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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    I agree they did, but I'm not holding it against them anymore as I think they changed, at least when it comes to the draft. But I am curious, Ryan has said many times that Deron Johnson and the scouts are really the ones who run the draft, and lately they have been getting harder throwing guys (the results can be a different topic of discussion) yet in free agency, the Twins still seem to favor the control guys. It also seems that many guys who were drafted with high 90's heat or projections for high 90's heat have now fallen to low to mid-90's guys. I don't think this is entirely unique to the Twins, and some of that could be due to age, as pitchers seem to lose velocity pretty early into their careers these days, but I wonder if there is any kind of disconnect between what the scouting department covets in a pitcher and what those that develop them ultimately want to see from them. To clarify, I don't mean to ask if those who are developing pitchers want to get rid of strikeouts for PTC because I don't think they do, I more wonder if a strong focus on mechanics or asking guys not to throw max effort may impact college or projected velocity compared to what we see in the minors. Or maybe I'm just mus-remembering pre-draft velocity reports entirely.
  2. nicksaviking
    I'd prefer the higher velocity, as noted several times including in Seth's OP, it allows for a larger margin of error. However, watching games, it seems to me most pitchers get their strikeouts on breaking balls. Kyle Gibson has fine velocity, but he relies on his sinker quite a bit, and sinkerball pitchers don't tend to get a lot of strikeouts. Funny thing is that Fangraphs rates Gibson's slider and changeup as easily his best pitches, it would be nice to see him whip those out more in two strike counts and see if the results change.
  3. nicksaviking
    I agree that the Twins philosophy on over-emphasizing control was a huge issue, however I think that changed after the 2010 draft. Hudson Boyd was a high schooler who was supposed to have an electric arm, same with Stewart and Berrios has all kinds of ceiling. I was never more disappointed in the draft as when the Twins picked Wimmers over a half dozen HS arms with tons of upside, but they've drafted 3 HS arms in the 1st round since and even if the philosophy hasn't paid off, they have been going after high velocity/strikeout guys in the past several drafts. Now whether or not they know what they're doing with the high velocity arms is a different story. Their ability to scout and develop pitchers surely is fair game.
  4. nicksaviking
    It's not the velocity that is missing from the Twins rotation, it's the strikeouts. Too often I tie the two together, and while there is a strong correlation with velocity and strikeouts, there are high velocity guys who don't miss bats and low velocity of guys who do. So I'm fine refraining from asking this team to sign high velocity guys, just so long as they start getting high strikeout guys.
  5. nicksaviking
    Not sure there was much retro there. I certainly spect'd at the time.
  6. nicksaviking
    I wonder why they didn't go to Cotts if they needed a lefty.
  7. nicksaviking
    Seems like a peculiar pitching change. I thought Santana was in a groove and simply gave up a lucky lob shot.
  8. nicksaviking
    I saw that video once but had to quickly turn off the TV when my wife walked in the room.
  9. nicksaviking
    I think I would have left him in until his arm popped off instead of going to Boyer and Fien in the sixth. And that's coming from a guy who has had no faith in Pelfrey all year.
  10. nicksaviking
    Is there a less sarcastic reason? Tell me it wasn't due to over confidence in the pen.
  11. nicksaviking
    I e been preoccupied, why did Pelfrey only go five?
  12. nicksaviking
    When he was on early in the year, he seemed to have an ornery but confident demeanor on the mound. Lately he's been ornery but has seemed more frustrated than confident. That kind of tells me he doesn't yet trust himself. I'll trust him again once he starts trusting himself. I'm guessing that will come once he shakes off the rust, locates his fastball better and resumes his previous steady usage of his slider which had always been 25-30% of the time. It'll happen, just not quite yet.
  13. nicksaviking
    Son of a gun. I'll take it.
  14. nicksaviking
    Argh. Twins bullpen + runners in scoring position = soon to be riots on Twins Daily.
  15. nicksaviking
    With only two starts left, there should be no cause to limit Santan's pitch count.
  16. nicksaviking
    Still no.
  17. nicksaviking
    I wonder if Jeff Manship has ever struck out the side before?
  18. nicksaviking
    Maybe he's auditioning for Danny Santana's full-time LH pinch hitting gig?
  19. nicksaviking
    Yup. If called up as things stand now, he'd never see a strike.
  20. nicksaviking
    I probably wouldn't put Beresford ahead of Walker, but I'd still rank Walker about where Jeremy did. I mean look at those numbers. It seems nearly impossible for a guy to have a 30-1 HR advantage over another player and still barely have a 100 point OPS advantage. I guess another way to look at it is, how does the league HR leader three years running only have a .807 OPS?!?! He should be getting pitched around nearly every at bat.
  21. nicksaviking
    I think we're making assumptions on this one. From my 20 years experience with a bad back, you never can tell when it's going to give you issues. Mine would lock up on me and put me out of commission even when I was a highly trained athlete back when I was a teenager. It's possible he's out of shape, but last year his issue was a forearm strain which doesn't seem like it would have much to do with conditioning. If I were to make an assumption, it would be that he's 32 and on the backside of his career. Age tends to rob pitchers of their most needed physical attributes before it does the hitters.
  22. nicksaviking
    Me too. No sure there's a lot of hard throwers available this year though. Shawn Kelley misses bats but doesn't throw too hard, maybe he'd be worth a look. Jon Broxton might have turned the corner too.
  23. nicksaviking
    If I had to have one guy with an attitude problem for my team, it would be an angry and ornery reliever. Also, we probably could have said the same things about Perkins about five years ago, he was just fortunanate enough not to break his thumb during his tantrum. As mentioned, Perkins is the closer and that's unlikely to change, however that's going to hamper matters in getting meaningful bullpen upgrades. It would be great to get the next Wade Davis, but that's going to be a guessing game. I'd have to think the guys you would have the most confidence in would be those who profile as a closer.
  24. nicksaviking
    I agree, and most managers wouldn't. Just throwing that out there in case the Twins wanted to think slightly outside the box. And to be fair, those that argue that your best relief pitcher should be used in the highest leverage situation often use hindsight to make their points. No one can actually predict that the bottom of the ninth WON'T be the highest leverage half inning, particularly since the odds are that it will.
  25. nicksaviking
    Or Perkins could be removed from the 9th. Or the Twins could stray from the fixed closer docterine.
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