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ericchri

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Everything posted by ericchri

  1. ericchri
    It's been said often enough, but seems relevant here. Baseball isn't limited by a clock, it's limited by making Outs. I'll go with Mauer on this one. I don't necessarily understand why he hits the way he does, but so what.
  2. ericchri
    The thread is to guess the opening day lineup, not the long-term lineup? I have a hard time filling it out for that, cause I honestly suspect they're "giving" the MI jobs to Florimon (cause apparently he's a defensive wizard or something) and Dozier (who probably does deserve another chance, especially compared to the other options, he has the potential to hit some at least), meaning one of the only decent OBP guys (Carroll) they have isn't in the opening day lineup. Carroll's going to play a lot this year, but they're pretending they have their Middle Infield of the future on opening day to try and sell hope. I don't think it lasts as Florimon hits (misses) his way out of the lineup eventually. Reading the tea leaves says Gardenhire wants Hicks as his CF as well. So guessing: CF - Hicks 2B - Dozier C - Mauer LF - WIllingham 1B - Morneau DH - Doumit 3B - Plouffe RF - Parmelee SS - Florimon If that was the opening day starters, I'd drop Dozier down to 8th and slide everyone else up, but I don't think Gardenhire does that.
  3. ericchri
    Might depend on whether you like seeing runs scored or not. If you like lower-scoring games, go Seattle (don't give up many, don't score many), where Colorado is pretty much the opposite (score lots, give up lots).
  4. ericchri
    Maybe the biggest "What If" player (along with Parmelee and Hicks/Benson) going into the season. He's definitely one of the guys who could put up a surprisingly good year if things go well. Defensively at SS, the team always said he was playing too deep. I doubt that will be much of an issue if he's at 2B, that position seems to lend itself to playing fairly deep naturally. I also recall a lot of his errors being throws sailing high and off-target. Again, if he's at 2B that hopefully becomes less of an issue because of the shorter throws. So if he's at 2B, I could see him actually being good defensively, at least adequate. And if he's good defensively, maybe he's not so panicked at the plate trying to save his job. He's got some pop, if he plays regularly I expect him to get double-digits in homeruns and actually get a tolerable amount of walks. His numbers could go up drastically. Or he could flail away at pitches he can't hit again and play terrible defense. I don't have a crystal ball, so far now I'll choose to be hopeful he's gonna be our 2B for the next few years and be decent or better at it.
  5. ericchri
    Sorry, I tried to note that was the case, and really the part I quoted was the only relevant stuff anyway, regarding how thumb/hand injuries affect hitters. Just trying to be polite and include link to source material, even though the relevant stuff was already noted.
  6. ericchri
    Pulled this out of Keith Law's writeup on Justin Upton (Breaking down the Justin Upton trade from Diamondbacks to the Braves -- MLB - ESPN, it's behind the paywall), and thought it was interesting context for Plouffe. It makes me a little more confident we should see more of the "good Trevor" this year.
  7. ericchri
    What happens if Benson rebounds back into form, Roberts continues getting on base a ton, and Walker learns how to not strike out so much as they rise through the levels? We have so many outfield prospects, most with pretty high upside. Realistically all won't make it, but even so it's hard to imagine we won't find 3 really good ones out of that bunch to roam our outfield for years. As was mentioned previously, after those first couple, there's a mash of guys that all have a ton of potential that we just need to see how things shake out. I like Arcia at #3. I like that there's so much debate over who should be #3. I love the potential for Rosario as a 2B (if he sticks there he's in the debate for #3). This will be such an interesting year to watch the minors. I suppose that could be said every year, but we have so many intriguing prospects right now. I can barely wait to see how these guys do this year. The guys I probably most want to see this year are the middle infielders. Rosario, Santana, Polanco, Goodrum, Michael. If a couple of those guys really start looking good (yes Rosario probably does already, if his defense is up to snuff), we have a great prospect at pretty much every position excepting maybe catcher depending on how you view Herrmann. Thanks for this Seth! I really appreciate the time you (and others as well) put in to let the rest of us know more about the guys on the farm. It makes riding out the bad years a little more bearable.
  8. ericchri
    I've typed up and not posted more Butera-bashing posts than I'm honestly happy about at this point. I've not stopped myself from all of them, but an awful lot. He's easily one of my biggest peeves with the Twins of late. I'll simply say I don't think there's any way he's a good enough defensive player, pitch-framer, pitcher-psychologist, game-caller, etc..., to make up for his abysmal offense. His salary is of no concern to me in this equation, he could be making $200,000, he just isn't good enough to occupy a roster spot in my opinion. That roster spot could be used on something I would value more than his occasional defensive contribution (gimme back Jim Thome, please). My opinion doesn't really count for a whole lot, though.
  9. ericchri
    Let's see how he handles lefties this spring and in the WBC. If he looks to not be overmatched, then we can start getting excited. That's what dragged him down last season. He was an all-star vs. righties and a replacement level player vs. lefties. He seemed to be getting better as the season went on against the lefties after a horrendous start, so if he looks at least average against the lefties early we can hope for a really good season.
  10. ericchri
    This argument (by the Twins, not ThePuck's) is such complete garbage. We waste a roster spot guarding against such a remote possibility, which would only likely hurt us for half a game anyway. This just popped into my head, though I can't imagine the Twins letting it make any difference with Butera. With the new schedule, AL pitchers are going to be hitting at "random" times throughout the year now, as opposed to only during little blocks of time when the interleague games were scheduled. So are they going to have their pitchers practicing their hitting a little more regularly throughout the season, such that they'd theoretically be a little more prepared if this situation actually managed to come about?
  11. ericchri
    I kind of expect his numbers to go down a bit, but that doesn't mean getting worse as a player. And I expect his defense to be better with a full season already under his belt and the initial learning curve out of the way. He's one of the most intriguing prospects for me. If he shows the ability to stick at second and keeps hitting like he has been, he immediately shoots up into the potential star category. As frustrating as I expect the major league season to be, he's one of the players I'm really hoping to see take that step up a level to show he's going to be legit and make following the Twins minor leagues a blast this year.
  12. ericchri
    I'm skeptical how healthy Pelfrey will be to start the season, I believe Harden is beyond an extreme longshot to be in the rotation, Worley's coming off injury, Diamond had surgery and looked to be fading a bit towards the end of the season, and Correia just looks to top out at very mediocre. Then you have Gibson on an innings limit, and a bunch of guys without enough sample size to know what you'll get. I'd love to see them spend money on a guy with a track record that says "he'll be league-average, maybe a hair better or worse" for 180+ innings. If it takes 3 years, so be it. Then we can start washing the AAAA guys out of our system over the next couple years but not have to turn over the entire rotation in the process. Would it be so bad to have a Saunders getting bumped down to # 4-5 but still in the rotation in 2015 (and that assumes success from 3-4 of Diamond, Worley, May, Meyer, Hermsen, Hendricks, Gibson, all of whom have not enough history to be certain of anything)?
  13. ericchri
    I hope they give him a real chance again. Maybe it's at 2B where isn't as likely to sail the ball over Morneau's head on his throws, but he has the potential to hit with some power, something we've not had much of in our MI. It's not hard to see him hitting a dozen or more homers with consistent playing time and performance, he did hit 6 last year in about a half season of plate appearances when he was obviously struggling with the adjustment to almost everything at the major-league level. He'll never be a superstar, but with some better consistency I could imagine a few years of him putting up a .260/.300/.390 line, which wouldn't be the worst seasons ever from a SS or 2B. He might never be anything either, but at least I can see some potential to hit in him, where I can't really see any in Florimon or Escobar.
  14. ericchri
    Do we know he's healthy? I realize he had the injury last year (elbow?) which he has to recover from, so I'm wondering about that. I don't have any knowledge of the situation honestly, but I'm genuinely puzzled that he hasn't signed yet and that there hasn't been much news of interest in him (at least in the places I look). It just makes me think he's holding out for way too much money, or there's a fairly severe health concern still lingering with him. All of which makes me think a 1 year deal is probably the better way to go. Give him $10 million, works for me (not my money).
  15. ericchri
    I'd wager Hicks bumped in peoples' minds due to the CF opening the Twins have now. It does seem like people had previously been fairly split between those two.
  16. ericchri
    Thanks Seth. I'm not trying to argue against the guy at 3rd in the slightest, I got into it with someone in another thread over trading for Mike Olt "because Sano can't stick at 3rd", which seems a bad decision to make at this point in Sano's career. I just immediately noted the difference in the two reports being so contradictory. And I have no useful information to contribute, otherwise. I just enjoy reading about these guys and dreaming.
  17. ericchri
    I'm a little uncertain what to think at the moment, Seth. I like your writeup here on Sano, but it certainly conflicts with other reports, for instance the Fangraphs notes about instructionals (Reports From Instructs: Miguel Sano | FanGraphs Baseball) which was linked in a previous forum thread. From that article: Compared to your: I mean, those two reports are almost completely contradictory to each other. I'm inclined to lean your way, mostly because I want Sano to stick at 3rd where he's so much more valuable, but tons of people have already written him off as ever being a 3B. As I'm unlikely to ever watch him play until he's actually with the major league team, all I can do is read scouting reports and whatnot, and right now they're all over the place with Sano. About the only thing they agree on is he can crush the ball. Anyway, that was mostly a longwinded way of saying, "I don't know."
  18. ericchri
    Bonds, Clemens, Bagwell, Biggio, McGwire, Piazza, Raines, Schilling, Lofton, Trammel I'd probably vote for Palmeiro, Martinez, and Walker as well if allowed more than 10. I could be talked into Sosa and McGriff too. Yeah, I'm a Big Hall guy. I've never really felt Morris was a Hall of Famer, but it wouldn't bother me to see him make it. His fame was probably higher than his actual performance, and it's called the Hall of Fame for a reason, presumably.
  19. ericchri
    I'd really worry about our bench at that point. We barely have one as it is (especially with one of those spots being taken up by Butera). If we give up another of those spots to a pitcher, we essentially can't afford any injuries to any of our position players in a game, just shifting the injury concern around a little bit. I think a 6-man rotation could work, if it was built with players you could trust more to be able to go at least 5 innings every time out so that you could drop a bullpen arm. I don't think this staff rates like that unfortunately, at least not initially (it will be interesting to see how well they pitch, it probably can't help but be better than last year's April pitching). Our bullpen looks like it could be pretty solid, though bullpens are traditionally pretty unpredictable. I think you just live with the fact that they're gonna get worked hard again this year. Burton is a healthy year removed from his surgery, so they don't have to be quite as cautious with him this time around, Duensing should be in the pen permanently with all the potential options to start they now have. If Fien can be even remotely close to what he was last year they've got 4 really good pitchers in the pen. I'm with ThePuck on this one. Pick your best 5 and roll with it. If/when one of them falls apart try the next guy in line.
  20. ericchri
    Since the premise is health for everyone, Harden is top of the list presumably. That's a pretty big assumption but, if the parameters are to assume health, there you go. I'm betting Harden throws limited innings by being in the pen, honestly, but if he's truly healthy he can front a rotation. Then assuming health for everyone else I'd love to then see this: 1. Harden 2. (Marcum) 3. Worley 4. Diamond 5. Gibson (I've said it before, I don't understand why you don't just make Gibson the #5 and skip him every time there's an off-day in the schedule.) Since I also assume they aren't signing Marcum, Harden won't be healthy enough to start, and Gibson will be in AAA, my expected rotation is: 1. Diamond 2. Worley 3. Correia 4. Pelfrey (possibly replaced by Deduno/DeVries depending on health) 5. Hendricks My gut feeling is Hendricks is the one they truly believe can be a starter, so he gets the nod over all the other fringey guys they have available, even if his results haven't backed it up yet.
  21. ericchri
    First, while you may choose to interpret it that way, it isn't explicitly stated in his post that it was a $5000 offer for the Ferrari, just that he brought $5000 in (which is what I replied to). Read his post again. Second, his post is patently absurd, obviously for comic effect. For simplicity, I'll assume a Ferrari is $100,000. Thus he would be implying that he was offering 1/20 of the value of the car. Now, I can't be absolutely certain of course, but I'm going to assume the Twins aren't offering 1/20 of the offers these FA pitchers are actually receiving. I have no idea if they had any interest in Dempster or not, but I'm pretty sure if they did their offer was probably more in the range of 2 years for $18-20 million total. Which is a whole lot different than 2 years for $3 million total. My point being, if you walked into a Ferrari dealer with $75,000 in cash, which would be a much more appropriate amount to the likely scenario the Twins have been operating in, you likely wouldn't be thrown out of the store unceremoniously. They would still turn you down, but a claim of "not being able to give your money away" wouldn't be quite as ridiculous in that case. Third, I have no real dog in this fight. My post was mostly an (obviously misguided) attempt to provide a touch more humor in the notion the Twins (the guy in the jeans and t-shirt) are competing evenly with the deep pockets teams (the guy in the suit with a bit more money).
  22. ericchri
    I didn't say offer them $5000 for the car, I said walk in with $5000 in hand. There's a big difference, as one implies you may have the resources to back up a huge purchase, the other would as you said be just plain stupid.
  23. ericchri
    Honestly, I think if you walked into a Ferrari dealership with $5000 in hand, even if you were dressed in cut-up blue jeans and a raggy T-shirt, they'd listen to you very carefully. They might not sell you something on the spot, they'd probably want to check the rest of your finances, but they'd listen to you. Right up until the time someone else walked in dressed in a suit with $6000 in hand. That's of course assuming they only have one car available to sell, too. I don't care to add much to this debate, honestly, it's done to death at this point. But I couldn't overlook the one post in this debate that at least made me smile.
  24. ericchri
    This popped into my head, and I can't get it out now, unfortunately. Taking the team exactly as it is right now, without any consideration for the future, who would you rather have as the starting quarterback for the Vikings as they hopefully make it into and then play in the playoffs? Christian Ponder or Tim Tebow? As much as I hate the notion of Tebow being my quarterback, I think he could actually work with this Vikings team when the primary job is just handing the ball to AP. Who cares if he can't throw, our receivers can't get open anyway. Sorry for this, but I figured I should share my disgust with others. I'm not actually advocating that the Vikings go get him this offseason, that would be truly horrific, but if I could replace Ponder with Tebow right now, then switch them back after the season, I think I'd do it.
  25. ericchri
    That's cool! Thanks Steve. As a curiosity, for comparison, what would the ratings of some current/former Twins have for a rating in these. For instance, what would Michael Cuddyer have had for Arm Strength, Ben Revere for Speed? Stuff like that really helps get a perspective. I'll assume Jim Thome might have rated an 80 in power, where does Willingham rate? Alexi Casilla's infield defense? Torii Hunter's outfield defense?
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