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gunnarthor

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Everything posted by gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    It's a bit early to worry about Pinto's playing time.
  2. gunnarthor
    This exactly.
  3. gunnarthor
    I'm not sure if there were hidden messages. I don't think they liked Pressley's work ethic/attitude i.e. acting as if he had a spot on the roster set. I don't think those decisions really affected either Meyer or Buxton, both of whom may make the team but it'll be based on how they do in the minors.
  4. gunnarthor
    May came here in the Ben Revere trade along with Vance Worley. The right hander has the size you'd want in a pitcher - 6'5" and 220 lbs. He's been extremely durable and thrown 150 innings each of the last 3 seasons and 135 in the one before that. At his best, he profiles to be a innings eating #3 type starter. He had a long season last year but managed to pitch another 15 innings or so in the AFL. May has the stuff to be a starter but his results haven't always been great. His numbers in AA have been ok - he strikes out a ton of guys but he walks a bunch too. Jason Parks, Baseball Prospectus main prospect guru, has said that May "frustrates the hell" out of him. Klaw has noted that he "pitches small" and has a low release point. His command can be shaky at times. But those are mechanical issues that can be fixed. His first year in the Twins system saw his walk rate fall from 12% to 10% while his strike out rate increased from 22% to 24%. He also saw a big drop in home runs allowed. His era last year was hurt by shaky defense - opponents had a .330 avg in balls in play. With a bit more luck, his era might have been more in line with his fip (which was 13th in the EL among starting pitchers). May starts the year in AAA and will (most likely) be one of the first arms called up. I tend to think that May is underrated but he might never be a "traditional" Twins pitcher. He's going to give up some walks. But he has the frame and durability to pitch around it and still be a 200 inning guy.
  5. gunnarthor
    Fair enough.
  6. gunnarthor
    I agree that it's a warzone but disagree on making that a reason not to trade catchers. Ignoring the Capps trade for a second, Ryan has already made two solid trades involving catchers - both times getting more than what most fans thought the value should be. If the Nats came to us and wanted Pinto for AJ Cole, we'd jump all over that, wouldn't we?
  7. gunnarthor
    He was injury prone in the minors too. That's part of why his prospect status fell a bit and Baseball America noted that the Twins had issues with Ramos' conditioning. And, before all his injuries, he defense was coming under question in Washington.
  8. gunnarthor
    You do know Gardy's teams were usually among the youngest in baseball, right? I mean, people always seem to remember 12 starts for Livian Hernandez and ignore the 114 starts Kyle Lohse got before he turned 26.
  9. gunnarthor
    The Capps trade was a win-now trade. The Twins traded 6+ years of Ramos for a year and a half of Capps. So obviously the longterm value was likely to be Ramos (although their value over the 1.5 years was basically equal). That's just the reality of win-now trades and those were the type of trades fans were clamoring for Ryan to do when he was GM and he rarely did. The Twins had lost 10 games in the standings in a month and their pitching was nosediving. It was a fair trade.
  10. gunnarthor
    It wasn't that bad. It was a win-now trade and it was defensible. People tend to forget that Ramos' stock was dropping at the time of the trade (he fell on BA's top 100 list from 58 to 96). He was posting a sub .300 OBP at AAA and had a history of injuries. The concern was that he might be another Miguel Olivo. Sickels wrote "I like [Ramos], but not enough to pan the trade from Minnesota's point of view; I think it is fair for both teams. In my Shadow Twins universe, I will make this trade." Manual and Callis also wrote similar things at the time. The injury concern has certainly remained. He's been on the DL every year of his career - minor leagues included. He had an ok 2011 season but both his 2012 and 2013 seasons were wrecked by injuries (103 games combined). He's had pretty big OBP problems in the majors, posting a sub .300 OBP except when he's batting 8th in an NL lineup. I also think we tend to overrate him. His best year - 2011 - was also Mauer's worst and they were basically equal value (1.8 rWAR v 1.5).
  11. gunnarthor
    I can't find the link but a few years ago there was this great prank (probably faked) on a couple that had been dating over a year. The guys friends had the "will you marry me" thing put on at the stadium. She was overjoyed and immediately said yes and he was terrified and screaming it wasn't him. She cries and storms off. In any event, I proposed at Tavern on the Green where it was busy enough so she couldn't say no. Worked.
  12. gunnarthor
    Trevor May
  13. gunnarthor
    In any event, it'll be nice to see Stewart and Eades pitching down the road, if I wanted to see them.
  14. gunnarthor
    Yeah, I saw that but he won't go at #5 and he won't drop to the second round. If we were drafting at 15-20, maybe you start hoping he falls to you but ...
  15. gunnarthor
    I don't know enough about Jackson to actually answer this but he's starting to grow on me. Mostly because I think RH power is a real advantage at Target Field and I'd like to stock up on it and I like the thought of having impact bats in the system. So, in some ways, it becomes a question of do we want the best bat in the draft or the 5th best pitcher? I'm not sure but I hope the Twins are scouting the crap out of him. Frankly, if his upside is Cuddyer/Willingham (a solid corner bat, limited defense) I think I'd rather they take a lottery ticket chance on the pitcher who drops but might be a legit 1 or 2 down the road. But if they think Jackson can be Cuddyer with good defense or a better offensive Cuddyer (or stick at catcher) then I'd probably change my mind.
  16. gunnarthor
    Marshall seems the type of guy that the Twins would target. He's from a GA high school and the Twins have really stepped up their scouting in that area these last few years. LHP with an strong change-up seems to fit the Twins mold, too. mlbpipeline has him rated the #32 draft prospect right now so he could be there for the Twins in the second round (Last year, Eades was #27 on their list and fell). Others that I think we'd love to get would be Burdi (we drafted him before and Twins have been picking flamethrowers since Johnson took over. Probably doesn't drop that far though) or Sheffield, a LHP from TN whose brother was drafted but didn't sign w/Boston last year.
  17. gunnarthor
    I've always liked Hicks and, at the end of the day, he has some real talent. It'll show up eventually.
  18. gunnarthor
    I could see the Twins hanging around the fringes. The pitching should be adequate and Hughes and Gibson could be nice surprises. The bullpen is strong. The problem is the lineup. But if a few things go right .... Hicks breaks out, Arcia continues to mature, good health to Willingham then the lineup looks a bit better. Personally, I think the team remains competitive (like close to .500) until the trade deadline when they trade a few vets off and have a bad second half.
  19. gunnarthor
    This is sorta my thinking too but, to play devil's advocate, some scouts still love his tools. Has decent plate discipline (and last year his bapib was pretty low so some bad luck might have been involved in his numbers). He has decent power now with a better future potential. I think one thing we might be forgetting is that, when we signed him, everyone said he would take a lot of time to develop. He wasn't playing against great talent in Europe. Then he had a really nice season in 2012 and we all might have jumped the gun on him and forgot that he's probably a guy who is going to need a ton of minor league at bats. And I also think it's great for our minor league depth that a guy like him is a borderline top 10 prospect.
  20. gunnarthor
    I can't imagine we were the only team scouting Lewis Thorpe, let alone some US kid. We might have been the only one that stuck around, for whatever reason, but there is no way other teams didn't at least once kick the tires on him. Heck, 19 kids from his high school have been drafted (3 in the year he was), 4 made the majors. It wasn't like he was playing in some far away area.
  21. gunnarthor
    Well they fired the GM and and several coaches. They're in the process of making massive turnover of the roster. They have a new director of minor league development. Ryan has a track record of success and has the obvious trust of ownership. So all of these threads are just "fire Gardy/fire Ryan" rants and that isn't going to happen because the ultimate decision makers have faith in the rebuild and know enough about baseball to know that not every move is going to work and not to overreact when something goes south.
  22. gunnarthor
    On the first part, all teams, including the Twins, have played the service time game. Perkins and Neshek both openly complained about it. As to the other part, it's hard to say that the Astros front office is doing anything great. They've lost a ton of games - last year the Twins won 15 more games than Houston. They are terrible. No one is watching their games. They were 27th in attendance. Despite having the number one pick in the last two drafts (and 4 top 10 picks in the last 6), they've passed on Buxton (#1 prospect), Bryant (8) and Gray (12) for Correa (7) and Appel (39). They've traded off nearly every thing they've owned but it's hard to say that they've done a better job of developing prospects than the Twins, esp if you consider that the Twins just graduated 3 top 100 prospects and their farm system is still considered #1 (BP), 2 (Klaw) or 4 (BA).
  23. gunnarthor
    http://www.startribune.com/sports/twins/blogs/252317011.html For undisclosed sum of money. I thought the Twins would let him pitch in AAA and try and figure it out. Sounds like they are only getting money, no prospects back.
  24. gunnarthor
    This draft is really looking good for us, with the caveat that a lot can still change. But right now, it looks like one of Aiken, Rodon, Hoffman, Beede or Kolek (or others) will be available for us at 5. I was really worried this would become a 4 player draft but this draft is really showing some depth. I have no idea how the Twins would rate these players but, right now, I'd be happy with any of them at #5. Heck, if things fall weird, we could get a nice grab in the second round, too.
  25. gunnarthor
    http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/03/union-george-springers-agent-considering-grievance.html George Springer - usually considered a top 15 or so prospect - might file a grievance against Houston for sending him down after not signing a team friendly contract. I hope he wins this. To many teams screw over players on service time and the Astros are just a stupid franchise that deserves to get nailed on this.
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