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bird

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Everything posted by bird

  1. bird
    And fot the 1000th time, neither Ryan or Smith followed any of these signees. They didn't scout them. They didn't stick their neck on the line to recommend them. That was all done within the constructs of a sophisticated organizational structure with full-time scouts out there on the front lines. It's time to get beyond this incredibly simplistic and misguided notion that Ryan and Smith get credit for this stuff.
  2. bird
    Again, it's too early to make a definitive statement, but there's some evidence that it's been going better than "not so well" over the last 10 years, especially if one compares the results against the rest of baseball.
  3. bird
  4. bird
    LaBombo, don't miss my point. My point is that we can make a bunch of lists of pitchers who improved and declined, here or somewhere else, but that doing so doesn't really prove squat diddly. I don't have the foggiest idea as to whether Anderson is a below average MLB pitching coach or not, and neither do you. As for Liriano? There are a ton of variables- his TJ recovery, his messed up head, Anderson, the Chicago pitching coach that smugly claimed he had just the right tweak in mind- and we're all just guessing about why he was the Franchise here, then an erratic mess here and in Chicago, and now a Cy Young candidate again. Some people are lashing out at Anderson. I'm not defending him, just merely pointing out that you have to be awfully astute to have figured out that Anderson's the culprit. I think the Anderson bashers are guessing, and in some cases the examples in support of their view are so flimsy that they're funny.
  5. bird
    From the current roster? OK. Perkins, Swarzak, Duensing, Burton, Pressly, Deduno, Fien, Burton, Roenicke, Thielbar, and Albers. All better than when they came here. Pedro Hernandez too. Oh, and the argument can be strongly made that both Liriano and Lohse got better under Anderson before they got worse. Go figure. Which is why I think it's specious at best to pin Liriano on Anderson. And one can easily expand the list by looking at rosters from previous years. And one could make a second list of all the pitchers who got crappy once they left here. My guess is that if you made a list in support of Anderson and a second one that incriminates him, the favorable one would be much much longer. After all, he's a MLB pitching coach. And as for your "real" names, Albers, Worley, Gibson, Pelfrey, Correia... come on, mike. Those aren't valid examples of anything! Worley got injured. Albers, Hendriks, and Gibson are wet behind the ears and the jury's out. Pelfrey is a veteran coming coming back from injury, and Correia certainly has been exactly as advertised. Do you really think you made a case against Anderson with these examples? And with the standard being that, since they didn't get "better", even if they didn't get worse, Andy's a bad coach? Wow, just wow.
  6. bird
    People forget that there were 14 pitchers selected ahead of Gibson.
  7. bird
    Now THIS is hilarious! Well, mike, ya got me there. Great point. And perfect examples. I mean, of COURSE all these guys would have done better if only they had a competetent pitching coach. Wow, just wow.
  8. bird
  9. bird
    What's silly is this notion, mike. Lots of comments here are completely credible and valid, including many of your own. For example, you commented that the Twins have a long way to go before pitching talent rises to the upper levels. Valid, credible, and supportable.
  10. bird
    Deduno? All I know is he's been pitching in the majors and he wasn't before, so he appears to have improved.
  11. bird
    You and I can't credibly judge any of these coaches or managers. To do so in the face of our pathetic level of information and expertise smacks of arrogance.
  12. bird
    And now Houston has one of the top 5 talent pools, and trending upward still.
  13. bird
    It works both ways Mike. You'd be right in questioning any unflattering conclusion drawn from a few examples like Lohse or Liriano, just like you'd be right drawing the opposite conclusion from examples like Fien or Deduno. Are you in the camp of resisting coming to conclusions from examples both favorable AND unfavorable?
  14. bird
    I believe Ryan has said he's inclined to send Sano home to rest up and be ready to go come spring training. He said Sano has played alot of baseball this summer and that the time off would probably be he best thing for him.
  15. bird
    That's my read on it too, and that's in line with the comments Jim Pohlad made, which is that it's all about getting an equitable return. He said they have no interest in making moves simply to unload a player or a salary. Now, it could be that Ryan is squeezing a nickel again, but I don't thin it's fair to draw that conclusion based on what's been said. And especially something awkwardly said by Gardy.
  16. bird
    Oxtung, I am one of tose willing to trust them based on the current evidence. But I agree 100% with you that until we see more results at the MLB level, it's too early to judge the organization's track record relative to their competors. Old Nurse's point is well taken in that it's too early for both praise AND criticism. Pointing to the current evidence (like Arcia Polanco, Kepler et al) to refute the criticism has substance, especially compared to citing the fact that they "only" got one guy off BA's list and ignoring that they got two guys last year off the same list. Lastly, MLB appears to be seeking more equal distribution of talent. That would imply that all 30 teams would "only" get one player off BA's list, making the silly assumption that BA's list deserves a huge amount of credibility.
  17. bird
    Finding diamonds in the rough is not just a Ryan strength, but an organizational strength of the field staff and scouts paying attention and being consulted, I believe. You don't uncover the Burtons and Fiens from a cubicle with Fangraphs up and running.
  18. bird
    Another nice report, Jeremy. Many thanks to you guys! Three Pitchers of the week among the six leagues. Not bad for a system that's been pitching-weak over the last few years. Another sign of improvement.
  19. bird
    We all hope that this run is for real and sustains itself, but it's possible that Dozier cools off and settles in with production that is more in the "meh" category. Whatever the result, isn't it pleasant to be discussing the MI problem in such a different light than we were just two months ago? Gotta love baseball.
  20. bird
    Bill Smith deserves a modicum of credit for the organization's international success, and certainly far less credit than Terry Ryan, who deserves perhaps 10% of the credit that people commenting here never give to Howard Norsetter, to name one international scout.
  21. bird
    AROG, thanks for the illuminating post. But I'm finding it hard to believe that the industry regards the Twins as being in elite company-one of four-who devote more resources to the international market. I guess what makes me most skeptical is my perception of the Twins' relative presence in the Dominican Republic, the source of more players than any other foreign market. From admittedly a paltry amount of information, I would classify the Twins' Dominican operation as not much better than average. Sure wish the mainstream guys would ask these questions for us.
  22. bird
    The Scouting Department is a large and sophisticated operation. Both Terry Ryan and Bill Smith advocated for increased resources devoted to the international market. Terry Ryan put Bill Smith in charge of overseeing some of the improvements in the international area. Other than this managemant role, the GM, I believe, has much much less to do with the end results than people think. And even if the scouts find the talent, the Development staff has to do its job, for which the GM deserves only a small share of the credit or blame. Terry Ryan just isn't all that consequential in the whole scheme of things in my view.
  23. bird
    I'll add a fourth, in that they DID sign a BA "top 30" prospect, for what little that is worth. Someone who subcribes might be able to answer this question: which of the following were ranked by BA in their top 30 article? Arcia, Santana, Ortiz, Pinto, Salcedo, Mejia, Vargas, Kepler, Polanco, Jorge, Randy Rosario, Landa, Thorpe, Gibson, Romero, Tapia...? Arcia, Santana, Pinto, Vargas, Kepler, and Polanco have all been considered to be among the organization's top two dozen prospects, this in a top-ranked system. Three others, Sano, Minier, and Silva WERE ranked highly by BA. In short, the hand-wringing is premature for sure, and the recent track record is decent enough to instill some confidence that they are faring well. They may quite possibly be having some great luck now that everyone else seems to have spent their wad. We'll know a lot more in two years I guess.
  24. bird
    Give Ryan credit, however, for improving the farm system via trades made and not made, in Meyer and May in particular. And Smith deserves criticism for doing exactly the opposite, especially by trading away Wilson Ramos and accepting garbage like Hoey and Jacobsen for Hardy.
  25. bird
    Actually, the thing that is ridiculous (once again) is assigning credit or blame to Smith and Ryan and ignoring the other five dozen employees who ARE in fact directly responsible for the drafting and development process. GM Ryan has never acted alone as a scout and GM Smith never acted alone as a contract negotiator, so we should quit with this totally bogus notion that Sano would be elsewhere in Smith's absence.
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