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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    I have been fascinated by the love for Samardzija that I have seen the last few years. In 10 years he has averaged 6 wins, 8 losses and a 4.12 Era and 1.25 WHIP. Baseball reference shows his 162 game record as 9 - 12. I know that the new thing is to discount wins and losses, but he is a starter and they have the best opportunity to accumulate wins/losses of any pitcher and someone has to do it. He shows the potential to do well, somehow does not get over the hurdle. I would not go after him with any of our assets of value.
  2. mikelink45
    What a nice contrast from old, big and done to young and talented. Forget my ticket to the Big Sexy event, I prefer to see ball players.
  3. mikelink45
    Romero and Gonsalves - that is all I have to say. It is something I have been saying since the all star game. Why not?
  4. mikelink45
    I really like it. The information shared when he was drafted made him seem like he was ready for a fast track and it is good to see that the team is willing to let him rise as his talent dictates. I do not like the unwritten rules that are so often applied to time and promotion for minor leaguers. This is not aggressive, in my mind it is smart. Thanks for the article.
  5. mikelink45
    Right now we have two options - trade ( and I have no idea when that would be) and keep trying out the minor leaguers and let those who have already failed move out of the way. I want to see the minor league arms filling out the pen for now.
  6. mikelink45
    The only thing we proved it the adage that AL will add at least 1/2 run to the NL ERA. Colon came in with a NL 8.13 and left with an AL 9.00. Not excited, but reading Seth's comment I agree that we can let him start against the Yankees and Dodgers then bring up Gonsalves and Romero and start looking at the potential for the future rotation. I am really tired of scrap heap vets. Then we can also bring up minor league relievers and jettisons the old batch. Yesterday on the game the radio announcers said we were next to last in relief pitcher Ks. That says a lot and Pressly who does strike out players alternates Ks with hits and that is not good either. Granite is fine, number 2 hole could be right once he is established but once again the Twins have a difficulty getting so many of their minor league players to transition to the majors.
  7. mikelink45
    Fun to speculate. He certainly has shown the drive to improve and continues to show that he has more potential. I am not wise enough to know if that is star level, but certainly a vital clog - like Bob Allison from the sixties. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/allisbo01.shtml
  8. mikelink45
    Park has 5 HRs. Since power is his game, this is a really poor showing in the minor leagues. I put him down as a bust - time to take him off the speculation lists.
  9. mikelink45
    Duffey is averaging more than a hit per Inning Pitched which is a real problem for a reliever, especially if they inherit any runners. His ERA is rising, but he is also damaging the ERA of the man he is relieving. An interesting blog about Duffey written at he All Star break was asking the same questions we are and hoping the break would get him on track - it didn't http://fpbaseballoutsider.blogspot.com/2017/07/contemplatng-tyler-duffey.html
  10. mikelink45
    The key stat for the 2005 Cy Young voting is that all the other top 12 Cy Young vote getters (both leagues) are retired! Bartolo is a fun story, but father time is waiting and will be watching the game.
  11. mikelink45
    I agree with HitInAPinch and have noted my disgust over the mediocre set of "veterans" that our new age FO has paraded in front of us and I feel the same about Colon even if he ends up being a wonderful summer time story for us. I do not care about the division and I do not want us to stop developing the future because other teams are mediocre. Being the best of the worst is not the goal. We want to have a legitimate run at the World Series and this team this year is not going to have that. We just watched Altuve light up a game, taking bases at will and all our group could do was throw the ball around the infield. The Astros are clicking on defense, offense, fielding, and speed and they have good enough pitching to take advantage of that. We are not there yet and it will take some work to get there. The last lesson that this gave us is the idiocy of the large contracts for players who have passed their peak - Verlander, Hughes, Mauer, and many others eat up budget while producing memories of what they used to be. Pujols might be passing milestones, but he is not elevating the team. In our push towards the top I hope we can avoid this kind of foolishness.
  12. mikelink45
    Let's not use any of these young arms - let's turn to a fat 44 year old. What is going on. Move these players up to levels where they belong.
  13. mikelink45
    I did not think about this the first time I read your essay, but why is Bartolo up now when he will not pitch until Tuesday? Maybe a relief pitcher could be of more immediate importance for Sunday/Monday
  14. mikelink45
    I am concerned about Duffey. His line shows no runs allowed, but in reality he was set up for disaster and he has now had a long period of ineffective pitching. I had hoped the rest over the all star break might help, but it did not. Can any of your analytic team see what has happened to him? Santana continues to be our ace, but tonight he was a lucky Ace. Had the fielders blown one of the many special plays that are illustrated here all the based loaded jams could have given him a line like Berrios had the night before.
  15. mikelink45
    The obvious question that Garver must be asking himself is what more does he have to prove in the minor leagues? Get him up or trade him, a lot of teams need catching and he might prove more valuable in a trade than some of our expected chips. As a person who feels our current catchers are over rated I would welcome him to the Twins too.
  16. mikelink45
    What is the purpose? Of course putting our best young pitchers in to games against the best offenses in MLB might not be good either so Colon is fodder. At least I hope he is just a short term move. I had to see what pitchers succeeded in their later ages - http://www.billjamesonline.com/other_pitchers_who_pitched_well_in_their_old_age/ when I get to the 44 and older group there are 12. Four of them were knuckleball pitchers. Two were spitballers. Jesse Orosco was a relief pitcher, Satchel Paige was an amazing story, Warren Spahn was nearing the end of remarkable career just like Nolan Ryan and Tommy John was ending his career. Bartolo will be on the list because he is old, but not because he is any good any more.
  17. mikelink45
    Berrios like every pitcher is going to have bad games - note that our best pitcher, Santana on June 3,14, 20 gave up 7,5,6 runs. It happens. Fielding is another issue. Polanco has an error every 7 games and often it is on a DP ball and his rating in the fielding stats is really poor here. That does not excuse Berrios, but we also cannot excuse Polanco. The ESPN site fielding rankings have him number 11 at SS in the American League - not MLB so number 11 of 15. We do not have anyone better to put in at this time, but with his current batting stats he could be replaced by Adrianza or Vielma. http://www.espn.com/mlb/stats/fielding/_/position/ss/league/al/order/true Hughes reminds me of the Pelfrey years. Starters do suffer from relief pitchers who quickly give up the inherited baserunners, but more important, he has not shown any ability that is worth a position in the pen. Let's hope this is an anomaly and not a sign for the second half.
  18. mikelink45
    Okay I am confused - Nik Turley leads the Twins MiLB prospects in all those critical areas, but in MLB he stunk. What happened? What am I missing? I keep thinking Gonsalves and Romero need to make the move, but they do not rate with Turley. Someone needs to explain to this old guy what is going on and what these ratings mean.
  19. mikelink45
    Keep developing the minor leaguers who can be major leaguers. Keep moving forward and move those that are not part of the future. But lacking the assets of the cubs and a few others don't get caught up in trades. Free agency is our best opportunity to add.
  20. mikelink45
    screw the options - if we want to take advantage of where we are call up the best we have and that seems to be Gonsalves. New approach? Lets get going and stop with this nonsense. If he is really ready to move up and we need him that don't keep going to Jorge or another weaker choice for the rotation.
  21. mikelink45
    I love this kind of perspective, but it shows that we are not really set to improve the major league team with the current group. The pitcher section was pretty weak. Gonsalves is a #5, but should be given a shot. What about Romero it would seem that he is ready and should take the place of Gibson who has not been okay since returning. Curtiss seems the only obvious bullpen call up and that is amazing since we have talked about all the relief options the Twins were developing. The hitters also lack luster now that Granite is with the team. Vielma is a weak hitting Adrianza and Gordon does not project to be more than Polanco and the current version of Dozier. Palka is Vargas with more Ks. I have really disliked the way that Garver has been treated and he is now 26 which means its time to move him up and give him a chance. Maybe they can put Giminez in the Bullpen and make Garver number 2 (although I am less impressed with Castro than most so I would give Garver a much bigger role).
  22. mikelink45
    I am not against trading any of our prospects for a quality starter, but: Straily is only a one year quality starter, remember Hughes one good year? Not convinced on him.We have to have a plan for SS - we can trade Polanco and Dozier if we know who will fill in, but up the middle defense is essential and this team has demonstrated how hard that can be to get (as hard as a quality pitcher?).
  23. mikelink45
    We have Mauer, Dozier, Grossman, Castro, Belisle, Santana, Breslow - that is enough veteran presence. Lets just concentrate on bringing up more youth.
  24. mikelink45
    Garver has done all he can to earn a position with the Twins. Bring him up or trade him. He deserves to become MLB.
  25. mikelink45
    Thanks for that perspective. The starting pitching upside as you present it is not very good. If Ervin is having a career year and then regresses we do not have an ACE or high 2 ready to step up and join Berrios. Garver and Granite are nice, but only bench. I do hope the bullpen prospects rise above what we have been experiencing.
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