Cris E

There's a fan watching with alcohol.

Buxton got 7 AB during the WBC. I'm glad they all feel patriotic about that thing, and the games were fun, but it totally messes with preparing for the MLB season. A bunch of players have gotten off to rough starts and Buck is Exhibit #1.

Not at all. Catchers are hard to develop, having to not just hit but master the art of calling a game while somehow staying healthy at a demanding position. But having two good candidates at Cedar Rapids means that in 28 or 29 we should be in high cotton.

Jackson was a backup, insurance, and they knew he couldn't be an every day catcher. That little flareup last summer wasn't real. When they could get Caratini for cheap they pounced and solved next year as well. He is an average hitter, which is above average at catcher, and makes complete sense. He's only in play at 1B because they did not move anyone else over to DH or 1B. That's a completely separate problem, and one they needed to address. They have other options and they are not employing them, so he's a 1B for now. In that regard this is dumb, but having Caratini for 2027 is not dumb at all.

The Twins have had amazing luck in how healthy their catchers have been over the past 3-5 years. We've gone years at a time without a third viable receiver on the 40 man, and it wasn't exposed until last summer when both Jeffers and Vasquez went out at the same time. Boy howdy, that was gawdawful. They now have a decent second guy (who is going to catch at least a third of the games) plus there's a glove in AAA with MLB experience. And on the days Jeffers catches against a leftie, Caratini is just sitting there. So is it worse to let him exist only as a backup catcher, or to compare him to the other guys on the roster and play him if he's a better option? My opinion is that eventually he's going to be the barely average hitter he's always been and someone will take the position away from him, but we're in week 1 and tings haven't shaken out yet. Buxton missed most of spring training and is slowly working his eye into game shape, so the need for RH hitters will relax a bit when he starts carrying his share of the offence.

"I asked." Beautiful.

This is exactly where Brock Stewart came from, so don't get too proud to recycle. On the other hand, this is also where we met Josh Staumont, Caleb Boushley, Dylan Floro, Thomas Hatch, Joey Wentz, Genesis Cabrera...

WTH, Cruz is hating his life right now.

Gray could pull away with the team RBI lead here.

So tired of Clemens.

Most Daddy's Boy type players don't get drafted in the first round. He was a legit first rounder when chosen.

So is it strikeouts or HR or average? You don't care if he's above average since anyone who isn't Raleigh or Judge or Killebrew is hot garbage? He had a year with some injuries and was still an average hitter. The rest of his career has been well above average. If you want to reject the stats and say he's not your kind of hitter then say that, but the league is full of these guys today and you are out of step.

The active gaslighting shows some serious contempt for Twins fans. "We're going for it. Watch the results. We have money for the right guy." The payroll speaks more loudly, it enunciates, it is clear. If you give good effort MIN fans are pretty laid back. But the lying, that's no good. Sell the team.

They might be the same height. (Ruth never had to get taped for ABS.)

Now I'm having all sorts of fun trying to imagine what you put up for that moment. "Roy Smith never hit eighth, he was a pitcher."

During the game it was pointed out that Gray might have kept running to third to draw a throw and get Larnach home safely. The piggybacking was a fine piece of strategy that went off the rails during execution. It happens, I'm not beating up the manager over that. Abel could have been on a shorter leash though. I am over the Clemens fascination though. He's not that good a fielder that we should be suffering his batting on such a regular basis. He offers nothing that can't be stashed in St Paul or Witchita.

I don't understand COL fans. They have been outright bad and management has been without a clue for a long time, and yet people buy tickets and come to games. Good for them, I'm happy they enjoy baseball, but I don't understand it. MN, OTOH, I totally get. We were on a long upwards trajectory that culminated in winning a playoff series for the first time ages, we had some kids on the way that were promising, we'd finally spent on some free agents that seemed to put us over the top, and in under two years we were flat on our butts with ownership lying to us. The losing was familiar, but the lying about Winning, Results and Spending were a new form of gaslighting that really showed a contempt for fans. All obscenities to the Pohlads. I'm going to Saints games this summer.

He's always been a great player to watch, not just because anything could happen on any pitch, but because of the simple joy he plays with, He gets excited, he laughs, he is enjoying this as much as any fan might. The sole upside to his injury history might be that he has missed the game and consequently he never takes it for granted. So easy to root for and enjoy on a daily basis.

Lots of inconsistency on the way to sweeping observations. Outman is plenty athletic in the outfield, he just hasn't hit since 2023. And he's not the old guard, he's been around exactly as long as Roden. Martin is the underperforming guy in his third season, if that's what's bothering you. Martin's ratio of two months of good baseball to 2.5 years of meh is the exact mirror of Wallner, (And don't talk about Martin's glovework. He's only OK in LF and terrible elsewhere.) Not nearly that bad. What problems are so profound that it'll take FOUR YEARS to resolve? Be specific, because some of these problems were left in place intentionally so as to not block the solutions maturing in St Paul right now. Which slow footed OF is not being replaced by Jenkins or ERod? How long a contract should have been signed to block the missing RH corner bat in Gonzalez? The 1B of the future had an OPS .884 wRC+ 149 (281 PA) on July 28, 2024 when he got hit in the head by a 95 MPH pitch and has not recovered. There's a ton of very interesting arms close to ready or debuting right now. There are two solid catching prospects in Cedar Rapids, and that's as close to four years as you can get, but Jeffers was a 2018 draftee that we'll get 600 quality catching games out of, which is excellent. And there were plenty of productive trades that weren't emotionally wracking like last years deadline: Joe Ryan, Pablo Lopez, Duran and many pitching prospects. And the drafts brought us most of the guys on the field: Jeffers, Keaschall, Lewis, Lee, Larnach, Wallner, Buxton, Ober. Go through the league and find another team that has that many of its draftees playing. There are problems with this team. The gamble to sign Larnach was made with a downside of being stuck with a decent LH half of a LF platoon. They have not made good plans at 1B or 3B and there were some other lesser gaps, but it doesn't take 3-4 years to fix those. The replacement SS are half a year away, you can make a 1B as soon as you decide it's a priority, and they could assemble a 3b plan simply by shifting Winokur or trading for someone. There's a bunch here to work with, but the biggest obstacle to returning to contention is ownership.

But Gleeman said Royce has seven HR in 13 career starts in the 8 hole. Could the people be stupid and wrong? Could the stats be tiny and misleading? My head hurts...

I think the trade forced him to re-examine a lot of stuff, as Tampa has a history of letting coaches and catcher do most of the game prep and pitch calling, Last August he admitted he was reading pre-game scouting for the first time in his career. I could easily see his post-trade ERA being over six as offering an opportunity to listen to even more advice. Plus he's getting into his mid-20s and his body might just be getting stronger. He's not that much younger than SWR, who saw a big velo jump last year, or older than Marek Houston who we keep hearing will be growing into his power soon.

Gray over Arcia feels like a surprise. Kreidler has looked better with the glove and Arcia with the bat, so I haven't been loving Gray that much. We'll see, it's just the defensive sub spot.

Well good news for you then, because the highest score is 80. Hurray?

Don't over-reach unnecessarily, it weakens your point and distracts from a decent argument. Vasquez was coming off several years of good performance (for a catcher) with fine playoff experience in BOS and before Jeffers had emerged. As a team on the verge of competing the $10m was not a terrible deal at the time, given that Gary Sanchez was the incumbent and couldn't stay healthy. (Search this site for "5 Reasons Christian Vázquez is a GREAT Fit for the Twins".) Miranda was playing outstanding ball when he got the concussion that he hasn't recovered from yet. Ryan Fitzgerald suddenly looks pretty good once we've taken a closer look at his peers, and Roden is far better than Outman and deserved better than he got this spring. The others, however, make your point with room to spare.

You've got this backwards: Larnach will play against righties and Martin against lefties, meaning you'll be seeing a lot more of Trevor. If he sticks to a platoon that should be OK, since he's a league-average bat when he's allowed to avoid same-side pitchers.