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Dman

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Everything posted by Dman

  1. Dman
    I had my doubts when it came to Wallner, lots of doubts but I think this years amazing season has put them to rest. The power was always there but the massive swing and miss was troubling early on. Kepler has to be looking over his shoulder as Wallner's bat could be a difference maker in right field. Anyway Congrats to Wallner on a great season and for putting doubter's like me in their place. I really do like Juliens game better than Wallner and he has been amazing since he started pro ball. Essentially not much change in the number no matter the level. I like a guy who can make a pitcher work and he still has power to hit the ball out of the park. He also is savvy on the bases being able to steal bases. Julien is a very complete offensive player now if he could elevate his defense that would really help. Williams was on fire this year but I guess I still don't know if this is a one year wonder thing or not. I think the Twins might have something in Cardenes. I think the bat is for real. The FSL is a tough league for a hitters OPS and he has held his own in that tough environment all year. I would not be surprised to see him move two levels next year if his bat continues to play. I thought he was a more defensive first catcher out of college so I assume he is still solid behind the plate but I can't say for sure. Their are good number of solid bats in the system now if they can find more pitching talent that would really help.
  2. Dman
    Happy too see at least one affiliate win a playoff game! Now let's go get that championship!
  3. Dman
    He just gives up too much contact right now and guys are barreling his pitches for home runs. I mean 99 hits in 95 innings is gonna hurt you and his HR rate is a killer as well. Something isn't working. Maybe @bean5302 can take a deeper dive into the numbers but right now there is something about that is too predictable for the hitters he is facing. Fix that and he looks like he could be dominant. Keep things the same and he will never make it. Given his build and the results so far I think a reliever role fits him best but I guess we will see what happens next year. At least he is young for the level. There is time to fix stuff.
  4. Dman
    I know the OP focused on just three but IMO it was even worse than that. I would go on to argue Strotman and Henriquez and to some degree Sands were all equally disappointing at the minor league level as well. The top of the 2020 draft with Sabato and Soularie continued to disappoint as well. I am giving Cavaco one more year but he too looks out of his depth at the plate. So yeah plenty of of disappointing players on the farm this year and could argue the OP has the top three as those players all ranked higher in the system but the the disappointment goes beyond those 3. I know I keep harping on it but the Twins need that pitching pipeline up and working without it they cannot compete. They seem to be good at getting the most from guys drafted late but they all seem to be 5th starter types. They need to find some front of the rotation types as well to make this work. There were plenty of positives in the system as well. Far more positive player outcomes than negative in the system Varland and Festa to name just a few. With three of the 4 affiliates making the playoffs the system has good players the question is do they have elite players or MLB difference makers there? I hope so.
  5. Dman
    Happy to see there is still fight left in the teams at A and High A. Muscles with a massive comeback I thought it was over with the score 5 to 3 with the bullpens in place. I give Cavaco a lot of crap but that was a huge hit to get the win. Also nice to see the 2022 draft picks stepping up and helping with the win. They just need to keep this up and find a way to win the series. Lee seems to be looking better every game he gets. They are going to need his bat to keep things going. Another player that gets no love, Javier with a big HR. The guy can still play just needs to find a way to be more consistent with the bat. Seems like that Wichita lineup is running on all cylinders now even after losing Wallner and Williams. Martin has looked better after returning from injury. Prato is still a tough out. Severino has been hitting the ball well and Jullien always seems to find a way to get on base. Throw in some solid pitching and I think this team has a chance in the playoffs. Gotta believe at least one of the three teams in the playoffs can go all the way.
  6. Dman
    For as frustrating as this year has been it has been a lot more fun than last year. Being completely out of it after the first month of the season made last year really hard to be excited about Twins baseball at all. At least with the fast start and being in it until late in the season games had meaning. So while the results were the same I enjoyed this years team much more than last years. We need much better pitching to compete in the division and the playoffs though. So I hope the arms we have stay\get healthy and that young arms develop otherwise this team is going no where next year either.
  7. Dman
    Was hoping for at least one playoff win but it was not to be. Happy that Wichita clinched and it is nice to see the bottom three affiliates in the playoffs. The Saints being the only major minor league team not to make it this year. A fun year to watch the Twins prospects in the minors. Hopefully one of these teams can win a playoff series.
  8. Dman
    I hate to say it but I was kind of waiting for Headrick to fall later in the season. I also thought the move up might hurt him and it has tainted his ERA and WHIP but the K rate remains very good which bodes well. Maybe someone else can correct me but I am not aware of him having a plus pitch. Maybe the slider or change is there now but I don't really know. He was dominant at High A but he wasn't really young for the level either. He is a lefty with a good K rate though so a much needed arm in the Twins system. I would say he an outside chance to start but I see him ending up a reliever myself. We will soon see how the Twins feel as they have a lot of Rule V 40 man decisions to make this coming year.,
  9. Dman
    Yeah I should have included injury concerns in there. They are not old as you stated.
  10. Dman
    I agree with most of this. I expected the Twins to get their young players experience. I expected the farm to produce a few more young options for next year as well. I didn't have grand hopes of them being much over or under 500 this year. I will say when they signed Correa and traded for Paddack coupled with the hot start that my perception did change for a brief moment. Still this team and especially the bullpen was flawed from the start and given all the injuries I can see why they fell backwards. The bullpen gave away way too many winnable games. Even with their bad second half the Twins could still be in the hunt if the pen didn't give up so many games early in the season so often. Clutch hitting with the bases loaded was another issue for this team. They had horrible at bats in those situations just mind boggling. Sorry but I don't have a good vibe for next year either with older pitchers like Gray, Maeda, Mahle, and Paddack they seem likely to break down as the season wears on and the pithing pipeline hasn't produced anything solid yet other than Ryan who they traded for. This is a flawed team until they can get pitching figured out. Unlike some I still like this FO and I don't see Rocco as a problem as managers generally just manage by the numbers these days so I don't think change there changes much of anything. My only message to the FO is draft pitching, pitching and more pitching. Take arms early and late. Trade for good young pitching. Until this team can match the top teams rotations it will be seasons like this one over and over again.
  11. Dman
    I know you are not asking me but they desperately needed arms so I can see why they did that. Not sure every pick had to be a pitcher as I am not certain how you would find room in the system for all those arms but the Guardians took the same approach that year with 19 out of 21 picks being pitchers and one could argue they know what they are doing. I think there are times when doing something like that could be prudent. In fact I would argue the Twins should do something similar next year. The system is loaded with decent bats but the pitching pipeline looks depleted. IMO they should look to go heavy on the pitching side to rebalance the system. Again not sure all 21 picks need to be pitchers but 15 to 16 out of 21 wouldn't be a bad idea.
  12. Dman
    I really like your list I could let that stand pretty easily and I like that you took chances on Williams and Isola. Personally I think you have Miller to high but that is just me. I love the writeups. Thanks for the list!
  13. Dman
    Agree that Jullien deserves it more but they are probably keeping AA's best hitter for the playoffs at AA since the Saints are not in the running for the playoffs. Jullien will start at AAA next year and will be a phone call away from the MLB team so a few missed AAA chances won't change anything. As for Lee same thing. The Kernals need bats for the playoffs and Lee will be set to start AA next year and if he performs well they might want to make room on the 40 man for him but odds are they don't do that until 2024 but we'll see. If he truly is special he has a shot to make it next year but no reason to rush him anywhere right now IMO.
  14. Dman
    Not sure what to think about Lawyerson. He looks like a max effort pitcher to me so IMO not really starter material and I wonder how his stuff would translate but to this point his results speak volumes. Still will the Twins find room on the 40 man for him? Hard to say at this point if you ask me.
  15. Dman
    I don't know for sure but I have to believe part of the reason he has been fast tracked is that he is already 23 and he has handled each level he has been at to this point well, granted in a very SSS. I think if you want a player at that age to have much of any prospect status moving him faster than slower is the way to go. I thought it was an interesting pick when the Twins made it. A true lottery ticket that saved draft money. In college while older he was an On base machine with good slugging to go with it. If it translates it will be interesting to see where he fits. So far AAA has been hard on him but with only 10 at bats hard to say where he is truly at. It is a steep learning curve for him but I like the way the Twins are using him and it looks like he has a good enough of an approach to make it IMO. Next year we will know much more but I hope the Twins hit the lotto on this one.
  16. Dman
    It is interesting that at the beginning of the season that most of us thought this was about a 500 team or maybe slightly worse and I was fine with that as they were likely going to need to bring up the young guys. The calculus changed some with the Correa signing and the hot start but true to form the pitching started hurting the team and lost opportunity after lost opportunity finally caught up to them. Honestly it is a minor miracle that the Twins were even in it to the end given their level of play. Granted the Twins made some moves at the deadline to get a better starter and closer but in true Twins fashion they both hurt the team more than helped. There is Atlanta who makes moves that shouldn't even work and then the Twins who appeared to make decent moves and got less than nothing out of it. Baseball is crazy. At any rate this just isn't a very good team. They might have great team chemistry but they fail in clutch situations and don't have enough difference makers to make a difference. Not sure that I feel much better looking at next year either because if the pitching doesn't improve by leaps and bounds this is the same old Twins team we have been watching for years. Don't have elite pitching and can't hit when it really matters. They really need to focus on drafting pitching higher in the draft and also find their later reclamation projects. Until this team can pitch better they might as well just keep losing for high draft picks because being mediocre or slightly worse just really sucks.
  17. Dman
    I think you are pretty spot on. I keep looking at who might have top of the rotation potential and have to squint just to see Varland and SWR. We are pretty much looking all the way back to Prielipp now and he hasn't even pitched this year yet. Maybe Festa but given his build he looks more like a future pen arm than starter although he did hold up this year. Povich was the only other guy that looked like a possibility and he got traded for a bag of magical beans that gives up leads in the 9th more than he creates saves. The OP is right I went into the year defending the FO for a pitching pipeline that had Balazovich, Sands, Henriquez, Winder, Duran, Enlow on the horizon, Varland, SWR, with some young guys coming up in Povich, Hajjar and Petty with outside chances in SGL, Headrick, Mooney and Festa. Almost all of it has cratered or been traded away. It almost feels like they are back to square one. To say there is ton of pressure on the pitching pipeline feels like an understatement. They will never compete in the division and ultimately the playoffs if they can't do better than this. I like Falvine but if they don't get some wins on the pitching side I don't see how they end up any better than the Ryan regime and that is not saying much.
  18. Dman
    I have been on the Sisk Bandwagon for a while now. Not sure that the Twins don't like from the dominant lefty but it must be something. He has been good to great start to finish this year.
  19. Dman
    I honestly didn't think it would happen for Louie this year. I was thinking next year but I love this move. He has been the most consistent pitcher in the high minors this year. Somehow he even turned it up a notch after getting to AAA. He has earned and deserved this shot IMO. Go gettum Louie the fans are behind you win or lose.
  20. Dman
    Happy for Steer. He is ready. Cinci got a versatile defender and well rounded bat in that deal. He should be a good player for them for a long time.
  21. Dman
    Man what a game for Wallner. I am always hard on him with the K rate but when he has nights like last night all the little stuff gets forgotten. 5 for 6 and hits for the cycle just a special, special night for him. He started off slow but with that performance has finally moved his OPS into the 800 range at AAA. If he stays locked in then he could still reach the 900 mark which he will need to press for MLB time. With Helman the base stealer at the top of the order then Wallner and then Williams who might have the hottest bat in the system and the stronger Palacios, that is a tough top of the order for any pitcher to face. Wallner's power is something to see. The ball gets out so fast seems like the camera has a hard time catching up to it. Jullien is the heart and soul of that Wichita team. Another HR and another walk with 3 total hits and only one out on the night. Not sure what more this guy can do as he is AAA bound next year for sure. Sabato with a good night and finally moved his OPS in the 700 range not that great but it is better than Martin's 674. Feels like the arms in the system are tired as the scores in these games are getting out of hand but still a very good night for lot's of the hitters in the system.
  22. Dman
    I hadn't thought about that before but if he can OPS what Kepler can or more and play just as good defense then that makes a lot of sense to me. He has the speed. He has the arm. Now he seems to have the bat so if they wanted to get some value from Kepler they could. It would help make room for Wallner as well. I like Kepler but this team needs to find room for young guys and I think Kep could be the odd man out.
  23. Dman
    I tend to agree. Of the three Canterino can still come back and be an elite pitcher. I still kind of think he will end up a pen arm given his age and recovery time but he could be an elite one. I really think Martin will have a bounce back year next year. He has a good eye at the plate and good bat to ball skills. I am a little concerned teams have shifted him and he is not getting those hits up the middle he used to get. He also is one of best base stealers we have in the system. I know that is not a coveted trait anymore but it can help especially when you need to push a run across late in the game. I wouldn't give up on him just yet. Of the three Balazovich worries me the most. Lot's of evaluators said long lever's can make control of pitches difficult and it seems like that is coming true. Balazovich has the stuff to be successful but if he can't control it he will never make it. I am surprised there has been very little improvement the entire year. I don't know if he comes out of this funk or not but have to give him another try next year to see if he can. He has too much potential to just throw away at this point. At any rate I agree I think we need some patience yet with these three and IMO I think they will be worth the wait.
  24. Dman
    Had to look twice and check the Box score to validate Miller walked 5 times. For a player with such good plate discipline you would think the BA would be higher than .212. Not sure why he is having contact issues but I thought he might get better as the season went on but so far this seems to be who he is. I get that he is only 19 with plenty of time to learn I just thought given the apparently good eye at the plate he would also have the ability to barrel more balls.
  25. Dman
    The Twins needed that win and it was nice to see them score on another teams pen for once. I kind of thought after that ugly inning the Twins might not score again but was happy to be wrong. I also thought they would throw Gordon something low and away out of the zone with two strikes as he does like to chase but they didn't and his HR was the back breaker. Happy for Nick who is moving that OPS into MIranda range and looks like someone who could hold down a legit full time position now. He finally seems to have found a bit more power which has changed the calculus on what he can do at the plate. Anyway the Twins need to keep on winning to either catch the Indians or grab a wild card spot. So keep it going please.
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