Paul

Wave big paychecks in front of David Ortiz and Lawrence Taylor to mentor him. There’s a couple of dudes who know how to party and still get the job done.

Reminds me of a Michael Jordan story. He was being interviewed at the height of Kobe’s career. The interviewer asked him how he thought he would do against Kobe one on one. Jordan answered he thought Kobe would be pretty tough to beat, and give him a real battle, but that ultimately he would triumph. The interviewer commented he really must be a fan of Kobe’s, because he had never heard him speak so highly of any other basketball player. Jordan said “We’ll, I am 50 now.”

If Kepler goes to the Yanks he’ll play in at least 2 all star games.

I believe him swinging at so many out of the zone pitches means he’s not recognizing the pitch type. Either his eyesight or the speed of his cognitive ability is not up to the challenge. Torri Hunter may be the best comp for him. But I’d love to have another Hunter on the Twins.

I begrudgingly agree with your point that the crowding of fielders lessons the value of the better fielders. But I’m longing for the sure to come day when hard bunts into the opposite field correct this abominable aberration we call “the shift”. And maybe we should be prepared for it.

100% this. Staying off the barrel is the objective for pitchers learning the craft. The best ones become starters. Starters might face the same guys 3 or 4 times in a game. Their command of the strike zone is key. Their margin for error is reduced due to the hitters familiarity. The bullpen guys face hitters once during the game. They can be sporadically fantastic with velocity at the expense control. Everyone is looking for the guys that throw 100mph and paints the black. The Yankees buy all them guys.

One of my favorite Tony Larussa comments came after a Cardinal WS game pitched by Chris Carpenter vs Roy Halladay. I don’t even remember who won, but it was low scoring. I think both pitchers went the distance. After the game Larussa was asked for his take on the fantastic pitching performances witnessed. He commented (my memory fails me for the exact quote so this is paraphrased) “Just a couple of pitch to contact guys doing their thing.”

Sad that Simmons has fallen so far. I was a huge proponent of his. But now I agree he’s done. If Cruz would return as the hitting coach I’d have him in a heartbeat with a lifetime contract. But when his eyesight catches up with his age that precious clubhouse dynamic he brings will shift directions. As much as I love him I say no. But the club needs to find that cohesiveness he created somewhere. I’m sure, like the rest of the country, there’s division in that clubhouse. The teams that conquer that will have an edge. Pitching. Good pitching costs lots of money. Good pitchers have figured out how to be successful with life’s normal distractions and noise. Good pitchers on good teams have proven they’re not a significant negative on the clubhouse dynamic. Those are the ones I would target in free agency. I don’t know yet if Wes is the guy yet, but he has a proven record in college. He figured it out there. So odds are good he’ll figure it out here.

Kep’s best days are ahead of him.

Sano is a middle of the order bat for any baseball team on this planet.

Do both sets of these numbers compare Simmons to league average or SS average?

Many years ago I was playing through the pain of a pulled groin muscle. It went on for about 6 weeks. It would improve and I would tweak it again. It was very frustrating. After an especially bad tweak, a teammate recommended a calcium/magnesium product. It seems your body needs sufficient calcium to utilize the magnesium. I went to his place after a game and his wife hooked me up with this stuff. The pulled muscle healed in about a week. It was like it never happened. I was a little freaked out with the results. I would recommend it to anybody.

The company line at the time was they wanted more speed from the position. That didn't smell right at the time and I don't think that was the real reason. I don't know of any other reason but I can speculate. What makes sense to me is this. I know Gardy was a shortstop growing up. He was a star in HS. He was a national college star for the Texas Longhorns. I speculate that he gave SS instruction to Hardy, who was consistently among the top 3 fielding shortstops in the ML. I further speculate that Hardy, as was his bent, wasn't very accepting of the perceived criticism. And probably had somewhat less than a generous response. This is entirely speculative on my part, but is the only thing I can imagine that fits the circumstances.

I see what you did there. Clever. Truth be told I've been pissed since the twins fired J.J. Hardy and gave the job to that kid Nishioka, who played SS the "Japanese" way. I couldn't be more pleased they want to reinstall an elite defender at short. A major impediment to a championship caliber team is a subpar defender at SS. It's too easy for bean counters to underestimate how SS play, good and bad, affects his teammates emotionally.

YES!!!!!