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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    I was about to say something similar, but maybe not quite as strongly. And then I thought some more. Defense from a corner outfielder is worth something but isn't really decisive, and to be an actual asset you want a corner outfielder to be above league average on offense. Conversely, if you want to consider his flexibility to cover center field for short periods, his defense is no longer a plus at that position. All in all, his season is just a hair below average. In a season where we needed someone to step forward, he's a contributor, but not more. He's not one of the major disappointments of the season, but I wouldn't call him a triumph either.
  2. ashbury
    If only he had had the wisdom to use Twins Daily as his preferred means of expressing himself.
  3. ashbury
    Yep, and that part is just not that easy of a strategy to pull off, to boot. It's not as though you get to draft an unlimited supply of stud outfielders (say), in preference to pitching. So, now say you do have four good looking outfielders at various stages of development - you still have to decide which three are the keepers for your eventual major league squad, and try to trade the fourth one before any of the other teams catch on that he might indeed be the least valuable. And heaven help you if you guess wrong and trade away a Benintendi by mistake. Substitute "middle-infielders," same argument. I don't really know how the average (or below) sized market team can prosper in this day of moneyball being embraced by the big dogs too.
  4. ashbury
    The only trades that would bring back something of value would be the few guys with a track record of any substance in the majors. That would amount to a big gamble on the unproven ones. I wish I believed our front office was as good at evaluation as my OOTP computer-game scouting director always is.
  5. ashbury
    Moderator's note: Recognizing no intent to harm, I'll nevertheless point out that this evergreen topic has the potential to overwhelm any thread where it is raised, and ask that the tangent be taken to a separate thread of its own if anyone really wants to pursue it further.
  6. ashbury
    OK, I'll play devil's advocate a little: '“What’s so special about the royals?” he told me over the phone from a cheap motel after work. “But they’ll get the best health care, the best education, the best food. Meanwhile I’m in Marion, Arkansas. All I want is some chickens and a garden and place to go fishing once in a while.”' Lack of ambition should equate to what's immediately afterward summarized as "a society in which everyone can get by"? He's inadvertently describing a hobby farm. At no time in history was this the norm, except as bare subsistence. I'll stop with that line of discussion here, because I found very little else of substance in the article. I try to keep an open mind, and gravitate toward articles trying to explain the Trump vote, but every time I go into the details, I sense a fundamental dishonesty, for lack of a better term. There's a large amount of make-believe and wishful thinking that Trump succeeded in exploiting and more honest politicians like (yes) Hillary can't bring themselves to do. So the Hillarys of the world stammer and hem and haw when trying to campaign to this segment of the voting populace. Because they have no better idea than I do how to communicate with them. I was counseled when dealing with my Alzheimer's-afflicted mother than you can't argue with her about the false reality she knows she is seeing. These articles make me view these other people about the same way. It's collective schizophrenia.
  7. ashbury
    FTFY. Hader handled this better than Rocker, by far. Kudos for hurdling that low bar.
  8. ashbury
    Concur. You don't give a QO because you want a draft pick. You give the offer because you want the player for a season at that price, and if he turns you down you get the draft pick as a consolation.
  9. ashbury
    I still haven't internalized the new extra-innings rule. The leadoff IBB prompted me to check the game log. Left out of this recap is that Joe Cronin, the final batter of the prior inning, was at second base to begin with. How long will it be before I stop having to solve this little mystery every time?
  10. ashbury
    Look for Hurricane Hazelbaker to be brought up to the big club in late July and lead them to a World Series.
  11. ashbury
    “Which Twins player has most underperformed in the first half?” I'm pointing the finger of blame at Tyler Kinley. When he didn't come through, it kind of set the tone for the entire season.
  12. ashbury
    Bah, nothing new under the sun. From back in the early days of the internet: "Anything really profound can be expressed in the English language in 80 characte"
  13. ashbury
    Also, imagine the outcry if the Twins had drafted some corner outfielder, when the crying need was and always has been pitching. Still, Benintendi was the very next player drafted. You have to hope that he was at least given consideration by our brain trust. The comparison to later-round draft picks like Kluber isn't close in this case. Those definitely are Twenty-Twenty Hindsight; to me, this one belongs in What Might Have Been.
  14. ashbury
    Nothing wrong with the relevance to this thread. Just relevance to reality, on the part of the writer. He can profile J.O. Berrios all he wants. There won't be a trade. Trade Value can be anything he wants to say.
  15. ashbury
    "When you see trade rumors to the effect that a club on the outskirts of contention is looking for “controllable starting pitching,” [berrios] is the guy they’re hoping to get." Um.... interesting? But relevant to what, exactly?
  16. ashbury
    Many urban ballparks are the dimension they are because of land acquisition issues. Target Field's footprint, for instance, was just enough to squeeze a baseball diamond onto. Easier than monkeying with field dimensions would be to remove 5% of the juice from the baseball. The ball has been adjusted through the years - no reason it couldn't be adjusted again if TPTB decide there are too many home runs. They could even, for once, acknowledge what's being done.
  17. ashbury
    As an historical footnote, essentially all these things were said about Obama by his opponents, too. That was why Obama was comin' fer yer guns, dontchaknow.
  18. ashbury
    Stone hands. Solid glove. I'm not sure I see the difference.
  19. ashbury
    The downside to this, omitted in the analysis, is that when you reward a behavior, you tend to get more of it. You need to think this through further.
  20. ashbury
    Here's the thing, though, and it's got analogies to every business I've been around: you can't micromanage where that big-ticket revenue comes from. The little guys matter a lot. For a couple of reasons... 1) the big fish today in many cases were the little fish 20 years ago... 2) part of what makes the big-fish experience fun is that the little-fish are taking part. Singing Sweet Caroline in the luxury box at Fenway during the eighth inning is a lot more fun when another 30,000 are singing along. Of course you are right that the luxury experience needs to be looked after, and you can't invest that same effort in the cheap seats. But business geniuses who can exploit the bottom line in the current year are a dime a dozen when they ignore the fundamentals. I don't think that's quite what you were saying, but it was uncomfortably close. My view is that if you take unexpectedly good care of your smallest customers, some of the angst about losing the big-revenue customers magically goes away.
  21. ashbury
    One of my regrets is that I didn't take advantage of the fact one of my sons went to college in San Diego, and to take in a game at Petco. It was 600 miles away, the school year and the baseball season don't overlap well, I was still in parent mode with the other kids... yadda yadda, bottom line is I didn't.
  22. ashbury
    OK, sounds like I got side-tracked with an assumption about what your beef about Magill was. Not sure where it even came from, now that I look again.
  23. ashbury
    Make that, my entire lifetime. As I've said, Hippies and 60s peaceniks voted for Trump - that would seem to tell us something. The change in demographics is hard to interpret because of the opposite effect that people behave differently as they age. It's a flaw with the political system. That "region" could end up being where a majority of the nations's population lives. It was intentional by the founding fathers that cities be in thrall to the rural folks - I can understand their fear of a minority's rights being trampled, although they were pretty inconsistent on worrying about some types of minority, but I'm not sure enough safeguards are there to prevent that electoral minority from simply imposing their will as national policy.
  24. ashbury
    Getting the most out of a team, by timing the usage of the mediocre players, so that they only play when they are hot and then sit when they are not, is a magical skill that no one has over the long term. The lucky rabbit's foot seems to disappear at the most inopportune moment. I'll take well-chosen matchups over the hot hand every time.
  25. ashbury
    I'm not sure a strategy like this has ever been tried. The league might fine Molitor for such shenanigans.
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