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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I was planning on attending Sunday, so I was rooting for them to win Saturday and stay at 99 for another day. Unfortunately, the 100 loss vibe Sunday was skewed by the Vikings win...
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    HR and RBI were huge in that vote, but Dawson probably also got major bonus points for narrative in 1987: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andre_Dawson#Chicago_Cubs
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    That's fair. I'm on record as believing neither guy was that interested in this POBO position for a variety of reasons, so I guess it wouldn't have to be anything particularly damning to dissuade them from even a curiosity interview to satisfy mild interest. Something about their past budgeting, for example. Or more recently, maybe you hear something from the search firm that suggests the team isn't sure what it wants in POBO, etc.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Maybe I'm the only one, but I am actively rooting against the Cubs. They might be a historical underdog, but they're certainly not an underdog in 2016. And the "Cubs as lovable losers" image is quite possibly the biggest constant in the sport, and I'd rather keep it that way.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Personally, that would cheapen the victory for whoever prevailed. Like a recent Twins-Oakland postseason matchup.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think that quite works at this high level, though. The Twins aren't some random unfamiliar company to Cherington and Anthropolous, even if they've never met with the owner before. Add in what they probably heard from the search firm and other industry contacts recently, and they probably have enough information to be comfortable making a judgement without an interview.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    I'm not shocked. Neither of them "needed" this job -- they've been there before, presumably they have some money in the bank. Moreover, reports suggest we didn't reach out to Cherington until recently, when he was already pretty far along with Toronto. I still share some of your worry, though. Hopefully we don't see a guy like McLeod turn us down, that would be a bad sign.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Derek Falvey, assistant GM with Cleveland, is a "finalist" (suggesting a decision soon?): http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/09/twins-considering-indians-agm-derek-falvey-for-front-office-job-finalist.html
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Any situation is a "total blank slate" if you are willing to completely clear house and you are allowed to do so. It's also a lot of work to completely clear house, and not particularly desirable work. Anthropolous and Cherington never had to do that before either -- they spent a number of years in the Toronto and Boston front offices, respectively, before ascending to those GM spots.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Obviously every situation is different, but it seems a lot of K-5/6 schools merge around grade 7 anyway, and again 6/7-8 middle schools merge at grade 9. And as a non-athlete, I found that a lot of my preferred extracurriculars didn't start in earnest until grade 9 too. So most moves before grade 9 could be weathered just fine. Moving between grades 9-12 would be tough.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    The team really making a "push" is the Mariners. 8 straight wins, now within 1.5 games of Toronto for the second wild card spot (with only Detroit between them, although the Yankees are just behind Seattle too).
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Or did we take too long to pursue him? We probably should have called Cherington even before we fired TR -- back when we decided to tell TR he wouldn't be returning in 2017. Could have possibly had a more orderly transition too?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Judging by her current position with MLB, Ng is probably more of an administrative type, which can be useful but probably isn't what the Twins need right now.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    And more to the point, I don't think the Twins current front office probably has any idea. What benchmark does Terry Ryan and Rob Antony have for judging Goin's performance? They've never worked with another analytics department. Goin's department should be up for serious review by the new hire as much as any.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    That makes some sense on opening day 2016. Not so much by June and July...
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Here's the PP story: http://www.twincities.com/2016/09/09/alex-anthopoulos-out-of-running-for-twins-gm/
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Personally, I'd just rather the POBO served as his own acting GM. Nothing against Antony, but he hardly needs to be evaluated further given the prominent position he's had in this organization since 2007, and how our performance over that time has already gotten two other GMs dismissed.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Cherington has Boston 1999-2015 on his resume, which looks awfully nice, even if he was only GM for the last few years. Anthropolous did some nice work in Toronto, but their overall body of work during his tenure (2005-2015, 2009-2015 as GM) isn't nearly as impressive. Either would seem like a pretty impressive hire for the Twins, but it does seem like Cherington's background might be better suited to building a sustained winner (even their couple recent losing seasons seemed to be springboards to more winning). Obviously it's more likely to come down to, who is willing to come here (if either one of them is).
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Johnson's original deal with Arizona was only 4 years with an option. And from my link, the Dodgers outbid them, and a few other teams matched them. Not without risk at his age, but not really comparable to the Greinke situation, where Arizona had to outbid everyone for a longer term (and for a lesser pitcher, albeit a few years younger). And Schilling wasn't that big of a risk when you consider all that they had to give up in trade was mostly suspects rather than prospects. Not really comparable to the Shelby Miller deal at all. (Schilling's salary at the time wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that notable -- for some context, consider that Radke signed a 4/36 deal the same year Schilling was traded to Arizona.)
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Interestingly, the Dodgers likely bid more for Johnson, but he chose Arizona instead: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2013/03/free-agent-retrospective-randy-johnson.html As compared to Greinke, where it sounds like Arizona had to over-bid to get him. Also, looking back, the Diamondbacks got Schilling pretty cheaply in trade (I don't recall his contract situation, though). Travis Lee was busting, Omar Daal had a 7.22 ERA at the time, and Nelson Figueroa was a journeyman in the making. Vicente Padilla turned out to be an OK rotation piece for a few seasons but was hardly anything worth losing sleep over. Nothing like the Shelby Miller deal, really. (Additionally, although Schilling was older, he had a much better track record than Miller. Johnson was older but better than Greinke too.)
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Hey, they got a 4th year of control when Miller pitched so badly, they were justified in sending him to the minors! It was definitely a steep price, and flipping a #1 overall pick so quickly is almost unprecedented.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    The Tigers have spent and been aggressive, but I guess I would put them in a different class than the Dodgers, Red Sox, Yankees, etc. (And the Giants in terms of consistent success.)
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Vernon Wells to the Angels? Matt Kemp for Yasmani Grandal is probably another one. The previous Arizona regime dealing Eaton and Skaggs for Trumbo was pretty baffling. A lot of folks here laughed at the White Sox trading for Shields, and they might have been right (although the White Sox didn't pick up the full contract or give up a whole lot in talent).
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    To be fair to Arizona, they are in the same division as the Dodgers and Giants. Those are some formidable opponents, which probably prompted some of this aggression. Same for San Diego's aggressive moves under Preller. Another recently discussed former GM, Anthopolous, was probably working under similar considerations with Toronto in the AL East. The Twins fortunately don't have a comparable team in their division. (Cleveland has some good players especially pitchers, but is pretty frugal/conservative.) The Twins shouldn't feel the pressure to be too aggressive, but certainly some smart aggressive moves could help!
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Preller hasn't done that badly in terms of prospects, though. His first offseason, he indeed gave up Trea Turner and Joe Ross. He also gave up Yasmani Grandal, although he wasn't a prospect anymore. But he also got Justin Upton and Craig Kimbrel relatively cheaply, as well as Wil Myers and Derek Norris, who have generally been solid (Norris' recent collapse notwithstanding). Then in his second year, he turned around and got a nice prospect haul for Kimbrel, and also got Pomeranz for Alonso and flipped him for a top prospect, moved Cashner for prospects, flipped Rodney, and managed to unload James Shields in the nick of time. Also got a comp pick for losing Justin Upton. If you account for Turner's crazy BABIP and Ross's low ceiling, and give him credit for adding Margot and Espinoza, Preller has probably been close to net neutral in terms of prospects. Still has Renfroe, Nix, Allen, and even Hedges too (who is no longer prospect eligible but is only 23 and has showed some promise in AAA). His main problem seems to be targeting the wrong MLB players and not getting enough present-day performance from them (i.e. Kemp).
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