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Nine of twelve

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Everything posted by Nine of twelve

  1. Nine of twelve
    I think this is a valid point on the surface, but pretty much every player in the history of the major leagues has broken a rule at some point in his career. Where should the line should be drawn?
  2. Nine of twelve
    I want to comment on a matter that has been alluded to in only one post so far but will certainly be part of the decision for many HOF voters. Some think that DH's do not belong in the HOF because they are not "complete" players. Keep in mind the four parts of baseball are pitching, batting, fielding, and baserunning. If the HOF is only for players who were elite complete players there would only be one member: Babe Ruth.
  3. Nine of twelve
    Regarding catching, we no longer will need to consider a catcher's effectiveness at faking out the home plate umpire. It will certainly affect pitching and batting as well, but as far as constructing a team I think any effect will be a short term one. After a year or so we will know which pitchers and batters execute based on a consistent strike zone and no longer get calls based on reputation, home field advantage, and the like. This reminds me of a story I once read that probably isn't true but bears repeating. A rookie pitcher was facing Ted Williams. The first pitch passes through the strike zone, and the umpire calls ball one. The same thing for the second pitch, called ball two. The pitcher asks the umpire about the call on those pitches, and the umpire responds, "Mr. Williams will inform you when the pitch is a strike."
  4. Nine of twelve
    Oh. Oops.
  5. Nine of twelve
    My favorite thing about Wrigley field is that if you are there on a game day you can see two major league teams playing baseball. Don't have anything else positive to say.
  6. Nine of twelve
    I guess the point I was trying to make is that any individual thing people have cited, including WAR, does not on its own indicate who was more talented or who was better at playing the game, and some of those things should not be considered at all. As an example, Ted Williams never played a postseason game, and I don't think anyone could legitimately say that that made him less of a player.
  7. Nine of twelve
    Point accepted, and I almost edited my comment to remove the sentence that referenced statistics. However, I think that statistics can miss important aspects of playing the game, particularly for catchers. I don't think one can quantify working with pitchers regarding pitch selection, adjusting mechanics, and so forth. There can even be quasi-psychological counseling. I recall reading a story about a time when Jack Morris, known to be high strung at times, was pitching for Detroit and got into a snit about something or other. Lance Parrish came out to the mound and told him that everyone hated it when he got that way and to knock it off.
  8. Nine of twelve
    There have been many worthwhile comments made, but some of them have diverged from the actual topic of debate. The topic is not which player accomplished more, especially in the postseason. The topic is not which player had better leadership characteristics. The topic is not which player had better statistics. The topic is not which was your personal favorite. The topic is who was the better player. I still say the answer to that is Mauer.
  9. Nine of twelve
    It's also a sad parallel that both players had their careers derailed due to injuries to their nervous systems, the brain in Mauer's case and the retina (which is anatomically part of the brain) in Puckett's case. It points up that the nervous system is by far the most important part of an athlete's body because it processes incoming signals and directs actions. There are millions of Americans who are the physical equals of star athletes but muscles and bones are not what sets star athletes apart from the general population.
  10. Nine of twelve
    I want to bring up the concept of peak performance, narrowing it to one season. The 2009 Joe Mauer was the best baseball player on the planet at the time. The 2009 Joe Mauer was also the best catcher in the history of baseball. Kirby Puckett was never the best baseball player on the planet nor the best center fielder in history in any of his seasons. That's why Mauer was better even though Kirby is my favorite baseball player ever. IMHO, of course.
  11. Nine of twelve
    It's the job of a good manager and pitching coach to be able to at least get a pretty good idea. If, after a few outings, things aren't working, then re-evaluate and take action.
  12. Nine of twelve
    Some runners are marathoners. Some are sprinters. Some are best at middle-distances. Asking a runner to perform in an event that s/he is not suited for will not result in success. The same thing is true for pitchers. As has been said many times by many people, players need to be put in situations where they have the best chance of success. If pitcher A does best going three times through the batting order every fifth day, then use him that way. If pitcher B does best going one inning at a time every day or two, then use him that way. If pitcher C does best going 3 innings every third day, then use him that way. I think we need to get past the idea that it's necessary for a pitching staff to be used in a particular way. Of course, it's good to have many different types of pitchers, all of whom are very good at what they do, but to me the job of the manager and pitching coach is to take the pitchers you have, determine what each one's strengths are, and use them accordingly. One year you might have five good starters, another year you might have five good one-inning guys, and yet another year you might have five good middle relievers. That means your philosophy will probably need to change year by year to suit your roster.
  13. Nine of twelve
    I am not saying that what I expect the Twins to do is what everyone should do. All I am saying is what I said: It's very highly unlikely that the Twins will sign a free agent who makes a major impact. I don't have enough knowledge of players to make any specific trade or free agent suggestions. (Other than the suggestions I made on your "Share your trade ideas!" thread.)
  14. Nine of twelve
    Here are my trade ideas. Devin Smeltzer for Shane Bieber. Caleb Thielbar for Josh Hader. Nick Gordon for Fernando Tatis, Jr. Griffin Jax for Shohei Otani. Brent Rooker for Mike Trout. Randy Dobnak for Jacob DeGrom. Willians Astudillo for Aaron Judge.
  15. Nine of twelve
    Saying a particular player should be in because he is on a par with a player who has been elected inevitably leads to the slippery slope of "well, then X should be in too. And if X is in then Y should be in. Also Z and...". Eventually you end up making a case for electing literally hundreds of players. I don't have the answer, but it's gotten to the point where I don't really care who is elected. Baseball people know who the best players are and were and don't need to have the HOF voters tell them who is worthy and who is not.
  16. Nine of twelve
    Remember that free agency is kind of like the anti-draft, especially for top tier free agents. Obviously teams can make offers, but the player chooses the team instead of the other way around. Top tier players will almost always choose teams that are likely to contend during the upcoming season and/or teams that are willing to overpay. The Twins are neither, and factoring in the Twins' history of rarely pursuing such players it is very unlikely that we will land a high-impact player via free agency this off-season. I expect that the front office's strategy regarding free agents will be to rely on our scouts to find and sign someone who is undervalued and on our coaches to help him perform above expectations.
  17. Nine of twelve
    I see your point as well, and I don't disagree. Eddie has an instinct for certain things, like the time he won a game by inducing the pitcher to balk. But there are many, many other players who also possess those qualities.
  18. Nine of twelve
    To a team that has room for a player who does a lot of things, but everything below average.
  19. Nine of twelve
    This is true for about half the players in the major leagues.
  20. Nine of twelve
    Lessons From Atlanta: occasionally a fair-to-middling team simply gets lucky and has a warm streak (11 wins, 5 losses) at just the right time.
  21. Nine of twelve
    I wouldn't rule out a trade, but I think the likelihood of the Twins signing a free agent to play left field is about 0.001%. I've said before that ideally a good team will have four regular outfielders. At least two would be capable of playing center field. If none is a switch hitter two would bat right, two would bat left. Considering currently rostered players that would mean Kirilloff, Buxton, Kepler, and a right-handed batter. Rooker would be a good candidate if there were a way to upgrade his fielding ability from poor to average. Celestino is intriguing but I doubt he is ready as a batter. My guess is that Larnach will wind up as the fourth outfielder unless Celestino improves.
  22. Nine of twelve
    I don't know how to link images, so here's a link to the Wikipedia article about the FIFA World Cup trophy. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_Trophy
  23. Nine of twelve
    The 2017 AL season was very unusual. There were two outstanding teams, two good teams, and two bad teams. The other nine teams were so-so, not bad, not good. One of those nine was going to qualify and any of them could have made several roster changes (at significant expense) and still have been unlikely to qualify for the postseason, much less make a strong postseason run. That is why very few knowledgeable baseball people would have advocated for the Twins to take a big shot that year.
  24. Nine of twelve
    Lessons from the majority of teams over the years: If you have a shot, be sure you don't cripple your team to take it.
  25. Nine of twelve
    Trade anyone if the return improves the team.
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