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Brock Beauchamp

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Everything posted by Brock Beauchamp

  1. I don't see any positional phenoms in the system. Hu and Thorpe have the best chances of reaching that status from the pitching side of things (I'm particularly bullish on Thorpe).
  2. I have so many thoughts on this, which is why I've refrained from commenting for so long. Ultimately, this is a cure for the symptom, not the disease. I understand why tackling the disease is such an undertaking that we instead default to a cure for the symptom but in the end, it solves very little. The problem here is societal. We're completely ****ed up about sex, empowerment, and gender roles. From a young age, girls are taught to withhold sex. Inversely, boys are taught to pursue it, often aggressively. Sex isn't treated as something both parties want and should pursue maturely, it's treated as a tug-of-war between the sexes and because one sex is naturally more physically powerful and has been ingrained with the idea that it should be attained at any cost, we get a lot of unnecessary rape situations. It's so ****ed up and it's so ingrained in our culture that I can't even begin to unravel how to fix it or even how we got to this point (but I like to blame the Puritans as often as possible so I'll go with that excuse). What I do know is that this isn't a real solution to a huge problem women face on a daily basis. It's a band-aid on a limb that has been severed.
  3. I tend to agree with this take. If he's still dominant at age 29, then maybe try to buy out two free agent years. Yeah, it'll cost you more but given the finicky nature of pitchers - particularly groundball pitchers - it's a risk I'm more than willing to take.
  4. Agreed. If the Twins don't improve on the basepaths in the long run, they need to stop stealing... But I'm willing to show a little patience here and see whether the young players improve in time. If this is a learning period, I'm fine with letting the kids screw up on occasion. If it's a larger problem with coaching and strategy, then Molitor needs to adjust his strategy and that probably translates to "stop stealing".
  5. There's definitely a risk that Iran could go all North Korea on us but I think the chance of that happening is pretty low. NK is its own entity with tactics taken to such an extreme that they're a unique case (I highly recommend some of the NK documentaries on Netflix... the country is absolutely INSANE). Iran, unlike Korea, has a populace with a real voice. Things have become pretty bad in Iran and once things get a little better, I think the population will resent any attempt to renege on the agreement and go back to the "bad ol' days". There's a risk with any agreement but I think Iran is a lot more China than North Korea. They have a vested interest in quelling hostilities for a myriad of reasons, whereas NK gets its power from not only maintaining hostilities, but escalating them whenever possible. NK thrives on its extreme paranoia, which allows it to continue ramping up concentration camps, anti-western propaganda, and isolation. Iran doesn't have a desire to be isolated because they don't have a China next door to keep them afloat. Without China, NK collapses 30 years ago. Which brings me to the point "WTF China".
  6. Hard to say but I believe his value has diminished mainly because he's no longer starting games.
  7. This this this. People seem to have forgotten that Iran had a long history of education, democracy, and moderation compared to their cohorts in the middle east. If the world is going to "turn the middle east toward the light", it's going to start with Iran. Their recent history has been littered with insanity but if we ease tensions with the country, it's more likely cooler heads will prevail in Tehran and we can start making real progress over there.
  8. I couldn't resist visiting Fox News and reading the comments. Apparently, the counter-argument is: - Islam - Obama - Anti-American - Derrrrrrrrrpppp In all seriousness, appeasement does seem to be the rebuttal. I guess it has some merit because the deal is for a limited time but it's a pretty stupid argument to make. Yesterday, we were extremely hostile with Iran. Today, we're slightly less hostile with them and can now start building bridges. As the old adage goes, "US/China relations were not built in a day". Or something like that.
  9. Irrelevant. (Mark DeRosa is a long running joke on this board)
  10. That's exactly why I wanted Revere off the team ASAP. He's fun to watch but when he goes downhill, it's going to resemble a lawn dart.
  11. You're right, the Twins should put him out to pasture. We're all disappointed that Alex Meyer isn't dominating MLB hitters but he's 25 years old. James Shields debuted as a 24 year old and had his first standout season as a 25 year old. Kyle Gibson debuted as a 25 year old and is having his first standout season as a 27 year old. Garrett Richards scuffled for several years before putting it together last season for the Angels as a 26 year old. People have irrational expectations on timelines with prospects. Yeah, it's unfortunate that Meyer isn't where we want him but a guy with his stuff could easily be dominant through his mid-30s. Not every player develops at the same pace or faces the same setbacks. What's important is that they contribute, not that they contribute within an arbitrary timespan set by an expectant fanbase. 2015 Brian Dozier is not a less effective player just because it took him a few years of scuffling before he broke out as a 26 year old. Same goes for Trevor Plouffe. If anything, Twins fans should be more acutely aware of how expectations become irrelevant if the player starts performing at some point. After all, the Twins' two best position players, their best starting pitcher, and their best reliever all became productive players in the later half of their 20s.
  12. That's not true at all. The last time those players had any real value was during the 2010 season when the Twins were a playoff team. Morneau got hurt and Liriano/Young turned into pumpkins. That was a big reason for the 2011 collapse in the first place. If Morneau, Young, and Liriano are valuable players in 2011 - which is what we all fully expected to happen - the Twins don't lost 99 games and literally everything about the past four years plays out differently.
  13. Arcia, unlikely. Meyer, no way. Ryan is not going to trade players whose value is at or near rock bottom. Or at least he shouldn't.
  14. That's the part I couldn't remember. Whether an option had to be employed following ST.
  15. You're completely right. Options are based on the 40 man, not actual promotion/demotion.
  16. Now I may be wrong here but couldn't they keep him in the minors to start 2016? The option isn't triggered until he is demoted, correct? My understanding is that they could start him in the minors in 2016 but once he was called up to the Twins, he's there for good or the Twins have to expose him to 29 other teams.
  17. We're hosting a contest for anyone who wants to write a few words about the Vikings and their upcoming season. The best entries will win a spot on our party bus heading down to Mankato on July 25th. Interested? Check out the details courtesy of Bo Mitchell: http://vikingsjournal.com/_/minnesota-vikings-news/minnesota-vikings/vikings-journal-kickoff-party-in-mankato-r616
  18. We're hosting a contest for anyone who wants to write a few words about the Vikings and their upcoming season. The best entries will win a spot on our party bus heading down to Mankato on July 25th. Interested? Check out the details courtesy of Bo Mitchell: http://vikingsjournal.com/_/minnesota-vikings-news/minnesota-vikings/vikings-journal-kickoff-party-in-mankato-r616
  19. And that's fair. I wasn't down on the Span trade nearly as much as you were for a few reasons: 1. After 2011, it was apparent the Twins would not compete. Holding on to Span would have provided no real benefit to the 2012 squad, who might have cracked 70 wins with Denard on the team. 2. After 2011, it was also apparent the Twins needed pitching in a big, bad way. The earlier you trade for pitching, the more quickly that pitching reaches the majors and contributes to the team. Unfortunately, the second piece hasn't worked out for the Twins but losing Span had negligible impact until the beginning of this season when the Twins stopped being awful. If anything, not having Span helped the Twins move up the draft ladder a bit. We all wish Meyer was with the Twins having a Trevor May type season but I still believe the deal has a chance to wash out fairly for both teams. To me, it doesn't matter as much when Alex Meyer contributes to the Twins as it does that he contribute at some point and that contribution lasts 6-7 years. Obviously, your mileage may vary on that opinion but the way I see it, if the Twins lose three seasons of Span and gain six seasons of a quality pitcher in Meyer, then it was a fair deal for both sides.
  20. Obama gets another mic drop speech in his Presidency. Unless you're a far right partisan, you have to admit he's been absolutely killing it the past month. I've been really critical of Obama during his Presidency but he's finally coming around and accomplishing many of the things I wanted to see when he was elected in 2008. https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/foreign-policy/iran-deal
  21. Yep. I wouldn't have moved May out of the rotation but this is a real possibility. The guys May replaces in the bullpen are so much worse (and pitch in so many high leverage situations) than Mike Pelfrey. But the Twins need to use May in that fashion or it's a moot point.
  22. I hadn't considered that position. It's a good point and may be a big reason why the Twins don't go outside the organization. The Twins - for both good and bad - are very much an "organizational team". They may not trust a new catcher to buy into their system mid season.
  23. Yep. I believe I said something like this about Hick in May: The results aren't there but I'm more encouraged by the kid's plate appearances than I have been at any point in his MLB career. We knew Hicks was disciplined. That doesn't go away and I wasn't even a little concerned about his lack of walks... In fact, I was encouraged by it. He wasn't going up there to draw a walk, he was going up there to hit his pitch. Once he figured out "his pitch", the walks would return. Guys don't forget how to be selective at the plate but teaching a free-swinger to be selective is relatively rare in baseball. Hicks spent most of 2013 and 2014 afraid to swing the bat. Nobody is going to succeed with that mindset but it showed that Aaron had the ability to be selective with his swings. Looking at Hicks in May, he had all the tools to become a productive MLB player even if the results weren't showing it. All that was missing was the hard hit contact tool which is starting to come around. If that contact ability sticks, Hicks is the player most of us thought he was going into 2013. Not elite but pretty good and quite valuable. It also helps that his defense has mostly sorted itself out. It appears that he really was affected by either his inept plate appearances or the upper decks of MLB stadiums and maybe both.
  24. This touches on another interesting point about perceived value and length of control that plays into the Giants' favor with very little risk involved on their part. Trades are not run by computers. They're signed off by humans whose perception is often warped by increasingly large numbers. For example, Glen Perkins in 2013 was a great asset for the Twins. Many people called for him to be traded but it would have been a foolish move by the Twins because (IIRC) they still had 2.5 seasons of control over Perkins. 2.5 seasons is a long time. You know what else is long? 1.5 seasons. While there's a full season discrepancy there, it seems that in trading players, that extra season doesn't properly weigh into the negotiating price. Perkins should have been, for all intents and purposes, roughly 40% more valuable with that extra season of control but in actual trades we see around baseball, he's only marginally more valuable. So you don't trade that guy because it's a bad value for the team losing Perkins and the acquiring team is committing highway robbery. Sure, there's a marginal risk of injury in there but given the pay of a cost-controlled player, that risk is far outweighed by a full season of control. If the Giants are confident in Susac and his ability, they could hold on to him for a full two seasons, pay $1m in the process, and get as much, if not more, for him in 2017 or 2018. It's one of the more aggravating things I've noticed about baseball trade negotiations over the years and seems to be a real market inefficiency that is rarely exploited.
  25. I'm on a phone so I'm not typing posts as thorough as I'd like. The Giants probably haven't changed their internal valuation of Susac based on a month of play... But they'd almost certainly try to leverage that play to their advantage and ask for more. Ultimately, it wouldn't work against a conservative (and smart) GM like Ryan but they'd probably give it a shot because that's just how negotiations work. But if they thought Plouffe for Susac was fair in May, they probably think it's fair today. The end outcome would probably be the same, they'd just start negotiating at a different point because they want to leverage all positive assets as much as possible.
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