ashbury

It's very good at Surprise Stadium. You can walk around the entire park, a feature without which I can hardly give a ballpark full marks. There are nice little features all the way around, such as the bird's eye view over the bullpen, and the grassy area for viewing the game from the outfield. AFL games are typically not well attended, and especially at day games you can get a seat behind home plate (along with many scouts), or whatever other vantage point you prefer - or mix 'n' match seating from one inning to the next if you want. The food was mediocre but that's typical at minor league venues - I drank their $5 PBR not because I'm a hipster but because I'm a cheapster (at least compared to the $8 Bud Lites). The $4.75 bratwurst was a southwesterner's idea of what a brat should taste like, but oh well.

Not to take away from Steve Lein's excellent AFL summaries, but USAFChief and I (plus special guest ashburydavid) were in attendance at Surprise Stadium this afternoon, and we got to see several of our Twins prospects appear in the 6-2 loss to the Glendale Desert Dogs, so I thought I'd write something up, given all this Twins game action. Chief might chime in with his own perspectives, if he ever gets free of rush-hour traffic to his hotel. Basically, nobody really impressed me, I'm sorry to say. On the hitting side, only Lamont Wade appeared, playing the full game in RF. At bat... ... he grounded out to second in the second inning... ... struck out (looking) in the fourth, walked in the sixth, and was hit by a pitch in the eighth. Good selectivity, I suppose, but not good enough contact. On defense, he made a couple of routine putouts, and couldn't quite get to a couple of foul balls that a faster player might have reached. Short-sample grade: Incomplete. I want to see more. As for the pitchers, we saw each of the Twins contingent on this team, all in relief. First in was Ryan Eades, who came in with two outs in the third, and then pitched the fourth. He gave up his first earned run of the AFL season, on a no-doubter home run to left field by leadoff hitter D.J. Peters of the Dodgers, who happened to lead off the fourth. A couple of other hard hit balls also were in play, one a gift double thanks to subpar ball-tracking by left-fielder Luis La O (sic), a Rangers prospect. Basically, Eades came across to me as just another pitcher, with a fastball in the low 90s. In the sixth, Tyler Jay came on. Here he is during bullpen warmups. Side note: did you know that one of the jobs of the bullpen catcher is Physical Therapist and Trainer? Seriously, Jay's sidekick in the bullpen was working a kink out of the pitcher's shoulder when I watched him start to warm up. Surprise Stadium offers the fan a nice view of the bullpen if you feel like taking a little stroll down the left field line: Anyway, as for the game appearance, Jay likewise resided in the low 90s with his fastball; somehow I was hoping for more. He didn't give up any hits and he struck out two, but he also walked two. He seemed aggressive against lefties but tentative versus right-handed batters. Dare I say, he nibbled. He was followed in the seventh by Thomas Hackimer. (Somehow I wound up with no usable photos of him.) A side-arm righty of not very tall stature, his hit batsman resulted in a warning to both teams.* A wild pitch among the two walks and the HBP meant loaded bases, but he managed to get out of the inning without a run being scored, via a couple of earlier groundouts and a closing strikeout looking. Like Jay before him, Hackimer seemed to me overly cautious when facing batters of the opposite hand. The innings frankly dragged while our guys were messing around on the mound. In the eighth inning lanky Andrew Vasquez completed the Twins farmhand effort for the day. In fairness, he was not aided by a grounder that ate up third-baseman Kevin Padlo of Tampa for an error, but he also gave up a clean single to right. He did notch two strikeouts, but like his fellow Twins pitchers did not display a blazing fastball that I crave to see from our prospects. Sad to say, it was probably the best performance among the group, earning maybe a C+. All in all, no one stepped up this afternoon to make a case for being any kind of a darkhorse candidate for an early promotion to the big club as soon as mid-season 2018. IMO of course. * The HBP warning seemed premature to both managers, and seemed to lapse later in the game when Wade was hit in the eighth with no resultant ejections. I really like the plate umpire's name though: J.J. January, a much better "baseball name" than Luis La O. Source: Surprise Saguaros game, Thursday Nov 9

Then every rotation by definition has a #1, and we can stop our search for one right now.

Sure. But are you proposing that the HoF be selected on objective statistical data alone?

Steve, are you filing your reports from Arizona?

I was wondering where all this was leading.

The five pitchers listed are all too expensive, in terms of 40-man space and especially 25-man space. That's the constraining resource, not money, at this time in the rebuild. Guys who are willing to take a MiLB contract, sure.

Welcome! Great first-post. Have a look at the TD Comment Policy (nothing of which you came remotely close to violating BTW), and then we look forward to seeing more from you.

"prince fielder" insurance - Not my most challenging internet "dig" of the day. https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/texas-rangers/rangers/2017/10/04/prince-fielder-released-year-playing-last-game-rangers It says in part: The Rangers negotiated with the insurance carrier on the Fielder policy to allow them to release the player and still receive an annual benefit. It is believed the Rangers will essentially receive deferred payments, which reduces the current value of the policy. And this from a year earlier: https://sportsday.dallasnews.com/texas-rangers/rangers/2016/07/21/rangers-lose-insurance-prince-fielders-24-million-salary [T]he Rangers have an insurance policy on Fielder that pays 50 percent of his salary in the event of a long-term injury... they will not recoup any money in 2016. There is a 90-day deductible period before they can file a claim, and there are not 90 days left in the season.

The uncertainty of steps 2 and 3 (turning into 3B) shows that any blueprint lasts only a few days. It's more of a decision tree; if step 2 doesn't pan out then you pivot back to a situation with duplicate talent for 2B - what then?if step 2 returns MLB-ready starting pitching then what's the ripple effect?if step 2 returns relief pitching then does step 3B still stand?now that step 3 has turned into 3B, what's the blueprint for improving starting pitching?I struggle with putting down a single blueprint that I know will be out of date almost before I press Post. To me, a real front office's situation is much more dynamic and requires nimbleness, combined with a coherent initial plan or approach of course. That's just me, though, and it doesn't stop me from asking the above questions of someone else's blueprint.

I think the question is whether the insurance policy kicks in.

Does making it obvious damage the trade value of the blocked prospects?

This can't be German because they capitalize their Nouns. Is Breslow the verb and Craig the adverb? Or the other way around?

Not many teams are gonna have 40-man room to help us clear ours all in one swell foop.

Mod note: seeing that not much new is being posted by this point in time, regarding the pros and cons of the original thread topic, I am closing it. The exchanges were getting overly personal and testy. Anyone feeling shortchanged on the lack of additional opportunity for discussion, feel free to PM me for additional insights.

My take on his defense is that he is lacking at SS in only one area: his arm is just shy of good enough. At second base I would consider him an asset. I really wish it were possible to trade Dozier instead; I think we'd get more in return and the resulting roster would be stronger for the long run than what we'd get by trading Polanco.

Early season being such a sorting-out time, good and bad teams alike, any wins in the bank toward an eventual run toward contention are all to the good.