Hrbowski

Traded Gio for a minor league pitcher: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/11/twins-trade-gio-urshela-angels.html

It is a fallacious argument to assume a prospect will develop into the same player under all development programs.

I've seen a few of his starts, and have the opinion that that he's nowhere near where Berrios was as a prospect, based off the following: His fastball is in the range of 88-93 mph, sitting at 90-91. It's a below average pitch. His changeup has good depth and fade, and tunnels well off his fastball, sitting in the low to mid 80s. It's an above average pitch. His curveball has really good vertical movement, but it's easily recognizable out of his hand. It has the potential to be a plus pitch, as it can get swings and misses, but for now it's getting knocked around too much to be anything better than average. His slider sits in the low to mid 80s, and he seems to struggle with commanding it. It's a below average pitch. His mechanics are very concerning. His front hip gets raised too high above his pelvic plane in his delivery, which results in his plant foot getting down late and his hips staying closed too long, resulting in poor hip/shoulder separation, an inefficiency that hurts his velocity. Additionally, his back foot leaves the rubber too early, and he has no ankle eversion that you see in the most efficient throwers such as Gerrit Cole and Jacob deGrom. His throwing arm action is too long, with his hand extending well below his back hip and having a wild spiraling effect that will likely lead to injury. He does a good job of keeping his scapulars and arm on plane at the point of his release, but with his exaggerated over the top delivery, to accomplish this he needs to curl his spine towards the first base side of the rubber, which combined with his glove side opening up too early causes him to fall off towards first base and away from the target, which is another cause for the lower than expected velocity. He's well filled out for his frame, which is promising, but with as many mechanical inefficiencies as he has, it's going to be a long road ahead before he can reach his full potential, in my opinion.

Interesting enough, Lopez had very low walk rates before he came over. Maybe it's the result of the Twins' pitching philosophy?

Why do English speakers insist on pronouncing Pérez "Pear-ez"??

Interestingly, a huge part of the damage against him has come on his cutter, a pitch he didn't throw at all during his best years with the Rays. His fastball has been getting hit harder recently, but it's possibly because he's tipping his pitches (he seems to show some pretty noticeable forearm movement when he changes his grip from his splitter to fastball sometimes, but not when he throws the splitter). His walk rate is also way up this year. I'm surprised the Twins haven't had him ax his cutter and go back to the curveball he threw with the Rays, which was pretty good. With how good his peripherals are and how poorly he has performed compared to them, I think he's still got quite a bit of potential. I won't hold my breath that it will be the Twins who fix him, though...

He has one of the highest swing and miss rates in all of baseball, and his fastball spin is in the 96th percentile, so this take is objectively wrong.

Mahle's velocity is down 6 mph today...

The latest research in player development right now suggests that the most important factors relating to pitcher injuries are biomechanics and recovery process between throwing. From what I've heard from people in the industry is that the Twins are way behind on this...

Mookie Betts was acquired for prospects... Additionally, Freddie Freeman is the only Dodger in their top 20 fWAR who was originally acquired on a free agent contract with an AAV higher than $10,000,000.

I disagree that lack of parity is the result of disparity in revenues. Sure, the Dodgers may have the best record and the largest payroll in baseball, but many of their important pieces were not originally acquired via big bucks spent in free agency. For example, Justin Turner, Chris Taylor, and Tyler Anderson were all originally picked up off the scrap heap. Other main pieces were drafted/signed and developed by the organization who were less heralded prospects as amateurs, such as Julio Urias, Walker Buehler, Gavin Lux, Cody Bellinger, Tony Gonsolin, etc. They have other main pieces such as Trea Turner and Mookie Betts that they got via trade by dealing from the depth of their excellent farm system, despite having unfavorable draft placements over the entire last decade. I would argue the disparity is instead the result of how teams are spending their revenues on player development staffs and technology, coaching, and front office employees. There are also many examples of teams that are annually competitive despite having low revenues, and teams that are hit and miss when it comes to competitiveness despite having revenues in the upper echelons, and it generally boils down to how well teams have developed their own players. Increased revenue sharing might help, but I don't think it will have as big of a result as some think as long as certain organizations are unwilling to adopt modern player development philosophies or are unable to attract the best coaches and analysts.

He really has elite stuff, up there with Hader and Kimbrel according to the metrics, now if only we can get that consistently harnessed down the stretch...

Gary just told Maki to cover his mouth during his mound visit ha

Somebody who hustles everything out, isn't afraid to get the jersey dirty, etc.

Gotta love a good dirt bag like Jake Cave LOL