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stringer bell

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Everything posted by stringer bell

  1. stringer bell
    Morning baseball!
  2. stringer bell
    Everybody plays just about everybody. The Twins were lucky to face the Angels when they were playing terrible. They were not lucky to play Toronto when they weren't playing well. Miami is playing better now and the Twins faced their best pitcher twice now.
  3. stringer bell
    In order for the Twins to get a draft pick, they would have to tender a qualifying offer ($13M for one year). As has been said, there is no way that Morneau would decline a qualifying offer coming off this year. So.....there will be no draft pick for Morneau. I think it would be equally implausible for the Twins to make the qualifying offer, given the production (or lack thereof) that Morneau has had the last two years (while relatively healthy). Morneau's status as a long-term veteran and former MVP would make it difficult for him to accept a diminished role on the team in the future. It is better for both the team and the player that they part ways, amicably.
  4. stringer bell
    Parmelee for Morneau, Escobar for Florimon, Mauer catches day game after night game and Doumit sits with his sore ankle. I'm really glad Gibson is with the Twins, but it might have made sense to recall Herrmann for the Miami series at least.
  5. stringer bell
    I think Clete's real competition is Ramirez. Does he speak Spanish? As a LH hitter who can pass in CF, Clete is the better option as a fourth OF. Optioning Hicks makes sense from a player control perspective and actually might be better for his development. I respect your opinion Thry, but to ask a guy to stop switch hitting after six years is pretty drastic. Hicks' history is to struggle at a new level, particularly lefty, and then catch up. He's struggled for sure in the major leagues, but if his history holds, he will catch up from the left side.
  6. stringer bell
    Well the "trust in Terry" people will be right, in respect to Morneau. It seems to me that many perfectly rational people lose all objectivity with the Big Canadian. He is not having a good year, and he is not the Twins' second best hitter.
  7. stringer bell
    I think it will be obvious by the All-Star break that the Twins can't contend this year. The road trip to Toronto, Tampa Bay, and New York will put enough room between the Twins and contention that they will be faced with "sell, sell, sell" as the only alternative. In the last several years, the Twins have had real problems in all three of those venues. I don't see that changing this year.
  8. stringer bell
    Uh oh! Someone waved a red flag (Alexi Casilla!) in front of the Chief! BTW, Lexi hit his annual home run tonight, a three run bomb, in the Orioles 6-3 win over the Tribe.
  9. stringer bell
    The Twins, IMHO, are trying a hybrid approach. They have a number of over-30 vets who started the season as regulars and will be regulars until the trade deadline, such as Willingham, Doumit, Morneau along with Pelfrey and Correia in the rotation. They were hoping to fill several inside straights with vets like Doumit and Hammer having consecutive good years while the pitching veterans exceeded projections and their stars played like MVPs again. Of course, the odds are against the Twins in every aspect of this "bet" and they know it. The pitchers, with the exception of Correia, have been lousy, Doumit and the Hammer have reverted to their former levels of effectiveness and one of the two former MVPs is in the bottom third OPS for his position. The first wave of a better future is here with Arcia, Hicks, and Gibson. Sano, Rosario, and others are progressing and could be here before 2014 is over and several live arms are having decent seasons. Sell off the "bridge players" and Morneau and go with the youngsters. BTW, another part of this process was hoping for development from the non-rookies--Plouffe, Dozier, Florimon, and Parmelee. So far that result is a mixed bag. Plouffe has been pretty good, Florimon has met and probably exceeded expectations, Dozier has had some moments lately and the jury is out on Parmelee.
  10. stringer bell
    Maybe I like the radar gun too much, but Pelf's increase in velo intrigues me. With the graph still headed north, I would like to see how he produces the rest of the way and perhaps give him a similar contract for 2014. I would guess that Worley will be back within a month or so with his effectiveness in Rochester. Albers will probably get a look sometime after the trade deadline, perhaps when Gibson is shut down. Who is in danger? Well, I would say that Walters is now in the stink hole as the starter in jeopardy with Diamond next in line. I've promised to start a thread calling for these guys to be demoted and I'll give each one more start. If I have the same success with them as Parmelee, I'll have to start calling for everybody to be sent to Triple A.
  11. stringer bell
    I guess relievers don't get much love. I think Tonkin is almost a sure thing to appear in the Twins' bullpen, perhaps as soon as this year. It appears to me that he might end up being a late-inning, high leverage bullpen arm.
  12. stringer bell
    If you are going on "what have you done for me lately?", you sit Hammer or Morneau. In the month of June, Willingham is OPSing .628 with one homer and Morneau is at .730 also with one homer. Parm's OPS in June is .795. The sensible thing is to rest all of Mauer, Morneau, Willingham, Doumit, and Arcia once a week and get Parmelee 5/6 starts per week. Certainly, there should be some "playing the hot hand" and resting guys with unfavorable matchups.
  13. stringer bell
    Yes, there is some value. He's OPSing .786 with runners on, .804 with RiSP and .854 with RiSP and two out. Good, but hardly earth shaking. The defense has been good, but if there's not substantial improvement over other options offensively, it is similar to using Jamey Carroll at second, short, and third--minimal at best improvement for today sacrificing development of possible long-term options.
  14. stringer bell
    I checked Parm's numbers last night and they are eerily similar to 2012. As Brock and I have been saying, (we think) the jury is still out and regular play the rest of the year can and should tell us what Parmelee is and can be as a player. I am pretty happy with Plouffe's development this year (outside of the injuries). He is hitting better in every aspect except power and he is known to have power surges and while his defense isn't even average, I see improvement and the skills to be pretty good at the hot corner.
  15. stringer bell
    Parmelee might have proven that at this stage of his career he has to play and isn't really a good bench option. I don't think that is a total knock on him and if he never attains a true everyday spot, he may adjust later and become a better bench option. Right now, though, it neither helps the team or Parm to have him play 2/3 times a week.
  16. stringer bell
    I don't think we, the fans, know what the Twins have in Parmelee and I don't think the Twins know for sure either. He seems to be streaky. He was very good in September, 2011 and was laying waste to AAA in Rochester last summer. At other times, it seems like he is too passive, always in pitcher's counts and striking out (many called) a ton. The one thing that Parmelee has proved this year is that he is a capable outfielder. The fact that he can play both first and right capably will give him more at-bats. TK and many others have said you don't really know about a hitter until they get to about 1000 plate appearances IIRC. Give him 300 more this year and I think a pretty good judgment could be made. Colabello could be an option for this year after the deadline and for next year. He certainly has shown he can hit Triple A pitching. I have been calling for and predicting the trade of two of Morneau/Hammer/Doumit and trades of two of those guys would give Colabello a fair chance to hit major league pitching. Fair or not, he probably will not get an extended audition because of his age and his defensive ability.
  17. stringer bell
    The Twins have played 72 games. They are doing a bit better than (4 more wins) than at this point last year. I am looking for reasons why they are better (how is that for positive?) and noticed that despite the second least homers in the American League, they have outhomered their opponents by two (68-66). Willingham leads the team with 10 homers which projects to only 25 for the full season, but the Twins have eight guys with more than five homers, which would project to double digits over an entire season. The pitchers have done a pretty good job limiting the long ball, which seems to be the least sustainable component of the positive home run differential going forward. Particularly, the bullpen has yielded only 16 homers in 254 innings. I would guess that the number of runs from homers is higher for opponents than for the Twins, but it is promising that they are reaching the seats marginally more than their opponents. The lineup does have more power sprinkled from top to bottom than they have in past years.
  18. stringer bell
    BTW, I take full credit for Parmelee's little surge in Cleveland since I called for him to be banished to the minors after he struck out Friday night. I will soon be starting threads to demote Diamond and Walters!
  19. stringer bell
    They should change the lyrics of the "South Park" song from "Blame Canada" to "Blame Butera"!
  20. stringer bell
    My all-time favorite Twin. I hope he nets another All-Star game for his production this year. He is third in batting and third in OPS in the NL. Obviously, he can't keep hitting .339, but this could turn out to be a career year for him.
  21. stringer bell
    I am celebrating the Gibson recall. I just drank a Diet Coke! This thread is interesting, of course, but I wouldn't have minded seeing Herrmann recalled for the Marlin series if there is any question about Doumit's ankle, that just makes sense. I don't have highest expectations for Kyle, but he will get lots of ground balls and he will miss bats. If the command is there, I think he will do well more often than not.
  22. stringer bell
    I think the Twins need to part with two of the three of Morneau, Doumit, and Willingham. Morneau's value has diminished because of the lack of power he has displayed and he has an expiring contract, so don't expect a top prospect. Willingham and Doumit are signed through 2014 with manageable contracts, which would increase their value. However, Hammer hasn't hit very well this year and is being dogged by injuries. Doumit has also not put up great numbers, but he is healthy and he is a catcher. I think his value at the deadline will be surprisingly high.
  23. stringer bell
    As Gardy pointed out in the post-game, he is really good with a bat in his hands. So far, he has had some rough moments in the field and on the bases, but those problems look like they can be fixed, and he is having better and better at-bats. I just hope he doesn't get too big and can continue to play a serviceable corner outfield.
  24. stringer bell
    Many points made in this thread. I think the pro-Pinto comments win the argument. He is still pretty young, he is a really complete hitter, and there is no concrete evidence that he can't be a serviceable defensive catcher. I understand that he is now in far better physical shape than he has been in his earlier years and that may have held him back previously. I am on board with trading Doumit at the deadline and I would advocate Pinto getting a look for the Twins at that time. I understand that the Twins could go with Herrmann or Butera, but I believe Pinto is part of this team's future and they just as well go with him right away.
  25. stringer bell
    If Doumit's injury is of concern, they should recall Herrmann to back up Mauer for the Marlin series and then recall Gibson just before his start. I'm delighted that Gibson is getting the call, but in order to compete better in Miami it might make sense to delay Kyle's recall by a couple days.
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