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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think anyone has ever doubted that. It's not the GM's role to do leg work. But even TR's own quote in that article suggest it would have been an unusual move for him: How often has TR gotten involved in any kind of open competitive bidding? Even his bigger FA moves recently have generally been "strike early" moves. Meanwhile, we know Smith did with Sano and Kepler in 2009, was trying to rent Cliff Lee the next season, dealt Ramos, Ladendorf, etc. at deadlines. And solicited competitive bids for Johan too. The ultimate problem was that Smith's aggressiveness was probably more due to naivety than smarts. Still, it was definitely something he was bringing to the table that Ryan so far hasn't, and I see no problem giving him some credit when it worked out (while also noting it didn't work out more often than not ).
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Were they incredibly dumb to make Mauer the opening day catcher in 2004 rather than calling him up ~12 days later? Mauer was the #1 prospect in baseball two years running and went on to winning batting titles, Gold Gloves, and an MVP, that almost certainly cost them more than letting Berrios break camp with the big club in 2016 would. Frankly, I don't really care if Berrios makes the club for opening day or a few weeks later, as long as they are smart about the plan (i.e. also starting Trevor May, not burying Berrios in AAA for too long, etc.).
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Fair enough. I just don't think Robinson's decent bat work is likely to continue, and Buxton clearly brings some other things to the table that neither Hunter or Robinson can.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Strange time to say that, after tonight's finish.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Take a look at reliever leaderboards. 5 K/9 just isn't a recipe for sustaining success. I didn't think that was that controversial.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    The issue around Fien is not just "a bad game". Even in that cherry-picked sample, that's a 5.1 K/9. Counting on that guy to be one of your top setup men in a September pennant race is a terrible plan.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Everybody that wants him up today wanted him up a few weeks ago. What is preposterous is treating those as separate independent arguments.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    From May's first relief appearance to his 8th inning hold against the Yankees was 14 team games. Even if they didn't call up Berrios until Sep. 1 and followed the same schedule as May, he could have been in high leverage spots by Sep. 15 with 3 weeks to go in the season (plus potential tiebreakers and postseason). Call him up around Aug. 20 (when you would have had to cut back his innings at AAA anyway) and he could have been in that high leverage spot today, maybe for a couple innings to give May and Jepsen a break. Would have loved to see if that was even a possibility.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    My point is, use him in low leverage spots for his first couple appearances. Then move him into the 7th inning role or something like that if he looks ready. It's not an either-or thing, seems perfectly consistent and logical. Had they started this process when he still had some innings to spare a few weeks ago, he could already be in those higher leverage spots. Or if he struggled maybe he would be reeled back and shut down eventually. Either way I'd feel better about our stretch drive approach.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think Suzuki DH'd this year. Escobar? I am sure that TR would have turned to Berrios once Escobar and Nunez were required to takes turns as starting pitchers. So his handling of Berrios is perfectly consistent with that of Sano!
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    TR has completely passed on plenty of special talents available in open market bidding. The only thing that seems to overcome his conservative nature is mandated MLB spending pools (increased willingness to spend more on innings eaters notwithstanding).
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Still think Fien is "worst case trade-able"? Not to mention, is whatever worst case Fien would return in trade worth anything close to a chance at a month of good MLB relief in a pennant race? And/or priming Berrios to hit the ground running in MLB in 2016 (perhaps making another SP expendable in trade)?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    The new guy wouldn't have to work with no rest, especially if he is throwing multiple innings at a time (which was once upon a time presumed to be May's role too, until the rest of the feeble pen made it necessary to keep him available every day).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    And unfortunately, basically all but two of our healthy relievers are best suited to that "back of the pen" spot, even with expanded rosters. And it wasn't hard to foresee.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I much prefer the TR regime overall to the Smith regime, I pretty much hated the Smith regime, but I think it is fair to credit the latter when appropriate.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    FYI, TR didn't really game service time pre-Target Field, or ever. I didn't think it was really up for debate that the Smith regime was more aggressive than the TR regimes, and not just in terms of budgets (the Delmon Young deal was pretty much budget neutral). I don't see why it is controversial to say maybe that extra aggressiveness put us in a better position to land a highly-sought elite international talent in a completely open and unrestricted market.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Berrios didn't need to replace anyone important. Like May, he could have gotten his relief feet wet iin low leverage situations first, with an eye toward more important innings later if he was up to the challenge. If he wasn't, as you say we get a side benefit of jump-starting his MLB transition, like Gibson and May before him. There is/was tons of room on this staff for even just another solid reliever. Fien is still getting important innings. But I guess that was part of TR's plan before the season too, so he can shrug his shoulders about it when it continues to not work...
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I am sure TR believes he is doing everything he can, according to the parameters of his largely static plan.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Both were more than TR ever spent internationally. There was some reported competition for Kepler too. TR has had opportunities to bid in an open market for top talent and has declined to do so every time. Javier was signed under a system of bonus pools and caps. Might as well say TR showed a willingness to spend on Buxton too.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    You predicting we will re-sign Hunter and Boyer, before December? You think Eric Fryer can't be dropped and invited back like he was last winter? No wonder you didn't think there was room for Berrios. And I am pretty sure not all 6 of those guys you added will be protected, even without Berrios taking a spot. Are you going to complain when TR recklessly leaves an A-ball player unprotected?
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Yup. In a perfect world, we'd have Smith in charge of high-profile international prospect bidding and minor leaguers outside the top X prospects, occasionally spinning them into useful pieces for TR who would be in charge of most everything else.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Sure. But I think it's actually more likely that he breaks camp with us, than that he stays down for exactly 12 days like Kris Bryant.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Even that post, I think, wasn't applying certainty to that level of performance from Berrios. The poster used the word "could", not "would". And frankly, given his recent results at AAA, and the fact that he's not being shut down for fatigue (he's getting a meaningless curtain call start in Rochester), I think what "could" have been possible for Berrios this year might have surprised us.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    But Dave, this was totally unforeseeable, so how could we have adjusted our plan for Berrios slightly to make him a potential bullpen option down the stretch in 2015. Oh wait, Perkins similarly got hurt and faded in 2014, and already showed signs a repeat performance in July 2015.... It's just time for the relievers we've buried on our depth chart all season to step up and perform, that's all.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Since you've persistently made the claim that we will lose good talent to Rule 5 this winter if we called up Berrios, care to actually present what the 40-man roster could look like at that time, and thus what actual players we would be protecting and what players we could lose? It's very easy to speak in generalized terms of losing/protecting talent, but if you get into the specifics (as I have done previously in recent Berrios threads), I think you will see there isn't really a shortage of 40-man space, nor an abundance of good talent needing protection. I think Berrios wasn't in TR's plan for this year at all, so that's why it gets brought up as another excuse, but in terms of actually contributing to his recent decision to shut him down, I think 40-man and Rule 5 issues count for zero percent. Although if you think perennial minor league free agent Eric Fryer will require special roster protection in November 2015, I can see how your perspective on this whole issue would be skewed.
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