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jokin

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Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    It did lead directly to losses, losses that could cost the team a Wild Card spot- should the highly unlikely occur and the team stay competitive. And it showed real lack of foresight in the offseason and lack of competence and stability from the FO in-season, they literally had to have Fuld get DFAd at an extraordiarily opportune moment, just to have a bona fide CFer available above High-A. (And I still would like for the Twins to have the option of moving Hicks to AAA, the absence of that flexibility could have long-term consequences for maximizing Hicks' value).
  2. jokin
    Roughly the same value. How so? Value derived because Fuld is the best defender of the 3? (Bonifacio's dWAR is 0.6). How is Bonifacio's 1.0 bWAR roughly the same as Fuld's 0.1 bWAR? (Aaron Hicks -0.3).
  3. jokin
    False comparison. I believe those that wanted the club to get an insurance policy in CF would hope that signing that policy would be of help for Hicks to far exceed the OPS+ number of whomever the backup guy might have been.
  4. jokin
    I would back-slap both Theo and Terry for both personnel decisions, not for the great months both players had, but that both decisions made sense in strengthening their teams, adding insurance policies in an area of weakness, and possibly becoming trading chips at premium positions should their performance stimulate demand.....ALL based on their career norms, not their league-leading months-worth of over-production.
  5. jokin
    I still don't see how you say Bonifacio is hindsight, and he turned 29 on April 29, so he's not in his 30s. And I'm not talking about Bonifacio, 2014 numbers, just his career numbers, which were easy enough to project to be of benefit as a Plan B option for the Twins for 2014, particularly with the paucity of Leadoff options that the Twins have. And you do make a "replacement" a starting job if you don't have players who are ready and equipped to man the position at a minimum level of major league competency (Hey! that's what the Cubs did!)...and the Twins have done that 2 years running now. It's pretty obvious to most everyone who follows the Twins that Hicks needs the AAA option to have a landing point to slow things down and focus on smoothing out the rough edges. The Twins have ripped that option out from under him, and have screwed the rest of the team and demoralized the pitching staff by not having a competent defensive placeholder always at the ready.
  6. jokin
    In a short-term bridge situation, and that's all this is, so age comparisons are irrelevant, I'd still always take the player who is the better defender, faster, more experienced and the more versatile guy every day of the week. Besides, you're comping the wrong 2 guys, the correct comp was between Bartlett and Bonifacio, not Presley and Bonifacio...another option for sending down should have been utiliized, if that was what it came down to..... Bartlett should never been up for discussion as an option for the major league roster to start the season. And you keep coming back to Bonifacio's recent, and totally expected, regression to the mean. Let's put it in perspective, Bonifacio is "slumping" in May with a .589 OPS.....meanwhile Hicks is supposedly "surging" to life with a .592 OPS (while Bonifacio continues to post positive defensive stats while Hicks posts negative ones).
  7. jokin
    As I stated, Presley's SLG advantage is largely, if not totally, negated by Bonifacio's baserunning superiority- again, he's the 5th best baserunner in baseball since 2010. And again, we're not talking about making a long-term investment on either player, but having a competent bridge player that gives you flexibility and depth with a fighting chance to play above replacemennt level (Bonifacio is currently 1.2 fWAR/1.0 bWAR). Still don't see how you see he and Presley as the same guy, as Bonifacio has elite speed and can also play in the infield.....he was the guy that Gardy wanted Bartlett to be (with more speed).....and unlike Dreamvision Team Chemistry Master, Barlett, Bonifacio actually exists.
  8. jokin
    He's still playing and starting, I think when you're buying a short term, very cheap, one-year bridge option, he's proven to be a healthier, cheaper and MUCH better alternative to the Twins chosen options of Bartlett, Fuld and Mastro.
  9. jokin
    Not true on his SLG Hicks April/May slash line 2013: .168/.246/.323/.569 BB% 9.5% K% 27.4% Hicks April/May slash line 2014: .196/.331/.265/.595 BB% 16.8% K% 24.8% This may come closer to fruition. But it's hard to see him hit .345 OBP with a change in approach. If we remember, Hicks radically changed his approach from passive to aggressive at the plate, midseason in 2013, note the BB%: Hicks June-August slash line 2013: .233/.286/.371/.657 BB% 5.4% K% 26.5% Now, the question of course is, will he or won't he make the requisite changes? And wouldn't he be better off working on making those changes with a AAA option as part of the package to accomplish them?
  10. jokin
    This +.
  11. jokin
    Not true about Presley's bat. Bonifacio is a career .323 OBP, while Presley's is .295. And Bonifcio turned his OBP into one of the best SB rates in all of baseball, which essentially negated Presley's SLG advantage. Plus you have Bonifacio with 3 straight years of 0.5 dWAR or better, Presley's dWAR...negative for all but one year in his career.
  12. jokin
    That seems like a very strange stance to take. Sizemore's a very professional guy, who has proven healthy, if not overly effective- he could have occupied a bench spot and been DFA'd at any time without concern for the long-term consequences to the team. It would have been a far less speculative gamble signing than Bartlett.... and he was a cheaper gamble than the Twins took with Bartlett, Kubel and Guerrier, as it only cost the Red Sox $750,000 to find out what he can still do.
  13. jokin
    Wrong. Just wrong. I for one commented on it, as Sizemore was conducting workouts for teams. And you also have been proven wrong on Bonifacio, who has worked out just fine for the Cubs. Having him batting in front of Dozier, while taking the pressure off of Hicks in CF, clearly would not have cost us winnable games by playing infielders in the OF, plus enormously increasing production from Dozier and Mauer batting 2 and 3 behind Bonifacio's .335 OBP and 11 stolen bases.
  14. jokin
    No.
  15. jokin
    You're simply wrong here, this is most certainly not hindsight. There were many, many of us begging and pleading for the Twins to shore up the obvious yawning talent and inexperience gap in CF with both of these names (and others), from the day they became available in the offseason- and cheaply acquirable at that. Sizemore has played 13 games in CF for the Red Sox this year, 19 in LF, 4 in RF. Exactly the kind of flexibility you'd want in a defensively challenged OF. Regarding Bonifacio, he made perfect sense, a leadoff batter, and a CF who can also spell 2nd, 3rd and SS. 5th best baserunner in all of baseball since 2010.....the Twins inexplicably chose Bartlett instead. And of course you have Bonifacio there, not to "hand the starting job to"....no one has ever said that....Bonifacio is just precisely the depth required when the other options blow up in your face....simple to play him when things are going bad, keep on the bench when things are going well and DFA when things are going really well.
  16. jokin
    It's funny, a year ago at this time, your post is nearly identical to many which appeared in similar threads....a lot of "ifs" and "guessing", as borne out last year..... lots of wishcasting rather than forecasting.
  17. jokin
    Maybe so, but the Twins seem to have either overestimated what they had or decided to go cheap. And they learned nothing from the disaster that was 2013. It would have cost very little to secure an additional bona fide starter-capable CF, both in 2013 and 2014.
  18. jokin
    That's the problem, "they had Hicks." The depth they had was enough, for 4th OF, emergency relief depth. It was obvious from last year's disastrous debut, Hicks should have been slated for AAA, with a FA signing or trade. Bonifacio, Sizemore.....
  19. jokin
    FWIW, Hicks DRS ranks 17th of 21 qualified CFers, while his UZR ranks him 18th of 21. "Not terrible"? Let's just say "not good", then. As far as his alleged "May resurgence" at the plate goes (per post #7 above)....for the month, his .592 OPS ranks him 29th among CFers. For the season, he actually has a slightly higher OPS (.595) overall. As far as the BB% goes, it just seems a matter of time before his numbers start to fall from this year's 16.8%, towards his 2013 BB% of 7.7%, as pitchers adjust. Hicks will have to change his passive ways, or the OBP will inevitably fall.
  20. jokin
    The Twins starting 2013 had no leadoff hitter or experienced starting major league CFer. As it still remains in doubt if Aaron Hicks is a starting major league CFer, plus they have no obvious leadoff man on their roster, they have yet to adequately address those issues as of May 20, 2014. The actions of this season, as you put it, seem to be willful denial of the hole they dug for themselves back in late 2012.
  21. jokin
    Which is an "argument" that completely misses the point of the current discussion, as no one is saying the Twins shouldn't have made the trade, just that they needed more foresight of the consequences in the aftermath of it.
  22. jokin
    Those two obvious blunders at the season's onset were both predicated from the predetermined offseason notion that Bartlett was on the team, no matter what. This led to continuing two offseason's worth of not seeking out more competent, at the very least, replacement level, starting caliber help for defensive OF (CF) depth in the wake of the 2 big trades from 2012- and the enormous gamble- in the face of insurmountable odds to the contrary- of Hicks succeeding and the team remaining injury-free at the position.
  23. jokin
    Once I saw that pregame lineup last night, without Kennys' name in it, I got that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. It doesn't sound good. This organization is snakebit. And just as Rosario and some of the top Miracle performers, possibly as well as Buxton, were on the verge of joining him in New Britain. And just as Danny Ortiz's bat is turning en fuego for the Rock Cats (slash line for May: .354/.364/.615/.979).
  24. jokin
    That's actually "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes"....and no Neil Young on this one, at least in the original rendition. This was on the first album and written by Stephen Stills (my second favorite CSN&Y member behind his former Buf. Springfield bandmate Neil.....Stills and Young are the most talented members of the group, probably depends on individual taste on which is better) about his former girlfriend, Judy Collins.
  25. jokin
    In one of the defensive metrics, I can't remember which, there's the final 10% area of batted balls measured that are rated- "impossible" for anyone to catch. Revere must be a leader in that category.
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