jokin

The next Erik Komatsu?

fify

I have acknowledged this fact in my posts, you have to be in a position to take multiple swings. I think John Bonnes was being rather glib in his assessment of the deal, rather than luck, they are demonstrating their utilization of a very good strategy, they didn't invent it, it's been around since FA began... in fact, they had just done the same thing the year before with Paul Maholm- who happened to be a pitcher that myself and others were clamoring for the Twins to sign and flip in preseaon 2012.

Actually, it was the opposite of clamor. And Feldman was one of the very first signings. And if you look at his peripherals and the pedigree of the organization that developed him, there was value in the signing, shrewd signing, shrewd flipping.

SPEED and CALIBRATION Just a musing on my part after reading your colorful post, are you in any way related to that "SPEED guy" who started that rather entertaining trope back in Spring Training? The forum was in definite need for a new trope. Let's see how we run with it. Thankyou.

Hicks' father instilled him on switch-hitting from a very early age- it appears to be a non-negotiable for him......; although in listening to Gardy on his radio show this morning, he supposedly invoked the Ghost of Chili Davis to Aaron (Chili supposedly thought it up himself that batting from the same side as a knuckleballer would yield an advantage to the hitter), to convince Hicks that he, too, would be at an advantage batting RHed against the knuckleballer, RA Dickey. Any more Ghosts the Twins can invoke to aid in the Hicks Calibration Process?

And who has chosen the path towards this "denuding" of which you speak?

This is not correct comparison-matching-- A career #4-5 starter's haul vs. a potential ace (as he now is proving to be in Pittsburgh). And you completely discount the potential for outbidding other team's for their top international targets. They just bumped up their pool money to sign the #1 and #3 international prospects and another in the top 30. I'd say the Cubs didn't get much in terms of future value---NO!--- they potentially got the mother-lode of potential impact players whose future value is yet to be determined, but could all be game -changers. Plus, they got Arietta and Strop on the cheap, far more cheaply repeating the bet they made on Feldman this year (Arietta's career xFIP is 4.45---Feldman's career xFIP is 4.44), and Maholm (career xFIP was 4.22 at time of trade), last year. Strop too, people forget how far down and close to out of baseball for good that Burton actually was- Burton hadn't been an effective pitcher since 2008 when TR signed him.

You do realize that your "comps" aren't comparable at all?.... and that you are putting your absolutist opinion up against almost universal praise for the Cubs by neutral national writers for the merits of the transaction? Right? I humbly ask that you reconsider your stand, which IMHO, seems biased in defending the Twins Fo inaction in conducting shrewd trades like this- seemingly at any cost, rather than considering the facts on the table.

I didn't make an assessment, this is a quiz question. One team was very doggedly active in the offseason in making their 94 loss team relevant, sooner rather than later. Another team was very active in half-rebuild/half-patch up the mother ship with spit and baling wire.

Maybe...maybe not...

I concur with all of your excellent strategic points, making these moves would have clearly garnered a B+ in my book. But.... I don't see how he merits that grade by NOT doing these things.

Revere had a horrible start in April and got benched- not much has been going difficultly for him since then. In fact, his season has rebounded quite nicely and he has clearly shown that he has made the adjustment to the NL and is steadily improving month-over-month. In addition to his 20 SB, (Dozier leads the Twins w/ 7), here are his month-to-month slash lines since May 1: May: .312/361/.351/.712 June: .364/.390/.414/.804 July: .381/.381/.429/.810 Last 30: .394/.417/.455/872 And he's had a large chunk of his ABs batting 7th, 8th or 9th in the lineup, no plate protection at the top of the order like Joe Mauer provided in years' past.

Parmelee had a bad April like many others on the Twins, this is masking a lot of underlying improvement since then- in short, he has produced at or above league average since May 1. For May, he OPSd at- .750>>>>vs>>>> League Average RF OPS- .753 For last 30 days, OPS- .800>>>>vs>>>> League Average RF OPS- .754 The jury is, and should be, still out on Parmelee, which is why he needs to play every day to let a fair and final verdict to come in for him. While I accept that Correia hasn't been a complete bust, I'm not sure if this is true- as borne out by his underlying numbers, and the trend is clearly not his friend. As documented elsewhere, Correia has had the good fortune of an unsustainably high strand rate and perhaps more importantly, of pitching the majority of his games against the weaker teams in MLB (In his 17 starts, only 5 teams have winning records!), and a large over-represented percent of teams who rank in the bottom quartile in team batting stats. (7 of 17 starts have been against teams in the bottom quartile in batting). Given that, his underlying stats show that he is who we thought he'd be. Besides overperforming his career ERA number- he's currently at 4.19 compared to 4.51 for his career- the other numbers aren't as flattering. 2013 tERA: 5.21>>>> Career tERA: 4.77 2013 FIP: 4.64>>>>> Career FIP: 4.49 2013 SIERA: 4.49>>> Career SIERA: 4.43 2013 OBA: .292>>>> Career OBA: .268 And more foreboding, since the great April start for Correia, here are his ERA results by month: May: 6.26 June: 4.29 (League average in June was 3.97- 5 of 6 starts against teams with losing records) July: 6.00 Not consistent enough for trade bait to a contender, but just good enough to keep his spot in the rotation- pretty close to what we thought he'd be.

I just consulted Baseball-reference. They have both Aaron Hicks and Clete Thomas with a positive dWAR of 0.3. I agree with your opening sentence- defensive stats are horrid, this is clear evidence that BR's d-stats are "horrider".

No question that defensive stats are a quandry. But Hicks's fangraphs numbers are evidence of much of what the eye test confirms-- Inexplicable bobbles, crazy routes and poor positioning alongside some very good-to-spectacular plays.

I want to be of aid in helping this fact sink in.

Sorry, I stand corrected on the info, but not on my point. I came mid-thread to this specific page and was only going off of what you posted from Brock's edited post in your post #33.

This is a Carlson School of Business-level question, but probably will be on the summer school final in the School of Sports Management- The Cleveland Indians were 68-94 in 2012 with a payroll of $65.4M. They currently are 45-42 with a payroll of $80.6M. The Minnesota Twins finished just behind the Indians in the AL Central, with a record of 66-96 and a payroll of $100.4M. They currently are 37-47 with a payroll of $82.0M. Both teams are similarly middle demographic market teams, housed in modern, downtown ballparks, playing in the same league and same division. Contrast and compare the performance of the FO and the 2 teams' General Managers, Chris Antonetti and Terry Ryan. Taking all factors into account....assign letter grades for their performance over the first half of the 2013 season....and provide evidence which club will be more successful at the end of the 2014 season. Show your work.

I fully agree that his career track record suggests that he has a good chance at being a ++ defender. Given his career, it was a given that he would struggle during his first go-round in the majors, especially skipping a level. What I found most surprising was how raw his CF defense was, as this was an area where he had been advertised as major-league-ready for quite some time. His routes, bobbles and positioning have been curious at times, at other times he does the spectacular---For the record, he had both aspects of that on display on Saturday. But at this point, it simply isn't true that he is an average defender-- among qualified CFers, Hicks currently ranks #15 out of 20, with a UZR of -3.0. His RngR is -6.0, ranking him 17th of 20. Major League Leaderboards » 2013 » Center Feilders » Fielding Statistics | FanGraphs Baseball I think Hicks will get there, he has the athleticism and the moxie, I'm guessing he'll be among the top ten CF at the plate, and in the field, at this time next year. And hopefully, he'll be the answer at leadoff starting next season, and holding it down competently until Buxton arrives to take that spot in the batting order.

Where did he say anything about Saunders being the acquisition target? Other teams in similar situations this year have turned their molehills into foothills, if not necessarily mountains. In Ryan's case, I think you can fairly say he's made his molehill into a mound--Yippee!

It depends on if/when he became closer friends with Ryan Braun...

I guess batting RH against MLB RH knuckleballers doesn't count?

Ryan would have had to been clairvoyant to anticipate Marcum's March neck injury. I never liked or wanted Joe Saunders. Scott Feldman (like Paul Maholm last year) has already been successfully moved for prospects by the Cubs. (Remember that they also got stuck with Scott Baker and his injury- why always the excuses for the Twins FO? The Cubs have been very shrewd, spending a little money on guys they can leverage for midseason trades- in this case they got a very decent SP prospect and additional big International pool money). The Twins clearly needed to go one bridge further in shoring up the Rotation, and they can't use payroll as an excuse. There certainly were trade options for SP acquisition that haven't been fleshed out too much on TD- Ervin Santana, Ricky Nolasco and Jason Vargas all could have been acquired without giving up much at all (or trades made from positions of depth). These kind of woulda, couldas and shouldas are why the GMs make the big bucks.

If true (certainly possible) that no sensical offers came in for Willingham, it was kind-of incumbent upon Ryan to make creative counter-offers that made more sense.