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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    Doing well, there's also Britton, Ottavino, Holland, and Kelley. (And in fairness, Blake Parker would fit into this group too, last night notwithstanding.)
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    Isn't it more appropriate to just divide total wins and losses by ten to put them in "football terms"? By that measure, the Twins are 4-2, and Cleveland is 3-3. (And Cleveland has both head-to-head games left to make up ground.) FWIW, Cleveland's 10 game records: 7-3 5-5 5-5 4-6 5-5 4-6 1-0 (so far) You wouldn't call that 1-2-3 so far, relative to the Twins 6-0.
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    I know the 1993 Phillies picked 4th, with the best record in MLB at the time of the draft. I found that by looking at a list of the biggest single season winning percentage improvements: http://mcubed.net/mlb/bwimp.shtml That led me to suspect the 1993 Giants, but they only had the second best record on draft day and picked 6th. Some others were close: 2001 Twins (2nd best record behind only the 116 Mariners, and picked 1st overall), 2015 Astros (virtual tie for 2nd best record -- with the Twins! -- and picked 2nd overall), 2008 Rays (4th best record, picked 1st overall).
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    I think the theory is that it would be hard to tell whether something was hit by the roof -- this one was pretty obvious, but others can be more subtle. And players and managers would be arguing for a lot more if they knew it was a judgment call that would change the result of the play.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    I've been curious about this question before, so I just looked up the scanned archives of the Minneapolis Tribune -- specifically its TV schedules. I looked at May 19 through June 11, 1981 -- the last 23 Twins games before the strike interrupted the season. 10 out of 13 Twins road games were broadcast on TV. (2 of the missing road games had North Stars hockey broadcasts that same night; the other was Thursday May 28th, the last of a 4 game series vs Texas. KSMP showed Gunsmoke and Hollywood Squares instead. ) Only 1 of 10 Twins home games during this sample was broadcast on TV (Tuesday June 9th vs Milwaukee). Judging from this sample, it does appear that most Twins road games were broadcast on KMSP TV in 1981, but very few home games.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    Not quite true. Thankfully, streaming packages make it pretty accessible/affordable without cable. Sling includes FSN and it's $25 per month, so $150 for the season, or roughly the same price as MLB.TV anyway ($120).
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Third tiebreaker is a steel cage fight to the death, though, so odds are they never get to the 4th tiebreaker.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    "Strike while the team is (not) hot"
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    If Cruz is ready (he apparently took BP today), we could activate him and send down Littell tomorrow.
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    How does that jingle go? "One walk, one hit, mound visit before it goes to ****..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHtEYVmhV8
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    You think the difference in pitching quality alone between A and A+ is greater than .112 worth of batting average? That seems... a little steep. A guy whose average drops by that much between those levels is far more likely to get cut (or at least held back) than promoted, so how is that level of performance "more impressive" for a player? Especially .300 to .188 -- the latter is dangerously close to the lower bound of pro player performance (think pitchers hitting) -- many minor leaguers could bat at least .100 in MLB right now. I guess, from the Twins perspective, it may be more useful to let Helman hit .188 at A+ now than have him repeat A and hit .300. But that doesn't mean .188 is more impressive or anything.
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Relative to other draftees more than to other teams at that point, I would think. I'd guess most MLB franchises occasionally get these levels of contributions (Hildenberger and Duffey, to date) from these levels of picks. The rest of your post is spot-on, though -- what sets teams apart is the plus performers. (Although hopefully both Hildenberger and Duffey can still contribute more and move into that category!)
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    I am usually the guy that mentions the FSL hitting environment, but I think this is taking it quite a bit too far. Helman has a 47 wRC+ there right now, he's not really holding his own. (And you can't just throw out a nonconsecutive one-third of his at bats when making that determination.) And the FSL batting average is exactly the same as that of the Midwest League (.241), so no, .188 in Ft Myers is not more impressive than .300 in Cedar Rapids, and it's not particularly close. The only encouraging thing about Helman is that his struggles are not related to his K rate. He's generally making contact -- he just needs to make better contact, it appears.
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    Provus even did that on the radio! Before he had to sheepishly report that the ball was caught by the shortstop...
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Luck is the residue of design, perhaps?
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    The 16 inning game in Puerto Rico accounted for a third of those 21 extra innings. Plus a 14 inning game vs KC,and that's over half.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Watch a little closer -- he may have been tapping out the pitch names in Morse code too!
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Great game last night. I wonder if Smeltzer will stick around? They could certainly stick to a 5 man rotation despite the off days. Smeltzer would be in line to start the opening game in Cleveland next Tuesday. Although one would have to imagine that Cruz and/or Garver would be activated by then too, which could mean two of Arraez, Astudillo, and Littell have to get optioned to AAA. (Hopefully Buxton stays off the IL!)
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    They like 8 man bullpens more than 13 man staffs. And they'd still have an 8 man bullpen, even if they optioned Smeltzer and activated a position player for a few days.
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    It's not really 3 UTIL guys, though, at least not in a redundant sense. Marwin covers OF/1B. With all 3, you can let Marwin do his OF/1B thing, you can spot start Adrianza or Arraez in the middle infield, and still have the other one available for pinch running (for Cruz/Sano/Cron/catcher).
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    3rd catcher isn't that useful if Garver can't play 1B/DH (due to the presence of Cruz/Sano/Cron). Given our lineup, I think I'd prefer having two pinch runners in Adrianza and Arraez, rather than a 3rd catcher in Astudillo.
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    You think Smeltzer is sticking around until Pineda returns, despite the off days? I guess he could earn it with a good start tonight, but my gut says they're going to use the spot to postpone any Arraez/Astudillo demotion.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    I never said it wouldn't work. I just took issue with your statement "Pineda can probably have a sub-2.00 ERA as a bullpen arm", that's all.
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    With Sano back, and assuming Cruz comes back, and Cron hitting well -- Garver is going to need to play catcher to get at-bats. He's not going to have 1B and DH available as much now as they were earlier in the season. Hence, less opportunity for Astudillo to catch. That's part of my thinking, in why I'd consider demoting Astudillo soon. Whereas Adrianza and Arraez would seem to still have usefulness as utility infielders and pinch runners, with Marwin as a fourth outfielder.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    Astudillo can be better in those areas -- if he has a good BABIP and/or power. Which is what he flashed last year in MLB. But in the last 4 years, he's only got about 225 PAs with a good BABIP, and about 750 now with a low BABIP. It may be a regular part of his game at higher levels of competition?
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