Thrylos

Few things in play here: - Yes Hatzen dominated the AAA PCL in 2014 as a 23 year old. 6 GS 27.6 % K%, 2.05 ERA, 2.56 FIP, 0.85 WHIP (but .225 BABIP). - But Rotator Cuff issues since 2012 have limited his playing time. Surgery and back this year; not so good and shut down for shoulder issues after 3 games. The Mariners know his medicals better than anyone else. Shoulder issues are nasty...

Absolutely! But to do that, he has to add 4-5mph to his FB, since it averages 90.2 these days...

Eddie has been there for a while Randy not yet.

I was going through my list of eligible players and I think that the following should be added to this list (resent MiLB FA signees/re-signees) : OF Marcus Knecht, C Joe Maloney, SS Heiker Meneses, LHP Dan Ruzler

At Fort Myers? If so, mystery solved. I have seen Duensing hit 97 in that ballpark according to the OF radar reading

Good stuff. I hope we see him in MN soon. One thing: He does not "throw hard". He has a heavy sinker with good movement that is at 90-91 but looks more. Went back to my ST notes on him and his pitching from 2012 and here is that (got to scroll down), if anyone interested (talking about blast from the past with Sano and Kepler as babies there too...) I remember that talk about him as a starter but that was quietened down pretty quick. His delivery was (have not seen him pitch after his surgery) borderline violent, so not that suited for a starter. Interesting to see how things pan out for him because he needs to be added to the 40-man roster to be protected from the Rule 5.

Here is the writeup that started all of this. Talking more of what mess Mike Redmond's clubhouse was and that the Marlins FO are trying to fix it. The Fernandez story is secondary. Rumors about him being traded came out because of that piece and they were denied. That ESPN blog post is purely speculative and deserves as much attention as anything in the Twins Daily Blogs category (and maybe even less than some of that stuff.) Slow News Week for baseball. Tomorrow things will pick up with the Rule 5 protections, so that will go away. But interesting to see what kind of mess Redmond had going over there...

Nope. They should bring back Kirby. Oh Wait a sec...

The Twins re-signed Marcus Knecht as well

The rule says that someone taken in the Rule 5 draft has to be active for 90 days before placed in the DL, to prevent things like that. If Melotakis is not ready to pitch on opening day, I doubt that any team will take a chance on him and effectively play 3 months with a 24 man roster.

Agreed, given that they are better than Rodriguez. Because someone might thing that re-signing Cotts and his 5.99 FIP might be "strengthening the pen"... This pen needs a couple of high K% late inning arms, preferably one from each side. They may have to trade for those.

They'll add Rogers, they'll add Chargois (they better), they'll add Walker. I'd add Michael (I believe that he turned that corner and be with the Twins this season) Then the equation gets more complex: Do they prefer Darnell and O'Rourke more than of Melotakis/Dean/Williams (not sure he will be drafted anyways?) Do they prefer Achter and Tonkin rather than Jones, Jorge, Landa? I don't think that anyone will draft Harrison. Not ready. They need space for a couple of MLB-ready arms as well. I'd waive Darnell, O'Rourke, Achter and Tonkin and add Melotakis, Jorge and Landa. to the 4 aforementioned. That leaves them 3 spots plus Park's to add MLB-ready relievers and maybe a bat. Trades/non-tenders should also happen. Not sure what others on the 40-man roster (Milone/Fien/Nunez) add to a contender. The only other player who might get picked by the likes of Milwaukee or Philly, is Reynaldo Rodriguez, but I don't see them adding him at this point.

#1 Ryan and Co did not follow Gardenhire out the door... #2 Inability by the aforementioned to make trades and give new life to a competing (but failing quickly) team, unlike their competitors. FWIW: Arcia had a higher overall OPS and OPS+ than Hunter (.706/96 vs .702/89)in the majors. The aforementioned decided to get him to the minors for a lesser player who hit from the wrong side of the plate (check the Twins' numbers against RHPs again; Arcia had a .780 OPS against them... A platoon with Hunter should had been in order but the aforementioned did not think so). Arcia's minors' numbers are irrelevant at this point because he a. was likely frustrated and did not care and b. had nothing to prove at the level. As far as Meyer goes he had a .378 BABIP His 3.28 FIP < 3.66 FIP of 2014. K% dropped a tick (27% to 24%) but BB% was the same (13.1% vs 13.5%). So not that much "unraveling". Other than the fact that the aforementioned thought that the sky was falling. He does have mechanics issues that need to be solved, but the sky is still up and he pitched like he usually pitches other than the BABIP situation. The Pinto situation is a combination of accidents and opinions about his defense (by the aforementioned) that may or may not be true, esp. compared to the guy they trotted out all season. He still might play, if healthy. So other than the Mauer situation (which I might or might not buy,) and Perkins being unprepared and decided to play hurt, the #1 in this post is the root cause of the issues (and if they did something when Perkins was unraveling, see #2 in this post), the Twins could had make the post-season. But they didn't.

Re: Meyer's stuff: It is not "how hard he can throw", it is having a variety of pitches/location/speed to keep hitters guessing. And here is visual evidence (look at the radar gun pictures) of a good 20 mph separation in pitches from a couple years ago. To give you an example, Phil Hughes had an about 16 mph separation last year and a 14 this year. Greinke's FB averaged about 92, but he did have a 20 mph separation in his pitches. Meyer's problem is command and control and it comes from mechanics, imho. The Twins need to find a mechanics guru and have him work with Meyer. Get a repeatable delivery to throw strikes and controllable balls. That's it. Easier said than done, but that's what his problem is. In my book, he still is the only pitcher in the Twins' organization with Ace potential. But I don't use that word (Ace) lightly...

To make space for Matthew LeCroy

Here are the individual votes. 2 writers per team. The MN writers who voted? Gregg Wong & Andy Greder. Alrighty.

That's pretty ridiculous (and easy comparison because Correa and Lindor play the same position) : Lindor 4.6 bWAR, 4.6 fWAR .313/.353/.482, 10.5 UZR, 10 DRS Correa 4.1 bWAR, 3.3 fWAR .275/.340/.458, -6 UZR, 0 DRS (Sano 2.1 bWAR, 2.0 fWAR) Guess the writers are counting HRs and RBI and who made the post-season...

Vargas is one of the two (3-now with Palka) players in the Organization who can hit the ball out as Lefties. The Twins do not need to get rid of him, they might need him in the majors at some point. If and when he is out of options that discussion should be had then. But Ryan did not think much of Big Papi, not sure that he will not repeat his mistake with Baby Papi.

Not really, since the deadlines of exclusive negotiation with your previous team and of accepting a QO are today

Again, this has nothing to do with him allowing fewer walks 21.9% in the majors, 20.5% in his best season 2010

This is a flawed argument, by Cameron and Co, in several levels: A. They are using fangraphs "value", which is fWAR-based, and if WAR is bad in one thing, is in evaluating reliever performance. B. They are throwing a whole bunch of players in a bucket and they are looking into an average imaginary player. That player does not exist. C. They are ignoring stellar performances D. They are ignoring the factors that lead to bad performances. It definitely was not the contracts they signed... E. They do not normalize for anything, including age, defense, team record etc, for example. F. They use a unicorn sample of middle relievers who signed with other teams, instead of all relievers out there (re-signed, arb-eligible, non-eligible; closers, mop up guys etc. ) Yuck.

Here is the thing with this: Your argument works for strikeouts. People will swing at balls. But to get walks you need to throw strikes and if you throw strikes in beer ball you can throw strikes in the independent league or in the minors or in the majors (or in a bullpen session). His problem has been throwing strikes. Let's look at his numbers: 2014 Fresno AAA PCL: 7.4 H/9, 7.0 BB/9 2015 Sugar Land IL ATL: 6.2 H/9, 1.6 BB/9 I think that the throwing strikes and finding the plate is league independent. Shooter Hunt could not throw strikes in beer ball

Earlier this week, and lost among winning the rights to negotiate with Byung-Ho Park, trading Chris Herrmann for Daniel Palka, and Aaron Hicks for John Ryan Murphy, the Twins signed LHP Dan Runzler to a minor league contract. The transaction seems pretty unremarkable, reading something like this: The Twins have signed LHP Dan Runzler from the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League and have assigned him to AAA Rochester Red Wings. Image courtesy of Kyle Terada, USA Today Earlier this week, and lost among winning the rights to negotiate with Byung-Ho Park, trading Chris Herrmann for Daniel Palka, and Aaron Hicks for John Ryan Murphy, the Twins signed LHP Dan Runzler to a minor league contract. The transaction seems pretty unremarkable, reading something like this: The Twins have signed LHP Dan Runzler from the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League and have assigned him to AAA Rochester Red Wings. Dan Runzler is not Andrew Albers or Caleb Thielbar, a couple of unremarkable Twins' minor league free agents originating from the independent leagues and playing in the majors during the Twins' recent dark years. Who is Dan Runzler and why I am so sure that he might actually be a factor? First things first: Dan Runzler is 30 years old, listed at 6'4" and 230 lbs (but his physique looks a lot like that of former Twins' Tyler Robertson; think NFL defensive end.) He is from Santa Monica, CA, and was drafted by the San Francisco Giants from the University or Riverside (CA) in the ninth round of the 2007 draft. At Riverside in his junior (last) season, he was a swing man, starting 10 games (including a complete game) and relieving in 12. He did have an electric fastball in college and added a devastating slider in the Giants' minors, allowing him to make the jump in the majors in 2009, just two seasons after he was drafted. After that season, he was listed as high as number 4 in the Giants' prospect lists. Baseball America had him at number 5 with Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner, Zach Wheeler ahead of him. So he was a highly-regarded prospect. In 2010, the season that the Giants won it all, he was an integral part of their bullpen and has a World Series ring to prove it. The local press held him in the same regard (as a potential closer) with Sergio Romo and Jeremy Affeldt. Not shabby company to have, especially if you can back it up on the mound with a plus-plus 95-97 mph fastball and a 85-88 mph slider, producing a 25.7% K-rate (resulting to 10.2 K/9) and a 2:1 ground ball to fly ball ratio. Think of Francisco Liriano before elbow problems. That season he had a 3.03 ERA and 3.14 FIP. So what happened? A couple of things: Runzler has always been somewhat wild and the command of his slider has been inconsistent. Even in the 2010 season, he had a 5.5 BB/9 and 1.500 WHIP (even with a below average .250 BABIP.) Later in the season he had a knee injury that made him go on a couple of rehab stints and was caught in the numbers game for a team that was after (and won) a World Series. By 2011 he was bypassed in the depth charts on a highly competitive team and a bad shoulder and lat injury that, in his words, "subconsciously made him change his mechanics". In the same piece he called his command problems in 2010 and before, "mental issues". At that point he was demoted. Regardless the source of his problems, he never made it back, was optioned a couple of times and finally outrighted in September of 2013. The Giants released him in July of 2014 to play in Japan. For some reason he never made it. Last season he hooked up as a free agent with the Diamondbacks where he pitched in 39 games (37.7 IP) for the AAA Reno Aces of the Pacific Coast League. His ERA was 5.26 (3.86 FIP), WHIP 2.02 (but an outlandish .407 BABIP.) He walked 28 (6.7 BB/9) and struck out 40 (9.6 K/9.) Encouragingly, his K% was 21.6% and he was close to 3:1 in ground outs : fly outs. He finished the season playing 19 games (17.1 IP) with Sugar Land of the Atlantic League, where he put insane (but almost irrelevant) numbers: 0.52 ERA, 3 BB (1.6 BB/9), 20 K (10.4 K/9), and 0.865 WHIP. The one number that is of interest here is the walk number, which is stellar. And this is a number for which competition does not matter that much because you either throw strikes, or you don't. I think that Runzler might be a great signing for the Twins. Clearly, his issues with command are mechanical and mental. And he admitted that. The fact that he was not throwing as many balls while playing at Sugar Land makes me think that he was not thinking too hard and just throwing in that level. Can he do this come spring training, and hopefully in the majors, for the Twins? Can the Twins help his mechanics? Two very important questions to answer, but lefties who throw 97 mph fastballs and 88 mph sliders do not grow on trees, especially when that repertoire results in 11 K/9 and 2-3:1 GB:FB out ratio and a .212/.282/.263 slash line (his career number) from left hand hitters. ------ Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch View full article

Good stuff as always and (for the ones who did not already know it) this is the #1 Twins' podcast. Love Cole's unfiltered opinion and the fact that he speaks it without trying not to hurt his former organization's or teammates' feelings. Keep it going guys, and thank you.