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Dman

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  1. Dman
    Winokur had an .800 OPS in July and so far he is doing the same in August. I wonder if that will be enough for them to move him up AA next year. Hopefully this is his break out with the bat. Nice to see Gabby with the long ball. AAA seems to have been a challenge for him at least at the start here. It's hard to keep a good bat down though. If Abel is wondering why he is still in AAA he just needs to look at the 4 walks in the Box score. I don't know what it is going to take for him to find some consistency, but that seems to be the only thing holding him back. It's impressive stuff but if you want to get guys to chase you have to through strikes as well.
  2. Dman
    Somebody forgot to tell these guys they were supposed to lose a bunch of games. Wow! Didn't see this coming. I kind of thought Keaschall would have a hard time being effective coming back from the broken arm and given the results at AAA. I guess I couldn't have been more wrong. When that guy dials it in he means business. It is still early, but he has that look of a star in the making. We sure could use one.
  3. Dman
    I agree Gasper looks overmatched more often than not, but he is walking 10% of the time and only striking out 24% of the time. He's not completely helpless up there. His quality of contact though is really, really bad. He isn't barreling much of anything. Only 7 hits so far and 6 of them are singles. Why do they keep giving him a try. Because his AAA stats are really good all the way around and they think given time they will translate at the MLB level. At this point I guess they don't have much to lose, but it is painful to watch some of his at bats. Personally he just doesn't seem to have a good feel for getting his bat to the ball with the stuff they are giving him.
  4. Dman
    Yeah I thought that was an interesting decision. I guess they had seen Outman hit one out yesterday so maybe they were scared he might run into one? Still Outman would be just as likely to swing and miss at everything they threw at him. Just keep it out of the zone and I bet they could have gotten him to chase. You trade a guy who who has contact issues to pitch to a guy who is a contact hitter. I don't know. It felt like they got the odds backwards there. Must have been one of those non spreadsheet go with your gut moves? I guess Gonzalez had been struggling with the AAA junk that gets thrown so maybe they thought he might panic there and he did to some degree as he came out swinging at everything. The thing is though taking your chances with a guy who generally connects on stuff in or out of the zone seemed like the wrong way to go there. Especially when they could have pitched to a guy whose bat can rarely find the baseball. He has a 40% K rate at St Paul. I am happy they did it that way though.
  5. Dman
    I know it is a small sample size, but for a guy with supposed swing and miss issue JP Smith has been hitting almost everything. Hate to get too excited, but he is only 20 and he hits everything hard. This level is looking too easy for him right now. A very promising start for Mr. Smith. Nice to see Morris back even if only for two innings of no hit ball. AAA needs arms. Jenkins with a really nice night at the plate and I believe it was against some lefty arms as well. So that was nice to see. Gallagher with a better outing his second time out. 7 K's and no walks. Looking like the pitching profile the Twins like. His first pro year making it all the way to AA is impressive. Will need to keep an eye on him.
  6. Dman
    I totally agree. Just not making outs and getting on base is important. There is a place for all kinds of talent. It's just that power rules. There is a lot to like about Houston and I think he is going to be a good hitter because he seems to cover the plate really well. The only potential issue I have is that in the draft there are only only so many players that have star potential. Power is a big part of star potential and when you are picking at 16 you want to try and find a guy with traits that will make him better than the average MLB player. Without power Houston might end up a utility player and I would want more than that at pick 16. Other teams have shortstops that can hit for power and play short so if the Twins want to win they have to find players that will be better than other teams players. Otherwise it's a losing battle. There is lot's of time left for Houston to develop more power and given what has been said about him I believe he will. We won't know much until the end of next year as to the likelihood of that happening. It took Spencer Steer three years to get there. Martin is still trying to get there As I mentioned above power is such an important part of the game they will have him working on it. right now they just want him to get comfortable and do what he does which appears to be getting on base at a healthy clip. If you want the Twins to be winners then you should want them to try and develop power in all their players as it will help them win more games and increase their chances at a world series title.
  7. Dman
    I just can't see the Twins extending a 30 year old arm. It seems to go against the org's philosophy IMO. They seem more likely to try and sell high or let him fall off the table. If it's just club options for Ober I don't see that being a great incentive to sign unless he does feel he's cooked but then it is bad deal for the Twins. I don't see an Ober deal getting done. I like the idea of a Keaschall deal, but is he the guy you do it for? You have Culpepper and Jenkins on the way. Culpepper could be the more valuable player since he plays short. Jenkins is younger and would be more in line for a deal like that as you would hate to see him on the market in his late 20's. There was a time a deal like that made sense for Lewis and look at where things are at right now with him. There's plenty of risk involved in early signings. Still I could see them doing it for Keaschall. They have loved the player he is since college. He has great makeup and is an intense competitor. If you think his arm is gonna be OK I'd see if he wants to do a deal. He has all the traits they need with speed, likely plus defense at 2nd, good eye at the plate, good contact skills and power. There's a lot to like, but the Twins have never done one of these deals before so it seems unlikely to me.
  8. Dman
    JP Smith came in as a pretty unheralded player. I thought the profile was a lot of swing and miss even in the zone IIRC. The one game I watched him he seemed like a tough out and he hit everything hard. He is a very solid muscular guy that can take big swings. Hard to gain much knowledge at A ball but he seems to be passing the first test which see the ball hit the ball and in his case hit the ball hard. I wouldn't be surprised if they move him up at the end of next week. We'll have to see how Fedko does as at AAA, but a spot on the 40 man seems to be between him and McCusker IMO. McCusker has cooled off considerably since his MLB debut. This past month I think he had a .600 OPS. He has a career 30% or more K rate and under 10% walk rate with a really powerful home run stroke. Fedko has been around a 15% walk rate and 20% K rate for his minor league career and has just recently shown the HR power that makes players difference makers in the high minors. Fedko has a really nice batting line runs well and led AA in Home runs with 20 of them. We'll have to see how well that translates to AAA, but right now he looks like the better bat and overall player than McCusker. Not sure if he would be rule V'd, but if he keeps this up they might not want to take that chance. Especially with so few right handed outfield bats in the system. It's so hard to know with guys like this as Prato had a huge year, one year only to turn back into a pumpkin. Now McCusker seems to be doing the same thing. Really hard to know, but there is a lot to like about Fedko's profile right now.
  9. Dman
    These young guys are bringing some energy. They really seem to be connected and rooting for each other to succeed. Kind of looks like a brotherhood in the dugout when the camera heads there. Keaschall sure seems like he might have that "it" factor. So intense and into the game just love watching him in the field and at the plate. Kind of felt like Lugo got Ober'd in Minnesota. Just couldn't catch a break. The young bats were all over his stuff.
  10. Dman
    I agree with you. I think the article is a bit doomy and gloomy. While I think Lee is OK defensively at short I do agree with the article that Lee's offense doesn't look MLB worthy unless he can tap into more power. He looks best suited in a utility role at best right now. We'll see if that outlook improves as the season moves on. Still I think he is a solid option there for now. I do think Culpepper is the future though. While I don't disagree the jump to MLB from the minors is a huge one, Culpepper does exhibit some traits that bode well for success. One he can hit balls low in the zone. Two he can hit for power, three he can steal bases and four he is going to move all the way from High A to AAA in his first pro season so he will be young when he joins the team next year. Despite the difficulty I wouldn't sell Culpepper short especially after what we have seen from Keaschall who followed a similar track. Culpepper's defense will be fine at short maybe not elite, but should be very good non the less. I think this team has enough at short to stick with the young guys. The only way this works with a lower payroll is if the kids make it anyway. Give them a shot and run with it.
  11. Dman
    I wanted the Correa signing and felt at the time he might be able to push the team to new heights. The cupboard was bare in the minors at short and short felt like the missing piece on the team. Whatever the reason it just never became a good fit. Injuries a drop off in defense and offense left us no better off than before. Both sides tried to make things work, but sometimes things just don't work out. I still think he can be effective in Houston. His bat was bouncing back albeit with little to no power, but he wasn't swinging as wildly and able to go the other way. I think as he gains more confidence the power will come back. I think he can be a decent 3rd baseman as well especially for 20M per year. Still he wasn't going to be a good future fit for this team. Lewis is at third. They have Lee who can play shortstop short term until Culpepper is ready and they have Keaschall for second base. There wasn't going to really be room for an aging player taking up 30M per year on the team. With the news that payroll appears to be back to around 100M they needed that contract mostly off the books and they got that done. I think just all around it was time for Correa and Twins to move on.
  12. Dman
    Bottom line, I think mainly because it is really hard to get hits at the major league level. With the game on the line would you rather have two doubles or two singles? Or one single or one home run? the singles don't net you anything. So when you hit the ball you want it to count and thus power rules the baseball world. Want more examples. No one even really seems to care who the batting champ is anymore. They are far more interested in who has the highest OPS and the players that make the big bucks are players with power Otani, Judge, Soto to name a few. Want further evidence and you could look at Arraez versus Kody Clemens. Arraez has the higher batting average. He walks more than he strikes out granted he only walks at a 4% clip but K's at 2.5% clip which is just unreal. Probably the best contact hitter out there. Clemens hits for a lessor average. Strikes out more than he walks, but he hits for much more power. 12HR's to Arraez's 6 in fewer at bat's. Arraez's OPS is .723 and Clemens is .777. Don't like OPS try WAR. Arraez has .6 WAR and Clemens 1.2 and he has played in half the amount of Games as Arraez. Want to go strictly offense with WRC+ Arraez is 106 and Clemens is 112. By almost any measure of advanced stats Clemens comes out better than Arraez except for batting average. The conclusion: without power even a journeyman player can be seen as more valuable than a player with a high batting average that just hits singles and gets on base. I'm not saying a player like Arraez has no value. Just less value than someone who can hit with power and hit more home runs. Getting on base and not making outs is important, but baseball has statistically proven that power is the most valuable tool as it helps you score more runs. That is why everyone cares about power potential.
  13. Dman
    This is what I was I thinking as well. I don't think August is the time to call him up, but why not September when rosters expand. He has to be added to the 40 man this year anyway. Just add him early and get his debut jitters out of the way. Let him see what MLB pitching is really like and then go from there. I think that makes a fair bit of sense if you want him to hit the ground running in 2026. I'm fine if they don't do it as well and they might not if they are more concerned about service time than getting him MLB experience. It will be up to the front office and how they view 2026 IMO. If they don't see the team competing in 2026 because they plan on more trades or a larger tear down then maybe it doesn't matter if they give him time at the end 2025 or not. He'll have most of 2026 to try to break in anyway if they plan a larger tear down.
  14. Dman
    I think others have mentioned this, but Houston's swing looks great for covering most all the zones of the plate, but I don't see much power there at all. I Guess it makes sense to stick with what you do well in your debut and he is getting hits. It is early, but I do wonder just how much power he is going to get to with that stroke. I can see why other scouts had concerns now.
  15. Dman
    It is interesting to me how errors and or missed calls by umps can lead to big innings. I don't know if pitchers get rattled or decide to get more aggressive or passive, but things sure do seem to snowball when you have to get 4 outs instead of 3. Fort Meyers had the same thing happen instead of player errors the ump was squeezing the zone for Fort Meyers while expanding it for Clearwater (to the point the manager got thrown out of the game). Then the first base umpire missed a clear out call at first base and getting that 4th out proved too much as they scored three runs that inning and the pitcher almost got pulled. That was the difference in the game. Nothing to do with the players just human error for the umps. It doesn't always happen, but sure seems to be a catalyst for bad innings when an error is made. Whether that be umpires or players. Not sure if the pitcher is to blame in those situations or not, but probably more mental than anything. Getting squeezed is tough to overcome though.
  16. Dman
    I think getting his walk rate to 10% in AA has been the difference maker for him. He has great contact skills, but hitting more balls in the zone I feel pushes his numbers up because you generally do more damage with those pitches. It has been hard for this organization to find good right handed bats to counter the lefty arms they face. So Gonzalez could be very helpful in that regard. Hoping for a good debut in AAA with maybe a MLB debut in September, That would be quite the year for the young man.,
  17. Dman
    It was a really nice outing for Bradley. My one nit to pick would be K rate. It would have been nice if it was higher, but hey get used to the new team, catcher etc with an impressive no walks allowed is a good place to start. Bummer for Klien, but he does have days like that. Not sure what the deal is, but he can be squared up kind of Paddack like at times. Still I am glad they moved him up. A little surprised a guy with his stats at AA isn't in the top 30, but maybe that will change? Gonna have to keep my eye on this Mendez kid. His contact skills seem better than advertised at this point. Still they should work with him to take some walks. He's going to need that skill to make it at the MLB level IMO. Tait looking good for 18 at High A. Nice to see his power plays at such a young age.
  18. Dman
    After today's game i had to look up Hatch's numbers again. I thought I might have read about the wrong guy. Nope, this seems like the best he has pitched in a MLB game in a long time. When things are going right they just go right. We'll see if he has found something in the next few games. Keaschall didn't look that great to me in AAA, but he sure has looked good since he has been back at the MLB level. Loved his positioning at 2nd and he made strong throws when needed which helped turn a couple of double plays. Oh yeah and he had a couple of doubles and 3 RBI's today. I don't want to jinx the kid, but he does seem to have some Royce in him. I have been all over Roden, but it was really nice to see him hit that home run and or just make solid contact in general. I'm still not convinced in his skill set just yet, but am happy I can see and say something positive. Have to say it is kind of fun watching the kids right now. We'll see where things are at in a couple of weeks. With all the good starting pitching and more coming back and if the hitting remains solid then so much for tanking. They could go .500 the rest of the way.,
  19. Dman
    No reason not to give him a try. Maybe have hi9m change his pitch mix? Things haven't looked great at the MLB level but you never know.
  20. Dman
    I think this pretty much sums up where I am at. When you have a valuable asset both in terms of skill and payroll fit you should be getting back things you really need not just some guys with potential. You are giving up a known asset you should make sure you mitigate the risk involved in trading that away. Getting a guy who might be a lessor version of Larnach and Wallner just doesn't make sense. Not to mention he doesn't look like he belongs at the MLB level at the plate anyway. Why take on all that risk when the player doesn't appear to project as a difference maker. especially when your top two prospect are left handed outfielder that appear to be difference makers. I get the attraction to Rojas as he is a lefty that is performing well with great traits, but the Twins seem to be blind when it comes to injured\injury prone arms. They went for Paddack when other teams wouldn't. They went for Mahle when no one else was that interested. They got burned both times. It's like they don't factor arm risk into any calculations they make. I don't get it. Look I don't know a ton about Rojas, but he has to the reason they pulled the trigger. A lefty starter is something this team has just never developed. They could really use one. I hope their evals' are spot on, but I gotta say I don't trust them or the scouts to get this right. Especially given the past history. They gave up a difference maker. They better get one back.
  21. Dman
    Hypothically? Probably the best infield this team has had since the Tom Kelly Years.
  22. Dman
    I tends to agree. If anything Buxton's teammates have let him down. The FO believed in this team and the players around Buxton. To the very end they appeared to be looking for signs not to move players, but the team was so bad after the All Star break they didn't leave them much choice. This team had time to prove they deserved more support, but fell flat. Add in the pressure to reduce payroll after the TV deal became even less lucrative. Also Attendance dropped and you can see they weren't going to hold this team together for much longer anyway. They might not be done right sizing. We'll see if Pablo makes it through the offseason not being traded. They certainly didn't "need" to move on from Jax and Varland, but one requested a trade and they liked the deal for Varland enough to pull the trigger., Those were not cost saving moves though. As I have written before I have a ton of respect for Buxton. I really appreciate his loyalty to my favorite team. Baseball is a business and performance is a big part of it. This team needed a shakeup and it got one. If they keep all the starting pitching and can find some hitters and bullpen arms in the offseason this team can still compete. If they decide to sell some starting pitching that might make things more difficult. Still this team isn't that far away. If I am Buxton let's not overreact and let's see how things look next year.
  23. Dman
    Let's hope the Twins can find some sleeper players and make something out of them. Will be interesting to see if he can adjust in time.
  24. Dman
    I thought Adams pitched really well. A lot to be encouraged about. A bummer giving up that Home run, but even so it was still a solid outing. Loved the K's he was getting. Hopefully he keeps it going and the Twins can say they found something. Nice to see Larnach and Wallner with Home runs. Some improvement with the bat for both of them would go a long way next year. On to the next one as guys get more experience they should know who can help next year and who can't.
  25. Dman
    My man Bohorquez gave me quite the scare starting the year not being able to find the strike zone. Happy to see him putting up some nice numbers last month. I agree with the OP that it would be nice to see what he can do at HIgh A. Nice numbers for Prielipp too. Glad his arm is holding up. They might want to get him some AAA reps as well. They also could call him up since he will be on the 40 man the end of this year anyway. It's a lost season would be nice to see how his arm plays at MLB level. Gallagher got blown up badly in his debut. It's a very Twinsy profile though and I expect they will work on some things. He was all around the zone, but the other team was getting a ton of solid contact. He gave up three Home runs. Nice to see him on the list. Hopefully the next time out will be better. Abel is stud at AAA. Just needs to translate it. Hopefully that happens sooner rather than later.
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