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Platoon

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Everything posted by Platoon

  1. If Sano is a guess hitter, then he is the worst guess hitter of all time. Anyone else want to guess what the 1-2 pitch will be from a RH? The bottom line may be all he wants to do is hit HR’s? He shows no inclination to going the other way. But, I am I’m pressed by his ability to get his SO rate into the 30’s! Bottom line, is that nothing will convince me that a player striking out 30-40% and plays mediocre defense is helping you win ball games. Which lest we forget is the whole theory in any sport.
  2. Skating without sticks every 4 minutes would be silly! Without a stick what would the players use to hit each other? Better idea is have removable blades on the sticks, making the hitting of the puck more like a pitchers BA? And to make the comparison of the two sports even more realistic, how about one player skates with only one skate and one tennis shoe? Making him similar to a pitchers base running abilities? I still like the strategies of working around the pitching/hitter decisions. Plus, remember pitchers don’t hit 4 times a game. Maybe twice, the rest are PH for.
  3. I have nothing against the Nelson Cruz’s of the world, but I would get away from the DH if I had the choice. One reason alone is it opens up the game to more discussion over managers decisions with the moves a non DH game requires.
  4. TiVo! Flip through the game. 3/4 of the time you can FF to the inevitable 2-2 count and pick up the action. I just can’t sit and watch a 3:30 game live anymore. Since the vaccine I have also rekindled my interest in amateur ball. Legion, VFW, and some town ball. Needless to say the quality isn’t the same, but there is 3 times the action. Btw, sometimes in Legion ball the outfielders actually hit a cutoff man!
  5. The Twins seem to lean heavily on offense as a basis for their roster. Whether that’s for financial reasons or in house theory is hard to say. But, pitching is extremely expensive, for a reason. I think 2019 was the outlier, everyone had career years. 2020 was such a fluke year how would one know. We spent the entire season playing in a very weak division. This year the injuries did pile up. The roster decisions did not pan out. And a significant group of players are not having career years. But the sad fact is that it appears this present group which was to lead us from the wilderness isn’t ever going to. Some just may not be that good, Kepler. Some can’t stay on the field, Buxton. Some just can’t be figured out, Sano. Then there are those who can hit, but whose defense deeply cuts into their effectiveness, Garver and Polanco. On the pitching side, the starters are "analytically" held to short starts. So the game can be turned over to a bullpen which couldn’t hold a chihuahua, not to speak of a bull. Sooner or later the Twins organization will find out you need pitching to win. Frankly I think they know that, but for whatever reason won’t expend the resources to make it happen.
  6. Not to be a Sano apologist whatsoever but the Twins still ended up with the same situation, man on second two outs, IIRC? The Turtle kept running to second, good base running. This doesn’t negate Sano’s grade school base running though. The other team inexplicably ran Sano to the forward base, not the back one. Basically something taught to infielders in Jr. high school. I had to check to see whether it was Detroit or the Twins who committed that bungling mistake?
  7. I agree with your post, but not with Pohlad. He can use whatever name he wants for next season, but trust that any use of any word will be solely based on season tickets sales perception, not reality.
  8. I would not know if JP has put out a salary cap or not. Nor would I know if Bill Smith had one? I wonder if Bill Smith knew? ???
  9. I believe that Buxton is everything everyone says he is. And I believed it when he was struggling in the past. He is one of the players in the game that changes a team when he is on the field. I don’t believe the assertion that his injury history gives the Twins a chance to sign him on the cheap valid. I doubt a player of Buxtons age, or ability, looks at himself as vulnerable to age or injury. Despite recent history. I get the uninformed perception that he doesn’t want to stay here. Only he, and people far closer to the situation know if that’s true. If it is, money won’t do it. After that I agree with wsnydes. If you don’t think you can sign him, trade him. Get the best deal out there. Do not keep him through 2022 and maybe get a comp pick. That would simply add to the loss.
  10. I am not sure what these stats refer to? You mentioned stats for passed balls in your first paragraph. Btw, neither of the pitches I referenced were passed balls. They were definitely wild pitches, which he didn’t block. While he’s generally bad at that task, he’s particularly bad to his right. I will say this about both him and most MLB catchers, MLB coaches and their FO types are not doing their catchers or pitchers any favors by making the one kneed thing so universal. The idea that a "stolen" low strike is more valuable than moving up two runners in that situation isn’t very sound. Possibly with a solid base and level footing he knocks one of those down, changing both the situation and the pitch selection? Who knows. Every play changes a game!
  11. I think that’s one of the frequently missed parts of the Twins conundrum. 2019 hangs over this team like it’s the norm for this group. It’s not. As noted above so many players had big years. Also, the FO tossed out a bat first lineup all over the field on a year when MLB decided golf balls made for good baseball(s). If you want to treat this year as an outlier, then you better be ready to treat 2019 as one also.
  12. Garver has become predictable. He will hit the long ball. And then not block the low ball. One could say neither missed block made a difference. Or one could say that the second one virtually guaranteed a tie game. Not to overly defend Berrios, but no pitcher can have confidence really working the ball low with the tying run on third with that kind of defense behind the plate. We traded a glove first catcher for a bat first catcher. We giveth and we taketh away.
  13. Brock wanted to move him somewhere for salary relief. I offered the option of the witness protection program, in neither of these instances would have the amount of runs he gave up today made any difference. ?? But I do agree, if he had given up one run we still woulda lost.
  14. Maybe a better move would be to the witness protection program. He could disguise himself as a MLB pitcher. Not a soul would recognize him.
  15. I realize this is a Twins site, but lost in the gloom is a good baseball play, just not by the Twins. Schoop running all the way, not dogging it, on a game endiing ball with an expected .000 hit possibility. Good baseball.
  16. The Twins canning afford to miss out on playing Detroit. We need to clean up on teams that are worse than we are! WHAT? We are behind Detroit in the standings? How can that be?
  17. Only the front office has a feel for whether they can actually re-sign Berrios, Rogers, and Buxton. As for what JP said about the topic, that and $8 gets you a Big Mac meal deal. What else was he going to say? I don’t think this is about whether the team should keep them, it’s about whether it can. If they will return, and JP will cough up the cash for them, sure keep them. If not, then it’s a no brainer to move them for something worthwhile while they are at their most valuable. And remember, this isn’t as simple as one of them. If for example Berrios and Buxton aren’t going to re-up, then Rogers value you to us is limited.
  18. So the real question may be HOW can an organization miss out on this staple of baseball importance for basically the entire franchises history? It seems that they have always been heavy on bat first players, especially corner guys. There seems, over the years, to be a dearth of two things. High level pitching, and shortstops that this outfit has developed. Dare I use the M word? Money. High level pitching costs a lot. An awful lot. I won’t get into the woulda shoulda, but all pitchers aren’t home grown on the velocity lists. And the acquired ones likely were out of our price range. Add the fact that some won’t play in a town where the bright lights don’t shine. Lastly, in the past it seeems to be when given a choice between drafting a high velocity pitcher and a hitter of relative potential, the team has opted for the bat. But maybe that’s just my perception?
  19. Another 4 games after the AS break and the Twins should be able to pass the pesky Tigers and take over sole possession of the always competitive Central Division. Watching the two bullpens reminded me of a quote from the venerable sage Denny Green which could have been uttered by either manager. To paraphrase: "They are what we thought they were, and we let them off the hook"
  20. "Strangely, Rocco Baldelli pulled him after five innings, with his pitch count at 84. He concluded his shutout with seven" In this context, wouldn’t the words "strangely" and Rocco Baldelli" be considered redundant?
  21. Whenever I see Garver play I hope he catches enough……. Baseballs. Which on some days is questionable?
  22. I used to golf a little but gave it up for the good of the game. We never counted more than 10 strokes on any hole. What if MLB adopted that idea? You can never fall more than 10 games behind the first place team. I know there a a few kinks to be worked out, like the math and other stuff. But I am sure any business that can put out a product like MLB does, AND still get people to watch it should be able to come up with a solution.
  23. One of these teams has an opportunity to sweep the series, and make a move in the standings. But whoda thunk one of thes teams would be the Tigers. Actually it would be fitting if they split, and sank slowly into the abyss side by side!
  24. I am not disagreeing that BA/RISP is not a useful stat, it definitely is a way to define a players ability in those situations. Nor do I believe that some players hit "better" with a RISP. Normally the best ones simply stay to their normal level. Not try to overdue the opportunity. As an aside I think lost in the discussion is the fact that advanced stats may be good for the organizations running the teams, but detrimental to the normal fans discussion of the game. For example, one can argue that RBI’s are passé, and BA/RISP is the real deal. It’s a good argument. But the next refinement is BA/RISP when? When behind? When ahead by 6? And of course, late and great. I am sure there are stats that quantify everyone of those instances. But by the time you get to the bottom of them, most fans have fallen asleep, or worse than that for MLB, tuned into the. NBA finals, or reruns of Real Housewife’s of almost any city in America!
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