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Dantes929

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Everything posted by Dantes929

  1. Dantes929
    People get too carried away with the whole ace thing and what defines it. As you pointed out the Dodgers had more than one but didn't advance. Giants have a borderline one and won it all. Trevor May can out battle Sale in the playoffs just as easily as in the regular season. Aces are better just like having Cabrerra in your lineup is better. Doesn't mean Mustakas or Hosmer can't outperform him in the playoffs.
  2. Dantes929
    The assumptions can work in the opposite way also. . Currently, we are doing well with good guys coming up. Gibson is pitching great and maybe we would have made him and May part of a package that returns an "ace" that ends up needing surgery.. Maybe keeping Span causes us to trade Buxton or not get him in the first place. Lastly, maybe Meyer ends up an ace after all. Demotion in early May 2015 is hardly a death knell for his career. It was a good trade at the time. Maybe it ends up being a great trade. Maybe all the decisions end up with a WS title whereas going the other way would have continued the 90 loss seasons.
  3. Dantes929
    It appears that some here think this move is absolutely irrevocable. Personally I don't see how a move to the pen will benefit him. Just fewer innings to work on his command. Calling the trade results a done deal now like this move proves Meyer will never succeed? Twins can't develop pitchers? May and Gibson appear to be doing ok as well as Berrios and others in the minors. I liked this trade at the time so would not back up and say otherwise now. Span is having a career year. His prior two would have helped the Twins win a game or two more but who really cares? Meyer could just as easily be a great pitcher by now. Sometimes it is just up to the player. This is his gut check time. We will see how he responds.
  4. Dantes929
    There are tradeoffs with power, OBP and average. I have stated I don't care if he ever hits another homer as long as he bats .320 gets on .400 and hits a lot of doubles. I agree his current production does not overcome his lack of power. I am not giving up hope on him getting back to elite but am not real confident that trying to pull the ball will get him there. I am not really sold on the idea that hitting from the 1B spot is much different than any other. If he plays good D and is better than the next option and is better than 2/3 of the other hitters is enough of a standard. for him to be out there. Of course as the rest of the guys get better it becomes a higher standard. We agree he needs to do better than he has so far. I am really hoping that .400 BA for a month is still in him.
  5. Dantes929
    I think this overlooks the value of a walk in scoring situations. With the bad teams Mauers value diminishes because of the efficiency of those around him. When it was Morneau, Thome and Cuddyer behind him then walks mean more because they simply add base runners for good hitters which produce runs even though they don't show up very positively in the slugging or RBI stats.
  6. Dantes929
    Thank you for that. Now I have no idea why we are doing well Rotation just seems more solid with more upside especially with Pelfrey's new found life and Milone and Santana waiting in the wings. We are 6th in the majors in runs scored while sitting at 20th in OPS. so maybe it is just timely hitting like you suggest which will eventually adjust and we will all be crying again. Then again maybe it is the OPS that will improve. Much like saying Gibson was lucky to have his success given his strikeout total. Maybe his low strikeout total was a result of bad luck. Small sample size. Witll be interesting what the next 40 games will bring.
  7. Dantes929
    The sense that I get is that we are getting more quality starts. ERA and all the advanced metrics (as far as I know) don't take into account the order or manner in which they arrive. Its why guys like Liriano and Gibson have value beyond the numbers. A guy with an ERA of 5 might give up 5 runs each game or give up 3 runs in each of 3 games and then 11 runs in the 4th game. Timely hitting and timely pitching go a little hand in hand. Occasional 13-1 losses don't bother me. Timely hitting only has value if the pitching has kept the game in a position to make it relevant. .
  8. Dantes929
    I will go with the guy I wanted to keep in his stead in the first place, was demoted even with an ERA 1.25 runs better than Nolasco and who has a 3-0 record and a 0.00 ERA in 23 innings in the minors. So my answer to who is ready to come up and take that spot is the guy who should never have lost it. Tommy Milone.
  9. Dantes929
    When they lose big I just kind of think "ok, got that one out of their system. Now lets win a couple 4-3 games before the next blowout. AL Central considered the strongest. Makes me wonder if quality in general is down which brings the league down toward our level while we are getting better. Still think most of the credit goes to Allen. Some of it come from having a bad team with a horrible minor league system 3 years ago to guys maturing and having the best minor league system. Everyone wanted to blame Ryan when things went bad. Anyone giving him credit now? Didn't think so. Maybe this won't last. Doesn't mean next year and year after that it won't be real.
  10. Dantes929
    More to the point, when are we going to get rid of Molitor? I am guessing his decision making has cost us a game or two. Or how about Allen? Nolasco and Hughes are both performing below their career averages. May isn't matching his minor league numbers of a year ago.
  11. Dantes929
    Screw wild card. Odds be damned. I am hoping every one of the guys is thinking division championship rather than wild card. Only real flaw in the season so far is 2-7 against Detroit. Lineup is ok especially if Hicks can be solid. Starting rotation has been good with good depth. Milone right now for Nolasco would make it look even better. Bullpen gets ripped a lot but it is a lot like the Jesse Crain dynamic. They blow up a couple times and everyone writes them off and doesn't notice the half dozen solid performances in between. Blow up a couple times in big losses and hold tight in close games is a decent recipe.
  12. Dantes929
    I've never quite understood this. A rotation of ERA's of 2.9, 4.01 and 4.37 probably isn't going to get you very far especially if every reliever has an ERA above 3.98, but still got the 87 team all the way. If we get to the playoffs it won't because we have only beaten the bottom 3 of every other team's rotations. We've beaten Kazmir, Sale, Sanchez, Liriano and others and played other aces and #2 guys tough. Hughes, Santana, Gibson and May are not considered aces but have pitched like them on occasion. Even Milone has thrown shutouts. Getting hot at the right time is all that matters.
  13. Dantes929
    I shouldn't rely on memory. Twins lost 2 of the last 3 games he started. 3 of the last 4 if you count the playoffs. Twins lost on Sept 15 and 21. My point wasn't to denigrate Santana and we certainly would not have made the playoffs without him. Just that aces don't guarantee wins and that you don't need to be an ace to pitch like an ace on any given day. If we make the playoffs and Hughes, Gibson, May and Santana are all pitching well I will be ok with our chances. In fact I would be ok no matter what since no one thinks they will get there. I really liked Santana and back in the day advocated just keeping him for that last year even with him saying he would invoke the no trade clause. In retrospect it would have likely given us another division title and who knows what would have happened once in the playoffs.
  14. Dantes929
    That ACE doesn't really exist. Of course I would like to have a Kershaw or whoever but those guys only pitch once every 4 times even in the playoff and they aren't unbeatable either. I remember in 06 down the stretch everyone was saying Santana had to run the table to even have an outside chance of overtaking the Tigers. He didn't win another game but we caught them all the same. All different ways to skin a cat. Just make the playoffs. I am ok taking our chances with guys like Gibson, May and Hughes who aren't considered aces but certainly are capable of pitching like one any given night.
  15. Dantes929
    I wonder about Hu's prospect ranking every time I see his stats and scouting report. He always seems like an afterthought but his ERA is always great, his strikeout rate is great and his scouting report of low 90's fastball with 4 good pitches that he can throw at any time with great control makes me wonder what is holding him back in terms of prospect status.
  16. Dantes929
    I like the idea of Hicks facing a lefty in his first game. Not liking the idea of that lefty being Price. I have been skeptical of Hicks ever developing his left handed swing to major league level. Really pulling for him though because an outfield of Rosario, Buxton and Hicks at some point is really appealing.
  17. Dantes929
    There is a really huge assumption here in that if Hicks continues to play in the minors he will continue to hit .330 until June 1st or 15th or whatever. I have advocated playing him in a platoon but if you are saying he is a full time player then there will never be a better time to call him up than right now. If he continues to hit well in the minors we have gained nothing from keeping him there. If he goes in a slump in the minors we will have missed our window for promoting him when his confidence is high and his stats warrant the promotion. I would try to bring him up to face a team that starts a lot of lefties but probably would not start him out against Price.
  18. Dantes929
    Just remember in his later bad years he was hitting upwards of 95 but was getting shelled because it wasn't sinking and he wasn't mixing in any other pitches. He was probably a lot more effective at 89 with more sink. He had a decent curve but just never really threw it much. Your comment about the other stuff is what I agree with and why I don't like the conclusion that Gibson has the same future as Blackburn or Correia.
  19. Dantes929
    I get what you are saying. Not only do we have Polanco but also Gordon in the not so distant future. I always thought we would end up trading Dozier to make room for one of these guys. As absurd as it seems I don't know what we would trade for. If you could trade Santana and Arcia for a better more polished version of Arcia I might like it. Buxton appears to be the only sure thing for the outfield. I like Arcia's potential as a hitter but not his potential defensively and Hcks is doing well and Rosario is talented but I wouldn't mind having another guy with a lot of upside. Either that or a top catching prospect. This is all said with the aim of getting good value in a trade. I like Santana and don't mind keeping him.
  20. Dantes929
    Eye ball test last year told me he was getting ahead in the count and then threw a couple pitches that weren't even close so which were truly waste pitches of no value and then would end up walking the guy. This year when he is ahead in the count he is throwing pitches that actually tempt the batter to swing. I did attribute last year to nerves and approach which was probably a lot different than what he was succeeding with in the minors. Give May a lot of credit for overcoming these things.
  21. Dantes929
    Its still valid since I believe Blackburn hit those kind of numbers as well. I don't think the Gibson/Blackburn comparisons are quite apt either though in the sense that Gibson seems to have a little more repertoire. It is apt in the sense that Blackburn in the first couple years had some nice stretches also.
  22. Dantes929
    This is a distinction I would like to make and which I alluded to earlier. Over the last 37 games he has 18 quality starts. What is remarkable is that in only one of those quality starts has he given up 3 runs and even that was over 7 innings. Not a one of those was the minimum qualifier of 3 runs in 6 innings and the vast majority were the 0-1 runs given up. In other words half the time he has been ace like and half the time very poor. I don't know how to interpret this but I have no problem with him facing other team's best pitchers and almost prefer because when he is on he will probably win and if he is off we probably lose to the other team's best if someone else is pitching and also would lose against almost anyone. There is value in what he has brought and if he can just make his bad starts a little better he will be even more worthwhile.
  23. Dantes929
    Love that quote. Maybe he is the unluckiest in that he only has 2/9 strikeouts. Ever think of that? I really like the way he pitches and agree that he seems to get ahead in the count and then gets the batters to hit his pitches. Smart and good rather than lucky is my vote though I expect him to be in the 3-4 range rather than the 2-3 range. His history shows that when he is on his quality starts are not 3 runs in 6 innings but rather 6-7 innings with 0-1 run scored. He is continuing that this year and I just don't think its luck.
  24. Dantes929
    As we have seen from Plouffe and Crede back in the day and probably countless others third base is the spot where slow starts don't necessarily mean everything in a players defensive career. After a year of rust I am not the least concerned with either his fielding or batting.
  25. Dantes929
    "but Trevor May, Mike Pelfrey and Kyle Gibson have all been nice surprises" Haven't surprised me much especially May and Gibson. Pelfrey doesn't surprise me all that much because I remember his nice stretch in 2013. and I just expect the best of the people I root for. Since Pelfrey has picked up the pace those are the guys I enjoy watching most. I like Hughes but find his style a little boring. I don't like Nolasco all that much and find his style a little boring. I take them seriously and will continue to do so even if they lose a dozen straight. We at least have seen a glimpse of what they can do. The future is bright. If not, then the next future will be. Just out of curiosity if they continue to play well and then are bolstered by Buxton, Hicks and Santana later and make a serious run at a division that most folks say has the two best teams in the league will it still mean that the game has passed Ryan by?
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