Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

gunnarthor

Old-Timey Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    13,019

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    20

 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 gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    http://m.twins.mlb.com/news/article/110224834/jonathan-mayo-twins-own-mlbs-top-farm-system Pretty glowing article. Mayo likes the Twins balance of pitchers and hitters, like Gordon to stick at short and sees both Buxton and Sano as elite players. "As much as their six best prospects make the Twins' system stand out, the fact that there are several players after that half-dozen who could be big league regulars is what truly gives the organization "best system" status. Impact players plus depth makes for a truly special system, and the Twins have that combination." He then writes about May, Polanco and Rosario. He finishes with: "Keep in mind that the two biggest rookie impact players for the Twins in 2014, Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas, were never considered top-of-the-list type prospects. To me, the biggest indicator that an organization is doing things right is when you're expanding teams' top-prospects lists to 30 players -- as we are here -- and you still have interesting players who don't make the list. You'll have to wait and see the final draft of that in March, but rest assured, there is no shortage of replacement candidates to choose from, a good sign indeed."
  2. gunnarthor
    Your criticisms have been mostly observing something, making your explanation for it and then pinning that thought process on Gardy. Big difference. And then you use hyperbole to try and make your point.
  3. gunnarthor
    Actually, Beane has hired "old school" managers, including his friend Bob Geren. He's said multiple times that in-game decisions aren't as important to him as how the team is prepared. Posnanski had a bit on that last year when he was writing about Yost in KC, IIRC.
  4. gunnarthor
    I think you're moving the goalposts. Originally you seemed to want to argue that Gardy was so stuck in his ways that he would bat Casilla second, I pointed out (correctly) that that was not true. Now you want to move the goalposts a bit and argue that "half" his small amount of at-bats happened at that position. Fine. Either way, your original implication was wrong and you're still arguing about batting orders. Again, most of this is just tropes that people want to believe than what really happened. Most of the time, the Twins carried only two catchers on their 25 man roster. Also, Gardy didn't sac bunt nearly as much as people want to claim.
  5. gunnarthor
    Casilla didn't hit .220 and he did take some walks. 2008 Casilla started 89 games while batting second - .332 OBP (league OBP for #2 hitters .330) 2009 Casilla didn't hit well so Gardy gave him all of 26 starts there. 2010 didn't play him much but he did post a .358 OBP in his 16 starts as Hudson's backup. 2011 started 62 games while batting second w/.327 OBP (league OBP for #2 hitters was .331) Not really seeing much to support your theory. He kept him in the two spot when he was productive and moved him out when he wasn't. (And batting order is such a useless thing to complain about anyway). Again, I think for many people narratives developed and they chose to believe those things over what was really happening. Not that there weren't valid things to criticize him about.
  6. gunnarthor
    I disagree very strongly with several of the themes posters have on Gardy - he's dumb, uneducated, lazy, content, stubborn, stuck in his ways, etc, etc. I also think that teams are starting to realize the ability to manage a clubhouse might be the most important thing the manager does. You started reading that in Posnanski's stuff last year and he's pretty plugged in - I believe he quoted Bill James a few times on it. So, no, I don't really buy into your thesis. Many of the things Molitor has said and done - including pushing hard for Hunter - would be similar things that Gardy would have done. Molitor will be a new voice and that should change the dynamic on its own. The money thing wasn't as much for the team as it was for Gardy. If he sits out the season, he makes 2.5m or so. It's doubtful that other teams would pay him that much.
  7. gunnarthor
    Actually, I would agree with that. Both professionally and just for his own health. I mean, being a baseball manager would be a great job but it's gotta be insanely stressful.
  8. gunnarthor
    Again, I don't think it's a big deal for managers to not be hired the same year they were fired. IIRC, the Twins will pay Gardy somethings like 2.5m this season so any team hiring a new manager would have had to top that unless Gardy didn't care about it. I think several of those teams are also paying the new manager + the old manager (for instance, Diamondbacks have to still pay Gibson while paying Hale) so I would doubt, without looking it up, that any of these new manager positions were paying that kind of money.
  9. gunnarthor
    Yep. Mauer actually had fewer PA and games in the minors than Mike Trout but you'd read tons of statements like "if Trout were in the Twins system, he'd be in AA this year."
  10. gunnarthor
    If he wants another managing job, he'll get one. (Although at 58 he is a bit older than I think he is). But a lot of managers don't get hired the same year they get fired.
  11. gunnarthor
    Just the way the talent seems to be in this draft, I think they'll probably grab a college pitcher. But Cameron will be really enticing at #6 and if the pitchers they like aren't there, they could easily nab him.
  12. gunnarthor
    Oh, that's not remotely fair but it's not really worth getting into another Gardy bashing thread.
  13. gunnarthor
    I wonder how much of stuff like this really needs outside forces or is more a change simply by generation of different players and what is acceptable to them. If you think about the Richie Incognito stuff, it was pretty clear that his behavior was pretty normal for the NFL even for today but the hazing level in all sports (including the NFL) seems to be a lot less now.
  14. gunnarthor
    Honestly, hating teams is a big part of sports. It actually makes me sad knowing that you don't hate Boston or NY. You do hate the Packers, though, right?
  15. gunnarthor
    First, the Twins aren't really notoriously slow. That perception came b/c of a flawed understanding of a study of prospects who were called up. Since the Twins were such a small market team, they'd use older prospects rather than get a FA to plug in. So they had some old rookies - Ford was 26, Koskie 25, Tommy Watkins gets included, Luiz Rodriguez etc. But they had a bunch of guys debut at 22 or younger - Mauer, Morneau, Rivas, Kubel, Durbin, Liriano, Casilla, Garza, Gomez, Revere, Young, Ramos etc. But even if you don't want to believe that, when Ryan came back he put Brad Steil in charge of the minor league development and you can say that Steil has been pretty strong with pushing prospects as a lot of the biggest names have done multiple levels each year.
  16. gunnarthor
    There is a downside, as I understand it, to what Boston did (and a few other big market teams). They are not allowed to sign any high end international talent next year since they went so far over their pool this year. So a few big names won't be grabbed by them.
  17. gunnarthor
    Oh, I'm already there.
  18. gunnarthor
    To put that money into perspective, that 63m the Sox are paying for his rights are more than the the highest 6 teams had in their bonus pool amounts from last years draft.
  19. gunnarthor
    http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/02/red-sox-to-sign-yoan-moncada.html 31.5m signing bonus. Because Boston had gone over its international spending allotment, they have to pay another 31.5m to mlb. "Moncada, a 19-year-old switch-hitting infielder, is the most sought-after international prospect in recent history. Said to be a true five-tool talent, scouts have likened his upside to that of Robinson Cano and Chase Utley (in his prime). Prospect specialists at Baseball America, MLB.com, Baseball Prospectus and Fangraphs have all suggested that Moncada would rank in the top five to 15 prospects in Major League Baseball upon signing, which will make him Boston’s new No. 1 prospect. Unlike recent Cuban signings such as Jose Abreu and Rusney Castillo, however, Moncada will likely require at least one season in the minors — possibly two."
  20. gunnarthor
    Yeah, I think the Twins sort of see Rosario as a poor man's Ben Zorbrist and might end up using him as a super utility guy in the majors (if he can hit). So it's good to see that he's going to get playing time in the OF but also at second base. I also liked Reusse remembering Lyman Bostick. His death was really tragic and it's nice that younger fans might google and learn about him.
  21. gunnarthor
    Has Aiken selected a college yet or is he just doing informal workouts?
  22. gunnarthor
    And I think it's much, much more likely that Aiken drops to us since the Astros can't/won't draft him.
  23. gunnarthor
    Good luck to him.
  24. gunnarthor
    Good article. I think Harrison is a good bet to be a big riser on prospect lists a year from now. I think the hardest thing for prospects is to control the strike zone and Harrison showed huge improvement in that area. Hopefully, he carries that plate discipline up to AA this year.
  25. gunnarthor
    I don't think so. There's no Bryant or Zunino in this draft. The top college position players - keeping in mind that there is a whole season to play - are arguably Dansby Swanson (SS/2B from Vanderbilt), Alex Bregman (SS at LSU), DJ Stewart (OF Fl St) or Ian Happ (LF Cincinnati). The best catching prospect is a HS kid. This draft is loaded with pitchers. 18 of mlb.com's top 30 draft are pitchers.
×
×
  • Create New...