jorgenswest

There were three Twins trades in the 1961. None of them had the impact on the playing field but all involved players whose would go on to very significant careers. Ernie Oravetz was traded for Ed Palmquist and Joe Altobelli. All three were career minor leaguers and Palmquist and Altobelli did play some for the Twins after they acquired them. Altobelli managed in the major leagues for the Giants, Orioles and Cubs. He won a World Series for the Orioles. People in Rochester know him as Mr. Baseball. Following his season with the Twins he played in Rochester in 1962. He has also served as coach, manager, general manager and broadcaster. http://m.milb.com/news/article/2014090192377228/ The franchises second trade also involved a World Series winning manager. The Twins traded Billy Consolo for Billy Martin. Martin retired from baseball after 1961 and stayed in the organization as a scout, third base coach, AAA manager and finally manager in 1969. He was part of the Twins first two playoff teams in 1965 and 1969. I believe the stretch from 1961-69 was his longest continual stretch with any organization. It lasted until he knocked out Dave Boswell with punches in the alley behind the Lindell A.C. bar. On the same day as the Martin trade, the Twins traded Paul Giel and Reno Bertoia for Bill Tuttle and a player to be named later. Nine days later the player to be named later was one of the original players in the trade - Paul Giel. Paul did not want to leave Minnesota and after one start with his new club he retired from baseball. Giel was a football and baseball star for the Gophers in the early 50s and runner up for the Heisman in 1953. After his return to the Twins and retirement, he was the Vikings announcer from 1962-1969 and University of Minnesota Athletic Director from 1971-1989. The Twins didn't see much on the playing field from Altobelli, Martin and Giel but all three stepped out into significant careers following their last games as a Major Leaguer in 1961.

Ten starts will put them close to June. I worry that the Twins will call up a short term low upside pitcher to bridge the gap to Santana. They may even decide to give the failing starter 5 more starts knowing Santana is on the way. Best upside 5 for them long term are Hughes, Gibson, May, Meyer and Berrios. The three may all be ready by midseason or much earlier. Nolasco, Pelfrey and Santana are probably not tradeable. Do they keep sending them out there in the second half of the season because of their salaries?

Shane Robinson career OPS against lefties is 591. In the minors from 2011 it is 629. He hit much better against right handed pitching in the minors and a little better in the majors. If he ever gets a start, it should be against right handed pitching. The Twins have two guys that played CF last year and hit left handed pitching well. Santana and Hicks.

Schafer has over 2000 major league innings in CF. He is a -26 DRS and a -9 UZR. At the time of his acquisition, we saw links from both the Astros and Braves blogs/reporters about his inability to take a good route in CF. He has been the opening day line up four times in his career. He didn't stick in the line up the previous three times. It seems unlikely he will stick this year. Even if he sticks, he is not going to suddenly turn into a good defensive center fielder at this point in his career. If he could defend well, he wouldn't be at his fourth stop.

Hidden in the storm of check swing call was the Twins poor performance at the plate against left handed David Price. How can Molitor maximize the offense against a lefty? The Twins have a handful of players who hit lefties well last year. Listed with their OPS from last year. 877 Escobar 810 Suzuki 804 Dozier 799 Hunter 792 Hicks 786 Santana 783 Plouffe After that it is a huge drop to Mauer around 650. Numbers against lefties come in a small sample. It was a huge divide from Plouffe to the rest of the offense though. How does Molitor construct the line up? Did he give the Twins the best chance to win with yesterday's line up? How can Ryan help? Would Hicks in the OF and Pinto at DH give the Twins a better chance to win against a lefty? What about the bench? If a LOOGY comes in to pitch with runners on base, will Hicks and Pinto provide better options on the bench? Does it matter? Last year lefties started 56 games against them for 35%. They faced left handed pitching in 135 of the games.

Again... Go look at the strike zone map for the game. Joe West had one of the more consistent strike zones you will see. http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=4&day=6&year=2015&game=gid_2015_04_06_minmlb_detmlb_1%2F&prevDate=0406 Pick another game like the Blue Jays Yankees http://www.brooksbaseball.net/pfxVB/zoneTrack.php?month=4&day=6&year=2015&game=gid_2015_04_06_minmlb_detmlb_1%2F&prevDate=0406 Joe West wasn't perfect and he missed on that check swing. He did a great job with the zone yesterday and he handled Torii at the end of the game well.

I am hoping for Aaron Thompson's career to take the path of Craig Breslow's in his late 20s early 30s. He entered pro baseball at 18. He has mixed in a few cups of coffee with countless bus rides and minimal pay as a minor leaguer. He has worked his tail off for this chance. I am hoping that he gets on the Breslow path and is a valuable part of a bullpen for the next four years.

Back to Hunter and West... On the field and in the heat of the moment, he argued the call. West handled it well. It didn't escalate. Wouldn't it have been better to respond differently after the game? He could have said... I didn't agree with the call. I was upset, but we have to play better. We need to take better at bats. We need to be sharper in the field... We need our mentor to get the team focused on their jobs and not explanations. The game was 26 outs and 2 strikes old by the time the bad call was made. They weren't very competitive for that 8 and 2/3 innings.

I went to Brooks Baseball to look at his strike zone map. West did a very good job with the strike zone today. There were maybe 4 pitches he missed other than the check swing. Three went in favor of the Twins. For comparison look at the Yankee Blue Jay game. West's strike zone was much more consistent. It was one call. One of the few he missed today. I would think he would grade out pretty well. As for the Twins, they weren't competitive in today's game. I would prefer their mentor look for solutions inside the club house.

Thanks Seth My reference to "like Darnell" referred to the decision last year in choosing a player with much less upside for the short term. Not sure who that will be come June, but there will be someone similar.

I think this means you don't wait as long as 7 starts. Do you think they will have less patience with these three than they did with Marquis? Marquis had an 8.47 ERA after 7 starts. At the end of April his ERA was 6.23. His last start was May 20. We're the Twins paying attention to the granular data with him?

I am hopeful that the current 5 in the starting rotation will all do well. I am hoping Pelfrey has a career year, Nolasco returns to 2013 form and Milone pitches like he did for the A's. I am also hoping the Twins have a plan in the remote chance they don't pitch well. How long is the leash? How many starts should the three individually be given before looking for a different solution? My fear is that they will wait until June 1. On June 1 there might be some logic that goes like this... We can't count on Pelfrey (or Milone/Nolasco) in the starting rotation. We need to find a replacement. We only need that replacement for a month when Santana returns. We don't want to bring up Meyer until we can be sure he comes up to stay up. Therefore we will call up a short term replacement like Logan Darnell to pitch until Santana is ready and keep Meyer in the minors. Does that sound like logic that the Twins front office might use? Back to the question, how many starts for those three? Does Nolasco get more because of the contract commitment? Jason Marquis was given 7 starts in 2012. I hope it is similar for these three. Seven starts will put the season just before the quarter pole and not close to when Santana returns.

I was more hopeful until I was reminded of the 87 and 91 teams. On the 1987 team, all of the starting position players were in their 20s. Each one of them could be expected to improve along the aging curve. Add to that Viola who was entering his age 27 season and their was a lot of reason for hope among the young players. Only one guy in the 1991 rotation was over 27. The starters were like Kyle Gibson where there was hope of a step forward because of their age. They were willing to bring up opening day their best prospect at age 22 with very little time in the minors. There is hope in that youth. I have hope for Kyle Gibson and that he will take a step forward. I have hope in Dozier, Escobar, Santana and Vargas that they will continue their growth. Is that foundation for enough hope? Not when you compare it to the upside on the 87 and 91 teams.

I think over the 7 games the players in the minors wouldn't be competitive. The run differential would be huge. They still might get a win in a single game or even two. May or Meyer would have to be on the top of their games and the pen behind them would also.

Mike Pelfrey chose the more difficult path of battling back from a torn UCL. Coming back from Tommy John and then losing another year to injury and fighting back again. It is time to get behind the guy who is fighting back to save his career without the help of steroids.

I am certain Pelfrey has worked hard to return from a second lost season. I can't imagine how frustrating it must be to work back from Tommy John and then lose almost another full season. I hope his efforts pay off in the best season of his career.

Interesting article from Beyond the Box Score. http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/2015/4/4/8338029/twins-kyle-gibsons-rare-valuable-talent-ground-balls-pop-ups

Austin Romine- would be the Twins best defensive catcher among the major league ready. Hit OK in minors but not in majors with inconsistent play. Out of options. I think some team will be interested.

I think the Twins need to find a way to play him regularly for the first two months and then assess. Playing him against every lefty and 2/3 of the right handed pitching mostly for Plouffe and Santana. Last year lefties started about 1/3 of the time against the Twins. In a full season it would be around 126 starts. After two months adjust the time based on performance assuming all remain healthy. He also has earned a start opening day against Price. Not only has he earned it but he gives the Twins a better chance to win.

Every year I use BR play index and select the top 150 pitcher by starts. One of the sidetracks in the article below has that info. http://twinsdaily.com/blog/36/entry-6349-what-can-the-twins-expect-from-santana-and-nolasco/ Last year the median starter was 100, but sometimes it is 99 or 98 because of relievers. The 90th rank had an ERA+ of 95 last year. Santana would have in the midst of the number 4 starters. Like Correia, his ability to stay healthy gives him a boost in value but not in performance. The team just get more starts at that level. Three years ago he was near the bottom of the 150. Two years ago he was a number 2 likely with help of the Royals league best defense. With the Twins defense and park, an ERA mid 4s should be expected this year with decline if the defense does not improve. That is a loss, but not a catastrophic loss. It will be catastrophic if his decline accelerates without steroids and the Twins stubbornly keep him on the roster and don't look for a better solution.

I don't doubt you, but I hope you are wrong. His performance at SS last year was among the Twins best since Roy Smalley. They don't have very much younger talent on the roster and they have to develop it well.

I am not sure why they paid a 32 year old pitcher coming off a season with a 92+ ERA tens of millions. It does not really matter how much he is paid. It doesn't change his projections. He was projected for 0.7 WAR by ZIPS and 1.5 by steamer. Cut that in half. The new fifth starter is taking his starts. If you don't want to call him the fifth starter call him something else. If the starters replacing him are replacement level, the cost in wins will be minimal because Santana skill level starts below league average. Assuming the starts are below replacement level, the cost might be two wins. If you are going to win 72 games, you might chose to risk winning 65 by going young and developing that talent rather than buying decline phase talent to get to 72. That would be floating a rotation of team control guys like Hughes, Gibson, Meyer, May, Milone, Berrios...

Pelfrey has battled back through two very difficult injuries. He has an opportunity that may be his last. The Twins need some good stories this year. I am hoping his hard work to battle through injuries towards a successful season is one of those good stories. Go Pelf!

How would you get him the regular playing time?

Is there anyone more deserving of being in the opening day line up?