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golfboy1

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Everything posted by golfboy1

  1. golfboy1
    I think I'd prefer Kinley over Duffy. I think he is worth giving a chance. He throws an easy 99 & you can't teach that. Duffy doesn't impress me & the only quality he has is the ability to pitch multiple innings ...plus they can still option him. I think Hildenberger will make it but I wouldn't count him as being a lock. He's looked really bad so far & maybe hitters are starting to catch up to his funky delivery.
  2. golfboy1
    Boshers seems like the #1 choice but can anyone clarify what is going on with Chargois? He's been taking up a spot & I have no idea if he will be able to pitch anytime soon. If he can't stay healthy I would think he might be #2 on the list
  3. golfboy1
    I agree that just being better than Willingham, etc.might not be the ultimate goal it's still better than getting worse. I guess I am placing some/more value on Hunter being a good veteran presence than some others are. This team could use someone to light a fire under them at times. Mauer doesn't have that personality & I don't think Rios, Rasmus or Aoki would have that affect either. If not Hunter...who else? I don't see Rios as much of an upgrade, Rasmus is highly unlikely to want to come here & Aoki might be ok but he's not that great either. The Mets gave Cuddyer a 2yr./21M deal AND were willing to give up their 1st round pick. It's not like the Twins are going to find a guy who is great on defense and can hit and is young and is a good clubhouse guy just waiting to sign. Unless the Twins wanted to go with what they have, Hunter is probably as good a choice as anyone else..especially when you factor in his leadership/past ties to the Twins. It's a one yr. deal. It can't be that big of a mistake
  4. golfboy1
    I don't think it's a great sign by the Twins but "someone" has to play OF & there aren't a lot of good options available. It's a one yr. deal & they can probably flip him at the deadline if they feel Rosario is ready. I don't fully believe the defensive metrics that claim he is terrible. Those same metrics have Nori Aoki as a better defender than Carlos Gomez & list Mike Trout & Andrew McCutchen as 2 of the worst defenders in all of baseball. They also list Johhny Peralta as the 3rd best defensive SS last year. Peralta is rated much better than Danny Santana in every stat, including range. I don't believe that. I saw Hunter play a decent amount of games last year & while he isn't what he once was he's still better than Willingham, Colabello & Arcia. For better or worse, Hunter will let everyone know how he feels about something. This team can probably use a little veteran mentoring. I don't think they would get that with any other signing. I don't see a lot of other options. They had to pay 10.5M just to get a 39 yr. old OF. I don't know who else is available that would be worth signing...assuming you don't want to do a 3 or 4 yr. deal. PS. Just curious. How would most posters have felt if the Twins had signed Cuddyer to a 21M/2yr deal like the Mets did..assuming Cuddyer would have been willing to come back. Would that be viewed as a better/worse deal than Hunter?
  5. golfboy1
    Volquez is definitely a gamble but unless you want to pay $120 million + you are going to end up signing someone with question marks. After Shields, Lester & Scherzer they are all a lottery ticket of some sort. Volquez has a very good fastball & when healthy he has had pretty good results so I don't agree he has been getting by on smoke & mirrors. I would think he could be signed for a 2 yr. deal with an option for a 3rd yr. at a reasonable price. That list doesn't look that great. Who else on that list do you think would be a good FA signing?
  6. golfboy1
    I'm not against the Twins going after a top tier FA pitcher but their history indicates they won't so I'm not counting on them changing. If they did, I'd prefer Lester. I'm concerned about Scherzer holding up for much longer...plus he wants $200 million. Shields has been a very good pitcher but he is older & KC's defense & park have helped him out. I'm afraid he will turn into Correia in a couple of years. One guy that might be worth going after is Edinson Volquez. He has good stuff, if he stays healthy. They might be able to get him for a 2/3 yr. deal at a reasonable price.
  7. golfboy1
    I'll be the first to admit I thought it was beyond stupid when they put Santana in CF but I've come around on the idea. He's made some bad plays & bad throws but he has made some big improvements already in a short time. I still think he should eventually be a SS but *right now*, he is still an overall upgrade over Hicks.(IMHO) I don't know, I think Fuld is decent in CF. He seems to track the ball ok & catches everything. He should be a backup OF & pinch runner once Nunez & Plouffe return & I'd rather Hicks get regular playing time in the minors than fill that role.
  8. golfboy1
    People keep bringing up OBP like it trumps every other stat. Hicks batted .192 last yr. & is at .198 this yr. but BAM!...his OBP is .338. His SLG% is .262, which is #295 out of 300 players with more than 120 AB. Right now, he can't hit ML pitching & I doubt his walk rate is sustainable. Fuld is not a great option either but he still has a better BA, SLG % & OPS than Hicks. I'm guessing once Plouffe returns Santana will get most of the starts in CF & Fuld will become a defensive replacement for the corner OF or a pinch runner...a role he will be good at. I don't think that's a role Hicks should be used at unless they are giving up on him ever being a ML regular. I hope Hicks eventually becomes a good ML player but he isn't one now. I think he definitely needs to be in the minors learning to hit. I don't know if they are punishing him by putting him in AA, maybe he feels more comfortable there & it's better that he has some success at a lower level to rebuild his confidence. Santana & Fuld can both play CF so they don't need another backup OF. Having Plouffe & Nunez both out is causing problems. I know Florimon sucks but they need "someone" who can play MI. I guess they could cut Florimon & bring up Bernier but it's probably a wash
  9. golfboy1
    It's possible to make a good case for a number of pitchers. That's a huge improvement from previous years. While I said Darnell deserved it based on his stats, there are other pitchers who could also make that claim. Meyers is the most exciting for me & May has really taken a leap forward this year so I'd be happy with either one of them. Meyers isn't on the roster so I would give him a little less chance then the others. It seems to me, the Twins aren't in a rush to promote May. They want him to build on his success before advancing him. IMHO
  10. golfboy1
    I wouldn't pick Darnell only on being LH but he deserves it based on his stats. My opinion is it is a benefit to have a LH starter against certain team's lineups. Yankee stadium is a good example. Why are you using career stats? I don't think it's relevant what their ERA was 3 or 4 years ago. Have they improved since then? Scott Diamond's career ERA is pretty good but he's not getting promoted anytime soon. Darnell outpitched Meyer last yr. in AA & his stats are at least as good, if not better than Meyer's this year in AAA. I think Meyers has more upside & hopefully will be a #1 starter eventually but Darnell could be a solid starter also. He looked fine in his one ML appearance.
  11. golfboy1
    I'm not a big fan of a 13 man staff either but maybe it is the best answer. Parmelee doesn't have much of a role since Morales signed. Cut Parmelee, send Deduno to the pen & call up either May or Darnell. I prefer Darnell but they both have pitched well enough to get a shot. I like Darnell since I think it is a good idea to have a LH starter. It's a nice change to have several good options to chose from . There are a number of bullpen arms who they could promote if they cut Burton. Pressley, Achter, Tonkin or Pino are all candidates for the bullpen. I'd like to see Lester Oliveros promoted to AAA soon. He's dominating AA, they just need a spot for him.
  12. golfboy1
    Baseball Reference is incorrect. He's only had 156 PA all year. It shows him as having only 6 PA as a LH batter all year. Fan Graphs shows he has had 20 PA vs. RH pitchers as a RH batter. He has had 3 hits, all singles so far.
  13. golfboy1
    We are all just speculating but maybe Brunansky or Gardy had multiple meetings with Hicks trying to get thru to him without much success. At that point maybe they thought calling him out might work better. You can't use one cookie cutter approach with all people. I like the ability to get on base as much as the next guy but it's not the only stat that matters. His BA is .198 & his SL% is .262. Those are really, really bad numbers & a large amount of walks doesn't overcome that. I'm not ready to give up on Hicks but he should be in AAA. I think he should have been there from the start of the year but that's the Twins fault.
  14. golfboy1
    I understand. I doubt pitchers are very afraid of him & they certainly aren't trying to walk him but it happens a fair amount of the time. Yes, he fouls off a fair amount of pitches, works the count a lot & eventually he either walks or strikes out. He strikes out 27% of his PA & it seems like he takes strike 3 way more than he should. When he's not striking out he walks 17% of the time. Bottom line, he's batting under .200 for the 2nd straight season. Does anyone really think that's an acceptable BA even though his OBP is a "stellar".338? Plus, as mentioned, he's giving up switch hitting & that can't be easy against ML RH pitchers.
  15. golfboy1
    Hicks is good at one thing right now. NOT swinging the bat & hoping the pitcher walks him. That skill can only take you so far. At some point a ML player needs to be able to actually hit the ball. Yes, Hicks OBP is similar to Spans last 3 yrs but their SL% & OPS differ significantly. Hicks is .338/.597(2013) & .262/.602(2014) while Spans ranged from a low of .348/.679 to a high of .395/.738. And I don't think Hick's will improve after giving up SH in the middle of the season. People can make the case that the Twins screwed up the situation with Hicks (& I agree) but I can't believe anyone thinks Hicks shouldn't go to the minors ASAP. Regarding Mauer's .342 OBP. He's not doing so great right now but he does have a "little" bit of history indicating he will be ok. Hicks history indicates he needs more minor league playing time.
  16. golfboy1
    As long as a player performs at a high level it doesn't matter what his personality is. But when you hit .192 for two straight years they are going to question it regardless. When Mauer is hitting .350 people praise him for his calm, cool demeanor but when he is hitting .260 they question if he cares enough, etc. etc. Hicks refused to play winter ball to work on his game so that probably didn't help his status with management. Quitting SH without input from the Twins probably didn't help his cause either. I don't care if he is hitting .500 in his last 30 AB's. He has had over 400 AB to prove he is not a ML caliber hitter at this point & it is crazy to think he is going to hit RH pitchers at the ML level. As soon as Fuld is ready Hicks should go down.
  17. golfboy1
    I doubt they will cut ties with him just yet. Hopefully he will figure things out in the minors although I don't have all that much confidence he will. I'd love to think it will play out like Hunter or Gomez but there are significant differences. Gomez always had great talent, he just needed to learn to play under control & not swing at pitches 3 ft out of the strike zone. Hunter was also overly aggressive & it just took a little longer for him to develop. If a pitcher threw the ball over the middle of the plate they both could do damage. Hicks can swing right thru a mistake pitch plus plate discipline isn't his problem. Hicks has NEVER shown the ability to hit RH pitching plus he doesn't seem to have the same drive or desire that Gomez & Hunter displayed. With them it was never a question of them trying hard enough or wanting it enough. I don't get that same vibe from Hicks.
  18. golfboy1
    I agree, the first 3 picks are really exciting. Burdi & Cederoth were both talked about as 1st round guys & most experts thought the Tigers would take Burdi in the 1st round. Burdi coud be a light out guy at the end of the game. It looks like they plan on giving Cederoth a chance to start , otherwise he is another power arm in the pen. After that, it's hard to tell but I'm willing to give the Twins the benefit of the doubt. Here's Johnson's quote.. "The starters we really liked were gone by the third round. We'd rather take a Michael Cederoth and his fastball that can reach 100 than some guy who profiles as a fifth starter. That's just our belief." That doesn't seem like a bad idea. Plus, they plan on giving many of them a chance to start. It's hard to teach 97mph. If they start with that, they have a chance to be dominate.
  19. golfboy1
    A starting pitcher is the most important player on the field. Kevin Correia allows a BAA of .312 while Yu Darvish is @ .210. By your logic, that means the pitcher is only effecting a small ( 10%) of the at bats. Apparently that small % makes a big difference in the outcome of the game. A great starting pitcher is a huge asset. If we could plug Yu Darvish into our rotation in place of Correia we would probably be leading the wild card race at the very least. At this point, I don't know who I prefer. If the choices are Kolek, Nola, Jackson & Gordon I guess I would go Kolek, Gordon, Jackson, Nola although I wouldn't be upset with any of them. PS. We all realize a SP only contributes every 5th game vs a positional player so that is something to factor in. For the record, I'd take Trout over any SP.
  20. golfboy1
    I try very hard to not have to listen to Gladden but that was my #1 pet peeve. You could get into the car & have no idea who was winning for a very long time. Another was he missed a fair share of pitches. The count could be 1-0 & the next time he mentions anything is "swing & a miss for strike 3." Gladden likes to tell you what he did last night more than game information. Herb Carneal was the best but Gordon was pretty good also.
  21. golfboy1
    They also managed to acquire a very good SS in trade for Gomez. Right now, they would have trouble getting anyone of value for Hicks. I really, really hope he turns into a productive ML player but right now he is far from that & his best chance to reach that level is in a minor league setting. Is there any another team in the ML that Hicks would be a starting CF for right now? I can't imagine any team would prefer him as their starting CF vs. gaining experience in the minors.
  22. golfboy1
    According to a BA article it was as a sophomore in high school.
  23. golfboy1
    None of those players struggled anywhere close to Hicks level. Most of them didn't struggle all that much. Knoblauch was ROY, Hrbek was 2nd for ROY ( behind Ripken I believe). Gomez had the ability to hit, he just had zero plate discipline & made mistakes from being overeager. Tori Hunter actually was sent back to AAA after spending a full yr (1999) in the ML so maybe getting sent back to the minors isn't such a bad idea. Personally, I don't see how anyone can argue that Hicks shouldn't be in AAA learning to play CF & work on his hitting. You can make a case that he isn't because the Twins have done a horrible job of mishandling him & they don't have any better options right now. But to think a guy who has hit less than .200 in 2 seasons & is now going to hit RH all the time should be doing so in the ML seems crazy. I agree that Presley or Fuld are not world beaters BUT even they are actually upgrades over Hicks & more importantly, they allow Hicks to develop & learn in AAA, which is where he should have been all along.
  24. golfboy1
    I think Hicks would have been much better off getting some AAA experience rather than being thrown into the situation he has been. Even with Hicks, there should be a better option than having a MI playing CF in a ML game. Santana was horrible in the one game that I saw him play. He misjudged fly balls, he threw to the middle of the infield several times instead of the correct base. It's not exactly his fault, he should not have been put in that situation. Fuld, Presley or Mastro are all backup OF but they can all handle CF & run the bases. Bonifacio is probably a tick better than any of them. They aren't going to make the Twins a championship team but "somebody" has to play CF & they are all probably better options than how the Twins handles the situation. I'd love to hear any semi lucid reason why Bartlett made the team. He's 34 yrs old, batted .133 in 2012, didn't play in 2013 & batted close to .000 in spring training. Oh, and he's an IF who Gardy decided should start playing OF this spring since it looked like we would need a backup OF. I don't see any problem with that plan.
  25. golfboy1
    If you need a guy who can take a walk the answer is Hicks, otherwise not so much. That's the only thing Hicks has shown the ability to do so far .. not swing the bat & hope they walk him. Hicks is slugging .263 which is remarkably low, even worse than Fulds .390. You can't just use his OBP since it's his only reasonably decent stat. Eventually he is going to have to hit better than .192 to stay in the ML Fuld is what he is. A backup OF who plays good defense & has good speed. He's good for that role. Unfortunately the Twins don't have a starting CF right now so he qualifies(sort of). Hicks might have a long term future while Fuld & Colabello are doubtful but right now Hicks should be learning at AAA.
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