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LaBombo

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Everything posted by LaBombo

  1. LaBombo
    The Twins are still on pace to lose about 90 games. And they look it. Yes, the rotation is bad, but that doesn't explain lapses in fundamentals and competitiveness that we've seen. Gardenhire is popular, likeable, and has a winning record. But if he returns after another 90-loss season, it would be a historic act of faith on the part of the Twins. In the past 30 years, only one non-expansion manager has ever continued to manage a team after three consecutive 90-loss seasons. His name was Tom Kelly, and he has two more World Series rings than Gardenhire has playoff series wins in the past decade. It's not a given that Gardy should be replaced. But it's clear that retaining him after losing 90 would be an admission by the franchise that they have fielded three straight rosters so bad that the manager gets a history-making pass. Or they could lose only 87 and we could all pretend the whole thing never happened.
  2. LaBombo
    jay, I feel guilty about shattering your faith in mankind with some of my earlier posts, so I'm going to go out on a limb and share with you what I feel might be one of my precious few insights about the Twins, though I may well be mocked and ridiculed. Even more than usual. I think Ron Gardenhire could be the best bench coach in major league baseball. Want an inspiring locker room speech before ALDS Game 1 against the Yankees? Gardy's not your guy. Need a clutch decision on whether to go for the bunt or the big inning? Gardy's not your guy, unless you stopped reading that sentence after the word "bunt". But when the team is flying back to Minnie late at night after being swept in Boston and needs a little boost, like the kind they get by seeing Casey Fien wake up to find that he's wearing a tiara made of empty pretzel bags and Mauer's jock, well, that's pretty much right up Gardy's alley. Even BProp acknowledged that while they've been hard on his strategy, he's been really good at getting guys to stick together (or at least not kill each other) for over a decade now, and that's empirically harder to do in baseball than it is in any other sport, by a factor of two.
  3. LaBombo
    Yes. And maybe they could, maybe not. The point of all of this is not that the franchise will fall further into ruin if they don't do a deal like that. The point is that it would be nice to hear that they'd be willing to do that kind of deal if it were available. It sure sounds so far like they're not willing to.
  4. LaBombo
    jay, if I'm your Friday buzzkill, I apologize. Not my intention. C'mon, don't put me on the ignore list, it's the crazy people who say the most interesting things...
  5. LaBombo
    That's the one founded by people who set believers in math and science on fire, right?
  6. LaBombo
    It is, and its name is Gardenhire. Someday he's probably going to be rich just from the royalties alone.
  7. LaBombo
    The 'doctor' has referred to all who dare disagree with him as "angry", "unsettled"(?) 'whiners'. So that sentence stays until he or a mod sorts it out. As for the rest, the money is already spent. The Twins are looking to profit from the trade of Morneau, not avoid losing the money. The money. Is. Gone. My example was the pitcher the Twins got for Butera, who the Dodgers were so excited to get that they shipped him off to either the Albuquerque Isotopes, or maybe the Springfield nuclear plant Isotopes that Homer played for, I forget which. If Ryan was able to dazzle us with a deal like that, then how is a more valuable player not bringing at least as much in return? So far, the only thing we're hearing is a single word, "money". And that's making some people very defensive, with the vocabulary to match.
  8. LaBombo
    Will you ever tell us why? Or is it a trade secret, like the Twins use of cybermetrics? And if you're able, can you respond without the lame snippy remarks this time?
  9. LaBombo
    Must have missed the part where the Twins' self-acknowledged desire not to part ways with several million dollars was a potential stumbling block in the Butera deal.
  10. LaBombo
    Your snide, dismissive, wrong comment aside, what are the really compelling moments in the article that made it clear that the Twins are relying on every cutting-edge resource available? Is it the first few paragraphs, where 'stat guy' is an apparent organizational outsider who gets laughed out of the room by the 'baseball guys'? In front of media? Is it the resume of Goin, where we find that he's a business degree guy who started in the call center and whose admin jobs had nothing to do with player evaluation until two years ago? Is it the refusal of Goin to be interviewed due to "competitive advantage", which sounds almost as silly as the Top Gun "I could tell you, but then I'd have to kill you" thing? Is it the profound non-effect Goin has had on organizational culture that still has Gardenhire chuckling over and over at his own dumb joke about "cybermetrics". Or is it Ryan coming off as a pleasant, well-meaning, but slightly addled grandpa at the end of the article, where he tried to talk about specifics of statistical analysis, and... well, 'struggled' is the most generous interpretation that come to mind? On the other hand, if you're on board with the Twins' blueprint going forward mostly because you and Goin are both Packer fans, well, you're a better man than I am, Gunga Din.
  11. LaBombo
    Of course Sano's other stats have value in deciding his future. But he lags well behind the names you mentioned in terms of his ability to make contact, and that will probably get worse in the majors, especially if he skips AAA. Only a handful of MLB hitters are able to be consistently valuable with strikeout rates over 25%. Sano has the potential to be one of those guys, but why rush him when there is a glaring weakness in his game? And while I think the Twins organization is a little too wrapped up in 'play the game the right way' (especially Sano's silly multigame sit after the home run trot), I'd rather see Sano take as many of those lumps as possible in the minors instead of the majors. Not sure I ever raised an objection to a September callup for Sano. In a developmental vacuum it's relatively harmless at worst, and somewhat beneficial at best. My concern would be that a fluky-good September and a Hicksian spring training would lead the Twins to make the same mistake with Sano that they did with Hicks. Then again, maybe they'll make that mistake based on a good spring alone. Hard to say. At any rate, we're not going to see eye to eye on Sano's 2014 anyway, because most of what I've read leads me to believe that service time really is a critical issue. For that reason alone it looks to me like it would be a big mistake to start Sano in the majors next year.
  12. LaBombo
    And? So will Sano's, assuming they call him up in September. If they don't, and the explanation is that he's not ready, then we should have our answer about whether they should trot him out there on opening day.
  13. LaBombo
    Sano is striking out in 28 percent of his AA plate appearances. Not a single one of the players on your list was anywhere near that rate in AA. In fact, nearly all of them had K rates about 10 percentage points lower than Sano. And as much as you don't want to compare Sano to Hicks, the latter struck out at a significantly lower rate than Sano in AA, just over 20%, and still struggled to make contact in the majors. Also, it's odd that you should bring up Trout's name at all. He started 2012 in triple A, just like many people are hoping Sano will. If the Angels can do that with a guy who owned double A even more than Sano has, is there really anything keeping the Twins from doing it?
  14. LaBombo
    Pretty exciting, and Detroit didn't exactly take them lightly with that lineup in a day game... And with that, glunn, chitown, adios, amigos, perhaps we shall ride together again soon. http://www.susansheu.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/three-amigos-web.jpg PS Thanks for doubling my career like total. 2377 more and I'll have enough for the stuffed panda!
  15. LaBombo
    Not really sure whether to be awed at your powers of perception or bitter about jinxing Perk...
  16. LaBombo
    A younger, cheaper Doumit would be nice, at least until the minor league catching situation sorts itself out.
  17. LaBombo
    WhoaWhoaWhoa there, chief. Some of us prefer to think of ourselves as cretins.
  18. LaBombo
    That's cool, as long as you sit in the same section but don't identify yourself so we can spend the whole game guessing...
  19. LaBombo
    How about height-to-mass ratio?
  20. LaBombo
    Whichever you decide, keep the truth a secret. Mystery will only heighten the appeal.
  21. LaBombo
    If the Mini Cooper in your old avatar is your ride, you couldn't be more than about a buck twenty five...
  22. LaBombo
    A new avatar possibility beckons...
  23. LaBombo
    Don't forget zombies.... ooh, alien invasion too. Better go see how many rolls of see-through, restroom-grade Scott are left in my garage.
  24. LaBombo
    Posting some of your plus-sized paintings occasionally should help keep tempers in check...
  25. LaBombo
    Yeah. Used to naively hope that Wins and Saves either be revised to make them relevant, or at least completely ignored. Kinda gave up on that.
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