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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    There's more to Antony's public record than his brief stint as acting GM. He was also on record in 2010 as believing RBIs were more predictive than slugging percentage. This was after 12 years as our director of baseball operations, and 3 years as our assistant GM. Now, if it was some baseball lifer who made that statement, who had a track record of solid moves like TR, I'd give him some benefit of the doubt. But as assistant GM under Bill Smith, Antony probably deserves some blame for our poor higher-level moves from 2007-2011 (MLB moves like Delmon, the second Hardy trade, etc. were almost certainly made at the top rather than by our lower level scouts and directors). I am sure he's a great guy, well respected, and can do a job in the front office just fine -- but he is almost certainly not the guy you want heading the baseball side of the organization.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Stewart's start seems promising, but I'm not that sure about Harrison. His BB% is a career low, his K% a career high, and his bump in ISO is thus far pretty minor -- Niko Goodrum and Levi Michael both managed higher ISOs in the same league/park just last season. Meanwhile, Harrison's BABIP is nearly 100 points higher than his previous career high since rookie ball. His start could certainly be worse, but he has so much work to do just to suggest this performance level is sustainable based on his rate stats, so it's hard to get terribly encouraged thus far. For that matter, his OPS is only .759. He had an .812 OPS on June 1st last year, and later had a .747 in August, with better rate stats backing them up. It will be an achievement if he can avoid the slump he had in June-July last year, but his current performance level and rate stats don't offer any additional evidence to suggest that he will.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    I think the point is, he should be playing everyday somewhere, either MLB or AAA, not on the bench. If we need a bench infielder, call up Beresford instead of Mastroianni or one of our mop up pitchers.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    The injury ravaged Angels just traded for Jhoulys Chacin, yet they didn't put in a claim for Tommy Milone a couple days ago...
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    And Kingman's stat line supported a 15 year MLB career, not "pumping gas in Altoona in 4 years" as you claimed. That would be more like Buxton's current MLB stat line.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Heading to the game today. Another sign of organizational cluelessness: the cheapest ticket for today on the Twins web site is $12. Cheapest (with fees) through their official ticket partner StubHub is $10.52. Fortunately, SeatGeek came to the rescue with $3 tickets. The free market is still alive!
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Stewart participated in 8 "Perfect Game" events too, which are basically elite national amateur baseball scouting combines. The Twins weren't limited to seeing him pitch in high school game action.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Yes, true. My point was, Milone didn't "accept" the assignment as the other poster claimed -- he had no choice in the matter. Fien probably would have accepted but at least would have had the option to decline, although as you state, not without cost since he has less than 5 years service time.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    That is true, but part of being a good GM is knowing who to listen to, when to overrule them, and how to make your opinion known effectively. Some of the Twins worst highest-profile decisions actually came when Antony arguably had the most power (2007-2011), suggesting that he was partially responsible or at the very least was ineffective at preventing them.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Antony may have this respect, but he also has a track record -- he assumed his current position of assistant GM way back in 2007. Given the Twins poor record of high-level decisions since that point, that has to be a big negative point on his candidacy.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    You might be onto something. Before his demotion, FSN cameras caught this shot of Murphy in the dugout after yet another unsuccessful plate appearance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya2xifdO_l0
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Any update? He didn't get in the game last night as a reliever either.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Who told him to ditch the leg kick in the first place?
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Meyer probably should have been up, at least to get his feet wet, in 2014. As you state, he had a good season starting for Rochester, he needed to be added to the 40-man after the season anyway, and even if they wanted to shut him down and cap his innings around September 1st, we were effectively out of the race by the beginning of July yet proceed to waste a lot of innings in July and August on Correia, Pino, Deduno, Swarzak, Burton, and Kris Johnson, all of whom were gone from the organization for zero return by November. In 2015, Meyer probably should have tried starting again in the season's second half, after it was determined he wasn't going to help the 2015 Twins bullpen, just to get more opportunities/innings.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Another update: Aaron Hicks with 2 hits and a walk last night, including a go-ahead RBI double in the 7th inning. With the aid of two recent HR, he has almost tripled his OPS from a week ago, up to .546 now (just ahead of Rosario). John Ryan Murphy has taken a unique approach to besting him, though -- his .354 OPS at AAA, when added on top of his .219 OPS in MLB, could give him the lead! (Gladiator showdowns aren't good places for math anyway )
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    It's been mentioned. Turner is a career .242 hitter through AA so far, that would pretty much have to translate 100% to MLB to match the expectation for Suzuki (who at least hit .240 last year). Similarly, not sure we should expect Turner's walk rate to translate perfectly to MLB. It might happen eventually, but not now, and probably can't count on it for 2017 either. Although I think Turner needs to be added to the 40-man this winter anyway, so he might get a look later in the year regardless. Mitch Garver too.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Okay, how about "WTF, eh?"
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    "Meh"? If Andrew Albers makes his way back onto the roster, you might have to add a category for "Eh?"
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    That's a perfectly reasonable reason why a team wouldn't trade for a guy like Milone right now, or most of the other Twins salary dump candidates. But available for free (apart from his modest salary)? I don't think teams would hesitate to add him, if they really shared your opinion of him. Actually, Milone only had his inherited runners scored in one game this year -- 3 vs the Brewers. Relievers stranded two of his runners is each of two other starts.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Probably not. Last year, Suzuki didn't really miss any time, and in fact we had to send down Herrmann because he wasn't getting enough reps in MLB, and Suzuki still only finished with 479 PA. In 2014, similar story, and Suzuki only reached 503 PA probably because we had a better team offense that year, meaning more trips through the lineup. April 2016 was already Suzuki's fewest games played / plate appearances in a month as a Twin. They could probably ramp him back up and still fall short of 485. Wouldn't be surprised if they re-signed him for 2017, though.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Nothing about Meyer in the Red Wings game notes for today either, but it did reveal that Chargois has been promoted to AAA: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160510&content_id=177309386&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_t534&sid=t534
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    On the subject of Chargois, he has just been promoted to AAA according to Rochester's game notes for today: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20160510&content_id=177309386&fext=.jsp&vkey=news_t534&sid=t534
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Any word on Meyer yet? The Red Wings home page has starters listed for the rest of the week, and they're Milone, Albers, someone called David Martinez, Jason Wheeler, and Logan Darnell. Sunday is TBD.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Update: the Dodgers optioned FIen to AAA before he ever pitched a game for them. That remaining option was probably the only reason he was claimed.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    A simple ranking like this will never be exact science, but I think prospect lists have gotten a lot better since the days of McCarty. For example, there is no way Todd Van Poppel would be rated #2 and #7 anymore after his performances of 1991 and 1992. Heck, he probably wouldn't have been #1 after his draft year either -- Buxton was only #10 at that point, and Correa #13. Same with Brien Taylor -- #1 before he even threw a pro pitch! McCarty is another one -- a college first baseman who posted a .785 OPS at AA. You don't see that kind of player ranked in the top 20 anymore.
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