spideyo
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Everything posted by spideyo
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It's this kind of trade-happy attitude keeps teams from having long-term, continuos success. People want to dump every successful guy on the Major League roster as soon as they can for prospects, and then turn around and trade the prospects for quick fixes at a higher level. If we made this trade, how long before someone starts hollering that we should flip Olt for somebody else ASAP?
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Hey, this is all a shot in the dark at this point. It'll be a couple weeks before we even really have a clue as far as what our 25 man rosters is going to look like. I don't honestly think that we've taken as far a step back offensively as some people think. I don't think anyone will miss Casilla offensively. I'm sure there are plenty of folks who would bank on Revere taking a step back offensively this year. The major loss is Span, and he hasn't actually been a model of health the last few years, nor has he returned to the excellent numbers he had in the Dome. On the flip side, Plouffe has has time to mature and heal his thumb, Willingham is coming off a career year, and Mourneau is another year removed from his concussion. Not only that, but we've got a new hitting coach who has done wonders in AAA. As far as defensively, we have the new question mark in CF, but other than that, how are we any worse off than we were at the start of last year? At least going into spring training people have a whole lot better idea what position they're going to end up in. And hey, our pitching staff can't get much worse. As far as Detroit, I'm sure they're going to be picked as a favorite, but I don't think they're invincible. Is a 37 year old OF and a DH coming off a year lost to injury really gonna make that big an impact? I'm not entirely sure. But who the hell knows for sure at this point?
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I'll be bold and go with 84-78. While we have a lot of huge question marks, nobody in our division made huge splashy moves to make them an obvious forerunner. Detroit is once again going to be hoping the other pitchers can catch up to Valverde, and depending on big sluggers with suspect defense. Cleveland has just as much turnover as we have, plus a new manager. Chicago hasn't changed much, except to ditch Pierzynski's bat. The Royals...well, who the hell knows with KC. Under Gardenhire, we typically have played well against NL teams and that momentum seems to carry forward into the next few series. Spreading out NL matchups through out the year is probably going to be to our benefit. But like everyone else said, the predictions could be incredibly different in 30-45 days.
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Minnesota Twins....Soccer Jersey Design
spideyo replied to John Bonnes's topic in Minnesota Twins Talk
Me too -
Especially when this guy is a Scott Boras client.
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This is an opening day lineup only. I did say if they don't sign Posednik (who is on the market, and the twins have expressed interest in), that I'd put Mastroianni in his spot at #1. Mastroianni is the only CF option right now that has seen any big league action, and I'd rather him be a 4th OF that can come in and pinch run in late innings. I think Dozier is worth a look at 2B, but with a very short leash. Carroll would be the obvious second in line there, but he's going to be 39 at the start of the season, and I'd rather not have to rely on him every day. He's also most valuable to us because he can backup 2b, 3b and SS reliably, if one of the kids is having a bad day.
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Only if you keep him all year. That's why I'd be more in favor of Posednik, he'd be more willing to sign on to be a "placeholder". Bourn isn't going to want to do that
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So what's the argument for Florimon over Escobar? Escobar has actually played more games in the majors, and spent a full season in AAA (which Florimon has not done), so I'd think he's a little more mentally prepared to play a full season in the bigs. Had he not been traded, he probably would have spent the entire year on the 25 man roster for the Sox. Florimon may have not even made it to the bigs if any one of Valencia/Burroughs/Hughes/Dozier had stayed healthy and played like a starter all year. Neither guy is a candidate to be an offensive force, but Escobar seems to have a significantly lower strikeout rate (at the expense of power). In terms of offense, I'd rather have a guy in the 9 hole that gets a lot of singles than a guy who gets the occasional extra base hit but strikes out a ton. Defensively, I haven't seen either play enough to really tell if there is much difference.
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I haven't been around in awhile, so I apologize if I'm duplicating a recent thread, but with ST close, I wanna start talking opening day. In the hopes that the Twins give Podsednik a small deal to keep the OF from becoming too bad, here's my ideal lineup: 1: Podsednik - CF 2: Mauer - C 3: Willingham - LF 4: Mourneau - 1B 5: Doumit - DH 6: Plouffe - 3B 7: Parmelee - RF 8: Dozier - 2B 9: Escobar - SS Bench - Mastroianni, Carroll, Butera, and whoever actually hits decent in ST. Send Florimon to Rochester, but tell him to keep his bags packed. Not going to go into pitching, because I can barely keep straight who all these guys are with minor league deals/ST invites. If they stay don't sign Podsednik, at least for opening day I'd put Mastroianni in the leadoff spot and starting CF, and give backup OF to whomever plays better between Hicks and Benson
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So, I know our staff taken as a whole, pretty much sucked the last two years. All the reports I hear make it sound like we're pretty much replacing everyone except Diamond, Duensing, Burton, and Perkins. Let's not forget though, that we did have other pitchers that had moments of quality last year. Casey Fien had the 2nd best WHIP and best ERA on the staff. Tyler Robertson had one of the best SO/9 ratios, and looked strong as a LOOGY Deduno, Walters, and De Vries all had moments where they looked like they could be quite capable #5 starters With our new bullpen coach, I wouldn't be surprised to see one or more of these guys get the polish and playing time they need to be solid pieces of our staff. Maybe Cuellar can even help coax a decent performance out of Hendriks or Blackburn (if he turns Blackburn's career around, he should get an enormous bonus) Thoughts?
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The concrete settling makes no damn sense. There are many, MANY layers of stuff under the field before you get to the concrete.
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I'm still a big fan of Hendriks, and I'm excited to see what our new pitching coach can do with him
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Article: Is Sano Too Big to Stay at Third?
spideyo replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I don't think you should move him solely because of his size. If he can provide league-average defense, he is far more valuable to our future at 3b. If/When Morneau leaves or is traded, Mauer/Doumit/Parmelee (maybe even Plouffe) should be able to hold down 1B for at least the next 5 years. Plus, if you work like hell on his defense at third, and the conditioning needed to play 3b every day, I think it will be better for his long term career (in terms of health and baseball IQ) than just shuffling him out to catch flyballs or standing on 1b waiting for balls to get thrown at him. You can always move him later. Don't forget, Gentleman Jim was exclusively a 3B for the first five years of his major league career, and I think we could do worse than Sano turning into the next Thome. -
Ok...it looks like the first step is finding a good "advanced stat" glossary. With fangraph's dollar amount...where does the actual dollar amount come from?
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Last I checked, Clete Thomas can cover all three OF positions, so he isn't nesc. blocking anyone from getting to AAA. This signing actually gives us more flexibility in the system. People tend to forget that we do need to field teams at all our minor league affiliates. Having "roster fillers" like Thomas means we can put Hicks in the best spot for him and for the organization without having to worry that we'll leave Rochester without a center fielder. My understanding of a minor league contract means we can stick clete in AA too, if that's where we need him so we can move our prospects up
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Is there any website or standard statistic around that ties a pitcher's performance to his contract? With all the various praises and critiques of our (and really, everyone's) FA signings and trades this winter, I'd really like to be able to track just how much "bang for the buck" we're getting compared to the contracts we didn't sign as the season progresses. Not being a hardcore sabremetric guy, I have no idea where to even start making such calculations
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Article: Health Permitting, Pelfrey Could Deliver
spideyo replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
We actually signed a Scott Boras client, so that's something -
If Joe Benson makes the 25 man over Hicks (assuming no other OF acquisitions), we'd be going into the season with an all white guy OF. When was the last time that happened?
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If we got Los Angles Figgins instead of Seattle Figgins, I'd go for it. Otherwise, I'd rather we focus on someone who can cover short rather than 2b.
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I agree, he totally should. But if he is actually asking for that a 30 start guarantee be written into a contract, that'd be a big issue for most I think
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Tolbert, Casilla, Nishioka, Plouffe, Escobar, Carroll, Dozier, Florimon. These are the guys that have played SS in the last two years. Carroll and Plouffe are the only two that have had better offensive stats than Punto in his time with the Twins, and Plouffe gave up 11 errors in 45 games at short. His departure wasn't directly the cause of our rapid decline, but if we'd had him to cover SS the last two years (especially 2011) it could only have helped.
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I'd take him too, but not if we have to guarantee him 30 starts
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While it may be totally coincidental, Dave is right. The Twins team WITH Punto had a combined .545 winning pct over 7 years, and only one season below .500. Since he left, our win pct has been .398. Pretty drastic drop. Personally, I liked the guy. He seemed like a class act, willing to take whatever role the team the gave him, never once (that I recall) publicly complained about bouncing around or moving between starter and backup. His offense wasn't great, but he was always a very solid defender, regardless of his position.
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My guess is there is a lot of reluctance to guarantee him 30 starts. Assuming a quality start every time (which isn't realistic, but is to be hoped for), that's 180 innings. Last year he started 16 games and pitched 125.1 innings, major league career highs for him. Regardless of his skill level, there is no indication that his body could even handle 30 starts. His max in the minors was 25 starts, and that was 7 years ago.
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Punto could be coming back!!!