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Possumlad

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Everything posted by Possumlad

  1. Possumlad
    My wife and 11-year-old son went this year and had a blast. The players were great, and setups seem to work well to get in and out easily. Obviously an 11-year-old twins fan is prime target market, but they had a good time.
  2. Possumlad
    I'm not suggesting we have a never-ending supply of guys who will anchor winning baseball clubs, just that we have a never-ending supply (as all clubs do) of at-or-below-replacement level guys like Vazquez, Gasper, Fitzgerald, Kiersey, and France. There's no reason--especially for this club, right now--to be giving at bats to guys like that.
  3. Possumlad
    What on earth. I swear some Twins fans share Rocco's deep, unconquerable love for predictable, stable underperformance, especially from middle-aged dudes. Can we please be done w/ the Vazquez, Gasper, Fitzgerald, Kiersey, and Frances of the world? We have never-ending supply of guys who can do the same things (maybe better) and are 5-8 years younger in the minors. Let them play!
  4. Possumlad
    This isn't true. Wallner peaked at #7 in the Twins org and was never a top 100 prospect. Never as highly regarded/ranked as Roden. Larnach was similar to Roden, peaking as the Twins #3 prospect in and around #40 overall.
  5. Possumlad
    Again, what on earth is up w/ the Roden hate? Guy is a 50FV prospect w/ a 0.900+OPS in AAA this year (not to mention meaningfully better defense than Wallner or Larnach). How did he immediately get bumped to scrub status on this site?
  6. Possumlad
    This Roden groupthink is so bizarre. Did someone dog on Roden post-trade and everyone just jumped on board? I realize sources differ, but Fangraphs had him as the #3 prospect in the Jays system with a 50 FV. For reference, the Twins prospects with a 50FV are Emmanuel Rodrigueze, Luke Keashcall, and Connor Prielipp. Roden is 25 and scuffled in his (so far very short) MLB debut, but had a 0.919 OPS in 121 ABs at AAA this year. It was probably my least favorite trade of the bunch, but my gosh is perspective tough to find on the board these days.
  7. Possumlad
    Any official word yet on whether Keaschall is back w/ the big club tonight?
  8. Possumlad
    B for me. Would've have preferred a strong return on Jax, but can't argue much with any other deal. Been very surprised by the hyperbolic board reaction. "Gutted the team," "Tear it down," etc. Of the guys we traded, only Duran & Jax likely could have been meaningful parts of a winning Twins club in the future. Duran & Jax = Meaningful pieces of a potential championship squad Correa = Aging vet now playing around league average level for $30MM/yr. Good riddance. Bader & Castro = generically useful bench/utility guys on a good club. Not hard to find replacements in FA or minors. (Castro also a FA after this year). Varland, Stewart, Coulombe, France = Bullpen version of Bader & Castro. I could pretend I'm bummed to lose them, but who really cares. Note that Paddack, Coulombe, Bader, Castro, and France were all FAs after this season. Overall I'm more excited to watch the team for the remainder of the year than I was a week ago. Let's give the young guys some run & start to build around the next great core.
  9. Possumlad
    Correa's playing time & dollars are far better spent elsewhere (whether they spend all the savings or not). Moving on is absolutely the right move - I'd trade him for nothing just to be out of the contract & free up the playing time.
  10. Possumlad
    This comment belongs in an NBA or NFL draft thread. MLB is a completely different animal - Twins drafting Houston has literally nothing to do with what they do or don't think about Culpepper.
  11. Possumlad
    That makes sense. "Hit-first" in the sense of hit tool over power tool for offense. Still found the CBS write-up odd, as it's the first I've seen anyone suggest maybe Houston isn't widely viewed as plus defender at SS.
  12. Possumlad
    Something I found odd based on previous write-ups (along w/ the one above) on Houston: in both the ESPN & CBS recaps, they seem to question the narrative of Houston being a "field-first" pick... ESPN goes so far as to call him a "hit-first infielder." From CBS Draft Recap: Houston doesn't have as much power as his 15-homer season indicates -- he recorded just two extra-base hits across 27 Cape Cod League contests last summer -- making it an open question as to how his bat will fare against professional pitching. The scouts I spoke to were split on whether he was actually a plus shortstop defender, too. And from Riley McDaniel (ESPN) this morning: The Twins took two hit-first college infielders as their first picks last year (Kaelen Culpepper and Kyle DeBarge), took another one in the 2023 second round (Luke Keaschall), and two more in the top two rounds in 2022 (Brooks Lee, Tanner Schobel) -- and also took one with their first pick this year in Marek Houston.
  13. Possumlad
    It's not a tiny issue, because (maybe more than any other sub-issue) it informs & frames the most important dynamics of the conversation on trans "rights." After all, what does it mean for trans people to have "rights?" Most people--at least the ones I know--agree that trans people should & do have the same basic sets of right that other Americans do. Free speech, free association, freedom of religion, due process, etc. (Yes, I understand that there are some people who wouldn't agree even on this... but setting them aside). But there's another extended set of "rights" that many argue passionately about (and for), which is the "right" of transitioned/transitioning people to exist and participate fully in the spaces & activities reserved for one gender or another. Some feel that once someone identifies with a gender identity, they are that gender in a broader & more absolute sense, and are entitled to participation in all those demarcated spaces (such as women's sports, women's healthcare discussions, etc.). Some disagree, and it's an extremely important distinction. This is the reason much of the sloganeering is oriented towards language like "Trans Women are Women," and why the question of "trans women in sports" is such an important one despite being relatively insignificant in practice.
  14. Possumlad
    100% Agree. I love the visual below from the Ringer. We're back to game times we last saw in the early 80s!
  15. Possumlad
    Great news! While some other changes helped (eg. three-batter min for relief pitchers), I think it's hard to overstate the impact of pitch clock on the watchability & likability of the MLB product. ESPECIALLY on TV. A brilliant & needed move, and took some guts. Funny to think back to all the nonsensical hand-wringing by players who couldn't see they were playing a dying game. Games are ~30 minutes shorter now than they were in 2022. And it matters most for the casual / distracted fan... Sure, us diehards could grind through a mid-summer 3 hour snoozer. But even my wife can make it through 3-4 innings on TV now. And our 10 year old is now obsessed w/ watching the Twins!
  16. Possumlad
    Full disclosure, I posted this same thing in an older less active thread: ESPN (Kiley McDaniel) just updated their team-by-team top 10 Prospects lists. They have Khadim Diaw (Catcher) number #9 overall for the Twins w/ this note: "I liked Diaw and Schobel before the year and they have taken big steps forward this season." Haven't seen almost any discussion of Diaw around these parts. Although I may have just totally missed some discussions. Anyone who spends time on these things have any thoughts or insights? Always nice to a see Catching prospect in the top 10. Diaw was our 3rd rounder in 2024 out of Loyola Marymount. 21 Years old. Played 24 games last year at Fort Myers (0.715 OPS). Been at Cedar Rapids (High A) this whole year - 38 Games, 116ABs, 0.886 OPS
  17. Possumlad
    This is a free blog with incredible content & moderation, so I'm always hesitant to complain. But in some cases, less is more. If anyone gave me a vote, it would be more quality, less quantity on the front page. (There is plenty of quality, not suggesting mods need to step up their game - just that it can get lost a bit in the shuffle)
  18. Possumlad
    ESPN (Kiley McDaniel) just updated their team-by-team top 10 Prospects lists. They have Khadim Diaw (Catcher) number #9 overall for the Twins w/ this note: "I liked Diaw and Schobel before the year and they have taken big steps forward this season." Haven't seen almost any discussion of Diaw around these parts. Although I may have just totally missed some discussions. Anyone who spends time on these things have any thoughts or insights? Always nice to a see Catching prospect in the top 10. Diaw was our 3rd rounder in 2024 out of Loyola Marymount. 21 Years old. Played 24 games last year at Fort Myers (0.715 OPS). Been at Cedar Rapids (High A) this whole year - 38 Games, 116ABs, 0.886 OPS.
  19. Possumlad
    Sir or Madam, you are on a Twins baseball blog. Participation on this site and on each specific article is voluntary.
  20. Possumlad
    Outside of those driven by real mechanical issues or injuries, the evidence is that "hot streaks" & "cold streaks" don't really exist in any statistically meaningful way. Results over the previous 10-20 at bats have almost no impact whatsoever on the result of the next marginal at-bat (same with shooting in basketball). Our brains just recognize patterns & seek to create attributions that don't exist. Any batters likelihood of getting a hit (or on base, or whatever) in their next at bat map almost exactly to their long-term average doing so... Recent results don't matter.
  21. Possumlad
    I think Rocco's just dispositionally risk-averse - volatility and unpredictably seem to make him very uncomfortable. One very odd consequence is that I believe he genuinely prefers consistently, predictably bad players vs. better, slightly higher-volatility players. Based on the evidence, he would absolutely take a consistent, predictable 0.680 OPS over a more volatile 0.780 (particularly if the 0.680 was a veteran "playing their role"). Not sure if he even knows that about himself, but I think it's why we give reliably bad players huge numbers of ABs every single season. This year it will be Bader and France. As long as they're predictable, it won't matter if they're bad. He likes playing guys whose offense he can write off in advance - much more predictable & comfortable.
  22. Possumlad
    Amen. Amazing how cumulative at-bats Rocco gives every year to true-blue scrubs. It's a problem of planning, wisdom, and perspective. He makes a lot of small platoon & playing time decisions that may be justifiable at the margin. But the net effect is that once we're 3-4 weeks in to the season, the Twins ALMOST NEVER run their best line-up out on any given night. You could solve a lot by making an explicit goal (not suggesting you message this externally) of playing your top line-up ~65-75% of all games. Tinker with the other 25-35%. Match-ups matters, but so do consistency, trust, predictability, and playing your best players. On any given night, there should be at least a 65% chance the Twins are starting their best 9 healthy players... In reality, it's probably 20-30%.
  23. Possumlad
    had to do a quick double-take to make sure I hadn't opened my Canis Hoopus tab :)
  24. Possumlad
    I appreciate the work, but I believe this is a misunderstanding of statistics & averages. The overall results & long-term reversion to the mean would suggest the opposite of what you are. Relative to the rest of the league, better pitching going forward would help the Twins more than better hitting (assuming you can only choose one or the other).
  25. Possumlad
    I'm likely in the (dramatic) minority, but I don't enjoy Provus nearly as much on TV as I did on the radio. He feels a bit stiffer & more forced on TV. Doesn't find the flow as naturally, and not all that organic or natural filling dead space. I enjoy his voice & actual play-by-play calls, but don't really enjoy his other commentary, repartee, or attempts at humor. Less of an issue on the radio, as more of the job is just calling & describing the action. Perk & Plouffe are my choices on the color side, but I enjoy the rotation. Don't mind any of them in doses.
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