jimbo92107

Too early to call a no-hitter? Korey Kluber looks pretty good. Pretty good is good enough to no-hit this team today.

Sadly true. Joe Mauer post concussion just isn't the same hitter. Even with the occasional pop, he appears to have lost the essential quick reactions that made him a really dangerous hitter with great zone coverage. His whiff rate has skyrocketed, and he now routinely tops easy grounders to second base, making tons of easy outs and double plays. Certainly this calls for swapping Mauer with Eddie Rosario in the lineup. Eddie isn't the high-avg hitter Joe used to be, but he doesn't ground out to second with such nauseating regularity, and Eddie's got a lot more power in his bat. Aside from that change, I can't wait to see Max Kepler come up in September and have a few at-bats in Mauer's place. The transition to the future Twins must continue. Putting it off just looks more ridiculous all the time.

Days like this it's best to watch the game on TV at home. That way, your wife can't change the locks while you're away.

Woof, it's one thing for Joe Mauer to be a hole in the lineup; now, he's looking like the DDPH. Designated Double-Play Hitter. How many of these inning-killing double plays has Mauer hit into lately? Seems like a dozen or so in the last few games.

You're right, he's still got a trace of the "French Mistake" butt push on both sides, but it's gradually going away. From the left side, Hicks mainly needs to draw his front knee up and in a little more to compress the drive leg and get a bit more shoulder turn. That will generate more outward snap of the bat, which will produce more power and a wider spray pattern, with power. The stuff I'm talking about has become standard practice for teaching ball players in Cuba and other places in that area, but it comes from observing power swings dating back all the way to Babe Ruth. Players today don't launch themselves forward the way Ruth and Willie Mays did, but most of their mechanics is being taught where people care about power swings. None of the poor kids growing up in the Carribean wants to hit like Rod Carew; they want to hit like Bryce Harper or Jose Bautista. If you're a 150 lb. 16-year old shortstop that models his swing after Bautista, even without the home runs you're going to get some serious signing money from an American team.

Two things: First, we have little reason to think JO Berrios would have done much better than Tyler Duffey did against the raging bats of Toronto. Which of those two would you rather have traumatized by that experienced, Duffey or Berrios? Second, Duffey clearly was about as nervous and adrenalized as a young guy could get without having a heart attack. His disastrous debut revealed almost nothing about his future career. Despite this one instance, Duffey is not known for hurling a heaping helping of homers.

I predict that Aaron Hicks will continue to improve on both sides. He's a learner, and recently he developed a key mechanical improvement that he has incorporated into his swing from both sides. Stringer is correct that Hicks has eliminated the backward push of his butt that made him an arm swinger. Now he is learning to turn his hip into the pitch with his front leg as the pivot point, allowing his swing to carry with power through the hitting zone. Combined with his new mechanism for timing and compressing his bat angle, Hicks's new lower body power transfer has finally brought some of the power we will be seeing in the future from both sides. However, on the left side his hip action is still too tight, lacking the natural rhythm of his right side. He needs to tuck in his lead hip a little more, so it can pull his hands through, like Adrian Gonzalez does. A higher leg kick would do it, but he also needs to loosen up his hands on the finish. The good news is, repetition will gradually loosen up his lead hip and his hands from the left side. Hicks already has such a good eye at the plate; now he's adding power for when he does choose to swing.

Once again we see the strange, untapped potential of throwing the ball reallllly slow.

Ha! Robinson strikes him out with a 64mph curve!

Who thinks he's going to try a curve?

Shane Robinson's pitching debut! Finally, something to watch!!

Now they're asking Robinson. Thumbs up. Plenty of volunteers.

That was pretty funny - Molitor was clearly talking to Nunez about pitching an inning. Looked like Nunez was nodding in the affirmative. I'd rather see Escobar, if he'll do a Tiant impression... or Hicks, who can actually fog it in at mid 90's.

I'll give Dick that one: "Just like that, they're within nine." I like Eddie Rosario. Remember a couple years ago, when Rosario was neck and neck with Miguel Sano for the home run lead on their team? Where was that... Anyway, Rosario has plenty of power, but usually he tones it down to keep his average up. No need for that right now, so he uncorked a big one.

I guess Boyer prefers to pitch with the bases clear.

Is Blaine Boyer being paid by opponents of the Twins? If not, he should be.

I've got a buddy that collects junk from the alley, then "stores" it in his back yard, which of course became a junk yard. Twins management is like my buddy. It's hard as hell to get them to let go of what most people would say is junk, but which they still think might have some value, someday. Recently my buddy's landlord started complaining, and now I've helped him get most of the junk out of his yard. I try not to think about what's in his house... Getting rid of Pelfrey is going to be like that. Management is too much like my buddy. They have a tough time letting go.

The truth will be revealed in September. Assuming Max Kepler gets his cuppa, it should fairly quickly become apparent if he can hit at the mlb level, or if he needs a year in AAA to further refine his skills. If the former, then Joe Mauer's situation becomes far more precarious. Mauer either has to show some major improvement in his power numbers, or his bat will no longer sustain his major league career. Mauer might still be able to function on some team that needs a lefty bat that can play right field, but the Twins already have far better fielders out there. Twins management will eventually be cornered into this reality. They can't refuse to call guys up in September, and if they don't play the call-ups, it would seem pretty strange. Once they see improved offense from Kepler or Kennys Vargas, the writing will be on the wall. A couple years ago I wondered what Mauer's numbers would look like if he played for Boston, with the Green Monster in short left field. How many doubles would Mauer hit off that thing? Maybe Boston could play Mauer in RF, where his oppo approach might still work.

Actually, one aspect of DFA of Fryer in addition to calling up Herrmann is that it opens up a roster spot in Rochester for another catcher, like say...Stuart Turner. From what I've read, Turner would be a major defensive upgrade over what we've been seeing lately. As for his bat...eh. .273 over his last ten games in AA. Since the catcher position has been so gawd awful both offensively and defensively, we beggars cannot be too choosy. All hail Butera 2.0!

Not really. Herrmann, when played regularly, has much more pop in his bat than Fryer. Unfortunately, on his last stint he played so rarely that his skills got rusty. Apparently he's got his swing back, so maybe he'll get to catch more often this time around. Suzuki just seems worn out right now.

Age and injuries took away Joe Mauer's greatness. It wasn't that long ago, just a handful of years, that he really did look like the best player in the majors. Now, he's an afterthought relegated to first base because they don't know where else to put him. The experiment to convert Mauer into a power-hitting first baseman appears to have failed. For whatever reason he doesn't seem able to change his swing and approach to fit the position. At some point Twins management will be forced to acknowledge this truth and make a change. Mauer should also recognize this, and move aside for the good of the team's future. It really is sad, but baseball remains a game mostly for men in their 20's, and few survive beyond that. Even great ones like Joe Mauer are subject to the march of time. And now, here's a photo of puppies and kittens. http://www.allcreatureshospital.com/images/puppies_kittens_1_1.jpg

So, what exactly is Paul Molitor supposed to tell his players to win this game? Maybe if he tells Gibson to stuff a fastball in the next guy's ear...

Criticisms of Molitor's judgement seemed particularly vehement during this series. Besides being a small sample size, it fails to account for the difference in quality between the two teams. Right now Toronto is one hell of a lot better team than the Twins. You put Paul Molitor in as their manager, and I bet he'd look just fabulous. You take their manager and put him on the Twins, what would he do differently that would make that much of a difference?

There's a fine line between surprising your opponent, versus shooting yourself in the foot and saying, "Hey, I bet you didn't expect that!" On the other hand, Paul Molitor's moves against Toronto don't matter any more than my chess moves against Kasparov. The mismatch is so great that the outcome is never in doubt. With the lineups as-is, I don't think the Twins could beat the Blue Jays more than maybe 3 times out of 20. That murderer's row of their first six batters is enough to bash around any Twins pitcher, and the Twins don't have nearly enough pop in their lineup to put real pressure on Toronto's starters. Basing your evaluations of Molitor on this series is unsound. Toronto right now is my favorite to win the American League pennant, if not the Series. They look considerably better than the Yankees, the Royals or the Astros. The Twins are just the first of many teams that are about to find this out.

You can't run while straddling a picket fence. Don't even try. It is kind of confusing that the Twins neither traded for talent nor called up guys from their own system, until you realize that it probably just didn't matter. The Twins opted for the future value of patient development, judging that it's better to allow minor league players to continue without big league pressure for a little longer. Wednesday we saw what pressure can do to a young pitcher. Tyler Duffey, probably the most mlb-ready arm in the system, got hammered by the most intimidating lineup in the majors. Clearly nervous, he was yanking his fastballs, falling away on his curves, stuff that's doubtless very unusual for him. He immediately got behind hitters, walked some, and then they punished him relentlessly. Toronto has so many power hitters now, you can't pitch around anybody. In this case (big old 20-20 hindsight) it would have been far better to give Trevor May a spot start. Hopefully Duffey woke up this morning, wiped the sweat off his face and said, "What an awful dream!" Probably he won't look so bad in his next start. Earlier we saw what too much pressure did to Danny Santana. Broke the kid down emotionally, and now he's trying to pick himself up in AAA. Same thing happened to Kennys Vargas and Oswaldo Arcia. The pressure to produce broke them down, and now they're trying to build themselves back up. Both Vargas and Arcia lost the confidence to bash balls over the fence, for fear of striking out. Maybe the hardest thing in pro baseball is learning to deal with failure in a constructive way. You can make the adjustments quickly, slowly, or not at all. The flip side of that argument puts the onus on management. The Minnesota Twins have been sending mixed messages to power hitters for quite a while now. Nearly drove David Ortiz crazy, and he was glad to escape to Boston, where they told him to go ahead and bash balls over the fence, and to hell with the K's. The Twins have always worried a lot about strikeouts, which can be ruinous to the mindset of young power hitters, who need to develop an aggressive approach where the green light is almost always on. You take away that aggression, guess what else goes away? The power. This is probably why it is futile to wish for Adam Brett Walker in a Twins uniform anytime soon. The way the Twins abhor strikeouts, why would they ever consider bringing up a guy that whiffs 40 percent of the time?? Problem is, that still leaves 60 percent of the time that something dramatic happens. Most power hitters are not careful card players; their game is high stakes poker, seven card stud. They get good at reading the tells, and they pounce when they see their pitch. You can't tell these guys to back off and play more carefully. It's not their game.