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Dman

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Everything posted by Dman

  1. Dman
    What I like about Miranda is no strikeouts so far in 9 at bats. Putting the ball in play should help him find hits or at least have productive at bats moving runners over etc. He doesn't look over matched at the plate to me. He has swung at stuff outside the zone and gotten himself out on bad pitches but every player does that. I think he is a long term answer for the infield and a good option for first base. If he can find a way to hit the nasty stuff thrown at the MLB level he should be a good one.
  2. Dman
    Can anyone clarify how the double play ball from center didn't get overturned? He looked safe on the small clip I saw. Was wondering if his hand came off the bag during the tag as that is the only way I could see that not being a safe call as the tag looked late to me.
  3. Dman
    I guess I am a little surprised Legumina got the call to AA ahead of Mooney and SGL who I consider better pitchers. Also I thought Enlow was coming back in May and likely starting at AA. Anyway good for him. He has good stuff I just thought it would be SGL who moved up. Happy to see German promoted. He has a Jovani Moran type Changeup I believe and maybe a better fastball. So I think he will continue to have future success. Also glad to see Wallner hitting something besides air with his bat. He started the year with 50% K rate. It looks like his power stroke is back so he just needs to work on that K rate to keep moving up. Starting to wonder if Cotton's control problems were weather related as Thielbar, Duffy and Pagan sure seemed to have issues to start the year, even Danny Coulombe had issues with strikes in the colder temps. Wonder if Cotton got a bad rap there getting sent down. Hopefully he heats up and gets the call again. Lot's of guys doing well which is good to see.
  4. Dman
    A
  5. Dman
    I have a hunch and it is just a hunch that they are going to keep Martin down and continue to work on that power stroke this year. He isn't rule V eligible until 2023 so they can take their time and make sure he is set defensively and work on incorporating more power. I don't see him being called up even in front of someone like Steer or Jullien who have better slugging and nearly as good of walk numbers as Martin. IMO he is an absolute long shot to make the MLB team this year.
  6. Dman
    Totally agree that Paddack has good stuff. He really does get good movement on a lot of his pitches. He just wasn't as fearless in the zone and first pitch strikes as Wells and that was the main gist of my comment. They both technically pitched equally well with Paddack starting the 6th he probably should get the edge but Wells was more efficient IMO. To your point I didn't mean to slight Paddacks excellent performance as much as point out how surprised I was that Wells went straight at the hitters with great success.
  7. Dman
    I think an outfield of Lewis, Buxton and Kepler would be amazing both defensively and offensively. The Twins would have three players that could play center out there. All three can hit for power as well as steal bases if needed. If there is no room in the infield he looks good in the outfield to me. If they believe Canterino's arm can hold up I wouldn't be surprised if the Twins used him in the pen this year. He is going to be on an innings limit and it looks like his stuff will play if gets his pitches under control. He could really help the pen start to look more elite IMO. I am a big Steer believer. Not sure where he and Jullien fit right now and if the Twins continue to do well I wonder if they end up trade bait. Will have to wait and see how the season goes but Steer would be a good option if ever needed this year.
  8. Dman
    I hate to say it but kind of thought the pen would blow it in this one. Pagan sure makes me nervous when he is out there. I know WAR doesn't work this way but Smith should have like 3 WAR for saving inherited runners from killing us in three games. I don't know what kind of magic he has but he has been the Anti-Colome so far this year. This O's team has better pitching than I thought and I don't think this will be an easy series but we will see. Really do need to take 3 of 4 from teams in this range so hopefully the bats show up. Wells looked like the better of the two pitchers last night to me. He was pounding the zone and his pitch count was low enough to go another inning but we were finally to getting hits on his stuff so I guess it made sense for them to take him out. Imagine if we hadn't lost him in Rule V we would have one more arm from the pitching pipeline. Most everyone got a hit and the pitching was excellent all around. It was a good team win last night.
  9. Dman
    I like Sands as a reliever better than a starter but he has posted excellent numbers all the way through his minor league career so he could end up a starter. He was untouchable to start the year this year and I didn't get to watch the games he got blasted in so not sure what happened there. He throws hard with good spin and has two really good pitches so seems like reliever should be his floor. I was looking for him to replace Duffy in the pen once he is gone after this year as they have similar profiles. There isn't going to be room for many starters next year with Gray, Ryan, Ober, Winder, Paddack, Maeda maybe Bundy and maybe Archer. Also SWR, Canterino, Balazovich, and Henriquez all might have better stuff. So I think pen is most usable place for him this year and next. I think he could be elite in the pen with his starters mix.
  10. Dman
    Happy they moved Stankiewics up earlier rather than later. He is 23 already and will be 24 in September. Would be nice for him to be on track for AA\AAA as a 24 year old. He still might end up a reliever but he has the stuff to be a starter. Very interested to see if he just keeps rolling at High A and finds his way to AA after the All-Star break. Headrick is the big surprise for me. After last year I thought he might have peaked in college. I had him pegged as a reliever but not so sure now. Still not sure if I feel like he will sustain this level of success. Do we know how hard he is throwing or if he has above average secondary's? Hard for me to understand how he is putting up those kinds of numbers. SWR is a board favorite and I would have given him the number one spot but I will say it is kind of nice for a guy who has been the Rodney Dangerfield of Twins affiliate starting pitchers to finally get some recognition. SWR will have plenty more days in the sun. This is a good time to give it to Stankiewicz IMO.
  11. Dman
    Happy they moved Stankiewicz up earlier rather than later. He is 23 already and will be 24 in September. Would be nice for nice for him to be on track for AA\AAA as a 24 year old. He still might end up a reliever but he has the stuff to be a starter. Very interested to see if he just keeps rolling at High A and finds his way to AA after the All-Star break.
  12. Dman
    While I agree the pen might be a weak spot right now remember they get Maeda back as some point and could ease him back as a pen arm. They also should get Alcala back as well. If they wanted to they could use one or two of the starters as pen arms in the playoffs so there should be options down the stretch to help the pen if needed. There are arms and options for the pen later in the year.
  13. Dman
    All four of those guys look like the real deal to me. Granted Rodriguez, Fedko and CES have a ways to go yet. I have been afraid to say much about Lewis for fear of jinxing him but his bat is the closest and the one I am the most excited about. As the article mentions he has been everything we hoped for to this point. Still he does need to show he can keep it up for at least a half to a full season to make sure he is ready for the big club. Fedko is the biggest surprise to me. Most guys drafted where he was have a very limited impact and are generally slow movers. We will see if he can keep things going but he looks solid\consistent at the plate right now. Christian Encarnation-Strand might end up an elite hitter. His .491 BABIP makes him a regression candidate and if you watch Tom's U-tube video's you can see he has been pretty fortunate in several games with pop ups that dropped in for hits. Hard hit balls that skipped off gloves etc and that is unlikely to continue forever but even if he does come down from his 1.099 OPS he still looks like an elite contact hitter to me. He has managed to drop his K rate to 24% and it would be nice if he could drop it a little bit more since he is only at High A and he has increased his walk rate to 9% so almost 10% which is pretty solid considering he makes so much contact. Have to say that was a good 4th round pick and he should continue to work on eye at the plate (i.e. dropping K rate and increasing walks). That will serve him well as he moves up and tries to hit those Home runs he likes to hit. It is a good list and happy to see some new names having big time success.
  14. Dman
    I think those were different kinds of pitchers though. Smeltzer and Albers were low velocity control artist pitchers. I think Swarzak was somewhat the same but I can't remember that far back now. They all had low K/9's and were more pitchers that gave up poor contact which helped them be somewhat successful. Especially in SSS. To your point at least those three ended up not being that great. Although Smeltzer still has a chance to change his story to some degree. Winder throws 94-96 and has good enough secondary's to get strike outs. So I think he will have a different outcome, but it is early.
  15. Dman
    I don't think chemistry trumps talent, but I think it does help create an atmosphere of confidence or safety for players. I think what I mean by that is when a team has each others back or is there to lift one another up players are more able to play loose. By playing loose I mean not being afraid to fail or that a mistake will cause your teammates to think less of you etc. I think it helps keeps negative energy out of ones mind and focuses a player more on playing for each other and lift your teammate up if some mistake or failure happened to them. I think chemistry creates a family atmosphere where players can communicate without fear. I also think that when you have good to great relationships it makes it fun to come to work and puts you in a good frame of mind to start. If your mind is in a positive state it is easier to handle failure or adversity. Bad chemistry when you are worried about any little thing you do or say blowing things up or any failure leaving you hanging out there on your own. I think players play tight and negative thinking makes it harder to get back on track. I think Rocco does a really good job with having players backs and making sure they are comfortable. I think the FO is good at accommodating player needs to the point of nap room for Cruz. I think from the FO down there is the promotion of player safety and keeping players healthy and I think players appreciate that. I am surprised about all the positive things players have said about playing in Minnesota so they must be doing something right. Good team chemistry doesn't guarantee wins but it is nice to see as a fan and hearing the players rave about it shows that it means a lot to them as well.
  16. Dman
    If the pitching holds I think this offense can be pretty good with Buxton, Polanco, Correa, Arraez, Urshella likely being the most consistent hitters and Kepler, Sanchez, Sano, Jeffers, Gordon if they heat up having an impact as well. Agree the Central looks surprisingly weak with the young pitching not working out for KC and Detroit to this point. Cleveland should hang in there at around 500 for sure maybe better if their bats ever get going. Twins need a stronger pen and if they fix that issue they should be really tough to beat this year.
  17. Dman
    OK so a while back I pointed out that Christian Encarnation-Strand didn't seem able to take a walk and he walked 3 times tonight. If he combines plate discipline plus his amazing contact rate this guy just might be a super star. I don't know how teams will keep him off the bases. This guy is amazing for a 4th round pick. I know I was down on the pick when the Twins made it but holy cow this guy is good. SWR still not getting as many K's but a 0.0 ERA this late in the season. I don't think I have ever seen that before. 21 at AA this guy is going to need to move up. It just doesn't make sense how he could improve this much from last year to this year. He couldn't throw a strike at the end of last year. Now he doesn't give up any runs. I don't get it. I kind of hope they move Stankewicz up early. He is older for A ball and dominating. Would be nice to see them move him a little faster. Oh can't forget Headrick. Only 3 hits, no walks and 7 K's in 5 innings. If he can keep that up I see lefty reliever in his future. Mack continues to mash. He seems to have found his stroke. He could be a riser in the system will just have to wait and see.
  18. Dman
    Baseball is an interesting game. Detroit had the bases loaded and Ober squirmed out of it. The Twins loaded the bases and cleared them. Both teams had the same number of hits but on team scored 7 and other team just 1 run. Granted the 4 errors didn't help but still Detroit had their chances but it just didn't happen. The Baseball gods do funny things.
  19. Dman
    If you read Fangraphs and other outlets no one knew what to make of him since there was no precedent for a pitcher having so much success throwing like 80% fastballs in the minors. The consensus seemed to be that wouldn't fly in the majors. They also had his secondary pitches rated average at best. While Fangraphs didn't rule out his ability to start they felt there was a fair bit of reliever risk. So odds were that the Twins were getting two good reliever arms in Strotman and Ryan. Some thought Strotman might even be the better pitcher because of the greater velocity and pitch mix. Both had potential to start but seemed destined for the pen or 5th starter status at best. So you can see why Tampa made the trade IMO. Also there must have been a bit of bidding war for Cruz because I was surprised the Twins got two arms like that for 6 months of Cruz and I believe both arms were rated in the top 10 to 15 range in Tampa's system. It always seemed like a good trade just that the odds were slim that Ryan would turn up the secondary's and be this good. Seems like one of those rare occasions where things actually work out on the high end instead of the low end of a projection.
  20. Dman
    Wow! Don't really know what to say. Great pitching. Great defense. Good offense. Good win! Nothing to complain about. I will say I thought Ryan might be good but not this good. He has really upped his game from last year.
  21. Dman
    It looks like 8, 48, 68 if the MLB site is correct. However, I have seen reports out there that indicate we lose our supplemental pick at 68 for signing Correa and that would move us to 8, 48, 86. So I guess the big question is are supplemental picks included in a teams top three picks or are supplemental picks technically different than a normal draft pick since are given and can be traded etc. Maybe someone else on this board can clarify.
  22. Dman
    Given how things stand I think one of the two catchers will be there at number 8 and at the very least there will be an elite bat at number 8. Not a great year for shortstops this year IMO. I think the more plodding position player bats will be available to the Twins but will have to wait and see. The Cubs or Nats might grab Lesko since he has ace potential and that is so hard to find. Certainly he is a risky bet but the payoff could be huge. We know first hand how good Santana was with his elite changeup. It is a feel pitch though and after TJ that could be problematic. Hard to say. If a team a head of us does grab a pitcher then there will be more options for hitters for us. The Twins are pretty risk averse and seem to be in more need of bats than arms so I could see them skipping on Lesko if he is still there. They also seem to feel they can identify arms later in the draft and make them work. Depending on who is there at number 8 it might be hard for them to go pitcher. I would like to know where fangraphs stands on the pitching in this draft as I feel they have better analysis for arms than the other sites. They haven't updated in a while now.
  23. Dman
    Yeah I agree. That first year is just instructs mainly anyway. He will have TJ surgery out of the way and shouldn't mess his time table up much. I think I like Lesko more now than before the news of surgery.
  24. Dman
    My concern is rule V at the end of this year with Steer, Canterino, SGL, Varland, SWR and Maybe Palacios or Wallner it is going to be hard to protect everybody. Guys with good eye's have a tendency to make it though look at Baddoo, Lamonte Wade. So hopefully things sort themselves out but I am concerned they might leave him unprotected.
  25. Dman
    I think the OP is correct on this one. Last year (2021) Sano's OPS in April was 550. BA was .111 for the month. Not sure why he is so snake bit in April, maybe ask Correa? At any rate his numbers last year didn't pick up until mid May so there are a few more weeks of bad games ahead most likely. By the end of May for the Month of May he had a 750 OPS and for the month of June he had an 800 OPS. Not great numbers for who he should be as a 1st baseman but not horrible either. Looking at it another way he has been so bad to this point he has no where to go but up. I have been saying this the last three years but I am still a Sano believer and I think he is going to have a good year this year maybe even a great one.
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