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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Perhaps related to Buxton and the Twins: the Astros promoted Carlos Correa to AAA today.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Carlos Correa was promoted to AAA by the Astros today.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed, and Pelfrey 2014 seemed like a pretty egregious example. But I think many other such cases like Nolasco are more after-the-fact justifications for poor performance than actual injuries (or at least, actual injuries above and beyond the normal conditions of a professional athlete).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think you can really abuse this emergency list, like you can the disabled list. It's legit. And there's no way they are cutting Robinson at this point.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Still very early, no? Each only has a 2 appearance scoreless streak right now.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    How is it a stretch of the imagination? Teams wait to announce the corresponding roster move all the time, exactly for this reason -- no sense making that move Monday in case something like this happens Tuesday. Most likely, they were aware of the potential Robinson situation and either delayed a Schafer decision or bumped up the Hicks promotion a few days. But as others have speculated, it seems highly unlikely that Hicks would be a temporary call-up.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Last option YEAR. They can send him up and down as much as they want to this season. Next spring, he will have to be on the 25-man roster or else clear waivers to be sent down.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    They've shown no aversion to using non-outfielders in the outfield, however.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    He did post those OPS+ figures, but accompanied by some of the worst peripherals in all of MLB. I don't know that anyone has had sustained success even at that modest level with K rates above 30% and BB rates under 8%.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    And Dayan Viciedo hit 25 HR (on a 28 HR per 600 PA pace) at the same age in 2012. Neither were even league-average ballplayers overall. I wouldn't demote Arcia yet either, but I'd strongly consider it if Hicks does well and I am ready to call up Buxton. And that could happen by the time Arcia is fully healthy again.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    2014 was probably worse. But 2013 wasn't good either -- at minimum, if Hicks was projected to be in consideration for opening day 2013 (batting leadoff, no less!), he should have been promoted to AAA for August 2012 and/or MLB for September 2012. Nothing in Hicks' pro career up to that point suggested that skipping AAA for MLB opening day was a good idea.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    I agree that they've done everything right with Hicks so far in 2015, but I am not sure that Molitor deserves much credit for it. It was pretty much a no-brainer move to send him to AAA to start 2015, I am pretty sure Gardy would have done it too. (Now it was arguably a no-brainer move to send him down to start 2014 too, but both TR and Gardy seemed to think otherwise, and we really don't know how Molitor would have handled it.) And Hicks' year did not start that poorly in AAA. He's been great his last 20 games down there, but he had an even higher ISO in his first 7 games (and a higher isolated discipline too -- OBP minus AVG). He cut down on the K's after that, and saw his BABIP jump -- important changes, for sure, but not quite the narrative you claim. (Also I don't think many people were calling for Hicks to be called up quite *that* quickly, although perhaps out of frustration with Schafer...)
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    The Lee Greenwood song had one redeeming benefit at the Dome -- without fail, LaTroy Hawkins would play an "air cymbal" during it.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Pelfrey was frustrating before his injury and before he ever came to the Twins, alternating 80 and 110 ERA+ seasons for the Mets. That is basically ping-ponging between the run prevention of Kevin Correia and Matt Garza, and Pelf did that for 4+ seasons there. Hopefully we are finally getting a season of the "good" Pelf!
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    A 4th outfielder who hits LHP and plays a solid CF (plus is fairly young and cheap and team-controlled) is reasonably valuable. Of course, we still have to see if Hicks 2.0 can do those things...
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    The "ramrodding' wasn't the speed at which he was promoted, it was skipping a level. Hicks had alternated average and above average seasons with the bat at that point in his career -- exactly the profile you don't want to skip AAA and be your opening day CF and leadoff hitter. If that was in the cards at all, he should have tasted AAA and perhaps even MLB in 2012. All around, a rare development misstep by TR.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    I hope not!
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I have not heard Hunter connected with Hicks' leg kick. This suggests it was Hicks himself, with some help from Bruno: http://www.twincities.com/twins/ci_27771621/twins-aaron-hicks-getting-tips-from-good-sources
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think anyone has suggested cutting Robinson. Robinson could certainly remain as a 4th OF for now, and perhaps continue in that role indefinitely. Neither one needs to start to be further evaluated (and even contribute) in that role, though.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Hadn't thought about Cruz. I probably would have been opposed, but I guess there is an argument for signing him and forgoing Ervin Santana. (Or better yet, forgoing Nolasco for Santana, and then signing Cruz.) We're not exactly solid in the OF corners going forward either. Might be nice to have the option of shifting Mauer out there if it clears up 1B/DH too. Of course, I would have preferred Hunter + a real CF option for less than half the guarantee of Cruz, possibly even with the benefit of hindsight about Cruz's fast start.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    I think given the inconsistency on display during Hicks' entire pro career, I think this is very fair. He can be good at times, perhaps good enough to be our CF the rest of this season, but he will likely continue to be streaky, so I wouldn't want to count on him as a regular in a corner spot or at the top of the order again. At least not until we have another couple seasons worth of data on him.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed. But counting on Schafer when you are holding Hicks to such a high standard is also a really poor way to assemble a ballclub.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    See my last just-submitted post. Hicks isn't going to significantly change over the next 2-4 weeks, over the past 4 weeks, or even over the 2 months combined. Thinking otherwise reminds me of the old saw about trying to change your husband once you are married to him...
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed, and I think people are holding Hicks to too high of a standard. Mental gaffes and career-long inconsistency don't just go away with a little extra seasoning. It was important to finally get him a good start in 2015, and not repeat the Aprils of 2013-2014, but he's not going to become a completely different person/player in the next 2-4 weeks (just as he hasn't in the past 4 weeks). He's a talented but streaky player, age 25, with 5 more seasons of team control (the first 2 at serf wages), and he's finally on a hot streak again. He is infinitely more worthy of playing in MLB next to Torii Hunter and under Paul Molitor right now than Jordan Schafer.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    What are you going to know in 2-4 weeks that you don't know now? Frankly I don't even think a coach's judgement should change that much in that little time. We've actually never been through the "Aaron Hicks is ready" show quite like this. He's got as many PA's in 2015 now as he had in those 2013-2014 spring trainings *combined*. And he's got virtually the same excellent OPS as those combined spring trainings, except now with more significantly more BBs, fewer Ks, and a higher ISO (and that's not even discounting things like that fluke wind-aided 3 HR spring training game, which by itself is worth like .100 in SLG/OPS).
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