ashbury

Regarding the original direction of this thread, it happens that Nick Cafardo in his weekly column in the Boston Daily Fishwrap mentions our Twins more than once this morning. https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/redsox/2017/11/11/which-teams-will-most-active-meetings/SyEfjn7bHdOdYkl0AsMg4K/story.html (Partial paywall, but you generally can get a few free articles per month.) In particular, his lead item about the upcoming GM meetings includes the Twins among the teams to watch. I think it's fair use to extract this paragraph from the lengthy piece: "The small-market Twins may be thinking big this offseason. They had a fine 2017 and made the playoffs, and now need a No. 1-type pitcher to reach the next level. Joe Mauer's enormous contract ends after the 2018 season so they are likely able to take on some payroll. GM Thad Levine has a history with Darvish from their Texas days, so it wouldn't be overly surprising to see the Twins show some interest. Alex Cobb will definitely be on their radar." He details 12 teams in total, so it's not like the Twins are uniquely interesting. But they're not part of the underclass of 18 teams that don't "bear watching", so there's that. In the evergreen debate on whether we're "small-" or "medium-" market, he comes down clearly on the former side, which may or may not color your view of the rest of what he says. Anyway, he's a source that seems "optimistic" in the sense used here, untainted by any particular passion for the team himself. Could be just the baseball-writer echo chamber, of course. (If you click the link, you'll also see mention of a couple of recent scout signings for the Twins, and of Brandon Kintzler free-agency rumblings with an editorial comment on trading him at the deadline.)

I got spoiled seeing Buxton and Rosario at the AFL in 2014. Neither pitchers nor batters have done anything similar to raise my hopes this year. Different players, different purposes... but still. Chris Paul, maybe - he had some nice at bats this weekend, so I'll be looking forward to Steve's take.

I didn't see this elsewhere on the site, so here is the latest news I found on Wade's condition. He's out of the hospital after being treated for concussion. http://m.mlb.com/news/article/261683564/twins-lamonte-wade-concussion-in-afl-collision/

These photos are of the aftermath of the outfield collision (hm, warning: don't scroll down if you are highly empathetic and easily upset). The first is mine, the others are from ashburydavid, whose photos are always better than mine. Here are his accompanying comments: Observations: Kevin Padlo is the player [at left in the second and third picture] looking most upset. Ryan Eades somewhat later snuck into the outfield scrum around Wade (not shown in these three photos), where Chris Paul already was. (also not shown) As Wade's gurney exited the field, it passed by the home bullpen; Sean Miller and the other bullpen guys were in line to wish Wade well. Cardinals outfielder Oscar Mercado, who was playing centerfield, is the downed player on the right. He got up under his own power after a few precautionary minutes, and remained in the game. Amazingly, he held onto the catch for the third out of the inning.

The ball was a rocket hit to the intersection of both players' range. I don't think either player could confidently call the other off. If the ball's within your range, you go for it until called off. Both going full speed... just one of those things. Horrifying to watch develop, sickening to see the aftermath. Hoping for the best.

Just a quick summary of Twins-oriented doings, at the AFL game in Peoria Friday evening from which Our Heroes emerged victorious. Because every one of the Twins pitchers appeared in the Thursday game, we did not expect to see any Friday night, and thus were not disappointed on that count. However, perhaps in compensation, all three of the Twins batters were in the starting lineup and played all game. Lamont Wade batted sixth in the order. He achieved sac fly RBI in each of the second and seventh innings - both of the warning track variety. Good result, although it did not allay worry that our outfield prospect could become known as Warning Track Wade. Oddly, in the big fifth inning rally by Surprise where they batted around, Wade accounted for all three outs, by striking out to lead off the inning, and then grounding out 4-6-3 to end it. Obviously, other stuff went on in between his yeoman work. Chris Paul, who followed Wade in the batting order, did nicely, tallying two runs, one via a single and being brought around to score in that decisive fifth, the other on a solo homer in the sixth. He struck out in the second and grounded out to short in the seventh. He was a little shaky a time or two playing first base - one error scored officially on a shortstop throw he didn't handle. Sean Miller played second base and batted ninth. It was he who drove in Paul in the fifth, on a nice single. He also had a sharp liner to second base for an out in the third, and a walk in the sixth, closing with a popout to short in the eighth inning. In the field, he had four assists - on one, he bobbled the ball but recovered to throw out the batter. A pretty nice game for Sean, all in all. After the game, which featured "only" two HBP, a nice fireworks show gave the disappointed home crowd something to cheer. Tonight, the home-and-home series concludes with Surprise hosting a (no doubt) revenge-minded Peoria team seeking to atone for this laugher.

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

I heard an audio clip the other day (maybe via a post on TD, I forget), with him and some other male - I think it was mainly about the other guy and Louis was yukking it up with him - and the subject matter was just not very respectful toward women. On a Donald Trump level, I mean. Not quite as blunt as heard on the Trump bus-tape, but on that spectrum. I didn't recall Louis CK being quite like that, before. So this public allegation would have been more surprising to me a week ago than now.

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

If he's really middle-of-the-order then he's almost by definition better than someone we've got. Very few teams can post a batting lineup of nine such guys. Ditto middle-of-the-rotation if that's what you really meant (although that termology is admittedly weaker than for batters). Our senses have been dulled by the parade of really bad starting pitching that's been run out there. Middle of the rotation is actually pretty good. And finally, if the guy who is made expendable is so good that you are questioning bringing in the new guy, you can trade such a guy for more than the 60th pick of an amateurs draft. Because if you don't want to replace him, some other team will value him too. We are not yet so rich in talent that talent-acquisition of any and all forms should be abandoned.

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

Steve, are you filing your reports from Arizona?