I interrupt this blog's series of deep thoughts about the Cedar Rapids Kernels to offer my deep thoughts on the Twins trade Friday of Bobby Wilson for Chris Gimenez.
Here they are: ????
What we have here are a pair of essentially interchangable backup catchers -- both 35, both with reputations as excellent clubhouse presences and receivers, both possessors of medicore batting records.
Wilson, I think, is a slightly better defensive catcher; Gimenez balances the scales by being more versatile and a usable hitter against lefties, although that latter attribute may have deteriorated with the years. He certainly has not hit much this year, either in his brief midsummer sorjorn with the Cubs or at Triple A Iowa.
So why trade them?
My guess: The Cubs prefer Wilson to Gimenez as catching depth for September and the postseason. Not, mind you, that they will necessarily have him active for October -- but as insurance should something happen to starter Wilson Contreras or backup Victor Caritini.
The Twins give Wilson a change at a piece of postseason coin and get a backup catcher available immediately (Wilson is on the disabled list with a sprained ankle and is eligible to return Sept. 4). The trade also involves a player to be named or cash coming to the Twins. Neither figures to amount to much.
This will, of course, be Gimenez' second tenure with the Twins. He's been on the Indians roster three times and Texas twice. It's not often that a player returns to a previous organization, but Gimenez does it repeatedly.
Showing posts with label Bobby Wilson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bobby Wilson. Show all posts
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Thursday, May 17, 2018
The catching situation
Let us hope that the news arc on Jason Castro halts its direction here, because it seems that every development about his right knee becomes increasingly dire. In the last two weeks or so we've seen it go from:
The next step in this progression is probably something like amputation.
Castro has another season left on his contract, and the way Paul Molitor worded Castro's 2019 outlook Wednesday morning was open to interpretation: "I think there's some real optimism." Yes, sir, but is there some real pessimism?
Let us assume for the moment that the Twins are indeed confident that Castro will be capable of carrying his 2017 workload in 2019. That still leaves them about four-and-a-half months of 2018's regular season, plus, they hope, some playoffs. And their catchers are a relatively old rookie in Mitch Garver (27) and the well-traveled veteran Bobby Wilson (35).
LaVelle Neal said on Twitter that it's time to see what Garver can do. My expectation is that Garver will hit well enough to justify the bulk of the playing time, but he's no Castro behind the dish. So far Molitor has split the catching time pretty evenly between Garver and Wilson in Castro's absence.
Nothing's going to happen, barring further injury, for the next month or so. Once past the June draft, however, the Twins might start sniffing the trade market for a veteran backstop, especially if Garver doesn't perform well enough over the next month to merit the regular job. (There should be no expectation that Wilson can be anything more than a backup.)
If they truly expect Castro back in form next season, their interest will probably be in a rental, a free-agent-to-be. If they are wary about his chances -- and this is his third operation on that knee -- they'll raise their sights.
Believe what they do more than what they say.
- Sound enough to play on, to
- Cortisone shot and a short DL stint, to
- Surgery and a month or so of rehab, to
- Out for the season
The next step in this progression is probably something like amputation.
Castro has another season left on his contract, and the way Paul Molitor worded Castro's 2019 outlook Wednesday morning was open to interpretation: "I think there's some real optimism." Yes, sir, but is there some real pessimism?
Let us assume for the moment that the Twins are indeed confident that Castro will be capable of carrying his 2017 workload in 2019. That still leaves them about four-and-a-half months of 2018's regular season, plus, they hope, some playoffs. And their catchers are a relatively old rookie in Mitch Garver (27) and the well-traveled veteran Bobby Wilson (35).
LaVelle Neal said on Twitter that it's time to see what Garver can do. My expectation is that Garver will hit well enough to justify the bulk of the playing time, but he's no Castro behind the dish. So far Molitor has split the catching time pretty evenly between Garver and Wilson in Castro's absence.
Nothing's going to happen, barring further injury, for the next month or so. Once past the June draft, however, the Twins might start sniffing the trade market for a veteran backstop, especially if Garver doesn't perform well enough over the next month to merit the regular job. (There should be no expectation that Wilson can be anything more than a backup.)
If they truly expect Castro back in form next season, their interest will probably be in a rental, a free-agent-to-be. If they are wary about his chances -- and this is his third operation on that knee -- they'll raise their sights.
Believe what they do more than what they say.
Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Big on small ball
For the second straight day, the winning run in the Twins game came scored when a team tried to bunt the go-ahead run from second to third and the defense not only couldn't take the offered out but threw the ball away.
On Monday it was the Twins' Logan Morrison failing; on Tuesday it was Luke Gregerson of the Cardinals.
Gregerson's miscue is a good example of why I believe the bunt is an underrated play. It makes a pitcher get off the mound and do something out of the routine. That seems to challenge many pitchers, even in the big leagues. That it was on Byron Buxton -- who can motor even when hampered by that hairline fracture in his big toe -- added to the challenge.
Morrison's error doesn't fit my rationale. because he's not a pitcher. And while some first basemen wind up at the position to minimize their need to throw, Morrison is a first baseman because he's not a fast enough runner to play outfield competently.
But the Morrison play did involve a really fast runner -- Dee Gordon was the man on second, and Morrison wanted to make the play at third. He threw the ball away when he had to go to Plan B.
---
One other comment: Bobby Wilson, RBI machine. The catcher hit a two-run homer after the Buxton bunt/Gregerson error. That's five RBIs in as many games for him. It won't last, but enjoy it while it does.
On Monday it was the Twins' Logan Morrison failing; on Tuesday it was Luke Gregerson of the Cardinals.
Gregerson's miscue is a good example of why I believe the bunt is an underrated play. It makes a pitcher get off the mound and do something out of the routine. That seems to challenge many pitchers, even in the big leagues. That it was on Byron Buxton -- who can motor even when hampered by that hairline fracture in his big toe -- added to the challenge.
Morrison's error doesn't fit my rationale. because he's not a pitcher. And while some first basemen wind up at the position to minimize their need to throw, Morrison is a first baseman because he's not a fast enough runner to play outfield competently.
But the Morrison play did involve a really fast runner -- Dee Gordon was the man on second, and Morrison wanted to make the play at third. He threw the ball away when he had to go to Plan B.
---
One other comment: Bobby Wilson, RBI machine. The catcher hit a two-run homer after the Buxton bunt/Gregerson error. That's five RBIs in as many games for him. It won't last, but enjoy it while it does.
Saturday, May 12, 2018
Making your own luck
Mike Scioscia is in his 19th season as manager of the Angels. He's won 1,593 major league games and a World Series. He has, we can safely assume, a pretty solid notion of how to win games.
The "book" says you don't put the winning run on base. Scioscia violated that principle in the ninth inning, intentionally walking pinch-hitter Max Kepler to get at the weaker-hitting bottom of the Twins lineup. But Mitch Garver (pinch-hitting for Ehire Adrianaza) singled in the tying run, with Kepler taking third, and RBI machine Bobby Wilson got his second sac fly of the week.
Scioscia said after the game he preferred the matchups behind Kepler, and that's understandable. But intentionally walking the winning run is playing with matches and gasoline. On Friday, he got burned.
---
Wilson now has 10 career sacrifice flies (in 860 plate appearances). Question: Is that a lot?
Well, Miguel Sano has seven sac flies in 1,403 PA. Eddie Rosario, 14 in in 1,557 PA. I took a look at about a dozen Twins, past and present, and the only other one I encountered who averaged at least one sac fly per 100 trips to the plate was Gene Larkin (27 SF in 2,670 PA).
Larkin came to mind because his most famous plate appearance -- his game-winning single in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series -- was essentially a sac fly against a drawn-in outfield.
Hitting a fly ball on command isn't easy, and Wilson's apparent prowess is probably just a fluke.
---
The Fernando Rodney Experience was a lot of hard-hit balls for outs Friday.
To be blunt about it: Lance Lynn hasn't thrown enough strikes this year to deserve the breaks he compalins of not getting. He's walked 25 hitters in 34.1 innings. For a guy who throws almost nothing but fastballs, that's absurd.
The "book" says you don't put the winning run on base. Scioscia violated that principle in the ninth inning, intentionally walking pinch-hitter Max Kepler to get at the weaker-hitting bottom of the Twins lineup. But Mitch Garver (pinch-hitting for Ehire Adrianaza) singled in the tying run, with Kepler taking third, and RBI machine Bobby Wilson got his second sac fly of the week.
Scioscia said after the game he preferred the matchups behind Kepler, and that's understandable. But intentionally walking the winning run is playing with matches and gasoline. On Friday, he got burned.
---
Wilson now has 10 career sacrifice flies (in 860 plate appearances). Question: Is that a lot?
Well, Miguel Sano has seven sac flies in 1,403 PA. Eddie Rosario, 14 in in 1,557 PA. I took a look at about a dozen Twins, past and present, and the only other one I encountered who averaged at least one sac fly per 100 trips to the plate was Gene Larkin (27 SF in 2,670 PA).
Larkin came to mind because his most famous plate appearance -- his game-winning single in Game Seven of the 1991 World Series -- was essentially a sac fly against a drawn-in outfield.
Hitting a fly ball on command isn't easy, and Wilson's apparent prowess is probably just a fluke.
---
The Fernando Rodney Experience was a lot of hard-hit balls for outs Friday.
Mike Trout's 118 mph liner to short to end the game was the third-hardest hit ball in the Majors this year and the hardest ever hit by an Angels player since Statcast was introduced in 2015.— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) May 12, 2018
Since #Statcast's intro in 2015, there have been 18 balls hit in the air with exit velocities of 118+ mph.— David Adler (@_dadler) May 12, 2018
Mike Trout's game-ending lineout against the Twins tonight is the first one that has been an out. #Angels
Them's the breaks.
---
Another tweet:
Lynn: "In all honesty, I threw the ball well besides the home run. There were a couple flare hits, a couple bad breaks, but that’s kind of been the way things have been going early on for me." #mntwins— Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) May 12, 2018
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Bobby Wilson, RBI machine, and other thoughts
Bobby Wilson, who caught Sunday afternoon, caught again Monday night. Apparently the idea was:
So Dick Bremer said. I know I was at a spring training game in Port Charlotte in which Garver was in the lineup and Romero pitched, but Garver may have been subbed for the by the time Romero entered. Anyway, Wilson apparently caught Romero once during their joint time in Rochester; Willians Astudillo had the bulk of the work.
Wilson was solid back there. And the light hitter even drove in a pair of runs, with a sac fly and a softly hit but well-placed double. (And then he got thrown out at the plate, because somebody apparently forgot that he's a 35-year-old catcher.)
Which leads me to a third reason, this one unstated by Bremer, to start Wilson in Monday's game and Garver today: Carlos Martinez is a higher quality pitcher than John Gant. Garver is a higher quality hitter than Wilson. Paul Molitor may well have figured that they could score enough runs against Gant without Garver, but they would need Garver against Martinez.
---
I switched back and forth between the FSN broadcast and the ESPN version, partly because I wanted to hear a non-local perspective on Fernando Romero. Executive summary: Rick Sutcliffe predicted Romero will finish the season as the Twins closer.
I wouldn't turn to Sutcliffe for insight in the Twins' thinking, but even if this was just an off-the-top-of-his-head comment, I get the idea:
---
So the Twins have won four straight. Three of them came against the Chicago White Sox, who are not a good team. This one came against a team that played 14 innings (with two rain delays) Sunday night. At least the Cardinals didn't have to travel.
A win's a win, and the Twins have lost too many games they should have won already. I'm not declaring their problems solved.
- With another day game today, the two catchers were going to split the starts
- Wilson has caught Fernando Romero before, and Mitch Garver hasn't.
So Dick Bremer said. I know I was at a spring training game in Port Charlotte in which Garver was in the lineup and Romero pitched, but Garver may have been subbed for the by the time Romero entered. Anyway, Wilson apparently caught Romero once during their joint time in Rochester; Willians Astudillo had the bulk of the work.
Wilson was solid back there. And the light hitter even drove in a pair of runs, with a sac fly and a softly hit but well-placed double. (And then he got thrown out at the plate, because somebody apparently forgot that he's a 35-year-old catcher.)
Which leads me to a third reason, this one unstated by Bremer, to start Wilson in Monday's game and Garver today: Carlos Martinez is a higher quality pitcher than John Gant. Garver is a higher quality hitter than Wilson. Paul Molitor may well have figured that they could score enough runs against Gant without Garver, but they would need Garver against Martinez.
---
I switched back and forth between the FSN broadcast and the ESPN version, partly because I wanted to hear a non-local perspective on Fernando Romero. Executive summary: Rick Sutcliffe predicted Romero will finish the season as the Twins closer.
I wouldn't turn to Sutcliffe for insight in the Twins' thinking, but even if this was just an off-the-top-of-his-head comment, I get the idea:
- Whenever Ervin Santana returns, the Twins will have four veteran starters in the rotation (Santana, Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Lance Lynn) plus Jose Berrios.
- As I said after Romero's first start, the Twins almost certainly want to limit his innings to 150 or so. Left in the rotation he'll get there by season's end, and the Twins certainly aren't out of the playoff hunt.
- His power arm would play well in relief.
But we're some ways away from that decision. Santana, to my knowledge, has yet to officially begin a rehab assignment. I doubt he'll be back in the majors this month. This is the sort of issue -- oh, we have too many starters -- that tends to solve itself.
---
So the Twins have won four straight. Three of them came against the Chicago White Sox, who are not a good team. This one came against a team that played 14 innings (with two rain delays) Sunday night. At least the Cardinals didn't have to travel.
A win's a win, and the Twins have lost too many games they should have won already. I'm not declaring their problems solved.
Monday, May 7, 2018
Backup backstops
 |
| Bobby Wilson's the same age as Joe Mauer. |
It's bad enough to make him sit for a week-and-a-half, not bad enough for in-season surgery. Cortisone shot and rest, that's the treatment. I've had a couple cortisone shots in my left knee for a similar injury in the past, but I wasn't trying to catch 150 major league pitches a day at the time.
So Bobby Wilson, peripatetic backup catcher, is back in the majors. This is the ninth season that he's had all or part of the year in the majors, and the Twins are his seventh team. They had him stashed in Triple A for just this eventuality. He hit (not a typo) .042 in Rochester -- one hit in 24 at-bats. It was a homer, but still, 1-for-24 in Triple A is more likely to get a 35-year-old released than called up.
But there he was Sunday, catching Kyle Gibson and putting up an 0-for-3 line in the box score.
Some 30 years ago I had a notion that the best job in baseball was backup catcher. Sal Butera was the inspiration for that notion. Guys with the defensive chops to avoid glaring mistakes behind the plate and the ability to get along with everybody in the clubhouse (especially the pitchers and the stars) seem to be hang around forever even if they can't hit. Sal Butera never had 200 at-bats in a season, but he spent nine seasons on the fringes of major league rosters.
It's not hard to find similar examples. One would be Butera's son, Drew, now in his ninth major league season. Another: Chris Gimenez, Castro's caddy last season.
But there's a pretty obvious numbers squeeze coming for Wilson. Castro isn't expected to be out long, and Mitch Garver probably -- and should -- rank ahead of Wilson. Backup catcher is a good job, but it's not easy to find the right berth.
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Low-key competitions: Catcher
The conventional wisdom has it that the Twins bench is pretty much set: infielders Eduardo Escobar and Ehire Adrianza; catcher Mitch Garver; outfielder Robbie Grossman. That was the presumption when camp opened, and it's the presumption today.
Garver had a big 2017 at Triple A, slashing .291/.387/.541 for Rochester. With Chris Gimenez gone to the Cubs, the job of backing up Jason Castro should fall to Garver, who is now 27.
But Garver has has a rough spring at the plate, with just one hit in his first 21 plate appearances (a home run), and while the Twins say every year that his receiving skills have improved, that they keep saying suggests that he's not a particularly good defensive catcher. So there might be an opening.
The Twins have a pair of nonroster catchers in camp worth noting as potential alternatives to Garver. Bobby Wilson, 34, has in the majors for all or part of eight seasons with five different clubs. always as a back-up. He spent last season at the Dodgers' Triple A affiliate. He won't hit, but is presumably a superior defensive catcher to Garver.
A more interesting option is Willians Astudillo, who captivated the internet with this no-look pickoff throw during the one weekend Twins exhibition I didn't attend:
Astudillo, 26, is a better hitter than Wilson (probably), and not as good as Garver. He's definitely an odd hitter; he seldom takes pitches and has excellent bat-to-ball skills. I saw him get at least three at-bats during my Ft. Myers jaunt, and none went longer than two pitches. Call him Mr. Pace-of-Play.
I expect Garver to be the back up; 21 plate appearances in spring training mean nothing. He's hit at every level. If he isn't, I would rather have Astudillo, if only for entertainment value.
Garver had a big 2017 at Triple A, slashing .291/.387/.541 for Rochester. With Chris Gimenez gone to the Cubs, the job of backing up Jason Castro should fall to Garver, who is now 27.
But Garver has has a rough spring at the plate, with just one hit in his first 21 plate appearances (a home run), and while the Twins say every year that his receiving skills have improved, that they keep saying suggests that he's not a particularly good defensive catcher. So there might be an opening.
The Twins have a pair of nonroster catchers in camp worth noting as potential alternatives to Garver. Bobby Wilson, 34, has in the majors for all or part of eight seasons with five different clubs. always as a back-up. He spent last season at the Dodgers' Triple A affiliate. He won't hit, but is presumably a superior defensive catcher to Garver.
A more interesting option is Willians Astudillo, who captivated the internet with this no-look pickoff throw during the one weekend Twins exhibition I didn't attend:
No-look pickoff? This is crazy! 😱 pic.twitter.com/8LCb1Mx0JM— MLB (@MLB) March 14, 2018
Astudillo, 26, is a better hitter than Wilson (probably), and not as good as Garver. He's definitely an odd hitter; he seldom takes pitches and has excellent bat-to-ball skills. I saw him get at least three at-bats during my Ft. Myers jaunt, and none went longer than two pitches. Call him Mr. Pace-of-Play.
I expect Garver to be the back up; 21 plate appearances in spring training mean nothing. He's hit at every level. If he isn't, I would rather have Astudillo, if only for entertainment value.
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