jokin

The subject was "worst starts in MLB history". Hicks qualifies based on the month of April, 2013, alone. And there were many other wretched stretches along the way over 2013 and 2014.

He hurt both writsts in 2014- initially hurt the wrist diving for a flyball in ST, and then reinjured it in May on another defensive mishap, hit by a pitch on the other wrist later in the season, plus the concussion going for a flyball that shut him down, plus the fractured finger in the AZL diving for a flyball. No sliding injuries.

Hicks' first month of his career, April 2013 ( in 88 PAs): BA .113 OPS .356 wRC+ 5 That's a "FIVE", from your guy who batted mostly leadoff that month.

Back to Shane's OP. Hicks' bWAR now sits at 1.3 and his fWAR is at 1.9. He's played in less than half the games. And only been effective enough to produce positive WAR in half the time he's been up with the Twins. He has the highest fWAR for OFers on the team (Rosario is 2nd at 1.6 fWAR). And 3rd highest overall, behind only Dozier and Plouffe. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2015&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&team=8&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0 A remarkable stretch of games in the month of July. While we are very unlikely to continue to see a nearly 2 WAR/month production rate from Hicks going forward (who wouldn't "settle" for 0.5 WAR/month?).... The good thing is, overall, it doesn't look all that fluky. He's much more confident defensively in CF... And while the July BABIP is a little high at .377, but his K-rate and BB-rate for the month are exactly the same at 12.5%. The dude just seems to be "ON" every hittable pitch thrown to him., even though his swing rate isn't up all that much over his career rate- 44.8% http://www.fangraphs.com/statsd.aspx?playerid=5297&position=OF&type=&gds=2015-07-03&gde=2015-07-30&season=

Thankyou. A lot of memory-hole stuff going on here.

No chance of this happening (barring complete collapse over the rest of 2015), Buck is clearly ready for everything at this point, except pitch recognition (and sliding into bases)- he should have that part down if he gets enough of a chance over August and September.*** *** (FWIW- The broadcast team pointed out last night that Buxton starts his rehab assignment next week, and that management expects him back up to the Twins, and playing, sooner rather than later)

I like the concept, especially the "something bigger" part- could Maurer and Kelley be in the mix? Is the James Shields thing still even the remotest of possibilities?

y?

Torch, passed...

I think the criticism was necessary. He was in the Twins doghouse frequently, it wasn't just the putrid performance issues that led to his demotions, he has had "issues" all the way, up to and including this year, both in ST and in June. And all would certainly have been forgiven had he performed anywhere near replacement level- instead, he was one of the worst players in the League, both in 2013 and 2014. And you can't let Twins management off on this issue, their high expectations for Hicks were completely unfounded in 2013. And his MiLB track record contained all the requisite warning signs that the Twins failed to heed. That they continued trotting him out there after it was obvious that he wasn't close to MLB ready was inhumane. By the same token, you have to give management credit for sticking with him, most teams would have cut him loose after last season. I watched him in person very closely on Wednesday, for the first time since May vs. Tampa Bay. What a completely different player- how odd it was to notice- he was the one and only Twins hitter who looked like he was ready to hit ropes vs. Liriano. Referring back to my first look at Hicks last May, although he looked like a different, more aggressive hitter from 2014, he was still pretty awful at the plate. 1-10 for the series, with 4 Ks and 0 BBs in 10 PAs. Are some forgetting?, in his first stint with the Twins, from 5-12 to 6-12, resulted in a .595 OPS and wRC+ of 66? The BABIP was .293, so his bad results wasn't totally related to bad luck. But the big indicator that he was a different player from 2014.... his zSwing% was 70.4% and Swing% was 46.7%. In 2014 his zSwing% was 60.4% and Swing% was 37.3%- (his plate passivity was in the bottom 2 percentile). Something has clicked in a big way, let's hope he can keep that switch flipped permanently to the "ON" position.

Not if you saw Rosario's adventures in RF on Wednesday afternoon (as I witnessed in person, not good). I think LF is Rosario's best spot- he isn't Alex Gordon out there, but he's so much better than the current alternatives.

I disagree to some extent. I saw Meyer throw near the end of last season, near the end of his dominating season in Rochester- the same Rochester at which he has rendered himself virtually useless this year. In that particular game, he had: 8 Ks 3 BBs 2 Hits 2 ER in 6 IP. 56 strikes in 91 pitches- that's a 62% strike rate, that 62% rate was also his rate for the whole 2014 season in AAA. This year, his strike rate is down to an alarming 56.6%- which is in the bottom 10% in the IL. At the game in question, all night, the Louisville hitters swung at air, or never swung at all, mostly just very happy to get out of the batters box ASAP- Meyer frequently was reaching 98 and 99 MPH, plus the devastating slider. Only a Florimon error and a couple of missed DPs kept his performance from being even more dominant. The pitch he struggled most with to throw strikes that night in August was the change-up. Besides the obvious struggle for consistency with his 6'9" frame, the Twins coaching staff and Meyer have never successfully established an effective and reliable 3rd pitch for him.

Because most of us come to give prays to Caesar, not to berry him?

Probably more like a probability (unfortunately).

Kohl Sewart. What did I miss? Not starting on Thursday? (Maybe)

It has been thoroughly documented on TD that the Twins were perturbed on Rule 5 draft day in losing Gilmartin. They made a calculated gamble and lost. Given how things have worked out, he would have looked pretty good in the Twins pen this year. The Mets are chock full of good, young arms, yet they found a spot in the pen for the MLB-untested Gilmartin. Here are the K% numbers for Twins RPs plus Gilmartin (LHP in bold): O'Rourke 31.7% Perkins 22.7 Gilmartin 20.5 Graham 19.4 Duensing 13.6 May 13.5 Fien 13.0 Thompson 12.4 Boyer 10.9

But we don't know that, do we? And decent AAA SPs are also almost a dime a dozen. Regrding taking promising starters and throwing them into the MLB pen, this has been tried, and worked repeatedly, by the Cardinals, and at one time in the past, by the Twins.

For apparently the first time ever, a professional game in the Indy Northern California League was played with a home plate umpire present- but with PitchF/X calling the balls and strikes. This was the first of two games scheduled in the experiment in San Rafael, using automated technology developed by Sportsvision, headquartered in nearby Fremont. Former outfielder Eric Byrnes oversaw the computer. Early in the game, he offered, ''As a matter of fact, not even close'' when announcing a pitch to an entertained crowd. ''I have been pushing for a computerized strike zone for years,'' Byrnes said. ''Just like instant replay was, it is long overdue. Very much looking forward to seeing how the entire process unfolds. I truly believe we are very close to seeing it implemented in the big leagues, just a matter of time.'' Despite the efforts of Byrnes and Sportsvision, it doesn't look like MLB is ready yet, even as they're monitoring the results of this experiment. Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred: Former Twin pitcher, R A Dickey opines on the implications of technology changing baseball: Bonus feature from the article and connected to Dickey's quote... Can you name the unidentified over-exuberant umpire shouting down soft-spoken Jamey Carroll: http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/RlNtuir7NzQ2o1BPLzQQ0Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY3MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/Sports/ap/201507272333847945550

A post-August 1 waiver deal might be a possibility with a salary dump for a team that's out of the hunt or has another alternative, with prospects and/or a PTBNL in return. AJ, Ruiz, Lucroy, Navarro. Wieters- some of whom have extended contracts and/or options.

I would hope whatever trade possibilities come about, that Plouffe isn't traded for just a prospect.

I finally found the due date, July 25. If it goes according to schedule, he misses Sat and Sun home games vs. the Yankees, with a day off on Monday.

Who said it was? I actually think he has a good chance to be a solid middle reliever.

I'm not being obtuse, when the point is refuted, I note it. And you keep talking about me in terms of somehow blaming Twins coaching for Jay's slow start. Quite the opposite is true- I've supported everything that Twins management has done with him thus far. I think he has an excellent chance to be a fast-track major leaguer,perhaps a legit rotation candidate in 2017. And the big exception among the flamethrowers I've already acknowledged: I've previously noted that Berrios, with his smooth and mature-beyond-his-years delivery and supreme control, has required little tinkering. The rest of your examples just aren't very good to serve as refutations: Chargois has had a very rough go physically, missing two years with arm problems. In his first 16 games at AA after his promotion, his K/9 has plummeted and his BB/9 has soared. But I still think he has a good shot to make the big club by mid-2017, let's see how he progresses at AA and AAA. Tonkin appears to be close to becoming labeled AAAA. His FB evidently doesn't have enough movement. His control has gotten progressively worse in his 3 MLB seasons, as has his FIP/xFIP. And he really isn't the definition of a true hard thrower, his MLB FB has averaged 94 MPH. Hu hits 90-93 and his money pitch is a change-up/palmball/splitter. The others are all performing in the lower levels- some, like Landa, who is throwing in the low 90s after surgery don't qualify. I haven't discussed anyone at these levels as examples, too soon in the process- time will tell how they develop. I do like Jorge, but he too throws a 90-91 FB and the familiar pattern of falling K-rate and BB-rate is already taking place in A-ball.

But I haven't said anything about Burdi not working out, "for good". Only that he has had a disastrous setback. Guys like this tend to have a short shelf life, and you want them going forwards, not backwards. I don't know if you're referring to me, but I never criticized the Twins for burying Burdi in AA. I did suggest that he should have started in High A with the intention of having him close out 2014 with a taste of AA to give him an indication of what he needed to focus on in the offseason. And as I stated in the other thread, he would still be on the list for next Twins phenom. I still think he can get back on his AA bike this year and make a near-complete repair leading to potential phenom status, just farther down the developmental time scale from where we were on Draft Day, 2014. And there's probably going to have be some kind of compromise on his delivery issues. As I noted, Jay is right where he should be for now, and I expect him to be starting in AA at some point early in 2016. The Twins might have had some kind of outside contingency plan for Jay going the Finnegan route this year, there were some mixed messages on draft day, but I highly doubt they gave it much more than a 1% chance as a legit possibility. Regarding Duffey, it would be very unusual for a guy who turns 25 this year to suddenly gain an uptick in velocity. I'm guessing the praise he's receiving has been for better command and placement of his FB. The biggest problem is with the third pitch. The Twins have focused on the change, perhaps that has improved under the Twins new philosophy. But even if he has improved in these areas, the problem for Duffey to become a MLB SP remains, he's still going to be around #10 on the Starter depth chart next year, with guys parallel and underneath him breathing down his neck.

Exactly, which is why the "experts" point to the Cespedes trade as being a bad misjudgement on the consequences of his removal from the A's lineup. Plouffe has virtually identical stats and wRC+ of 115, do the Twins make the same kind of move and hand over the job to a promising, but raw rookie, and with a highly unstable situation at SS, besides? I doubt it.