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jokin

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Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    Pedro Florimon- 25 major league games....1 error 7 minor league games....5 errors
  2. jokin
    Some of what you said is true, and the OPS to the end of the season is dependent on when the "2nd half" was calculated. But in your slamming Ortiz for his WAR value, since this was in context to the second half of the season, when Ortiz actually began playing regularly, your WAR quote is immaterial. Furthermore, he only played 14 games in the field, so of course his WAR value is affected relative to everyday defensive position players. Given that handicap, by fWAR, Ortiz was 3rd on the Twins position players in the second half. His second half OPS+ was 146, highest on the team, second place was Jacque Jones at 143. The Twins played .602 ball from July 1 on with Ortiz playing regularly, before that date, they were playing at a .568 percentage. (As I stated, the Twins were in the process of "becoming" his team, but as his playoff performance showed, it hadn't quite "become" his team yet, as would later happen in Beantown).
  3. jokin
    I agree that Ortiz would have been awarded more than $1.25M, but not that much more. And in retrospect, it still comes back to the reality that the guy who knew the most about Ortiz, TR, made a penny-pinching decision that saved, in baseball terms, a paltry tiny fraction of payroll dollars for a period of just one season, versus the missed opportunity of 3 or 4 legitimate shots at World Series appearances. "Simple incompetence"? Perhaps not. But "baseball's pay structure" would not have crippled this team- in the form of Ryan being just a little more intrepid, rolling the dice, and playing out the string a little longer on Ortiz. Again, he knew Ortiz better than anyone else in baseball (or I guess, should have known better- how many HOF caliber players slip through a GMs hands in a long career?- it virtually never happens).
  4. jokin
    Hopefully, Meyer comes up sooner rather than later. He pitched 5 innings of no-hit, shutout ball today, with 7 Ks (but 4 BBs).
  5. jokin
    And with foresight it was a bad move. The other 29 GMs were not right alongside Terry Ryan, TR had a figurative front row seat. And what he had just witnessed in that front row seat was Ortiz being future Ortiz, practically carrying his team himself to the finish line with an OPS over 1.000 over the last 3 months of the season. (Tobi, check back at the article I posted in this thread, which documented the 2003 season in Boston. Ortiz lack of playing time caused him to demand to be released, instead Epstein promised he'd fix things, and sure enough, he forced Francona's hand by making a trade and clearing the way for Otiz's insertion in the lineup.)
  6. jokin
    Should he know better? A guy hired as a marketing intern, not the first time he spoke out of turn, Antony's learning curve is lot longer than Hicks's
  7. jokin
    Yeah, but Ortiz doesn't hit too many "lazy flyballs" against the Twins, either. And all he has done the last 2 days is beat the Twins. I haven't seen a performance like this since......wait....since Ortiz in the 2013 Series.
  8. jokin
    But it is Flyball Phil we're talking about, and those seemingly effortless 4 HRs of the last 2 days put a lie to the "TF is unfair to lefties" meme.
  9. jokin
    Anybody want to revisit the debate of the merits of the IBB in certain situations, again? 4 free passes for Papi works for me today.
  10. jokin
    2 days in a row without Santana in the lineup. It appears that his Red Wings fate is sealed when Fuld returns. It looks like it's going to be the dual-utility-Eduardo show for now. It will be interesting to see how they handle Florimon when Danny goes down to get his SS reps- or- since they still need a CF in Roc., will they do more bizarre stuff like trying to convert Santana?
  11. jokin
    The Twins could have maximized value by retaining him- not releasing him, and then letting him continue to do for the Twins in 2003 what he did from July 1, 2002 to the end of the season. He carried the team from that point on- he OPS'd at 1.039 the last 3 months of the season, it was surreptitiously becoming "his team", much as the Red Sox ultimately became his team.
  12. jokin
    Yup. The cookie-cutter approach to producing a never-ending string of Twins Way macaroons has to be calibrated to fit the individual physical make-up and skill set. Which is why I have lingering concerns for the ultimate developmental process regarding Kennys Vargas and Miguel Sano.
  13. jokin
    He signed about a month (January 22, 2003) after being released by the Twins on December 16, 2002, just after the close of the Winter Meetings. And virtually no baseball business occurs the last 2 weeks of December, so Ortiz really wasn't out there long at all.
  14. jokin
    No. It was a decision by Ryan to not go to arbitration. Ortiz was making $950,000 with the Twins, and then signed a one-year deal for $1.25M with the Red Sox. I believe that qualifies by the very definition of the phrase- "penny wise, pound foolish" as blame-worthy on Ryan, and to Ryan's credit, he's accepted that blame. A lot. The team with the best opportunity to make an informed "baseball decision" on retaining his services..... was the team that had contracted his services.....for the previous 7 years. That he had no perceived value is partly on Ortiz for how he performed in those 7 years...but it's also on the Twins for not developing and maximizing his value before making his services available at the Winter Meetings prior to his release- and for not realizing that his potential worth in just a few short years would be much greater than balking at a small arbitration award- certainly far more value than what Matt LeCroy offered. As Ortiz has related, the Twins hitting philosophical intentions for him just never sunk in or set right with him - which is on both he and the Twins field staff. But ultimately, this is on Ryan- after all, he acquired Ortiz originally, and must have seen his potential to be a special kind of leader as well as a potential game changer at the plate...but also encumbered with unique limitations to his game that required fine tuning. But unlike Theo Epstein, Ryan was unwilling to do whatever it took to make the popular, but mercurial Ortiz square peg fit into the Kelly/Gardy round hole.
  15. jokin
    And it gets worse.....Kelly Johnson isn't an exact comparison on the 27-32 scale, but offers fuel to the fire, as he has a similar enough progression to also make one wary of long-term extensions at the position when factoring in age relative to physical peaks for a MI. [Note that Dozier also debuted at age 25 (with of course, less initial success)]: 2000 (age 18) First round pick of Atlanta Braves 2007 (age 25) Rookie year. OPS+ 116 WAR 3.7 2010 (age 28) Peak/career year. OPS+ 127 WAR 4.2 So...Johnson peaked in his 4th year. Since then? Hasn't been above 1.8 WAR.....power and OBP numbers have declined significantly.....and physically at age 32, he can no longer play 2nd full-time despite slightly positive dWAR for his career.
  16. jokin
    Ah yes, color me misty-eyed, nostalgic and tossing pseudo-kudo-sobriquets in the Twins general direction- who in 2013, were actually ahead of where they are today in terms of CF depth and the actual need for an actual OF or two....man, those were the days, an extra-special vast amount of 2013 additional foresight was in play then...what with secret CF weapons, Clete Thomas and language translation consultant Wilkin Ramirez waiting in the "Wings"..... But seriously, how many teams in the history of the MLB have lost....not one....not two....but THREE CFs off their 40-man roster....all in the space of 1.5 months? Well done, Gardy and Antony, well done, indeed.
  17. jokin
    Somebody finally explained the math to Gardy.....Suzuki in the 5-spot at DH, with Pinto batting 6th and catching.
  18. jokin
    Interesting story behind the story in Boston: http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/red-sox/content/20130601-ortiz-career-with-sox-was-almost-short-lived.ece Theo Epstein obviously was pretty sure what he had in Ortiz after a couple months and proved it by his actions, the Twins, obviously, never really did (I wonder if Papi dealt with Ryan for playing time like he did with Epstein, and hence the heave-ho? He hasn't exactly had a lot of nice things to say about the Twins since his departure, and he sure seems extra locked in when he plays the Twins):
  19. jokin
    Yup. It was almost criminal that the new normal acceptable of Twins FO expectations for "Ace" level in 2013 was below League Average. They finally woke up this year, but 2 years after it was pretty obvious to everyone else- running Slowey out, no matter his level of priggishness at the time, was unwise and unnecessary.
  20. jokin
    Ortiz signed a major league contract with the Red Sox, and Pedro Martinez highly recommended him to Theo Epstein. http://www.masslive.com/redsox/index.ssf/2013/11/david_ortiz_unwanted_by_minnes.html It's been rehashed many times, but even Terry Ryan admits it was the worst move he ever made. And based on the evidence of Big Papi's time here, there obviously was great doubt about "(his) ability to hit." Even though his defense was a liability that discouraged TK from playing him- (and he did have Mientkiewiscz at 1st- kind-of ironic that DougieFresh also ended up with the Red Sox 1.5 years later.) He also didn't see fit to give him DH time, in favor of Cordova, Coomer, Koskie, and of course, Matt LeCroy, not real discernment of what they actually had in Ortiz. And all because TR didn't want to go to arbitration to potentially give Ortiz a raise from $950,000 to $1.25M. It's arguable that it cost the Twins at least 3 decent shots at AL Pennants.
  21. jokin
    This is simply not true. From 2008-10 when he was fully healthy, he was a perfectly serviceable back-end starter for the Twins- 4.02 FIP with 6.9 fWAR- which ranked 3rd among Twins pitchers in that time frame. And then the injuries made him a bad pitcher in 2011 and 2012. As far as Miami goes, Slowey was moved to the pen last season because the Marlins were chock full of good young pitching prospects that are simply better options than Slowey- this year their team SP FIP ranks 5th in the NL @ 3.56, while they're 4th in fWAR at 3.0. As far as Slowey goes w/ Miami, he had a 3.81 FIP in 2013 with a .8 fWAR and .6 bWAR, and this year he has a 3.63 FIP with a .1 fWAR. Slowey's numbers in 2013 would have had him right around the Twins SP with the best numbers, Samuel Deduno, and definitely a bit better than the Twins 2013 "Ace", Kevin Correia.
  22. jokin
    It's a veritable shortstop Murderer's Row at the bottom of the order. It sure looks like Hicks might be on borrowed time- getting pulled on Sunday and out tonight- if/when Fuld passes his concussion test.
  23. jokin
    Actually, it's a rather large issue to point out- central to the discussion and Aaron's allegations, and where I've been going with this thread in terms of the utter hypocrisy around the issue of racism- and Aaron's mischaracterization of racism as being the provident of one political group. Sterling has been a well-known racist throughout his 33 years as owner of the Clippers- and combined with his history as a convicted slumlord, how are some illegally taped private conversations now suddenly filled with such "gravity" and "atrocity"? His "body of work" and public and private conversations over those 33 years possess the actual gravity and atrociousness in this whole situation. And yet, they apparently merely drew nothing but a series of "ho-hums" from the powers that be in the NBA hierarchy. And this includes a group of NBA executives and owners, like David Stern, who are very public in their liberal political persuasions. And organizations like the NAACP apparently prefers the cash and lip service to the cause over the cause itself. Ugly all around.
  24. jokin
    Really? I found it troubling, as that also likely means that (given all of the other ex-Twins who have spurned the Twins offers in recent years) it was likely the only place that offered him. And it's hard to be proud of bringing back aging veterans on a team that is supposed to be in the midst of rebuilding- which leads to this comment: A country club atmosphere invites a culture where "abstract pursuits" lead to the dead ends we've become so accustomed to these last few years, and which are antithetical to the purpose and responsibility of a sports team- which is to entertain while winning games and championships. And it's demonstrable that allowing veterans to return at the margins has done "little harm"- and it's also done significant harm- and given the embarrassing results of the first 6 weeks of the season with respect to roster management, nothing to be proud of.
  25. jokin
    Because that's the term that was used for holding him out of the game.
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