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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I am not talking about Drake specifically being a nuisance, that is not really the point here. The point is, one employee was bringing his kid to the workplace every day, against most established custom in the industry. The kid doesn't have to do anything bad to make that an uncomfortable work environment for other employees.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Sorry, just saw what you underlined in my post. I think the persistent presence of a child in the workplace can clearly affect the workplace environment of others, no? That's not in dispute here, is it?
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    How so? If it was in the written contract, I am pretty sure we would have heard about it by now. He would have had an ironclad case for a grievance. And actually, the CBA prohibits verbal side agreements, outside the written contract. That's why LaRoche basically has/had no recourse other than to follow the team's new rules or retire. His union and his agent surely would not have let him retire if the team was violating a term of the written contract.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I think we pretty much know it wasn't a term of the written contract. It quite likely was an oral promise, and probably not well-defined either. Even absent a specific clause that it could be revised, that should have been implicit given it clearly affected a shared work environment.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Pseudo, did you read the article I linked upthread? Williams didn't demand zero access for the kid, he requested a reduction to ~50%. While I think that is a fair request for Williams to make, at that point I think it would have been fair for LaRoche to appeal to his manager, his agent, his union, etc. He apparently didn't. He continued to bring the kid every day. At that point, when he found out, Williams flipped out and cut off access completely, then later relented and simply restated the ~50% request. That is apparently when LaRoche retired. I see in there multiple opportunities for LaRoche to make an appeal, but a consistent refusal to do so or abide by the reasonable request. I am not sure why that is Williams' fault, or something that Williams should have anticipated. Who reacts like that, with a powerful union behind him, an agent, a couple key players on his side, and $13 mil on the line? Ventura absolutely should have never been involved. No part of the decision could come from him because it would strain his relationship with the players. It had to be from a front office guy, preferably one like Williams who is not even the GM anymore so he probably deals in little or no official business directly with players. Likewise it should never be revealed who made the original requests/comments to Williams, as that would likewise harm active working relationships. (Although LaRoche seems oblivious to that fact, in his statement saying if there were problems, he would have dealt with them).
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    I've read multiple reports that he has already filed the official retirement papers: http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2016/03/adam-laroche-issues-statement-on-departure-from-white-sox.html
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    More details: http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/columnist/bob-nightengale/2016/03/18/adam-laroche-drake-laroche-kenny-williams/81993428/ Sounds like Williams asked LaRoche to cut back, but after 3-4 days of LaRoche failing to do so, Williams got mad and cut off all access before reverting back to the original reduced access request.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Also, from reading LaRoche's statement, he seems to assume the only problem that could arise would be if Drake did something that Adam would have to talk to him about. He doesn't seem to even be aware that some people could be put off by his son's presence regardless of the kid's behavior, or that his teammates should have a right to a standard, childless work environment. In short, he seems very clueless about reality. Of course, Williams should have taken that into account as he approached this. Although maybe he did, and LaRoche still went off like a loose cannon, who knows.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    No question that Williams could have managed this better. Sale and Eaton like to fight, and are LaRoche's buddies -- Williams should have treaded more carefully. Although I do wonder if he wasn't blindsided by LaRoche's rather extreme decision to make himself a martyr. If LaRoche doesn't retire, but instead gets the MLBPA involved, or even just ignores Williams' request as they work out details of a revised policy, there is a good chance we never hear about this.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Williams said he told LaRoche 50% was too much, and that it should be between 0-50%. Would not surprise me if LaRoche misinterpreted that, given that his reaction was to retire, I am not sure that nuance is his game.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    He could hang out here at Twins Daily.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Nope. LaRoche's buddies Sale and Eaton are vocally behind him, but that's about it. Note how most of the team has stayed silent. They didn't necessarily want LaRoche to retire over it, but I suspect most don't really give a hoot about preserving his special privileges. The MLBPA will look into it on LaRoche's behalf of course, although if it's not part of the written contract there is not much that can be done.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    What LaRoche doesn't seem to understand is, if someone has a problem with the situation, it's not up to him to talk to that person and tell him how great his son is as a way to "address" it. Can you imagine if you had a problem with a coworker's special work arrangements, and you went to your boss, and he made sit in a room and tell your coworker face to face? I'm sure LaRoche, Sale, and his athlete buddies think that's how "real men" should deal with it, but that's not how you resolve issues in the workplace in real life. Given that, it wouldn't surprise me if LaRoche didn't grasp some of the nuance of their verbal agreement about the situation either.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    And if they had done that, I'd be more cool with it. With another plus arm in place of one of Abad, Kintzler, etc., we might still have a glut of starters pushing May to then pen, but I think you could be looking at the pen as a potential weapon, and you'd still have the flexibility to flex out May to the rotation whenever needed. Instead, Plan A the whole time appears to be relying on May to make the pen barely acceptable.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    O'Day is the same age as Ervin Santana, and is guaranteed less going forward. Same age as Nolasco too, and he barely eclipses Nolasco's total remaining cash (and of course both Nolasco and Santana still have much higher AAVs). "Try again."
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Evidence? Lots of solid relievers (Lowe, Benoit, etc.) changed teams this winter for little more than our overall commitment to Jepsen. This is one of those myths that sounds nice in theory, like the catching market being so barren as to necessitate the early Suzuki extension, but it absolutely fails when you actually look at the whole market and not just at the top couple names (who the Twins likely weren't competing for regardless). The Twins fell in love early with the idea of May in the bullpen, just like they became overly enamored with Suzuki as their starting catcher. And then they proceeded to do nothing over a full winter to improve in those areas, or add flexibility to those plans. It's really that simple.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    I have nothing against LaRoche's desire to retire if he wants to be with his family. He could have brought his family on the road with him though, as I understand Blaine Boyer does, without insisting his son be with the team full-time.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    But it would be okay for Milone or Nolasco to go to the bullpen at the end of spring training? Just like it was okay for Pelfrey to do so last spring? You're not making sense here. It is pretty clear that Trevor May never had an equal chance to win a starting job in this "competition" and if you are applying different standards to him than the other candidates (i.e. he can't be moved to the pen at the end of spring training), then that proves my point.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks for the update. Weird that it didn't come out before.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    That presumes Kenny Williams knew that LaRoche would retire (and give up $13 mil) when faced with this request. They were quite likely as surprised by that decision as the rest of us. And I agree that LaRoche's performance is relevant -- but he's coming off the worst full season of his career, with persistent injury concerns. In light of that, it's quite likely the team wanted LaRoche to focus more on his health and game this year, and lessening his unusual chaperone responsibilities seemed a logical way to address that.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    You said May lost the competition. That presumably means you think he was bested by Nolasco in said competition, with two weeks to spare, even if Nolasco isn't the ultimate winner. If they simply wanted to narrow it to two starters at this point, why couldn't it be down to May vs. Milone instead? I don't see how you can ignore the obvious factors other than spring performance (contracts and past usage) that influenced this move.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    May lost a competition with Nolasco this spring? Really? He's lost to Duffey so far too?
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Generally agreed, although note his roughest start was June 26.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    May had a 7.88 ERA in his debut season, and a 4.37 ERA in his second season when he was moved to the pen. Gibson had a 6.53 ERA in his debut season, and a 4.47 ERA in his second season. If you want to add in FIP and strikeout and walk rates, it arguably helps May's case relative to Gibson's too. The stats are not terribly conclusive here. It could just be that May had the unfortunate luck to come along after Gibson and 4 other starters, making him the low man on the totem pole.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Did you read my post? There is a baseball argument there. It's a poor use of resources. We've handed out tons of money to mid-tier FA starters, done almost nothing to acquire good relievers outside the draft, and now we're converting a cheaper and arguably better (certainly younger, with more strikeout potential) starter to relief. I don't care about the player bank accounts, but I am concerned that my team is not handling their resources rationally. That said, given where we are today, having invested in those mid-tier FA starters and having not acquired more relievers, there's probably little else to do but move May to the pen at the moment. But I want to be clear that we've painted ourselves into that corner, and if we continue making decisions like this, it is going to limit us more in the future.
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