Hosken Bombo Disco

Dick lied?

This guy can catch the ball. I like the move. We don't need every player to be a masher at the plate. Small sample but Fangraphs loves his UZR/150.

Concur. When you lost your tackle in the fourth quarter and brought in Compton as backup, I texted a friend and said "watch #76 - he is a kid who grew up in the Twin Cities (Rosemout) and played at South Dakota." It was Compton who looked fresh and made his blocks, while it was the other guys who got Ryan in trouble. Though to New England's credit they were harassing Ryan on and off all night.

Weighted ball training sounds fantastic. I also wonder what is the ideal hand or finger size for throwing certain pitches, like how we read about Berrios tipping his change or maybe certain other pitchers should give up on their split finger.

I would think you were on to something, except for the above poster's quote from 1500. My impression is that Cleveland has carried 13 pitchers more often than other teams, though I don't know how much Falvey had to do with that.

Don't forget his ability to enter a game late and get thrown out attempting to steal D-San is not long for this roster, otherwise if he has another blah spring and does make the roster anyway, I am putting on my tin foil hat and assuming Falvey is testing Molitor to see how he uses him.

Good article. I agree with all of it. The positional redundancies have been frustrating and Park's acquisition last offseason only made things more confusing. D-San doesn't really represent a redundancy as much as just a player not good enough to hang in MLB, so guess not so worried about going to camp with him. Hopefully Molitor has sobered up with regard to his value to the team (starting SS, or not batting him second in the order Opening Day) As someone pointed out, as a deep bench guy Santana has more value than Park.

I feel your pain but nothing about what was described above screams "trick" or "magic" to me.

Belisle will be fine. He's not here to save the season. The Twins have some young arms to play with. Falvey was one of the minds responsible for the Cleveland plan to shut down Toronto in the ALCS, and the pitchers executed very well. Cody Allen was a 20th round pick who raced through the Cleveland system, never optioned back to the minors after his debut, and became closer shortly after. They acquired Andrew Miller, enough said. Again I need to give the new front office and analytics guys the benefit of the doubt in figuring out how to put these bullpen guys in positions to succeed.

Ryan was fired because it was becoming apparent to Pohlad that Ryan was no longer up to the job, and a new set of eyes was needed. It was also becoming clearer to Pohlad that the analytic style and successes of younger GMs was no longer a fluke. To top it off, last season's team, right out of the gate, was almost purposefully assembled to lose 90 games. Trevor May was kept in the bullpen. Sano was put in the outfield (but in hindsight probably had some maturing to do anyway). Nolasco over Duffey, while Duffey finished 2015 pretty impressively. Opening day we went with Buxton and he wasn't ready; disappointing but not unexpected. Perkins was hurt but wouldn't tell anyone. Then you had the disappointing decisions of Molitor in that opening week: using Jepsen in tight spots, using D. Santana as a starting outfielder at the top of the order, not to mention some odd in-game decisions that I don't necessarily recall at the moment. Arcia was a train wreck (I was wrong about him) though in his defense he was never really allowed to settle into a routine. Ryan's big acquisition was JR Murphy who didn't exactly start out hot, and a bunch of other guys had slow starts too. When the team was sitting 8-20 in early May, the release of Casey Fein and demoting a couple other relievers was billed as a major overhaul of the roster, or some such. It obviously wasn't enough. In those following weeks was about the time Pohlad started sending hints to Ryan. Last season's team, simply was bungled to perfection. You don't agree?

Damn, looks fantastic. One of these years.

I'm just looking at his stats, though I'm sure you are watching him in person at least a little bit, so I will defer to you. I have not watched as much as a highlight yet. He was charged with one error last season. (yah, yah, don't go by errors... ) but one error for a full season is a pretty low total for an outfielder. What did the scorers miss? How are his throws? What does Granite do so poorly that he is *at best* average in the field? What does he do well? Thanks!

You put a lot of work into this. Thank you. Seems to me too that Granite should be higher. He just logged a pretty solid season at AA, in fact his best pro season. Revere's better minor league seasons were before AA, though Revere's worst offensive season is still as good as Granite's best season. Is there any reason or measures available to think Granite won't continue to improve, however? I also like how Granite sees himself as a base stealer, whereas a guy like Buxton doesn't see himself as a base stealer, just an incredibly fast guy who might try to steal bases. The rough rule of thumb is to be successful at a 75% rate, and Granite now appears able to do that. We will find out soon how much Falvey & Co. value the stolen base. If they do value steals, maybe we see Granite in MLB for a cup of coffee sooner rather than later?

I agree that Falvey and Levine probably have Dozier valued pretty well, but I think you are really overstating the rest of it. Especially regarding the starting pitchers, I figure they will want at least spring training and several months of the season to get a better handle on those guys.

Can they compete? Sure. Will they compete? Not likely, but take the field and see what happens.

Sorry but I'm not bothered if the Twins are characterizing these offers as 1:1 offers. Dozier for De Leon, Sheffield, and some low C prospect of our choice? I would call that 1:1. Sheffield is a guy with red flags who is not on track to debut in MLB for at least three more seasons-- as a reliever. Sheffield is not insurance against De Leon not working out.

So let me get this straight: some folks say the Twins have "no chance" to contend in 2017, but to those same folks, 80 wins is a bit worrisome?

hell, I'll take 80

Brad Radke - we all know Radke's background and fight. Radke made it known that he planned to retire following his age 33 season in 2006. Shane Reynolds. Reynolds was big contributor to those strong Astros teams of the late 1990s, but long story short, back problems at age 32 might have torpedoed any trade value he might have had. He was never involved in a trade. Tim Belcher was traded his age 33 season for Roger Salkeld, a 24 year old who by the stat line looked to be an AAAA arm. Per bbref, Belcher had been a free agent until signed by Cincinnati on May 3, and then traded to Seattle on May 15, so maybe there is some additional back story there. But on the surface, Belcher didn't net much in return. (This was in 1995, the season delayed until late April by the 1994 strike). Belcher was coming off an ERA+ 83 season in 1994 but pitched fairly well in 1995 and in following seasons (ERA+ of 106, 126, 93, 111 in 1995-1998 seasons).

Ted Lilly, involved in 4 trades before age 28, then traded in 2010 during his age 34 season From bbref: July 31, 2010: Traded by the Chicago Cubs with Ryan Theriot and cash to the Los Angeles Dodgers for Kyle Smit (minors), Brett Wallach (minors) and Blake DeWitt. Lilly was pitching well for the Cubs (ERA+ 115) but I'm not going to try to make sense of that trade as the Dodgers don't seem to have been in the pennant race, but perhaps just wanted an arm. The following season Lilly pitched to ERA+ of 93 in 33 starts, then hung on for a couple more seasons battling injuries (I assume)

Woody Williams, age 34 during 2001 season, traded August 2 (waiver status?) from San Diego Padres to St. Louis. Cardinals received Williams in exchange for Ray Lankford, corner OF by then, also age 34, OPS+ 114 at time of trade. Williams was still a quality pitcher after age 33 as noted above. At time of trade, Williams had made 23 starts with ERA+ of 80 for Padres. After arriving on Cardinals Williams pitched to 7-1 record and ERA+ of 190 in 11 starts. Williams made only 23 starts his age 33 season, but had continued success for many years after. ERA+ of 111 in 24 starts in his age 39 season.

Pete Harnisch was at the very end of his career at age 33. No trade value. Kevin Gross made 23 starts for the Dodgers in his age 33 season, ERA+ of 109. Was granted free agency following 1994 season. That offseason, signed 2 years, $6 million by Rangers which I will guess was a good contract. Made 30 and 19 starts the next two years with ERA+ of 88 and 101. Involved in no trades through his 30s.

Ken Hill at age 33 would only be acquired via free agency from that point forward, but at age 31 (and having a 93 ERA+ season for the Rangers) was traded at the deadline to the Angels for Jim Leyritz, a part-time C/1B by then. Hill pitched well for the Angels after that trade: through the end of 1997 had an ERA+ of 128 in a pennant race. 1998: ERA+ of 96 in only 19 starts (injury I would guess) 1999: ERA+ of 101 in 22 starts and 4 relief appearances 2000 (age 34 season): ERA+ of 77 in 16 starts (very poor) and released by Angels in August.

Thanks. This removes some of the guesswork.

All things considered Delmon has to be up there. We saw a couple good moments but immense talent in a guy who never seemed to try, care, or be nice to anybody.