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Oldgoat_MN

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Everything posted by Oldgoat_MN

  1. Oldgoat_MN
    Really great to see Mejia have a good outing. Possibilities...
  2. Oldgoat_MN
    I have a great deal of respect for Bill James. I agree that Rod Carew should never have accumulated more at bats hitting 2nd or 3rd than 1st. Carew did so only because of old school thinking that did not take into account OBP or power (or lack thereof). In baseball you want high OBP guy batting early, but who anywhere would have had Ted Williams bat leadoff? The opportunity to generate RBI has to come into the mix at some point. All the factors have to come into play: OBP, power, speed. If Kennys Vargas has the highest OBP on the team I am still not going to bat him directly in front of Buxton. You are almost certainly giving up bases somewhere along the line if you do so. I also do not believe that if Buxton never again leads off he is a bust. Lineup construction is complex. The ‘perfect’ lineup for a team is debatable. I just don’t think you have one of your biggest power hitters batting first, insuring that they have at least one bat per game with no one on. Especially when they do not lead the team in OBP.
  3. Oldgoat_MN
    If Polanco is on first he has a 100+ foot head start on Buxton. I think he's fast enough to make that work. It's not like Kennys Vargas, who kept Buxton from a triple last year because he wasn't fast enough to score. Polanco has speed.
  4. Oldgoat_MN
    I think we are all rather counting on ESan to have a 'Santana-average' year. If he has a bad year things start to look even more bleak. We really need Gibson or Santiago to step up. I think we will see a lot of youth this year in and out of the starting rotation. Hopefully someone (or two, or more) takes the opportunity and compels the management to take them seriously. Because we seriously need starting pitching.
  5. Oldgoat_MN
    Excellent article. I have rather high hopes for Breslow this season. In addition, I think he can be helpful to the younger pitchers.
  6. Oldgoat_MN
    That is the laziest line in a thread header I have ever seen. Love it.
  7. Oldgoat_MN
    I like Adrianza... for a veteran team. I see no reason for Vogelsong in the starting rotation. Would much rather see a kid getting some MLB experience. Nothing about this do I find encouraging except that Polanco is on the starting roster. Sadly, I'm not at all sure that you're wrong.
  8. Oldgoat_MN
    Buxton batting second is what occurs to me to make sense. I wouldn't start the season that way, but when Buxton shows that he has adapted then it is time, and his ability to hit the ball hard will sometimes score Polanco. I am not a fan of a medium to high HR guy batting leadoff. Try to put someone on base in front of them as often as possible.
  9. Oldgoat_MN
    I certainly hope we see Romero in AA and Melotakis in AAA. That would be nice to see the Twins be aggressive with these pitchers. Melotakis had a high WHIP in AA last year, so that will have to come down. The comment by Randy Rosario is really unusual. Perhaps his agent pointed out that the Twins tend to let starting pitchers hang out in MiLB and never see MLB even if their numbers are better than those of other pitchers (Baxendale and Wheeler vs Dean and Albers last season). Going full time into relief opens an avenue that maybe they see as more likely to result in MLB exposure. If so, smart kid.
  10. Oldgoat_MN
    Gonsalves mentioned in a FanGraphs article: Top MLB Prospects for 2017: The Pitchers (Part 2 of 2) By Marc Hulet Gonsalves was 1 of only 6 mentioned. Stephen Gonsalves, LHP, Twins: This lefty’s name is probably one of the least recognizable on the four lists I’ve compiled in recent weeks. Gonsalves was originally drafted in the fourth round of the 2013 draft and has methodically worked his way up through the Minnesota system. He had a breakout year in 2016 while splitting his time between high-A and double-A — where he had a 1.82 ERA with just 43 hits allowed in 74.1 innings. If he can get off to a quick start to ’17, he could be in the Majors in the summer. The Twins’ rotation should open the year with a mix of modest veteran arms and unproven younger players with varying ceilings. Gonsalves, 22, has a chance to be a solid mid-rotation arm if his command/control holds up and his four-pitch repertoire continues to develop. EDIT: forgot link
  11. Oldgoat_MN
    True. The only one I suspect to be more than an extreme long shot to make a difference to the Twins someday is Rodriguez. As a reliever. Maybe.
  12. Oldgoat_MN
    I very seldom watch television so I don't have cable. When the Twins game is on you'll usually find me at a bar. Doesn't mean I wouldn't appreciate more WBC info. Keep it coming, Dinger!
  13. Oldgoat_MN
    Spendthrift might be a little strong, but mostly I agree with this. Ryan was a quantity over quality guy, believing that if you have 4 guys 1 of them may have a breakout year. He was also acutely aware of their 'floor'. He wanted to make sure he didn't spend money that showed no return. This would also keep you from hiring one player who was really talented and expensive, as then an injury to that 1 player would be a huge loss. That's how we got signings like Nolasco over Kashmir. I actually think that if we are one player away from being a serious contender that Jim Pohlad will cough up what it takes to get that missing link. What owner doesn't want to win a World Series? Here's hoping.
  14. Oldgoat_MN
    Find a charity you hate and donate them. You get get a tax write-off and the charity has to tell people that this is what they have to offer folks, resulting in a loss of esteem and a drop in donations. This is actually a great plan! We could bring down Aryan Nation with this! Win/win!
  15. Oldgoat_MN
    Excellent summation. I remember reading an interview with Justin Morneau where he was talking about rolling his wrists when hitting the ball to gain 'lift'. Vavra (hitting coach at the time) is old school. You don't need to be a physics professor to read that part above in bold and say, "Well, yeah".
  16. Oldgoat_MN
    Exactly Thrylos. This is one of the main concerns I had last year about Terry Ryan. Both Baxendale and Wheeler had better numbers than Dean and Albers. I agree with DocBauer though. I think they've both been passed up now.
  17. Oldgoat_MN
    All these guys need to show something this year or I wouldn't protect any of them. Here's my take: Levi Michael is not going to hit MLB pitching. If taking a guy who hits .215 in AA and moving him to AAA is the answer then you are asking a very odd question. Travis Harrison hasn't hit for an OPS of >.730 since low A ball in 2013. This is not going to be acceptable for a corner OF. David Hurlbut is 27 years old. He had a WHIP >1.3 and 6.0 SO/9 in AA last year. How he got promoted to AAA (where he had a WHIP of 1.538) is a mystery to me. Baseball is cruel. It is a very demanding game and many great athletes (like, say, Michael Jordan) try it and find that they just can't do it. Rodriguez has really only pitched two years. His WHIP was too high but it was better when he moved to A+ in a small sample size. This might be promising. I believe they will want to give him enough rope to either hang himself or use it to climb to AA. He needs to get to at least AA this year, as he will be 25 years old in June. Jason Wheeler should be on the list of pitchers who are considered for MLB action this year. I've read several times that his pitches are not overpowering, but he has good control (1.197 WHIP & 3.05 SO/W in AAA in 2016) and manages to keep his ERA down. It will be interesting to see if he gets to the Show if he continues to pitch like 2016. Fun stuff to ponder. Thanks Seth!
  18. Oldgoat_MN
    Nice breakdown. Thank you. Our OF looks to be the best defensive OF the Twins have had in many years. Offensively there are still questions. None of the 3 have established themselves as someone the opposing team fears. Hopefully that will come. If not, OF are among the easiest to pick up in FA. I, too, am looking forward to see who of Romero, Berrios, May, Gonsalves, Mejia, Thorpe and Melotakis could pan out. If two of them do then you sign a FA pitcher and *poof*, you are competitive. Ah, baseball!
  19. Oldgoat_MN
    Plus: watching players make challenges is hilarious because they're always wrong. Every team will have at least two players that cannot believe that they are ever out, and will challenge every call and waste their team's replay challenges, and we will all get to laugh at them. This reminds me of a book written by a retired NBA basketball referee. I never read the book, but I remember a great quote from it when he was speaking about the players. "Charles Barkley has never committed a foul."
  20. Oldgoat_MN
  21. Oldgoat_MN
    I agree. I find Kepler's comments a concern. We are all pleased that Kepler did not fall flat on his face in 2016, but it's not like he tore up the league. Max Kepler compared to others with >=400 PA 162 of 203 players in WAR, bottom 5% (includes DEF) 154 of 203 in wRC+, bottom 25% 153 of 203 in wOBA, bottom 25% Take out his hot July and Kepler's numbers would be quite poor. This is not an All-Star. He should read and listen. Who knows that Wil Myers wouldn't hit better if he changed his swing? Lots of good articles linked from the comments. Took a long time to read them all. Thanks everyone!
  22. Oldgoat_MN
    A list that makes you think. Thanks Cody. You certainly have Felix Jorge higher than most. We need to see some dominance from him this year or he's going to become another Randy Rosario; a pitcher who hanks out on the 40-man but will probably never see any time in MLB. While his SO/9 is not terribly impressive, his WHIP stays down, so that's something. I like Wander Javier, but there's a lot of love for a guy whose highest level of play is the Dominican Summer League and only had 30 PA there. Hope it goes somewhere. Side note: While Javier had a .308 BA and the highest OPS on the team (1.054), a 16 year old, Victor Tademo (the youngest player on the team), had BA of .311 in 201 PA. Fun stuff.
  23. Oldgoat_MN
    If you're interested, the 8 teams with the highest SP WAR (per FanGraphs) all made the playoffs. Mets led with 18.3 WAR, Indians 8th with 13.8 Orioles (in 18th place with 9.5 WAR) and the Rangers (in 22nd place with 7.9 WAR) were the other two. The Twins had 6.0 WAR. EDIT: data here
  24. Oldgoat_MN
    Yes Thrylos, you're always about the stats (17 year old draftees excluded). That's what I, for one, count on from you. The annoyance with Nolasco was twofold: 1. He was above average on our bad team, but he wasn't really very good (he never posted an ERA+ above 93 for us) 2. When Jim Pohlad said to Terry Ryan, "Get us some pitching, dammit!", TR promptly ran out and spent big money on Ricky Nolasco. All the while a guy like Scott Kazmir was sitting around and eventually signed for fewer years and fewer $/year. Nolasco wound up kind of being 'blamed' for Ryan's signing. TR always seemed more concerned with the floor than the ceiling. So to be fair, Nolasco was what his history showed that he was: a below average NL pitcher.
  25. Oldgoat_MN
    Yeah, long, but it was an excellent look at things. Thank you. The prospect rankings suggest that one day Gordon will be a league average SS, but with the #5 pick overall you always hope for someone who will be an impact player. Nothing against Gordon, just wish he was Trea Turner (and yes The Wise One, our farm system ranking would be even worse). Tyler Jay is a puzzle. Two years ago he couldn't get RH batters out but was death to LH batters. In 2016 his splits weren't far apart at all. If he can bring his A+ WHIP and SO/9 to AA he will get a lot of attention, especially if he shows that he can get RH batters out as well. Those two seasons had very odd splits. Like it wasn't even the same pitcher.
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