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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I still think if you elect one or two of these candidates, you'd pretty much have to elect them all, right? I mean, do Kaat and Oliva have that much better of a case than Tiant and Boyer (who brought up the tail end of the results)? Part of me wishes they would just stop with this era. All of these guys had fine careers but were pretty clearly HOF borderliners by established standards. They don't deserve to be continuously subjected a lottery for HOF admission.
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    If Toronto or another team didn't claim him now, he would be outrighted off the Twins 40-man roster but still be property of the Twins for another year, right? I fail to see how that's better for Colabello than at least staying on a 40-man for the time being. If Toronto wants to remove him later, another club could claim him; if he was outrighted by the Twins now, he would pretty much be stuck at the whims of the Twins (and at a lower salary) for the next year.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Best Cola memory: him serving as media interpreter for Eduardo Escobar. The Blue Jays got an interesting (albeit brief) performance from Randy Ruiz after the Twins let him go too.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    If you make it more difficult for a new club to claim him, the greater likelihood that he falls off a 40-man roster altogether. I fail to see how that would be better for Colabello.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Is he fully healthy yet? He couldn't stick in a pretty decimated Texas rotation this past season, so I can't imagine anyone is too high on him at the moment, or it's still a fairly dicey question of health.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, the manager is also often in charge of hiring -- and in this case, basically creating his entire department. He has to identify the right data nerds (despite not being one himself) and hire them, not to mention devising processes and goals for his whole department, which is a huge hurdle before you even get to the "bridge" aspect of management. From my experience in such matters (sometimes as "the wrong hire" myself ), and what we know about the Twins department history and recent job posting (and what we know about the people who hired Goin), I would be very surprised if there was much behind their secrecy. (In fact, I don't know if they're really all that secretive compared to other clubs -- just a variety of factors seem to suggest their ambition/interest is somewhat low in this regard.)
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Much like the Hunter to Span dynamic didn't actually manifest itself at all in Span's performance until after Hunter left, Torii Hunter didn't really click as a viable MLB hitter until the year 2000. From what I know of Puckett's life after retirement, he probably wasn't really active with Hunter at that point. No doubt that Puckett was probably a great friend and role model to Hunter, and Hunter the same for Span, but I think the perseverance/performance effects of those "mentorships" are overblown. Hunter and Span were both first round picks and neither was that old or close to washing out when their performance level finally clicked enough to stick in MLB. That doesn't mean such mentorship isn't a good thing -- I am sure it is, it's fun to read about, and it should be encouraged. But it almost certainly shouldn't dictate player acquisition and roster composition to the extent that the Twins seem to think it should.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks ashbury, that was perfectly stated.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    If there is a reunion quota, I hope the Twins have already surpassed it. Although Neshek would be a cool dude to welcome back, and he wasn't exactly happy when he left here so the patch-up would be more meaningful. MLBTR predicted a 2/10 deal for him, not unreasonable as a Burton replacement.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    To me, that's strong evidence the Twins aren't adding another veteran MLB outfielder (unless they somehow subtract one). If they were interested in doing so, at that price they almost certainly would have been mentioned somewhere in a Michael Saunders rumor, right? Regardless of their Hunter pursuit? I think they wanted to add one veteran MLB outfielder and they knew all along who their top target was, and they just signed him. (And we have about 4 other threads discussing him, sorry )
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Dozier, May 28 thru end of season 2013: 119 wRC+. Dozier, full 2014 season: 118 wRC+ The shape of the production changed a bit in latter half of 2014, but this level of performance is just fine for Dozier's "blossoming." Remember, he was never a star prospect. And I think those were adjustments he had to make in MLB too, not AAA.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Sounds like their actual budget numbers around the year 2000.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Don't forget, "Which former Twins are most likely to be Twins by next Thursday?"
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Great take, and it has little to do with defensive metrics or eye tests. My reaction to the signing is to question to Twins priorities and their rebuild timeline.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't know if the Twins deserve a whole lot of benefit of the doubt here. It's pretty clear at this point that they like reunions and familiarity. When the Twins broach a reunion with a familiar face, I can't say that my first thought is that they made a "competent evaluation."
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't follow that last conclusion -- Correia's main Twins stats (ERA, IP/GS, BB/9, K/9) are almost identical to his Pittsburgh stats. I am sure the Twins have plenty of information we don't have, but it's not at all clear that it is having an overall positive benefit on the field. And for your first conclusion, I think the jury is still very much out on Ryan's efficacy in free agency. For that matter, I'm not sure if Ryan's record overall is all that great. The franchise winning percentage since he took over as GM in 1994 is .483. It goes down to .476 if you eliminate the Bill Smith years, and it goes up to .490 if you just look at TR's first tenure as GM. It's obviously not bad like the KC/Pittsburgh 20 year droughts, but it's not exactly great either. (I would be curious -- how long do average "rebuilds" take? It feels like TR, for all of his positive qualities, was probably more or less average in his first rebuild, and the pace of his second seems to be trending there too.) And the game has changed a lot since the last time TR built a winner. Salaries have continued exploding, teams aren't giving up prospects quite like they did in the past, comp draft picks are harder to come by. The question of whether TR can build a successful team again is a perfectly valid question, and his ability/willingness to find a new edge where some of his old ones have been taken away is a part of that just as much as his past record.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Meyer was a year older as a college draftee, but he also had yet to appear in AA. Crick definitely appears wilder. As of last winter, he seemed to be ranked equally or slightly better than Meyer at the time of trade too.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I wonder what Statcast ("FieldFX" player tracking) has to say. Target Field was one of the first places to be equipped.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Pretty sure someone called a few astronauts "Buzz" if that counts.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Seth, at some point if they keep making offseason moves where your primary reaction is "it wouldn't be the end of the world", it could contribute to an early end to our competitiveness this season.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Would Crick for Plouffe straight up be a rough equivalent of Meyer for Span?
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    We'll find out, I suppose. I will say, it's nice to finally start debating his baseball moves and statements from a standpoint of efficacy, rather than be constrained by too many limiters and qualifiers like days past (i.e. small market).
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    When would be a better time and place to ask such a question? Keep in mind that Hunter and the Twins will likely refuse any request to address the issue separately. I see no problem in effectively getting Hunter on the public record making that refusal, which he somewhat clumsily did before the name-calling. Also, the subject of the inquiry relates to the reason(s) Hunter chose (or had to settle for) signing with a non-contender for less than projected contract for the first time in his career. Poor defensive stats and off-field controversy seem like possible reasons, and Hunter's first press conference after signing seems like a logical place for that line of inquiry. Waiting months until his next press conference (TwinsFest?) or until he had established a personal relationship with Hunter sometime in 2015 would likely meet with a response of "why are you bringing that up now?" Heck, Hunter seemed to greet it with that response now, even though it was just a month ago he was bringing up the issue himself in political ads.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Not so much "politics" as PR trouble. And not necessarily from Hunter himself saying or doing anything more, but from the extra scrutiny his presence could create. I could see it being a contributing factor, relatively small, but definitely not helpful when he's got much larger factors going against him already (i.e. age). MLB Trade Rumors very recently projected Hunter at a 2/22 contract, likely to a "legitimate contender." The fact that he quickly signed for much less with a last-place team suggests other not-so-obvious factors could have been at play. And this press conference was, I think, the first and best opportunity to make such an inquiry of Hunter himself while the question is still fresh and relevant. Many observers think the Twins signed Hunter, in part, because significant positive off-field reasons (his past history with the team) apparently outweighed concerns about his age, salary, and performance. I don't see why it's out of the question that another club without that positive past history might shy away from Hunter due, in part, to his more recent negative national image.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    I was already corrected in this thread and I admitted my mistake there. I had watched the Berardino portion of the press conference, and the follow-up didn't strike me as pushy so I didn't really note it as such. Sorry I didn't go back to edit previous posts, but I've wasted enough time in this thread for now.
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