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.

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.

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.

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.

It is coming, and everyone will get used to it. There is always complaining when changes happen, but then they get used to it. Rarely do fans years later say I really miss the old rules. Sometimes a rule change is bad and it gets changed back quickly, but that is rare. Leagues do not make changes lightly normally. I remember when fans were mad their was challenges, now I doubt anyone would say lets go back to the old way. Not only will it speed up the game, but it should induce more action. It is not just on the pitcher, but on the hitter. It will take a little while to have the old timers get used to it, but the minors have been doing it for a few years so many are used to it from that. I have not looked close at rule, does the hitter get to call only so many time outs? I know pitchers when runners are on can only throw over or step off two times. The third results in either a out of the runner if tagged out, or advance to next base either from steal or balk. I do not know if that results in a new two pick off attempts though. The hitter needs to be in the box with so much time left on clock or he gets a strike called. Of course I assume there are exceptions, like for fouled ball off leg or foot, need to grab new bat because of cracked bat, or had to jump out of way of wild pitch. However, I wonder if they try to call time will it be denied or does it result in a strike if they are out of time outs and it is granted.

I have not caught up on this thread, hardly get on during weekends. I get there is a plan, and I am not expert in the area. However, what is frustrating is the continued DH of Buck, when his two injuries he got was from running bases and he gives so much value on defense. Maybe, the experts say just reducing running generally is best but even when he is not on DL he still can only play 2 out of 3 games. If the plan is is to play 100 games that means he will play less than 2 out of 3 games this year. Better than a typical season, but good thing our backups are competent.

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.

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.

I personally would not like either of the trades, even worse if we did both. I would not mind Bell at all on our team, but for a rental giving up 3 prospects for a guy that could quickly turn to a bad hitter. As you point out Bell is a streaky guy. If we only had Sano as the option then okay I could see the value, but we have other options to play over Sano, so you really need to compare Bell to the many different options we could put out there. In terms of Montez I am not that high on him, and to give up what we got for Berrios or Austin plus 2 pitching prospects, when we have seen how quickly we need as many arms as possible, would be too much for Montez. I am worried about his home road splits over his career. He pitches in a great pitchers park, and his splits are very home heavy. Which means he may not be as good as we think. This years home road split is even bigger split than over his career. At least having that extra year of control would be helpful, but no way do we plan to resign him long term so we either play him next year and play out his contract and he walks for nothing, or we look to flip him again ourselves in the off-season or during the season. I would be willing to take him on, but for the players mentioned I would not want to give that up at this time. I am not one to give up all your prospects for a single push. This two trades if we did them would basically strip our minors of any meaningful prospects. If we swing and miss on a move like this we will be set back for several years. I respect the decision to push all in for a single ship, but playoffs are so volatile, the best team on paper does not always win. Giving up 5 to 6 prospects for 2 guys that may have little affect in the playoffs is too big of a risk for my liking.

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.

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.

Our pitching was not good, but in the last game had we got a hit or two with runners in scoring position we could have won that game. Also, in game two we had many chances in the first night of game 2 that if we came through with a hit or two it is a very much different ball game on how we use the pen. It does not matter how well you pitch if the team flat out scores 0 runs every game.

Verlander is a future HOF freak of nature. No way for someone of his age, let alone someone who is coming of off TJ at his age still put up the velo and movement he does. Verlander is in a league of his own with maybe Sherzer. Verlander is way better than just about any teams pitching since the Twins had Santana in his prime.

Many SS make the shift to 3rd if they have the arm, Lewis sure does, but lacks the range for SS. It is a much easier shift than from SS to 2nd in my opinion. Maybe not as much with all the shifting right now.

One do not forgot that Houston was just as, if not more hot, than the Twins entering on a 7 game winning streak of their own. That being said, what I saw was two very different approaches of a line up. Houston was making the Twins pitch them strikes. They very rarely expanded the zone, and much of the time when they did it was a foul ball. Was there some close pitches that could have gone Twins way that did not, sure, but overall they were all over the place and not making Houston swing. On the other side the Houston pitchers were working the zone getting early strikes. Then when Houston did have 2 strikes they were not trying to do too much but where find just getting ball in play opposite field for a hit. The Twins could not get hits with runners in scoring position, which went back to Oakland series too, which we swept, because Oakland failed to hit themselves. I take little away from a single series, but if we continue to not get hits with runners in scoring position our pitching needs to be on point every game, which is not going to happen. In the last 2 games we had plenty of chances to score runs and kept failing to do so. Maybe a result of injuries and young hitters, or maybe just a slump. We did have some solid line drives that were right at guys or good catches made, but so did Houston.

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.

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.

Why was moving him to 3B not an option? Lewis early results are he does not look overmatched at all. He is fielding well. No one is running away with 3B. Why not slide him over to 3B, playing SS on days Correa rests? If he is not going to get regular playing time up here though I would send him back down to get regular playing time. If someone else steps up to show they can be better at 3B than Lewis, I do not see a point in sending him down. At this point in his career missing time a SS is not a big deal to play some at 3B. He would most likely be best defender at 3B we have too.

That may be true, but then the other question is, is his typical numbers worth nearly 19 mil a year? Also, with the expectation of drop off as he ages? Berrios may very well bounce back by season end and have his 3.50 ERA, 9K per 9 and 2BB per 9, with a WHIP of 1. However, as MNFireman point out, the numbers are not too suggestive of overall bad luck. My main point is not that Berrios is set to be a bad pitcher, but that we were not going to give him the deal he was seeking, I believe only HOF level pitchers ever live up to long term deals into their 30's. The fact we traded during year last year did we make the right call doing it then versus waiting? Right now his value would be at the lowest. Maybe the guys we got do not pan out, maybe they both give us good MLB years. I hope for Berrios he does bounce back to what he was, but what he was still is not what Twins fans wanted him to be. He only 1 time was in top 10 for Cy Young voting, last year at 9th.

The decision to trade Berrios last year at the deadline was a big talking point for Twins fans. Some were upset he was traded at all thinking we needed to sign him, as he signed with Blue Jays. He was still under team control for one more year and many fans wanted to wait until either this off-season, as odd as it ended up being, or sign the man long term. He did sign extension with Blue Jays for 7 years and 131 million. Berrios is in his year 7th year and age 28 season. The early results are not very good for him. He has 7 games pitched, 34 innings 42 hits, 11 walks, 24 K's for an ERA+ of 63 and FIP of 5.15. I am not saying he cannot turn this around. He has always been an up and down pitcher, with June normally being his best month. I have always argued he was never an ace, just the best we had. I liked Berrios and felt he always had the possibility to be an ace, but never got over that hump. I do not wish him any ill will, but the early returns are not good for Berrios. The Jays gave up to prospects, say what you will about Martin both prospects are expected to make major leagues in next year or two. So far I think the trade timing was perfect as the FO rebuilt the rotation and is doing okay, a couple bad recent starts from a few people, but still better than what Berrios has been doing. Not only will the trade maybe look good, but when you combine the fact that if we would have given Berrios the contract he got we might be stuck with a subpar pitcher making good money for years to come. Sure, Berrios may bounce back and be the top pitcher Jays thought he would be, but he may end up being on the down side of his career and become a very overpaid pitcher. So far the deal for the Twins sure looks like a win in who we got and when we made the trade. I doubt we would have got better if we waited to off-season or during this season, based on what he is doing now.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.