jimbo92107

Chase Petty. Who?? A high school pitcher. There must have been half a dozen of us that specifically told them not to pick a high school pitcher. Not just because of recent draft flubs, but because it takes up to five years to coach up and get guys like this ready for the show.

Polanco puts a charge into it from both sides of the plate. Impressive.

Keep drafting big college pitchers, athletic infielders, and guys that can really hit.

Best part of the Twins season so far is Jim Kaat coming back to announce some games. Any chance he sticks around for a while? Actually, there are a few little twinkles in the darkness of this season. Baily Ober looks legit, and Griffen Jax might be a pitcher. Seems like a long time ago, but Kirilloff and Larnach both are rookies, and Arraez is just in his what, second full year? Might even be some spark from the right side of the plate if the team brings up Jose Miranda soon. Meanwhile, I do hope they deal Donaldson to the Mets. He belongs on a competing team. Sano just belongs elsewhere. He seems hopeless on this team. Deal Simmons, too. Don't waste him here. Stick Gordon at SS, then put Celestino in CF. Tell him not to dive for balls the rest of the season. Play like Larnach, like your bat is more important than saving a few fly balls from hitting the ground.

Trade him and call up Miranda. At this point, why not? Meanwhile, the Mets get a possible key to playoff wins, and us fans get to see another young prospect that looks like a future star. Bring up the kids, Twins. It's the only thing that will keep the fans interested.

On the other hand, I don't know if Ortiz ever had slumps the way Sano has. Big Dave didn't whiff so damn much. Could be Sano needs to go somewhere else to finish his education as a hitter. Twins coaches don't seem to have the answer. Meanwhile, Kirilloff is every bit as good at 1st base, is a supreme hard contact hitter, and when another great batsman Jose Miranda arrives, Sano's lame bat will look even less valuable. Fact is, you put your best hitters in the starting nine, and hope they can field decently well. Miguel Sano no longer qualifies as one of the team's best hitters - not if he gets hot only a few days per month. Sadly, I think it's time to move on from Sano. Where he winds up doesn't really matter.

Oh, I dunno... I suppose the Red Sox might take a flier on Sano.

A lot of Twins fans mention Rod Carew when they see Arraez, but I'm going to stick with my Tony Gwynn comp. His stout body and thick forearms are made for driving balls to the gaps, and sometimes over the fence. What we saw today should be what we see for most of his career. Line drives to the gaps, driving in tons of runs.

Well, one thing should be obvious to us all by now: Matt Shoemaker should be our closer! Also, Baily Ober looks like he's going to be a pretty good starter. Also, a few guys are starting to hit.

The best part about this losing season is that the FO is practically forced to try out some of the promising arms in AAA, like Duran and Blaze. Trying out Ober was the safest move, as he's known for excellent control. But now, with the veterans either breaking down or getting hammered, why not let a couple promising prospects come up and see what The Show looks like. Granted, the next round of call-ups may flop and scuffle like a skit from The Three Stooges, but that's what rookies do. Ask Celestino! Rookie goof-ups are a rite of passage. Before the rites are written for this blown season, let's see some of the kids come up and show us a flash or two what they've got in store. I wanna see a Duran heater at 100 mph, even if it does hit the top of the backstop. I wanna see Balazovic's wicked curve, even if he bounces it ten feet in front of the plate. If they throw 'em for strikes, all the better. Let them see that even their best pitches can fly half a mile in the other direction, if they don't mask their delivery. Early June, and we're already playing Future Ball. Yikes!

Good thing about Ober is that his stuff is naturally different, coming from that higher release point. Also, he can make adjustments easier than some others because of his ability/willingness to throw strikes with each pitch. Some Twins pitchers seem to go through spells where they can't find the zone at all. I have not yet seen Ober go through one of those spells. Big props just for that.

Sad when the highlight of the game was El Cherubo befuddling the opposition with his 43 mph nothing ball. Actually, there was a better highlight. Congratulations to Nick Gordon's solid 3 of 4 hitting, including his first mlb home run. Sometimes a dream does come true. Good for you, Nick Gordon.

Celestino seemed to have a knack for reading hits in CF, plus the speed to go get them. His bat looked promising, too. I have no problem letting him fill in for Buxton. I seem to recall Celestino also had good base stealing skills. Worth watching!

Agree with insagt1. Resnyder is better than Cave, and working his way towards being better than Kepler, if for no other reason than durability. Of course, all this is still a small sample size. The other thing I like about Refsnyder is hustle, which should count as the sixth tool. A guy that displays all-out hustle can help bring it out of the rest of a team, which can be the difference between winning and losing.

Rob Refsnyder's story shows how hard it is to hit consistently against good pitchers. It has taken years for Refsnyder to find an approach that works, and now the next test is to see if he can maintain the same approach as pitchers try everything in their power to disrupt it. Meanwhile, Refsnyder came to the right team to learn about power hitting. With successful examples like Cruz, Sano and Garver to watch, it's little wonder he has discovered what works. He sees it every day in the cages. What I see in the third frame looks a little more like Cruz and Garver. This could be very fun to watch.

I had noticed earlier, but now it may be slightly more important. Rob Refsnyder's muscular bod resembles a certain iron-pumping outfielder for the Los Angeles Angels. We've been told many times that baseball accommodates many body types. It certainly makes room for the guys that exercise like crazy. It does make me wonder what took Mr. Refsnyder so long to get to the majors.

Two encouraging signs. First, Larnach's approach clearly reveals a mature plan at the plate, where Park had little idea how to cope with mlb pitchers. Second, Larnach's swing is classically beautiful, short to the ball, long through it, minimal wasted motion. Park's swing was an extreme example of what I think of as the 'Cuban style.' Bat speed created by a 360 degree helicopter of the bat, starting from over the head with the bat literally pointed at the pitcher. As Park found out, this kind of swing puts a lot of stress on the wrists, especially if your timing is not right on the mark. The result was in fact a painful, ongoing problem with Park's wrists, which of course slowed down his swing, exacerbating his inability to adjust to mlb pitchers, until he was gone after one disastrous season. Fortunately, Larnach's swing does not appear to put undo stress on his body. It was simple, quick, on balance, and his finish was relaxed. Looked like he could repeat that swing a hundred times without getting tired. Too soon to conclude much, but I see nothing standing between Larnach and a long career bashing balls over fences and playing decent outfield.

Larnach's monster shot was a revelation. Not many men can hit a baseball that far. Those that can tend to be well-known names in the baseball world...or those that soon will be.

I've been predicting Dobbs as a mid-ro horse for a while, so no surprise there. Refsnyder? Never heard of him, but you can't help notice the non-stop hustle from the 30-year old journeyman. Luke Farrell? Another whiff on the name, but maybe Wes Johnson can forge something useful from just his heater and his slider. There are no sure things in baseball except retirement, but of these three, Dobnak seems the most likely to contribute long-term. His low-90's sinker bends arm-side almost like a screwball. He commands his slider decently well, and his change gets enough misses to be a third strikeout pitch. Best of all, his delivery is not max effort, which means he can work longer and command the zone better than the all-out hurlers.

So many straws I see - a wealth of them! Let us grasp, despite the ill favor of the gods of probability. Still, prospects do tilt my gimbal. If I grasp at these straws, what of the state lottery? Is it better to wallow in despair, or don the full motley, stagger 'neath the red nose and fright wig of the fool? Spend the whole stimulus on yet another long shot, or tighten the strap that girds these humble loins? An over-large sack of rice urges optimism. There are so many ways of cooking it.

After Hernandez's home run... That reminds me: Folks, be sure to get yourself vaccinated. Just like that home run, it will be over in a blink, and practically painless.

I really hope the Twins are done experimenting with Dobnak as a reliever. Dobbs has the stuff of a long-term starter. That sidepin sinker of his at 93 mph is killer. The ball curves and dips almost like Scott Erickson's high-speed screwball, but without the damaging arm action. It would be nice to see him add a high-zone four seamer to sprinkle in if hitters start using their golf swing.

I watched Jared Walsh's "foul ball" drive. How is it that I could see the yellow mesh of the foul pole partially obscuring the ball? That's because the ball, hooking hard to the right, passed BEHIND the foul pole, then reappeared to the right of the pole before it hit the wire. Home run. Fair is fair.

Hate to say it, but Matt Taylor makes sense. Trade Berrios now, while his apparent value is rising, before something goes wrong beyond this wasted season. Get a young starting prospect of approximately equal projection. From Jose's perspective, he could be motivated. Finally he could go to a serious contender, see how that sharpens his command. Meanwhile, '21 and '22 will become testing years for Duran, Balasovic, and all the other top pitching prospects. Let them get their feet wet at the mlb level, learn what pitches go over the fence, how to make adjustments the second and third times through the order, etc. By the way, for that reason alone the Twins should hang onto at least one good veteran, like Maeda, Happ or Shoemaker, just to help the kids learn the daily habits of a professional pitcher. At the same time, if we're talking about unloading players that won't be around for the next championship run... Trade Kepler, and maybe Sano. Again, it's not because they're not good enough, but because they'll become free agents that the team can't compete for, and because of the logjam of young players coming up. Donaldson and Simmons are short-term rentals. Unload them both at the end of this season, then bring up the kids. If your team isn't making the playoffs, then you should be constantly experimenting with fresh faces. Keep the revolving door between the minors and the club as open as the rules allow. That way, at least us long-suffering fans will feel like the organization is looking for ways to win.

I'm not saying that a non-standard pitching motion can't work. Check out Walter Johnson's arm action - just a tall, lanky kid skipping stones on a lake. Pitched a couple decades with no arm problems, and an ERA of about 2. But Johnson's motion was liquid smooth, where Cantarino's is jerky and abrupt. A closer comp might be somebody like Bartolo Colon, whose motion looked a lot like a catcher's throw, behind the ear to a snap. But it was a simple motion, where Cantarino's is much more complicated. That said, I could be wrong, I'm no pro coach. He does do an abbreviated drop and drive with his legs. My concern is with the timing, what that energy does to his command and his upper body if it's off by just a bit. As you said, we shall see.