twinsnorth49

Well damn, I'm actually in Minneapolis this weekend, unfortunately not until Friday. I have three more trips before November after that though, maybe one will work out. This all assumes I get across the border of course.

Did that really just happen?

I agree with you on Manship.. But I'm curious if you watched PJ's starts. His fastball was hovering around 89-91 before he hurt his shoulder(same velocity as Diamond). He has a nasty curve ball and a solid changeup. If you're basing it on stuff.. Hermsen and Hernandez have similar velocity as Walters. I do believe in Hernandez more due to the fact he has an out pitch.. His change up. Hermsen still hasn't developed a plus pitch.. So he needs more work. I agree, I saw Walters pitch against Detroit back in May (when Capps gave up the 0-2 shot to Cabrera to blow the save). At that game Walters fastball was getting up to 89-90 regularly, he was spotting his curve and his change-up had that lineup flailing. I think once healthy he's worth a bit of a look.

I think the team did a pretty good job fixing/restocking the bullpen, honestly. Coming into the season that was everyone's nightmare. Before the season there wasn't a lot of concern over the starting pitching (some but it fell behind the bullpen and lineup). As to the medical staff, I'm interested in what Ryan says about it. I'm not an expert so I won't accuse them of screwing things up (others are doing that enough anyway). But we certainly aren't the only team going ballistic over our medical staff - KC and Boston are right there with us. I come down on the side of Nolan Ryan, Jack Morris, Bert Blyleven and others. It comes down to training for proper mechanics, developing arm strength by throwing more, not less and regular lower body anaerobic conditioning. So the strength and conditioning coaches have to go too? Or are they part of the medical staff? Holy night of the long knives, part deux.

Where are all those folks who kept insisting all year that Ryan needs to be given more time to fully assess the situation? Answer: Running for the tall grass... I'm still here, I believe Ryan will get this organization all on the same page and moving forward by next year. I'm certainly not going to say everything has gone according to plan and that hasn't burned some goodwill but I'm willing to wait until next year to see how he reacts, not how he overreacts.

We're trying to crack down on "this thread is worthless" or "dumb post" comments in the forum. They really contribute nothing to the conversation (and while I understand that you feel this entire thread contributes nothing, that's really aside the point). So, please, if you don't like a thread, just stay out of it or challenge the idea on its merits (or, IMO, the lack thereof in this case). We're not going to be all fire and brimstone about this issue, it's just something we feel is unnecessary on Twins Daily. Hey, I get this and I contributed to the "worthlessness" myself but to single out this post just because it calls a spade a spade is kind of unfair. There are a number of posts in this thread contributing just as little, only covered in a very thin veneer of humour.

His last chance? He's barely had a chance yet. A 23 yo that has had a 2 ERA the whole year in AAA, and you want it to be his last chance? I don't understand this. That's because it makes absolutely no sense.

.....................+1

I'll be down for 4 more games before year's end, it's always a great time being at Target watching pro baseball. Really looking forward to seeing Florimon, Deduno, Parmelee (again), Hendriks going 7 or 8 and winning a game and hoping Dozier makes his way back up to see if he and Florimon can be the regular MI for this team the next few years. The record doesn't matter once you're there, just the atmosphere and the game, that's what it's about.

That's not changing you're approach, it's executing a given plan. In any of those scenarios you still don't go flailing away at bad pitches. And, I'm not sure what level you played ball until but the level I played used three outs, if Mauer changed his approach to any of the above suggestions we wouldn't be talking about this, the game would have ended.

His location inside against RH was far better tonight, which for him is huge. His breaking pitches were hitting the corners as well.

And his defense seems as good as advertised. Apparently he plays SS, LF and short centre, all at the same time.

Makes you wonder how on earth he was hitting .259 with a .318 OBP in Rochester, I know it's early but he sure looks capable of a lot more than that. Maybe it's Joe Vavra......procede.

Okay. Hey, I'm just agreeing with your post. You're the one who said it's not outside his control. It's inside his control in that it's reflective of his ability. It's not an outside factor imposed upon him. I don't mean to imply that he could hit 30 home runs with a minor swing adjustment, Mr. Walters. If Mauer could hit more home runs or extra base hits, he would. I have no evidence for this, but I think he would like to hit more home runs, and I also think he knows what he is doing, because he seems to be pretty good. I have no idea wtf you're talking about but I'm not alone, you don't either.

A QS from Brian Duensing, who'd a thunk.

You're not really making much of a point as to why this wouldn't put a gleam in Antony's eye. Other than Vasquez and I'll give you that one, you've just stated that you don't have much of a clue how any of them will turnout. No, we don't don't know for sure about Berrios at this point but is there anything to not feel good about? Gibson, yeah, looks good so far, can he keep it up? Any reason to think no as opposed to yes? Not really. Hendriks, ok poor man's Radke, he's only 23, if he can be a solid #4 he's young enough to keep the team in a lot of games for a few years. Hernandez, how many #5 pitchers put a gleam in anybody's eye? Diamond, I don't think most people are getting ahead of themselves as Mackey seems to think, he's had a great year and so far there is no reason to believe he won't continue to contribute pretty steadily. This group could just as easily be viewed as promising as not, it's just too early for most of them.

Happy now Joe C?

You know, I think Mastro has better acceleration than Revere

Mastro keeps getting it done.

That'll do, no runs, unbelievable.

No worries, I'm probably happy enough for the both of us!!

Yes, the front office made several blunders... And most of them weren't on JR's watch. Ramos/Capps, the Johan trade (admittedly, Smith was put into a difficult position there), Hardy/Hoey, Nishioka, etc... Smith did a great job with international signings, a pretty good job with the draft, and a completely abominable job with the Major League roster. The only move he made that was considered a good one by analysts was the Hardy for Gomez trade, which he later reversed with the ridiculous Hardy for Hoey trade. You don't think the Twins have a solid core of young-ish players? What do you think Scott Diamond, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Ben Revere, and Glen Perkins are? They certainly need more pitching but their hitting core is pretty good. Willingham is the only guy who is old enough to show a significant decline at this point. Frankly, it's getting harder and harder to criticize the Santana-Gomez (et al) trade. Gomez is having a good year, and continues to have big upside at a very young age. Santana can't be considered anything but a disaster for the Mets. He's put together only a single complete season at the level of success he achieved with the Twins, his first one, and ever since: Has been on the DL for seasons-length of periods of time, with repeated shorter DL stints. Despite his no-hitter earlier this season, has been pitching quite poorly this season, including being a complete and utter disaster since he tossed that 134 pitch no-hitter. Yet they're paying him in the mid $20M range every year, and still owe him $25M next season (which is looking increasingly troublesome). With the other players in that trade, we netted Jon Rauch in the Mulvey trade, which worked out well for us for over a season. Indeed, Humber was a disaster, and while he's still hanging by a thread it's looking the same for Guerra. We got some interesting production from a very young Gomez, and the CF threat he posed to Denard seemed to spark something in Span to turn his languishing career around. We then we got Hardy for Gomez - as you noted, a fantastic move (and that we blew this with the Hardy to B'more trade says nothing about the Santana trade). Gleeman wrote about this earlier this year, calling it a lose-lose trade (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15979). I'd argue the Twins did better than did the Mets. Whether or not we would have done better by letting Santana go and getting a few picks for him is the only argument, IMO, that flies, but it's a purely speculative one. As Gleeman aptly points out, the pieces we got for Santana were highly ranked when we got them. They didn't pan out like we'd hoped. Obviously neither did Santana. None of the teams we were targeting were willing to give us the pieces we wanted - perhaps they were suspicious of Santana's ability to keep producing at the level we'd seen, and perhaps so were we. And if the lot of 'em were suspicious, turns out they were right. Outside of that, Brock, you've got a far superior argument here compared to those having a little freakout about our front office. The comparison point isn't the Yankees or Red Sox. It's all other teams in baseball. Compared to all other teams, based on performance over a reasonable time frame (a decade), our front office looks far better than most. Only 11 different teams have won the WS since 1991, seeing as that is the only measuring stick by the "fire everybody" crowd, we're at least as good as 19 other teams. That's a lot of people out of work.

Well they'll surely pay attention now that Phil Mackey has told them about it.

Mackey teaching us all about something we already know.

Yes, the front office made several blunders... And most of them weren't on JR's watch. Ramos/Capps, the Johan trade (admittedly, Smith was put into a difficult position there), Hardy/Hoey, Nishioka, etc... Smith did a great job with international signings, a pretty good job with the draft, and a completely abominable job with the Major League roster. The only move he made that was considered a good one by analysts was the Hardy for Gomez trade, which he later reversed with the ridiculous Hardy for Hoey trade. You don't think the Twins have a solid core of young-ish players? What do you think Scott Diamond, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Ben Revere, and Glen Perkins are? They certainly need more pitching but their hitting core is pretty good. Willingham is the only guy who is old enough to show a significant decline at this point. You go Brock! I love the fact that the Twins are in rebuilding mode right now and everybody is calling for TR head. Lest people forget that rebuilding is one of his strengths? If the pitching injuries did not happen this year this team would have been much more competitive (shhh... nobody wants to talk about that). People are all over how good the Twins are when they do great and throw everybody under the bus when the are not. Its just too bad the same dozen negative posters keep repeating the "fire Terry, fire Gardy" mantra. It is old and stale. I sincerely hope that when this team is .500 next year and competing for the division within the next 2 that these same folks will admit their inadequacies and retire from posting. What's positive about a team approaching 100 losses 2 years in a row? And are they really in rebuild mode? Seems to me they are throwing all sorts of crap at the wall and hoping something will stick. How is this team going to approach .500 next year with Scott Diamond and four nobody's making up their rotation? If you think the Twins are going to outbid other teams for a top end starter or two, you have not been paying attention. This team would be 5 wins better with a healthy Baker, I'll give you that. Pavano's has nothing left, even if he was healthy. You don't like the FO, we get it, anything objective to say?