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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    I think you're overlooking the league-wide transition to huge offenses. The supposedly elite Jaguars and Rams defenses are as leaky if not more leaky than the Vikings. It's a different game than even just last year. The defense is going to be fine.
  2. nicksaviking
    Yeah, Shelton would arguably be considered the more qualified candidate based on experience so I wonder how that dynamic would work. But I think Baldelli is my horse as well.
  3. nicksaviking
    I'm not sure what level of talent Miami is looking for, but I'd definitely look to include Kepler as an additional piece in a package for some kind of great-to-elite level player.
  4. nicksaviking
    Jimmy Butler told me he was over-rated. Only guessing based on the stats, I'd guess the 5 fouls a game he's picking up is the reason for his only 30 minutes per game played, which is probably impacting his counting stats at least.
  5. nicksaviking
    Of course if the front office wanted to pick the coaching staff but also wanted it to appear largely to be the field managers call, they'd probably just hire Derek Shelton who in retrospect probably actually was the chosen successor to Molitor back when Shelton was originally hired. The fact that he hasn't been named manager already when two other managerial spots have already been filled makes me think the front office is having second thoughts and might really be considering Hyde or Baldelli. Which I hope they are.
  6. nicksaviking
    I didn't see him turn his ankle much on that play, which had me worried that he'd popped his Achilles which could happen without any recognizable torque on the ankle. But then they showed him standing on the sideline soon after, and if he had torn the tendon he wouldn't be able to stand unassisted, so that was a good sign. Then my buddy suggested that Xavier perhaps did a bit of acting to try to sell the idea that the feet got tangled to try to avoid the PI penalty.
  7. nicksaviking
    That reads like an entertaining gag, but I'm instead going to view it as satirizing what appears to be zero interest from our beat writers and other local media in following this situation.
  8. nicksaviking
    His Line Drive % is very low and always has been, but this year he clearly made an effort to hit more fly balls as his FB% and GB% basically flip-flopped. However he also has a very high Soft Hit% and a below average Hard Hit %. There has to be more line drives, but maybe the new strength and conditioning folks will get him stronger. Strength probably isn't the only factor in hitting the ball harder, but I'm sure it doesn't hurt.
  9. nicksaviking
    I'd say that Target Field's small RF dimensions minimize the benefits of Kepler's speed. In fact, if a groundball pitcher like Gibson is on the mound, his added range covering the infield may be more beneficial than in RF.
  10. nicksaviking
    Well the free agent class is highlighted by Lucas Duda and Matt Adams. It's just not a strong position any longer. I'd guess it's because with today's technology and training the best athletes are typically the best hitters, and the best athletes don't waste their defensive talents at 1B. I'd think the fact that 1B has become a bit of a stale position is very correlated to the fact that shortstop is no longer an offensive black hole.
  11. nicksaviking
    I agree Tom, except I'd rather replace Grossman on this team as well. I'd rather look to fill any open roster spots with the best bat available, not the best bat who also plays 1B. There are enough 1B capable players on the team who are already going to be playing regularly.
  12. nicksaviking
    I like the idea of identifying a "core" but not at this particular moment. It seems to me core players are typically only identified after the team wins. We can identify who the core players were in 1987 and track them back through the struggles of the seasons before. Same with the clubs from early this century. Gary Ward, Tim Teufel, Matt Lawton and AJ Pierzynski probably would have been considered core players if we did this exercise during those building processes. Not to dismiss the idea, I just would prefer not to get wrapped up in worrying about selling low or making certain guys untouchable when the team isn't yet built to win.
  13. nicksaviking
    I somehow doubt Jusin Verlander's winning attitude increased the pitching staff's strikeout percentage by 25%. If you want an example of analytics making players great, why look any further than the entire Astros staff? Verlander was nearly written off as done, Cole was a perpetual under-performer and everyone else was a complete no-name/washout/has-been prior to the Astros getting their hands on them. Or was Charlie Morton's transformation from Nick Blackburn to Roger Clemens at the age of 33 just a coincidence?
  14. nicksaviking
    Well it certainly would be nice for our local journalists to write up a piece on the organizational flow chart. Though for some reason our local reporters can't even figure out when this team is having managerial interviews so I'm not holding out a ton of hope for something more detailed.
  15. nicksaviking
    Though he was a friend of the site, I wasn't concerned about the Jack Goin situation as I assumed other analytically astute personnel would replace him. Looking at your link I see two people who appear to be under Kalk: Analyst, Baseball Research Zane MacPhee Analyst, Baseball Research Heather Hunt I'm not sure if I'm understanding you correctly, but is your assertion that these three make up the entirety of the analytics team? I can't imagine that's the case, but if it is, yeah, I'd be beyond disappointed. As far as seeing progress, I don't know that we'd see a whole lot if we're not behind the scenes. I doubt the 2013 Astros showed a ton of what appeared to be progress compared to the 2011 team either.
  16. nicksaviking
    I can't imagine anyone is shocked by the claim that the Astros are better than the Twins. I was simply pointing out that to compare the current state of both organizations isn't apples to apples considering the Astros hired a progressive baseball mind for their GM gig in 2011 which was the same time the Twins decided to do the exact opposite and re-hire Terry Ryan. The Astros have a six year head start on the Twins as far as analytics and new baseball ideas go.
  17. nicksaviking
    While I'm envious of the Astros' situation, the original Twins GM got canned for a reason so I wouldn't think the mess he left behind would be counted against the new GM's rebuild timeline. When the Astros bottomed out they were intentionally tanking with purpose and a long term blueprint. The Twins bottomed out completely unintentionally and made decisions for short term preservation. Though I'd appreciate an expedited remedy.
  18. nicksaviking
    What is it you're hoping to see? I know from past posts that you want to see some long term free agent deals but I don't know why you'd assume those aren't coming. We've had two completely different off seasons from this front office. The first they did next to nothing, maybe they were evaluating what they already had in the system, maybe they just didn't know what they were doing. Last year they chased after the big names but weren't able to land them and instead settled for being very active on 1-2 year deals. So far these guys have exhibited no patters to indicate what future behavior will be, I don't know why anyone would make assumptions, good or bad, as to what the MO is for the new front office.
  19. nicksaviking
    I just don’t understand why it’s written. Why isn’t it a verbal test and just called, you know, an interview? Do the applicants at least get to use a word processor or are they required to bring their #2 pencils?
  20. nicksaviking
    Good point, the new front office did seem to transform Pressly from what he was prior to their arrival after all. The Astros may have added additional tweaks or perhaps their field staff just used him situationally in conjunction with the data better than the Twins field staff. Or maybe they just have better Powerpoint presentations that are appealing to Pressly. Still, if there's room for improvement, and there likely is, I want the gulf between what the Astros have and what the Twins have closed, and pronto.
  21. nicksaviking
    Sounds like along with Derek Shelton, Brandon Hyde, Hensley Meulens and Rocco Baldelli (and maybe a few others?) have already interviewed. All look like interesting candidates to me and from an organizational perspective I like how under-the-radar this has been. From a local journalistic perspective, seriously, what the heck. Unless they had all four (and maybe more?) interviews this morning, seems like our writers aren't on top of things.
  22. nicksaviking
    It seems better than before, but clearly it's not up to par with the Astros. With full control of their entire field staff starting next year they'll have no excuses not to be at the cutting edge. I hope they can find some time in between reading spreadsheets to read the WaPo. Then get back to reading the spreadsheets.
  23. nicksaviking
    Maybe the new strength and conditioning folks can build up Polanco's shoulder strength. He'd probably be quite adequate if his arm wasn't below average. If we can figure out how to get pitchers to add velocity I'd think you'd be able to do it with a shortstop as well. Anyway, that probably won't be the case but paying some physiology wiz to figure it out sure sounds more economical and practical than paying millions for a sub-par offensive shortstop.
  24. nicksaviking
    Fortunately math is still free and can't be copyrighted so unlike having a high payroll, similar success based on analytics is still attainable for the Twins. Better get it rounded into shape before everyone is doing it though, the window to gain the upper hand here is likely to close soon.
  25. nicksaviking
    Is Terrance Newman dusting off his jersey yet? That would be a great story anyway, but while Alexander will probably get more work, I bet a lot more snaps will end up going to Iloka and Jayron Kearse. They seemed to be on the field a lot more than normal after Hughes went down. A mid-game injury is probably hard to start swap out a CB's snaps for a safety but if they have all week to prep I bet they'll get creative.
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