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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Uh, not quite. Thomas and Martinez were performing at roughly 125 OPS+/ERA+ levels during the periods you referenced. Maybe they weren't at 100% but those kinds of performances over small samples are not unexpected for even healthy great players. Smoltz and Griffey were a little worse, but close to league average performers during the periods you referenced. Again, not that unexpected over a small sample. Plus Griffey had just come back from his injury during a pennant race, so he was likely still hurt rather than simply "rusty". Smoltz likewise was probably still hurting some, as he had already begun shifting from starting to the bullpen. I think "rust" after a layoff is a valid observation, but these are not good examples of evidence to support it.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think anyone would have blamed them for that after what already happened on Saturday night. And I'm not saying they had to cancel the game way in advance -- just a few hours earlier, before fans and employees were required to show up. Protesters were already confronting police in the streets on Monday afternoon after the funeral. Optimism should have given way to realism at that point -- cancel the game before employees and fans arrive, and figure out how to avoid another cancellation Tuesday (a contingency plan that should have already *privately* been arranged, ready for immediate implementation/announcement Monday night when the state of emergency and curfew was put into effect -- what was the point of waiting until noon Tuesday to punt the Tuesday game and play Wednesday in front of an empty stadium?). Sorry, I used to work in stadium concessions a bit, so that's where my sympathies lie. I understand weather delays, but if a team made me brave riots to get to work, hang out for a few hours, and then turned me out into more riots, I would be mighty peeved. (Also spoken as a fan who likes to get to the ballpark early.)
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks to Marlon Byrd drawing a walk today! Omar Infante, with zero walks in 60 AB, appears to be next in line now.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Trusting politicians that much is another form of incompetence.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    No prob, I was nitpicking. You are building an awesome community here!
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Tonkin got a bit of an opportunity last year, but he was one of the few young/inexperienced relievers to get such an opportunity for the Twins. Pressly I guess too, late in the season. But Achter, Thompson, Oliveros, Pryor, Johnson, Darnell, and Pino got little or no opportunity out of the pen in 2014. That's a problem, and one that I think is easier to correct than "player X needs to pitch better."
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Of course, the only reason Oliveros is off the 40-man roster right now is because they needed the 40-man spot for Blaine Boyer this spring. Which is another cost of avoiding those veteran opt-out clauses...
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    I am not assuming anything is easy. I'm really not that critical that they were unable to move the White Sox games (although reports suggest they never even contacted the Washington Nationals about using their stadium, due to an ongoing ownership spat). My main beef is canceling the Monday night game so late (40 minutes before game time), after all the stadium workers and some fans were already there. After Saturday night's fiasco, and with the funeral set for Monday, they should have been able to make that decision earlier, and save those workers/fans an apparently dangerous trip. And if they were willing to play in an empty park, they probably should have been prepared to do that Tuesday afternoon. The curfew and state of emergency was declared Monday night, but the team didn't announce any plans until noon Tuesday, at which point Tuesday was basically wasted.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Brock's post from the April 29th game thread: Factual error: Pinto wasn't on the roster when Perkins made these comments. He had been demoted to AAA. That's not that unusual, especially when it's a young player getting compared to a veteran. Furthermore, Perkins has been completely silent about comparable stats/rankings from Suzuki, Doumit, Fryer, etc. (In fact he called Fryer "really good at pitch framing" upon his recall, which has not been borne out by statistical analysis.) Again, I admit that Pinto is far from perfect defensively, and likely worse than Suzuki and Fryer, but I think these comments from Perkins and the actions of the Twins tend to exaggerate the difference.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks, I overlooked his line "So you have plans Friday night..." Seems like the kind of important detail one would want to feature more prominently, though. And it's not the first time John has been ambiguous on event dates: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/17466-article-join-john-bonnes-phil-miller-at-season-kick-off-event/
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    John, you have an uncanny ability to write beautifully about an event without including the date...
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Yup. I think it says something to the league's evaluation of Oliveros that he cleared waivers this spring, although some quality relievers do slip through the cracks.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Alex Guerrero, not Vlad.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    See my previous post. The "major threat" had already happened by 9 PM Saturday, when they had to block fans from leaving the game. They didn't announce ANY plans to do anything about upcoming games until Tuesday around noon, a full two and a half days later. With the actual provisions of that plan not taking effect until ~24 hours later. They absolutely should have cancelled Monday's game with more notice, and announced a plan at that point that didn't simply waste Tuesday too.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    They couldn't let people out of the ballpark on SATURDAY: http://espn.go.com/mlb/recap?gameId=350425101 So, they already had a HIGHLY unusual security situation Saturday, and they knew the funeral was coming on Monday -- yet they couldn't come up with a plan to do ANYTHING about it until midday Tuesday? Effectively losing two days off their schedule? I will admit, they didn't necessarily have to announce any changes on Sunday. But, plans to do so should have already been in place and ready to implement by noon on Monday. To cancel Monday night's game 40 minutes before first pitch (with fans already at the ballpark), then waste Tuesday making plans, that's just bad planning.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Last June, Hunter also missed a week for a hamstring problem. Did that affect his numbers then? (He was particularly bad coming back from that absence, with an OPS of .281 in his first 7 games back.) Since he returned to MLB for good in August 2000, the only calendar months when he has posted a sub-.600 OPS have been June 2014, May 2012, and June 2011, and all three of those months he missed games due to injury. Should we be concerned that he is posting these numbers when apparently healthy? Hunter currently has a 51 wRC+ at Fangraphs. 8 qualified players posted equal or lower marks in April 2014, and only 1 finished the season average or better (Curtis Granderson).
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    tobi, I hate to break it to you, but you've got a font size problem!
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Just noticed Oliveros' performance here -- any chance he gets more starts? He threw 61 pitches. If he's not going to crack the MLB bullpen with his recent bullpen performance, he probably doesn't have anything to lose, right? Mark Hamburger similarly started making spot starts a few years ago.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    The Rochester rotation should have room for Milone, as Mark Hamburger has been struggling (and was generally a swingman last year anyway, and almost exclusively a reliever before that). Just noticed that Lester Oliveros made a doubleheader start in AAA recently, and struck out 9 in 4 innings (1 hit, 0 walks). His first pro start since Venezuelan summer rookie league in 2006. How did I miss that?
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    They almost certainly should have been more proactive about the situation. They had problems over the weekend where they couldn't even let some fans leave the ballpark due to the issues outside. But apparently they thought they White Sox series was just going to be hunky-dory? They should have taken steps to relocate the White Sox series no later than Sunday. As it was, they waited until 40 minutes before game time to cancel Monday night, and then sometime Tuesday came up with this crazy plan. I get the whole "staying in the city to help" thing, but taking the unprecedented step of barring fans from the ballpark seems counter to that. They're also moving the upcoming weekend series to Tampa, apparently the city won't need the Orioles help after Wednesday?
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    A hallmark of Pelfrey's career has been inconsistency. He alternated 80 and ~110 ERA+ seasons for the Mets, and likewise has had similar Jeckyl-and-Hyde (albeit more Hyde) stretches for the Twins. That said, if he can pull another ~110 ERA+ season out of his hat, that would be fine by me! Given his age and contract status, I probably wouldn't tolerate a whole lot of in-season inconsistency in pursuit of that goal, though.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Correia and Nolasco had 2-3 months left on their deals, due only $2-5 mil, when acquired by the Dodgers. And the Dodgers gave up virtually nothing to get either of them (the Dodgers also got a little international bonus pool money along with Nolasco). The Dodgers are surprisingly thin in the rotation now, though. Scott Baker and David Huff have already made starts for them, as well as someone called Mike Bolsinger. They do have a few younger starters of interest, so I don't know if they are desperate enough for a Twins arm. 18 year old Julio Urias, consensus top 10 prospect, is dominating AA already. It would be very exciting to see him in MLB this season!
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Pitchers can rehab for up to 30 days, so in theory we wouldn't be forced to activate Nolasco until May 25th or thereabouts. (The limit is 20 days for position players.) Sometimes the full 30 days is used, but for more serious injuries or to gradually increase a pitcher's workload, neither of which applies to Nolasco right now.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Milone does indeed have an option year, and very limited bullpen experience (2 late season appearances for Oakland in 2013).
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    In my continuing quest to pass on interesting ticket deals, there are $100 tickets behind home plate in the Champions Club for this afternoon's game ($90 each after discount code): http://www.ticketkingonline.com/ResultsTicket.aspx?evtid=2412283 And you probably won't be spotted skipping work, since the game isn't televised on FSN.
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