Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

LaBombo

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    9,171

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    49

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by LaBombo

  1. LaBombo
    Did I really say "delusional"? Oops. I meant to say "wildly optimistic". It's less accurate but also much less negative. I think, anyway. And as someone who viewed 2013 as a rebuilding year before the 2012 season was over, I mostly gave up on arguing that point a while back...
  2. LaBombo
    In other breaking news, "Dog sniffs fire hydrant, tree". He'll be 37 in June and exceeded his career ERA by over a run in 2012, so he's got some strong Twins cred working for him. Working against him becoming a Twin are a 2012 K rate increase and the fact that overall he pitched well except for a spike in home run rate. The Twins would need to overlook those strengths if they were to consider signing him.
  3. LaBombo
    Health permitting, Pelfrey could deliver...pizza. With the league change an ERA of around 5 sounds about right. At least it's a one year deal. The re-signing of Sanchez gives Detroit a rotation that our presumed 2013 'ace' Scott Diamond wouldn't make as the 5th man. Maybe now all but the most delusional 'Contend in 2013' people will finally be forced to move on.
  4. LaBombo
    Yes, Elarton and Lane are just organizational slurry, but the guys they signed for the rotation aren't a whole bunch better. Unless Gibson and/or Worley go crazy, the Twins will rank dead last in strikeouts again this year, and probably bottom 3 in ERA.
  5. LaBombo
    +1. Looks like Ryan has lowered the bar enough with Correia that now we can look forward to the "upside" of a guy released by a team that finished 11th in the NL in ERA and just traded away their best starter. Given their career 4.50-ish ERA's and the league switch, the Twins will be lucky if either of them manages an ERA much under 5.00. On the other hand, Bill Smith lowered the GM bar so much that Ryan can hardly help but look like a genius.
  6. LaBombo
    He could bring a semi truck full of fan apathy. Mid-summer, enroute-to-90+-losses promotion idea: Nick Punto Autograph Miniature Bat to Beat Yourself in the Head With Day.
  7. LaBombo
    And now we know that either Ryan doesn't understand the concept of sunk cost, or more likely, that he believes the dopey fan base doesn't. Picturing a 2013 rotation with both Correia and Blackburn reminds me of the old Norm Macdonald SNL one-liner about the music of Kenny G.
  8. LaBombo
    yup. Not likely that either party is interested.
  9. LaBombo
    Marcum has stated his desire to play for a contender. Guys who say that sometimes forget when a GM pulls up in their driveway with a dumptruck full of cash. Even so, it seems like the Twins are long shots if it's really important to him, especially after the Span trade.
  10. LaBombo
    Gomer! Gotta love it. http://www.vintagecardtraders.org/virtual/64topps/64topps-028.jpg http://cdn102.iofferphoto.com/img3/item/500/531/998/l_gomer-pyle-usmc-complete-series-all-150-episodes-9ddc.jpg
  11. LaBombo
    Good signing. He'll probably make a fine coach. Better make room on the 40 before another team looking for future coaches gets a hold of him...
  12. LaBombo
    There's no denying the team has had a good run with Gardy as manager. If he gets scapegoated for a lousy 2013, that would be unlike the Twins and also unfair. That being said, I was hoping the front office would consider going another direction after the Twins once again failed utterly and spectacularly to show up, let alone compete, in the 2010 postseason. Regardless of sample size, being swept three straight times and winning just three games in six series since the 2002 ALDS win is an absolutely dreadful record. Gardenhire is a good manager, but he's not LaRussa. He's a good guy with an unhealthy fetish for futility infielders, considerable disdain for statistics, and decreasing patience with the kids, which is the thing that seemed to do in TK in the end. I think the thing I'd miss most about Gardenhire would be his relentless pursuit of the AL record for manager ejections, which he's on pace to do in about five more seasons.
  13. LaBombo
    Sweet, merciful crap. You'd have to at least imagine the possibility that the league would've intervened. That, or the Colorado National Guard.
  14. LaBombo
    Whatever metrics you look at, it seems clear that at the end of the day, A) Kevin Correia is a steaming pile of mediocrity, and that the Twins put themselves in a position where they had at least one employment opportunity for said pile. Welcome to 2013.
  15. LaBombo
    Pavano was re-signed without pitching elsewhere. Deshaies was brought back after being traded away, not re-signed. And he specified major league free agents intended to go straight into the rotation. Only a team as desperate as the Twins would consider guys with 4 starts (Walters) or 5 innings (Deduno) in the bigs to be "major league" starters intended to hold down a rotation spot. This subset of the Twins front office history doesn't tell the whole story, but it gives a pretty good indication that when it comes to signing free agent starters from other teams, they've mostly managed to be both cheap and stupid. And with his age, declining K rate, and league switch, I really like Correia's odds of living up to the sterling reputation of Twins free agent starter signings.
  16. LaBombo
    Shouldn't standards be REALLY high when bringing up an AA player solely to fill a need? He struck out in a fifth of his at bats, and he'll see a big drop in average if he can't sustain that .350-ish BABIP. Yes, he was very good, but let's face it: nobody would be crying foul if he started the year in AAA had the Twins hung on to Span and/or Revere until the 2013 trade deadline.
  17. LaBombo
    While plenty of Twins Daily people might be excited to see Hicks on Opening Day, he's hardly the widely known phenom, either in terms of talent or, more importantly in this case, reputation, that Joe Mauer was when he arrived in the majors. Unless Hicks tears it up from the start, his presence may backfire with respect to drawing casual fans. Many of them have grown increasingly cynical about the Twins not fielding a competitive team since the first year in Target Field. Some kid they don't know from the minors batting .220 on May 1 may be seen incorrectly as another sign of' penny pinching by the Pohlads. And even if Hicks hits about what you might expect, but the team struggles (shocka!), the rubes will at least partly blame the kid batting only .250, never mind the walks.
  18. LaBombo
    Let's set aside the fact that Hicks had a good, but not great, year at New Britain, and is hardly a solid bet to be a plus player on Opening Day. If you bring him up you're still just trading two months of Aaron Hicks the prospect for a year of Aaron Hicks the seasoned major leaguer in his prime, and hopefully playing for a contender instead of a rebuilder. If this were the Yankees, then yes, you could just buy that year back with an extension without another thought. But it's the Twins, and if you extend him you'll be paying a premium to do so and taking money from a finite pool. The loss of that money could very likely result in the loss of a veteran or a budget issue that prevents a free agent signing.
  19. LaBombo
    Agree with everything but this last part. Even if the Twins add a respectable starter from the dwindling pool of free agents, they're just not very likely to contend in 2013. Two months of a kid who hasn't played above AA isn't worth giving up a year of team control of a player in his prime on a potential contender.
  20. LaBombo
    Unfortunately, you have to factor the trade into the totality of all the moves thus far, the loss of Span, plus Revere, is crushing to the top of the lineup and to the OF defense. Again, Worley pitches one in five games, Span and Revere played virtually every day of the week. And when he pitches, Worley, like any starter, has about as much power to affect the outcome of the game as the other 9 guys combined. Revere was a fine ballplayer, but any organization that considers the loss of a .330-ish OBP from the top of a lineup "crushing" isn't going anywhere anyway. Given that the Twins entered the offseason with a 2013 rotation with only one certain member, and one with only one year in the majors to boot, it seems to me like they've had their doubts about contending in 2013 before the winter meetings even started. A quick and dirty WAR comparison says Revere/Deduno = Mastro/Worley in 2012, with Mastro playing part time and Worley missing a quarter of the season. I think they have a good chance to equal or exceed what Revere and Deduno might have done/ will do for the Twins in 2013.
  21. LaBombo
    They lost almost 200 games the past two seasons and play in the same division as a defending AL champ whose core players are all in their prime. I could care less about the Twins making it to .500 in 2013, other than how it affects intangibles like signing free agents who want to play for a winner. And give the Twins' inability or reluctance to sign big ticket free agents, I'm not losing any sleep over that.
  22. LaBombo
    There was nothing about the year Hicks had in New Britain that screamed 'Skip AAA!!!'. I'm hoping the trades don't change that. Given the Twins' patience with prospects, it would be surprising to see him up before June.
  23. LaBombo
    The Hicks love is getting a little out of hand. He had a good, not great, year in double A. That means time at triple A, and the departure of Revere and Span should have exactly zero impact on that if the Twins are smart.
  24. LaBombo
    When a guy who wasn't a star in his prime is 39 and plays a position that's hard on guys half his age, it may be less a less a question of a quirky manager wanting him to be an everyday player and more a question of him being physically able to handle it. Either way, they'll probably pick up a veteran glove who can't hit.
  25. LaBombo
    For what it's worth, the James projection thinks Worley's ERA should be about a half run better than Diamond's. I assume that projection was for the NL, not AL. Yes. He'll lose some K's and accumulate some ER's with the move to the AL. That being said, this trade instantly looks worse if you assume Worley is out-pitched by Diamond in 2013. If he's healthy, I think Worley is the better pitcher, which is part of the reason I like the trade.
×
×
  • Create New...