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Respy

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Everything posted by Respy

  1. Respy
    Well honestly, they just need to get one win out of this series. With Berrios and Santana going tomorrow and Wednesday, I'm hopeful.
  2. Respy
    I think this is a good move. Jaime has posted a positive WAR in every season except his rookie season. Jaime is 31 and his fastball is being clocked his highest ever this year (granted, only 91.5 mph). I guarantee the Twins prospect will be a player we are quite familiar with, but it's not going to be an A-grade or even B-grade prospect. I'd expect it's someone between 10-25 on the Twins top prospect list.
  3. Respy
    I wonder if some fans are leaning towards sell, largely because of how they feel about our veteran players. Many Twins fans are eager to dump the likes of Dozier, Mauer, and Kintzler because they don't bring a whole lot of excitement. And, Ervin Santana will probably never be worth more. But overall, I think the point is that if we dump one or several of these players, that might be enough to push the Twins over the cliff and drop out of the playoff race, which is not worth it. I'm also a 'stand pat or slight lean towards buy.'
  4. Respy
    Love this game. Never played online, though.
  5. Respy
    Judge used the whole field more easily than anyone I've ever seen in the homerun derby. Really impressive. And honestly, I'm glad Sano wasn't being too violent or over-exerting himself, and still managed to reach the finals.
  6. Respy
    According to Paul Molitor in this article, Friday @ Houston: J.O. Berrios Saturday @Houston: Ervin Santana Sunday @ Houston: Kyle Gibson Monday home vs. Yankees: Adalberto Mejia Tuesday home vs. Yankees: ??? Tuesday could be Colon, Hughes, Santiago, Gee, Jorge. I think Gibson's start Sunday could be a make-or-break, because I figure Santiago will be in the rotation upon return, and they'll give at least a few starts to Colon. If they want to buy an extra start or two for Gibson, they could send Santiago for a rehab start or two at Rochester.
  7. Respy
    This is awesome.
  8. Respy
    Wow Nick Gordon honestly went way higher than I expected. They are ranking him as an A- or elite prospect, instead of about a B-prospect where I'd put him. Things like this will help the team as trade-bait if the front office decides to go that direction. I'm surprised that neither Gonsalves nor Romero squeaked in past #100. I'm also very surprised that Vlad Guerrero Jr. is all the way up at #2, given that he's only had 269 AB at A-ball and is doing good but not completely dominating. Also he's an average runner and fairly poor in the OF. The Blue Jays just announced that he'll head to high A after the all-star break.
  9. Respy
    Ditto with everyone else above. If Arizona thought he could hit at the majors, he'd probably be up. To his benefit, it does seem he's really improved his hitting against lefties (lower OPS, but higher average at .415 which means he's cutting down his swing against them). Now, if he could ever improve his pitch recognition and learn to lay off breaking balls out of the zone... like h2oface said, he seems like the ideal candidate to play in Japan or Korea because of the nasty slow junk they throw there. Eric Thames is the current poster boy for this (though I see his average has dropped badly to .245).
  10. Respy
    Kintzler has really been bringing that running fastball lately. Some have said this year that the Target Field radar seems a tad juiced, but I'd say that Kintzler's fastball last night looked legit 95-96 and was badly tying up batters. Personally, I'd attribute his lack of strikeouts partly due to his heavy reliance on the fastball (81% this year, 88% last year) and partly due to his high delivery which is not particularly deceptive. But, still induces weak contact due to good location and excellent movement. I always like to compare Kintzler to Jim Johnson, other notable sinkerball closer. His career K/9 is 6.84, while Kintzler's is 6.35. Both are low, but Johnson's uses his similar 94 mph fastball 73% of the time in his career.
  11. Respy
    1) Sorry to potentially bring politics into this, as I'm sure not everyone here believes in global warming, but one thing I've not heard mentioned that could be a possible factor, is the record heat that keeps being recorded each year? Would be very hard to actually track the data, but I think we would all agree that hotter temps = more flight distance. 2) I think largely this is a result of teams becoming more analytical in their approach to hitting. Many players are being encouraged to increase their launch angle, which would result in more homeruns. 3) Have umpires started shifting the strike zone up yet? I know this has been in the works, and if umpires are calling less low pitches strikes, then that means more pitches up in the strike zone as flyballs. 4) I feel position players are getting more and more rest and DL time than they ever have, as teams are being cautious about usage and injury prevention. Homerun efficiency will increase if everyone is resting more. 5) I think I've seen enough to be convinced that the balls haven't changed. What about the bats? Bat material? Bat shape? I know there are many bat restrictions, but if more and more players are going with skinny handles and end-loaded barrels, that would lead to more homeruns. Players might also be using more different wood types lately.
  12. Respy
    I don't think we need another lefty starter, or a guy prone to short starts (Liriano 2017 average 4.2 innings). As depressing as it sounds, all we need and likely can afford is someone who can pitch to contact to our solid defense, and give us 6 innings a start.
  13. Respy
    Some matchups to watch today: Ervin Santana: 10-4, 2.80 ERA (4th in AL)Eric Hosmer has a 1.168 OPS lifetime against Santana in 32 plate appearances.The rest of the KC lineup has hit a combined 0.221 AVG and 0.626 OPS against Santana Jason Vargas: 11-3, 2.29 ERA (1st in AL)Mauer is 14 for 36 (.389) against Vargas lifetime with only 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.Vargas is a lefty, and Eduardo Escobar has a cool .974 OPS versus lefties this year. Twins X-Factor: Miguel Sano. Since sitting two consecutive games last week, Sano is 1 for 18 with 8 strikeouts. He needs to turn it around for the Twins offense to be productive, especially against lefties.Royals X-Factor: Jason Vargas. He had one bad outing against the Yankees in May, but has allowed 3 ER or less in all of his other 14 starts. He also has a MLB-best 1.92 ERA at home. He is likely to play in his first All-Star game this season at age 34. Can the Twins get to him tonight? My magic 8-ball says....Twins win 4-1.http://home.ncscredit.com/sites/default/files/Blog%20Images/Magic%208%20Ball.jpg
  14. Respy
    Not quick enough on those inside pitches.
  15. Respy
    I just had to whip out my spreadsheet. I wanted to know which clubs were fielding the fastest and slowest teams overall, which needs this Statcast data, and not stolen base data. I calculated the average speed of a team, based on weighting each player's speed by the number of plate appearances made in 2017 as of 27June2017. Only players on the Statcast pages were included. 1. Padres (27.77 mph) 2. Marlins (27.76 mph) 3. Rays (27.58 mph) 4. Twins (27.55 mph) 5. Royals (27.41 mph) 6. Pirates (27.35 mph) 7. Diamondbacks (27.24 mph) 8. Yankees (27.23 mph) 9. Reds (27.21 mph) 10. Rockies (27.15 mph) 11. Rangers (27.14 mph) 12. Cubs (27.13 mph) 12. Nationals (27.13 mph) 14. Giants (27.05 mph) 15. Phillies (27.03 mph) 15. Red Sox (27.03 mph) 17. Dodgers (27.01 mph) 17. Mariners (27.01 mph) 19. Indians (26.98 mph) 19. White Sox (26.98 mph) 21. Astros (26.94 mph) 21. Brewers (26.94 mph) 23. Cardinals (26.9 mph) 24. Braves (26.86 mph) 25. Tigers (26.78 mph) 26. Athletics (26.71 mph) 27. Angels (26.7 mph) 28. Mets (26.67 mph) 29. Orioles (26.48 mph) 30. Blue Jays (26.12 mph) Average = 27.06 mph
  16. Respy
    I think other stats would disagree. I agree his fastball velocity is not down, but he has no control of it. His BB/9 of 5.04 is by far a career worst. His BABIP of .299 is right at league average, so nothing suggests here that he's being unlucky. I would not say that his half season's 30 IP is a small sample size for a relief pitcher, considering that he only pitched 46.0 and 33.2 the last two years. I think if he can immediately turn around his command, he can be a serviceable pitcher. If not, he needs to go.
  17. Respy
    Good coverage. I agree that Hildenberger has a low likelihood of being elite, but shows good signs of being successful. A low-90's side-armer needs good control, which he has with only 26 walks in 171 2/3 MiLB innings. He needs to keep the ball in the ballpark, which I hadn't realized previously how much of an extreme ground ball pitcher he is: 2.37 GO/AO, and only 4 homeruns allowed in 171 2/3 MiLB innings! I think his floor is well above Slama. Slama was not a groundball pitcher (1.07 GO/AO) and walked way too many batters (158 walks in 344 1/3 MiLB innings). I would bet that Hildenberger is most likely to be decent or good. My expected stat comps are Jim Johnson or Matt Belisle (Colorado version). Hildy's seemingly got better control than Neshek or Ziegler, but those two guys are closer to the 'elite' status due to higher strikeout numbers, lower BAA, lower ERA. So my most unanswered question will be: Can Hildenberger punch out major league batters close to or better than 1/inning at the MLB level? My gut says no, but he's got to keep his velocity up above 90mph and have good control of those off-speed pitches. I predict he has a serviceable but not great career (2-6 years) in the MLB bullpen.
  18. Respy
    Thanks for the info and looking forward to Enlow's professional debut!
  19. Respy
    It was an interesting article, though honestly very few surprises for the Twins or the league. Two things I noticed though: 1) I thought Kepler was faster. Obviously not Buxton fast, but I thought Kepler would be a tier above Polanco/Escobar/Rosario. 2) Buxton 2017 is 29.9 ft/sec, 2016 was 30.7 ft/sec (higher than Billy Hamilton at 30.2 ft/sec!). I'd imagine Buxton's max running speed was essentially the same both seasons. That shows me that there's still a fair amount of error in how they are measuring this.
  20. Respy
    Anyone know what kind of pitch mix Graterol throws, other than a good fastball?
  21. Respy
    I would be shocked if it's Romero. Gee makes the most sense. Could possibly be Turley too? Felix Jorge is also an option, but I think quite unlikely given the other options, and his starts don't quite line up. It's almost certainly going to be someone on the 40-man currently considering that they already seemed unwilling to DFA Turley over Melotakis.
  22. Respy
    Best I think we can go off of for now, is that the PerfectGame website had Buxton running the 60 in 6.57 seconds in 2011, while Lewis did it in 6.64 seconds in 2016. I think all we can conclude is that we know Buxton has top-class speed, and Lewis is at least very, very fast.
  23. Respy
    Fairly canned responses that we've heard in previous interviews, but that's just showing me that he's a smart and mature kid who already knows how to conduct interviews. Hopefully we'll see some personality and talent shine in the near future!
  24. Respy
    April ERA: 8.06 May ERA: 7.53 June ERA: 4.13 Ace? No. Adequate? Let's pray so.
  25. Respy
    Nailed it.
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