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James

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Everything posted by James

  1. You want Al Gore to play a concert at Target Field. That's an odd request.
  2. I admit, I was reluctant to go after Santana, but it's articles like this that are making me already come around on him, and he hasn't even pitched a game for the Twins yet. Great work, as usual, Parker.
  3. I'm quite bullish about both of those guys. I think May made some strides at the end of last season. Don't get me wrong, the first few were ugly. Ugly is an understatement. But the last few were much better and showed promise. I was hoping to see some Kyle Gibson-esque strides from him this year (as in a similar improvement from year one to year two). I'm also hoping to see Meyer. I don't know where they'll fit them both in, but I'm sure that will work itself out somehow. As for Santana, I can say I wasn't looking forward to it, but it's already growing on me.
  4. My point about the Twins adding payroll was meant for those complaining that they hadn't added payroll had gotten what they wanted. That is all. The Twins could have,in theory,traded for a pitcher that makes league minimum and improved the team and winning more games without increasing they payroll. What if,the 2015 Twins lose 90 games again? Does that mean they didn't add enough payroll, or that does that mean it payroll isn't as highly correlated to wins as you are claiming? As a Twins fan, I don't care what the payroll is, I just want the team to win. I agree with you that it is all about adding assets (talent), but assets are added in many ways in baseball. Not just spending money on free agents.
  5. But not adding payroll doesn't necessarily lose you games either. That's what I'm trying to say. It might in some cases, but payroll overall isn't a good predictor of wins/losses. Moot point as the Twins just bumped up the payroll. Hopefully it's more tolerable and a better product.
  6. Gilmartin wasn't on the 40-man roster, which is why the Mets were able to claim him. Graham will be on the 40-man roster, and will have to be on the 25-man MLB roster all season for him to be controlled by the Twins. If he doesn't stay on the MLB roster the entire season, Graham has to be offered back to the Braves for $25K (The Twins had to pay $50K to grab him in this draft). If for some reason the Braves don't want to pay the money, he now under control of the Twins and they are free to option him to the minors.
  7. You're right, it doesn't mean must. I generally don't speak in absolutes like that. Confidence intervals are usually my thing. What I was basically trying to get at was that wins aren't strongly correlated to dollars spent. Is there some correlation? Probably. To do this topic just would take some statistics that could be done, I just don't have the time at the moment. My argument is more that since the correlation isn't a strong correlation, payroll isn't a very good predictor or wins or losses. Most of the payroll arguments that I read are trying to connect the Twins lower payroll with the cause of the Twins losing. I'm trying to say it's more a by-product of the Twins losing (and replacing players with younger, cheaper player) rather than the cause.
  8. I think the problem is that they payroll hasn't gone up while the team has been bad. I don't think people would really be complaining about the payroll at all if the Twins were still winning games. I agree with you Mike, it probably wouldn't have crippled the team to add contracts 3-5 years ago (besides Willingham). I actually think that 3-5 year deals tend to be about perfect lengths for contracts. The problem with arguments about payroll is that they end up trying to correlate losses with lack of payroll, which logic would follow that higher payroll must mean more wins. But we all know that this isn't true either. Which must mean that there is some other independent reason that is causing them to lose. And all this ranting as the Twins add to the payroll by agreeing to a deal with Ervin Santana that fits in that 3-5 year range.
  9. Vodka Dave is right. The fans aren't shareholders. They're customers. Pocketing money from customers is exactly what businesses do. My point was payroll isn't the biggest reason for the Twins losing in recent years. I also agree that the Twins management shouldn't be avoiding free agents just because payroll doesn't win games.
  10. Remember, Gilmartin has to stick with the team for the entire year or be returned, and most Rule V guys don't stick with their selected team. I'm betting that Gilmartin will be back in the Twins organization before the end of the year. Most likely, before the end of spring training.
  11. Ahh. A good payroll conversation again, huh? There are arguments for both sides, spend or don't spend. I agree that I would like the Twins to me a bit more open and honest about contracts, but there are some things they can't say in public, because they still do need to maintain a relationship with other GMs, so I can see why they tend not to say much about other deals. The argument that I hate to hear is, "The Twins don't spend money and that's why they're losing". We all know this isn't the reason they are losing, because if all it took was to spend money, we would have seen a Dodgers vs Yankees world series last year, and the Phillies wouldn't have spent almost $100 million dollars more than the Twins to win 3 more games. I'm not saying that I agree with the way that the Twins have been spending their money, I'm saying that they payroll isn't the main cause of the Twins problems. The one argument that is not valid at all is people complaining that "The Pohlads are operating the Twins as a business." I really hate to break this to those people, but the Twins are, in fact, a business. In fact, all 30 MLB teams are, in fact, businesses. If you expect the owners to run their teams as anything other than a business, then your setting yourself up to be disappointed.
  12. Not to nit pick, but Trevor May has pitched about 150 inning the past few years. I think the only reason he hasn't pitched more was because we walking too many guys. He's showing between AAA and the last few starts in the MLB that he's getting that part of his game under control. I think he'll be fine in the innings department. Gibson pitched 179.1 innings last year as well. Once again, he probably would have more if he hadn't had a rough patch in there. So, I guess I'm saying that I think we'll see more inning out of the starting staff even without Santana. I'm all in favor of signing Masterson if possible.
  13. I agree that the Twins need to do better than another #3 - #5 as well. I think Berrios and Meyer will be those players. I know they're not up yet. So, I'm projecting. I get it. My problem is, in the next few years, I think Santana will only be a #3 - #5 type. I could be wrong about that.
  14. No way to a one year deal, even if he'd take one, which I don't think will happen this time around. I don't like the idea of signing a guy that could block potentially better players from getting time. On top of that, you're giving up a second round draft pick to do it. Maybe I covet draft picks a little too much, but I the combination of not possibly having space in the rotation for guys like Meyer and Berrios because the Twins tried to win another few games in 2015 and making the farm system weaker by forfeiting a second round pick doesn't sit right with me.
  15. Cola has always been a fun story. I'm glad it started off with the Twins. I really hope he has a few productive seasons with the Jays and I wish him good luck. I hope he tears the cover off the ball against every team in the league except the Twins.
  16. I think Mauer will bounce back as well. I think we'll see him end up closer to his career numbers this year. I think the concussion was still effecting him in the beginning of the year. There was a stretch there right before the oblique injury where we saw the old Mauer show up again. I'm betting that we see that version of Mauer for most of the season this year. That said, I'm betting Mauer goes on the DL at least once this year as well.
  17. News today that the Twins are on Bruce's limited no trade clause. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/details-on-jay-bruces-no-trade-clause.html I had other issues with this idea, but they are kind of a moot point now that this came out.
  18. I was just about to post something about this. I can't say it's too surprising after last year.
  19. Thanks for sharing this. It was a great read. I'm really excited for the Twins to officially announce this as well.
  20. To be fair, we don't really know what kinds of conversations TR is having with these teams. They could be talking about these very things, or all these teams could be waiting until the winter GM meetings coming up. The Twins could also be waiting to see who is not being tendered a contract to try to sign someone to a one-year stop gap. I have a feeling that the the Twins aren't signing or trading for anyone until those meetings happen. Just a feeling I have. I can almost guarantee that TR has some sort of conversations about some some of these "extra" outfielders. I'm not going to say anything comes from those conversations, but that doesn't mean they didn't happen at all.
  21. Congratulations to Josh on his MLB career and I wish him luck in all of his future endeavors.
  22. They could also remove someone by not tendering an arbitration eligible player a contract. They would not go through waivers, rather released to free agency. That would be another way to open up a spot on the 40-man roster.
  23. I'm fairly sure that no matter what the circumstance, if a player is taken off the 40-man roster, that player has to go through the waiver process. I think after that, what happens to the player is determined by the amount of MLB service time they have accrued and how many times they've been added and removed from a 40-man roster. They are either assigned to a minor league roster, or some can elect to become free agents. That is my understanding at least. I should probably do some more research to the details, I guess. These 4 players cannot be removed from the 40-man roster until sometime around spring training though. This is part of the rules for protecting them from the Rule V draft (I believe, but I'm only assuming this is the reason why they can't be removed).
  24. Looks like the Pirates have claimed Pedro Florimon off of waivers from the Nationals. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/11/pirates-claim-pedro-florimon.html I he strikes out a lot more batters this year, and I bet his offspeed stuff is going to look fantastic now that the Pirates got a hold of him.
  25. Not to mention exclusive access to spring training games and practices. Where do I sign up?
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