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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    "Cave and Gonzalez are close" means they've revealed their innermost secrets to each other, no doubt.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    That would be... bad? May is a short reliever now, and an important one to us. No sense messing with his normal usage when you have an 18 man pitching staff.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Perhaps. But Romero/Hildy/Harper/Stashak are shorter relievers -- and one or two could be candidates for the postseason roster yet, so I think they want to see how they do in shorter stints and possibly non-mopup situations. Smeltzer and Dobnak can throw more innings, but they seem to be tag-teaming Pineda's rotation spot. Thorpe is a wild card. Seems like they could use him in a variety of roles, but they haven't been using him at all the past week. The other relievers are short relievers too, and expected to be pretty good, so they don't want to waste them in mop-up spots. Unless you really like Diplan for some reason, I don't see how anyone could prefer dropping Stewart ahead of him at this point. Even if one doesn't expect much if anything from Stewart going forward.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah, there was a lot of griping from Twins fans/players/reporters that Cleveland did this intentionally to miss Odorizzi -- but I think Cleveland would have rather taken their chances with Odo vs Civale last night, rather than try to sweep a doubleheader today including a bullpen game (even if the Twins have to do a bullpen game too). At worst, Cleveland was probably hoping to be ahead after 5 innings by the time the rains came -- then they get the win and spare their pen. Of course, the Twins were probably hoping for the same thing!
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Smeltzer is starting game one.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Lineups! MIN Lineup 1. M Kepler (L) RF 2. J Polanco (S) SS 3. N Cruz (R) DH 4. E Rosario (L) LF 5. M Garver (R) C 6. L Arraez (L) 2B 7. M Sanó (R) 3B 8. L Wade (L) CF 9. W Astudillo (R) 1B Devin Smeltzer, LHP CLE Lineup 1. F Lindor (S) SS 2. O Mercado (R) CF 3. C Santana (S) 1B 4. Y Puig (R) RF 5. J Luplow (R) LF 6. F Reyes (R) DH 7. J Kipnis (L) 2B 8. R Pérez (R) C 9. Y Chang (R) 3B Mike Clevinger, RHP
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    That may be so, but he is in MLB and capable of mopping up a few innings, which has usefulness. Many of us would quibble about whether the other night vs Washington should have been treated like a mop-up opportunity, but that's another debate. Neither Stewart, Diplan, Miller, or LaMarre is likely going to be on the 40-man past November -- but only Diplan stands out as being truly useless to the MLB club in the meantime.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    That is the surprise. If he's good enough to add on Sep. 13, surely he was good enough to add on Sep. 1st like Graterol. Although I guess Cleveland just called up a reliever too...
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Adrianza to the 60-day IL at this point would mean he would miss the entire postseason, AND he would be ineligible to petition for a postseason eligible replacement.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Diplan would be a fairly obvious choice. I don't think he was likely to survive November on our 40-man, and he's not doing anything right now...
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    They need to keep Gordon on the 10-day IL so they can petition to replace him on the postseason eligible list. (In order to qualify for that petition, you have to be eligible for reinstatement from the IL -- and they can't backdate a 60 day MLB IL placement to when he was still in the minors on optional assignment either.)
  12. Otto von Ballpark
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Still no Garv Sauce?
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Obliga-Torii usually played outfield.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    At least Cleveland's lineup is up. 1. F Lindor (S) SS 2. O Mercado (R) CF 3. C Santana (S) 1B 4. Y Puig (R) RF 5. J Kipnis (L) 2B 6. F Reyes (R) DH 7. J Bauers (L) LF 8. R Pérez (R) C 9. M Freeman (L) 3B
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Who's batting 5th through 9th?
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    We should have signed Lew Ford. He just turned 43 last month, and he slashed .313/.365/.434 in the Atlantic League this year. Was the hitting coach too! https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=ford--001jon http://www.liducks.com/ducks/roster/index.html?player_id=90 If we had signed him before September 1st, we could have even taken advantage of his career .300/.364/.400 postseason slash line!
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    It happened to the 1972 Red Sox! https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1972.shtml So all we need is some kind of work stoppage over the next two and a half weeks...
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Hey, if you play the guy who needs a fresh start, you may improve your draft position. If another team wants him, you can trade him for international bonus pool money, or for a low minors lotto ticket. It's effectively the same thing. (I'm not sure I want to expand the trading of draft picks, even low ones.) Of course, it's also possible no team wants him that badly, and will simply wait to put in a claim when he is inevitably waived. Actually, with the ban on trading 40-man roster guys in August/September, I wonder if this "we've-got-to-get-something-in-return-for-him" mentality could hurt a team. Maybe we really are ready to move on from Stewart, or even Diplan, and we might rather take a look at Alcala or Jax right now -- but the only way to clear Stewart or Diplan off the roster at the moment is to lose him on waivers or release them. So we feel stuck with them until after the season/postseason.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    It's definitely fair to question why Stewart was out there with no one else getting loose in the pen. It was only 6-3 at that point, with 4 innings left, and Corbin was already at 92 pitches so we were going to see the Nats bullpen for at least 3 of those innings. Stewart hadn't pitched anywhere in over 2 weeks, and wasn't very effective before that either (5.64 ERA in MLB in 2019 before last night, 5.14 ERA at AAA too). Now Stewart's season ERA in MLB in up to 6.66, which is always a good sign! We were willing to have May and Rogers get loose in the 8th inning down by 4 runs -- it boggles the mind that we wouldn't have at least Hildy, Harper, or Thorpe getting loose in the 6th in case Stewart scuffled. The Twins active roster contains 18 healthy pitchers right now!
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    To get to the other side?
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Since the all-star break, Darvish is 13th in MLB in fWAR, 9th in RA9-WAR (sort of like bWAR, using actual runs allowed instead of FIP), 8th in ERA, 3rd in K% behind only Cole and Verlander... https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=y&type=6&season=2019&month=31&season1=2019&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2019-01-01&enddate=2019-12-31&sort=3,d
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, the 6th run was charged to Gibson and scored on a passed ball by Garver -- so maybe if the bullpen *and* catching holds, it would have been a 6-5 win. Otherwise, if just the bullpen, a 6-6 tie -- just like in Japan!
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    "Greedy SOB" seemed a little antagonistic! (And when I called your buddy's family friend, your cousin's ex-roommate's sister etc., I was just trying to make a Spaceballs joke, not mock you. Couldn't remember the exact wording, though...) Sorry to pick on you about this -- it just struck me as so odd. Nothing about Corbin or his signing with the Nationals seemed unusual to me -- I mean, the Nationals are pretty good, and the Yankees didn't even make him an offer. Is every FA supposed to just call the Yankees and take whatever they can get, even $40 mil less than another contender is offering, or else they are "greedy SOBs"? Was Nelson Cruz "chasing the money" if he didn't call Cleveland and offer to take significantly less than $14 mil, since Cleveland had much better preseason odds than the Twins? Not that I'm above criticizing players. But I'd mock a guy like Buehrle, when he signed with the Marlins without a no-trade clause and then was upset about being traded a year later. Maybe even poke fun at a guy like Cano signing with Seattle and never sniffing the postseason again. Or guys who sign to play in NY and then lash out at the predictable media pressure. But none of that seems to apply to Corbin and his Washington contract. He got a market rate deal from a very good club. In any case, thanks for the chat. Saved me from having to think too much about the game tonight! Edit: and just after I write that, the Nationals bullpen starts working its magic...?
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    This explanation actually makes your animosity towards him even more strange. His sister's response *to a joke question* makes you dislike him?
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