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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    But Ford is 3 years older than Bartlett. You seem to forget we're on a youth movement! Also, what does Ford have to do for the Twins to call him? They're apparently interested in re-acquiring any member of the 2006 team who is willing to play relatively cheaply, and all of their outfielders have spontaneously combusted. Maybe Lew needs to initiate the contact? Is Lew following Twins Daily on Twitter? Can we get this message to him?
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    DFA probably would have almost certainly led to the same outcome. As a silver lining, another team claiming him now sorta validates our original claim of Raley...
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    "Handle" as in put a good MLB CF out there? No, of course not. But "handle" as in not repeatedly rely on catchers and infielders at all 3 outfield spots (and also at AAA)? I'm pretty sure most teams can do that. Shift over a corner guy, call up a AAA outfielder -- basic things the Twins haven't done for over a month. How many MLB teams have ever had 1 listed OF on their 25-man roster, like we do now? Or 14 pitchers like we had last week?
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't fault them for Mauer yet either. I fault them for having no backup for Hicks to start the season, no real CF at AAA for a month and counting now, no legit outfielder replacements on the 40-man roster...
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Shouldn't a player have already been DFA'd? Guerrier is on the official roster, he's apparently in Cleveland, right?
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    He was a playoff starter in 2012 for Baltimore! Still playing in the independent Atlantic League: http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=ford--001jon
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah. Desperately counting on an underperforming young player to return immediately from the concussion DL. Pretty sure nothing could go wrong with that...
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    In addition to the general lack of outfielders, remember we simultaneously kept Arcia and Willingham on the active roster for 4-5 days in early April, completely unable to play due to wrist injuries, before putting them on the DL. Both are still disabled one month later. Mauer's at 4 days and counting, but even that I understand. Arcia and Willingham had worse injuries, were both slumping, and are probably DHs even when healthy. In isolation, these things are marginal moves with often marginal players, but these bizarre / erroneous marginal moves have been accumulating at a rapid rate for this club.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Judging by the poster, I am going to assume that Mark DeRosa was wearing that costume.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    When updated for the Nunez-Fuld swap, the Twins 25-man active roster will feature only ONE listed outfielder (Jason Kubel): http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=min 1 outfielder (and zero CF), 8 infielders, 3 catchers, 13 pitchers.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    Interesting (zero CF on 25 man roster!), but still not the 40-man move. Twins official site 40-man roster now lists 41 names, none of whom are on the 60-day DL.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Sorry, can't give credit here. Fuld was a free agent this offseason, and signed a minor league deal with Oakland in February even though he was unlikely to make their roster (indeed, he only did for the first 2 weeks of the season due to injury). If they were ready to cut both Presley and Mastro that quickly, ahead of Jason Bartlett (!), they should have gone into spring training with some better CF options to support Hicks. EDIT TO ADD: We still don't even have a real CF in AAA either (Eric Farris, career minor league infielder). And our AA CF and only other 40-man CF was the guy cut by the team claiming Mastro.
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Not to mention that, for ~$105 mil (plus a 2nd round draft choice), you could have easily had TWO of Garza/Santana/Jimenez this offseason for the next ~4 years. Heck, if we wait and Samardzija is traded to someone else mid-season before he hits FA, we may not even have to surrender a pick to sign him. (And correct me if I'm wrong, but I can't recall many extend-and-trades in MLB, certainly not players of Samardzija's caliber -- off the top of my head, I remember Johan and Halladay...).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    I wouldn't fire the guy, and worse moves have happened even more recently than Capps/Ramos, but this situation is not really a momentary mistake. This has been the condition since at least March, if not earlier (given how little we actually thought of Presley and Mastro). And we're still apparently waiting for lingering health issues to resolve themselves (and massive performance reversals, in the case of Hicks) as our solution. Again, I wouldn't fire Antony, but if these moves have been his call or met with his approval, I would definitely start bugging TR to return, and severely temper any plans for Antony to be the heir apparent GM.
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Mildly off-topic: how did Bartlett get such an early opt-out date, compared to Guerrier? I get that Guerrier was coming off surgery in the off-season, but Bartlett had been out of baseball almost two years. Bartlett got the same basic opt-out date (late March) as Kubel? I see now that Guerrier was cut in the spring and re-signed with the later opt-out date... very curious why that wasn't pursued with Bartlett, his spring was probably worse than Guerrier's and his long layoff probably left him more rusty than Guerrier too. Was another team going to add Bartlett to their 25-man roster in late March? Whether roster promises were made prematurely to these players, this certainly supports my theory that the Twins front office is perhaps a little too much like a country club -- they almost always prefer to work with familiar players, coaches, and agents, often to the exclusion of performance considerations.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    I think other posters probably said it better, but Guerrier and Darnell aren't really the issue. It's the 13 pitchers, the lack of outfielders, the lack of a bench. Wouldn't really be an issue if it was truly a short-term thing, but this has been an issue since the first week of the season (if not earlier), nothing has been done to fix it, and we've already seen it cost us a few games. Also wouldn't be an issue if the pitchers offered a lot of upside, but that does not appear to be the case.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah. I guess Samardzija has an extra year of control beyond this one, but still, you're basically giving up top prospects for less than two seasons of the guy. If he's that determined to test free agency that the Cubs have to trade him, and you still really want him, just plan to offer some extra cash when he hits the market and keep your prospects.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Dan Uggla has made it in recent years. If Dozier can maintain close to a 30-30 pace with a solid OBP, he will have a very good shot at a bench spot. (I admit he won't be voted in.) Perkins is the safest bet right now. I'd like to see Mauer come back and at least make it an interesting race -- with his customary high average and name recognition, he may not win the vote at 1B, but he could place well enough to get recognized for a bench spot too. (An aside: could we still have put him on the ballot as a catcher? A cheap thing to do, to the other catchers on the Twins and around the league, but hey, I'll bet Joe would be willing to catch a few innings of the all-star game if that's what it took to get him back on the roster!)
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Call me crazy, but I actually believe MLB's explanation here. I don't think even they would try to shut down fan podcasts, although they probably gave overly broad instructions to Apple about ferreting out copyrighted material in iTunes.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    I guess I am lucky that my phone has a built-in FM transmitter! I understand the point of Gameday Audio -- baseball is certainly the most popular major sport on the radio, so there are more listeners (and more servers needed), and MLB doesn't want local affiliates to control game distribution online. Also, MLB can apply their own ads, branding, and tracking to the broadcasts through Gameday Audio (otherwise, the regional/local ads lose a lot of value in online broadcasts anyway). So they package it and sell it for a nominal fee.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    I just tried the Ticket King promo code and it still worked for the ASG. 10% of those prices could be a hefty discount! But still not cheap.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    The hit rate is definitely his standout stat so far. Will be interesting to see, not only if he will become a good pitcher, but what kind of good pitcher he will be.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Hunter was a very good defensive CF -- he didn't need to hit to advance. Also, once Hunter destroyed AAA pitching at age 24, he came back and OPS'd .856 the last two months of the MLB season, then hit 27 HR at age 25. Parm hasn't done much since his banner AAA campaign in 2012 (age 24), and I don't think it's all opportunity.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    "Hicksian" is an almost historic low bar, though. I think for a 1B (stretched to corner OF), ~.670 OPS over his last ~550 MLB PA is pretty darn near an egg.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Also, Michael is repeating that level for the 3rd year. On first glance it looks like BABIP spike, but his K rate is cut in half so far (although so is his BB rate).
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