ashbury

Nine bucks, with a two dollar discount for youth (3-17) and senior (55+). They were handing out free tickets to tonight's Fall Stars Game - if you have an intention to go, I can give you one.

I feel like posting a little bit on my trip to Phoenix for the Arizona Fall League. I arrived Thursday and was picked up at the airport by ashburydavid. Nice that he could take a day off from work to join his dad for a long weekend of baseball watching. Salt River, the team all the Twins prospects are on, had played earlier in the day, so we contented ourselves watching the evening game in Scottsdale. You can get good seats at the AFL: The game itself between Scottsdale and Peoria was very crisply played. It was a 1-0 pitchers duel through 7 innings, before Peoria scored 3 more, and although the home team notched a couple on a ninth inning homer by first baseman Hall, this 4-2 outcome was completed in slightly more than two hours. Scorpions left fielder Trammell made a pair of very fine catches that might have kept the final score from being more lopsided. We had good luck in being seated near a few very talkative fans who kept us company during the game. Friday we made our way over to Surprise Stadium for a Salt River Rafters game against the host Saguaros. By the luck of the draw I've been there for several AFL games over the years, and I think it's a nice one: Travis Blankenhorn was the only Twins prospect who played today. He went 1 for 4 plus a walk, scoring two runs. Here he is, on deck - he sees his shadow, so six more weeks of AFL? Blankenhorn made a nice defensive play in the sixth inning with an unassisted putout on a grounder before throwing to first to complete a DP. And here is his home run trot - coming around to score after his third-inning walk, when Sam Hilliard hit a homer, but it's still a trot. He also scored in the top of the sixth on a sac fly, after singling and then moving up a base at a time. He caught the pop fly that ended the 8-3 victory in 7 innings (scheduled as such, to avoid tiring the pitching staffs in advance of the Fall Stars Game coming up on Saturday.) This is Salt River manager Tommy Watkins after making a pitching change. After the game, Tommy caught us unawares, by noticing my son and me with Twins or Twins Cities related gear (me with my St Paul Saints shirt, ashburydavid with his Rochester Red Wings shirt and his TC Twins hat), seated down low as we were. He made a point of asking where we were from. Just a 30 second interaction, but it's clear why Tommy gets such favorable reviews from all who meet him - he is an outgoing guy, plain and simple. Tomorrow we go back to Surprise for the aforementioned Fall Stars Game.

Santana was selected in the major league phase.

At the AFL game I attended tonight, Scottsdale's left fielder threw lefty, and the right fielder threw righty. FWIW.

Moderator's note: The bickering has gone to an unacceptably personal level, and needs to stop. Probably best if both parties drop this tangent since agreement isn't on the horizon.

I omitted any editorial comment in my reply.

Yes, and like Atlanta they could take him back off the 40 and try to sneak him through waivers.

The Red Sox won the World Series on the road, so my tentative plan to be a Cheapskate and lurk the Fenway environs in anticipation of a fourth win proved impractical. Next best thing was to pencil in Wednesday the 31st, when a parade in the team's honor was scheduled. Large crowds were anticipated for the 11:00 start, so again I relied on public transportation. And again I was concerned that the commuter train might already be full before it pulled into my station, but again it was easy-peasy. A rare unscheduled train for the event, and plenty of room. (Not so, on the ride home. Wisely, I boarded at Back Bay, one stop before Yawkey/Fenway, where tons of people got on and filled the train up.) I'm not good at guessing crowd sizes, but I'll go with 200,000. If someone in authority tells me it was 50,000, I'll think that was low but go with it. If they tell me it's 1 million, I'll think, wow, I had no idea. Bottom line, though, there was just a huge crowd lining the entire parade route. I figured I'd go all the way into South Station (most everyone on my train skipped Fenway and got off at Back Bay) and then work my way back toward Fenway, and pick a reasonably uncrowded spot to wait for the parade. That didn't work - wall to wall people at the Common and beyond, so I circled back by side streets and met up with the parade at Back Bay, near the train stop I wanted anyway. I bailed out perhaps a few minutes early, to catch the noon train. I can't say I'm thrilled with any of the photos I took, but here are a couple. This is on Tremont Street, near the end of the parade route, probably an hour before the Duck Boat vehicles would arrive: It was kind of luck-of-the-draw which side of the vehicle each given player was waving from, and even with names on the sides I'm still not sure who was who. Is Eduardo Nunez wearing glasses? This one is pretty definitely David Price, unless someone tells me it isn't. I have a picture of confetti but it is wimpy. To get an awesome photo, I guess you had to be up high, so I am stealing this photo from the Boston Globe: Season over. I am ready for the Arizona Fall League.

Rule 5( c )( 1 )( C ): if the signing date of a player’s first Major or Minor League contract is between (i) the conclusion of the championship season for the Major or Minor League Club to which the player is assigned on such contract and (ii) the next Rule 5 Selection Meeting, then the player shall be deemed to have signed after the next Rule 5 Selection Meeting, for purposes of this Rule The term “championship season” shall refer to the full schedule of regular-season games that has been approved for a Major or Minor League Club in accordance with the provisions of Rule 32. The above excerpts are taken from THE OFFICIAL PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL RULES BOOK. I don't know which team he was assigned to, but in 2014 the DSL finished its regular season around August 21. So for Rule 5 purposes I take this to mean he counts as a 2015 signing, and thus he has one more year.

They get to protect additional players when the minor league phase begins, so I'm not worried about losing anyone promising.

Keep in mind, though, that you'll probably want some room to add quality free agents. Having a full 40-man means doing something later on to make room. Losing a player is a lot bigger risk when you try to remove him via waivers (just there for the taking, by any team with room on their own 40-man), versus risking the Rule 5 (where a team has to keep the player on their 25-man all season).

I've been trying to wrap my mind around this response from you, and I'm still not sure I've figured it out. See, I'm in favor of positional flexibility. Extremely so. Hugely so. Probably for at least as long as you have (I'm older, for one thing). Certainly for longer than the 4-23-16 date when you started the Club. When I play Out Of The Park (which makes no one an expert on being a GM, but hear me out), I force every decent infield prospect to become proficient at SS, 2B, and 3B. I force every decent outfield prospect to become proficient at CF, RF, and LF. If they have decent skills in both infield and outfield, I work to get them proficiency on all six. That way, the ones who reach the majors are ready for anything. The game makes it hard to develop catchers unless they already have the ability, and the game makes it quick to develop first basemen, so those are special cases. The game is just bits and bytes on the computer (and in particular it leaves out the human element of making players do all this), but whether I'm any good or not, what I'm saying is that I'm predisposed as GM to dictate players get good at a variety of roles, and then let the on-field manager choose whom to plug in where. I've done it that way for years. So I feel like you are disagreeing with a position I don't take. But, for some players, positional flexibility is (as an old boss of mine liked to say) "interesting, but irrelevant". Byron Buxton probably could become a quality first baseman, but that skill would rarely be called upon for the foreseeable future. Max Kepler is nowhere near that class, but still a good enough outfielder that I would personally not call upon the skill at 1B very much, in preference to just about anyone else on the current roster. What I'm saying here is, 1) I think Kepler is a very good outfielder, better by a lot than Cave in particular (even though Cave has some tools), 2) 1B defense pales in comparison to the importance of corner outfield defense (which of course pales in comparison to CF)., and 3) pretty much any athletic outfielder can master the necessary techniques at 1B such as scoops and foul pops without years of exclusive training. Those who disagree with me on any of the three points will put Kep at 1B far more than I would. That's defensible, but then the discussion shifts to those underlying opinions, and (except for point #1) away from Max himself. I don't remember exactly what I was responding to at the time, but it might have been the idea to move Kepler to 1B to make room for Cave in the outfield. But, positional flexibility applies to Jake Cave too. And I would use whatever skills he developed at 1B more frequently than Kepler's. You now bring up McCutchen. If we acquired him, you know what I'd want to do the first day of Spring Training if I were manager? I'd hand McCutchen a first-baseman's mitt, show him how it operates, and ask him to get proficient, along with his outfielding skills. I'd position it to him as in his own self-interest, as his career progresses into his 30s. But my real reason? I think Kepler is better than him in RF at the present moment. Positional flexibility applies to McCutchen too, and in my world it's even more important for him at this point in his career arc. Now, you didn't state it, but maybe your assumption is that McCutchen is too prideful to accept this assessment. That's quite possible. Putting Max at first base in that situation might be the right solution. McCutchen wasn't in the scenario I was discussing. Clubhouse chemistry factors into such decisions. I don't think anything I said before precludes that. OTOH, why doesn't Max get to have his pride hurt too? This is the manager's job, to sort out. In the meantime since I posted, someone else brought up the possibility of Pollock. That would be different. Pollock is better in the outfield than Kepler. In that case (Buxton being CF in all these scenarios) I'd be asking both Rosario and Kepler to increase their reps in the infield - Eddie at third moreso than first, Max at first base. I think I actually like Kepler in the third outfield spot better than Rosario, but it's a much closer decision than versus McCutchen, above. Someone else mentioned Adam Jones, who is also a rival to Kepler in skills, but with the additional age I'd still be inclined to hand Jones the funny looking mitt and tell him it's time to branch out some, if it comes down to him or Kepler in the outfield. Like I said, any lineup that has Max Kepler at first base almost certainly involves one heck of a defensive outfield. We do need to add a high-end talent to make that happen. That would be great. Injuries at 1B are a necessary part of the plan. But unless whoever is inserted in the lineup is a better defensive outfielder than Max, I start my thinking with the other guy being stationed at 1B - we're working on assuring that everyone is positionally flexible, right? Not just Maximilian? Finally, as for Travis Shaw, If we ever trade Kepler for him, I'll conduct my lineup analysis at that time. I'll say, though, that a good defensive third baseman who has never in his career been penciled into a lineup at SS is a less interesting guy to think about than a right fielder who sees some time in center field. I don't think it'll read the same at all. Shaw is less, dare I say, positionally-flexible.

i WiLl eNdeAVoR tO tYpE LesS nEaTLy GoInG fOrWaRd.