Cody Pirkl
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Everything posted by Cody Pirkl
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The big drawback of MadBum that isn't being discussed enough is his home road splits. He's a legitimate number 1 when pitching at home with a 2.93 ERA and held opponents to a .213 batting average. He had a 1.10 HR/9 at home as well. On the road he pitched to a 5.29 ERA allowing a .286 average and a 1.59 HR/9. San Francisco is easily one of the best places to pitch in the MLB because of the dimensions on that park. The Twins outfield defense is elite with Buxton in CF but I'd be seriously worried about the balls that leave the stadium. Steamer has him projected for an ERA over 4.50 and I don't think that's an unfair prediction under the assumption he's on a new team in 2020. He's a good pitcher who will be a workhorse. He has an average exit velo in the 14th percentile and hard hit % in the 10th percentile who strikes out less than 9 batters per 9. In my opinion, giving MadBum $20 million per year for any length would be a panic move and will set you up for disappointment if you're expecting an ace.
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Trienen had injury issues for most of 2019 as I understand. Even if healthy he's not as good as his 2018, but it's easy to see the raw stuff is there. It really wouldn't hurt to sign a guy or two like this with so many younger guys in the bullpen as it stands now. He wouldn't have to close or even set up and it'd be a nice opportunity to rebound for him and a low risk high reward situation for us.
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Perez picked up a cutter in the offseason that the league had no scouting report on. He had about 12 starts before word got around and then things got ugly. He throws it off the plate every time and basically teams caught on and just took the pitch everytime he threw it. Once they were 2-0 or 3-0, he'd throw them a cookie and it would get destroyed. His cutter was his only pitch that had a positive pVal, that 95-97 mph fastball had a -16.4 pVal. He's a smoke and mirrors pitcher who gives up too many homers and walks too many guys. Let him fill innings for a tanking team.
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I think the general consensus is that if they get creative and end up relying on converted relievers or bounceback guys the year after winning 101 games, their front office has failed. This was a prime year of free agency to get starting pitching help and starting pitching was the only true necessity we had. The front office said they'd go all in when it was clear the window is open, and it doesn't get any more open than now. We watched them do nothing at the deadline last year and wound up having a rookie with 28 major league innings starting game 2 in Yankee Stadium. If they bargain shop again this year, they either got ahead of themselves in terms of when they realistically thought they'd have to make good on their promise, or they flat out lied. Either way, they'll deserve all the criticism they get.
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Should be noteworthy that teams are kicking the tires on Pineda as well. He may not be the ace we need but if he pitches like he did down the stretch last year he can be very important piece on a winning team. Certainly a good consolation prize if we miss out on everyone else. I'm hoping we don't wind up regretting not giving the QO given the fact that it wasn't for the full amount.
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Basically the Reds saw him as more of a reliever and his raise in arbitration would have overpaid him for his role. He had a pretty unlucky year in terms of ERA and he looks like a classic case of a guy who could take a next step, but the arbitration process would have paid too much for what he was in 2019.
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Rooker is nearing his time where he's going to need to get his feet wet with some Major League ABs. I still believe he's trade bait because he's basically CJ Cron lite and has a super replaceable profile. He also doesn't have much of a long term role at 1B between Sano or Kirilloff if they move either to that spot. The problem with handing Rooker the keys to 1B is that this is a team coming off 101 wins, and it's not a great idea to trust a position with such a high floor of offensive production to a rookie. They may sign a veteran like Thames or Zimmerman to platoon with Marwin and let Rooker compete in the Spring with Marwin or Sano as a fallback if all else fails. They may also just re-sign Cron to a lesser deal and all of our speculation was pointless.
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Filling Hildenberger's spot with Trienen would probably be a good move in my opinion. They could start him out lower down the chain of relievers and see if he returns to form. I think he's somewhere in between his historic 2018 and terrible 2019 and that's still a damn good reliever. I didn't see that Jimmy Nelson got non tendered. If they're going to sign a Martin Perez reclamation project again, that should be your guy.
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A left handed catcher like Avila would be perfect to pair with Garver. Rich Hill would make a great addition if he were penciled into the 5th rotation spot with the assumption that someone like Dobnak would fill in for him when he's inevitably going on and off the IL. I think both are doable if we sign a Wheeler type and trade for a Jon Gray type. That scenario would also give us an opportunity to go after some further position help.
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- alex avila
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I agree that Raley is trade bait, since he's basically a left handed Rooker in terms of profile and we consider Rooker trade bait because of the lack of need for him in the majors. Chalmers doesn't have much trade value at this point because of his recent injuries and walk rate. He's got a really high ceiling and low floor, and the biggest payoff for him may be in holding onto him and seeing where he goes.
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- jhoan duran
- dakota chalmers
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Front Page: Twins Trades Show They've Got This Down
Cody Pirkl replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Yeah I mean I can't even explain why I usually check Baseball America for prospect rankings, everywhere does it differently. He hit just a tick over .200 in 2018 which is probably the reason for the drop off. He was exceptional before then and may have been the ideal target for the Marlins to get a 1-1 trade instead of patching something together with the Twins. Who knows though, now we're talking about the possibilities of them trading Sandy Alcantra or other young starters and I just wonder if they could have pursued it more aggressively when they were already in talks for Romo since the need was still there. Maybe we'll make a trade this offseason for a controllable arm and this whole question will go out the window. I just think now is as good a time as any to make a move for something at the major league level that builds for the future as opposed to minor league talent that's only directed toward the future. -
Front Page: Twins Trades Show They've Got This Down
Cody Pirkl replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
He was a good prospect, but he was in the lower level of the minors and fell off Baseball America's top 100. He may have been the #3 prospect for the DBacks or so, but I think the Twins have a lot more talent and depth to their system and may have been able to explore some options that excluded our top 3-5. In the end, the Marlins may have just simply targeted Chisholm, sometimes that's the case. I just cited it as an example of how I'd love to see the front office get creative in acquiring some major league talent. -
Front Page: Twins Trades Show They've Got This Down
Cody Pirkl replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I loved the Romo trade but my big ding on them was that the Marlins turned around and traded Zac Gallen a few weeks later. That tells me that we didn't even kick the tires on the starting pitching marker at the deadline. Jazz Chisholm is a good prospect, but if that was the price for a young controllable pitcher like Gallen, I can't help but feel like we could have gotten in on him. I'm hoping to see more savvy moves for big league talent in the near future (possibly this offseason). -
The report so far has been that Arizona is only willing to move Ray for controllable pitching. For us, that means Balazovic, Graterol, Duran, etc. I think the front office shouldn't even consider that. I'm all for going after a trade, but not future arms for one year of a big question mark. I also think that there are a lot more avenues to explore on the free agent market for starters. They should really try to sign at least two of them, even if one is a higher tier like Wheeler and the second is a guy like Pineda. They could do that and still pull a trade for a guy like Jon Gray and still have tons of salary to fill in the less important holes in the field.
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The extension for Abreu doesn't change anything for this year and may actually hurt them down the road. The bigger implication of it though is that it looks like they're poised to spend whatever kind of money they want on whatever they want. They've made their interest in Wheeler well known too, who's obviously a main target for the Twins. The front office can't sit in the weeds and wait until the end of January and see who's left with a discount this time. If division rivals start plucking up targets that we need we've got ourselves a problem.
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Front Page: Offseason Blueprint: Run It Back
Cody Pirkl replied to Nash Walker's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I think fans would be very disappointed if this were the final outcome. Seems like a lot of backtracking in terms of retaining Schoop, Gibson, and Perez, all of whom most Twins fans are sick of. I think it goes beyond people being sick of them too. Schoop seems unnecessary and almost certainly wants a full time 2B job (and probably deserves it). Gibson and Perez legitimately looked like they had no business on a pitchers mound at the end of last season, and a rotation spot has always seemed important to Perez. Both of these guys should really be fall back options given the rest of the options on the market in my opinion. -
Front Page: Offseason Blueprint: Hooking a Big Fish
Cody Pirkl replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
They may actually do it for another outfielder that they may overvalue and a pretty good pitching prospect. Their patience may have reached its end with Gray and they're desperate for young pitching.- 53 replies
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- minnesota twins
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He want's to come back and if he's willing to take a significant discount and we're doing so on the premise that he's a fringe rotation guy, that'd be just fine. There's no guarantee that he comes back healthy next year, and even if he does, his entire career shows you that he's a guy that's going to pitch well enough to beat bad teams and be infuriating against good lineups. If we're signing him to be our number 3 starter and have an inside track on a rotation spot in the playoffs, I'd much rather see him leave.
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Front Page: Offseason Blueprint: Making Big Betts
Cody Pirkl replied to Nate Palmer's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
If that's the cost to trade for Gray then you do that tomorrow. I highly doubt it though, Rockies are going to snag as much young pitching as possible if they're making trades.- 32 replies
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- mookie betts
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Given Graterol's injury history and workload history, I just don't see it. Soroka threw 153.2 innings the season before he made his MLB debut. Graterol only threw around 100 last season and saw a big step down in workload this year. If they start him in the rotation for 2020, they're putting themselves in a tough spot later in the season when his innings start to pile up. Not to mention I'd guess they give the first chances to Smeltzer, Thorpe, and Dobnak just considering service time implications. He pitched well enough to be put on the playoff roster, but the last thing they want to do is depend on him for a rotation spot in 2020 on opening day.
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If Dobnak is our number 5 then the FO has done a pretty good job this offseason. He'll likely never be league average in strikeouts, but he dominates the other two points of the triangle with ground balls and control. It's not a direct comparison, but pitchers like Mike Soroka are an example of proof you can have success with this method despite it being less common in 2019. Dobnak could easily flame out given just the sheer historical context of pitchers with his path to the majors. That being said, his minor league numbers are pretty impressive at least in terms of consistency. There's no reason he can't carve out a nice career as a back end of the rotation starter. He's already shown more at the major league level than any other in house options we have.

