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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Maybe he meant Suzuki total money ($12 mil) on an annual basis? I have no idea.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI, the Angels are only 2 games better than the Twins this year. They were better on August 1st, but not a ton (6 games ahead of the Twins) and they were still in last place in their division at that time.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Your explanation makes very little sense in this context. The team already added Albers and O'Rourke to the 40-man roster in the last week. And O'Rourke was suggestion #1 to option in this thread, and few people have a problem with recalling Mejia -- the issue is, why option Vargas unnecessarily? I will add, this team's conservative roster approach has nothing to do with a new GM. Remember last year when we left Aaron Thompson on the 40-man but didn't recall him in September, and left Rogers off the roster until November even though our stretch drive bullpen absolutely could have used another arm? Yeah. There are reasons not to recall, say, Wheeler right now -- but it's not because they expect a new GM, and it has very little to do with optioning Vargas. I will add that Wimmers, like O'Rourke and Albers, is set to become a minor league free agent after the season anyway, so it would not cost anything to add him to the 40-ma and drop him later (although I repeat, that is a separate issue from the Vargas demotion).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    To answer my own question, from the daily recap article, Burnett's replacement is (former all-star) Edward Mujica.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Hey hey! Twins are second worst in MLB again. (If it wasn't for our 2-game "sweep" of the Braves, we would only be a game out of the worst spot too...)
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Bah, Nick Hundley! Interestingly, no relation to Todd...
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    With his injury, he was probably a pretty obvious nontender candidate this winter anyway, so the Rays just got that out of the way. Maybe he will clear waivers and have a few weeks to tour AAA facilities in advance of the minor league contract he will be signing this winter.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    .818 over June and July, but .739 overall since June 1. And of course, he wasn't playing every day in June and July, which was the frequently cited excuse for his poor hitting in early 2015. Maybe not every period of good or bad performance has an explanation, other than they part of a player's potential range of performances? With a low-ish walk rate and an average-ish K rate, Escobar's batting line may be more prone to the swings of BIP luck. (Same with Rosario and Santana.) That's not to say one can't make a case for keeping Escobar, of course.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Who replaces him in the Rochester bullpen? Jones and Melotakis should warrant consideration, no?
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Nope. That's why it was notable when the careers of Albert Belle and Prince Fielder ended, because they had to stay on a disabled list for the team to collect insurance. Those teams essentially had to manage with a 39-man roster every offseason from November until March. Thankfully Perkins and Hughes aren't quite that hopeless yet, but it is inconvenient to have them occupy two spots while also trying to temper expectations for them.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Odds are, our 2017 veteran catcher acquisition will not be signing anything as remotely rich as Suzuki's extension. He would have to assume he'd get even less slack -- would he survive the first year, or even the first half, before it no longer became an "open competition"? Again, how many decently performing FA veterans have the Twins benched or cut in August? It doesn't happen. They might get traded for nothing, but they don't get benched. Doing so for Suzuki on September 1st would be unusual, and not in a "Twins-are-dumb" way, but rather a "this is just a practical reality of the business with humans" kind of way. You might be better off eating Suzuki's full salary to send him to whatever fringe contender can afford a 40-man spot on August 31st, rather than asking him to take his .750 OPS to the bench. (Unless you really sold the mentorship angle with a 2017 contract extension...) If you can't eat his salary and find him a 40-man roster spot somewhere else on August 31st... I don't know. Again, I can't imagine Suzuki's value is that low. Maybe I'd get notarized statements to that effect from other teams, and present them silently to Suzuki and his agent before asking them politely what they think we should do for the rest of the season.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I wouldn't describe myself as "hopeful." I'm just cutting the Twins a little more slack through the end of the month. If Suzuki is still on this club September 1st, I'll be much more surprised/disappointed than I have been so far.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    I suspect Antony wouldn't tell Suzuki's agent "we literally can't give him away" even if that was the case. Thus, I think if you ask Suzuki to take a back seat on Sept. 1st, it's going to met with some suspicion that you didn't do enough to avoid that outcome. Sure, but multiple teams might offer him the pole position in a starting competition. The tiebreaker for such a decision might come down to, how did the team treat their last starter at the position when circumstances out of his control changed? Did they successfully place him on another team, or did they change the rules of the competition so he'd lose by virtue of his age and contract status?
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    His ultimate path to sticking in the majors, sure. But not necessarily his first taste of the majors, or extra reps after he's shared them with Turner and Murphy all year.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed, but that's a separate debate. We have to acquire a veteran catcher in the offseason anyway, and I think what we've seen over the last 3 years in total is enough to conclude that we should probably go a different direction than Suzuki for 2017, so I'm not all that concerned if trading him makes it slightly more difficult to re-sign him, or takes away 6 weeks of mentorship opportunities. (Although as I've pointed out in other posts, trading him probably gets more respect than telling him his playing time is reduced on September 1st.) Absolutely. I actually meant to leave Centeno's name out of my previous post, sorry. He's at best a backup regardless, and I am leaning toward dropping him from the 40-man this winter anyway. In that sense, more reps for Garver and Murphy could help make that decision even easier. To make it clear: no one is auditioning for a 2017 starting catching job over the final 6 weeks of 2016. And really, the case for trading Suzuki is basically saying that goes for Suzuki too -- his case for being our starting catcher in 2017 likely has nothing to do with his play over the final 6 weeks this year. So it doesn't take much benefit -- extra reps for Garver and Murphy -- to offset the loss of Suzuki for those 6 weeks.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Jeremy, you wrote your 40-man additions post at the beginning of July, when Zach Jones had just been returned to the Twins. Is his performance since then worth revising your earlier judgment? I feel like he wouldn't get claimed again, but it's also hard to ignore his improved numbers down there...
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Randy Rosario was finally moved to the bullpen a few weeks ago, and the results have been very encouraging even if the walks are still a little high: 5 G, 9.1 IP, 6 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 16 K That's a big improvement on his 5.5 K/9 as a starter this season. And his control was pretty decent as a starter too (3.0 BB/9) which should give him some hope to manage that in the pen.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    This is incorrect. Players on the disabled list have to be activated after the season, and can't be put back on the DL until spring training. Thus those players will count again toward the 40-man roster all winter. http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3538
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Fortunately for Vargas, he is out of options next spring. The Twins have very little leverage to try to sell him overseas against his wishes. All of their other recent sales or attempted sales had a AAA optional assigment looming above them -- Albers, Kris Johnson, Colabello, and Vargas last winter. Vargas should get some kind of MLB opportunity/paycheck next spring, if not here then as a trade/waiver claim elsewhere (like Arcia this year).
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Ceteno cleared last winter, Milwaukee tried to outright him off their roster, but he elected free agency instead. He's had a nice small sample run as the backup, but looking at his history, I think this is a guy you don't think much about losing on waivers. If you do lose him, or he clears but decides to sign elsewhere, there is usually another guy like Eric Fryer in the same boat that you can pick up on a minor league deal instead.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    I actually think Cleveland might be one of the tougher sells. They clearly seem to value pitching and defense, to the point where they have weathered some thoroughly awful hitting at the catcher spot all year. They did try to get Lucroy, I guess, although at a price that is generally considered less than what Texas ultimately paid for him. A team like Seattle is interesting -- Zunino is starting now, but they still have him partnered with Iannetta whose once solid defense has reportedly slipped and he's sporting an 84 OPS+. I could see them adding Suzuki as an extra option for September, ahead of Iannetta. Or Boston -- they are clearly going to ride this Sandy Leon train as long as possible, but they might welcome Suzuki's 102 OPS+ as a bit of an offensive buffer behind him, ahead of the likes of Holladay, Vazquez, and Hanigan. Or Detroit -- they obviously like James McCann, and Salty is useful, but they are an injury away from over-relying on one of them and introducing John Hicks into the mix. Not that any of these teams would give up value for Suzuki, but I could see them taking on his final month's salary come August 31.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    In addition to the question of the Twins asking price, we've got a couple weeks to let this play out yet. A team like Seattle, Detroit, Cleveland, or Boston might welcome a virtually free addition of Suzuki, but not if it means they have to displace one of their current catchers or carry 3 catchers on their 25 man roster the rest of August. I feel like we should be able to make something happen by August 31st. I can't imagine Suzuki is that bad defensively where we couldn't give him away while he is sporting a .750 OPS and rosters are expanding, even if it's only as insurance against, say, John Hicks making his Tigers debut in the event of an injury.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I know we like to say "tough cookies" to players who are demoted or asked to take a bench role, but I doubt that players as a whole take that attitude. Especially when it's not an obvious performance issue. If you unilaterally bench Suzuki and his .750 OPS on Sep. 1st, and it wasn't clear that you fully exhausted all trade possibilites first, it could very well be a factor when you negotiate with, say, Todd Hundley to take over as your veteran starting catcher next year.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    A lot of this thread is folks saying the Twins might still be asking for a certain level of return in order to move Suzuki. Or in other words, that the Twins have been or should be clear with other teams that they would not trade Suzuki just to open up the spot (which would influence decisions about whether or not to claim him).
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    I normally don't care for posts that chime in simply to say how one doesn't care for a discussion topic and won't be participating, but I give this one points for creativity.
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