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bird

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Everything posted by bird

  1. bird
    This describes the situation pretty well in my view. Except the stop-gaps may be for less than a full year in a couple of cases (Plouffe and Parmelee). The offensive potential here is dramatically better than the pessimistic view that's being described in part by extrapolating last year's horrible glut of individual performance deficiencies (Willingham, Doumit, Plouffe, Arcia, and Parmelee in particular). The organization can better predict the liklihood of a rebound in performance from these five players much better than we can of course. It's unrealistic for us to expect improvement from all five of these guys, but not a pollyanna view to think that maybe at least three, an maybe four of them perform better? But even if they all perform better, this offense won't be that good until the stopgap group (four of them mentioned here) is supplanted by the likes of Polanco, Hicks, Arcia, Rosario, Pinto, Buxton, Kepler, Santana, and Sano. And even then, the new guys will need to spins their wheels for a year or so before figuring it all out at the highest level.
  2. bird
    You're right, it's going to be a mediocre MLB rotation, and that's probably regardless of whatever additional FA moves Ryan makes, including Garza. But really, what should we have expected? I'm frankly thrilled with a mediocre rotation for 2014 of Nolasco, Hughes, Deduno, Correia and say, Pelfry. But I'm even MORE thrilled that the injury replacements aren't a bunch of #7-8 starters like DeVries, Hernandez and Walters. Instead, we have a deep selection of #5-6 guys (or maybe much better) in Worley, Gibson, Diamond, Hendriks, Albers, Meyers, and maybe even May, Johnson, Wimmers, and Darnell. Not a very high ceiling for the big club, but a much more solid floor in 2014.
  3. bird
    I had the same thoughts, JB. I like Deduno's enthusiasm and Nolasco's fire. And I hope Ryan takes a flier on someone (Santana?). I'm indifferent about Pelfry, except on the nights he pitches, when I'll pick up a book or something rather than suffer.
  4. bird
    This makes a lot of sense to me. A couple of recent comments from these guys on Twitter are highly complimentary of the Twins (and of Gardy BTW). Both Plouffe and Swarzak have reached out to new acquisitions with comments like "you'll love Minnesota", and Plouffe tweeted something like "pumped about Gardy's new contract." And I agree that the Twins may value Plouffe more highly than we generally do. Also, they have that loyalty thing going and tend to reach agreements with their arb-eligible players.
  5. bird
    Please provide objective, measurable evidence of this attitude. Kidding. But I agree, he's fun to watch, partly because he's fiery. In contrast, Pelfry is not fun to watch. We don't need a bunch of statistics to see that, when he's on a roll, Deduno is a great #5 guy. So, give me Nolasco, Gibson, Hughes (or equivilent), and Correia in front of him and a Rochester rotation of capable (sort of) backup options like Diamond, Worley, Hendriks, Albers, Johnson, Meyer, May, Wimmers....
  6. bird
    Do you REALLY believe this? Wow.
  7. bird
    If you go into a bar and order fries, and your fries haven't arrived five minutes later, then you and your waitress may have a discussion about expectations if you're dissappointed. But in any event, the waitress's answer is going to be "it's too early." Now, if you've been to this bar before, and the fries are ALWAYS arriving an hour later, then we're dealing with a different problem. But the reality is our problem hasn't really been with the timing but with the fries. A good number of us expect the fries to be a dissappointment no matter WHEN they are served, but they'll wait until they get their order before judging the fry cook. No sense engaging in a bunch of conjecture about what the fry cook's up to, because we haven't a clue from where we sit. Kris Johnson, Duensing Swarzak news?Absolutely meaningless.
  8. bird
    b.). Definitely b.).
  9. bird
    You know, I have no idea how good Rick Anderson is at his job, relative to the entire group of his peers. But I am confident of three things: first, not a single one of us posting on here could hold the baseball lunch pail of the people who decided that Rick Anderson was and remains qualified; second, for every pitcher one can cite as an example of Anderson's incompetence, another can easily cite an opposite example; and third, this is a really stupid and worthless exercise that proves absolutely nothing, and should result in workhouse time for anyone going there. Geez.
  10. bird
    Oh, and likewise, the many, many pitchers who've come here and put up their best numbers are not proof that Anderson and Gardy are superior coaches to whomever coached them previously.
  11. bird
    This is an old exercise and it continues to disprove your point, thrylos, time and again. It also fails to prove anything about Rick Anderson's prowess as a pitching coach. And this exercise is ALWAYS going to lead to all the useless stuff: "yeah, but Dickey sucked elsewhere before he stopped sucking for the Mets" or "yeah, but he was injured". Please let's let this one rest, along with all the other ones like it. Like how much better Vavra is than Brunansky as proven by the "facts".
  12. bird
    On the question of depth. The system is deep in high-impact prospects. It's deep in the way Seth describes, with non-stars and role players. It's deep in terms of variety: middle infielders, starters, catchers, etc, with really no big gaps anywhere. And it's very deep relative to the competition. Take Cleveland, which will probably be described as a middle of the road system. Fewer impact prospects for sure but study their pitching prospects for a moment. The Twins have perhaps 5 pitching prospects (more?) better than their #5 overall prospect, Mitch Brown. Their #10 overall prospect is describes in very iffy terms as at best a back of the rotation guy. Our #8 and #9 prospects certainly are in a class above this guy, and we might be able to find quite a few prospects further down our rankings that most evaluators would like better. Oh, and Cleveland's system is better than that of both Chicago and Detroit.
  13. bird
    If you've read anything Parker has written in the past, I cannot imagine you'd insult him by accusing him of writing a PR puff-piece. The Twins organization is almost universally well-respected. Sosnick happens to be a vociferous yet earnest (I believe) admirer. Hageman did a superlative job of detailing those aspects of Sosnick's relationship that inspire (and motivate) his glowing descriptions. And, if trusting relationships are old school, and it means the Twins are operating uniquely when it comes to loyalty and honesty, that's encouraging.
  14. bird
  15. bird
    To have that many prospects grade out at C+ or better is extraordinary. Sickels mentioned about 45 names, and left these guys off the list: Baxendale, Wimmers, Bard, Ortiz, Chargois, Nate Roberts, and Levi Michael. If we have 45 prospects better than any of those guys, we're in decent shape.
  16. bird
    I believe the days where some clubs are vastly superior at drafting and developing MLB talent are pretty much over, or at least waning to the point of being a negligible advantage. The Twins ned to emulate clubs who do the best job of MANAGING the assets they deveop. They're especially weak with the selling of assets at more advantageous times.
  17. bird
    Please name all the MLB clubs who have produced a larger number of MLB players than the Twins over the last 15 years, or whatever reasonable time period you might choose. I agree with you that finding talent lower in the draft is not (totally) luck, but you will fail to find evidence that the Twins are, as you sy, pathetic in this regard. The facts suggest the complete opposite.
  18. bird
    MLB once ranked him #9 in our system. Nine others have ranked him in their top 20. Seth, you ranked him #33 not so long ago according to my little spreadsheet.
  19. bird
    I was OK with them finding their high upside guys two years away in Meyer and May for 2013. The trouble was the lack of successful medium upside guys this year, ie. Worley, Diamond, Gibson, Hendriks. I agree with you, for 2014, finding at least one, and preferably two SP's that immediately are better options than every current option should be the goal. No excuses for 2014. We have trade chips, at least a couple of FA options, and lots of cash to spend.
  20. bird
    Very good synopsis, Nick. The SP dilemna has been exasperating on so many levels. It starts with the failure to find a single SP who deserves to be regarded as a #2-3 guy. That's on Ryan, although the thin FA market last winter didn't do him any favors, and neither did the lack of surplus trading chips. Equally exasperating to me was that so many pitchers with the prospects of being at least a serviceable #3 starter faltered. Diamond and Worley being the most obvious. To me, they're in the same situation as last year. They need to find two SP's from outside the organization who pan out as legit #2-3 guys. Ryan didn't get results last winter. If he fails to get results again this upcoming winter, then I'll agree with much of the harsh criticism that he perhaps a little unfairly received this year IMO.
  21. bird
    I'm glad the Twins were "forward looking" enough to have patience with Dozier when most of us had written him off about two months ago, and "forward looking" enough to move Dozier (and Rosario) to 2B where they're both thriving. But I'm in the camp that wants to see how things play out for both players next season. Hopefully, we have two tradeable assets. Maybe we can get Billy Smith back as GM so he can pull off another great trade...
  22. bird
    And keeping a player we don't plan to re-sign, for 5 weeks, helps us in the long run? Where's the benefit to not getting something in return in the long run? Explain to me how Alex Pressly and PTNL hurt us in the long run.
  23. bird
    Perfectly stated.
  24. bird
    I'm in this camp too. I hoped (expected even) that Ryan would find 3 SP's that met or exceeded the "Diamond Standard". Unfortunately, Diamond lowered the bar from being an acceptable #3 to a #6 and then Worley, Gibson, and Pelfry spit the bit. What I've witnessed runs a bit contrary to a couple of sentiments expressed. Ryan failed to solve the SP problem this winter. I disagree with the sentiments expressed by Leviathan and jokin. Being willing to acknowledge that your expectations weren't met has nothing to do with being a "Ryan defender" or a "Ryan hater". Frankly, the use of terms like that are simply insulting and incendiary and harm all of us. But yeah, I still hold out hope that Ryan will change his tune, like drjim.
  25. bird
    A tad hyperbolic, to say the least. But it's still an encouraging lineup card to ponder.
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