Other Baseball

Tonight, it was announced that the Washington Nationals have traded reliever Drew Storen to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for OF Ben Revere. This is interesting to Twins fans in a few ways: 1.) Ben Revere was a 1st round draft pick and a fan-favorite with the Twins. 2.) Drew Storen is a name that has been brought up here as a possible trade target of the Twins. Those hopes appear over. 3.) The Nationals appear to really like former Twins centerfielders. Just a day after Denard Span decided to leave the Nationals as a free agent to join the San Francisco Giants for 3 years and $31 million (plus a fourth-year option).

You wonder why the Twins didn't make an offer for Aroldis Chapman? The Yankees stole him for 4 "prospects" and will most likely get him an extra season out of him after his suspension. Most likely he gets 50 games and then he is not a free agent until after the 2017 season. Then they could have a very scary bullpen and be a force to deal with if they could get any run support for their pitchers.

Talk about adding the DH to the NL has "more momentum" than before. It sounds like the NL is still going to go very slow into the discussion, and it probably won't be in time for the 2017 CBA, more but more people in the NL seem to be considering it. http://www.stltoday.com/sports/baseball/professional/mozeliak-says-more-momentum-for-dh-in-national-league/article_a9649bff-5ba1-5a1a-9864-e6b40f6dda12.html Personally, I detest the NL game and hope they add the DH sooner rather than later. But it seems like it'll eventually happen.

http://abcn.ws/1Su0r2j Huzzah! It's not perfect, as you still need a cable connection or a proxy to view local games but it's a step forward.

What are the odds that the Twins could get involved to sign this 16 year old kid from Cuba? He'll be showing off his talents on Jan. 8th at the Padres complex in Cristobal, DR. The MLB will make a decision by the end of January whether to let him sign or make him wait until the next signing period in July. He's already 6-2 205, projected to be a corner OF, and drawing comparisons to Willie Mays and Bo Jackson with his combination of size and speed.

Former Twins LHP Kris Johnson was sold to Japan a year ago after pitching minimally for the Twins a year earlier. In his debut season in Japan, his 1.85 ERA was tops in the league. Teammate Kenta Maeda got big money to come to the States. Johnson would just like another opportunity. Here is a really nice story on his time in Japan, the cultural adjustment and pitching thoughts. Very good article. Take a minute to look at it.

Interesting piece from Jayson Stark on tanking and the possibility that the 6 worst teams in baseball will be in the NL this year. http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/14568028/odd-troubling-state-national-league An interesting idea was the suggestion of a draft lottery to stop tanking. ""To me," another NL exec said, "there's a difference between rebuilding and saying, 'We're going to get the No. 1 pick,' and then really trying to lose -- trying to lose 105 or 106 games to get that pick. ... If it's the system that's leading to that, then one way to solve it is to have a lottery."" It also pointed out that the winning teams in the NL will have a few more victories …

It's the boring time of MLB........so as a thought experiment, I am posting a radical idea.....this is meant as a thought, fun, discussion, not some kind of super serious proposal.... 1. Cut the season by 2 weeks, likely 8 games or so. 2. Change the playoffs so every team makes it, but there is great value in winning in the regular season. 3. This gives every fan something to look forward to for their team. The game is about entertainment, nothing more or less than that. "Fair" playoffs don't really exist, if you use them to determine the "best" team. The data on that is all over the internet if you look. Here is the proposal: Week 1: Round 1 15 vs 14, one game (Sunda…

I didn't see anything posted on TD about him so .. http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/67603/baseball-loses-an-all-time-great-in-monte-irvin Irvin was one of the greatest players in the Negro Leagues and the fourth African American inducted into the HOF. Joe Ponsanski had a very nice write up on Irvin when he was creating his top 100 players list. He worked for MLB from 1968 to 1984.

http://bbwaa.com/ Griffey was a near unanimous pick - 3 votes shy of 100%. Piazza got in as well. Bagwell, Raines and Hoffman were all around 70% and might get in next year - Raines has one year left on the ballot, I believe. Nomar and Jim Edmonds fell off - I'm not sure they are HOFers but they have some good arguments. Both, for example had more 5 WAR seasons than Tim Raines and in fewer seasons. But voters tend to vote for compiled totals as opposed to seasons, which hurts them.

33 year old Korean reliever coming to the US to interview with MLB teams. Looks like he throws at least 3 pitches, FB tops out at 97 according to MLBTR. http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2015/11/seung-hwan-oh-free-agent.html http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=oh----000seu&utm_campaign=Linker&utm_source=direct&utm_medium=linker-

The New York Times has just reported that the pristine, clean, and uber successful St. Louis Cardinals organization is being investigated for hacking into the Houston Astros internal networks to get an advantage. "The attack represents the first known case of corporate espionage in which a professional sports team has hacked the network of another team." Read the article here. http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/17/sports/baseball/st-louis-cardinals-hack-astros-fbi.html?emc=edit_na_20150616&nlid=70197486&_r=0

What do you think Mike Trout's chances are of being the best (or one of the best) players ever?

http://www.si.com/mlb/2015/12/27/ryan-howard-ryan-zimmerman-deny-hgh-claims Lost in the Manning hoopla was the fact that the Al Jazeera report on unlawful PED use also included allegations that Ryan Howard, Taylor Teagarden and Ryan Zimmerman used Delta-2 or HGH. Like Manning, Zimmerman is denying the allegations and the Nats are standing behind him. The report can be found here. It argues that so long as players know what the testing rules are, they can always hide from it (Lance Armstrong passed 500 tests, ARod never failed one) and the only way to catch them is through investigations. It notes that players will travel to other countries to do things that they ca…

I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels inclined to cheer for an NL team in addition to cheering for the Twins. I've found myself cheering for the Pirates because I sort of like how they handle their team, and I do find myself watching a ton of Dodgers games because I love Vin and Kershaw. I still haven't settled on a permanent NL team though. My question for everyone at Twins Daily is who is your NL team, and why? Bonus question, who do you feel is the NL equivalent of our beloved Twins, and why?

So reports say the Cardinals have signed Leake for 5 yrs/$80M (and an option for year 6). That got me to wondering what Kyle Gibson would be worth in a trade. He hasn't been doing it at the major league level as long as Leake, but they've been very similar pitchers the past two years. I know everyone wants to trade Milone (and Nolasco), but maybe the Twins should be looking to see what kind of value Gibson has. Or, more likely, maybe we should all appreciate him a little bit more and realize how valuable 4 more years of control are to the Twins.

Forgive me for putting this thread out. It is somewhat of an experiment. As we know the White Sox are called the "Pale Hose" and the "Sux". What other nicknames do they have? Do we have anything else to offer to the cause? Me, myself, I like "man wipes".

The Sporting News has an interesting look at the MLB managers, by their playing careers. Safe to say that Paul Molitor ranks pretty well on this list. Also fair to say that there is a pretty quick dropoff, especially after #5. What do you think? Is there any correlation between a manager's career as a player and his ability as a manager?

That didn't last long. The Padres designated ex-Twin Josmil Pinto for assignment today. Where will he wind up? Should the Twins be interested in him? I wonder if the Pads are trying to sneak him through now while most teams have full rosters so that they can outright him to AAA. He was claimed before he was outrighted by the Twins, so San Diego can outright him, I believe.

In another thread, we mentioned how Doolittle hosted a bunch of Syrian refugees for Thanksgiving with his girlfriend. And someone mentioned how the two of them supported LGBT events in Oakland. Now he got her something nice to wear for a night out.

Details still sketchy, but it appears that the Chicago White Sox will acquire All Star 3B Todd Frazier in a three-team trade involving the Reds and Dodgers. More to come, I'm sure... To the Dodgers: Micah Johnson, Trayce Thompson, Frankie Montas To the Reds: Jose Peraza, Brandon Dixon, Scott Schebler

LaTroy Hawkins recently penned an article for his Sports Blog on his best teammates in his long career and posted it at the Canadian Baseball Network. It's fun to see and think about all of the teammates he had during his long and successful MLB career which came to an end with the Blue Jays playoff loss to the Royals. There are a lot of former Twins teammates mentioned prominently. Some will surprise you. Others won't. There are several current and future Hall of Famers. And consider that Derek Jeter and Mike Trout are on his bench, it's a pretty strong team. It's a fun read. Take a few minutes. When you consider how bad LaTroy Hawkins was as a starter with the Tw…

Couple notes: 1. In regards to the Papelbon thread, these things happen and are UNION pushed. 2. With the CBA coming up for a new agreement, these will happen more and more. 3. Twins should take note, if Berrios kills it in ST and is clearly one of the Twins best options, this could come to effect them as well. All things considered, I think it's B.S overall that teams can keep a guy down an extra two-three weeks to keep him cheap/keep him from reaching FA a year earlier, the owners and leagues make a ton of money, players should be able to get their fair market value when they earn it (not because a team like the Cubs kept you down a few weeks into the season)

In a surprise, Michael Cuddyer has retired from baseball according ton NBC sports. It is a surprise to me because he has been able to perform when healthy in the National League. Cuddyer won a batting championship when playing for the Rockies and signed a two-year deal with the Mets prior to the 2015 season. He has suffered numerous injuries, both with the Twins and also in his years in the NL. Cuddyer playing in 49 games for the Rockies in 2014 and got 408 plate appearances this year. However, he lost his regular spot with the Mets following yet another injury. Cuddy was my favorite player. When I was young, When I was young, I admired players who were great role mod…

Just plain beautiful. http://www.theplayerstribune.com/michael-cuddyer-retirement/

You can post lists below of who you think should, below is mine: Let's start with the obvious pitchers: Felix Hernandez Clayton Kershaw Madison Bumgarner And now the highly probable: Justin Verlander David Price Max Scherzer CC Sabathia And now the very good chance, but may be declining: Cole Hamels Zack Greinke Tim Lincecum Jered Weaver And now the ones who could move into the discussion: Jake Arrieta Corey Kluber Craig Kimbrel Chris Sale Here are the highly probable hitters: Albert Pujols Ichiro Suzuki Miguel Cabrera Adrian Beltre David Ortiz And now the highly probable: Mike Trout Bryce Harper Buster Posey Joe Mauer Joey Votto Dustin Pedroia And…

Several baseball writers identify home runs and strikeouts together (feast or famine). Others identify BB's and SO's together when identifying a hitters promise. What identifies an All or Nothing hitter? What has to be lacking in order to be labeled as such "All or Nothing"? What is acceptable for you?

Maybe this charade has been around much longer than I remember, but over the last couple of years, everyone wants to get in on the retirement tour. The one that comes top of mind is Derek Jeter, who had videos, articles, and countless advertisements created just to celebrate his last year in the MLB. Mariano Rivera too, who came off of a torn ACL to go through a retirement tour. Now this year, we already know David Ortiz is going to hang it up. And just yesterday, Kobe Bryant wrote EDIT: had his PR team write an adorable poem to announce this was his last season. When did we decide we all need 6 months or more of lead time to prepare for an athlete to retire? Is it …

Mike Pelfrey has signed with the rival Detroit Tigers. At least we don't have to worry about TR being tepmted to bring him back again.......

He's arguing that their 2 games suspension of him wasn't legal and he actually might win. But the best part are the comments. http://deadspin.com/report-jonathan-papelbon-files-grievance-against-natio-1746622376 I honestly can't see how the Nats can let him be on their roster next year but they might have to give him away.