Cris E

What a weird comment. Only look at Zebby's season in the aggregate, but then immediately jump to cherry picking Royce's slumps and hot steaks and comparing them to random chunks of Clemens' season. Here's a notion: most guys have hot and cold streaks. Some are pretty mild and others careen from glacial to volcanic across any few weeks. It's disingenuous to credit Clemons spot in the lineup this weekend to his hot streak and forget that he's piled up over 90 AB of .627 OPS so far in August (vs .708 for Lewis, which is a little better, but still below average.) Both are struggling this month, and the big difference is that Clemons was much better for more of the first four months. My take is that Clemons is probably a steadier hand, but as a 30 year old we've seen his ceiling and it's meh. Lewis is younger and we've gotten glimpses of his hot side, but it comes with a heaping dose of "Here we go again." In my world Clemons sits and fills in twice a week on a better infield, and we trade Lewis to someone who believes in moonbeams and superstars, and then we find a real hitter for 1B. There's a 2% chance it's Subato, but I don't think so. Maybe you can teach it to Gabby G or Mendez, but neither are the big stick we need.

Unless a salary floor of some sort suddenly calls for $170m+ in payroll there's no way the Twins are stashing Ober as a #6 in St Paul at $7-8m. Even if they have to go to $170m it's still not happening. And frankly unless we suffer another spring training catastrophe like Lopez he's not beating out Ryan and Lopez and Bradley and Mathews and Prielipp and Kremer and Abel and whoever else emerges this winter. Who knows, Festa could reanimate and push him down even further. Ober is probably worth more to the Twins than anyone, but I'd argue he's not worth that "market value" right now. The trick is getting him to take a Jamie Moyer pay rate from us (at maybe $4.5m) vs letting the open market dictate to him what they think he's worth (which could be as a non-roster invitee.)

Haven't read the whole thread yet, but this requires a clear No Free Jobs, 2027 Spots Are Earned in 2027 Not 2026. If Kremer or Ober or Connor or Zeb are going good or bad next April then that dictates the spots. The caution about SWR is relevant here (but maybe not where it appeared in the article.) Youngsters ebb and flow until they find their legs, and Kremer is the only one of that crew that's been a steady presence over years, but his brutal start to 2026 shows what "earned" spots are worth after the winter break.

Of course it's too late, he's spoiled now, like a brown avocado in the compost pile of expired prospects. Alas, poor Walter, I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite hitting, of most excellent fielding, Writing these huge pronouncement pieces after two days is continued clickbaiting. I will henceforth try to restrain myself and stay on meaningful topics. No one will miss me, but I'll feel better.

I'm hoping it's satire because I'm having trouble squaring the notion of some clean-cut, self-respecting young athlete with a chubby Kirby Puckett rolling into the clubhouse with sacks of McDonald's for all. He was a fine ball-player and he was well loved, but not a paragon of the modern ascetic clean-living professional athlete lifestyle of this century. (Aside from a good haircut: he did have that.)

Possibly, but that predictability is why pitchers have catchers. Between the coaches writing a plan for the day and catchers watching from outside the pitcher's hat or sleeve, the system is designed to challenge a guy who only wants to throw one thing or one way. Morris seems coachable, but he's facing some tough luck right now. That cutter that went out to right yesterday was four inches off the batter's toes. That's not a bad pitch at all when you can get a guy to swing at something that far out of the zone.

These games were going to dictate a lot on the day the schedule came out. Either we were going to play spoiler or we'd be measuring our prospects against top competition or we'd be within hailing distance of a wildcard and hoping to claim some October games.

Did you forget a /S somewhere or are you serious? I could see Buxton pressing to get to Iowa or fighting to stay on the field at any time, but I can also see a simple mocking of Pohlad in any and every context on this site.

Eh, still displeased. Don't care about Go per se, since Fedko could have been moved to the 60 day, for example. But given that Buxton can;t field a position right now, there are only three real OF on the 26 man (Larnach, Keaschall and Jenkins) and only one of them has played a full season out there, and the only one that could possibly be described as even average with the leather has not played an MLB game. Buxton needs to sit his butt down and try to get well. Shelton needs to show him his hitting from the past month or more and press him on what he's adding to the team that couldn't be brought from the seat next to Lopez. I cannot even begin to address Jackson's presence around here. Is he a Pohlad? Is he someone's bookie? Man.

No, that's not a thing. For example between June 12 and Aug 15 Morris went 27 appearances where he yielded a total of 2 runs, 13 hits in 28.2 IP. There had to be some moments of adversity in there that he handled just fine. It's far more likely to be a gradual erosion of form that's finally getting noticed or maybe a small injury that's sapping his effectiveness. He's been at this for months, so neither would be much of a surprise.

Great piece. As impossible as hitting looks these days, pitching is also getting harder. The quality of advanced scouting, the incredible pitching machines and the detailed coaching are making a straight 93 MPH fastball a relic. Ober and Anderson are making a living at or below 90MPH simply because it looks like they're riding velocipedes from the silent movie era. What hitters are gleaning from video is at least as much as pitchers are getting from hitter spray charts, zone charts and pitch type breakdowns. Layer some immediate intelligence about an incoming pitch and it gets crazy hard. Major League baseball continues to improve and is more amazing each year. Love this game.

Be honest about this season: there were dozens of games between returning from the injury and the last 18 games. He played 21 in July with a .777 OPS in a league where this team currently has an .831 OPS. He's figured some stuff out and is feeling strong, but he's still quite young and still learning.

He'll be by once the fair ends. Probably.

If he's just average-ish and plays like a talented 22 year old it'll be great. The worry is that he pulls a Lombard and forgets the basics. The NYY rookie sensation started out fine, for a couple days, but is now mired in a six game error streak. Not everyone wears the mantle easily, and Culpepper's experience is not normal, so I guess my point is never be surprised when one rookie stumbles while another glides.

Yeah, finding things in a dozen little forum silos is too hard. The right hand column on the old Baseball Primer was threads last updated. On another site I frequent it's at the bottom of a short initial page so it can be found with a quick scroll or page. Anything added or commented on, top ten or twenty. Also, I'd like to see more than my last 30 acts, meaning I don't care what I liked but I would like to see more of my posting history.