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NoCal

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Everything posted by NoCal

  1. NoCal
    Great thread. I have a visual image of almost all of these guys. My first Twins game, I say Bernie Allen hit a game winning home run against Detroit. He had been a quarterback at Purdue, and upset the Gophers in their great 1960? season. He and third baseman Rich Rollins were stars in the early Twins teams, before the 1965 champion season. I have not seen the name of Zoilo Versailles, the shortstop who led the Twins to the Series in 65. And other names - Reno Bertoia, who was the Twins first third baseman, soon supplanted by H. Killebrew. What a rich tradition!
  2. NoCal
    Kind of late to this thread. I recommend listening to an interview by David Axelrod with Theo Epstein. Theo describes how he rebuilt the organizations in Boston and Chicago, especially in Chicago. It begins with defining the Way that the team needs to play, and then by building a scouting department, and proceeds to rebuilding the player development process. What goes on at the major league level is almost irrelevant; the long view is essential. And transparency - tell the fans honestly what you are doing, and set expectations appropriately.Check out The Ax Files podcast and get an insight into how these young, new baseball execs operate.
  3. NoCal
    The Dodgers have won 4 straight division titles and are probably heavy favorites to win a fifth. They can wait to see if they have an internal answer at second base. If not, revisit the Twins in June.
  4. NoCal
    The Warriors play right next to the Oakland Coliseum and their games are full of people from all over the Bay Area. Oakland is actually better positioned to draw from the most populous parts of the metro area - East Bay, plus the north Bay Area via Richmond bridge, and Peninsula via San Mateo. The current owners of the A's are totally committed to low payrolls and maximum profits, unlike the Haas family who owned the A's in the glory years. The franchise is very cynically run, and the constant churning of its roster is driving away its core of fans. Contrast that with the Giants, who paid for their stadium (finally) and constantly strive to build teams with a long term view, including loyalty to their core players. Pray that the new Twins organization emulates the Giants, not the A's.
  5. NoCal
    Also nice that Beresford will earn more this month than he probably earned in the last two years.
  6. NoCal
    Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe Meyer's gem was 4 innings. No walks, 2 hits, 6 strikeouts. A good outing but definitive sss. Btw - Nolasco pitched a complete game 4 hit shutout a couple of nights ago. Anyways - time will tell. One thought - now that folks are clamoring to trade Dozier for pitching. Trading a solid major league position player for a pitching prospect is truly high risk. Even the best pitching prospects, like Meyer (or Bundy or Wheeler or Berrios....) are one pitch away from total system failure. You have to develop your own.
  7. NoCal
    Carson Fulmer has an era of 8.40 and 5.4 walks per 9 innings. Probably about what Tyler Jay would have if the Twins rushed him as much as the Sox pushed Fulmer.
  8. NoCal
    As I said in another post - isn't it amazing how dominant Milone was in Rochester? How can you possibly evaluate a pitcher on minor league results - the stats seem meaningless.
  9. NoCal
    Imagine. Milone went down to Rochester and gave up virtually no runs in 3-4 starts; totally dominant. Berrios has also pretty much handled AAA. The jump to the major leagues appears to be huge. The notion that minor league performance tracks pretty clearly to major league success must only apply to hitters.
  10. NoCal
    The most recent number 1 prospect in baseball got called up by Houston a couple of weeks ago. Think the name is Alex Bregman? Last I looked he was hitting .053, and began his career 1 for 32. Coaching helps, but every guy is different; tough sport. Counseling may be more appropriate.
  11. NoCal
    Being a Bay Area resident, I think that this is a wonderful addition for the Giants. Probably a good move for the Twins too. I really hope that Nunez can ride with the Giants to a World Series, after his very frustrating years in New York. Good for the Twins to be enablers. And they may get rewarded with a starting pitcher, someday.
  12. NoCal
    The step from AAA to the major leagues is the single biggest leap that a player has to make. Often too steep, requiring multiple efforts. And some times the Twins do benefit from this struggle - this year, Grossman and Nunez seem to be "late bloomers" who may have figured it out. We seem to remember the "misses" instead of the "hits". Every organization has their regrets, and their "keen judgements".
  13. NoCal
    Duffey is a relief pitcher; two excellent pitches, not a third. One inning at a time, and he would be dominant. He and Chargois, together again.
  14. NoCal
    If Twins starters could get past the 5th inning, the team would not need 8 relievers. The reason that Arcia was lost is because the Twins could not afford to reduce their pitching staff. It all comes down to the starting rotation.......
  15. NoCal
    Duffy has had a nice run as a potential starter, but without a third pitch, his future may be in the bullpen. He did that in college, and I think that he could be an excellent reliever in the majors. But the main problem with the Twins bull pen is their starters - they simply do not go deep enough into the game and Molitor has to use 4 relievers every day just to finish a game. No bullpen can withstand that kind of grind and demand.
  16. NoCal
    Who impresses me? Mr Mauer. His example cannot help but rub off on some of his younger teammates.
  17. NoCal
    12 and 13 pitchers on a roster, dozens of pitchers approaching 3 digit speed, tons of data to create the perfect shift. Yeah, come on hitters, just adjust. I have to say that the balance between hitters and pitchers/defense is a bit out of whack right now, and it has taken the drama out of many games. Do we really want 5 inning starters, and then a succession of one inning relievers to finish off another dull game?
  18. NoCal
    Playing the Nationals and the Royals is a good calibration for us fans. They are seriously competitive teams, for the post season and the World Series. Note that they do not have three or four virtual rookies in their lineups, and they have deep power pitching staffs. They did have those rookies in their lineups three and four years ago, so perhaps we need to readjust our expectations for this year's Twins. Patience is usually a virtue........
  19. NoCal
    The entire new stat of "pitch framing" as a way to evaluate catchers is simply a product of umpires not having the ability to consistently call balls and strikes when the ball is traveling and moving like it does in the major leagues. More precisely, human beings do not have that ability. It seems to me that if we have the technology to talk about pitch framing, then we have the technology to call balls and strikes in real time in a ball game. It may remove some of the romance from the game, but I think that it is inevitable that electronic pitch calling is in the fairly near future. Then hitters like Maurer and Joey Votto will justly be rewarded for their great skill in knowing the strike zone, and catchers will not be lauded for their ability to fool the ump.
  20. NoCal
    Playing in the major leagues is hard; really, the Twins are playing several rookies (Rosario, Buxton, Sano, Park, et al), and this is what a learning curve can look like. Some of us remember the early Hrbek, Gaetti, Brunansky, etc teams, and it was ugly. This is the rebuild, and it can take a long time. For instance, ask the Royals.
  21. NoCal
    Many "pundits" pointed out that the Twins outplayed their statistically dictated level last year, and attributed that to "luck", or more precisely, timing their hits to coincide with men being on base. The idea is that hitting with men on base is not a particular skill, and that its occurrence will normalize over time. The more interesting issue in this early going is the extraordinary amount of strikeouts that the Twins are producing. Both tendencies - not producing with men on base, and prolific strikeouts - are frustrating for fans. But think of it this way: if you don't have the periods of frustration, you will not enjoy the cycles of success nearly as much. Just wait - it will be boring to be a Cubs fan soon.
  22. NoCal
    When the Twins released Ortiz, since Morneau was ready for the majors and Minkie was the resident 1B, Peter Gammons himself wrote that the Twins did Ortiz a huge favor by freeing him to find a new job, well before Spring Training. Gammons used that as an example of what a "classy organization" the Twins were, and why they were so respected throughout baseball. I am too lazy to look up the actual column and quote, but I do remember that, at the time, the move was viewed as a favor to Ortiz. On to Nolasco talk.
  23. NoCal
    Still, so great that this site can call someone out for being pedantic.
  24. NoCal
    I believe that it was JJ Hardy who was traded for Hoey and Jacobson. We could only wish that it had been Brendon Harris.
  25. NoCal
    Another issue to negotiate: the incentive for teams to "tank", by selling off all of their assets, in order to achieve the highest draft slots. Houston is the classic example. I suspect that there will be an effort to institute a disincentive, such as a lottery of the ten worst teams drawing for the highest positions. Similar to the NBA. The local angle, of course, is that the Twins take the traditional, classic stance of selectively pruning their roster, clinging to prospects, and waiting for an organic, cyclical return to competitiveness. Reducing the incentive to strip your team of its best assets would be healthy.
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