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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    I guess you can, the Red Sox had scouts testing Betts in HS during his lunch period I guess: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/how-mlb-teams-are-using-neuroscience-to-try-to-gain-a-competitive-advantage/amp/ Different than the NFL for sure. Hope it’s not different than the Twins.
  2. nicksaviking
    I'd prefer to judge the process of talent evaluation instead of the actual talent produced, of course teams aren't going to disclose that willingly. In the case of Mookie Betts though, we do have anecdotal evidence that the Red Sox were doing some kind of video-game type of test to gauge reaction time and/or eye-hand coordination and Betts was off the charts which is why the Red Sox drafted such a small kid in the 5th round instead of letting him get picked after the 10th round which is typical for HS players with perceived low ceilings. I'd like to know if the Twins were doing something similar, the perception of the club would indicate that their evaluation would consist of scouts in the stands, a chat with a coach and perhaps a firm handshake, but that's only an assumption, maybe there was more. Are the Twins now doing the things other clubs do to find elite talent? Are they now doing things other clubs have not thought about to evaluate elite talent? That's really what I want to know. I think if they put in the effort to distance themselves from their competitors, it will pay off in star players in the long run.
  3. nicksaviking
    Dream job, what a lucky guy. Sounds like he's got the PR stuff down too. Excellent article and glad to have Daniel and Pensacola on board.
  4. nicksaviking
    A team like Houston could really use him though and he'd be a significant upgrade at 1B for Boston, New York, Tampa, Cleveland, LA Angels, Colorado and St. Louis. Normally I'd agree that the position devalues him but this is kind of an odd situation where pretty much every team that views itself as a contender is actually deficient at 1B. And the contenders are the teams AZ can milk for maximum return.
  5. nicksaviking
    A) is hard though, because one year of Goldschmidt might not be worth terribly much to the Twins as they now stand, but if the Twins were in Houston or Cleveland's position, he probably would be worth a Kirilloff. So it's not like the Twins can gauge his cost based on what he's worth to them, AZ is going to want what he's worth to a team thinking he's the missing piece to a World Series.
  6. nicksaviking
    Sale, Verlander, Stanton, and Andrew Miller were all acquired when those clubs were front runners, not when those clubs were wallowing in disappointment as we currently find the Twins.
  7. nicksaviking
    How can anyone look at most of the league's elite teams like Houston, Boston, Cleveland , the Yankees or the Dodgers and think that relying on the farm system hasn't worked out?
  8. nicksaviking
    To me the key is to find out if the path the Red Sox young players took was entirely due to the players, or if it was guided by the team. Also perhaps more importantly, was the path the Twins young players took entirely their own doing, or was there some guidance that the team failed to provide.
  9. nicksaviking
    It was a huge improvement! It used to be they didn't roster 4th over all picks! Edit: Ninja'd. Old joke I guess.
  10. nicksaviking
    Baldelli and company are going to need to find a way to get more out his players than what Molitor did from the sound of it. Reinforcements do not appear imminent. I am a believer that managerial changes can have significant positive yet intangible impacts, so I don't think better baseball is out of the question by any means.
  11. nicksaviking
    I thought Arraez would be rostered, but after reading this thread, I agree, he's unlikely to be taken due to his lack of positional flexibility and power. Good gamble. What's his ceiling, Bip Roberts without the speed? I don't know that it would be much of a loss.
  12. nicksaviking
    My city just voted to enact Approval Voting. It's not ranking the candidates, just voting for as many candidates as you'd approve for the gig. We're going to save Democracy! Then I saw this poll. Might be some blank ballots.
  13. nicksaviking
    I’m all about the discovery; I’ll accept the associated trial and error laboratory fires that come with it. This franchise has for too long relied on letting other clubs do all the experiments while the Twins suffered the consequences of looking over the front runners shoulder for the answer without knowing the process of getting there. Also, perhaps I’m wrong, but I thought Hubbard was light on the science and heavy on the fiction?
  14. nicksaviking
    I’m just fine with all the various degrees of lack of experience from the coaches. It’s not like these guys are new to the sport, just new to the old boys club. I think a, “Hey, we’re going to try some different things, this is kind of unprecedented, want to get in on the ground floor?” approach is going to appeal to young players. Might it not work? Yes. Has what they’ve been doing for a decade not worked? Yes. It might turn off stodgy, set-in-their-ways vets. The types I already have no interest in. I’ll trust math and science over tradition, gut-instincts and conventional wisdom. That’s not a new school philosophy, Copernicus, Galileo and Di Vinci had these same arguments during The Renaissance.
  15. nicksaviking
    I can't think of three paragraphs that would encourage me more about this hire.
  16. nicksaviking
    I love unexpected hires. And I think it's clear from the last one, there's a really quick hook if it should not work out.
  17. nicksaviking
    I too am still on the Thorpe bandwagon. Seems to me his velocity was higher prior to his TJ surgery, perhaps that starts creeping back up. I'd be interested in Carlos Santana; the Twins always like these "veteran leadership" types, it would be nice to have one that is actually an offensive asset. I could be talked into Robinson Cano probably too, but Seattle would need to eat considerable money there. With Mauer, Escobar and quite possibly Grossman gone, the Twins really need to work on getting multiple high OBP guys. Getting base runners was an issue last year even with those players.
  18. nicksaviking
    I like the Phil Miller contribution, though not the implication that Guardado and Kintzler are how the Twins should model their closer search. Can a closer get away with low velocity, low strikeouts and lots of base runners? Sure, but why seek outliers who need significant help from the defenses when you don’t need to? Don’t get cute, get a guy who’s going to miss a lot of bats. Get three of them in fact. There are so many good relievers this off season, they might not get a better chance to fix the pen, spend the millions.
  19. nicksaviking
    I'm still hopeful for both, but isn't Buxton's floor considerably lower than solid regular? Wouldn't his floor be what we've seen most of the past four seasons? I wouldn't say that's a solid regular.
  20. nicksaviking
    I think Buxton can succeed, I just don't want the team to rely on his success for their success. But that's not Buxton exclusive. I don't want them to rely on Sano, or Berrios, or Rosario, or Gibson or Royce Lewis either. If a season falls apart because of a player or two not living up to expectations, then you didn't put together a good enough team.
  21. nicksaviking
    I’d take any of those guys on a short term deal, but none of them are long term answers. SS and 2B are no longer league-wide offensive black holes. If the Twins don’t have the long term answer in house (fingers crossed that they do) then they need to pry one away from another team. Outside of Machado, these free agents are either way too poor with the bat or way too poor with the glove to commit a leash or money for them to start beyond 2019.
  22. nicksaviking
    I mean, choosing an affordable housing project over a publicly funded baseball stadium? Yeah, Portland isn't ready for the soulless endeavor of being a MLB/NFL market. Aren't they aware that affordable housing is supposed to be razed to build a fancy new ballpark? Kudos Portland.
  23. nicksaviking
    Boras had been saving that joke for awhile, and it was a poor one. Not in bad taste, just really, really dumb. While the Twins may not have made smart moves last winter, they did make a lot of moves. I'd bet there were few teams that gave out more MLB contracts to free agents than the Twins last year. If anything, Boras is just stung that the Twins waited until after many of those guys were willing to take a discount. If that's the case, blame the other teams, at least the Twins did sign these vets instead of rolling with youngsters on league minimum contracts like 70% of the other clubs did. Also, we can't overcome the fact that Minnesota is geographically unattractive to a majority of players. Boras needs to stop pretending that he wants the Twins to spend more on free agents. What he really wants is the Twins to BID more on free agents to drive up their prices for the more attractive markets. That said, if Lewis and Kirilloff are studs and leave us for the big lights of NY and the beaches of LA, that's on them, not Boras. They choose their agent because they want what the agent can provide; the agent doesn't pick the players.
  24. nicksaviking
    Hmm, yeah that sounds familiar. Seems like that should fall in line with the other awards. Promoting that one to match the Cy Young award could help ease the MVP debates. So in light of that, I'm just fine with the MVP typically going to who most voters see as the most valuable, that being the player who's teams successful season rode most heavily on his shoulders.
  25. nicksaviking
    I don't mind if a pitcher wins the MVP, but I still think that it clearly goes to Yelich this year. If baseball wants to end this contentious debate they'd add a third award for best hitter. The MVP award in neither it's name nor it's description says that it is for the best player: “The rules of the voting remain the same as they were written on the first ballot in 1931: (1) actual value of a player to his team, that is, strength of offense and defense; (2) number of games played; (3) general character, disposition, loyalty and effort; (4) former winners are eligible; and (5) members of the committee may vote for more than one member of a team.” You'll never be able to get enough people to agree that a player on an noncompetitive team could possibly have enough value to earn the honor. Just make another award without all the subjectivity that's equal to the Cy Young award, but for hitters.
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