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HitInAPinch

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Everything posted by HitInAPinch

  1. Nice article, although I'm not completely sold on Gibson or Nolasco, either. I'd call this a 3 spot competition. Hughs and Santana get a pass based on contract length and good performances last year. Recovery from TJ differs a lot amongst pitchers. Maybe this is the year for Pelfry and I hope he makes it. I just don't see him as a bullpen alternative. Nolasco, with his shorter delievery, maybe.
  2. Mauer has had injury issues from the very 1st game he played at the Dome. I'll never get the image out of my head of him making a great sliding catch of a popup near the wall, and never getting up. At age 31, if he had consistent stats like 2012, he'd be tradable. But with the injury history and contract, he is untradeable.
  3. I'm accounting last year's stats to the move away from catching. I understand the reasoning, but how many times in the history of baseball has a great catcher moved to another position and had the same level of success? I can't count very many. As a catcher, you are far more involved in a game than any other position.
  4. Absolutely agree. Maybe the shift is getting into a hitters field of vision enough to bug him. Otherwise, I view the shift as nothing more than interesting attempt to disrupt a hitters concentration.
  5. They're paying out a lot of money on something that may not work. Are the White Sox's minor league prospects no long a hot commodity?
  6. I'd definitely hold off on an extension. As has been pointed out, there is a bevy of talented infielders either on the team now or in the minors. If Dozier does put it altogether this season, trade him along with one of these pitching duds they've acquired over the past couple years and restock the minors. Hopefully with some outfielders. Still can't figure out how the Twins ran out last year.....
  7. I'm not sure I'd spend any time on Hicks. Been down that path before. I'm starting Schafer in CF. He's got the defense and has shown that with AB's, he can hit. I would never knowingly go into a season planning on a platoon. That being said, I still like the offensive and defensive potential of Santana in CF and Escobar at SS. My whole thing on this is: did Escobar do anything that would merit demotion. Santana would have to win the job by a WIDE margin. And I still hate the idea of moving Arcia to left to accommodate and overpriced, $10M 1 year rental on a player that most are speaking of as a coach and not so much as a player.
  8. First, it's the manager that sets the tone. Billy Martin was a tough guy. Tom Kelly was a tough guy. And both hammered the fundamentals into the players heads. Ron Gardenhire started out that way, but morphed into a "Players Manager". As soon as he put the weight back on and grew a beard last season, he should have been fired. I see Paul Molitor as an old-school kinda manager. It all starts there.
  9. No brainer: May at #5. Somehow, they need to clear a rotation spot for Meyer. He's now 25 and it's time to see if he can play with the big boys. I don't follow the idea of Meyer as a ML long reliever. To me, that's wasting time in stretching out his arm. And having a couple guys in the rotation with some pop makes having Milone in the rotation. Soft tossing, yes. Successful, yes. Now that I've gutted the rotation, Hughes, Gibson and Santana get to duke it out. LOL
  10. The roof in the Metrodome was hell back then. Baseball was not meant to be played indoors. Lesson learned :-)
  11. Upon further review, yeah that came off a little bitchier than I meant. I apologize.
  12. Not to be mean here, but using the 'advanced stats' really loses me. Subtracting the bad stats, placing the player in a situation where he's more successful is fantasy-land stuff. It's like saying Nolasco will be significantly more successful using the P427NYY metric [Pitching for the 1927 New York Yankees]. I really appreciate peoples efforts put into developing the Sabermetrics. But to me, it's not dealing with reality.
  13. I've posted several times in the past that Hughes sharply regressed after and successful season in which he reached career highs in innings pitched. Seeing the video evidence on his mechanics, the new season may be different. The 1st video shows a delivery that's out of control. The 2nd more controlled, but I'm concerned that it seems from this view that it's all arm. I'm still hopeful for another successful year, but they really need to pay more attention to the number of innings pitched.
  14. The big negative for me on any GM ranking is the whole 'Buy a Team' mentality. The chickens are now coming to roost as teams are resigning their players before those teams get a chance to pick their bones. Scouting and developing players throughout a minor league system for long term success is the highest grade of a topnotch GM.
  15. Let Molitor handle it. He looks like a no-nonsense kinda guy capable of handling Vargas.
  16. My lineup would be like this: 1. Santana - SS 2. Schafer/Hicks - CF [bring in Carew to teach them how to drag bunt.] 3. Mauer - 1B [cough, cough, Contract] 4. Vargas - DH [showed he could hit cleanup last year. Need to see if he's for real] 5. Arcia - RF [is this THE year?] 6. Dozier - 2B [low BA, high K's, high number of doubles and HRs. Perfect spot] 7. Hunter - LF [if nothing else, can have Dozier's back] 8. Plouffe - 3B [was last year for real?] 9. Suzuki - C [last year was for real] I'm not big on having good-great defensive guys that get the bat knocked out of their hands. Bunt, baby, bunt. Probably a few to many K's in this lineup, but could be fun to watch. And, honestly, if I could, I'd trade Mauer. If......
  17. By 'floating' them on the waiver wire, you can gauge interest in them and pull them back if a team makes a claim. Good way to check that others value them as much as you do ;-)
  18. And how about all the soft-tossers that were successful as closers? Todd Jones it the first I could think of. Who was the closer for the Orioles that Earl Weaver referred to as his 'six pack'? As in Earl got so nervous when he was pitching that he burned through a six pack of cigarettes.
  19. I've said it before and I'll say it again: trade Perkins NOW. When your team has lost 90 games in 4 seasons, a guy with 30 saves is an expensive, unnecessary luxury. At 32 yrs old in March, now is the time to trade him for a high-end minor leaguer or 2 and maybe some lower level prospects. Or 2.
  20. I'm in the chorus of "Don't sign either to an extension". Dozier is what he is: a good fielding 2Ber with some power. But he's no Bobby Grich. He's seems to have settled in on sub .250 average and 100+ K's. I've seen enough of Plouffe to say no extension either. I haven't seen the consistency. I'd be using the 25th spot to bring up player for auditions and floating both on waiver wires by mid season.
  21. With you on Sano. We need to 1st see how his swing is and if he can get back in the groove at 3B. Then we need to see how he handles the breaking ball at AAA.
  22. Seth, I really like your enthusiasm, but I have severe doubts that there will be any call-ups this year. Unless, of course, alien beings transform themselves into the Twins minor league development team. I'm wondering how Vargas will look this year after MLB scouting reports are more complete.
  23. Does anyone else have a problem with moving Eduardo Escobar to the bench to accommodate Santana at SS? With the lack of any other good option in CF, I don't really see a need or reason to make this move.
  24. I'm all in on Arcia, too. Brunansky made some really good progress with Arcia last year. All Arcia needs to do is just keep listening to Bruno. Oh yeah, and suck it up a little bit on defense :-)
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