Article: HOU 2, MIN 0: Failure to Launch

[Tom Froemming]

 

4.) Surprised there hasn't been more on this about LoMo. He's looked awful and seems like he could use a day or two off. His at-bats aren't even looking good. Seems lost. Eddie has his ups and downs. LoMo just has downs.

I went into depth on Morrison's poor performance the last game, and I compared him to early-2006 Rondell White here. That's about as harsh a comp as I can put on a guy.

 

Also, here are the bottom three Twins hitters in WPA so far this season:

-.32 Morrison

-.42 Buxton

-.61 Rosario

 

Rosie actually has the 13th-lowest WPA in baseball right now.

[TFRazor]

 

As wsnydes said, the competition plays in the same weather... So I'm having a hard time giving guys like Lynn the benefit of the doubt when Verlander pitched in the same conditions and did awesome.

I didn't watch the whole game, but I also assume Houston's LF didn't make any blunders in the OF last night.

Please don't tell me we're going to start asking why Lance Lynn didn't perform as well as Justin Verlander. We all know exactly why. Verlander is a possible hall of famer. Lance Lynn, while he's good, is very much not.

[USAFChief]

 

Please don't tell me we're going to start asking why Lance Lynn didn't perform as well as Justin Verlander. We all know exactly why. Verlander is a possible hall of famer. Lance Lynn, while he's good, is very much not.

I don't mean to speak for Van, but I think his point was, if Lynn didn't perform as well as Verlander, it wasn't because of the weather.

 

 

[Vanimal46]

Please don't tell me we're going to start asking why Lance Lynn didn't perform as well as Justin Verlander. We all know exactly why. Verlander is a possible hall of famer. Lance Lynn, while he's good, is very much not.

I'm certainly not comparing them talent vs. talent. I'm talking about cold weather being used as an excuse why Lynn has no control of his pitches the last 2 starts. Yet Verlander in the same weather conditions had pin point control.

[slash129]

 

Verlander is a possible hall of famer. 

 

I'll see your 'possible' and raise you a 'likely first ballot'.

[Loosey]

 

Buxton needs to start hitting. He has to play, so he needs to hit. Holding the Astros to 2 runs is a good pitching performance. Time to score some runs. Here comes Cleveland to the top of the stack....

I think Buxton is close.  Last year when he was striking out about 60% of the time he made changes then started to put the ball in play a bit and would make some hard hit outs. Then soon after is when it all clicked.

 

Over the last 3 or 4 games he has put the ball in play most of his at bats and has been hitting the ball hard in many of them, such as last night.  

Edited April 10, 2018 by Loosey

[108Stitches]

Doesn’t matter who did what defensively. If you can’t score you can’t win. Offensive loss here

[Jerr]

Thanks for doing these game wraps, Tom Froemming!!! Awesome job and love the videos you include, along with your break down of the game.

[bobs]

Justin Verlander looks REALLY good in an Astros uniform....and NOT in the AL Central!

[slash129]

Eddie Rosario is not going to be "just fine", if he continues to play with a lack of patience and surplus amount of reckless abandon.  I doubt anyone is questioning his talent. Molitor and Co. need to find a way to deliver a wake-up call.  It doesn't matter to me if it's a series on the bench or a Gibson-esque option.  It's not like this org is lacking in LH corner outfielders with plus defensive profiles. Two of them happen to be on the 40.

 

Counting trying hard as a plus for a major league baseball player is a soft cop out.  Every player on the team is or very well should be trying hard.  Saying "at least he's trying hard" should be saved for the soft kid batting 13th on a house league youth team, because his mom signed him up for baseball so he would do something other than play Fortnite and eat candy.

[ThejacKmp]

 

I went into depth on Morrison's poor performance the last game, and I compared him to early-2006 Rondell White here. That's about as harsh a comp as I can put on a guy.

 

Also, here are the bottom three Twins hitters in WPA so far this season:

-.32 Morrison

-.42 Buxton

-.61 Rosario

 

Rosie actually has the 13th-lowest WPA in baseball right now.

 

Rosario has the same K rate as last year and his walk rate is up from last year (SSS acknowledged). His BABIP is .217, 100 points less than the past. Rosario will be fine, he's just getting unlucky. I haven't seen a lot of bad at-bats - he's had some nice tough battles fouling off balls actually.

[Dantes929]

 

I'm certainly not comparing them talent vs. talent. I'm talking about cold weather being used as an excuse why Lynn has no control of his pitches the last 2 starts. Yet Verlander in the same weather conditions had pin point control.

While I agree that the same weather conditions exist for all I don't agree that everyone is affected the same way.     Verlander might love the cold and Lynn might be shivering out there.   Personally, hot or cold doesn't usually affect me much but a brisk wind really messes me up.    Morrison might truly be adversely affected by the cold.   That is a reason to not give up on him.   Also a reason you might want to play him less now.    None of this is excuse.      Losing a close game to the best team in baseball isn't the end of the world.  In a game of inches and a couple of key plays weather and conditions may have played a role.   It usually does, hot, cold or windy.

[jkcarew]

If this were a football season, we'd be at the end of the 3rd quarter in the first game of the season.  In basically a tied game.

 

I'm not among those of you who are ready to take guys off the practice squad and play them in place of established players to start the 4th quarter of game one.

[Mike Sixel]

People keep typing Rosario is a good OF, even though statistics were posted last year and in this thread, showing he's actually not when compared to other MLB OFers. I think people got an impression of him a couple years ago that doesn't line up with the facts. 

 

As for LOMO, not good yet. I remain, though not very, hopeful.

[TFRazor]

 

I'll see your 'possible' and raise you a 'likely first ballot'.

I wanted to see how confident you were in your hand. Since you're obviously working with at least 3 aces off the draw, I fold.

[wsnydes]

 

While I agree that the same weather conditions exist for all I don't agree that everyone is affected the same way.     Verlander might love the cold and Lynn might be shivering out there.   Personally, hot or cold doesn't usually affect me much but a brisk wind really messes me up.    Morrison might truly be adversely affected by the cold.   That is a reason to not give up on him.   Also a reason you might want to play him less now.    None of this is excuse.      Losing a close game to the best team in baseball isn't the end of the world.  In a game of inches and a couple of key plays weather and conditions may have played a role.   It usually does, hot, cold or windy.

Everyone deals with different conditions differently.  Whether it be 100 degrees and humid or 28 degrees and frigid or 65 and raining, people are going to react and deal with it differently.  I'm not ready to cut anybody over the play over the first two weeks, but to give guys an out because it's cold is silly.  Do you give guys an out if it's blistering hot in August?  Both teams are playing in it and the team that deals with it better is most often the winner.  Part of being a professional in any walk of life is being put in spots where you won't be comfortable and still being able to perform your job.  Part of having an occupation that works outdoors is that you have to deal with the weather.

[TFRazor]

 

I'm certainly not comparing them talent vs. talent. I'm talking about cold weather being used as an excuse why Lynn has no control of his pitches the last 2 starts. Yet Verlander in the same weather conditions had pin point control.

I would actually argue that Verlander had pin point control. He had legit issues last night finding the plate but between getting ace pitcher calls on the outside of the plate, making good pitches when needed (which is what a *first ballot Hall of Famer does) and some poor chases by the twins, he ended up looking pretty good. I would say that when it came to the contact that was induced, Lynn actually gave up fewer hard hits. This game legit came down to two plays that got houston their two runs. Tonight the shoe may end up on the other foot. That's why baseball is as amazing a game as it is.

[gocgo]

Rosario will be fine...everyone calling for him to be sent to the minors, your hair is on fire...stop it.  He's a really good major league player who plays very aggressively both on offense and defense. 

 

It's April...simma down!

 

Last year, the Astros didn't have a winning record until April 29th.  We have a really, really good team.  I am concerned with Hildy, he hasn't looked right compared to last year.  I'm not concerned about Morrison other than to think he might be pressing a bit.

[slash129]

 

If this were a football season, we'd be at the end of the 3rd quarter in the first game of the season.  In basically a tied game.

 

I'm not among those of you who are ready to take guys off the practice squad and play them in place of established players to start the 4th quarter of game one.

 

Understood, but considering the roster make-up between football and baseball, I might give more 4th quarter snaps to players lower on the two-deep who produced when they did get snaps and then give the WR who dropped three passes and RB who fumbled twice a little more time on the sideline.

[bird]

 

This was his 4th screw up in the OF already over this young 8 game season. When can we get down on him?

 

 

When winter's over?

[h2oface]

 

Who?

 Yeah, sorry. Brain fart. Reed, not Russell. Addison Reed. Thanks. ....   Then, to start the inning, or against Davis with two outs to get out of the inning. Hildenberger has been totally not reliable yet this year.

Edited April 10, 2018 by h2oface

[woolywoolhouse]

 

Eddie Rosario is not going to be "just fine", if he continues to play with a lack of patience and surplus amount of reckless abandon.  I doubt anyone is questioning his talent. Molitor and Co. need to find a way to deliver a wake-up call.  It doesn't matter to me if it's a series on the bench or a Gibson-esque option...  

 

It's past time for Eddie to be dropped in the batting order. Move Escobar to third, drop Sano to clean-up, and drop Rosario anywhere down 7-9. He's popped out to the infield too many times in an effort to crush the ball 400+ feet instead of just making solid contact. Batting clean-up seems to have messed with his mindset, much like Buxton batting third in 2017. Unfortunately for Rosario, the frustrations at the plate seem to be carrying over to the field (which Buxton thankfully hasn't experienced through his struggles last year and the start of this.)

[TFRazor]

Anybody remember this time 2 years ago when we were 0-9? God we were awful. I’m cool with 4-4 through through April 10th

[Tom Froemming]

 

Rosario has the same K rate as last year and his walk rate is up from last year (SSS acknowledged). His BABIP is .217, 100 points less than the past. Rosario will be fine, he's just getting unlucky. I haven't seen a lot of bad at-bats - he's had some nice tough battles fouling off balls actually.

Agreed. I never made an argument that Rosario is doomed or should be benched/sent down. I suspect Rosie is going to put up offensive numbers similar to last season. He's got better days ahead of him. The same can be said about Morrison, Buxton and anybody else who's slumping.

 

But when these guys have bad games (just like when they have good games) I'm probably going to focus on them in these game recaps. Those defensive plays were the only two run-scoring plays of the game, and Rosie's GIDP was the biggest swing in win probability on the night. Those are the kinds of things I'm going to highlight more often than not.

[TFRazor]

 

Justin Verlander looks REALLY good in an Astros uniform....and NOT in the AL Central!

It's amazing what happens to a pitcher's stats when he's not playing in front of a terrible defense. Detroit absolutely wasted his last couple of years there. I know there were injuries involved but still. All we kept hearing out of Detroit was, "there are some concerns about lost velocity". I distinctly remember him hitting at least 96 at one point last night.

Edited April 10, 2018 by TFRazor

[lukeduke1980]

I think robbie grossman should get some at bats at dh while Lomo fights through it. 

 

I was pleasantly surprised at Hildenberger's recovery after the meatball pitch that brought in the run.

 

I was pleased with the competitiveness of our Twins against a really good team especially with no one really locked in at the plate.

[KirbyDome89]

 

People keep typing Rosario is a good OF, even though statistics were posted last year and in this thread, showing he's actually not when compared to other MLB OFers. I think people got an impression of him a couple years ago that doesn't line up with the facts. 

 

As for LOMO, not good yet. I remain, though not very, hopeful.

It's the Phil Hughes effect. 

 

Eddie made a strong first impression and some are convinced that's the "real," Eddie even though a much larger amount of sample suggests otherwise. The guy has loads of talent, but the idea that he's a strong defensive OFer to this point is questionable to put it kindly. 

[mikelink45]

Rosario has established who he is and we get some good and bad mixed with more good.  More than any of these players I am concerned about Buxton because we are no longer at the point where his struggles should just be seen as growing pains.   Its time for him to put it together and keep it together.   He is the one player who many of us have superstar expectations for and this start is really disappointing.

[Riverbrian]

Lance Lynn: I thought he was fantastic last night. I think he did a great job keeping the ball out of danger and that is important against a team that can hit like the Astros can.

 

Pitchers pitch out of the zone all the time. Houston didn't do a lot of chasing so it probably appeared like Lynn couldn't locate... I think he was and Houston didn't cooperate and this drove the pitch count up. Good teams try to drive the pitch count up on starters. Houston did it's job yet Lynn stuck to his guns and didn't allow a run against a good offense. I see no reason to be concerned with what transpired last night.

 

Eddie Rosario: I think he needs a little work on situational approaches. He has tons of talent but his baseball IQ has always seemed slightly lacking. He has a history of going for third in the wrong situations, making unnecessary throws, swinging for the fence when simply making contact is more important, or making the wrong decision when to go for the ball or lay up. I contend this will get better and am not worried about Eddie because he is absolutely talented. 

 

Byron Buxton: I'm not worried at all. When he starts to heat up... he is going to make us proud. I hope he keeps working on pitch recognition so he chases less on outside breaking pitches. 

 

Logan Morrison: I think it's too early to be concerned. Mike Trout will go through similar stretches of lacking production during the season. Everybody struggles for stretches... it just seems louder when it happens at the start of the season. However... I am not liking his inability to adjust to the extreme shifting. I see no indication that he can adjust and I hope I'm wrong. If he can't adjust... he is going to hit. .210 this year because there will be a player standing everywhere he tends to hit the ball. I am perfectly OK seeing him on the bench from time to time so Grossman can get more starts until Morrison starts turning things around. 

 

Trevor Hildenberger: He had a nice bounce back inning but he has to locate. Doesn't have enough Gas to not locate. Too many pitches have been center cut this year in a small sample. I don't think it's reacting too soon to send him down to Rochester for a spell. 

 

This Twins team is Good... It's gonna be a fun year. 

[ashbury]

I think robbie grossman should get some at bats at dh while Lomo fights through it.

Why, so that Grossman can fight through it instead? He's 1-for-10 with no walks and 5 SOs to start this season.