biggentleben

And I just got my computer screen clean! Dang you!!

Matt, I've shared with you before how much I love these, and I'm glad to see you posting them here again! The Molitor story in the comments is a big reason why....seems like there is something like that coming out of about one of your Twitter posts every 10 days or so as well. Great memories to share!

I also know from my work with the mentally ill that someone with borderline personality disorder is nearly 90% to report a rape or attempted rape within their lifetime. (Last numbers I saw before I left the field were in the upper 80s, but had risen 2-3% over the past 5 years or so, and that was 2 years ago) The town I live in has a high percentage of SPMI adults (severe and persistent mental illness - basically, the biggies, schizophrenia, bipolar, verifiable personality disorders), and in working at the jail part-time I was not surprised to find that there was nearly a 20% false report number. I worked with someone who made 11 reports of sexual assault or rape within one year. One had any merit. So right there are 10 claims that get added to the general number, but sans her mental illness, she most likely doesn't report a thing falsely, or at least nowhere near that frequently, and that can significantly skew the number, whatever the true number may be. Let's not utilize a number already skewed by those who do not have the capacity to understand their role in affecting the other persons who come forward to further victimize those who are brave enough to come forward in the first place.

Intriguing that the Twins site this morning before this broke had front and center an article about how pleased the Twins were with Sano's progress this winter so far. No such article anymore on the Twins front page....

And that, in the end, is what Myjah, myself, and TD are all offering to the degree we can each offer it - a platform for those same ideas to reach more eyes than an independent blog most likely would. It's not going to replace a day job, but there's a chance to see how you like it, and if you find your niche and want to grow it, you have a platform to grow that audience before you move elsewhere!

Took my time to read through this and think through how I wanted to answer/opine on this... I came to TD from BYTO originally as someone who had "friends" in the forum from that site. I'd written a few articles at BYTO, and not long after TD began, I got the opportunity to do my first writing. I've been spending the time since slowly building into my writing before really pushing into it a few years back. Finding my niche at that site led to a lot of great connections within the game that drove my passion even further and now has me editing two sites with FanSided. Of course, the downfall of that is recruiting for those sites, so I can completely understand the issues you're running into here at TD. I know that we've put out the feeler many times over that we're looking for writers at both sites, and bringing on writers is fairly slow, even though one of the two sites is a pay site. That said, one of the things that I have done with Call To The Pen (and I'd like to think that I offered with the one writer interested at Puckett's Pond) is intentional work with writers to help them gain views and understand what will help to drive views (and those search engine positions) on their articles. If the long-term intention with TD is to recruit and foster a team of writers that continues to grow, it'd probably be advantageous to consider one of the crew to be someone who intentionally oversees the blogs, promoting the blogs, coaching writers, and initiating first-time writers to the best ways to draw eyes so early on writers can see some success to spur the desire into further writing. I love the site, all, and I'll certainly be around on the forums!

Hear you there...not that I dislike Puckett, but I wouldn't keep the name if I had my drothers at PP....

I can speak for PP...not much for us to offer! LOL

I think this is a move that really helps the Indians. Alonso was a guy who very notably worked on his swing angle and hit for much more power, but he's always played quality 1B defense and had a good contact ability. Not a huge drop off from Santana, for a lot less money, giving them a lot of flexibility to not just pursue options at the deadline or get depth this offseason, but also to bring back Allen and Miller, both free agents after 2018.

The update just shuffled any Rule 5 guys. No change in guys that were acquired yet. John typically does that in February.

Tanaka has been getting the same injections for 2 years now and avoided TJS.

I left it alone for people to chime in, but swing plane is one of the things that I really enjoy discussing, especially with the guys at Driveline. They have tremendous research into the makeup of the ideal swing and it's absolutely fascinating to listen to them break down a swing step by step.

Yankees lost enough free agents this offseason that they're still below the luxury threshold. They're looking still to trim in order to have the freedom to pursue some free agents for the rotation, but they're not over right now.

The reason that Denver is a terrible place to pitch has never, ever been about home runs to any player or informed person about the game. The thin air of Coors drastically affects spin rates. Greg Maddux used to say that he could pick the wings off of a fly with his change up in normal elevation, but he'd have trouble hitting the catcher's mitt in Colorado because he had such spin on his change. He's one of those guys who would likely break all sorts of Statcast spin rate records the way his fastball, curve, and change would move at less than max effort or premium velocity. Charlie Morton just got done having the postseason of a lifetime by and large due to his spin rate on his sinking fastball and his curve. Both are dwarfed by the same rates for Chatwood. Morton likely made Chatwood a lot of money, but Coors absolutely affected how he could pitch, having to scrap his two best pitches at home and then find the feel for them on the road. It's a pretty insane thing to do to a pitcher. I'm not sure I would call this a bargain, but Chatwood would have definitely been on my short list of preferred targets behind the top 4 on the market.

They're only allowed to use one pool or the other. They reset each July 2nd. The current pool that ends next July 1st only has roughly $1.2M in it, so that wouldn't be enough to sign Severino. The 2018-2019 pool can be used only with these Braves prospects at this point, and the Twins would be getting likely $5.75M in 2018-2019 due to getting a comp B pick, so they would have started with one of the largest pools in baseball. However, signing a player with a qualifying offer would cost the Twins $500K in international funds. They obviously did not have major verbal deals set up for 2018-2019, as much of the league does already, so they were willing ot spend $2.5M of that $5.75M, leaving $3.25M before signings.

Sounds like the team really wants Marte back and he's negotiating with them. Yenci Pena signed with the Rangers today. Contreras is an impressive guy in his top end velo, but, man, would Del Rosario have been a great get. The Royals really got two of the absolute gems from the Braves players. I'd love to see the Twins re-open negotiations with Mauro Bonifacio or jump in on Raimfer Salinas, one of the best prospects in Venezuela in this class.

Offensive upside, yes. I love all of them, but his peak upside exceeds that of that list with just the bat. Overall, perhaps not, but certainly offensively.

Based on my Facebook feed of MN hardcore righties, nothing changed. In fact, they're rejoicing on Franken and expecting a big swing to an R in replacing him long-term.

LOL. I think the stuff on Maitan is overblown. There are plenty who still think just as high as Maitan - it was just universal before. He went from 170 as a 6'1" 15 year-old to 205 as a 6'3" 17 year old. He was injured this spring and tried to play through it throughout the year, and put on some "bad" weight, the first real bad weight to his frame, putting him up to 215. He's maintained weight and lost nearly 2 full inches from his waist at this point. The video from this fall shows him ripping the ball and as cut as he's ever been physically. The guy who truly backslid had done so before his deal was even official in Abrahan Gutierrez, who likely agreed to the just under $4M deal he got well ahead of 2016 J2 as he had significant negatives in the months leading up to J2. Fittingly, he got roughly 10% of what he originally got.

It's also what Ohtani is used to - essentially throwing once weekly. There are few guys on that list of the first 5 that are primarily injury guys that would be a "lesser" pitcher. When healthy, each is a legit MLB talent in the rotation. it's been mentioned as a selling point to Ohtani, quite feasibly. I'm just thinking that the Angels would be an ideal team for that setup when compared to other teams.

For those reading prospect reviews, I'd check out 2080, Baseball Census, and Prospect 1500 for options for different perspective, often very good perspective. One of the guys I really respect as far as his eye, John Calvagno, expanded his Notes from the Sally site to include the Appy League last year, so that's possibly applicable for Twins fans as well.

I wrote this up at CTTP, but the Angels are a perfect team for a six-man rotation, as they have injury issues with Alex Meyer, Tyler Skaggs, Matt Shoemaker, Garrett Richards, and Andrew Heaney, and J.C. Ramirez and Parker Bridwell return, but they had not been starters in the majors before 2017, so it's really an ideal team for an extended rotation.

And he'd have the highest offensive upside of any of them...

I mentioned this in my article on the move over at Puckett's Pond, but Pena and Contreras would both make sense. Pena's always been a guy who profiled as a 3B, but he played SS in the DSL (and not well) due to the load of middle infield the Braves had in the GCL this year. Contreras is a fire-balling arm that doesn't have a ton of polish behind that yet, so he'd be a lottery ticket, but they've done well with that profile recently in the system.

Negret's a Royal.