mikelink45
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Everything posted by mikelink45
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Article: Modern Era Ballot Full Of Flaws
mikelink45 replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
You write a good post and have great stats. Its hard to explain why I would still take Morris, but that is the truth.- 40 replies
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- jack morris
- alan trammel
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You have a point, but for me AAAA is not major league ready, just better than many younger players. I want to rank players who will be major leaguers, not fringe players while a depth chart might list the 4As since they are fillers for injury and other depth issues. I like potential, but I want to see some of that potential played out - in our top 50 there are many who are not going to make it or will be destined to the 4A rank. The top prospect, to me, is the guy who is ready to step in and be a starter and contributor.
- 28 replies
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- tyler wells
- aaron slegers
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Article: Modern Era Ballot Full Of Flaws
mikelink45 replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I am not a big Mussina fan. He pitched for really good teams and was never the real leader. I know he has many pushing for him, but I am fine if he is out. I am also fine if Morris is out, but the old ERA standard is about to go away if we are going to put any modern era pitchers in. In the era of the HR the ERA for the entire league is going up and the innings are going down. In a big game I would take Morris over Mussina any day. Since 1993 league ERA has gone from 3.94. to 4.77 and the complete games pitched has dropped from 371 to 59. How can you compare numbers? https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/MLB/pitch.shtml- 40 replies
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- jack morris
- alan trammel
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I know I see these lists different than most of you, but for me this group slides to the back of the list. I want to see some prove of ability and not just wishes. These are all interesting stories and I hope that they prove to be as good as hoped for, but right now nothing about these five has me anticipating their arrival in MN and I am more interested in progress than promise.
- 13 replies
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- tyler jay
- lamonte wade
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Article: Modern Era Ballot Full Of Flaws
mikelink45 replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I am fine if Jack gets in. Morris is not a bad candidate he is a victim of current thinking which will change over time like all theories. I am fine with Trammel or any of the other players. I am not fine with Miller, I was not fine with Selig or Kuhn or any of the other GMs, executives, owners. I want players in the HOF, even if I argue about who is the right one and anquish over "bad" choices. But there are no WAR totals, no stats to cover the non-players. They are not why we go to baseball games nor are they a reason for us to visit the Hall. If they want something like we have for writers and broadcasters I am fine, but take them out of the mix- 40 replies
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- jack morris
- alan trammel
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I am like a lot of people and look at rankings in a different way, thinking close to the MLB team, versus potential. I just cannot assess potential - with all the previous years ink I kept thinking Burdi and Reed would blow people away in the major league BP, but here we are still ranking them in the potential arena. Frankly, I would not be surprised if all of these players made the bigs, but also I would not be surprised if that ranged from the cup of coffee to a small role. Star status does not seem likely. Moya is intriguing, but that might just be that we are always curious about the new acquisitions and tend to hope for more than those we know well.
- 28 replies
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- tyler wells
- aaron slegers
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Article: Offseason Blueprint: Chasing Opportunities
mikelink45 replied to John Bonnes's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I enjoy seeing you put this in print since I listen to your podcast and enjoy the give and take - I wish you had both put this down with your normal arguments, but that would be at least the length of a major magazine article so not likely here. I am one who feels BP is priotity and your choices are excellent. SP would be great, but not the ones that people list like Tillman who we might sign and hope - I am sorry to say that our one starter acquisition - Garcia - makes me fear out FO might consider signing one of the vets who underperformed last year. I hope not. I would rather have us fail with one of our own prospects than fail and spend on someone who is a long shot. The extensions are good but the one I fear the most is Sano - I wonder how the operation goes, how his maturity and reduction of Ks progresses, and if he is going to have longevity or be a DL regulat visitor. -
Article: The 5 Best Pitching Gambles In Free Agency
mikelink45 replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Easy question - none. Why would we do this? What is the upside? Someone else is always better than what you got. Nope. Save the money. Look at something better. -
And someone else takes him on. I am not high on Palka, but saw him as one of many who could slug and strike out and therefore they are all eligible to move on. I like players like Altuve that make contact and ocassionally hit HRs. Will that be Wade, Rooker????
- 40 replies
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- byron buxton
- brian dozier
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Nice job. I find this intriguing, but I would not sign Tillman. I think he burned out and we do not need another mediocre veteran SP. If he is the best we can afford I go with the young guys which almost always my personal position. I am fine with all the cuts you make, but not with the Reynold's or Napoli options. Palka can do that well - slug and K. We already have Sano doing that and we do not need two K artists in the middle of the lineup. I like Grossman better than either of them and I am ready to move on with Grossman. In this age slugging is not a big deal. Mauer extension intrigues me, but I like the idea of letting the market settle for him. I would be interested in having someone look at all the teams and their 1B and tell me where there might be interest in him.
- 40 replies
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- byron buxton
- brian dozier
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Article: Ranking The Rule 5 Options
mikelink45 replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
We have pulled the cream of the crop into the majors, Gonsalves and Littell are the lone guaranteed additions, the rest are questionable and will not damage the organization - in reality very few are chosen rule 5. Diaz is intriguing the way that Vargas has been intriguing, but I expect Vargas to be DFa'D. The biggest question for him is whether he is attractive enough to force a roster adjustment.- 59 replies
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- stephen gonsalves
- jake reed
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I am curious - how many years has TD been praising May and expecting great things? I would love to see him be the stud that everyone has writtena about, but I am a Skeptic. Some players tease their entire year and never get it done - like Meyer. Good luck May, I just would not plan on you for any of our open roles.
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Chargois being this low on the list and 27 years old is concerning. We have watched guys with stuff like Burdi and Meyer and May constantly having an issue or two that keeps them from performing. At this point in the listing I am more interested in 20 - 22 year old guys who can move through with speed. Robinson is particularly intriguing as a hard throwing lefty. I like Bennington and Vasquez, but question if Bard will ever make it. Good winter fodder. Thank you.
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- jt chargois
- luke bard
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Thanks for the notes. Correct me if I am wrong, but right now the AFL players do not look like people who will be on the MLB team in 2018 unless it is a September call up. Although I wonder about Paul since he is a FO addition, will we be moving Garver and have Paul take his place in the pecking order?
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- sean miller
- tyler jay
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Sano to DH puts a potentially good fielder at 3B and, perhaps, reduces his potential for injury and keeps his bat in the lineup all year. Is one of our young minor leaguers ready to take over at SS with a better bat? Can Polanco play 3B? Last year Escobar was a great story - can he continue at this level? I heard a variety of opinions on Granite - is he a really good OF - defennsively? Is he ready to take over for Grossman? Do we have another good hit, good defensive OF in the mnors who is ready to step up? I think the Vargas, Palka slugger type player should be a thing of the past - Sano fills that role and we learned this year that defensive is really significant. What is significant to me in looking at the fielding stats is the total caught, plus assists - http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/team/_/stat/fielding/seasontype/2 Not a perfect stat, but it implies range and this drops us from #4 to 24 - if you do the sortable reorder on this site. So where is our range limited? When we put Adrianza and Grossman in the outfield, when we have Vargas or others in place of Mauer at 1B. It is a reflection of our 2B/SS tandem and probably the assorted 3B options. Is it our catchers who are supposed to be good at framing, but how is their fielding? This is far from a perfect way to review range, but it is fascinating to me that we would drop that far from the original fielding pct ranking. How do our fielders rank in zone coverage? I know Buxton is number one.
- 40 replies
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- byron buxton
- robbie grossman
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Nice work - I would not miss any of those named. The best news for the Twins is if we drop players who have some talent so we can add players with a lot of talent.
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Article: Supplementing The Twins: A Rotation Trio
mikelink45 replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I will keep my negative voice in the discussions. I really do appreciate your work on this series, but in the end I am not moved by any of the options and would rather have our new pitching coach work with what we have. -
I would say I have nothing to say. Hardly worth posting, right? But it is the essence of judging coaches. We can only know their value after the fact. I can only hope. Allen should have gone last year, so I am glad he is gone this year. I went on line to see who the greatest pitching coaches of all time were - there is no list. Johnny Sain is the one name that has stood the test of time and there are some current coaches that get some love, but overall the best pitching coaches have the best staffs - so is it the coach or the talent.
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Article: Mauer Snubbed In Gold Glove Voting
mikelink45 replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Is there any award that has less value or less recognition than gold glove. It always has been a farce. The most important recognition is with the team and the fact that he had his best year since his concussion.- 51 replies
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- joe mauer
- minnesota twins
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These two are really tough calls. The psychological reason would be that all of the players get the same treatment and we have a happy clubhouse. From a performance level I do not think Kepler has gotten there. I know Seth says that if Rosario has the same kind of year it will cost us more, but what is the cost if he regresses? It is a gamble either way. The one that seems so logical is Sano, but his issue is his health. He has given promise and then gone to the DL. Can his body hold up? Is he mature enough to cut down on the Ks? Yes big money goes to big boppers, but we are seeing some transition in this logic recently. The playoffs have given me my favorite player - Altuve. I love the get dirty, do whatever it requires kind of player that he is. I would love to see some of that spark in Sano.
- 40 replies
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- max kepler
- eddie rosario
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Slegers is a nice story, but he sure looked overmatched in MLB. Does he project to do anything in the bigs? Garver seems like he has the talent, but I am not sure that I see the Twins really giving him the chance in the bigs. Enlow is very interesting. What is his expected arrival? Finally for all you experts - what is a realistic expectation for the Arizona League players? For some reason I am not expecting any of them to make the majors.
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- chris paul
- sean miller
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Article: Can Minnesota Follow Houston's Blueprint?
mikelink45 replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
My point is that we cannot be sure that the sure thing overpaid FA pitchers are really dependable either.- 54 replies
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- jose altuve
- brian dozier
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Article: Can Minnesota Follow Houston's Blueprint?
mikelink45 replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I can only go by the reports that Seth and others write. According to this site - https://www.twinkietown.com/2017/10/19/16301700/minnesota-twins-mlb-2017-year-end-prospect-review-minor-leagues Gonsalves and Romero are tied for third best prospects in the Twins minor leagues. That is pretty high praise. I can only rely on those who know more than I do for prospects, but this is good enough for me if we expect Berrios and Mejia to improve on 2017. MLB is now a bullpen game and that is where I would build. KC won the pennant and a WS without quality starting pitching and they changed the prospects for the league. The Yankees went BP heavy and it worked for them. The Cubs went heavier on SP rather than RF and it did not work.- 54 replies
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- jose altuve
- brian dozier
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