Dantes929

Right on the money. 3 earned runs is unfair. He was obviously not sharp the whole game but kept a hot KC team to 1 run through 5 and with average defense or good relief help gets through 6 innings with maybe 2 runs scored which is a quality outing. Gibson needs to pitch a lot worse than that for a longer time before demotion should be considered. Right now the hierarchy should be Hughes based on what he did last year. Gibson based on how he did last year. Milone based on two good starts this year. May based on his minor league season last year and his last start this year. Pelfrey, then Nolasco. All starters are allowed duds but really last nights does not qualify.

Dan Gladden, Pat Meares, Jaque Jones, Nick Punto, Adam Everett, Brendan Harris, Alexi Casilla, Nishioka, Ben Revere and Aaron Hicks notwithstanding.

I like Santana. I said last year he wasn't as good as his numbers suggest and I say now he isn't as bad as his numbers suggest. While I am not sure if he is our shortstop of the future with Gordon and Polanco coming up, 12 games is still a long ways away from the outer range of SSS. Maybe wait until his career batting average goes below .290. Or at least .300.

Not sure why you include Mauer with this group. Among those with 100 games or more his fielding % was tied for the best in 2014. He certainly seems to make a lot of nice plays, he starts double plays well and is a great target. Annoying error Sunday but otherwise better than average since he has moved over IMO.

I get what you are saying but just like last year with Hughes, Nolasco, Pelfrey and Suzuki, signing Santana and Hunter was not doing nothing. Unfortunately Nolasco has given us nothing and Santana will give us nothing for a while. I am fine that they are not going heavier into free agency. I hate paying huge long term contracts for the great years players have had in the past for other teams. Not every team has legitimate building blocks. The Twins certainly didn't 4 years ago.

I disagree. Its not like he was facing high school pitchers. They are better in the majors but not 80 BA points better. If you look at clips from his minor days he was much more balanced and controlled. I am fine with your conclusion but not your premise. He was a good all around hitter and now he is not and need to make adjustments to become one.

I would gladly take what he gave us in the minors. I also believe that he has gotten bigger and more powerful so that if he made the same contact now as he did in the minors the power would be there. I am petty sure we are saying the same thing in terms of destination but I would like to see him focus on good contact and let he homers take care of themselves.

Hicks I get but shortstops and 3rd baseman that finished in the top half should bring something better than what you suggest. Why is anyone down on either one of them?

I agree Mike but I also would say Mauer probably has contributed to more runs the same way Hunter just did than any other player in the league over the years. Thome, Cuddyer, and Morneau had an awful lot of RBI from groundouts, singles and sac flies because of the guys Mauer advanced to 2nd and 3rd. Over time Mauer has created a lot of runs without getting credit for either an RBI or a run scored so I am ok with the cheap ones he does get. .

The actual quote was "the first time he came up he was swinging at everything". Doesn't necessarily mean that is what he was doing in the minors, His BB and SO rates were much better in the minors. He was probably just too anxious when he got called up and then when things weren't going well thought he needed to hit home runs to justify being in the lineup. Process vs results. I would rather see him have good at bats and have his homers clear the fence by two feet than a lot of chasing with an occasional moon shot.. His minor league numbers indicate he is capable of hitting for average and power. The best analogy I have is the golf swing. When the mechanics are right the swing is consistent, powerful and effortless. When trying to hit long I might connect every once in a while but generally it is a lot more effort for less distance.

"The clamoring you hear is no longer about putting Meyer in the Twins rotation, it’s about putting him in the bullpen. For now, though, the investment in Meyer as a starter will continue, and rightfully so" I never understand the concept that walking a lot of guys is a less damaging thing as a reliever. . Meyer's start is discouraging but that is all. The light can come on any time and as far as I am concerned he should always be just 3 good starts in a row from being a good option for the Twins. The three good starts might never happen and might just be 2 weeks away.

I may be too focused on this element but in my opinion if Hicks could hit from the left side like the right side he would be with the Twins right now so really the most important stat is how he hits from the left side. If he hits .500 from the right side and .200 from the left side fans will be calling for his promotion but just setting him up for failure again. I guess what I am trying to say is that when he has a good day maybe you can mention if he is facing lefties or righties. Occasionally give us the splits also please.

If Dozier has a good year it will make him and his contract even more attractive to other teams. I am guessing it would be Dozier rather than Polanco that would get dealt. That is with the assumption that Polanco is at 2nd base. With Dozier and Escobar playing well and Santana's good year last year and Polanco and :Gordon coming up it looks like what used to be a big offensive weakness will be a strength. Wish we could send a couple of them back several years to replace Everett, Punto and Casilla.

Pelfrey had a nice stretch over two months and 11 games in the 2nd half of 2013 where he had an ERA under 3.5 before stumbling at the end. That showed way more success in the AL than Nolasco has shown and was probably the basis for the extension. They did it backwards and should have signed him to the two year contract in the 1st place rather than 1 year and then two. He had a good ST and I have not written him off as being incapable. I would rather have May though.

To be fair Suzuki was robbed of a homer and Escobar of a runs scoring triple but this start doesn't shock me. Price and Sanchez are capable of throwing shutouts at any time. Its why I would have liked to see a rotation of Nnolasco, Milone, Pelfrey, Gibson and Hughes to maximize our chances of winning 3 of our first 5 games. Why put our best chances of a well pitched game against Price and then Sale. Plus, I really don't like Milone pitching in Chicago's hitter friendly confines. Cmon Twins. Win at least two in Chicago and all is forgiven and forgotten.

I'm with you except for the "today" part. I thought he should have been brought up last fall because of those stats. His control did not appear very good in ST and 6 walks over 5 innings tells me he did not pick up where he left off. I would like to see him have a couple starts in a row of 2:1 ratio of innings to walks and I am sure the Twins would like to see that also. That puts his readiness into his hands. Could be in two weeks, could be longer. If May gets called up for Nolasco that likely puts Meyer one spot away. . ..

Part of that was by design in that he was on a reduced pitch count. Part is that he is a strikeout pitcher that also walks a lot of guys. Strikeouts and walks can take a lot of pitches. Meyer can walk more guys than most because he doesn't allow as many hits but 0 should be the goal and accept 3 or 4 per 9.

I believe Hicks homer was against a lefty which is great but I take it with a grain of salt. He is down there to prove he can hit from the left side..

Of a lefty, correct? No factor one way or the other on his suitability for promotion. He needs to hit at least .280 from the left side to consider promotion if the plan is for him to own centerfield. Right handed stats should not be considered much except as more evidence supporting platooning him with the Twins..

I understand your point also. My comment wasn't super scientific but it wasn't completely grabass either. I wasn't on this forum at the time where I would have expected a little more caution and reasonableness. My comment was about the Tribune pages. Back then I read pretty much all the articles and pretty much all the comments. My own position about Mauer was that they should write off half of his contract to public relations and for fans to not expect MVP every year from Mauer. I didn't mind the contract because we weren't spending a whole lot of money which wasn't mine anyway and that whether Mauer was worth it or not he was still a very good player. I also didn't know why they would do it at the height of his marketability. They could have just waited a year and signed him to a similar deal. That was my stance. There were no more than two commenting at the time on the Strib pages that were against the extension. Two. Over the weeks preceding the signing there were many hundreds posting in emphatic terms that the Twins needed to sign Mauer or else. Now many posted multiple times but two against hundreds makes my 99% reasonable. I regret saying afterwards that 99% called the Twins morons for signing Mauer because there were more than 1% defending him but it was still the vast majority on the Tribune pages. Now maybe they are two completely different sets of people but you also see how the vast majority of posters demanding the extension at the time vs the vast .majority of posters criticizing the extension afterwards is logically inicompatible. You may in fact be one of those that were against the extension. I won't argue that. Only you know. I just know at the time there were hundreds of posters demanding the extension with only a couple against and afterwards there were hundreds saying the extension was a terrible move with few defending it. You do the math.

I know I am cherry picking but Bert Blyleven threw 278 innings at age 20. I understand the desire to be conservative and that is my nature but I have seen no particular evidence that inning limits have any benefit whatsoever. I suspect the rate of arm injuries has not decreased since these practices have bee implemented. I can see skipping starts if there is dead arm or fatigue and shutting guys down when there is pain. Other than that I just haven't seen any support for innings limits.

Sometimes these things are a blessing in disguise. First of all it is quite conceivable that Pelfrey outpitches what Santana would have done anyway or at least come very close. 2nd of all it could end up with May and maybe Meyer up sooner. Gardy won Manager of the Year in what I always considered to be his worst year of managing. He made moves he was forced to due to injuries...moves that worked out...moves he should have made anyway but never would have if the injuries hadn't forced his hand. I could easily imagine a similar turn of events here.

I don't think its that simple and I don't think a 7 game series is really all that definitive. I liken it to cribbage. The worst player can beat the best player in a 7 game series. Over time the better player will win over 60% but that still means the inferior team will win 40%. . In the Twins case I would imagine that for a third of the season the AA/AAA team would go somewhere around 20-34. Each third of a season would produce a few more wins for the minor league team as they develop their skills.. The idea though is that as the minor league team gets better some players will get promoted strengthening the major league team and weakening the minor. The worst team in the last 50 years still won over 30% of their games and I would imagine that the talent, if not the skill level, in our minors equaled that team. Take into consideration that they are not playing all major league teams but one that will probably lose over 80 games and saying they would win 42.86% in a 7 game series probably isn't the insult or compliment you might think it is.

Ceiling is 1st place and floor is last place with the latter being more likely than the floor but I watch because of the possibility of the former. The following is what keeps me from predicting ranges. After a 79 win season in 2007 I am sure the 2008 consensus for ceiling would have been 75 wins and the floor would be 65 wins. After all, how can you expect anything but worse when losing your all star centerfielder and Cy Young pitcher? After a 94 win season in 2010 I am sure the 2011 consensus for ceiling would have been 96 wins and floor of 86 wins. After all we only lost Hardy who was always hurt anyway, we were getting Japan's best hitter and we lost LNP who everyone said was the worst starting player for any team ever.

I guess I saw much of Willingham and thought it was brutal. I also saw a lot of Arcia and thought it was brutal. However, it did look to me like a lot of Arcia's problems were with the corner. which somehow doesn't seem to be quite as hazardous in left and again, I do believe Arcia is faster than Willingham. I don't know how to measure it but if last year's defense gave up 50 extra runs and this year's outfield defense gives up 30 extra runs it won't be all that noticeable but should still be worth a couple games. Just throwing around numbers. I wasn't really debating Hunters worth as an outfielder. You have commented about how bad it was and the fangraphs guy has commented on how bad it is and I believe you. I accept he is bad But unless you tell me he is worse than Willingham was last year I will believe otherwise.. Do you agree that there are degrees of how bad a person is?