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gunnarthor

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Everything posted by gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    Well, Woody Hayes, Billy Martin, La Russa, Lasorda, Don Zimmer, Buck Showalter, Jeff Van Gundy .... Again, Doug got punished. But apparently you think the only punishment should be losing his job. That's a far leap. I think most of us who think on field brawling etc adds something to the game still believe there should be penalties. We just aren't as extreme as you.
  2. gunnarthor
    You have selective memory. Bulls/Knicks, Bulls/Pistons, Raiders/Steelers, Vikings/Packers, Yankees/Red Sox, Yankees/Orioles, Twins/White Sox, Giants/Dodgers, Giants/Braves, Cowboys/Eagles, Pistons/Celtics, Celtics/Lakers, Bruins/Every NHL team, Cowboys/49ers, Cardinals/Reds, Royals/Yankees. All of those rivalries had important parts added to it by "dirty play." And, as I pointed out many times, football season has started so why haven't you been advocating for Captain Munnerlyn to be fired or charged with assault for his personal foul on the Rams receiver? The guy was out of bounds in a defenseless position with Munnerlyn whipped him to the ground. That's certainly an "assault", as you called it, and much more dangerous than any baseball fiasco. Or is illegal contact in football "just part of the game" and something you can accept?
  3. gunnarthor
    I do believe Dougie was punished for that, IIRC. From your posts in that thread, you seem to be advocating that he be fired. I wouldn't go that far. I think this brings up two issues. First, is this kind of conduct good in a general, human sense? Second, is it good for the sport? On the first issue, I think you have some ground. Adults probably shouldn't get in fights in general. In sports I think there's a bit more acceptance of physical contact that's probably always going to be there. Issues of respect/disrespect, supporting teammates, etc come into play here. On the second issue, I think this stuff is great for the game. I think one of the worse things baseball did for its popularity was trying to clean up the game. Torii Hunter's take out was great - it was a legal play but sorta dirty. It hyped the Twins/White Sox rivalry. Fans became more invested in the game (IIRC, the Twins/White Sox had three straight series where benches emptied after that). Rivalries are born from things like this. Rivalries are great for any sport. A's fans hate Manny Machado now and they had some of their best home attendance games of the year when Baltimore came to town. Lastly, I think this problem in baseball is incredibly over stated. Even in the grand old days of brawls and pitchers hitting batters deliberately, no one actually got hurt. Compared with the late hits in football and brawls in hockey, baseball is far and away a cleaner, safer game.
  4. gunnarthor
    I haven't really studied the 2015 draft pool yet but with Aiken and Bickford eligible, we know that at least two good starting pitchers have been added to that depth. And it's nice to hear the draft is strong in HS bats since that's what the Twins like to take.
  5. gunnarthor
    I think Gardy stays next season but Dougie is brought up as a bench coach or a 3rd base coach or something to give him ML experience. And after next year (when the team flirts with or beats .500) Gardy steps down (like Kelly) and Dougie takes over.
  6. gunnarthor
    I choose to believe you.
  7. gunnarthor
    We had a couple pleasant surprises, really. Santana's rookie season was fantastic and really saved the outfield. In the minor leagues, Lewis Thorpe was the youngest pitcher in A ball and more than held his own. Although a lot of people had him listed as a sleeper (or better) prospect coming into the season. I think the biggest surprise in the minors would have to be Levi Michael re-establishing himself as a prospect. The 23 year old second baseman (and suddenly the Twins are loaded at that position) has shown excellent plate discipline and has posted an OBP of .444 at AA after hitting really well in a pitcher's league in A+.
  8. gunnarthor
    I don't see why we'd bring him in. He and Ryan are too similar. If you want to get rid of Ryan (and I don't) you wouldn't bring in the same sort of guy. Towers has a lot of baseball smarts and I'd love it if he were a part of our org - scouting guy, assistant to the GM, whatever - but not as a GM.
  9. gunnarthor
    Washington might have been the best fit for the Rangers to deal with Hamilton's addiction and recovery. Gardy is a better game day manager. I think Washington won't manage for a while and Gardy will eventually retire as the Twins manager, just like Kelly did. And Dougie Baseball will take over.
  10. gunnarthor
    Perhaps you've missed some of the Mauer threads.
  11. gunnarthor
    I trust Ryan b/c he's shown the ability to build a solid foundation before. He's also shown the ability to change the nucleus of his team on the go (something Beane had trouble doing). When he came back as GM the Twins weren't going to be a quick fix - they were old and had a bad farm system. Since he's been back I haven't seen anything that indicates he's out of his depth. Ryan has made some very good trades - getting Escobar for Liriano, May/Worley for Revere, Meyer for Span, Nunez for (one step removed) Buetera. He's made some solid waiver wire pick ups, draft choices and even some good FA pick ups. If you compare him to Lunhow and Hoyer (who were both hired at roughly the same time), Ryan has done just as well, if not better. I like that Ryan, ownership and Gardy all seem to be on the same page. I like that Ryan isn't making short term moves at the expense of the long term. I think he has a plan and is implementing it on his schedule.
  12. gunnarthor
    I think it'll be Hughes, Gibson, May, Milone and Meyer. I think Ryan somehow trades Nolasco in the offseason, despite his crappy season. Maybe I'm just wishing it.
  13. gunnarthor
    Nice write up. I don't know why but I'm really not worried about Arcia figuring this out. He's still young and has plenty of time to figure it out. And while he's figuring it out, he sure can punish a mistake pitch.
  14. gunnarthor
    http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/11469334/arizona-diamondbacks-fire-gm-kevin-towers All in all, he's a better GM than his current rep has him but he probably isn't getting a GM job again anytime soon. His background, like Ryan's, was in scouting. (Towers once said the problem with trading with Terry Ryan was that "Ryan knows your system better than you do.")
  15. gunnarthor
    I always figured when you get a range for a minor leaguer - say 92-95 - that the number on the high end wasn't going to be common. 92-93ish is probably May's normal run. And that's not just Twins pitchers. Trevor Bauer, for instance, was supposed to have a high 90s 97-99 fastball, occasionally touching 100. This year it's gotten up to 94 on fangraphs but had been 92 the previous two years. Anyhow, back to May. His fastball, per fangraphs, is something like 91.6 in Sept. That's pretty good. He's striking out a batter an inning lately while learning to pitch in the majors at the end of a long season. It's much more important that he has swing and miss stuff than the actual MPH.
  16. gunnarthor
    On his fastball, I think most reports I read said he had a fastball between 92-95. Last night he had, per mlb's gameday, a couple 94, about eight at 93 and a bunch at 92. I think that's probably about normal for him, assuming he holds velocity when he starts pitching longer.
  17. gunnarthor
    Because he was my adopt-a-prospect and b/c I'm a complete homer, I am going to find the good. Over his last three starts, May has a 10.8 k/9 and only 1.2 BB/9 and an xFIP of 3.45. His massive era over that time is because of a ridiculously high babip and insanely low LOB%. Obviously, I'm just picking and chosing within a SSS of data so it's basically worthless but he has cut down the walks quite a bit and yesterday was his first start against a team not fighting for a postseasons spot (A's, Orioles, KC and Det). He made some rookie mistakes but so did Gibson and Baker and Radke and Santana .... It does look like he has some legitimate strike out ability and I'll stick to my thoughts that he could have some Aaron Harang type seasons sometime.
  18. gunnarthor
    I think it's nearly the same as the Dome, IIRC.
  19. gunnarthor
    It's cyclical, Mike. Miami's last winning season was in 09, Washington had 6 straight losing seasons (including being the worst team two years in a row), SF had 4 losing seasons before having 4 winnings seasons (and having another losing season last year). Only St Louis seems immune from the typical w/l cycle that the Twins are going through (and they had a few things going for them in that run that the Twins didn't have).
  20. gunnarthor
    Meyer did miss two months last year with a shoulder injury. I don't think any team would have brought him up in that circumstance. This year it's a more open question but I think the Twins wanted to see him healthy and not worry about getting ML hitters out.
  21. gunnarthor
    Yeah, he's been a lot worse than I thought. I guess it's only 20 innings so it's probably too early to panic but man, it's ugly. I'm not sure it's anyone's "fault" anymore than leaving the Colosseum. His ERA at home was about a full run better than on the road and I suspect that Oakland's large foul ball territory really helps mediocre pitchers look better than they are. But I agree with the general consensus that he shouldn't be blocking Meyer or May out of ST next year.
  22. gunnarthor
    As to Berrios, I'm not sure I'd rank him ahead of Meyer or Stewart, even with his great year. I think those two still have him beat on upside and, in Meyer's case, he'll still probably beat Berrios to the majors. I think we are a little too worried about Meyer. He threw 130 innings after throwing about 100 last year (including the AFL). I think, so long as this shoulder thing isn't more serious which we don't know but early indications are that it's ok, he'll be fine. The big thing for him was to get through the season and for the most part he did. He's got elite stuff but occasionally will get wild. He's a big dude, it'll happen.
  23. gunnarthor
    Mike, you're jumping the gun. Neither May or Meyer have been moved to the pen and the team hasn't made any plans to do so. May will get every shot to be a valid starter - just like Perkins. If it fails, he can move to the pen and (probably) be an asset - just like Perkins. He's still very young and his four starts have come against four playoff teams. Meyer could end up in the pen due to control or injury but again the Twins haven't moved him in that direction. Lastly, their aren't really "elite" players in FA to buy. I will agree with you that the Twins should be more aggressive in the Cuban and Japanese markets.
  24. gunnarthor
    Since I'm one of the few optimists, I'll say that most teams don't have this many high level prospects to get hurt in the first place.
  25. gunnarthor
    I think a 28 year old would have gotten a bit more than Nolasco, both in years and dollars. My guess would be that in this years FA group, we'd see a lot of articles about smart teams should pass on the "aces" and get the cheaper Hughes who is "thriving" outside of a ballpark that wasn't a good fit for him. So I think something like 5/75ish.
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