#AskBW (8.8.22): Nick Gordon Truthing, Sandy Leon vs. a Grizzly Bear, Butter-Related Integrity Sadly & More
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Should be pretty easy, right? Let’s talk to it:
The Twins bullpen isn’t especially bad against right-handed hitters, but what’s what Fulmer is good at neutralizing and that’s who they’ll face a lot when playing the White Sox the rest of the way.
Opposing righties have a wOBA of .193 — and lefties check in at a robust .366 — against Fulmer, so it’s really just a matter of what teams and hitters he’ll face down the stretch.
As far as where he hits on the hierarchy, he’s definitely behind Jhoan Duran and Jorge Lopez, but based on how he pitch he can be anywhere from third (ahead of Griffin Jax) all the way down to sixth (behind Jax, Trevor Megill and Caleb Thielbar). I would put the money on fourth behind Jax, if we were gambling.
As for fitting the mold, he 'throws his slider 65.2 percent of the time. I’m sure Twins officials — notoriously fond of sliders — were salivating at the prospect of adding that to their bullpen.
So the significance is that the line of left-handed hitters who are really good over any given period seems to be really long. Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, George Brett, Barry Bonds, Larry Walker, David Ortiz, Bryce Harper, Ken Griffey Jr., Willie Stargell and so many others were left-handed hitters who got a lot of attention.
As for Puckett, I think it would have gotten more play in this era with Twitter accounts like Not Gaetti’s and Jeremy Frank constantly looking things up like this.
Now with that said, a lot of the luster around Puckett’s career has been tarnished by his off-field behavior. I think that’s why he doesn’t get that much love about this fact, and also I think some people think he was only fringe Hall-worthy rather than first ballot type.
Simply put, he wasn’t on the 40-man roster. I’m sure they wanted to get a longer look like someone like Mark Contreras possibly, but in all honesty, if Cave was on the 40-man he’d have been up.
Well, for right now they can “bank” if you will on an outfield of Larnach-Buxton-Kepler if they so choose. Maybe Cave or Gilberto Celestino are in that mix. In the worst case, maybe they sign a Kole Calhoun-type outfielder — just a name for reference of quality — to a one-year deal late in free agency if they get the sense that AK’s wrist isn’t responding like they’d hope.
A lot depends on if the grizzly bear is also named Sandy Leon.
So we’ve seen some veteran players released recently — like Jackie Bradley Jr. — rather than going through the usual DFA process simply because they’re veterans who won’t be claimed at their salaries, but also because it’ll help them land with a team for the stretch run sooner.
I would very much like to see the Nationals do the same thing with Nelson Cruz. Not because of how he’s played (eh) or to come to the Twins, but just to give him a chance to play in another pennant race as his career winds down.
I don’t know that it will actually do this, but it will become a rallying cry among fans and writers if they go, let’s say, 4-1 in Los Angeles against the Dodgers and Angels.
The narrative always wins. Players aren’t asked if the narrative is false, and frankly, no player would ever actually say on record that it was because it’s just good for team morale to let fans believe it.
Win the World Series by going undefeated along the way, sadly. When it comes to Prime Kirilloff and integrity, well:
This is so hard to say. I would say about 95 percent on Maeda just as long as he’s healthy. I’d also say it’s somewhat likely for Dobnak if he gets healthy. But the 28-man roster limits in September mean a lot of otherwise viable candidates will go home at the end of the minor-league season and go into a holding pattern in the event that the team will need more reinforcements down the home stretch.
It’s simply because he has options. The secondary issue is walks — he’s fanned 12.0 batters per nine but walked 5.8 — but he hasn’t outpitched any of the other relievers who still have options.
Also: the list of Twins relievers who still have options is excessively short. Emilio Pagan recently went over five years of service time so he can’t be optioned. Duran, Thielbar, and Jax still have options but weren’t going anywhere (and Thielbar was hurt for a spell).
Add to that the fact that Joe Smith and Tyler Duffey were on the roster until just recently — and both clearly out of options — and it basically has come down to Moran and Megill, and the latter has been better, even if not by much.
I think it’s either going to be Gordon or Cave, honestly. We’ve seen what both can do when they get hot, and it’s not like Cave was a bad player in his first two seasons with the Twins, either. If he’s healthy, he can definitely help them against righties.
It could also be a pitcher though. In that case, I’m going to go with someone like Cole Sands, who looked pretty solid in a long-man role in Sunday’s game and I still believe has the stuff to be a good reliever. Everyone else in the bullpen outside of maybe Megill or Moran would probably be too obvious of a guess, so maybe those two are in the mix as well.
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