Arcia to Rochester

[jokin]

I agree. But here is the area I find myself in, and why I'm so disappointed in Arcia going down, and Gibson not coming up:

 

I used to say that there would be no joy in a .500'ish season. My philosophy before the season was that if you arent going to contend for a WS, you might as well be brutal, and get better draft picks.

Well, I learned something about myself during that brief flirtation with .500 baseball over the first 5 weeks. I was wrong. I was enjoying this season a whole hell of a lot more than I enjoyed the last 2.

I was under no illusions that this team had any shot at winning the division, and also recognized that it was a lot of smoke and mirrors, and likely wouldnt last, but at the end of the day, it WAS fun following a team that was .500, as opposed to the embarrassing garbage we've had the last 2 years.

 

So, I wanted that to continue as long as it could.

Yes, Arcia has slumped lately, but even so, he still is one of the 3 or 4 best hitters on this team.

Sure, Gibson hasn't been the model of consistency that Sam Deduno and PJ Walters have, and no, we havent seen him throw a single MLB pitch, but I still feel very strongly that he would be easily one of our top 5 starting pitchers right now.

 

And I keep hearing the argument (mostly on the radio, havent been here much) that, "relax, adding Gibson doesn't turn this team into a WS contender, so it doesnt matter", ETC., ETC.

Yes, we all know that is true, but if Arcia and Gibson can each add a couple more wins, and maybe Meyer and heaven forbid Sano can come up in September and each add a win or so, then just maybe we could string out enjoyable baseball for the entire year. But, that dream is now dead.

 

During the last 2 years I had the complete opposite stance in this regard, and perhaps its selfish of me to prefer mediocre results (after all, complete failure DOES yield a better draft slot), but I guess the further a long this embarrassing brand of baseball goes, the more and more I yearn for even reasonably competitive baseball from my favorite team.

 

I concur on many of your sentiments. Perhaps if this was 1984 and it was quite obvious that that group was heading towards something special- acceptance of the .500 seasons would be more acceptable. The difference I see for the current team has been the complete reset on fan and management expectations- it seemed "both sides of the table" in this transaction were as one on the same side of said table.

 

Finishing out the last decade and heading into a state-of-the-art ballpark, signing 2 MVPs to long-term, major media market-equivalent salaries, the Twins appeared to be putting their foot down and not letting them walk away for crumbs, like Santana, or nothing, like Hunter. They created the mirage of a franchise in a state of perpetual "competitiveness"- the recalibration downward of the expectations has been jarring, and the club has been less than truthful and forthcoming to the fanbase, I think they still don't know what hit them in 2011.

[twinsnorth49]

There isn't one, other than they just brought him up and want to see what he can offer. I agree I'd much rather see Arcia and think that exposing him to this level is the way to go, no argueent here.

[old nurse]

Yup. That's why teams with serious intent plan their position depth much more comprehensively than having literally NO ONE on your depth chart with CF-starting major league experience. Again, as I and others have illustrated, there were outside options in the offseason and we did note as such leading up to, and during, Spring Training. A proven major leaguer- signed on the cheap or with the intent of flipping a better player for prospect talent- who was brought in to play at the start of the season with the intent of either starting Hicks til he proved he wasn't ready, or working Hicks in slowly until he showed he was ready, would certainly have been doable and not an unreasonable fan expectation.

The only CF last year signed for cheap was Nyger Morgan, any other CF of note signed a $40 million or more contract. Morgan was so well thought of he is in Japan

[jokin]

The only CF last year signed for cheap was Nyger Morgan, any other CF of note signed a $40 million or more contract. Morgan was so well thought of he is in Japan

 

Nope. As documented elsewhere. Nate McLouth was a steal who signed for $2M. Reed Johnson, Andres Torres, Scott Podsednik would all have been serviceable placeholders in a Plan B situation. They possibly could have worked out a trade for Borbon in April. Or they could have signed a high-priced guy with the possible intention of flipping him, while waiting for Hicks to be more ready for his debut.

[frightwig]

Arcia had been putting up ABs lately that were pretty bad. Pretty, pretty, pretty...bad. Plus, it's better for him to be somewhere where he's going to play every day. There's a LH bat--of sorts--available in Parmelee. I can understand sending him down.

 

When Arcia was riding high (largely thanks to a high BABIP), he still had a high strikeout rate and low walk rate, which signaled fundamental problems in his plate approach. Even if Gardy agreed to put him in his lineup every day, I'd rather have Arcia work out his problems at AAA. He needs to be at a level appropriate to his age/ability, where he can feel comfortable working on significant changes to his approach, where the day's box score line isn't as important as the fundamental mechanics of what he's doing at the plate.

 

I don't expect that he'll work it all out in a couple weeks. I'll be happy if he's shown enough progress on his approach to come back up to stay by August or September this season.

[twinsnorth49]

Just a real-time update; Gibson has thrown 8 innings of shutout ball again tonight on 111 pitches thrown- 2 hits/3BB/7K- I assume he's done for the night.

 

"Consistency" anyone?

3 more gems like that in successive order and he's a shoe in to be considered.

[TheLeviathan]

3 more gems like that in successive order and he's a shoe in to be considered.

 

Too strong. More like "potentially considered". To be flat out considered needs at least a dozen in a row.

[Guest USAFChief]

3 more gems like that in successive order and he's a shoe in to be considered.

I'm guessing there's a date on the calendar out there at which time he'll be deemed to be "consistent."

[snepp]

I'm guessing there's a date on the calendar out there at which time he'll be deemed to be "consistent."

 

I'm going to get a good laugh when he gets promoted following a lousy start.

[GCTF]

I'm guessing there's a date on the calendar out there at which time he'll be deemed to be "consistent."

 

I think consistency will be defined as several starts in a row with less than 3 K's and a H/9 of 10 or more.