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TheLeviathan

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Everything posted by TheLeviathan

  1. TheLeviathan
    On the plus side....they're meeting with, and hopefully offering a contract to, Nick Batum. He would be absolutely perfect for this team. Great wing defender with great size who can knock down shots.
  2. TheLeviathan
    Well, Twins aren't contending this year. Why not just call him up and let him figure out at the big league level? Seems to be fool-proof logic these days.....
  3. TheLeviathan
    Let's hope he's sent down soon - I think most Twins fans agree about the lack of logic keeping him up. That's the organization's biggest issue - depth at the top. Dozier is going to have his chance at this spot for quite some time, no one is going to come pushing from the minors anytime soon. There is no rush to audition him now, no future auditions have any chance for quite some time. Liam Hendricks would've worked too, just Revere popped to mind.
  4. TheLeviathan
    The Revere comp was merely to suggest that it isn't the end of the world to send someone down. Sometimes they come back up better prepared. There are literally hundreds of examples of this, I just picked a hitter they did that with this year. Even if the send-down did nothing for Revere - it's still an option that isn't going to kill Dozier to try.
  5. TheLeviathan
    Just make sure if you ask him about his work in the minor leagues that he hasn't been enticed with grape soda, butter-knife steaks, or deep-friend stuff on a stick. Because, in that case, even direct quotes are nothing but delicious lies. But thank you for injecting a little more common sense into the argument. The Twins should do whats right for Dozier first - whatever that is. The status of the team isn't a free pass to just shove guys on to the field no matter their readiness.
  6. TheLeviathan
    Yowza. Henceforth I will make sure to dismiss all Ben Revere quotes as steak-induced lies. I'll be sure to consult you for the truth since Ben Revere can't make up his own mind. Noted and then some......
  7. TheLeviathan
    So I read direct quotes from Ben Revere. Reference those direct quotes for my point. You suggest the direct quotes are wrong and you have the right answer. And I'm the one that may be trolling? Me thinks I got suckered here. Again, I'll take Ben Revere as more of an expert on his experiences than you. No offense. That's precisely my point.....why should it matter? The team sucks either way. What matters is whatever is best for Dozier. I don't see him making any progress. In fact, I see him making mistakes he wasn't making when he first came up. I'm merely suggesting it may benefit him, and ultimately the Twins, to send him down for a few weeks and let him get his stuff back together. Tweak a few things, let him have some success, and bring him back fairly quickly. But right now this doesn't seem to be helping him. The analogy that comes to mind is trying to teach someone a backstroke while they're worried about drowning. Take him out of the 12 foot area for awhile, let him get the backstroke down again in the shallow end, and then throw his butt back in the deep-end. Right now Dozier just looks to me like he's flailing in the deep end. I don't see how that does him any good.
  8. TheLeviathan
    I think it's brilliant. I mean, yeah, we have glaring holes at the 2 and 3 spots, but why not get a 33 year old who's best position is the 4? It's not like we have a ton of talent at the 4 right? In all seriousness, all the positive momentum this team has built with me could be crushed in one move if they do this. If you're going to move Williams at least target Iguodala or someone like that where we actually have a need at the position. This makes no friggin sense.
  9. TheLeviathan
    Yeah, our pitching is bad. I can see your point - let's toss a couple ten million dollars at one of the key cogs in that awful portion of our team. Makes sense. I'm sure his recent past performances indicate your position better. Right?
  10. TheLeviathan
    Clearly Revere is a touchy subject for you. Accusing me of trolling is cute, but here's the article. Everything I've said comes directly from there, directly from Revere. If you want to claim yourself as a greater expert on Revere's improvements than Ben Revere himself....well that's on you. I'm done derailing the thread on this example. You can pick Liam hendricks, Torii Hunter, any of hundreds of other players who have spent full-time in the majors, struggled, were sent down to work on things, and called back up. I'm not arguing it is 100% fool-proof - just that it's a perfectly reasonable option. I wasn't in the camp of rushing him up to the majors either. My beef is with the notion that we do this "because the team is bad anyway". To me that is irrelevant - we should all agree on that. The reason to send Dozier down is if it's best for Dozier and his future. I see a player who just cannot get it together in the field or at the plate. As RP said - he's not even doing the things well that he should be doing well, much less making progress. If anything, he is reverting. To me that screams of a player needing a mental break - send him down and take the pressure off. Work on him on a few specific things, and call him back up again this year. This is not a revolutionary idea. I'm not claiming it's the only thing that will work. Just my opinion based on how badly Dozier looks lately.
  11. TheLeviathan
    You may be right. And if you want to drop the hostility angle you might find this isn't that radical of a suggestion I'm making. Revere, in the very article you're reading from, credits the AAA coaching. He also credits getting regular at-bats and his own film work. So it was some of all of that. You can play make-believe about what might have happened, but what DID happen was the send-down to AAA was good for him for a variety of reasons. But whether you want to get hung-up on Revere or not, major league teams do this all the time. Whether it is rehab assignments, prospects, or even Adam Lind-types. AAA is a less pressure-filled environment, against lesser competition that players can go to work on their game. Teams can make suggestions to them and help them work on specific parts of their game without all the scrutiny that comes with the big league. I'm merely suggesting that Dozier is looking worse and worse. His at-bats are not getting better and his fielding is not getting better. Is he the type that a demotion would be irrelevant for? Maybe, but it's hard to see a player regressing and think that the current model is the right way. The Twins shouldn't care about this season and should care about any player that could be helping them in 3 years. Dozier fits that and I'd hate to see them keep him up here at his detriment. Sometimes "just figure it out" becomes hard when the level of competition is difficult no matter how on your game you are. A break and a chance to focus may benefit him, all I'm saying. Chill.
  12. TheLeviathan
    Mighty fine scarecrow Dorothy. Just because we know he's worthless, doesn't mean he will. Free agency is littered with guys that arrogantly thought they were worth more than they were. The only reason it "makes sense" for both sides to sign this kind of a deal is because you're projecting a rational, balanced take on to Liriano. Players imagine their own worth much higher than is deserved - and almost always higher than hope-filled message board scenarios. My opinion hasn't changed at all - dump him in July. His career as a Twin is done and thankfully so. I'd prefer not to toss three year extensions to guys that are in the bottom ten of starting pitching as often as he has been. The pipe-dream "ace" stuff is pretty silly when you take the time to look at 2009 and 2011. Hell, 2012 too, even with this nice run.
  13. TheLeviathan
    So you believe that players approach free agency with the mindset of "Geez, I'm a sucky player just waiting to happen...better cash in quick!" That's the basis of your Liriano opinion? Because that's essentially what you're saying here. He'd accept the offer you propose because he and his agent know how possible/likely it is he'll be awful? I think I'll refer you back to this post's Edwin Jackson comp. Seems appropriate as one of many, many examples of how naive that thinking is, especially considering how many players walk into free agency believing they're much more valuable than they really are.
  14. TheLeviathan
    Ben did some work with the AAA hitting coach and watched some film while he was sent down which he has attributed to making better contact and increasing his ability to hit line-drives. He worked on that in AAA, came back up, and was able to deliver similar results so far. I guess you can make stuff up or defer to the player. Sometimes if a player needs to work on something or improve their approach it helps to do that against the Jeff Manships of the world rather than Chris Sale.
  15. TheLeviathan
    God yes. So far a lot of crow-eating on the Revere front. Guy is really making solid contact - never thought I'd say that.
  16. TheLeviathan
    The reason to send Dozier down is to help him. If he's struggling here and potentially taking those struggles with him into the field, it's going to wear on his confidence a bit. People are arguing to let him stay up because the team is struggling, I'd argue that's precisely why we shouldn't care if we send him down and play some scrub. Dozier is potentially an important piece of this team going forward - send him down for a month, let him have some success, work on some things in AAA, and come back up after the deadline. Ben Revere may be a good model for this idea I guess.
  17. TheLeviathan
    I hear the Minnesota Twins really dig players like Blackburn. Er...wait.....
  18. TheLeviathan
    Nor is there any logic in thinking a guy who has been in the bottom ten of starting pitchers in 2 of the last 3 seasons and still has an ERA over 5 is somehow a "top of the rotation" talent. It would be one thing if you had some balanced expectations behind your thinking. But you don't. Hell, Liriano has been SO BAD in two of the last three seasons that even if Baker didn't pitch at all you could argue AAA filler might be no worse than Frankie has been. Is there potential for him to put it together? Sure, but not worth that kind of guaranteed money. It's cute to call it "idiotic" to want him gone when at the same time you are virtually in denial about how terrible his results have actually been. Just because you have money doesn't mean you flush it on someone who has ACTUALLY been awful in HOPE that he won't be. Ortiz is an awful comparison. The Twins, if anything, have overly babied Liriano and done everything in their power to make things work for him. They appreciate his talent and want him to succeed. Kelly was Ortiz' enemy. Liriano is his own worst enemy. Huge difference. I understand the general concern, it's just blinded you to the reality of Liriano.
  19. TheLeviathan
    The team could reject the option and sign a different extension. But your points on why he is a risk are valid, however the problem is that none of these arguments are all that much more convincing than the same I'm making against Liriano. Yes, Baker is likely to be a mystery next year with a good chance of being a bad investment. But in that second year, like some other starters who have had TJ, he could be even better than he has been. (And he's been better than people think) But as you say....why not risk a little money on that? The difference, in my eyes with Baker, is that he hasn't been nearly as awful as Liriano has been prone to being. Just to put it in context, there were only 9 pitchers with a worse ERA in 2011 than Liriano with more than 120 IP. Only 12 with a worse WHIP. His K/BB ratio was only .08 better than Nick friggin Blackburn. His most comparable current pitcher is Dice-K over his current career. I can go on. We're not "idiots" for wanting to avoid giving our personal Dice-K a guaranteed 40 million. He'll have some value, let's cash in on it.
  20. TheLeviathan
    Baker was above average recently. And he has less history being awful...why not him? His stuff isn't as electric, but he also hasn't been nearly as bad as Liriano has been. 2009 and 2011 were awful. That's two out of the last three and then an awful start this year. And this year he has ranged from brutal to pretty good. Unfortunately, until Monday night, his pretty good starts had all been against offenses in the bottom five of the league. Maybe that was coincidence, but maybe not. No one is denying that Frankie has talent. But you basically want to give him guaranteed money out of nothing more than hope. I find that to be a pretty poor way to operate a baseball team.
  21. TheLeviathan
    You're taking the point to the extreme. Liriano, if healthy and semi-competent, will have some value. If we have the opportunity to trade him and get value this year - it's better than letting him walk for nothing. The offseason's most likely scenario is him NOT returning. It's far more ridiculous to hope he'll take some team-friendly deal than it is to just want him gone and take what should likely be a decent offer this year.
  22. TheLeviathan
    I would rather see Baker, even off of TJ surgery, make 4/32 than Liriano. As Storm posted above. We're five years removed from Liriano's surgery and only once has he posted the numbers you insist are possible. And in at least two full seasons he has been arguably one of the worst starters in all of baseball. At what point of inconsistency (and I would argue - reliable awfulness) does a long term contract not become a bad move?
  23. TheLeviathan
    Why are you responding like this is a civil war correspondence? You're talking about the difference in these approaches as mechanical. Which would work for your argument if the Twins had tried to change his mechanics. They didn't. The "pitch to contact" issue came up two springs ago when he was throwing 100 pitches in barely four innings. He wasn't trusting his stuff and throwing strikes. So the Twins labeled it "pitch to contact" to get him to start throwing the ball and trusting his movement. If you throw it to where they will swing...your stuff will cause missed bats. Your example also falls apart because no matter if you're Koufax, Johan Santana, Randy Johnson, or Fransisco Liriano - you don't strike people out if you don't throw strikes. Guys will just take pitches and beat you that way. To put it more simply - you can't get strike three if you can't get strikes one and two first. Hitters aren't dumb. Hell, AJ said it on Barreiro yesterday - the gameplan with Frankie is to see if he'll do the work for you. If he's in the zone - you're in trouble. If he's not, you're going to beat him around. And, for the record, Nick N., Phil Mackey, and others have confirmed that the "pitch to contact" criticisms are nonsense. I'm not saying anything that isn't well known. I just happened to be on that same bandwagon from the get-go.
  24. TheLeviathan
    "Pitch to contact" = "Throw strikes" = "Bust the ball in the zone". That's all it is. You can argue he needs to hear a different term for it, but they are all the same. Twins have gotten WAY too much flack for that advice to Liriano from day 1.
  25. TheLeviathan
    Yeah, I liked that comp to Jackson. Liriano has the ability to be electric but the inability to be even consistently decent. He's either pretty good for awhile or he's one of the worst in baseball for awhile. Not much middle ground. I really hope other teams are swayed by this stretch against the league's worst offenses. I'm not sure anyone can fix his mechanics DPJ. That seems to be predicated on focus and work-ethic. And, well, this is Frankie we're talking about.
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