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jokin

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Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    I do know that heads will explode if that's the best the Twins' braintrust can come up with. Sure there's always a possibility that Antony might work out, but to suggest that, in the most objective of analyses, that there aren't multiple better, more highly qualified candidates for GM is a major stretch.
  2. jokin
    LLOL funny
  3. jokin
    That certainly oesn't sound you're too confident in the Twins ongoing GM search and selection process...
  4. jokin
    Shades of Altuve? (without the athleticism)
  5. jokin
    we can only hope at this point
  6. jokin
    Heh... I've never seen Seth as anxious as the rest of us about putting the pedal to the promotion metal..
  7. jokin
    Yeah, but what;s his slash line on 92+ MPH FBs? Park had an OPS+ of 56 and OPS of .528 vs. Power Pitchers when he was with the Twins. It's not clear how hitting against AAAA retreads every night is ever going to help him overcome his inability to turn on MLB hard stuff.
  8. jokin
    Very un-Twins-like..... But this move is only "stunning" in this market- the team has all of 33 wins; Park was an epic flop; Sano to RF was an unmitigated disaster; his first big trade, Span for Meyer officially imploded; the pen not only wasn't shored up as TR promised; May is struggling in his role; and the "prize" mid-season trade from last season blew up in TR's face. Your logic is sound, though. Smith was canned when push came to shove about $$$. Was there an offer on the table for Santana, Nolasco, et al, with the Twins picking up salary?
  9. jokin
    Thanks, Seth. So you're quite confident that Javier won't have to repeat DSL in 2017 even if this injury situation isn't resolved quickly and satisfactorily?
  10. jokin
    Wander Javier was pulled in the 1st inning of his first game back from injury on Friday. Do you have any information on his health status? It would be a shame if this turns out to be a completely lost season for him- if true, this will probably put his timetable to full season MiLB ball back.... maybe not until 2019?
  11. jokin
    Perhaps it has been discussed elsewhere... but I noticed that Wander Javier was replaced in the 1st inning Friday night in his first game back from injury. Major or just minor setback?
  12. jokin
    Source: Park vs, Desmond- Another case of misdirected FA $$$
  13. jokin
    Miguel De Jesus... is it worth finding out more info on this International Man of Mystery?
  14. jokin
    Yep. One of the Twins' FO primary tragic flaws is feeling the inherent need to build shrines of untouchability and over-generous contract extensionality toward guys with single career years/half seasons interspersed with longer-term track records of mediocrity.
  15. jokin
    In a way, yes, I hear you... but when you look at the track record of never selling high, and offering full-time roster gigs to guys who just don't have it anymore (Bartlett, Kubel, Murphy, et al)... Is it? Is it really that hard to understand the abundant quantities of fecklessness? The money owed to Plouffe is really incidental. Ryan can afford it, and he hasn't shown any willingness to deploy freed up funds where the holes are obviously necessary to put to good use. Keeping Plouffe AND signing Park made no economic or roster-optimizing sense in the winter, and it doesn't now, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Ryan will now remedy the situation and do the right thing. Remember, this was a team that could have easily given up on Plouffe multiple times over the last 7 years. How can we forget how many chances he was given at multiple positions before finally settling in at 3B- if they've stuck with all this long previously, Ryan's track record is such suggest they might stick with him until Plouffe decides to pursue free agency. Parting ways when he was at peak value should have been done long before now. Moving him now, regardless of value derived is still the most logical thing to do. And yet, unless Ryan somehow gets a very acceptable offer in the next couple of months, I still think there's a good chance he is retained by the Twins in a corner IF/OF role.
  16. jokin
    Yup... during the period of time where TR was slapping himself on the back, there were many of us that predicted that by the second half of June, Rex was likely to have turned back into Robbie- as I write, he has one hit in his last 20 ABs. Meanwhile, Rosario is on fire in Rochester, seems only a matter of time that Robbie becomes the 4th/5th/Platoon OFer.
  17. jokin
    Don't look now, but JR Murphy is swinging a hot bat in the month of June: .341/.408/.561/(.969) Pretty sure Murphy's going to get a major look by Terry, soon, and probably through September, and well ahead of either Garver or Turner getting a shot. And since Terry seems enamored with Suzuki, Zuke seems more likely to be extended to 2017 (plus a remote chance that his contract vests). Nunez? If he is the Twins ASG representative, would Ryan have the guts to trade a week or two later? I gotta think Ryan is deciding between sending down/trading Park or trading Plouffe. Since pulling off deadline deals isn't exactly his trademark MO, look perhaps for Park to be sent down, and Plouffe to alter his role to CornerInf/DH, and split time with Sano and Mauer. Escobar? Here's his line since he came off of the DL on May 23- .333/.351/.519/(.870) En Fuego! Hmmm, I wonder if there's a fringe contender or two that might make a solid/acceptable offer, especially if Escobar can stay anywhere close to his current hot streak? Plus, the acquiring team gets two more years of team control. I like the idea of giving Polanco an extended look at SS... But again, Esco seems like another one of those players the Twins seemingly can't live without, so I'm not holding my breath on a trade here, either. Log jam in the MI continues, Polanco languishes even more.
  18. jokin
    As noted, Cruz's K% was 25% in his first two+ years- better than Arcia, to be sure- but Arcia at 31% - and four years younger on the comp, isn't really that far away from Cruz's 25% for you to draw some definitive distinction. If we were to project their career timeline, just knowing what we know of their first two years in the league, Arcia shows superior power potential, a better BB rate, but more likely to whiff, as any typical power hitter would be expected to perofrm. You seem to be going out of your way to ignore the significantly greater results of Arcia relative to Cruz in this exercise I illustrated... not sure why... ? except, judging previous posting history, up to and including your most recent posts in this thread... it's all on the players... that is, all on them- once the Twins FO decides to part ways...
  19. jokin
    How can we definitively say we know for certain Arcia's offensive ceiling? By contrast, consider Nelson Cruz. He didn't get called up until age 25. In his first two+ seasons, through to age 27, his numbers were not very impressive: .231/.282/.385/(.666) BB%- 6.3% K%- 25% ISO .154 wRC+ 68 Here's Arcia's line in his first two seasons (ages 21-23): .241/.302/.441/(.743) BB%- 6.9% K%- 31% ISO .201 wRC+ 105 Soo.. Arcia hits the majors 4 years before Cruz does and acquits himself pretty well. Going strictly by the numbers, it certainly appears that your desperate defense of the Twins' FO has blinded you to the significant offensive potential that Arcia still possesses.
  20. jokin
    Yeah, because the Twins certainly have apparently failed miserably in those endeavors and once again have nothing to show for all the wasted time, $$$ and effort in building value in tremendous raw talent. Keep trying to defend, as time goes by it's continually ever easier to knock down the feeble and stale lines of defense of this organization.
  21. jokin
    Uhh, the Twins probably have more than one reason... given that they were so impressed with Chagois' no-pressure first outing, that they quickly shuffled him back to Rochester and claimed a recently twice-cut guy, Neil Ramirez, who's at a major crossroads in his career to take Shag-Wa's place on the roster- IOW, a guy who looks like all roads left in his career track lead to dead ends is preferable to giving Chagois an immediate second chance. Chagois certainly has lofty MiLB numbers, but it doesn't appear that he has as yet impressed the Twins brass enough to assume that he is the automatic heir apparent as the Twins' closer any time soon.... perhaps he will acquit himself better in his next recall... but there's no doubt he's dug himself a big hole to dig out of in order for the Twins to feel comfortable to hand him the closer role. My guess would be that assuming all things go very well, this would not transpire until mid-2017, at the earliest.
  22. jokin
    Does Mike Berardino know something he's not fully sharing yet? Wha...? Has it really come to this? I get the fact that there really aren't any obvious solutions on the current 25-man- Tonkin has good AAA closing credentials, but what is there to suggest that his straight-line trajectories have translated to the majors in a closing role? OK.... maybe as a temporary caretaker assignment, but I really don't see this ending well. Alternative??? (From worst to "best") 1) How about Hughes, presuming that he comes back with a fully healthy shoulder, might there be an outside chance that he could regain some semblance of his 2014 form- pitching one inning at a time? 2) Pressly. He's been regularly touching 98 MPH a few times in each of his recent outings. At times he looks like he's put it all together, and then, just as fast, he loses it again... he will remain intriguing... certainly worth a tryout in a lost season. 3) Berrios- he could temporarily change his SP successful career path that we've all envisioned for him- by starting over coming throgh via the Twins pen- he certainly projects maturity and fearlessness on the mound... and in the process, he could elevate his velocity and MLB pitchability in more bite-size pieces. 4) Tyler Duffey- co-closer at Rice with Chagois, assuming the closer role is already imprinted in his DNA, he could quickly and comfortably take on the assignment in this lost season, his velocity and K% are sure to rise. Struggling mightily to maintain consistency this year as a starter- it's still worth noting that he has improved his overall control- lowering his BB/9 YOY by nearly 1 walk/9 innings- a switch to the pen might help him get back to basics and regain some focus on his pitching strengths early in the count and then dropping that hammer slider to rack up the Ks. And you get the added benefit of eliminating him getting exposed the second and third time through a lineup. Either of the latter two moving to closer will obviously require the other to quickly elevate their current MLB starter status in order to bolster and solidify the rotation. Let's face it, as of today, June 17, it doesn't appear that there is going to be any immediate, or even an intermediate, time frame scenario when help in filling the closer role in the form of May, Meyer, Burdi, Chargois is going to manifest itself.
  23. jokin
    Actually, he ended up starting about 40% of the Twins' games. And the only fair way for him, and best means of the Twins to both ascertain and maximize the Twins previous investment in him, as well as accentuate his potential value, was to set up the roster in such a way in ST as to give him the opportunity of an extended look. Obviously, it was clear early on that was never going to happen- the OF/DH roster construction made zero sense with respect in giving Arcia any shot at a legit half-season look. Arcia got less and less playing time- and ultimately grew stale, even as other established vets and guys younger than him, all played instead of him- and mostly trotted out, day-in and day-out giving pretty awful performances themselves. At the very least, Arcia should have been inserted in the late innings to PH in just about every game, just to keep his timing and batting eye sharp- instead he got all of 4 PH opportunities, and we got to see Suzuki, Murphy, Mastro, et al, futilely flail away, instead. And yes, we're in agreement... there're more than enough steel spikes in the FO coffin, already... I've certainly never been a big fan of Arcia, but like most of us, appreciated the raw power potential... and appreciated the obvious diligent effort that Arcia made in the offseason to get his career back on track. He appeared to have done everything the team asked of him in getting ready for 2016, yet there's really no evidence that the Twins reciprocated and gave him a fair chance in overcoming the setback of his nightmarish 2015 season. I wonder how that makes some of his former teammates feel, especially considering that Sano seems to have done little of what the club asked him to work on last winter.? This latest gaffe was just one more glaring example of the inability of this bunch to manage, anticipate, derive and act upon value from its set of both existing as well as expiring assets.
  24. jokin
    Arcia only started in 12 of the Twins 24 games in April. In his first 3 games, Arcia went 0-9, so he didn't start out hot, but for the month, he had an OPS of .724 in 12 starts. which was 5th best on the team. Arcia started 11 of 28 Twins games in May. It's pretty hard to argue that Arcia got any sort of extended look. And even with irregular play, his offensive output was much better than many established regulars and some metrics indicate that he had made strides in improving his plate approach. People keep bringing up Arcia's struggles vs. LHPs. In point of fact, Arcia has done extremely well against lefties relative to his career numbers against southpaws- in a small sample size, he actually significantly outperformed his 2016 numbers vs. RHPs . .702 OPS 115 OPS+ As I said above, It's hard to maintain that Arcia got a fair shot as a starter and blew it. It was extremely strange roster construction on Terry Ryan's part to start the season with Arcia as a 4th or platoon OFer, as well as the # 4/5 option on the DH depth chart (Arcia DH'd one game this season). There was no way that he should have been in LF in the first place- where he had little experience, what with RF meanwhile manned by a guy who had NO OF experience- and centered by Buxton, who most of us agreed in the offseason was not going to be major league ready on April 1.
  25. jokin
    "Arguably?" Who's your attorney? Johnny Cochran? (He's the only one off the top of my head who got clean away from defending the indefensible.)
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