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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    For all their faults, I think our current starting 5 are all probably more likely to "get us through 5 innings with some success" than Pat Dean. Our starting rotation hasn't been great, but they haven't been that bad either, especially now that Milone is on the shelf. The 2012-2013 Twins called up guys like Dean to start; the 2015 club, not so much. Outside of injecting Berrios, where our staff really could have benefited is having more options available for relief, particularly long relief (extra innings or Milone's early exits). So we could afford to pull struggling pitchers (starters or relievers) and have some alternatives to Achter. That's why it's so odd that Meyer and Thompson (and more importantly, Thompson's 40-man spot) have been sitting at home this whole time, especially with Darnell sick (and Perkins/Graham out and even May apparently limited). They took an already thin staff and basically just added Achter and Tonkin to it for the September playoff drive.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    I can't help but feel some of these "Twins legend" comments might be slightly overrating Hunter's legacy. He was a fun, solid player on some fun, solid teams here for ~7 years (now 8?), but I never got the impression that he was the clear leader/star/legend that some are suggesting here. I don't recall *that* much angst over his original FA departure, and the Twins basically maintained the same level of team performance for 3 years after he left. I think the outpouring of fan/media love for him this year was a reaction to the last 4 years of bad play and "meh" personalities, and his solid/surprising post-Twins aging curve, rather than the sum total of his contributions to the Twins franchise. I think he could be allowed to retire with a different club or even pursue a post-playing career elsewhere too without any furor.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Astros beat the Angels tonight for their 80th win, so we're now a full 3 games back (and 4 back in the win column).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think Dean is much of a prospect, but I don't think he's the type of player you'd bother adding to the 40-man just to have another warm body while planning to remove him 2-4 weeks later. A Hamburger or Bowden, who are going to be FA anyway, would make more sense. Of course, what would make the most sense would be to call up Meyer and Thompson, since they are already on the 40-man.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    If our Kennys has any Ortiz in him, probably should hang on to him.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    He did re-sign here as a minor league free agent last winter. I often expect such players to look for greener pastures, but they often re-sign for a few years even without a promotion (Deibinson Romero and Deolis Guerra come to mind).
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Fangraphs "Coin Flip Mode" gives us a 14% chance: http://www.fangraphs.com/coolstandings.aspx?type=0&lg=wc&date=current Tied at 2.5 back with 13 to play isn't impossible, but it isn't easy either. A week ago we were at 48%. Losing ground on this homestand (so far) has really hurt.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    "Clubhouse Loosening Factor" sounds like some kind of prescription medication. I hope Torii is not using his Medicare benefits to distribute drugs!
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Astros finally won a game, so we are 2.5 back.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Second time Molitor has done it to Rosario this week (first was sac bunting ahead of Eddie on Wednesday, allowing Detroit to intentionally walk him).
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Don't like the Rosario bunt to bring up Suzuki. Molitor was supposedly Rosario's biggest backer, but he pulls him from the game earlier this week when we lost the DH, and he tells him to bunt here. Ugh.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Perk is available tonight, according to the pregame show
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Youngsters, no. But it is open season to bring up SOMEBODY, though, with Aaron Thompson's 40-man roster spot ripe for the taking (at minimum).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    You know, I absolutely forgot about Meyer when contemplating the pen recently. Was there any reason given why he wasn't called up? His last 30 days at Rochester featured some good numbers, and he was averaging multiple innings per appearance during that time too. Plus he's already on the 40-man roster. I don't think he'd be a savior, but he's almost certainly a more promising option as long reliever than Achter/O'Rourke.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    They have to be on the 40-man, but still that's not much excuse. Logan Darnell apparently wasn't good enough to crack our iffy pen for 5 months this year, I don't think you can count on him to suddenly step up in September. Berrios was the obvious candidate, but that ship has sailed. But they've got at least one 40-man spot that's as good as open (Aaron Thompson), so they could add another fungible pitcher for temporary long relief help (Bowden, Hamburger, etc.) -- they're absolutely not being "forced" to use Achter in those spots.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    I think Graham has already had his quota of ill-advised grand slam opportunities this year.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Nope. Gotta give the 6th starter a rehab start at the MLB level first.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    People weren't calling for Achter specifically as much as saying the Twins needed bullpen reinforcements. Barring an acquisition or a starter conversion, Achter was an easy one to try, which they finally did in August and I thought he more or less failed the audition in low-leverage situations. Not sure why he's first out of the pen and stretched multiple innings twice in very winnable games this week. And it's not like that void on our staff is sudden and unexpected either.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    No problem with an aggressive early hook for a starter, that's what competitive teams have to do this time of year. However, when AJ Achter is facing Trout with the bases loaded, it's abundantly clear the Twins don't have the resources right now to pull off such a strategy. So, they should probably just leave in the starter, or get more creative (i.e. insert May early). Or use one of their 6 starters in that role, which they might do soon with Hughes but arguably should have started earlier this week.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Although the bigger mistakes right now have been committed by the GM. They have zero trusted multi-inning relievers right now. They used an MLB game as a de facto rehab start. They lost that game Tuesday by 1 run after trying to stretch Achter for 3 innings and May for 2 (they both gave up runs in the process), then last night both of those guys were deemed unavailable and they lost trying to stretch a LOOGY for a full inning against good RHB. And this situation has been in effect for months, and a potential internal remedy overlooked. Arg.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    No problem with pinch running, but any sequence of moves that removes Rosario from that game has some mistakes in it.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Nothing wrong with realism. But if you are excusing the GM/manager from making low-cost moves that could help the 2015 effort, that is kinda bad. - Why is Aaron Thompson still on the 40-man while we are try to stretch out short relievers under expanded rosters? - Why are we running out of position players while contributing two very good 40-man prospects to a AA championship drive? - How did we not give Berrios a look in August and/or scale back his August AAA innings to give him a look in September? Outside of Jepsen and Cotts, this GM/manager are largely acting like its another 90 loss season, rather than an incredible opportunity to sneak into a postseason spot.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Although to be fair, while Escobar's plate record was pedestrian before then, it looks like he made the most important of those adjustments at age 24 in his third season at AAA (arguably his second "season" there by PA, due to a mostly lost age 23 season on MLB benches), which he carried over to MLB that September and even somewhat into winter ball. It wasn't really statistically projectable as you say, but that's the kind of adjustment opportunity that's more plausible for him at that age and level than for Florimon who didn't even appear in AAA until age 25. (Florimon's unusually slow advancement seemed to indicate a decided lack of such potential in the eyes of talent evaluators.) I also just noticed that Escobar had a strong AFL batting line at age 21 before sneaking into BA's top 100 for 2011, primarily for his glove I am sure but again points in his favor. Still, very pleasantly surprised by Escobar at the plate the past 2+ years, and kudos to the Twins for finding him (and finally committing to him!).
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Down ballot, maybe. Here are the contenders: http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/eye-on-baseball/25302530/al-rookie-of-the-year-watch-francisco-lindor-makes-his-case
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    In the previous at-bat, Nunez advanced to second on a passed ball from the same pitcher, no sacrifice required. Why not let Buxton see a few pitches to give Rondon a chance for another wild pitch, without giving up an out right away? (Plus, Buxton hasn't look all that great bunting, so despite his speed, his chances of reaching via bunt are probably pretty low. He probably has a greater chance of forcing an error if he swings away, and given his recent reduction in K's, he may even have a better chance of advancing the runner that way, especially if Detroit has to play in for the bunt.) Why wasn't Robinson used to pinch-run for Sano, instead of using our last backup 3B option with Plouffe due up representing the winning run (in other words, strong pinch run candidate)? And why the heck was Rosario removed from the game when we lost the DH? After we already lost Sano, Plouffe, and Hunter -- why not keep the guy who's 2-for-3 with an IBB, and sub out Robinson, even if his spot is due up a little sooner? Why is Aaron Thompson on the 40-man roster sitting at home waiting for his pink slip, while we're running out of position players? Even having Doug Bernier on the bench last night lets us pinch run for Plouffe and not lose Rosario or the DH spot in general. (Of course, Danny Santana could have still been available if he wasn't our primary pinch hitter....)
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