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gunnarthor

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Everything posted by gunnarthor

  1. gunnarthor
    Yeah, this is what I want. Get him used to the majors like they did with Santana and Liriano. They can move him into the rotation in June and still limit him to 130 or so innings.
  2. gunnarthor
    In addition to what Seth said, low prospects are sexier. We can dream on Buxton becoming another Upton or healthy Sizemore type. But players, as they get closer to ML, lose that luster. Scott Diamond, for instance, was an absolute lock to be a MLer when the Twins grabbed him in the rule V but nearly no one put him in the top 20 prospects because (and I think the fan vote at Twinkie Town had him in the 30s), by that time, he was seen as a 5th starter/long reliever. Hicks and Arcia have both lost that luster. Sickels thinks Hicks will be a good CFer but no longer an all-star type. Arcia is being compared to Jason Kubel and not Bobby Abreau. When the Twins drafted Parmelee, he was compared to Adam Dunn, now he's a replacement level first baseman. Of course, some guys keep that luster - reviews of Gibson have been extremely positive, Sano, still far away, hasn't done anything to quiet talk of him being the best power prospect in the minors. It's a tough juggling act.
  3. gunnarthor
    Nice to see Howard call out ownership.
  4. gunnarthor
    Interesting list. Buxton above Sano? Cool. Agree with Hicks at 3 but, generally, our top 6 is pretty set, just flip them around a bit. Good to see Polanco getting into the top 10. Three guys (Sano, Kepler and Polanco) were international signees from the same year. Nice class.
  5. gunnarthor
    Yunel had a pretty bad drop off last year so there is the danger that maybe he's declining or older than appears to be. But, depending on what we have to give up, I'd be ok with taking a flier on him. I'm not too concerned about his attitude. We won with Hudson and Rauch, both were bad club house guys and Cabrera came to us with a reputation for being a bit of a hothead and fit in perfectly.
  6. gunnarthor
    Except their owner fired Girardi after he didn't win enough with another low budget team (but did win MOY). Hopefully, Redmond shows enough ability as a manager that, after his eventual firing, he can land somewhere better.
  7. gunnarthor
    Good signing for Det, although that big of a park might limit Hunter a bit. And, of course, he's old so he could fall off a cliff.
  8. gunnarthor
    Organizations may have been blind but some certainly benefited from it more than others. I don't mind steroid use in the NFL b/c I'm pretty confident the Viking players are juicing just as much as the Patriots and Giants players are. But steroid use in baseball wasn't uniform, some teams benefited more than others, either by creating a culture that let their players take steroids or by signing free agent roiders to long term contracts. Look at the 02-04 Twins. We got bounced twice by the Yanks in those seasons. Our best players were probably Santana, AJ, Dougie Baseball, Radke and Hunter. The Yankees best players were Giambi, Clemens, Pettitte, ARod, Sheffield. One list is a bit different than the other. If you want to ignore the benefit of PEDs in baseball, fine, then that wouldn't alter my original post, Ryan would succeed just fine with Boston's resources. But if you think PEDs did impact the game then you'd have to calculate into that how much a front office would be willing to accept PED users. Going back to Theo for a moment, the Mitchell report indicated that his baseball people thought Eric Gagne had lost his stuff b/c he wasn't on PEDs anymore. Some emails suggested that Gagne wasn't worth trading for. Theo did anyway, which suggests that the Red Sox FO 1) didn't think PEDs impacted baseball 2) Thought Gagne could succeed without PEDs despite what their own scouts suggested or 3) thought he'd start using PEDs again.
  9. gunnarthor
    They were found in the visitors locker room. Seattle, IIRC.
  10. gunnarthor
    Top 3 prospects in an org at a minimum.
  11. gunnarthor
    What I'm saying is that, given the same resources (and blind eye to PEDs), I think Ryan would have done just as well in Boston.
  12. gunnarthor
    Actually that's two "random" World Series wins in his first five seasons as GM, sunshine. Maybe the Twins can find a lucky GM like that too someday. And if you think the AL East was a cakewalk during his best seasons, I think you're in the minority. Well, from 03-05 the AL East only had two teams with winning records and each year it was NY and Bos. In 06 & 07, Toronto joined them. Boston fell to third in 06 and won it all in 07. After Tampa made the playoffs in 08, Boston only made the playoffs once. Boston spent more money than anyone except NY and had a lot of players associated with PEDs. Epstein tended to get too much credit and too much blame for what happened in Bos. He had resources that let him sign top free agents and create a strong draft/scouting group. He was able to offer arbitration to players going away so he got extra draft picks which gave him some great drafts (05) and not so great (06-07). I find it comical that people would try and compare the 03-11 Red Sox with the Twins. The Twins had a far harder time making the post season, despite playing the Yankees 12 fewer times a year. Ryan was hamstrung by payroll for both the ML roster but also in the draft. Bad contracts were significant problems that he couldn't outspend. Chicago and Detroit had massive payroll advantages over us.
  13. gunnarthor
    Theo Epstein is very likely smarter than anyone we have in our upper management...I have little doubt he'll turn that mess around He did sign Lackey and Crawford ....
  14. gunnarthor
    Who cares...people make mistakes. He thought it was a done deal and he posted. He was wrong. Oh well. Has he ever been right?
  15. gunnarthor
    Baker should do better in the NL. The frightening thing for the Twins isn't losing Baker but the cost of pitching. 5.5 + 1.5 in incentives for a guy coming off TJ? Who has one 200 ip season? Who is 31? I was hoping Marcum would come on a 1 yr 8m or so but, cripes, that's way low now. Give the Cubs credit, they have money and aren't afraid to use it.
  16. gunnarthor
    Excuse me? When? World Series? Only once the TR teams moved to the ALCS and then that team lost. In his time as a GM he built teams that were winning AL Central championships often and then bowed out in the post-season in the 2000s and teams that were in the basement in the 90s and 2010s so far. Well I'll never claim to being as wise as you but I would call any team that moved to a league championship game a World Series contender. Anytime you're within 8 wins of winning it all, you're a contender. With playoffs being such a small sample, stuff happens. Technically, three wins in 04 (to be a WS contender).
  17. gunnarthor
    Didi was drafted out of high school, Dozier went to college. Dozier spent less time in the minors before getting called up. Didi also didn't show the ability to get on base past AA Didi was signed as an international free agent from the Netherlands. Arguing that Dozier spent less time in the minors is, at best, a canard. Dozier spent 4 years playing in college then spent the next 3+ years in the minors before making the majors at 25. While neither has dominated the upper levels of the minors, Didi has managed to beat Dozier to those levels by three years. Also, unlike Dozier, he is good defensively. No one should suggest that Dozier is a better option.
  18. gunnarthor
    Agree 100%.
  19. gunnarthor
    Didi made the majors at 22, Dozier was in rookie ball. Dozier hasn't shown the ability to get on base above AA. Scouts like Didi, he won't be a star but he'll stick at short and his bat should be better than Cozart's.
  20. gunnarthor
    I think you're over rating Cozart. He had a .632 OPS away from the Reds bandbox stadium. His power won't translate to TF. He's defense is solid but it's not worth giving up a better defender in CF. I still think Span to the Reds for Didi + pitcher makes sense. But Span (or Revere) straight up for Cozart is a bad trade for us.
  21. gunnarthor
    I agree with others that his stubbornness might turn off the Twins. That said, if the Twins do really think they can get him working properly, I think they'd have to give up a lot for him. Span/Sano/Goodrum or Sano/Arcia/Kepler would be realistic starting points.
  22. gunnarthor
    I really want Sanchez so I'd do it but no one is ever going to be dumb enough to make me a GM. If Sanchez breaks down like Santana did, it'll be a horrible deal.
  23. gunnarthor
    I'd trade a guy like Arcia or Revere for him but not Span, Willingham or are other top prospects. The thought of betting on a knuckleballer frightens me.
  24. gunnarthor
    I read the Trade Rumors blurb about that, but it was actually just the Seattle front office who told Ken Rosenthal that THEY think he's on the same level as the other three prospects. So, pretty sure that is a negotiating ploy to drive up everyones value, or the Mariners way of saying, take Mauerer instead, he's just as good. My question is, why are Hicks and Revere the two they are looking at? Why wouldn't the Mariners be looking at the middle option, Oswaldo Arcia? He's closer to MLB ready than Hicks and has much more upside than Revere. The only reason I can see them having no interest is if they are solely looking for their future leadoff hitter. On a team that offensively starved, I'd think that narrow of a focus would not be beneficial. I think with their ballpark, even with the fences moved in, they would look to add an elite CFer. That would also explain why they would mention Revere.
  25. gunnarthor
    Yeah, the vote NO effort was amazing. I was really worried about voter ID. Great work, MN!
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