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Trov

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Everything posted by Trov

  1. Trov
    The belief that an ace is needed to win in post season is such a myth. Yes, there are times that an ace does make a difference, but that is rare. We have gone to post season with an ace before and did nothing. Many teams have won the whole ship without an ace by most definitions. Remember when Oakland had 3 top pitchers and we had Brad Radke and a bunch of mid rotation guys? Radke was not an ace by most standards, and most likely would have been ranked 4th best pitcher in the series, the other three being all on Oakland rotation. Or remember how many series we won with Santana, who was an ace. Technically he was on staff in 2002, but was not in the playoff rotation. Now, I would agree if Lewis is showing that he can fully step in be the defender Correa is with the same level or better bat, and a team offers a long terms option top tier pitcher we should listen, because I still no believe Correa will be back next year. The problem you will have is that no team looking to take Correa in on a rental would be trading away an ace as they will want to keep them for their own playoff push. Only selling teams will trade pitching away, unless you are Cleveland that feels you can trade your top pitchers away because your pipeline is that strong.
  2. Trov
    I see no reason to send him down at this point. He could play 3rd, LF, or CF when Buck is resting. He could slide to 1B as well, or even get some DH at bats. I do not think Correa will need much rest when coming back because with way Lewis is playing I am sure they are not rushing him back. That being said they still give him a day off time to time. I think they can get Lewis plenty of at-bats and playing time up here. The only reason you would send him down is if you feel he needs more time to develop at SS on defense, but so far he looks good on that end too. If he starts to struggle at the plate you can send him down then, but Miranda should get the demotion when Correa is back not Lewis.
  3. Trov
    I get his missed 2 years of games, but in 2020 he was working at the alternate site I believe getting work in. 2021 the started getting work after the season ended. It is not like in game time is only time you can do work. He was a top talent for a reason, and he could still do things recovering from the knee injury. After about 3 months he was most likely jogging, after 6 months he was most likely back to full running and hitting. He could work on the mind part of the game when he was not working on the physical part.
  4. Trov
    It is not just Oakland being a bad team, but they told their fan base with the moves they made we are making no plans this year to compete. The fans told the team, that is fine we have no plans to attend games if you have no plans to put forth an entertaining product.
  5. Trov
    I do not give much weight to single game decisions during a season. Managers have two important roles. First, to get a team into the playoffs. A 162 game season is a grind that requires a manager that knows how to play the long game, sometimes giving up on a single game to save the bullpen in the long run. Once a manager makes the playoffs, that is when I will look at moves during the game. That is because each game matters. You cannot just take a loss or give away at bats to give guys rest or because it is time to give someone else some playing time. You play your top line up for each game and manage each game for the win. I was too young to really know how Kelly did it in the early years. However, I was old enough for Gardenhire and hated how he managed in playoffs. I am personally not a fan of the bullpen games in the playoffs. They can work, but if you have a pitcher that is cruising along and hitters are not doing much, I am not a fan of just pulling a guy because he is facing a third time through. First, that is a load stat. Even more so now that kind of because a self fulfilling stat. We find that a third time through a rotation normally is when guys start to struggle. Yes, that is true overall, but when you only get to face a couple of guys a third time now a days if they do give up a hit, it will be hard to get those numbers back down. In the regular season I am not too upset at those decision, but in the playoffs when each inning is important I am not a fan of pulling a guy after 4 or 5 innings just because they made it 2 times through order. As long as they still look good let them go out there. Maybe I am wrong and the Rocco way will work in playoffs. Overall I like him as a manager, but with the lack of power this year, I would love to see more base stealing.
  6. Trov
    His last few outings have been much better. No walks 3K's. He did give up a HR in a non save situation, ruled unearned runs, because of stupid rule of errors. However that HR did not cost us anything. Reports that he just added this pitch could clearly lead to some issues working on it leading to early walks. Also, the colder weather may not have helped much. I agree his walk rates were not sustainable for success, but no walks last three outings and reduced pitch counts of 9 and 10 the last 2 outings. If he can get the control issue resolved I would expect decent results.
  7. Trov
    For me the take away is the pitching is still good overall, and we need to start getting more hits with runners in scoring position. Other than Friday, which had the 2 big HR, we again struggled to get hits with runners in scoring position. I also had a take away that Urshella will drive me nuts all season while at same time I will be happy with some of his big plays. Yesterday he made 2 great plays on defense and hit a HR. However, his at bat with bases loaded on Saturday drove me nuts. So many things wrong with it. First, he check swung at a strike in the zone on the first pitch. Then to make matters worse, he jogged out of the box looking back to see how the play is developing only to then run harder when he realized they will try for a double play. Not saying he would not have still got the double play, but why look to see what the fielders are doing, run as hard as you can to first until you are out or told to run to second. It was like he either forgot there was bases loaded, or he just figured they would give up the run and toss to 1st. Similar in the series a Cleveland hitter busted down the line on a comebacker to Duran who made a bad throw. Hustle is one thing that every player should do. All you are doing is burning some cals.
  8. Trov
    I am not concerned long term. I think this is a good learning experience for Miranda and he should be able to learn from it. This is his first taste of MLB pitching. Much like a lot of young guys who struggle they need time to learn how the best of the best will pitch them. He made adjustments last year to become the prospect he did. I bet he works on this over the year. Not sure when he gets sent back, but he will at some point. Some guys take much longer to adjust to MLB level.
  9. Trov
    What I liked best about this game is that Ryan bounced back and changed up his pitch selection. The last two games he was walking guys and I think teams had adjusted to him not chasing pitches out of the zone. So he pumped fastballs in the zone telling teams he will adjust if they do. Then once he pumped a ton of fastballs in the zone, he started to mix in off-speed again. I agree with Justin when he said having a starter throw nothing but fastballs for like 20 pitches really messes with a hitters head. They keep thinking when is something else coming. It like in a multiple choice test, if each answer is the same letter, eventually you second guess your answer because no way would it always be B or whatever. Baseball is such a head game, and keeping hitters guessing will do that. I think Joe was trying to get ahead too much with off-speed then pitch the fastball ahead in count, I could be wrong but just feel like that is what he was doing the previous two games.
  10. Trov
    I have faith his natural talent will get him back, however, it sounds like he will have to learn to live with pain in his wrist. I do not know the pain and how bad it is, but I am sure it cause a slight difference in his swing. If he can learn to live with the pain and adjust to it and get back to making loud contact that will be great. However, it may just be he will never get back to what he was. Time will tell. I like that they sent him down to really work on it. Give him at-bats every game and let him learn to hit with the pain.
  11. Trov
    Baseball reference has him at 6-2 195. I do not think a guy needs to be tall to play first base, but it does not hurt if they are tall and flexible. As shown on a couple of plays yesterday, every inch on a throw counts. If a guy can make a couple extra inches stretch to get to the ball that can mean the difference between an out or a hit. Now as pointed out in the article, if he can make up for it by having greater range then it may balance out. I am not one that says you much be this tall to play 1st, but also being able to stretch on the base to a wider catch radius will help save some bad throws, but knowing how to jump off base and still get out can counter that too. Arraez needs to be in the line up hitting, so if playing him at 1st is the way to do it great. He made a couple of good digs yesterday. I am sure he never played 1st before in his life until the most recent two years. More time will result in better results hopefully.
  12. Trov
    Nice to see Kirilloff get 4 hits in 8 PA, with one walk. I hope they were actual line drives and not the weak contact he had been doing up here. I still have high hopes for him, but this wrist issue may take a long time for him to adjust.
  13. Trov
    I am always willing to try a guy out if the price is right. Not sure what any of these guys would cost the Twins prospects wise. Montez I am worried about his home road splits. He pitches much better in the pitcher park in Oakland than on the road. That would worry me. The other three have huge questions too. I could see any of them not panning out.
  14. Trov
    I am a little concerned with Balazovic early results. I get he is coming off of injury, but he has not done well so far. I know he can quickly bounce back but I still have some concern. SWR is not dominating as he was but really just giving up a grand slam is not terrible. I am not worried about him at all. I was hoping he would be forcing his way up to St. Paul be mid-season, and he still might. I need to remember he is still young for AA.
  15. Trov
    At minimum I think he needs to stay up at the MLB level. He is best possible defense replacement when Buck is hurt or needs his rest. He is not an auto out like he used to be. Even if he does not start he can come in to cover LF if needed for late inning defense. I think we all need to remember he is still young and should keep getting better.
  16. Trov
    CES is a huge question mark based on that K rate. I have been wondering what his approach is. He clearly is a bit of a free swinger and the question is when he faces better pitching will he stop getting hits? We have seen guys like him in past. College bats that dominate low minors, but when they go higher up their K issues because a huge deal. I would like to know is he just crushing pitches in the zone and getting a lot of bad pitches to crush, or is getting hits on pitches out of the zone too? If he can make good contact on pitches out of zone, then I am less worried about him, but if he only gets hits in the zone then when he faces better pitching he will fade quickly.
  17. Trov
    I would be all for DFA Urshella and roll with Lewis at 3B. Miranda is not lighting it up early, but Lewis has looked like he can handle hitting at this level, at least better than Urshella has. I think he would field it better than either as well. Sanchez should not be getting so much DH time. I feel he has been hurt by the dead ball or early weather power outage as he has hit a few balls that looked like they would go out only to die at warning track. He has had some liners for outs as well. However, he also chases way too much and pops up way too much. I am fine with him catching, he is not as bad as I thought he would be. I hope was weather warms up and the ball may start carrying more he will get a few more HR.
  18. Trov
    I am interested to see CES get a call up to AA and see if his numbers are just a product of hitting against lessor pitching. We have seen guys like him in the past dominate lower levels of the minors but when move up have hard time. His K-rate is scary high. I have not personally watched him so not sure if he is just a free swinger that can get hits on pitches out of the zone or are his hits on pitches in the zone and when he falls behind he will chase bad pitches.
  19. Trov
    You seem to have some rose colored glasses on some of those transactions. First Hudson was 2.9 WAR in his one year with Twins. Good, but not great. He was smart enough not to sign him beyond 1 year, but not like he made some super find, he just got a guy at end of career that had 1 last decent season in him. Crede played his final year with us to a tune of 2.3 WAR, with .9 from offense. Again, not like he lit the world on fire with Twins he was just above replacement. Simply because a guy was not a 100% bust does not make him a good signing. Both played 1 year with Twins. Thome was a good signing overall, but he blew the trade when he shipped Thome out. Pavano had a good year for us, an okay year for us, and 2 half years that was not good. The trade and subsequent signing of Capps was terrible. He had one good half year, but he gave up a top prospect catcher for a good couple months for a closer, with two follow up terrible years. The issue was he overpaid for Capps. Yes, you can say Ramos never did become amazing, but at the time Smith could have got much more for Ramos. While we talk about trades, lets talk about giving up Bartlet and Garza for Young, that was terrible. The Gomez for Hardy I was all for and loved it, until we signed nishi and traded Hardy for two terrible bullpen arms. Smith kept trading away high value guys, for low value guys. As I said I give Smith some credit for talent he brought in, but as a whole his time with Twins was filled with mostly bad moves that kept piling on. The Joe signing did not end up being great as the last few years the contract was paying him too much money for the lower output of a first baseman. I was fine with the signing though knowing that would happen at the end of it. Smith also blew the Santana trade, he could have got much better players than basically Gomez, who would have been fine if the end of that trade did not end up with 2 terrible bullpen guys that did nothing. He basically traded Santana for nothing when it was all said and done.
  20. Trov
    The ball is dead, we know that. There are 2 questions that need to be answered to determine if we have the right staff. One, will they stay dead, or will MLB change up the ball again to get more HR again? Two, will the players make the needed adjustments this season to not trying to hit as many HR but more line drives or finally agree to hit against the shifts? For years the plan was to pitch low in the zone, and pitches up were bad. Well, now we find high fastballs are effective because hitters adjusted to all the low pitches and adjusting launch angle. Once hitters adjust we will see how we are doing.
  21. Trov
    I have always gave credit to Smith for his signings of Sano, Kepler, and Polonco. However, outside of those three signings, that most likely he personally had little to actually do with, he was the worst GM we had in my knowledge. Terrible trades, terrible signings of other FA. He was always in the hear and now, and never had a backup plan. He also overvalued "closers". I always liked Ryan and thought he was a good judge of talent overall, but he was outdated when he returned to the game. He was still thinking the game was played like in the 90's and early 2000's. He had many misses in the draft too, but that happens with all GM's no one hits on every pick in the MLB draft first round or otherwise.
  22. Trov
    I would agree that the ump gave Verlander some calls Ryan did not get. However, Ryan was all over the place and Verlander was hitting his spots over and over. It really shows how a robo ump would even those things out and not let human error guide the game. A guy with a reputation of throwing strikes should not get benefit of close calls, where a guy known for being all over the place should not get squeezed. A strike should be a strike no matter who throws the ball, or who is hitting. For years we would hear how a guy would be known for having good control so gets those extra few inches, or how hitters with "good" eyes at the plate would squeeze the zone a little. I cannot wait until it is done and we have a robo ump. That all being said, I do not feel the ump was the difference in the game but you never really know if Ryan gets a few more calls and Verlander a few less we never know how the game shakes out.
  23. Trov
    If Larnach was healthy I bet Kirilloff would be down in AAA trying to figure out how to hit with his wrist. When I read that he had pain all off-season and had pain again this season without any new damage that can be fixed with surgery it raised huge red flags for me. Last year when he first came up the average was low, but he was hitting the ball hard all over the field. Since the wrist injury he has not had that same pop. I am very concerned he will not have that pop again, or at least not for awhile. I think he will need to go down to AAA and learn to hit with his issue. If the wrist cannot be "fixed" he will need to learn how to play with it. If he cannot he will never be a MLB player. It is sad, because he looked to have all the makings of a top hitter for years to come. However, you need your wrists to hit well. His few games back he has had weak ground ball contact for the most part. I hope he can figure it out, but if he is always in pain either he will have to learn to live with it, or retire.
  24. Trov
    The WPA stat is a bit odd. We look at it to see how they compare to other relievers. I doubt many feel Pagan has pitched all that well or added much wins probability when he walks bases loaded in 1 run games. He has finished them with saves but wow he scares me, and to see he is 22nd in WPA makes me think about that stat some.
  25. Trov
    I have always like Smith. We never did much against him in my memories serve me correct. I am sure there was a time or two where we did something. He is not someone that we will march out there day after day in high leverage, but we have used him in smart areas. He is best ground ball inducing relief guy we have. We have used him several times when a DP would get us out of a threat. He has managed to do that a few times for us. Very smart use of him in my opinion. K's can be great, but inning ending DP is always better than a 1 out K with bases loaded only to give a hit to next hitter. I think we will continue to use Smith in those we need a ground ball situation. If you notice he hardly ever comes back out for a second inning after that happens to. He does have lack of velo, but his arm angle is hard for many hitters to get used to. Very few guys throw from that angle so not used to picking up ball where he throws from. It is a bit of smoke and mirrors, but until it does not work he should keep on doing it.
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