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gman

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Everything posted by gman

  1. Its good to see ERod have a 2 hit game. Only his third multi hit game of the year so far. Looks like A+ has slowed him up. Hope he catches up in June.
  2. It will come down to adjustments for him. Like everyone else that is failing this year. He will come in hot but soon enough the other team will make adjustments to Him. Then he will cool off. How fast can he adjust? Unfortunately everyone who is added to the team this year does not seem able to quickly counter the opposing teams adjustments.
  3. Dolander was considered the top pitcher in the draft when this year began. His fastball is in the mid 90's with good control and a good slider and a plus changeup. His stock has fallen but I haven't seen any related injuries or reason listed. Baseball America has moved Noble Meyer up to the sixth spot in the draft. His fastball is rated in the mid 90's with lots of late movement and he has a plus slider. I would take either of these pitchers before I took another outfielder. The Twins need pitching and the closer to the pros the better. I think they have enough young hitting to get them by a few years.
  4. I've been waiting for Maeda and Theilbar to get back and fill some spots . Maybe in the next 2-3 weeks? Sooner would be better. Henriquez looks like best bet at 3A. Unfortunately unless we start hitting, the bullpen is going to be wiped out long before the allstar break. Any game where a starter looks human and a reliever has a bump turns into an automatic loss.
  5. Long term, that is past this year, I see the starting position player getting about 135 games at their given position. I see the regular starters in the infield next year as Correa, Lewis, Kirilloff and Lee. I could see Miranda being the backup at both third and first. Possibly getting some games in at left field and the rest of his time as DH. I think his hitting issue will be solved pretty quick and he'll be back by month end. As it stands other than Larnach, the Twins don't have a full time outfield next year. Wallner and Martin possibly being available and who knows about Buxtons status. So there will possibly be room for Miranda to get some time on left field.
  6. I think he is being groomed for the rotation He is still working his way through a "spring training" period. The last three games he pitched he has started. His most recent game he retired the first 9 batters he faced. His fastball was 96-97 with some 99's thrown in. I thought his best off speed pitched was his slow curve ball about 80-82. I wasn't impressed with his change up or slider command. He only walked one in his last start. I agree that him starting through July would be good. He does seemed to be overwhelmed by 3A this year.
  7. I think a couple of these guys could be removed late in the year as they make the Twins 26 roster(Julien & Lewis). It would be nice to have a couple of pitchers work their way unto the lists.
  8. Friday against the Cubs the Twins went 4-30 batting 133 as a team. They scored 2 runs. Saturday they went 13-36 batting 361 as a team. They scored 11 runs. So NO batting average is not a worthless stat.
  9. Balazovic was dominating the first 3 innings with his fastball at 96-97 with a few 99's thrown in, nine up nine down. The start of the 4th had a fly ball clang off of Wallner's glove and the batter was given a triple. Very iffy at best. The next batter reached out and knocked a single into left. A good hit on a pitch outside the strike zone. The next batter I think the computer squeezed him on a walk. A grounder thrown into center( Balazovic) misplayed which Contreras and Wallner took turns bobbling in the outfield 2 runners scored. Batter taking third. He was cruising until the fourth. A learning experience for him. But some better defense would have helped a lot. Again he was dominating, but I do think his non fastball pitches need sharpening up. Still spring training games for him.
  10. I think that Ober has established himself as a major league pitcher, just maybe not what level yet. Varland needs to do that. We know someone else will miss some time this year. When will Maeda be ready? Who is the next one up? I think that the next pitcher up will have a lot of impact on whether Malhe gets a 2-3 year deal from the Twins or someone. Because someone else will sign him.
  11. Unfortunately 5 players in the regular lineup on right on their career numbers. Two have just been added to the lineup, Farmer and Kirilloff and the last two are Correa and Vazguez. Are you to take them out of the lineup? I think not, although I wouldn't mind.
  12. Buxton and Kepler are pretty much hitting in keeping with their career numbers. So are Taylor and Gallo, Correa is way off his numbers and is only hitting 161 in his last 15 games. Who will he take instructions from. He may just be burned out from spending all winter chasing a $350mil contract. Polanco has come back from injury and is doing well. Kirilloff is new in the lineup and Farmer is just back today. Vazquez is really far off and Jeffers is hitting better. Are they going to play him more? There's your starting 9 and for most they are right on their career numbers. So basically their not very good and does somebody really expect the hitting coach to take some long term major leaguers and greatly enhance their career numbers in 35 games. If so somebody give that guy a lifetime contract. If improvement comes it will be in Correa turning it around, Kirilloff being who we hope he can be and Vazguez adding a little more. Maybe Farmer will be better than Miranda.
  13. Who said anything about just throwing guys in there, if better players were available. You read the wrong direction in what I said.
  14. Miranda and Larnach both had options so were easy to send down. Let them work at 3A for a few weeks. As far as the overall team goes, when any of our expected future players find and prove the right skills, management can easily replace someone on the 26 man squad. No difficult search or head scratching needed. We may spend the year incorporating future players into the lineup. They may have their ups and downs and spend the year riding the shuttle back and forth to St Paul. Work on weaknesses so that next year we don't have the big questions of who we can rely on to field a daily lineup.
  15. With an expected 2-3 starters needed to fill the needs of the Twins by the start of next year, the projected future starters available needs to find some new candidates. Hopefully some of the ones listed here will thicken the pipeline. Festa looks like someone who could rise the to 3A quickly depending on injuries at the major level.
  16. With Kirilloff only playing every other day, I wouldn't expect him back soon. I think he needs to play every day for a couple of weeks to see how he reacts physically. Which would kind of put it towards the middle of May. If the team is uncertain of him playing everyday, then there is no reason to rush him. I'd like him back in the lineup also but he is not ready to get pushed to an everyday then he simply not ready. His 2 position are first base or outfield and someone will have to get moved to get him in the lineup. They wouldn't bring him up to sit the bench.
  17. I postulate instead of 4 key players for a team, you probably need 6 core everyday players and 6 pitchers. Minimum. If 4 players, you would need them to be great nearly every month and be available for the entire season and playoffs. For a 4 core group I could not include Buxton for that reason. He's not dependable health wise, or at least never has been. This year he has not even played the field yet. We all hope he is great one of these years, but he has not started this year that way. For the 4th player at this point, I would lean towards Gray. So far pitching has carried the team, but after the weather warms up, that may change in another month.
  18. Larnach leads the team in RBI's. He leads the team in walks. He is third in OBP among players with over 50 plate appearances. And he is hitting 411 with runners in scoring position. The team is having trouble scoring. AND SOME OF YOU ARE SAYING WE SHOULD GET RID OF HIM. What exactly are you looking at?
  19. I don't think they will or should "ramp up" Balazovic until he regains the weight he lost from the broken jaw. He mostly was on a liquid diet for a month and lost quite a bit of weight. About 20 lbs(?). He is basically pitching in spring training mode with an inning to 2 innings. I hope that by the end of May he is pitching starter innings. He still has the talent to be a major league starter.
  20. Well Julien is in the majors. Pre-injuries, there would not have been room on the major league roster. That might be an aggressive move. Of course this might be a year when he is on the shuttle between 3 A and the majors. I think Lee was just fine starting at 2 A and I'm thinking he gets to 3A by late May to early June. He could make it to the majors in August if there's room and he earns it. Let him earn his way all the way up, no reason for automatic promotions.
  21. Not counting spring training he has had only 65 plate appearances over since the end of June last year. I would expect him to take at least a month to month and 1/2 to really get his swing down. I'd give him until the middle of May to to make an assessment.
  22. I look at depth as possible full time replacements if Kirilloff can't make it. Julian could be, maybe even Polanco might play some at first base to ease his injured ankle. I could see Wallner getting time at first base, at 6'4" and with his power, first base may be a very good position for him. He didn't seem athletic enough chasing down singles in the outfield last year, although he has a great arm and is apparently one of the fastest on the team. The team has quite a few future outfield prospects coming through. Maybe try Buxton at first, keep his bat in the lineup and keep him from running into the outfield wall.😃
  23. I agree that traditional closer position is more a thing of the past, but I don't see Pagan leading the team with 9 saves this year. I do see Duran working out as the bailout reliever although he may still lead the team in saves. He probably won't come close to being a league leader in the saves category, unless other relievers on the staff are super good in their support roles. If that's the case, the Twins would probably wind up with the best relief staff in baseball.
  24. The Twins are close in their system to having many higher caliber if not simply star type players available in their farm system. The team roster is fairly loaded with complete veteran players which allows the next gen players currently in the minors to get added time to prepare to join the major league team. The last time we had so many possible star players almost ready was in 2014/15. Most of those players did not get completely developed and their careers did not pan out for the most part. Also the team didn't have any developing pitching at that time. Now with pitching in the minors also developing, these guys may get the chance to pitch 150-175 innings this year. They can prove they are ready to assume a full time major league starting position later this year and next when several positions in the starting rotation will probably be available. They may all turn out to be 3-5"s in the rotation but I think we have players developing for 2024-26 who may turn out to be the rotation #2's or possible #1. Again we have staff st the big league level for the young guys to learn off of. We shouldn't (I hope) have to go dumpster diving for a number of years. It's been a long time since the team had a complete roster coming through the system, even though we will likely be short in some areas.
  25. If Buxton plays less than 75 games in centerfield this year, is there really any reason to consider him the starter there next year. Lewis or Martin, may be prepared to take over in center by the end of this year. Maybe next year if Kepler and Gallo are gone Buxton could start some games in right with an occasional game in center.
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