Article: Twins New Front Office Off To Strong Start

[mikelink45]

I guess this headline demonstrates the desperation of Minnesota baseball.  We sign an average catcher and bring back three old Twins (by the way they cannot play anymore) and we think that the Twins are off to new horizons while the Phillies hire our old GM to be a scout.  Its been a long dry spell and I will celebrate my solstice fire for the increase in daylight, but not yet for the resurgence of the Twins.  

[Blackjack]

I can't believe I just slogged thru the bickering in this thread.

 

Is the glass half full or half empty??  The new Twins front office signed a player that they think will improve the team. I'm thinking that's a positive and I'm curious and looking forward to any other changes they make.  Its going to be an interesting 4 months until the season starts and I'm going to give the new management every benefit of the doubt because no matter what they do it has to be better than what we've seen the last 5 years.

 

Now on to a news site to see what the Trumper is up to, something that really is important to our future.

[markos]

 

Question to all.

 

In the article this was said '.It has been evident that Castro was the team's top priority from the get-go'

 

Assuming we understanding FA isn't the only way to get players, how does everyone feel about Jason Castro being the team's top priority as opposed to say trading for some quality pitching prospects (or however else they want to go about improving the pitching)?

My answer is that the team's top priority should be improving run prevention, not just acquiring better pitching, and from that perspective the signing of Castro is a move in the right direction. As other people have pointed out, almost every team is trying to acquire good pitching right now. By every defensive metric, last year they were one of the worst defensive teams. Taking a holistic approach to run prevention opens the door for several smaller, non-pitching moves that could have, cumulatively, as big an impact as any trade for pitching. 

 

Some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations:

 

If you buy into the various pitch-framing metrics, moving from Suzuki to Castro could subtract 25 runs.

Adding a defensive 4th OF and ensuring that Grossman/Santana/Sano don't play another inning in the outfield could subtract 30 runs.

Adding a defensively above-average SS could subtract 15 runs.

 

Now, obviously the Twins still need to acquire/develop better pitchers, and any plan to get them to a 90+ win team will require a both-and approach to pitching and defense. But making a commitment to putting an above-average defense on the field everyday will go a long way toward improving run prevention, even with this current pitching staff. Getting to 90+ wins is a long haul right now - probably a multi-year project - and the Castro signing is a first step in that direction.

[Mike Sixel]

 

My answer is that the team's top priority should be improving run prevention, not just acquiring better pitching, and from that perspective the signing of Castro is a move in the right direction. As other people have pointed out, almost every team is trying to acquire good pitching right now. By every defensive metric, last year they were one of the worst defensive teams. Taking a holistic approach to run prevention opens the door for several smaller, non-pitching moves that could have, cumulatively, as big an impact as any trade for pitching. 

 

Some rough back-of-the-envelope calculations:

 

If you buy into the various pitch-framing metrics, moving from Suzuki to Castro could subtract 25 runs.

Adding a defensive 4th OF and ensuring that Grossman/Santana/Sano don't play another inning in the outfield could subtract 30 runs.

Adding a defensively above-average SS could subtract 15 runs.

 

Now, obviously the Twins still need to acquire/develop better pitchers, and any plan to get them to a 90+ win team will require a both-and approach to pitching and defense. But making a commitment to putting an above-average defense on the field everyday will go a long way toward improving run prevention, even with this current pitching staff. Getting to 90+ wins is a long haul right now - probably a multi-year project - and the Castro signing is a first step in that direction.

 

great post.

 

Let's hope Grossman never plays in the OF again! Heck, I'd rather have him as the DH than Napoli, in a sever PINCH he could play OF for an inning or three.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Question to all.

 

In the article this was said '.It has been evident that Castro was the team's top priority from the get-go'

 

Assuming we understanding FA isn't the only way to get players, how does everyone feel about Jason Castro being the team's top priority as opposed to say trading for some quality pitching prospects (or however else they want to go about improving the pitching)?

I would say this:  with current options of Murphy and Garver, catching became a priority and a priority that can [was] quickly addressed. 

 

Trading for some quality pitching prospects is going to be a pretty long, drawn out process.  Pitching is  valued higher than just about anything in baseball.  FA starting pitcher signings have gone WAY off the charts.  IF a trade of Dozier to LA is still being worked on, a return highlighted by 3 LA pitching prospect is probably a tough sell.  Just one man's opinion....

 

Derek Falvey and Thad Levine sound like a couple pretty smart guys.  My bet the pitching priority is being looked in organizations not named Los Angels Dodgers.

 

Edit:   Looks like I'm WAY behind on this comment    

Edited December 1, 2016 by HitInAPinch

[Doomtints]

 

I can't believe I just slogged thru the bickering in this thread.

 

Is the glass half full or half empty??  The new Twins front office signed a player that they think will improve the team. I'm thinking that's a positive and I'm curious and looking forward to any other changes they make.  Its going to be an interesting 4 months until the season starts and I'm going to give the new management every benefit of the doubt because no matter what they do it has to be better than what we've seen the last 5 years.

 

I think I (and many commenters) lost sight of things a little bit.  The Twins Daily staff is working to build a positive relationship with the new front office and with that in mind wrote a positive piece about what they have done so far.  This isn't wrong, certainly what has been done so far is not negative.

The viewpoint from us fans is different, and as we a group we feel like "not much of consequence" has been done yet.  We would rather wait and see, because sure the moves so far are good but they're not enough.

We all forgot to consider that the positioning is different between the author of the piece and those of us who read the piece.  I think this is probably on both of us (the author should have been able to predict our reaction just as much as we should have realized why he wanted to write it this way).  A different word choice for the title would have made all the difference.  Lessons learned for everybody.

[TheLeviathan]

 

 We would rather wait and see, because sure the moves so far are good but they're not enough.

 

 

No one move is going to be "enough".  If we're waiting to cross that threshold we might as well shut the place down for a few years.  We can only evaluate what has happened so far and that is all that was being discussed.  

 

The very nature of the phrase "strong start" indicates an evaluation of what has taken place, with the expectation that more will take place.  (Otherwise we'd not call it a "start")  I'd suggest Nick isn't in need of rephrasing himself at all, you're taking the comments beyond their intended scope.

 

We all expect more to be done.  We can also appreciate a really nice start on the way to that.