Thrylos

Revisionist history and what ifs are dangerous. The answer is that no one can predict what Nolasco could have done for the Twins last season. He could have blown his arm in Spring Training without pitching an inning. (see: Harden, Richard) He is a great addition for 2014 for sure. Now need 2 more SPs, and especially one LHP, so that the likes of Diamond and Albers pitch were they belong (AAA). Calling for 90 games is pretty premature. The 2013 team could have won 90, if Worley pitched the way he pitched in Philly, Harden was back and healthy Diamond, Willingham and Plouffe played like it was 2012, Morneau played like it was the first half of 2010 etc etc etc. Lots of ifs, but...

ERA? how about W-L? 2013 Nolasco: 3.72 SIERA, 3.58 xFIP, 19.8 K%, 1.32 GB/FB 2013 Garza: 3.79 SIERA, 3.73 xFIP, 20.9 K%, 1.01 GB/FB Depends on how you cut it, Nolasco might have actually been better than Garza, if anything As far as grades go, I'd have to give it a 4 too. They need a lefty in the rotation and this will mean Gardy trotting out Diamond. Not. that. great. Go get Kazmir

No problem with the Devil's Advocate thing But getting him on a major league roster would be the equivalent of getting Hudson Boyd on a major league roster a season ago. He is that bad.

the interesting thing is that it is not a preferred destination. Nolasco is a (San Fernando) Valley guy. His preference was to stay home with the Dodgers.

Yeah. that's what the Royals paid for Vargas practically

Details: 4 years at $12 million per a $13M club option for the 5th with an $1M buyout that vests based on innings pitched the last 2 seasons.

Checked it with Ben Badler earlier this morning: The Yankees protected him on their AAA roster so he is not subject to the MiLB portion of the Rule 5 draft. The guy is too raw and way too out of shape (think Prince Fielder Jr) to be able to even sit on an MLB bench. He is safe until he gets his act together and get more that half a GCL season under his belt.

Color me one who would really sour at this site if you got football (and especially) hockey mixed in. Would hate to scour among Vikings and Wild and Wolves posts during this time to the year to find Twins' stuff (like I need to do at 1500, for example.) Keep it focused and clean and if there is a need there could be sister sites. Just my 2c

If the Twins are willing to spend 52% of their projected 2014 revenues for player payroll, they have about $65 million to spend on free agents this off-season. Way more than realistic to get 2 more good pitchers and a bat or two.

Done deal. Nolasco himself and Plouffe confirm. Details here. Still need to find the years and AAV. Note: He made $11.5M in 2013, so I expect it to be between $13-15M AAV and either 3+1 or 4+1.

Salary escalation is an interesting term. I think that a lot of it is perspective. This article looks at free agent costs every season and calculates the cost (in millions) given to free agents per win. Here is a graph from there plotting the cost of win per season starting in 1996. As you can see, from 2006-2013 it is pretty much flat (ups and downs every season.). I bet that if you plot the revenues from 1996-2013, that curve would show a sharper increase and would not be flat from 2006-2013. The scary thing is that the free agent spending increase has lagged revenue growth. So I expect that to catch up at some point... Just some food for thought.

But WAR does indeed have a strong positional component that really favors Catchers, so it is taken into account. I have no issues with the Hall having commemorations of moments (like every no-hitter and perfect game and triple play) and lists of the 10 best on each position or whatever and commemorations of great games (like Morris' game 7). And it does. Maybe it should extend it more. But it does not need to induct all those mediocre to very good players to do this.

Well, I suspect that you all guys have day jobs and knowing that one can probably make more $ per hour panhandling at the right corner than with Adsense, I suspect that this thing is not profitable enough for you to hire full time people, so there are a few big constraints here... I think that you have done great and truly created the best Twins content portal out there. I suspect that it will grow organically in the future as different opportunities arise for you all. There are a few little technical things, but these are just details (btw, Brock, could you up the title character limit on blogs and posts by like 50?) I am certain that this site will continue to improve and grow. One thing that you should not do, and I really do see the potential risk here: the more and more you get closer to the Twins staff (and you are doing this) the more risk there is to cherish this "access" and stop being critical of the organization in fear of losing it. We got the mainstream media for this Just a thought Congrats and thank you.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --- For most of the fans who watched the Minnesota Twins play in 2013, one thing was fairly obvious: the pitchers were taking their sweet time on the mound between pitches. I suspect that the collective gut feeling of the Twins' Territory is that it was bad, but how bad exactly was is? Mike Hargrove in his playing days was nicknamed the human rain delay because of his elaborate routine at the batter's box between pitches. He was the original, but shares the nickname with a pitcher, Steve Trachsel who took his sweet time on the mound between pitches. Because of PitchF/X and because Trachsel pitched his last couple seasons when the technology was there, we now can quantify the average time between pitches for the human rain delay: It is 23.6 seconds. How bad were the Twins? Here is a graph indicating the seconds between pitches of all the Twins' pitchers who pitched more than 3 innings in 2013 (Sorry Tyler Robertson and Jamey Carroll), along with their individual numbers the previous 3 seasons (2010-2012). At the end there is an average of the previous 3 seasons and the difference of 2013 from that average: http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2825/11086601453_577dac3a16_z.jpg Five Twins pitchers, Brian Duensing, Mike Pelfrey, Jared Burton, Casey Fien and Kevin Correia were worse than the human rain delay. And a sixth, Liam Hendriks, was at the ballpark. The MLB average time between pitches is 20.8 seconds, the Twins took a total of 2 more seconds than that in average. Only two players, Shairon Martis and PJ Walters pitched faster than the MLB average. Also, of interest is that other than 3 players (Walters, Cole DeVries and Josh Roenicke; all former Twins now) who decreased their time between pitches in 2013 compared to their 3 previous season average and 2 players (Samuel Deduno and Pedron Hernandez, another former Twin) who remained constant, the rest increased their time between pitches this season. Brian Duensing, Mike Pelfrey, Kevin Correia, Liam Hendriks, Glen Perkins and Vance Worley were the biggest culprits, with Dunsing's and Pelfrey's differentials at an astonishing 3-4 second rate. Working fast and keeping your defense on their toes, has been an axiom as far as successful pitching goes. Is this part of the Twins' woes in 2013? Was the fact that Vance Worley took 2 more seconds between pitches this season and indicator of problems on the mount, which translated to below expectations? The cause and effect are not certain here, but this is something that the Twins might want to address during the 2014 Spring Training.

Do you remember the "no more scholarships" words of Ryan right after his return in the GM position after 2011? Look at who he held accountable for the 2012 and 2013 seasons and reconsider whether or not his words carry any gravity.

I would have zero problem if they signed Pelfrey for the number 3 spot and got 2 more guys better than him for the top of the rotation. This team needs 3 starters. Pelfrey can be the third. About strikeouts: He led the Twins with a 14.9 K%. The second half that became 17.7. (also his GB/FB rate went up to 1.3 the second half.) Nolasco's K% the last 3 seasons: 16.6, 15.0, 19.8. In the NL while facing pitchers. So their K% are comparable. Pelfrey was the Twins' best starter last season. His .337 BABIP did not allow that to translate into ERA and W-Ls, but his 3.99 FIP while recuperating from Tommy John surgery is very hopeful. Plus he is a good presence in the clubhouse by any and every report out there. He might be a bargain compared to the likes of Arroyo (15.1 K% in the NL last season btw) for the number 3 spot for a few seasons...

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php/2495-In-the-path-that-Brian-Dozier-blazed-A-2014-breakout-candidate-for-the-Twins

Arbitrary. I think that the Hall of Fame should be exclusive. There are 76 players with career WAR > 75. This seems like a good number. Drop it down to 65 and it doubles to 134. 60 you got 177. 55, 227. 50, 295. And you have HOFers with WARs in the 20s like Freddie Lindstrom and Ray Schalk (and his career .656 OPS and 83 OPS+). Travesty. Just looking for an objective criterium that is better that the "because I feel this way" that happens today. And I believe that the Hall of Fame should be very exclusive and only for the few very best. Johnny Bench is in with 75.2, Paul Molitor too. The WAR rankings are here.

Yeah, that's possible even likely. And one has to remember that pharmacies and medication control work differently outside the US. There are several places in this world that you could walk to a drug store and buy antibiotics for sure. Not sure whether this applies to the equivalent of schedule II meds here, but...

Word is that the Mets are shopping Daniel Murphy to move Chris Young to his natural second base position. They need 2 OFs this off-season. Murphy is a LHB who started his career as a 3B but has been a super-utility guy playing all IF positions other than SS and LF. He will be in his second arbitration this season and is looking for about $4M or so. 108 OPS+ last season. I am thinking the Twins send Willingham and a position player prospect (other than the top 10) to the Mets for Murphy. He can platoon with Plouffe at 3B and play LF occasionally. Willingham's bat will be fine at Citi Field.

I got him at 73.64 and Larry Walker at 72.63. Bagwell (another RH hitter is at 79.48). Being a DH hurts Thomas. He is borderline, but if you put Thomas in, you got to put Walker... Not that there are not worse players than Thomas who are in. There are. But I prefaced my thing with a. I do not believe in the Hall of Very Good and b. 75 WAR is my cut off.

Hard to argue with those choices... Good stuff. Keep it coming One little detail: Cedar Rapids is in an A league, not an A- league. A- leagues are leagues like the New York Penn Leagues that are short season leagues and an alternative to the higher Rookie Leagues, like the Appalachian. I know a lot of people call the Midwest League, "Low" A league to distinguish from the High A Florida State League, but it is totally inaccurate. It is A. Not Low A or A-

Bonds, Clemens, Maddux, Mussina, Glavine, Schiling, Bagwell. I do not believe in the Hall of Very Good or Mediocre. 75 career WAR is my cut off.

Indeed, but only for the kids. Acria's K% (31ish) was very close to Willingham's (27ish), which in turn was identical to Sano's (27ish) and you did not hear anything about Willingham striking out a lot, but only for the kids. This organization has a different set of measures for veterans than it does for young players and it is too bad...

Interesting: 15/194 (7.7%) of all free agents signed, but 18% (9) of all top 50 FA signed which makes is 6/144 (4.2%) of the non-top 50 free agents Which means that top free agents are signed at a rate four and a half times as fast as the regular Joes. And this actually does not help your argument