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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, the Twins bungled Mauer's contract by not signing him earlier. TR waited until AFTER Joe had won a batting title and was arbitration-eligible to sign him to his first multi-year deal, at which point he was only able to secure him through his age-27 season (buying out just one FA year). Then Smith was forced to overpay in years for the right to extend him beyond that. Given that Mauer was a young homegrown cornerstone player, with only 69 games MLB experience and a full year and a half away from arbitration when the Target Field bill was formally approved, he was an obvious candidate for a more aggressive original contract. (FWIW, a 10-year contract signed that year, to begin in 2006, would be expiring right now.)
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    The Cubs held Kris Bryant back, plainly and obviously due to service time. They didn't hold him back due to any Twins-like "we're going to do this the right way" crap, as per your original comparison. (The Twins, despite some fan accusations, haven't really played any notable service time games with their players.) The Twins, the Cubs, the Yankees, and every other club have their own "right way" about doing things, but those ways don't necessarily resemble the Twins way in any significant degree.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Both runners would be out only if the umpire ruled the player getting hit by the ball was deliberately attempting to interfere. If they don't rule that on drop-kicks wide of the bag, I doubt they'd rule it much if the runner took a throw to the face instead. If these Utley-style takeout slides are rare enough to cause serious injury as infrequently as you claim (conveniently ignoring Kang a few weeks ago), how much excitement can they really be providing?
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    "If we're actually interested in saving people's lives, seat belts are pretty low on the list. We should be advocating for fewer cars and wider roads. Or more ignition interlock systems. Or uniform city planning so driver's don't have to learn new traffic layouts. But I don't think most complaints are really about saving lives, per se. It's about attacking a way of driving a car that some people don't care about and using saving lives as the instrument of change." If I were you, I'd focus less on what you think most complaints are really about, and actually read and respond to the complaints here. I like watching players play, not get their legs broke. I was hugely looking forward to seeing Jung Ho Kang in the postseason this year.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    When Sano was injured, he was actually well ahead of Correa's timeline. Even with last year's injury, there's really no reason he couldn't have had an additional 100 MLB PA this season like Correa. Buxton was from the same draft as Correa, but he was also ahead of his timeline at the beginning of 2014, having reached and excelled in high-A for the latter half of 2013 and appearing in that year's AFL. Even with the injury, their AA debuts were essentially on the same date. Giving Buxton a few weeks to a month to shake off some rust should have put them about even.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Were a lot of posters claiming that velocity by itself was "it", to the extent that it was "myth" worth busting? As I recall, most complaints about the Twins staff here have focused on K rate. In fact, one of the more common criticisms of the Twins staff this year was that Pelfrey should be tried in the pen specifically because he had good velocity but failed to generate strikeouts as a starter.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    And here are their MLB ranks for starter ERA- (ERA relative to league/park): 10, 2, 8, 25, 6, 12. All top-half in rotation run prevention except for the Padres. Try to filter the effects of defense (FIP-) and it looks even better, with even the Padres jumping up into the top half too. Also, as a group these are not bad teams, and their rotations generally weren't the reason for any missed expectations. Go to Fangraphs and sort team starter performance by FIP- or ERA- and then by K% -- they're not perfect matches, but they're close. BB% is a good match too, but also note that high K% seems to correlate pretty well with low BB% too. http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&lg=all&qual=0&type=1&season=2015&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=13,a If you're focusing too much on the BB% side of that correlation, as it seems the Twins have done at times, you are probably leaving a lot of effectiveness/predictability/stability on the table.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Seems to be an oddity with DirecTV. Looks like their "Entertainment" package includes FS1, but they don't include MLB until one step further ("Choice" package). I think most systems include the two channels in the same bundles...?
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, "literally paying for it" in the form of a full postseason package of MLB.TV would be nice. And wouldn't be nearly as expensive as a hypothetical blackout-free regular season package.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I am sure middle infielders in Ty Cobb's time knew what was coming too, but we don't tolerate that anymore. Same for infielders in Hal McRae's time. Why should we tolerate this? If the MLBPA agrees to it this winter, will that be cool by you, or do you think the players would be "moving the goalposts"? I don't want players who would tackle their own grandma. I realize it's just an expression, but like the drop-kick alongside the second base bag, it really has nothing to do with the sport. It's more Tonya Harding than hard-nosed play. Are there NY fans who wouldn't care if the situation was reversed the other night, or if it was a regular season game? Sure. But when critiquing these kind of plays, which I do whenever they come up, I don't care about those fan voices, and frankly a defense of these plays shouldn't either. Are you unaware of what happened to Jung Ho Kang a few weeks ago? There were plenty of reactions just like this, and a wide expectation that the rule would be revisited in the offseason. I don't really blame Utley, but I think he just moved the timeline up a little bit.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Why, exactly? Putting aside the Utley suspension and fan outrage here -- is there any really redeeming quality to a player forced out at second base drop-kicking a middle infielder away from the bag? I don't object to slides that break up the DP pivot. But the runner's feet should hit the fielder in front of the bag (or even on the bag, presuming the runner's butt is already touching the ground), otherwise it's not a slide, it's malicious contact.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I'd like to see free local postseason broadcasts too, but I'm not sure that was the complaint of this thread. Do we have TD posters in Houston and KC? I think 2006 was the last I remember the Twins having a free local postseason broadcast -- the games were on ESPN and simulcast by the local ABC affiliate. (2010 was the last year for weekly free regular season Twins broadcasts.) Of course, if we'd advance to the World Series, they'd be on free TV. It would be easy for the FS1 games to be simulcast on the local FOX affiliates, I'd think. MLB Network and TBS, not so much.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    I certainly haven't forgotten -- the context of my post is that in keeping Bryant down for 12 extra days, the Cubs put service time games ahead of "doing things the right way" like the Twins generally operate.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    That's exactly my point -- the Twins put other considerations (namely, their evaluation of a prospect's readiness) ahead of service time -- "we're going to do this the right way" as Chief put it. The Cubs didn't do that with Kris Bryant.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    These plays are even worse than the now-illegal runner-catcher collisions at home plate -- at least in those cases, the runner knew his (poor) odds and was simply trying to be safe at the plate (albeit often by trying to knock the ball loose or knock the catcher out by force, with little regard for actually touching the plate -- I don't miss those collisions at all). In these situations at second base, the runner is already put out and doesn't really have any idea whether a takeout slide will help the batter reach first safely. So they err on the side of cut blocking the infielder. Doesn't look like it was even necessary for Utley the other night, or Morneau back in 2010.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Watching the replay in the post above, Swisher did go quite a bit toward third base with his "slide". Different than Utley's play, but still not what I watch baseball to see.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    I will agree Utley shouldn't have been suspended, and I'll half agree that it wasn't a dirty play, because this type of play has happened before without punishment for the runner. Those two things mean absolutely nothing about whether the rule should be changed (or just better enforced), though. I don't watch baseball for the cut blocks at second base, so I really don't see the harm in a very simple change/enforcement to remove them from the game in the future.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, given the location of the throw, Tejada's attempt to touch second, and the speed of the batter Howie Kendrick, it's unlikely that Tejada was going to get the runner at first base even before contact from Utley. And since it wasnt a "neighborhood play" and replay review concluded that Tejada's foot didn't touch second, Utley would have likely been safe at second without the contact too. Granted, none of that was known before/during the play, but in hindsight, it's not clear at all that Utley's slide achieved anything other than breaking Tejada's leg.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Jung Ho Kang says hi!
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    For those that don't get MLB Network, Fox Sports 1, or TBS, all three of those channels stream live online too. Just need to log in with a cable/satellite account -- maybe ask family or friends?
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Good news, MLB Network exclusive games are done for this postseason. It's all FS1, TBS, or regular FOX from here on out: http://m.mlb.com/postseason-schedule
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Of course, the most ridiculous part of this is that they overturned the out call at second base, when replay seemed to show Tejeda's toes making contact (albeit briefly) with the side of the bag. There clearly wasn't enough evidence to suggest he failed to touch the bag at all. And while I understand that the runner didn't have an obligation to touch second once he was called out, by the same token, the fielder didn't have an obligation to tag the runner once he was called out at the base either. So I think in this case, even if on review they think they saw clear evidence that the fielder never touched the bag, the fact that the runner made no effort to touch the base initially should have been factored into the decision too as a sort of "tiebreaker" to settle which player's action takes precedence. Perhaps they simply could have denied the replay challenge on those grounds too?
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    MLB has had lots of opportunities to do something -- when the blocking the plate rule was added, when replay was added and the "neighborhood play" officially codified, even a few weeks ago when Coghlan of the Cubs took out Kang of the Pirates. I hate the play, but it's hard to blame Utley (to the point of postseason suspension) when the precedent is clear. MLB needs a directive that umpires are going to enforce this rule, perhaps even amend the rule to make it abundantly clear that directing your feet in a slide anywhere but the base (or sliding late to effectively slide past the base) is an immediate DP and suspension, and no other runners can advance on the play either. But there's not much you can do about Utley, or Coghlan, or whoever in the past at this point.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    If you have to leave the bag to catch a bad throw, it's not considered a neighborhood play. Of course, that's extra ridiculous here in terms of maintaining player safety -- a player receiving a good throw, who isn't in much danger of being taken out on the slide, is guaranteed an out at second even if he skips touching the bag to avoid the slide in an attempt to turn 2. A player receiving a bad throw, already in harm's way, is offered no such guarantee of the out at second, and thus has to put himself in further danger just to try recording an out at any base.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    You are right, $32 mil total, with $18 mil of that due in 2015.
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