ShouldaCouldaWoulda

Dogers have plenty in their system, and then some in the majors to get deals done. They can also buy FA's to fix, and also have not been afraid to sell on guys for prospects, if they feel like it. But, Urias is absolutely not in play for Doz. Don't even think our FO is naive enough to ask for him, as to look silly. Ain't happening. More likely not even getting De Leon. Probably more of a package of quantity than quality would be my guess.

I think that we should note how much Falvey has been considered a pitching mechanics and philosophy guru, soooooo....in theory, Allen might be the perfect pitching coach for him. Why? Because he doesn't have the clout or recent success to buck anything, as he will be exited that he's even being brought back and that he best listen and follow Falvey's lead. If Falvey wants his hands in any of the pitching stuff, it might make it more difficult to get someone on board with pre existing philosophies and ways of doing things.

Being that my baby momma is Puerto Rican, and my two boys 1/2 PR, I have been excited for the PR injection of young prospects.

Heeheee

https://www.google.c.../?client=safari Decent interview from a few years ago. Seems to be "lovable" and funny. States his primary role is contract specialist, but involved all over. Seems blunt and open, and even admired to using various baseball advanced baseball sites for any info they can use. My favorite take was how he and other FO use Twitter via alias names. Here's to him using one of our crazy opinions or ideas, and it working. I can't even get a single 'like' for posting the link and some nuggets (above) from the interview in the other thread last night that most of this article is based off of;( Just teasing- great article, and thanks for all the great content this year.

Pro's/con's to starting a dudes clock early, through 40-man or any other way. It is obviously bad, if whatever clock is started too early and you are not getting any production during the cheap years. It is also bad if the player starts to blossom too much right before arb/FA eligible. You are not getting enough cheap production and having to either pay too much to keep or lose the player. Good, its possible a player could not really produce enough early, and then be talked into a cheap extension, and then blossom while being in prime....like Dozier kinda.

Defense is often better while younger and more athletic, hence why so many young/athletic glove-first SS's make to the pro's early. They usually don't make it for their bats, but athleticism. Look around the league at SS in the MLB and farm systems. How many teams best 24 and under SS MLB or MiLB would you take Gordon over?

Adding to this. I quick did a curious FG search of numbers in AA Southern League. Of the 60 pitchers who threw at least 70 innings there, Gonsalves was #1 in K%...unfortunately, Jorge was second worst and Stewart was fourth worst:( K% is generally not something that can be excused away with age/league, that is for more 'overall' success, but not K%.

I wish I could buy into this line of thinking on him, but I cannot do it. He has been focussing specifically on baseball alone for 3 years, and was not just dabbling around with pitching before that either. His narrative is similar to many other HS kids drafted. It is not like he was this electric arm that throws 100+, bud had no idea how to harness it. No, he was a pitcher, and was said to have a good slider, which one does not 'just have', unless time is spent learning how to pitch well. He came in and succeeded, and has for the most part been mediocre when compared to the league he is paling in. He has had decent ERA's, but when you look at the numbers of others ERA's he was pitching in, well it kind of takes away from it. I DO believe that he possesses the POTENTIAL to reclaim/gain/harness good 'stuff' at some point, if he uses more breaking stuff and it is good, but I cannot get too excited about a GB contact reliant pitcher as a prospect. Unless he starts raising his K%, he will likely never amount to a 'quality' big league starter. Happy end thought though....I have convinced myself that Falvey is a pitching genius and that he is responsible for every single creative and successful pitching philosophy, routine, and outcome in Cleveland. We are about to see the Twins change from contact reliant and predictable...to changed routines, velocity upticks, and pitching backwards more often and better overall game calling, benefiting from better framing, and better defensive players and placements. So, Stewart could become a beast under the boy genius shaking his magic wand over his head.

Stewart in the top 10;( He is dead to me.

If our #1 pick in June is does not top our list next midseason I will cry. We NEED to get this one more than right, and even a little lucky...please. The fact that there is not a few guys screaming out as the no-brainer pick(s) scares me even more.

-I think the pitching problem is kind of all over. Talent is not high enough to cover for poor coaching, game calling in sequence and location, or defense. And, the same goes for any of those other facets...they are lacking in all, so the problem is compounded. I don't know if Suzuki will be around next year, but I alway felt he was pretty bad at sequencing and pitch location predictability and efficiency. -On an interesting note, I think I may have an article that I personally feel MIGHT give us some insight as to what we might see implemented here. Its a '13 Fantgraphs interview with the Cleveland pitching coach, and it is very in depth. All current comments point to Falvey being very involved heavily in the pitching side with them and in a positive way, so I can only assume that much of this has a lot to do with him, or that he has learned it and will bring it with him. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/qa-mickey-callaway-indians-pitching-coach/

I'm very interested in the moves he makes for the rest of the FO and staff moving forward. I can see him not making a lot of changes in year one. Allowing him to stress his vision, philosophies, and preferences in every facet from low minors to majors. I think he'll give guys time to buy into him and allow them to get comfortable with more analysis, new ideas, and changes. After the season he can then evaluate. If someone is bucking the system or isn't buying, whether it be Dougie M, a hitting coach, anyone in player development, Neil Allen, or Molly- bye. If they want to resist after time, they will be removed, but he will give everyone the opportunity to get on board, as well as learn to understand and use his analytics and ideas effectively. Those who get it and use it will stay and be rewarded. Those who resist it, or show contempt for it will be packing. For all we know, Molly could be an excellent manger...if he's told properly and sternly when he will do what, and let him learn the why over time.

His highest paid player just might actually be older than him? They are both 33, right?

I think Dozier needs to be traded for a prospect(s), not a veteran starter. So, if that means a young pitcher or near ready one, then yes.

The new Head FO dude and GM will likely have a pretty big role in determining this. Both will likely come from outside of the organization and be tied to non of the veterans or younger players. My guess though is that it will likely be more of the same. Probably not going after any big name veterans coming off such a bad season, yet we really can't afford to get rid of any of our valuable pitchers either. The only guy we MIGHT be able to get a prospect with is Santana, but I doubt that we would get anything worth creating such a void in our already terrible rotation.

It seems to me that organizations should be able to have staff and software that focus solely on analyzing every pitchers (on ours and opponents) pitch And looking at every detail for tells. Seems like software might be able to detect this, especially with the help of trained staff dissecting it. This seems like it would be an advantage to have greater than any other analytical type. It would be painstaking, but I believe it would be worth it, especially in protecting our own pitchers.

Ummmmm, I really do not think moving or living situation/standards have ANYTHING to do with any candidates who have or may pull their names out of the hat. My fear is that anyone pulling their names out have or would do so because they did not see the position to be a good one, or better than other options they have. That could be a handful to several reasons such as, the lack of expected control with the position compared to others with same or similar titles, not liking or thinking highly of the FO or on field staff in various levels and areas (player development, analytics, coaches, owners, etc.), might not like future chances due to payroll (TV deals and owners) compared to competitors future payrolls, might not think very highly of our young talent in the majors or minors (on the whole have been quite overrated by national and especially local media in recent years), and many other small to large considerations....could be some or several of these combined that bring an overall lack of respect or shine to this position....and system as a whole. We should probably keep this in mind wherever we think we are close or that Buxton, Keppler, Gonsalves, Gordon, etc. are guys that will bring us to the upper tier of the league. It is also silly in my mind to believe that these guys simply felt they HAD to honor any such workings or loyalties to other clubs. If there is a better opportunity, it is generally completely understood that the person has every right and should take it....unless, it is not a vertical climb. This scares me to what others are thinking of our system, future, and or lack of faith in what this change really means for real change for this team top to bottom. Just my thoughts and could be wrong, but just thinking what really is the situation.....it has nothing to do with living in Minnesota, so lets stop pretending that has anything to do with at all.

Agree! You can have a high GB% and still be a great hitter, but generally even those guys have more success hitting the ball in the air than on the ground. With Buxton, it is hard to stretch singles into doubles, and doubles into triples, when hitting the ball on the ground. He isn't a great base-stealer either, so use a LATE and BIG leg kick ALWAYS, and try and hit linedrives-to-slightly flyballs.

Yeah, I read an article recently that found that mound push off did not help with velocity at least, BUT that the landing leg is what mattered. Like, landing straight and pole vaulting hard off of it, or something similar to this is what generates power and velocity.

I was being facetious. I was mad they were not batting him leadoff for 'at-bats' and timing/rhythm reasoning when they brought him back up. My point is, why the heck on a team this bad, were they batting their top prospect (who was working on a hitting mechanics for heck sake) last in the first place when he was recalled? Very poor decision from the get go there from a development stand point.

WHY is Buxton batting lead off in AAA?! What is the reasoning?

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-changes-byron-buxton-has-and-hasnt-made/ Sure this was posted, but seemed more appropriate in this thread than the Fangraphs thread. My response was and has been this (but, I am sure I am just a moron and wrong): I never liked Buxton’s swing, but was encouraged and excited by reports about this new leg kick he was using when he was crushing in AAA this year. I couldn’t wait to see it once he got brought back up, but was extremely disappointed by what I saw upon return. I wrote about several times a Twins Daily within his first week back. I was upset because the leg kick just looked awful and not of the sort that others use at all. I actually thought it was by accident that his leg kick started so soon and got his foot down so soon. It sounds like maybe that was planned?! all it did was/does is result in him having to stop his body’s momentum before he swings, and then swing with ALL arms and no hip torque. It actually muted his athleticism even more than just staying still the whole time and then swinging. I gave up on him and Twins hitting coaches that first week and haven’t had hope in them since. Kicking early and getting that foot down early simply defeats the purpose of doing it in the first place. I would love to see Buxton incorporate a wider and lower athletic stance to begin, then incorporate a fairly above average-to-high leg kick, that starts later and with the foot being placed down late, with an extremely aggressive swing with his hips (like Corey Seager hip swing aggressiveness.) Just let her buck Buxton. He might remain a high K% guy with that, but at least he would create some crazy exit velocity with his athleticism and a swing like that. So, he would likely have a high ISO and negate his flaws of contact. This would also take pressure off him and make him more confident. Right now his swing sucks, and has no potential to create any bat speed or power, yet he still strikes out a ton. I seriously hope they plan on incorporating an actual real leg kick and stance this time around, instead of messing with him by muting his athleticism even more in hopes of contact improvement. **I'd add the personal observation that it 'seems' as though there is a difference between broader more compact toolsy athletic guys like Trout and Betts, than there is a with skinny-long toolsy athletic guys like Buxton, Hayward, Maybin just off the top of my head. Think athletic and toolsy skinny/tall guys have much more trouble with timing and mechanics in both their swings and getting out of the blocks to steal basses. The shorter guys have an easier time with rhythm, timing, and more success.

Looking at the boxscore from tonight, it appears that Nunez likely lost the game for the Giants on a throwing error. The only error of the game, and I see there was 4 unearned runs attached to Bumgarner. He also went 0-4, and 0-1 with RISP.

I understand to some degree, but I don't think playing some DH/1B would diminish his worth. He's likely get more and healthier at bats this way, and as long as his catching defense held up there is nor reason he wouldn't be just as valuable, if not more.