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TheLeviathan

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Everything posted by TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    I took from your comment that the team will have 30M coming off after this year. What did you mean by that, if not to imply they'd have money to spend? We've been hearing for half a decade that Mauer's contract was stopping us from being aggressive. And yet here we are....
  2. TheLeviathan
    At this point, I'm not sure why freeing up money should matter to us as fans?
  3. TheLeviathan
    Well said. Honestly....that argument is so tiresome. People refer to the actions under a GM as short-hand. Trying to dissect that to make a silly point is so...damn...tiresome. Every single transaction a GM makes has layers of underlings deeply involved. Just let posters make short-hand comments without trying to start a thing every time. (Especially since we only seem to see this when the name Bill Smith appears) Schoop might have been the brainchild of some scout or the hitting coach or someone other than Levine. But, good or bad, we'll assign the responsibility to Levine.
  4. TheLeviathan
    On the plus side....LEN3 frequently has no idea what he's talking about. So there's that.
  5. TheLeviathan
    Working with kids is highly rewarding. And extremely stressful. The life of every teacher, day care worker, social service worker, and all the others that work with kids live this every day.
  6. TheLeviathan
    This was sarcasm right? Not that I mind Schoop...but Torryes has a .664 OPS. And the Yankees thanked him on his way out. But that's the talent landscape in the MI. It's sorta bad.
  7. TheLeviathan
    Plus Cleveland selling off. I don't mind this signing if the Twins think they can rekindle 2017. But if that's the case....sign him for longer than a year.
  8. TheLeviathan
    Congrats! We are in the home study process right now and plan to adopt in the next year. Thanks for being willing to do this for these kids.
  9. TheLeviathan
    It's not clear to me that any of these guys will be better than Adrianza next year. Probably Holt, but maybe not. And that's sorta my point.
  10. TheLeviathan
    I don't believe every baseball player should be playing at SS and 2B. I think that position group will always have a scarcity of good hitters that can capably field those positions at the level required in the big leagues. It's a rare skill set to handle 2B/SS and be a good major league hitter. Hence the scarcity. No amount of rational belief in flexibility should lead you to a different conclusion. This is an example of when you start to veer away from something I can agree with.
  11. TheLeviathan
    But that didn't really answer my question. .750 OPS players, especially those who can play SS and 2B, are scarce. I'm not even sure that's a debatable contention. I understand your point about utilization, I don't think I disagree. But that doesn't seem to address the scarcity issue and your response to that. Maybe you did mean something entirely different? Should that be my takeaway?
  12. TheLeviathan
    That last paragraph will be enough for his fans to declare him a genius again though. I loved GOT, but I think it's time to start wondering if it may end up being the most disappointing book series of all time.
  13. TheLeviathan
    Yup. One can argue that Adrianza is a bad utility player, but one must ignore facts to do so. Brock Holt and Marwin Gonzalez were the only two players significantly better in their role than Adrianza last year. Most everyone else is a .675-.725 OPS player with ranges of defensive ability.
  14. TheLeviathan
    How are they not scarce? Scarcity means, by definition, that there isn't enough to meet demand. That is almost certainly true. So I'm not sure that's the point you're actually making?
  15. TheLeviathan
    I disagree that it is easy on any hand. I'm all for providing opportunity to players with upside, but if it was at all easy to identify than everyone would be doing it. This kind of identification is what separates the wheat from the chaff. Good front offices should be trying, of that I am in lock-step agreement. But it isn't easy to achieve. And if now we're arguing about trying to turn formerly non-productive players into productive ones...I'm all for that too. Hell, the Twins should be doing that with Adrianza if that's the new center of the debate. What needs to be acknowledged, however, is that scarcity and the talent landscape are clearly against the argument that Adrianza can be replaced with ease. In fact, the scarcity and talent landscape indicate the Twins are already at an advantage here relative to most teams.
  16. TheLeviathan
    Sure, but there aren't 750 good players. Even good teams, with a lot of money, end up rostering guys we wouldn't call "good". That isn't because all of these teams are too stupid to sign the good players. Or too cheap. There just simply aren't enough of them. The scarcity of such players is a reason to buy in to your flexibility idea, but even then there are limits because the scarcity is pretty significant. And when it's this significant, it needs to be remembered when we just flippantly throw around ideas like "Welp, we should just get a better player!" It's not that simple and I say that in agreement that we should acquire better players. It's worth pointing out, however, that relative to the rest of the league (which, frankly, is hte only context that truly matters) - the Twins are doing alright having Adrianza as their utility player. Suggesting they should "upgrade" him goes down a path that isn't nearly as supported by evidence or the reality of scarcity.
  17. TheLeviathan
    jkcarew came up with .750. I simply said there are not that many guys better than Ehire and his .700ish OPS. And when you take the cheats off of this list, it comes down to about a handful of better utility players in the entire league. That's not because Ehire is some great player, as I said at the beginning, teams field utility infielders like Ehire not because they choose to, but because they have to. The scarcity context of guys who can do what he does and hit like he does, forces them to. It's not like all the teams in baseball are too dumb or cheap to employ the legion of players better than Ehire for this role. It's that the legion of players you guys are insinuating exist....don't actually exist. It'd be great if they did though!
  18. TheLeviathan
    Well, when you advocate "go get two of them" - it sure sounds like you think it's easy. Or it insinuates you don't realize how rare it is for middle infielders to get to that mark. What you suggest, of course, sounds good. I don't deny that. What I deny is how feasible it is. It's like my "Just go get a gold glove catcher with a 1.000 OPS!" - of course that would be great. But when the rubber meets the road....can that even happen? Only 35 non-1B last year managed that kind of OPS. Among shortstops with 300 at-bats - Ehire was good enough with the bat to be a STARTING shortstop. It's not that your plan doesn't work in theory, it's that it doesn't work when you view the position through the lens of scarcity. Compare Ehire to other utility infielders and how does he stack up? The answer, based on facts, is that he stacks up pretty well. Better than average in fact.
  19. TheLeviathan
    One isolated data point from two years ago isn't particularly compelling. Among SS last year with at least 300 PA, Adrianza was in the top 30. If it helps, read that again. Meaning there were teams with starters who hit worse than him, much less his defensive contributions. You don't seem to be aware that there simply are not enough .750 OPS middle infielders to expect that you'll have one on your bench. It'd be great to have some dream number of infielders on your roster, but the realities of their scarcity make that totally unattainable. (At least via signing/trading players. You can have someone in your farm that steps up for that role, but expecting to acquire a utility player like that defies reality)
  20. TheLeviathan
    Yes. It does. Do you know how many qualified infielders that play SS or 2B or 3B had an OPS of .750 last year? (Not all three, just any of the three) 35. If you take out 3B there were only 22. (And I'd say Ehire's ability to play SS/2B is a key part of his value) So, yes, suggesting the Twins sign two such players (at least one of which is for a backup role) is completely out of touch with reality.
  21. TheLeviathan
    That's a solid trade for both teams IMO. D-backs got more than I expected and the Cardinals didn't give up anything too special for a rental.
  22. TheLeviathan
    I mean, if you're playing MLB The Show...sure. But this paragraph, and several other posts, lack basis in reality. Last year the Yankees gave 400 PAs to players significantly worse than Adrianza. They, and the Twins, were among about 28 of the 30 franchises in baseball with a similar situation. One of the other two (Houston) is about to join that club as well. Are the Yankees and all these other teams just too cheap?? Are they all unaware of this mountain of available players you refer to who will willingly play for little money, less playing time, and hit like all-stars? Frankly, to make the claim you just did requires ignorance of the talent landscape. You might as well suggest the team "Sign a catcher with an OPS over 1.000! Should be a piece of cake!" I'm all for signing a guy like Gonzalez, but that won't change the need for someone like Adrianza. And it won't change the fact that most teams are happy (because they have to be) with a good fielder who can OPS .700 and play multiplie positions on their bench.
  23. TheLeviathan
    I would venture to bet Adrianza is among the upper half of bench infielders in the league given what he brings with the bat and the glove. I don't think this is a position we have to upgrade. So that makes him a perfectly fine player until he's overpriced for that role.
  24. TheLeviathan
    I'm not ruling out acquiring an expensive starter. I feel like I've been pretty loudly in favor of Grienke. And was loudly in favor of Darvish last year. Just not Corbin. I don't think we want to turn this thread into forcing everyone to want to buy in on every expensive FA right? I'd hope we'd be able to agree that money should be spent, without being forced to believe who it should be spent on.
  25. TheLeviathan
    This is my thought also. I'm good with frontline money, I just don't think Corbin is anywhere close to frontline.
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