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mnfireman

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Everything posted by mnfireman

  1. mnfireman
    Ober will get his chance. Unlike some of the other prospects he has MLB experience, and has had success. Injuries or performance will determine how fast he is promoted. If the rest of the starters are going 6 or 7 innings with regularity and one is putting Chris Archer type innings, that is who he will replace. I am assuming Maeda pitches tomorrow, and that will be with 9 or 10 days rest. How he performs could go a long way towards the teams outlook on Ober. That play Kirilloff made tells me a lot about his wrist. He dove for the ball with no hesitation, made a nice play and calmly tossed it to the pitcher covering first. No hurry, no wincing and he calmly jogged off the field not shaking his wrist, indicating no pain. Good signs!!
  2. mnfireman
    So a guy gets hit in the face, another has a freak accident on the base paths (don't know if he's missing any time), another has what appears to be a side injury (from an unnatural motion (swinging a bat)), and another has back tightness/spasms (can happen to anybody, anytime and at any age) and the team is out of shape? These are not the same soft tissue issues from improper/insuffecient training programs or mis-diagnosis of "minor" injuries that later led to long IL stints of the past couple of years.
  3. mnfireman
    Taylor playing in and of itself is not a big problem. But when Miranda and Gordon aren't hitting and Kepler and Gallo aren't available, and their replacements aren't hitting, it all becomes a very big problem. A bench of Castro, Taylor, Farmer and Solano is better than a starting line-up of the same.
  4. mnfireman
    This!!
  5. mnfireman
    I'll go with the 8th inning guy gets the ball here because of the day off on Thursday and you see how it plays out. IF Duran is unavailable is the only way this changes. Jax and Thielbar do not get the ball until innings 10 & 11.
  6. mnfireman
    Pagan gives up a run in a game that's not really close and TD posters blow up, but Jax and Thielbar blow up a close, winnable game and crickets. Lopez, either one, should have pitched to the bottom of the order in the 8th, Pablo's pitch count was still good and he was on a roll, Jorge should be the normal 8th inning guy. The starter pitched the 7th, that's Jax's normal role. Then Duran for the 9th, if he was unavailable, then Lopez for the 9th. Either one. But, oh yeah, Baldelli doesn't have conventional bullpen roles. Games might be a little easier to manage if he did....
  7. mnfireman
    It's Now or Never for Rocco Baldelli No it's not...
  8. mnfireman
    Reading the game summary from MLB.com it appears the Twins only took the extra base on a base hit once, Larnach scored from second on a single. It appeared to me that the base hits were hard hit, but right at the fielders, which did not allow for the runners to advance. With a little luck some of those will find the gaps or the corners and get the wheels in motion on the base paths.
  9. mnfireman
    Insight like this is what keeps me coming back to TD....
  10. mnfireman
    On second thought, maybe Rocco was just checking all the egos in the rotation. Ryan (2022), Mahle (2022), Maeda (2021), and Gray (2020) have all made opening day starts. He didn't want Lopez feeling left out.... If you can't tell, I am only kidding....
  11. mnfireman
    Well, following the logic on this site, the guy you get when you trade a reigning batting champion and silver slugger award winner must be an ace (if a pitcher) or a guy you plug into the middle of your batting order. Ergo, Lopez becomes the ace and opening day starter. Seriously, though, who starts the teams opening game is not a big deal. Remember, Vance Worley and Ricky Nolasco were opening day starters in 2013 & 2014.
  12. mnfireman
    Last year with Boston Vazquez started 73/103 games behind the plate, then with Houston it fell to 23/58, so he is fully capable of starting 2/3 or 3/4 of the games behind the plate. And he is also capable of providing above average offense.
  13. mnfireman
    Ober was destined for AAA the day the team traded for Lopez. Bad early season weather may have him promoted for double-headers. Sands over Coulombe is somewhat of a head scratcher, let's hope his leash is as short as the ride is from St. Paul. Hoffman will sign with somebody on Monday, but he appears to be one of those pitchers who could implode with no notice, the team already has (at least) one of those (Pagan). The silver lining of the Kirilloff and Polanco injuries is that Larnach gets to break camp with the big league team. If Larnach starts out hot and nobody gets hurt it will be interesting to see what happens when they are ready to return. The flip side to those injuries is that Castro gets to also break camp with the big league team. If Julien starts off hot in St. Paul the pressure will be on to promote him. If he hits with the big club, it will be interesting to see what happens when Kirilloff and/or Polanco are ready to return. However, all bets are off if the injury bug rears its ugly head and the team needs to get into the not-ready-for-prime-time-players. Again.
  14. mnfireman
    IF this is the opening day line-up, I guess I'm OK with it. I don't like Buxton as the DH, and neither does he, but I would assume by making this announcement 2 weeks before opening day he can be better prepared to handle not playing defense. C - Vazquez 1B - Gallo 2B - Gordon 3B - Miranda SS - Correa LF - Larnach CF - Taylor RF - Kepler DH - Buxton Bench - Jeffers, Farmer, Solano and Castro If Julien starts hot at AAA I would expect to see him with the big club to take over the DH role, and Castro optioned (FanGraphs shows that he has an option left). The club may choose to activate Polanco though, forcing Julien to wait for the next injury. Polanco at DH is an option I can live with, but that can be discussed in a different thread...
  15. mnfireman
    Buxton suffered his 2022 knee injury on a slide against the Boston Red Sox. There was nothing abnormal about the play, but it changed the entirety of his season. You are correct, there was nothing abnormal about the play, instead of hustling out of the box he jogged to first and had to "turn on the jets", leading to the awkward slide at second that caused the knee injury. Todays players are just as much spectators as the fans in the stands.
  16. mnfireman
    Clase's contract, with options and incentives, works out to 7/$36 MM and buys out his first 2 years of FA at $13 MM each (if exercised and he reaches incentives). The math of the contract suggested is 6/$39 MM, so very close to your "around 40 plus million." If he were to get $34 MM during his controllable years, as suggested, he would be getting closer to $45-$46 MM over the 7 years, a very reasonable amount if he performs and still allows him to test FA at age 31, unless another contract/extension were to be worked out. For what its worth, Clase and Duran have the same agency representing them, so a similar contract to Clase's is a very real possibility.
  17. mnfireman
    For the days he was actually able to play, May 1 until the the end of the season, it was more like 75% starts @ C (104/140), 20% starts at DH (28/140)and 5% days off (8/140, but he pinch hit on 5 of his 8 off days). Mauer also exited early in 6 games due to the game being a blow-out. The 70/15/15 formula would work out to 113/24/24 (I know that's only 161), and Mauer missed the first 22 games of that season, so he actually only had 3 complete days off once activated. But I guess we would all be happy with about 140 games out of Buxton, so maybe this can work.
  18. mnfireman
    So now the conversation has turned from "where is the pitching pipeline" to "holy crap, the Saints rotation is loaded with more on the the way." LOL. Somedays this site cracks me up!! Seriously though, this is a good problem to have given the injury history of some of the MLB rotation.
  19. mnfireman
    Buxton has started 34 games at DH in his career, all of them last season, all of them after he injured himself on an awkward slide into 2B. Those starts at DH were part of the "plan" hatched after that injury to get his bat into the line-up semi-regularly. That plan did not work as Buxton missed time, was unavailable on his days off and eventually underwent season ending knee surgery, something that could have been done in April and had him back on the field in late July/early August. If healthy, he should start in CF, not at DH. His value is much greater when his bat AND glove are in the line-up.
  20. mnfireman
    If Buxton is healthy enough to play, he is in CF. If somebody else is starting in CF this team is in trouble.
  21. mnfireman
    Before 2022 Buxton started 0 games at DH, he doesn't improve the line-up from there. If Buxton is going to play 130 or more games, those games need to be in CF. Taylor will give value with spot starts or IL fill-in if/when Buxton (or Kepler/Gallo/Larnach) gets hurt and being able to enter as a defensive replacement late in games to give Buxton (or Kepler/Gallo/Larnach) a few innings off without hurting the teams defense. And if Gordon gets 50 starts in CF this team is in big trouble and out of contention early due to injuries and/or ineffectiveness.
  22. mnfireman
    Well there are Joe Nathan, LaTroy Hawkins, Rick Aguilera, Glen Perkins, Liam Hendriks, and Eddie Guardado as just a few Twins who failed as starters and became good relievers for many seasons. If Lopez's personal issues have been resolved and he can concentrate on baseball, I foresee good things from him this year and next.
  23. mnfireman
    Burnes publicly expressing his displeasure over the arbiters decision speaks a great deal to his personal character. While he may be unhappy over the amount, I see no reason why the Brewers would want to trade him. I also don't see him being able to force a trade either, because the Brewers would just ask for an unrealistic return (see Reynolds, Bryan and Pittsburgh). Burnes is not going anywhere soon, especially to Minnesota.
  24. mnfireman
    From Do-Hyoung Park: Falvey reaffirmed that Kenta Maeda will not have any restrictions this spring following his recovery from Tommy John surgery, and that Tyler Mahle “feels fantastic” after making some changes to his offseason programming following a visit to Driveline.
  25. mnfireman
    The biggest injury concern for me is Buxton, though having Taylor on the roster may alleviate the issue a little. Over the course of his career, the team's winning percentage is .548 in games he plays in, 89 wins per season, including 48-44, .521, last year. In games he starts, the team's winning percentage is .537 for his career, 87 wins per season, including 47-39, .546, last year. Having him in the line-up for 140+ games this year is a must for this team to succeed.
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