jimbo92107

AB Walker is one of my crazy favorites. Teams need a guy like this to remind them that baseball can be fun, like seeing how hard and how far you can hit a ball, even if you strike out...A LOT. Walker's strikeout stats are nuts. More than just about anybody's. On the other hand, he's batting well over .300, leads his league in homers, and has lots of yummy RBI's. He's also a very good athlete, good speed, decent glove, decent arm. Not an idiot in the outfield, just around average. Walker's all-or-nothing approach at the plate is one of the things people pay for when they buy a ticket to watch a baseball game. Lots of former little leaguers appreciate the slick fielding, the amazing pitching, etc, but most casual fans don't know what they're looking at...until some big, muscly guy cranks a baseball 450 feet over their heads into the second deck. That, we can all understand. That's AB Walker. I like it.

A taller version of Chris Young? With an mlb-average heater? Remember, the only thing that really matters is, can he get guys out? There's a lot of ways to do that, and no two pitchers do it quite the same way.

I guess it's time to call this a pitching duel. Man, I wanted to see Sano pound one out...

Quick release from the glove, good stride into pitches. Hard line drives. From his small video clip on MLB. Yep, he could be good. Lots of stuff to work on...looks like he might get considerably bigger. Is that really all it takes to get $4 million bucks from the Minnesota Twins? I want a lot more video.

D-dang! When I read the four honorable mentions, I see Berrios and Wimmers, two of my favorites. They didn't even make the top five? And no Dr. Hu?? Even without all the flame-throwing relievers, the Twins minor league system seems brimming with solid talent these days. Problem is, I don't see any obvious aces in the mix, not yet anyway. But a team with lots of mid-rotation starters in the pipeline could sure do a lot worse.

"Sometimes it doesn’t work out. Sometimes he comes back, and he’s frustrated. Because he has a pitch to hit that he wants to pull, and he’ll roll over." That's because pull power hitters don't keep their weight back like Joe Mauer does. Mauer developed his amazingly quick oppo swing with very little weight shift, which is the only possible way to let the ball get deep in the zone. In stark contrast, a power hitter like Jose Bautista meets the ball a foot or more before it reaches the plate. The only way to avoid topping the ball that far forward is to take a big step towards the pitcher. Mauer never does that, and so when he tries to pull the ball, his bat head comes around too far and he usually tops it to the second baseman. Mauer's other problem is consistency. Usually I would say a lack of consistency, but in Mauer's case, his swings are so consistent that as Molitor observed, Mauer's spray chart shows exactly where he's going to hit the ball with amazing consistency. In order for Joe Mauer to become a consistent pull power hitter, he'd have to develop a completely different swing, something more like a Jose Bautista stride, meeting the ball well out front with lots of barrel carry through the zone. I'm certain that Mauer is a good enough athlete to do it, but it's such a radical change that it seems unlikely he'd commit to the effort. Meanwhile, pulling the ball from his weight-back position is not going to work, we can all see that now. Maybe there's a Miguel Cabrera middle ground style that Mauer could adopt. The style Mauer uses today is built for hitting almost exclusively to the opposite field. He's still pretty good at that.

First, a hearty congratulations to Miguel Sano. He's getting to live the dream; now let's see him make some dreams come true at the plate! Condolences to Kennys Vargas. He's a good guy, but needs to get his mojo back at the plate. My suggestion: Swing more like that guy with the Red Sox, what's his name...David Ortiz. My prediction for next position player call-up is easy: Twins need a shortstop that looks a lot like Jorge Polanco. After that my eyes grow heavy and my sight grows dim, I'll have to stop for the night... ;-) But I'll guess that Hicks comes up before Kepler. But I won't bet much on it because Kepler looks like a legit hitter. Interestinger and interestinger.

I remember when I first saw him, how I liked Brian Dozier's gritty attitude. Reminded me of Nick Punto, as did his bat. When I heard that he was working with Bruno on improving his power numbers, like most people I didn't think much of it, and I was as surprised as anybody when he suddenly started jacking high inside pitches over the fence. But that wasn't his only improvement. I also remember when Dozier started developing his sliding style of fielding, to make up for his otherwise limited range from left to right. Now, he's the best in the league at sliding fielding, and it seems like other guys are copying his style. Best part is, every new skill Dozier has developed has been a well-considered, intentional addition to improve his game, and he always manages to play within himself in a physically sustainable way. Dozier's baseball-specific skillset makes him the most valuable position player on this team. I hope Eddie Rosario is paying close attention.

Miguel Sano isn't being blocked by Trevor Plouffe at this point; it's Kennys Vargas. The Twins have been waiting to see if Vargas can get back some of that Big Papi look that he had last season, but so far it's not really happening. For some reason Vargas has toned down his power swings from both sides of the plate. Is it the Twins hitting philosophy, the same thing David Ortiz complained about? It could be that Bruno is trying to make Vargas more like Dozier, that is, more selective about which situations to unleash the home run swing. The down side is that Vargas doesn't look terrifying anymore. He looks like a poor imitation of Dozier. This opens up an opportunity for Miguel Sano to push Vargas down to AAA. Nobody is going to tell Sano to tone down his approach because it's already good enough to stick in the bigs. Sano can DH right now and do what the Twins were hoping Vargas would do. As for Kepler, I would also like to see him go to AAA, at least for a while. I'd like to see him face a little better pitching before he makes the leap, to make sure he's ready. Kepler could be special, but he needs to keep honing his baseball craft a bit longer. Frankly, the team should have done that with Byron Buxton, too. Compared to his physical tools, Buxton's level of baseball savvy seemed shockingly inadequate. Head-first slides with no gloves? Can't the team afford them?? The real eye-opener was Billy Hamilton. Probably no faster than Buxton, but the difference in baserunning skill is stark. Hamilton knows how to get a creeping lead, where Buxton stands rooted, not even hopping. Hamilton knows how to time a pitcher's move to home, where Buxton doesn't have a clue. Hamilton goes in feet first with a pop-up slide. Does Buxton even know how to do a pop-up slide? Why didn't somebody teach Buxton how to steal bases?

This year, and the next two years after that are when the Twins need to find where the top prospects and surprise overachievers fit into the contending teams of 2018 and beyond. That's why experiments like bringing up Jorge Polanco don't bother me, and shouldn't bother anybody else around here. At TD we love to speculate how this or that guy would fit in this or that position. Now's the time to start finding out for real. We should also realize that more unexpected things could happen. Polanco could flop at SS, or fail to hit. Santana could get hot at the plate, or start "figuring it out." More likely we'll continue to see the same kind of oscillations that are common for young players as they test out ways to deal with playing at the highest level. Terry Ryan realizes this, of course. Clearly he's looking for reasons to call up Polanco, Sano, etc. But we should all keep in mind that the long-term plan for this team is still more important than our immediate gratification. Plus, Ryan doesn't want to disrupt a surprisingly good season with a team slump caused by a bunch of rookies flailing at sucker pitches (Buxton, Vargas, Santana), getting hurt because they don't know how to protect themselves (Buxton), making tons of embarrassing errors (Polanco?), or pipelining BP fastballs because they have no command (Meyer). I put a question mark beside Polanco because we don't know he's going to look like a shaky rookie at SS. Maybe he'll look really good, like he did late last season. BTW, notice I didn't mention Rosario in the rookie problems department? He doesn't play like a rookie. He plays more like Dozier. Still working on stuff, but right there in the game mentally. He's not afraid of anything, but like Dozier, he plays within himself. Eddie's going to be very, very good.

For me, it's always been cigarettes, and cocaine. Whenever I feel down, one of those two will usually do the trick, and the more the merrier. I don't swing a bat like Joe Mauer, but man, I feel great! ;-)

Alex Meyer as a pitcher reminds me of Byron Buxton as a hitter. Clearly talented, but very raw. Seems odd that a guy that practices nothing but pitching would still look as awkward (not quite clumsy) as Meyer. I know he's very tall, but supposedly working every day with pitching coaches should refine that motion to something more precise and repeatable, including the finish. I did not see that in Meyer. Seemed like each pitch was different in some way. Leg drive varied, timing varied, arm slot varied. Sometimes he'd fall off to the left, sometimes not. The result was zero consistency and zero command of the zone. Meanwhile, Brewers hitters simply smiled and waited for Meyer to groove a fastball down the middle, so he wouldn't walk another guy. Compare that to Joe Nathan in his prime. Nathan would finish perfectly on balance, the same way every time. He was like a tightrope walker who's so good, the rope doesn't even wiggle. That gave him precision with that mid-90's fastball, which he could place within about one inch of all four corners. Meyer doesn't look like that at all. He's all over the place with his balance, and his mechanics. He may be many thousands of reps away from having mechanical consistency. On the other hand, his physical build reminds me of a taller Satchel Page. A couple years from now, if Alex Meyer isn't completely ruined by the impatient, unrealistic nagging of us fans, he might develop into a pretty impressive pitcher.

I would much rather see the team continue with these rookie callups than to trade away promising mid- or upper-level guys from the system to bolster a dubious run at the playoffs. Last four years, we joked about how many variables had to go right for the Twins to look respectable. That included stuff like, 'If Gibson shines, or May shines, or Pelfrey shines, or Vargas catches fire,' etc. We were all hoping that Joe Mauer would magically develop a power swing like Adrian Gonzalez. We were hoping Alex Meyer would be the next Justin Verlander. Of course, almost none of it turned out the way we hoped. Guys got hurt, or failed, or got suspended, and Mauer still hits flat line drives. He tried half a season to pull and elevate, and all he did was top a bunch of grounders to second. Gotta step in when you pull the ball, Joe, or you'll top it. Now the needle of overall progress has slowly edged above the mediocrity line, so naturally we all want more. However, this team could collapse. It's not robust enough to weather a couple injuries to a couple starters, much less Brian Dozier, the lynchpin of this team. Therefore, this year and the next couple years should be thought of as transition years, not pennant years. Now is the time to give untested rookies a taste of the bigs, and see what goes wrong, which it will. We see that Buxton needs to wear hand protection on the bases, and he needs to learn to hit more difficult stuff. We see Alex Meyer still has control problems, tho his first outing should be dismissed as nerves. He's not going to be Justin Verlander, but he might be dominant in his own way, eventually. We see a steady, reliable pro in Eddie Rosario, and genuine promise in Danny Santana. We see possible mid-rotation stalwarts in Gibson and May. We see a possible future superstar power hitter in Vargas. However, there is still a lot of volatility in these guys. Santana tends to ride himself, so can get discouraged and in a funk. Vargas, same thing. Buxton needs Judo lessons, so he learns to avoid smashing into things and breaking himself. May is doing really well, but will one embarrassing outing injure his confidence? Is Meyer ready to enjoy pro baseball, or is he dreading his next outing? This team is building a very talented core, but it's still far too prone to slumps and wild pitches to consider it a serious contender for a playoff run. This is no finely tuned Cardinals or star-chocked Dodgers. This Twins team features some future stars that currently are flailing at sucker pitches, grounding into double plays and running into walls. If the young guys survive and learn from these minor disasters, in a few years we could be looking at quite a baseball team. Meanwhile, let's enjoy the Twins for what they are, but not pretend they're ready to conquer the best teams in the majors.

No, thousands of wildly cheering Brewers fans. They were really happy to see some big, raw kid throwing flaming heat right down the pipe, so their boys could swat home runs like Babe Ruth. For two glorious innings Brewers fans could forget that their season is already in the dumpster.

Message to Alex Meyer: Look at the bright side, kid. You just made thousands of people very happy. Seriously, the main thing here is to get that first appearance over with, so next time out he has a chance to control his adrenaline. He had great looking stuff today, but zero command of the strike zone. Thus, he was forced to throw it down the middle, and BOOM. Best thing for him is to get gently ribbed by Glen Perkins, then get back to work with Neil Allen. Welcome to the bigs, Alex Meyer. Hitters love 'em down the middle.

Alex Meyer gets his low-leverage situation...in the 1st inning, 1 out, 6 to 1 Brewers. Well, with the game already blown up, go ahead and show us some flames, kid.

I can't wait for Alex Meyer to work with a smart tactical catcher like Kurt Suzuki. He'll show Meyer just the right combinations of pitches to shut down every hitter...one time. This is the right thing to do with Meyer. Give him exposure to the bigs, but with less information to process, a simpler plan. Isn't this how the White Sox developed Chris Sale? I seem to recall that Sale started as a flame thrower out of the bull pen, then later worked on becoming a starter. Sale was younger than Meyer is, but it was the same idea.

It's Paul Molitor's responsibility to make Byron Buxton wear hand protection when he's running the bases. He should also make him wear a chin strap if his helmet keeps flying off. What good is the helmet going to do him in a collision at second when it's rolling onto the outfield grass between first and second base? Clearly Buxton needs to learn to protect himself better from the repercussions of his own blazing foot speed. Jujitsu lessons?

For those of us that thought Ervin Santana was the second coming of Johan Santana, I'm afraid it doesn't look like it. Ervin was impressive this spring, but now he looks like another fairly good starter.

As Buxton freely admitted, he never faced anybody in the minors with stuff like Chris Sale's. It may take a while before he can hit balls that curve like that, at that speed. Frankly I was impressed that anybody could get a hit off Sale, the way he was pitching. That was a surprising win.

Now that it has happened, it does seem like it was inevitable. Adding Alex Meyer to the pen means that the relief staff has a power arm even stronger than Graham. That can be really important in middle or late game situations. Basically, everything Tonkin is supposed to do, Meyer is supposed to do it with another 5 mph. The difference between a well-spotted 93mph heater and a well-spotted 98mph heater can be pretty stark. Plus, Meyer's supposed to have a great slider, too. It also doesn't hurt that Meyer's release point is about six inches higher, creating that nasty downward plane. Let's not be surprised if Meyer has a few rough spots while his emotions settle down. I know he's 25, but this will be his first exposure to major league cheers and boos. I hope he can handle it. Good thing a veteran like Perkins is there to keep him on an even keel.

I have no objection to a 6-man rotation. After the third day of rest, each starter could be available for long relief, so you're not really losing a reliever out of it. A guy like Milone could do that easily, and so could May, and Pelfrey was preparing for that role before Santana's suspension. If a guy does do a stint in long relief, you just push his next start back a few days. On a team that shuffles guys around like the Twins, a 6-man flexible rotation should be no big deal.

Alex Wimmers, Felix Jorge, and Greg Peavy. These pitchers seem to be stepping on the gas lately. Really cool seeing Wimmers come back from all the crap he's been through. Now he's becoming a strikeout master in AA with a good K/BB ratio. September call-up? I didn't realize how good Max Kepler was getting. Talk about him always revolved around his massive potential, and now it looks like a lot of that is actually happening. How's his defense? A lot of his game sounds like Rosario's, with gap power and excellent foot speed. All those triples are intriguing. Does he steal bases, too? Der Kid is becoming Der Man!

"In Wimmers’ past three starts, he has thrown 21.2 innings without allowing an earned run. He has given up just eight hits, walked seven and struck out 23. Overall, he is now 5-1 with a 4.31 ERA for the Lookouts this season." You know, Alex Wimmers isn't all that late to the party. There's still a little beer in the keg. If he keeps pitching like this, maybe Wimmers will be in the discussion for a September callup... :-)

Now we are seeing the problem with having a team full of really young players. When things go wrong, they snowball out of control. Wild throw from the catcher allows Vargas to score from third. If he takes his time, he still gets the out at second.