ashbury

Here's a free idea for RandBalls Stu: Something, something, something else, hangnail, diagnosed as "moderate," expected back around Memorial Day, expected back around July 4, expected back around Labor Day, fan in Blaine explodes in rage. You're welcome.

I was responding more to the message and not particularly about calling you out - indeed I didn't do any due-diligence beforehand to find what you personally might have said a year ago, and you probably weren't touting the Saints for 2024. It's an evergreen subject though, and gets expressed at one minor league level or another. Wichita a couple of years ago was said to be a juggernaut, and instead we had a fizzle. It almost stands to reason why it would automatically be so - if players are actually ready to dominate their league, they wouldn't be placed there in April, and if they showed dominance then they'd be moved up. I agree that AA and A-ball are more likely to be entertaining. AAA is basically my last choice for going to a ballgame unless I'm going with a group. I suppose I've belabored my apathy toward AAA before.

Were we not saying the same thing this time a year ago? The Saints finished 70-79. I'm a prospect hound and I always want to believe. If the Twins themselves look a little questionable, brighter days are surely ahead - why, just look at the crop we have coming up. Oh, our AAA team is gonna be stacked. 🌈 🦄 In the FalVine era, really only the 2017 and 2023 AAA teams had good records. That 2017 Red Wings squad was headlined on offense by ... checking ... Matt Hague, Niko Goodrum, JB Shuck., and with pitching by ... Alex Slegers, David Hurlbut and Drew Rucinski. Okay, be fair, that was the new FO getting its legs under itself. But that mighty 2023 Saints team was led by ... Andrew Stevenson, Mark Contreras, Chris Williams, and the pitchers ... Dobnak, Woods-Richardson, and someone called Patrick Murphy. Okay, SWR is legit. But winning didn't come predominantly from massive numbers of plate appearances and innings pitched by the young stars we want to see - those wins came instead from retreads similar to the retreads the other AAA teams were putting out there too. Sure, go to Saints games - if I still lived there I would too - but keep the expectations in check. You'll be seeing lots of playing time for guys you aren't even aware at the moment that the organization might be signing.

I would like 15 years of Royce Lewis playing baseball at his full potential and for the Minnesota Twins. Is that too much to hope for?

Patience, my friend. Patience. Julien like a coiled spring, ready to unleash madness on us at any moment.

Dang it, Ryan's always been a little prone to the gopherball but so far this spring is ridiculous.

Having worked in business analytics during my career, I can vouch that the results can be pretty bad during the first round, or second, or third.... Thanks for the insight. It would be fun to sit in on those meetings at a team's offices.

Yes, that is unsatisfactory. If it's not the warmup procedure or other things controllable by the team's trainer, I wonder if there is something about the player himself that can be detected at an early age. There are some physical traits that go together, such as double-jointedness and scarring of the skin. That's just one I know of, but in this age of big-data and AI I can't help wondering if some other measurable traits could correlate with outcomes like Lewis has experienced these past two years. It could change the nature of what they measure at scouting showcases and team physicals. "The trade's off, he has too many freckles."

Mike Ford... In Play, Run(s) !

MLB official scorers are a tight-knit group who meet regularly to discuss their experiences and formulate best practices. During the season they cross-check each others' calls. The day of rogue scorers at a given ballpark are long gone. In the minds of many (including yours truly) they have chosen to err on the side of leniency and giving the fielder the benefit of the doubt in following the rulebook that specifies "ordinary effort," but that's a different issue than favoritism. Also, since errors are among the lesser-called outcomes in the sport, slightly more common than HBP, it's not a particularly useful stat anymore (like, for the last 100+ years) in judging a player. Also a separate matter from favoritism.

Perhaps because of all the Trauma and all the Stress we've experienced watching him field and take called strikes? We're not quite Post this Disorder, either; here's hoping he gets better, so we can.

"Thank you for coming to my TED Talk™." 😀

Watched the movie Mickey 17* with Mrs. Ash last night, and I think it would be a nice gesture if Bailey Ober donated his uniform number to Gasper. * Capsule review: go if you are interested in seeing a mashup of Hunger Games and third-season episodes of StarTrek:TOS.

They've changed lead trainers at least once, I think twice. Really expected some improvement in this facet by now. Rocco just needs to Get Tough. "Next guy who fails to stretch before the game and pulls a quad or pulls a hamstring is running laps!" 😀

I was somehow thinking the FO could pick the best time to DFA Canterino (assuming, as you say, the process even allows it), for instance Opening Day when every team is trying to trim down and finalize their working set of players. But then it dawned on me, some bottom-feeder team could just cut a low-talent player, add Canterino to the 40, and then immediately put him on the 60-day IL themselves. No, I expect that as long as the Twins paid the "price" to carry him on the 40 all off-season, they will continue to carry him on the IL as needed, and then see what his post-surgery progress is and decide something about him after the World Series. Service time (accrued during IL-60) surely is not a driving issue for a pitcher of his age anyway - we should be so lucky, if 6 years down the line it's even a tiny issue. I do not know if there is some minor financial aspect during 2025 for the team.

60-day IL versus not comes down to 1) how soon they can't fill needs from the current 40-man and thus need an open spot on the 40 and 2) who else goes down with a serious injury in the meantime.

WTF Pablo?

My father-in-law, RIP, raised his daughter right. Took her and her twin brother to Opening Day at Wrigley every season, back when it didn't cost a middle-class family the year's entire entertainment/vacation budget. So, this year, just have your dad come to the principal's office and sign you out from work. Easy peasy.

As well as in the comments section. "Your name is Inigo Pohlad. You killed my team. Prepare to die."

If the idea is good then the Twins need to play along. These are not long bus rides, and freeway miles are part of a minor leaguer's lot anyway. I'll give slack if the Twins say someone was held back due to a nagging injury, but not every single good prospect. Besides that, I wouldn't be confident that Raya for example would have shown any better command than Nowlin did today. I'm really bothered by the guys they've invested time in, where it's highly unclear it's going to pay off.

Base Inches Per Game At First is the analytics stat that finally wins over the average fan!

One of my nagging concerns is that essentially none of the "sweeteners" that are obtained as part of bigger trades seem ever to work out. I keep meaning to do a thorough bit of research on Twins trades during the FalVine era, to document (or disprove) this. When they specifically target a prospect, such as Joe Ryan, it's worked out, but I'm talking about different guys than that. We didn't just get Pablo Lopez for Luis Arraez, we also got Jose Salas who was a well-regarded infield prospect, and Pfffft, he has fizzled. Gabriel Gonzales came along in the Jorge Polanco trade, and some touted him as the real reason for the trade, and now we are seeing some major red flags in his skill set, apparently on display in this game (I tuned in late). There are some others (not in today's game) who aren't coming to mind at the moment so, like I said, I need to be systematic and write it up. Some of the guys are still young and their final page hasn't been written yet - but instead of shoring up the farm system with gems from other organizations, the trend has seemed like accepting trade capital that other teams didn't have use for. I would love it if they could package up this assortment of prospect capital into a massive trade for someone's major league player, but it seems to me that these prospects have lost what trade value they may once have had, and the only chance to salvage their value is if they somehow do develop into something the Twins can put to use themselves.

Management is a delicate task, but IMO Falvey would be justified in asking some very pointed questions down his chain of command as to the seeming lack of preparation, particularly of some players with multiple seasons in the Twins system by now. Any individual player could be just an aberration, but this display today of some touted players has a feel of Total System Failure.

Game announcers making excuses for the Twins being a lot younger than the Jays breakout players. I'm not going to invest the effort to check their statement, but it's hard to dig up enough excuses to explain away today's clown show.

Sweet looking swing. Gotta be someone with a career .300 BA!