Is Nolasco the worst twins player of all time?

[DaveW]

Not talent wise, but total lack of production wise on what would be expected.

 

Ranks right down there with Juan Castro, Brett Boon and yes even Nishioka at this point.

[Mike Sixel]

Vance Worley?

[Mill1634]

Biggest Free agent bust in the last 10 years, yes. 

[USAFChief]

Nishioka, and it's not close.

[James]

 

Nishioka, and it's not close.

I have to agree with this one.  Even Nishi had to admit that he didn't deserve to the last year of his contract.  

[jimmer]

 

I have to agree with this one.  Even Nishi had to admit that he didn't deserve to the last year of his contract.  

Well, Smith was responsible for Nisioka, so it's Nishioka. It was nice to see him forfeit his pay when he didn't have to  :-)

[Kwak]

Nishioka, but Erwin Santana might replace him.

[notoriousgod71]

I'm pretty sure you made a lovely youtube video that is now blocked btw of the worst Twin of all time.

[jimmer]

 

Nishioka, but Erwin Santana might replace him.

Nishioka was an inexpensive mistake in baseball terms though.  His salary was a drop in the bucket. In FA terms, he was getting scrub pay.

 

When it's all said and done, it could be Nolasco as the worst player and worst contract (to go along with him seemingly not wanting to be here)

 

I think resigning Pelfrey after his first season with us could be the worst decision made in quite some time though.

[MileHighTwinsFan]

It didn't go well today - but let's take a deep breath people.  

[Hrbowski]

I don't know if worst player is measurable.

[Thegrin]

2 unwatchable games in a row ... our perceptions are clouded by recent events.  We have 6 months to left to play.... even if we lose the next 10 games in a row, they are still our Twins.  

[Monkeypaws]

Certainly the front runner for "least bang for the buck."

[Thrylos]

I guess y'all forgot Tommy Herr...

[SwainZag]

 

It didn't go well today - but let's take a deep breath people.  

 

Nolasco wasn't hit that hard today, but the 4 walks were inexcusable.  

 

The 3 runs in the 3rd were set up by a lead-off walk and the runs scored on a bloop single to center and a 1-handed Cabrera double down the line on a very good pitch.

 

The 3 runs in the 4th were set up by a lead-off walk and a nubbed infield hit, a Gose should been single that Torii turned into a triple and then Nolasco was pulled.  The 6th run came on the should have been single by Kinsler turned into triple by Schaefer.

 

The hardest hit ball off him all day was probably the fly by Kinsler in the 1st that Torii caught at the track.  While I don't want to insinuate he pitched well, because he didn't,  but he wasn't knocked around the yard.  Something positive to take I guess.

[Thrylos]

Re: Nolasco:

 

Was not able to watch the game live, so I went back and watched it.  I am giving him a mulligan for today.  Was pretty obvious that he could not finish his Fastball and was struggling to find a second pitch other than his curve that was working well, third and fourth inning.  Was cold.  That would do it.  Got to see what he can do in the next few starts before I judge him based on a bad inning or so (and Hunter and Schafer both had balls run by them) during cold weather.

[curt1965]

I'm pretty sure that Nolasco is trying. No one wants to suck. Right now I think he is his worst enemy: the harder he tries, the more difficult it gets for him. People react differently to failure. The pressure of the huge contract, a miserable season, and a bad start today make him an easy target. It sucks to be him.

[Thrylos]

 

I'm pretty sure that Nolasco is trying. No one wants to suck. Right now I think he is his worst enemy: the harder he tries, the more difficult it gets for him. People react differently to failure. The pressure of the huge contract, a miserable season, and a bad start today make him an easy target. It sucks to be him.

 

Totally agree.  As a matter of fact, I volunteer to pitch for him for what he is making per start to save him the pressure. 'Tis the boy scout in me.

[jimmer]

 

I'm pretty sure that Nolasco is trying. No one wants to suck. Right now I think he is his worst enemy: the harder he tries, the more difficult it gets for him. People react differently to failure. The pressure of the huge contract, a miserable season, and a bad start today make him an easy target. It sucks to be him.

He doesn't exactly inspire devotion with how openly he speaks of wishing he was back in LA and not in Minnesota.

[MplsFan]

I won't apologize for him, because I think he kind of stinks, but I have to add that I remember a game last year (and I looked it up on Baseball Reference to refresh my memory) where I remember thinking: "yes- this is what we need from him."  

 

It was the middle of September, the Twins were riding a 5 game losing streak and the bullpen was worn out.  Nolasco took the mound at Target Field against the Tigers and pitched 8 shutout innings (Perkins did his best to give the game away in the top of the 9th- Twins were up 2-0 at that point and he gave up 3 runs.  Twins scored 2 in the bottom of the inning to give Perk the win).

 

I just thought at the time: "this is the type of stopper we need Nolasco to be.  This is why we're paying him all this money."  

 

Finishing out the season, then the maybe-he-was-hiding-an-injury stuff came out and it was the offseason.  I really thought with the offseason rest, he'd be a candidate to take a step forward, particularly given this 8 shutout inning performance that was in my mind.

 

It was only one start today.  And it was cold.  I'm still hopeful.  Just not totally optimistic about him...

[Minniman]

 

He doesn't exactly inspire devotion with how openly he speaks of wishing he was back in LA and not in Minnesota.

 

He could forfeit his contract ....

[Benchwarmerjim]

 

Not talent wise, but total lack of production wise on what would be expected.

Ranks right down there with Juan Castro, Brett Boon and yes even Nishioka at this point.

 

For me, the bottom of the barrel is the 70ish innings the Twins gave Sean Bergman in 2000. Got paid $1.2 mil for that (He might have been the second highest paid player on that team behind Radke)

[SwainZag]

 

He doesn't exactly inspire devotion with how openly he speaks of wishing he was back in LA and not in Minnesota.

 

It was one twitter response aimed at a fan (a female fan) after the season had ended with him on the DL after his worst season as a pro while the Dodgers were headed the playoffs.  I wouldn't exactly call it openly speaking about being back in LA and I think it was taken a little too serious.

 

Regardless.....let's hope he rebounds in his next start.

[jimmer]

 

It was one twitter response aimed at a fan (a female fan) after the season had ended with him on the DL after his worst season as a pro while the Dodgers were headed the playoffs.  I wouldn't exactly call it openly speaking about being back in LA and I think it was taken a little too serious.

 

Regardless.....let's hope he rebounds in his next start.

It didn't bother me in the least, but it was more than once, wasn't it.  Pretty sure.  He basically repeated it this offseason, didn't he?  In either event, my point was comments like that doesn't inspire giving a player a benefit of the doubt.

[DaveW]

 

I'm pretty sure that Nolasco is trying. No one wants to suck. Right now I think he is his worst enemy: the harder he tries, the more difficult it gets for him. People react differently to failure. The pressure of the huge contract, a miserable season, and a bad start today make him an easy target. It sucks to be him.

Oh, poor Ricky Nolasco, having enough money to make sure your immediate family, your kids, your grand kids and most of your extended family will never have to worry about money must be so much pressure!

 

Guy is getting paid 50 million to pitch for this team, and hasn't earned one single penny of it thus far, in fact he has earned negative dollars worth IMHO and has brought negative value as his innings up to now would be much better served given to any number of players in the Twins system, including, May, Meyer (who are both MLB ready) and several others.

 

Nishioka was a worse as a player, but at least we didn't dump 50 million into him, the amount we paid Nishi never stopped us from signing any other player, when you have this much money on the books for a guy like Nolasco you bet that it affects the overall payroll enough (where he is taking up over 12% of it total!) to sign other players.

 

 

[ashbury]

 

It sucks to be him.

Except for the huge contract.

[DaveW]

 

Except for the huge contract.

And all the LA women on twitter who throw themselves at him apparently.

 

Tough life. I bet he would trade it all to be a 52 year old living in Detroit with a mortgage a wife and a few kids who just got laid off from the Ford plant a couple years ago....

[mnfireman]

Smardzija, Hamels, Gallardo, Latos, and few others have been hit pretty hard this week also. Most starting P have a couple bad ones during a typical season.

[DaveW]

 

Smardzija, Hamels, Gallardo, Latos, and few others have been hit pretty hard this week also. Most starting P have a couple bad ones during a typical season.

Which of these 2014 ERA's are unlike the others?

 

3.18

2.46

5.48

3.51

3.25

 

While yes, any pitcher can have a bad outing, I think it is pretty clear that this was closer to the norm for Nolasco in a Twins uniform then some "random bad day"

[formerly33]

I was thinking Liam Hendricks earlier, but I guess that's getting pretty debatable now.