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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    Scout or instruct. Something just doesn't add up. Other clubs just don't seem to have as much trouble getting minor leaguers with above average K rates.
  2. nicksaviking
    Do you have a link for that? I don't remember hearing Ryan saying that. I'm not saying it's not true, but all I remember Ryan saying was that Gibson wasn't consistant enough which really wasn't true. Also looking at Gibson's numbers in AAA last year, he pitched 101 innings in 17 starts. At the MLB level, doubling those 17 starts to 34 would equal a full and healthy season for a starter which would mean his start/innings numbers would have extrapolated out to 34/200. Maybe he was only averaging 6 innings a start, but that 200 innings and 34 starts seem to be the benchmark this club looks for in their free agents.
  3. nicksaviking
    Yeah, Mike's got a good point contradicting the implied "earned promotions." Why is trading for Alex Meyer, who surely is a roadblock for another minor league, a move to be proud of where as signing free agents is so shameful? Most major companies hire from outside the organization and not only to discourage group think, but because there are talented would-be employees outside of your world. The oranization acts and talks as though they are a family, thus this practice is basically nepotism, which is not admirable. As for holding employees accountable, it may be done, but it does not seem to result in termination. Bill Smith is still there after all.
  4. nicksaviking
    I assume he was talking about Dias, but I could be wrong. I would be disappointed if the Twins don't go after him hard. I'm interested in Despaigne but I was also interested in Hinojosa until his workout. If Despaigne proves to be a hard throwing rotation staple, the Twins need to find away to get him. If he also turns out to be a bullpen arm with a 90 mph fastball like Hinojosa, I'm not going to worry about it. The baseball info on Despaigne is very limited. I do know he only struck out 98 batters in 143 innings in 2013, so that doesn't sound too promising.
  5. nicksaviking
    I don't but mostly because I never expect too much from a catcher.
  6. nicksaviking
    Yes, it was something you did. Chief broke Twins Daily and I'm telling!
  7. nicksaviking
    If Melotakis can only manage 6.8 K/9 in Low A ball, I don't know that I care to see much more of him as a starter. I had high, likely too high, hopes for him, Duffy and the rest of that 2012 pitching class. I thought the Twins might be on to something converting these hard-throwing relievers with littler wear and tear into starters but it doesn't look to be working. Either these guys lost more velocity than expected or the Twins have tinkered too much, either way, if the ceiling is #5-6 starter, might as well stick them back in the pen because that's where back-end starters end up most of the time anyway. I agree with the Navarreto over Stewart. I know it's not cool or old-school to say so, but offense trumps defense, always, and it's not like Navarreto looks bad behind the plate.
  8. nicksaviking
    How about we let Mauer continue catching and instead just convince the front office that the best way to reduce foul tips is to get starting pitchers who can miss bats more often? Much, much more often. Seems like that skill migh come in handy in many facets of this game, not just in reducing foul tips of the All-Star catcher's head.
  9. nicksaviking
    I just don't see anywhere where the Twins dropped out or pulled back an offer. It looks to me the Twins tried to get this guy but he simply prefered the Red Sox. Free agency is a two way street, the player has to want to sign too. I hammer the front office all the time, but for all we know they DID offer $5 million. Surely there is a magic number that would get a player to pick the Twins over the Red Sox, but we don't know what that is. Could the Twins have offered $6 million to top the Red Sox $4.25 million? Probably. But even I, as a front office detractor, don't want this club spending $6 million on a noodle-armed relief pitcher this early into free agency. After the team signs a couple of hard throwing starters, great, go nuts, but relievers can wait until we know what needs to be budgeted to fix the rotation.
  10. nicksaviking
    I don't like it but I might be able to be convinced that Mauer should move to 1B. But I'm not there yet. He still has a strong SLG/OPS but yuck, I have a hard time penciling in a guy at 1B who's going to top out at about 12 HR and 80 RBI. It's 1B! It's supposed to be where the run producer plays! The smart rebuttal would be, "What the hell kind of fantasy world are you living in where you expect Parmelee and Colabello be a middle of the order bat?"
  11. nicksaviking
    How can you matter-of-factly make that statment? Each of those things very likely would impact the team in some manner, why is it not possible they would improve the club if embraced? You seem to take the most umbrage with his #6: --6. Looked hard at my development processes, and wonder why they have turned out so few good players. Without doing that, I can't say how I'd change them. -- What possbible reason is there to disagree with this? This should be done by every GM constantly. The Twins haven't turned out quality players lately, why wouldn't you try to assess the reasons? If the reason is, "there is no reason," fine, but Mike clearly said he couldn't state what he would change without an internal evaluation. There are legitimate issues to be concerned about within this organization, Ryan acknowledges as much. The poster you replied to clearly and rationally listed reasonable areas to address or fix, I'm sorry but Ryan himself says he has to do better, why can't we?
  12. nicksaviking
    Well according to Fangraphs, team WAR for the final four's rotations were: Tigers- 1 Red Sox- 3 Dodgers- 5 Cardinals- 6 I don't think the Red Sox and Cardinals ending up in the World Series disproves that dominant starters are the best route to success. Of the 16 starters who took the mound in the two Division Series' only Joe Kelly and Doug Fister had a K/9 less than 7.2. It was star pitching or future star pitching nearly everywhere you looked.
  13. nicksaviking
    I'm not high on Hughes, but I'd be fine if they signed him. It would indicate that A) they are finally taking free agency seriously and the intentional but unfortunate idea that this team has to target only groundball pitchers is over. Question though, if Hughes is the ace (gag), does he still get to pitch the Wild Card game hosted at Yankee Stadium? He may get away from a heavy dose of AL East moving to the AL Cental in the regular season, he still has to beat them in the playoffs which should be the goal.
  14. nicksaviking
    Actually, I think his tone is fairly transcribed in this transcript. Just the fact that he's sitting down with TD for this interview gives me the impression that he is willing to have an honest discussion with the fans. I don't agree with Ryan on most of his conservative and old school baseball philosophies however, so like many like-minded posters, my first instinct is to disagree and critique the words coming out of his mouth. However, I thank him for the interview regardless of how many of his opinions I may disagree with.
  15. nicksaviking
    I want the Twins to do better with international players as well, though I don't know that I'm going to get too upset about not getting Hinojosa. I'll save that for other non-signings later this offseason. From your post I thought there may have been a report that the Twins refused to sign him. In actuality the Red Sox signed him at $4.25 million. As the big market Red Sox paid $4.25M the Twins would not have gotten him for $4M. It may not be fair, but if you're going to get a free agent away from a big market winner, you're going to have to offer more than they do, maybe quite a bit more. That being said, many people think this guy is a reliever. He's got an 88-91 MPH fastball. Now that doesn't mean he can't strike guys out, but that velocity certainly doesn't get my juices flowing. I'm done with soft-tossing back of the rotation arms. I would have been happy to take a chance on something Cuban, but this guy doesn't look to be much to get excited about.
  16. nicksaviking
    I would agree if this was a different club, but the Twins managerial staff has been hired and fired in piecemeal for decades. The only way I see wholesale changes is if Ryan gets canned and a new GM, from outside the organization comes in a blows everything up.
  17. nicksaviking
    Probably, but that is a complete BS. I like Molitor and I like him around the players. I think he should be a candidate for a managerial position, but if this is a preemptive move to keep the old boys club intact and stall change despite the obvious need for outside voices, Ryan needs to go. Molitor or any other current employee cannot be given de facto status while we are staring at all this incompetence, it is a huge slap in the face to fans who want to think there is hope this club will someday join the 21st century. Ryan needs to stop insulating this club from the rest of the baseball world.
  18. nicksaviking
    Players at all levels are much more likely to succeed with a high strikeout rate than they are with a low OBP.
  19. nicksaviking
    Especially considering that 20-year-olds in Low A have historically struggled to regularly hit the strike zone. Additionally, the league HR leader generally gets pitched around, you'd think this extra likely after the promotions of Buxton and Hicks.
  20. nicksaviking
    Cocaine adds strength and helps helps the body rapidly recover? I got to see that study. I too am curious why Molitor is suddenly a fit. I like the move but am also frustrated they dipped back into the old boys club. It just strengthens the notion that Ryan refuses to leave his comfort zone.
  21. nicksaviking
    Clearly, but since when are free agent pitchers paid what they are worth? I think he gets less than 12.5M per year but it will be much higher than 6M I suspect. If you want pitching, you have to overpay or develop it yourself. It's just the rules of the game, and unfortunately the Twins aren't able to develop it themselves.
  22. nicksaviking
    Jon Heyman says they will give him the qualifying offer: Giants to make qualifying offers to Pence, Lincecum; they won't accept - CBSSports.com Obviously he could be wrong, but he usually has a pretty good feel for this stuff.
  23. nicksaviking
    The Astros have retired nine numbers. I remeber going to a game, which was before Bagwell and Biggio had retired and thinking it was kind of embarassing that the Astros had six numbers retired and only Nolan Ryan was anything close to an all time great. Similarly aged franchises like the Royals and Mets have only retired three numbers, the Brewers only four, the Rangers one. Wade Boggs and pre-steroid Roger Clemens haven't even gotten their numbers retired by the Red Sox. Radke wasn't elite, he was never close to elite, he was just very good. I'd be embarassed if we as Twins fans retired his number, basically telling the rest of the baseball world, "This is the best we've contributed to our sport." I think the notion that he spent his entire career with one club isn't a very good qualifyer for this distinction. After all, it's not their fault that Kaat, Perry, Viola and Santana got traded. They were all better players and if Radke got his number retired, it would mean the Twins would need to retire about a dozen more that are better than him.
  24. nicksaviking
    I'm in the same boat, but I didn't think any club would give hiim more than two years regardless of what Lincecum wanted. Now when he gets a qualifying offer and insists on one year he looks even worse. Who wants to give up the 2nd round pick for one season of Lincecum in a Twins uniform in 2014?
  25. nicksaviking
    He didn't sign until the second week of December, and because the Twins signed him neither early nor late, they were FORCED to overpay him. The Cubs went out and set the tone for the off season by being quick to sign Baker and Feldman. I want the Twins to be proactive and make a statement early, that will change how fans, and more importatnly, free agents, view this team. I'd argue that the Twins over-paying of a zero upside arm weeks after other clubs signed similarly, or in most cases higher regarded pitchers, was instead a reactive move which ended up stinking of desperation.
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