Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account

nicksaviking

Community Moderator
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    25,649

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    126

 Content Type 

Profiles

News

Minnesota Twins Videos

2026 Minnesota Twins Top Prospects Ranking

2022 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

Minnesota Twins Free Agent & Trade Rumors, Notes, & Tidbits

Guides & Resources

2023 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

The Minnesota Twins Players Project

2024 Minnesota Twins Draft Picks

2025 Minnesota Twins Draft Pick Tracker

2026 Minnesota Twins Draft Tracker: Picks & Bonuses

Forums

Blogs

Events

Store

Downloads

Gallery

Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    No one would have changed their minds about what ever skill they determined Revere has. What I clearly said was, now that they know the Twins see little value in him, the Twins have no leverage if they had intended on moving him. No team will need to offer his equivalent value ** no matter what value anyone actually places on him** when they can easily point out to the Twins, "Hey, you don't want him, why should we give you anything for him?"
  2. nicksaviking
    He can't? Because of a streaky rookie year? He could certainly hit at every other level. No one's claiming he would net any teams top young player, but he was on the organization's top ten prospect list for years. He should have been able to fetch a player of similar stature. No longer, after Gardy so flippantly disregarded him to the other 29 teams. Even getting another clubs number ten prospect would have been more useful then keeping him around as w bench player.
  3. nicksaviking
    It is worth a shot. Just ask the Yankees, Mariners and Cubs about their Rule V pitcher they took and are still with the club. All three are looking like they'll stick and everyone of them had a K/9 rate of 9.0 or better last year in the minors. If you're cureious, their names are Cesar Cabral, Lucas Luetge, and Lendy Castillo. Terry Doyle had a K/9 rate of 6.3 and is long gone. I'm not trying to be a negative voice here, but the Twins absolutely have to change their philosophy on what makes a pither useful. Getting 9 of your 27 outs without the other team putting the ball in play dramatically increases your chance of winning.
  4. nicksaviking
    If his control is back, New Britain is a very modest goal. Lord knows there isn't enough pitching talent in the system that will block him from multiple promotions. It will be interesting to hear everyone's plans for him once he reaches AA, but it's still hard to get too excited about a 1st round arm that only hits the low 90's on the radar gun. I know the Twins are late to this theory, but even they must acknowledge by now that strike outs are a far more efficient way of getting off the field than letting the other team put the ball in play and praying it doesn't find a hole or land over the fence.
  5. nicksaviking
    I couldn't believe Keppel wormed his way out of the one out basses loaded disaster he got himself into in the 12th. He was about the last arm available and for good reason, he hadn't done anything productive during his time with the Twins. I thought the season was over when he walked in from the bullpen and I couldn't have been more certain after he loaded the bases with the intentional walk. I think he went to Japan after that season but that's got to be something to tell the grandkids about someday.
  6. nicksaviking
    I too like Doumit's veteran persence, but I don't think a reduced role for him is a terrible idea. He may be more injury prone than anyone on the team and that's saying a lot. He could fill Thome's late inning pinch hitting role well with the added bonus of being able to catch day games.
  7. nicksaviking
    That crash we just heard is Ben Revere's trade value jumping out the window. If the team only views him as a fourth outfielder (5th? 6th?) why weren't they shopping him all preseason and trying to sell another club on his youth, years of team control, minor league track record and unmatched range? They can't believably claim they want him around to be a defensive replacement or pinch runner, they can call on Mastroianni to do that at any point. What a waisted opportunity to score a decent pitching prospect from another team. Telling the rest of the league how little you value the guy takes away any leverage. Same old MO, see Slowey, Young, Hardy and Lohse.
  8. nicksaviking
    AT&T is my favorite. I really loved old Busch too, I was there in its last season, and I couldn't believe they were going to tear it down. I too am a bit of a Wrigley hater. I love baseball history, Fenway is great, but the owners have always treated it as the zero effort cash cow that it is. I mostly have issues in the fact Wrigley needs so many routine updates, but no one is going to spend a dime to do it. I hope it's not gameday when that decrepit concourse finally caves in.
  9. nicksaviking
    I would hope the Twins don't use service time as any kind of deciding factor. He does not project a ton of power or speed. For middle infielders, those are they biggest factors in both arbitration and contract negotiations. On the off chance he does turn out to be Michael Young (and their minor league stats are actually very similar and Young too waited until he was 24 to get the call) the Twins probably would deserve any criticism they recieve for keeping a talanted player down for monetary reasons.
  10. nicksaviking
    Punto would have been a beloved Twin if Gardy hadn't kept putting him in his starting line up. People always love the scrappy utility guys willing to fill in anywhere. If anyone can recall Al Newman and Denny Hauking were ripped daily when they were given starting gigs. They became fan favorites when TK decided they were best suited with bench roles. Of course it only works if you carry only one. If your bench consists of Punto, Alexi Casilla, Matt Tolbert and Brendon Harris, the utility player affection from the fans is negated by their combined offensive futility and the pushback results in fan frustration.
  11. nicksaviking
    His old man was known as the toughest (stingiest) negotiator, but I don't think even he could haggle his way out of this one.
  12. nicksaviking
    I would say Swarzak, who is out of options, is more likely than Gray simply because the club has invested much more time in him. The rational may not seem just, but seeing as the organization has put so much effort and so many years into developing him, they're going to want to see definitive proof at the MLB level that it is not going to pay off.
  13. nicksaviking
    Not to mention that only Benson profiles better than a replacement player. Throw in a recovered Kyle Gibson and the group is a little more respectable.
  14. nicksaviking
    Well that would be a first. He's always in the way, ask Nick Swisher.
  15. nicksaviking
    So does this mean Nishioka starts at 2B? I thought they were saying they wanted to send him down to work on his SS mechanics, specifically learning how to backhand grounders in the hole.
  16. nicksaviking
    Ha, yeah quite true. This is definately the Twins kind of development scale. Kind of sad that five years in the system is aggressive though. Garza got the call early because he was nearly ready to go out of college and was already 22 when he arrived. Mauer was also ready, but he was only called up early because the local boy would but fans in the seats. Still, he was forced to spend an entire year in Low A ball despite his .393 OBP and striking out less than he walked. Probably should have had a promotion sometime during the 2002 season. I understand much of the decsion stems from wanting to keep the players under his rookie contract for more of their prime years instead of paying them free agent money, but it would be a shame if this approach took away a year or two from a player who would have otherwise had 3,000 hits or 300 wins. As a person who enjoys baseball history, this approach dissapoints me. It would be nice to get another prospect like Mauer that is so damn good that he forces the Twins to call him up outside of the half-decade development plan. For clarity's sake, I'm not saying Rosario is a future historical baseball figure (fingers crossed Sano!) that needs to be rushed. I was just making a generalized opinion about the Twins tortoise like farm system.
  17. nicksaviking
    McCullers has only been considered a closer recently. Draft wonks had been debating whether he or Giolito would be a better HS ace. He has 3 out pitches which is uncommon for a high schooler. Aside from the high 90's heater, everyone talked about his great change up and curve. He throws hard but has a nice delivery that didn't put him in the injury concern catagory. His upside seemed to be in Justin Verlander territory, anyone know what happened to drop his stock and start the reliever discussion? I have no clue if he's had trouble this spring and I don't see any recent news results for him.
  18. nicksaviking
    Jim Rantz is the only one still employed by the organization and employed in the same postion he is best known for. TK and Oliva have helped as spring training instructors, and Blyleven is an announcer, but Rantz is still in the front office.
  19. nicksaviking
    All this talk about moving an outfielder to make room for Benson and eventually Hicks demonstrates that signing Willingham to a three year deal when the club is rebuilding was perhaps an unwise decision. The knee jerk reaction to replace Cuddyer with a comparable not only blocked younger player's development, but took away $8 million for the next 3 years that could have been better spent on pitching. Don't forget, this team is also looking for playing time for Trevor Plouffe also. Hopefully Willingham has a very nice first half and his 3 year deal looks like a bargain to a contender at the trade deadline. Any of the outfielders should be available for a quality young arm, but Willingham should be shopped as soon as Benson shows he's ready at Rochester.
  20. nicksaviking
    I'm not sure why the team would go outside the organization either, unless they plan on getting a long term solution for 2B or SS. Utility infielders are a dime a dozen. None are going to be a significant upgrade to the current options, the nature of the backup infielder demonstrates that they are already a substandard major league option to begin with. In school, no one argues with the teacher to try to improve their grade from a D to a D+, it's just not worth the effort. On a side note, with questions about Carroll's range (and age) why did the team so adamantly stick him at SS and Casilla at 2B? Casilla has never proven to be a poor SS and he seems to be more comfortable there offensively. Last year his OPS was 67 points higher when he played SS, his carreer OPS is 55 points higher at SS than it is at 2B. And if the Twins though JJ Hardy's range hurt the groundball pitchers, what's going to happen when they expect Valencia to make up the ground that Carroll can no longer reach? Carroll would be much more useful at 2B. I must be missing some obvious issue because this current arrangement seems illogical and I have heard absolutely no discussion on a switch.
  21. nicksaviking
    I can't see any scenario that Liriano will be back though. If he pitches well and stays healthy, he will be looking for a multi year deal, and the Twins never give a pitcher more than four years, and with his injury and inconsistancy history, would likely only offer hime 2-3. If he underperforms again, the frustration Gardy and Rick Anderson have shown in him since his TJ surgery is going to force Terry Ryan to abandon any thought of offering him even a major-league minimum deal. If he pitches adaquately and is forced to take a 1 year Prove-It deal like Edwin Jackson, he will surely look to Prove-It in a different market seeing as this one is not very high profile. Of course all this is moot if the Twins are out of it by the All-Star break. He'll be moved for younger arms at that point.
  22. nicksaviking
    Shocking only because WAR can be a negative number. Michael Cuddyer must have had about an 80 WAR to keep the team's total out of the red.
  23. nicksaviking
    I would have liked to see Guerra a little longer. As was noted, this is his last option year, I would have liked to let him pitch against the big boys if only for another week to get as much experience as possible. His K/9 rate really improved after his conversion to full time releiver last year and he still had the respecable BB/9. He may be about to turn the corner.
  24. nicksaviking
    It would be hard for anyone to rate an organization high when there is next to no pitching talent on the farm. If Gibson had not gotten hurt and remained a top 30 propect, the Twins rankings likely would have been quite a bit higher. In the next couple years when the team strarts flipping Span, Revere and Willingham to make room for Benson, Arcia and Hicks, they hopefully will be getting young arms with strikeout potential. With good reason, those are the type that turn into top 100 prospects. Not the control pitchers the Twins are currently known to stock up on.
×
×
  • Create New...