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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Audio isn't "blacked out" anywhere online, it's just controlled everywhere by MLB. Gameday Audio is only $20/year. Of course, you can usually find a few affiliates who didn't get the memo... or at least you used to. If they are cracking down on Gleeman & the Geek, they must have cracked down on those radio streams, right?
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    There's a big difference between a regular slump (Pinto so far), and a slump as a culmination of 500 poor PA (Parmelee in July 2013). If Parm had just wrapped up a .900 OPS month when he had that slump, I am pretty sure he wouldn't have been sent down. Heck, I don't think he's approached that kind of a stretch in MLB since September 2011.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    From the photo, it looks like his mustache is returning? http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/trevor.jpg That's classic Blackjack Morris right there. If he keeps the 'stache, he's my new favorite player, without question.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I assume you mean Colabello instead of Dozier? Dozier actually didn't play much at AAA, and did not play particularly well there either (.623 OPS in 200 PA). Although Cola might be fading fast at the MLB level. And Plouffe was already a useful asset (although not necessarily a middle of the order bat). Even without any major step forward this year, he's roughly a league average bat and glove at 3B. Hence his $2.35 mil salary.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Parmelee was on a 488 PA pace when he was sent down last July, over halfway through the season. He had been playing every day for the previous 3 weeks, and was mired in a terrible 1-for-22 funk (with 1 BB and 12 K). His slump more or less continued at AAA (.688 OPS). Letting him continue to compile MLB PAs at that point would have been like letting Vance Worley continue to pitch in MLB -- I don't think that more playing time, under those circumstances, is going to give you any additional positive information about the player.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    5 OF (1 on DL), including at least 2 natural CF, just 2 catchers. On their 25 man, there are 4 OF including the 2 CF and only 12 pitchers.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Yeah, the Twins would have been better off just getting Escobar for Liriano, and Johnson for Morneau. It's like they couldn't resist getting another "free" player even though ultimately they had no real interest or affinity for that player. On the other hand, there has almost always been enough dead weight on the 40-man, this shouldn't really be an issue. If they are willing to cut that dead weight, of course.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think it was that insane. Texas made Solarte a minor league free agent twice, and for two offseasons, Solarte failed to find a club who thought he was worth a 40 man spot or MLB time until the injury-filled Yankees this year. That said, at the time Twins were absolutely barren in the infield. Nishi had failed, Casilla, Valencia, and Plouffe were all very suspect, and Dozier had yet to play above AA. They should have been hoarding infield options, not casting them aside. We opened that 2012 season with Sean Burroughs on the roster, for crying out loud.
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    The Twins also had Presley when they were pursuing Rajai Davis earlier in the offseason. I guess they could have had them ranked 1) Davis, 2) Presley, 3) Bonifacio etc., but they just as well could have thought less of Presley than their roster construction suggested the whole time. Wouldn't be the first time.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, we would be seeing Mastroianni. He was waived to make room for Fuld. Of course, over the past calendar year, Mastro has looked about as bad as Herrmann or Kenny Wilson probably would be.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    I agree, but it is/was close. While Hicks is certainly younger and hopefully has a better future, he's darn near an equivalent replacement level performer right now, and the depth behind him was worse. The combo of Hicks+Bartlett+Mastro could have definitely rivaled Florimon+Escobar+Santana (+Nunez/Beresford).
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, it was slightly worse -- Bartlett was the only CF backup on the 40-man roster too (Mastro had to be added when he was recalled in early April, only to be waived just over a week later to get Fuld as we dithered about Bartlett's retirement).
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Starlin? He's signed through 2019, with a team option for 2020. Juan is available, though. He could be a Bartlett replacement, like the 2006 season played in reverse.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Official active roster has been updated here: http://www.mlb.com/team/roster_active.jsp?c_id=min Pretty surreal to see 14 pitchers, 3 catchers, 6 infielders, and only 2 (!) outfielders listed (even if one of those 3 catchers is being deployed as a sub-replacement-level corner outfielder).
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Hicks to 7-day concussion DL, Darnell recalled: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article/min/twins-center-fielder-aaron-hicks-left-thursdays-second-game-with-concussion-like-symptoms?ymd=20140501&content_id=74031866&vkey=news_min
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Why did we go after Rajai Davis then? I think Presley was a real Hicks alternative about as much as Pedro Hernandez was a Liriano replacement. This team gambled on rushing Hicks one year, and then very quickly and quietly assented to repeat it again. Reminds me a little of the 2013 rotation plan -- it's like they knew it was an issue, both in terms of current performance and player development, but didn't show a whole lot of urgency to address it in the offseason either.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Going by this standard, no free agent would ever sign anywhere. Hicks isn't nothing, but he was closer to Joe Benson circa 2013 than he was to Jackie Bradley Jr. as far as threatening to take anyone's job. And Buxton was still a year away from replacing anyone by any reasonable standard (not that they couldn't fit him in somewhere if he was indeed raking, like Denard playing RF as a rookie). Not saying it's never a factor, but in these cases, it's probably easily dwarfed by the always-dominant factor of money.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    I thought about that too, but they pursued Rajai Davis. At that point, it seemed clear they didn't want/expect Presley to start in 2014. Why they stopped their CF search after Davis, and passed on other options to compete with Hicks/Presley, I'm not sure.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    Bonifacio was available as a waiver claim. Also, Grady Sizemore signed with a team that had a top 30 prospect with MLB experience ahead of him in CF (Jackie Bradley), and indeed did not beat him for the starting job. And I dispute the notion that an absolute best-case scenario July promotion for a 20 year old A-ball prospect is taken into any serious consideration by free agents entertaining one-year contract offers.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Fuld was DFA'd on April 12, five days before Bartlett told the Twins of his intent to retire. The Twins already knew he was heading for waivers -- guys don't sign minor league deals in February to get traded for anything of note in April. And the Twins' belief that Bartlett could still play "may not have been wrong"? That has been proven wrong about as much as any judgement about high-level professional athletes can be.
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Agree with your first point. As disappointing as he was at times, Plouffe was still close to a league average 3B, and Sano obviously was Sano. No problem there. But at CF, they didn't even have that. After a full healthy offseason, they basically gave the job back by default to the young guy who skipped AAA and looked completely overwhelmed and well below average if not replacement last season, without even a hint of reasonable competition -- just a bunch of Clete Thomas types or worse. If Buxton was any part of the 2014 MLB CF planning other than "pleasant surprise" that did a great disservice to the team, fans, and Hicks. Again, the debate isn't Presley vs Mastro vs Fuld or even the odd roster machinations around them. It's, what in the heck are they doing in CF? Are they trying to win or not? And what in the heck are the doing with Hicks?
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    Agreed. The debate isn't so much Presley vs Mastro vs Fuld -- it's that they went into 2014 with basically the exact same CF plan as 2013, which failed spectacularly. Actually, the 2014 plan was notably worse, given what happened to Hicks and Mastro in 2013, not to mention the whole Bartlett thing. If you had that little hope for Presley, and you couldn't land Rajai Davis, Bonifacio and Sizemore obviously were not looking for starting CF jobs. Even Sam Fuld was freely available in the offseason. (Bonifacio wasn't even a free agent, just a relatively inexpensive waiver claim.) And given Hicks' 2013, I doubt any FA looking at a one-year deal (Chris Young?) would have shied away from Minnesota fearing lack of opportunity. I guess it's all good if you were writing off 2014 anyway -- but then why sign all the pitchers? Or if you were determined to throw Hicks to the wolves again -- why pursue Davis then? Just a lot of bad, odd decisions.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    http://blogs.twincities.com/twins/2014/04/18/twinsights-jason-bartlett-informs-twins-he-plans-to-retire/ "Bartlett, 34, was in the starting lineup for Class A Fort Myers on Thursday but the situation was relayed to Miracle manager Doug Mientkiewicz about an hour before the game. Bartlett, on the 15-day disabled list with a sprained left ankle, made it through two days of extended spring training games in Fort Myers before voluntarily ending his rehab assignment. Ryan Ware, Bartlett’s agent, contacted assistant general manager Rob Antony on Thursday to thank the team for the opportunity on behalf of Bartlett, who made the Opening Day roster despite missing nearly the past two full seasons with knee problems. Antony spoke with Bartlett on Friday and asked him to think over his decision for a few days, but the Twins are not expecting him to reconsider." A nice courtesy, but at that point, why weren't we jumping at the chance to accept Bartlett's retirement?
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, as I've expressed before, it would be nice to see them get out in front of something for a change. Dump a guy early rather than late. But, at the same time, we're not brimming with perfect alternatives either. Dumping Marquis early in 2012 did us no favors, and although we've got more options now, there's no reason we can't stash Pelf in the bullpen for a while, if not the DL or AAA if he accepts an assignment. His salary is guaranteed; the 40-man spot is negligible; given a big bullpen, the 25-man isn't too crowded either. And while we're hopefully improved, it's probably not going to be critical to squeeze every last possible win out of our 2014 season. It's just the 5-man MLB rotation where he's really not welcome at the moment; we don't want to be giving away too many wins that easily!
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Well, again, you said it in the context of crediting the front office for something positive, to counterbalance their various fumblings like the topic of this thread. But really, the current Twins AAA rotation isn't so much of a positive as a common standard. One or two prospects, a couple more interesting depth guys to stay competitive. More than that (3 or 4 prospects), I'd say good job, front office! Less than that (and we've been less than that), we'd be disappointed. And I share your concerns about the AA depth. Part of my AAA rotation judgement had an eye down to AA too -- if Meyer/May are for real and get promoted, there isn't another good prospect to replace them at AAA this season, maybe not even next season. As far as MLB futures are concerned, it's still a pretty shallow system (or bottom-heavy, at the moment). Heck, from 2006-2011, the only good SP prospects we got that came anywhere near the majors are the still-suspect Gibson and Hendriks. 2012-2013 early returns look better, but as you say, those guys are still in A-ball, and no "future stars" have jumped out yet.
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