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Brock Beauchamp

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Everything posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. Brock Beauchamp
    I consider consistent 83-88 loss seasons far more damning than 90+ loss seasons. That's the hallmark of an incompetent GM, not a good one. The job of a good GM is to push the pendulum through the middle of its swing between good and bad as quickly as possible. Spending an inordinate amount of time in the 76-83 win range - barring unforeseen catastrophe - is bad managing. Not that I'm claiming AA is incompetent, merely pointing out the argument is a bad one if you're trying to defend Anthopoulos.
  2. Brock Beauchamp
    But what is? I'm not sure there anything that prepares a person to be president and each path has blind spots, even governor. I think too many here are discounting the skills it takes to be a CEO: negotiation, temperment, organization, ability to hire competent people and rely on them, etc. There's a lot of overlap.
  3. Brock Beauchamp
    It's kinda weird to pin some of the Twins' postseason failures on a guy who received zero postseason plate appearances with the team (but played in three seasons the Twins made the playoffs). If you want to talk about the Twins starting Juan Castro or Nick Punto as part of their problems in the 2000s, that's a fair conversation... But the backup middle infielder? I don't see an argument to be made about that, especially one as talented as Santana (who has a higher ceiling than most futility guys).
  4. Brock Beauchamp
    Another problem with saying CEOs aren't good politicians is the assumption a smart CEO would even try to run the government like a business. Again, I think the biggest problem is that most of the smart CEOs want nothing to do with politics, not that CEOs are inherently bad at the job. Why would a smart, successful CEO even want the job?
  5. Brock Beauchamp
    To post three times in a row because it's fun, there are many good baseball teams through history that have filled the back of their roster with toolsy, unpolished players. Those guys have uses: late inning double-switches, pinch-running, occasional fill-in roles. Santana can do all those things. And when you get right down to it, we're talking about possibly losing Nunez here. Is that really much of a loss? Given the potential make-up of this team, one athletic, toolsy guy at the back of the roster isn't going to get in the way of success. There are plenty of bench bats available should the Twins want a bat-first player in pinch-hitting situations: Vargas, Arcia, Pinto... Never mind that Santana had a pretty nice season in AAA, even if he stunk up the joint in Minnesota. There's potential there... I didn't want Santana starting after May 1st of 2015 but that doesn't mean he should be off the team entirely. At least not until we get another look at him.
  6. Brock Beauchamp
    The question to ask yourself about Santana is "if exposed to waivers today, would he be claimed?" That answer is a resounding "yes". There many teams that would want to claim Santana immediately. The kid has upside, athleticism, and is 24 years old. That's not a guy you let walk away without giving him another chance.
  7. Brock Beauchamp
    Alexi Casilla didn't kill the Twins when they were good in the 2000s. Santana has the same kind of upside. It didn't work out with Casilla but that doesn't mean Santana can't make adjustments in a backup role. Discarding athletic up the middle players before they turn 25 is short sighted.
  8. Brock Beauchamp
    AA wasn't the guy who suckered Williams into taking Rios, was he? If he was, that's easily my favorite move. But I think that was Anthopoulos' predecessor.
  9. Brock Beauchamp
    Many of these same arguments were made about Dozier and Plouffe a few years back. Hicks may be on this list as well, time will tell. At this point, I think Twins fans should know better than to write off an early 20s up-the-middle guy, especially one who posted pretty good - albeit luck-fueled - numbers just ~14-20 months ago. There's room for Danny Santana on this team and the Twins would be foolish to part ways with him at this point.
  10. Brock Beauchamp
    What the Royals have done in 2014/15 is great but you're on the young side, Dave... It's REALLY hard to stomach a decade of complete and utter futility and the Royals were various shades of terrible for 17 or so of the past 20 years. I barely followed the Twins from 94-98 because it was painful to watch year in and year out... And that was half a decade with one middling season, not 15 years of UGH.
  11. Brock Beauchamp
    It will be tough to judge AA, which is unfortunate. I'm not down on the guy, I'm just unsure he built a long term winner in Toronto. One year doesn't sell me on him as a GM, though he made some smart moves (and some bad ones) leading up to this 2015 season.
  12. Brock Beauchamp
    Encarnacion wasn't a bad player in Cincinnati. Sure, he broke out in Toronto but he was a decent young player for the Reds. Good acquisition, no arguments here. On the other hand, Bautista broke out as a 29 year old after being a middling prospect for years. He was varying shades of mediocre/bad for the Jays for his first ~450 PAs. Do the Jays get some credit for picking him up? Sure, just like the Mets get a little credit for Dickey... But not much. Colabello had a .400-something BABIP this season. If you want to credit the Jays for predicting absurd luck, so be it. Valencia didn't break out with the Jays, he broke out with the Orioles. It was the Orioles who first successfully deployed him in a platoon, not the Jays. Devon Travis is a 24 year old rookie with an .859 MiLB OPS. Good pick-up but hardly some kind of magical turnaround. It was a smart trade but the guy was a respected prospect and still very young. Those were all good, smart acquisitions but I struggle to lump Bautista in with them. Turning a guy from a .750 MiLB outfielder into a .950 MLB outfielder as a 29 year old isn't something one can predict reliably. Maybe the Jays saw something in him... But it's more likely they got really, really lucky.
  13. Brock Beauchamp
    Her being the least awful out of truly horrendous options doesn't mean she should get the nomination. Fiorina is a good example of the Peter Principle. She failed running a large-scale organization. She should not receive a promotion for it. I think the biggest problem with our political climate is that the people most qualified to run for office want absolutely nothing to do with political office. What sane, balanced, successful person wants anything to do with public office in the 21st century? They can quietly make their millions and do wonderful things without being dragged through the mud non-stop for four, eight, or more years. As a result, we get the people who crave public power... The last people who should get the job, really.
  14. Brock Beauchamp
    I think the pretty obvious choice is to put Santana in the futility role and hope he figures it out. His flexibility on defense and his speed make him a good candidate for the role.
  15. Brock Beauchamp
    To be clear, I like the idea of this move... But I'm not sure Anthopoulos is the right guy. I'm also not sure he's not the right guy.
  16. Brock Beauchamp
    Eesh, no. Fiorina would be skewered in a general election. Her tenure at HP wasn't just bad, it was historically awful. Good luck running as a "business first" candidate when you drove the world's largest computer manufacturer into the ground like a lawn dart. Fun fact: HP stock gained $3 billion in value the day she was ousted from the company. That's how eager the market was to see her out of the position. And now she wants to lead the world's wealthiest country? lulz
  17. Brock Beauchamp
    http://www.obnoxiousbostonfan.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Theo.jpg
  18. Brock Beauchamp
    Beane hasn't been a GM for all of 20-something days, Dave. And he received a promotion. Come on.
  19. Brock Beauchamp
    As I said earlier, playoff series wins don't impress me much unless the team wins every playoff series that season. Get there and see what happens. Unfortunately for the Twins, what happened was really ugly.* Why do so many people hang that "one playoff series win" tag on Ryan but so willingly give Beane a pass at every opportunity? Because he makes a lot more moves? I think they're both good general mangers, each with their own flaws... But playoff series wins isn't one of them. *BTW, in no way am I giving Ryan a pass for his deadline moves from 2001-2007. That is one of his flaws, probably his biggest.
  20. Brock Beauchamp
    How'd I know you'd pop in here with that "17 seasons" argument? I think I made it pretty clear that comparing the two GMs wasn't entirely fair, as one of them had their growing pains in the 90s while the other *might* be emerging from those growing pains right now. The mistakes Ryan made in the 90s are completely irrelevant to this conversation. That's akin to blaming me for not being very good at coding or design when I was 23 years old.
  21. Brock Beauchamp
    I don't disagree. This offseason will be very telling about Ryan. He has much more payroll flexibility than he had in the Dome days and has shown some willingness to go out and buy the pieces he needs to improve the team. Now he needs to take that willingness to spend half a step further and make some moves. It won't require a lot to satisfy me... Picking up Wieters and a good righty out of the pen would do wonders for the 2016 squad. But if he sits on Suzuki (unlikely given his interview statements) and lets the pen roll as-is (or picks up more scrapheap guys), groaaaaaaaan. The Twins should be able to push this payroll toward $120m this offseason. After the surprise 2015 and the revenue that comes with it, there's no excuse not to stay on the gas.
  22. Brock Beauchamp
    This. Also this. Trump and Carson, whether they win or not, are an indictment of the modern GOP. They're laughably bad candidates who spew dangerous ideas and in a normal environment, they'd be alongside Huckabee; radicals with 1-2% of the vote and not taken seriously by anyone. Cruz is more qualified but has nearly as many bad ideas. While he wouldn't be annihilated in a general election (a la Trump or Carson), he'd lose handily to whomever the Democrats nominate. Right now, I don't see a single GOP candidate with a shot to beat the Democrats. It's the inverse of the 2000/2004 elections when the Democrats nominated Boring and Somehow, Even More Boring and expected people to vote for them. But hey, at least Boring is better than Crazy.
  23. Brock Beauchamp
    Walker has a two-fold problem and they're linked: strikeouts and walks. He made small strides with the walk problem this season, which is mildly encouraging... an isoD of .070 isn't terrible. But then there's the complete lack of BA, which diminishes that isoD. Based on the stats, it appears the guy often doesn't know what pitch is coming at him. That's a huge problem, one that means he will not succeed at the MLB level until it is fixed. He's also 24 years old so there's time to make small improvements in that area. To me, strikeouts are a symptom, not the disease. The disease is not knowing what a pitcher is going to throw and the hitter swinging from his heels, hoping he makes big contact. Sure, big contact is nice but if a hitter can't recognize A+ or AA pitches, he's going to be embarrassed by the movement on MLB pitches. Closing your eyes and swinging really hard is not an approach that will succeed at the MLB level.
  24. Brock Beauchamp
    Yes.
  25. Brock Beauchamp
    At times, it seems the Twins have about 15 spots on their 40 man taken up by 1B/DH types. Adding another one seems ridiculous.
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