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SwainZag

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Everything posted by SwainZag

  1. SwainZag
    After pulling a ball that almost left the park down the left field line but went foul, Buxton sliced a ball down the right field line that was fair by 5 feet or so and bounced over the wall. It was a sure triple for sure, he was flying around 1st. RBI double anyways. 2-4, 2B, SB and RBI so far.
  2. SwainZag
    I missed his first AB. Buxton struck out in his 3rd at bat. Completely fooled on an inside curveball. Adam started the 6tg, got two groundouts, including a great diving play by Casteel. Gave up a single in a line drive over the 2nd basemen then strick out the last batter on a low inside breaking pitch. He is really imposing on the mound. On a side note, Mark Appel is sitting in the section right next to me, signing a lot of autographs.
  3. SwainZag
    I'm sitting behind home plate. Buxton tracked down a nice fly in right on the warning track to end the 2nd. He got up in the 3rd hit a nice line drive single to center and then stole 2nd easily. Rosario not in the lineup.
  4. SwainZag
    I'm heading down to the Phoenix area tonight and right now it is in the plans to go see the Rafters take on the Desert Dogs tomorrow. If I make it to the game I will be sure to snap a few pictures and give some analysis.
  5. SwainZag
    That was exactly my point, especially on the premise that 9/10 of those possible opening day differences are players that are over the age of 30. Out with the old and in with the new! WIth many of those roster spots already turned over to younger players: Santana, Vargas, Nunez, etc.
  6. SwainZag
    Like it or not, barring injury I think you can conclude Gibson and Nolasco will both be in the rotation next year. One is 26 and coming off a much improved sophomore season and the other is owed big money the next 3 years. Both of them were hampered by bad defense and showed better than their ERA+ can show.
  7. SwainZag
    Please name all the HOF members who developed power in their 30's. Mauer is what he is, a guy who stands 6'5" with a great eye and a pure swing. Mauer's greatest strength will always be his biggest weakness with his critics. People will always look to 2009 when he had his best season. He is 31. Why are people still wating for a power hitter out of him? If he could get back to his career line of 320/400/460 and eventually finding the 2 hole in the lineup that would fit him oh so well, I'd be a very happy camper.
  8. SwainZag
    Haha I'm glad that's what you got out of that. Nothing like using some small sample sizes.
  9. SwainZag
    It's a vicious cycle if you don't have the young players in the ranks come join the big league club. You then fill the holes with waiver claims, minor league FA's and guys who really have no business being anything more than a backup player in the Major Leagues. You promote guys too early and hope they stick and bring in guys on the cheap hoping they can turn it around. With a 25 man roster slated to be stocked with players under the age of 28 and a lot more players moving their way up the ranks....the middle of 2014 was the beginning. 2015 should be fun to watch, even if there are some bumps in the road.
  10. SwainZag
    How many teams have players making decent money on their bench who aren't in a R/L platoon? If you carry 12 pitchers, you will carry a 4 man bench. You will have a backup C, which is taken care of with Suzuki/Pinto. A utility infielder, which for all intents and purposes Nunez is. A 4th OF, whom should have range, right now Schaefer is that guy. At this point I wouldn't mind these 3 as bench players with a 4th spot open. I don't see how a team that has players like Mauer/Vargas/Arcia all in the lineup can hang on a guy like Parmelee. He is fairly 1 dimensional.
  11. SwainZag
    I agree with this for the most part. I would like to a SP and and OF brought in and of course the bullpen revamped through some young internal arms, but really don't think the team needs to go throw big money around this winter. Before you say no improvement, same team, blah, blah, blah......here is the Opening Day Roster from last year, the guys in bold will not or will not likely be on the team. Big difference.....no? Kurt Suzuki Joe Mauer Brian Dozier Trevor Plouffe Pedro Florimon Josh Willingham Aaron Hicks Oswaldo Arcia Jason Kubel Josmil Pinto Chris Colabello Eduardo Escobar Jason Bartlett Phil Hughes Ricky Nolasco Kevin Correia Kyle Gibson Mike Pelfrey ?? Glen Perkins Jared Burton Casey Fien Brian Duensing ?? Sanuel Deduno Caleb Theilbar Anthony Swarzak That's 7 players on the wrong side of 30 all gone and 1 Florimon....and could include Pelfrey and Duensing. 10 of 25! 40% of the roster! A possibility of replacing 9 guys 30+ is pretty amazing. Certainly a gigantic shift in the make up of the team, especially because of the influx we are already seeing with the younger players.
  12. SwainZag
    I agree with this. I love having the option of speed and + defense off the bench, especially if this team rolls with a lineup that includes both Vargas and Arcia. I absolutely love how the Royals use Gore and Dyson so much late in the game, it brings an extra weapon to keep in your back pocket if needed.
  13. SwainZag
    One thing I want to mention about the Royals season besides from the obvious...........look how healthy they have been. All 9 of their regular starting lineup played in 130 or more games, their 4 regular starting pitchers all started 30+ times (The 5th spot was Chen to start the season, 7 starts, and replaced by Duffy, 25 starts) and their core 5 guys in the pen all appeared in 60+ games. It's a huge advantage to have basically your entire roster healthy all season and not have any lingering injury to any core part of your team.
  14. SwainZag
    Yes, his power/slugging is obviously the strong part of this game. He also struck out 23% of the time in 2012, 32% of the time in 2013 and 35.8% last year. He also hasn't played a single inning in a corner OF spot since 2009. I am just not sold on the guy being a 8M a year player. Even with his .735 OPS last year be was a 0.9 WAR player.
  15. SwainZag
    Before they are just overpaying for Rasmus, which one are we going to be getting? The one who hit around .225 with an OBP under .300 in 2011, 2012 and 2014 or the outlier in 2013 of .276/.328/.501? While he does have good pop, outside of 2012, 3 of his last 4 offensive years have been pretty meh. He did only play CF last season, but he was pretty terrible at that as well having a negative value. For a team on a limited spending budget, if overpaying for him is say....8-10-12M a year, isn't there better way they could spend the money? My 2 cents on Mr. Rasmus.
  16. SwainZag
    Ugh 13 man staff should happen in emergency situations only. There is no reason to only have 3 bench options during a game.
  17. SwainZag
    I was much in the camp that they should trade Suzuki instead of giving him the extension, but the silver lining on him reverting back to his career norms is that it would give Pinto every chance to show he could be the starter. As for Arcia, I could totally see that. That run he had in September was just a glimpse of what he can do!
  18. SwainZag
    Sano has more potential than Plouffe, but he IS a better player? Based on what grounds? That's a pure speculative assumption. That's how you go into a season with Hicks as your starting CF. You trade away both players that play the position and pencil in your AA player into the opening day lineup.
  19. SwainZag
    Well when I said that it was implying that Mauer is still on the roster. At this point with this Twins team, I still see there's no way they take on that contract. A pipedream? Sure. I'd love to see Kemp on the Twins, he fills a need for sure. I just can't fathom this organization ever making that kind of move.
  20. SwainZag
    A role player that just put up 4 WAR as a starter. Moustakas had an OPS of .652 Manny Machado had an OPS of 755 and Flaherty had an OPS of .644 Matt Carpenter had an OPS of 750 Pablo Sandoval had an OPS of 739 Trevor Plouffe had an OPS of 751 Weird how two of those teams will make the World Series, but none of them have a starting 3B for a World Series team.
  21. SwainZag
    What more is there to say about Willingham? The Twins signed him to a contract, he had a great year, he had an injury plagued year and then they trade him in 2014. His value was the highest in 2012, but how do you or anyone else even know what was offered? You can't automatically call him a failed signing because they didn't trade him at his peak. The same goes for Suzuki. For all we know they could have been heavily shopping him at the deadline but found no offers they found worth it. With a lack of catchers on the market and Pinto being a big question mark when it comes to defense, a 2 year deal isn't a big deal AND he still has trade value. How in the world could signing Suzuki be considered a failure? You want the team to sign free agents and when one doesn't work out you just yell fail. Who could point to Nolasco coming and having the year he did with the Twins? 6 straight seasons of a FIP below. I believe a lot of people were more on board with the Nolasco signing than the Hughes signing. It looked much more than just signing "just a name." Hindsight sure is 20/20 isn't it? When you have a lot of holes, the last thing you want to do is go throw free agent money to veteran players. That's how you run up a high payroll and not have wins to show for it. Whimmers has been riddled with injuries since being drafted and has never made it out of AA ball. Hendricks obviously didn't pan out, but he was never a big prospect to begin with. For a guy who can't throw strikes, striking out 153 batters in 130 innings in AAA last season sure was something then. Berrios is undersized, no hiding that but that doesn't mean he can't become a successful player. It didn't stop Pedro. Just throwing out Kohl because he is young? He pitched very well in his first full season. If you look for faults you can find them in any player, prospect or not.
  22. SwainZag
    True, though it was in AA and not AA. 19 HR in 233 AB is showing elite power. He also struck out 81 times, or nearly 35% of the time. I don't want to down play his power, but with low batting average and the high K rate....and being that it happened a full year ago, I still don't come to the conclusion "he is ready."
  23. SwainZag
    I really don't see in any universe the Twins taking on that contract. $105M over 5 years is still just insane.
  24. SwainZag
    How can you be so certain he is ready? Was it the .236 he hit with shaky defense a year ago? He hasn't played now in a full season, saying he is ready seems like quite the assumption, especially when you have a 4 WAR player who just had his best season playing 3B.
  25. SwainZag
    Willingham came in and put up a 3.2 WAR and an OPS+ of 143. He was an excellent signing for the 2012 team. He probably should have been traded and not extended, but that doesn't stop the fact that he was a quality FA signing and he did produce. Ricky is 1/4 of the way through his 4 year deal. You can't clamor for the Twins to spend money, sign an SP to a 4 year, $48 million dollar deal....and then berate them when he has the worse season of his career. That's the risk you take when signing free agents. Kurt Suzuki, a free agent signing. A quality free agent signing. 2.2 WAR and a fairly team friendly extension. You can't take that away from the team because they didn't trade him. He is still a quality free agent signing. Teams that have as many holes as the Twins do don't go out and signing big name free agents every year. It just doesn't work that way. Hendricks and Wimmers where never anywhere close to be as highly touted as May and Meyer alone. That doesn't include Berrios or a half a dozen other prospects in the Twins system. They are no good comparisons. I'll give you Aaron Hicks, even though I think the Twins screwed up big time with him trying to count on him when he wasn't even close to be ready for the majors. Of course not all prospects will work out, but calling them all just magic beans isn't correct either. Your statement makes it sound like 1 in every 1000 highly rated prospect works out. I would argue that Top 100 prospects end up working out a higher percentage than paying older veterans to 4-5 year deals. Just like you can't "wait for the fairy tale" of prospects maturing, you just can't throw money at free agents and just expect a great team. You used an example yourself: Ricky Nolasco.
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