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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    As far as roster predictions, swapping Pineda for Maeda and Celestino for Buxton both seem pretty obvious. The question is, who goes down to make room for Arraez? Astudillo could be optioned Kirilloff (ankle) could get 10 days of rest on the IL, maybe a AAA rehab tuneup Dobnak could be optioned Shoemaker could be released They could bring in a new pitcher too, although Jax is rested so they could wait to do that until he is used again.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    As Shoemaker's relief leash draws near its close, I'll drop this line of debate, but I just want to clarify that I wasn't trying to diss Barnes upthread! If the season ended today and he wasn't on the 40-man, I don't think he'd be a likely Rule 5 loss, but of course the season doesn't end today -- Barnes may get a chance very soon and do well.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    That’s fair, it will be different for everyone. But it is clear that some folks were on Hulu Live TV or YouTube TV (or cable, or satellite) primarily for live sports. Those folks could drop those plans if they haven’t already and pick up this Bally service during their desired sports season(s). Some could supplement with over-the-air broadcasts, a “skinny” live TV service like Philo, or just move further toward on-demand consumption of non-sports content.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Tom actually misstated it: Jeffers at #6 was due up first in the 9th on Friday night, followed by 7-8-9 as listed. Not without their redeeming qualities, but the batters due up were a collective 0-for-9 for the night up to that point, followed by 1-for-3 Celestino. And it would take two baserunners from that group to bring the top of the order up. And it’s not that Baldelli refuses to use his better relievers in his such situations — but he just used several while trailing the day before. You can’t necessarily pursue that strategy every day.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Welcome to Twins Daily! Rijo was technically on the "Temporarily Inactive List" and I suspect the others were/are too. Could be for any number of reasons, often private/personal, but I'll note that all 3 of those guys are international players so they may have had issues with travel/entrance to the USA (perhaps exacerbated by the timing of personal issues in their home countries). Here's a good summary of such lists: https://www.thecubreporter.com/book/export/html/3537
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    As of tomorrow (Maeda activation), the Twins will have 6 starters plus Duran still in AAA. We could probably use a few relief innings covered over the next few weeks, but a handful of veteran SP with $100+ mil in career earnings who haven't thrown as much as a spring training pitch in 2021 do not represent better or more realistic options to fill that need than simply giving a second relief appearance to Shoemaker. Just like I correctly suggested last week, that Shoemaker may not make his next start even though he wasn't officially bounced yet, I'm going to guess that Shoemaker won't have a long leash in the pen either if our need for higher leverage innings persists and his upcoming relief performances look more like his 9th inning Friday night rather than his 8th.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    This was the fan complaint a week ago when they didn’t DFA Shoemaker or announce his removal from the rotation immediately after his implosion vs KC. But guess what? They added Jax to the 40-man immediately after that game, they bounced Shoemaker from the rotation before his next turn, and Jax ended up with over twice the innings of Shoemaker for the week. This front office has promoted pitchers aggressively when they believe they are ready — Dobnak and Ober as chief examples on the current roster. Barnes himself went from high-A to AAA in 2019. There is no evidence that they are withholding a ready MLB promotion to anyone out of some obligation toward Shoemaker, just because they are not rushing to satisfy your DFA bloodlust after a single Shoemaker relief appearance.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    They don’t necessarily have to add Barnes, that’s the thing — I don’t think he looks like a particularly likely Rule 5 pick. So the Twins can take their time with him — he is still just 25 and left handed. If they don’t think he’s likely to be successful in MLB at the moment, why should they betray that judgement just because Shoemaker has been a disaster and postseason is unlikely? In that case, Barnes likely blocks a better prospect from being added to the 40-man this winter, or gets claimed on waivers if we try to remove him. That sounds like compounding one mistake with another, and a poor use of resources. They could just follow their present judgement on Barnes, keep him in AAA off the 40-man roster, perhaps even into next season, and continue working on new things with him until they think his odds of MLB success have improved. I get it, you are frustrated by Shoemaker. We all are. But he’s not going to be allowed to put up numbers like this for the next 3.5 months. He’s already been bounced from the rotation. He’s not going to block anybody who really needs a look.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Game is on free TV tonight (FOX), at least in Minnesota. If you don’t have an antenna or otherwise get FOX, you may be able to watch using the Locast site/app. edit: stringer beat me to it!
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I don’t know that I’d be any more confident in Barnes right now than Shoemaker in relief, for example. And of course, if Barnes struggles but you still think he could potentially be useful down the road with some more work in the minors, he can be optioned but he can’t be replaced on the 40-man roster. On the other hand, if/when Shoemaker is deemed unviable in the pen, he can be cut and replaced.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    It is a little tricky because there are so many injured pitchers on the 40-man right now. And you can’t outright an injured player to the minors, only trade or release.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Seems close to the price of Sportsnet’s standalone streaming service in Canada. And if the retail full season price of MLBTV is $130, it seems reasonable that the blacked out games could be worth that much by themselves. Not for everyone, of course, although it could expand its subscriber base if it offers yearly discounts as well as monthly and weekly passes like Sportsnet. And keep in mind, it doesn’t have to add to your current stable of streaming services but it could be added to the rotation. For example, if the Twins are good, I can drop Netflix ($14/month for their HD plan) and pick up Bally for a little while.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    They could be trying to salvage something from Shoemaker as a reliever.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    The other speculation is that the Bally streaming service will be tied to gambling. For example, make a certain amount of wagers every month to get Bally streaming access for free.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Could wind up like Sportsnet in Canada. They have a stand-alone streaming package that averages $21/month if you buy it for a whole year, or $35 for a single month or $10 for 7 days.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    No roster moves yet, but it has been announced that Maeda will be reinstated from the IL on Monday to start against Seattle.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Those two explanations from Baldelli are a bit contradictory -- part of the reason we could potentially run out of pitchers by the 11th is that he pulled a rested Rogers after only 3 pitches, and used our presumed "long man" Shoemaker to pitch the top of the 8th with a 1-run deficit (and the top of our order due up in the bottom of the 8th).
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    On bringing Shoemaker into the game, then out for a second inning:
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Pineda is a FA after 2021, and he’s already 32 years old, so a trade seems to make more sense than an extension. You could trade him and even re-sign him in the off-season, if you really wanted.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Entering last night, Larnach had a .412 AVG and .500 OBP over the last 7 days; Kirilloff, .368 and .400. Larnach had a 5 game hit streak, reaching base multiple times in 4 of them.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Welcome to the board. If it makes you feel any better, consider this occurrence balanced out by the many times a batter has to trot around the bases before replay overturns it into a foul ball.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Who would you have brought up? Every healthy pitcher on the 40-man is already on the 26-man roster, except starting prospects Duran and Balazovic who are still stretching out. There’s not even an obvious non-40 man candidate to replace Shoemaker at the moment. Also, the 6th inning pitcher was protecting a lead; the 8th inning pitcher was facing a deficit. The earlier situation was actually higher leverage — by gmLI, it was 1.45, compared to 0.92 for the later situation.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    And on Ober/Alcala: it seems Ober could have started the 6th inning, with the Astros top 4 already out of the way, but it would have been with a quick leash. And Alcala seems the like the type not to bring in with runners on base.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Alcala started the 6th with a 1 run lead; Shoemaker the 8th with a 1 run deficit. That part makes sense to me. Rogers had already been used in the 7th. Perhaps you meant Robles? He was loosening up as the 9th began, but unfortunately the tie got away from us quickly — Straw singled, took second on a passed ball, then scored on Maldonado’s double. If Maldonado had successfully laid down a sac bunt as he was trying to do before he got to 2 strikes, I suspect we would have seen Robles relieve Shoemaker. But once the run scored, it probably wasn’t worth it anymore.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Ober faced the top of the Astros lineup a third time in the 5th, arguably their 4 best hitters. For whatever reason, Ober has not pitched deep into games this year, either at AAA or in MLB. Pitch counts so far 60, 64, 82 (MLB debut), 70, 79, 51 (return to MLB, perhaps on short notice), 73. This is only the 2nd time he has completed 5 innings. I think this goes above Rocco. Here are Ober’s innings as a pro: 2017: 28 (84 combined with college) 2018: 75 2019: 78.2 2020: 0 2021: 29 so far
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