gunnarthor
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Everything posted by gunnarthor
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Well, there are a lot of reasons to think the Twins will take him. 1) He might be the best player available at #2 2) A few years ago, the Twins decided that they needed to do more scouting in the southeastern US and they put Terry Ryan in charge of that area. The immediate result was drafting Nico Goodrum in the second round but Ryan has probably personally scouted Buxton. 3) Drafting toolsy high schoolers is part of the Twins draft strategy, that Ryan created. They aren't going to avoid drafting a guy like Buxton simply b/c they have too many OFers or b/c it's not an exciting pick.
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Souhan suggested in the strib today that the Pohlad sons might not be as loyal as Carl was. "While I don't believe Terry Ryan would fire manager Ron Gardenhire, it would be foolish to think that the new Pohlads will be patient with the field staff if the losing continues. And what if this team implodes and Ryan refuses a Pohlad command to fire Gardenhire? Would Ryan suddenly remember the "interim" adjective in front of his title?" While I don't think Gardy should be fired, it may be more of a possibility than I thought.
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I do think there is a lifelessness to the Twins the last few years but is that real or just my impression from watching a losing team? I have no idea. I do know the 2002 team was better than this years team so I suspect they did a lot of things - hit, pitch, defend, intangibles etc - better. The big perception problem is probably Mauer. Whether it's true or not, I have no idea. But the Mauer that dove at Brett Gardner and kept visiting pitchers to calm them down doesn't seem to be as active. Again, I have no idea if it's true or just a perception you get from watching a bad team and a great player struggle for so long. -shrug-
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Obviously it's early but the midwest league is supposed to be a pitchers league and Sano is one of the youngest players in the league and he's leading it (very early) in home runs. Very exciting.
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Exactly right.
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Radke wasn't a strike out pitcher. Milton wasn't much of one but had three straight 3+ WAR seasons for us (Garza has two in his career). Mays led the league in ERA+ and was second in pWAR. Silva gave us 3 strong seasons. etc, etc
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I think that they've kept Liriano out there shows that they would've understood what Johnson might have had. But it's not a real fair comparison either, as Johnson is a once a generation type pitcher who showed the ability to miss a ton of bats and eat innings. While Liriano's walk rates increased, his krate's decreased. In any event, I'm not sure how many Santana like pitchers should be developed by an organization over a ten year period. Over the last decade, what organizations have really developed pitchers that good?
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[quote name= I would much rather see the Twins show some level of patience with a guy like Liriano who has shown the ability to strike guys out' date=' but hasn't quite figured everything out than to a guy like Blackburn who obviously can throw strikes but hasn't shown the upside of a top starter. Yet it's Blackburn that gets the contract extension, it's Blackburn that is guaranteed a spot in the rotation coming out of ST each year and it seems as though Blackburn is given a pass, even when he's getting lit up. Yet Liriano walks 5 guys and he's called out in the paper and told over and over to pitch to contact. [/quote] In fairness, since 2009 Blackburn has the better ERA, pitched more innings, higher QS% and is paid less than Liriano. I think the Twins have been fair to Liriano. He gets the ball when healthy, they made him their game 1 starter in 2010 against the Yanks (he blew the lead they gave him). Not giving him a longterm contract and then complaining we gave one to Blackburn doesn't make much sense. If Liriano would sign Blackburn's contract, the Twins would do it in a minute. But he's going to want #1-like money and hasn't really been able to put it together to demonstrate that he should get that kind of money. And the current regime did have Santana, who was a top level starter.
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I agree with Nick, for the most part. Generally, I think the Twins pitching philosophy has been extremely successful and helpful to the team. I don't know how people feel about WAR but a few fun WAR facts - Radke had as many 5 WAR seasons as Red Sox aces Beckett and Lackey have, combined. Blackburn and Slowey have as many 2 WAR seasons as much hyped Yankee prospects Chamberlain and Hughes. Control pitchers have been underrated. And the team hasn't lost in the playoffs b/c of the soft tossers - Baker, Blackburn and Pavano all had good outings for us against the Yankees. It was our hard throwers like Liriano, Nathan and Crain that got roughed up the most. The last few drafts the Twins have seemed to change philosophy a bit and drafted some flame throwing relief pitchers. We'll see how that works out. I also think people should remember how hard it is to get a Verlander type pitcher when you've drafted in the 20s most of the decade.
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I agree we aren't a small market team anymore and I think the team was set up this year so that they could add salary if Morneau/Mauer were both healthy. But I don't think they were in a position to pay 15/yr or more for the quality free agents - Wilson, Pujols, Yu, Fielder, etc. They added a Cuddy-like hitter in Willingham (I think a slightly inferior one but others think superior). I don't think there was much they could do in free agency to help this team much. But I do agree with any general sentiment that the Pohlad's could have let us have a higher payroll. I think that's why Smith was fired, he wanted a payroll around 113 again. But that's just my assumption.
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Using a 3 game sample isn't particularly fair. Santana pitched well in game 1, Morneau was good all series, Mauer struggled. I think it's more indicative of the manager's skill that he took a team that had lost Liriano and was 10.5 back on Aug 7 and won the central on the last day of the season. I think if you want to make claims like "he does NOT get the most from his players" you should be able to point out players that have left the Twins and gotten better (and you should also, if that's how you're judging this, note the players that have come here and become better players). And, of course, you'd have to compare that with how a normal manager does in that, as well.
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I'm not quite sure what you're getting at. Back in the small market days, the Twins did let talent walk out and didn't add much payroll when it seemed they were close and that annoyed a lot of people. But the last few years payroll wasn't really the problem - we took on salary and made some nice free agent signings that helped immensely in 2010. Now that we're back to rebuilding mode, signing big free agents doesn't make sense.
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Good point. Sadly, I suspect Boston will bounce back better than us but the fire Gardy camp is ridiculous.
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Well said, Roger.
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No, it's not. And, more importantly, the front office understands that.
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He's not in the hot seat. Ryan and the Pohlad's aren't going to fire him. The Twins very rarely fire anyone and Gardy's been a very good manager.
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Game 1 (Opening Day!!!) - at Baltimore
gunnarthor replied to Parker Hageman's topic in Archived Game Threads
What's the on field delay? -
Yeah, I'd pass on him too.
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Verlander seems to be in mid-season form.
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The 2012 "Complain About Gardy" Thread
gunnarthor replied to John Bonnes's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Gardy really doesn't bunt as much as people seem to think. In his ten seasons, the Twins have only been higher than 7th in the AL in bunting three times - 05, 08 and 09. The 08 and 09 seasons featured a lot of bunt for hit guys who, if they made an out, would be credited with a sac bunt. The 05 Twins were crushed by injuries and forced to give lots of playing time to Juan Castro, Punto, Mike Ryan and Luis Rodriquez. Usually the Twins have been below league avg in sac bunts. -
If Blackburn could give the Twins 30+ starts, 200+ innings and manage a 100 ERA+ or so, that would be a huge asset to our bullpen.
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The 2012 "Complain About Gardy" Thread
gunnarthor replied to John Bonnes's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
It's not entirely fair to say that Gardy does that. In 02, Everyday Eddie is our closer, our best relief pitchers are probably Romero, Santana and Hawkins. In 03, it's still Eddie but Rincon, Santana and Hawkins are probably the better arms. 04-05, Nathan is probably the best bullpen arm but Rincon is dominating, too. 06, Nathan's clearly the best arm but that's a really good bullpen and Reyes was death to lefties. Same in 07 but Neshek breaks out. 08 it's only Nathan. 09 probably the same but Mijares was a revelation down the stretch. Then you start the post-injury Nathan era where Rauch, Capps and Nathan were all closers at one time or another but the best bullpen arms were probably, at different points, Crain, Guerrier, Perkins and Duensing. So, yeah, Gardy used Nathan to slam the door on games but he's also used some really good pitchers in the 7th and 8th inning and gotten some great things out of guys like Reyes as well. And, while Nathan is great, I'm not convinced that he'd put up his closer numbers if he was pitching as a set up guy. -
Nice, thanks for adding another player to think about.
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Article: Access and Accountability
gunnarthor replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
The horse is dead, stop beating it already.