Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

TheLeviathan

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    21,580

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    49

 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 TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    Money talks in free agency. Point blank. Nelson Cruz is an exception in many ways and a poor way to argue the point. Selling at the deadline is just an acknowledgement that the disaster already happened. Sell off what makes sense to sell off, field the best roster you have, and continue to play. No one is suggesting you sit healthy players or send Buxton down to AAA or deal Maeda for a bag of peanuts, merely that scrounging to get .500 shouldn't be the aim here. That has a demonstrably negative effect going forward (worse draft position) and sets the sights on the wrong kind of value to find in a lost season. Yeah....get Maeda right. That's what you do when your season is lost. Get and keep Buxton on the field. But also be willing to experiment with young players and let them work through their struggles without caring about wins and losses. Play hard and put guys out there that represent the future of the team. Slogging through Andrelton Simmons and JA Happ so we can win 80 games instead of 78 has a price too.
  2. TheLeviathan
    On the flip side....why is there a rush to declare him a bench player when he was a top pick and a top prospect at various times in his development? There are a lot of strawmen floating around in this thread and demanding he be Ozzie and Cal Ripkin (in jest or not) is a part of that. It isn't ridiculous the Twins haven't been playing him, but it will be if they continue to sit him on the bench during a lost season. At that point, send him down and play him every day at whatever position you want him at. He can't get better (and might actually get worse) sitting day in and day out. At the same time, given his pedigree, it isn't ridiculous to want to see what this kid has to offer. That's all I want: Let the team decide where he plays and give the kid regular playing time before the year is out.
  3. TheLeviathan
    Highly unlikely. Teams pony up for control so losing a year will significantly ding his value.
  4. TheLeviathan
    I am not a fan of dealing Berrios. But the disaster already happened....no reason to pretend competing for the sake of it has value. The 6th pick has more value than the 12th. That's the value that matters now.
  5. TheLeviathan
    Right now we are absolutely in the mix for top 5. Even with improvements or status quo we are looking at top 10. I guess I don't see our odds of "successfully compete with short term vets" as nearly as good a bet as "sell, play the kids and go from 8th to top 5". Vegas would make your track the heavy dog. I understand as a fan leaning that way, but I'm a cold pragmatist. August has a brutal schedule and .500 means nothing to me.
  6. TheLeviathan
    They mean something, but the majors is another level. We see it with Larnach right now: young players need time to adjust and play through struggles. I am open to where Gordon plays to get that chance, but if you are seriously suggesting he has to be a combo of two of baseball's alltime best shortstops just to play.....then we just aren't having a realistic conversation.
  7. TheLeviathan
    That slate of matchups in August looks rough. 34-39 for a final record of 73-89.
  8. TheLeviathan
    The minors and majors are not the same thing. But I'm not sure that point matters if he has to somehow achieve HOF performance from the bench to get playing time.
  9. TheLeviathan
    I'm confused. He has quite a degree of talent and pedigree to decide he is a bench player without any sustained opportunity to prove otherwise. IMO, as a general rule, young players should be given a real, consistent shot to be successful. Gordon's talent deserves that chance.
  10. TheLeviathan
    Selfishly I'd like to keep Cruz too. But this team only gets one DH and the roster has arguably a handful.
  11. TheLeviathan
    Getting Nick Gordon in the lineup every day at his best position, whatever that is.
  12. TheLeviathan
    Correct. I absolutely see the demonstrably negative effects on the on-field product based on enhanced analytics. But that does nothing.....nothing!....to diminish their accuracy or effectiveness in practice. It's simply a demonstrable fact that any pitcher wanting to keep his job and get paid (see: Gerrit Cole) needs to care about spin rate. They need not care about your feelings about what it does to the game. It is what it is. But what you're arguing @Number3is not what other people are saying. We're talking about how the emphasis on spin rate was altering pitcher performance by way of cheating. And it simply was, that's a fact. You can feel the game is being hurt by analytics, but no one is remotely on that subject. You seem to be repeatedly confusing that.
  13. TheLeviathan
    https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/biden-to-sign-executive-order-aimed-at-promoting-competition-across-the-economy-131418441.html Should be universally celebrated. This administration is crushing the naive "BoTh PartYZ are THe saMe" narrative.
  14. TheLeviathan
    Is it possible to very much agree with the conclusion while completely disowning the methodology?
  15. TheLeviathan
    I was going to post a bunch of analogies about technology and improved understanding of the world and how that leads to great efficiency and knowledge. Maybe not necessarily to a better world, but a better knowledge of it. Essentially an is/ought question which is commonly argued fallaciously. But then I thought.....will you even bother to take some time to think about it? Or will you just very purposely keep getting lost in the weeds? I'll try though. Suffice to say: you can feel however you want about the understanding of spin and other advanced metrics and the aesthetics of that. That changes nothing about how baseball players are recognizing that more spin yields better results. Better results make them more money. So they will seek out more spin whether it makes you feel warm and squishy or not. Whether players in 1882 appreciated it or not is irrelevant. It is what it is. Arguing it's not a thing, when it quite evidently is....is foolish and strange.
  16. TheLeviathan
    Agreed, he's still valuable and on a relatively friendly deal. Plus it's a sell-low point.
  17. TheLeviathan
    I will also agree....CC bragging about hitting people is dumb. The old school ideas about vengeance by fastball is absurdly childish. I love so much of what CC said, but on that we strongly disagree.
  18. TheLeviathan
    The paragraph where he starts out by talking about being old school speaks to my soul. The man is right and people should truly try to hear what he is saying.
  19. TheLeviathan
    You let that point escape you quite stupendously.
  20. TheLeviathan
    It isn't coincidence.....it's July 6th and trade season. No grand conspiracy. If Donaldson is now a half time DH to stay on the field.....I'd argue that's even more reason to move on. The best argument for keeping him is as a full time, good fielding 3B.
  21. TheLeviathan
    Well... I guess I'm confused. Why do you have to dislike him to see the prudence in trading him? I love JD as a player and as a signing. I love Byron Buxton as a person and a player. Making decisions about the team shouldn't include those considerations if moving them is better for the team. This article is about being a GM, not a fanboy. Players age and with age comes increased issues with durability and health. And, yes, he continues to be a health liability just like when we acquired him. (the year in Atlanta off of which we signed him appears to be something of a health fluke) I make no argument we will be downgrading the position to some degree by trading him. Though, given his health issues and the available options, perhaps not as much as some would like to think.
  22. TheLeviathan
    "No reason at all" doesn't feel remotely fair or realistic. I can understand not wanting to move him, but there are plainly obvious reasons it would be prudent.
  23. TheLeviathan
    Well argued Nick and spot on IMO. I like Donaldson and have for a long, long time. (I LOVED that deal for Toronto way back in the olden days) Reality about injuries has to be part of planning your team and it's future and the combo of JD's age and his injuries since arriving are just too much to ignore. If you can free up room to add pitching, while adding some talent for him....you simply have to do it. It's a shame that signing didn't deliver what they thought it would, but you can let that romantic sunk cost decide your future.
  24. TheLeviathan
    Spin rate has a demonstrable, mathematical correlation to success. This is why pitchers were widely cheating to achieve it. While you can argue against it, it doesn't seem like a wise or well informed thing to do. I don't typically argue against water being wet, for instance.
  25. TheLeviathan
    Oh....remember when we found it necessary for three paragraphs to quibble about the word "most" in a cheeky rejoinder? Good times. Well....there he is hurt again just as implied cheekily. I hope for a trade's sake this doesn't last long.
×
×
  • Create New...