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Jim Hahn

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  1. Jim Hahn
    This is true, in that relievers were used that way in 70's and 80's. Whether you want to use relievers that way today is an open question. A lot of relievers were burnt out at young ages from that kind of use. Starters also threw complete games then, giving their bullpens breaks, fairly regularly. Starters on good teams anyway also got deeper into games. One last problem, is that a greater percentage of today's relievers are max delivery guys. How many of them can bounce back quickly from multi inning use is another question. We will have to see but I really hope the Twins can coax more innings out of their starters. I doubt if the best relievers on the Twins will be able to stand up to this workload if it continues like this the rest of the year.
  2. Jim Hahn
    For a number of years it has seemed to be the policy of the Twins to limit their minor league catchers time behind the plate. They may play other positions or appear at DH, but you don't seem To see any of them catching more than the half the games. I assume that there are reasons for this. My guess is that catchers can get pretty beat up in the minors, because so many pitchers have control issues. I don't know the actual reasons. Maybe Seth or one of the TD experts knows more about this.
  3. Jim Hahn
    I agree with this. It is hard for me to understand why more major leaguers aren't better at bunting. Especially when it doesn't take a particularly good bunt to give you a "free" hit. Since teams hardly work on defending a bunt anymore, you would think more players and teams would want to get better at bunting. I also wonder about players or teams worrying about changing their swings to take advantage of shifts. I heard Rod Carew say that he had 3 different swings. Clearly Carew was a pretty special player. But if he could work on and maintain 3 different swings, you would think modern players could make adjustments to take advantage of the shift without destroying their swing.
  4. Jim Hahn
    So far, Wade has played 8 games. Raley has the fewest with 5 and the fewest ab's with 16. Wiel is in the mix somewhere as he has 6 games and they aren't all at first probably because of Rosario.
  5. Jim Hahn
    Actually, Andreoli seems to be playing center most nights. The other outfielders are rotating thru the DH spot. So all 4 are in the lineup most nights.
  6. Jim Hahn
    Ok, and that might happen. But Brock is right. He could easily break in moving around from outfield to 1b to DH. Eventually somebody likely gets traded. Just who doesn't have to be decided now. It would be better to decide that when you actually have too many players for not enough positions.
  7. Jim Hahn
    I don't agree/understand this. If Kiriloff turns out to be as good a major league hitter as it appears he might, you can certainly afford to play him at first rather than OF because he will be as good or better than any 1b you are likely to develop or be able to find. The other problem is If you refuse to play him at first before he has proved he is that hitter, you will have to trade him for less than he probably going to be worth. It can go either way, but trading minor leaguers who have a good chance to be impact players, does not often turn out for teams who can't buy their way out of that kind of mistake.
  8.    Jim Hahn reacted to a post in a topic: Article: Tyler Austin Traded to San Francisco
  9. Jim Hahn
    Part of the problem for Austin is that during his option years he received little big league opportunity until traded to the Twins. While with the Twins, he showed off his strength(ability to hit home runs at a good rate). He also revealed some weaknesses, strike zone judgement, poor contact skills and weak defensive ability at 1b. Hence Cron, who is at marginally better in all those areas except home run rate. Now, i agree with Riverbrian, that Austin hasn't had sufficient opportunity to prove himself at the major league level. Maybe he will get that chance in San Francisco. But for the Twins he was not a particularly good fit. Even before Cron. There is plenty of right handed power in this lineup, even before Sano. There is a shortage of on base skills and contact skills, hence Austudillo's increased playing time. I don't know how much Cron improves the lineup's weaknesses, but he is likely going to do better in those areas than Austin, in 2019. After this year who knows, but there should/could be other options by then. Austin's lack of options hurt his chances of remaining a Twin, but it wasn't the only factor.
  10. Jim Hahn
    Of course you are right. The best hitters on this team, Cruz and Polanco use the whole field. So does Rosario when he is going good. Those hitters aren't shifted as much, and when they are, it isn't as effective. You can see it in their spray charts that they get hits to all fields. Even Ortiz got a lot of hits to the opposite field. He played ping pong with the Green Monster a lot.
  11. Jim Hahn
    Would you count 120 warm up pitches he also threw under this scenario?
  12. Jim Hahn
    It is possible that either or both of Enlow and Balazovic are ready for high A. Sometimes if you want to keep a starter starting, you might have to keep them back a level or even push them ahead of the ideal level. It is a pretty group of starters at Fort Myers. Since these 2 are pretty young, it was probably the best option to have begin the year at low A. Years back, the best arms were kept as starters long as possible. Mostly to get them more innings and a better chance to develop secondary pitches, even if it was thought the guy's future was the bullpen. Development seems a little different now, but i think they still like to keep guys with mlb starter potential, starting. Even maybe when you can't put him at his ideal level.
  13. Jim Hahn
    What I noticed is Garver down on one knee (his right knee) during both of Partner's wild pitches. Since he was trained to do this by the catching coach this spring, I am not criticizing Garver. I do wonder if this position makes it more difficult to get to pitches that wild. I wouldn't criticize Baldelli for having Parker out there in the 9th. This is what is going to happen with "flexible" bullpens. Your best relievers get used up earlier in the game for "high leverage " situations. You don't save them for the 9th inning or save situations. Of course right now we have no idea who the best reliever is going to be.
  14. Jim Hahn
    To me the goal shoul2d be, to get a strike called a strike. A catcher can help that by giving the umpire a good look and controlling his movements, i.e. moving smoothly etc. Stealing a strike is good, but sometimes that strike you think the catcher is stealing, actually is a strike, due to the fact the strike zone has depth. The other thing about getting strikes called strikes, is some of that is on the pitcher. A pitcher isn't going get strikes called on the inside corner when the catcher is setting up on the outside or visca versa. Also when pitchers fail to establish a rhythm and take forever between pitches, that effects umpires as well. It is hard enough to keep concentration over 3 hrs. and 250 pitches without the pitcher fooling around and shaking off the catcher. I think some of this pitch framing thing is a bit overblown and pitch framing stats may oversell the actual value of stealing strikes. That being said, getting in good position and properly catching the ball is a very real skill.
  15. Jim Hahn
    I agree that this team could hit a lot of home runs. Setting a team run record means nothing to me. That 1963 Twins team wasn't very good. The Twins got better in the mid 60's when they added more complete hitters, better defenders and more pitching. I hope this Twins team has enough of those other things, besides home runs.
  16. Jim Hahn
    I think the point is Pressly would be the best reliever on the Twins, with the possible exception of Rogers, right now. Will it turn out to be a good trade for the Twins? There is good chance that will happen. But right now, the Twins sure could use a dominant late inning reliever. Maybe all the guys being counted on will come thru with productive years. Maybe if they don't, Romero or someone else will come up and be dominant. The problem is right now, Pressly would look pretty darn good in the Twins bullpen. There is certainly nothing wrong with people pointing that out.
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