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Platoon

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Everything posted by Platoon

  1. Platoon
    Spinach may be the answer....... I don't think it shows up on random testing like some of the other things we tried? Of course if it did, the player would say: 'How was I to know there was a leafy vegetable in the Spinach'? .
  2. Platoon
    There is truth to the injury bug being detrimental. Getting Buxton back will help the defense, simply because RG will be sitting. And if he hits even .225 it will help this offense. Sano has only missed two games, but I imagine it could be more, and eventually this year he will likely miss even more. But short of an odd HR here and there, his offense isn't missed, since there really wasn't any. Santana is the big one, and that's actually a shame to say, as he is a #3 on a good club. But his return will definitely help this team. As will Polancos offense. This really isn't that surprising. This was built either by design, or circumstance to be an offensive oriented team. Offensive teams run hot and cold, see Texas and Toronto of years past. The pitching was suspect, and the defense is what it was expected to be, mediocre IF at best, and when healthy an excellent OF, with average catching. The Twins will get hot again, and pummel some teams, but the core flaws will remain.
  3. Platoon
    Nice article. I think the defense shares some of the blame also. Not that many errors, but also nothing to speak off in the terms of sparkling defense either.
  4. Platoon
    Nothing likely would have helped the pitching, but the IF defense has been bad. Not necessarily error bad, those are hard to come by. Good play bad. Sano, nice stop couldn't find the handle. EE, 2 GB not turned into outs. Dozier, what appeared to be a nice force out at home was in reality a well hit ball just to his glove side, a wasted dive, and then a 65 mph toss home. Field the ball standing up, fire it home, and take two. I am not suggesting these plays were run of the mill simple. But making them is what contending teams do. When Buxton is in the OF, the Twins have a good defensive OF alignment, and Mauer is very good. Dozier is "ok", but you can't keep giving up outs and bases by 4 of the 8 defensive positions, and contend!
  5. Platoon
    It's the money, it's always the money!
  6. Platoon
    I had never heard the "This is how we baseball" marketing 'idea'? Does it really exist? If so, a veteran sports writer seems to think it is the cause of what ails our trusty Twins. http://www.startribune.com/twins-set-interesting-standard-for-this-is-how-we-baseball/481075601/
  7. Platoon
    Calling balls and strikes is incredibly difficult at any level. At the MLB level where corners are chewed on constantly it's even harder. And yes there may be technology that would allow balls and strikes to be called more consistently. And there is technology that would do foul calls, and I am sure even force plays without an umpire. All you need is sensors in the bags, combining it with a a laser image of the ball striking the glove. (Unless Morrison is playing first, not striking the glove). Hitting a baseball is even harder than calling the plate. So why not use technology like advanced metals for the bats to improve exit velocity with a bigger sweet spot? As for the missed calls for Twins pitchers, I wouldn't be surprised to see there were some for Yankee pitchers also? There, I am done, we now return to our regular programming.
  8. Platoon
    This is really not a good IF, with the he exception of Mauer. Dozier is ok and gets style points for diving at everything. I love EE, as a utility IF. But he is not the SS a contending team would trot out there. Sano is exactly as expected. Catches some, misses some, and has an unreal arm. But his bat is the reason he plays. That throw should have been picked though, it wasn't an in betweener. The ball Garver let get by him cost the Twins one run. The first GB to Sano the second.
  9. Platoon
    Garver is a 27 yr. old platoon catcher. So far in the limits of his playing time he hasn't hit MLB pitching very well. As a platoon 27 yr. old he will be around 30 when he gets his 1500 MLB AB's that most consider the point where a clear picture is produced. He looks like he can throw a little, but seriously I have saw nothing whatsoever of him behind the plate that indicates anything other than a very mediocre receiver. His bat is/was his calling card.
  10. Platoon
    I understand the convenience and the tchnologoy to quantify launch angles and exit velocities. It can be a teaching tool and an evaluation asset. But the concept is not! We used to call them frozen ropes, hitting the ball on a line, or even the simple "line drive"! Basically if you hit the ball on the ground you are not going to do as well. If you get under the ball and hit it too vertically someone will end up standing under it. And the harder you hit it, and the faster it gets to a given landing area, the better chance no one will interfere with its path. We didn't have the technology to delineate to the Nth degree the deviations, we just knew that guys who hit the ball harder and straighter were better hitters than those who popped up and hit two hop grounders to short!
  11. Platoon
    I am more impressed with his change in attitude in about the last year starting to spread the ball around more. His pull happy slow pitch softball approach when he originally started putting up HR numbers really isn't that impressive. Few players could have continued to play every day during his late 2015-early 2016 streak while he refined that stroke. I just wish he would take all that power and get into the middle of the order, maybe replace RG? . By all accounts he is insistent on leading off, which doesn't seem to make a lot of sense on this team.
  12. Platoon
    I slightly understand not dropping Kinley in a panic at 10:30 last night. That said, he can't stay on this roster much longer. Rosters are really short as it is in today's game. What really needs to happen is we need to get back into our comfy division and play with teams we are equal to. When the Twins go into NY, Boston, Houston, etc, they look a little like a B level American Legion team playing in an A level tournament, just so the brackets come out even! (I been dere, done dat). You may compete in a few games, but you really know that you can't win.
  13. Platoon
    Remember, it's a marathon. You will find lots of use for it.
  14. Platoon
    Curses! Foiled agin!
  15. Platoon
    Yes
  16. Platoon
    It looked like a sac bunt, it smelled like a sac bunt, and it's a great way for a scorer not to make a tough call, like the two hope GB base hit to short.
  17. Platoon
    RG has often been a puzzle to me. For this reason. Mauer knows a strike from a ball, but you still have to work the plate very carefully or he will do damage to you. RG will also take the walk, gladly! But you can expand the size of the corners to him since he isn't much of a threat even if he hits the ball. So I never understood why he got so many off the corner pitches, like they were pitching to a Mauer. Then there is this thought. If Robbie Grossman is your 3-4 hitter for two games in a row, are you really a contending team?
  18. Platoon
    Weekends like this when the entire BP sucks, there really isn't a lot a manager can do. And I am not anywhere near a Molitor fan, so I don't say that lightly. But I will say this. When you bat Robbie G. in the 3 & 4 spots, any other moves you make become open to speculation. I referred to his lineups as "dartboard" inspired in the past. That hasn't changed. I doubt he can be blamed for the Phil Hughes Experiment, that would really be spread amongst Ryan, Falvine and Pohlad. While the weather hasn't done the team any favors, there are a lot of underperformers on the field right now. A lot will have to change for us to be anymore than a contender for that coveted #2 WC spot. /(
  19. Platoon

    Too Many K's

    Platoon commented on mikelink45's blog entry in mikelink45's Blog

    Is this a percentage of all the pitches? Strikes? Or balls put in play? Thanks.
  20. Platoon

    Too Many K's

    Platoon commented on mikelink45's blog entry in mikelink45's Blog

    There is a mantra: The Game has Changed! But is it for the better. Some of the SO issue is mental, the SO has lost its stigma. Some of it is mechanical. The term 'launch angle' is another way of trying to hit a home run. Some will deny that fact, but it's true. You are changing your approach and swing, to attempt to hit a fly ball, preferably a long one. The benefits of HR production have been emphasized. Is that good or bad? The saber metrics guys are gonna have to argue that one out themselves. Working the count? Few hitters can work an AB like Mauer. Yet even he shows that when he has two strikes his BA drops drastically. Think how it drops for the common hitters in the league. Yet, in an attempt to drive an average starting pitcher out of a game, to get into someone's excellent BP, hitters continue to take get em over FB early in the count, and end up swing at someone's tempting slider off the plate on a 2-2 pitch. A good baseball minded friend of mine once told me, "you're gonna get one good pitch to hit in each AB, you better be ready for it". While it's quite possible metrics will show that more runs are scored following some of the newer takes on hitting, launch angle, deep counts, and less concern over SO and warning track FB's, SO seem to be one of the results. That and all or nothing offense. And to me, I just don't see that as good for the game.
  21. Platoon
    Some random thoughts: Grossman has a good eye(s). Which would be more useful if he could hit. He can be neutralized by simply throwing him strikes. No nibbling. He should not be allowed to possess a fielders glove. If he does have one, no one should tell Molitor. LaMarre has enough history available to know what he is. Not that good a hitter, with enough defensive ability to filed three OF positions. Reigning MOTY? First team ever to go from 100 + losses to playoffs? And how many teams have went from 83 wins to 103 losses? How many managers get a chance to survive 103 losses with the expectations that 2016 held, or even get to finish the season? I remain a firm believer that a good manager may win you a few games, but a bad manager will lose you many more. And I do not regard Molitor as a good manager. Remove his MLB player career and his St. Paul roots from his resume, and he would have been out of here two years ago, or probably not even hired in the first place.
  22. Platoon
    If one did not discuss things like this on this site, there wouldn't be much use for, or of the site. Then what would Brock do? That thought alone should motivate us, and make no topic too trivial to pursue. . As an aside, I have no angst over anyone making, or not making a HOF. But there's still a foot of snow in my backyard.
  23. Platoon
    "Mauer had been able to stay behind the plate, he could have gone down as one of the best hitting catchers of all-time." "Best hitting" is a subjective term. The ONLY catcher in the history of MLB with three batting titles is not. Nor was Mauer a bat only catcher, he was one of the best defenders in the game. And while he doesn't have the power bat one would look for at 1B, most of those guys carry a steel plate in their glove. One last point: Even at his age, and after the concussions, I would doubt a poll of MLB pitchers on who in the league they would least like to face with two out and the winning run in scoring position, would not include Mauer, very near the top.
  24. Platoon
    I speak 7 languages fluently. Unfortunately Spanish, or English, are not on that list. Anyway, in high school my oldest daughter took Spanish. One day in an attempt to color her hair she got a little too much red tint in it. The next day I called a friend who spoke Spanish, and asked for some help. That evening when my daughter came in the door I greeted her with a hearty "el rojo grande". My attempt at bi lingualism was not received well at all.
  25. Platoon
    "The Twins are the local computer". That's what the Google says. I am not sure of the significance of that as it pertains to baseball. But, the following should be helpful, whether blindfolded in Puerto Rico or not. dónde está el baño .
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