nicksaviking

Who's better Sandy Koufax or Jamie Moyer? Or Tony Oliva or Raul Ibanez to use a more apt comparison.

There were a lot of Turner proponents here. I wish I could say I was one of them. I listened to the late spring scouting reports that questioned if his swing would cause him to be a below average hitter even though he hit like few others in college, and I listened to the later reports that even questioned his glove. He sure seems like a guy where over thinking the process was a dumb move. Or if you're into conspiracies, a situation where anonymous scouting reports were used to tank his value. I'm not into conspiracies though.

Monitor has also been credited with being gifted defensive instructor. Joe seems past the age of improvement, perhaps he could, but I don't think he's going to learn any new tricks. If he could, I think I'd prefer he learn to play corner OF. It would be nice if he at least had some defensive flexibility.

I really thought Jay would be given multiple innings, even while pitching out of relief. Man, he's going to take a long time to stretch out and get to a respectable innings workload, he's going to have to be on the same schedule as the guys they draft as HS starters. Levi Michael's .801 OPS is looking optimistic. It feels a little hallow though as he really doesn't appear to be more than average at any particular thing, save perhaps for taking a walk. 9 2B, 5 3B and 4 HR in 181 AB I guess can equal a .437 SLG, but it sure doesn't feel very impressive. Sometimes boring ballplayers turn into sneaky good ballplayers.

Oh the Twins have a version of this. They call it a minor league contract with a spring training invite, though last year they actually made Kubel, Bartlett and Guerrier suit up. It was pretty clear they weren't expecting that!

I agree, and I'm disappointed. I just don't think one side of a debate (a side I happen to be on) can be taken seriously if we substitute unverifiable assumptions for facts. Not that you were; I was basically just playing Devil's Advocate. Or maybe I just really, really want to be proven wrong on this one.

Personally, I've been banging the drum all season about putting future development over winning now. Playing Santana and sacrificing production under my personal philosophy may have been justified. However clearly the team did not share this philosophy as veterans were given the edge over prospects in every other situation, including Vargas and Arcia who were quickly banished despite looking much more useful. The Santana situation just did not mesh with what the team was doing at the time. And even while I've been wearing a billboard that says "All prospects, All the Time" I was ready to replace Santana with Escobar back in May as well.

Well Tyler Duffey had a mere 6.3 K/9 at Ft. Myers as a 22-year-old in 2013 and we just saw him put on a clinic at the MLB level last night. I think 1/1000 odds are stretching it a bit. What if we find out tomorrow that the Twins told Duffey to shelve his curve in favor of working on his other pitches and just recently let him unleash it now that they feel he's ready? I can't believe I have to defend Stewart here, I've been one of his harshest critics. I just don't like working in absolutes.

Yeah, I was very impressed and excited watching that. I agree with Parker though, the surprise may wear off quickly, I think we even saw it late in the game, while half the Orioles were still chasing the curve, a few of them had caught on. To keep this up, he's probably going to have to be a little less predictable about when the pitch is coming, and he's probably going to have to miss closer to the zone. If the book on you is that you have a good curve, at some point teams are going to drill into their players that if it's coming in low, lay off. Those swings at pitches in the dirt won't consistantly be there once teams wise up. These seem like fairly easily adjustments though, if they are needed.

I think the relief comes from the idea the Molitor liked Santana because of his potential while it seemed that Gardy preferred the intangibles more associated with hustle and other blue collar adjectives. I'm guessing barring injury Escobar gets the job through the year. But I wonder if we are going to go through this every year with Polanco getting the gig to start the year in 2016 and Gordon or Vielma getting a shot in following years. Escobar has a real chance at being a legendary Pariah

I like seeing young hard(er) throwing Rule V guys more than the AAAA soft tossing camp invite guys who make the team based on not being terrible for 9 spring training innings like Josh Roenike and Blaine Boyer. The Twins somehow seem to find these kinds of pitcher just as difficult to remove from the 25-man.

Rosario's BABIP is high, but Santana's was still 50 points higher last year. Also, Santana likley wouldn't have been as poor this year had his LD% not dropped from 26% to 20%. Speaking of which, Rosario's LD% in 2015 is also only 20% and that just seems low to me, watching him play and his swing I would have guessed a much higher percentage. Perhaps one of our minor league guru's can shed some light, but wasn't he considered a linedrive hitter in the minors? Personally, I'd expect that to improve. All that said, I don't like his lack of on base skills. If there's a logjam in the corner outfield and a team is calling the Twins looking to trade, it might be Rosario who I may be most willing to move.

I thought Johnny Damon was going to be a lock to get it after being less than 300 hits away coming off his age 37 season in which he still had a .743 OPS. He wanted stupid money though the following year and didn't catch on until after the season started. He was rusty, and it was over. For Ichiro, it seems like getting to 3000 is his goal. And while it doesn't seem that teams actually do sign players just for the milestone publicity, Ichiro might be different. I don't know if his Japanese fan base is just as rabid as in his hayday, I suspect it is much, much less, but I'll bet his country starts paying a lot of attention when he approaches the goal. Some team is going to buy into that. Should be the Mariners.

No kidding, this is a guy who has a career .675 minor league OPS. By all accounts he looked like a poor man's Pedro Florimon.

I like to go back and check some of my old takes from past threads, I get way too proud of myself sometimes when I see that I was spot on. Regarding the Liriano trade, I was dead wrong. nicksaviking, on 29 Jul 2012 - 5:30 PM, said: Is no one concerned that both of these non-prospects are now forced to take a 40-man roster spot? If any more moves are made and the Twins need to clear more roster space, now they have to lose another player just to keep thses two bums? There are a lot of expendable players on the 40-man, but if I had to decide who was the most expendable based on how they have faired in the minros and what thier ceiling is, Escobar would be the first guy I'd get rid of. This trade made no sense on so many levels. Escobar is already in his second option year, next year is his last. So in 2014, the Twins will be putting him on waivers already when they need to replace him for someone who can hit. Even if there were no better packages, and even if the Pohlad's told Ryan that in no way shape or form can Liriano be offered a qualifying offer (doubtful) Ryan's biggest mistake is clogging the already messed up 40-man instead of asking for younger developmental players. Escobar is a quality player and seems to do best with full-time duty. Had he been starting from the get-go, not only might we not have been asking for a SS upgrade all year, we might have been happy that this team had an above average one. This guy can hit when he gets regular at bats and those 35 doubles last year do not look like a fluke.

While I agree that Stewart's lake of strikeouts preclude him from being a decent prospect, for the sake of objectivity I'll disagree with two points. 1. If he has the possibility of being a backend starter, as you mentioned for his ceiling, I don't think we could call him a bust, that's still a usable ball player. 2. Nothing is literally 100% certain. I've also made the same point about being unable to find a guy with such sorry strikeout numbers that ended up missing bats at the majors, but that's a hard stat to sort and it doesn't mean there isn't a comp somewhere. Also, we can't be 100% certain that the Twins aren't taking some unorthodoxed approach with this guy. There is a possibility they are asking Stewart to shelve the slider in two strike counts and insist he use the sinker, a pitch that rarely generates strikeouts.

I'm all for trading Plouffe this winter. Just not for a reliever.

But unless the Twins are trying to get an elite closer, three years of an above average 3B is going to be worth a lot more than a reliever. Plouffe won't be a free agent until 2018.

Nice first post, welcome aboard.

We say that now, but are they any different than Edwin Jackson? This time next year when Nolasco's deal is down to a year and change, I'm guessing there will be plenty of thought going into DFA'ing him if he still has a 5+ ERA and no other team will come near him. And this time in 2017 there would be no doubt he'd be DFA'd under these same circumstances.

What's wrong with an *ing trade? Looks like Plouffe left in one. If Plouffe goes, I'd really hope it was to improve upon those 8 and 9 hitters, he certainly has more value than getting bullpen help.

I fail to see much difference in signing Nolasco, Santana and extending Hughes than in signing Sandoval, Rameriz and extending Porcello. I would have a little interest if I thought he was brining an analytical approach with him, but it almost looks like he has been working to undo Theo Epstein's shrine to Bill James that he built the previous decade. At this point I'd look at anyone from an organization that has a history of being able to beat the Yankees. Equipment managers included.

And with the PED era in the rearview mirror (knock on wood) teams realized the foolishness in giving these monster contracts to players in their mid-30s.

I don't think so, good one.

Jose Tabata and Starlin Castro. Again, just off the top of my head though. Still, I'd rather crap out on a deal like this to a youngster than a veteran. I'd guess the Cubs have a better chance of moving Castro and his ugly contract than the Twins do of moving Hughes, Santana or Mauer. (Not to praise the Cubs, they found it just as difficult to move Edwin Jackson)