvey says "Bullpen not a priority"
August J Gloop replied to Brock Beauchamp's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
They already have a good bullpen. Adding now is at the cost of existing players. I know, I know Pagan singlehandedly cost us the division. (I'm only kind of exaggerating.) They probably shouldn't have kept him, but the staff sees something there to build on (Great strikeout rates, an improving groundball rate). But he's legitimately the worst pitcher currently expected to be in the 'Pen. With the Sanchez signing, they have 9 AAA starters in the fold. There's no way that they're not thinking about Sands, Winder, Varland as possible + relievers for this year. Varland could be a high 90s 1 inning dude and have a great season. Sands and Winder could easily pitch in the mid 90s as well in relief roles. Headrick could be a strikeout machine ALA Johan's first couple seasons out of the pen. -
One "Moore" Bullpen Piece for Minnesota
August J Gloop replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
There aren't any current 40-man spots for relievers. Considering the number of decent options still on the market, they're just waiting until they can 60-day Lewis and Paddack. If they then like where the price sits for Moore or Chafin, they'll get to signing. Ken Giles might be good choice vs Fulmer. He's apparently healthy now. We'll see.- 40 replies
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2-8 in any 10 games is weird no matter who you play. HOU didn't go 6-0 against the Twins last year because they're a good team and the Twins were a bad one. It was just a fluke of baseball that they didn't wind up 2-4 in those 6 games. Two of the teams HOU had a losing record against were sub .500 teams. AND HOU went 11-10 in April on the way to 106 wins. And only one of those games even featured a starter from this year's rotation. That was Joe Ryan vs Verlander in JV's best start (maybe) of the year. While it's possible Winder will make a start or two, I doubt He's really being considered for a spot this year. The bigger point though is that April really isn't some unicorn month. Good teams can struggle in April and vice versa.
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- luis arraez
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The object of the game is not getting on base. It's advancing baserunners to home. The whole 'he gets on base' scene in Moneyball is a well directed scene and effective for the movie's distillation of the philosophy. But look at it this way - Gallo has 1.8 x more PAs in his career to Arraez. Yet he's got 1.9 times as many total bases. Doesn't sound like much until you put it to scale. if G and A both have the same number of ABs, 500, for example A: 205 TB. G: 234. That's 20 runners closer to home over a season, many of whom are auto scored since such a high percentage of his hits are HRs. Obviously, Gallo would be better if his slug was matched with better contact. And Arraez would be better if his contact was matched with better slug. But then again, that's why the twins might be getting a deal on Gallo. Minor increases in contact will yield much bigger payoffs than hoping for more slug from Arraez. And they're basically paying only for defense. That's also why Arraez was 'only' worth a #2 and two prospects rather than somebody's ace.
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Assuming his wrist works, Kiriloff is far and away the better hitter. He has the skills to win a batting title, but with actual meat in it. Think 320/390/450 kind of guy. Twice as many homes and more doubles than luis. And no need to make provisos about his D at first. That potential alone is worth the risk of trading Arraez for pitching.
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On the right contract he'd be a good add. But I think the Jo Adell idea floated elsewhere is the better play. Has a chance to blow the doors off on value, but won't be an expensive misfire if he flounders. Profar is a great example though of misunderstanding the OPS+ and WRC+ 100 scale. 100 Doesn't mean 'acceptable'. It means exactly league average. League average for MLB is top 10% (at least) of all baseball players on the planet. So a player who can OPS+ at 90 is 10% less than league average. It doesn't mean 'bad'. Profar is a slightly below average hitter, with lots of positional flexibility. I do question his rostering when he cant play center, though. I'm more into that potential match with KC on Michael A Taylor.
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- jurickson profar
- andrew mccutchen
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I enjoyed watching Arraez and am glad he had his career year with the Twins. I hope he has a solid MLB career hitting 275-320 with 15 doubles and 6 homers. While I'd have preferred a second pitcher, creating more depth to the MilB system opens up a path to trade elsewhere for more. Maybe now they feel more comfortable sending Brooks Lee for a tip-top starter. Perhaps another deal can even be made with Miami. They still need league average hitting. Might they like to try a whole new outfield of Gordon, Larnach and Kepler?

