Jump to content
Our free agent ranking is up to 100 names, and now you can filter by player position! Click here to check it out! ×
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

Taildragger8791

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,140

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Profiles

Minnesota Twins News, Rumors & Analysis

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospect Rankings

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Minnesota Twins Trade & Free Agent Rumors

Minnesota Twins Fan Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks & Signing Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by Taildragger8791

  1. Taildragger8791
    You talk like the 10-day DL stint is an isolated incident. This didn't happen in a vacuum, it is most likely a continuation of the condition which has diminished him for a couple of years now and has already required surgery. Considering he's working on becoming a junk baller, it's clear the surgery wasn't enough to restore him to his pre-injury condition. There's a real possibility this is about the best Hughes will ever be going forward. And I'm not saying he should make a decision tomorrow or even next month. If he goes through the rest of the season showing no real improvement with regular DL stints and being hidden away in the bullpen, then I'm sure he'll take a hard look at what he wants the next two years of his life to look like. Not everybody is about getting every last dollar.
  2. Taildragger8791
    He doesn't have a legal nor moral obligation to give up the money. But he should retire for his own good if the prognosis is that the next 2 1/2 years are likely to be an endless cycle of surgeries and rehab with little chance of ever being an effective ballplayer again. He should go for the buyout first if the team will negotiate. But at some point there is a diminishing return to more money when it's at the expense of health and future ability to enjoy the fruits of that hard work. Why push it to the absolute limit? Take the money you've made and move onto the next phase of your life. You can always start new ventures or investments to make more money, but you can't rebuild a used-up body (yet).
  3. Taildragger8791
    No, I didn't say that. Twisting my words doesn't help the discussion. I said most of the arguments against the Twins handling of Berrios and prospects falls into one of those categories. I didn't say anything about you or your reasons specifically. Although if I wanted to slot your statements into a category it would apparently fall into the 'incompetent' slot for not knowing how to handle or evaluate one of their most promising players. There were many statements that the Twins are keeping him down because they want to punish him for playing in the WBC or want to limit his MLB service time or success to save money. To really believe that you have to believe the Twins' brass is vindictive and Scrooge-like towards their own players. That's basically the 'evil' category I was referring to. And I disagree that there was no risk. The risk was that he gets shelled and his confidence is destroyed, and he doesn't find his comfort zone with the unfamiliar MLB baseball because every time he throws it near an MLB hitter he nearly pulls a muscle in his neck watching it fly back over his head at 98 MPH. There is little to no room for error at this level. That is not a conducive environment to making major adjustments.
  4. Taildragger8791
    The words "insane, evil or incomptent" aren't used explicitly but the complaints and sentiment levied at the team is generally along one of those veins. As opposed to assuming they did it for actual defensible reasons like wanting to be convinced he had his head on straight and worked out his very serious problems he had demonstrated up until now. There are legitimate things to criticize the Twins on with prospects but I don't see this as being an example to build your case around. They saw Berrios absolutely, 100%, completely BOMB in almost every one of his 14 starts last year and did absolutely ZILCH in spring training to show that was behind him. Why would you automatically insert that guy into the MLB rotation and assume things are hunky dory? That would be irresponsible and risky and everyone would have torn apart the front office if he'd struggled all over again out of the gate. He openly stated himself that he wasn't comfortable with the MLB baseball and was too far inside his own head last year. Sending him down to get comfortable with the new baseball in his side sessions while he gets in a successful rhythm just makes so much sense that I'm flabbergasted people are lambasting the team like it was an obvious mistake.
  5. Taildragger8791
    We see this argument with every prospect. If a guy has success for any length of time the calls for promotions start up and escalate in a hurry, with assertions that the Twins are insane, evil, and/or incompetent for holding the player back. But at the same time if players were promoted on potential before demonstrating they were ready there would be an equally loud chorus of criticism for being too aggressive and demanding proof of performance before handing out promotions. Especially if that player bombed at the next level. You can't have it both ways. It was totally reasonable that Berrios started in the minors after completely failing in his debut season and doing nothing in spring training or WBC to show that he had made improvements. Why throw him back out there to fail again? Once you've decided to send him down to get comfortable you aren't going to pull him back in a week or two, he's there for a reason and adjustments don't happen instantaneously. Maybe they waited 2-3 weeks longer than absolutely necessary, but they wanted to be 100% sure his next promotion was successful and hopefully his last ever. Seems reasonable and responsible to me. If he goes on to have a 10+ year great career is anyone going to notice or care they he spent a couple extra weeks in AAA getting himself right? Do we still look back at Torii Hunter's career and have heartburn that he bounced up and down to start out? I sure hope not. In the end this was a tiny blip on the radar of what is supposed to be a rebuilding season.
  6. Taildragger8791
    It's supposedly about a 40% higher cost for the MLB balls. Something like $180 for a box of balls as opposed to $120, or thereabouts. MLB seams are tighter and lower, so the ball is slicker and spins faster. But yeah, that's just penny-wise pound-foolish behavior. Especially at the top levels. You'd think AAA and even AA would use the same ball.
  7. Taildragger8791
    He's far more likely to end up as "just" a good reliever or closer than he is a Hall of Famer. Obviously everyone would be thrilled with any draftee or signee who ends up the BEST EVER at their position, that's kind of a silly example because that's so extremely rare. So rare that it isn't even worth considering unless a guy has clearly demonstrated that potential at some point. We're not there yet with Jay. If he's an elite shutdown closer then the pick looks a lot more palatable, but it'll still always feel like the Twins left something on the table by using such a high draft pick on a guy who's likely role was a reliever. Teams rarely do that and it's because a single reliever has so much less impact on a game than a position player or starter. Not to mention that bullpens are easier to scrape together from free agents and trades than rotations and lineups are. That said, what's done is done and if the bullpen is the best role for him then I'm all on board and hope he can get/stay healthy so we can get this show on the road. A beefed up bullpen would be a big boost to this MLB squad right now.
  8. Taildragger8791
    I think he's suggesting it's not that different than his career line of .211, which would be correct. I do see the progress with Buxton and think he's slowly figuring it out, but it's going to come in fits and spurts before the light bulb fully comes on and he finds some consistency.
  9. Taildragger8791
    That doesn't mean the written history will be accurate. A collection of guys that were barely hanging on in the league along with some very average vets came together with remarkable timing to put together what from the 10,000 foot view appears to be a mildly competent season. If it wasn't a fluke then those same guys would have carried that forward, or at least gone on to success elsewhere. Instead they're mostly out of the majors or filling out back ends of rosters around the league. I'm still not sure what to believe about this year's team. The hitting is legit and should only get better, although I'm not counting 100% on things like Dozier going on another stratospheric hot streak. Buxton will improve enough to not be a total liability, I think. Kepler and Polanco seem like they'll continue to get better as well. If Vargas can wrest the cleanup spot from Mauer I think we'll be in good shape rest of the year there. Pitching...I'm clueless. Bullpen turnover has to go well, which is reasonably possible if we can keep our prospects healthy for a change. Finding 2-3 more reliable starters mid-season is going to be a tall order though. Berrios fills a huge hole if he holds on. If the wheels don't come off Santiago that's a heck of a start to the rotation and enough to be competitive. But the 4-5 spots can't be black holes. Maybe Duffey can transition back and keep the job?
  10. Taildragger8791
    I don't see how you can say that wasn't a fluke year. The Twins stunk for four years before 2015 and the year after. Most of the players responsible for 2015 wins aren't contributing to wins in 2017, especially since most of them aren't even on the team anymore. That's even more true when you focus in on the 20-win month of May which buoyed that whole season. On the pitching side, only Hughes, Duffey, Santana, and Pressly have survived and still contribute. Only Hughes and Pressly had any impact on that early winning, and Hughes has gotten by on good fortune more than ability lately. Santana missed half that season then struggled when he returned. Duffey didn't come up til late in the year and he's in a totally different role now. So the pitching looks almost completely different now than it did then. On the hitting side we had a lot of playing time from Plouffe, Hunter, Hicks, Suzuki, Nunez, Dan San, Shane Robinson, Chris Hermann, with a sprinkle of Arcia and Jordan Schafer for seasoning. Other than Rosario, the young guys in our lineup now didn't contribute until mid-year if at all. The biggest carryovers are Dozier and Mauer, neither of which are impressing yet this year.
  11. Taildragger8791
    Options are a season-long thing. If you get optioned in a season you can be optioned again as many times as needed and it still counts as one option used for the year.
  12. Taildragger8791
    Berrio se was a monster out there and had amazing stuff. Even the loose squirrel running around the infield didn't faze him. I will say that this doesn't mean the front office was incompetent and waited way too long to call him up. It's just as likely that the extra month in AAA cured what ails. So let's avoid the cheap shots and just enjoy that for one day it looks like we have a promising young pitcher who's finding their footing.
  13. Taildragger8791
    Oh yes, all those elite talented pitchers the Twins have drafted and signed that were on the fast track to the majors only to be ruined when they got to AAA.
  14. Taildragger8791
    On the hitting side there was Sano, Buxton, and Vargas. And Polanco sort of made that jump too, although that was mostly as an emergency backfill. (Edit: Kepler and Rosario barely spent any time at AAA before getting to the majors too) Can't think of recent examples on the pitching side, but then again we haven't had any quality pitching to promote in the last decade except Berrios, who we can now see wasn't ready to jump straight from AA. Chargois was being slow-played last year coming back from injury, otherwise he might have gone straight from AA. Burdi might be the first pitcher they've had that is good enough and also in the right position to do it. It seems Twins pitchers tend to go to AAA to refine command against before being promoted. Hopefully a live arm like Burdi is good enough to skip that step.
  15. Taildragger8791
    I think we have the makings to put together a competitive lineup for sure. But you can't regularly out-hit the kind of damage that our pitchers can do. We showed that last year when we lost over 100 games despite an average-ish offense. If Berrios and Mejia both establish themselves by midseason and Santiago doesn't turn into a pumpkin, and Hughes holds on to be marginally effective, and Duffey comes back to the rotation and holds his own, and the bullpen turns over throughout the year with young guys sticking, then maybe you can think about this being the start of something real. But that is a whole lot of "ifs" to get to that point.
  16. Taildragger8791
    Fans support actual winners. Perennial winners. Not teams that play over their head for a couple months. That's why Target Field is still only 1/3rd full despite being over .500 and even spending time in 1st place in the division in May.
  17. Taildragger8791
    As painful as it would be to gut a competitive team after years of despair, it's the smart approach. Otherwise this team could end up right back in the gutter next year like they did going from '15 to '16. This team isn't going anywhere until it gets sustainable pitching and that's not going to come from within the organization or in free agency in the next few years.
  18. Taildragger8791
    I think you'd almost have to in order to get any real value back, assuming other teams value the player(s) also. I don't think we have any non-pitching prospects that would generate serious interest in a trade partner other than maybe Nick Gordon or a package of several A-ball & rookie league players. As much as I like Rosario/Polanco/Vargas we are in a good position to replace them internally or in free agency next year. Sano, Buxton, and maybe Kepler are my only untouchables. I'd still be willing to listen on Kepler if the return pitching was crazy good.
  19. Taildragger8791
    And a great landing is one where you can reuse the airplane. Not sure that helps the metaphor, I just really like that saying.
  20. Taildragger8791
    Or it just means he doesn't hit a lot of weak popups, which historically has been true for him. He typically is one of the top hitters in baseball in terms of avoiding pop-ups. That removes a lot of in-play balls with low exit velocity that bring the average down. On the other hand, stinging balls into the ground to 2nd base doesn't accomplish much despite looking good on exit velocity charts.
  21. Taildragger8791
    Rosario with a homerun AND a walk. This man will not be denied.
  22. Taildragger8791
    I highly doubt they'd be that petty or unprofessional. I do believe that they didn't want him to go to the WBC, but that was because they wanted more time to work with him during a critical phase of his development. That was a big opportunity to utilize a controlled learning environment where the games don't count and everyone can watch him. Maybe he'd have been ready to come up by now if that were the case. Instead, he went off to rot on a bench for weeks, away from the coaches that know him and have his best interests in mind. That resulted in a setback that he's having to work through now.
  23. Taildragger8791
    You just made me go look up what he's up to now. Looks like he's enjoying the good life in the PCL where he gets to put up video game numbers all day. Hitting .350/.409/.725/1.134.
  24. Taildragger8791
    Is he even capable of getting a strike that isn't a foul ball?
  25. Taildragger8791
    Personally, I couldn't live with myself if I were bested in competition by a guy named 'Jaff'.
×
×
  • Create New...