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Platoon

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Everything posted by Platoon

  1. Platoon
    Totally concur! In the context of baseball this was stupid! The fact that he didn't catch the ball before he hit the wall is a moot point. While this ball was sort of a straight on run to the fence, some of his other collisions are the result of not rounding off his route on the way back so he runs parallel to the fence. He can be a great player, but as Bud Grant often reminded us you can't be a great player unless you can stay on the field. Buxtons value is greatly enhanced by his speed. That attribute will be the first to go if he tears up a knee senselessly. And this one was senseless.
  2. Platoon
    I think it's very difficult to determine whether Rogers will end up being overused. Brock noted he was somewhat over burdened early in the year, but not recently. That could be due to the difference in game margins. Lately it's been blowout city, I coulda have pitched the 9th. More disturbing to me is that Baldy has a penchant for using him when behind, or after he gets them behind. IF he is your best, you save those pitches for a later day. Will be interesting what happens now that both Hader and our version of Hader threw last night.
  3. Platoon
    2:53? Well there were 76 runs scored. I wonder if they sold beer and brats at the game? How was the "park experience"? Any statues of former greats in the Plaza? Was Sid there.? So many questions.
  4. Platoon
    It's Friday evening. I just got done watching Polanco air mail a toss over Crons head. So not everything is quite fixed. But he can hit, there is nod out about that. I am not sold on him at SS, and likely never will be. But with the proliferation of shifts, range becomes less of an issue by the week.
  5. Platoon
    The amount of HR's the Twins are hitting seems almost bizarre. Some players are approaching career highs, in the first quarter of the season. It's going to need to continue if they want to cover up for the pitching. The FO office seems to have been able to make some good finds on the offensive side, hopefully they can duplicate that on the mound. As for Royce: I watched some video of him at SS, seems very impressive. Good arm, and athletic. While it may have not been an intent to "show up" the other team, doing push-ups on the bag at second base isn't a good idea in any league. Disrespectful is disrespectful, anywhere. This isn't about the unwritten rules in baseball. You do anything that sophmoric in any sport, the other team will retaliate. Baseballs way is just more visible.
  6. Platoon
    It's like they are taking batting practice. . I see Rocco has a little TK in him. I know Berrios pitch count was high, but removing a starter who is underperforming given the situation at 4 2/3 innings to deprive him one in the win column was one of TK's motivational tools.
  7. Platoon
    I am not an analytical savant! (I know, a shock to some of you) So, when analyzing the defensive contributions of, say, a SS, how does the fact that he is already deep in the hole during a shift, affect the analysis of his ability to go deep into the hole and make a play? Is it analyzed by the amount of feet he travels from start to gloving the ball? Or is it the slot the ball is hit into? It just seems to me that either way, any positive, or negative, aspects of range that the SS displays is muted by the restricted lack of open range. If the club sends the 3B to the right of second on a left handed shift, then his range comes into play moreso.
  8. Platoon
    Some notes. To me Polanco is a second baseman playing SS. With the shifting the import of defense at that position has been diminished, and the hitting aspect becomes even more important. You can't compare today's shortstops to those of ten years ago, defensively. Even I have the range to play the position with three guys spaced in 90'. I have always liked Polanco as a hitter, and think he will only get better. But to compare him to Sir Rodney at this stage for his career seems a little premature. Rod Carew was one of the best hitters in the history of MLB. I don't think Polanco even has a batting title tacked to his name yet?
  9. Platoon
    This. Offense feasts against average pitching. You don't get those chances in 5 or 7 games series as often. You may roll into Houston or New York and miss a one or two level starter in the regular season. That won't happen in October. The pitching match ups will often be head to head. In tight playoff baseball, offense is the least important arrow in you quiver.
  10. Platoon
    Maybe we are confusing catching and hitting. Garver could always hit, it's whats kept him in the game. He is still a sub standard receiver, blocking the low ball is still a mystery to him. The good news that no one steals anymore, so throw out rates are passe.
  11. Platoon
    I keep getting confused. Those of us in the back of the room have been wondering for a long time what working the count does for a hitter? One passes on a dead red FB, to swing at a 2-2 slider off the plate? "In every AB you are going to get one pitch to hit, you better hit it" has been around for a long time. There's a reason for that. There's also a reason for pitchers wanting to get ahead in the count, hitters averages drop dramatically late in a negative count. Pitchers and hitters work at diametric opposites. What's good for one is bad for the other. And both adjust to realities. If Twins hitters continue to "ambush" early fastballs they will likely get the Dozier treatment. Early off speed stuff in the zone. It's a constant battle. As for the GB rate? That's pretty hard to maintain in this HR, SO, high pitches in the zone style of play we see today. The constant shifts and emphasis on launch angles somewhat precludes the ground ball.
  12. Platoon
    The Twins are running on all cylinders right now, and seem to be unstoppable. The SP is above reasonable expectations, the core relievers are at least acceptable, and the hitters are producing. And Sano waits in the wings, or Florida? Hopefully the FO will not rest on its laurels and keep tweaking. If I have a concern it's regression. For this ride to continue there would have to be some other worldly numbers put up. At a fifth of the schedule, this means Rosario with 60 HR's? Garver hitting mid .300's with 35 HR's? Buxton with 70 doubles might have a chance. There is definitely room for Cruz to up his game though Polanco seems the most likely to be able to hold his current level with the stick. I do think the Twins win the division, but 92 games is quite a few. Clevleand just plain has suffered too many lost players to be a threat.
  13. Platoon
    So when La Tortugas returns someone leaves? Cave? Andrianza? Then Sano returns? Someone leaves? Cave? Andrainza? (Sp) I can see Cave leaving, but I can't see them letting their backup SS go, unless they truly believe Marwin can play SS for a day. I can't believe they go down to 12 pitchers. What I fear but don't want is that Astudillo ends up the odd man out. I think it will come down to the choice between two utility players, Marwin and The Turtle. If that's the case, this FO will not dump their off season signee.
  14. Platoon
    In order of preference, I follow a game on 1) TiVo. 2) live tv. 3) Radio. Sunday was my first extended radio listening of the year. So glad to see Dan Gladden has not lost it. From his exuberant "got him" on a 3-1 pitch, to his declaring Tauchman "overmatched" in the beginning of his home run AB, he quickly reminded me of why when I listen to the Twins on radio I take CCO's advice and "turn down the sound"
  15. Platoon
    The most impactful story I saw here this week was the one Chief passed along about pitcher Rich Hill and his family. It's a stark reminder that players are people, not just a bunch of statistics in a uniform. That's not always easy to remember. As for "baseball" itself, I like Toms game write ups and Ted's posts on team topics. One other thought. GT are back, and the numbers seem decent. But I miss the old GT's. The ones where if you commented on the game, or used math, you were soundly castigated! For those who didn't attend in that long bygone era, there were some extremely intelligent and very humorous comments made pertaining to almost anything. Except baseball.
  16. Platoon
    I sort of thought the umpires lost interest when neither team could catch a fly ball, field a ground ball, block a ball in the dirt, throw a ball 60' to 1B or decided to run into an out at the plate by 15'. Or maybe they fell asleep during the 16 consecutive outs the Twins made. While the umpires didn't have a good game, nothing they could have done would have changed the outcome. The teams made sure of that.
  17. Platoon
    If Glunn turns you down you can stay here. Of course I am assuming you have an as yet WS that is not spoken for?
  18. Platoon
    A few years ago during the offseason the Twins were dangling Dozier to the Dodgers, I commented that I would let Dozier go for less than others thought. My rationale was that the Twins should move Polanco to second and find a "glove" to play SS until Lewis or Javier is ready. I opined that Polanco would turn into a much better hitter than Dozier. It wasn't one of the most popular post I ever made. But Polanco just always seemed like hitting wasn't really a problem, that you just do it. A very calm approach. And while he probably won't hit 40 HR's like BD did, he also won't spend 162 games trying to do so!
  19. Platoon
    I doubt that. Falvine signed Gonsalves as his super utility player to have Rocco sit him and play his 3rd? string catcher ahead of him this early in the season. Not that I would object, but don't think for a minute that Rocco is in total command of the lineup. That form of front office/dugout collaboration seems to be becoming more prevelant as baseball "evolves".
  20. Platoon
    Neither could Falvey I am sure. But the guy writing the checks didn't seem concerned. .
  21. Platoon
    A couple general thoughts. First of which is Buxton is not your typical 9 hole hitter. He is there, and rightfully so to correct the mistakes made when he came out of ST and was stuck in the 3 hole. To say he didn't respond well is an understatement. I won't argue with the "lineup order means nothing crowd", but I will argue that the number on the spot that a batter hits in, matters to that player. It causes expectations. For example, we didn't sign Cruz to hit leadoff or 9. Why? Becasue middle of the order hitters are "expected" to provide power and production. Cruz knows this, Buxton would assume this, and Dozier would have struggled to attain this. I likely wouldn't have agreed with Molitor on what day of the week Easter Sunday was on, but I did agree with his sticking with Dozier leading off. BD was an ambush fastball hitter. You don't see many of those in high leverage situations, you see double play low breaking stuff often, nothing to lift. As for Buxton, leave him be. Let his confidence and pitch selection mature. There is lots of time to move him. This lineup will have plenty dry days to do that. One last thought. IMHO, trying to move hot and cold guys around in an order in a long season is sort of like buying stocks when they are high, and selling them when they are going down. Your always chasing your tail. If a player has a history of producing, and there is no external rationale, then to quote an old saw, "dance with the one who brung you"!
  22. Platoon
    I can easily wait til the Twins play crappy division play day after day...... Nothing is less exciting than watching a 16-3 baseball game against what appears to be a AA team. Yawn!
  23. Platoon
    I had no idea Game of Thrones was still on? I quit watching when they cut off Ned Starks head. Oh well. I sort of lost interest in Sci Fi Super Heroes once I noticed that Superman looked an awful lot like Clark Kent did. The glasses confused me for awhile, but once I got HD tv, I saw through the ruse.
  24. Platoon
    IIRC a couple years ago Rosario trotted over to third in a similar situation and was henceforth and forthwith dispatched to Rochester the next day. Luckily for the Toronto guy they don't have a team in Rochester, so he's safe for now. Shifts are all well and good if hitters refuse to go against them. But runners on base should limit your options to shift. Someone has to cover third, or second in those situations. It leaves the impression that either the players are poorly placed by one of the 12 coaches in the dugout, or else they have consciously decide to play only the batted ball? If you believe in stats, and the stats say that someone hits GB's to that spot 64% of the time, you have to remember that he hits GB's somewhere else 36% of the time. I think shifts work. Whether they make for a more interesting baseball game would be up to debate.
  25. Platoon
    So using this formula: Astudillo started pro ball at 16? Garver after or during college, let's generously say 21? Meaning that Garver has until age 33 to develop as a catcher to the level Astudillo is now? What was Garver doing after classes in college?
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