Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

biggentleben

Verified Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4,657

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by biggentleben

  1. biggentleben
    Ryan Dempster? Heck, Chipper's agent fielded calls after his goodbye season attempting to convince him to play one more year. Mark Buehrle hasn't officially retired yet, but he basically denied every call his way this offseason, and he's not an ace, but he'd certainly outperform half of the league's #4 guys and save bullpen innings. Radke could have had surgery and tried to return and chose instead to retire.
  2. biggentleben
    The preview doesn't show it working, so I assumed it wasn't LOL
  3. biggentleben
    Da ta!
  4. biggentleben
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-zFQ9fOTSU
  5. biggentleben
    I needs to learn how to do the fancy dancy YouTube thinger ma jigger. Then you all would get plenty of Mitch Hedberg, true comic genius.
  6. biggentleben
    Loved LaRoche throughout his career. One of the true ADD exemptions. Maybe we now know where Morneau ends up...
  7. biggentleben
    I can see on paper why everything says that range, seriously, but there's just a lot of faith put in the Rays system from people that are no longer there to get production from guys who haven't really produced yet.
  8. biggentleben
    I would love South Dakota State to be the 12 over 5 winner just for fun...
  9. biggentleben
    Under. I do not get the projection systems picking them first in the division. I may be selling them short, but they're the team I'd bet on finishing last in the division.
  10. biggentleben
    So, to take this a bit of a different direction... Scenario 1: Same exact play, Dyson throws the pitch, Bautista crushes it... He stands to watch the ball fly out of the park, but makes no intentional motion/look/anything toward the mound. He then flips the bat as he did, or even more demonstratively, and jogs, as he did, in a very normal way around the bases. Scenario 2: Same exact play. Dyson throws the pitch, Bautista crushes it... He stands to watch the ball fly out of the park, similarly no look at the pitcher, then throws his bat down with exuberance and proceeds around the basepaths, pumping his fists, waving on the crowd's reaction, even spinning around and backpedaling a couple steps after enthusiastically shaking hands with his third base coach. ------------------------------------------------- Are either/both of these scenarios acceptable? Was it entirely the nanosecond look to Dyson on the mound that has people enraged with Bautista? Or was it the bat flip? Or is it part of a larger battle in baseball right now where traditionalists feel threatened by the increasing enthusiasm more common from Latin ballplayers that used to be "cute" from one or two guys like Berenguer or Sammy Sosa or whomever, but now seems to be something that happens in nearly every game.
  11. biggentleben
    That's the only nervousness I have with the under. Their lineup has a lot of guys that if they're all hot at the same time could carry them to a tremendous couple of weeks. Davis, Alvarez, Trumbo, Jones, and Hardy all could pile up wins if three of them are hot together.
  12. biggentleben
    Already having issues with the elbow barking for Wieters, though, so a full season is in pretty high question.
  13. biggentleben
    Under, but not by a lot. I think that the East will be closely grouped between 75-90 wins in the AL, as will most divisions in the AL.
  14. biggentleben
    I think they set that up, honestly. I could see it being one more season and done with the way the season ended.
  15. biggentleben
    The finale leaves your jaw on the floor for sure. Definitely had to wade through some season 2 and 3 mess to close up and tie a bow on, but then finished with a big bang. I watched the last episode twice catching little Easter eggs for the next season. I've got hope again for the series.
  16. biggentleben
    Yeah, after the trades of the offseason, Correa is no longer the best shortstop in his own division. That'd be the gentleman in my avatar!
  17. biggentleben
    No, Correa is... I agree with you on Span. He was my first choice the season the Braves signed BJ Upton and the Nationals traded for Span. I know that the Twins and Braves were discussing a JR Graham for Span swap, but the Twins wanted Julio Teheran, and the Braves preferred to have it be either Graham or Sean Gilmartin (both of whom ended up on the Twins eventually anyway, interestingly).
  18. biggentleben
    It's too bad that he's now the second-best shortstop in his own division, but he'll have to live with that, I suppose...
  19. biggentleben
    I can understand that argument. I will absolutely admit a pitching bias, but I would take Kershaw over Trout, personally, as controversial as that would be. Outside of Kershaw, if I'm starting a team, I don't dispute that I'd take Trout over any other guy, but there's at least an argument now for a few other guys like Harper, Machado, Correa, etc., and that would have been laughable two years ago.
  20. biggentleben
    Trout has gone from a guy whose UZR went from a 13.3 number in 2012 to a -9.8 in 2014. He rebounded better in 2015 to a 0.2, but the scouting take was that much of that rebound was more stats catching up to him being a league average guy and his number in 2014 being too far due to poor teammates. His base running value has gone down every single season of his career as well. Add in that he had an unsustainable 25.3% HR/FB rate (4% higher than any season he'd previously had), and had both an increase in the rate of his swings on pitches outside the zone (25.2%, his highest number since his rookie season), and the lowest percentage of balls he made contact with outside of the zone (66.4%, 4% lower than any previous season). Once again, it's not like he's fallen off a cliff, but the signs are there that he's mortal rather than the superhuman he was playing at previously, that's all.
  21. biggentleben
    Absolutely. Like I said, he's gone from "no one in the game is in his stratosphere" to "one of the best 3-5 in the game".
  22. biggentleben
    Yes, that doesn't change that he was considered a significant injury risk. The biggest question on Harper the next season was his eventual position as he was a high school catcher, but, citing no less than the wear on Joe Mauer, the Nationals very publicly stated he would not catch as a pro.
  23. biggentleben
    I'm by no means stating Harper has been better. A lot of Trout's value early in his career was based on defense, and that's already trended the wrong way in both eye test and metrics, and that won't likely go the other direction short of him moving to a corner, which would lessen his value as well. My comment was that for the next 5-10 seasons, the skill set Harper brings to the table is likely going to age better. Certainly no comment on their comparative careers to this point as Trout has obviously out performed him to this point, but even quoting OPS ignores the wrong direction Trout's underlying numbers have taken. He's absolutely elite still, but he's among the top group now, not in a class all his own.
  24. biggentleben
    He was considered an incredible injury risk as well. Tony Gwynn, his college coach, stated that he was a great kid, but that he was worried about his arm.
  25. biggentleben
    Having a generational talent doesn't mean that he had that production yet. That said, the talent Harper has plays for 5-10 more years. Trout is trending the wrong way. Heck, we're 5 years from Harper's draft season, so that he's even up at all is ahead of over half of the guys in his draft class's first round. And yes, Harper was by far the #1 without question. The only debate was #2, and that was among Taillon, Machado, and Drew Pomeranz. Heck, there were some rumors in Strasburg's season about the Nationals negotiating with Ackley as well as Strasburg. Regardless, I think if you watch him play more than highlights, I think you'll enjoy watching his effort. I've been watching him since my viewings in person last summer on mlb.tv, and he's similar every game, hustling harder than most anyone out there on average singles to right to ensure no one gets to second when they shouldn't. He took second on lazy singles into the outfield more than any "power hitter" for sure. I'm 36, and I remember the hype around Harper. I remember talking about him on Braves boards when he was 16, knowing that the Nationals were not only going to be picking first in 2009, but likely in 2010 as well because they were flat out terrible. I remember a number of guys on BYTO ripping into the SI issue when he was 16 (linked).
×
×
  • Create New...