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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, I don't think he had "zero control" after the HR either. He got ahead of Altuve (a pretty game great hitter right now) 1-2, and almost had him out a couple times in the rest of the at-bat. Then Altuve stole second, with an assist from Suzuki, and he walked Springer on a pretty close pitch. Interestingly, watching the replay now, at that point Dick Bremer observed that "this is exactly when Neil Allen visited Jose Berrios on the mound, and it really calmed him down." Then the camera cuts to the dugout, and Neil Allen is instead picking up the bullpen phone to get Milone warming. After the double to Correa, Neil Allen finally visited (to calm Meyer, or to buy time for Milone?). And Meyer responded by getting a popup and a short fly ball. Also interestingly, during the Rasmus at bat which ended in a popup, Dick Bremer noted that Rasmus struck out 4 times the previous game on breaking balls in the dirt, at which point Meyer proceeds to throw a breaking ball in the dirt which Suzuki was unable to block and it scored the runner from third. It was a slow inning, there were a few missed pitches here and there, but that might just be Meyer's style, especially as he looks to adjust to MLB. (I'll note finally that even Bremer uttered a "wow" when Morris observed Molitor was heading to the mound.)
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, Berrios walked the #9 hitter to lead off the 3rd inning in his debut, then followed it by allowing a single, getting a strikeout, and then allowed a first pitch 2 run double. I'll grant that Meyer's inning was a little worse, and took a little longer, but he did manage to get two outs and was set to face the Astros' .196 AVG DH whom he struck out the previous inning. The biggest difference between the two innings might not be the pitching performances, but rather who was available in the pen. For Berrios' start, the Twins only long relief option was Meyer himself, apparently to be used only in case of emergency. For Meyer's start, they had Milone, the veteran who had just lost his starting spot and needed some work. Bonus points for Milone being left handed with a lefty coming up, even though it wasn't a particularly dangerous lefty or critical spot.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't know that our 40 man is really that full. For example, given the depth at their positions, Pat Dean and Kennys Vargas have virtually no future with this club, yet still have 40-man roster spots. And with Berrios added, there are no imminent prospect promotions that will require a 40 man spot either (and we may have a player on the 60 day DL by that time too).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    But you are not buying a share of the future earnings, directly. You are buying a share of Fantex and you get whatever they deign to give you. That is the dupe, because most observers would assume the former.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I thought Scherzer took out some kind of special insurance when he declined his extension with Detroit?
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Not true. You can go all the way back to opening day 2014 on MLB's media center page right now. Of course, your access to these archived full games ends with your subscription, although like I also noted, the condensed games are available to nonsubscribers too.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah, I think it's a mistake. Not a huge one, but a mistake nonetheless. The kind of baseball discussion point that has been going on since time immemorial. Back to my original point, I hope I have finally been clear that nobody claims Molitor or the Twins are actively hoping Meyer will fail.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Am I really not being clear? I feel like I am being clear. The Twins don't hope Meyer to fail, but their belief in the likelihood of his success right now is influencing their priorities. So they're putting a lower priority on putting him in the best position to succeed than other priorities, like having a emergency arm at the back of the pen for another extra inning game, or setting up the rotation for Santana's return. This isn't unique to this situation or to the Twins, it's something that literally everybody does, everyday. And it might make some things a little harder for those people and things that get assigned that lower priority, like Alex Meyer in this case. What exactly isn't clear about that? I'd honestly like to know.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    That's fair. But I suspect somewhat overrated. The Twins opted not to promote Meyer either of the last two Septembers to "bear witness on the bench", even though it literally would have cost them almost nothing (a league minimum paycheck and some days service time for a prospect likely controlled through his age 32 season anyway). And he bore witness on the bench last summer briefly already. And the promotion of Kepler to "bear witness on the bench" (I like that phrase ) was also timed quite oddly, given how he already bore witness on the bench (do judges do that? ) last September, and he had all of 2 career games at AAA when it happened (and a lot to prove at that level yet, like Meyer as a SP this year except for different reasons). And his appearances, like Meyer's, felt a bit more happenstance (i.e. starting against a tough lefty, then sitting for over a week) than you would imagine for a careful, considered introduction of a prospect to the MLB world.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Judging how you interpreted my post above, I suspect you may be jumping the gun at interpreting other posts as fitting your neat little "paradox." The team has appeared unwilling to promote/use Meyer at fairly obvious times (i.e. when the pen was struggling last year, or to get his feet wet with expanded September rosters the last two years). Now they have promoted him, seemingly prematurely as he looks to bounce back as an effective starting pitcher, and they have been very hesitant about actually using him. To the point where they appear to have scheduled his first and perhaps only start according to Ervin Santana's expected return date rather than Meyer's own usage schedule. I'm not alleging any ineptitude or anything nefarious, either of the team or of the posters here, and I would suggest you do the same. Facts and opinions are often quite a bit more complicated than they seem.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    No. I thought I was clear, but I guess not. It's obviously not about wanting someone to fail, the Twins don't want that, and we fans don't want that either. It's about not trusting someone to succeed, and the decisions and priorities one makes based on that level of trust/confidence. I am sure Molitor and company would love nothing more than for Alex Meyer to throw a great game tonight, but evidence suggests that they do not believe that is particularly likely, and thus have been putting priorities about Meyer's development (i.e. the timing of his promotion and MLB appearances so far) well below other priorities like, say, stashing an emergency arm at the back of the pen, or setting up the rotation for the easy return of a disabled veteran. (Sounds patriotic when I put it like that ) They are going to Meyer tonight ahead of Milone, which is definitely something in Meyer's favor. It's about the bare minimum they could have done, though, given what little else they have done with him since his arguably premature (this season) promotion -- if they were going to promote him this early (this season), he needed to get some kind of look before they would potentially send him back down. A little like Max Kepler getting that one last start before getting sent back down.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Love the glasses! New favorite minor leaguer.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Correct, all of Minnesota is in the Twins "blackout zone" as well as parts of surrounding states. Some folks get around this with a VPN or proxy, but now there are two legal method of streaming Twins games in-market, Sling and Vue: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22039-sling-adds-fox-sports-north/ Sling is particularly attractive at its $20/month price point -- you could use it just for the baseball season and only pay $120, comparable to the full season retail price of MLB.TV Premium ($110). Or, if you or someone you know already has a cable/satellite subscription that includes Fox Sports North, you may be able to stream them through Fox Sports Go too: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/21810-fox-sports-go-wtf/
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    A long time. They've got all the games dating back to the start of the 2014 season still online. Here's opening day 2014: http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/#date=3/31/2014 And remember, the condensed games, recap, highlights are all free. You only need an account to watch the full game broadcast.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I can't imagine they'd send down Rosario because he's not getting enough playing time in Minnesota, and then call up Kepler to replace him. (Although I guess they did let Kepler ride the pine once already this year, hopefully they at least let him get going at AAA before they do that again.)
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Rosario's results are comparably bad to Buxton's, but the process isn't. Rosario is a bit of a victim of a .203 BABIP. His BB and K rates aren't good, of course, but they're basically the same as last year. He probably does need to play every day, although it could probably come at the expense of Danny Santana (and hopefully Molitor would feel no great urge to bat Rosario leadoff).
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    You can actually watch a "Condensed Game" too, which shows the final pitch of every plate appearance and other key plays. And actually, you don't even need a MLB.TV account to watch those, they are treated the same as highlight/recap videos and available to the public. For example, yesterday's condensed game: http://m.mlb.com/video/v651962983/5216-condensed-game-minhou From the "Condensed Game" column on yesterday's Media Center page: http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/#date=5/2/2016
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Very few single moves rise to that level. I wasn't really bothered by it, but it was a move in that direction. (By the way, Hu is off to a nice start in the Tampa system this year, 12.1 K/9 in his first taste of AA -- not that I think he's a stud now or anything, but he could be a fun name to watch, named a "Fringe Five" prospect again this week at Fangraphs: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-fringe-five-baseballs-most-compelling-fringe-prospects-64/ ) They didn't even bother trying to find another potential catcher of the future last year to play in the high minors or behind/with Suzuki at the MLB level. They should have targeted a Murphy type at least a year earlier than they did. Welington Castillo would have been a good chance for this club to take.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Meyer was in the pen most of last season. (And not the major league pen, even after rosters expanded in September and the minor league season ended.) A pennant race we were in because of a somewhat flukey successful month of May.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Obviously this is true, and I don't think anyone is seriously suggesting otherwise. However, it's not unreasonable to suggest that their expectations and preconceptions are affecting their usage of him. Molitor is on record as preferring Meyer in the bullpen -- is he more concerned about setting up Meyer for a successful start, or about lining up the rotation for the return of Santana/Gibson?
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Baez was striking out 30% of the time in AAA, so jumping to 41% in his first taste of MLB wasn't that strange. He also drew more walks, showed more power, and was the victim of a well below average BABIP (.248, not unlike Trout 2011) in his first taste of MLB. And of course, Baez hasn't achieved any sustained success yet either. He's got a decent-looking 111 wRC+ since he came back last September, although it's propped up by a .431 BABIP. Adjust that down to .350 and is he even a league average bat during that time? Feel free to adjust the K criteria down proportional to league average, I'm still not sure you will find many/any star level players that began their careers as poorly as Buxton has at the plate. Like I said, he's far from a bust or a flop or any such thing yet, but I don't see how you can't adjust his ceiling down a bit at this point (due to a combination of his epic struggles, plus the fact that his ceiling was set so high to begin with).
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    It appears you're not terribly familiar with what happened in the Biogenesis case. Not only were there no failed tests, but MLB knowingly purchased stolen documents in that case, paying $100k to known criminals in return, and potentially impeding a government investigation at the same time: http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/9977389/major-league-baseball-purchase-biogenesis-documents-impeded-florida-department-health-investigation-sources-say And this was without any mechanism to void contracts for PED violations in the CBA. This was staight-up to leverage a handful of suspensions. Personally, I don't want to see what MLB and teams would do if they were given that additional massive incentive of saving $50-100+ million on a failed PED test. For one thing, teams would be less incentivized to discourage PED use by their players, and more incentivized to overlook questionable substances, practices, and characters, which would impact more than just the expensive veterans whose contracts are worth voiding. Heck, you might actually create perverse incentives at contract signing time -- teams would be more likely to sign suspected 'roiders or previous offenders, maybe even to front-loaded deals, knowing they had a "get out of jail free" card to void the deal on the next failed test. (As Ben noted upthread, we may already be seeing this creep into the Rule 5 draft -- teams are probably more likely to draft a suspected PED user because a suspension would free up the roster spot and effectively reduce the Rule 5 requirements.)
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I am pretty sure most of these players fight it as hard as they can, but there isn't much fighting that can be done. Unless perhaps you have a sample of a legal substance that you can show tests positive for the same drug, and even then you'd have to prove that tainted legal substance was what caused your failed test. It's almost impossible. Dropping an appeal or declining to appeal is more of an admission that it's almost an impossible task, rather than an admission of guilt.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, you can get an even bigger discount (50% off) if you load up a "Free Game of the Day" and wait for a promo email: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22247-50-mlbtv-premium-subscription/ There's also a student/military discount of 35% that you can apply during checkout, don't know if that stacks with any other discounts, though.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    That's where I'm at too. Far from saying he's a bust or a flop or any such thing, but he's got a lot of work ahead of him just to achieve a solid career, much less stardom. (To say nothing about his projected health and consistency through his career.)
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