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bighat

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Everything posted by bighat

  1. bighat
    After watching the play again, I kinda disagree. I think Larnach should have scored easily. If you watch the replay, he's still heading back towards 2nd base when the ball is rolling around near the wall. Not to mention Grossman's arm is like a wet noodle. The Twins baserunning as a whole on that play was so awful that it confused the Tigers to the point of them throwing the ball away.
  2. bighat
    I think all wins have come with Buxton on the field. As Byron goes, so go the Twins.
  3. bighat
    Turned on the game halfway through only to watch Correa, Polanco and Kepler - the top of the order - all strike out in a 1-2-3 inning. Nobody even made contact, I think Polanco foul tipped one into the catcher's mitt. Otherwise that was it, inning over. These games we're watching aren't pitcher's duels. These are middle of the rotation pitchers throwing 93 MPH right down the middle of the plate and nobody's squaring anything up. The kid in KC the other day had a 10.45 ERA coming into the game and he shut the Twins down. The most exciting thing that happened was when Sano fouled one straight back and Bremer said "ooooooh, he was right on that one". Really? Sano's a 30 HR+ per year guy, and we're supposed to inch forward in our seats because he fouls off a ball from a soft-tossing rookie? Fans deserve way better than what they're getting this year. Hitters are way, way behind. Thing is, even when MLB gets a full spring training, hitters are still behind for the first few weeks of the season. We may be in for another month of this, and if that's true a lot of fans are going to walk away.
  4. bighat
    I mean....we'll take it. Twins need every win they can get this year, by hook or by crook. The Sox completely gave it away, and the Twins almost gave it back. Two teams that are struggling horribly offensively right now and are pressing on defense. If the Sox are hitting, Anderson just puts that ball in his pocket and right now we'd be tied 1-1 in the 35th inning. Pagan got it done, but good closers go 1-2-3 and we go home without the drama. That kind of effort isn't really going to get it done most of the time. Twins can't score at all this year, Royals and Sox can't score either, is scoring wayyyy down in baseball right now? Or is this just happening to AL Central teams that play outdoors?
  5. bighat
    They will turn it around - the question is how long will it take? Took them until July last year, and by then the pitching had cratered and there was a new problem to fix. Season was over before it even started. Unfortunately, even if Buxton, Correa, Polanco and Urshela get hot, the Twins still have the Larnach-Kepler-Sano-Jeffers problem. The Twins need at least 3 of that group to start firing on all cylinders to have a chance, even if a guy like Gordon emerges as a serviceable player. It's a marathon not a sprint, it doesn't have to all come together at once. But we have to expect to see some progress, somewhere, from someone, very soon.
  6. bighat
    I've always liked Dick Bremer and think overall he's a good fit. Agree that he was best paired with Blyleven. Morneau is solid, but he's a bit of a "golly gee whiz" type and so is Bremer so it's a bit much sometimes. I think most of the criticism of Bremer comes when the team is not playing well. Fans are frustrated and he's the voice of the team. Sometimes we wish he'd say "GET IT TOGETHER OUT THERE!" but he's not that type.
  7. bighat
    "If"? I think we're already there. Rocco was DH'ing Ryan Jeffers last night and had him batting 8th. Just read that sentence again to get a feel for how bleak things are right now. So far we've had all the ingredients for a 2021 repeat: ice cold hitting and a sprinkling of bullpen meltdowns that cost the Twins winnable games. Decent starting pitching that won't last long. And by the time the Twins' hitters catch up, all the magic fairy dust will have come off guys like Bundy and Archer. It's 2021 all over again. The only hope this team has rests in the hands of Buxton, who might single-handedly help them to 80 wins if he plays every game the rest of the season. And that's just not going to happen. And the dude should be on the IL if he's not going to play so we can get a look at some other guys ASAP. There is just something about the aura of this team that feels off. Watching them, they all just look like they're stuck and nobody's clicking at the same time. Every small spark is immediately snuffed out and almost every key decision turns out to be wrong. Everything just feels out of tune.
  8. bighat
    That's a great point about the 3 minutes of uninterrupted ads. Soccer players (EPL, La Liga, etc) have worn ads for a long time, but they don't have any stoppages of play. No commercials at all for 90 minutes of non-stop action. In theory, baseball shouldn't need this. But then again, it's a free money cash grab so it's impossible to expect them to turn it down.
  9. bighat
    Unforgiveable loss. Should have scored way more runs, the Twins ran themselves out of at least 2 runs early in the game, and were also unlucky hitting everything into the wind. Overall this was a team loss - the type of loss that bad teams give away. A good team wins that game 7-4, should have never even been that close. Twins have now had both Sano and Sanchez called out at home with less than 2 outs this year. Maybe the 3rd base coach should stop sending our big men home? I don't mind being aggressive, but maybe pick your spots. Bad move taking out Gordon for Garlick. I think I saw Gordon on the bench when that move was made and he was looking rather disgusted about that. Guy hits a triple and gets pulled the next inning? It was Amir Garret on the mound, not Randy Johnson. Duffey's been below average for a while now. I think the guy's just cooked. I don't blame Rocco for going to him, the only way you find out guys are bad is to play them. Both Duffey and Jax are very hittable and are just bullpen fodder at this point. Overall just a terrible loss to open the series, Twins find themselves against the wall already in KC.
  10. bighat
    You can't sit a guy and expect him to get hot. You don't get both.
  11. bighat
    Ummmm....disagree. Both could improve, but right now Sano is superior to both of them combined, especially when he starts hitting. Because he will, and that's a guarantee. The other two don't come with guarantees. Larnach and Kirilloff aren't rookies. They are 2nd year players who failed their first tryouts - one couldn't hit, the other couldn't stay healthy. Nothing has changed in either scenario so far this year. If this audition doesn't go well for Larnach, he may be sent down to AAA purgatory and may never make it back to the bigs after this year. Kirilloff's career might be in jeopardy if he can't get over this chronic wrist issue. And you think they are both better than Miguel Sano, a guy who will hit 30 HR this year and who has done so many times in the past? I know hating on Sano is the cool thing to do, and it's low-hanging fruit, but c'mon. You have to be realistic.
  12. bighat
    Good win for the Twins. Bundy is doing everything we'd hoped and more, though I'm not sure we can count on him to keep producing like this. Will be interesting to see Paddack in KC. Sanchez, Kepler, Larnach and Sano were 0-16 today. This team won't be able to stay competitive if the 5-9 spots continue to perform so horribly. Again, good victory but at some point the Twins are going to need at least 2-3 more guys to start hitting like major leaguers for this team to have any shot to content for the playoffs.
  13. bighat
    Agree to disagree. IMO it was a misplay, no worse than any fielding error made on any given day by any given player. There were 20 errors in MLB yesterday, Sano's wasn't the only one and it was nothing special. It wasn't worse than this, this, or this. I think Sano's fielding has been pretty solid so far this year, frankly. He's always an easy target, and when things aren't going well for this team he's always the first guy Twins fans want to tar and feather.
  14. bighat
    It was a misplay, but honestly it wasn't as bad as some people are making it sound. It looks like Sano thought the ball was hit much harder than it was. He was ready for it, but he was early. If he would have caught the ball it would have been a fine defensive play. It was definitely an error, but it wasn't the worst play in the world. If the Twins were winning and Sano was hitting, we wouldn't even be talking about it.
  15. bighat
    Rocco's known as a "player's manager" and I think most players really love playing for him. He takes it easy on his guys, only praises them in public, is never critical and isn't shy about handing guys the day off. We'd all prefer a chill, relaxed boss over a hard-ass grump with an unpredictable temper. Unfortunately this is a team that has a bunch of underperforming players who are sleepwalking their way through their second straight season. Clint Hurdle or Buck Showalter or Lloyd McClendon would be ripping these guys a new one. Question is....would an angry manager really help this team? Would a press conference with a guy pounding on the podium, calling out Sano, Correa, Kepler and Jeffers be helpful? As upset fans we might like to see it because we feel the team deserves a little castigation, but I have no idea if that would motivate the players. Either way, Rocco's definitely going to be in charge this year and probably for the foreseeable future. This team is going to have to find their own motivations to win, because it's not going to come from Baldelli.
  16. bighat
    Sure hope so. Because losing the next two will drop the Twins to 3-7 and be under some serious pressure to win series in KC and against Chicago. We saw last year that falling behind in April can shut the door on hope very quickly. Shouldn't we have been concerned as soon as they traded Garver? Jeffers hit .190 last year, ran into a couple for a few HRs, but there was never anything to indicate he was going to be even a .240 hitter in the majors. How crazy is it that we'd be happy if our starting catchers both hit .220? Awful. Sure would. We're still just 10 games in but Correa needs to play like an All-Star asap if this team wants to content.
  17. bighat
    Tough even for guys who are used to it. Kike Hernandez misplayed that Larnach fly ball out in center field where that little corner juts out. Not an easy place to play outfield.
  18. bighat
    Great article and thanks for sharing all of those details. Five in a row, good for you! As for that scoreboard thing where they're showing the pitch sequence, I totally agree that they're oversharing a bit. The batter should at least have to keep track in his head, rather than having the host team feeding them the data. I wonder how Twins pitchers feel about that, yikes?
  19. bighat
    Hope I'm wrong. Alas I fear it's more likely that I'm insulting Chris Parmalee. Sorry Chris.
  20. bighat
    Agreed. The Front Office (and many Twins fans it seems) appeared to be operating under the foregone conclusion that Alex Kirilloff was a set-it-and-forget-it part of the OF this year. Remember when the Twins gave up Eddie Rosario the FO convinced themselves and many fans that AK was just going to pick up the slack? Ridiculous. And going into 2022 did nobody ask themselves "Hmmm, I wonder if maybe a 2nd year player who hasn't played in 9 months, coming off a chronic injury might not be that good and/or reliable?" I'd frankly take Garlick over Upton right now, but the Twins are going to have to address this problem rather than try and fix it with bubble gum and duct tape. Larnach isn't the answer, he's looking at a Chris Parmalee ceiling at this point in his career. His window seems to have passed.
  21. bighat
    I hear you, but I suppose when it comes to right-handed DHs, I'd prefer Urshela rather than Sanchez.
  22. bighat
    Yeah, I mean on the plus side he definitely had a "trial by fire" and was quickly schooled by the highest level competition. The walks, then that double-steal on him was just brutal....I'd have thrown my glove down and ran up to the stands looking for mommy. The strikeout was nice, but after that even the outs were hard hit balls. That sac fly would have been a sure home run if it weren't 41 degrees and raining. To his credit the kid sucked it up and got out of the inning giving up just one run. The next time he gets out there he'll think to himself "I got Mookie Betts out with a man on 3rd base, I can do this". There's gotta be some silver lining.
  23. bighat
    Gary Sanchez 0-for-3 with three strikeouts. First two ABs he didn't even take a pitch, just swung and missed at 3 straight pitches and sat down. He took 5 pitches his 3rd at bat but never made contact (not even a foul ball) and also went down swinging. Seven swings - not one of them drew iron. Would like to see the Twins rotating Arraez and Urshela between 3B and the DH role. No reason the backup catcher should be DH'ing anyway. Speaking of Arraez, I don't see how Rocco can keep him out of this lineup, whether it's a righty or lefty on the mound. Winder didn't look great, but hey, it was the kid's first ever game and he's out there pitching to Mookie Betts. The loss of Alcala is looming very large right now. Here's hoping the Twins have a live arm to replace him because it looks like they'll need all the help they can get.
  24. bighat
    Yeah, I agree. My main reason to throw cold water on the "Duran is our closer" philosophy is.....what about his career as a starter? We can't forget that's who we've all expected him to be until this spring. Imagine getting 5-6 innings of Duran to start a ball game for years to come? Wow.
  25. bighat
    I think Kepler and Sano - guys we used to rely on as major offensive pieces to this team - are probably the biggest concerns we have on offense right now. Defensively both look good, but they may have to be hitting 7-8 in the order for the foreseeable future.
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