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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Waiting that long might curtail the effectiveness of your search, though.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    As I pointed out above, the Twins actually passed on claiming Ramirez on waivers in May. Two weeks later, they claimed him after Trevor May got hurt. If they really saw something in Ramirez, to the point they would hold back two deserving candidates for promotion in Boshers and Chargois just to better time their attempt to pass him through waivers themselves, they had a funny way of showing it. I think it is more likely that Ramirez just happened to be the fungible guy available when a need developed, and they sometimes have a hard time letting go from those guys.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Again, wouldn't it have been better to showcase Boshers for all of July instead? And reward him for his successful pitching up to that point? Just waiting for the right time to pass Ramirez through waivers instead? When we ourselves passed on him when he first hit waivers in May? Just seems a lot of work invested in Ramirez when Boshers is apparently more deserving anyway.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    They actually chose Ramirez over Boshers when May came off the DL.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I think that's the salient point. Logically, most teams should have a better "active pitchers only" ERA at this point in the season -- they've had almost 4 months to evaluate and drop/disable the worst performers. It's even easier for the teams with the worst early pitching performances, like the Twins and Reds, as they have some of the worst performers to drop and likely are getting some regression to the mean too. That's not to say we can't enjoy the improved performance too, especially in the pen where at least a couple names should stick in the next year's group. Less encouraged by our current starters still posting such a high ERA... just eyeballing it, but a collective 4.77 ERA from our current starting rotation might still rank last in the league (the teams we'd "pass" by excluding Hughes, Dean, and Berrios have all dropped high ERA pitchers themselves too).
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    I'm not sure there's any contradictions between this and the earlier article. The earlier one talked about sparse crowds at the Metrodome (true) and not being recognized on the street (probably also true). This one talked about people being nice to him, which doesn't disprove either of his earlier assertions.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    A couple things on that: While Boshers had one 3 inning game in Rochester in April, Chargois has more multi-inning appearances this year. Also, the Twins have spent the majority of the season without anyone in the role you describe, other than perhaps Tonkin. Not sure why it became a priority to fill it in late July with the worst record in the league...
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    40 man? Boshers and Chargois are already both on the 40-man roster. Ramirez would have had to be outrighted off the 25-man roster either way.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    If that's the case, and Boshers has some kind of value, why did they send him down over Ramirez in early July? Boshers could have been auditioning for MLB scouts this whole month, if the Twins had wanted.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't see how either of those points indicates Boshers over Chargois, though. They could just as easily have called up Chargois now, and Boshers if/when a reliever was traded.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    It seems a lot of the pro/neutral opinions on Antony are pushback against a perceived "Antony is an idiot" sentiment, based primarily on the 2010 interview and later Bartlett fiasco. On that point, the pushback is fair -- I don't believe Antony is an idiot, just like Bill Smith wasn't an idiot. However, "not being an idiot" doesn't really count as a qualification for MLB GM. In fact, if Antony's biggest selling points are being well-respected, "not being an idiot", and an existing familiarity with our players and organization, why wouldn't you just retain TR? He has all that and more.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I'd guess their reasoning is, they've got a 4 games series with David Ortiz and Boston coming up, and they wanted an extra left-hander. I'm not sure that should really be a priority when you have the worst record in your league in late July, but whatever. (Bonus points for Chargois' tough debut coming against the Red Sox, probably.)
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, not in the case of Tonkin -- his game entering leverage index has actually decreased a hair from 2015 to 2016...
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    A team with our record doesn't need to worry about how many lefthanders we have in the pen. Besides, they could have called up Chargois today, and then called up Boshers if and when Abad was dealt. Seems a little too cute to plan it the other way.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Nobody thinks that short term, where they are going to give up something of value (money or prospects) for Nolasco or Milone at this point based on 2 starts.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    This wasn't the first move. Ramirez was put on waivers Sunday.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Good point. Waivers are 48 hours, at least they were when Milone and Fien were waived earlier this season. Ramirez was likely waived Sunday, before the TR dismissal.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks for sharing, Parker. I'd say that "educating himself" after that interview, in some way, would probably be the bare minimum expectation for an employee in his position. I don't think that alone is really a "plus" in his "potential GM" ledger. Would have been nice for him to learn the RBI/SLG lesson on his own in the first two years of the Delmon Young era. And, even assuming he "educated himself", did it make much difference? How has he applied those lessons learned since? Did he lobby to trade Delmon Young after 2010? His statements on Nishioka vs Hardy after 2010 suggest there were still a lot of concepts he wasn't familiar with... he didn't learn much about resisting Gardy's requests from 2011 (Nishioka) to 2014 (Bartlett) either...
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Once the minor league season is done, there is nowhere for these guys to play until the AFL in October. Even if it's to ride the pine and get 1 start a week, they might as well be doing it in MLB instead of sitting at home. Furthermore, Grossman won't need the September at-bats all that much, and Santana may have already cemented his offseason status by then. So the 4th outfielder spot could be open for auditions. And Mauer absolutely doesn't need to play every day at 1B, if that can open an opportunity for Palka (although Park might take those at-bats too). There are likely to be injuries between now and the end of the season too. I'd probably rather see these new guys fill in rather than Grossman and Santana.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    In the context of acquiring prospects, prospect commodities are not worth that much.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    He contributes enough to be playing every day? At the expense of Rosario, Escobar, Vargas, or even Polanco in a lost season? (Not directly, but guys could easily be shuffled into Mauer's 1B/DH spot more often to get guys in the lineup at other positions too.) If Vargas, or Arcia, or Parmelee, or whoever was putting up Mauer's 99 wRC+ for 2.5 years now and still playing virtually every day, blocking opportunities for younger potentially better players in a season where marginal wins clearly didn't matter, it would be a situation worthy of criticism. I don't see why Mauer is above that.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Wouldn't that fall a bit on TR too? If Antony isn't up to the task, it was pretty crappy of TR to retain him as his sole #2 for all these years, and then ask to get dismissed (putting Antony in charge) right before the trade deadline. Now, I don't think TR actually believes Antony isn't up to the task (which is probably part of the problem with TR's work as GM, just like how he believed in Smith as GM too). But it's hard to assign too much blame to one side or the other without knowing exactly how the discussions this summer took place.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Problem is, our remaining bonus pool money doesn't matter. Whoever signs Ona will be going past that and incurring penalties. If we were going to do that, it made no sense to conserve our cash earlier this month. By my count, it looks like the Padres, Reds, Nationals, Cardinals, and Braves have already gone past their pool limits in this signing period.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    If Granite needs to be added to the 40 man, they might as well call him up for September (or earlier if there are any injuries). 7.5% K rate this year, 34 steals -- he could be a Ben Revere type -- not great, but has value at minimal salary, and would be a potential Rule 5 pick for someone too.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    This probably overstates Mauer's current ability to get on base. He had an obscene 18.9% walk rate in April. It has been 12% since May 1st, exactly in line with his career average. Given how his batting average has stabilized around .270 over the past 3 years, his final 2016 and true talent OBP is probably closer to .350, which would be 27th in the American League right now. Solid, but not necessarily that special. Also, the 2016 AL OBP leaderboard seems to be flukily sparse at the top. Mauer's .370 OBP only ranks 24th in MLB right now. Looking at past seasons, it would have only ranked 13th in the AL at the all-star break in 2015, 12th in 2014, 13th in 2013, etc. Still good, but not quite as good/elite as his "7th in the 2016 AL" rank suggests.
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