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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    I honestly don't think it's that weird. This is the exact reliever profile the Twins have found success with for decades. Not just Jax, but Duffey, May, Rogers, Perkins, Duensing, Guardado, Hawkins. The minor league starters who were just not quite good enough to cut it in the rotation at the majors have long been this team's bullpen success stories. I had my money on Winder pulling off the trick, but I had reasonable hopes that either he or Sands would prove to be useful.
  2. nicksaviking
    It's not the personnel, it's all the strikeouts and stranding runners in scoring position. Even the guys who don't strike out too much are still striking out at career highs. They were bad for four months last year, were good for two months last year and now are bad the first month this year. If there's an outlier, it's the two good months. And those last two months had nothing to do with Popkins and everything to do with finally swapping out Gallo, Vazquez and Farmer for Wallner, Jeffers and Julien full time. But even while they played better in those two months, they were STILL striking out and stranding runners at an unacceptable pace. I'm not blaming Popkins, but only because I'm not sure who's idea it has been to get into so many 0-2 counts. It could be Baldelli, it could be Falvey, maybe TC the Bear. Whoever it is needs to reverse course and say, 'this isn't working' and go back to trying to hit like normal teams, even if it means taking fewer pitches.
  3. nicksaviking
    Agree about getting a QB being more important. Not to pile on, and surely they won't feel this way, but I think the Patriots are going to have lots of chances to pick a franchise QB in the next decade. I'm pegging them as a team to be picking in the top ten a lot going forward, with or without a good young QB. This franchise looks to be in good shape to be a dysfunctional mess for the foreseeable future.
  4. nicksaviking
    Yes, mistake on my part.
  5. nicksaviking
    Nothing to back this up, but I think if the Patriots don't trade back, they pick Marvin Harrison instead of one of the QBs. No reports out, just a hunch. It's obviously the worst landing spot for a QB and I'm sure they know it. I'm going to go with they think Penix/Nix with Brissett as a mentor along with Harrison is a better situation than Maye/McCarthy and a much, much lesser WR. As a team with a history of winning with a strictly pocket passer who can make all the throws, I'm putting my money on them trading back into the first round to get Penix later on Thursday. Anyway, I've had a couple and thought I'd put my prediction down before all the draft wonks decide they like my take too and snipe me.
  6. nicksaviking
    For sure. Add Vazquez, Gallo, Taylor, Farmer, Bundy, Archer, Simmons, Shoemaker, Happ, Colombe, Robles, Jason Castro, Marwin Gonzalez and Martin Perez to the list and there's a clear through-line going through these aging, hope-and-a-prayer kind of players. So if the arrow can be drawn to ONE person (Levine) than there is a really, really simple path to getting out from under this same decision every year. I think it's him, but maybe it's not. In any case, this nonsense needs to stop and I'd start by trying a new GM to see if it fixes this philosophy that doesn't at all mesh with developing cheap young talent.
  7. nicksaviking
    For all we know Tony Perez could handle a nasty 89 MPH slider as well as Miguel Sano. Hitters are seeing exponentially tougher pitches than Pete Rose and the gang did. Most likely, some if not all of those hitters would have struggled mightily to translate that success. Players have gotten stronger, faster and quicker in all sports. I'm sure Ozzie Smith could have handled SS defensively today, but sorry, Jorge Polanco would have likely been a perfectly adequate defensive shortstop in 1985 and his superior bat would put him in consideration as one of the best in the game. 1980s-90s sports are what I cut my teeth on, but I'm more than willing to admit that players have evolved since then.
  8. nicksaviking
    We can agree that there has been an evolution to the position, but even the best of those 60’s-80’s teams would lose 90 games a year now. The best athletes have always played SS, but the best athletes now hit the cover off the ball too.
  9. nicksaviking
    Yup, still encouraged by the core of this team. Most of the young guys are playing well enough, Lee was close to making the opening day roster and E-Rod is already in AAA. Pretty cloudy at the moment but the future forecast is still sunny.
  10. nicksaviking
    Oh, I've got a list. And it's starting to get pretty long.
  11. nicksaviking
    I bet he fins his way into the starting lineup before Camargo does.
  12. nicksaviking
    Yes, and what will happen if the pitchers start throwing softer and with less spin? What team is going to willingly give up that advantage?
  13. nicksaviking
    They might sign off on the players, but they don't all find them, decide their value and sniff out the agents to get a feel for their demands. Somebody identifies players, gathers data on them and presents them to the others. I'm sure that's not Baldelli outside of him saying something like, 'Hey, what about so-and-so'. That's also not Falvey's background, it would seem like he'd be the one saying, 'We need a guy who does this and this, but not that'. Though surely he has much more input and the final say (second final say after Joe Pohlad). This has basically been the GM's job since time immortal. There's clearly way more collaboration now, but I'd still guess if one of these guys did most of the legwork in this area, it would be Levine. I doubt Levine would still be here if he's doing the exact same thing as his boss but getting paid less. But it's an opaque situation to us, so that's just my math.
  14. nicksaviking
    So now that the hitters have adjusted to this increase in velocity and spin rate you want to dial it back? What do you think the average scores of games will be? You can't reverse course on this without an absolute offensive explosion. Which by the way will hurt the Twins and their subpar bats more than it will hurt other teams. People aren't going to like it, but these 4 innings/start games very well might be the wave of the future because outside of biological advancements, there likely is no other choice.
  15. nicksaviking
    If he could pinch run, I'm sure he'd have played every game. It's the only reason why Martin got on the field the first week he was up. This does seem really odd though. Santana has been terrible and they gave him two days off. They won't do the same to Vazquez who has been just as bad? For as much as Baldelli seems to endear himself to players like Gardenhire, his distaste for young players is much more reminiscent of Kelly. Think of it this way Rocco, if you put them in the lineup, at least they're out on the field for half the game instead of annoying you on the bench for the full game.
  16. nicksaviking
    These lowered innings seem pretty clearly to be a reaction to the league-wide rash of injuries, that's why minor league starters were throwing fewer innings in 2023 than in 2022. Are you suggesting they try nothing to prevent all the injuries?
  17. nicksaviking
    It's frustrating that we don't have a clear understanding of job delineation for the front office, but as it is, I presume Falvey is the architect of the organization as he was the assistant director of baseball operations in Cleveland. I'm guessing he's building the infrastructure. So then I'd guess Levine is largely in charge of player management as he was the assistant GM with the Rangers. I really dislike the idea that those two are some conjoined monster that do the same things and for a couple years now I've been in favor of replacing Levine to see what if anything changes. I'd test it out for a couple years and if they still keep stocking the roster with the same kind of players, that's when I'd replace Falvey as well.
  18. nicksaviking
    Pretty much every team is doing this. Check out Seth's link up there for Paul Skenes, he's only going 3 innings per start and he probably should have gone directly from college to the majors. Just about all of the top prospect arms pitched fewer innings in 2023 than they did in 2022, and 2024 is pacing 2023 numbers. Jackson Jobe, Jacob Misiorowski, Cade Horton, Mick Abel, Dylan Lesko, Noble Meyer. These guys are all throwing 4 innings per start or less. I'm guessing it's about 70% injury prevention and 30% saving innings for the MLB level for those that will get there this year.
  19. nicksaviking
    Yeah, and the firing-the-boss technique has long been used as a motivating factor for the employees. Change often works, even when there is no supporting data to explain why.
  20. nicksaviking
    I think fair or not to the current manager, a change often is the kick in the pants the players need. However, Baldelli was extended through the 2025 season, and after this past offseason, I don't see Joe Pohald willingly pay two managers. I'm happy replacing Levine too. I really don't care for his roster decisions and low ceiling free agent choices. I also assume this hitting method of taking two strikes before swinging is more on the organization than the hitting coach, but possibly it was the hitting coach's idea. It didn't show up until they hired Popkins; he may have sold the team on it. If it's a chicken or the egg scenario, I'm all for cracking the egg if for no other reason than to see what spills out of it.
  21. nicksaviking
    I'm not mixing up ILB and edge guys, Flores is is mixing them up, regularly. As the RILB last year Pace was only on the field for 62% of the defensive snaps and it wasn't because Asamoah was getting on the field for those other 38%, Pace was rotated off for Wonnum and Patrick Jones as barely half the Vikings sets featured two MILBs. Now it will be Jones and Van Ginkle and Ward rotating in when the team runs out only one of the classic interior LBs, and Grugier-Hill has been added as another interior guy. I don't see Pace's usage going up.
  22. nicksaviking
    Pulling the trigger on Wallner after only 13 games is actually one of the few encouraging things they've done this year. Optionable players or non-optionable players, I'd hope that will continue. Though I'm doubtful.
  23. nicksaviking
    If they did, they were wrong. Who did Cleveland develop outside of Danny Salazar during his time there? Every other pitcher they acquired was in either the majors or when they were in AAA.
  24. nicksaviking
    Nobody but armchair fans who did no research were telling that story. Cleveland didn't develop a pipeline during his time there.
  25. nicksaviking
    I don't know, we don't hear from them a ton, which is fine by me. They don't need to spill the beans on internal strategies. I think Falvey is probably doing fine as he's remodeled the organization from the caveman days of Terry Ryan. Levine as the GM and presumably in charge of player acquisitions, I'm less confident in. I really, really dislike the choice to continue to bring in these no-ceiling vets instead of adding one good player and using the internal options. I don't like the types of players he seems to like.
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