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John Bonnes

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  1. Aaron and John take their Minnesota Twins podcast to Target Field for the final series of the season and talk about Ron Gardenhire's job status, Terry Ryan's aversion to spending money, Joe Mauer being shut down, Josmil Pinto's impressive September, Jumbotron proposals and the Kiss Cam, going back to journalism school, Jack Moore's triumphant return, 1981 Twins World Series tickets, mailbag questions from listeners, and singing Al Green songs. You can listen by clicking below, download us from iTunes or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
  2. I think people are able to define "platoon" as they please. It doesn't need to mean "Trevor Plouffe never sees a right-handed starting pitcher and his replacement never sees a lefty." Truth is, I don't think that kind of rigid definition necessarily exists. If the definition is "Twins should be more flexible in their lineup to try and have opposite hands hitting against pitchers", I think that's fine. On the other hand, the looser the definition, the more I think the Twins have done some of that, or at least where they've had the positional flexibility to do so in several areas, like right field. (They are less likely to do it in areas where they have a veteran, like first base or left field.) I guess if I was trying to measure it, I would do the following: - Find out the number of at-bats the Twins have had versus LHs and RHs (or maybe LH starting pitchers and RH starting pitchers). Find the percentage split. - For each Twins players, find out their same percentage split. Find which players vary the most from that. - Now doe something similar for a team that is considered a model of platooning, like the Rays. Do the percentages for the top 5 players vary as much as they do for the Twins? How about for another comparable poor team, like the Mariners?
  3. Yeah, as I was watching Plouffe last week, I was wondering something similar. I'd be interested to see if Cuddyer's splits were worse when he came up. It seemed like he learned to go opposite field against righties and really drive lefties. But I don't know that I've studied it. Plouffe just mashes lefties so much, that he really only needs to be a little worse than average vs right-handers to have a pretty impressive overall statistical line.
  4. Who would I want to platoon? Off the top of my head, and I'm not looking up stats here.... Plouffe and Colabello vs LHs and Parmelee and Doumit vs Righties in RF/1B/DH next year seems like a decent idea. Center field - Mastroianni and Tomas/Pressley? And that's only because I'd have Hicks start in AAA. That leaves the bench a little crowded - with a catcher I'm at 13 already, and I don't have a backup middle infielder. But there are some things I can pick through there.
  5. I think most agree with the point that a contender can't be built through free agency alone. But I also think that Ryan is saying quite a bit more than that. This is where I think we disagree. His quotes, to me suggest nothing of the sort. He seems to be suggesting that now is not the time to spend money on free agents. That the time to spend money on free agents is when all the other pieces are in place. That is, I think, the question. There are several good reasons to look at free agent acquisitions in the meantime. 1) To give fans a more competitive product. 2) To have assets to move at the trade deadline. 3) To raise the bar for accountability for other players. I'm legitimately intrigued as to why you think we can expect him to spend "good money" this offseason and how you define "good money". I can't imagine any 3-4 year contracts. Are there some statements I haven't seen that suggest that line of thinking from Ryan?
  6. OK, so two questions, just to be a little more specific.... 1. Will the Twins spend more than $11 million dollars on starting pitching in the free agency market for pitchers next year? 2. Will the Twins staring pitching rotation rank any better than 26th in ERA next year? After reading Ryan's comments, I think I'm going to say "No" and "No". And that second "no" feels like a gut punch. 2014 would be the fourth year in a row that would be true. I'm all for patience, but c'mon..... I'll add one more... #3. Is that acceptable? ("No. Not to me.")
  7. Or Mike Scioscia, if he's available. Or Ozzie. :-) This might be a good place of people to list some of their favorite candidates. I'd love to hear some additional names besides the most common ones.
  8. I wonder if Mientkiewicz's actions in High-A - specifically, getting into a fight with another manager - might cost him any realistic consideration.
  9. This seems to be a gross over-generalization of Levi's point. I know you two disagree on a few things, but this smells like it is meant to attack rather then address a point, by deliberately misrepresenting him. Don't do that. To better define the point being made... 1. It seems all of us, even Ryan, can agree that eventually it might make sense to pay for free agents. 2. But his comments certainly seem to imply that expectations for this offseason should be tempered. To me, it suggests we shouldn't expect to see him be any more aggressive than he was last offseason, when the Twins were in a similar (maybe even slightly better) position. This year, they spent $8.5M on Pelfrey and Correia. It suggests that we should not expect too much more than that - maybe $10M or so - on a couple of mid-level free agent pitching acquisitions, like a guy coming back from injury and an inning-eater. Am I being too pessimistic?
  10. Terry Ryan was interviewed on Thursday by Paul Allen and dropped some interesting tidbits: Re: Free agency pitching It sure sounds to me like we shouldn't expect any big pitching signings this offseason. However, I was excited that "international acquisitions" sprung to his mind as a way to improve the roster. A couple of other notes; He says Sano isn't "roster eligible" for another year and a half, which is a year later than I thought. He claims Sano isn't read defensively more than offensively. A Gardenhire decision will come down "very close to after the season." He didn't tip his hand on Gardy. He said he was a big fan of his, but he didn't say that meant he was safe. Also said he didn't think Ron Gardenhire would step away on his own. There are major league players that he said didn't have the year he was hoping and he wants to get back on track. Has a wait-and-see approach on Mauer and wants Mauer's input. Here it is if you would like to listen to it. The interview starts at the 32 minute mark. http://www.kfan.com/media/podcast-paul-allen-kfan-fm-1003-KFAN_PADubay/919-hr3-limegroverterry-ryan-23738179/
  11. The Grand Drunk Railroad pictures have been shared on Facebook. You can find them here, in case you're interested.... https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.550065925059634.1073741827.278788618854034&type=1 It ended up being a really great event with about 100 people participating. It was great to see everyone. I really appreciate everyone who came, as well as Parker for all his organization and Aaron for all his promotion. Count on another event around TwinsFest, so start planning your trip to the Twin Cities for the weekend of January 24th to the 26th. (In fact, I think you can count on several fun Twins Daily events next year.)
  12. You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=2355-Episode-112-New-Bohemia-40-Men-and-Police-Stories
  13. Aaron and John take the podcast to the New Bohemia Octoberfest and talk about last week's Grand Drunk Railroad experience, Glen Perkins buying beers from the bullpen, who the Twins should purge from the 40-man roster, Joe Mauer's ongoing absence, Aaron Hicks not getting a September call-up, why everyone should use Ticket King, when and where baseball started, mailbag questions from listeners, and being hassled by the cops. You can listen by clicking below, download us from iTunes or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
  14. Yep. And we're back again. Sorry again.
  15. So I think the way to look at the Vegas odds of this are this way.... At what odds would you bet he stays? At what odds would you bet he's gone? For instance, I'd certainly bet 1:1 that he stays, because I think that's more likely. But at what odds would I bet he's gone? I think I would bet that he's gone if I get 3:1 odds. So to me, that says the appropriate odds (for me) are 2:1 - Bet one that he's gone and get two if you're right. Or bet two the he stays and get one if you're right. At that number, I don't know which way I would bet, which is the whole point.
  16. I'm very sorry about the redirections to the spam site this morning. We got hacked. We were back up about 10 AM. Sincerely, John
  17. Your correction is right - a catch depends on where it is made (and some other factors, like whether it was a line drive or a fly ball) to determine its value. The same things is kind of true for a hit - if most players catch that ball, it hurts their hit/miss statistic a lot more than if most players don't catch it. However, there is one caveat on hits - once you find out how many hits/catches each player has, they're all converted to runs at the same rate. So a hit that falls in front of an outfielder and a hit that falls behind an outfielder and rolls to the wall - both of these are converted to runs at the same rate, even though they would likely not have the same effect.
  18. This made me think about all the times that Gardy & Andy have preached that thei pitchers need to keep the ball "down in the zone." Could it be that the value in doing so is negated by Mauer, or that it is difficult for pitchers to do that (and have it recognized as a strike) when Mauer is behind the plate?
  19. Grantland's Bryan Curtis profiles baseball historian David Block, who is rewriting our understanding of the origins of baseball. How? And so we come up with all kinds of references that show that some game called "base-ball" was so common in the mid 1700s that there was no need to explain it. Eveyone played it. Including....well..... Baseball archaeologist David Block - Grantland
  20. Jim Souhan suggests that the Twins take their chances in the starting pitching free agent market - because it's worth the risk: Souhan: Twins must open checkbook for pitching, or losing will go on | Star Tribune I'd suggest that the reason to so is a little more simple: because they don't really have any other options to turn it around, other than hope and pray the way they did this year. I'd actually say they need to look hard at getting two such guys, because I don't see one real difference maker in this class.
  21. Our libsyn account is Gleeman and The Geek - Minnesota Twins Podcast You can always find all the episodes there. Does that help? It's URL is gleemangeek.libsyn.com
  22. Hey guys, If you plan on attending any of the Arizona Fall League games, please shoot me an email at john at bonnes dot com or throw a comment below. I'd like to try and arrange some coverage of the best prospect team that any MLB organization has ever sent to the AFL. Thanks, John
  23. You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=2334-Gleeman-and-the-Geek-Ep-111-Grand-Drunk-Railroad
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