jimbo92107

Sorry guys, it's blowing up. This should be an instructive lesson for pro basketball, pro football, pro hockey, etc. You just can't do pro sports during a deadly viral pandemic, no matter how hard we wish for it.

His stance seems like a mix of Mike Trout and Chili Davis. His swing is more like Trout. All field threat, this guy will indeed be a decade of bad news for opponents.

40 years old should not be considered over the hill anymore, not in baseball, anyway. Remember, on July 4th 1966, ageless wonder Jack LaLane pulled the Moon out of its orbit with his teeth. He put it back later, of course. Point is, with careful exercise and good nutrition, Cruz should be able to hit baseballs over 400 feet for the next seventy years. I plan to be there to catch them with my cybernetic implants.

I felt bad for Fauci. Didn't anybody play catch with him, even for a few minutes, before he threw that ball? Fauci when young was a very good athlete. It looked like the first time he'd thrown a ball in several decades. I guess he grew up early.

Tubthumping merely encourages in-game drinking. Luckily, I do not drive while watching TV.

Of course you could get some value for Buxton in a trade. Sure you could. But you'd be getting unproven prospects, not an MLB star. And then for the next decade we'd all get to feel once again the joy of watching David Ortiz become Big Pappy in Boston. I want Buxton to stay a Twin until there is zero chance of him becoming an established superstar. Give him his entire chance in Minnesota. Put a little extra padding on the fences. Give him better shoes. Let his star shine with the Twinkies.

Imagine having Garver and Jeffers platooning at the same time. Best hitting catcher combo in baseball, I bet.

But back to the topic; Who’s on first, then? yes. Of course. Speaking of which, we could bet...who will produce more bombs this year, the Twins or us TD comedians? Get better soon, Miguel. No really, get a lot better, soon!

Garver #4 against lefties, Kepler #4 against righties.

How do you load up a team for even more wins than last year? How do you shoe horn a lineup for even more home runs? How do you provide even more pitching depth in the starting rotation, plus provide even more talent in the pen? Damn shame the season is going to be so short. This team is LOADED. The suckiest part? Even if the Twins win it all this season, everybody else will say, "Yeah, it didn't really count." In a plague-shortened season, nobody really wins. 2020 sucks, people.

We must flatten the curve before Twins hitters get to flatten curves. Please everybody wear masks and wash your hands so I can stop using comparisons like that! Skol Twinkies!

Pat Mahomes was such a puzzler for me. When he first came up with the Twins, I thought he was going to be a big star pitcher. Looked like he had good mechanics, a decent rep of pitches... Just didn't quite refine his command, I guess. His son Patrick is a real phenom, tho I wonder how long the kid can last with that playing style. Mobile QB's tend to have short, exciting careers in the NFL. Sure has been fun to watch so far...

Was mean old Calivin Griffith any worse than the billionaire owners of these franchises today? I'm not just talking about blatant racism. I'm talking about professional sports franchises in general. Billionaire white man screws over a city to build a stadium, pays his workers table scraps, then reaps the big bucks for himself. Sound familiar? It should, because every football, baseball, hockey and basketball team is built the same way. It would be interesting to see how a worker's co-op sports team would compete against the rich owner model. The leagues would ban co-op teams, of course. Don't want the world to see how sharing the wealth is good for everybody. Meanwhile, drag away the statue of an old, long dead jerk that once owned the Twins. But let's not pretend that this solves anything.

The league is a hot mess right now, just like the rest of society. High school and college players should find the most stable situation, then stick with that for a year. By summer 2021, the country should be fully into rebuilding mode. Meanwhile, if a player like John Stankiewicz does come along and sign, the Twins should find him a sponsor household where he can live until things get better. Mow the lawn and build a pitching mound in the back yard...

Aaron "the Butcher" Sabato, eh? Imagine how good he'll be when he learns to hit for power! Right now he's holding his rear hip back until after contact. If he learns to commit that hip earlier and finish with his right foot in front of the plate, he'll add another 30 feet to his bombs. That will also spare him some lower back problems later. Looks to have Mike Trout power in that sturdy frame. Of course, he'll need to learn how to field first base. And he'll need tons of work on agility and speed. He chugs around the bases like a diesel land grader. Good pick!

Calling the MLB draft a "crap shoot" is a wild understatement. Try predicting a random number between one and 150. Even with scouting, you can't tell who is going to shine and who is going to flop after a draft. The Twins doubtless scouted Trout, and had him assessed as an athletic outfielder with not much power. How were they to know he would turn into baseball Hulk? Same with all these flop picks. Scouting will always be limited, and nobody can predict injuries. Wimmers went down from injuries. Gibson almost flopped from injuries. You just. Can't. Tell.

Taylor Rogers was reeeeally good in his bridge roll. Does he have the overwhelming stuff to be a great closer? Not quite. Hard slider, fastball. Sit on the slider, try to catch up to the heat. That's a pretty simple plan if Rogers is the closer. His heater is maybe a tick above average, so hitters will definitely sit on the slider. That could threaten to make his repertoire too limited. Contrast that with Trevor May. Hard heater, and he can pick corners with it, or learn to. Also has a hard curve, mostly a "show me" pitch to slow the bat down a bit. More like a traditional closer. Contrast that with Tyler Duffy. Used to have an extreme curve ball, mediocre heater. Now has a respectable 96 mph heater, and has dropped the curve for a hard slider. Also can pick corners with the heat, but Duffy can still surprise with his big bender now and then, and it can still be an out pitch. If Duffy can maintain his new-found velocity, then he has more tools than May to be a closer. I would certainly want to test that out.

Brent Rooker's wrist action reminds me of Eddie Rosario's. He keeps the bat head cocked until the last instant, and then it snaps around like a mousetrap. For that reason, the collision of bat and ball makes a sharp "bang" sound that signals ideal transfer of power from the body to the ball. That passes the ear check, and you can see the ball explode off his bat. No idea if Rooker's defense will be much good, but he's going to hit some baseballs into the second and third decks.

Maybe every team's taxi squad can play each other in Arizona. A few games a week, not too strenuous, no crowds...

Putting a knee down will help keep Garver's legs fairly healthy, while his approach at the plate will keep his bat explosive. I expect the Twins to platoon Garver with somebody like Ryan Jeffers to keep both men relatively fresh. The days of one guy catching 90 percent of games is over, especially if their bat is their ticket. I do expect to see Garver hit 40 or more homers in a season. Simple, powerful swing, quick to the ball, long through it. He might even become another Nelson Cruz as a DH.

Yeah, but by the time Mauer was moved to first base, most of his foot speed was gone, and his recovery from concussion was iffy, and never really complete. I just hope Mauer doesn't suffer later in life from those concussions. Speaking of Mauer's arm, does anybody remember if Mauer ever uncorked a truly wild and goofy throw? All I remember is an arm-cannon that shot straight and true. Maybe not quite the mph of Sano, but straight as an arrow and right on target.

Imagine if they'd kept Pierzynski, moved Mauer to right field, and built a team around that core. Even without Nathan and Liriano, the Twins would have been fun to watch. Mauer's good legs, rocket arm, and no concussions. His bat, healthy, for fifteen years. That's why the Nats moved Bryce Harper to the outfield.

MLB is suffering an existential crisis, just like other pro sports. In an "all hands on deck" situation like this, they should cancel all suspensions, to get every able player on the field as soon as possible. This is not my typical appraisal of fines and suspensions, but then, this is not a typical problem for the league. We'll be lucky to see baseball in any form this year. I'll take what I can get.

Berrios is a talented pitcher, but let's pump the brakes a bit. Relying on other guys to get hurt or choke is hardly a vote of max confidence. I would expect Jose to have a good year, if there's even a baseball season this year, which it looks like there won't be. Who's gonna want to sit in a stadium full of people not tested for our 2020 constant companion? Anyhoo, I don't mind admiring Jose's nice set of pitches. He does look like an emerging star. I hope that he, and every other pitcher in baseball uses this off year to work on getting more leg into their delivery, so fewer arms fall off. Maybe we'll be surprised by various hurlers suddenly developing a good change, a better curve, etc. Good time to work on form and fitness for 2021.

I watched a super-interesting video a couple days ago about Christiano Renaldo, the great soccer player. They were testing his skills, and one of the tests involved forcing him to guess the location of a soccer ball in flight without seeing it. In a field house they had a guy kick a ball as if to center it for a shot. Just after the kick, they turned off the lights, so he would have to guess where the ball was going to be, based on the passer's form and the initial flight of the ball. To everyone's delight, in darkness Christiano was able to accurately head the ball into the goal, whereas a normal player missed the ball by at least six feet. Then they made the test harder. They turned off the lights just as the passer made contact. Christiano shouldered the ball into the goal. In total blackness, having seen only the initial kick from about twenty five yards away, he still was able to predict when and where the ball would be well enough to direct it into a goal. This startling result suggests that great hitters are better than average players at predicting when and where a pitch will cross their hitting zone, based not so much on seeing the ball between the hand and the plate, as on predicting from form and release. You could add to that situational awareness, to narrow down the probabilities. At that point, swing mechanics and timing are all about putting the moving barrel where your mind already knows the ball will be. The exception to this rule would of course be...the knuckleball. With no way to read the final destination from form, even the best predictive mind won't know where the ball will be when in crosses the hitting zone. No wonder a good knuckler can make the best hitters look foolish.