Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

ashbury

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    41,366

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    465

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    Manny Machado went #3 sixteen years ago. He'd do.
  2. ashbury
    Glad to have you back to the Twins after all these years, Andy.
  3. ashbury
    Just for balance, since we're aligned, I'll play devil's advocate and acknowledge that my philosophy as stated would have caused me to miss out on our 21st century hall of famer. In the post I was replying to, you also stated, "With that said. It'll be the third pick overall so we need to be successful." That's the most important thing. There are no absolutes. You were looking at tie-breakers - I view it as a tie-breaker in the opposite direction than you proposed. I just hope that our FO has the wisdom to identify the low-hanging fruit*, the diamond just sitting there in the sand, because at #3 it will be there. If the brain trust is looking at the next Joe Mauer, and are certain he has the bat, he has the glove, he has the durability, and most importantly he has the makeup, then they have to take him, "overpay" be damned. * Sometimes that can be a metaphor for a mistake, or for the obvious,, but I don't mean it that way. Low hanging fruit can be the sweetest, and it goes fast.
  4. ashbury
    In other contexts you have said that you are fine with cobbling together a catching tandem from the scrapheap rather than overpay. You and I are in general agreement that the nature of the position makes it a different beast to prioritize than the other 7 position player spots; in particular, not even the best catchers play the position every day so then you have a roster problem trying to DH him on a part-time basis yet on a regular schedule. So, is investing the #3 overall pick in a catcher any less of an overpay? Historically 6 of the top 7 #3 picks have been shortstops or third basemen when drafted. Those guys play every day and the best ones rack up yearly value like crazy. It's great to have a HOFer like Mauer as your catcher, or even "just" an all-star, but my own view is that top tier catching is a rich team's territory, unless you luck into one. I very much liked taking Jeffers as a second round pick. Standout catcher Cal Raleigh was a third rounder. Daulton Varsho was also a second rounder, although by now he's been moved off the position. Sean Murphy was very good for a while and he was a third rounder. I looked mostly in that era, because we have a handle on how the guys have turned out, but more recently Dillon Dingler, a second rounder, looks like he's panning out. More second and third round catchers, please! Johnny Bench was picked by the Reds in the second round and Gary Carter lasted into the third. 😁
  5. ashbury
    I was listing players 25 and under in response to a post using the word "young". A complete analysis of the franchise Falvey inherited would be much lengthier, I agree. While I mentioned a few prospects, a balanced view would indeed use words like "depleted" to describe the farm, because (in part) of very strange draft choices like Tyler Jay. Ironically, the final draft under Ryan was a pretty good one - Kirilloff, Rortvedt, Baddoo, Miranda, Jax all saw major league time and held potential, with Jax the only one who panned out. But now I'm descending a rabbit hole and I'm climbing out this very minute. 😁
  6. ashbury
    Clickbait headlines are bait for clicks. Or so i've heard.
  7. ashbury
    Much of his resume was with the Rockies, and his home/road splits reflect that sad fact. On the road his career ERA is 3.83, which is much more defensible than his home ERA of 6.22. Looks like the Twins' crack analytics team figured this out! 😀 More worrisome to me is that he's been on the IL for shoulder and elbow problems the past two years. His Twins tenure might be brief. My surprise is that they paid cash for this guy, while SWR remains in DFA limbo. I might have expected a direct trade. Instead, the best case scenario is that they ship SWR somewhere else, also for cash. Imagine a blockbuster 3-team trade with Minnesota getting Lawrence, Pittsburgh getting cash, Team X getting SWR - what a world! / edit - I didn't hit Refresh after typing this up and I see I got ninja'd a bit regarding SWR
  8. ashbury
    I liked Ryan and yet I also felt it was time for him to go as a GM. Total System Failure was a harsh self-assessment, and at the time it sounded right. But "good" and "young" are fuzzy terms in the first place, and I'm not sure perfect 20/20 hindsight is the only way to judge a front office. At the time, Nick Gordon, Stephen Gonsalves, and Alex Kirilloff were all listed in MLB's top 100 prospect list. They all fizzled for various reasons, but that snapshot in time was cheerier than things turned out. Prospects fail all the time, but that top-100 list wasn't constructed with soothing Terry Ryan's feelings in mind. And it bears remembering that the Twins posted a winning season and made the playoffs the very first season of the Falvey regime. Falvey made many moves that season, but unless you're playing OOTP in easy mode, it's very hard to turn a franchise around like that in one off-season with all-new talent. A lot of young players were already contributing. Buxton, Sano, Berrios, Polanco, Kepler, and Rosario all were 25 and under, and all made positive contributions. A common refrain is that the Twins are perpetually slow in promoting players. Ryan brought up this core while still young, and it shouldn't be held against him.
  9. ashbury
    I'm easy to please. All they have to do is guess right!
  10. ashbury
    A few more insurance runs in the 6th, 7th and 8th will make me feel better about the lack of a grand slam in the 5th.
  11. ashbury
    Chief said the Opener has disappeared. I should leave the followup to him.
  12. ashbury
    Keaschall, boo!!! Sac fly??? We wanted another Grannie!
  13. ashbury
    Are you trying to jinx it and give us a triple play?
  14. ashbury
  15. ashbury
  16. ashbury
    An Opener is a completely different concept from running a bullpen game. The difference being, who comes next and for how long.
  17. ashbury
    Almost prophetic. Instead, an anti-jinx.
  18. ashbury
    Nice post. GRAY!!!!
  19. ashbury
    When in doubt, paraphrase Dorothy Parker. "What fresh hell can they come up with?"
  20. ashbury
    (Not watching live, and I misread the game report. Never mind.)
  21. ashbury
    We will learn something. I'm willing to stick my neck out that far, but no farther.
  22. ashbury
    I've tried to avoid speculating about personality issues but this is the thought that's crossed my mind too: that he's resisted the suggestion to accept a 15-day IL stint, and he's resisted accepting a full-time bullpen role for a long enough time to find out if that suits him. That's not something the team is likely to come right out and tell us, likewise the pitcher, so I hate putting much stock in mere speculation. But if he's snapped up on waivers in a week or so, we won't have much to go on besides that. The manager and the pitching coach couldn't change his mind? That wouldn't be a positive mark for them. Like I said, speculation leads down rabbit holes I don't wanna go, because I lack accurate information.
  23. ashbury
    I'm glad we're back to the main point, instead of reassessing the 2021 trade for the umpteenth time. The DFA on Saturday remains baffling to me, and the lack of a trade announcement today takes away one of the primary excuses that I could come up with. They are cutting ties with a 25-year old who has a two-year track record of enough success to count as value by most metrics - until this clunker of a year. We are missing important information.
  24. ashbury
    I'm confused. Which "previous regime" are you referring to in this? Falvey's, with Zoll representing the new regime? Or Terry Ryan, prior to Falvey?
  25. ashbury
    An interesting thought-experiment would be to consider how the Blue Jays front office would think if they were in the TC market and the owners were named Pohlad.
×
×
  • Create New...