Trov

I am wondering when Lewis tore his ACL if it was found on screening from knee issues coming in. It means he tore it before and was doing things on it without getting addressed. He does not need to get it repaired and some athletes have had careers without them. Hopefully this does not take away his potential defense down the road.

I would wait to say he needs to work on plate discipline, if you are attacking strikes early in counts and putting them in play you will not walk or strike out. So I would not look at those rates. Is he chasing pitches, that is what matters. If he is taking balls and hitting strikes who cares that he is not walking. I always hated when Joe would work count 3-0 with runners in scoring position then take a strike right down middle, then walk on next pitch. Sure his stats looked better because his OBP and walks were up, but he passed up on a good chance to drive a ball. What let a good pitch pass by? Joe would do it 0-0 too he would almost never swing. That was how he was, but as Ted Williams said key to hitting is to get a good pitch to hit and not miss. Sometimes that is 0-0, sometimes it is 3-2. Do not take good pitches to hit and do not swing at pitches you cannot hit. That to me equals good plate discipline.

Wonder if Johan will talk about downward planes and when a hit is given up no matter where the pitch was the pitch was "right there" like pitch location was the only reason for the hit. Oh Bert, how the years went by I learned you were just talking non-sense over and over. The Fox track box really made him look a fool the last few years.

I have been calling for no manipulation all winter. Glad you got data to help back that up. I was more on the optics side of why making clear manipulation of players is bad for CBA. Already the game has shifted as this article points out to younger players and 29 plus guys not getting the long term deals they used to. This has upset the players that used to get the 7 year deals at age 29 to 31. Now they are getting 2 year deals for much less money overall. It used to be if you can be good until your FA year you could cash in, and the mega stars would sign long term deals with opt outs at age 30, expecting another mega deal. Well FO rules changed learning there was a lot of bad money in those contracts and they have basically stopped. Throw in the manipulation of a year of service time and you get really upset players because you take one year of big money from them. Work stoppage will happen, and if teams are still manipulating service time it will just make players even more upset. If Kirilloff hits well in ST he needs to break with team to have the best lineup out there all season. Lets worry about 6 years from now, 6 years from now.

I expect he will be playing CF in the future. I think Twins will not extended Buxton after arbitration years, if they do not trade him before that. Lewis will move to CF, unless someone else would take that spot then Lewis will fill in wherever the biggest hole is.

If we have healthy Buxton we could live with Rooker in short bursts, but if Rooker is our starter in LF we will be in for some adventures in OF. He is basically a statute out there and teams will drool thinking of hitting balls his way. Eloy is similar bad defender. I am looking forward to having not Gordon in LF for royals stealing doubles away every game. Personally, I do not get why they put such poor defenders in LF for offense.

Buxton has always been someone that can be overcoached. He listens to everything and keeps trying to make little changes that just messes with him. He is one of the few I would say just go back to your basics that got you here. Personally, I wish he was a better oppo hitter. One, he could get so many triples if he could because of his speed. I wish he also understood him being on base is such a big thing. Pitchers fear him, and defenses worry about his speed. He is one the HR power pushes have hurt I believe. He will never grow to what we want on offense if he never learns to adjust to how he is being pitched. He thinks every pitch is a fastball it seems and gets burned on sliders away all the time. Even more so when runners are on base. That is where taking a moment to think hey I get pitched sliders outside like 90 percent of time when runner in scoring position. Maybe just take a pitch or two. Sure they may burn a fastball out there, but it could still be a ball, and unless you are looking to drive the ball to right field, who cares you will just pop it up most likely anyways. That is the main adjustment he needs to make.

For small market teams they need to decided are they going to push all in like KC did, or are they looking to stay a winning team for years but never have one of the best teams to make push in playoffs, similar to what they did in 2000's and what Oakland has done for decades. Personally, I am a fan of the latter for baseball, because getting into playoffs with the best team on paper means nothing. Just making playoffs is important and hopefully you can get hot. So risking long term success for a little bit better chance in playoffs for a single year is not worth it to me. How did Twins in 2000's and Oakland done it? They trade players before FA years and hope their prospects pan out. They keep reloading the farm system from trades and good scouting for drafts. It is not the splashy sexy moves people want to see, but it is sustainable of being good for years, just maybe not great. If you want to push all in like KC and Houston did, but Houston is not small market they just were not a good team. You need years of bad teams like Twins had, hope your high picks pan out, then sign FA and make bold trades that need to pan out, but give up your big prospect pool. You have a few years of winning but this makes those trades even more needed mid-season to fill holes because you committed to win now. Then when they all reach FA or get old you cycle back to losing for years. Big markets can try to win via FA and a few good draft picks, small markets need to hit on all FA, draft picks, and trades for most part.

I bet we see him this year when Buxton gets hurt, or if Kirolloff struggles. I am confused on why hitting opposite field is a bad thing though? Some of the best hitters all time were opposite field hitters. If pitchers just pound him inside he will have to adjust to that, but to me being able to hit opposite field is a good thing. Being dead pull generally can be a bad thing because pitcher like to pitch away a lot more than inside due to risk of hitting batter, and pull HR tend to be easier too. If he cannot adjust to inside pitches that could be a long term issue, but short term I am not concerned.

I do not expect any of the list players to do well enough in spring to break with camp, unless there are injuries to others. For the recent pickups they need to show they can contribute enough to provide depth for when injuries happen.

Simmons should hit well enough to make him the best in the division overall. Yes, Anderson will be the best hitting SS, but his defense is very poor with a lot of errors, not just lack of range. I still feel defense is important even with shifting and hope Simmons helps produce some wins on that side of things.

Now that you mention I do recall that, but that was after having terrible first part of year and not like he tore up minor leagues either. Sure they could have brought up in September, but not like he was forcing their hand to do so.

When the electronic zone comes in, I think within next 5 years, he will lose value because framing will be a thing of the past. Then blocking pitches and throwing runners out will be more important. I still think he will have value for years to come either way.

If he can change up his speeds on the fast ball to save a little, that will go a long way. I am not a fan of 5 pitches really I like 3 with the ability to change speeds on them to keep guys off balance. Really those 4th and 5th pitches get tossed so rarely they are kind of waste to work on. I have high hopes for him though.

I have asked this before and no responses, but who has Falvene duo manipulated service time to while they are in charge? I cannot think of anyone. People assume they will because teams are known to do it, but what evidence do we have they will here? If Kirilloff rakes this spring and they do not bring him up claiming needs more time, then I will agree they did it. If he does not rake in spring they will be in all rights to send him down. I hope if he does show he is fully ready that he gets the start from the beginning. Games in April mean same in standings as in September and you want the best team all the time. I am also not convinced they will do this in part, with the CBA coming up and this is a huge issue for union, and it should be, I think teams might try to not blatantly do this the year prior to CBA is up. If they do, I hope Kirilloff never resigns with Twins as a lesson to them and any team that does it. As much as I want him to be with Twins, provided he becomes what I hope he does, I would cheer for him to stick it to the Twins for messing with his service time. It is up to Kirilloff to force their hand this spring though. Twins historically have not manipulated service time coming out of spring. There may be some you could point to, but there are many times guys had hot springs only to fall flat on face in April. Aaron Hicks comes to mind several times. What happens if Kirilloff breaks with team, for first 2 weeks hits sub .200 with like 40% K rate, can they send him down without being called out for manipulating service time?

I think with the question marks of Polonco it is fair grade for him, but think he will transition well and hit fine. Not with the power of two years ago with the dead ball, but still be a good plug and play guy. Mandrigal is an interesting guy. He is old school style with contact hitter and little power. Sox do not need the power from him and if he can get on base and play good defense he will be an annoying guy for years to come.

Not surprised the schedule plan, it reduces possible outbreaks within the league. Hopefully that will not be an issue by mid-summer anyways. They will get to know their opponents very well. I think that will need to be taken into account when accessing players. Facing a team for a full week will lead to seeing same pitchers a lot more frequent, and facing only a few teams all season will be similar. What I would look at is how players make adjustments during those 6 game stretches to how teams are playing. That is a sign of a good player that learns how to adjust when teams figure them out, or when things are not working.

Baseball is such an interesting sport that building a team to make the playoffs does not mean you will win the playoffs, and so rarely the best team on paper win in the playoffs. It is a game of failures. The fact we have not won a single playoff game for 18 straight is actually kind of crazy. They are different teams at different times and continue to fail. I mean how many teams in history has had 18 game losing streaks ever, not too many. The trend that I always found was we never seemed to play like we did during regular season and teams would jump on our mistakes and we would fail to jump on theirs. In short series those mistakes get highlighted so much. I also think over the years different little things can be pointed out that led to failing. You play the season to make the playoffs and hope you are hot when get there. A single additional player will make little difference in the playoffs. We talk about the need to add pitcher x or player y but we have no clue how either will do until the game is played. Over the long haul we may have idea which player will have more value, but in that single game or series we have no clue. I am looking forward to the season and hope we can finally get it done.

I always liked him and his heads up defensive plays when he would range up middle throw home on the guy breaking from second hoping to score. He was just too streaky to count on to be the go to offensive guy. When he was on he could carry the team, but when he was off he would drag them down hoping he would get hot again. How many seasons would half the year he be well below replacement but other half be MVP level offense?

I am big on this kid. He seems to be that under the radar guy that Faleve seems to be known for identifying. How many under the radar guys was he credited for helping draft or trade for in Cleveland? I am not saying he will be future Cy Young winner, but have high hopes for him.

Yeah that trade for Sox will go down as an all time worst, even if Tatis does not live up to the contract. Shields did nothing for them. Not sure where Tatis would have played but they would have found a spot. In terms of the contract, it is a huge risk, but now it is a fixed risk. Sure he can have career ending injury, but insurance would cover that so that is little risk there, the bigger risk is injury that lowers his production. I think it is not a bad contract for the team. If it is the player they expect it is less than what you can expect he would get over that time. I am not an expert, but think he falls under super 2. At being MVP level if that continues he would be on Mike Trout level money by time he would be set to be FA at age 26. This gives him basically an 10 year deal at that age while buying out his arbitration years. I bet if they waited he would be looking at much more, unless he does not progress at rate he has been.

I never said he was not the right pick, I just said not a fan of those type of prospects overall. He may have been the best available and I defer to the FO on that. Yes, you can get decent defenders that do not hit great for cheap contracts, and do not advocate for drafting guys that are not expected to hit. However, if you draft a guy that is only expected to hit, and he does not then he has no value to your team in the future. Also, if they can only hit and not field, unless it is at an extremely elite level, they have little value as well. My point was, guys that can do more than just hit HR, will have fall back plans if the HR do not carry over to pro ball. Maybe Sabato will be an elite hitter and HR hitter and I will be happy, but if he is not, then there is nothing else there and no fall back for him.

Agreed that outside of those positions offense is needed. However, if they can be average on offense and average on defense they will still have a home, and may not be the high end guy you would hope for, but still provide value. Could Sabato turn into a good defender at 1B and then you can live with average output there, okay, but overall my point is I am not a fan of guys that only value possibly is HR. Not saying he was the wrong pick or anything, but not a big fan of those types. Yes, many fans were down on Buxton until he was putting up some offense, but I was not one of them because I knew what he could do on defense was better than anyone we had. Now that he is at least average overall with stints above average he is viewed as a much better player than before, but he still had great value when he was hitting below .200.

In 2017 they were admonished and fined for using apple watches to help them, but the Astros were on a much higher scale then what Yankees were alleged to have done. If new investigations turn out Yankees did more they should face even bigger issues than Astros. What Astros did was not just use electronics, but they used a program to decode signs used when runners were on base. So not only did someone sit in room watch the sign, relay that to coach who then banged on a trash can to tell hitter what pitch was coming, they also decoded, with use of software, the signs teams would use with runners on base. Rich Hill was aware of this, or at least suspected it, and in WS he has catcher use coded signs during whole game and changed it up every few batters. Not sure he needed to as he threw 2 pitches curve ball and straight ball, not gonna call it fastball. Sure he would change up speeds of those pitches, but not sure that was decided by sign.

Is there evidence that Falvene has manipulated service time in their tenure. I mean legit manipulate that many are expecting for Kirilloff? I am not sold that if he hits well in spring that he will not break with team, simply to get one more year of team control or an extra half a year of cost control. Maybe they will, but I do not recall a player they have actually done that too. Of course if he does not hit well in spring this will give good reason to keep him down, but if he rakes, I think he will break with team. If Arraez does play LF it will not help our defense at all. Unless he has increased his range I can see way too many balls falling in his area. The only way I let him go out there regularly is if he is hitting amazing. Happy Hamilton passed waivers, mainly for his sake because he has bounced around so many teams. I bet we will see him during the season. Many times teams will wait until after rosters set to pass guys through waivers to make room again. When the market gets flooded with waiver guys teams have more decisions to make on claiming.