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gunnarthor

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Everything posted by gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    He earned the 6m when he got it. That's over and has no bearing. That he is being treated differently than Adrianza is true. A nothing player like him (or Johnny Field) would've been promoted instead of being sent home to get the extra service time. The other argument is he has to earn it. Well, as noted, he played in 15 games after mid-July (and played well). The team could've let him continue to get at-bats but decided not to for extra service time. (If the ML team had been in contention, he would've been promoted). it's not possible to square the idea that he needed to both prove it and then ignore that the Twins didn't give him time to prove it. If he was playing hurt in Sept, as the Twins allege, people should be fired. But of course he wasn't hurt, it was just an excuse for service time manipulation. 2017 was a broken year for Buxton. He played in 11 games and then sat for 10 days. He played one game and was put on the DL for nearly three weeks. He came back to the majors for 17 games (almost certainly not healthy). He was then put on the DL for another three weeks. He then played in 19 games before sitting "day-to-day" for 4 games. He got 1 more at-bat and was put back on the DL for two more weeks. He came back and got to play in 15 games before the Twins sent him home. He had less than 250 PA at all levels last year.
  2. gunnarthor
    The Cubs service time manipulation also soured Bryant on signing an extension with them. https://www.sbnation.com/mlb/2018/11/12/18080064/cubs-kris-bryant-trade-rumor-options-explainer
  3. gunnarthor
    You're right that it is not comparable so not really relevant. Buxton was paid 6m b/c of his draft status and that money should have no impact at all on how the Twins treated him last year.
  4. gunnarthor
    It's actually more accurate to say he had a bad 6 weeks or so in 2017. From 4/3-4/20 (15 games) and 6/15-6/30 (16 games), he was pretty bad. Between that though, he was pretty good. 4/21-6/14 (43 games) he hit .264/.340/.403. From 7/1 on (66 games) he hit .309/.358/.538. That actually makes sense. The beginning of the year was historically bad to the point that it was more about pressure he was putting on himself than anything else. Once he started taking the pressure off, he started to show his true talent and performed well for a couple months. Then the league adjusted to him and he struggled mightily again in June but made the adjustments and started hitting the ball again. We saw that again last year, although injuries ****ed everything up. Once he started to get healthy and consistent playing time, his bat started to take off.
  5. gunnarthor
    I really hope that the Trump presidency is the starting point for a long run of marginalization of the republican party. I don't think that will happen but the GOP is just dead right now.
  6. gunnarthor
    Give me a couple examples that are comparable of the team bending over backwards to meet a players ever desire? I remember players had to shame baseball into getting a few days of paternity leave. I'll give the Twins credit for dealing well with Jorge Polanco when his grandfather who helped raise him passed away and the Twins were very good about letting Polanco get extra days off. But I'm not sure there's much in the way of comparable measures for the player against ownership.
  7. gunnarthor
    Technically it was 15 games but he was pulled from the 7/29 game before he got an at-bat. And he hit .339/.381/.593 from July 14th on. So his performance was fine. He needed more at-bats but the team decided an extra year of control was more important.
  8. gunnarthor
    The Twins ****ed with his service time. Full stop. He was hitting well in AAA and then they claimed he was playing hurt, which, if true, means the entire front office should've been fired for making him play hurt. The ML roster had injuries to their OFers so Grossman was starting in the corners. They promoted Johnny Field, who was playing worse than Buxton in AAA, instead of Buxton. The Twins had every right to do what they did but it was still a dick move and we'll see if it poisoned the relationship in a few years.
  9. gunnarthor
    Span was probably the last high reward trade.
  10. gunnarthor
    Hey, if you've paid attention to the last 25 years of this team and still think the Pohlad family is a good thing .... well, you'd be just wrong. Our owners are horrible. As for the trades, the 2017 returns look awful and the Pressly/Escobar trades look pretty good, it's too early to tell of course. As for building up the minors, eh. That is a good thing, of course, but it's not nearly as strong as it was four five years ago and this FO hasn't shown it knows how to build around a strong core of prospects in the first place. Is the plan to punt on the Sano/Buxton/Berrios/Kepler/Rosario/Polanco group? That seems like the plan unless the players force the issue. The FO also traded away draft picks for payroll relief and 2m in international money for middling prospects (see first paragraph) so, while the 2017 draft looks pretty good, the 2018 draft wasn't nearly as good as it could've/should've been. Lastly, yes, I do think the FO should have had the power to not hire Molitor. If the FO can clear out players on the last year of their contract while contending for a playoff spot, they can move off a manager in the same situation. It was clear that the team was winning despite Molly in 2017 and he was horrible at dealing with young players, especially the pitchers. If the owners forced the FO to rehire him then see first paragraph.
  11. gunnarthor
    There are many obvious reasons and all of them are partly true. We all know them.
  12. gunnarthor
    They selected four groups of Journalists that have been targeted for reporting from around the world. I always like Time's POY issue and I think this was a good pick. https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/11/media/time-person-of-the-year-2018/index.html
  13. gunnarthor
    I don't think Austin should have any input on improving the DH position. Cruz is a great hitter. He'd be our best pure power hitter since Thome. And he might even be better in TF than in Safeco. His OPS was .100 points higher on the road last year and TF is great for RH power. Add in the character points and the obvious need for another big bat and it's a no-brainer.
  14. gunnarthor
    I think getting knocked down 20 times a game eventually gets to you. Kurt Warner had that problem a few years, too.
  15. gunnarthor
    I mean, this was another winnable game that we just weren't prepared for on one side of the ball.
  16. gunnarthor
    I hate this team
  17. gunnarthor
    This team ...
  18. gunnarthor
    Seriously, this offensive line is so bad it's hard to determine how much is on the coaches and the QB.
  19. gunnarthor
    Good grief
  20. gunnarthor
    Third and short seems to be kryptonite to this team this year.
  21. gunnarthor
    Yeah, he would have been caught from behind but would've been fun to watch.
  22. gunnarthor
    Rooker just turned 24 and will be 24 all of next season. Cruz is a great fit for the Twins. He fills an absolute need - middle of the lineup bat - and he can show guys like Sano how to last in the league for this long.
  23. gunnarthor
    I'm not sure why you posted that. No one was comparing him to Martinez. Do you not understand why a 121 OPS+ over 11,000 PA is impressive? That's higher than HOFers like Bourdeaux, Dawson and Carlton Fisk. It's better than current players like Manny Machedo, Nolan Arenado and Adrian Beltre. His bat was worth about 40 WAR over his long career. That's not bad. As earlier said, I don't think he belonged in the HOF but he had a very nice career.
  24. gunnarthor
    I think the anger I have over this is that free agency is usually not that worth wile. You might occasionally hit with a guy like Santana in 2017 or Hughes' first season with us but usually we're just moving pieces around while still relying on the home grown product to present the bulk of the work. That's how it's almost always been for the Twins and it looks like that is how it'll remain. But this year is the one year that the Twins actually had enormous payroll flexibility and a great number of potential difference makers were on the market. That doesn't really happen every year. Last year the biggest position player contract went to Eric Hosmer. And the Twins seem set to not use this perfect storm of opportunity in a way that will help the team not only next year but also in 2020 and beyond.
  25. gunnarthor
    Baines' WAR number doesn't put him in the HOF by most standards but he had a heck of a career. b-WAR gives him nearly negative 20 WAR for his defense but he could hit. His OPS+ 121 is higher than many HOFers and he did in over 11000 plate appearances, which is truly amazing. I didn't think he was a HOFer but always thought he was president of the "professional hitters" squad. Only his rookie season and last season was his OPS+ below 100. So while I think most of us probably agree that his selection wasn't great, we should also try and remember that he had a pretty good career and probably shouldn't give him the Jack Morris treatment and degenerate his career.
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