Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

mikelink45

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    10,082

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    27

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    I know others will wonder 2 - 0 1.45 Not bad.
  2. mikelink45
    In the Athletic team rankings the Twins are 12th - middle of the road, but the comment that went with the ranking applies to the entire team not just Julien: "So long as we’re extrapolating tiny samples, let’s consider the Twins as they square off against the Dodgers. Minnesota last year led the AL in homers (yay!) and strikeouts (whoops!). That all-or-nothing approach has been tweaked. Now it’s just nothing. Through their first seven games, the Twins had the fewest homers in the league (three) and the second-highest strikeout rate (26.7 percent). Carlos Correa and Alex Kirilloff are off to strong starts, yet we’re still waiting for a homer from them or Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, or Matt Wallner."
  3. mikelink45
    As I see the twins batting averages, it is frustrating when I see that steer was the national League player of the week. Let's hope those bats can warm up quickly and turn this around.
  4. mikelink45
    See Ken Rosenthals essay today in the Athletic - the pitchers who went nine, induced ground balls and DP also lasted longer and had less surgery. Time to figure this out. If pitchers are going to get contracts like Cole, they have to be on the field.
  5. mikelink45
    Glad to see Miranda up, but this does confuse me - will he step in as a RP like Sano?
  6. mikelink45
    I love the article. But put me down for the electronic zone - no hesitation. Get it right and move on. It is silly to want to have umpires determining their own version of a strike zone. Unless you are a Greg Maddux who knew how to use this to advantage it is just a frustration. I want the game decided by hits, strikes and errors, not umpires. I remember the adage that the best umpire, judge, referee is the one you do not hear about. It is like the poor linemen who are only named when caught holding. I do not have another place to put this, but Ken Rosenthal had an intriguing take on pitching which is outside the strike zone and worth considering too - maybe it goes with my Maddux comment - "The hyperfocus on velocity and spin, he said, was achieving the desired results. Pitchers have never been as nasty as they are today, and teams win by pushing them to their physical limits. "Pitchers might experience spikes in performance. Their respective clubs might draw the accompanying benefits. But no one can possibly say the current trend is good for the game. "Ask the Braves about their World Series aspirations without Strider, whom they signed to a six-year, $75 million deal in Oct. 2022. Ask the Guardians about their postseason chances without Bieber, whose $13.125 million salary accounts for nearly 15 percent of their payroll. Ask the Marlins about even trying to be respectable without Pérez, who also is about to join their staff ace and biggest long-term investment, Sandy Alcantara, on the seemingly endless list of pitchers to undergo elbow-ligament repair surgery." "But the entire sport should hit the pause button. Pause on bowing to the Driveline gods and all of the technology and data that make pitchers better but not necessarily healthier. Pause on rewarding 120 innings of max effort from starting pitchers when 180 from command-control specialists might prove even more valuable."
  7. mikelink45
    Well where do you see Martin playing? Santana is not producing, only Correa and Kiriloff right now. I am looking for a spark of life so 1B and DH for a week is fine with me.
  8. mikelink45
    I am not expecting him to be the answer, but the players on the field are not producing and we have minor leaguers who might. Use that 13th position for something useful. In the meantime I also recognize this is too early in the season to jump to conclusions. My only take away so far is that we have started slow two years in a row. Maybe Spring Training routine has to change in the future.
  9. mikelink45
    We had a relief pitcher without knowing it - Miguel Sano - yesterday 0.1 innings three pitches three strikes and one out! Who knew?
  10. mikelink45
    Ober needs to be what we have seen in the past and Varland has to step up or it is time for another arm in the rotation. Headrick has not impressed me in the past, but I am willing to see him get some starts if things don't change in MPLS soon.
  11. mikelink45
    Miranda makes sense, Martin is a waste of space on the bench unless Rocco decides he should get out and play - I mean start and get 3 - 4 games of real effort. No one gets hits when they get 3 ABs in how many games? Margot has not shined - I know it is early season, but we need some new energy and Kepler and Wallner are not giving us what we need in the OF. The team slash line is 191/308/300 - no one wins with that production. The pitching staff has a 3.54 era - not bad, especially if you remove Varland and Ober from the stats. The Twins have scored 3 runs per game - It is necessary to score more than the other team - maybe Rocco should explain that. We have two players hitting over 300 - Correa and Kiriloff. We have six of the regulars hitting in the 100s (actually Kepler is 050). On the bench Margot 250 and Farmer 231 are the leaders.
  12. mikelink45
    I never heard of Rayne - where did he come from? Richardson is not making the Twins anxious to join the rotation in MPLS I want to compliment you on the writing and thank you for listing the prospects on the other teams. I like that. I do hope TD at some point starts identifying the players in the photos like you did today. That helps, I assume there are others who have no face recognition of most of the players.
  13. mikelink45
    Miranda time and what the Hell is the purpose of bringing Martin up and not using him? Is it because we are just so outstanding there is no place for him?
  14. mikelink45
    No game today and Iowa lost so I am back in the box scores to see ex-Twins. And starting with the Angels Miguel Sano 1 - 3 with 2 Ks. Cano lost the game for the Orioles with 1 run in 2/3 inning but his era is 1.80 Gallo 0 for 3 with a strikeout Kiner-Falefa 1 - 4 with 3 Ks - was he actually ever a Twin? And who started for the Yankees - Gil 4.1 innings, 2 runs We traded him for Jake Cave Steer 0 - 4 and Encarnacion-Strand 1 - 4 2Ks Lopez pitches 1 inning and 0 runs Rooker 0 - 2 with 2 Ks Urshela 1 - 4 1 K Randy Grossman 0 - 5 1K Polanco 1 - 4 1 K Luke Raley 0 - 4 1K Arraez 4 - 5 0 Ks - he is spoiling my narrative. One triple Gordon 2 - 5 his second HR. - Our current leader is Royce Lewis with one on the IL Rortvedt 1 - 3 LaMonte Wade 1 - 3 1 K Who is doing better the players on the Twins or the players we no longer have?
  15. mikelink45
    I did not know hamstring until I read this in the article.
  16. mikelink45
    Like the FlyingFinn I find Wichita my favorite team. What a lineup! Looking at the prospects list it is so sad to see the two pitchers both seriously injured and Walker's injury scares me. If it is hamstring related it really worries me.
  17. mikelink45
    After reading all the comments I have to say - the electronic strike zone is the most consistent regardless of a weakness,
  18. mikelink45
    Lots of good information here. Thinking of options and player movement I enjoyed going through the MLB games yesterday and seeing Polanco get a big HR Seattle so I checked out the former Twins and what they did today. Steer getting a HR for the Reds with Pagan getting the win. I am still glad to rid of Pagan! Encarnacion-Strand did not get a hit but he is the cleanup hitter in Cincinnati. Rooker getting a HR for the A's, Maeda having his second stinking start for Detroit, Arraez got a hit, but it hitting only 194 so far. Wells having a poor state for the Orioles while Coulombe continues to have a 0 ERA. Joey Gallo (so glad he is gone) hit a HR for Washington. Ben Rortvedt was 1 - 3 for Tampa, a double and 2 rbi's! LaMonte Wade was 1 - 3 for SF Pressly had a bad outing for Houston. So the ex-Twins SP pitchers did not have a good day overall, but RP were 2 - 3 good with the best of them having the bad outing. The hitters went wild. So glad to see Rortvedt getting a chance. Three HRs from former Twins today. I enjoyed going through the box scores. As a kid I loved doing this, of course we did not have 30 teams back then.
  19. mikelink45
    All spring I wondered why our regulars were pulled after two ABs for scrubs. Maybe they could have had a few more meaningful ABs to get their timing before the regular season.
  20. mikelink45
    I wanted Keirsey and prefer him over Margot. I hope Margot proves me wrong, but I also hope Keirsey continues to prove his value.
  21. mikelink45
    Yes - Jackson has, but I am not sure if anyone else has.
  22. mikelink45
    No, it is not sustainable. We need the returnees. Even with all the arms we have the usage is too high. The SP need to do what we had last year and go deeper. We cannot keep using them at this rate - it is surprising but when I look at the usage chart after the Guardian game Funderburk leads all the RP by a large margin followed by Duarte and Sands. At least that saves the high quality arms, but those three are not the ones we can lean on continually.
  23. mikelink45
    Really enjoyable look at the two prospects. Next tell us about the other two pitchers you mentioned that will be in the rotation with him.
  24. mikelink45
    I look at the BP chart. we can not keep this up.
  25. mikelink45
    Yes you are being a homer
×
×
  • Create New...