yarnivek1972

The fact that Kepler’s batting average is going down but his obp is going up indicates increased patience and strike zone awareness, which is a good thing. Indeed, his BB rate is a career high 11.2% and his K rate a career low 16.6%. Both fantastic numbers compared to some of the players on the roster. His line drive rate of 24% is slightly below league average of 26%. The number that always jumps off the page with Kepler is BABIP. His career number is .260 which is extremely low. This year it is .242. I’m not qualified to analyze his swing to determine what might be the cause. I’ve speculated shifts, but am not certain that would account for all of it. Point being is that everything suggests that what Kepler needs is fine tuning. Of what exactly, I can not say. Can the Twins staff do that? If they can’t they need to employ people who can. The tools are there. The baseball acumen is there. Strike zone awareness is usually one of the hardest things for young players to master. It makes zero sense to replace a guy who has that skill. He may never be more than an “average” major leaguer. So? Teams need those. No team has a roster full of all stars. Right now his numbers suggest he is completely worthy of a starting job.

I still really don’t get lumping Kepler in with Buxton and Sano as some huge disappointment. He has a 2.5 bWAR. Sano and Buxton are both in negative territory. Does Kepler have room to improve? Certainly. However, this season he greatly improved vs LHP. So that tells me he is capable of making adjustments to improve. So, there is no reason to think he won’t continue to do so. If he isn’t meeting the arbitrary expectations of someone, that is THEIR problem. I think he is progressing quite nicely. Certainly far better than Sano or Buxton.

Strikeouts are part of the game today. The average American League team strikes out 24.3% of at bats. Sorry, ESPN didn’t list PA. For a guy with Austin’s power, 33% is a completely normal rate in today’s game IMO. For his career, Austin’s K rate is basically the same as Sano’s and Austin has a slightly higher HR rate. I would expect Austin’s K rate to go down slightly with more consistent at bats than he has received to this point in his career.

I think that’s actually kinda the point for some of the angst. Why so many cast offs used yesterday? I get that it is hot in Texas but why not rest some Saturday? Once upon a time there was a rule in ST games that teams had to start at least 4 players expected to make the final roster (pitcher included). Not sure the Twins would have passed under that guideline yesterday.

Funny (well, sad really) thing is it might not be enough.

Not all 40 man players are customarily called up.

He has a career OPS+ of 79 in over 1000 PA. Is this truly something to be worried about? Sure, maybe someday he’ll actually be a legitimate MLB hitter. But the fantasy of him being some kind of otherwordly player is over.

Where do you not?

This is literally what you typed: I’m not sure why anyone is okay with harming him and his family financially by sitting him the rest of the year. Sure, it's a business, but people who run their businesses by unfairly harming other people end up harming themselves by losing good relationships and creating a bad reputation for themselves.

He’s been in AAA since mid July. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=gimene001chr&type=bgl&year=2018

Appears to be a moot point. Rosario is out for this series and the next according to Bremer. Ready or not, Buxton will almost surely be up tomorrow.

Please. Don’t talk about the financial hardship of Byron Buxton. He received a six million dollar signing bonus. Even if he never makes another dime, he should be set for life.

I wasn’t one of them. I’ve always been wary of Tampa hitters. Something seems to inflate their numbers. The actual numbers over the years say it’s a pretty neutral park or even a pitcher’s park, but extremely anecdotal evidence suggests to me, at least, that players leave there and fall off the cliff. I suppose it could be playing tons of games at Yankee Stadium, Fenway and Camden Yards.

As has been noted, they have two guys out for the year that aren’t on the 60 day DL. And then there’s Belisle.

Unless some team has a ridiculous number of extra innings, I think one would logically find that teams rank in total plate appearances is consistent with their team obp. In other words, team with best obp probably has most PA.

I am well aware of Odorizzi’s issues. What you seem to be unwilling to accept is that perhaps Molitor was trying to build on his success of the previous start. He didn’t. That’s on him. Not Molitor. I’m no fan of Molitor but I’ll be damned if I am going to criticize him for trying to develop a player into more than he has been.

Except that in his last start he didn’t. He retired all 7 A’s he faced third time around. Rather easily. In a lost season, was it really so ridiculous to see if maybe, just maybe, he is improving in that area? Especially when said player is under team control for the next season and as such needs to be evaluated to determine what his role will be.

Presumably he would take Wilson’s spot.

I think the general consensus would be that said 36 year old player has had one season with an OPS above .752 in the last 5.

Nothing prevents the Twins from starting Buxton in AAA to start the 2019 season for say 3 weeks.

September. No reason not to have a third catcher. Even if he never plays. Just in case.

At this point there is little to lose from seeing if Odorizzi can get through a lineup a third time. He did it once this year, in the start just prior to todays. But those issues should definitely be part of the equation regarding how he figures into plans for 2019.

The Dodgers and Cubs only have 8 hitters in their lineups. They have a pitcher getting 400 or so at bats every year. That changes the dynamics as well.

No one is saying there isn’t room for Kepler to improve. But you called for a Sano and Buxton like “reset” and given the fact that Kepler’s production is ABOVE league average, it simply isn’t warranted. That he isn’t meeting your arbitrary expectations is your problem.

Just a hunch that each player has upwards of 10 jerseys, if not more.