Otto von Ballpark
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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark
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Pineda has never appeared out of the bullpen in a MLB game. (Edit: coke to yarnivek!) Aside from a rehab appearance at Rochester last year, in which Pineda pitched 4 innings following an opener, his last professional appearance out of the bullpen was over 10 years ago, on May 16th, 2009. I think it may have been health related, because he began that season starting and was doing quite well, but then missed a few turns, made 2 pen appearances, and then missed about 3 months. -
From that link, I think you want the "on 1st, lt 2 out" category (on first, less than 2 out -- that includes first only, first and second, first and third, and bases loaded -- basically any potential GDP situation). https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=MIN&year=2019#bases::none Twins have 40 GDP in 489 PA this season, with 4 sacrifices. Polanco has 3 GDP in 49 PA this season, with 1 sacrifice now. Career 18 in 270 PA, with 8 sacrifices.
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Or as Paul Hogan said, "Call that a knife? This is a knife."
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Gant has 3.5 seasons of team control, vs. 1.5 for Pressly last summer. Not that the Pressly trade was a common move among non-rebuilding teams either...
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I think it's fair to question Dipoto's deals in Seattle, but the Yankees took on $8 mil here. I don't see Cleveland or Tampa taking on anywhere near that much, to say nothing of exceeding the Yankee prospect offer. (Juan Then is a lotto ticket to be sure, although he was 40 FV per Fangraphs -- it's not like he was just an org depth piece or something.) Boston doesn't seem to have a ton of urgency either (and they are much more limited than the Yankees in maneuvering under the $246 mil luxury tax threshold -- even $3 mil from Encarnacion could severely hamper any further trades they want to make in 2019, i.e. for a pitcher).
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In addition to what Chief said, the move was made by "Trader Jerry" Dipoto in Seattle. No surprise he is continuing to deal aggressively! Too bad they don't have pitching...
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I don't know about that. Considering 1B defense, it looks as if Cron is actually better than Voit, and the Twins already have an everyday DH in Cruz (as opposed to Stanton for the Yankees, who is also an outfielder).
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I wouldn't say openly. There were generic rumor rumblings very early in the offseason, but then this: https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/12/mets-brass-on-canodiaz-trade-next-steps.html There was also talk of the Mets trying to replace Syndergaard in FA immediately after any deal, which would make a midseason trade especially unlikely.
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Depends how you define "blue chippers" -- I was thinking elite prospects, or at least top 50. Of those, we might be down to Lewis and Kirilloff and both are facing some challenges right now. In the context of acquiring a long-term impact player, that would be important (although the other guys could be in the package too).
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Romero is pitching fine in Rochester? 4.88 ERA, 6.21 FIP, 4.52 xFIP. 1.265 WHIP. Only a 23.7% K rate, which is basically IL average (22.7%). His MLB numbers seem largely in line with his AAA numbers so far in 2019.
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On Encarnacion, keep in mind HR hitters are going to be cheaper than good pitchers in this market. And Encarnacion isn't even viewed as capable of everyday 1B duty, further limiting his market. We could have topped that offer if we wanted, but that has little bearing on our quest for pitching. That said, we should still be able to get quality pitchers with our prospect pool. Depending on how you define "impact" players -- if you focused on longer-term impact guys -- our lack of blue-chippers (and the current health/scuffles of a few of our top blue chippers) might complicate that a bit. But for immediate impact guys, we should have no problem paying the prospect price, I would think.
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Agreed. Especially with MLB rosters expanding to 26 next year, a 45 FV prospect like Duran entering his age-22 season would be a pretty easy Rule 5 pick for a few teams around the league.
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Perhaps, although the current Diamondbacks are in a better position than the 2017 Tigers, so they actually have a use for Greinke at the moment and for 2020-2021. That's tricky. The Mets may only be on the edge of the 2019 race right now, and could fall further off soon, but they're really built to win (or at least, try to win) over the next couple years, and Syndergaard -- on modest arbitration salaries -- is a big part of that. I'm not sure how much Lewis or the other top Twins prospects would make up for that -- it would represent a pretty big change of course for the Mets, I would think, so I wouldn't see this as particularly likely, even if the Twins were willing to pony up.
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You think they're losing a lot of customers through the tobacco ban? I'm guessing they make money from the stadium ban -- tobacco users rate of attendance probably doesn't fall off much (if at all), and they're probably more likely to purchase concessions if they can't use tobacco. You think MLB isn't motivated by money too? The insurance costs could be considerable. Remember, they're paying for lifetime insurance for every guy who's ever suited up in an MLB uniform. When that populations chews at 5x the rate of the normal population, the extra premium costs are going to add up. Obviously we don't know how they rank the reasons, but if they save money AND get good PR, I wouldn't say they're doing it just to feel good about themselves.
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It's a lot harder for insurers to get meaningful data about an individual's alcohol usage vs tobacco usage. And as for chew vs smoke, it has been my experience that insurance companies don't differentiate between the two. A quick Google search seems to back that up: "While tobacco chewers might not be at the same level of risk as smokers for respiratory or other debilitating health conditions, insurance companies place all tobacco users -- including those who chew -- in the same smoker risk category and hit them with higher premiums" https://budgeting.thenest.com/insurance-cost-chew-tobacco-31513.html
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MLB teams save money by discouraging tobacco use. MLB teams make money through concession sales. All of that seems perfectly consistent. Are some of their reasons/justifications less meaningful than others? Certainly, but that doesn't mean the other reasons don't exist. FWIW, those "3000 calorie platters of artery clogging garbage" at the ballpark are generally priced so as to discourage their mass consumption.
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And what was the point of your hyperbole? To be dismissive of legitimate justifications for the tobacco ban (responding to my post about health insurance costs). Not quite. The primary argument I made about banning tobacco -- which you dismissed with your hyperbole -- was health insurance costs, which are affected more by tobacco than alcohol. That said, this website from 2012 says that 18 MLB clubs had clubhouse alcohol restrictions -- I imagine that number has only gone up: https://www.shazamlaw.com/blog/2012/03/rules-against-drinking-spreading-through-mlb-clubhouses.shtml Here's another article from 2013 that says "You can drink on team flights traveling on the road, but on flights home, not one team authorizes drinking." https://www.shazamlaw.com/blog/2012/03/rules-against-drinking-spreading-through-mlb-clubhouses.shtml It sure seems like MLB is taking reasonable steps to deal with alcohol use among its players too.
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You've dismissed legitimate justifications for the tobacco ban all through this thread. You called the ban "just something for some folks to feel good about". You also called them hypocrites for not banning hot dogs and soda, so I'd argue your use of the term is pretty loose to the point where it doesn't have much practical meaning.
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I didn't think it would be difficult to comprehend, when I said that a business can justify taking one step to save themselves money and improve the health of their employees without taking every possible step to do so. Yet here we are.
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I don't think it's about the kids, really -- MLB gets an immediate, direct benefit if they discourage players from using tobacco and help players quit. Indirect benefits beyond that are just gravy. That said, those indirect benefits are also not just about fans like us seeing a player doing it on TV or at the stadium. It's about the culture. That minor leaguer who chews will go on to be the town ball teammate that chews, or the high school coach that chews. Or he'll have a kid that's more likely to play ball -- and more likely to chew, regardless of what his father says about substance abuse.
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There are plenty of laws already concerning use of alcohol. What point exactly where you trying to make by bringing it up repeatedly in this thread?
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Don't stop there -- cars are dangerous too! Your concern about alcohol is just selective, feel good policing if you're not also banning cars.
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So a business can't justify taking one step to save themselves money and improve the health of their employees unless they take every possible step to do so. Got it.
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A few factors: Seager looks to be a flyball hitter (although he did ground out twice in this game). Gordon (the lead runner) and Smith are pretty fast (and Long's probably not a slowpoke?). And if you walk Smith, then if Seager doesn't hit into a double play, Encarnacion comes up with men on base. Ideally they want to avoid Encarnacion, and not rely entirely on Seager's DP odds to do it.
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I'm guessing MLB teams, paying for the player's lifetime health insurance, consider it a big deal?
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