Twodogs

Glenn Adams

Tsuyoshi Nishioka. How great was he supposed to be?

I don't think the amount of games actually played even matters at all in this scenario. I mean do the Dodgers not recognize their 1981 World Series championship? There was only about 100 games played that year? I don't ever hear anything about how people de-value the Dodgers vs the Yankees in 1981 because the season was only like 100 to 110 games. Yeah, for that matter, not all of the teams even played the same number of games? Now on the issue of players being put under quarantine and or games without fans are valid arguments. Not sure if players would go for that.

I see even Mike Cubbage mentioned for 3B. Here is another one, he only played one year in the 70's but John Castino won the ROY award in the 79 season?

I have also read some stuff where they could play all of the games in AZ? If that were the case then they could play their normal divisions.

Boston is even going to struggle more with Chris Sale out with elbow surgery.

Dang in 1987 he had 223 K's And when he was 45 he tossed 204 innings.

Personally I think a good knuckleball pitcher right now would probably be very tough on the day's they were on their game due to the fact that there aren't any other knuckleball pitchers currently. So there wouldn't be anyway for the hitters to really get ready for said knuckleballer. I'd say they would probably be a little less effective in times where there are a bunch of knuckleball pitchers. So just in my opinion, right now would be the perfect time for a random knuckleball pitcher to show up.

Jaque Jones had more than one productive year though. He had multiple years of 20+ homeruns and he had multiple years where he hit decent he was a regular for multiple years, I see a Marty Cordova on this list way more than I see Jaque Jones.

Looked at Dave Engle's stats from 1984 and they don't look all that great, however, he was an All Star that year. I think he was a catcher though, so maybe his stats we're good for a catcher in 1984? Side note he finished 5th in rookie of the year voting in 1981.

I think he may even have a different approach vs Lefties vs Righties. He had a total of 16 extra base hits against lefties last year which meant he got an extra base hit every 9.1 at bats. Then he got 52 extra base hits against righties which gave him an extra base hit every 7.2 at bats. Now we all know his power zone is down and in, I'd venture to say most lefties the ball will naturally tail away from Max a little bit. So maybe he dialed his swing down a little with a lefty on the mound and dialed it up a bit with a righty?? He really struggled with lefties a few years back but has improved tremendously over the last couple of years against them.

I wonder if the newer strike zone has pushed the knucklers out a little? I mean, the old zone from what I remember, think back to Greg Maddux, was a little wider but it didn't go as high, anything just above the waist seemed to be called a ball back then, but you could get a good inch or two off the plate sometimes, especially if you had a good catcher. Now the strike zone seems to be narrowed but it seems to go more up and down, I see things called just below the knee and it goes pretty high up like maybe belly button high maybe depending on the ump up to the chest, think Odorizzi's high strikes. Since the knuckle ball seemed to move all over the place, those knucklball pitchers may have had an easier time throwing strikes if they could get an extra inch or two on the plate?? I have no idea why, but I'm just putting forth a guess here. It would seem that if you could get one who could throw strikes that it would be a good day for the bullpen to get a day off 20 times a year as those guys could throw forever it seemed.

I'd send Balazovic down. Having an unhappy camper on the team for whatever reason could bring the whole teams morale down. Send him down and put him into the starting role down there. Bring Romero up and either put him in the bullpen or spot start him just like in Rochester, so as to infuse some newness into the staff.

I think had Johan and the Twins won a world Series he would have received a lot more consideration. Someone brought up Kirby and Blyleven, and Morris, etc... But the one difference between those guys and Koufax for that matter is that those guys won the big one. Had Johan and the Twins won it all once I think Johan would get more consideration. There is no replacement for playing and doing well on the biggest stage, think about how many people think Madbaum is a great pitcher, he is good, but those heroics in the WS gets him so much more publicity. This may be Mauer's undoing also? Hope not, but that is the one thread amongst those guys that I mentioned is world series heroics.

https://nypost.com/2020/04/02/scientists-believe-they-found-potential-coronavirus-vaccine/amp/ Hopefully this helps. They still have to do clinical trials, but looks like they are on the right track.

I can't even like regular comments on the mobile site from my phone. I can quote people's comments but not like their comments for some reason.

I didn't think Hill could even pitch until like July?

Wow, I didn't think about that, but yeah, if there are a few double headers added into the schedule so as to make up some games then this pitching depth will be huge during the season.

I think the best pitchers will get weak contact due to some sort of movement on their pitch. Mariano Rivera had that cutter that would look good and then when you swing all of the sudden it's off of the end of the bat. Now Mariano could rack up some K's too. But he could also get weak flyball and a weak ground out too. Jack Morris had I think a splitter, and he'd get hit all the time, bit when he was on, the hits weren't great. I mean there are tons of guys with 95 - 100 mph fastballs and still get lit up. So I think the premier pitcher would be able to combine that pitch to contact, with also being a strikeout pitcher when you need to be. Those that can combine both skill sets will be able to pitch deep into games and be able to get themselves out of jams when they arise

Michael Cuddyer is another guy who played very well at multiple positions for a number of years.

It's on mlb channel also, right now.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/803283-new-york-mets-top-20-starting-pitchers-in-team-history-no-20-11#slide10 The numbers 20 - 11 of the New York Mets have a few interesting names.

I dont think the Twins avoided hard throwing strikeout pitchers back then as they had guys like Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano, however, I think guys like that were hard to come by. They still are. So they filled their staff with ground ball guys and they weren't terrible. How many division titles did they win back in those days? They just needed one or two studs leading the way and then those average to just below average guys were ok in the 3 4 and 5 spots. So when they had from 2003 - 2006 Johan Santana and Brad Radke at the front of the rotation, (and Radke was a pitch to contact guy but he was obviously better than those other guys as he could repeat his success year after year.) Nonetheless with those two at the front the guys who came in behind them just had to hold the ship afloat. Then after Radke was gone they had Santana and Liriano for a year or two also. So I think if the Twins could have afforded it they would have loved to have 3 or 4 Santana types. Just wasn't going to happen and so they went the pitch for the ground ball route so that they could at least put a staff out there. I feel as though they were working within their constraints. Now they have never done a great job of drafting pitching, for whatever reason, but I still remember flops like Willie Banks

Yeah Liriano should have been ahead a couple of those guys? It said I think they needed 4 years with the Twins, I'm assuming Liriano had that much.