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hugelycat

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Everything posted by hugelycat

  1. hugelycat
    Very nice addition! Great to see the front office getting one of the top relief options! Not only that, but it's a very reasonable contract that shouldn't limit other moves.
  2. hugelycat
    Decent pitcher, great contract. I actually don't mind if he ends up as closer. I don't expect him to be more than an average RP, but I'd rather have the average guy starting the 9th, bases empty, while our top RPs are in fireman roles.
  3. hugelycat
    It's surprising to me that Falvine didn't protect more guys from the Rule V draft. But it also makes me hopeful that they're planning for a busy offseason, since they left so many empty spots on the 40-man roster!
  4. hugelycat
    I keep thinking the title of this post sounds like an old-time children's mystery book: Miguel Sano and the Dread of 'What If' Miguel Sano and the 465-Foot Bomb Miguel Sano and the Pitch-to-Contact Caper Miguel Sano and the Legend of LNP Miguel Sano and the Suspicions of Souhan
  5. hugelycat
    Always fun to read trade threads. I'd love any of those pitching trades! Franco I'm not so sure about, I would probably stick with Vargas and see what he can do with more playing time. Side note on Iglesias - his opt out means that he can opt out of his contract to go into the arbitration process instead (not to become a free agent). He's under team control through the 2020 season, just that he can choose to go into salary arbitration if he feels like that would earn him more than he is guaranteed under his contract.
  6. hugelycat
    Iglesias would be great, but almost certainly costs too many of our high-end prospects. He's an excellent RP with closer experience and four years of control. That doesn't come cheap. If I'm the Reds, I'm thinking Gordon + Gonsalves + another throw-in. We don't have many elite prospects, so we have to make sure we spend them on the most important improvements to the team. If we make a trade for Iglesias, we're limited in trading for any other high-impact players because we're running out of high-end prospects. To me, it's much more important to trade for an SP than an RP, because an SP gives us so many more innings. If I'm making an impact trade, I'm looking for an SP.
  7. hugelycat
    Good article. While I agree with Falvine's trade deadline moves, I think there was a legit argument to be made against buying and then selling. In hindsight though, seeing how it turned out, selling Kinsler and Garcia was absolutely the right move. Side note, after reading the article title I couldn't help but think "The Twins unequivocally did the right thing by equivocating at the trade deadline."
  8. hugelycat
    Agree with everyone saying one of these moves would be good as a peripheral move / move in addition to other pitching moves. I think this is where you have to trust your scouting and player evaluation. The key point isn't that these guys were bad, it's why they were bad. Can we figure out what went wrong, and can we fix it? I'm thinking of some of the pitchers who flamed out, then went to the Pirates and turned things around, for example. None of them were stars, but the Pirates' coaching staff were able to make something out of nothing.
  9. hugelycat
    Picked it up. As always, thank you to the TD team for everything that you do!
  10. hugelycat
    I love seeing this many relievers putting up ridiculous numbers each month. I know they aren't all prospects, but this makes me feel pretty good about the future of our bullpen.
  11. hugelycat
    This is why I don't read Souhan anymore. He has a history of going after the best players on the team. Rather than make legitimate criticisms about a player's game, he insinuates about their bad behavior and treats their injuries as character flaws. Then, when someone pushes back, he plays the victim and claims that he "never said" the thing he is being criticized about, because he strongly implied it instead of outright saying it (see the City Pages column criticizing his article on Sano's weight). Another good example is his dig at Perkins in this article. Perkins was a shutdown closer, one of our best players, until he got hurt. In a one-sentence dig at Perkins, Souhan implies that Perkins' long injury recovery was because he is lazy and doesn't take care of himself. But if anyone criticized Souhan for that, he would reply "I never said that! You can't trust these jealous bloggers to report anything!"
  12. hugelycat
    Tough loss. The last time Belisle gave up a run was June 27, so I'm not going to put this one on him. The bullpen has definitely been overexposed. A good start from Erv today would go a long way!
  13. hugelycat
    Poor Vargas.
  14. hugelycat
    That said, I don't think our situation is very different than any time in the past month. We're capable of making the playoffs, but only if everything goes right, and there are so many holes in the roster. I'm enjoying being in contention, but I won't be disappointed if we don't make it. Keep giving young guys playing time and see who sticks. And if we can make a waiver trade for a non-propsect, like the Jay Bruce trade, absolutely do it.
  15. hugelycat
    It's always ok to be excited about the Twins - that's why we're all here!
  16. hugelycat
    I've been hoping we trade with the Cardinals for Seung-hwan Oh. Then we just need to find a guy named Em, and our bullpen can be Oh-Em-Gee. Then again, it kind of already is this year!
  17. hugelycat
    Romero's stats since being put on his innings limit: 6 starts, 30 IP, 1.80 ERA, 10.8 k/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.20 WHIP. Because of the innings limit it's tough to say how representative these starts are, but Romero is definitely impressive!
  18. hugelycat
    I tried looking this up out of curiosity, but I couldn't find the full list. However, I did find out one thing... Paul Molitor has 33 career leadoff HRs, good for 12th place on the all-time list.
  19. hugelycat
    To me it's a heart vs. head thing. We've seen the Twins play good baseball and lead the division. We know how well this team can play when things click. We want to keep that going and give them every chance we can. But if we step back and look at the big picture, this isn't our year. The Twins have a -72 run differential. That's the worst in the AL Central, and out of the entire AL, only Toronto and Oakland have worse run differentials. That 9% chance of making the playoffs is probably too optimistic, as harsh as it sounds. You can argue that the '87 Twins also had a negative run differential. But they were only at -20, and this year we are at -72 with 59 games left to play. This team has too many holes to fill, with multiple rotation pieces and multiple bullpen pieces needed. Plugging all of those holes doesn't come cheap, and we would have to trade significant pieces for future teams to give us any real chance at competing this year. If it was a matter of standing pat and having a good chance to make the postseason I would agree with you, but I think that hasn't been the case at all this year - this team has looked better than it really is. But while I think selling right now is the right call, I think the front office deserves some real blame for not shoring up this team over the offseason. As you and others have said, Falvine could have signed more cheap veteran offseason arms, instead of relying on Belisle and minor league signings. We all knew the bullpen would be a problem, and that we couldn't rely on the back end of the rotation. The real flaw was not improving over the winter, so that when the team started playing better than expected, the Twins didn't have the players they needed, and the team fell back to earth instead of capitalizing on their success.
  20. hugelycat
    Lots of good ideas here. Hildenberger has been great, better than we could have expected, time to see what he can do in higher leverage situations. And Duffey has been struggling for a while, time to ease up and hopefully get him closer to how he was early this season. I would release Breslow, and I'd send down Pressly. I think Pressly is a much better pitcher than this, but it's time to try out some other guys. However, I'd keep Belisle, albeit on a short leash. He's been surprisingly good this month: 6.2 IP, 6k, 1bb, 4 hits, 0 runs. I'd give him a chance to keep that up. I still want to see what we have in some of our minor league relievers. Calling up the minor leaguers should benefit us both this year, and in the future. It's better to get these guys some experience now, when we're on the bubble, so the best of the bunch will be part of the core when we're in our prime for contention over the next few years. I'd call up John Curtiss first, he's been outright dominant the past two years. Busenitz or Rucinski next. Not quite ready to move Turley to relief yet, because we could still use a starter if he can figure things out. That said, if we can get a mid-range MLB reliever for a non-prospect, great, go ahead (ex: Mulvey for Rauch). Goes without saying, but we should do anything that helps make the playoffs without costing anything significant. Just don't trade future value for short-term relief help.
  21. hugelycat
    If we're looking a good, controllable starting pitcher, I think the conversation starts with Gordon, and includes a few other well-regarded prospects. We have a deep farm system, but we're lacking in Top 100 talent right now. As our only consensus Top 100 guy, Gordon would probably be included in any sizable trade, just by default (I'm not considering Lewis as currently tradeable). Would I trade Gordon personally? In the right deal, of course. But I think it's unlikely to happen this year. It's much easier to trade your top prospect when you already have a dominant team. We're not there yet, and it's tough to trade future value for future value.
  22. hugelycat
    I'm also assuming sarcasm. I completely agree with you that 16 games don't mean anything, but there were some people calling Rooker a bust after one bad week.
  23. hugelycat
    I'm excited to see what Hildenberger can do! He might be the 25th man on the 25-man roster right now, but a lot of the fun in baseball is following players and their stories. Hildenberger definitely makes for a great story!
  24. hugelycat
    Yes, people make the choice to drink or use drugs. But addiction has a genetic component to it, in addition to behavioral components and other components. Some people are genetically predisposed to become addicted. I had a job a few years ago where I worked with Hennepin County's Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Court. One of the judges there used to say "I can have one drink, and have it just be one drink. For a lot of people, that's not possible. Sometimes I look at the people here and think 'there but for the grace of God, go I.'" I'm not saying nothing should happen - I think a suspension is appropriate. I wish him the best in getting back on track.
  25. hugelycat
    Great to see Diaz mashing. Also exciting because this is his first year in full season leagues. Let's hope this is a sign of things to come!
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