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cmathewson

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Everything posted by cmathewson

  1. cmathewson
    All this is supremely impressive. One stat that stands out is the triples--16(!). That's Guzman speed.
  2. cmathewson
    $1 million wasted.
  3. cmathewson
    Harden and Perez are cautionary, and they had the surgery once. Twice is twice too many. The surgery is for helping you comb your hair without pain. It's not for getting you back on the mound. If you know he's toast, why do anything to bring him back, unless it's just so he can retire a Twin.
  4. cmathewson
    I don't see the comp. Surbaran is taller. Sulbaran sits in the low 90s and can hit mid 90s. Pedro can hit low 90s, but he sits in the high 80s. Also, Pedro's best off-speed pitch is his change-up/screwball. Pedro's curve is not a major league pitch. Finally, upside. Sulbaran has much higher upside. Pedro is at his upside now, and it's a AAAA/sixth starter without much hope for the bullpen because of his troubles against lefties.
  5. cmathewson
    No pitcher has ever recovered from two of these on the same shoulder.
  6. cmathewson
    Point taken. We flail against Punto as much for the way he was used like a regular and given four chances to fail when most guys only get three, as for his bone-headed, hot-dog, wild-ass plays. But this was a thread about the comparison between Punto and Carroll. Both were good utility players. Both had their ups and downs. Carroll ended his Twins career on a down, somewhat sullying his otherwise good numbers (whereas Punto had 7 years of ups and downs to balance out his inconsistency). This accounts for a lot of Sinker's issue. Still and all, perhaps the more vocal Twins fans appreciate playing the way they were taught to play. I can't recall a grounder hit right at him where he simply gloved it, planted and threw. Even when he had a routine play, he had to circle around it and make it look spectacular, a la Juan Castro. There was just no need to play the game that way. And he couldn't bunt, run the bases or otherwise play situational baseball to save his life. For me, his career will always be defined by this play: On the other hand, I could count on one hand the times Carroll failed to make the routine play in a solid, fundamental way. That made him a good role model for the young guys (unlike Punto, who helped turn Alexi Casilla into a freak).
  7. cmathewson
    Good to know. In TK I trust.
  8. cmathewson
    I disagree. Rosario is the real deal. I suppose you could move him back to the outfield. But he's said to be a natural at second. And he's worked hard for two years to learn the position. He's a better hitter than Guerrero. So if you just leave it up for competition, and the better man wins, you've just signed a utility infielder for starting shortstop money.
  9. cmathewson
    When he was briefly called up in a last-ditch effort to save the signing, he committed six errors in three games, and otherwise looked completely lost in the filed. So, yeah, he regressed. But he won the gold glove at short, and he just never got comfortable at second, after he endured one of the dirtiest slides I've ever seen. They paid for a gold glove shortstop. And they paid even more by dumping Hardy to make room for Nishi (whether at short or second with Casilla's alleged versatility). They got a crappy second baseman. That should never happen. And it is relevant to this signing because a lot of scouts are saying the Cuban is not a major league shortstop, but he will fetch a shortstop price. And like that deal, they would have to make room for him at second.
  10. cmathewson
    They are basically the same guy except: 1. Carroll did all the little things right and Punto routinely failed to do the little things in key situations. I lost track of Punto's failed bunts and pop-ups with a runner on second a nobody out. And don't get me started on how many times he slid head first into first base on the back end of a DP. 2. Carroll was primarily used the way he was supposed to be: as a utility player. Gardy loved Punto so much, he tried to make him a starter at three different positions, all with abject failure. 3. The Twins Way makes 1 and 2 into a paradox: Why all the love for a guy who never played the Twins Way? Carroll offered no such paradox.
  11. cmathewson
    We all gave them the benefit of the doubt in the Nishi sign, presuming that they got the scouting right. And they didn't. It set off a chain reaction of crap that sent us from winning the division one year to losing 96 games the next. Worst. Move. Ever. And more than any other move, it caused the early exit of BS. It's a cautionary tale about what happens when you sign a guy. It's not a risk-free deal. You sign this kid from Cuba, and there are consequences for the roster and the budget. Now, we have a lot more budget room than we did when we signed Nishi. And we don't have a franchise shortstop, as we did when we signed Nishi. So the risk is probably worth it if he can stay at short. Not as a second baseman, though. I have no interest in signing a guy who will be worse than Dozier and who will only serve to block Rosario.
  12. cmathewson
    I would DFA Hendriks, Hernandez and Walters, especially if it meant signing Erving Santana and Matt Garza. :-)
  13. cmathewson
    I would be surprised if he didn't go out and get at least one, if not two pitchers in the offseason--one if my FA, two if by acquisition(s). There are no front-line starters in the rotation for next year, unless you count Deduno, who is inconsistent, and probably a third starter on a good team. They have tons of money. They just need to spend it. And, unlike some posters here, I think they will. The FA market does not lack for quality arms.
  14. cmathewson
    Cherry picking numbers to prove a point? He won the MVP after starting the season poorly. That implies that, over his last four months, he played about as well as he has ever played. Most guys have hot streaks and cold streaks. You can always point to the cold streaks and say he isn't as good as his numbers. That's why we insist on large sample sizes. Overall, he played pretty well from 2006 through his concussion in mid 2010, arguably on par with Hrbek's prime years.
  15. cmathewson
    Manaea would be awesome, but he can't be traded until next June.
  16. cmathewson
    LEN III predicted it would just be cash. But he had no supporting evidence. And he gave no specific number. So, I call BS.
  17. cmathewson
    The team has had three really bad 10-game stretches. Obviously, those count. But all we would need to do next year to be a .500 team is to go .500 in those bad stretches. That's a matter of a better starter or two. That's why I'm much more confident at this time this year than at this time last year.
  18. cmathewson
    I agree with you. And so do the numbers. On Plouffe, my biggest concern is how nonchalant he seems, even on routine plays. He's gotten the benefit of a couple of calls lately, but fast guys beat out his throws more than I'm comfortable with. I understand not wanting to rush, but a bit more urgency is called for with fast runners. And yeah, that same urgency might lead to getting his uniform dirty more often.
  19. cmathewson
    This I agree with. But the following is often argued on this site: The Twins did not sign player X ergo The Twins offered less money than the team he signed with I take issue with that argument because it's fallacious.
  20. cmathewson
    How about waiting until he actually had some trade value after a seven-homer barrage?
  21. cmathewson
    Question: did Stewart also get promoted to E-ton? It would really be something if Stephen actually got promoted before the consensus best high school pitcher in the country. Also, I thought the Twins wanted to keep them together because of their friendship.
  22. cmathewson
    He had such a dismal July that any trade before the deadline became all but impossible without eating much of his salary. But a hot August might entice enough interest to garner a real prospect or competitive balance pick. And if it's positioned as giving him an opportunity for a ring, it might actually be a net positive for resigning him to a "hometown discount" after the season.
  23. cmathewson
    This is hard for me to understand. The Cubs have the best GM in baseball but had a worse record than the Twins last year and have a worse record than the Twins this year, all the while spending considerably more than the Twins in both years. Since the Twins are not even a good team, let alone the best, the only way I can understand this is if it's intended as sarcasm. Is that your intent?
  24. cmathewson
    Well, he went out and tried to do the same thing last night, and he only pitched a 2-hit shutout. So maybe Gardy isn't such an expert after all. That said, he will need to continue to mix up his pitches and throw strike 1 to be effective. To me, that's what he tried to do in the first two games. And he succeeded. I'd be happy if the tried to do that for the rest of his career.
  25. cmathewson
    Just because you haven't heard of them doesn't mean they suck. Had you heard of Arcia before we signed him? I believe the Twins did sign a top 10 player on most lists this year (Diaz). Last year, they signed a top 5 player (Minier), in addition to one high on some lists (Thorpe). Could they sign more? Sure. But relative to the league, they are in the upper half in this area, which is a big reason they have the #1 system in all of baseball.
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