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Kirby_waved_at_me

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Everything posted by Kirby_waved_at_me

  1. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Here's a list of potential 2015 Free Agents: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/02/2015-mlb-free-agents.html Chase Headley looks like the best 3B available - he's a bit like Mauer in that he's always been a good hitter, but never for much power. Melky Cabrera is probably the best OF name that will potentially be on the market. He'd probably rather be in LF or CF than RF. Kendrys Morales, Josh Willingham, Torii Hunter, Denard Span, Delmon Young, JJ Hardy (maybe could play 3B), and Michael Cuddyer are the current/former Twins that could play some combo of those positions and are upcoming free agents.
  2. Kirby_waved_at_me
    They might not trust their scouting - in the case of Japan, the last player they signed was not the guy they thought they were getting. Not really Nishioka's fault for being a bad ML player, but it may make the Twins a bit gun shy. With Cuban players, it could be a similar lack of scouting intel. However, I am of the opinion that the Twins are not eager to deal with all the baggage that comes with signing players that had to seek political asylum and in many cases illegally flee their home country. There is a legacy of great Cuban players playing for Minnesota, and they now currently have Cuban defector Kendrys Morales on the team, they might become open to signing players directly from Cuba in the future, but I'd have to see it to believe it at this point.
  3. Kirby_waved_at_me
    The Washington Senators had an active hand in developing Cuban players - those players listed were all signed and came to the U.S. minor leagues prior to 1959. Then Cuba became communist under Castro and the U.S. no longer allowed business to continue as usual between MLB and Cuba. The way guys are signed from Cuba now is usually a bit shady, legally speaking.
  4. Kirby_waved_at_me
    If the Reds aren't looking to move Cingrani, maybe one of the others listed would be tradeable. I think the Twins can never have too much pitching. Maybe doing a non-traditional move for a seller (getting a player in the last year of their contract) would be in order. Assuming the Twins can extend that guy's contract as a condition for the trade, why not go after a pitcher like Leake and give him "Phil Hughes money" to stick for a handful of years? I think ideally the Twins will want a boatload of prospects in return for trading their ML talent this year, but theres no rule against getting back someone that can help in 2015.
  5. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Yes, one of the nice things about the Twins ' current situation is that they only have a couple "bad" contracts right now, and even the one given to Pelfrey is not a ton of money in Baseball contract terms. The money being allocated to Nolasco does make a differencegoing forward, but it seems to be a cost that the Twins can absorb on their own. If they went out this offseason and signed 2 -3 more Pelfrey-esque contracts (not necessarily to pitchers, say they re-signed Willingham for 3 more years or something like that) , then I would say the Twins might need to find some salary relief. At this point, it looks like they would have to take on a bad contract or two just to match their payroll from this year again in 2015. I don't think that payroll is an issue for the Twins in 2015 or 2016.
  6. Kirby_waved_at_me
    That would be nice - Scherzer? Justin Masterson? That would possibly be a buy-low target...
  7. Kirby_waved_at_me
    So the fifth starter in that scenario would be another one of our AAAA guys, like Pino/Johnson/Glimartin ?
  8. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Meyer, May, Nolasco, Hughes, Gibson, and Pelfrey will all be under contract next year; someone will be the odd man out. There will either be an injury or someone will be so bad that they won't make the starting rotation. I think Pelfrey is going to get every opportunity to be in the rotation next year.
  9. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Maybe the money goes towards extending someone already on the team... Dozier perhaps? Players with talent are getting locked up earlier and earlier, so it stands to reason that you can try to build internally through the draft, through trades, and then free agency becomes the third most effective way to add value to your team. There are not a ton of appealing upcoming free agents that the Twins should be spending money to sign.
  10. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Is there much historical data? For instance, Greg Maddux had the reputation for pinpoint control - I wonder how his catchers ranked as pitch framers - did they help him have better control, or did Maddux make them look like better framers because they usually didn't have to move their gloves very far?
  11. Kirby_waved_at_me
    You can never have too much pitching - the Twins could certainly make offers to all the big FA pitchers, though I'm guessing the money that Lester/Scherzer/Shields will sign for will be more than they are realistically worth to the Twins. They'd be a noticeable step up from the Pelfrey signing. Speaking of, Pelfrey will still be under contract with the Twins for 2015. What are they going to do about that? I think the best use of funds would be to acquire a catcher to pair with Pinto, a left fielder to take Willingham's place (with better defense/speed, hopefully not much of a drop off in power), and at least one starting pitcher to fill in whichever guy doesn't make it to the rotation in 2015 (Nolasco, Pelfrey, or the 5th starter spot).
  12. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Saw an item today that the Mariners have talked with the Twins about Willingham, too. Maybe Willingham for LHP Tyler Pike? The Mariners will probably want to hold on to their higher rated prospects.
  13. Kirby_waved_at_me
    The video was probably deceiving - Kennys Vargas and Alex Meyer are TALL. Meyer is 6'8" so Berrios would definitely look short compared to him.
  14. Kirby_waved_at_me
    how about Ozzie Smith? he wasn't nearly the hitter that Jeter is, but defensively I'd rather have Ozzie than anyone else at Short. He could still pick it this last weekend in the celebrity softball game... Just saying. Cal Ripken, Jr. was a better Hitter and a better fielder than Jeter. Out of the modern era, I'd go Ozzie, Cal, then Jeter. A-Rod is probably top 5 if you just count his days at SS, but we don't speak of him anymore, right? Guys like Trammell and Larkin were pretty good too, though they were overshadowed by their contemporaries Ripken and Smith, respectively.
  15. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Carlos Lee! http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/adios-el-caballo/
  16. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Congrats! Talk about an efficient use of TD - two posts in and boom, front row seats!
  17. Kirby_waved_at_me
    And that's why I think The Twins signing Mauer seems like a fair deal. The Angels are paying Pujols for his success with St. Louis, the Tigers are still paying $30Million this year for Prince Fielder's success with Milwaukee -- and he's on another team's 60 day DL right now... The Twins at least are paying for Mauer's success as a Twin.
  18. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Or, say, Ichiro in Yankee pinstripes. I guess the Mariners have some measure of revenge with Cano being on their side. I still think seeing Ichiro in a Yankees Uniform is weird weird weird. I haven't had the chance to talk to any Mariners fans about it, but I'm guessing it was a bitter pill to swallow no matter how much they felt it was the "right" move. I agree that the Twins really had no choice in signing Mauer to the big contract. I don't think they would ever say they regret it. At the time, it almost seemed like a bargain! Mauer has time to right the ship and get healthy again. Whether he plays at his former level or not, in mind the contract has been/will be worth it for the Twins.
  19. Kirby_waved_at_me
    The other thing is that the Twins would likely not consider trading Joe Mauer. Even if they did consider it, Mauer has 10 and 5 rights, which gives him a no-trade clause. The numbers show that the Twins would have a hard time trading Mauer given his contract, but I think the point is a bit moot since Mauer's not likely to be going anywhere in the next 4 years. It's a similar thing with a guy like Glen Perkins - I think the extension he signed was an understanding between both player and club that he's here for the foreseeable future. I wonder if the Twins ever seriously considered trading Puckett or Hrbek - Hrbek never had a huge contract, but he certainly had an aging slugger phase prior to his retirement. They could have elected to try flipping him for prospects, but I get the sense that the Twins are fiercely loyal to their hometown favorites.
  20. Kirby_waved_at_me
    His current contract is not so great in $/WAR context, his prior contract years from 2007-2010 were much better - He was making about $1.5 Million per WAR, which is pretty good compared to the big contracts other players had at that time. I see his current contract as PR, and payment for past performance. He only made $400,000 in 2006 when he won his first batting title.
  21. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I just think a human pitcher might get tense trying to beat a clock and throw wildly or ineffectively. A pitching machine could just chuck baseballs for two minutes on a timer and each pitch would be relatively the same as the last one.
  22. Kirby_waved_at_me

    Right field wall

    Kirby_waved_at_me commented on Obie's blog entry in Blog Obie

    That's a good idea! A little Stone Arch "baggie" would be a cool touch to add to the RF area. I dunno - It was kind of fun to see all-stars peppering the RCF wall with doubles and triples on Tuesday. Doesn't have to be a home run to be exciting baseball.
  23. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I think this way of parsing the data (by pitcher) helps clarify the picture a bit. Someone with the time and interest might want to go even further with this and see how these catchers frame specific pitches. Seeing Deduno's numbers don't surprise me - it seems that he struggles to hit the target that the catcher sets for him. His lack of pinpoint control means that the catcher's glove will be moving on most pitches. It makes sense that catchers would have a tough time with Pelfrey, too, assuming he's throwing a sinking fastball. Even when he was pitching rather poorly, his stuff ends up moving quite a bit vertically in (and out) of the zone. Pitchers that have a good deal of movement on their pitches I assume are harder to frame. Is there data to suggest that over the course of the season these duos improve or get worse? Suzuki has not been a great pitch framer in the past, either, but in his defense he was learning the tendencies of a new staff in Minn. Maybe he gets better the more familiar he becomes with the movement of the pitches? That may just be wishful thinking, though.
  24. Kirby_waved_at_me
    I'd like to create an award for Eduardo Escobar. Something like the "Nick Punto award" for providing more value than anyone expected at the beginning of the year? I hope the Twins can also have a player that gets the "Shannon Stewart award" for best midseason addition - say if Morales steps up. Or if the Twins get someone back for Correia/Willingham/Suzuki/etc. that has a great 2015. Fuld, I suppose, is a candidate right now if he can continue to hold off the regression gnome for another month or two.
  25. Kirby_waved_at_me
    Chris Farley: Remember when you were in the Beatles and you did that album Abbey Road and at the very end of the song, it went: 'And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make'. You remember that? Paul McCartney: Yes. Chris Farley: Um, is that true?
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