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jimbo92107

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Everything posted by jimbo92107

  1. jimbo92107
    I don't see why this is "weird." Every pitcher finds his own way to adapt. Weird would be if he was throwing the ball behind his back. Sands has found a way to get guys out with a unique set of pitches. Heck the Twins have a guy in the minors that throws a knuckler - but not as his main pitch. Now that's odd, but still not weird. Let's hope Sands keeps on finding new wrinkles. It's always good to have a variety of approaches...if they work.
  2. jimbo92107
    My brother told me a guy he knows said, "Twins aren't that bad. They just need some better pitchers and hitters." Not sure how to reply to that...
  3. jimbo92107
    The Twins have drafted so many guys that were sooo talented as hitters, yet somehow the vast majority of them floundered and fizzled against the upper ranges of pitching, both AAA and MLB. I just can't relate to so much failure at the plate. When I was playing, hitting was easy. I mashed line drives all the time. I remember being a good hitter all the way from 3rd to 5th grade. If I hadn't broken my thumb, I might have played pretty good junior high ball. I even hit a home run once, in summer league, with a magnesium bat. Wow, did that thing go like a rocket. They told me it rolled under the 3rd base bench in the next field. A kid picked it up, then threw it to the left fielder, who turned and fired it to their shortstop, who turned and fired it home. I beat the throw by about two steps. Moral: Don't ever jog around the bases.
  4. jimbo92107
    Yeah, not too many 4-seamers work well right down the middle. Most major leaguers can hammer a cookie tossed right down Broadway. Varland needs to work mostly along the bottom of the zone with that cheese. Maybe torch the top on 3 and 2, and maybe sometimes bust some knuckles, but otherwise, down. Almost never, ever in the middle.
  5. jimbo92107
    Byron Buxton puts butts in the seats because he does things other humans cannot do. You can't ask him to stop making superstar plays while he still has the youth and the body to make us cheer like it's Fourth of July. There will come a time when Buxton can no longer do these things. Until then, let us celebrate his glorious youth, as we all should. What a ballplayer!
  6. jimbo92107
    Congrats to Martin, first MLB hit! A hustle double!
  7. jimbo92107
    Time to open a hospital across the street from Target Field. 'TJ's R Us.' After the season, everybody cues up for an elbow operation, so they can all start the next season with a fresh tendon. We do labrums, too, and rotator cuffs. MCL's, ACL's, knee replacements, hip replacements, cartilage tears, etc, all done with Kevlar stitches, titanium and super glue. Skol!
  8. jimbo92107
    First time I saw Brett Headrick last season, I thought he looked like a major starter prospect. The game didn't seem to be very hard for him. Striking out the side was like making a sandwich. Since then, I have sometimes wondered what happened to that guy. Apparently the game was a lot harder than he first made it look.
  9. jimbo92107
    Heads, you swing at the first pitch; tails, you hold up. Either way, you shift your weight and bring your hands forward as if you're going to swing. During the at bat: Heads, you swing flat; tails, uppercut. Either way, your stance stays the same, until after the pitcher's in his motion. Flipping a coin is a great way to stop the opposition from guessing what your hitters are going to do. They can't know, because you don't know either. Batters still won't swing at pitches far from the zone, and there's still the pitcher's cat and mouse how how he throws. However, randomizing some elements of hitter behavior takes away some of the opposition's planning. If the league thinks the Twins are swinging flat for average, they'll throw a lot of sinkers. If they think the Twins are swinging for the fences, watch for a lot of high fastballs. If there is no pattern... As a manager, you could announce that the team is experimenting with randomized swing patterns. Even make a show of flipping coins in the dugout. Even if you're not doing it, maybe it'll mess with a few heads out there.
  10. jimbo92107
    I wonder if the launch angle problem is linked to pitchers throwing stuff that usually breaks downward. If Batter A swings to hit flat, then pitches that duck down late will be topped, turning into a lot of ground ball outs. Conversely, if Batter B swings intentionally from low to high, then a certain percentage of those ducking pitches will either be driven to the fences or over the fence. Some of those pitches will still be ground balls, but fewer than Batter A. Right now the Twins are topping too many balls. Maybe it's all part of the cat and mouse game. If a pitcher comes in throwing a lot of sinking stuff, manager should tell his guys to switch to an uppercut swing. Good hitters should be able to do either kind of swing, right?
  11. jimbo92107
    Wait...I have a colonoscopy scheduled for this week. Should I stop throwing?
  12. jimbo92107
    Nick Burdi has really been through the grinder. Two TJ's and an appendectomy! Whew! Well, at least he won't have to go through another appendectomy! Yo Nick, maybe in the off season, get your tonsils out..!
  13. jimbo92107
    "Battling through elbow soreness." I believe that's another way of saying, "I'm going to throw some really hard sliders, to make damn sure I need TJ surgery."
  14. jimbo92107
    Eddie Julien reminds me of Cory Koske for a couple reasons. Both guys arrived as good hitters, raw fielders. Julien today is much improved as a fielder, after working his butt off on it last year. With one more year of working his butt off, he might become a very good 2nd baseman, just as Koske made himself into a good 3rd baseman. In fact, both those guys remind me of one other Canadian that arrived with a good bat, raw glove. He became a darn good 1st baseman. It has happened twice before. I'm not gonna bet it won't happen again. Work your butt off, Eddie.
  15. jimbo92107
    Actually, this should be the start of a long string of draft picks that have a good chance to contribute in the Valvine and Flannel era. Festa is another guy in the mold that the FO selected for the physical characteristics they project to be successful. Clearly they are big, strong guys that have at least one dominant pitch, but also get guys out. However, the formula must be a bit more complicated. Varland, Sands and Winder all fit the model. Ober fits, tho he's a bit taller than average. And so on. Point is, there enough of them in the pipeline now to make it unnecessary to look outside the organization for average to good veteran pitchers.
  16. jimbo92107
    'Tis spring, and another bumper crop of special potatoes nestle just under the frozen loam, soon to be dug up, cleaned off, then lovingly carved into perfect spheres for baseball. Thousands and thousands of these tough little taters are harvested each year for our beloved national pastime. They are carved, dried, toasted, then carefully painted with plain red seams. The time-honored ritual begins anew. Down the road a piece, a grove of ash trees creaks in the wind, almost ready for the great lathes. Farther along, the forlorn lows of countless cattle announce the time of another harvest, which produces a million pounds of hamburger and hot dogs, along with leather for thousands of gloves, and twice as many cleats. The time has come. Pitchers and catchers have reported. Fielders are stretching and jogging. The Avengers have assembled. Baseball has returned to America.
  17. jimbo92107
    Matt, this is an outstanding piece of sports writing. You belted at least a triple in every aspect. Grammar, sports lingo, breezy tone, good research, well-formed paragraphs...this one has it all. Excellent. As for the point of the article - the injustice of improperly handling young international pitching prospects - Maybe the problem lies more with a lack of early training in the fuller game of pitching. I would ask, do Cuban pitchers have this problem? Theirs is a culture of baseball that does not depend so much on that phone call from America. Or maybe it does, I haven't researched it. Point is, if they weren't so raw, maybe they'd produce more starters. How to achieve that, I don't know.
  18. jimbo92107
    I wonder if Louie Varland, whose pitching motion reminds some of Max Scherzer, has been watching videos of how Max throws his pitches. I wouldn't mind that a bit...
  19. jimbo92107
    Been wondering the same thing for a while. Captions can be the most eagerly read thing in an article, if you use them right. Usually a reader expects to see 1) who's in the photo, 2) what are they doing, 3) where they are, and then 4) who shot the photo. Leaving the 3 most important details out of a caption feels a little irritating. Are we really supposed to guess all that? For example, the photo at top would read: "Willie Mays shows off his unique forkball at Fort Meyers. Photo: USA Today." That's who that was, right?
  20. jimbo92107
    Joe Ryan is a quiet, determined young man. Everybody knew he needed better secondary pitches, and Ryan got to work with DriveLine to develop a better changeup, which is exactly what he needed. Does he still need a third pitch? He's got a sweeper, but apparently it moves too much, allowing hitters to recognize and lay off it. However, if Ryan can throw that pitch for strikes... Ah, spring!
  21. jimbo92107
    I'd give him a try. He's a quirky fellow, but well within the boundaries of civilized humanity. Low bar, I know... I think he could still get guys out. Not sure if that's as a starter or what, but the man's got some real stuff.
  22. jimbo92107
    A 70-grade slider that sends him back to the operating table after a few innings? Well, at least he now qualifies as an official Twins-drafted starter...
  23. jimbo92107
    Is the front office actually listening, or are we simply watching an extended salvage effort? How many of these relievers were intended to be starters before something broke and they missed a season with injury?
  24. jimbo92107
    Every now and then, somebody learns a new grip to an old pitch, or a new pitch altogether, and it turns out to be well-nigh unhittable. What salty old coach is passing out grip tips this spring? Could a guy like Sands or Winder learn a new cutter? Things that make a baseball change direction can be devilishly subtle. In fact, most of these guys can make a baseball move a whole lot. Question is, can you throw it where you want...
  25. jimbo92107
    Are we looking at this the right way? Twins supposedly are developing a very potent offensive lineup. If that happens, then the team should stock up on guys that can hold onto a late game lead. If the offense doesn't produce, then it doesn't matter what's in the bullpen.
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