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Cap'n Piranha

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Everything posted by Cap'n Piranha

  1. Cap'n Piranha
    I'd be fine with it, but he's not the K-Rod of old. His BABIP was the 11th lowest of all relievers last year, his strand rate was 21st highest, and he ranked 49th (out of 137) in k/9, 36th in FIP, and 38th in WAR. Solid reliever, but given that he'll be 34 before the next season starts, I'd rather see if one of Burdi, Reed, Jones, Meyer, et al can take the step forward, since we have Perkins, Jepsen, and in all likelihood May, to lock down the 7-9.
  2. Cap'n Piranha
    I'd like to see them get Andrew Miller. Send Plouffe, Dozier, and Arcia to the Yankees for Miller and JR Murphy/Gary Sanchez. Sano slots in at third, Park and Mauer split 1st and DH, Polanco takes over second. Our bullpen becomes shutdown (May, Jepsen, and Miller into Perkins, Miller provides Perkins insurance), and we actually have a high upside catcher who could at the least platoon with Suzuki.
  3. Cap'n Piranha
    I'm fine with Span in CF if ALL of the below conditions are met; 1) The Twins are adamant about keeping Buxton in AAA to start the year 2) The other options the Twins are considering to start are Robinson or Cuddyer 3) It's a 1 year deal 4) TR promises not to extend Span, barring a complete meltdown by 2 of the Rosario/Hicks/Buxton/Kepler group. I'm intrigued by Johan as a bullpen guy, especially if he agrees to change his name to Earvin, so the dread-locked one can change his name back to Johan. Hilarity ensues.
  4. Cap'n Piranha
    Because not every prospect is Byron Buxton?
  5. Cap'n Piranha
    You can't prove you're ready to do it at the highest level until you do it at the highest level. Let's say he starts in Rochester, slashes .350/.450/.650, gets called up, and puts up his same June stats, then what was the point? Put him in the bigs, trust his talent and desire to get better, and believe that his month-over-month improvement last year is real, and not just a fluctuation.
  6. Cap'n Piranha
    I'd much rather we turn Polanco into a 2B, as that's where the greater opportunity is with the Twins right now. In the two seasons he's been allowed to play more than 120 games, Escobar has put up .721 and .754 OPS's. He's entering his age 27 season, and still has multiple years of cheap team control left. Nick Gordon will start at High A, and could be only 2-3 years away from the bigs. Brian Dozier, in the 3 years he's played more than 120 games has put up OPS's of .726, .762, and .751. He'll turn 29 next year, and is about to start getting more expensive. We have no good 2B prospects in the system right now. I would love it if TR challenged the prospects to make the engine go, and traded Dozier and Plouffe this offseason, letting Sano and Polanco start in their places.
  7. Cap'n Piranha
    Because at some point your all-world prospects need to do it at the highest level. There's nothing for Buxton to learn in Rochester that he can't learn better in Minnesota. You also have to look at the fact that Buxton cut his k-rate every month and raised his OPS every month, despite having a terrible BABIP in Sep/Oct. He was also perfectly acceptable against righties, OPS'ing .704 against them for the year, which is only 20 points behind league average for CF's. If anything, let him sit against lefties, but it's time to see if Buxton is going to be an all-star, or just a starter.
  8. Cap'n Piranha
    The Twins skipped the full youth movement last year due to unexpected contention (thanks largely to Dozier and Hunter being on fire in May). This is the year we need to get the young players in to see if the rebuild will work, or if we're going to need to re-start it. Buxton needs to be the CF from day 1. Sano needs to be at 3rd from day 1. Arcia needs to get every day AB's from day 1, and if he's not working out, Kepler needs to be called up by mid-June or July. Duffey and Berrios need to get starts. It's time to clear out the vets, and see if the kids can take us home.
  9. Cap'n Piranha
    We're fine on pitching. You can always be better, but it's not a glaring black hole, and the only way to get more pitching that's not currently on the team is to take a bad deal in order to get rid of Hughes or Santana, or not allow Duffey/Berrios/May to be starters.
  10. Cap'n Piranha
    Oh, I'm definitely in favor of moving on from Plouffe as well. I just think if your choice is sign Davis and be forced to trade Plouffe for 50 cents on the dollar, or sign Wieters and keep Plouffe if you don't get a good offer, the second option is better. It's why I would attempt to trade Plouffe as quickly as possible--knowing if you can will provide a lot of clarity to what the priorities should be in the offseason.
  11. Cap'n Piranha
    I think I'd rather have Wieters than Davis, if we're restricting our potential FA signings to ex-Orioles. I think the delta between Wieters and Suzuki is bigger than between Davis and Plouffe.
  12. Cap'n Piranha
    At Low A in his age 19/20 season, Vielmas OPS'd .636. Didi Gregorious (who was 4th amongst all qualified SS this year in WAR, and has a similar below-average offense, good-to-great defense profile) in his age 20 season OPS'd .694 at low A and .561 at high A. Last year, Vielma in his 20/21 season was at high A, and OPS'd .627, whereas Gregorious was at .791 at high A, and .704 in AA. That being said--Gregorious played in the Cali league for high A; both years he was there, ever team OPS'd over .729. Last year in the FSL, no team OPS'd over .700. Both Vielma and Gregorious were in the Midwest League for A ball, except when Didi was there, 10 team OPS'd over .700, and in 2014 when Vielma was there, only 6 did. Vielma is not as good offensively as Didi, but he's certainly not far off, and can clearly be a valuable contributor if he continues to progress.
  13. Cap'n Piranha
    I really really like the idea of Meyer out of the bullpen. He's been passed on the SP depth chart by Duffey, Berrios, and May, and Hughes, Santana, and probably Nolasco aren't going anywhere, which doesn't even mention Gibson and Milone. Put him in the 'pen, and hope that by mid-season, Meyer, Jepsen, and Chargois are throwing gas in set-up roles--that's a bullpen that could lock down some games.
  14. Cap'n Piranha
    Did you miss the part where he's had two straight years of above .600 OPS, despite being a year or more younger than league average? No one's saying Vielma is a star, but a hoover at short who can avoid being an offensive black hole is a valuable commodity.
  15. Cap'n Piranha
    Send Milwaukee Gibson, Arcia, Nolasco, and if needed, Polanco or ABWII. Gibson gives the Brewers a still young with upside starter who should be even better in the NL. Arcia still has promise as a hitter, and maybe his younger brother will re-instill some desire in him. Nolasco (with the Twins covering 2/3 of salary for the next 2 years) gives the Brewers a guy who will either help them tank for picks if bad, or a nice trade chip come the deadline if he's doing well. I don't know if Milwaukee says yes to this, but I think that's a decent starting point.
  16. Cap'n Piranha
    Which is why I put in the qualifier to start my conclusion. MiLB stats are useful and informative, and should be used, even if it is with a grain (or two, or three) of salt. Otherwise we might as well call Kohl Stewart and Alex Meyer our top pitching prospects, given that they look better in warm-ups. I'm at work, and don't have the time to look it up, but who was the last MiLB pitcher to put up over 400 innings of sub-3 ERA/sub-1.15 WHIP with over 9 k/9 who wasn't at least a decent major leaguer, all while being under 22?
  17. Cap'n Piranha
    Here's a fun comparison-- Player A--started minor league career at age of 21, 292.1 IP, 3.66 ERA, 1.36 WHIP, 7.3 k/9, 3.2 bb/9, .4 HR/9 Player B--started minor league career at age of 18, 440.2 IP, 2.98 ERA, 1.12 WHIP, 9.5 k/9, 2.5 bb/9, .5 HR/9 Player A is Sonny Gray, player B is Berrios. Obviously there's no guarantee that JO will be better than, or even as good as Gray, the comparable minor league numbers sure indicate there's a damn good chance. Accordingly, I wouldn't trade Berrios for Gray straight up, let along adding Kepler in.
  18. Cap'n Piranha
    I'm none too crazy about Zunino--I'd rather get Arcia 200 PA's in the first couple of months, and see if he can do anything with them. If the Twins are 100% locked in on a Hicks-Buxton-Rosario outfield, while keeping Plouffe at third, Mauer at first, and Sano at DH, then sure, better to trade him then lose him. Let's bear in mind that while Zunino is well-regarded defensively, and won't be 25 until just before the season starts, he now has 1000 MLB PA's that show he is a .174/.230/.300 hitter that strikes out more than a third of the time but only walks 5.4% of the time, and has seen his hard-hit average drop each of the last 3 years. He also struggles mightily with 4-seam fastballs, grading out worse against that pitch than any other, which at least to my mind, isn't a strong indicator that he's about to become a useful batter.
  19. Cap'n Piranha
    I can't in good conscience call a guy who spent 44% of the season slashing .210/.280/.359 for a 73 wRC+, the MVP.
  20. Cap'n Piranha
    I actually found this helpful breakdown on ESPN (I know, I was surprised to find it there too). http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/13792891/explaining-al-west-wild-card-tiebreaker-scenarios As it turns out, it would be exactly as you described above, so I was wrong in my earlier post <hangs head in shame>
  21. Cap'n Piranha
    I believe the Twins have the tie-breaker over the Astros, so if the Angels went for option 1, they would host the Astros. If LA wins, they then host the Twins. If the Astros win, they then go to Target Field. In #2, the Twins would host against the Astros. If the Twins win, they then host the Angels. If the Astros win, then Houston hosts the Angels.
  22. Cap'n Piranha
    Bonnes and Gleeman covered this on their podcast last week. IIRC, the Angels hold the tiebreaker over both teams, so they get to choose from the following scenarios; 1--they can play both the Twins and Astros, both at home 2--they can play the winner of the Twins/Astros game, at the winner I personally don't see any scenario in which the Angels would choose option 1, which would mean, since the Twins have the tie-breaker with the Astros, we would host Houston in Game 163, and then the winner would host the Angels in Game 164 (Game 163B?)
  23. Cap'n Piranha
    Umm, pitchers also play defense for their position. They have their own gold glove award and everything. They are often required to field ground balls, and cover first base with regularity, as well as backing up plays and field throws from the outfield. No pitcher throws the ball, and then just stands on the mound for the duration of the play, and it's because pitching is not defense. As to your point about a center bringing the ball up the court, or a goalie on the power play, I couldn't agree with you more, as that's the exact point I'm making; a pitcher hitting is analogous to a running back snapping the ball, or a goalie playing point on the power play, or a 7 foot center running the offense. They have a specific skill set that they use in a certain way, and don't try to cross over to other skills.
  24. Cap'n Piranha
    I'd go with Buxton--2 hits in each of his last 3 starts. Maybe Escobar, .327 OBP in September.
  25. Cap'n Piranha
    I guess Molitor has gone with the "living well is the best revenge" approach to payback.
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