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mikelink45

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Everything posted by mikelink45

  1. mikelink45
    So glad you posted this. It is very accurate. A bloody sock does not get you in to the hall - Jack Morris had a world series game that needed no gimmick and won more games (yes I still like victories - it might not be the same now, but when pitchers went more than 5 innings it was their game). He is a blow hard, but so were many athletes - but when Jack cannot make it Curt should definitely be on the outside looking in.
  2. mikelink45
    Boshers - B, nice story, but not an A reliever. Chargois - C. Nice that he had a decent finish, but the grade has to include the entire season. Kintzler - completely agree. May - I am in the minority, but May has been too inconsistent in any role when you look at his abilities. I give him a D for the year. He needs to stay healthy and consistent. O'Rourke - I am fine with his grade based on what his talent is, but if he is going to be used like last year he is a C. Which leads me to hope you will be giving grades to the Twins Coaches and front office in your next posting. Pressly - you said, good not great - I believe you were describing a C pitcher. Rogers - once again your comments call for a grading of coaches. Tonkin - F. Lots of potential, a long minor league record, poor results. It is fun to think about this grading system and you do a really nice job. My grade adjustments are just for my own entertainment and not a criticism. Please keep doing this. As someone who must give out grades I enjoy seeing how the process extends to the Twins. And how would the curve look if we graded them against the division, the league and MLB?
  3. mikelink45
    You could be right on this and if he were with the Pirates, for example, they would hav coached him and built on the talents he does have. But for grading purposes you have to look at what did happen.
  4. mikelink45
    Yes - they have to stick with Berrios, but you are right he is an F and so is Duffey and Gibson. Duffey may have some value with his fabulous curve ball but the team needs to know how to use it and he still has the same pitching coach! Gibson has been around to long to excuse his performance and give him anything more than an F - how many winning teams would have had him in their rotation? Yes - Hughes is an F and like the three above him the same pitching coach who got so much out of him last year is still there. I was really hoping Hughes would keep some value after his amazing standout season. Santana is an A - I know he is mid-rotation on another team, but it does not lessen the contributions that he made to this outrageous contingent. The fact that Santiago had a decent 7 game streak after learning to ignore the suggestions of the Twins coach gives him a C- in my grading system. Now ideally 2017 will see us trade Santana even though he is by far the best on the roster and bring in some more minor league strength and hopefully Gibson and Santiago will get off to a decent start and we will flip them too. Hughes, with his contract, will remain ours. By the second half of 2017 I hope to see a very young rotation and improved coaching so we can really build all our young players for a break out 2018. I am not interested in a .500 team even though that would seem to be a big improvement.
  5. mikelink45
    Since the best War is still under 2 and the deficiencies and inconsistency is outlined in the text I would give Buxton and Kepler a C+, Rosario a C-, and Grossman needs a special category between batting - B and fielding F. Santana has to go the F is right. A "B" should be special and one good month is not special, just exciting. I love the potential for Buxton and Kepler, but they are not there yet and we need to see progress to get more excited.
  6. mikelink45
    Going to the War ratings on ESPN - Dozier is easily an A, he ranks number 10 in the overall, all position, rankings. At second base he is third behind Altuve and Cano, and not much above Kinsler (Fangraphs). Fangraphs has Mauer 18 out of 23 1B. My curve does not have that a C, maybe a C- would work, but that is slipping the curve quite low. We do not have a SS in the ranked 23 so I would say that Escobar was an F this year and Polanco showed bat, but not glove and therefore is a C. Miguel Sano earned 1.3 war, just a notch above what Danny Valenzia had at number 22 on the 3B rankings. If Sano were DH he would have ranked 9th and I would give him a better grade, but as a 3B he is a C at best and I have a hard time going that high with his K's, his Errors. At Catcher Murphy deserves his F. Vargas continues to show potential, but was only here a little while and had to spend too much time in AAA so give him a D. Park gets an F. Not high grades, but based on Fangraphs this would be my report card for the infield.
  7. mikelink45
    That is an accurate statement, but hardly one to light up my New Years fires.
  8. mikelink45
    At this point I think the Twins will field a team of coaches and retired player cheerleaders. In a week it will be 2017 - lets hope that we start to see the actions that will address our roster of 1B/DHs abundance, or SS defensive hole, a starting staff and bullpen that looks like another 5 ERA season. Things need to be sorted out and as we approach spring training I look forward to seeing the moves that start the sorting and rebuilding.
  9. mikelink45
    I would hope the Hughes, Span, Revere, Suzuki, Willingham, Nolasco...are representative of the old regime and I certainly hope to see something from the new leadership beyond the addition of dozens of new coaches and former Twins cheerleaders. At this point I have nothing to look forward to except the fact that the old regime is no longer around.
  10. mikelink45
    A professional team that has multitudes of coaches has a responsibility for the talent of their players and their growth and success.
  11. mikelink45
    I was lost after the first paragraph where all those mighty vets needed to give us some good pitching this year while we wait (I think we have done that before) for the next wave of stars to emerge. Most depressing of all is the way that this team has treated J O Berrios. How about getting some Latino coaches in minors and majors and make the alterations in the minors rather than waiting for them to arrive. I still believe he has the talent to be special.
  12. mikelink45
    I believe this is Minnesota Seasonal Deficit disorder. At the end of each of our teams season we turn our optimism to the next team up, then after a season of frustration we do it over again. Maybe I should have called in the Minnesota Ground Hog Day syndrome.
  13. mikelink45
    If we take your argument then we should throw away the vote and just set statistical standards. I love the story of Shoeless Joe, but this is not the Hall of statistics, it is the hall of FAME. Now that has some difficult defining, but in my mind these are the men that should be admired for their talent and contribution to baseball (I know about Cap Anson and Ty Cobb). Certainly Pete Rose has Fame, but I am pleased that he has not gotten in. This sounds like a parent - people should not be rewarded for cheating (and that would include Gaylord Perry) and I certainly would not reward those who sanctioned or enabled cheating - Bud Selig. This has been imperfect from the beginning. The effort to include Black ballplayers from the Negro leagues where we have no real standards. As time and length of career have increased we have gone to accumulation of stats and a player like Sandy Koufax or those who were affected by war time service cannot compare to the statistical records of those who hang on for years as DH so the stats we would use are limited too. Does a strikeout pitcher today really seem better than Lefty Grove because we have so many hitters who do not care about contact, except for the occasional homerun? Stats change, times change, voters change. I am fine with the current system and I am fine with not opening the votes to every person you can think of. It a person falls out because you have only 10 votes, that person probably does not need to get in. What does it hurt to not elect someone? Can we remember the controversies that surrounded leaving out Roger Maris or others who might fare better today? No we move on. It is a once a year time for lots of people to fill up the Hot Stove league in places like Minnesota where we have forgotten to add anything to the Hot Stove for years. Let it be, let people whine. Today's players will spend their millions and actually get more publicity for their non-election than they would have if they had been elected. There are plenty of places for players to get their HOF recognition, just look at the list the Twins have honored.
  14. mikelink45
    I think that Buxton is actually better batting third. He showed power in September when they stopped trying to have him bunt every other at bat. Move Polanco and Kepler to 1 and 2. The lower half of the lineup is not inspiring.
  15. mikelink45
    I find this realistic, but uninspiring. My first complaint with the new regime was keeping Allen, my second would be keeping this rotation. Santana should be traded, but the question is - will anyone want him and what we get. If not quality I keep him. From there on Gibson, Santiago, Hughes do nothing for me and the future - I am all in on young arms and good coaching. I certainly do not want to add any veteran 4/5 starters either. May is a mystery. I know most of you love his potential, I have not seen anything that makes him more than a journeyman. Lots of players with minimum ability to play their positions and our old overpaid bugaboo still hanging in. I believe this team has a bad case of clogged arteries.
  16. mikelink45
    I am glad to have this summary but at the level that the Twins operate there really is no impact on the team.
  17. mikelink45
    The obvious campanion to this analysis is something I do not think we can measure - the ability of the Twins Minor League system to develop and maximize the skills of those that are selected.
  18. mikelink45
    My source, which happens to be me, says I have no idea. This is a team that only a few of us loyal (delusional) fans trying to find some nuggets to get excited about and the new leadership does not have anything to offer us, other than the fact that they are new. I wanted some buzz. Hiring old, retired Twins was not the move that gave me a sense of the future. It is a long time since that 1991 WS. Dozier's name is out there, but the signings and the trades have left us with nothing. No other Twin seems to be worth a mention in the national media. In fact, the Twins are not mentioned in the national media. Last year the big names in the minors were all in the majors. What is left? We have some talented pitchers and we still have Neil Allen who lead us to??? Sliding to the solstice, the days will be longer - thankfully - but will there be hope rising with the sun? Not yet.
  19. mikelink45
    The new leadership will not feel the pressure of Joe's big contract since it was not theirs and that might relieve Molitor of some pressure. I am disappointed that Joe has not been able to make adjustments to compensate for his issues. Now he is no longer a HOF player, just a formerly good player playing out his contract and as such he has to take different roles. It would be nice if he was the veteran presence we need, but that does not seem to fit his personality. 3 - 4 days a week or maybe everyday during a streak and then a number of days off. Someone should be able to figure this out.
  20. mikelink45
    The winter meetings now over. Big trades, big acquisitions and we wait. Might be the best strategy for the Twins, but it is torture for the fans. We speculate, look for any lively arm and wait. Hard to do, especially when the leadership is too new for a track record. I would be in favor of 2 good arms, move out some of the 4/5 starters that we have in abundance (but not a good abundance). An Ace is great, but not the answer, if it was the White Sox would be winning instead of trading. It takes a team, it takes a level of competence and not just one stud. And in this age, it takes a good bullpen. Look at how many transactions we have seen around the bullpen. I do not believe that this is simply because there are a limited number of starters. Sale may be the only starter worth talking about unless our Rule 5 guy blows us away.
  21. mikelink45
    I am hoping that there is something in a plan that makes this more interesting than it looks. We have potential swing men like Duffey, but if Kinzler regresses, Pressley does not move forward, it would have been fun to at least see someone throwing flames from the mound. It is an interesting speculation year.
  22. mikelink45
    I hope Turner makes it. I am tired of the Twins development of players and think that many will benefit from escaping, but mostly I hope the new regime stops this. We should be building at all positions through the years and not just because of an immediate need.
  23. mikelink45
    I just saw the confusion on the picture and thought this was a good time to add a request. Often on TD there is a picture with expectations that we will know who is in it, but most of us do not have that high a face recognition hardware and it would be great if all the photos used had captions.
  24. mikelink45
    I am surprised that posts are claiming off days for players making $100,000s of dollars to play baseball. Their salaries say they are year around, 12 month players. No one pumps gas like Bronko Nagurski to make it until the next season. The teams that sign these contracts should make it known that they are full time employees and their job during the off season is:
  25. mikelink45
    I believe Escobar has signed so we will and should keep him. I would be fine with dropping everyone else and seeing who could fill those spots.
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