Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Steve Lein

Twins Daily Contributor
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    3,428

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Steve Lein

  1. Steve Lein
    I think Rosario will hit eventually, but I don't think he's the MLB-ready guy quite yet. It's more likely he'll struggle if thrust in right now. But I'm not against that... However, I like Hicks as a centerfield defender, but he does get have plenty of criticizers in that regard. The connecting point with that remark is Eddie Rosario is not the defender Hicks is.
  2. Steve Lein
    Putting the ball in play definitely has more value with a runner on base!!! Walks don't score runs!!! This is a major criticism of Joe Mauer that I specifically have. He has a great batting line with RISP, but the RBI totals don't match up to it. Reason? He remains passive like he is in every at-bat, and draws a lot of walks. I 100% of the time will take a drop in batting average in those situations, if it means a player is being more aggressive to bring in runners. The potential payoff from a ball in play (a run) is much greater than simply getting on first base, which also brings in the potential for a double-play which is the definition of a rally killer.
  3. Steve Lein
    Got that book for Christmas this year, lots of interesting stories in it!
  4. Steve Lein
    Reading way too much into it. All I'm using for Trout is his name. I've immediately after said "young superstar" as the player I'd extend. Trout's definitely the cream of the crop, but not nearly the only one. College players who are of the "superstar" type get to the majors within 2 years. Look at Kris Bryant as an example. He's going to debut at 23. Jon Gray's going to debut at 23. Carlos Rodon's probably going to debut at 22. Colin Moran might debut at 22. Hunter Renfroe might get at chance at 23. Andrew Heaney debuted at 23... I wouldn't extend a lot of the players like Dozier (not a superstar, not young) until they had a longer track record, yes. He's still under team control until he's thirty-one. I think there's a ton more risk with a guy like him on an extension, so I'd rather have the longer track record, even if it means more money (that's a good thing).
  5. Steve Lein
    Trout's just a name that demonstrates the type of player I'd do it for, not that I'm comparing Dozier to Trout. As I said, that type of player is a young superstar. If Dozier we're 24 or 25, I'd be much more inclined to do this, as you'd be getting a bunch of his "prime years" with such an extension. He's already in those seasons, so I'm far less inclined to believe he's still got anything left to improve, and there's the increased risk because of his age. Like I said, great player to have on your team and I don't want him going anywhere, it just seems premature and unnecessary to me.
  6. Steve Lein
    In general I'm not a fan of signing a guy before he's had an arbitration year already, unless he's done something like Mike Trout. Meaning, the player is a superstar, and young. Dozier is neither. He just isn't the type of guy I'd try to buy out of arbitration at this point. He's not going to be super expensive in arbitration yet anyway, and the more data you can collect before an extension gives you a better foundation for what the $$ should be. Like I said, I think we're seeing what his peak is going to be like already, which is pretty good. But a new contract now to me would also pay him with expectations of continued improvement, meaning more $$ for something I'm not so sure we're going to see. If it's a Span like-value of a deal though, I'm all for it. I just don't think that's the type of deal he's going to get handed.
  7. Steve Lein
    An extension for Dozier this year seems a year too early for me. He hasn't even had an arbitration season yet (at age 28!), and I don't like doing that for guys like Dozier. Great piece on your team, but he's not a superstar. I'm also guessing we're seeing the best of what we're going to from him, hopefully for a bunch more years yet, but contracts being handed out based on one season of that are never a good idea.
  8. Steve Lein
    Plouffe in the OF ala Cuddyer seems like the 2nd best course to me with all these guys. The first being, you trade somebody. Which sucks because I like all those guys and want them to make up the team of the future. So the weakest link among them by the time that team comes together will have to be gone to make it work, and that link might not even be 'weak'. But if we're talking 2016-2018 for that team, that link is just as likely to be Joe Mauer at that point as any of these young guys.
  9. Steve Lein
    I've shown this data several times here before. The most common RISP situation is a runner on 2B. It's much harder for a single to get those guys in then you think. Should they score most of the time? Maybe. I'd like to see that percentage. But I do know he gets a lot of line drive and grounder singles, and to the left side of the field (e.g.: in front of such runners). A line drive gets to the OF-er faster. A ground ball can require a runner to make sure it's getting through before taking off. Then the fact he draws a lot of walks in those situations. These are all contributing factors to this. But like I mentioned before, if the team around him is better, Mauer's game is elevated. This would be a reason I'm "buying" on him this year, because I'm "buying" on a lot of the other guys.
  10. Steve Lein
    This is a big point of contention on him for me, actually. The Twins need Mauer to be more of a "run producer" (drive guys in) and not a "run creator" (get on base). Despite his great slash lines, Mauer (outside of his MVP year) has never been even average at "producing runs" (things like hitting with RISP, RBI's, etc...). He has a great line in RISP situations, but those lines come with a ton of singles to CF/LF and walks, which do not bring in runs. But, this is also a direct result of: The type of player Mauer is, relies a ton on the other hitters in the lineup, and you hit the nail on the head. No Cuddyer. No Morneau. No Span. No Revere. Those are the types of guys that bring out the best in Joe, so hopefully this is a year guys like Santana, Vargas, and Arcia start producing like those before them, and bring Joe along for the ride.
  11. Steve Lein
    I'd keep him in Elizabethton I think. I'm quite certain he was drafted more for his offensive potential than his defense, though he gets great marks for his arm strength. Pretty sure Pinto was excellent at throwing out runners back then too, and look how that has worked out. But if it's his offensive ability that could be his calling card, I wouldn't push him to Cedar Rapids to start because he hasn't shown anything with his bat yet.
  12. Steve Lein
    This is why I was more comfortable in LF. Balls going to the gaps in RF were harder for me to track since my glove would be reaching across my body. More balls are hit toward gaps than they are the line (in the > 2/3 of the outfield is in that direction as opposed to toward the lines sense). I did like fielding grounders or liners toward the line in RF though as this made it easy to plant, spin, and quickly put extra oomph on a throw to second. Caught many guys at 2B trying to get a double by doing that. I also have bad memories about chasing balls down moving to my right, because that's how I tore my ACL! But I did catch the ball on that play!
  13. Steve Lein
    haha, yup!
  14. Steve Lein
    I tend to agree with this too. Frankly, I think he has issues tracking balls to his right (non-glove hand), which will pretty much be eliminated in left field.
  15. Steve Lein
    Don't think your "Velocity is much greater link" is right, brings you back to this thread. I'd be curious to read what you intended to link, though!
  16. Steve Lein
    I thought the same thing about that line. But probably isn't much behind it. New voices and new philosophies can be good, is likely all he means.
  17. Steve Lein
    Rhett Bollinger posted a new article discussing Alex Meyer yesterday: http://m.twins.mlb.com/news/article/110273640/minnesota-twins-prospect-alex-meyer-developing-changeup-this-spring It's brief, but discusses how he wants to continue to develop his changeup to have a 3rd weapon.
  18. Steve Lein
    I understand the first part, but don't think the second part is what the Twins are doing. To reiterate again: They wanted him to work on fastball command as a raw, highly talented, high-school pitcher.
  19. Steve Lein
    We may just have a different idea of what "unpolished" means. Mine is he hadn't pitched nearly as much as a lot of other high High school draft picks as pitchers, therefore he's behind the curve in development and polish as a pitcher (mechanics, command, track record, actual amount of pitching he has done). This has zero little initial relation to the quality of the pitches he can throw (velocity, movement). Fastball command is absolutely the #1 thing a pitcher needs to have. Nothing else they can do will offset an inability to throw a fastball for strikes. Therefore, they wanted him to further develop that ability -> throwing strikes with his fastball. The next thing to come, will be using that slider to put away hitters. And yes, he'll have to develop and polish that pitch just the same, but focusing on one thing at a time isn't a bad plan to me. I don't think he turned pro and all of the sudden lost the ability to throw a pitch that every evaluator loved leading up to that draft.
  20. Steve Lein
    Good to hear the update on Thorpe. Getting more optimistic the arm issue won't be serious!
  21. Steve Lein
    Another Twins prospect came up in the chat: "Greg T. (Lake Central): Who, not on this list, has a chance to make the biggest jump onto the 2016 list? Ben Badler: Jorge Polanco has the skill set that tends to get overlooked, so I'm not sure if he's going to jump high next year, but I'm definitely higher on him than most. Marcos Molina, Forrest Wall, Ozhaino Albies, Brett Phillips, Nick Williams, Jorge Mateo and Gleyber Torres are all names to watch for next year." Good to see Polanco get some love. Agree he kind of goes a bit unnoticed, even around here!
  22. Steve Lein
    Had a question about the Top 100 discussed earlier here and answered in their chat: "Steve L. (Minneapolis,MN): I notice Kohl Stewart is ranked ahead of NIck Gordon and Alex Meyer on your Twins Top 10, but is missing from the Top 100. I know opinions can change, but question the consistency?! John Manuel: Consistency can be a great thing in a player; I argue for flexibility with prospect rankings. And if you check the BA grades for those players in the Prospect Handbook, they are very similar. Stewart and Gordon are both 60 Highs and Meyer is a 55 Medium. Those are really on the same level. So one being 4 and one 6, we don't do ties in the book, but they have the same grades. Gordon being a middle of the diamond position player is less risky, for me, than Stewart. Meyer has similar stuff and has done it in Triple-A. Stewart was in that 101-110 range, almost made it, but he carries a lot of risk, and that 6.4 K per 9 rate last year is a red flag for me. I want to see a supposed raw stuff guy do a bit more than that." He makes this omission sound worse with this answer, if you ask me (see bolded comments). Higher grades for Stewart, but misses the list. Calls the K-rate a red flag because of "raw stuff" while not failing to acknowledging or realize he wasn't using all of it to it's full potential.
  23. Steve Lein
    I disagree with this thought process for reasons already stated. I think they know already the slider is a good pitch, but being that he is relatively unpolished for a high-school pitcher due to playing (and excelling at) another sport, he had other things they wanted him to work on and develop first -> fastball command. Along the same thought process, you can (potentially) keep him healthy longer by not using a so called "stressful" pitch too much early in his career.
  24. Steve Lein
    I wan't him to be (and think he will be) the next "20-20-20-20" guy (2B's, 3B's, HR's, SB's). There's only been 4 players in the history of major league baseball to accomplish that.
  25. Steve Lein
    Haha, we always played this game in warm-ups. "Two-ball" we called it. You'd switch your hat to backwards the first drop, lose the hat the second, then were "out" on the third drop. I sucked at that game, haha, but it was fun and definitely challenged your hand-eye coordination.
×
×
  • Create New...