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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    Arcia always seemed like a guy who needed a chance to fail and recover to see if his shortcomings could be overcome. He tore through the minors and then played capable offense in his first couple years in the majors. He had/has so much ability with the bat, so many times a young guy who has never struggled just needs a taste of failure to be humbled and refocus their efforts.
  2. nicksaviking
    I'd rather buy them in the off season if this team just cannot develop their own. Even the most expensive of relievers is still affordable to the Twins. Can't say that about the best starting pitchers or position players. Relievers are so combustible I'd not want to trade off top 5 organizational talent for a guy just as likely to bust as to contribute. I'm about as far away from trusting a pitcher coming from San Diego as I am from trusting one straight out of Junior College.
  3. nicksaviking
    Sorry for the young man. The surgery for pitchers is very modern but surely the symptoms and diagnosis are not. I'd be interested in finding out which pitchers in the past had the same condition, and how it was treated, if at all.
  4. nicksaviking
    I don't know, these guys have been in the system awhile. If we're talking about some guy who's only 12 months out of HS/college I would be pretty confident that there was more remedial stuff the guys had to do before going to the big stage. And there might be some of that with Romero; perhaps it's just the superior "stuff" but the perception is always that those guys need to take more time. But Gonsalves sounds more like he's pretty close to what he's going to be, he sounds like a pitcher, not a thrower already. If anything, he sounds like Berrios, a guy who probably threw too many pitches in the minors because he knows if he keeps throwing off the plate, he'll get guys to chase regularly. That hasn't backfired on him yet, but it will. I'd like him to learn that lesson now, not next year. Learning that what you're doing now isn't going to work in the future isn't a lesson most young people understand until they've been humbled, and it doesn't look like it's a lesson he's going to learn in the minors. And I don't agree that getting to the majors puts a cap on your education and development. If it is, they don't have the right coaches and instructors.
  5. nicksaviking
    Most young pitchers struggle upon their call up, but it seems to me the young guys who like to try to get cute by picking at the corners instead of pounding the zone tend to have the rockiest MLB debuts. Gonsalves seems like one of those guys. If this team has eyes on him to be a factor next year, I'd rather he get his rocky start out of the way with now. Even if it were possible for Gonsalves and Romero to be worse than Santiago, Gibson or any other starter who has gotten regularly shelled, the results likely will be negligible. A loss is a loss and a short start is a short start regardless if the starting pitcher gives up 6 runs or 8 runs. Get the traditional rookie struggles out of the way this year when there really is no consequence to the win/loss record.
  6. nicksaviking
    *****Moderator Note***** Yeah, the pitching staff + somehow being .500 = consternation. Still, let's keep this civil. That means refraining from making comments personal, implying that others know less than you, and short/glib responses.
  7. nicksaviking
    Camera work at Kaufman is sometimes like watching an old VHS. Really, there was no better angle or zoom function to check the Dozier foul ball? At least they fixed the outfield camera that would get drenched by the waterfall every time there was a gust of wind.
  8. nicksaviking
    I would say not very valuable. But a change-of-scenery flier is OK with me considering the internal options. His poor production, contract and age actually look incredibly similar to Carl Pavano at the trade deadline in 2009. Edit: The Twins also have since re-signed Yohan Pino whom they used to acquire Pavano 8 years ago!
  9. nicksaviking
    His FB% is higher than it's been since about a decade ago in Minnesota and his GB% is at it's lowest since that time. Not sure why that is, but it's obviously a bad combination in Toronto. He's a lefty and LF in Target Field is also homer friendly and RHB are hitting him pretty well this year. I'd still take him if he was basically prospect free. Contention or not his numbers and his contract sure indicate Toronto would dump him, possibly even if they can't find a trade partner.
  10. nicksaviking
    Without looking at the Twins schedule, yeah, that looks rough. Cleveland would have to be playing really good baseball just to have a .500 record that month. Unless the Royals or Rays fall back to where they were expected to be, there's not a breath to take in that month. And only two off days in that stretch.
  11. nicksaviking
    To me, it kind of sounds like the Twins are trying stop-gap measures to make him as serviceable as possible this summer. Perhaps there are plans for wholesale swing changes in the offseason. I can understand how they'd maybe change his feet now hoping at the very least it improves contact and cuts back some on the strikeouts but they may not want to go into any kind of large overhaul in-season.
  12. nicksaviking
    Name probably doesn't matter. I've just heard a lot about Cole being a big time target, not just here but everywhere. I just don't get the hype anymore. And to be fair on my part, if he was currently being treated as one of the guys I listed in my other post who had fallen from grace a bit and thus likely couldn't return a king's ransom, I'd be interested in him.
  13. nicksaviking
    Well I was mostly just spitballing, but I doubt AZ nor Bradley's agent sees him in the pen long term so there likely would be people looking to get him into a rotation, either in AZ or elsewhere. Drury can be useful, but he's also an outfielder, and both he and Thomas shouldn't be hitting against lefties. But again, it was mostly spitballing. I've mentioned I'd be interested in trying to get a Zack Wheeler. Maybe a Michael Wacha. Someone who has fallen off the map a bit but is still controllable.
  14. nicksaviking
    Yeah, but I don't want to give up the kinds of prospects it normally would take to get an ace to get a #3. A #3 I am skeptical that can succeed in the AL.
  15. nicksaviking
    Is Garrit Cole really a front line starter? He hasn't really done anything overly exciting for a couple of years. With his modest strikeout numbers and suddenly high HR/9 are we sure he's anything better than a 3-4 in the AL? His peripherals aren't saying he's having bad luck or anything, they're just saying he's an average pitcher. And he's got name brand recognition, so he's going to cost 1-2 value in return.
  16. nicksaviking
    Right, and they currently have Bradley in the pen. He seems like the kind of piece a team trying to win now would have to give up to fill a hole. Perhaps at 2B considering they have a team OPS of .693 against left handed pitchers.
  17. nicksaviking
    I would have thought so to, but they already did this with Park, using the unknown regarding his injury as cover to shield him during his waiver period. His wrist is now fine as far as I know, speaking nothing of his ability to hit AAA pitching of course. Leaking that his velocity was way down may have caused enough eyebrows to raise, even if it is simply lingering effects of his previous but recoverable oblique injury. Heck, for all I know his velocity was down because all he threw were sliders in his short AAA stint. Also, no one seems to be going crazy on the waiver wire this year. After last season I would have guessed half the league would have claimed Aledmys Diaz, yet the Cardinals must have also known he'd get through waivers even on his modest 2.5M salary. Seriously, not even the Dodgers grabbed him. Geez, think about Cardinal forums during that waiver period. Also, picking Melotakis for removal from the 40-man might have been as simple as the fact that the team is more comfortable with Rogers and Boshers as left handers than they are with the right handers as a whole.
  18. nicksaviking
    "I just don't think we're going to go all in to try to win this year," Levine said. "We're going to try to put ourselves in the best position to win, but with an eye toward now and the future. We're not a mature team that has a window that's wide-open or closing; we're trying to see how far we can push this season as we're cracking this window open, and we're going to treat it accordingly. "I don't think we view it as we're just one piece away and we're not looking to finish off this club; we're looking to continue to build this club. We have a lot of core pieces that have a chance to be part of something special in the future, but we're cognizant that we're going to need to add to that core." Phew. That's all I wanted to hear. Win if you can this year, just don't do anything to sabotage the team for when they are actually ready to win it all. I'd like to see if there is a fit to get Archie Bradley. Wish he wasn't doing so well in the bullpen this year, but those are the kinds of moves I'd like to see.
  19. nicksaviking
    Seriously though, putting aside all the DFA business and the consternation about losing him, I'd really like to find out more about his velocity decrease. As far as I can tell, it was Berardino that reported on the velocity dip, so that should be coming from the organization which should mean it's legit. But even assuming it is accurate, it could also have been a strategic leak to help retain him. I've been hoping for Melotakis to be that hard throwing lefty in the bullpen. I just want to know if this is serious or due to a nagging injury, like his oblique issue.
  20. nicksaviking
    Hmmm, I think I've seen this movie before: http://twinsdaily.com/topic/24833-twins-dfa-byungho-park/
  21. nicksaviking
    I don't want to take away from the effort and hard work put in by the veteran leaders, but this has to be true. And I can see how guys who may not be graced with superior athletic abilities tend to be better leaders, simply because they DO have to work harder and they DO have to have more attention to fundamentals, and obviously those are the examples most teams want to present to the younger guys. But when it comes to the point that the leadership skills are buoying a career because the on field production isn't there, then you've become a coach with a mitt and I don't think a 25-man roster can support that.
  22. nicksaviking
    If we're going to do the whole physiological difference bit to compare men and women, why don't we do it with men and men? You pluck any of the great men's tennis players from the 60's or 70's and put them in the 2017 US Open and they wouldn't get out of the second round. Every single men's pro player today serves much, much harder and has had specialized training to make them much, quicker, stronger and have greater stamina. Jim Brown wouldn't be fast enough or strong enough to compete with the modern running backs and Babe Ruth never saw a 97 MPH heater or an 89 MPH slider, good luck with those sir. We still like to rank those guys on lists.
  23. nicksaviking
    I don't agree with needing veterans to be leaders, but I understand the thought. What I don't understand is why veteran leadership for this team is only coming from guys who have been dangerously close to being a DFA candidate from the moment they were signed. Surely there are some veteran leaders that would have been able to provide a better chance of on-field contributions.
  24. nicksaviking
    Why do Hildenberger, Busentiz or any other pitcher have to prove reliable to before they release Breslow or Belisle? Both of them have proven to be unreliable. When your safety net is no better or even worse than what's on the weekly waiver wire, you don't really have much to lose.
  25. nicksaviking
    Looks to me like the only fits for Dozier on contenders are with Milwaukee, Tampa and Arizona. And you have to squint real hard and tilt your head to see it with any of them. Angles to, but, ha, yeah they have noting to offer. I think the Twins just ran into bad luck, they have a really good 2B in what might turn out to be history's greatest era for 2B. Nearly every team has one. It would be really nice if the Twins would give Dozier some reps at 3B. Of course if they did it would be crystal clear what they were doing and fans probably wouldn't care for it much.
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