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jimbo92107

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Everything posted by jimbo92107

  1. jimbo92107
    Alex Wimmers, Felix Jorge, and Greg Peavy. These pitchers seem to be stepping on the gas lately. Really cool seeing Wimmers come back from all the crap he's been through. Now he's becoming a strikeout master in AA with a good K/BB ratio. September call-up? I didn't realize how good Max Kepler was getting. Talk about him always revolved around his massive potential, and now it looks like a lot of that is actually happening. How's his defense? A lot of his game sounds like Rosario's, with gap power and excellent foot speed. All those triples are intriguing. Does he steal bases, too? Der Kid is becoming Der Man!
  2. jimbo92107
    "In Wimmers’ past three starts, he has thrown 21.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He has given up just eight hits, walked seven and struck out 23. Overall, he is now 5-1 with a 4.31 ERA for the Lookouts this season." You know, Alex Wimmers isn't all that late to the party. There's still a little beer in the keg. If he keeps pitching like this, maybe Wimmers will be in the discussion for a September callup... :-)
  3. jimbo92107
    I think Rosario is a much better natural hitter than Danny Santana. The way Rosario shoots his hands forward at the ball carries the barrel in a longer sweep through the zone, where Santana snaps his bat in a more circular path. I predict that Rosario will generally hit well, regardless of whether he strikes out too much at the moment. He looks like a very reliable ballplayer. Soon we'll be calling him "Steady Eddie."
  4. jimbo92107
    Eddie Rosario really looks like a baseball player, and I love it. Reminds me a lot of Brian Dozier, but even more natural, more complete right out of the gate. We'd all heard about his excellent hitting; Molitor talked about his great hands at the plate, but I'm seeing a natural game in every facet of his play. The guy moves like he's played all his life, making quick reads in the outfield that other guys seem to take years to develop. Rosario today reminds me of a cross between Cesar Tovar and Rod Carew. Hands like Carew at the plate, and baseball instincts like Tovar, who could play all nine positions. I get the same feeling about Rosario, that he'd do okay anywhere you put him on the field. Can we keep him?
  5. jimbo92107
    Now we are seeing the problem with having a team full of really young players. When things go wrong, they snowball out of control. Wild throw from the catcher allows Vargas to score from third. If he takes his time, he still gets the out at second.
  6. jimbo92107
    In a possibly related story, every minor league player in the Twins system has simultaneously been called up to the majors and added to the 40-man roster. ;-)
  7. jimbo92107
    I know exactly what Byron Buxton needs to do at the plate. Before each at-bat, flip a penny. Heads: Sit on the fastball. Tails: Sit on that pitcher's best secondary pitch. The best that an opposing pitcher can do at that point is to get lucky with what he thinks Buxton is sitting on. The very first pitcher Buxton faced refused to give him a fastball. Buxton, hoping against hope for just one heater, flailed. At this point, pitchers are setting up his expectations from one at-bat to the next. One way to confound their schemes is to randomize what Buxton is looking for. Then, at least for a couple pitches, it's even. After awhile, the coin flip could just count for the first pitch, and by that time, it won't matter anymore.
  8. jimbo92107
    I guess AAA for Walker does sound about right. His plate discipline definitely needs work, so the next higher level would give him more of a taste of what kind of pitching he'd see in the show. The Twins outfield is turning into a logjam right now, anyway. Rosario stays, Buxton probably stays, and Hicks will stay when he comes back. Arcia might rebound, and Robinson is still a good forth guy with his glove, plus some offensive production. Hunter stays for this season, but I assume he won't be back next year with all the young guys up.
  9. jimbo92107
    Actually, Nunez is already batting .267 with some pop, and he looked pretty slick at SS today. Short is an issue, but with Esco and Nunez, there's really no rush.
  10. jimbo92107
    Too bad. I kinda like Schafer, but he just wasn't much of a hitter.
  11. jimbo92107
    Phil Hughes admits as much: He's lost a couple of key mph off his fastball. Pitching coach Neil Allen has called it "dead arm" syndrome, and there's not much a pitcher can do about it except keep working out and hope it goes away. Problem is, the Twins can't afford to waste starts on a guy with a dead arm. The answer could be relatively simple. When Ervin Santana arrives, put Hughes into the bullpen. A month or more without the constant wear and tear of starting might help Hughes get his heater back, and if the Twins actually make the playoffs, Hughes could be relatively fresh when Santana resumes his playoff suspension. What do y'all think?
  12. jimbo92107
    The Twins don't have anybody else right now that plays 3rd base as well as Plouffe, although Escobar and Nunez aren't chopped liver. If Sano comes up, I predict Plouffe will stay at third base at least 4 games out of five, with Sano DH'ing, working with Glynn on his footwork, and trying his hand at 3rd maybe one day of five, or maybe just one in ten. I also see Sano playing 1st eventually, but not until after at least a month of reps with the trainers. Outfield...eh, not so much.
  13. jimbo92107
    Vargas even tied my average well-hit 1 wood: about 150 yards!
  14. jimbo92107
    Apparently, when you stick a fork in a Twins player, he soon exhibits a burst of amazing play. Stick a fork in this whole team!!!! And Vargas swin' like a girl!!
  15. jimbo92107
    Ghaaaa! I just watched Kennys Vargas hit into two inning-ending double plays, the last one with runners on 1st and 3rd, Twins behind 1-0 in the bottom of the 7th. Just a bit frustrating...grrr... For some reason Vargas has been swinging like a slap singles hitter, mostly topping the ball for easy infield outs. Why oh why? This team needs a tater masher, not a ball topper. I don't know where Vargas got the idea to start swinging the bat like a high-average slap hitter. He's a 260-pound behemoth who needs to hit baseballs like I hit a good one-wood: about 150 yards. If Vargas does not improve his production markedly over the next couple weeks, I see no reason not to replace him at DH with Miguel Sano. I say the countdown is on. Update: Of course Vargas then proceeded to hit the game-winning home run in the ninth inning. Is that all I had to do to get this kid to hit? I'll predict doom and gloom for Vargas all season, if that's what it takes!
  16. jimbo92107
    I just watched Kennys Vargas hit a weak ground ball to second for a double play. He's swinging like a guy bound for AAA again. A couple more weeks of this, and Sano could get the call.
  17. jimbo92107
    As long as there's a pronounced difference in the rules between the AL and NL, these periodic match ups will be entertaining, tho sometimes rather embarrassing for AL pitchers. I liked Trevor May's summary of it, where he said getting guys out was his job, but hitting could be like a hobby. Nothing wrong with taking some swings in the old batting cage, just to keep short to the ball. Might come in handy!
  18. jimbo92107
    Twinssouth, what a great write-up. You really brought the game alive with your descriptions, and I didn't know Max Kepler was that good. How does he look in the outfield? How's his arm? It's gonna be really hard to crack the lineup in Minnesota with Buxton, Rosario, Hicks and Hunter up there right now, tho I suppose things will open up some in September. Too bad about Sano's struggles, if they continue. Call-up talk about him centers around the DH role currently held by Kennys Vargas, who so far has failed to show significant production as DH. Sano theoretically would solve that problem with a few hard swings, but if he's scuffling against AA pitching, the pros would serve him up nothing but change-ups and dying duck curve balls.
  19. jimbo92107
    The model for Meyer should match the great job the Twins did managing J.R. Graham. They began by using him in low-leverage situations, then very gradually upped the ante. Now Graham is much more confident, and he's pitching great. In Graham's case it was about coming off an injury, where Meyer is still honing his mechanics to reduce walks. The same careful, gradual approach should work for Meyer, always with the proviso that they can back off and give him a break from the pressure.
  20. jimbo92107
    Armed with all the baseball knowledge and wisdom gleaned from this thread alone, I would predict that Miguel Sano will be called up within seven days. Make it so, Mr. Ryan! In a booming voice: Release the Sano!
  21. jimbo92107
    To be fair to Kennys Vargas, I'd give him two more weeks to start showing some power. After that, I'd send him back down to AAA and replace him at DH with Miguel Sano. Work out Sano with Gene Glynn just like Glynn worked with Danny Santana, then gradually get him time at 3rd, with Plouffe either DH or spelling Mauer at 1B. The book isn't written on any of this stuff. Sano might completely flop. Vargas might catch fire. Baseball is all about producing on the field, with a big crowd yelling and against the world's best opponents. Similarly, the book isn't written on Joe Mauer's attempts to become a power hitter, or on Danny Santana's comeback, or on Jorge Polanco's attempt to take over the SS job. This is what makes it fun to watch.
  22. jimbo92107
    Consider this: All big power hitters take a pronounced stride forward into the ball. Joe Mauer does not. Keeping your weight back is a great way to wait on a pitch and slice it to the opposite field, but it's not how you pound balls over the fence. For Mauer to become a power hitter, he'll have to learn to stride forward and shift his weight into the pitch and meet it in front of the plate. It's not just a matter of turning on inside pitches; the barrel needs to have some carry through the forward part of the zone, or your bat head will come around too soon and top the ball to the second baseman. Keeping your weight back and pulling the ball with power is almost impossible. Even Joe Mauer can't do it.
  23. jimbo92107
    "Agents soon found that the Astros’ network had been entered from a computer at a home that some Cardinals officials had lived in. The agents then turned their attention to the team’s front office." They stole passwords, hacked into the Astros database, but didn't know enough to mask their own IP address? So unprofessional, in so many ways.
  24. jimbo92107
    Very good point, I hadn't thought of that. Vargas may be a switch hitter with a bit higher average, but his power numbers are nothing compared to Sano's. As a DH, you could have Sano hit forth right away, and work in his off time with Gene Glynn on fielding. Then gradually get him some time at 3rd or 1st base.
  25. jimbo92107
    Sano knows what he needs to do: Bash a bunch of home runs, and play good 3rd base. Do that for a month, and wait for that plane ticket... ;-)
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