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jokin

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Everything posted by jokin

  1. jokin
    How so? I'm speculating on what could possibly happen based on the history of the media's established history of unfounded speculating- getting an inch worth of story and taking a mile. Are you denying that they have enough rope from Plouffe's and Braun's shared history to pursue this line? The local media love to find a local angle.
  2. jokin
    Could he just "suspend" doing those interviews?..."agonizing" is the aptly operative adjective here.... although.... I was quite surprised at listening to Terry Steinbach yesterday, postgame, he just single-handedly wrestled the mantle of "Cliche Master" from both Joe and Gardy in one press conference....brutal. And Terry's a guy who invariably has a history of quite insightful interviews. Plouffe seems to do a good job, Doumit too. I heard Casey Fien for the first time last weekend, he was terrific and he brought out some insight on Ullger prepping the outfielders concerning the nuances of Target Field and situational fielding considerations.
  3. jokin
    Upgrades coming on the pitching staff to account for your prediction? Growing maturity in this year's current group of youngsters seeing the bulk of the playing time in 2013 (Hicks, Arcia, Dozier, Florimon)? Pending hole filled at 1B with a significant FA signing upgrade or Parmelee having a breakout season? Seems like lots of variables and significant transaction activity on the part of the GM have to fall into place just right for the Twins to move up to the status of fringe contenders.
  4. jokin
    Gutsy call. Predictions are duly noted and time-stamped on TD.
  5. jokin
    As our local media is wont to do, they won't have to look far to dig up a "local angle" to this rapidly developing story. I'm speaking of course, of the Trevor Plouffe/Ryan Braun connection, per Mackey's article of one year ago http://www.1500espn.com/sportswire/Mackey_Trevor_Plouffes_tear_catches_eye_of_good_friend_Ryan_Braun061512: "Braun, 28, and Plouffe, who turned 26 on Friday, have known each other for about 15 years. Plouffe played youth baseball with Braun's younger brother Steve, who played in the Brewers system from 2008-2010. "Plouffe was the 20th overall pick in 2004, and Braun was the fifth overall pick in 2005, and both signed with the same agent after their respective drafts." "Since Braun was drafted, the two have worked out together every offseason underneath the baseball stadium at Pepperdine University in an old, abandoned gymnasium they call "The Dungeon."" "And this offseason, when Braun was under fire for failing a performance-enhancing drug test, Plouffe defended his friend adamantly on Twitter and to reporters." "I think of him like a little brother," Braun said. "I've known him forever, and he's one of my good friends. ... It's been a lot of fun to watch the success he's had. ..." Trevor has yet to comment on these developments. "Guilt by association" comes naturally to a sensationalistic media. While there is absolutely no evidence concerning Plouffe and PEDs/Biogenesis, will that stop the media from openly speculating on the matter?
  6. jokin
    Hernandez, the "hard throwing" lefty (seems like a good guy) just pitched himself to the DL. Thielbar (who also is a great story and is hard not to like) has just begun his inevitable regression. Next lefty option, step up, please!
  7. jokin
    Nice work, again, Ox. Oops, Iglesias had completely slipped my mind, and I had actually called for his acquisition back during the Peter Gammons/ Gordon Edes table-slamming in demand that the Red Sox acquire Joe Mauer. It looks like Iglesias has to be the front-runner, although he has slowed down quite a bit in July (.635 OPS), he definitely will be the darling of the East Coast media. Even if Iglesias just maintains somewhere near his July level of production, he will get strong consideration at a premium position and playing for a likely post-season favorite.
  8. jokin
    Nice research. Did you have the chance to review where the current set of AL rookies rank order in OPS? David Lough comes to mind as having had a good year, and his OPS is sitting at .757. Hicks would have to go on a pretty torrid stretch just to get to that mark.
  9. jokin
    Great points, which is why I really like baseball guys with football backgrounds. The comedy of errors over some of Span's injuries, finally culminating in his inordinate fear of an MRI machine really hit a sour note. Remember Pujols coming back from his broken wrist injury in about 15 days? That probably would have been a season-ender for Denard (and I regrettably say this as a pretty strong supporter of Span's time here with the Twins).
  10. jokin
    The history of "Augmentation" for Terry Ryan, Part Deux, has not been Second Tier FAs, try 3rd Tier and major reclamation projects only. As far as his own pitching prospects, if TR is really intent on waiting out the "development phase", he has a separate internal situation of repeated busts*** or questionable removals by curious trade, that of its own accord, has been entirely problematic and dicey through both TR 1 and 2, as well as Bill Smith.......and, based on the typical washout rate of legitimate prospect pitching arms, he therefore needs to double the number of legit potential prospects for both the front and back end of the rotation. *** Patrick Reusse brought up the topic this evening, relating how many $Millions that the low-budget Tampa Bay Rays invest in kinesiological development and maintainance, mechanics, video and statistical breakdown and analysis, and injury prevention and remediation, meanwhile, he suggests that the Twins approach is to spread a little Tiger Balm on sore shoulders, manage by magic number pitch count and hope that the PTC philosophy centered around limiting BBs, together with enough lucky and fortunate contact outcomes, will prevail more often than fail. I grant that Patrick may have overstated the case, and that his opinion is somewhat outdated given the club's recent attempts at upgrading its minor league pitching, but his criticism is clearly still valid at the major league level- and there is yet to be evidence presented that the Twins are pursuing upgrades to match what teams like the Rays do in terms of pitching development.
  11. jokin
    I'm with you on the Jair Jurrjens potential move. Cheap, low-risk/high-reward pick-up, potentially better than any current AAA option, could be a potential asset as a starter or in the pen. I guess TR could argue that Bernier is a very temporary placeholder, as soon as they clear the decks on July 31, the roster could look radically different, maybe they even put in a claim on Jurrjen as past of this makeover. (We can hope, anyway.)
  12. jokin
    Your last statement actually argues against your first 2 paragraphs. There are others in the system, on and off the current 40-man roster, that might actually end up being on the team down the road, that could benefit both themselves and the team in being called up and getting some valuable major league experience. A cup of coffee for a rostered guy like Santana could be a good thing, even in a limited role for a week or two, Beresford being added to the 40-man as well (doesn't he have to be added to the 40-man or subject to Rule 5 anyway?). The only rationale I can see is that the Twins can say to future prospective AAAAers that the Twins are trying to sign is that promoting Berner is proof that they, too, will have a genuine opportunity for a shot at the major league roster. Personally, I'd rather they give Bob Dernier another shot, he seems more qualified: Bob Dernier Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com
  13. jokin
    Too many folks applauding and lauding useless financial style points- "risk management" infers that there is also risk involved in not taking on enough risk (commensurate with the available year-to-year budget projection).
  14. jokin
    He can't possibly be worse than Doumit in RF, and Gardy has shown himself to be comfortable throwing Dooms out there.
  15. jokin
    44 posts and I still haven't seen anyone satisfactorily explain the rationale for the promotion of Bob Dernier....oops, I mean Doug Bernier. Maybe that's because probably 90% of the TD faithful had never heard of him before this evening?
  16. jokin
    Spot on. My immediate thought on seeing the headline of the pending roster change was, "Good News..... they saw what I saw on Arcia and they did a well-needed, send a message, shake-up with a couple of other slumping bats, so now Colabello, Pinto and one of Beresford/Robinson/Richardson are getting their long-awaited and well-deserved promotions." And then the actual replacement news??? This is a definite 2/3rds headscratcher.
  17. jokin
    Unfortunately, CC Sabathia is 11- 0 in his last 12 starts against the Twins, with a 2.04 ERA...talk about a tall mountain to climb...
  18. jokin
    Indeed he did, are you making a prediction? We can use another stretch like that starting right now, this team is virtually dead in the water.
  19. jokin
    That's all well and good, it still doesn't account for the wildly different year-on-year discrepancies in the other measures I pointed out.
  20. jokin
    1) If we win one on Thusday....it's called an Exhibition Game... The Twins next game is on Friday against Cleveland. 4) Adam Dunn would be the big-bopping savior to this team right now and . In June and July he's shaken off his old White Sox ways and is returning to his even older vintage National League form. He's led Hicks as they both arduously struggled back across the Mendoza line and his season K% is very close to Arcia's, Hicks's and Thomas's. For these last two months, his BA is in the .290s, his OPS is .990 and his K% is only 23% (the Twins K% as a team on the season is 21%). He's destined for his 2nd season in a row of 40+ HRs and 9th season with 38+. Not worth the 4/$56, to be sure, but I just wish one Twins would step up and put in a sustained set of numbers like Dunn has for the next month and a half.
  21. jokin
    You do realize the Phils had no one left on the bench? Right?
  22. jokin
    Even the Red Sox, Dodgers or Angels?
  23. jokin
    Why not both? Although I would argue that Jurrjens could potentially be better than anyone in AAA as an SP in due time, it's still worth considering him as a very cheap option for the bullpen. He doesn't walk many and he is one of the very best in baseball at keeping the ball in the ballpark. Also, the velocity on his 2-seam FB has returned to pre-injury levels, while he has been holding off on throwing his slider in 2013 much and hasn't thrown the cutter at all, according to Fangraphs. Perhaps he might get those pitches back to pre-injury levels in time. Seems like a no-brainer to at least kick the tires when it's a no-cost for acquisition.
  24. jokin
    On an unfortunate note, Ben Revere broke his foot fouling a ball off of it last night. Too bad, as he had turned most Phillies fans from boo-ers to believers with his hot hitting since May 1, when he finally had adjusted to his new situation. As of Friday, he had a BA of .338 for May, June and July with a .381 OBP. For the months of June and July look at this elite player's list for Total Hits. I know that not all hits are created equal, but Revere was still running in some pretty fast company before this injury debacle: 1) Puig 58 2) Revere 54 3)Trout 52 4) Beltre 52 5) Cabrera 51 5) Wright 51 7) Ellsbury 50 8) Hanley Ramirez 44 Also, from yesterday’s Stat Notes, where Revere ranked among all MLB over the last 30 days: AVG: 1) H Ramirez .412, 2) REVERE .411 OBP: 1) Kipnis .483, …7) REVERE .431 wRC+: 1) H Ramirez 237, …20) REVERE 158 fWAR: 1) Wright 2.3, …16) REVERE 1.2
  25. jokin
    PJ Walters has already passed through waivers.
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