Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

ashbury

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    40,794

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    462

 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

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    I give "young" Joe Pohlad (who is older than any of my adult children) credit for learning not to say the quiet part out loud. He got a lot of blowback from using business-speak to refer to "right-sizing", and since then has clammed up about money. In a very pointed interview by Aaron Gleeman, Joe was pressed on matters concerning payroll. When Aaron speculated that revenue was down in 2024 and asked what impact that would have on payroll, Joe gave the correct answer in terms of PR: "I'm not going to get into payroll right now." If he had something positive to say, such as "a decline in revenue won't push payroll downward," he would have grabbed that opportunity to say it. The most optimistic view is total payroll remains unchanged. But some salaries have gone up year over year, and the departures of Kepler and Santana don't make up for that. In light of Joe's non-statement, I think the onus is on those who believe "salary does not need to be cleared" in the form of Paddack, Vazquez, and Castro, to give some evidence why. An article like this one on what shape a salary dump of Paddack would look like, is a worthwhile discussion. That's a nice strawman to close your rebuttal with. Did anyone in this thread imply something like this at all?
  2. ashbury
    Split the difference - they figured out what to do with a guy who had run out of gas. 😀
  3. ashbury
    But that does hardly anything to address the reason for trading Paddack away in the first place: the salary he's being paid.
  4. ashbury
    For a player like Cartaya who you wouldn't dare put on waivers during the DFA process, that is correct. Guys like Dobnak get DFA'd and brought back seemingly at will.
  5. ashbury
    Hoping for Ramirez to regain the magic touch against LHP that he had in 2023 might require that he regain the .447 BABIP he enjoyed against them that season . Anything can happen in 124 PA. There's your magic. 😀
  6. ashbury
  7. ashbury
    Well that's good. But buying into the narrative by even calling it a "problem" elevates it. Look at it from the other team's perspective, though. The Twins had fewer than average CS, but they also had fewer successful SB against them. That taken together means attempts were far below league average, near the bottom. Kansas City had far-and-away the fewest steals attempted against them; but the Twins are in the next lowest tier with a few other teams, a group that no one was running against in any large numbers. One reasonable conclusion is that other teams attempted steals versus the Twins only when the runner felt especially sure of making it. Whether by throwing out runners or simply inhibiting the attempts (which is partly on the catchers but not entirely), by hook or by crook the Twins on defense kept the opposing running game in check. That's the opposite of a "problem." And then we nitpick how it was accomplished and call it a problem anyway.
  8. ashbury
    Looking at CS and declaring there to be a problem is approximately on a par with judging defensive skill using only fielding percentage. 😀 Are other teams stealing bases in large numbers? No? Then the various ways they do not reach the extra base are arguing at the margins - yes it's nicer to erase a runner and ring up an out, but it's infrequent whichever team you are looking at. The Marlins led the majors in CS, one every 4 games or so, and no one points to the Marlins as a team to emulate. CS are interesting, but referring to it as a problem is a second-order effect at most. Success rate on a small number is still a small number.
  9. ashbury
    What stolen base problem? The average MLB team surrendered 121 SB in 2024. The Twins allowed 112. No one was running wild, per the poster you were responding to; don't accept a false narrative.
  10. ashbury
    Yabbut they went sumpin like 22-0 against the White Sox, didn't they? 😀
  11. ashbury
    Depending on how some other team views him, I would like to see Gonzalez's value be put to maximum use by including him in a trade for significant major league talent. Mercedes I would hang on to, a little more tenaciously, in trade talks.
  12. ashbury
    MLB.com has an amazingly fantastic glossary of terms and this is one that they cover: https://www.mlb.com/glossary/transactions/designate-for-assignment I remembered 10 days, and it used to be, but now the DFA process is limited to 7 days. The (separate) waiver process, in order to outright a player to the minors, requires 3 days. A team can fit those 3 days into the 7-day window any way they wish, as I understand it - and the waiver is not necessarily announced publicly. But trade him or cut him or outright him, they have to make their decision in 7 days.
  13. ashbury
    A lot like Nick Gordon. The gamble when taking such a player is that he will blossom in one of the important tools, and not be merely average across the board. The Twins apparently tried to get Austin to hit with power, and I think that was the plan with Nick too. They stuck with both at shortstop for longer than results warranted, as well.
  14. ashbury
    You mean with sentences like "That's now what hitting is all about, these days," which probably reverses what the author actually intended? Oh well, I cna ytpe 300 wrods pre mniuet!
  15. ashbury
    Austin Nopower. No, baby, nooo. In just about every aspect of his game, I see a player lacking in confidence. He doesn't throw with confidence, he doesn't swing with confidence. He looks more concerned about not making mistakes. I don't know what the coaches can do with him at this point. This analysis does a nice job of highlighting a major weakness, with its informative charts on swing speed and angle.
  16. ashbury
    It's regrettable the cowboy drawings appear to be all behind the STrib's paywall. I was hoping to see.
  17. ashbury
    I believe DSP still has a seat on the board of directors. An advisory role is an excuse to pay him a stipend. That board goes away once any sale is completed. I foresee him being completely gone after that.
  18. ashbury
    What I read was "just find the best hitter available in the team’s budget." The team has no budget to speak of. I don't know who we could sign or trade for.
  19. ashbury
    Stopped reading at this point. No, not really. But this is an example of why I can't take FangRaphs seriously. I know I am supposed to love their site, but I just can't. Back to the actual article. The 2025 Twins are not simply one mid-level free agent away.
  20. ashbury
    No. Regardless of context, it still does not.
  21. ashbury
    You may be thinking of Brian's brother from another mother. 😀 The Twins' VP of Strategery & Innovation, Josh Kalk, also took part in the panel, and some of what you related may have come from him (I didn't take notes). One addition I want to point out is that in each post-game review, they took special interest in learning where Rocco deviated from the plan they had jointly put together for the game, which would happen multiple times in most games. Kalk's implication was that the analytics team wanted to learn from these instances, not vice versa. So much for managing by a static spreadsheet.
  22. ashbury
    A player who our front office will express surprise and great pleasure was even there for the taking at number 16. 😊
  23. ashbury
    Someone willing to devote more than the 30 seconds I've invested may come up with a better take-off on the classic Who's On First routine. "And then it was a long fly ball in Rate Field for Luis Robert Jr." "So Kepler grabbed it?" "Nah. Easy play for Castro. He was the left fielder today." "Must have been quite a shift they were playing. I thought that was illegal." "No, no, Castro was in straightway left, just like he's supposed to be." "But you said the batter hit the ball in Rate Field." "He did." "I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!"
  24. ashbury
    Closely related concept to Dollar Cost Averaging, which is a proven win in a decades-long market upswing and is a risk if the economy totally tanks until after you are ready to retire.
  25. ashbury
    Here's an idea for an article: sort the Twins' 2024 season by Batting Average on Balls In Play, choose the 3 with at least 200 PA at the top of the list, write it up without ever actually mentioning BABIP. ?????? PROFIT !
×
×
  • Create New...