LaBombo

No, dude, he totally wins, because he actually said "Checkmate!" as he typed his ftw claim...

Good points, here and in the one about relative platoon splits of CP vs. other LHB Twins. To that I would add that as roughly the 6th or 5th best hitter in a typical lineup, Parmelee shouldn't see a ton of LOOGY's. Some teams won't have enough of them available to waste one on him when there are the other guys you mentioned who are much more likely to punish a righthander than Parmy.

Yup. Interesting that Rosenthal cites Gardenhire's record of reaching the postseason but not his utter futility there, and BP's acknowledgement of his intangible clubhouse value but not their scathing criticisms of his tactical failings in the playoffs. Gardy's a good guy and a decent manager, but the idea that retaining him is some sort of no-brainer strikes me as the kind of thing you end up saying when you depend on amicable access to an important source for your journalistic livelihood. That's not a knock on Ken in particular, just what seems to be a beat writer fact of life.

Yeah. If I remember correctly, Bill James was referencing another star catcher, Mike Piazza, when noting that it's a pretty sure sign of a bad franchise when it blames its best players for the team not succeeding. To that I would add 'sign of a bad fan base'. Like a previous poster said, frustration with the play of the Puntos and Buteras of the world tends to ultimately be directed at the GM, while complaints about Mauer tend to be, well, directed at Mauer. Too passive at the plate, can't stay healthy, costs too much, not an outspoken leader, etc. If forced to choose between the two dead horse whippings of a potential Hall of Famer or a guy who can't hit his Newfoundland's weight let alone his own, I'm trending toward the latter.

Yes. And to that I would add that at least some people who think the Correia signing stunk don't believe that he'll ruin the franchise, however he pitches. Instead, they believe that a front office that can't understand why signing Kevin Correia is a bad idea will ruin it eventually.

An aggregate of the Hicks projections at Fangraphs, BP, and elsewhere looks something like this: .235/.320/.365, with a K rate of about 25% and 12 HR, 18 SB, 70 runs if he were to manage 600 PA's in 2013. Assuming that he puts up a line like that more or less consistently through April, does he stay up? Should he? Is the reputation he has for slow starts after promotions a cause for optimism that he's on the right track if he manages an April like that? And if he ends up with a line like that after a full season, will it have been worth it? Also, while I like your optimism regarding Dozier, it's hard to find any projection that shows him getting on base at a .300 or better clip, and most figure him for about a .285 obp.

He was listed at 6'3", 190 in his pro debut. He's 6'4", 235-240 now. If he "fills out" much more, he may have to skip playing first and just go full-time DH. Interesting that Sano's one plus defensive tool, the arm, would be almost entirely wasted at first, and yet it looks like nobody in this thread has mentioned right field. At any rate, with another dreadful year on tap at the major league level and a growing amount of impatience among many of the faithful here, I'm sure there will be a hue and cry to move Sano to first to expedite his MLB debut unless his defense at 3rd improves drastically this year.

Like the middle-aged goat guy said, excellent point(s). The Benson non-catch at the foul line looked even worse (better?) to me after seeing it again. The 'fence' along the left field foul line looks to be about 6 feet from the chalk. Also, it's not a fence in any way that I connect with normal boundaries in ball parks. Instead, at that height it looks like a medieval torture device designed to hand out either a broken femur or a punch in the wiener, depending on the leg length of the charging outfield victim.

+1. It's been surprising and a little disappointing how quickly much of the media and fan base has treated Sano's possible move to first as a foregone conclusion. He's still pretty raw at third, but he's not the hopeless oaf he's been made out to be. He sure looks like he has the raw athletic ability to be better than some of the bruisers who've managed to man third in the majors.

+ 1, although Ryan looks a little more...intense in that pic than I picture Ike. Like he's watching Gibson in ST.

He will if you leave him in despite the carnage. It's not like he needs to leave the park early so he can sell plasma to make ends meet. You are a learned TD poster, so I'm wondering why you do not yet grasp the difference between pitchers who may suck because they don't pitch The Twins' Way, and those pretty much doomed to suck because they do. But no worries. Just read some Nick Blackburm/Rick Anderson tweets about keeping the ball down and you'll totally get it. Totally.

And get us both kicked? Ok, fine, my penance for a merciless, self-proclaimed win in a topic that barely registers with Twinskind, let alone mankind... Cursor over picture. Right-click. From pop-up, left-click on "copy image". When you get to a post/page you want to throw down on with the graphic in question, place the cursor over the best guess insertion point, left-click and hit Ctrl-V: http://calibermag.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/You-cant-handle-the-truth6.jpg Btw, graphics in posts may be stealing bandwidth and profits from Twins affiliates like this site, and so by corollary this thread may be unintentionally draining resources that could prevent the future Twins from acquiring a Kevin Correia or retaining a Nick Blackburn. So when you speak of me, speak well. TBC.

And the finalists for Most Ironically Named TD Posters are:....

http://img3.lsistatic.com/members/910389/challenge_accepted.jpg

Pay more attention? Are you certain he's been paying ANY attention? Gardenhire bats middle infielders in the two spot almost all the time. They've not only been mostly mediocre to dreadful relative to rest of the league at getting on base, they've usually been worse than the rest of the Twins' lineup . Given the absence of Jose Reyes/Ian Kinsler base stealing prowess, why is it that for over a decade there's usually a middle infielder who can't find his way onto first base with a GPS and a Sherpa guide manning the two spot for Gardenhire? Bunting? Bat control? Because they battle until their tails come off? This may seem like a wacky conspiracy theory, but in the absence of any tangible evidence to the contrary, it looks to me like Gardenhire usually pencils a middle infielder into the second lineup spot because he believes that a middle infielder should bat second.

Forget it, he's on a roll... http://www.myteespot.com/images/Images_d/DSCF0726.jpg

Slow down there, Mr. B. You should have more confidence in your earlier assertion. My post was a reference to the ridiculous, snarky post that offered Ben Revere's 347 AB's in the two spot as an attempted rebuttal to the fact, not opinion, that Gardenhire bats a middle infielder (very often a second baseman) in the two spot the overwhelming majority of the time. Revere's 2012 total in the two spot is by far the most for a non-middle infielder during Gardenhire's tenure. Only two others have taken more than 100 AB's there in a season for him, Jacque Jones (159) and Mauer (123). Batting middle infielders second is fine with me, if those middle infielders are qualified. But looking at OBP as a quick and dirty check of two spot hitter competence, Twins middle infielders are usually and emphatically not qualified. In seven of Gardy's eleven seasons as manager, the two spot hitters have managed an aggregate OBP either worst or second worst in the lineup (3 worsts, 4 second-worsts). In every one of those seasons, a middle infielder received either the majority or plurality of AB's there. In all but one year, middle infielders accounted for at least 500 and usually 550 or more at bats in the two spot. And it's really not much better if you use OPS instead. In the seven aforementioned seasons, the two spot hitters managed an OPS better than second-worst only three times, finishing 6th twice and 7th once. In one of the 6th place finishes for two spot hitters, 2009, Mauer spiked the OPS aggregate by taking 123 AB's there and slugging over .700. So yes, Gardy bats a middle infielder in the two spot almost every game. He does it whether or not they can get on base or hit for power. And apparently he's getting ready to do it again with Dozier.

Luckily Revere batted 2nd a couple hundred times last year. Otherwise, with a .271 Obp 2nd baseman in the 2 spot, we might start hearing more crazy talk about how Gardy almost always plugs in a middle infielder there regardless of their on base skills. Anyway, as long as Dozey has teh SPEEDZ for it...

First off, excellent work on the Trout/Jackson comparison. It's hard to eliminate all the external variables in a small sample comparison of two players, but it seems like you came as close as possible to that ideal. And a fun read to boot. Second, don't think it's been mentioned yet, but in addition to Willihammer's helpful mention of the BRef info, there's also the FanGraph Ultimate Baserunning stat. It's the mirror image of Zone Rating for fielders, taking into account where batted balls go and how well a given baserunner produces relative to the situations they create. It includes things like first to second vs. first to third, staying out of the DP and advancing on tags, and other important factors. It cares not one whit about stolen bases, triples, or other traditional counting stat measures of speed. As an aside, it's figured into Fangraph's WAR ratings, which I didn't realize until this thread. In the case of Trout vs. Jackson, Hammer's excellent analysis corroborates UBR, or the other way around. Jackson has a nice UBR of 1.2 in 2012, which is just a hair below what the definition page categorizes as "above average". Trout scores a 5.0, halfway between "great" and "excellent". Not citing UBR as comprehensive by any means, but it seems useful, including even its definition/mission statement. It doesn't seek to define speed, because speed is a tool, not a skill. A heady player with good situational awareness and average speed can equal or even outperform a SPEEDy one on the basepaths. They can tag or take the extra base more often, get the split-second jump that prevents the double play, and above all, not get thrown out on an unforced advance.

Not a bad idea, but it looks like the Twins are gradually more resigned to the rebuilding process they are denying is underway. PR spin to the contrary, the Twins know they'll suck and would rather see what they have in Florscobar. That's probably for the best. That being said, Cedeno is the sort of player they should have targeted instead of Carroll going into a lost 2012. Jamey is a moderately better player, but cost a bunch more, is much older, and required a two year deal that will turn into three when, not if, he goes over 400 PA's this season.

Yes, another sign it's been Hicks' to lose since winter meetings.

It would look a lot less like Hicks showed up with the job if there were at least one viable (> Clete Thomas) NRI CF besides the prospects and Mastro in spring training from day 1. Small potatoes compared to other issues, but finding a last-minute 4th OF if Mastro wound up in center seems less desirable than having them ready at the outset.

Fair enough. To be honest, I've generally been a little impatient over the years with the Twins' usually very conservative approach to prospect promotion. But my feeling about this current crop is that since the Twins are not just a player or two away from contention, the whiz kids should see at least a couple of months at AAA. The Hicks thing still bothers me. If Hicks and Benson were deemed unready and Mastro was given CF, where's the 4th OF who can play center? It just seems to me the 'competition' was a farce, with no real plan other than to pound pegs into holes, whether they fit or not.

The 299 PA's in AA Arcia? Next to AA CF Hicks... The promotion fever is on the verge of an epidemic.

I know that, you know that, we all know that. But the Twins are still managing the roster using the same Jedi scouting powers that led them to Kevin F. Correia, so saying that any poor decision is out of the realm of possibility seems like wishful thinking to me.