JR Graham Traded To Yankees

[jud6312]

Anybody happen to see where good ole J.R. ended up? Trenton Thunder in AA - right after being on the Twins MLB roster.

 

Yes, I know there's no correlation between the two things, but I think it serves nicely as an anecdote for this season.

 

[Mike Sixel]

No one claimed this was the primary reason they missed the playoffs, that seems to be where we mis-connected. Sorry I misinterpreted your posts. No big deal to me......

 

I think it was a mistake what htey did last year........I don't care that much about this year. I do think this had a negative effect on wins and losses last year, and that actually mattered last year. I think it is perfectly reasonable to be critical of the way they handled the roster in a year they almost made the playoffs, in terms of basically punting (backwards some, when he played) one of the 25 positions they are allowed to use.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

But the original argument to which I objected is that the Graham decision is the primary, if not the single, decision that kept us from the post season in 2015.    It is that argument that I wholeheartedly reject.    It gives 100% of the weight to the Graham decision.

 

Here is the original post you responded to on the subject:

 

 

The frustration is that last year a couple games would have made a difference and keeping Graham on the 25 could have cost us those games.

 

Nowhere does it say that Graham is 100% responsible.  A couple of games COULD have made a difference, and rostering Graham quite possibly COULD have cost us those games, in a far more predictable and avoidable fashion than, say, random player X performing poorly for Y number of games.

 

You seem to be only one who interpreted that to mean 100% blame.  Which is distracting from the issue that the Twins appear to have mismanaged the Graham situation to negative effect, if not this year then last year.

[gocgo]

Hey wait a minute!  Atlanta without Graham is a lousy 9-28 after giving up Graham while we are at 10-27 with him...but now we trade him to the Yankees who are 16-21.  Shrewd move!  Bring the hated Yankees down to our level.

[OldTimeTwinkie]

If our front office was any good we wouldn't be sitting looking at another 90-100 loss season. So why would the Graham situation be a mystery. This regime has not scouted well, drafted well and developed players that are major league contenders for many years.We have had one player that was drafted in Moreau that was top notch. Mauer was a top pick that a blind squirrel could have picked. We got lucky with Johan S. But other than him what pitcher have we come through our organization who was a bona fief #1. I think every other team in baseball has had one except us. We can't see the trees through the forest, we have bad management, it's as simple as that.

[The Wise One]

 

The same Delino DeShields who like Graham was optioned in AAA this season?

 vacation, so I could not reply. It was not a jackpot ticket but not worth so little it would be thrown away

[Platoon]

I have no idea how this really works, but here is a stab:

 

Well-regarded Scout With Previous Success Identifying Diamonds In the Rough (Maybe even Johan!)  Let's call him "Creed":

 

"I really like this Graham kid.  If we can get him to stop picking his nose, we'll really have something.  He throws 95."

 

Terry Ryan:

 

"I don't know.  We'd have to risk losing Gilmartin.  What do you say, Gilmartin Guy?"

 

Gilmartin Guy (Slightly less respected, slightly less of a track record for finding diamonds.)  Let's call him "Dwight" :  

 

"I kind of like Gilmartin.  He's crafty."

 

TR:  "I'm told a few folks at Twins Daily really like hard-throwing guys and really hate crafty lefty's.  Take the nose picker.  I trust you, Creed.  If he's still picking his nose a year from now, it's your ass."

 

Graham, with the help of a hollowed out pine cone that he wears over his finger, makes some progress in the nose picking department.  His side sessions look great, though in-game results don't always match.  Still, the Twins finally take the gloves of and he gets traumatized by A-rod on August 18th at 7:42 p.m. CDT.  He secretly starts to pick his nose again.

 

Spring rolls around, and he has lost weight and is still lighting up radar guns.  In the midst of an apocalyptic start, he gets the call to Minnesota, sucks, and is seen by all brazenly picking his nose.  TR immediately cans him and some people with smartphones immediately determine Terry Ryan could have prevented World War II if he'd built a time machine, gone back to Milford, Iowa in 1922, and stopped Biff Haverstrom from saving a butterfly trapped in a puddle of spilt EZ-GLID universal gear lubricant that instead survived to flap its wings and precipitate a series of meteorological events that ultimately resulted in a light breeze knocking over a painting Adolf Hitler was working on, which caused him to give up his art career and take up dictating instead.

 

Meanwhile, nary a mention in these parts of how shrewd offseason acquisition Byung-Ho Park is a rookie of the year contender so far.

 

Milford IA:). I remember Biff, he used to have breakfast at The Picadilly every morning. Margie would make sure his eggs were just right. I always wondered why he looked so sad, it was that damn butterfly!

[Richie the Rally Goat]

I realize I'm refuting different posts at the same time, but...from Sconnie above Graham is "a guy off the scrap heap" and apparently not an actual prospect. I don't know--he throws hard and was given a new role where two pitches would be enough, so IMHO despite his age Graham was an actual prospect. It is interesting that Gilmartin is also held up as evidence of the Twins ignorance. He definitely isn't a hard thrower. Graham and Gilmartin were both claimed and asked to do something they had almost no experience doing--pitching out of a major league bullpen. Gilmartin the relative soft tosser succeeded, while Graham's result were mixed at best.

 

Also, losing Zach Jones is put on the management team as if the Twins just let Mariano Rivera go for a bag of balls. I think Graham has a better chance of pitching for the Yanks than Jones has of pitching for the woebegone Brewers (how can a Twins fan call another organization woebegone?) and I don't think either one of them will make the Twins regret their loss.

 

My point here is that the one transaction of trading JR Graham shouldn't be an indictment of the Twins. There are more data points to look at and Liam Hendriks, Chris Colabello, Aaron Hicks, John Hicks, and John Ryan Murphy are all more damning than JR Graham.

speaking of pot/kettle/black Graham was put at risk for rule 5 pick by the Braves... Agreed entirely that one transaction does not a GM make. My frustration is the waffling and knee jerk reactions.