Notebook: Busy Day for Possible Twins Targets

I actually had the chance to meet Hank Aaron and interview him for a radio station in Rochester I was working for right out of college in 1981 (KWEB Radio).  I had to drive to Mankato to do it.  I was young, and I was nervous, but Aaron answered all my questions.  I shook his hand afterwards and as I drove home I couldn't help think "I just met, interviewed and shook the hand of HANK AARON !  Man, is his 1971 Stat-O-Matic card awesome !!"  I know, stupid thought from a star-struck 22 year old.

Non-tendering Eddie Rosario and then signing essentially the same player in Marcell Ozuna for a greater sum over a longer commitment would be a pretty bad look.

I’m not sure they’re the same player. And I’m a big Eddie Rosario fan but look at the markets for Ozuna and Rosario. It doesn’t seem Eddie is drawing much interest. Heck, I’d rather have both Kirilloff and Eddie and Eddie would be far superior, IMO than the inevitable significant time from Cave and Wade each year, mostly Cave.

Hank Aaron was insanely great. To be so consistently great for so long is just unbelievable. He won an MVP and deserved it, but could have easily have won several more (biggest barrier: Willie freakin' Mays). Top 10 in MVP finishes 13 times, including 8 top 5.

More all-star nods than anyone, and again: deserved them (19 of the 21 were legit all-star caliber seasons, which is nuts). Led the NL in HRs at 23 and at 33 (with 2 others in between). Aaron was as good a hitter as anyone in baseball at age 37, his 18th year in baseball. He won RBI crowns, batting titles, gold gloves...just an amazing player.

It's hard to believe we'll ever see a player like Hank Aaron ever again in baseball.

I have to add these numbers from todays Minneapolis Tribune - HANK AARON BY THE NUMBERS

755 The number most associated with Hank Aaron: His career home runs. He memorably broke Babe Ruth’s record with his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, in Atlanta off the Dodgers’ Al Downing.

47 The most homers Aaron ever hit in a single season, 1971; he hit at least 40 homers seven times but never reached 50.

3,771 Career hits; take away his home runs and he still has 3,016 hits. He has the more hits batting righthanded than anyone else in major league history. The only players with more hits are Pete Rose (4,256) and Ty Cobb (4,19).

1,477 Career extra-base hits, tops in major league history. Aaron hit 624 doubles and 98 triples in addition to his home runs.

6,856 Total bases — and no one else in major league history comes close. Stan Musial is No. 2 with 6,134.

.305 Career batting average; Aaron won NL batting titles in 1956 (hitting .328) and 1959 (.355).

2,297 Career RBI, still the most of any player in major league history, 83 more than Ruth. The Angels’ Albert Pujols, who turned 41 last week, is third with 2,100.

0 Times Aaron struck out 100 times in a season; in 23 seasons he struck out 1,383 times, an average of 60 per season.

25 All-Star Games, the most of any player in major league history. The only other players chosen at least 20 times are Willie Mays (24), Stan Musial (24) and Mickey Mantle (20).

97.8 Percentage of the vote Hank Aaron got from baseball writers in 1982 to make the Hall of Fame on his first ballot.

I also read that in the Strib this morning, Mike.

My question, who are the 2.2% of writers who didn't vote for him?

Still remember seeing him cruise around County Stadium back in the late 50's. What a team...Aaron, Matthews, Spahn and others.

I also had the joy of meeting Hank Aaron. I was managing a restaurant in Vierra, Florida that was nearly right next to the Marlins spring training site. Hank Aaron came in for lunch along with several other folks from the Braves. It was busy so I had my job to do and didn't't get to be a fanboy. As they were leaving I saw Mr Aaron talking to one of our young busboys. I heard him ask the kid if he liked baseball. The kid said sure. Mr Aaron asked him if he had ever heard of Henry Aaron. The kid looked perplexed and said no. Mr Aaron and his party started to leave and I approached the kid and asked him if he ever heard of Hank Aaron and he said heck yes. I told him that was who he was just talking to. I thought he was going to lose it. I hurried out to find Mr Aaron do my manager version of fanboy. I told him what the kid had said. He laughed, and then returned to the dining room to talk to the kid. He shook the kid's hand, talked to him like a grandfather and gave him tickets to the next game. He walked out laughing again. I shook his hand and thanked him for coming and also for the visit with the busboy. He was extremely gracious and just a very nice man. He was the GOAT and still is (hat tip to mike Trout).

That is ridiculous - but the idea of a unanimous vote was not as big a deal then as it is now. When you see Mays and Aaron not getting a unanimous vote it helps us realize the flaws in the Hall of Fame system.

I think there should be a sports writers hall of fame and former players get to vote on who gets in and who doesn't. That would be interesting.

With all due respect to Hank Aaron, who is in the discussion for GOAT, I'd suggest we have another candidate in our midst, and his name is Mike Trout.

Trout is an amazing player and the best in the game right now. But he's a different player than Hank Aaron. If Trout can be this kind of player though his 30's like he was in his 20's...then he's the greatest of all-time. but Hank Aaron was legitimately great through his entire 30's too.

It's so hard to be great for so long. And Trout, for all his brilliance has never had to deal with the same kind of crap that Hank Aaron endured

Non-tendering Eddie Rosario and then signing essentially the same player in Marcell Ozuna for a greater sum over a longer commitment would be a pretty bad look.

He would not get "a greater sum over a longer commitment" if MLB GMs believed this was even remotely accurate. Rosario’s best OPS+ for a season was 117. That is one point better than Ozuna’s 3rd best season. Ozuna’s best OPS+ (2020) was 179 which was 3rd in all of MLB. He also produced an OPS+ of 143 in 2017 which was the same year as Rosario’s best (117). Rosario had a couple stretches where he was truly great but he has never done it for more than half a season. I seriously doubt the contracts they each get reflect that MLB teams think they are the same player.

Depending on cost, it could make sense to go Ozuna instead of Cruz. He can help in LF until our prospects take over.

One part of article that stuck out to me was, "that still leaves us giving the ball to an unproven pitcher every fifth day."  I do not understand this sentiment.  If you only want proven pitchers in your rotation then you will never have home grown pitchers.  You will bring people through your system to pitch, because you will say, "well they are not proven so we better not put them out there."  They will forever sit in the minors until they go to another team and get a chance.  

I am not saying who we have are ready to go, they may not be, i am not in the system knowing how close they are.  My point is, at some point you need to have unproven pitchers in your rotation, and really if you can do it just one at a time I think that is a good plan. 

Would I be upset with a big pitching signing, no not at all, we need as much depth as possible.  However, I would be fine with using some of our young guys to get a chance. 

One part of article that stuck out to me was, "that still leaves us giving the ball to an unproven pitcher every fifth day." I do not understand this sentiment. If you only want proven pitchers in your rotation then you will never have home grown pitchers. You will bring people through your system to pitch, because you will say, "well they are not proven so we better not put them out there." They will forever sit in the minors until they go to another team and get a chance.

 

I am not saying who we have are ready to go, they may not be, i am not in the system knowing how close they are. My point is, at some point you need to have unproven pitchers in your rotation, and really if you can do it just one at a time I think that is a good plan.

 

Would I be upset with a big pitching signing, no not at all, we need as much depth as possible. However, I would be fine with using some of our young guys to get a chance.

Yeah, for whatever reason Cleveland keeps bringing up dudes that have no experience and they seem to do well. On the other hand Cleveland has always had about 3 dudes in their rotation that you knew were going to win every 5th day, such as Bieber etc.... So I think it wasn't so worry some to bring in new blood for the 5th spot every year. But they seem to be able to do it. I kind of agree that we need to give one of the kids a shot to succeed. If you never give them a chance they seem to rot away. It doesn't seem like we ever bring up 24 and 25 year olds that are polished with 5 years of minor league ball. Just never seems to work that way. Maybe in the Twins case it would be better to bring one of the youngsters up and let Wes be their coach. Once he gets his hands on them if they struggle send them back down, but at least now they know what they have to work on and bring up another dude and let Wes work with them. Seems to me that it would be better for the organization to be working with a 21 year old (Duran, Balazovic) with their best pitching coach than with some 40 year olds (Hill, Bailey) etc.... Now you don't want to rely on like 3 young dudes but saving a spot in the rotation for one seems legit. But it would be nice to have a super stud like Shane Bieber leading your staff as you are doing these things which the Twins don't seem to have.

I don't do many hawt taeks but I won't deny I'm a contrarian with regard to Ozuna.

 

Up and down years, with a BABIP close to .400 in 2020, leads me to forecast him more like an .800 OPS, which is about where Steady Eddie has sat for the last several years. I see Ozuna's bat in the same class as Rosario's, not Cruz's (historically).

 

I don't think either Ozuna or Rosario has a well regarded defensive game - Atlanta thought so highly of Marcell's LF prowess that they DHed him 39 games out of 60 when given the one-season opportunity for that lineup slot.

 

Ozuna for me is the anti-Cruz. With him you'll be paying in part for something you don't want to have to use, and what you do want isn't quite what it's cracked up to be. When talking about veterans, pure DH is a much better use of money.

 

I was OK with trying to trade Eddie and then letting him go (he'd be an expensive fourth OF), but I believe whoever gets him will both use him similarly and wind up with fewer regrets.

I am with you with regards to which Ozuna do you get which is why I added the "depending on cost". If he gets paid based on huge production last year during a 60 game season, I am with you on there being room for considerable regret. However, isn't that the case with a lot of free agents. They tend to get paid based level achieved not a sustained level.

BTW ... I am assuming his defensive liability will lead to a discounted value but we will see.

Yeah, for whatever reason Cleveland keeps bringing up dudes that have no experience and they seem to do well. On the other hand Cleveland has always had about 3 dudes in their rotation that you knew were going to win every 5th day, such as Bieber etc.... So I think it wasn't so worry some to bring in new blood for the 5th spot every year. But they seem to be able to do it. I kind of agree that we need to give one of the kids a shot to succeed. If you never give them a chance they seem to rot away. It doesn't seem like we ever bring up 24 and 25 year olds that are polished with 5 years of minor league ball. Just never seems to work that way. Maybe in the Twins case it would be better to bring one of the youngsters up and let Wes be their coach. Once he gets his hands on them if they struggle send them back down, but at least now they know what they have to work on and bring up another dude and let Wes work with them. Seems to me that it would be better for the organization to be working with a 21 year old (Duran, Balazovic) with their best pitching coach than with some 40 year olds (Hill, Bailey) etc.... Now you don't want to rely on like 3 young dudes but saving a spot in the rotation for one seems legit. But it would be nice to have a super stud like Shane Bieber leading your staff as you are doing these things which the Twins don't seem to have.

Essentially my point yes.  Hopefully, we can start to set up a pipeline like Cleveland seems to have.  I agree you never want to count on several unproven guys, but if you can each year cycle one into the 5th spot that is not a bad way to go.  You can live with 1 unproved guy but not 3.  However, we have seen over the years you never get through the year with just 5 regular guys but will need about 7 or 8 because of injuries.