jimbo92107

Twins need to shut down Luke Keaschall today, so he can have surgery on his shoulder. He can't throw a baseball overhand right now. We all know what that is. Get it fixed this month, be ready to throw a baseball around spring training. He's too good a player to have a wet noodle arm.

Congratulations to E Rod. Hope he bangs a hit in his first game!

Keashall needs to work his ass off learning to optimize his play in Right Field. His arm may never get much better, but the clumsy plays on bank shots off the wall have got to stop. Jenkins...well, shoot. He's the future in Center, so just keep playing him. E-Rod should be brought up immediately. What team needs a great young outfielder more than the Twins? This Twins team isn't ready to make a serious run, but they are on the verge of opening a new window. If an when they fall out of contention, then it's time to trade Buck, Larnach and Jeffers. Let them go join serious teams. Meanwhile, it is time, once again, to see what the new kids have to offer.

Spot on analysis. Brooks Lee was a step slow at short, but fits almost perfectly at the hot corner. He's a smart ballplayer, positions himself well, and almost always makes the right play. That's the profile of a solid MLB fielder. Frankly, now that he has found a position, I would not be surprised to see Lee start rounding out his game at the plate, too. Hard to say what will happen after Houston arrives, sometime in 2027. Lee is a good fit, right where he is. You don't change that unless you really need to.

Aaaand then, Nance throws another football spin.

Ichy fish. I must cleanse myself in the waters of river lethe...

Anybody know the last time Jeffers threw out a guy stealing 2nd?

Nance now is being very sure not to throw another football spin.

The hope here is that Detroit's RP's are as bad as ours.

Whoops, Nance threw the football spin. Nice and straight.

Keashall is Dan Gladden 2.0, if he learns to play outfield better...

And yet, Culpepper has played a full rung above the rest at SS. We can wait for Houston. The middle of the field is now decently shored up. Next, get ERod up into RF, even if just for a better glove.

Emmanuel Rodriguez needs to come up now, even if it's just to stabilize a chaotic outfield. Put ERod in RF, so there are three competent gloves out there.

Many years ago, I spotted a couple of what I thought were obvious tells in Francisco Liriano's setup. He would literally line up his leed shoulder with the side of the plate he was aiming for, and he would stand there with his leed shoulder lower when he planned to throw his slider. Just knowing that, I could call his pitches about 80 percent of the time. After a while, I got tired of talking about it. If anybody paid attention, clearly is wasn't the Twins. These days, tells tend to be more subtle, but they are still detectable. Like it or not, people communicate non-verbally, all the time. We are constantly sending signals, consciously or not. I can read some guys lateral location by subtle body lean as they stand at the set. A one-inch lean is all you need. By the way, pitching from the set makes it much easier to read a pitcher. You can see if they lean, or point their shoulders, or if they have some physical tick, like tightening their jaw if the catcher is calling for a pitch the guy doesn't want to throw. If a pitcher is losing confidence in his slider, he may frown as the catcher asks for one. If a pitcher frowns and shakes off a pitch, guess which pitch he's rejecting? The one that isn't working, of course! Which pitches fail most often? As one might expect, it's usually not the fastball, the one pitch every kid figures out first. Opposing coaches will have charts on every pitcher, which includes WHEN something like a slider stops working (later in a game, when he's getting tired of that extra wrist snap). Curves and changes can go out anytime. When you see that happen, you can sit on other pitches. When you see that happen, that's when you start looking for the telltale grimace. I don't see those tells very often, becauses the camera usually is pointed at the back of the pitcher's head.

The team's outfield has been disappointing. At this point, having called up their top prospect, why hold back with another top outfielder? Bring up Emmanuel Rodgriguez.

Congratulations to Walter Jenkins. Promotion well justified. Probably too late to save the season, but that's okay. Now, there's little pressure, other than for Jenkins to show off some talent. Tally ho, young man.

The clip of Lackey gunning down an attempted steal was...revealing. Out of his hand, the ball never got more than about five feet off the ground. Pitcher bailed out of the way. His catch and release must be one of the quickest in the system, and that ball must've been going at least 90 mph. When I was a kid, in about 4th grade, our team had a catcher with a rifle arm. He could peg that ball almost flat to second, and it usually popped my glove on the first base side of the bag. Funny how memories like that stick with you, almost sixty years later, barely seeming to fade. Our team kinda sucked, but that guy was a good catcher. I hope he remembers those days with a smile.

Twins have moved on from good utility players learning to play SS at MLB level. Kaelen Culpepper is a good SS, learning to hone his game at the MLB level. Culpepper belongs at short. The other guys looked more like players trying to fill in temporarily. At the plate, same deal. KC looks like a talented young guy adapting to the next level of skill. He's doing pretty well, doesn't look overmatched at all. Same on the bases. He's not the fastest, but he doesn't look afraid to try a steal. Until Marec Houston arrives, Culpepper belongs at short. He has fixed a chemistry issue in the field, allowing other guys to explore more appropriate positions. Twins are now strong fielding up the middle. Problem solved.

To which I reply, okay. Who else ya got that's a better outfielder than Walker Jenkins? They can take a seat, or play every day, somewhere else. That does include Keashall. If his weak arm is still suffering from his recent TJ surgery, then maybe he needs time off to rehab, and maybe retool his throwing mechanics, and learn how to play balls off the wall, in AAA.

Sounds more like they're protecting the Twins from winning more games than protecting their best prospect. Look, Walker Jenkins is BETTER. At what? EVERYTHING. Put him in for Roden, and what happens? Good stuff. Better hitting, better glove, better arm, better bat, better speed. The only outfielder you don't bench for Jenkins is Buxton, and that's because you need three outfielders. Pretty simple: Thank you for your service, Alan Roden. We found a better player. Have a seat.

Rojas has just beautiful stuff, but Marquez has that veteran stability that might rub off a bit on the rest of the pitching staff.

Austin Martin is a good ballplayer, but not much power at the plate, or with his arm. That said, he's been pretty good in LF, where he covers a lot of ground. He's been learning it quicker than Keaschall, and Martin's bat has been heating up lately.

I see videos of a big facility where they teach pitchers to reach the high 90's. Can't Keaschall do something like that? He's an excellent, strong athlete with plenty of twitch. He should be able to fire a ball at least 92 mph with a running start. What I can't believe is how INNACURATE the throws are from outfielders all over the league. I see guys missing home plate by twenty feet. WTF??

Buxton to LF, Walker Jenkins to CF, Emmanuel Rodriguez (Hit: 45 | Power: 55 | Run: 55 | Arm: 60 | Field: 50 | Overall: 50) to RF. Larnach can sub in LF, or be trade bait. Also: Whatever happened to Byron Buxton's arm? He used to be able to fire a strike to home plate from medium center. Now, he just seems to loop an easy throw to the cutoff man. Did he screw up his arm?

I've been down on Sabato since the day the Twins wasted a first round draft pick on him. I still think it was a wasted pick, but I do believe in recycling, when possible.