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Dman

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Everything posted by Dman

  1. Dman
    I hope so. Wallner has been a .900 OPS bat in AAA most months he has been there. I think he had a cold start at AA in 2022 IIRC. He can be a slow starter. Hopefully he gets back on track soon. Starting to wonder if he is getting the Larnach treatment and needs to conquer the breaking ball off speed stuff.
  2. Dman
    I think that sounds about right. I am not sure they give up on Bowman. I know he is 32 and has been average at best in his career so far, but is off to a good start this year. Zero runs allowed at AAA and solid numbers at the MLB level. Yeah the 4 walks are concerning but he has only given up 2 hits in 7 innings work at the MLB level that I see, With a .78 WHIP I don't see him making it through waivers. I have to believe they run with his arm until the numbers look worse. On the other hand with so many arms to choose from maybe they don't care if they lose Bowman or not. I just don't see him clearing waivers after the hot start. Looking at the 40 man again they have no choice but to move Bowman I am not a huge Martin fan and while his OPS is lower than I would like. He takes really good at bats. His K rate is only 20% and his numbers at the MLB level aren't all that different from AAA. He just hasn't walked as much at the MLB level and hasn;t hit quite as well which is to be expected. Still for getting your feet wet he doesn't look lost at this level. I believe his OPS is higher than Nick Gorden's is as well so he has done fine as his replacement. I would hate to see him sent down, but can understand if the Twins would prefer the heavier bat Miranda brings.
  3. Dman
    Jeffers has been money with two strikes lately. Kind of reminds me of Morneau who always seemed to find a way to come up in the clutch more often than not. I hope he keeps it up. Do we know when we get Lewis back because I think that would be a huge addition to a lineup that looks like it could have some good hitters 1-5 in Jeffers, Jullian, Kirilloff, Correa and Lewis when he returns. If Miranda and Larnach are for real that only adds to the depth. If the bats get rolling this is going to be a really tough team to beat.
  4. Dman
    I don't know I kind of feel like April is just a tough baseball month. The weather can be cold, windy and rainy. It can be hard to stay warmed up and most pitchers have to slowly ramp up. Raya hasn't thrown a ton of innings in his career as it is so if they plan to pitch him all year something is going to have give so might as well start him out slow to start the season in the less than ideal for baseball April conditions. That way he should be able to start all year instead of shutdown early due to an innings limit. Last night he didn't pitch particularly well anyway giving up three free passes in less than three innings. It didn't look like ha had the control and command to make it very far anyway. IMO I think the slow start (lack of innings) makes some sense especially if you are concerned about a slightly framed 6' foot pitcher that has has arm issues in the past.
  5. Dman
    Out of Culpepper, Morris and Lewis I had Matthews as the fourth "guy". I might have to rethink that. His K rate is up this year and he is a magician to have zero walks to start the season and a WHIP of .89. To me that means his stuff plays. He is looking like a move up candidate in the near future IMO.
  6. Dman
    I didn't watch the whole game on MiLB.tv but he looked OK out there. He didn't have any real challenging plays that I saw and the balls hit his way he handled fine. He doesn't look like he will be elite out there to me, but he handled it well from what I saw in that game. Too early to tell if that is a position he excels at down the road but IMO he looks better at second base. Was impressed with the throws Harry made from the SS position. Not sure what his range is or how he would fare with more challenging ball in play, but I thought he looked good at Short in a SSS.
  7. Dman
    I have been down on the bullpen's of most of the affiliates but Cedar Rapids had two really good pen arms going last night. Mercedes looked pretty good and Wosinski looked pretty dominant. I don't think I know who Wosinski is as I don't believe he was drafted. Still he has gone 10 innings without giving up a run with a really good K rate and I am pretty sure I saw at least half a dozen if not more swing and misses on pitches in the zone last night. He is a big guy at 6'8", but he seemed like he had excellent control. He is old for the level but if he keeps this up maybe they can move him up to AA as they really needs good pen arms.
  8. Dman
    Yeah Wichita could easily be a .500 team without all the pen blowouts. Not sure I understand why the arms there don't seem to be ready. Not that the hitting has been great as Rodriguez is the only player with an OPS over 800, but it seems like the bats are starting to heat up. It looks like it is going to be one of those years where they are just snakebit and can't catch many breaks. Fortunately still lot's of good prospects to watch there.
  9. Dman
    I was excited when they drafted him and surprised he was ready for A ball at such a young age. Honestly to me he looks like the best arm on that Fort Meyers team in this SSS. I think his changeup is a real difference maker pitch. Like this article said needs to round out the control on some of his pitches find the edges of the zone a bit more etc, and while I expect there to be some ups and downs for 18 what he is doing is beyond expectations to me.
  10. Dman
    Very nice review. Not much to add as it was well covered. I really like these write ups as we get an idea how things are going week to week. Hoping as guys get into the swing that more players heat up. St. Paul; and Cedar Rapids players often start slow with the cold weather. Things should start warming up and hopefully our guys warm up as well.
  11. Dman
    He'll be back and better the next time around. He had these same issue last year for a stretch where he couldn't find his control. Let him work on things in St. Paul and give someone else a try. He needs to gain better command\control and with it more confidence and he will be back fighting for that 5th spot.
  12. Dman
    The concerns of the OP are valid and I agree with them. The thing is he has been one of the top 5 bats in his league since he started A ball. It's just hard to argue with success. The contact issues would be my biggest worry as we have already seen that exposed somewhat with Jullien and Wallner at the MLB level. He can be more aggressive at the plate if he wants too be, but I do think it does play into the Twins philosophy of making pitchers work and developing a solid sense of the zone all while battling with two strikes and is a good skill to develop. So I am less worried about that aspect. The numbers are nice and not nice in his profile. He could be Schwarber. He could be good Gallo or bad Gallo it is hard to say. Like I said earlier the tough part right now is how do you change an approach that has been successful everywhere he played so far?
  13. Dman
    It's been a rough start to the year even for the farm and I have had some prospect envy this year. So I went and checked the league stats for OPS and we have a player in the top 5 in each league except St Paul who doesn't have a player in the top 50 (at least one that qualifies). Doncon has a top 5 OPS for the FSL. He was one of 4 players with a 1.000 OPS but he dropped to the 900 range with an 0 for day today. Cespedes is top 3 in OPS for the Midwest league. He is hitting for power this year and controlling the zone better and it shows. Rodriguez is number one in OPS for the Texas League. He has cooled down since his hot start, but is one the best bats if not the the best bat in that league right now. As stated earlier St. Paul is so barren of hitting that the closest guy to the top 50 is Kiersey at 58 with an 835 OPS. The pen has been bad but so have the bats. At any rate we have great players and this list doesn't even include the two top rated prospects in Jenkins and Lee who have been injured. So there are hitters that are doing well and hopefully more bats heat up soon..
  14. Dman
    I have been impressed with his bat from the start of his pro career. Will be interesting to see where he play can defensively. Would kind of be nice if he played some left field as we need good righty bats in the outfield. He has a long way to go, but he looks good out of the gate.
  15. Dman
    The K rate has always been a concern, but he has good power and can hit for average at times. It will come down to defense IMO as the offensive bar is low for catchers and I think he can exceed expectations on the offensive end. I feel he was a good addition to the 40 man as he looks like a solid backup catcher and could be more it is just hard to say as the jump to the MLB level is so huge.
  16. Dman
    Yeah has to be a bummer as he just earned his way onto the 40 man and was pitching pretty well. Hopefully his recovery goes well.
  17. Dman
    He is only 20 and he has a pretty big frame. I can see why they say he might need to move off Shortstop. Still his arm looks really good and he moves well right now. I agree odds are 3rd base long term, but I like him more than I thought I would.
  18. Dman
    Man Matthews looks like a beast out there. That guy is huge and he pitched well against a tough lineup. His defense kind of let him down at the start of the first with a slow roller that De Andrade didn't charge and then over threw the 1st baseman on. The field was wet and it took too long for the ball to get to him. Then a couple of bad break singles that found holes and they were down two runs. Defense came through for him in the end of the inning to escape any more damage. He then decided to pitch lights out the rest of the of way as he didn't give them much to hit. Matthews was not overly efficient and wouldn't have finished 5 innings without a double play ball at the end. He got through this one bad weather and all with solid results. Doncon continues to hit well and has looked pretty darn good at third IMO. I do think he could play short just fine. but I guess that is De Andrade's spot for now. He is only 20 and has a 900 OPS through 36 at bats so a SSS, but nice to see him off to a good start. Cespedas continues to rake and show off a power stroke this year. The BABIP is high right now so he is going to come down to earth some, but that power should carry his OPS. Hoping he can sustain and move up in a few months. Festa with better control this time out, but still only 57 pitches. I assume they are keeping those numbers down to slowly build up and save his arm some in case he is needed at the MLB level this year. Still am interested in seeing him go longer because he typically wears down after about 60 pitches or so. His ERA looks nice but FIP and xFIP have him two runs higher. Likely because his WHIP is currently at 1.72. Some work to be done but off to a good start non the less.
  19. Dman
    I wonder if there is a system with worse pen arms than the Twins system. The lack of development there seems astounding to me. Wichita would be at least 500 if the pen hadn't blown so many games. St Paul would have a better record as well. Either they aren't finding pitchers with enough upside or just don't have a good plan for developing arms for the pen I don't know, but a lot of arms look really bad this year. I was a Randy backer again this year but it looks like the same old Randy. Whatever he had is gone now. I guess he just plays things out at AAA. Rough start to the season have to hope things get better soon.
  20. Dman
    It didn't seem like anyone on this board liked the Santana signing. It looked like the FO just checked off some boxes. Switch hitter, check. Good defense at first base, check. Veteran, check. He had an OK year last year, but with their apparent plan to use him a lot at 1st this year seemed a bit of a head scratcher to me. It is early, but it doesn't look like a good decision right now. Farmer was such jack of all trades and a solid right handed bat versus lefties it kind of made sense to keep him around for emergencies. I thought that maybe there was room for improvement this year, but so far he hasn't looked good in the field or at the plate. I also thought he might have enough value for them to trade him, but it looks like there were no takers and they are stuck with him now. That 6M in salary sure would have looked better spent on a starting pitcher. I never saw the need for Margot. They did the Dodgers a favor there IMO. The Dodgers didn't really want him and they managed to grab a great defensive shortstop in the deal as well. So far all three moves look like dud's, but we still need to give them some more time to see if they turn things around. Even Castro is off to a brutal start. All that planning to have solid backups is just not working to this point. If things don't improve soon it is going to be a long year.
  21. Dman
    This smells like absolute desperation at this point. Larnach has a .559 OPS in A ball right now. He's not on a hot streak by any means and isn't even facing high end competition. There are 19 years old's hitting better than he is down there right now. I guess they really feel Wallner needs a reset, but it doesn't seem like Larnach is the answer right now. Maybe a fresh start does both players good, but literally no offensive production from the typical high production left field position is killing this team right now. If those two can't get it together soon Emmanual Rodriguez is going to get his chance much sooner than I imagined.
  22. Dman
    There was always noise in Wallner's numbers last season. The level of competition dropped off for the Twins the last half of last year and his tendencies at the MLB level were more of an unknown. I think pitchers know how to better work him now. No one seems to work harder than Wallner in the batting cage, but for a guy who supposedly spends a lot of time there you would think his K rate would be better. That being said Wallner has been a slow starter before. Let's give him some time to work through things before demoting him two weeks into the season.
  23. Dman
    Not too much to say this early. Some guys are doing well others are struggling to get going. April is tough month with the colder weather along with stronger winds. Just tougher to play baseball in those conditions. Some handle it better than others. I guess if I had to pick one player besides scorching hot Rodriguez I would say I came away very impressed with Soto. While his first game was nothing special his second no hit 4 innings was special. He is just getting started in pro ball and likely to have his ups and downs as he works on things, but watching him work he sure likes the real deal to me. Would be nice to our injured players back as there are several top guys missing in Lee, Jenkins, Canterino and Prielipp. Getting those players back would change things.
  24. Dman
    I agree with you that it will take more time to sort this out. I get that SWR was masterful against the Tigers and if he can consistently pitch like that he will have a rotation spot. Let's not forget that he just got shellacked in AAA and owns a 7.34 ERA there right now. I think you are right let's see who can be the more consistent pitcher the next month before making any rash decisions. Louie was the minor league pitcher of the year a couple of years and has had some success at the MLB level. He gives up too many HR's and needs to figure that out, but if he can he will hold down a rotation spot. If not maybe the pen, but the pen is kind of getting full of good arms right now as well. I do think SWR has the better pitches\stuff plus so if he can find some consistency odds are he passes Varland at some point, but I think Louie deserves a few more games to get things under control. As mentioned by others both arms will be needed as the season goes on anyway so no rush IMO.
  25. Dman
    I am one of Paulshawn's biggest fans, but he did not look sharp today. His results were fine, but if he wants to move up he is going to need to be better than he was today. That being said other than Soto he looks like one of the more consistent arms they have in A ball right now. Hall might have a great changeup but he can't seem to get swings with it right now and can't find the zone. Dunn doesn't have overpowering stuff, has been hittable and walks too many. The K rate is nice, but the WHIP is concerning. Langenburg doesn't walk anybody but giving up 9 hits in 5 innings isn't gonna get it done. I know we are just getting started but right now the teenager Soto looks like the best of the bunch at A ball at least to start the season. Keaschall and Harry carried the day with enough run support for the win. Two nice bats from last years draft appear to be adjusting well to high A. Nice to see Culpepper with a solid start. That is quite the starting staff they have at high A. Nice to the St Paul bats break out, but man for pen arms so close to the majors you'd think they could do better than give up so many runs game in and game out. Oh well lot's of room for improvement I guess.
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