Twins 2021

Anybody want to go in on World Series tickets??? EPG?

I knew Cruz was to old. 3 for 4 today with two homers and 5 rbi through 6 innings. Wasnt that long ago it took til about the all star game for twins dh’s to reach them numbers.

JEREMY wrote:

I knew Cruz was to old. 3 for 4 today with two homers and 5 rbi through 6 innings. Wasnt that long ago it took til about the all star game for twins dh’s to reach them numbers.

The guy is incredible. Killing haters every year. Respect your elders!

Pretty much pummeled Detroit today. Anybody heard what the Arraez deal is?

I’m one of those Cruz haters, not because of his age but because he is a convicted steroid user. Wouldn’t be fair to hate on A-Fraud and give Cruz a pass.

mahtofire14 wrote:

Anybody want to go in on World Series tickets??? EPG?

I’m digging out the lawn chair as we speak.

Dutchboy wrote:

Pretty much pummeled Detroit today. Anybody heard what the Arraez deal is?

I’m one of those Cruz haters, not because of his age but because he is a convicted steroid user. Wouldn’t be fair to hate on A-Fraud and give Cruz a pass.

That was so long ago it isn’t even on the radar for me anymore. And it’s not like he tested positive. He was named in the big steroid scandal. He’s never “tested” positive.

Well there are a lot of baseball things guys could care less about. I’m not one of those people. Numbers matter to me. But, as they say you handle you i’ll take care of me.

Steroids!
I have a solution. As a professional athlete simply make it mandatory.

It can be like wrestling.

I want to be entertained, I would love to see 600ft HR’s, guys running 3.5 40’s, QB’s chunking it 80 yards, kickers booting 70 yard FG’s etc.

All the records are being skewed anyway, just have the record book keep 2 books. One could be records pre roids and the other.

Don’t you have a dock to fix?

Dutchboy wrote:

Don’t you have a dock to fix?

Way to bring me back to reality.

One thing that is REALLY annoying me this season so far is the “cashing in” sound effect every time a stat box for a player at bat comes in and out.

Thanks Bally….

On the flip side it’s nice not having Bert on the mic all the time now. I thought Morneau did a nice job in Milwaukee. Caught todays game on MLB radio with the Detroit announcers.

Dutchboy wrote:

On the flip side it’s nice not having Bert on the mic all the time now. I thought Morneau did a nice job in Milwaukee. Caught todays game on MLB radio with the Detroit announcers.

Cmon! Bert is still my favorite.

Dutchboy wrote:

On the flip side it’s nice not having Bert on the mic all the time now. I thought Morneau did a nice job in Milwaukee. Caught todays game on MLB radio with the Detroit announcers.

I agree. I like Morneau. He really knows the game and is very relatable. Keeps Dick in check too.

Cruz still on the juice and happy for him. The guy has found a way to not get caught and just raking day in day out.
Araez was modeled after Carew. Best hitter on the team IMO and why was he relagated to backup? They sign some SS which whatever while moving Polanco to 2nd?
The guy may be one of the best hitters I have seen in my lifetime and they start him as a utility player? Not sure I agree with the teams opinion of Araez.

eyeguy507 wrote:

Cruz still on the juice and happy for him. The guy has found a way to not get caught and just raking day in day out.
Araez was modeled after Carew. Best hitter on the team IMO and why was he relagated to backup? They sign some SS which whatever while moving Polanco to 2nd?
The guy may be one of the best hitters I have seen in my lifetime and they start him as a utility player? Not sure I agree with the teams opinion of Araez.

He hasn’t been able to stay on the field and has an knee injury that is possibly chronic. They wanted to limit his playing time to keep him healthy. He is also below average in the field.

Polanco however isn’t a ton better and if he doesn’t pick it up I can see Arraez bumping him. He is a great contact hitter.

Araez is improving defensively and offers versatility in his current role. With Donaldson a perpetual DL guy and Polanco hitting like a pitcher, there will be plenty of opportunities for Araez.

I just wanna watch them win. Every other team cheats. Bet Astros fans arent saying they didnt have fun for a few years even if they were cheating. Heck i wish the Gophers would get Janet Gangelhoff back.

JEREMY wrote:

I just wanna watch them win. Every other team cheats. Bet Astros fans arent saying they didnt have fun for a few years even if they were cheating. Heck i wish the Gophers would get Janet Gangelhoff back.

Without Googling it was she the one that was the tutor or something with the Mens Basketball team?

KP wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>JEREMY wrote:</div>
I just wanna watch them win. Every other team cheats. Bet Astros fans arent saying they didnt have fun for a few years even if they were cheating. Heck i wish the Gophers would get Janet Gangelhoff back.

Without Googling it was she the one that was the tutor or something with the Mens Basketball team?

Yes, she was the one who kept Clems kids in school.

Happ gets through 4 tied at 1-1 so I’m sure the bullpen will be in now.

Totally forgot about the runner starting at second in extras.

Dutch, keep hating on Cruz, I think it’s making him hit more dingers! Guess Buxton’s tummy is feeling better too….

mahtofire14 wrote:

Guess Buxton’s tummy is feeling better too….

Where are the Buston guys at?

BigWerm wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>mahtofire14 wrote:</div>
Guess Buxton’s tummy is feeling better too….

Where are the Buston guys at?

Cmon now it was never about talent. It has always been about staying on the field. He has played more than 100 games in one season in 6 or so seasons now. Only five games in he has plenty of time to get hurt still.

Buxton according to Gleeman in the Athletic.

With the Twins clinging to a 3-2 lead in the seventh inning on Opening Day in Milwaukee and Byron Buxton up with a runner on base, the Brewers brought in side-arming right-hander Eric Yardley, who held right-handed hitters to a .208 batting average last season. Yardley’s go-to pitch is his slider, off which opponents hit just .095 last year.

He tried to sneak one past Buxton on the first pitch. This happened instead:

“I WOULD NEVER THROW THIS MAN A BREAKING BALL”

… NEITHER WOULD WE 😉 #MNTWINS PIC.TWITTER.COM/Q6RWAKDTCU

— MINNESOTA TWINS (@TWINS) APRIL 1, 2021

It was the longest homer of Buxton’s career, a 456-foot blast that put the Twins up 5-2. But instead of making him the hero, his two-run shot became merely a footnote in an extra-inning loss after Alex Colomé blew a save in his first Twins appearance. Nonetheless, the clutch homer showed how far Buxton has come since the early days of his career when he was flailing at breaking balls.

Buxton revealed afterward that he stepped to the plate assuming Yardley would throw him a first-pitch slider because he remembered how the reliever pitched to him last season. He was waiting for it.

“I went up there and had a plan,” Buxton said. “I literally said, ‘He’s gonna throw me a slider,’ so I went up there and sat slider. That’s where the experience part comes in.”

Buxton hit just .219 off breaking balls from 2015 to 2019, and the image of him chasing sliders in the dirt was an all-too-common sight for Twins fans. But last season, something changed. Buxton hit .356 with an .844 slugging percentage off breaking balls, including seven homers.

Perhaps that’s just a small-sample fluke in a short season, but Yardley probably disagrees. And so does Buxton, who said he altered his approach to expect breaking balls more often and to react to fastballs, rather than the other way around. It may seem like a small difference, but it’s made a huge impact on Buxton, who has taken control of more at-bats by anticipating how pitchers will attack him.

“I feel confident enough now where it doesn’t really matter what you throw to me,” Buxton said. “I’ll sit on breaking pitches. I’m starting to realize how quick my hands are to react to fastballs. Once you get to that point, it’s pretty scary.”

Buxton’s new approach was on full display Saturday, when he broke up Brewers starter Corbin Burnes‘ no-hitter in dramatic fashion. Burnes painted the corner with a 95 mph fastball down and away, seemingly a perfect pitch from a pitcher slicing through the Twins lineup. But those quick Buxton hands reacted with authority, driving it to right-center for a solo homer that knocked Burnes from the game.

NO-NO?

YEAH NO.#MNTWINS PIC.TWITTER.COM/BIGCIQIX3E

— MINNESOTA TWINS (@TWINS) APRIL 4, 2021

This time the Twins bullpen held the lead in a 2-0 victory.

Buxton left Sunday’s game with a stomach bug but not before ripping a line-drive double into the left-field corner in his first at-bat of another Twins win.

“We’re continually seeing more and more of what Buck is capable of,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “He could hit a ball out of the ballpark at any given time.”

Buxton has 25 homers in 128 games since the start of 2019, good for a .548 slugging percentage that ranks second among all MLB center fielders behind only Mike Trout. That includes 15 homers in 41 games since the beginning of last season, during which time Buxton (.616) has out-slugged even Trout (.599).

“Pretty scary” is right.

Buxton’s work ethic and openness to coaching have never been in question, but for many years he wasn’t being put in a position to thrive, regardless of how hard he worked or how much he listened.

Under the previous, Paul Molitor-led coaching staff, Buxton was encouraged to put the ball on the ground and use his exceptional speed to beat out infield hits, a common approach for fast players throughout baseball history. It never really worked for Buxton, as injuries repeatedly stalled his development, and in trying to fit him into the singles-hitting leadoff mold, the Twins shortchanged his natural power.

Buxton was too often a mechanical mess early in his career, constantly altering his batting stance and swing while trying to live up to an outdated idea of how skinny speedsters should hit. Baldelli replaced Molitor in 2019, following the worst, most injury-wrecked year of Buxton’s career, and it was quickly clear that the days of trying to turn him into a singles hitter were over.

Injuries have remained a huge issue for Buxton under Baldelli, just as they were under Molitor, but his approach at the plate has transformed into one in search of extra-base hits. Buxton is still capable of beating out a chopper to shortstop or dropping down a bunt to surprise the defense, but that’s no longer the goal. He wants to elevate the ball and do damage at the plate now, and it’s working.

Some of Buxton’s transformation is no doubt thanks to maturing physically and gaining experience, which were bound to happen under any manager. However, his change in plate approach is merely part of a bigger, organization-wide shift that began in 2017 when Derek Falvey replaced Terry Ryan in the front office. After decades of being out-homered, the Twins finally started to fight back.

Max Kepler, who came up through the minors alongside Buxton, recalled the vastly different way the Twins used to coach young hitters under Ryan.

“I’d say through each level, the hitting guys we had, they did kind of preach the step, pause, then slap the ball and keep your hands inside-out most everything,” Kepler said. “It also, I think, showed at a certain time and point that we didn’t hit for much power.”

They phased out coaches who had long emphasized contact over damage, from the majors down to rookie ball, and started encouraging young hitters to swing hard, elevate balls and hunt for extra bases. For a player like Buxton, who came up through the minors at a time when the Twins preached going the other way and trading power for contact, it was like a whole new world had opened up.

2015-2018
38.7
39.7
15.2
30.2
.157
2019-2021
31.1
50.0
21.5
41.7
.286
Since the manager switch, Buxton has decreased his ground-ball rate by 20 percent and increased his fly-ball rate by 26 percent by changing the trajectories of the balls coming off his bat. Compare his launch angles from 2017 and 2018, shown on the left, with his launch angles from 2019 and 2020 (and the first three games of 2021), shown on the right.

Graphic from Baseball Savant
You can see fewer balls pounded downward into the ground, more balls driven into the air and a rise in well-struck pitches, period. Buxton’s isolated power — which is simply slugging percentage minus batting average — has skyrocketed from a league-average .157 to among baseball’s best at .286. That’s all by design, and it tapped into an upside that had been left dormant for years.

Buxton has the majors’ 13th-highest isolated power since 2019, directly ahead of stars Juan Soto (.283), Alex Bregman (.282) and Fernando Tatis Jr. (.279). It would have been impossible for him to become that type of hitter under the old regime given that Buxton, like many promising hitters before him, was coached to take the opposite approach at every level, from the minors to the majors.

In addition to the change in organizational philosophy and different coaching methods helping Buxton unlock his full power potential, he’s quick to point to the role his life beyond baseball has had in fueling his offensive breakout after years of inconsistency and injuries.

“I’m probably in the best spot I’ve been in as a baseball player,” Buxton said last week, between the two homers. “Comfortable, confident. There’s not too much that can get me off track mentally.”

Buxton credits his wife, Lindsey, and their young sons Brixton and Blaze with having a profound impact on his state of mind, on and off the field.

“Family is everything to me,” Buxton said. “Without them, I wouldn’t be in this spot. When you’ve got something that’s a little bit more important than coming out here and playing a baseball game, that puts it in a little bit more perspective to enjoy the time you have. Because every day is not guaranteed.”

Buxton has become a full-fledged slugger, but the next step in his development is to harness his newfound aggression and mix in enough patience at the plate to force pitchers to throw him strikes. Last season, Buxton took his aggression to almost comical levels, drawing a grand total of just two walks in 39 games. It’s a recipe that worked, as he was able to ambush unsuspecting pitchers.

However, as the league catches up to the big changes in Buxton’s game and the damage he’s now capable of inflicting, pitchers will adjust. And then he’ll need to adjust back, likely by chasing fewer pitches outside the strike zone. Buxton is aware of that next step, and he’s already working on it with Twins coaches.

In addition to homering on Opening Day, he also drew two walks to match his entire 2020 total. Afterward, he talked about having the experience and mental clarity to “slow myself down” and let the game come to him.

“When I say I’m mentally clear, I can go up there and sit on breaking pitches,” Buxton said. “And if I don’t get a pitch, I’m good with it. It’s just all about me going out there and having a little bit more fun than what I’ve had in the past.”

His family is a big part of that fun. Buxton’s youngest son, Blaze, was born in July. He was at Target Field for the playoff losses to the Astros a few months later, but he was way too young to really experience anything. Still probably is. But now Blaze is old enough to actually focus on the television when Lindsey and Brixton are watching Twins games at home.

“He loves to watch. It’s about the only time he’s quiet,” Buxton said. “It’s times like that when I really appreciate where I’m at. I’m thankful for where I’m at because I’m very blessed to be able to go on TV and him be able to watch me. So things like that just don’t come around. Mentally, it’s the little things you start to cherish about this game day in and day out.”

Watching Cruz go from 1st to home on a double is hilarious! Then LaTortuga towels him off in the dugout! Kudos to the old man!

Another grind it out win. Hopefully they start hitting a little more again. Nice to see Maeda getting it done even though he hasn’t been terribly sharp yet.

Golly, I think I could hit off this guy.

CY Young, Cy Young!!!!!

i was just looking at sportsbetting3.com and is -200 a decent bet vs Mariners?

Might have missed it unless i can get an inplay bet in…