jkcarew

It's all a part of the slow, painful process of anger, denial, and acceptance of the fact that the Twins FO doesn't (didn't) think Graterol can be a starting pitcher in the major leagues. And, the accompanying belief that Balazovic is still on track to be a starter.

But if the Twins FO thought he was going to be a top starter they wouldn't have offered him in this deal, right...for a good-not-great starter? We can wish all we want, but it's pretty difficult now to suggest the Twins see Graterol as being a starter. Ever. Of course, that doesn't mean they'll be proven correct. We'll see.

Very legitimate sentiment, IMO. While, I probably side with those that feel we're seeing amateur hour unfold over in the Red Sox front offices....I don't think that exactly means that the medical records are 100% definitely irrelevant to this story. First, let's not pretend that we necessarily know everything in those medical reports...or that the Twins have made a practice of transparency with fans and media regarding Graterol's arm. Of course, they haven't. That's not the way things work. Meanwhile, there have been plenty of smoking guns in Graterol's young career. So, is it possible things might be at least a little worse than we assumed? That maybe reliever isn't a short-term choice, but a necessary long-term approach to manage injury risk? The fact that Boston should have been able to infer that the medical records would have issues based on public knowledge and Minnesota's willingness to trade him for Kenta Maeda...well that doesn't exactly say "but, the medical records are fine".

Every pitcher has a tough stretch or two...Berrios’s numbers are his numbers. The ‘concern’ regarding the Twins pitching has been, for the most part, how it stacks up in the playoffs. It’s relatively easy (in 2019, it was historically easy) to have success in the regular season playing in the AL Central. If your best starter is struggling to be a top 20 pitcher, you’re going to be at a disadvantage in the playoffs...and probably right out of the gate.

Agree on the potential willingness to pull trigger sooner rather than later on a bench bat role given his age...but fwiw....it's not at all obvious to me that he's going to be a superior offensive player to Cave, and we can assume he's not going to be defensively superior. Cave was a 112 OPS+ guy last year (111 career now)...and also out-hit Rooker at Rochester last year. I guess his right-handedness could play in a platoon situation...(although, Cave even indicated the ability to handle left-handed pitching last year, in a small sample). That kind of power gives him a chip and a chance, though.

I'd be a low-teens guy on Rooker. The 2019 number are inflated...both in terms of what the International league was in 2019 (there were 4 guys at Rochester last year that slashed better than Rooker)...and in terms of his unsustainably high BABiP. In 2018, as a 23-year-old in AA, he was .254/.333/.465. That's not bad, but it's not great either. And he's 25 now. Could be a late bloomer like Garver (was Garver ever ranked as high as #9?)...but Rooker has a much slimmer margin of error. Guys that can hit for power and play a bad corner outfield or first base are a dime a dozen. Catcher, not so much.

I don't think the arbitration outcome impacts how the future plays out in any way. But I do think the arbitration process presented us a snapshot of where the parties are at this particular time. And it doesn't seem that they are close. Still time. Seems Jose is betting on himself, and seems that the Twins are not yet ready to go to the elite money level for him. Both seem reasonable positions to me, but it also seems that the better Jose does in 2020/2021, the less likely he is to stick here beyond free agency. I guess that could be looked at as a good thing.

Whatever criteria is used for age...Enlow comes out much younger than the last three pitchers who appear on these rankings...almost 4 years younger than Thorpe... and between 1 1/2 to 2 years younger than Canterino and Colina. Very much a work in progress with high upside, which is exactly what you would expect Enlow to be at this point and given his draft status.

"(Wallner) got in a healthy 291 plate appearances as a pro at age 21. The results weren't necessarily amazing, but they're almost eerily similar to those Alex Kirilloff put up in his own Elizabethton debut, as a first-round pick in 2016. I think we all recall what followed in the (delayed) encore." Granted, he's 'only' coming in at 14th, but let's not go there. Apples and oranges. Wallner was 21 coming off 3 years of D1 competition in a very good conference. Kirilloff, 18, coming in off of facing high-school competition...in Pennsylvania no less. Kirilloff's debut performance was vastly more impressive than Wallner's. I agree with keeping Javier in this neighborhood...for now.

Thanks for doing these! Just fun and interesting. I'm with Tom on Colina. A hard-throwing 5-11 (if that) guy that can rack up innings to be a year-after-year reliable starter? Doubtful. Not never...but doubtful. FWIW...we question a 21-year-old Graterol because he's never been able to exceed 102 innings pitched in a season. Colina's max is 109 innings...last year was less than 100. I would evaluate him lower as a potential guy on the back end of a bullpen.

Ensuring that Gordon started the season on the IL... just another example of the brilliance of the current FO.

Hyperbole much? I don't think I'll choose stealing signs in major league baseball games as the criterion against which I'll determine that Altuve is scum and Lombardozzi is a great guy. Then again, I think I might be in the minority here.

As a team, Houston's batting OPS was higher on the road than it was at home in both 2017 and 2018. Higher at home in 2019. If they're healthy, they'll be plenty good offensively. It's plenty fine with me that the Twins are even in the conversation...which they undoubtedly are.

This article gets ahead of itself quite a bit, IMO... Chacin won't even see the 40-man until/unless a fairly significant string of events unfolds. Barring a spring-training disaster, one or two of the young arms already on the 40-man will get the opportunities to start the season. If they fail as a group, and/or there are other injuries...and Chacin is good at Rochester....then maybe. It's just insurance...supplementary insurance even...the kind you buy when you already have insurance, but don't love it.

So, you're comparing him to A.J, huh? Good call, IMO. Come to think of it, the last time the Twins won a playoff series, Pierzinski was there...and played a HUGE role. Just say'in.

You mean like in the day's of Ty Cobb? If I'm trying to win, I'll take a measure of acid with the sugar...while absolutely acknowledging that it can go south just as easily.

Like others, I love the idea of Sano glued to the seat/spot next to Cruz...in the batting cage, dugout, clubhouse, plane. Please, Miggy...continue to be asking Nelson ton's of questions and watching every aspect of every single one of his at-bats.

I was thinking of posting an image of a street sign that read... '0 Street' I'm sure it's out there somewhere.

Nice article. Great point on Ramirez...in the 2nd-half, he was absolutely 100% the player that finished third in MVP voting the two prior seasons. He's a star. He's 27. Lindor just turned 26. We still talk about our 26-27 year-olds in terms of 'taking the next step'. What if Ramirez and Lindor can have even bigger seasons than they've had. Still very good chance of that...even likely at some point. And the pitching...so, yeah. Last year, pretty much everything that could go wrong for them, did go wrong. Lost some pitching...but still have pitching. We'll see...I still think they finish first or second.

Good point. Their combined 137 K's in those 412 AAA PA, just made it SEEM like they played a lot more

Congrats on the HS diploma, Jhoan!!

The game after the Berrios game, Santana, Rogers, and Kintzler held the Astros to 2 runs. The game after that our favorite whipping boy, Kyle Gibson held his own. Meanwhile, when the Astros's visited Target Field that year, sans garbage can, they hung 40 runs on the Twins in 3 games...including 9 base-runners and 4 runs in 5 innings to hang another loss on Berrios. I'm all for consequences (although, 'punishment' comes from the league, not the Twins). They created an advantage by willfully, and in an organized fashion, doing something against the rules. They cheated. But there is simply not much in the data to say that it was particularly effective or sustained....despite what some will try to do by cherry-picking specific at-bats and games.

LaMonte Wade was a below-average offensive player in AAA last year. But this year if forced to play regularly at the major-league level...at a corner outfield position no less...he’ll be a “fine” major league player? I like the optimism.

Is that what I said? Not even in the universe of what I said. If I don't call Sano a great hitter...yet...it's not quite the same as saying I don't think he has value, is it? He does. Quit a bit. Meanwhile, he still has his pitch recognition issues and he still cheats at times to protect the inner half....those challenges contribute to the swings and misses...not just "swinging hard" (Sano's a lower-half guy in terms of generating the power). The puchline to my post was that Sano's results can get even better. It's a function of the immense power combined with material opportunities for improvement. It's the opposite of a bad thing to say about Sano.

But let's dump Jake Cave from the 26-man roster...because...well, pretty much any free agent we could pick up would be better than him...not to mention about a half dozen guys within our own organization who have options. Right? Also, wouldn't read too much into the Avila number. 2019 was an extremely small sample size for him (only 200 or so PA). Although his bat will play up...as long as Garver is healthy...Avila can basically avoid left-handed pitching entirely, as was the case last year for him with the Diamondbacks. Nice article. Interesting. What has never made sense to me is how a guy like Sano can be among the league leaders in swings-and-misses (I presume this to be true)...and also right at the top of barrel percentage. How does that work? You frequently miss the ball entirely, but when you make contact, your contact is more precise than everyone else? I suspect that what's closer to the truth is that 'ordinary' players often put the barrel on the ball, but don't get the results to qualify under this metric. Meanwhile, Sano probably leads the universe in not getting the middle of the barrel to the ball...and having the result still meet the mph and launch angle criteria. I would guess that there are two types of hitters than fit at the top of this chart. Great hitters (like Cruz), and ridiculously strong hitters, like Sano. In other words...this could get even better for Sano.