nicksaviking

Well this is the first time, what's the excuse for the rest of the time they mis-manage the roster? I'm guessing LE3 had it wrong. Arcia heard that Butera got the promotion mid-game and didn't hustle fast enough to the club house phone to ask TR what the hell is going on. Three games doesn't matter much, though you know Drew will get a start. I'd prefer to let Herrmann get all three considering he is basically auditioning for the full time backup gig come 2014.

Nice article. Plenty of reason to shut these guys down. Perhaps Melotakis could get bumped to Ft. Myers and he Duffy and Rogers could alternate starts for the rest of the year or form some kind of auxillary rotation. Also to consider is Luke Bard, though it seems he premptively got hurt, likely to delibrately throw off this study.

Checking Fangraphs, I notice some strange things. First and strangely, if Deduno qulified, he would be leading the league in giving up the highest contact rate for pitches thrown in the strike zone and surprisingly, he would be among the top 30 in leaders for getting pitches in the strike zone. He is in the bottom 30 for contact on pitches outside of the zone however he only gets swings on 22.8% of his pitches outside of the zone while the lowest qualified pitcher is at 24.3%, a full percentage and a half more than Deduno. From watching the games, his fastball seems to be more uncontrollable than his curve or changeup, but it is also a 5.5 run above average pitch while the curve and changeup are below average. With the better control on the curve and change up, those are the pitches that are more often finding the zone, which as I stated above, people are making contact with. The fastball is the pitch that is leaving the zone, and no one is making contact with his pitches out of the zone but lucky for the batters, they are also laying off these pitches an unusually high amount of the time. With this information, is it possible he is tipping his pitches and everyone is sitting on the curve and/or changeup knowing they will be the pitches most likely over the plate? One last interesting tidbit from Fangraphs. They track pitches that are catagorized as "unknown" type. The qualified league leader is Andrew Cashner who's pitches are unknown 6.5% of the time. Deduno throws an unidentifiable pitch 9.5% of the time.

With the movement on his pitches, you'd think if the groundball % decreases, it would likely be the strikeout % that increases. Can anyone provide a reasonable analysis as to why his K% is so low when he has stuff any objective viewer would call "unhittable?" Is it an anomoly due to a small sample size? Are teams laying off his pitches knowing his stuff is wild? You would think this wouldn't occur with his thus far reasonable walk rate.

3 YEARS FROM NOW Every team will get more media coverage because global warming will cause the seas to rise and Boston and NY will be underwater.

What does a stuttering Miguel Sano shout as he rounds the bases? Ho Ho Home Runhttp://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/New-Britain-Rock-Cats-Santa-uniform.jpg

I forgive Seth for overlooking the most important development in New Britain yesterday. It was their Christmas in July promotion: New Britain Rock Cats wear Santa Claus jerseys for 'Christmas in July' | Larry Brown Sports What kid wouldn't be thrilled to open up a pack of baseball cards and find Miguel Sano wearing this uniform? http://larrybrownsports.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/New-Britain-Rock-Cats-Santa-uniform.jpg

Yeah, he's getting a little old considering he hasn't been able to accomplish much at the MLB level. With the walk issues, I'm quite surprised the Twins had interest; doesn't seem like a Gardy/Ryan/Anderson kind of arm.

Guess he should have struck the batters out instead of letting them put the ball in play.

Sold.

Part of it may be that the Twins like Tonkin or other relievers but need to clear space. Duensing is due for an arbitration raise and I'd think the Twins would still pay it, but going forward it might get pricey and they may send him the way of Jose Mijares. Plus, the Braves scout pitching better than most teams, their C prospects still throw hard and have some potential.

Hicks' fifth game in High A was a big one as he went 3-4 with 2 BB. He hit a 2-R HR, plating 3 total RBI and scoring 4 runs.

So the Cubs plan to "overpay" and set the market for backend starters continues to sting the Twins considering the Twins could have had Arrieta if they had inked Feldman.

I agree with Chief that the biggest issue was the jump. Hicks had no chance at scoring and it he was in an awkward postion to do so. From my viewpoint (on my couch) the catcher was only partially blocking the line but he was up the basepath and the ball beat Hicks to the catcher. Hicks could have tried to slide under the tag, but then his slide would have still had to carry him 8-10 feet just to reach home plate. Hicks would have normally slid where he got tagged out, but to avoid the tag, he would have had to start the slide several more feet up the line, no way does a slide from there reach the plate and we would be making fun of him for coming up short.

It's kind of hard when we keep thinking up new things that cause it. Surely like Pollock shaped shrimp.

I didn't know they regularly showed MLB games in Costa Rica.

Do they not sell baseball pants and stirrups on Wilshire Boulevard?

This Blanton character is starting to grow on me.

Muckracking reporter Nicksaviking has found that Ryan Braun forfiets the remainder of his $8.5 million salary for 2013. In 2014, his contract calls for a $10 million salary. Speculation is that $10 million is larger than $8.5 million.

I can guarantee they can get one guy as good as Norris in FA. It's just doubtful they are willing.

Are you saying Norris is the next best thing? There isn't another level of pitcher between the HOF'ers and Norris? Or two or three levels? It's likely going to cost an Arcia+. Playoff hopefulls are going to drive the price up. I'm not interested, the price will surely be high as he is not a rental, though considering this team likely still won't be competing next year, that's hopefully one year of a #3 pitcher in a season that matters. Count me out, a player on a two year deal might as well be a rental as far as the Twins competition schedule is concerned. I'd take him as a free agent but not for a top prospect.

Wasn't the belief that coming out of spring training Porcello had the job for a possible audition for a trade? There were plenty of rumors, that's for sure. I can't say I've seen him pitch a ton, but I'm guessing he's pitching better than his ERA suggests. His K/9 has jumped nearly 2 points while his WHIP has lowered significantly as has his BB/9. He's probably earned that spot now. Even if Smyly had actually earned it going into the season.

There are only a couple of pitchers on the market next year who have few enough age/health/performance questions to recieve deals longer than 2-3 years. Hughes along with Garza and perhaps Ervin Santana and Ricky Nolasco could rangle a 4+ year deal under the right circumstances. Lincicum is too risky performance-wise, Johnson health-wise and Halladay age-wise. Considering that whoever trades for Garza will surely try to re-sign him during the exclusive window before free agency begins, Hughes may very likely be the pitcher who signs the longest term deal next year. I'll be shocked if it's less than four years with five being possible. By default he is going to get overpaid, I don't see the Twins anywhere near him. His agent won't even have to do any work, he is going to be constantly talked about once free agency comes around because there won't be enough quality names to hype and discuss. NY loving ESPN and the big market media have put this guys name on the map even when undeserved and everyone knows (or at least correctly assumes) that his splits away from Yankee Stadium are quite better. Being the youngest free agent pitcher on the market is also going to make him attractive. Even if the Twins did somehow sign the season's "top free agent pitcher contract" what a bummer it would be if it was the year it belonged to Phil Hughes.

Not intersted as the asking price will be high. He's not a front of the rotation guy. Decent pitcher but not special enough for a top prospect. That K/9 would rank 6th compared to Detroit's five starters. I'm tired of the Twins considering these kind or arms "Aces."

I didn't misread, just mis-interpreted. I didn't mean to imply we weren't on the same page, it appears we are.