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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    And the club seems pretty thrilled with Carroll's glove at short. Besides if the time frame is end of May or June, an opening will surely arise in the infield due to injury. Carroll is 38 and Casilla is already playing on borrowed time.
  2. nicksaviking
    I figured Thomas was going to be the fourth outfielder when he got claimed, but so far he's getting the heavy end of the rigth field platoon. With Doumit riding the pine 2 out of 3 days, and Mauer always catching the other, there is no need for a 3rd catcher. Gardy may want one, but Terry Ryan has clearly shown that he's in charge of this ship and he should know better. That being said, if the team is going to call up a utility player, why didn't they just keep Hughes?
  3. nicksaviking
    Luke Hughes has 335 big league plate appearances. I think that's much too small of a sample size to determine any future MLB productivity. Same thing happened with those saying Revere is a terrible hitter. When did everyone start expecting consistant quality at-bats from rookies?
  4. nicksaviking
    I don't think intellegence is a factor in Liriano's decline. I'm sure there have been plenty of mentally deficient pitchers who have succeeded in the league. He doesn't handle the stress of failure very well is his problem. I'm a fairly educated person, but when I'm staring at a 30 yard chip shot for a potential up and down for birdie, five times out of ten I get too anxious, forget my mechanics and come up 15 yards short. Liriano needs a sports psychologist, not continuing education classes.
  5. nicksaviking
    That's true, but that wasn't the song Ryan was singing when the team was forced to retroactively place Baker on the DL so he could strengthen his arm in the minors. He didn't flat out call Baker a cry-baby, he just passive aggressively implied that Baker should have been ready to go already and that he needed to suck it up and get back into the rotation. The fact that the they needed a second opinion probably tipped him off that something might be amiss. I don't think most people are blaming Ryan though, he's getting the same faulty information the public has been getting. I don't know what the normal accuracy of a medical diagnosis is, but the guys performing the Twins exams are surely well below average in that department. Fair or not they are going to face the repercussions. These mistakes are bringing too much heat to the front office and coaching staff.
  6. nicksaviking
    There still is no word on what happened with Bowden. People should start to suspect a trade is in the works since there should be news on who won the claim by now. The Red Sox are looking for a right handed bench bat. Any chance there is a Hughes/Bowden swap in the works but the Twins needed to lose someone off the roster today so Marquis can pitch?
  7. nicksaviking
    Ha, yes I did. Like I said, the pen is so uninspiringly interchangble.
  8. nicksaviking
    If the coaching staff thinks he's lost it, I'd rather send Liriano to the pen and DFA Gray since the lefty would certainly be dispensible assuming Perkins is not hitting the DL. Frankie usually pitches fine in his first inning of work anyway. His trade value is nearly shot at the moment, I don't think sending him to Rochester would help much. If he succeeds in the pen perhaps his value rebounds. If Gardy and Anderson think he can work out his issues, I'm fine giving Liriano another 5 starts or so. This season needs to be all about developing the young guys who will be part of this team for the next half decade and cultivating trade value for those that aren't. The team is so far not interested in doing the first aspect, hopefully they follow through with the second. Gray can get a pink slip regardless, he seems like a competent bullpen lefty, but most of the parts back there are so uninspiring they are interchangable.
  9. nicksaviking
    I love Rick Anderson, but I have a feeling next year when another pitching coach (or shrink) gets a hold of him, he's going to figure things out. The team's attitude with Liriano is strange too. He's absolutely frustrating, but I don't know why they vocalize it so often to the media. When Blackburn goes in his annual two month funk, all you hear from the coaching staff is support and faith that he'll turn it around, where is that attitude when Liriano struggles?
  10. nicksaviking
    They need to make sure the paperwork is in order on the claim they surely had to have made on Michael Bowden, then tell the starters it's 8 innings or bust. This has to be the only bullpen in the league who's career leader in K/9 as a reliever is 7.7. Depressing.
  11. nicksaviking
    Bowden's minor league K/9 rate actually jumped 37% to 10.4K/9 after his full time move to the pen last year. If memory serves he was one of the key pieces discussed with Boston's potential offer in the Santana trade fiasco. No reason not to put a claim in. If he was with the Twins during spring training he surely would have beaten out Burton, Gray, Burnett and Maloney. Just because a club is comfortable with it's pen, doesn't mean they still shouldn't take advatage of an opportunity for potential. Who knows, this could be a reverse Ortiz.
  12. nicksaviking
    Thomas finally improved his HR total at AAA last year which had long been expected. Unfortunately it looks like it came at the expense of his previously respectable OBP. The bonus in having Thomas up instead of Revere, is Gardy won't feel pressure to make right field a three man platoon. Doumit and Plouffe should get nearly every start.
  13. nicksaviking
    Hopefully the holdout is a thing of the past with the new draft allowance. There will not be that much room to negotiate, and the players know that for every dime they try to squeeze from the team, one of their new teammates just got screwed.
  14. nicksaviking
    I was also pretty high on McCullers. He was being discussed as a top three pick all year until a couple months ago. Didn't make much sense to me. I want an ace so damn bad.
  15. nicksaviking
    Sharing good parking spots is a dangerous proposition!
  16. nicksaviking
    I'd love Greinke, but I think a deal to remain with the Brewers is pretty close to a lock. They seem to be willing to spend the money and he seems to like it there. He even requested to be an off season scout to check out college arms for the up coming draft. Cole Hamels is probably also going to be resigned but I think he has a better chance of hitting the market. In 2014, Tim Lincicum, Josh Johnson, Matt Garza and Johan Santana are all free agents. They all have question marks but who knows what their values will be in 2 years. Twins certainly need an ace or two, and if they don't get one with the #2 pick in this draft, I think it's fair to say they will never develop one themselves. Trade or free agency are really the only options then.
  17. nicksaviking
    If the Twins fall out of the race, Span is a prime trade chip, but it will be too hard of a pill to swallow if they are still hanging around, simply because the team really has no other options for a leadoff hitter.
  18. nicksaviking
    The problem with projecting power in high school kids is that it is basically based on their frame, not their approach at the plate. Joe Mauer and Delmon Young were #1 overall HS picks. Both projected to have a ton of power and neither are mashers dispite the fact that the size of their bodies say they should be. I wouldn't be concerned about any of the pitching prospects velocity just yet, it's only mid April. Velocity picks up as the weather gets warmer.
  19. nicksaviking
    If you compare him to Justin Upton sure, but Jason Heyward isn't exactly a future Hall-of-Famer. The problem with Buxton is that he is playing in a rural Georgia school district. It would be like if someone said the best player in the country was playing in Hibbing. He's likely not facing many pitchers who can even touch 85 MPH on the radar gun, and it's doubtfull that any pitcher's breaking pitches actually break.
  20. nicksaviking
    No need to consider Slowey any longer, but I do remember after Nathan went down in spring training 2010, the Twins were scrambling for closing options and a Slowey/CJ Wilson trade was rumored to be in discussion and the Rangers were actaully going to have to kick in another piece as Slowey's trade value was higher than the Rangers set up man. The Twins never trade players at their peak. Probably just as well though, it's doubtful the Twins would have had the foresight to transfer Wilson to the rotation.
  21. nicksaviking
    How do you "clean up" a tendon? Are they washing and drying it? Are the removing some bone spurs? If so, that sounds like the procedure Joe Nathan had. You know, the one that caused him to need TJ surgery the next spring. Regardless, with Baker's option really no longer an option, that leaves one current starter under contract for next season, Nick Blackburn of course.
  22. nicksaviking
    Perhaps the press conference will tell us that Baker spent enough time in hospitals that he has discovered a cure for cancer. ....and he'll need TJ surgery.
  23. nicksaviking
    I would be pretty disappointed with Merrero. If the Twins pick offense, they need run producers, and Merrero is another defensively safe, top of the order bat. I don't think this list means a whole lot right now. We'll need to wait until the weather heats up, then we'll see pitchers fly up the rankings as they get the extra 4-5 MPH on their fastball and the have a couple more months mastering their second and third pitches.
  24. nicksaviking
    I probably would have gone after Edwin Jackson instead of Jason Marquis, at the very least he has proven to be a very tradable commodity at the deadline. I also was in favor of trying to trade and sign Brandon Phillips during the off season when it looked like he was unlikely to work a new deal with the Reds. As it turns out his new contract is larger and more expensive than I had anticipated it would have been so I'm not upset on that front. I was also in favor of signing Francisco Cordero or Brad Lidge to compete with Glen Perkins as the Twins closer. As it turns out the Twins decided to pay Matt Capps more than either of those two. So at least in that aspect the Twins actually did decide to spend more than needed. Why it had to be on Capps I have no idea. I would have gladly taken the suplimental draft pick he would have gotten the Twins and Francisco Cordero instead. Of course the main point of contention with fans probably has to do with the Twins not offering the extra $1.5 million a year to keep Cuddyer and instead asking him to take a paycut to stay. Not ripping the decision, just pointing it out.
  25. nicksaviking
    In response to the question regarding a .500 record or trading for vets for 'specs, I think there's no debate. Fans are already on the ledge, a .500 record isn't going to appease anyone, might as well try to reload with some near MLB ready arms that actually have some upside and a K/9 rate north of 7.5. Won't happen though. The front office is pretty stubborn, they hold onto hot players, wait for their stock to cool then let Gardy declare them to the league as a clubhouse cancer. If TR was wise, he'd tell Gardy his next negative comment about his potential doghouse trade chips (Valencia? Revere? Liriano? Baker?) will be his last. The organization can give Gardy slack for poor play now, but only if he plays ball and stops denigrating anyone the team might like to move. Other clubs praise their players before trying to move them. It's a no-brainer business move, however, Gardy instead has helped to torpedo Young, Slowey, Hardy, Bartlet and Lohse's trade values, it can't happen again.
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