ashbury

When does the 60-Day Injured List become available again? I think it's sometime early in spring training - maybe already. That could be the solution for whom to drop from the 40-man when Marwin is added - retroactive to when the surgery occurred - defer the decision, in other words, since other injuries could arise.

If I got to know 'im, I'd expect to take away something to remember about 'im from the experience. Smart guy (Duke being academically selective), not yet very experienced, knows what the minors are like... a profile that fits a lot of people, one that gives him a chance to succeed but not a guarantee. So far, so good, from his perspective.

Your bet came after the bookie's window closed. Here's the cover of the current Harper's Magazine:

Yeah, those road trips to Houston and Eduardo's mysterious "visa problems" preventing him from making the flight... both from Venezuela... the pieces are starting to come together.

In basketball, you often see players who are termed "tweeners". Talented but not supremely so. A little tall to be a guard and lacking the quickness for the position or the deadly three-point range, but not quite strong enough to play forward. Or, similarly, a tall guy who lacks the muscle to play a purely inside game, but isn't quite quick enough to give the guys on the wings trouble defending him if he plays outside. Marwin Gonzalez is a tweener, in my view. Unless he has another 2017 in him. If you put him where his glove is an asset, such as LF or 1B, his bat really doesn't shine in the company of other players at those positions. If you put him where his bat is an asset, like at SS, his glove gives away about as many additional baserunners (compared to more gifted defenders) as he gains at the plate. At third base, his bat's a little light. At second base, the glove probably isn't quite what it needs to be. Houston is a hell of a team, but still there are 7 positions aside from catcher and pitcher, and Marwin (in several seasons now) never was viewed as a guy who should be penciled in to any one of them on a permanent basis. Free agency is an expensive way to acquire talent. $11M for a 2-WAR type of player is about the going rate. Marwin's a very good backup, where often the backup is a 1-WAR type. Those who suggested that signing Marwin didn't improve our ceiling very much, but did raise our floor quite it bit, are on the right track. And I think John Bonnes said it best, that Marwin is a solution to a problem that we don't know about yet. Again, if 2017 Marwin still exists, then he's not a tweener, and he needs to play every day.

Followup: ha, I brought up Eduardo Escobar's b-r.com page while checking something for the above post, and guess who shows up #2 in the Similarity Score career rankings, and #1 through age-29 seasons? Marwin. Small world. Maybe this was already been brought up?

That's my first reaction too. But - they did get a pretty good return in the form of prospects when they traded him. And it's far from a 100% chance that they could have signed him - he played pretty much as a regular for Arizona as a third-baseman, whereas at MN the evidence is pretty clear that he's viewed as a backup. Maybe he's been promised a starting 3B role for 2019 at Arizona. It might have taken nearly the same money as for Marwin, to convince Eduardo to sign an extension last July (or to lure him back as a free agent, which I think he never became). And, we do have those prospects. I just worry that by mid-season there's going to be a lot of carping here about Marwin's fielding, unless he is confined to corner-defense duty. I haven't watched him and I could be wrong about that. / edit - I took too long typing, and basically repeated dbminn

I tried to fix it, and apparently made it worse. Working on a fix to my fix... OK, I think I got it. WYSIWYG editors sometimes lie to you.

Pronunciation: \MAR-win\ You're on your own, for the last name.

Reminder, this thread is for NON Twins news and tidbits. Let's please move continued discussion of Twins ownership and WS chances elsewhere.

The Jakarta Post puts it considerably lower, "across" Bali. In 2015, 504 people died in traffic accidents. I don't know how reliable this source is. I'd be interested to see a source stating 50X that.

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/former-mlb-pitcher-chris-capuano-wants-to-help-reinvent-the-future-of-the-league-through-innovation-and-negotiation/ I ran across this article about ex-MLBer Chris Capuano. He seems to be maintaining an active role with the players' union. Sounds like a constructive influence, paying at least lip service to the overall health of the game.

Enough of that stuff can enforce its own 24-hour time-out, sparing the moderators from that task.

Concur. I envision the third-best reliever in your bullpen for the role. A guy you would be calling into service anyway, only later, in a game you intend to try hard to win. If you are sending Matty Belisle out there to begin the game, You're Doing It Wrong.

This is on the right track but I would add a little more. If the guy who would otherwise be your starting pitcher is like this, then there's no chance in the world he's pitching a complete game, and extremely unlikely to pitch even six full innings, even if he does pretty well within his limitations. So your bullpen is virtually certain to be used heavily. In that case, bite the bullet. Get a quality short man in there to face the top of the lineup right away. With luck, the "starter" you bring in for the second inning will do well with the lower portion of the lineup, and then get through the complete lineup two more times after that. This strategy potentially gets an extra inning or so out of the starter, compared to having to come rescue him when he gets in trouble the third time through the top of the lineup. Then you turn the game over to the bullpen as you otherwise would have to, when he's about to face the top of the lineup a third time (fourth time overall in the game). It's basically matching up mediocrity against the bottom of the lineup, more times than against the top. You don't do it with a starter who has a track record of holding his own. And you use this as carrot-and-stick with your shaky starter, to tell him that when he starts to demonstrate better staying power, for instance by letting him go ahead and face the top of the lineup a third time if the game is going well and you have a decent lead, then eventually you can take the training wheels off and let him start the game like normal. It's training wheels for youngsters. A walker for the older starter who is just hanging on.

Yeah, I was about to say that the opposition used to play a shift when I was at bat, too - all the outfielders moved in about thirty steps.

I wonder what Cole yells at the opposing dugout when a lefty is brought in to pinch hit against him.

Physics. Good man.

FTFY

Closer to Hammond Stadium is Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, IMO a worthwhile alternative/addition to the nature activities already mentioned. There are guided walks twice a day this time of year. Further south is Naples Botanical Garden, which Mrs Ash and I enjoyed.

I'm glad someone has ripped the lid off this massive coverup.

Hammond sells out too, for an easily predictable set of opponents. Yankees and Red Sox come to mind. You can pick up tickets from scalpers, but I personally rebel at too high a price for a game where the stars only play part of a game. Anyway, planning ahead is probably a good idea for every Twins game too, unless you are OK with a backup Plan B for your afternoon.

Mid-March is the time for me (sadly, not this year). By then the minor league schedule has started, and you can geek out all afternoon in addition to the morning activities JB outlined. Two, perhaps three, games are running simultaneously, and those back fields are arranged so you can pivot from one to another with minimal effort, for instance to watch key prospects bat in both games. Even better is when one of the major-leaguers gets left behind for extra work, when the big squad is off to a road game - the games are umpired but the ground rules are uber-loose, and so you might see a veteran bat leadoff every inning against a succession of the other team's AA hopefuls - or an inning may end abruptly with two outs and runners in scoring position as the pitcher reaches a pitch count, no one wanting to bother warming up a reliever prematurely to finish the inning. You can get right up close, for the best photos you are capable of taking. I prefer that environment most days, even on the days the big club isn't on the road.

Not unless he shops at the Portly Or Tall outlet store.