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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    If he did that, he could finish around a .762 OPS, which might equate to a 110 wRC+. (And it would also satisfy the terms of Dave's proposed bet, "better than a .740 OPS" -- maybe your opinions aren't that far apart here?) There's value in being an average overall hitter, even if one is inconsistent. Especially if one brings some defensive value.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    "One of these things is not like the other..." Dozier is 5 days shy of his 30th birthday. Unless you know something beyond the public statements he has made (about how important it was that his contract didn't buy out any free agent years), I don't see how extending Dozier is going to be a good deal right now. Especially not when you're extending Polanco too and your top prospect is Nick Gordon. They can always bid on him after 2018 under the right circumstances.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    I think the idea is, remove Pressly and call up one of Melotakis, Burdi, or Hildenberger to fill in for him. Maybe just to get their feet wet, maybe to claim a spot going forward, Jose Mijares style. Or leave Pressly alone and option Drew Rucinski, that's fine too. But it would be nice to see something done, more than simply cutting Tonkin and replacing him with AAA filler.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    The problem with saying, extend Buxton NOW before he pulls too far out of his slump, or "we should have extended Sano last year", is that players and agents know the ebbs and flows of player performance too. Guys generally aren't going to sign super-team-friendly deals at low points of performance. That said, I do hope the new front office is keeping an open dialog with realistic expectations in these situations, something I was not confident the old front office was doing.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Here is a DH list at Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=60&type=1&season=2017&month=44&season1=2017&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=17,d The only AL team not represented is our division mate White Sox. A trade partner is not evident. Expanding it to corner OF, there still aren't many good fits. Grossman has value, but I don't think it's enough value or a compelling enough fit to meet the asking price of a "controllable, solid-to-good RP" in May.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Dave, are you aware that Matt Harvey already has over 4 years service time? He's making over $5 mil this year, will get arbitration again next year, and then become a free agent after 2018.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Adriana Lima? You mean, Marko Jaric's ex-wife?
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    This will be tough now. You basically described his pre-2017 career marks of .223/.299/.346, .644 OPS If his 2017 playing time continues at the same pace (491 PA), he will need to hit .199/.260/.286 for an OPS of .546 the rest of the season to finish with that line. More likely, if he hit that poorly, his playing time would be cut, of course. At a 361 PA pace (like last year), he would need to hit .188/.242/.259 for a .500 OPS the rest of the way to finish at his career marks. Needless to say, he's never been THAT bad for THAT long in his career to date.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    The Yankees as a team sure seem like they are getting their confidence back at the plate. 12th out of 15 in run scoring last year. 25th out of 30 in non-pitcher wRC+. Now, they are first in both measures, and that's with limited contributions from last year's golden boy Sanchez. Aaron Judge has gone from suspect to star. Castro, Headley, Gardner, Ellsbury, and Holliday have all had simultaneous veteran bounce-backs. Romine and Ronald Torreyes have both filled in capably. And then there's Hicks. Chris Carter is their only weak link, and he could be sent packing for Greg Bird any day now.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    So... controllable, solid-to-good RP, better than Pressly? For Grossman? Can you name any examples around the league? I'm not seeing teams that would have a need for Grossman, and such a quality RP asset to spare. Even in the few cases where there could be a production upgrade -- Toronto's corner outfield, for example -- there are other factors at play, like contracts and the overall state of the team. (Toronto may not be ready to bench Bautista, and the whole team has struggled enough that adding Grossman as a reinforcement probably isn't on their radar right now. Especially not with Morales under contract and one of their most effective hitters this season at DH too.) Bullpen expectations are high in modern MLB too. If a team has a controllable arm that's better than Pressly, I suspect they expect to get a lot out of it, and won't so easily surrender it in trade.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Similar story last night, although a slightly better end result. 5 BB in 5.1 IP, but only one of them came around to score. 2 HR to Yonder Alonso -- maybe Meyer would have been better off with 2 more walks? But Meyer did manage 7 K's (5 swinging), pitched into the 6th inning and got the win thanks to the Angels offense.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Would you trade Grossman for another team's Pressly?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think the Twins completely wasted Mauer and Morneau's primes, but the team needed and deserved a SP reinforcement in 2006, even before Liriano's injury. And they definitely didn't deserve trading Santana and Garza without obvious replacements in 2008 and beyond. (Although it's not just pitching -- any of those seasons could have benefitted from an additional bat too.) Especially deflating is the fact that in 2006 we actually avoided the Yankees in the first round, and in 2008 the Yankees missed the playoffs entirely. Perhaps the Yankee curse would have continued in 2009-2010 regardless, but I would have liked my chances a lot better those years with some combination of a re-signed Santana, Garza, Cliff Lee, or even Jim Thome (a bat I wanted them to acquire after 2002 and again after 2005).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Don't forget that minor league seasons are shorter. In 7 pro seasons to date, Sano has played "full" seasons in 5 of them. He's only been on a disabled list twice: June 2016 (hamstring strain during the RF experiment), and his 2014 TJ season. 29 starts in a row to begin 2017 too. There are reasons to question some of the bigger mega-contract proposals we've seen on this thread, but durability doesn't seem to be one of them. Especially now that we're committed to him at 3B/1B/DH.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Wouldn't that be an argument for seeking improvements ASAP, though? Sano is only controlled for 5 years, and this is one of them.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    A lot of people were once confident that Plouffe could get a similar return. I'm not so sure. Are there really many teams willing to give up a Duffey for a Grossman right now?
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Buxton's at-bats are definitely must-see TV now. Every base hit is a potential extra base hit!
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I tend to agree that the Twins don't have the pieces to get anything major done on the trade front, but that still doesn't mean we can't consider it as the season develops. Especially since there are new FA compensation rules that might affect the midseason trade market: "Why this summer’s trade market could be even more intriguing than usual" http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/story/trade-market-buyers-sellers-deadline-yankees-cubs-rangers-giants-mariners-reds-dodgers-ken-rosenthal-050917
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Rosario is 25 years old and currently sporting the highest OPS+ of his career thus far. Among others, Vargas is 26 and doing the same. Grossman is 27, Escobar 28 -- not guys you would consider "core" but they are contributors. Santana and Santiago might be having career years too. I don't mind some caution, but I don't think you can rule anything out yet based on some platonic ideal of what your developed "core" will look like in some future season. It's possible the front office already did that when considering bullpen moves this past offseason and we've paid a price for that already.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    They did wait until after he had won a batting title. That probably gave Mauer enough leverage to force a shorter deal.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    The mistake with Mauer was his first contract was too short and/or too late. Sounds like you might be advocating the same mistake with Sano...
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    This sure looks like it could be a "prime year" for Sano...
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, we may already be at the injury point. 22 walks in 24 innings is pretty alarming.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Sano turns 24 in two days (May 11). This is his age-24 season. If he signed a 6 year extension that took effect immediately (so 2017 was year 1), he wouldn't be a FA until his age-30 season. If it took effect next year, he wouldn't be a FA until his age-31 season. If you added a team option year, that would push it back another year too.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    I would guess that waivers pertain to the player. But, once a player is outrighted and then re-added to the roster, waivers would have to be secured again to outright him a second time anyway. (Which makes sense, otherwise teams could freely and repeatedly add and drop certain players from the 40-man roster.) The way that waivers remain in effect for a longer period is if you secure outright waivers, but don't actually do anything with them. So a team could secure waivers on a player today, but leave him on their roster, and they would be free to outright him (once) any time between now and the end of this waiver period (which runs roughly May 1st through August 31st). http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3530
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