Badsmerf

You are either on to something, or you're on something.

The first step in realizing you have a problem is admitting to it right? Well, apparently the next step either doesn't exist or is locked away in Gringott's to never see the light of day. Thing is, I'm an elitist. Whew. That was more difficult than it seems... actually, na not really. I have a problem reading nonsense and tolerating irrational or outrageous (deemed by me of course) thoughts. Its not that you don't have a right to post about anything you want, its just that you are probably wrong if you feel like: 1) a particular trade makes sense for both teams 2) you've stumbled upon some diamond in the rough no MLB team has yet 3) you disagree with anything I post 4) you don't use stats for arguments (no saber is not from star wars). I don't want to automatically dismiss your posts (unless you meet said criteria), but feel we would all be better off there was a concentrated effort to correct it. That said, lets go over proper baseball discussion etiquette. Stats are king, as are direct quotes, video examples, and the occasional infatuation with young adult boys/men. I understand you think he's great, simma down naw... no need to ruin a good pair of shorts. Lets introduce thinking objectively and critically. Put yourself on the other side of the argument/discussion, what evidence could be used to persuade you? Does talking in circles and using straw-men work? No, lets try real evidence then. If the evidence does not support you then maybe you are wrong. Its ok, I find myself wrong often; I just do it before putting things out on a message board and defending false stance for 5 pages. Again, not everybody is me and appreciate individuality... to a point. Back on track. If you ever feel the need to use "clutch" "scrappy" "does the little things" or any of the other stupid cliches just do us all a favor and punch yourself in the face afterwards. You can post what you want, I would just appreciate you doing to yourself what I can't do when I read it. That is a little dose of elitism for everyone. I'm sure there will be more to come once the regular season starts and I start hearing how Plouffe is no good because he only hits HR's when nobody is on base, or how Correia is pitching well by only giving up 4 runs in 6 IP. Thinking about it already makes me want to punch somebody in the face.

The first step in realizing you have a problem is admitting to it right? Well, apparently the next step either doesn't exist or is locked away in Gringott's to never see the light of day. Thing is, I'm an elitist. Whew. That was more difficult than it seems... actually, na not really. I have a problem reading nonsense and tolerating irrational or outrageous (deemed by me of course) thoughts. Its not that you don't have a right to post about anything you want, its just that you are probably wrong if you feel like: 1) a particular trade makes sense for both teams 2) you've stumbled upon some diamond in the rough no MLB team has yet 3) you disagree with anything I post 4) you don't use stats for arguments (no saber is not from star wars). I don't want to automatically dismiss your posts (unless you meet said criteria), but feel we would all be better off there was a concentrated effort to correct it. That said, lets go over proper baseball discussion etiquette. Stats are king, as are direct quotes, video examples, and the occasional infatuation with young adult boys/men. I understand you think he's great, simma down naw... no need to ruin a good pair of shorts. Lets introduce thinking objectively and critically. Put yourself on the other side of the argument/discussion, what evidence could be used to persuade you? Does talking in circles and using straw-men work? No, lets try real evidence then. If the evidence does not support you then maybe you are wrong. Its ok, I find myself wrong often; I just do it before putting things out on a message board and defending false stance for 5 pages. Again, not everybody is me and appreciate individuality... to a point. Back on track. If you ever feel the need to use "clutch" "scrappy" "does the little things" or any of the other stupid cliches just do us all a favor and punch yourself in the face afterwards. You can post what you want, I would just appreciate you doing to yourself what I can't do when I read it. That is a little dose of elitism for everyone. I'm sure there will be more to come once the regular season starts and I start hearing how Plouffe is no good because he only hits HR's when nobody is on base, or how Correia is pitching well by only giving up 4 runs in 6 IP. Thinking about it already makes me want to punch somebody in the face.

The more high-upside guys in this draft the better for the Twins. Hopefully he continues to impress!

Rest and rehab first. If it still hurts, suck it up and play. If your arm breaks in half = surgery.

I could see Burton maaaybe making the list.

I completely agree. Gardy would never bat someone leadoff without speed! (from now on I'm referring to it as speed!, and will try to work it into my posts from here on out). In the scheme of things, batting first or second wont matter too much if Hicks can get on base like he did in the minors.

Besides being an overall jerk (to say it nicely), Valencia's success in his first season came from a .345 BABIP. While this isn't impossible to do, to put it in perspective Joe Mauer's career BABIP is .345. Valencia was largely unlucky last season sporting a .222 BABIP for all of 2012, and I believe was traded more because of his attitude than his performance. Valencia was also a much better fielder his first season up than his next few. If Valencia would have continued to develop he would have been a quality 3b.

Completely disagree. His problems defensively have more to do with mental errors than physical. 8 of his 17 errors were throwing errors. He also made some very nice plays. The talent is there.

Really? The hate against Americans has to do with belittling a baseball tournament in which the top players for each country don't even play? This isn't the FIFA World Cup. This tournament is in it's infancy and will hopefully keep growing. The USA vs. USSR Semifinal was much more of a global and significant event. They are incomparable in their magnitude on history, denying this is naive. I'm sure the people of the Dominicana are extremely proud of it, and they should be. It was a great tournament and a testament to their success in baseball. Lets not take anything away from them by not putting this tournament on the same level. Hopefully this tournament gains popularity globally and can be put in the same sentence. Right now, as evidence by participating teams and results, the Americas and Japan dominate baseball. The Netherlands, Italy, and Korea have all had positive presence in the WBC so far. Hopefully this leads to more interest in baseball from other countries. Europe has been slow to embrace baseball. Partially, I'm glad the USA isn't winning this tournament consistently (or ever lol). To me, it provides more motivation to other countries to get involved.

Ok, you've shown there is evidence. However, how can you predict it going forward? From a hitting standpoint, it is easy to show trends and point to things like LD%, BABIP, ISO and all kinds of other stats to predict future success. What can you point to (stat, clocked time, ect.) with a player that shows they are more likely to score when on the basepaths? Perhaps using this you can compare it to average RS% and then find where a difference in OBP is negated by speed. Sounds like an interesting blog post to me... shoot, maybe you could even get published! To me, its more work than its worth since it would take a large amount of data to overcome numerous variables that exist.

Teams did stop throwing him FB's and he hit way less HR's before he got injured. Still, he hit over 300 and had an OPS over 800. He was thrown waaay more sliders and he was adjusting to it... hurt his thumb and the season was a struggle from then on. Parker had some great stuff on Plouffe last season. Thing is, he will need to work counts into his favor to see more FB's again. He has shown some pretty good plate discipline, and I felt got screwed plenty last season. As he matures this will even out and allow him to be more consistent. Also, he had a .244 BABIP with a 16% LD% which is pretty unlucky. He was maintaining a 20% LD% prior to the injury so I don't think that is unreasonable. I believe his advanced stats point to him being able to replicate the success he showed last season.

I would champion Mauer for the 2-hole for a few different reasons. The biggest, is that I want him to get more AB's in the season, and hitting second will accomplish this, small amount or not. Also, he isn't a big power threat (or hit many fly balls) so I don't consider him an RBI guy. I would be fine with him hitting 3rd if there were better (more traditional) options on the Twins. I can't justify a low OBP is this position because he can do the small things well. Those type of hitters have a place in the MLB, but its not at the top of a line-up, speed or not.

This whole thread makes me want to slam my head against a wall. Deduno is 28 and has been in professional baseball for 8 years!​ Sure, he looked alright against guys flailing away and getting him out of trouble for a few starts. This is nonsense that he suddenly found "it" and will turn his career around. Reasonable expectations. Maybe he did find a little control, lets see him do it for a little while longer before handing him a starting job. If he was taking the place of Correia I would have no problem with it lol...

You are going to have to do better than one player to player analysis that goes in your favor. Baseball has hundreds of players and has been played over a hundred years. You don't think that little 8.5% difference in SLUG had anything to do with Trout scoring 4% more? Ben Revere also scored about 39% of the time with much less offense behind him. I can see this is an ok example, but a 4% difference in a single season between any given 2 players can happen by luck alone. Look, everybody gets it. Faster players will score more than slower ones. Some, are even better on the basepaths and will separate themselves from guys that are almost as fast. I'm not sure what your point is. Speed can be quantified to show value in some way?

Bluesky.... first off, I appreciate your outside the box thinking. Second, my ****ing god are your posts impossible to read. Not only do you post a documentary with every post, use a (forced?) complex vocabulary, but you do a poor job of clearly defining your argument. Also, does it feel weird that this idea is basically being destroyed by anyone that posts in this thread? I'm not trying to be a jerk, just frustrated in 4 pages of this thread that you've been arguing a hypothetical trend that has no support other than cherry picked stats between two players and a made-up scenario that conveniently shows you to be right. lol. You have to understand why you are getting nowhere with this... right? I think I can agree with you, like many others that have argued against you. Speed will make a difference between 2 players if the separation is large enough. However, you're attempting to see where speed can make up for lack of OBP. Unfortunately for this idea, the only quantifiable stat for speed is SB, unless you want to start clocking guys on the basepaths. It is an impossible argument. It is, however, a valid point IMO. What is the threshold, how do you measure it? This is your problem. I will never, nor will most, accept made-up percentages and numbers to give proof to something. I don't think you're completely wrong, just that you are ignoring obvious factors that contribute to runs being scored far more.

I'm in the same boat Dave. I know it is difficult for me coming from posting on a forum with very few rules to being warned if i call something stupid. It is what it is, I hope Fro comes back.

His timetable got pushed back. I bet he starts in extended spring training and begins the year with Ft. Myers. I wouldn't bet on seeing him before May at the earliest.

''Hendriks threw the ball good,'' Gardenhire said. ''But didn't really change his speeds much. All fastballs tonight. Really weren't many spinners in there, changeups, nothing. I mean, it's pretty impressive that you can throw all fastballs, but it doesn't really work. You've got to mix in your other stuff. We noticed that quite a bit. His fastball, he located it and it was down, which was a good thing. Made one mistake to Salty. He killed it. But for the most part, he was efficient.'' Is that the quote you're referring to? Spring training stats mean little right now. Sounds like Hendriks was focusing on mostly mechanics to me (he referenced it with his bullpen session with Andy). I'm not too worried about Hendriks. He has nothing to prove in AAA and a demotion would delay his progress.

1. speed, high OBP 2. heavy on AVG and OBP, speed can be factored in 3. best all-around hitter 4. highest ISO/OPS on team 5. highest OPS left 6. highest OPS left 7. highest OPS left 8. highest OPS left 9. worst OPS, if any are very similar take the highest OBP here If Gardy had a #2 hitter worthy of the position (like Hudson/Castillo) I wouldn't have a problem with Mauer hitter 3rd. Since he doesn't, putting him there is inserting someone in the top of the lineup that barely belongs on an MLB roster. Poor decision. Other than that I don't mind staggering the line-up to help against specialist RP.

So a solid reliever gets them to 100 wins, but having an elite line-up and rotation wont? I get their bullpen might be soft, but this team is damn good. I will stick to 100 wins all year. The only way I see them not getting there is if they rest at the end of the year and take their foot off the gas or have some major injuries.

I wouldn't put it on the pitching staff, I'd put it on the terrible AB's and giving outs away. I was disgusted watching these guys play. No, this team wasn't patient and didn't even attempt to work counts or make pitchers work. That team should be able to score 4 runs on anybody, and it struggled to generate offense the entire tournament. Harold Reynolds attributed the poor performance to not playing all winter. While I slightly agree with this, I also think they don't work as a unit. There was no reason they shouldn't have been able to knock Deduno out of the game earlier. They sucked. Until the USA gets serious about this tournament they will continue to get beat.

Great thread dudes. One thing that comes to mind immediately about that time is steroids. Not only were the MLB guys doping, but HS kids and college kids were too. A prospect doping would make their numbers look better than they should have and get exposed at higher levels. Just a hypothesis to throw around.

Just because you've been around a long time you know what you're talking about as a reporter? Reusse is just trying to put out some new stuff that MN fans haven't seen yet. HE probably doesn't even believe it, instead just writing it to get views. If you want proof on staggering just watch how the Twins do it. The Rays probably have examples of staggering but I just don't want to look it up to show you. They would be your best bet. The Twins are already starting to stagger if Hicks starts on opening day. Struggling and time in the minors are different. Hendriks arrived kind of early, but he completely dominated the minors so I wouldn't consider him rushed. Dozier is the only one I listed because he didn't demonstrate he was ready or have a lot of time in the minors. Shoot, even Garza, probably the fastest riser through the system I can remember, deserved his promotions and had Twins fans screaming for him before he actually got the start. Point is, this team doesn't rush prospects and an article by Reusse saying they will doesn't change that. I'd like to see some of them sooner than later too, but prospect development takes time and the Twins have​ to get this right.

#1) What about Reusee is so magical to look over 25+ years of past trends of the current regime? Many guesses are based on past history with similar prospects. So I think Reusse is talking out of his ass.... like usual. #2) Some sort of arb schedule? Like the one that is in place in the MLB? This might or might not enter into the Twins decision process. MLB teams usually try to stagger a little bit for payroll reasons. If you have 3+ prospects that are going to get big pay raises in the same year it could make it difficult to accommodate. By staggering you are allowing for more flexibility. #3) Do you have anyone in mind? Looking at the roster, the only spot you might be right about is Dozier and whoever will be the CF this year...