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Paul

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Everything posted by Paul

  1. 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.
  2. Paul
    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.”
  3. Paul
    If Kepler goes to the Yanks he’ll play in at least 2 all star games.
  4. Paul
    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.
  5. Paul
    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.
  6. Paul
    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.”
  7. Paul
    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.
  8. Paul
    Kep’s best days are ahead of him.
  9. Paul
    Sano is a middle of the order bat for any baseball team on this planet.
  10. Paul
    Do both sets of these numbers compare Simmons to league average or SS average?
  11. Paul
    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.
  12. Paul
    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.
  13. Paul
    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.
  14. Paul
    YES!!!!!
  15. Paul
    I think it's way worse. I believe Gardy's treatment of Hardy, the trade, and putting Nishioka on the field lost him the clubhouse. And a championship caliber team turned into doormats for almost a decade.
  16. Paul
  17. Paul
    I was a SS and Zoilo was my idol. I remember saving my money to buy the same high end model Rawlings glove Versalles used. There was a sporting goods store in downtown Mpls, I think called A&B Sports, where I went to purchase the glove. I remember the salesman told me when Versalles made an error he would throw the glove away. He said Versalles was only given 2 gloves a year from Rawlings, so he came in often to buy new ones. He said he spent a lot of money there. Apparently his superstition got the better of his common sense.
  18. Paul
    On the first pitch most good hitters who recognize the pitch early (this most definitely includes Mauer) and hitters who try to outguess the pitcher, both pick a zone and/or the type of pitch. If they're right it gives them an advantage that surpasses the advantage that Houston was recently experiencing. This is what you see. Here's an anecdote to illustrate. Back in the dome Verlander threw a first pitch 98 MPH fastball, out of the zone, up and in to Mauer. Mauer turned on it and deposited it in the upper deck for a HR. Verlander said after the game that he threw the pitch exactly where he wanted and no other batter could have done what Joe did with that pitch. Obviously Joe was looking there for that pitch. Look up Mauer"s stats for first pitches he swung at. They're off the charts good. But to say because first pitch swings are so productive players should swing at them more often is misguided.
  19. Paul
    To objectively understand the current Twins situation it's important to not underestimate what the new FO considers their number 1 task. I've read it stated many times and ways in numerous interviews with them. In their words: "Change the culture" "Get everybody on the same page" Reach out to everybody" etc. The current situation has its genesis in whatever transpired in the clubhouse in 2011. It was apparent to me that the clubhouse was lost. When that happens it's almost impossible to get back without changing either the FO or the majority of the players. The player roster is almost completely turned over from then but, the residual effect continues to contaminate every player to a degree. Countering this effect was Torri's contribution in "15". Without a leader with his charisma they finally realized the FO had to be overhauled. The new guys are focused and working hard on this. This could improve fast. With everyone pushing in the same direction this year could be shocking to a lot of people.
  20. Paul
    Respectfully disagree. I've never seen this kid pitch but, the thing Glavine did best was spin a baseball. According to the article they do share the ability to command though. And if this kid can keep from hanging the breaking pitches and hit the corners or run 'em off the plate, maybe he can be something special like Glavine.
  21. Paul
    "playing baseball games is a poor way to condition and a poor way to develop MOST baseballskills" THIS exactly. If he's gonna play the OF he's got a lot of drilling ahead. I listened to a souhan interview with Radcliff. The guy has like 30+ years scouting experience. Radcliff said Sano is the best foreign player he has ever seen. Souhan asked who was the 2nd best. Radcliff responded Cabrera. As in Miguel
  22. Paul
    Kudos to you my friend
  23. Paul
    Sometimes a lack of inference can be truly startling. I agree 100% with your take, by the way. As a matter of fact, it smells like the Gomez to Hardy to zero thing to me.
  24. Paul
    One thing you didn't mention, and one I've never seen mentioned on this site, is the catcher's ability to to catch a borderline pitch with the center of the pocket over the plate. This means: recognizing the pitch is off slightly, holding the glove with the center of the pocket over the corner or edge of the strike zone, letting the pitch hit the little finger, heel or thumb of the glove and deflect into the pocket, doing this with enough strength the the glove doesn't rock too badly giving away what you did. I don't recall seeing this kid catch but Mauer was excellent at this. All the best catchers do this. The lesser ones not so much.
  25. Paul
    "I think that the best pitch depends on the pitcher and the situation." Exactly! No matter what you throw, or where you throw it, if the hitter is sitting on it you're in trouble. Nice to see the new technology supporting the old axiomatic thought of "4-seamer up and in...softer stuff low and away".
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