Twins Claim LHP Strong from Marlins

[gbg]

 

A 26 year old with a 8.9 K/9 at AA who struggled at AAA? Yeah, no. Nice try, though

Small sample size, anyone? In Colorado Springs?

[big dog]

 

What's great is we dumped board favorite Pinto first.

And he's been dumped again since.  Our turn will come up if we wait a while.

[Platoon]

You can bet your life on it.

That was a great TV show! I only bet on things I understand, like Newtons law of gravity, John Nash's zero sum theory, and Sarah Palin! The Twins FO rationale would be way too complicated for me.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Small sample size, anyone? In Colorado Springs?

Small sample size or not, no one here would have been calling for his promotion to MLB like you claimed.

 

Darnell himself had a 9.4 K/9 in relief at AAA thru June last year, that is better than what Strong did and few were advocating for his promotion.

[Thrylos]

 

Darnell himself had a 9.4 K/9 in relief at AAA thru June last year, that is better than what Strong did and few were advocating for his promotion.

 

But Darnell is not a local boy, neither would he bring in 20 tickets from Stillwater, like Strong will...

[old nurse]

 

But Darnell is not a local boy, neither would he bring in 20 tickets from Stillwater, like Strong will...

With all of the moves of the other teams, if the Twins are out of contention maybe they will have a "Strong" night in September so the extended family will show up as well as the former members of the Stillwater baseball team.  They can make a profit off the September call up. The next night they could have "Hamburger" night by adding Mark to the 40 man and dfa Strong.

[TheLeviathan]

 

This is what King Theo calls a small move. I wouldn't read too much into it.

 

It's a small move alright.  Whether it was necessary or not - you've pinned down the point of frustration for most of us.

 

This team should consider itself a contender and there just hasn't been enough added from last year to this point.

[stringer bell]

Logan Darnell will have a job whether he is claimed or not. I'm sure the Twins want to outright him to Rochester if he's not claimed and if someone claims him, he might have a better chance to see major league time. I wasn't a fan of Darnell and thought that he offered very little in either a starting or relieving role. Strong may or may not be a better option.

 

Lavelle said the Twins may still sign Neil Cotts, who I believe is serviceable as a lefty specialist who can survive against right handers. Not sure if I agree with the Twins' strategy, but resisting overpaying mediocre options is okay with me.

[Thrylos]

 

Lavelle said the Twins may still sign Neil Cotts, who I believe is serviceable as a lefty specialist who can survive against right handers. Not sure if I agree with the Twins' strategy, but resisting overpaying mediocre options is okay with me.

 

Cott's?  of 5.99 FIP last season?  I'd rather see the Twins give the kids a chance

[gbg]

 

Small sample size or not, no one here would have been calling for his promotion to MLB like you claimed.

Darnell himself had a 9.4 K/9 in relief at AAA thru June last year, that is better than what Strong did and few were advocating for his promotion.

Sorry, we're going to disagree on this one. Logan was a "been there, done that" on this board.

 

Putting up the numbers Strong was putting up in AA, at least one person would have DEMANDED his getting a shot at the majors. Others would have chimed in with IRONCLAD REASONS why he was not even fit for low-A ball. We'd have gotten at least six pages out of it. Ricky Nolasco would have been invoked in at least three comments. Probably one moderator admonition to stay on topic.

 

Obviously, he wasn't in the Twins' system last year, so we'll never know. Instead, he got sent to the mountains and pitched 12 times, with horrid results in five of those games. Not the first guy to throw up on himself there (he was far from the worst pitcher on that team).

 

It's an intriguing signing for someone who's the 40th man on the roster, but I wouldn't bet more than a dollar even-money that he ever pitches with the Twins.

[jokin]

 

You can bet your life on it.

 

Since you apparently are willing to bet with such lofty stakes in the offing, please elaborate on how this offseason Master Plan of the GM has helped enhance the Twins' contender status in 2016.  (The "Parade" you not so long ago insisted had begun in 2015 is getting antsy to start up the marching band and claim that 2016 AL pennant, already... I don't see one "sure thing" Terry move that increased the Twins potential 2016 win total over 82)

[jokin]

1) Dumpster diving at its finest

 

So, didn't nearly 20 teams pass on this guy? And this was his second exposure in the offseason to the waiver wire? What does that say? (Ans.- the Brewers and Marlins received ZERO trade interest for Strong)

 

2) A tale of two franchises.......

 

Miami's and Minnesota's pitching results for 2015 were fairly comparable. As of today, Miami has 7 of 25 pitchers on its 40-man that are 27 years of age or older. With Strong joining the Twins staff (apparently not even close to worth considering in making the Miami 40-man by the Fish), by contrast the Twins now have 14 of 25 pitchers age 27 and up.

 

3) Isn't the idea that by adding veterans and spending money, that you're supposed to get a big upgrade from a proven commodity?

 

Miami actually did get older this week in the pitching department- removing Rienzo from the 40-man in favor of Edwin Jackson. And Strong was waived in favor of Wei Yin Chen. And it has been reported that the Marlins aren't done yet in their pitching upgrades, with the names Fister and Alfredo Simon being bandied about as potential signees.  Meanwhile the sum total of the Twins offseason "upgrades" in the relief pitching staff consists of:

 

AA level, 27-year old Mike Strong. 

 

But hey, he is from Afton, so there's that. 

 

4) Now, which club qualitatively improved their staff and actually appears to want to compete?

[jay]

4) Now, which club qualitatively improved their staff and actually appears to want to compete?

A bunch of one-sided hyperbole that purportedly represents the full story doesn't prove your point. #citypages

[Otto von Ballpark]

Putting up the numbers Strong was putting up in AA, at least one person would have DEMANDED his getting a shot at the majors.

I know you are mostly joking with your comments now, but I still think this is a reach even for the basis of a joke. As bad as posters can be around here, they are quite capable of seeing that an 8.9 K/9 from a 26 year old reliever in AA in modern baseball isn't all that impressive, particularly not a LHP with a worse OPS against LHB behind O'Rourke and Rogers.

 

I mean, Lester Oliveros got a lot of the kind of fan support here as you describe, and he was 26 years old a year ago, but he was also coming off a 13.2 K/9 at AAA, with a career MiLB mark of 11.2.

 

Generally, to become a fan favorite here, you either need performance or youth, and Strong was fairly obviously lacking on both counts.

 

We may be irrational cranks around here, but we have SOME standards for our irrational crank-dom.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Logan Darnell will have a job whether he is claimed or not. I'm sure the Twins want to outright him to Rochester if he's not claimed and if someone claims him, he might have a better chance to see major league time. I wasn't a fan of Darnell and thought that he offered very little in either a starting or relieving role. Strong may or may not be a better option.

 

Lavelle said the Twins may still sign Neil Cotts, who I believe is serviceable as a lefty specialist who can survive against right handers. Not sure if I agree with the Twins' strategy, but resisting overpaying mediocre options is okay with me.

Agreed that Darnell will have a job, although it will be at a lower salary if he is off the 40-man roster.

 

Still not sure about your last point. Obviously these aren't perfect ballplayers, but 2/12 for relievers like Lowe and Bastardo hardly seems like overpaying mediocre options. Similar cost to Jepsen for pitchers who stand a solid chance at equaling Jepsen's value in 2016-2017. And Jepsen gets a lot of credit for helping salvage our 2015 season. Do the Twins have a better use of $12 mil over the next 2 years? This winter, it sure doesn't seem like it. As John Bonnes pointed out, we seem to have committed ~$5 mil this winter for a fairly long shot in Abad, a utility player in Nunez that may be redundant with Santana, and re-upping a reliever in Fien who no one seems to trust beyond the 6th inning. We also seem to have committed $6.2 mil annually over the next 4 years for a DH, when our roster already had Sano, Vargas, and Arcia. Not saying either of those investments were bad -- just showing you the value of $5-6 mil in modern MLB.

 

In modern MLB, it's awfully hard for $5-6 mil to be an overpay for anything, it certainly doesn't feel like an overpay for adding guys like Jepsen, Lowe, or Bastardo to a bullpen that struggled like the 2015 Twins'.

[Boom Boom]

As a depth move, it's... eh, whatever. What concerns me is that with the current bullpen situation, this guy's got a real shot at pitching in the majors for the Twins.

 

But hey, Cotts and Duensing are still out there.

[notoriousgod71]

 

All teams make low profile moves like this.

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/transactions/#month=1&year=2016

My concern is that I feel O'Rourke has been the best option all along.

 

Every other team, at least some of the time, makes high profile moves to acquire actual legitimate talent. It's a lot easier for people to accept pointless moves like this when you have already signed Zack Greinke. Instead, this is one of our "highest" profile moves.

 

 

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Every other team, at least some of the time, makes high profile moves to acquire actual legitimate talent. It's a lot easier for people to accept pointless moves like this when you have already signed Zack Greinke. Instead, this is one of our "highest" profile moves.

No doubt. I am not implying O'Rourke is a lock to be good or that we didnt need to sign one of the better guys like Sipp or Bastardo. I'm just ready for the college reliever guys to graduate. There are certainly enough of them. At this point I will be sorely disappointed if the Twins sign or claim another bargain bin reliever who will take innings away from the younger guys with upside.

[AWOLNATION_11]

I thought I saw on Twitter that Strong has 2 options remaining vs. Darnell's 1.   So all things being equal, gives the Twins more time to evaluate before a 25-man roster situation arises.

[birddog]

I like Seth's gin assessment. We'll let you know in 3 months if we should have kept the 9 instead of the 10. But I think the biggest question once again is, "Why don't the Twins young pitching prospects pan out?" We finally drafted high velocity pitchers and they aren't helping us as quickly as presumed. Why not? Are our minor league pitching coaches doing the job?

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I thought I saw on Twitter that Strong has 2 options remaining vs. Darnell's 1.   So all things being equal, gives the Twins more time to evaluate before a 25-man roster situation arises.

If either Strong or Darnell was still occupying a 40-man spot for "evaluation" purposes at age 28 in 2017, something would have had to go horribly, horribly wrong in regards to our organization's pitchers.

[GACbaseball]

In other mediocre bullpen news, here's this tidbit from MLBtraderumors:

 

"The Twins may be interested in Mets reliever Carlos Torres, who currently sits in DFA limbo, according to Mike Puma of the New York Post (via Twitter). He’s only owed $1.05MM through arbitration this year and his peripherals suggest that last year’s 4.68 ERA may have been a bit unlucky, so it’s not difficult to see the appeal for a Minnesota club that could stand to deepen its pen."

[jay]

"The Twins may be interested in Mets reliever Carlos Torres, who currently sits in DFA limbo

I'd rather see the young guys than a 33 yr old who has never had a single season xFIP below 3.50. His numbers and pitch types look an awful lot like Casey Fien with an extra BB/9.

[jokin]

 

A bunch of one-sided hyperbole that purportedly represents the full story doesn't prove your point. #citypages

 

Is "#citypages" supposed to be a sarc-off sign?  If not, which fact that I presented is "one-sided hyperbole"?

 

Miami has now qualitatively improved (when 100% healthy) a very good, and very young staff, with some solid veteran arms (and apparently unlike the Twins- the Fish may even not be done yet).

 

I believe the facts I presented more than proved my point without use of hyperbole. Further, developmentally and within the evolutionary phase of a team in the contending continuum, the Marlins are similarly positioned with their field players relative to the Twins. And yet, while Miami finished 28th in MLB attendance, appear undaunted in spending money in order to make a full run in 2016.

[jokin]

 

I'd rather see the young guys than a 33 yr old who has never had a single season xFIP below 3.50. His numbers and pitch types look an awful lot like Casey Fien with an extra BB/9.

 

This seems to contradict your attack of me. It just so happens, that I also heartily support the notion that the Twins get much younger in the pitching staff.*

 

Going for a Torres-like pitcher is Ryan's typical move- trying to coax a year of semi-quality (ala Boyer) from the RP scrap-heap.

 

Spend more for a proven vet via FA, or via a trade, for a younger, up-and-coming quality arm.

 

*(as noted previously, 14 of 25 Twins pitchers are age 27 or greater)