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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    It is hard to say who to trade and who not to. The question is what do we need and what do we have to do to get it. Since we did not go for the FA market we get to the trade market and something has to give. I consider the Berrios trade to be a failure for the FO. If we turn around and trade Martin and ??? for a pitcher of Berrios value it really emphasizes that fact.
  2. mikelink45
    The headline had me looking for a 1 - 9 lineup - the ideal positions for the bats we have. How they project and where the biggest holes are. This should have been the lineups question marks.
  3. mikelink45
    Kiriloff was a C and expectations were an A, I am hoping to see the complete player for a complete season. Ober and Ryan both deserve A's as they came up and did exactly what we needed and did it well. Because he was thrown in and should not have been in the majors Jax gets a C. I was pleasantly surprised that Gordon did as well as he did and was really disappointed when Larnach could not stop his slide. What an interesting year for rookies. I wish we had seen more of them.
  4. mikelink45
    I just cannot feel good about this group until I see how they perform and are arranged for use. The demand for relief pitching is the highest ever - can this group meet that demand? It does not look like a shut down group to me.
  5. mikelink45
    Nothing like a stupid and unnecessary lock out to leave us all in a state of frustration and imagination.
  6. mikelink45
    You are right - it was Miami that took him. Here is Do-Hyoung Park's description of what happened, "the Marlins were worried that the Twins wanted Camp, too, and they got in touch with Ryan and proposed a swap of picks to ensure they got their man. They exchanged names the day of the draft, and it resulted in the Twins picking Camp at No. 1 and the Marlins selecting Santana at No. 2. The teams then swapped players, with the Marlins also sending $50,000 to the Twins as each club got the prospect it wanted all along." You might be interested in a Mets retrospective on their trade for Johann - https://metsmerizedonline.com/2020/02/revisiting-the-johan-santana-trade-twelve-years-later.html/
  7. mikelink45
    Doug Corbett brought back a lot of memories - 10 - 14 2.49 era for three years. The Twins got the best of his 8 years in MLB. I understand why people want Johann. And there is a good case for him since he was traded as a rule V player, he was a transaction, not the normal trade. Scott Diamond deserves a mention too. 19 - 27 in three years with MN. In his second year he was 12 - 9 3.54 and we were expecting a lot from the Canadian. Maybe if Morneau had been here he could have counseled him. His most memorable Twins moment came after Mauer was hit by a pitch and he retaliated meaning he was thrown out of the game and suspended. As an old timer I have to add the top Rule V draftees from the 1960s - I hope you don't mind. In 1961 - our first year as Twins they selected four players - the one that stands out is Johnny Goryl. He played 3 years for us and 3 years for the White Sox, then he had his real calling - managing. He managed 12 years in our minors, going to the championship series five times and winning twice before becoming our manager twice - 1980 he replaces Gene Mauch, 1981 he is replaced by Billy Gardner. 1962 they drafted Rich Reese. He played 10 seasons in the majors as a first baseman accumulating only 2.2 WAR, 260/312/ 384 with a good glove. In 1969 he was 29th in MVP votes for the league. That year Killebrew won it and Jim Perry came in 9th., Carew 10th and Oliva 15th! Jim Holt played for us seven years hitting 272/310/362 and getting a negative WAR - but seven years from a 1967 Rule V is pretty impressive.
  8. mikelink45
    I like 1 - 8, but players like Chase Perry, Miller, and Cavaco have to show something - I am glad it is Wallner over Sabato. Good list - its just 12 players for me, but that is fine, I am in the minority.
  9. mikelink45
    I really liked this look at historic 1B and how the Twins have used the position. If we extend the list to Twins history Harmon Killebrew played 1B for 14 of his 21 seasons. Bats R - throws R. The trend did not start in the first two decades. My eye test - back then both eyes worked - said Vic Power (3 years a Twin) was the best fielding and most fun of all the 1B - he was also R/R. 994 Fielding average, 7 gold gloves, Thanks for your new era review!
  10. mikelink45
    Wow have you dipped into the high octane eggnog. I can just picture this lineup and every game has a football score (and of course we outscore the Vikings). What a payroll we would have!
  11. mikelink45
    This is a good group - about average I would think for any teams 21 - 25 pitchers, but I think Gore and Cano need to be up this year and tested by MLB. Age is a factor in all evaluations and prime years need to be on the big stage.
  12. mikelink45
    Dobnak is a wonderful story, but nothing guarantees that a story can continue to be wonderful. Sometimes reality comes in to play. I love the Dobnak story and I hope I am wrong, but I think he grabbed the golden ring and now time has moved on and Randy will become part of Twins' lore, but not the future. Sorry. I will accept the wet blanket award.
  13. mikelink45
    It is so hard to judge prospects. I would not have expected Ober and Jax to get the call last year and I do not expect Jax to be back this year, but who knows. The success rate for prospects is not high and our prospects look good in our team rankings, but how to they look in the bigger picture national rankings? Joe Ryan at 21 is the only prospect in the top 30 list at CBS Just Baseball has Simeon Woods-Richardson at #54, Balazovic at 88, Miranda and Martin are the non-pitchers in the top 100 MLB.com has Royce Lewis and Austin Martin at 35/36. They rate Balazovic our top pitching prospect at #81. No other pitchers on the list. You do not have to be top 100 to be a successful pitcher - look at Ober. But if you want a 1 or 2 you probably want to see them appear on these lists.
  14. mikelink45
    Where is the Manfred Naughty List?
  15. mikelink45
    I believe the Love Spoonful covered this in a song called Day dreaming
  16. mikelink45
    Thank you - I am always interested in the national perspectives. This is the ending quote from fangraphs, "As currently constructed, the Twins look a lot like a .500 team, but a disjointed, disappointing .500 team, one that has a wild card-worthy offense that the front office is pairing with a pitching staff that it seems little interested in upgrading. That’s a team that certainly has a chance in the AL Central if enough coin flips come up right, but I think the White Sox are significantly better, and the Tigers will be soon." Kepler's comp is Randy Bush. Randy was a fine bench player, not a starter. One last finding - comps for our new pitchers Cotton - Marino Salas (who?) Bundy - Claudio Vargas Megill - Trevor Ball
  17. mikelink45
    When I read through the entire essay I find the comment, "Minnesota has a surplus of corner outfielders" to be overstated. We have an underperforming Kepler who peaked and has at no time come close to repeating. We have no glove Rooker, Larnach who fell apart last year. Then there is Kiriloff who will be a 1B. Then we have a stack of mediocre OF with no upside, but enough MLB experience to be emergency fill ins. The AAA OF prospects are getting older and Wallner is too young. Our corner OF survives if Buxton is there to cover for them.
  18. mikelink45
    I like all the Palacios comments. If he is good glove like the summary says maybe he can be our short term solution until we plug in Lewis. I am surprised he is rated this low. Contreras is another batter I would have thought belonged higher on the list. I expect both of these players to be grabbed in rule V.
  19. mikelink45
    We won't be bringing Rob Refsnyder back - he just signed with the Red Sox.
  20. mikelink45
    I like your premise, but I do not have a good answer. I think Larnach would be preferred over Kepler by a trade partner and I would be willing to trade either, not both. If we really want something good it could be Miranda that is the trade chip - not my preferred either, but teams want players with a future - especially the A's who might be dumping their first and third basemen. A good trade is always painful, but the risk reward is tough to figure out - sorry sabermetric guys, but you don't really have a good formula for evaluating these situations. With the lockout we have a lot of time to speculate. Maybe a series - if we traded ???? what could we get and who would want him?
  21. mikelink45
    Rijo is the only name I recognize. Can a team Rule V draft him and then immediately stash him on the IR so they can keep him? The rest of the pitchers are unknowns to me. The most important aspect of this report so far is the fact that we actually have 30 minor league pitchers worth talking about.
  22. mikelink45
    If our rebuild (sorry I know we are retooling) is going to have an impact on the future we need to start playing the future now and let them grow into their potential. I expect a trade and will be disappointed if the trade is just prospects and not players currently starting.
  23. mikelink45
    One of the weaknesses for fans is familiarity bias. I am as guilty as anyone. I read all these glowing TD accounts and think our prospects must be the best there is, but that is seldom true. So what do we do? If I was to believe that the FO thinks all the pieces are in place then Baldelli should have been fired.
  24. mikelink45
    This is a really valuable series. I would love to have you give us a fielding rating to go with the bats. With players like Rooker and Sabato the Twins have leaned bat first, but I really appreciate the guys that bring a glove too.
  25. mikelink45
    I hate to say it, but as soon as we flunked the high end market I moved on to the strategy you outlined. I would have loved to have Berrios lead this young group forward, but we flunked our own FA market so that can't happen. Maeda would have been nice, but his injury makes him a 2023 arm. I am tired of the Bundy/Happ/Shoemaker rehab signings. And now the question of trades brings up the reality that some of these young arms might be in someone else's rotation. So barring a trade I like the idea of a six man rotation and we start doing auditions. Perhaps the sixth man is a hybrid RP/SP, but right now I want to see if the future is here and I also recognize that Ober and Ryan will be watched for their innings so having lots of SP could reduce that. Last thought - even if we bring in one really good pitcher, will it matter if no one steps up from this young herd of prospects?
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