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yarnivek1972

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Everything posted by yarnivek1972

  1. yarnivek1972
    I don’t undervalue having a pinch hitter on the bench. I just don’t see it as a realistic option given the constraints of the roster.
  2. yarnivek1972
    He won’t start that many games this year. He only started 131 in 2017, easily his most productive season offensively in years. 126 starts in 2016, 154 in 2015, 118 in 2014, his first year as a non catcher. IMO 125 starts in 2019 is extremely unlikely. Even if he doesn’t land on the DL, which is pretty likely to happen given his age and injury history. 110 is a more realistic number I think. And therein lies the problem. You have a wasted roster spot for 50 games, almost 1/3 of the season. Some said he can pinch hit. Sure. The Twins have used a pinch hitter in less than half their games this year. And how many of those were “throw away” at bats in blow outs? The kind Mauer wouldn’t get anyway. Point being, the days of having a dangerous pinch hitter lurking are gone in the AL.
  3. yarnivek1972
    Of course, the Twins had an unlimited roster in September of 1987, so carrying Baylor didn’t hinder anything. That won’t be the case in 2019 from late March through August. btw, other than catchers Tom Nieto and Mark Salas, the only position players for the Twins in 1987 that didn’t make the postseason roster were Chris Pittaro and, wait for it, Billy Beane. Flip a coin as to which one might have made the playoff roster instead of Baylor I suppose. Unless the Twins went with 10 pitchers instead. That would likely have been Mike Smithson or possibly Allan Anderson.
  4. yarnivek1972
    I think the days of a regular, set DH are all but over. This year, there will probably be only 3 or 4 guys that will have a qualifying number of at bats as a DH. Increasingly common is using the DH to rest players from the field. That’s only going to increase as pitching staffs increase. I don’t think teams will even consider DH playing time going forward. They will let it take care of itself.
  5. yarnivek1972
    Maybe he would have if he had had enough people telling him that it was time to hang em up. I’ll grant that it was a much different time and that the decisions aren’t comparable. The Twins in Killebrew’s era didn’t have roster constraints that would have prevented them from rostering Harmon. They did have a notoriously cheap owner though and Harmon’s status would have made him prohibitively expensive (in Calvin’s mind). It’s worth noting that the Twins let Harmon hang on for two seasons as a shell of his former self. I admired him a great deal, but to expect the Twins to do so for a third was a little selfish IMO.
  6. yarnivek1972
    I’ve heard lots of people say bring Mauer back in a “more limited role”. He’s going to play fewer than 90 games at first this year and he’s likely going to start fewer than 115 games total. So, my awkward questions for anyone who cares to answer are 1) How much more limited would you expect his role to be in 2019 (and beyond)? 2) How much do you think that amount of playing time coupled with his subpar offensive production is worth? 3) Perhaps most importantly (and an issue no one advocating for his return has bothered to address), how do you fit essentially a half time player who plays only first base onto a roster that has 3 position players per game that don’t start? Someone said in one of the Forsythe threads that a championship team doesn’t have Logan Forsythe on it. IMO, a championship team doesn’t have 36 year old Joe Mauer on it.
  7. yarnivek1972
    It was 2.0 last year. He’ll probably end up at 2.7 - 3. I’d say that’s solid improvement. Perhaps your expectations were unrealistic.
  8. yarnivek1972
    Since you mention having a 25 man roster, I think a definite thing to add to the not well category is not cutting bait on Hughes and Kinley fast enough so that there were 25 actual players on the roster. I get that cutting Hughes is likely a decision that Pohlad had to approve, but I doubt Kinley was. Kinley was only used 4 times but was on the roster all of April.
  9. yarnivek1972
    Kepler has 2.5 bWAR. Sano and Buxton are both in negative territory. The situations aren’t remotely comparable.
  10. yarnivek1972
    At the end of the day 227-259 (as of today) is what Molitor will be evaluated by and I think it gets him fired. Expectations were higher. Perhaps they should not have been, but that is reality. I’m sure when I bring up W/L record, someone will bring up Tom Kelly’s. Let’s remember to add on Kelly’s 16-8 postseason record and two World Series rings. Molitor is 0-1 in the playoffs.
  11. yarnivek1972
    I just copied and pasted this from my post in the game thread. Prior to his final start in July, Kyle was one of the best pitchers in the AL. In 21 starts he had logged 129 IP, 106 H, 49 ER, 50 BB, 126 K, 13 HR. That’s 6.14 IP/GS, 1.21 WHIP, 3.42 ERA, .9 HR/9, 3.49 BB/9 and 8.79 K/9. In the 7 starts since if I did math correctly, 35 IP, 42 H, 20 ER, 18 BB, 27 K, 5 HR. That is 5 IP/GS, 1.71 WHIP, 5.14 ERA, 1.29 HR/9, 4.62 BB/9, 6.94 K/9. We’re talking 7 starts, that’s 1/4 of his season to date. We’re approaching the boundary of SSS and trend IMO.
  12. yarnivek1972
    Agree 130%.
  13. yarnivek1972
    I think it was 6 starts in August. Because I posted some numbers in the game thread about Gibson going back to his final start in July. This thread hadn’t been posted yet. Suffice to say, not good. 7 starts worth, 1/4 of his season to date. That’s getting close to the line between SSS and trend IMO.
  14. yarnivek1972
    Well, maybe Rick Wise...
  15. yarnivek1972
    To dream, the impossible dream...
  16. yarnivek1972
    You are entitled to your opinion.
  17. yarnivek1972
    If you are going to ignore the numbers and simply rely on your passions, there is little point continuing this debate. Hey, if this was 1993 and the Twins had a 6 or 7 man bench, I’d be fine with him hanging around as a part timer for another year or two. But the reality is that the Twins haven’t had more than a 4 man bench at all this year (other than NL rules games) and it has been 3 for probably 90% of the games so far. A team that is trying to contend simply can’t afford to roster a non-productive semi-regular first baseman who plays no other position.
  18. yarnivek1972
    Kepler has 2.3 bWAR. Mauer has .9. So does Cave in less than half the at bats. Even Austin has amassed .4 in his handful of at bats. The numbers don’t lie. Mauer isn’t a productive hitter. Other than one year, he hasn’t been for 5 years. It’s time.
  19. yarnivek1972
    Sitting at 11 2/3 going into tonight. Gonsalves going 2 SEEMS like a gimme, but he didn’t last time.
  20. yarnivek1972
    The Twins need to acquire at least one starting infielder. If they “fall back” to Adrianza starting, we see the 2019 version of Taylor Motter when someone inevitibly gets hurt.
  21. yarnivek1972
    Austin is better. Kepler is better. Cave is better. On the presumption that Buxton is going to get every opportunity to play CF next year, 1b is covered with Kepler and Austin while Cave plays RF. Joe Mauer isn’t one of the top 3 options to play first base IMO. And that’s why it is time for him to go.
  22. yarnivek1972
    Kepler has 2.7 bWAR. Even Austin has .4 in just a few weeks. Sano is in negative territory, but that’s largely defense. btw, Mauer has a negative defensive bWAR for those that think his pressence helps the defense. The metrics disagree.
  23. yarnivek1972
    I don’t know about tired legs per se, but I don’t think a limit to his innings caught is out of line. They certainly wouldn’t want to have him catch twice as much as last year, for example. What that limit might be I have no idea. Maybe 50% more than whatever he had last year.
  24. yarnivek1972
    I think you answered your own question. Perhaps they are concerned about his workload. It’s not the same as a pitcher, but if one isn’t used to catching as many games as Garver will, it can be hard on the body.
  25. yarnivek1972
    And maybe that is why the Twins record is what it is. Right now, Mauer has a .9 bWAR. Logan Forsythe has a 1.0. It’s time.
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