Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

jokin

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    11,852

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    8

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    Discussion, yes. Favorable comparisons, no.
  2. jokin
    So....are you tipping your hand on the long-awaited final installment of your prospect list?
  3. jokin
    And his adjustments made for some bizarre batting lines. From 11 BBs in April, to only 13 the rest of the year. 6 HRs in May, 0 in April, 2 the rest of the year. His BB% was 13.3% in April, but only ~6% for the rest of the year. His K% did improve from April, but not that much. For a guy who is as selective at swinging as Joe Mauer, a contact rate like Michael Cuddyer, a swinging strike percentage like Andrew McCutcheon, an O-Swing rate in the top 10 lowest, his BB% was just a little better than Carlos Gomez....... he must have led the league in callled third strikes percentage, if that stat is kept somewhere. His ISO was an impossible-to-fathom low .014 in April and then an incredibly high .255 in May and then bouncing back to .149 in July. He's a Ground Ball (66%)/HR hitter, with only a 10% LD rate, when he pulls the ball from either side. When he goes away or to CF, his Line Drive rate is double (20%), while his GB rate is only ~30%. As a pull hitter, he's got All Star numbers from both sides of the plate: .382/.763/.1145, although qualitatively different: LH pull- .362/.672/.1034 RH pull- .444/.1056/.1500. Going away or to CF, he's a .170BA/.500 OPS hitter. Against outside pitches, should he be bunting more and looking to put the ball on the ground more? Should he better try to sharpen and define his approach as either a speed guy or a power guy? Can he morph into a MLB competent defensive type of patient batter that seems to fit his personality? Or can he have one approach from the left side and another from the right side?
  4. jokin
    Actually, in 2012 after a hot start, Hicks was awful for two whole months- from April 15 through June 19- Hicks was barely batting above the Mendoza line. Curiously, Hicks was installed as the leadoff hitter on June 20, when he started on his tear, batting directly in front of Hermann, Arcia and Colabello.
  5. jokin
    There's virtually zero chance that Meyer is on the roster on opening day, and for Santana, the chances are less than zero. For Pinto, the chances that he sticks the full season with the Twins are maybe a little better than 50-50- but that "pencil" you suggest they use for putting his name on the roster has an eraser on the other end. And Gardy is now in his comfort zone with the chance to stick a grizzled veteran behind the plate on a daily basis, just the slightest chink in Pinto's armor gives the club all they need to go with a Suzuki/Fryer/Hermann trio. The club will do everything in their power to avoid another debacle of the "Twins (wishful) thinking" of a "slow start and adjust" process, ala Hicks. AAA hasn't always been a necessary step, but it is the majority of the time, particularly for slow adjuster-types like Hicks.
  6. jokin
    Hicks has had only one year where he had a respectable split (2012 @ New Britain- .881OPS RH- .828OPS LH). His disastrous year with the Twins, particularly as a left-handed batter, carried over in Rochester, and then, instead of working to correct this and other deficiencies in his game (as the Twins suggested), he took the winter off. The window is closing quickly on Hicks, with Buxton hot on his heels.....As far as switching positions, the Twins could probably do better in a starting RFer and batting in the 8 spot than him if the current gaping holes in his game remain problematic. The time is soon coming for the Twins to tweak their investment in Hicks to see what can be salvaged from that huge talent-set that Hicks possesses. I would say that Hicks needs to duplicate his 2012 performance at Roc. in 2014 or he's soon on a MLB career path as a platoon player or 4th OF (and/or relief pitcher?). I too, see a bounce-back year for Hicks based on his historical learning curve, and I'm hopeful that he proves ready to move up to CF by June, aligning right as Presley has fully demonstrated he's really just a 4th OF...or, gulp.....Presley becomes Hicksie's platoon partner for the rest of 2014?
  7. jokin
    ...Except you left out the part that he was promoted two levels not one, which kind of messes up your "similar improvment" metrics analysis.
  8. jokin
    I disagree. He'd be just fine as a part-time corner OF and 1B, with an occasional stint at 3B against LHP.
  9. jokin
    Simple. Plouffe becomes the Super-UTIL that we all have been clamoring for and Sano beats down the door and into the starting lineup. I am hoping that the Twins aren't thinking too seriously about the Futures game as the moment and venue for their prized prospects debut at a major league park. If Sano is mashing from the outset at AAA, he should be promoted way before August.
  10. jokin
    To be fair, Sano was only 6 months older than Stanton while playing at the similar levels. And as you noted, Sano's performance was absolutely monster relative to both Harper and Stanton. Sano actually improved his BB% after moving to AA, and was playing with an injury for much of the last half of 2013. Besides the wRC+ number for Sano, which dwarfed the others (Harper was only league average @ 100), Sano's ISO was ridiculous relative to the other two- and unlike the other 2 who took a significant drop in ISO upon promotion- he actually INCREASED his ISO on the move up to AA. Sano ISO for A+ and AA: .325/.335 Harper ISO for A+ & AA: .236/.140 Stanton ISO for A+ & AA: .283/.224 Bright future indeed. Hopefully, the future starts soon after the service time issues are resolved.
  11. jokin
    Actually, his minor league history showed he took some time to adjust at mastering each successive level of promotion. The Twins FO ignored that history, inexplicably jumped poor Aaron Hicks not one, but 2 Levels, and then rather unfairly expected a major league level performance- at the lead-off spot no less- from a guy who, other than a meaningless Spring Training, hadn't demonstrated he was ready for the move. This time around should go better, but I would bet that he starts in Roc., and following his past history, will begin to demonstrate mastery of AAA and heat up as springtime temperatures move into the summer month weather. I think the biggest decision on Hicks will be whether or not he remains a switch hitter.
  12. jokin
    Thanks, Jeremy. I had only read the Berardino article. He usually does a good job, and did so in this case, as well. But you seem to excel at dealing with the unanswered questions left dangling from his article. I thought it interesting that Berardino noted that the Twins have established a strong ongoing relationship with Korean teams, the Wild West nature of foreign contract deals there, reference to Suk-min Yoon, and that the Twins had done a similar deal with Bobby Keppel going to a Japanese team in 2010 (completely forgot about that one). http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2013/12/20/twinsights-could-chris-colabello-be-headed-to-korea/
  13. jokin
    Exactly right. No one as far as has I know who has posted here has said anything about giving up on him. If anything, his debut in 2013 was refreshing, from yet another new, very aggressive. left-handed batter who was entirely undaunted about the supposed "unfairness" of Target Field to lefties. It's OK to acknowledge that he's a bad defender, a bad defender who appears to have bad instincts, indicating there isn't much room for improvement. In an OF with 2 other Gold Glove-caliber stud defenders, it won't make virtually any difference, particularly if he turns out to be the premium hitter we all think he can become. And nothing wrong if/when he ends up in the rotation the way the Twins usually play their big hit/no field crew, Dhing for half of his ABs.
  14. jokin
    Thanks for that clarification, Jeremy. Assuming Colabello plays in Korea in 2014, do you have any idea if his return to US baseball at some future point has to go through the Twins, with some sort of pre-emptive rights?
  15. jokin
    Correction, Trevor May was not the Phillies top pitching prospect when the Twins got him, it was Jesse Biddle, or 2 others. Joanthan Mayo's last prospect rating for May as a Phillie was as only their 4th best pitching prospect http://zozone.mlblogs.com/2011/04/03/mlb-coms-top-10-phillies-prospects/ It's funny, have a pretty bad year after your promotion to AA and the Phillies analysts, along with the national guys, immediately moved May from the #1 prospect going into the 2012 season, to "enigmatic", has-been, and ultimately, "cast-off" when finally dispatched to the Twins. Many of those same analysts once hot on him as being a can't-miss part of the opening day 2015 Starting Rotation, now pegged him as a future likely reliever. So obviously, while the jury is still out on May, clearly the shine and glow was already faded from May's armature once Amaro made him available to Terry Ryan.
  16. jokin
    I'm interested in seeing how you treat the pending Colabello move. Would he still have some affiliation/obligation to the Twins?... And where does the alleged $1M posting fee fit into the 2014 payroll (if at all)?
  17. jokin
    Bill Smith thought the same thing about Delmon Young at age 22. Delmon's dWAR/UZR history: Age 20 with the Rays: 0.2....5.7 Age 21 with the Rays: -0.6...-8.0 Age 22 with the Twins: -1.9.....-20.2
  18. jokin
    Yep. Some of our lefties will soon have no role
  19. jokin
    That lofty ranking is because Mayo is the very last stubborn holdout amongst those analysts who previously had given Gilmartin his lofty rankings within the Braves system (He kept Gilmartin as the #4 Braves prospect when everyone else bailed). For the rest of the prospect analysts, Gilmartin's ship has already sailed. I hope Mayo turns out to be the maritime hero and proven right, but at this point, there are a lot more questions than answers on Gilmartin's return to even sea level form.
  20. jokin
    Sorry, but not by any stretch of the imaginiation does Arcia play a decent right field. To put things in their proper perspective, Delmon Young was a better RF than Arcia. (And Delmon only got worse in the OF as the years went by, not better).
  21. jokin
    Wait a minute. Perk is factually incorrect, not once, but twice in the same tweet. Valencia gives credit to, not his, but Perk's, new "alleged teammate" for actually having reached the CWS.......so.....DannyV alone deserves the chiding for their mutual snarkiness?
  22. jokin
    I disagree with your conclusion. What with the catcher concusssion contagion in recent years, there's more than a fighting chance that a contender is going to pay up for reliable catching depth when one of their own goes down.
  23. jokin
    Excellent Nick! That was exactly my first thought. Given Terry's excellent recent track record in moving catchers, once Pinto gets settled in in a few months, as we all anticipate, with the capable backup potential of Hermann, Suzuki could net either a major league ready type prospect (or if he calls the Dodgers, something low minors/high-ceiling type, ala Sulbaran).
  24. jokin
    Noticing that a FA guy who once finished 3rd in ROY, and had a career OPS of .879 against lefties doesn't make Duquette brilliant, but it does make him smart for taking a chance on him as a no-risk guy you can stash in the minor leagues on the off-hand chance that he would find his stroke, and then- here's where the brilliant actually comes into play- carefully inserting him in your lineup where he best has the chance to succeed, and when he does, flipping that lighning in a bottle for someone with more upside, at 3-years of cost-controlled minimum wage, who fills a hole that would have cost you $16.5M to keep the alternative (McClouth).
  25. jokin
    FWIW- he played 10 games at 3B for the Red Sox and didn't DH. But no doubt, he's not a good defender, but Moustakas is awful against LHP, so giving Moustakas a day or perhaps occasionally two off per week probably isn't worse than a wash. Plus, you can still platoon at DH DannyV and also have his pinch hit bat.
×
×
  • Create New...