jokin

Technically, Burdi, Walker and Turner did see action in the Friday game before it was ruled a rain out. Burid threw a scorelss, hitless, walkess, 1 K, 7 strikes in 9 pitch, inning. Walker hit a double in one AB Turner walked in his single PA.

In addition to Mattingly, the "Hot Three" candidatess, Nevin, Black and Cora are reportedly the highest on the Nats list, with Wotus as the latest dark horse/sleeper candidate most recently mentioned. By comparison, Dusty Baker (who interviewed with Wash. on Saturday) and Gardy seem more like courtesy calls and safety picks should the Nats be unable to land one of the hot shots. ( would think that just the fact that Gardy requires usually 13, and sometimes 14, pitchers, plus oft-times 3 catchers, would make his seamless transition to NL-style ball problematic, at best. From MLB Traderumors:

Nats not satisfied with their first round of interviews, and now looking in a completely different direction? Per MLB Traderumors:

Good summary. But at this point, I'd have to say it's pretty evident that it's more than just an implication- this isn't exactly the first season that this has happened. And it goes the other way too, in terms of misperceptions in talent evaluation, ie, signing/retaining/re-signing/extending sub-optimal/mirage--year-like guys- when they usually should be making the exact opposite move.

What trend? What declining? I'm not seeing it. This is the kind of "Oh Well"... "wait-til-next-year" "Let's just stick with our own internal solution" thinking that has kept Terry from making a serious run at the World Series. First off, consider this: Desmond career slash: .264/.312/.424/.736 OPS+ 99 Desmond 2nd half of 2015: .262/.331/.446/.777 OPS+ 111 That OPS+ of 111 is better or comparable to any season he played except one. OBP of .331 is comparable or better than any single season. Then consider this: Desmond's DRS is trending up, not down over the last 6 seasons. His RF/G has remained steady over the same time frame. In 2015, Desmond's RF/9 is 4.26, Escobar's is 4.06. Career-wise, Desmond has made 57.7% of "50-50" plays/ 34.7% of "Unlikely" plays/ and 6.0% of "Remote" plays. In 2015, his numbers were 75% of "50-50" plays/ 33.3% of "Unlikely" plays/ and 7.7% of "Remote" plays. By these fielding measures, he's demonstrably improved at the position, not trended down. Here's Escobar's comps, they're clearly not in the same universe as Desmond: Career: "50-50" plays- 18.2% "Unlikely" 0.0% "Remote" 0.0% 2015: "50-50" plays- 33.3% "Unlikely" 0.0% "Remote" 0.0% Desmond's demonstrably not washed up, far from it. This is what a really good SS does for his team. And getting away from the Washington craziness might be just the ticket for him to take it to a new level. The lost Twins 1st round pick is no longer a top 5-6 pick as it has been the last 4 years, and it will likely be more than recouped at the other end of Free Agency when: 1)Desmond's contract expires in one or two years- most likely getting back the 1st round pick- or if you flip him at the deadline, you would shoot for a Top 100 prospect- only now, getting a top prospect further along the developmental track than one taken in the draft, and furthermore, 2) You could also recoup the lost pick in 2016 by bidding high in 2nd round or later on a 2016 college commit. 3) And also- through acquiring additional international slot money via the trades that are inevitably coming soon, if Terry would ever decide to start getting a little bit more creative. 4) In the meantime, you'd have a premier SS in Desmond who will provide sorely needed veteran leadership in the infield playing next to Sano, and who has proven that, unlike Escobar, he can play the position at an elite level on an every-day basis (he simultaneously takes some pressure off of Dozier to provide all of the leadership- and at the same time- puts some peer pressure on Dozier to live up to Desmond's standards for a full season and finally nip his 2nd half swoons in the bud), and finally, Desmond is highly incentivized to perform for his looming next contract- and a 5) "Desmond-Dozier keystone combo" has a nice ring to it, and, 6) In Escobar, you'd still have a premier utility man to still get his 400 PAs while capably spelling the SS, 2B and 3B positions on an ongoing basis- keeping everyone fresh in the infield without a big drop-off. This seems like a no-brainer to me if the Twins are really serious about trying to make a run in 2016, there are really no excuses why they shouldn't make a serious run. They can more than afford to sign Desmond and acquire a Catcher and a Bat- they should have Nolasco, Plouffe and Hunter going off of the books.

Yep. It sure seems like there has to be more to the story here. Consider, Caleb T-Bar was drafted one round later than Batts (18th) by the Brewers. Both lefties. Both from smaller-type colleges. Similar-type builds. Batts has had a meteoric rise through the organization in just two years- culminating in a sparkling seaon in High A. while, Thielbar was released after his first two years and had as his only option to continue playing was with the St Paul Saints. Thielbar haa accumulated over one year of service time at better than 1/2 a million$ net, plus lifetime benefits, while, A cub reporter just starting out at a small town newspaper couldn't hope to make half a million in 10 years. Like I said, there has to be more to the story.

Adding teams in Montreal and Monterrey (Mexico) and going to four 4-team divisions can serve to help lower some of the skewing effects of the unbalanced schedule. (MLB is actively looking into these two cities for expansion, timetable uncertain. Slightly off-topic, expansion seems very destined to happen- pitching is incredibly strong now, and team offenses have become nearly as anemic as they were in the late 60s- which in part prompted MLB to expand by FOUR teams in 1969). Expansion and partial realignment also gives MLB the option to eliminate or cut back on interleague play, which also can skew the results if your team happens to draw the weakest or strongest division. Here's one idea which would involve a little League switching (but not unprecedented), but optimally achieves better/tighter geographical integrity and greatly increases divisional time zone consistency, and lowered travel costs- and the compromise can still satisfy MLB's vision for intra-division rivalry intensity through the unbalanced schedule: Red teams: League swtich Blue teams: Expansion teams Green teams: Division switch AL East Toronto Boston NY Detroit AL Central Minnesota KC Chicago Milwaukee AL West LA Oakland Seattle Arizona or Colorado AL South Houston Texas Tampa Bay Monterrey NL East NY Philadelphia Pittsburgh Montreal NL Central Chicago St Louis Cincinnati Cleveland NL West LA SF SD Arizona or Colorado NL South Atlanta Miami Washington Baltimore Cutting back intra-divisional games to say, 14 games- a total of 42 games in all, this would leave 120 games to schedule. This would be a perfect match to fill the schedule with 10 games with each of the remaining 12 intra-league teams. 120 + 42 = 162. Or if they made intra-divisional play to be 16 games per team- a total of only 48 games between divisional rivals- this would leave 114 games to schedule. If you then play each of the other 12 intra-league teams 8 times each for a total of 96 games- you'd have a grand total of 144 games This still would help to balance out the schedule quite a bit. In a 162 game schedule, this would mean leaving 18 games left for some combination of more limited inter-league play and/or expanded intra-league play. Or they could cut the 162 game season back by a few games, and add another round of playoffs with 4 Wild Card teams instead of 2.

I don't think either of us wanted to give you a grade or chastise, rather, just offer a couple random thoughts to help you more pithily "advocate" your position.

Wow. Could there be alot more to the story than this? It's not like a reporter's job pays enough to make that an alluring-enough alternative at age 23. And he could always fall back on writing somewhere down the road. Even if someone with the Twins showed him where he was on the depth chart, wasn't his performance indicative enough that he'd end up having a shot with someone, at some point? Even if he only gathered one year of MLB service time- that still would have netted him well over half a million dollars, plus veterans benefits. And what about an eventual possible opportunity of playing overseas? Strange.

Not all of us know. Nothing is more annoying than when people write about Twins "youngsters" making their MLB debuts, such as Achter and O'Rourke at age 27, Thielbar at 26 and Darnell and Meyer at 25- when it's quite possible that, at least physically, their best years are already behind them, wasted in some minor league ballpark. Tyler Duffey was wildly successful when finally debuting a few months short of his 25th birthday- but why was he demoted back to AA for another 53 innings to start out 2015 after having a very successful season in 2014 across 3 levels? And then only called up when the Twins were absolutely desperate for a starting arm- and then being shocked to see him become their most effective SP? Isn't it fairly obvious that Rogers (also soon 25) probably will make a pretty good RP- possibly should have been called up to fill an RP role when Duensing and Perkns faltered- but a very marginal MLB SP? Sure, not all of those guys mentioned here have the high level of quality stuff of the most-recent draftees, but sadly, the newer group of "power arms" that the Twins have focused on acquiring, appear to be on the same go-slow career-progression-track- and emptying a good chunk of the bullets in their ammo belts before they can put it to good MLB-level use. (Has anyone done studies on what the team-average percentage of one-year-or-longer disabling pitcher arm injuries for young prospects is? Are the Twins typical, or on the high side? I would have to think the percentages are off-the-charts higher for pitchers who already had a history of arm problems in college.)

Cubs-Mets- That was the match-up I was hoping to see. Murphy looks like he's on a mission, and that Mets pitching staff is gutty as all get out. Collins with yet another great, yet humble, post-game interview. His last winning season as a MLB manager was in 1998. Never a major league player, he toiled for years in the Dodger farm system. Now you've got the aw schucks, dry-witted Collins vs. MLB's acknowledged resident genius- Maddon- gonna be fun

Oy... I concur, great post... but that's one mountainous Wall of Text too far. gone. (And I thought I was a wee bit wordy!) May I suggest more paragraph uniformity and double-space breaks between paras?

Nice way to make your AFL debut, kid. Garver's walk, HR and 2B were off of 3 different pitchers, all with AA experience, including the double off of former 1st round pick, Peter Tago, who had performed the best of the aforementioned three in AA. Way to send a ittle AFL debut message... (about what you think of your Twins prospect status downgrade?). Seth, any reason given why Burdi and Reed haven't thrown yet?

Gotta use 2 years to get a more meaningful picture. I don't want Reyes for a variety of issues. Desmond however had a down year. but historically is an elite player at the position, a big power bat for a SS, and a very competent glove who has played the position just about every game for 6 years running. He's rated the #1 SS in terms of fWAR over the last 4 seasons, and #3 over the last 3, and last 2, seasons. A comp between Esco and Desi? They really shouldn't be mentioned in the same sentence. And BTW- the same article mis-characterized Desmond even worse than they did Escobar, "(Desmond) brings (his own) level of inconsistency." Other than a bad first half this year, there's no argument that he's been a premier hitter at the position since 2012. And again, I would only pursue Desmond on a 1 or 2 year deal- assuming that he and his agent come to the conclusion that he needs to rebuild his value for one last big contract.

To me, not "acceptable" enough for a WS contender, which it's time to start shooting for on an annual basis going forward.

I'd settle for a more Blue Jay-like lineup. Adding both those two would do it. Davis would be the closest thing to Jim Thome in Target Field. He's a career .955 OPS hitter here. Would 5/$105 get it done?

I like Escobar. But... over 2014-15, there are 13 qualified SS with a net positive DRS. Escobar isn't one of them (-4). I don't necessarily want Reyes, but Nolasco has to go. Somewhere. Still wish that Twins would kick the tires on Desmond if he can't swing a long-term deal somewhere else.

And a team that drafts him in Rule V can pick Michael with confidence... they know they can 60-day DL him to keep him from cluttering their 25-man all season- right after he sustains his annual injury sometime before or after April 30.

I was wondering the exact same myself. In the Hicks thread, Nick speculated on platooning Arcia with Hicks out of of ST next year. Given the Blue Jays SOP, I'm thinking it's going to happen just about this way:

Cueto's contribution to the Royal run has essentially been one game (tonight). But yeah, both teams really helped themselves now, without obviously crippling themselves in the future.

I disagree with Seth on holding Turner back, unless he completely bombs in Arizona. Ideally in my mind, give Garver a half season as the #1 guy in Chatty, and then put them together in Rochester, both knocking on the door simultaneously. FWIW, I did a little digging, and I think it's somewhat important to note that the overall pitching in the FSL performed markedly better this season for Garver to have to face, than last year when Turner was in the League. The already-very-stingy FSL was even moreso in 2015. For all levels A and above, the League as a whole was in 1st place in R/G, ERA, WHIP, H/9 and HR/9. (The numbers were all markedly improved over the FSL pitchers in 2014). Here are the total batting comps in the FSL. Pretty telling, especially the power drop: 2015- Slash .248/.313/.337/.650 HR 599 2014- Slash .257/.325/.371/.696 HR 873 Besides the other issues that Garver dealt with, perhaps the change in the Pitch/Hit balance of power had a role to play in his statistical drop-off, as well.

Boy, if that isn't the truth...

So it turns out that that Kendrys Morales fella can still hit a little bit? 3 HRs and 1.037 OPS. And despite all previous evidence to the contrary, I guess that Cueto guy can still pitch, too. Some pretty awesome stuff going on, indeed. The next round is yet another nice clash of styles and a number of interesting stories on the relative changes in roles and fortunes for both teams and players. Let's get it started.

AMEN

So this "Baseball Think Factory" you speak of... just one more oxymoronically-named piece of detritus left over after The American Mind was officially closed for good?