Hosken Bombo Disco

I'd rather see him in the MLB bullpen and traveling around with his future teammates than getting bored riding buses in the International league. He has a good attitude and probably deserves to be up just for that. I don't care if he can't throw strikes like Phil Hughes yet. Unless he goes totally off the rails I'd hope the Twins give him at least a couple months in the bullpen, even if no opportunity opens up in the rotation.

I would argue that Joe Mauer has been untradeable since June 5, 2001.

This is similar to what I've been thinking. Mauer is an elite hitter who probably needs less coaching. Also I wonder if not hitting in front of Morneau was a factor last season. Not because Morneau was Miguel Cabrera but that Mauer and Morneau had such a long, good working relationship, maybe just those moments of quick comparing notes during the game with someone you built trust with might have contributed to the slow start.

Thin bench, thin bullpen, guys like Kinsler and Cespedes aren't very intimidating anymore, Castellanos may not be ready, JD Martinez may not hit as well as last season, and so on. Ausmus looked lost at times. Wouldn't surprise me to see these guys closer to the bottom of the division this year.

Oh, I don't know....Goodell?

With their bullpen, fielding and speed, I can't see KC slipping much below .500, but if they do, they will have that little extra motivation for 2016. I'm guessing KC has a lot of goodwill and excitement banked from last year to get their fans through a down season or two. They're still young.

Daniel, were there some specific examples you know of, that shows how Sabean's emphasis on the health of SF pitchers was different and better than other organizations? It's intriguing how well they've developed starting pitching.

That's the one big thing the owners have going for them. If the players don't like it, they can in theory walk away at any time. Though obviously it's not that simple for an individual to do that.

Just as Selig was said to be the least horrible commissioner of the four major sports commissioners, we can hope Manfred was the least horrible option among all potential successors. Though by suggesting baseball should ban shifts, it's obvious he lacks any fundamental understanding of the game. Again we can only hope Torre and other good influential baseball people can keep Manfred from breaking too many valuable objects while he's in office.

Agree. Although. Suzuki earned every minute of his playing time and every dollar of his new contract. He is the starter in 2015. Like you said though, doesnt necessarily mean it was the best thing to do to extend him. I'm sure they entertained offers though, no doubt.

yeah I've been racking my brain on this question for the last half hour. I got nuthin'.

Not sure about this one. The role of Yankee GM feels more like a Steinbrenner Yes man, than a baseball GM. How much influence did Cashman have in acquiring and holding into that core group in the 90s. Or somehow persuading Steinbrenner to step away from the team for a while. Also, the Yankees played hardball in public with Jeter's last contract. How much or little did Cashman have a part in that? What are the "new" Yankee owners like and maybe Cashman's evaluation would begin about now, instead of in the late 90s.

Pinto got a tough shake. In general terms of just winning ballgames, here was the Twins W-L record when: Pinto caught Hughes: 2-0 Pinto caught Gibson: 1-0 Pinto caught Pelfrey: 2-1 Pinto caught K Johnson: 0-1 Pinto caught Deduno: 3-3 Pinto caught Correia: 0-5 This was all prior to Pinto's being sent back to the minors in June (because supposedly he needed work), after catching in that horrible Sunday afternoon loss to the Astros. #accountability If people say Pinto and Suzuki are about the same defensively, that sounds right to me. I would think Suzuki's job is safe but I think having only the 2 catchers on the 40 man is a good signal that Pinto will be given his due this year and that there will be little to no net dropoff when Pinto catches.

Loving the tours through history!

How so? Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone? Ted Turner & TBS?

It's certainly a high bar, when your 25th best has two WS titles to his name. Plus bringing a franchise like the Cubs back to relevance.

I always like to think that MacPhail took over GM duties from... Calvin Griffith.

MLB defines a fielding chance as a putout, assist, or error. As long as you are building something from the ground up… It might be time to bring the infield single into the equation too. None of the usual counting stats account for this yet, as far as I know. Even better, assign every ground ball to an infielder, as Bill James roughly suggested (I know I read that somewhere).

Looking forward to this! One slight nit pick (which I'm sure you wrestled with): a top 25 list going back only a dozen years might be depending on a lot of "above average" guys to complete the bottom of the list. Interesting that some GM positions were created in the 1920s (I did not realize that), while owners like Calvin Griffith were still running their own team well into the 70s or even 80s

Glad you pointed out this distinction Lonestar. I thought the same thing. Maybe it was a another typo. But I will admit I hadn't run across this general way to measure fielding before either. Seems like a nice addition to the data universe. Could be useful. Bravo if you dreamt it up Thrylos.

I don't like the Chih-Wei Hu = Carlos Silva comparison, because in their strikeout profiles there is no comparison. Even in the low minors Silva never really struck out any more than 6 per 9 innings, and as a Twin his K/9 never even topped 4.0, meanwhile... Hu's K/9 at the same level is around 8.0 and his K% exceeds 20% comfortably. Let's see what Hu does this year, and be prepared to move him up your list if he continues as he has. Again, not knowing anything about him other than what's on the Internets

I've never seen any of these guys play but your Walker-Balboni comparison caught my eye. So I did some digging on bbref (time on my hands tonight). Assuming Walker starts 2015 in AA, both Steve Balboni and Adam Walker will have begun their first season at AA at age 23. Balboni was in the Yankees system in the early 1980s so these are just general comparisons. Balboni was coming off his age 22 season at A with 584 PA, 26 HR (4.5%) with BB-SO totals of 69-154 (rates of 11.8% and 26.3%) and a .798 OPS. Walker's age 22 season at Fort Myers last year was 555 PA, 25 HR (4.5%) with BB-SO totals of 44-156 (rates of 8.0% and 28.1%) and a .743 OPS. Both are fine; Balboni wins by half a length. However, Balboni's AA season he made nice progress, increasing his walk rate up to 13.4%, increased his HR totals and rate, and hitting for a .301 average and .951 OPS. So these are the numbers Walker will need to post at Chattanooga to keep pace with Balboni. Balboni then spent the next couple seasons back and forth between AAA and MLB before he was traded to the Royals, who as it turns out had a use for him (for all his flaws) in their already very good lineup. The point of all of this is to say that, if "Walker's plate discipline doesn't improve, his ceiling will be Steve Balboni" might be amended to say if Walker's plate discipline finally does improve, then his ceiling will be Balboni. And in further comparison, Balboni's minor league production lagged behind other "all-or-nothing" power type guys I checked, like Jay Buhner and Adam Dunn. So, Walker has a lot of work to do, but I've heard good things about him so am of course pulling for him.

I always thought Hamburger looked a little raw, though at 27 he certainly has enough seasoning. Think he's heard these jokes before?

Wow, with you in charge Meyer would reach his innings limit by the end of April

It's a little outside the box, but a Schafer/Hicks platoon in CF might be ok, with the off day guy used as a late inning pinch runner / outfield substitution. If Hunter has lost as much jump and speed on the bases as in the field, then I'm not sure about him batting at the top. Let this not be the year he also loses his bat speed