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Kirby_waved_at_me

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Everything posted by Kirby_waved_at_me

  1. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Ah - I thought you meant that spring training 2015 LF was going to be a competition between Nuñez and Parmelee. Having them roll out there in the balance of this season is fine, what is there to lose at this point?
  2. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Hmm - I hadn't looked that closely before, but he's clearly had a better season at the plate. If everyone does move up, it might make more sense to move Fernandez up before Navarreto...
  3. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I agree - the Twins should not be interested in acquiring Upton at all. Just speaking hypothetically about what the Braves and Twins would be willing to trade in bad contracts. The Twins would not do it straight up, Pelf for Upton. Would either team want to do Pelfrey and Pinto for Upton and Gattis? Apparently the Braves are soured on Gattis' defense... I'm guessing it's really more about $$ If I were the Twins, I would consider Pelfrey and Pinto for Upton, Gattis, and a young arm. If I were the Braves, I don't know if I would be willing to add a third player, but I'd have to consider it to get rid of Upton's contract. But really, I wouldn't want Upton's contract for anything. The Braves are going to have add some cash to pretty much any deal involving him.
  4. Kirby_waved_at_me
    It does seem like the catchers will all move up Turner to AA, Garver to Ft. Myers - is it likely that Navaretto will get a promotion to Cedar Rapids too, or will he be repeating at E-Town?
  5. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I see a contradiction in these two statements: "some combo of Nunez/Parmelee in the OF. " "The situation is not dire anymore," Santana should get more reps at SS, but LF is a glaring problem with no satisfactory in-house solution.
  6. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Pelfrey for Upton would be interesting... The Braves would possibly want to do that just to get rid of Upton, but it would mean a lot of bloat on the Twins Payroll (which they have been mostly able to cut out via trade the last two months). I don't think the Braves would sweeten an Upton for Pelfrey deal with a 2nd player, but maaaaybe they would? With only one year left on his contract, Pelfrey would be a bit more enticing than Jackson for cost reasons. The Twins might be able to get a second player back in that deal if they add someone marginally useful to the Braves. No opinion on who that might be. Upton's contract is really awful. It would be hard to justify taking it on given his struggles this year.
  7. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Upton + cash for Jackson makes more sense. Minor may not be of the same vintage as some of the classic Braves pitchers, but Jackson for Minor doesn't seem like an even trade, even though the main goal is dumping the Upton contract.
  8. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Another reason for Melky Cabrera to get an offer from the Twins (just don't let the kids into his medicine cabinet).
  9. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I don't get why the Braves would want to make that trade unless they really really dislike having Upton on their team.
  10. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I don't see failing to sign Rusney Castillo as a lack of innovation. Signing guys from Europe and Australia when no one else is doing it is innovation. Maybe they can find some athletes in SE Asia, or India, or Africa, or South America (beyond Venezuela). Tapping an untapped market is innovation. Maybe they should be the first to bring a training school to the Phillipines, where baseball was once very popular. There are big names coming out of Cuba, but for every big name there are dozens of human beings that are spending their families' meager remaining $$ for the chance to play professionally and traveling in extremely dangerous conditions. We got to read the harrowing journey that Yasiel Puig took to get to the Dodgers, how many stories do we never hear about that turned out much worse? I wonder if the new commissioner will do something more proactive about Cuban players to help ensure the safe passage of refugees seeking asylum - or at least open a dialogue with the U.S. government about what can/should be done. Maybe MLB doesn't have any responsibility to these people that are trying to get here, but personally I think they do. Cuba has been a big part of major league baseball's talent pool since the league lifted the ban on non-white players.
  11. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I nominate Dozier for clubhouse leader, or Perk. It's probably easier coming from a position player than a closer, though. Mauer has never been a vocal leader, but (in my opinon) he's been a great leader for years on the field by his example. Dozier seems to be a bit more talkative. Suzuki is a good option too - especially since he will probably be around as long as Willingham was.
  12. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Maybe it was the old man, maybe it was the Dome-Era budget, but in the past the Twins Front Office did not have a choice to be bidders on the open market. Finding the inefficiencies in the market and signing players without much or any outside competition was how they build their minor league system. It should be a different story going forward, assuming the younger Pohlads are willing to increase payroll to sign these players. It could be some of that old time philosophy lingering in the minds and words and deeds of Terry Ryan. Why spend 70MM on a guy when you can instead spend 70,000 on a guy no one else has heard of? I hope I'm wrong, but with each big contract being bigger than the last, it might actually make the Twins less likely to jump into the Cuban player Market. The Cubs signing Soler is interesting because they were able to get him right before the rules changed. If they hadn't signed the contract that week, they could not have offered him $30MM, they would have been restricted to only pay $2.9MM, which means he may have waited until he was older to leave Cuba and sign with an ML team.
  13. Kirby_waved_at_me
    If Plouffe and Escobar both have limited range - maybe one should be on the bench so a player that does have range can help cover ground on that side of the infield.... LF and CF is really important to correct at Target Field, this years' crop of players have made the dimensions seem cavernous. Maybe we've been spoiled a bit in the past with Kirby/Hunter/Span/Revere in CF, but I'm all for upholding tradition - the Twins need to find a better bridge to Buxton (and there's no certainty that Buxton will be the player he's projected to be). Similar to Plouffe/Escobar, if the LF has no range, and Arcia has limited range, the CF had better be Superman. Schafer is great to have around to fill in to give someone a break, but his bat is too weak to have him play everyday. Hicks has graded out poorly as a CF according to defensive metrics - does he deserve another chance to reclaim the role?
  14. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I think moving a minor league player to LF from the infield is probably better for the short term health of the standings. We've seen this year how bad outfield defense can be when played by players out of position. Will Sano be the guy to move? I don't know. It will be a question about his recovery from Tommy John - can he still make the throw from third? Will he be forced to join the 1B/DH Carousel? If that's the case, then of course the Twins should keep Plouffe as long as they can. I think in general that's the way to go - Plouffe keeps the job until someone better comes to take 3B. The Twins haven't had a good 3B since Koskie left, so there should be no rush to reposition or trade him yet.
  15. Kirby_waved_at_me
    The tricky thing about the injury prone label is that it gets applied equally to players with chronic conditions (Like Joe Crede's back issues) and guys that have had seemingly different injuries each time they've been injured. Maybe Mauer is snakebitten, or injury-prone. He's certainly been injured a lot - there's no denying that. This year it was back spasms and his oblique - those seem related to one another. Last year it was his head Before that he had knee surgery... You know what they say - never trust anyone over 30 (to stay healthy through a full ML season).
  16. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I tend to be overly-optimistic about the Twins (I thought at the beginning of the year they could have a winning record this season), so how's this for a rose-colored glass prediction? The Twins did not seriously pursue Rusney Castillo because they are more interested in the younger, higher updside talent of Yasmani Tomas. If it turns out that TR or Rob Antony tells the press "We don't want Tomas" - well, then, I got nothing. Looking just at this specific case of Castillo signing for $72MM, I have to say that I would be really nervous bringing that player in given that he hasn't played a single Major League game. I think Cespedes is a bit overrated, but his contract was still a great value. Puig's contract also looks good in hindsight, and Abreu's is probably right where it should be. Those three guys managed to surprise the league, but I don't know how often that can happen. The Red Sox certainly paid a premium to find out. Tomas will probably be seeking at least as much $$ as Abreu, being younger also means he might be looking for a shorter contract to start so he can sign another one in a few years as a free agent. Any guess on what the terms of that deal would be? 4 years, 15 MM per year? more?
  17. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Preach, Paul.
  18. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I would totally buy a ticket to see that.
  19. Kirby_waved_at_me
    That sandwich sounds amazing - do you serve it hot or cold? Also, something about baseball.
  20. Kirby_waved_at_me
    The Yankees offered Hughes and Cabrera plus a prospect - Twins wanted Austin Jackson to be the third: http://www.si.com/mlb/2007/12/02/santana-talks It goes back to another thread earlier this year on TD about the Torii Hunter deal with LAA - if the Twins still had a CF, (Span was not ready yet) maybe Cabrera and Hughes would have been Twins a long time ago? The Twins were trying to get Austin Jackson from NYY, Ellsbury from BOS, maybe Kemp from LAA, and ended up with Gomez.
  21. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Melky, Kennedy, Hughes and Jeff Marquez was the Twins' rumored request for Santana http://nypost.com/2008/01/15/still-playing/ I agree that the Yankees did not offer that specific package, just that those were the players rumored to be in play for a trade to NNY for Santana. If they did offer that, the Twins would have taken it over what the Mets offered.
  22. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Yes - the Twins OF has been so bad that even Melky Cabrera would be an improvement defensively.
  23. Kirby_waved_at_me
    There's also 26 year old Japanese pitcher Kenta Maeda - they could try to vastly over-pay for him, too. In terms of an annual salary, how high realistically do we think the Twins will go? My guess is that the Twins will not spend $20MM per year on any player not named Joe Mauer. It means they probably will not offer enough for Max Scherzer or Jon Lester. They could certainly sign Melky Cabrera or Justin Masterson for less than $20MM per year. They should be able to get James Shields for less than $20MM per year, he's not worth signing for more than that. Someone might pay him that much or more. It would not be the Twins. Hey, Victor Martinez is going to be a free agent too - if everyone still wants to move Mauer to LF, the Twins could make VMart the DH, play Vargas at 1B, and Mauer in the OF. No? OK, fine.
  24. Kirby_waved_at_me
    RE: Melky Cabrera's durability Yeah. The tumor was removed? He's more weight gain prone - he had a lost season playing for Atlanta awhile back. He's just turning 30 next season. I think he's much less injury prone than Grady Sizemore, Shane Victorino, Torii Hunter, Michael Cuddyer, etc. He leads the league in games played in LF this year, so take from that what you will - either he's turned a corner and is durable, or he's overdue for a DL-stint. The tumor may or may not have been related to the growth hormones that had him suspended for 50 games in 2012.
  25. Kirby_waved_at_me
    If Cabrera is in shape, He plays better defense than Parmelee and so far better than Arcia. Melky has had some ugly defense in his career, 2013 in particular. He later found out that he had a tumor on his spine that was causing his mobility issues. He hasn't been great in LF this season, but he's been better than the majority of the players the Twins have put out there.
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