Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Otto von Ballpark

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    20,669

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    74

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    It is not that they were waiting for him to clear -- once he was DFA, he was off the roster. It is important to note that the entire bullpen was not taxed, just the low leverage portion. So they called up Dean for Friday, and intended to keep Albers around longer. That meant they played "a man short" Friday but no more than they do at other times when a reliever or two get rested. But when Dean too had to pitch a ton on Friday, that is when they realized they had to get another fresh low leverage arm. So Saturday they DFA'd Albers and recalled O'Rourke. You can certainly quibble with the choices -- why are we investing innings and 40-man roster spots to two pitchers practically guaranteed to be dropped for nothing after the season (Dean and Albers)? Why do we keep treating O'Rourke like a long reliever, a dead-end role for him too? But there is some logic to the choice and timing of the transactions.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    I am not sure every other source tries to explain the rule in the same detail. My source agrees with all others that the second request in irrevocable, it just adds that the second request must be 30 days after the first waiver request is withdrawn. If you think there is no 30 day requirement, can you point to an example of a player being pulled back from trade assignment waivers (this is commonly reported), then being claimed or traded after going on trade assignment waivers a second time in August?
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Read the link I provided. It covers trade assignment waivers. You can't request them a second time for 30 days after revocation. Quite literally: "If a player is claimed but not traded and the waiver request is subsequently withdrawn, the player cannot be placed on Trade Assignment Waivers or Optional Assignment Waivers for at least 30 days from the date the waiver request is withdrawn"
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    "Meh" results? Pre-2015, his entire pro career was pretty darn good in terms of results. He wasn't an elite prospect, but consistent double digit K/9 rates at most every rung of the minor league ladder from a SP prospect is hardly "meh." Obviously the odds are stacked against any prospect, and even moreso Meyer given the past 2 years, but I just don't see the upside in an org like the current Twins essentially selling Meyer for a few million cash, especially if that cash is nominally earmarked for Hector Santiago. It is not as bad as dealing Hardy for Hoey as another poster suggested, but it has a similar feeling of just dumping an asset for the sake of dumping it because you're not sure what else to do with it. It likely won't burn the Twins in this specific instance, but it seems like a suboptimal way to run an MLB club.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I genuinely didn't know what he was trying to say. He already was mistaken about Meyer's AAA experience, so it didn't seem out of character to be mistaken about his age. I'll drop it for now, we have hashed all this out before.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    The reality of him being 27? He's still 26. And your earlier post seemed confused about what level he pitched at in 2014. See what I mean about perhaps viewing the situation through an overly pessimistic lens? As much as you want to imply that Meyer is a baseball afterthought and we should all move on to discussing his post-baseball teaching career, all the evidence we have suggests he is still worth several million dollars in value to MLB teams as a potential baseball playing asset. Let's just let it play out and wish him the best.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    2014 he was pretty good in AAA, his first go-around there. I think he was among the league's top starters that year, appeared in the Futures Game, etc. His first pro struggles came when he tried to repeat the level in 2015, which suggests maybe it was just a bad adjustment they had him make, to ease the shoulder concerns? I don't pretend he is some great bet anymore, but I think we Twins fans are letting our frustration color our perception of him a bit. (Much like how many posters exaggerated the depths of Nolasco's value too.)
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    I agree, he would be on my HOF ballot already. He is just a bit of an unusual case so I am not sure how to predict the electorate yet. (I will note that as of today, he is down to 14th out of 22 qualified MLB 1B at Fangraphs. Back to the original topic of the thread, I am still not sure this season is ultimately going to be viewed as a plus in his HOF case, much less the next couple seasons.)
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, it is just one data point, and we already have others that cause us to wonder about our coaching staffs. Which is why I may have preferred the long view and reassessed these assets in the winter (barring surgery for Meyer, both he and Nolasco were unlikely to lose value in the next few months). If I were the Angels, I might take a 2 year view of Meyer right now. True, he will likely be out of minor league options in spring 2018, but they could easily approach Meyer 2018 like we have done Tonkin 2016 or various Rule 5 picks, if necessary.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't know, even if #3 winds up true, it's not like #1 and #2 are some fantastic benefit. I did the math upthread, and it seemed like Nolasco's and Meyer's combined absolute market value was probably around $8 mil. So it's not an unreasonable trade from our perspective, but I don't get the accolades either. I'd easily rank it behind our Nunez and Abad deals.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    I doubt it. If anything, the Twins may have been extra cautious with him in an effort to hold off surgery until they could trade him. I do wonder if he will get back any service time for his DL stint. Not that it should matter much to Meyer's value either way.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think the catcher position has seen an equal share of batting champ talent as other positions, only to see it held back by having to crouch all the time. MLB catchers are selected for criteria other than their bat, so you can't judge their bats under the assumption they should be equal to those at other positions. That said, I am fine with judging his offense relative to his position, in which case he is easily one of the all-time great catchers. I just hope the electorate still perceives him as a catcher when he hits the ballot.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    In the universe of baseball prospects, Meyer is nowhere the leaders in hype/production differential. He obviously wasn't perfect, but Meyer really did produce through 2014. And he hasn't really failed on the field yet outside 8 starts at AAA in 2015, sandwiched around much better results at the same level. No guarantee they would get him on the right track, but Meyer is absolutely someone I wanted a new front office (and potentially new field staff, etc.) to be able to evaluate through 2017, more so than giving the new front office an $8 mil option for 2017 on Hector Santiago.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Even in this era, a 35% K rate is pretty high, and pretty much precludes one from being an elite offensive force, even if you can still manage to be a decent power hitter.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I hope that is not an attitude shared by our next head of baseball ops. If the Twins could basically spend a couple million and a 40-man roster spot for a year and a half chance to get some other organization's Meyer on the right track, I sure hope we'd take that chance.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Sure. I actually have no regrets about swapping Gomez for Hardy (even if we could have done a better job of cultivating Gomez while he was here). He's done well since then, but so has Hardy.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Meyer returned to game action in the Angels system a few days ago: http://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/angels-alex-meyer-makes-debut-with-angels-affiliate-friday/
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Yes. Meyer was added to the 40-man roster after 2014, so he was optioned in only 2015 and 2016 so far.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    I understand not liking Meyer's chances. But let's be honest that he still has a lot more performance potential than Alan Busenitz, has thus far avoided surgery, and hasn't yet had a chance to fail in MLB. (For that matter, his shoulder also has yet to fail outside the context of the Twins treatment and program for him, which might color our current perceptions of his health, so I'd caution against going to extreme judgements on that front quite yet.) I have to imagine we could have sold Meyer for a few million bucks to any number of teams, if we hadn't used him to inject a few million of value into this trade instead. He's still far from a sure thing, but his potential still has some value. Like Nolasco, he was going nowhere fast in this organization so it's not unreasonable to ship him out, even if I wouldn't have done it (I think leaving him for the new head of baseball ops might have been prudent).
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI, Meyer has an option remaining for next year.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    I'd have some doubt about that. I don't think switching positions would necessarily give a "significant" rate stat offensive boost. I'm not sure the Carew comparison is particularly instructive on that front, as Carew's HOF case had very little to do with his slash line. I still think Mauer has a shot at the HOF, but it probably will have more to do with how voters see his position (will they still think of him as a catcher) and what kind of catcher/concussion bonus/adjustment they apply. A few more ~115 OPS seasons (where he currently sits in 2016) would make him a useful player but I don't know that they will change his HOF case much -- whatever they might do to help overshadow his 2014-2015 seasons, they may also lessen the perception of his past catching and impact hitting.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    The answer in the previous post was only partially true. If we pull him back from waivers, we can't request waivers on him again for 30 days. After 30 days, we can try waiving him again, but the waivers will be irrevocable. So for all intents and purposes, any possibility of a Suzuki trade yet in 2016 would indeed be "done" if we pull him back now. http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3525
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    If he was claimed before his waiver period ended noon Sunday, yes, the Twins would have 48 hours (until noon Tuesday) to trade him to the claiming team with highest priority, revoke the waiver request, or let the claim stand and simply have him and his contract assigned to the claiming team. If he went unclaimed, he could be dealt anytime thereafter during this waiver period (through Nov. 10, although usually the effective end of this trading period is August 31st, as that is the deadline for possible postseason roster inclusion.) So you can see, the question of whether he was claimed is rather important in assessing the urgency/intensity of discussions today!
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed. Explaining/confirming general practices probably doesn't rise to the level of revealing competitive secrets. Although as I alluded to above, since we know the rules, I think we can logically infer those general strategies. - For a player who got no real interest at the July 31st deadline (presumably Suzuki last year), you can probably put them on waivers right away since they will likely clear and you can eliminate that procedural step later. - For a player who got interest but no acceptable offers at the July 31st deadline (presumably Suzuki this year), you probably want to wait a bit to let the market shift and maybe get some different offers. - The one thing to avoid is having a player claimed early when you are not likely to deal him. No sense having the Indians offer a PTBNL for Suzuki on July 31st and rejecting it, then having them claim Suzuki and make a similar PTBNL offer again on August 1st just so you can reject it again and revoke the waiver request. - Probably important to note that even if you don't request waivers right away, you can keep shopping a player after July 31 and more thoroughly communicate what offers you would find acceptable. Otherwise other clubs may find it difficult to follow the gentlemen's agreement not to claim players unless a deal is likely to be struck or they are blocking a potential deal to a specific competitor. (If the other team has good waiver priority, talks probably proceed into August much like July 31st negotiations, with waivers being mostly a formality to deal with when you are near a deal -- I am thinking Carl Pavano circa 2009, when he was dealt to the Twins on August 7 after we claimed him.)
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Interesting trivia, although less meaningful once one considers league/park context. Mauer's career OPS+ is 128, Carew through age 33 had a 137. Quickly eyeballing AL non-pitcher OPS, looks like it was .705 for Carew's career up to that point (1967-1979), versus .746 for Mauer's career to date (2004-2016). 7 times Carew saw a league OPS below the lowest point during Mauer's career to date (.708); 7 times Mauer has seen a higher league OPS than the highest point during Carew's career up to that point (.743).
×
×
  • Create New...