July 19, 20206 yr LaTroy Hawkins on Jorge Alcala: "He's defintely close. I don't know if he's going to break with us, I don't get to make those decisions, but ... He's definitely having a very good showing."
July 19, 20206 yr As I stated in another thread, I think Poppen is overlooked and probably the first in line to help in the pen. But I am very excited about Alcala and think he has a great ceiling! And I trust Hawk's opinion 100%. But there was one comment Hawkins made that caught me off guard. Paraphrasing, "He has a great changeup". I thought the problem with Alcala staying in the rotation was lack of a 3rd offering. Am I wrong? Is it just control, which could be mitigated by only pitching an inning or two? Or is he finding a better change now? If he bad ANY sort of 3rd pitch to throw, at least on occasion, I would think he has the potential to dominate in the pen. Thank you for the video feed!
July 19, 20206 yr Alcala looks light-years better than he did in late 2018. Kudos to the Twins pitching coaches.
July 19, 20206 yr I think we have plenty of BP arms, our focus should be to groom him to start. I didn`t like how they took potential starters & threw them into the BP but thats not to say later in the season to give him some MLB exposure. I think that`s what you meant
July 19, 20206 yr Author As I stated in another thread, I think Poppen is overlooked and probably the first in line to help in the pen. But I am very excited about Alcala and think he has a great ceiling! And I trust Hawk's opinion 100%.But there was one comment Hawkins made that caught me off guard. Paraphrasing, "He has a great changeup". I thought the problem with Alcala staying in the rotation was lack of a 3rd offering. Am I wrong? Is it just control, which could be mitigated by only pitching an inning or two? Or is he finding a better change now?If he bad ANY sort of 3rd pitch to throw, at least on occasion, I would think he has the potential to dominate in the pen.Thank you for the video feed!Command and consistency are definitely Alcala's biggest concerns. I can't comment on the chageup specifically, but he has enough else to work on that I suspect he may be better off simplifying some other things while addressing those other items. Alcala started off last year great, only walking 6.2% of the batters he faced in April. Over May and June, that jumped all the way up to 10.3%. While he threw more strikes again in July, he was also hammered, giving up a .998 OPS that month. He was just kinda all over the place as a starter last year I think we have plenty of BP arms, our focus should be to groom him to start. I didn`t like how they took potential starters & threw them into the BP but thats not to say later in the season to give him some MLB exposure. I think that`s what you meantI'm usually the one also beating this drum -- I think it's a shame we're not going to see Brusdar Graterol get a chance to prove himself as a starting pitcher, and still believe Zack Littell could have been a solid starter -- but I'm comfortable closing that door for Alcala. He's going to turn 25 in a few days, is already on the 40-man roster and had a 5.86 ERA as a starting pitcher last season. I'm OK with them turning the page and seeing what he can do in relief.
July 19, 20206 yr How does service time (i.e. Super Two) work this year? In a normal year, I'd say he sounds primed for a May call-up.
July 19, 20206 yr He can’t throw it over the plate. Until he gets that fixed he won’t make it in the bigs
July 20, 20206 yr We could get Edward Mujica back out of retirement — he was the ultimate bullpen “sleeper”: https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_901616
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