Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Otto von Ballpark

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    20,669

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    74

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    To be fair, Rios was hitting pretty well the first week of the season until we injured him via HBP, and he's only just returned the past week. Still obviously a major beneficiary of the Royals fan voting, of course.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    In that way, the public disputes are about as meaningful as these public puff pieces.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    The article leads off with the assertion that Raul Ibanez was critical to the 2014 Royals success. Anybody want to endorse that statement?
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Presumably he meant that Pelfrey would decline the qualifying offer.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    How much does this happen around MLB? It would definitely be fun as a fan, but for a game or three I'm not sure it would really offer any benefit to the team or players.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed. And Meyer would have better fit that profile in 2014 or spring 2015. Right now, though, he's in the pen because he's a struggling starting prospect. Doesn't mean he can't become a good/great reliever, and quickly, but it casts doubt on the idea that he could still move back to starting as easily as the Cardinals guys.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    The McCullers call-up was much more surprising, although that is paying dividends right now too. At the moment, their 2012 draft strategy is looking good. (Tonight I guess we will get more data about their suspect 2014 draft strategy...)
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    I think "getting comfortable" with PCL conditions is probably a bad thing for a prospect. Correa posted a 108 wRC+ in his brief stint at AAA, so he was above league average despite a .286 BABIP versus the league BABIP of .318. And as you mention had excellent BB and K rates. If he's a quality defensive shortstop, you've got a gaping MLB hole at that spot right now, and you're past the projected Super 2 cutoff (which apparently we are, according to MLBTR), you absolutely make that call-up.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    You don't have to be "way above average as a hitter" to be more than a useful bench bat or 25th man. Vargas won his starting DH gig on the strength of his 114 wRC+ in 2014. Arcia probably could have claimed that spot this past month if he had been ready and able to replicate his 109 wRC+ mark from last year. I don't think of those marks as "way above average." Offering more defense/utility than that group, there's Kubel with a career 105 wRC+ mark, Cuddyer at 113, Garret Jones at 107... If Cola can sustain average or above numbers, he should be able to keep a starting 1B/DH gig somewhere in MLB.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    None of those guys moved to the pen in the minors, though. None of them struggled to any great degree as starters in the minors either. Most were a lot younger than Meyer too. They went to the pen because that's where the MLB club had an opening at that moment. So it made sense that most of them went back to starting.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Swarzak? 5.6 career K/9 in AAA, eventual long reliever in MLB. I don't think that's the profile or plan for Meyer in the pen at all.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Not really. The backup infielder just isn't going to play infield much on this team. Over the season's first two months, despite being in the lineup almost everyday, Escobar himself has started only 1 game at 2B, and only 1 game at 3B that Plouffe didn't also start at 1B. And if Vargas is starting at DH or 1B, there aren't any good pinch-hitting options on this bench either, so Escobar's not likely to come out of a game except for injury (at which point, we could recall Santana or Bernier -- and we've still got an extra pitcher, so we wouldn't even need to DL anybody to do it).
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    I can see that. Although coming out of spring training, for the first month of the season, Hunter indeed was "full-time" in RF (outside of being on the bench for a game a week or so). Hunter's first DH start didn't come until May 2, by which point they were already preparing to send Vargas down (had benched him 3 games in a row in late April for Nunez). The majority of Hunter's DH starts have come in Vargas' absence.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Springer had almost double Walker's minor league BB rate (12.5% vs 6.9%). Despite some similarities in K% and ISO, I think Springer was a very different type of hitter. (And player overall -- Springer also stole bases at over 4x the rate of Walker, with a better success rate, and played CF throughout his minor league career. By my estimate, Springer also tops Walker in career MILB wRC+ 155 to 124.) Steven Moya might be an interesting current comp? Walker's minor league offensive performance to date is actually not unlike Arcia's MLB offensive performance to date. Similar BB%, K%, BABIP, AVG/OBP, although generally much more SLG/ISO. It will be interesting to see how that translates to AAA and MLB -- if it can hold, with solid defense, he could be a useful piece.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I sure hope they didn't bring Vargas up as a bench player. Insert Robinson as a defensive replacement when necessary but he doesn't need to start. He's the backup OF. And Escobar/Nunez should be EMERGENCY outfielders, not primary backups (which would be the case given your configuration and our current roster).
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Why would it put Hunter in RF full-time? Hunter gets a day or so a week at DH and/or a full day off, and did so even when Vargas was still in the lineup at the beginning of May. I think Hunter's increased time at DH, the past week primarily, was due to the realization of just how weak our DH options really were.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    FWIW, AAA players generally fly rather than bus. The leagues are much larger geographically. And I don't think a player with 5 years minor league experience and 3 months MLB experience needs another 3 weeks in AAA to remember what the minor leagues are like.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Remember, arbitration no longer applies to free agents. It would have to be a qualifying offer, which will probably be around $16 million for 1 year. That's a little steep for Pelfrey.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    That's an improvement on Burdi's rough start, and the control is encouraging, but 8.3 H/9 and 9.4 K/9 at AA do not seem like "fast track" kind of numbers.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Couldn't the same have been said about Vargas, offensively, at DH? Actually that drop-off seems steeper to me.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Not to take away from your larger points, but yes to this question. In 2015 so far, Betts has shown a LOT more power than Hicks, a notably lower K rate, and even a slightly better BB rate. Largely the same recipe from his excellent rookie season, just with a .258 BABIP. (He's also got positive scores on defensive metrics so far.) Betts may have been over-hyped, but he's not bad. Not that Hicks hasn't been useful and encouraging this season too. But yeah, no team is really bulletproof in the AL right now, and it's been fun to see the Twins and Astros and even the Rays take advantage. (Unfortunately, so have the Yankees...)
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Probably just luck.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Minor league career walk rate is 8%, in MLB it's 6.8% but did rise to 7.6% last year. K% is definitely worse, in the 20-24% zone in the minors, but a steady 31% in the MLB. .362 career BABIP in the minors, only .316 in MLB so far.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Why can't folks simply disagree? Just like the recent Cameron thread, generally these "national writers" are not unaware of what we see as major factors behind the Twins success/projection, they simply disagree with them. There's nothing wrong with disagreement. You don't always have to characterize the person you're disagreeing with as having some failure of effort (i.e. not watching every game).
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Also, if the playoffs began today... a lot more people would understand why Ervin Santana wasn't eligible.
×
×
  • Create New...