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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    It pretty much never happens, right? A performing vet getting fully benched? That would seem to be a pretty strong indicator such a thing is frowned upon in baseball, for whatever reason. Of course, there is plenty of wiggle room around that -- you can rest them more frequently (already happening with Suzuki), you could approach the player about it and maybe they will be cool with an even further reduction. But I think the default is to try to place the player with another team rather than bench them. And if you fail at doing that, the player could assume the team didn't try hard enough to place him elsewhere. Maybe Suzuki's situation -- clearing waivers -- made it clear enough that he would be amenable to a reduced role for the last month? I wouldn't be surprised if Antony and Molitor have already expressed their interest to Suzuki in bringing him back for 2017, if they are still around, which could soften the blow. (I'd still like to know if we offered to pay his remaining salary...)
  2. 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.
  3. 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).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Now my editorial: not a great start, obviously, but somewhat impressive that he so quickly picked up where he left off after 4 months of inactivity. Not predicting future greatness, but still clearly a talent worthy of some innings investment in a lost season.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    The words "only" and "wow" or their synonyms do not appear in my post. I was just trying to be a little more descriptive than a stat line, not editorialize. But now that I have more time, if you prefer: 3.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R (inherited), 4 BB, 5 K, 68 pitches, 37 strikes Gave up a leadoff double in the 4th, retired another batter, then got lifted, after which a reliever allowed his runner to score. Gave up a pair of walks in both the 2nd and 3rd innings, but escaped without runs scoring.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    So the Angels sent him down immediately after, I assume?
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, just pitching at all is a notable change in his status from his last 3 months in the Twins org...
  8. 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.)
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    If he is to get another chance next season, why wouldn't he get called up now? How many upper minors players, already on the 40-man roster, don't get called up when rosters expand? It's hard not to think the writing is on the wall for Walker (or at least the team is going to push hard to sell him overseas).
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    3 hitless, scoreless innings for Meyer today, before a leadoff double in the fourth which a reliever allowed to score. 4 BB and 5 K's too. 68 pitches, 37 strikes.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Vargas too, with all the 1B reps that Plouffe has seen lately.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I see you are new here. This was hashed out in a recent Suzuki thread. I think it would affect the Twins. Players absolutely do not like to be promised starting jobs, then get benched for reasons mostly outside their control. And other players would not look past such a thing -- players are pretty tight-knit in this respect. That was why it was critical to trade Suzuki, even if it meant eating his remaining salary and accepting virtually nothing in return. (I guess they still could if some contender wants a third catcher for the last few weeks?)
  13. 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.)
  14. 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.
  15. 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.)
  16. 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).
  17. 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!
  18. 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).
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    New theory: maybe the Twins are priming Walker to accept a sale to Korea?
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI -- Next year is not Buxton's last option year. He didn't use one in 2015 because he spent fewer than 20 days on optional assignment.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    I wouldn't pick on them too much for sitting Murphy after a good day at the plate, but pairing the Hispanic pitcher with the Hispanic catcher again suggests that perhaps development and team-building is not a strong suit of this management team...
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Basically 3 months. Yeah, it was a long time. I guess it's fair to characterize that as "odd" even if my guess at an explanation is somewhat correct. In general, perhaps the Twins are just more conservative/cautious with pitchers, although I suspect that caution is probably heightened if they are looking to move on from a player (which their recent history with Meyer suggests was the case, even before his extended absence).
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Also, while they weren't heists, Anthropolous has a pretty decent aggressive history. He was able to get value out of Vernon Wells and Jose Reyes when they were both pretty much past their expiration dates. He also got Reyes and Buehrle with a little left in the tank by targeting the Marlins during one of their fire sales (not unlike how he got Donaldson from cash-strapped Oakland). If he has the support of ownership, you can be pretty sure that Anthropolous will leave no stone unturned. The Halladay trade, which objectively didn't work out as hoped, didn't hurt them too much. They only controlled Halladay for one more season, and beyond that Philadelphia only got one good year out of 3 from him anyway. And in return Anthropolous did get some assets to help support the Dickey trade (d'Arnaud) and even got Devon Travis in a series of moves (via Michael Taylor, via Brett Wallace, via Anthony Gose). The "pricey" David Price trade paid some definite dividends, with their division comeback and competitive playoff showing. Even the maligned RA Dickey trade, while they'd much rather have Syndergaard back now, Dickey was quietly worth 2-2.5 WAR each year from 2013-2015. And there's other nice deals in there too, like Lind for Estrada and Happ for Saunders (although the current Toronto front office gets credit for bringing both Estrada and Happ back).
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    I guess if the Twins plan to waive Walker after the season anyway, there isn't really an incentive to call him up right now. In fact, maybe not recalling him is the best way to dis-incentivize other teams from claiming him on waivers? Thus allowing the Twins to retain him and assign him outright to AAA for 2017? I could see him coming up, having a little bit of success to warrant a claim, but not enough success for the Twins to change their mind about his 40-man worthiness this winter. (Of course, he could come up and struggle too...) He can't yet opt for minor league free agency like Beresford, Schafer, Centeno, Wimmers, O'Rourke, Dean, Albers, etc., so there isn't much need to "reward" him with a call-up yet.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Not necessarily odd. If the Twins were looking to trade him (or package him in another trade like they eventually did), they had a lot of incentive to avoid surgery, or even just avoiding his arm health worsening. Even if it basically meant shutting him down for a few months while playing it super-cautious. The Angels obviously don't have that kind of incentive.
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