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Paul

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Everything posted by Paul

  1. Paul
    Parker, nice job. Great article. Great analysis. I know I'm preaching to the choir here, and you know this as well as I. There're plenty of successful batters with all kinds of hitches, glitches, faults and various weirdnesses in their swing. There's such a fine line between success and failure at hitting ML pitching and so many factors that come into play. Probably first and foremost would be the batters comfort level. Especially with Plouffe. Look back to when he first came up. He was a mental wreck. He lost the position he owned his whole life because he couldn't throw straight. That's nerves. I agree with all the improvements you noted. But the big thing with this kid is he hit a few bombs and now he BELIEVES he belongs. He found a comfort level that works for him. He's seeing the ball well. He's gaging the zone well. Now he's got confidence. Personally, I'd like to see him push Dozier to 2B.
  2. Paul
    Dad, is that you? Kidding aside...well put.
  3. Paul
    I don't think we disagree that much. I should've been clearer in my post. I was trying to make a distinction between the way Souhan and Gladden may be viewed. I don't necessarily think Gladden is a saintly and kind soul. He may be, I don't know. But he does know baseball and adds a lot ,for me, to the broadcast. Souhan...not so much. I'd like to add that not everyone hits the wall that Souhan has his nose against, the brightest realize the sheer volume of finer points there are on any subject and are normally humbled by that.
  4. Paul
    I dislike Souhan because he's smug and arrogant with no justification. It may seem to some that Gladden is also smug and arrogant but, there's an important distinction to be made. Gladden has walked the walk. There's a concept I've seen refered to as the "arrogance of ignorance". It's that point in anything some rookies reach where they believe they are now expert, though they are light years away from understanding the subtleties. You see them on most job sites and places of employment. Souhan seems firmly entrenched at this point concerning baseball. Gladden probably passed this point when he was 18 or 20. To me, Gadden adds tremendous value to the broadcast. I like him a lot.
  5. Paul
    Exactly. I'd add that his throwing problems were probably mental rather than what appeared as mechanical. You don't spend your career at SS and suddenly forget how to throw. I'll further add that if the Twins make him available he would be attractive to a team that is looking for a SS solution.
  6. Paul
    I'm reminded of an older movie. I forget the title, but it has Robert Redford and Michell Pfiefer. Redford plays a TV producer for the nightly news. Pfiefer is an up and coming news reporter who is treated dismissively on air by the news anchor. She is upset and complaining to Redford, who has a confused look on his face, about what a dickhead the guy is. Redford's confused look fades as he realizes what she doesn't understand. He says something to the effect of " He's an anchorman."
  7. Paul
    From my point of view he's smug and arrogant without any justification. He's spiteful. I've never seen him show a care about how his writing might affect his target. I dislike him because of these qualities. In his defense though, he's not a journalist per se. He's a columnist.
  8. Paul
    "Go read a Sid column if you're looking for fellatious drivel." Not sure if this is a typo or not. But it sure paints an interesting picture. And gave me a nice chuckle that I appreciate.
  9. Paul
    I don't know about comparable speed, but this guy has the longest stride I've ever witnessed. Sitting by 3B at the dome and watching him sprint 1B to home is something I will never forget. His stride is well over 100 inches.
  10. Paul
    Good for Dickey. He's one of the good guys. Thrylos, like everything else in the universe, the quality of a pitcher's ability is not static. It's either improving or degrading. I have no idea how many pitchers have passed through the current coaching staff's hands, but I suspect it's a lot. It's not too surprising that you were able to easily find 20 out of that group that improved after they left. Unfortunately the coaching staff has to deal with the here and now in addition to predicting and responding to the the odds on the future ability of every pitcher. Some times it's just a numbers game. p.s. Gardy sends his love.
  11. Paul
    James, most have a hard time wrapping their mind around this. Bear with me here. It takes a ball traveling 90 MPH approx .42 seconds to travel from the release point of the pitcher to home plate. You can divide this number into roughly thirds giving you .14 second. This time is used up to: 1. Start swing and recognize the spin, velocity and direction of the ball. 2. Calculate the arrival, point and time, of the ball. 3. Alter or stop swing accordingly. If you add in any time required by the body to determine jeopardy and solution from a slider, that adds a real burdon and steals time for step 2. This leads to guessing ala Cuddyer. This is why you see batters swing at the low outside slider in the dirt or in front of the plate. Hicks has shown he has the hand eye coordination and vision for success on the right side. I don't know but, I assume he's been switch hitting for quite some time, and the coaches he has still believe he can hone his LHed swing. Or it might be a vision thing. His left eye may be dominant. This might just require reps. Or it might be something that cannot be overcome. Either way it takes time. And I think it's a good investment to allow that time.
  12. Paul
    The kid is 22 yrs old in AA. You may be right and they may ultimately scrap the LH side. And he might then struggle to hit "the low .200s vs RHP" from the right side. Or maybe the Twins are right and they find the bug, and his ceiling goes way up. And we get to watch him in the allstar game every year.
  13. Paul
    Switch hitting is not over rated. What most kids struggle with is curve/slider recognition. What switch hitting does is position a batter so he NEVER EVER has to face a curve ball or slider that starts at his body before moving into or through the strike zone. Ya think that might've helped Cuddyer? Or Morneau? The Twins have to see if they can improve Hicks' recognition/sight or mechanics before they scrap the idea. Have a little paitience with the kid. T98 is absolutely right. Most of the kids on the Twins roster "pitched" in HS. Most can throw 90 MPH+. But that's a long way from being a ML pitcher.
  14. Paul
    Thanks for the referal. Interesting read. I'd be surprised if the Twins didn't already take advantage of comparing the mechanics of potential employees with the average values. Do you know that they don't?
  15. Paul
    Mike, there's data...and there's opinions. Information can be either, but there is an important distinction to be made.
  16. Paul
    Ahhh...A kindred spirit.
  17. Paul
    If you're referring to Mike Marshall or a comparable analyst, rightly or wrongly, that's WAY too big of a culture shock. I don't think the Twins will go gentle into that night.
  18. Paul
    This is a lot bigger deal than most realize. I don't know his history but, I think he's 22 yrs old, and he's very likely not seen a RH slider from the RH box since preteen years. And some kids in AA can crack 90 MPH with a slider. The best of them can start it at your ribs and run it off the plate. Unless Hick has terrible uncorrectable mechanics from the LH side, or left eye dominant vision to the degree he can't see in the LH box, this needs to be an absolute last resort.
  19. Paul
    You're probably right about the generation gap, John. I'm 15 yrs older than you. A bona fide product of the 60's. Good and bad. Baseball was my life until I discovered girls and recreational substances. Then, education/career/business. I got interested in baseball again about the time Johan caught fire. Between the early 70's and then baseball was only periphial in my universe. But even with the cursory look I gave baseball in particular, and sports in general, I could see the PED usage. Remember the SNL skit "Steroid Olympics"? That was late 80's. I don't consider myself particularly wise, but someone who experienced competitive sports, and understood the competitive dynamic, and witnessed PED use in "other sports", and saw the societal acceptance of drugs in general, and could add 2+2+2, well, that person likely would see what I saw too. (I think I approached the record for commas with that there sentence.) I guess I don't find it too surprising that baseball insiders and the media satellites serving them were/are reluctant to acknowledge PED use. There are a lot of factors in play here. Emotionally not wanting to be guilty of, or seen guilty of, a connivace or a crime or cheating. Not "ratting out" your buddies. Not admitting because of the PR hit on yourself. The actual legal liability up the management chain. The finacial rewards for showcasing record breaking. Anyhoo, I didn't mean to ruffle your feathers. You're one of the good guys.
  20. Paul
    Wow. I don't know where to begin. Here goes. Insinuating is not a strong enough word. I thought I was being very blunt. I could see if it was 1 person at the top who was oblivious. But the Twins have a HUGE number of front line people. Scouts...trainers...coaches...doctors. No, if the people at the top didn't know it's because they, implicitly or explicitly, let it be known that they did not want to know. You have a point on the pitcher vs hitter thing. I'm sure that a few people didn't realize pitchers use muscles too. As I recall there were "hundreds of thousands of words" written on the obvious juicing and drug usage. Cansenco was mocked because he was a clown. Not because he was lying. And a lot of the people doing the mocking were practicing intentional obfuscation. It's not hard to remember for everyone. It was NOT a naive era, you and Verducci notwithstanding. John, I don't mean to be harsh. I like and appreciate your work. But jeeze dude.
  21. Paul
    John, I've got some swamp property for sale I'd like to talk to you about.
  22. Paul
    Plouffe apparently suscribes to the Torri Hunter/Tom Brunansky/Harmon Killebrew school of hitting..."swing hard in case you hit it". I see Plouffe being traded and returned to SS with another team. I see him with a "JJ Hardy light" ceiling. I think he'll settle in and stick with some team because they'll see just enough to keep runnin' him out there.
  23. Paul
    I think your hatred for Gardenhire may be affecting your judgement here. The quote you cited said nothing about "scouts". It was (apparently) a direct Gardenhire quote. His thought. And quite legitimate from my point of view. If by "scouts" you mean people with a lot of winning baseball experience then you might as well reconcile yourself to the fact that ML baseball will always and forever be run by the "scouts". Just like bakerys, law firms and banks will always be run by bakers, lawyers and bankers. There's a thousand details, subtleties and variables that the bean counters and statisticians don't see.
  24. Paul
    Went right over your head, didn't it dude?
  25. Paul
    I saw the last half of the game. This was the first time I've seen him. From what I saw, a nice running FB with a change that looks like his FB and a nice little slider/curve thing, his stuff is as good as Greg Maddux stuff. His command, in what I saw, made the game for him. I'm guessing the level of command he demonstrated is not the norm for him. Maybe it was just his night. Or maybe that's the new norm for him. If it is the new norm for him I think he can expect a career like Maddux.
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