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Cris E

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Everything posted by Cris E

  1. Cris E
    I think they'll keep Rosario in LF, Arcia at DH and Vargas in AAA until either Buxton or Vargas forces their hand. Then we'll send Rosario down and bring up the one that can't be denied. The improved defense is a huge part of the recent improvement in pitching, which is a huge part of the improvement in record. I think Molitor knows that and is trying to find a polite way of getting it without knocking Arcia's glovework directly.
  2. Cris E
    1.2E+02 if you're going geeky, plus it adds a fine gloss of "of course it's a long shot" (which appears to be needed here.)
  3. Cris E
    Assuming Sano makes it to Target Field in 2015, what should the thresholds be for dealing with Plouffe? How well or poorly does Sano have to play to make Trevor completely extraneous (or vital) at 3b, and does he have more value as a trade chip at 3b or as a utility guy or OF?
  4. Cris E
    Hicks didn't get the nod in CF because position players are held to a different standard, he got it because they traded away all their better options and didn't leave themselves much choice. They want to be in a position to pick the kid when he's ready, not out of necessity. Mays and Meyer should earn a job just as Hicks would have if Revere were still around.
  5. Cris E
    Your ideas intrigue me and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
  6. Cris E
    They have the middle and back of the rotation covered in depth, so the only space is in front. They need a #1 to put in front of Hughes Nolasco Gibson May and anyone else looking for innings. None of those names mentioned above make any sense in front of Hughes or between Gibson and the approaching talent like Mayer and Berrios. We've got 2-4-4-4-youth so we need someone in front or just spend on OF defense and wait for the kids.
  7. Cris E
    Sansevere is, before all other things, a bad football writer. Anything he says or writes about baseball comes in beneath, behind and below that.
  8. Cris E
    To be fair, Olberman was simply quoting Will Carroll, and Carroll was the one who said "Coward". This reaffirms what I think about him, which is that he's a moron and likes pretending he's in the know. He followed this twit with another that says he thinks Steinbach is likely to get the MIN job, and one more where he has no idea who might be hired in AZ. (Hint: half of the 89 OAK team has been hired in AZ within the past six months. If Terry S is getting a managing gig he'll be closer to the front of the line down there where Tony LaRussa and Dave Stewart are hiring. Molitor is ahead of him in MIN.)
  9. Cris E
    You can change the clubhouse culture by mixing in a couple red-*ss guys to stir things up a little. I agree with Mackey that it was the reason they tried bringing some of those geezers in last spring (but not Kubel - he's a quiet one.) They were more effective when Hunter and Morneau were around, not just because they were playing well but because they ran over catchers and got on teammates and ran a clubhouse. It's part of why Hunter got that huge-tastic deal in 2008: he brings more than 20 HR power and good CF defense. They need to go get one of these types again to fill a corner OF spot. They have a roster spot and money, so there's not much excuse to fall back on stiffs like Bartlett to fill the role.
  10. Cris E
    Be fair to the org: they did dump half the coaches over the past couple years, and I could easily see Anderson getting the axe this winter based on the poor return on their pitching investment this season. If Sano and some of the other young studs had shown up on schedule and failed then I think Gardy would be facing some music as well. But they didn't arrive, and he got good seasons from a handful of unexpected youngsters (Santana? Escobar?? Vargas?!?) which will count in his favor as they decide on 2015. In 21015 look for Gardy and the new guys to stay, Anderson to go.
  11. Cris E
    I just sent a link to this thread to Jeff Moore. It's unlikely they'd have time or interest in following up with the staff to see what changed (if anything), but I bet they do care about publishing stale notes. The shelf life of a scouting report on a 21 year old has to be pretty short if the kid is learning anything at all.
  12. Cris E
    The bias isn't in the voting for starting lineups. There are only nine or ten names there out of dozens. The serious bias is in the selection of pitching and backups. The best teams with the most wins get the most all-stars, but the causality might not be players bringing wins as much as wins making all-stars. There are two forces that multiply each other to concentrate the player selections on the best teams: the manager comes from the team that won the World Series, and the manager gets to select his guys for many secondary roles. If every team got to provide the manager at some point (similar to site selection or One Player Per Team) then this might start to even out. But team selection stays in the hands of the winning teams and they'll keep appointing their own guys as much as possible. It turns out all-stars are usually not flash in the pan meteors, so having a bunch of them is also predictive in how many games you might win next year. But the the non-stats factor in how they're selected that makes a straight wins formula hard. Second place is waayyy behind first place. TRDR version: Look through the over-acheivers and count how many WS wins there are versus the other lists.
  13. Cris E
    That sounds good on the surface, but that 42 run DET series was backed up against a 20 inning scoreless streak that was only a couple weeks removed from another 19 inning scoreless streak. This offense is far from sound. We may be in the middle of the pack overall, but our pitching isn't good enough to survive low scoring games and there have been far too many. There have been eight games of 10+ runs scored vs ten times shut out, but 101 runs in those 18 games (5.6 runs/game) has only netted a 8-10 record. Nine other games we only scored 1 run, which did produce one win, but that only reinforces my point (4.0 r/g should get you more than 9-18.) The measure of an offense is similar to the measure of a starting pitcher: did it gave the team a chance to win? People (rightfully) complain about the crappy rotation, but games where we score 0 or 1 run are going to be losses, and there have been a lot of very flat stretches where this offense gave no chance for a win.
  14. Cris E
    I'm not a huge believer in Plouffe either, so if he has value I say we should send him out. His D is OK, his bat is blah, and we have A Guy coming up behind him soon enough that someone like Nunez can hold the fort. If you can find something interesting out there then Trevor Plouffe is not the kind of player that should stop you from making a trade.
  15. Cris E
    A good two weeks plus a track record of decent power plus a short and cheap contract makes him a decent bet for a team eyeing a stretch run. He'll be worth something to someone: more than a low A scrub, less than a Top 20 talent.
  16. Cris E
    Lots of people are only playing the cards we have in our hand right now. I think LF is wide open in this org and they could easily grab another bat the way they did with Willingham. Rosario has not been outstanding since he came back, Hicks may never hit, and with Mauer at 1B they need some place to hide the glove of a power bat.
  17. Cris E
    Guerrier threw a ton of very good innings in a 4-5 year window and used up his arm. It's what happens to middle relief guys that experience some success. It was fun to see him come back, but he has no business soaking up innings on a team with Jared Burton already in place and youngsters to develop. That said, if you want to remember Matt's career fondly consider how anonymous and profoundly average he was when came to MN and how he blossomed. For guys like Duensing or Swarczak who failed as starters and who don't have the raw stuff to follow Perkins to the closer role he's got to be a role model. And in fact they are tipping their hats and saying exactly that: Matt was a pro and deserves to be remembered for a fine career.
  18. Cris E
    Pressley was most likely picked because he can go multiple innings and the bullpen is gassed right now. Deduno picked up Correia Sunday, Swazcak started last night and Gibson is not solid heading into the weekend, so they need a guy who could go long in a pinch.
  19. Cris E
    I don't mind a Wise Old Man at the end of the bench, but Burton was already sitting there when Guerrier sat down, and the other end of that bench was full of guys like Correia and Nolasco and Hughes. And Kubel wasn't going to offer much next to Mauer and Suzuki and Willingham either. The other point to make about these freely available minor league types is that a lot of their potential value comes from cashing them in (ie trading them) if they actually pan out. Morales and Suzuki are not here to get the Twins to the playoffs.
  20. Cris E
    He's getting older, maybe he needs glasses. Seriously, I would not be surprised, but I also wonder if he's disproportionately affected by the new craze of video gme defensive alignments. He pulls grounds thru second and pushes flies over third with a methodical precision that has led to great success. But they're taking a lot of that away by playing LF on the line and SS at second base. Healthy or not, he's got to start spraying the ball around the field more.
  21. Cris E
    All true. I expect two things to happen as a result: Pinto will sit on the bench and continue to rust, and eventually Suzuki will start breaking down and we'll have Pinto and Hermann full time for three weeks, after which point Suzuki will never return to this level of productivity. Recall that his explanation for this year's offensive bloom was that he'd spent the last few years over-played and hurt. But a lot of this goes back to the team's goal for 2014. Are they developing or winning? A development agenda puts Pinto behind the plate four days a week and doesn't expose him to Cy Young candidates. Win now rides the hot hand even if it burns out a guy with a history of not maintaining his best performance levels under heavy use.
  22. Cris E
    Both Colabello and Parmalee said the same things when they returned from the wilderness as improved hitters (I know, but humor me for a moment): "I'm more aggressive now. I waited too much for great pitches that weren't showing up, but now I'm hitting the first thing that's hittable." CC said it in April and Parm said it a week ago and Hicks needs the same message today. Send him down to learn how to study pitchers, to learn to expect specific things, and to jump on hittable pitches. He's better than a lot of guys on this roster so they should pull him out (making it clear he's not going back until he's ready) and rebuild his approach and get him going in a better direction.
  23. Cris E
    Once May or Pelfrey (or Johnson or whoever) is ready they should trade Correia to Texas for a CF or SS. Don't hold out for anything great, just shore up the roster a bit and free some room. His veteranhood was important when no pitchers were over the age of 25, but there are actual adults in the rotation this year and he is no longer required to hold the Pavano-Viola-Blyleven-Morris Endowed Chair Of Veteran Leadership.
  24. Cris E
    This whole article should have been thrown out. 45? Gimme a break...
  25. Cris E
    They were too worried about blocking Hicks/Buxton, too concerned about Willingham's feelings to not consider playing him more at DH and less in LF, and way too optimistic in assuming guys would stay healthy. As said above, the insurance policy for the happy path was not well conceived.
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