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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    What an interesting quartet of pitchers. Good arms, bad results. Hopefully the Twins will figure out how to have them prosper. I remember the struggles of Nolan Ryan and Sandy Koufax - neither looked good at first - and certainly not HOF. Hopefully at least one will turn the corner this year.
  2. mikelink45
    I used to give grades - this is easy - F But the context is missing. The off-season moves have to be seen in context of the in-season moves and how well they are implementing the PLAN! Haha - sorry I just had to pretend there was a plan.
  3. mikelink45
    4.37 xFIP does not spell rotation to me. But the Pen makes sense. I know Tampa makes errors, but overall if they judge him as a trade chip they generally know what they are doing. When I look at the pitching staff rankings on BP I find only six teams with worse eras - and we are close on two of them. Tampa Bay was down, but their 3.94 era still made their staff above average. In Whip - we are way below average - Tampa Bay is way above. And they were will to trade Bradley. They screwed up with Ryan and we won, but that success is hard to count on.
  4. mikelink45
    None of them have really shown that they can handle MLB batters so why do we think we can convert them and have a good BP? How many starters have failed the transition to BP? As stats confirm SP often find the first inning the most difficult. In the BP they may only get one inning. Joe Ross: Released by the Phillies in 2025 after a failed stint as a long reliever. Jordan Hicks: Demoted to the bullpen in 2025 after a failed attempt to convert from a reliever back into a starter. Phil Hughes: Struggled significantly to maintain form in 2011-2012, including a 5.79 ERA, despite early career flashes. James McDonald: Danger of being demoted to the bullpen in 2011 due to struggles in the rotation. Lucas Sims, Colin Poche, & Jorge López: All removed from the Nationals roster by June 2025 due to high ERAs in the bullpen. It works often, but no guarantee.
  5. mikelink45
    This was fascinating because my brain said CF was the only defensive position where we were above average - back to the calculator. I would have the Tigers winning and quite a bit more successful with their pitching staff. Sorry to say Ryan and Lopez are good, but not Skubal and Valez good and ack Flaherty and Casey Mize are also above average. We offer SWR and questions. A poor defense, a poor BP, and only 60% of a dependable rotation paired with an offense that finished 23rd in run production and I am not sure I am confident that we can stay above the Guardians who always exceed expectations. KC is the one I really disagree with.
  6. mikelink45
    Hard to read and have confidence. Nice try. Rogers and Topa - our two elder statesmen, our experienced arms and you write Okay who do you want? Who do we have or do we just refuse to pitch in high leverage situations? Orze had a good era 3.02 but that whip 1.368 is not what you want in the 8th or 9th. And Sands was not even able to match his career 4.19 era last year. And those are our top 4.
  7. mikelink45
    I guess they are trying to get us excited about ST! This kind of transaction is no big deal if it is just a minor effort around some real moves, but I fear this might be the move!
  8. mikelink45
    I feel sorry for all you writers who have to figure out the team you are covering and what to write about. But keep going, the TD subscribers will be there right with you. I am wondering how the division reacts to the Valdez signing by Detroit - I have not seen a big shakeup in the division that correlates to this since we signed Correa. With Correa we learned that the other teams were right, we were not getting the superstar the salary said we should. Framber has questions too or he would not have lasted this long. Will he be the better bargain and will Tom be forced to respond?
  9. mikelink45
    His start was not a good one for Twins fans, but is he can be better than the incumbents that would be good - except that we are all waiting for the three prospects - Rodriguez, Walker, Gonzales with more enthusiasm.
  10. mikelink45
    Good essay, but also depressing. How many positions are we above average? Buxton sure, but who relieves him. Jeffers average at most defensively. Our defense is really weak - maybe we are above average at DH!! But what is more important than SS?
  11. mikelink45
    The biggest question - who wants Larnach? We made a number of trades for minor league pitchers - Abel, Bradley...and still have our prospects so a trade of Ryan would require a much higher return. If they feel they have surplus I would look at an Ober and SWR trade. The extensions are a good plan - two years ago we could have extended Jeffers and had a catching future. Kopech does nothing for me..
  12. mikelink45
    I agree with all you write, but my concern is for the fact that the last two years played out without any discernable plan for 2027 -
  13. mikelink45
    For a team that does not sign FA and a catcher on his last non-FA year I am still curious about their plans (I assume they have some. Extension? Should have been done already.
  14. mikelink45
    We approach ST with either hope or resignation not sure where I am on that scale.
  15. mikelink45
    I don't care about any of the maybes. I want to know the plans for Jeffers.
  16. mikelink45
    When we bring an Ace from the minors, when we fill the rotation with results we can reflect on a pipeline.
  17. mikelink45
    Bullpen solved
  18. mikelink45
    Yes and we are no longer a threat. We got a long list of Gallo - Outman additions to the starters and we often held on too long.
  19. mikelink45
    Falvey is gone but what is Zoll's approach? Falvey wanted the team to play whoever he acquired. Will they still have that allegiance to guy's like Outman, Roden, etc? This roster looks really weak until we push Walker, Rodriguez and Gonzales to the front of the line and see Wallner, Larnach, Martin, Roden out of the starting discussion. Pitching has to sort itself out in ST. I hope nothing is guaranteed beyond Lopez, Ryan and SWR. Otherwise we have Ober who lost his mojo last year and Abel, Mattews, Bradley, Festa who all come with great expectations, but miserable MLB accomplishments. Wait and see. For the sad BP - cycle in our prospects, we have gone beyond quality pickups on the outside unless you trade our OFs for something. Kreidler - I have no hopes or expectations for. Compared to Castro and Farmer this is a giant step backwards.
  20. mikelink45
    I just can't get on the band wagon. If it was so simple - take a minor league starter and make him a reliever - then every team would do it. Good luck Twins - I hope your magic formula works. At least we have the numbers 3,4/5 RP set.
  21. mikelink45
    He might turn out okay, but he does not have the athletic movement that I hoped to see. He would profile 1Bm maybe 2B or OF But you are right I did not see hi, enough to really judge - I hope he makes it and I hope my impressions were wrong. I just don't see quickness being taught,
  22. mikelink45
    I do not have Correa on either list.
  23. mikelink45
    Nice start Zoll! I am so excited. Why not activate Hawkins?
  24. mikelink45
    I have only one thought - hit the damn ball
  25. mikelink45
    There are a lot of assumptions based on ????? Wait and see I remember when Falvey and Lavine were going to lead us to the promised land. I don't know anything about Zoll and what he will do so no judgement or expectations for me.
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