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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    For those interested in the original, it's the 50th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper's and there is a reissue coming out later this month: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-prep-massive-sgt-pepper-50th-anniversary-sets-w474974
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Let's not forget that Kintzler was pretty solid in his Milwaukee career too. The primary reason he got cut there was injury. I don't think he will continue to be perfect, of course, but he should be a solid bullpen piece. Perhaps not unlike Matt Guerrier back in the day.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Tepesch seems very much like a move the old front office would have made.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I won't wade into the debate any further, but B-Ref indeed has Abad and Kintzler each at 1.0 WAR with the Twins in 2016, and Sano at 0.7. (Perhaps you were looking at the WAA column on the pitcher table?) But I generally agree, it's a rough measure, and by a variety of rough measures, it's pretty easy to see that Sano wasn't all that productive in 2016.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Racial slurs? If I was confident I heard them accurately, and I could identify the source accurately, yeah, I'd probably discreetly mention it to an usher to hopefully involve security. (I think the Vikings had a number you could text to report such disruptions -- ah, football fans...) Would be tough to meet those conditions in a standing-room type crowd, though. Of course, I probably won't be in that standing room crowd with my kids.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    There were other ejections from the stadium apparently, not sure what those were about, but it's quite possible that any folks engaging in racial taunts were reported and ejected (especially if it happened in the vicinity of the dugout, there are enough high rollers around there who aren't going to tolerate that disturbance). I'm not sure we'll ever get details about those other ejections, though -- the team obviously doesn't want to admit there were racial taunts, and frankly they may not know exactly -- their security probably received a report and then ejected those folks for a more general offense. Individual fans probably won't come forward and publicly confirm they heard any racial taunts either, because it could publicly identify them as responsible for the ejections.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    On this current incident, the article says the bag of peanuts was thrown "toward him into the dugout". Not sure of the context, was it targeted at Jones or just at the Orioles dugout? Obviously that's no excuse for the alleged epithets. I hope that Jones just mis-heard things from a rowdy crowd, because it boggles the mind that someone would shout racial epithets in a public place in 2017 (with multiple black players representing the home team too, no less). Although I guess nothing about racism makes a great deal of sense anyway.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, it sounds like that incident you link (the banana one) may not have had any racial motivation: http://www.mercurynews.com/2013/08/12/giants-fan-steps-forward-in-adam-jones-banana-incident/
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Since this seems like the rotation / roster move thread at the moment, this next roster move should be coming up soon. Tepesch is out of options, and I'm guessing they didn't add him last week just to DFA him this week, so it seems like he will stick around. The path of least resistance would be to start Tepesch on Saturday (I hope they don't do that!) and leave everything else the same. If they want to add Berrios, seem like they would have to DFA Tonkin. They won't be forced to make a roster move until May 11th, when Adrianza will have hit the max 20 day rehab assignment. Of course, he's been playing every day at AAA for a week already, so perhaps they won't use the max 20 days. Seems likely they would DFA Danny Santana for Adrianza soon, although never underestimate the staying power of DanSan! Obviously someone could go on the DL in the meantime too, which could enable roster additions without DFAs.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    He keeps volunteering to get bumped from his flights, in exchange for airline vouchers.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Santiago can quite easily be signed after July 1st. I really do not understand the concern that if we don't act fast, we will lose him. He is not a free agent until November, and even then, he will not be in a price range unaffordable to the Twins, nor will there be a lack of alternatives available on the market. The Twins have signed multiple Santiago-esque veteran starters in recent offseasons. I say, let it play out -- there might be a different starter or combination of starters you prefer in that class by November. And Duffey contributing 15 "alright" starts in 2017 would have far more bearing on our 2018 rotation depth than signing Santiago's 2018 contract a few months early.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Was this the same internal measuring system that informed the Donaldson for Lawrie swap?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    By the way, Duffey is only 26, won't even be arbitration eligible until after the 2018 season, and he still has 2 option years left. There should be no great urgency to commit him full-time to the bullpen today. (Sorry, I promised to leave the Duffey debate for another thread )
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Point is, you were justifying a Santiago extension as something we could do about our terrible rotation depth NOW. But, it doesn't actually do anything to improve the rotation now (Santiago is already in our rotation), and the 2018+ commitment is something you can arrange later if you are willing to dedicate some modest resources. Starting Duffey was just an example of something you could actually do now to potentially improve your rotation depth immediately, and it is an example of something that would be extremely difficult to accomplish later. I will leave the actual debate about Duffey to another thread. In any case, I don't see a compelling reason to extend Santiago at this moment. If I was ownership, I would be thoroughly unimpressed with a front office that tried to get me to sign off on a Santiago extension to help our future rotation health while at the same time limiting Duffey to 2-3 innings a week.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    If that is really the concern, a far better way to address it now would be to give Duffey another chance at starting. Unlike signing Santiago or a similar free agent, figuring out Duffy is something that can't be accomplished later.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Nobody else can sign Santiago away from our rotation until November, so there is plenty of time to plan without immediately signing him to an extension. If Santiago winds up duplicating last year's 94 ERA+ in 2017, does having him under contract beyond this season really stabilize the rotation that much anyway? It seems like a lot of our rotation trouble has stemmed from locking up pitchers in that range of effectiveness.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    But if Santiago isn't likely to be valuable in trade at the deadline, how exactly is he valuable enough to lock into an extension now? I agree the odds of a meaningful trade return are slim, but probably only equally low as the odds of Santiago's expected contract rising significantly in the next 5 months. And there is probably some overlap in those two scenarios. The slim chance that he increases his expected contract over the next few months, you might also want the option to flip him at the deadline too.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    No doubt Kintzler has been effective this year, but not all of his innings have been high leverage. 17 out of 44 plate appearances have been high leverage, per B-Ref: http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/split.fcgi?id=kintzbr01&year=2017&t=p#lever::none Duffey and Rogers top him for game-entering leverage index so far in 2017, with Belisle and Pressly not far behind: http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2017&month=0&season1=2017&ind=0&team=8&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=9,d
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think there is any evidence to support this assertion (that pitchers signing extensions during their free agent season is not uncommon). Plenty of players certainly do prefer security over hitting the open market as you suggest, but those guys generally sign extensions before their free agent year season gets underway. Strasburg did it last year, Jered Weaver in 2012. Both of those guys got much bigger guarantees than what Santiago is likely to see. It is definitely a tiny number of players compared to the number of players that hit free agency every winter.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    By Statcast, Joe does indeed appear to have been unlucky so far: http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2017/4/29/15478698/statcast-xwoba-gap-woba-luck-leaderboard-manny-machado-bryce-harper-eric-thames Of course, some of those guys on the bad luck list might just be poor hitters at this point in their careers... Note that Aaron Hicks is among the luckiest hitters so far by Statcast data.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    The Twins signed Alexander Smit for $800k back in 2002. It certainly was not a regular amateur outlay for the club, but they had done it before, and in Europe, no less. Actually Polanco at $750k may have been our record signing for Latin America, at least until Sano was inked a couple months later.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Yes, Wheeler is back, 5 starts so far in 2017 after basically missing two whole seasons.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    MLB's best catches for April, by Statcast. A Twins outfielder had the best catch! But not the Twins outfielder you would expect: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/227057590/aprils-best-statcast-catch-probability-catches/
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI, Sano already had the nickname "Bocaton" ("big mouth" in Spanish).
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    If he's got an 18.6% BB rate and a .367 ISO, he doesn't need BABIP to be dominant. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=y&type=8&season=2017&month=0&season1=2006&ind=1&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=49868&players=0&sort=18,d
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