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bird

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Everything posted by bird

  1. bird
    The Lookouts have at least six bona fide pitching prospects on the roster, and yet they probably have the 3rd most talented staff among the four full-season minor league clubs.
  2. bird
    Diamond, that's Hu.
  3. bird
    Speaking of lefty fireballers, I see that Scott Diamond was edged out by Chi Wei Hu this afternoon. God, I miss him.
  4. bird
    I can see your point. I guess I hadn't really thought there was any great likelihood of getting any more than maybe a couple wins difference between May and Milone, but you may be right. They seem pretty interchangeable to me, but they may be a lot less so than I'm capable of discerning.
  5. bird
    Franky, I don't give a rat's rear end what they do with Milone, Pelfrey, or any of the mid-to-back rotation and mop-up relief types. I'm happy they have a surplus of options, but we're treading water until or unless a couple guys with mid-to-front rotation and high-leverage talent emerge. And right now, the viable candidates to fill those roles are laboring in Chattanooga. Mr. Ryan, make the phone calls please. Tell your fellow GM's you have an over-supply of pitching and need to cull the herd. But sit tight unless some GM gets desperate or temporarily stupid and offers a nice overpay for ANY of these players. But don't get snookered into taking a Sam Fuld type for Milone, OK?
  6. bird
    Any extras? That's my birthday.
  7. bird
    This is the stuff that keeps us all so dang humble.
  8. bird
    Overwhelmingly, the consensus of the commenters on this thread is that Buxton will (or should) be up in a matter of weeks. I wonder what the majority vote would have been four weeks ago. My guess is "a year away." "By September" was a minority vote, don't you think? Crazy game, this baseball.
  9. bird
    I could see this. Molitor is starting to give us some hints by virtue of his choice of words when he talks about his young players, and he appears to be insistent about staying engaged, a trait in limited supply with Mr. Arcia lately.
  10. bird
    I agree with all of these points Chief. Where I see things a bit differently is 1) I think performance as reflected in box scores WAS part of the decision process; 2) Pelfrey wasn't signed solely because he's a good guy; and 3) Rosario has shown flashes, as Molitor articulated well, and it's not some act of benevolence here.
  11. bird
    Exactly true, they make these decisions strictly NOT on the basis of the box scores. They have professional coaches watching every AB, every play the guy's involved in, plus his BP's, what time he arrives at the park, etc. After reading Wetmore's interview, I don't have any further questions about their reasoning, and it isn't all that baffling, given the temporary nature of the call-up.
  12. bird
    I second that. You might ask, "what are you seconding, my being baffled at agreeing with the FO, or finding the move sensible?" My answer is yes.
  13. bird
    We have to keep in mind that these decisions are not made strictly on the basis of the box scores. The field staff at Rochester weighed in certainly, as did Ryan and perhaps others in the front office. Molitor likely voiced an opinion as well. Edit: Ah, Wetmore's interview sheds real light, doesn't it? It's so nice to get some solid journalism on a more frequent basis from some of our newer mainstream guys.
  14. bird
    Is this a complaint? If so, of what?
  15. bird
    Just curious, Mat. I assume the post-game spread was on Ricky's dime. How did it differ from your normal post-game fare?
  16. bird
    Although neither Dalton Hicks nor Joe Mauer will ever hold a candle to Adam Brett Walker III.
  17. bird
    The question of whether the Twins changed their draft approach and thereby created a hitting shortage in the low minors this year is a good one. But the thing is, the draft balance didn't change in 2014, which is the year most of the CR roster was drafted. In fact 10 of the first 20 draftees were hitters that year, including Gordon, Murphy, English, Kuresa, White, and Kelly on that CR team. The Twins have consistently drafted more pitchers than hitters in the early rounds. There just doesn't appear to be a correllation between the draft approach and the offensive production. I think the two main factors are international talent and chance, or essentially the quality of that year's draft. Here's the breakdown for 5 years in terms of pitcher/hitter ratio of the first 20 rounds: 2010: 13/7 2011: 14/6 2012: 14/6 2013: 12/8 2014: 10/10 (this was the year the Twins loaded up on all those relievers and supposedly created this black hole) My theory is that hitting talent just hasn't been as impressive in general. BTW, the success rate with these early pitching picks has been decent, all things considered, so it appears to have been a good idea to emphasize pitching.
  18. bird
    It tells a lot about how uncertain these prospects are until they get a season or two under their belts of full-season play. Of the players you just mentioned, any one of whom could turn out to be a real player. Or more likely, not: English: three rankers out of 19 gave him a rank at all. #33 by both Gleeman and Twinkietown, #35 by Shane Wahl. Kuresa: two of the 19 rankers: #38 by thrylos and #45 by Shane Vavra: #59 by Shane The highest rankings any of the Cedar Rapids position players have gotten: Gordon #3 JJ Fernandez #19 Murphy #25 Larson #28 Navarreto #29 English #33 Kuresa #38 Granite #57 Vavra #59
  19. bird
    Thank you for that important correction. I was wrong when I said the Kernels were 5th out of 16 teams in OPS. This morning they're actually tied for 6th, .003 percentage points behind the 5th place team. My bad. I base my observations about the talent on a given team to a large extent on the rankings given out by those who claim an expertise. Like you, those dozen and a half rankers are hard-pressed to find much elite offensive talent in either A+ or A-. Gordon is the only player ranked in anyone's top ten. No other position player on either team has a top 25 ranking from more than two rankers. In each of our last few drafts, there has been a consistent balance of pitching and position draftees, so the lack of elite offensive talent can't simply be traced to the emphasis on drafting those hard-throwing relievers. My suspicion is that we're seeing a bit of a drought when it comes to American hitting talent. If we examine this year's draft thread, we'll see maybe a half-dozen offensive players being mentioned among the top prospects, and it's conceivable the experts are having trouble finding two dozen position players worthy of even a second round selection. It appears that hitting is a problem league-wide at the A level, and isn't just a Twins problem.
  20. bird
    It's true that both Fort Myers and Cedar Rapids have a lack of elite hitters, and it's showing up in the stats you chose to share about Fort Myers. However, the last time I looked, Cedar Rapids ranked 5th out of 16 teams in team OPS. The bright side for both teams is that their team ERA's are among the two best in their leagues, and we're talking about 12 teams in the FSL and 16 teams in the MWL. At Fort Myers, their three top position prospects, Garver, Vielma, and Goodrum, are all doing poorly so far. At Cedar Rapids, Nick Gordon is holding his own, JJ Fernandez is injured and Max Murphy has been anemic so far. They're not going to be explosive teams offensively, even if the guys mentioned here come alive and Minier and Diaz get promoted. It's not the "relief pitchers" that are shining at those two levels. The best performances have come from Hu, Eades, Sleger, Gonsalves, Jorge, and Bats, and none of them are converted relievers.
  21. bird
    We have no idea if the HBP was retaliatory, do we?
  22. bird
    Yeah, it would be one thing if they were so-so, but they both have performed miserably so far. Their talent will probably shine through eventually, but when I'm looking out my window at snow flakes, I'd love a day-brightener from our two best prospects.
  23. bird
    Hey, lay off Bill Smith. He was just doing what Gardy told him.
  24. bird
    Torii's scooter would be covered by his Medicare Senior Plan.
  25. bird
    As painful as it is to watch, I'd be inclined to leave things as is, but give Robinson much of the time in CF. That is, until Rosario and/or Hicks play consistently well both defensively and offensively for two months or Buxton dominates AA for two months. If that doesn't happen at some point in time during 2015, they're in deep doo doo.
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