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TJSweens

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Everything posted by TJSweens

  1. It was encouraging to see Taj grind through 5 innings when he was fighting his command on every pitch. All pitchers have days where the ball just refuses to go where they want it to go. Good pitchers manage to make enough pitches to get through and give their team a chance to win. Taj did that.
  2. Use the technology full time. Even in a year when umpires were pretty accurate, the ABS was still more accurate. The ABS is also a lot more consistent. A close pitch in a given location will be called the same every time no matter who threw it or what inning it is. Pitchers, hitters and catchers will all know the strike zone.
  3. Agreed. I watched Culpepper play SS three times in spring training. He is so far ahead of Lee defensively it isn't funny. Leave him at SS. I hate the idea of him forcing his way to the majors and being subjected to these mix and match lineups the Twins seem to love.
  4. I'm not impressed with thre Driveline analysis, using a whopping sample of two pitchers. In any event, the analysis doesn't disprove the laws of physics. Arms and legs are levers. Longer levers possess more potential energy. Driveline doesn dispute that. There are other factors in achieving velocity. I never denied that. In fact that has been my point. Ober seems to lack the ability to efficiently transfer potential energy to kinetic energy. Again, I'm not asking Ober to be one of the hardest throwers in baseball. I'm asking him to be just below average. Right now he's 5 mph below average.
  5. There is major difference between a random tall fan watching a ballgame and a trained 6'9 professional athlete. Your quip is rather pointless. The average 4 seam fastball velocity in MLB is 93.6-95 mph. I'm not asking Ober to melt down the radar gun. I'm asking him to be a tick below major league average. Height does not guarantee velo, however it is an advantage in achieving velo. Ober clearly does not have an efficient transfer of energy through his delivery.
  6. Jenkins is in AAA and turned 21 just 29 days ago. As Torii Hunter would say...he doesn't even have his man muscles yet. Jenkins has been playing against older and more advanced competition every step of the way. As he continues to get stronger I expect his bat speed will increase. He will continue to refine his pitch selection. He will be fine. He won't be Joe Mauer, Byron Buxton, Alex Kirilloff or Royce Lewis. He will be something uniquely Walker Jenkins and we will find out what that is in a year or two.
  7. I continue to be baffled by a 6'9 pitcher who can't sit at least 93 mph with a fastball in his prime. There are some pitchers who's velo starts out a few ticks low in ST and see a jump as they get stretched out. Ober isn't one of them. If anything his best velo is early in the spring. Ober should have been traded in the off season while he still had any value. Some will argue that would have been selling low. I think his value was as high as it will ever be.
  8. Can the Twins stomach that? After three years of Vazquez they should be used to it.
  9. "Zebby Matthews, who was conversely not acquired via any ambitious investment, but rather through savvy drafting and development." More like a blind squirrel finding a nut if he actually pans out. There is nothing savvy about the way the Twins draft and develop pitchers.
  10. I had hoped the Twins would trade Ober in the off season. His performance to this point has done nothing to change that feeling. It's always baffled me that a guy 6'9 can't consistently sit in the 93-94 range. He was effective at 91-92. He is very hittable at 90. At 88-89, he's a batting practice pitcher. Either he regains his old velo or he is done.
  11. "Bailey Ober allowed just one run and struck out two over 2 2/3 innings Thursday, in his second appearance of the Cactus League season." That's the Citrus League. If Ober is throwing 89 in spring, that is a bad sign. He is not a pitcher who gains velocity as they move into the season.
  12. Culpepper starting in Double A makes no sense. He played over half a season there and played well. I've seen him make some really outstanding plays down here in spring training. The breaking pitches he needs to see to make his adjustments are in Triple A. Culpepper already fields SS a lot better than Lee. His bat couldn't be any worse. Start him in St. Paul and have him ready to cross the river at a moment's notice.
  13. Yes, but if .230 is scary, .245 must be downright terrifying.
  14. Maybe I'm showing my age, but I have hard time with the idea that a scary hitter profile includes a .230 average.
  15. Way too early for that comparison. Canterino has pitched 85 innings in 7 years and none since 2022. Prielipp pitched 82.2 last year alone with no issues. Prielipp had TJ in college. After 2 outings here, they had to go back in and found that it apparently wasn't the previous surgeon's finest work. They added the brace and he has had no issues since.
  16. "The next step offensively is generating more frequent hard contact, and perhaps lifting the ball slightly more to unlock additional extra-base damage." Please don't. I'm all for more hard contact, but don't mess with his swing plane. I'm convinced this one size approach of lift and separate has screwed up as many young hitters as it has helped. I remember reading that when Calvin Griffith brought Tony Olivia up, he gave the manager strict instructions to leave his swing alone. In other words don't fix what ain't broke. Gonzalez flew up 3 minor league levels and pounded AAA pitching as a 21 year old. It clearly ain't broke. Don't try to fix it.
  17. I would say absolutely not. I love having Pablo on the Twins. He has been a real good pitcher, a leader and an all around class act. That said, a pitcher's recovery from a second UCL surgery is a bit of a crap shoot. A successful return from a first TJ is a very percentage. A second one has about a 65% rate to return and about 42% return to previous form. They tend to throw fewer innings and have shortened careers. Again, love Pablo, but this would just be low percentage move.
  18. Handing a job to someone simply because he is out of options is plain stupid. Outman will be 29 in May. He either shows he is a major leaguer or he is DFA. It's not like the Twins made a big investment to get him. The Twins gave up an injury prone middle reliever in Brock Stewart to get him. True to form, Stewart went on the IL after 3 innings with the Dodgers. The Twins have too many prospective outfielders to hold a spot for a guy just because he is out of options.
  19. A league average bat combined with gold glove defense can get you a 10 year run at SS. Especially if Houston is an adept base runner. Modern analytics have created one of the biggest copy cat trends in the history of the game. Everything is launch angle and exit velocity now. Some guys just can't hit like that. Trying to "unlock their power" screws them up.
  20. Tom Pohlad can say "compete now" all he wants. That doesn't wish it into existence.
  21. Two things: 1. This team as constructed is not going to contend and Lucas Giolito is not going to move the meter. 2. Can you guys stop wedging the Twins pursuit of Framber Valdez into every other article? They didn't get him. Move on. This team will contend when they develop a core that is competitive enough to be supplemented by a free agent signing.
  22. Early spring training results should be taken with a grain of salt. There are a lot players who won't get a whiff of a major league roster involved. Some pitchers are focused on fine tuning show pitches and not necessarily pitching their normal games. Some players need some games under their belts before things click. The last two weeks of training camp will tell us a whole lot more.
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