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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    If Berardino's speculation is correct, the next bullpen arms to get any open 40 man spots could be Kintzler and Boshers.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    See my post above. In terms of the 40 man, there is no need to clear that space. While waiting for Buxton, I think I would have rather held on to O'Rourke and actually deployed him as a strict LOOGY.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Young hard throwers, plural? Burdi is the only one remotely close who is not already on the 40 man, and he has been slowed by health concerns and is off to a slow start at AA. I guess Reed isn't on the 40 man either, but last I saw he was doing pretty poorly at AA again. Chargois would seem to be at the head of the pack, and he is already on the 40 man. No need to clear 40 man space for him.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I think you are being far too kind to say these aren't basically traditional moves. We have a bad bullpen, with little immediate help at the ready, but we just needlessly dropped two relievers with options to add two go-nowhere bench players, while holding on to Vargas (struggling, blocked, and out of options next year) and Pat Dean (also blocked). If and when Milone or Fien is actually sent packing, I will be more encouraged. The other moves so far are just questionable deck chair shuffling.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I think you are reading too much into most of these recent complaints. I for one am not necessarily blaming management for Meyer's results. Just that the results would be easier to swallow if they weren't accompanied by completely nonsensical management decisions like promoting Meyer to park him on the MLB bench. Or promoting Kepler, starting him once against a tough lefty and refusing to pinch hit for him while he gets embarassed by said lefty in a game defining at bat, then parking him on the MLB bench. As the recent wave of waiver/DFA moves should indicate, we were nowhere near a 40 man roster crisis to warrant this handling of top prospects.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    They DFA'd two guys and added two more DFA candidates. Seems at best a lateral move, and considering the modest potential, position, and options of O'Rourke and Graham, quite likely a downgrade.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    I guess they get points for the quantity of moves, rather the quality? With the state of the bullpen, potentially losing two (albeit modest) options in Graham and O'Rourke to make way for temporary bench placeholders in Mastro and Centeno seems like more of the same roster mismanagement.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Not that Graham and O'Rourke are great prospects, but cutting them with options while you continue to roster Pat Dean and Kennys Vargas (and still have a suspect MLB bullpen) because you need 40 man spots for bench placeholders in Centeno and Mastro is probably a bad use of resources.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    The players are to blame. Specifically, Murphy, O'Rourke, and Graham, apparently.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Um, they optioned Murphy, and designated O'Rourke and Graham (the latter having been here all of 1 game in 2016). And promoted noted non-prospects Centeno and Mastroianni, whose best attribute seems to be being obviously bad enough that (hopefully) the manager won't feel any great obligation to play them. This is a change worth noting? A change in the way they do business? A real response to the poor performance of the team thus far? I guess they are also seeing if someone will bail them out of the Milone and Fien contracts, but failing that, there is no indication they plan to drop either of those players soon. Even though these outright assignment waivers are irrevocable, functionally this is probably not much different than the multitude of overpaid players who go through revocable waivers in August. I don't think there is any way to view these moves as any kind of meaningful change in direction or housecleaning.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    If he clears waivers, there will be no need to DFA him. They can outright him off the 40-man roster to AAA (although having been outrighted before, Fien could elect free agency at that point). They also could have optioned him, he would have stayed on the 40-man but in AAA.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    91 degrees here right now, perfect for watching a ballgame on TV.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    In case you didn't catch it on the other threads, no, Milone and Fien are not gone. They are just on waivers, but still part of the 25 man roster. And even if/when they clear waivers, they will still be part of the 25 man roster until we outright them to AAA. We just won't have to pass them through waivers again to outright them, at least through August 31. (Fien could reject the outright assignment too, although I think with less than 5 years service time, he would forfeit his salary by doing so.) So I expect them to remain with the club for the immediate future, at least.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    This isn't that difficult. Danny Santana's good batting line was due in large part to great luck (as evidenced in part by an extremely high BABIP). Byron Buxton's poor line has little to do with bad luck (he has a normal BABIP, bad luck would generally be considered a low BABIP). Sorry if that doesn't fit your "water good, fire bad" view of statistics. Both could still be good MLB hitters, but it will take some work to cut their K rates to get there. Neither can count much on better luck on balls in play to make up that ground.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Interesting. Outright assignment waivers: http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3530 Of note: "A club does not have to outright a player to the minors after Outright Assignment Waivers have been secured." So Milone and Fien might be sticking around on the MLB roster for now, but assuming they clear, the Twins will have the ability to outright them anytime between now and the end of this waiver period (August 31).
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Interesting. Outright assignment waivers: http://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3530 Of note: "A club does not have to outright a player to the minors after Outright Assignment Waivers have been secured." So Milone and Fien might be sticking around on the MLB roster for now, but assuming they clear, the Twins will have the ability to outright them anytime between now and the end of this waiver period (August 31).
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    So off the 25 man: Milone Fien Graham O'Rourke Murphy (optioned) Added: Centeno Mastroianni Ervin Santana (activated) Still 2 more adds coming, right? Edit: no. See below.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Getting Murphy regular at bats in AAA is a positive. But Mastro and Kintzler could be decent sized negatives.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    If true, good to see them aggressive about cuts. But that is only half the equation. If they add some combination of Mastro, Centeno, and Kintzler, this is almost certainly a net negative move.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Not from Allen either, who was on the bullpen phone when he should have been visiting the mound. I have no idea about Allen's overall effectiveness as Meyer's coach, though.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    That's a long ways away. A lot will sort itself out. Jepsen will be a free agent, hopefully Suzuki will be too. Milone, Fien, and Nunez might easily be priced out of their roles by arbitration raises. Arcia too if he doesn't play his way into a more important role in the coming months. In addition to Dean and Vargas, guys like Graham, O'Rourke, maybe even Rogers and Walker could all be pretty easy drops by then. Who really needs to be added this winter? The once-definitive org chart here at Twins Daily is sadly way out of date (and missing some key names now).
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    I think you and I have had this discussion before. Being league average in BABIP is actually a negative indicator if your overall production is poor. It means you are getting "normal" results on-contact -- you just aren't making much contact, which for MLB hitters is generally a harder problem to reverse than making outs in the field. And again, BABIP is not really a metric or anything to be "hyped" it is just a shortcut for gauging the relationship between batting average and strikeouts, something that looking at average or strikeouts alone won't necessarily tell you.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't doubt there can be some physical effects. But those effects are probably reduced given the functional skill set of baseball players, and those effects are quite possibly washed out by the workout regimen they require to be effective anyway, as Ben alluded to. And diminished further by testing, as players can't really go all "East German Olympic athlete" in their PED use. I think the edge that players actually get from PEDs, today, is quite likely more psychological than physical. Hence, the actual rewards probably don't outweigh the risks.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    There are vey few players near an MLB promotion that aren't already on the 40-man roster. Maybe Burdi, but he is still in AA and has been slowed by health concerns. Maybe a catcher, probably Centeno, so they can get Murphy everyday reps in AAA. Otherwise, most everybody who could get promoted to MLB this year is already on the 40-man. So they don't really need the 40-man space. A willingness to eventually cut fringe guys like Vargas and Dean is all the flexibility they need right now.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    In Hughes' case, I am not sure the limitation is simply financial. Given their respective histories and the reasonable terms of the original deal, it is likely that Hughes signed with the Twins with the promise that he would be a starting pitcher. The contract extension was likely just the Twins backing up that promise with money. Evidence suggests that the Twins also gave a similar promise to Kevin Correia, and they stuck to it. It would probably take another DL stint for them to ask Hughes about pitching out of the pen.
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