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Riverbrian

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Everything posted by Riverbrian

  1. Riverbrian
    LOL... C'mon... You gotta believe in your team... through thick and thin. Shoulda stuck with the switch hitting. It's not too late. There are things that he can do. 1. During meals. Make him apply the salt and pepper at the same time with a shaker in each hand. 2. When chopping wood... make him go to the other side of the tree but make sure that he doesn't lose focus on where the house and car is located. 3. When he dances... let his wife or girlfriend lead. They end up leading in everything else in life so that alone will free his mind up for getting his feet/base set. If he follows those three steps, he will have it down in no time. He doesn't have to be real good at it. Just being a switch hitter will get him in the lineup for 162 games.
  2. Riverbrian
    If I was Trevor... I'd want out. All in all, it's his Dad's fault for two reasons. 1. Not realizing that the Twins would draft him. 2. Letting him swing left handed as a child when he clearly throws right handed or... or... providing the gene that makes swing from that goofy side of the plate.
  3. Riverbrian
    Jenkins and Emma are lefties. Gonzalez and Sabato are righties. This whole discussion just drives me crazy. Houston wants a left handed bat. I get it... they are tremendously right handed. The Twins are constantly looking for right handed bats despite being tremendously right handed to begin with and the few left handed hitters that we retain are punished for being left handed. They sit against left handed starters and we pull them from the game if a lefty enters the game. At some point in time... The Twins just need to think about developing and acquiring hitters period. Developing them prospects completely and we need to stop strip mining them for parts. They need to stop trying to build Frankenstein... because those parts wear out after a year and need replacement every off-season. If we have 7 lefthanded hitters on the 26 man roster so be it... in fact... it would be awesome since 75% of the pitching is right handed. As it stands right now... 4 left handed hitters on a Twins roster is over stocked because we don't have enough right handed hitters to cover. I am so platooned out... I can't stand it and I just have no room in my heart for any team looking for a left handed hitter or right handed hitter specifically. If a GM tried to explain it to me... I'd tell him to knock it off and... Just Go find hitters! The development price tag and roster space price tag isn't worth the tiny percentage gains in one or two individual AB's out of 6,000 plus that teams take during a given season. Just go FIND HITTERS.
  4. Riverbrian
    Great idea... the Astros currently have only 3 left handed bats. The Twins have 4. This extra hair needs to be shaved. I'm sure we will be looking for those right handed bats in the off-season due to the lack of right handed bats. Might as well get a jump start on that.
  5. Riverbrian
    I've decided to post the pre-arb numbers from the opposing team. I will do this once every series. The reason I'm doing this is so those not watching the other teams can easily see how far behind the Twins are in regards to development. I also do this to point out: Not only do the majority of baseball teams have more cost effective talent being paid the minimum contributing. I also post the records to show that you don't have to die with youth. The Mariners are closer to the Twins in roster construction. 11 Pre-arb players compared to the current total of 10 for our Twins. However... the Twins are still behind the Mariners because 3 of the current Twins 10 pre-arb players are scrap heapers, Clemons, Bride and Wentz. The Mariners don't have any of those waiver claim type of players. The Mariners are 41-37 while the Twins are 37-42. I will post this information on our opponents once every series so everyone can compare and contrast our Twins. So everyone can see the hole that we have dug and the money it takes to sit in that hole. That the same hole and hole filler will be back next year and the year after.
  6. Riverbrian
    On the bright side. They only gave up 6 runs! This is huge news because I've been worried that we don't have an offense capable of winning games with scores of 11 - 10 or 18 to 17.
  7. Riverbrian
    I’m not going anywhere. I’ll continue to complain where I feel its appropriate but I’m not going anywhere. Don’t care about Baldelli extended or kicked to the curb. Falvey is above him… Falvey has the authority to choose his guy. He has chosen… every game of every year. Baldelli is his choice. If it doesn’t work it’s on Falvey. That is where my eyes are focused.
  8. Riverbrian
    I’m not sure I’d want the prospect or prospects acquired in the hands of the current regime. Do we want a left handed hitting prospect in the hands of these people? How are we doing with the right handed hitters Miranda and Lewis? If this team needs to sell Buxton. I think I want a new front office handling the influx of young talent.
  9. Riverbrian
    Ups Downs. It’s a 162 game ride.
  10. Riverbrian
    Complete overhaul? I can’t advocate anything yet because I’m not sure if they simply don’t trust or are flat out failing to develop players they will trust. If they are failing to develop players that they trust. They need a complete overhaul of the system because they have fallen behind. If they are just not trusting. That just takes an attitude adjustment from the decision makers. Not holding my breath at this point. So eventually we will need a removal of that particular bottleneck. As for platoons. I’m done with them. Used to be OK with them because they made sense statistically but the Twins took it too far. Now I just see them as a slight advantage or disadvantage for one AB that will compromise the development of players and therefore the future of the club. Forget the name McCusker… insert name here. If they give someone a 26 man spot. He needs to be allowed to compete… not put to sleep while players are playing every day with a .600 OPS. If the manager doesn’t allow him to compete. Get someone else. If you don’t have anyone else. The organization requires a complete overhaul. Because the Twins don’t have a roster that the Dodgers or Phillies have… 9 players from top to bottom… yet we have the same amount of pre-arb players and the attitude that Ty France can’t leave the lineup.
  11. Riverbrian
    It’s a hard job. Like timing the stock market is a hard job. The limitations of the 40 man and 26 man roster is going to require placing your bets on this player and betting against this player. This is why I don’t blame the Twins for missing on Rooker. But it can’t be argued that they didn’t miss. They missed and missed big. The problem is simply the wasting of 26 man roster space. When a player is called up and placed on the 26 man roster and then not utilized due to predetermination. They better be right. They bet on Julien and Miranda this year. I did to. They were wrong thus far… so was I. When Rooker surfaces elsewhere… I have every right to look at them and say. Bet on the wrong horse Eh? How are Celestino and Garlick doing? Are you sure about McCusker? How can you be so sure? Are you sure about Lewis? How can you be so sure?
  12. Riverbrian
    The Twins are not the only team that can’t pull players out of a pile. All 30 teams make these mistakes. Predetermined opportunities is a main reason why. Lewis will get every chance to become what they expect him to become. Max Kepler will get every chance to become what they expect him to become. Others not so much. Oakland also missed. It took an injury and a bad rebuilding team to get on the roster for Rooker. Even Oakland didn’t know what they had until they ran out of options and sent him to the plate.. The Twins missed on Rooker. I don’t blame the Twins for missing but they missed. If they missed on Rooker who’s to say they ain’t missing on McCusker right now with the same predetermined opportunities allowed or not allowed. With Rooker he got a shot to prove the Twins, Padres and Royals wrong. McCusker may not get that chance to prove anyone wrong and fade into the baseball wind with the thousands of others.
  13. Riverbrian
    They better be right. Hand selecting this guy and holding back this guy. Lewis better not fail. Rooker better not thrive elsewhere.
  14. Riverbrian
    We may be sellers by the end of July. If we are in contention. Offense will be the biggest need. Don’t care what position.
  15. Riverbrian
    If the Angels would trade those 3 for Carlos. I hope Carlos and his family will enjoy Orange County.
  16. Riverbrian
    Let’s say McCusker comes up and is much more aggressive and he gets 4 ABs vs lefties and he hits 4 home runs. Will it matter? I mean besides the home runs that put a run or two on the board for the team. Will it matter to the future of McCusker? Will his utilization all of sudden change? Or will he continue facing 25% of the pitching?
  17. Riverbrian
    If he is coming up to face left handers at the expense of Wallner and Larnach. Please don’t. If he is coming up to simply face left handers period. Please don’t. If Rocco or anyone on Twinsdaily feels that we have 9 players that have to be in the lineup everyday. Please don’t call him or anyone up. However… that strategy better work because all eggs will be in that basket. Good luck to all involved.
  18. Riverbrian
    Ups Downs. We are on a down. We will feel better on an up in the future.
  19. Riverbrian
    I’m not there yet but if I do I’m going right past Rocco and pointing my finger at his boss.
  20. Riverbrian
    I've been taking opportunities to point out our opponents lately so those who are not watching the other teams or not inclined to watch or care. Tonight it's the Brewers with 17 Pre-Arb players on the 26 man roster. The Brewers are currently 40-35 while the Twins are 37-37.
  21. Riverbrian
    I've been saying for a couple of years now. I will judge this front office on development and development alone. I'm not impressed with their ability to cobble together low cost vets and remain competitive. That bill will come due with a loud crash and a high draft pick the following year. When you look at the young talent coming in. Yes... some crash and burn but there are plenty of pre-arb talent that is performing at least on par with what the low cost vets are doing. If you only look at the Twins... you will develop a distaste for the young player because we are not developing. If you look at the rest of the league... that distaste goes away and you see that this can be done without the low cost vet eating into payroll. We have a development problem. And the Catcher position is perhaps one of the loudest examples.
  22. Riverbrian
    Anyway you slice it. The key to everything is development and I am really concerned about the offensive side of the ledger. This thing will crash... we can't keep France-ing our way through this and not adding decent pre-arb talent. Every non-pre arb player on the roster will eat into that budget. The Tigers with the best record in baseball have 18 pre-arb players out of 26. The Twins have 7. That 11 player difference is money available in the budget to sign DIFFERENCE MAKERS instead of low cost hope they are at least average players. That's why it was a huge deal when Camargo sat and watched Vazquez OPS in the .500's. That's why it's a big deal that McCusker was held back. That's why Miranda and Julien hitting the struggle button is scary. That's why rostering Bride and not playing him to see if he has anything is a huge deal and that's why only investing playing time in Lewis or Lee types matter. Once you go around the league and count Pre-arb players on the other 29 rosters... you discover that the Twins are low and they are in the same grouping as teams like the Phillies and Dodgers. We can't compete with those teams financially. They are signing BIG MONEY guys and we are signing LOW MONEY guys. We need to be in the pre-arb arena that Detroit and Cleveland and Milwaukee are in so we can take the 4 million here and 4 million there add it together and play at a higher level in the free agent market.
  23. Riverbrian
    I thought your posts were great. Did I leave an opposite impression? If I did... it wasn't intended. I saw your suggestions. I have no way of knowing exact valuations from each team but I do have the assumption that Quero and Kurtz will be expensive to acquire with similar valuations. Will Joe Ryan (for example) get the deal done? I don't know but we don't have many Joe Ryan value players to offer and I feel it would be a mistake to spend your Joe Ryan bomb on a 60% of the time player... so give me the more ABs that Kurtz will bring,.. if those are my only two options. Trading Lee, Maya and G. Gonzalez for Quero? I don't know who says no in that deal but it better be the Twins saying no. I'm saying yes to that deal if I'm the Brewers and this is the example of that over pay that I want the Twins to avoid filling the catching position. This is the double down fixing their failure. Trades like this are why I'm saying... just lie in the bed you made. Don't damage the team further fixing this damage caused by this failure to develop.
  24. Riverbrian
    As for this part. Am I OK with a AAA catcher who cannot catch or hit or throw behind the plate? No... I'm not ok with that. I would be rather upset with that. After Jeffers, If we have failed to develop beyond a AAA catcher who cannot catch or hit or throw in the 8.5 years of the Falvey regime... I'm going to be rather unhappy and honestly... I'm already there. What's the bar here. Vazquez? A good defensive catcher with very little bat. We haven't been able to identify a catcher, coach them to be a good defensive catcher at the very least? We can't clear that bar. So now we got to spend another 10 million dollars for the position. In the meantime, Vazquez gets to OPS in the .500 range and regular turn in the rotation without threat to his job. As bad as that is... I feel it would be even worse to correct this failure by committing a significant portion of the available resources to fix it externally because it all ties together under the umbrella of the budget and we need the very little we have. Give up decent prospects? OK... we currently have 7 pre-arb players on the roster. Two of those 7 will be Arb 1 next year. Whose coming to bring that 7 pre-arb players to the 18 that the Tigers have with the best record in baseball. Every player that is not pre-arb dips into the budget. Trading our future to fill this catcher hole will just keep the bad train rolling with the Twins spending 4 million here and 4 million there and 4 million here on average talent to fill those holes that other teams are filling pre-arb. If we are not developing pre-arb talent to free up money and we don't have money to spend. It's just a matter of time before the rebuild is declared and we are hoping that #4 pick overall in the MLB draft is a good one. The Tigers have Dingler. Where is our Dingler? I'd rather they just wear it.
  25. Riverbrian
    Great Post You nutshell my thoughts pretty good in this first paragraph. We have limited resources (Money - Pre Arb Talent) and those two issues are not a good combination BTW. We have 24 other roster spots that require attention and some of those roster spots are going to be compromised because we don't have the budget. if we choose to spend those limited resources on the catcher position it will prevent us from addressing other positions sufficiently. In other words... we will have to compromise somewhere. I'd rather not spend the little we have at a position where the market prices are inflated and a position that plays roughly 50% of the time. I'd rather take the hit and spend the little money on someone who plays more often. Spend the limited money on a catcher... you don't have money left for a 1B. We are already low on pre-arb players. If you spend your top prospects on a catcher and you'll have to to get a good one. You won't have pre-arb players on the roster in future years, which mean we will patching holes year after year and hoping they perform average like France and not horribly like Margot. Trade a Joe Ryan (For example only) for a young top catching prospect. OK... but... do we want to trade Ryan for a catcher who plays roughly 50% or would it make more sense to trade Joe Ryan for a Cags or Kurtz and stop the 1B revolving door of low budget opens. In a nutshell... we are going to compromise somewhere. I choose catcher and the front office deserves it for failing to develop. I've listed all the pre-arb catchers. Our single success story is Jeffers and he will be gone come 2027. We are currently paying 14.5 million for our catching tandem. We are paying our every day 1B 1 million because we can't afford a 3 million dollar. Take the hit at catcher. Strengthen elsewhere.
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