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Dantes929

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Everything posted by Dantes929

  1. Dantes929
    Not even close to true. I didn't say he was more deserving of the award any other year and certainly not in the last 4 years. No one wants him now after 4 losing records in a row but he was 2nd in MOY 5 times in the 7 year stretch from 2003 to 2009. That is pretty impressive even if I do think managers are pretty overrated. I thought he was more deserving of the award in any of those years than in the year he actually won it. If he was available in that decade I am reasonably sure he would have had many offers.
  2. Dantes929
    Well I do believe Gardy got his MOY award because of Punto getting hurt. Gardy got his award because he won despite guys getting hurt when actually he won because of guys getting hurt. I doubt Valencia would have been promoted and have his great year if Punto didn't get hurt. I personally thought Gardy deserved MOY once or twice but the year he won it was his worst year managing.
  3. Dantes929
    Just my opinion but there will be those that will say he was just a decent utility player and not an everyday player. He had two seasons of regular play where he hit .284 or better. What I saw develop in his down seasons was Arcia disease where he tried pulling the ball in order to hit home runs. It seemed to me that he was embarrassed about not hitting more home runs and swung way too hard as a result. I always thought Gardy should have sat him down and told him if he ever steps foot in the bucket or falls off balance as a result of a hard swing he would be benched. When Punto battled at the plate and just tried to put the ball in play he was very useful whether as a utility guy or every day player. His biggest flaw was in trying to do things he was incapable of. Just my opinion. Overall, I think the WAR does not lie. He was a good player.
  4. Dantes929
    Twins owned Sale last year. You would have expected Sale to go 4-1 rather than 1-4. If he had done so the two teams would have been tied. This probably won't happen again but other stuff will. This is what makes baseball interesting. I don't mind projections that say the Twins will fail as long as I see some underlying talent that can turn the projections upside down without too much imagination and the Twins have that. I can see any team putting it together this year. Last year I was Detroit 30% odds, the Twins at 10% and the rest at 20. This year I think it is pretty much 20 across the board with maybe just a couple ticks in favor of Cleveland and KC. I would enjoy an 81-81 season with a 5 way tie for 1st place.
  5. Dantes929
    " You see a team who has done nothing to build on its surprising run in 2015 and, in turn, has slipped to the bottom of a competitive AL Central division." If you consider adding Murphy and Park as doing nothing I am ok with that but developing players is my favorite way to build and free agency is my least favorite. Sano, Santana, Buxton, Duffey and Jepsen for a full season should make this a better team with Berrios added along the way. I get the pessimism but I have been reading for 15 years about how every other team has added fantastic players every off season while the Twins have sat still and how the Twins will finish at the bottom every year save for 2010 and yet the Twins have finished first 6 times and 2nd 3 times in that period. If the only thing these projections get right is that the Twins finish above KC I will be OK with that. Oddly, Mauer and Perkins weren't mentioned and are two of my biggest question marks. Good years from those two would go a long way.
  6. Dantes929
    Yes. If you include injury then the floor of anyone, minor leaguer or major league all star, is never play another inning in the majors. Ask Kirby Puckett.
  7. Dantes929
    I spent 10 seconds thinking about it and came up with Randy Johnson, Sandy Kooufax, Phil Hughes and Trevor May so I am guessing there are a lot more. I am not predicting anything for Meyer but there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that command can be gained. May and Hughes went from very poor command to fantastic command. Meyer was on the cusp and then took a couple steps backward but I would not be surprised if he figured it out. Its part mechanical and part mental and can go the other way also. Guys that could throw it where they wanted and then can't. Wimmer and Knoblach come to mind.
  8. Dantes929
    Well, practicing catching fly balls can be done anywhere but your point is taken and it will be interesting how it all plays out. I would have no problem with Sano being DH, Arcia in right, Plouffe at 3rd, Mauer at first and having them all hit so well there is no spot for Park.
  9. Dantes929
    I've seen this stated before mostly in rumor form with no foundation but is it fact that Sano wants to be DH or just perpetuating a falsehood? I just want Arcia striding toward the pitcher with a solid swing rather than in the bucket with way more effort than he needs to hit it out of the stadium. I want to see him hit .280 with 30 homers rather than .220 with 25 moon shots. They are fun to watch but he can be so much more productive IMO.
  10. Dantes929
    A little misleading between the headline and article. I have never had any problem connecting decrease in production and lingering concussion symptoms. It was much the same with Morneau. The farther you get from it the better off you will be. Not to say there is a time table or exact science to it. Maybe he will never get back to where he was but the headline says it is lingering and the article says he has been symptom free for 3 months. Which is it? Would not shock me if he never regains his form but it would not shock me for him to hit .320 again either and if any team could use a guy at the front of the order getting on base .400 of the time it is this one.
  11. Dantes929
    I think May is in the bullpen and if they give weight to both career and last season and less to salary Milone should be ahead of Hughes and if you value ERA at all Milone in his career and last year was probably closer to a #3 than a #5 given that the average starter ERA was over 4.10 and Milone has been below 4.00. I would be fine with a Santana, :Gibson, Duffey, Milone and Hughes rotation. Ideally it would be May instead of Hughes and maybe Hughes could be useful out of the pen but I doubt it goes that way.
  12. Dantes929
    I get the caution of saying prospects are just prospects and no prospect is a sure thing but lets not overdo it because while not all prospects become stars or regulars or even utility players, EVERY utility player, regular player and all star was a prospect at one point. In plainer terms Hrbek, Gaietti, Viola, Puckett, Knoblach, Brunansky, Erickson, Gagne and Tapani were just prospects at one point so while not all prospects make it I am just fine with relying on the farm system to field our team of the future..
  13. Dantes929
    I clicked on the link and just don't know what it means. First of all a bit better than league average is still better than league average and did the same chart say his fast ball was much better than average? As was pointed out duffey throws cruveballs that are designed to make the batters knees buckles some that are hard to square up and some that are designed to chase. He does it by varying the speeds and the plane. It all makes his tailing fastball even better. Maybe was last year's Scott Diamond though I believe the main reason Diamond failed was arm problems that caused his curve ball to have much less bite to it. I think there is a better than fair chance that Duffey can be good.
  14. Dantes929
    Uh...no. This article was 100% about defense. Its purpose was not to consider offense at all. If he was the triple crown winner the last 10 years and was expected to win it for the next 10 this article still wouldn't be saying anything about his offense. I don't see how you can read anything about how a player is considered offensively from this article much less say anything is official about it.
  15. Dantes929
    Twins already know which players are going to start their season. Its not written in ink but with lead that is slightly damp which makes it really hard to erase. Much like Morneau if Sano bats .190 in ST it isn't going to change anything. If he can't catch a fly ball then the roster might not change but the pieces will be moved around. Buxton looking silly on breaking balls and Park looking lost might influence things but I am guessing Buxton, Rosario, Sano, Santana and Arcia for the outfield.
  16. Dantes929
    Seriously? Speed is a talent. Is it your opinion that Sano is lumbering? IMO he is faster than Mauer and Arcia and Willingham and others that have played the outfield. Everything you said about the nuances is still about whether or not he can see ball, get ball. Part talent, part skill. The skill part is the taking reps. I don't know if he has either talent or skill. I am guessing he can do it but we will find out soon enough. I believe it is the easiest of all the positions to play adequately and think he can pick it up. If not then we move on. Ok, now I will question your sanity if you think Arcia is the ideal right fielder. No speed, steel hands, horrible routes and when I see a ball go to the corner I know it will be a triple because he just has no feel for the bounces. Yet, I am also ok if he plays there because of his bat. I have every bit as much confidence in Rosario, Buxton and Sano as I do in Rosario, :Buxton and Arcia. We are just talking defense here. Cuddyer was ok, Span was great. Hicks would probably be ideal. I don't know who ever said Arcia was ideal. It certainly wasn't me. I don't think Sano is ideal either. I don't think the bar is set very high at Arcia though. If Sano can't defend better than him he won't be out there long.
  17. Dantes929
    Yeah, there are nuances but its mostly see ball get ball. I am not saying that is necessarily easy to do. Part talent and part skill but if Sano can do it it will put him above Young, Willingham, Escobar and Nunez. Hitting cutoffs is something Hunter sometimes ignored and Hicks often ignored. Arcia and many others never could figure out the ricochets so the bar is not really that high as far as I am concerned. I am guessing he will be at least as good as Arica right off the bat but if not then put Arcia out there. I am also putting the odds of Sano being adequate right off the bat as an outfielder as greater than Park being adequate right off the bat as a DH..
  18. Dantes929
    I think you forget where the bar was set last year with Hunter and Arcia. Our outfield last year was improved because of Rosario, Hicks and Buxton, Right field was pretty marginal. I believe Sano is faster than Hunter or Arica were so again it comes down to recognition off the bat and the ability to catch while running.. I am not saying mistakes won't be made or that he will be good out there. In fact, he might be horrible which will force going another direction. Speed won't be the issue and if he is good at recognizing balls off the bat then he will probably get to a few that didn't drop last year. I also don't know if not having played there is a huge deal. I never played the outfield much but stood out there for hundreds of hours fielding fly balls during batting practice. I am guessing he has had hundreds of balls hit to him already and will get hundreds more during ST.
  19. Dantes929
    He has never looked fat to me and he has always looked pretty fast so I am not worried about his size except for any possible collisions. As far as other injury goes he pulled a hamstring last year running the bases which lead me to a couple questions. 1. Out of fear of injury running the bases should we keep him out of the lineup? 2. If we keep him in the lineup should we instruct him not to run? 3. If he is running out to the outfield or from the outfield twice an inning along with chasing fly balls is he more or less likely to pull a hamstring than sitting in the dugout or being stationary at 3rd base and then running the base paths? My only concern about the outfield is can he get a decent jump and can he catch fly balls on the run. I am not concerned about his size or speed.
  20. Dantes929
    You must be new here to think we can't talk out of both sides of our mouth. If in fact moves do affect at bats there is still nothing that says Sano won't be affected to the good. Santana is fast with a rocket arm and i think just as likely to be a natural outfielder as infielder. Sano is pretty fast also with a rocket arm and I don't know why he would be considered more of a natural infielder rather than outfielder either. I'm not sure he is a natural either. We do know he can hit and hopefully that is what he will be focusing on. If he can catch fly balls all the better bu if he cannot they will just find a different spot to put him.
  21. Dantes929
    Not really arguing but kind of making my point. Perkins ineffectiveness had ripple effects. He was either hurt or bad. Instead of giving us 35 innings of quality relief in situations described he gave us 28 innings of bad pitching. That lost games as well as thinned the pen. We couldn't play match ups because Perkins was hurt or bad. May had to pitch the day before because Perkins was hurt or bad. We had no options we could trust with May or Jepsen out because Perkins was hurt or bad. Again, 3 good guys and a couple average guys ie, Tonkin, Fien can do be all right but if you turn one of those good guys into a very bad guy and you have problems. Like I said, I am not against getting a quality guy but we really need the guys we expect to be quality to live up to it. After the break, Perkins definitely did not.
  22. Dantes929
    I can be more specific here. As insane as Perkins was in the first half he was that bad in the 2nd half. His ERA the first half was 1.21 in 38 games and had 28 saves. In the 2nd half he had a 7.32 ERA (doesn't even contemplate inherited runners scored) in 22 appearances and just 4 saves. Since we added May and Jepsen to the pen after the break I am guessing that if Perkins was available more and pitched even to career average we wouldn't be remembering the 2015 bullpen as being suspect int the 2nd half. Therefore a lot of this simply boils down to how you view Perkins. If he is good then the pen should be decent. If he is not then depth is way more of a concern.
  23. Dantes929
    I have no problem classifying :Radke in the good rather than great category. I would put Baker in that category as well. I am ok if Gibson is good rather than great though I could probably go back and give evidence that Gibson is often great and so so the rest of the time. That is ok also. Average, slightly above average and good are all underrated IMo.
  24. Dantes929
    See my 6:01 post. I have no problem saying Milone was a better pitcher than Berrios last season or saying he is probably better right now and I have no problem with Milone starting out the season in the rotation. The season is 162 games long so saying Milone is the better guy out of Spring Training is not the same as saying Milone will be the better guy July-Sept. For me, Hughes is the guy that Berrios should be beating out for a rotation spot.
  25. Dantes929
    Don't get me wrong. I am stoked about Berrios but I believe at the time of the promotion Duffey was about half a run better than Berrios. I was fine with the promotion just like I was fine when Pinto was promoted a couple years back. Simply put they earned it. Not too concerned about the reasons for the promotion or where Duffey might be if it hadn't happened much like i don't think anyone is too concerned about what might have happened with Gehrig if Wally Pipp had gone 4-4 instead of sitting out a game
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