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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    First off, post you quoted said nothing about the Royals. Did you quote the wrong one?
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Didn't the Twins make similar moves while "rebuilding"?
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Hence the "BREAKING" -- we use that word judiciously around here! Myself, I saw Kevin Tapani at a Best Western caravan stop, but Carl Willis was a no-show. Still bitter -- Cleveland can have him!
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    BREAKING: Caleb Thielbar, Rob Antony, and former Twins great Mike Maksudian will be appearing at the "C'mon Inn" in THIEF RIVER FALLS on January 15th. Mark your calendars!
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    In terms of them being big FA spenders, is that more perception that reality? Toronto's biggest FA contract ever is Russell Martin, then maybe AJ Burnett and BJ Ryan. I don't think they've been much of a player at the top of the FA market since the mid-1990s. The Mets have spent big a little more recently, with Carlos Beltran and maybe Yoenis Cespedes, but even then it seems like they are absent from big free agent bidding more often than present, for a team from the NY market.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Better than devoting 6 of 25 to the 4th starter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPYH4s7_e34
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Insurance takes many forms. I believe the Twins policy on Nolasco kicked in at a certain number of DL days, far less than a full season. But yeah, I don't know if it's particularly relevant to the equation here. Doesn't have to be, as pretty much any team can handle the downside of a 4/80 contract or whatever.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    That would be interesting! I wonder if we'll ever see it, though? It's not likely to be relevant for several years, and he probably gets to change the 5 teams each season. But yeah, if the Angels and White Sox were on it now, that would suggest they made a substantial bid for his services. Although if the Twins were on it too, maybe not.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    One big move can represent a notable difference, though. No team makes major Yelich or Cole type trades every year, so if you're looking for a higher threshold than 1 or 2, you're not going to find it. But having even 1 or 2 every few years can be a big step over a FO (and franchise?) that doesn't have any so far. Now, the Twins FO has only been at the wheel for 3 years, so it's quite possible that move is still coming for us. But until they do it, I understand some fan anxiety on the issue.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    We are talking past each other a bit, and I apologize for that. I'll just conclude this tangent by saying I'm not picking on the FO here at all -- I suspect that Bumgarner and Wheeler probably weren't worth 20% more than what they signed for (pending future Twins pitching moves, I hope!). I'm just commenting on players and contracts in general.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    And what do those advisers say when Bumgarner asks in reply, "But where are my horses?"
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    What do you consider "mad money"? I think most everyone here would take him on a Severino or Nola deal (4 years, $40-45 mil, plus a team option).
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    You're right about Grandal being a Twins-like contract. But I'm going to remind you that you brought up the Brewers in this thread, perhaps unfairly alongside the White Sox as clubs not worth emulating. There are a lot of similarities between the Brewers and Twins these days, but also a few notable differences in process and results to date which a Twins fan naturally may want us to emulate. I'll also caution you to tone down hyperbole like "Cole or Strasburg" and "spend stupid money or throw prospects away at random". I don't believe any of those things have been said in this exchange, and introducing them is only going to derail discussion, not advance it.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    FWIW, I don't think there has been any corroboration for this claim yet, it's just what Bumgarner and his agent have been telling people.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Other than the Cano deal? Which was an aggressive win-now move, not a sell low move like you are suggesting here.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    I mistakenly labeled Dominic Smith as an outfielder (although he's played a little out there), but still I don't see how you are disagreeing with my assessment in regards to the Mets outfield and Eddie Rosario. Conforto and Nimmo both out-hit Rosario the last two seasons and for their MLB careers, and both are controlled as long or longer than Rosario too. They don't really need another corner outfielder who may be able to fake it in center, do they? Or if they do, they certainly don't need to spend Syndergaard to get that player. Buxton would obviously be appealing to them -- real CF, 3 years control -- but not Rosario, right?
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Graterol is a bit iffy as a lead piece in a blockbuster, because he's such a wild card as far as starting/relief right now. And piling up 4 good prospects is always an iffier proposition than 1-2 better prospects -- if the Rockies don't share your valuation of 1 of the 4, it can kind of torpedo the whole thing. Another issue, from the Rockies side, is that they're built to win right now. You may not be able to tell by their record, but they are. In addition to Arenado and Gray, there's Story, Blackmon, Marquez, and Oberg. Making the team worse in 2020-2021 could make them better in 2022+, but it also likely squanders a lot of value from that group. Unless they go full rebuild and trade everyone like the White Sox a few years ago -- but in that case, they probably target higher upside prospects than Larnach and Jeffers (guys like Moncada, Kopech, Jimenez, and Giolito).
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I think this is a perfect example of too many qualifiers. No matter what I say, it is dismissed. I list Greinke, but a 4 year old TV deal makes it an aberration (Forbes in 2019 still has the Twins and Diamondbacks equal in revenue, by the way). I list all kinds of aggressive moves, but they can only be SP. There were several SP in my list but apparently they weren't good enough or they only won game 5 of the division series (Cueto) or game 2 of the World Series (Cueto, again) or their team lost game 7 of the World Series or whatever, as if any of that matters to my repeated point that the Twins have yet to demonstrate the same aggressiveness in MLB player acquisition as a number of comparable clubs, and some of us fans are both excited and anxious to see it happen. No, these qualifiers were not part of any prior parameters for this discussion, otherwise I would have never taken part. It's not fun or productive to discuss like this, it's tiresome, and it proves nothing other than one can endlessly pile qualifiers on top of any argument and reduce the whole thing to meaninglessness. (For the record, Cleveland traded prospects for both Sabathia and Jimenez, in addition to several aggressive non-SP trades. But please don't respond with how those don't "count" now for some reason.)
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Ah got it. I misread. Still, yeah, it seems 29 teams would have equal claim to not being LA -- most more than Anaheim! I kinda doubt the Dodgers would have offered that kind of money either, which would make the point moot -- they do have the capacity to spend, but 3B seems like more of a want than a need for them at the moment, and they haven't been super-aggressive in FA lately.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    We should have a contest! Add up all the TD trade proposals. Rosario might be in the lead this winter, but I imagine Thorpe, Enlow, and Rooker are not far behind. Gordon is still kicking too, and might be an inner circle all-time TD trade candidate when judging his (our) complete body of work.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    FWIW, baseballtradevalues.com actually validated that trade pretty well! Kluber carries more risk at this point than people might think.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    It doesn't take any Rosario hate to notice that the Mets already have 3 good corner outfield performers returning from last season. (And that's not counting Davis who primarily played LF but has no glove, or McNeil who also played primarily in LF/RF but is probably needed more in the infield going forward.) They don't need Rosario, and certainly not at the price of Syndergaard. Even if he's not Godiva, I congratulate your son on producing accurate chocolate in his lab! Seriously, if you have a quibble with a specific calculation from baseballtradevalues.com here, I'd love to hear it. Might be fun to break it down to see where their numbers are coming from, and where perhaps opinions might differ.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I read his "$200 mil revenue and climate in 2 years" comment as an exaggeration. But I'll ask both him and you to keep this more about baseball and less about other posters. There's not a complete absence of aggressive moves by similar revenue teams as the Twins. If you don't like the Cardinals, off the top of my head: - I know that the Diamondbacks have had similar revenue figures as the Twins at Forbes and they've signed Greinke and now Bumgarner (and traded a top ~100 prospect a few months ago too); - the White Sox had less revenue at Forbes the year they signed Abreu out of Cuba, and have equal revenue now when they signed Grandal, both larger FA guarantees than the Twins have ever handed out (and FWIW, the ChiSox apparently offered more for Wheeler than the Twins have ever offered a FA, although I'll withhold full credit until they actually complete a deal like that!); - the Brewers have traded top prospects multiple times (and signed Cain for longer/more than any Twins FA contract). Examples of aggressive trading abound, from Cleveland trading top prospects multiple times, and the Royals too (including a top 5-10); even the A's have traded a top 5. And, I can't stress this enough, this is isn't a knock on the Twins as much as it is work that is yet to be done.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    I think he was referring to the current front office, and those 3 guys were taken by the previous one. Admittedly it's only been 3 drafts for the current FO! Although they have all seemed to lean toward position players.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    FWIW, after this date last year, through spring training, the Twins made the following MLB moves: 1. Signed Nelson Cruz 2. Signed Blake Parker 3. Signed Martín Pérez 4. Signed Marwin Gonzalez That's some activity, but I'm not sure what it means for our current pursuit of high-end pitching. I loved Cruz but I'm not sure there's an exciting FA SP equivalent left. And if we have to rely on trading for MLB talent, those are still uncharted waters for our FO. (And this isn't a knock on anyone, it's just a standard-issue fan anxiety post. )
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