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cmathewson

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Everything posted by cmathewson

  1. Wow. We have five better pitching prospects than we've had since Liriano and you call it a "sorry list", just because there are no AAA pitchers on it? Just wow.
  2. My list: Alex Meyer Kohl Stewart Jose Berrios Kyle Gibson Trevor May Lewis Thorpe Stephen Gonsalves Ryan Eades Mason Melotakis DJ Baxendale Alex Wimmers
  3. Name a country that had a GNP of less than $40M. Otherwise, your comment qualifies as hyperbole.
  4. That's debatable. If you trust UZR/150, then, yeah. I happen not to. He had some really good years at certain positions by that metric. He never gathered the reps at any one position to form a reasonable sample. If he was such a great defender, why couldn't he stick at one position for more than a year? The reason was, he had almost no respect for fundamentals and doing things the right way. Gardy was very patient with him, but still benched him regularly. I suspect he would not have lasted nearly as long under Kelly. In general, he improvised way too much for my taste, when a good fundamental play would do the job. If he had any fundamentals in him at all, he would have been the regular shortstop for six years. His range was that good.
  5. I agree with the last comment. I always thought his defense was overrated in much the same way Punto's was. When a guy can't hit, you compensate by overrating his defense. I'd say his defense is above average, but he's no Perez or Molina. And it was really only good when he played occasionally. On an everyday basis, he became mister wild pitch. Watching him in 2011 was painful at times. But he's a good guy and I wish him well. If all they were going to do is trade him for "future considerations", why didn't they DFA him when it was clear he had no role on the major league team. I'm glad they ave him a chance with another organization. But why wait until the trade deadline to do it?
  6. Question: Can the Orioles trade future competitive balance picks when they have not been determined? If they could, it would make some sense to trade their 2014 pick for Morney and salary relief. The Twins could then use that pick or trade it.
  7. I think he had a clause in his contract that stipulated a promotion or release in the July time frame (similar to Perez, but later). Since he hasn't pitched really at all, that was not likely. So release was the only option. I'm sure it was mutually agreed upon.
  8. As long as the Twins continue to keep college guys in Low A, Twins college prospects will continue to be undervalued by outside observers like K-LAW. The alternative is to make them skip Low A, like Levi Michael. And that was a mistake. All things considered, I'd much rather err on the side of caution with prospects, and never mind the rankings. If he's good enough, he'll eventually get his propers, like Danny Valencia. All that said, I think he's at least a month past the time I would have promoted him.
  9. Thing is, it's tough to have it both ways: Tell us of how stupid the FO is for signing guys and how stupid the FO is for not signing guys. You might say, "It depends on whom you sign. Sign only the guys with high K rates, etc." I get that, but those guys are rare and hard to sign. So you have to settle for guys like Pelfrey. It's not unreasonable to me to give him a Pavano-like contract and hope for the best. If he sucks, you're not losing much. He's still pretty young. He's past his TJ surgery. He should be better in his second year back from it. He'd make a nice fourth starter in a good rotation. Also, don't make him the headliner. Make him the second sign. Sign a headliner too.
  10. If Rod wanted to work that hard, he'd have been here for years. But he's retired.
  11. I would be upset about this if it was the first time he's done something like this this year. But he had a similar incident in Fort Myers and I'm sure the Twins thought that he was past all that after his last discipline. All that said, I saw Torii Hunter flip his bat that way in a Twins uniform at least 100 times. So I can't say what so bad about it. He does need to jog and not trot, though.
  12. I'm sure he would also consider a catcher. Most of the catchers in the system are the Hermann type--nice bench players but not everyday backstops.
  13. He didn't try on either Greinke or Sanchez. I'm glad he didn't in Greinke's case. Sanchez is a push. I've gone back and forth, but now I'd say he should have. After that, I don't have much to go on by way of complaint. In any event, I still think the class was thin. Lohse would cost a draft pick. Jackson is not all that reliable. Dempster is aging (started well, has really gone into the tank). There are a couple of sleepers in there like Feldman that you could say he should have tried for in hindsight. But that's always the case. I'm giving Ryan one more year with this surplus and what looks to me at least to be a better class of free agents. If he goes back to the bargain bin, I will be the first one to rake him over the coals.
  14. Given time, you can find fault with anyone's raw numbers. The simple truth is Walker has destroyed the pitching in that league. It's not just about homers. He also has 22 doubles and 5 triples, for a total of 203 total bases in fewer than 400 PAs.
  15. All this is temporary until the trading deadline at the latest. Mauer will be back in a few days, at which point Butera will be sent back. Arcia will be back in a couple of weeks, at which point Berny will be sent back. Meanwhile, we are winning, so that's something.
  16. I cringe at all but Albers. He really does stand out in this group. Plus, the Twins like to have one lefty in the rotation, so Albers is the obvious choice. As for finding 40-man room, perhaps they're waiting for the trading deadline for that to sort itself out.
  17. Scott Diamond doesn't have enough stuff to get guys out at the major league level. He does have good command of the stuff he has. But that only works until the league figures you out. Then you have to make adjustments, and he can't make adjustments with his stuff. So they wait him out. He reminds me of Alan Anderson. Won the ERA title one year. The league started figuring him out the next.
  18. Can you please change the animation (slow it down or something). It gives me a headache.
  19. I agree. I was just responding to the revised list Jeremy provided, where most of the players ahead of Walker on that list are younger than him. It is a very young team for that league. Still, I would put him ahead of everyone except Berrios on that team right now, though I am very high on Kepler, Polanco, and Harrison.
  20. I'd put Walker much higher in the rankings after this season. And it's not just numbers. My close friend with a good scouting eye said he was clearly the best player on the field after seeing him live in Cedar Rapids this year. Now, he's older than a lot of the guys there, so you have to factor that in. Such is the fate of college players in the Twins system. He is a man among boys there. You could say he should be a man among boys, but he has no control over his promotion schedule. I'd say he should be at the more age appropriate Fort Myers. I'm not going to penalize him in my rankings for earning a promotion and not getting one. One note from John Sickels over the weekend on Twitter that Walker has stolen 84 out of 85 bases in college and the pros. He said he is known for his power, but his speed is also a plus tool. This makes it ever more likely that he can stick at a corner outfield spot.
  21. Also, there is an analyst for ESPN who is so negative about him, we wondered about the analysts motivations. They're supposed to be unbiased, but this analyst was showed the most negative bias toward Stephen of any athlete in recent memory. I wonder if this analyst's opinion affected anybody. Probably not. I thought he was perhaps the biggest steal of the draft. I like him better than Eades, whom we picked in the second round.
  22. At this point, as Parker says, Anderson was desperate. He would have loved some consistency out of Liriano with his sinker, but, barring that, he would take any kind of consistency. At any rate, it wasn't long after this was published that Liriano was giving up homers and other extra base hits to teams that figured out his four seamer. The quote itself invalidates the board's impression that Anderson was doctrinarian. He was pragmatic with Liriano. He was all for whatever worked in spring training. There is no one way to pitch. Every pitcher has to make adjustments to be successful. I'm glad Liriano has. He struggled to make some of the same adjustments when he was in a Twins uniform. That's on him more than the pitching coach.
  23. After four years of trying to get this guy straight (and succeeding for one of the four), he was quoted a half a dozen times saying what Liriano needed to do to be successful. A. Stick to the sinker B. Locate the sinker C. Locate the change D. Throw the slider as a strikeout pitch, not a strike pitch Anderson probably told him that stuff hundreds of times. Except for one half of one year, Liriano could not consistently execute on the game plan. I would be interested in seeing your evidence for the framing argument.
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