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Brock Beauchamp

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Everything posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. Brock Beauchamp
    I'd go as far to say it doesn't mean anything at all. Drew Butera has done that in 28 AB stretches. Dozier has been playing better but until he does it for two months, I'm skeptical (and overall, I'm a Dozier supporter).
  2. Brock Beauchamp
    Because these guys are human. You can only teach so much. "Take a hack at a good pitch" is about all some of them will understand. It's not as if it's possible to turn every hitter into Joe Mauer with his pitch recognition and baseball smarts just by telling him to "take hacks at good pitches and hold off on bad ones". And it's not as if the Twins have been bad at taking walks, not like they were in the early 2000s. The past 5 years, they've been a very good OBP team. And when you're teaching pitchers, you don't teach them to miss the plate. That has "bad idea" written all over it. You tell them to throw it over and as their stuff develops, you hope their stuff gains (or already has) movement. Once they can throw it over, hopefully they can start moving the ball around the plate. In short: basics first, complicated stuff later.
  3. Brock Beauchamp
    There's a lot more to centerfield than catching a ball and throwing it. More than a corner spot, routes are crucial and it's easier to get your feet turned in the wrong direction in center field. A split second of hesitation and that relatively easy catch turns into a double. There's a reason why a lot of guys aren't center fielders and it's not only their range and arm.
  4. Brock Beauchamp
    If the Twins can get two more good starts out of Liriano and get Capps back on the mound in Minnesota, they're really well-stocked to wheel and deal. They're going into this trade season from a position of strength and I hope that JR takes full advantage of it, unlike his successor/predecessor.
  5. Brock Beauchamp
    A few reasons why trading Span is a good idea: 1. The Twins have a middle-of-the-pack offense. Losing Span won't make the offense spiral into obscurity. 2. The Twins have the worst starting rotation in baseball. It's all about net gain in a trade. They lose a little on offense but gain a ton in pitching because their staff is so bad right now. 3. Finding a corner outfielder that can play is one of the easiest things to do in free agency. Look at the demand for Josh Willingham; the guy was an obvious choice and for $7m a year, is a steal. The Twins will probably be able to pick up a guy like Hunter for a 2/$12m type deal and he'll put up similar offensive numbers to Span in the short term. For that kind of money, you get Jason Marquis if you're looking for a starter. 4. Finding a starting pitcher that can pitch is the hardest thing to do in free agency. Every team wants starters and every team overbids for them in FA. 5. Going into 2013, the Twins would be close to payroll neutral sans Span and plus Hunter. But now, they're one starting pitcher closer to contending. They still have close to the same money to go pick up another starter on the free agency market. Suddenly, their rotation isn't awful anymore. A smart team trades from a strength to improve a weakness, particularly if that weakness is nearly impossible to find on the free agent market for a reasonable price.
  6. Brock Beauchamp
    Actually, it makes all the sense in the world. Trade Span, move Revere to center. Willingham stays in left. The Twins no longer have a viable right fielder. Hunter is 36 years old this season. He'll be looking at one last contract to close out his career and he's no more than a middling corner outfielder at this point. He's popular with the Minnesota fans. He has stated an openness to returning to the Twins. Arcia, Hicks, and Benson will not be ready before mid-2013 at the earliest (Hicks) and 2014 is a more realistic possibility (Arcia, Benson). Hunter slots in perfectly as a 2013 stop-gap and possibly a platoon role in 2014 if the Twins need to give him a two year deal.
  7. Brock Beauchamp
    Also, I'd like to add that this has been a stellar discussion, best I've seen on the board yet. Great work by all the stat hounds.
  8. Brock Beauchamp
    Yep. I was stunned by the lack of easily-found data on the subject. I figured my Google-Fu was failing me but it turns out, that info just isn't really available.
  9. Brock Beauchamp
    That's just it, Revere wasn't a better player. That's my point. Revere spent most of his time in the minors OPSing just a little over .700 with stellar defense. Hicks has spent most of his time in the minors OPSing a little over .800 with, yes, stellar defense. Both players are the same age at each step of the minors. Even being labelled as a "toolsy guy with upside", Hicks has still been a vastly superior hitter to Revere while the defense is probably close to a wash. Again, not knocking Revere, as he's really played well for the Twins. But I fully expect Hicks to be a better player in the near future, as he's consistently been a better player than Revere was in the minors.
  10. Brock Beauchamp
    Aaron Hicks has been a better prospect than Revere almost every step of their MiLB careers. Benson was a better prospect until he went completely off the rails this season. I'm not bashing Ben here, he might be a fine player. But Hicks is still a much better prospect and Benson might get there, too. Revere never OPSed higher than .740 in the upper minors. That's not exactly the type of production that makes you stop the presses.
  11. Brock Beauchamp
    Torii Hunter seems like the obvious stop-gap choice for a corner outfield spot until one of the prospects is ready. I'm becoming more sold on the idea every day.
  12. Brock Beauchamp
    Hopefully the front office is smart enough to realize that basing payroll on the previous year's attendance is letting the tail wag the dog. Spend a little less, win a little less the next season, which causes you to spend a little less, which means you win even less... The stadium is only three years old. If you spend a few bucks on pitching and build a contender, butts will immediately return to the seats. Lose for 2-3 more years, it's no longer a given that those butts will return to the seats immediately. Look at a team like San Diego. The Padres can be playing well but people won't go watch their games... The fanbase has zero faith in the team's continued ability to win, which means that they stay away even during winning seasons, which then limits ownership's ability to retain players and maintain a high level of play in following seasons...
  13. Brock Beauchamp
    Ah, I always suspected that the right-left batter split has been closing in recent decades but I had never seen data to support it until now.
  14. Brock Beauchamp
    Possibly, but why the change? It's an intriguing notion... Have specialized pitchers really had that much of an impact on where balls are hit? It's the only reasoning I could think to cause it. Or maybe more right-handed players are learning to bat left-handed at a young age. Dunno.
  15. Brock Beauchamp
    Okay, now I'm completely ****ing confused.
  16. Brock Beauchamp
    He's going to have a positive impact anywhere on the field, I think. Pretty sure the guy could play second if you gave him an infielder's glove and a few reps. It's more of a "where does his arm do the least damage?" To me, it makes sense to put him in left. But if more flyballs are going to right, that balances out a bit. How much? I have no idea and I think at that point, it falls under the "no longer care" category for me.
  17. Brock Beauchamp
    One person no one is mentioning in this thread is Michael... He's quietly starting to put together a decent season in Fort Myers. Given his age and that his early season play could be due to shaking the rust off and adjusting to wooden bats, it wouldn't be a shock to see him get a call to New Britain this season (though I think he'll start next season there if things continue to progress). Either way, I think he'll start progressing through the ranks quickly if he stays healthy. By the middle of next year, we could be talking about him getting the call to the Twins.
  18. Brock Beauchamp
    Another thing to mention is that it's not impossible that teams are eyeing up Ben Revere right now. If you can deal Revere, I'd do it yesterday. I have so little faith in his continued production*... *but in all fairness, I have very little faith in speed-based/BABIP/no walk guys in the first place
  19. Brock Beauchamp
    I'm not saying that it's an impossible deal, I just think it's unlikely. If a team is willing to bite on Willingham for a pitcher, you do it. I only feel that it's more likely to happen with Span. Either way, one of the two should go in trade for a starter.
  20. Brock Beauchamp
    Well played.
  21. Brock Beauchamp
    I disagree. I think teams are still going to be wary of Willingham based on his age, the fact that he was a FA this offseason and they didn't pick him up, and that he's a limited ability corner outfielder. On the other hand, the Twins have Revere behind Span. Putting Revere in CF actually strengthens him as a player, as CF makes his range more of a factor and his arm is slightly marginalized there. That means the team needs to find a corner OF for 2013. Thankfully, corner outfielders who can put up Revere's offensive production (though not defensive) are one of the easiest things to find in baseball. It's not even that difficult to find a guy who will hit enough to offset the defensive loss in moving Revere to CF. All the Twins need is a guy who can play corner OF for one season, after which one of the Hicks/Arcia/Benson trio should be close to getting a shot. Like, say, a one or two year deal to Torii Hunter. It makes sense on so many levels. Fans love him, he's probably open to returning to MN, and he's nothing more than a corner OF at this point and possibly nothing more than a backup in 2014.
  22. Brock Beauchamp
    Well, it's pretty obvious that the team is improving. These are the cost-controlled guys that have been driving the team for the past 4-6 weeks: Mauer Plouffe Diamond Perkins Burton Revere Willingham Span Burnett Doumit Duensing All of those guys are locked up through 2014, if I'm not mistaken. That's half the 25 man roster. This team is far from "good" but it's obvious that they have something brewing that could form into a decent team with the right acquisitions. No one of importance outside of Liriano is going to be lost after this season. That's one guy. One guy. Everybody else has been ineffective or injured. Two starting pitchers (one for Span, one FA) with Gibson returning to form and this team is suddenly an AL contender. It's a bit of a stretch to expect everything to slot in perfectly but after the past two seasons being decimated by injury, it's about damned time the Twins got a break.
  23. Brock Beauchamp
    Joe is selective. It's both a good thing and a bad thing. Asking him to change his approach for one pitch is a tall order. It transforms the entire AB. Mauer is an incredibly talented and smart ballplayer but he's not perfect. I'll take a niggling fault in his first pitch selection if it goes along with all the things he does well.
  24. Brock Beauchamp
    No, they're still terrible. Playing winning ball only means they're playing winning ball. That's not how you succeed in this league. *head explodes*
  25. Brock Beauchamp
    I'm going to apply the Trevor Plouffe Rule here. Perkins is doing well as a late innings guy. Let him continue to do well in that role.
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