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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    Is it stated somewhere that players must be on the 25-man if they are one of the team's 25 best players? I'm just wondering, aside from any PR situations, why teams can't just say "Um, duh. We want you for seven years, not six years." Where are the grievances stemming from, as far as I know it's written into the CBA for teams to do exactly that. The CBA needs to be way more player friendly, but I don't see the legal issue with this. Also, on things to fix with the CBA, I'd start negotiations with the issues that more directly impact the non-top draft picks than the ones that mostly affect guys who already got +3M signing bonuses.
  2. nicksaviking
    Even if the team didn't want to push payroll, I'd rather have Cole, and Cole only than three or four lower tiered free agents. That said, I agree with Ted that both Cole and Strasburg are most likely to prefer the "more exciting destinations in play". If the Twins can't get either of them, I don't really know where to go from there because while Bumgarner, Wheeler or Hamels look like shiny new toys now, they look pretty rusty when standing next to the top of the rotation of most other contenders. Odorizzi's in the same boat as well. I'm sure the team is going to get a free agent starter, probably a decent one too, but they're almost certainly going to have to get their big prize via trade if they are truly looking to make an upgrade to the front of the rotation.
  3. nicksaviking
    Neither of those players were really elite at the time of the trade though.They both blossomed afterwards. If the Twins used their prospect capital to get say, Mike Foltynewicz and Michael Conforto right now, I'm sure there would be folks who don't like the move because they prefer the prospects. However, I'd also guess that many of the people who DO want to trade prospects for MLB talent would be disappointed because those two players wouldn't be nearly impactful enough and the team should have aimed higher.
  4. nicksaviking
    Atlanta has seemingly had elite pitching prospects constantly for the past 15 years or so, yet just about everyone of them fail to live up to expectations. I've been wondering if perhaps they are just really bad at development, usage or transitioning this talent to the MLB level; I'd be interested in seeing if the Twins could unlock the potential. That said, I'm not a big Teheran fan, his fastball is only sitting at about 89 MPH these days and he's always had control issues. As a righty, I don't think he'd last long in the AL without significant improvements in both of those areas. However, it did seem like Atlanta was getting close to throwing in the towel on Mike Foltynewicz. If they're selling lowish on him, I'd be pretty interested in giving him a whirl. But back to topic, I'd give Hamels a shot but I'd need way better upgrades in addition to him. Encarnacion would be a blast to have (puns are fun!). He'd make the lineup almost completely inflexible, but I could make an exception for an elite bat.
  5. nicksaviking
    As much as I enjoyed watching him, I don't think Dobnak is much of a long term answer. But a high end pitching prospect vs. a 30-year-old mid level free agent starter? The odds of the veteran being good is probably higher, but I don't think it's significantly higher.
  6. nicksaviking
    I think unless this team can get Cole or Strasburg, they're going to have question marks in the rotation regardless. We've all seen how unpredictable, volatile and flukey mid-level free agent starting pitchers can be. I'll take Bumgarner and Wheeler, but I'd never put too much certainty in the idea that they'd stabilize a rotation and perform to expectations. My fingers would remain very much crossed with them as well.
  7. nicksaviking
    I'd also need him to show an off speed pitch if he's starting. It doesn't sound like he doesn't have a change up though, just that it wasn't used during his callup to the pen. I wonder if it's truly terrible, or if the team scrapped it upon his callup simply because they were in a a pennant chase and two good pitches for a reliever tends to be a better move than two good pitches and one below average pitch, at least as far as a reliever is concerned.
  8. nicksaviking
    That’s not guaranteed. The only service time issue I can recall with this team under the current leadership was the Buxton situation. And “service time” and “wins” aren’t mutually exclusive, especially for a pitcher. Missing three April/May starts in your rookie year will get you 30-some starts in a bonus year of control. Presumably you’ll get more production out of 30 starts than three.
  9. nicksaviking
    I hadn't thought much of Lyles, I only remembered him as a high contact pitcher. Looks like both of his stints in Milwaukee the past two years have seen him at his best. Maybe he likes the air here in the upper mid-west. There's some Mike Minor similarities here.
  10. nicksaviking
    I like Pomeranz as a reliever as well. He was never starter material, if he hadn't had that flukey 2016 in pitchers paradise San Diego, I'd guess he would have been a full time reliever a couple of years ago, and a good one at that. If the team is committed to putting him in the pen full time, I'd do multi years for him. If they want to make him a swing man again, like he has been most of the past two years, I'd probably have next to no interest. I could get behind Rondon, he probably wouldn't be a needle mover but he rarely has a bad season. I don't know what to make of Cingrani, when he was a Red, he was always a guy I wanted the Twins to buy low on, but looking at his stuff, I don't know that I'd trust a guy who only has two pitches, and throws a FB 85% of the time. That seems like it could go pear shaped fast. I'm not a big McHugh fan. I'm all about strikeouts, but man, it's just hard for me to trust a right handed reliever who's only hitting 90 MPH.
  11. nicksaviking
    The list of "dumpster diving" relievers who have become good pitchers is long. Like really, really long. Also, let's stop using that term, these are human beings, equating them to trash is disrespectful which is against posting policies.
  12. nicksaviking
    Wisler went all-in on the slider in 2019 (70.2%) out of the bullpen. Opponents hit .206 with a 41% whiff rate on it. Bad news is opponents hit his sinker to the tune of .451 Brooks Baseball says that Wisler throws a four seamer, not a sinker. I'm never one to advocate for a sinker (yuck) but maybe he's got the wrong fastball pairing. Maybe let's just go with a splitter instead. I do like a nice slider.
  13. nicksaviking
    He rarely throws off speed stuff, almost certainly because his off speed pitch is a curve and you can't count on a curve not to hang in Colorado. It's an above average pitch for him though and I think a team will see much more improved results from his strong FB and slider if if the new club feels comfortable enough to let whip out off speed pitches more than 10% of the time.
  14. nicksaviking
    I didn't see it mentioned so please clarify; how were they planning on putting the TC mascot outfit onto a live bear?
  15. nicksaviking
    Yeah, aside from what looks to be pretty good stuff, this is always a selling point with me.
  16. nicksaviking
    I'd like Gray quite a bit. I could take a chance on Ray as well, I don't think he's as good as his numbers but I also don't think AZ is the best place to unlock potential, there might still be more to him. No interest in Boyd. Musgrove is interesting though. He doesn't wow anyone, but the guy can and does throw every pitch under the sun, I love that repertoire. Also, I'm interested in the fact that he saw a velocity drop at the beginning of last year but he saw it increase through the season and by September he was averaging 95 MPH on his four seamer. Yeah, I like the idea of Musgrove not yet hitting his peak, I'm in. Also, still get Gray too.
  17. nicksaviking
    This always bothered me, though to be fair, with most innovation there seems to be some bumpy spots and false starts where some theories and procedures show up to not be effective only to be weeded out by trial and error. The delay may have let the Twins bypass those spots directly to a more efficient model. Not that I'd let them off the hook, if any of that occurred it was clearly unintentional.
  18. nicksaviking
    Would that many people be involved though? I can’t imagine they need a whole division to order baseballs. I picture George Costanza who reports to some one else who has additional duties (that’d be Mr.Wilhelm obviously). No idea if this un-juiced ball theory has anything behind it, but it would seem like a 2-3 person conspiracy most likely.
  19. nicksaviking
    Well Ruth would probably strike out 300 times having never seen a modern slider or a 95 MPH fastball in his life. But that obviously just reinforces the same point.
  20. nicksaviking
    Obviously this won't stick, but if they didn't include Graterol, the one guy aside from Berrios who has the upside to be more than a swingman, then they're doing it wrong. Based on his usage down the stretch, I think he's already ahead of Smeltzer, Thorpe and Stewart in the pitcher hierarchy. That's assuming the front office hasn't decided to move him to the pen full time.
  21. nicksaviking
    The threat of the QO is going to be one heck of a negotiating tool. It's hard to say where Odorizzi sees himself in the free agent pitching hierarchy, but after last year it should be very clear that unless he puts himself on par with Cole, it's possible his phone won't ring until June 11th if that QO is around his neck. How long has this QO system been around? 8 years maybe? The Twins finally have a player who is actually worthy of having this discussion! Hooray!
  22. nicksaviking
    True, but you can also pick up usable corner outfielders on the free agent market real cheap. If someone is willing to offer some pitching for one of ours, I'm more than fine picking up whomever next year's Avisail Garcia, Nick Markakis, Adam Jones, Cameron Maybin or Hunter Pence is and bide our time with them waiting to see if the prospects emerge.
  23. nicksaviking
    Odorizzi has been absolutely awful in Yankees stadium for his career. Yes, I feel much better about him at home.
  24. nicksaviking
    Well the flyball thing certainly can be a factor, but it's more about setting the table for the best odds to win. I like the Twins odds at home with Odorizzi, I don't like the Twins odds at home with Dobnak. I don't like the Twins odds in NY with Odorizzi. There's only one of those three scenarios I feel reasonably comfortable with so I'll take that one. Reusing Duffey is a different issue, which I did not agree with. I'd have liked to done a straight bullpen game for that anyway. If the Twins somehow make it to Game 5 I hope that's the strategy. In a vacuum without knowing the innings these guys will pitch between now and then, I'd open with Romo for an inning, Graterol for two, Rogers for two, Duffey for two and run May out there to finish it off.
  25. nicksaviking
    But there's really no difference if the team wins Game 2 or Game 3 when you still need to win three games to advance. If the Twins go with Odorizzi in NY and Dobnak at home, I don't like their odds of winning either game. If they go with Dobnak in NY and Odorizzi at home, I at least give them reasonable odds of winning Game 3.
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