Arcia

[Mike Sixel]

Agreed on playing the younger players more, but that does not seem to be the strategy. Not sure what the strategy is, frankly.

[Rosterman]

At some point the Twins have to make a decision on Parmelee and.or Morneau. I think they do want Morneau, but at what price is the question. They need to get rid of the chaff: Carroll, Bernier, Roeincke, Thoams, WIllingham, maybe Doumit. They need to strongly think about the needs of Plouffe, Pelfry, Correia. Some are not repalceable until sometime next season. But better to be looking at Beresford, Bigley, Arcia, Romero, Sano, etc. Yes, we have the 30-year-old rookies to wince about, Deduno and Collaburro! Long-term, no. Some possible tradebait, maybe. But what could we get for Parmelee right now, let alone Plouffe.

 

The team IS in shambles. There aren't alot of players that would bring anything in exchange. Few of the minor league free agents, let alone free agent signings, panned out. WIllingham WAS worth something last year, but still wasn't in demand. Other bargaining chips have fallen value. The bullpen arms that are worth something are no better or worse than any other team can go trolling for in the off-season.

 

I was a little taken aback when I actually looked at the AAA and AA rosters to decide who should get a September callup, let alone a 40-man roster add early. There's not a lot of choices that I would add early...even when you can remove some names like Tim Wood, BJ Hermsen, Cole DeVries, Masto or Ramirez and even after deepsixing in August folks like Carroll and Roeinke. You have to add someone to remove during the free-agent spree of the offseason (you can't remove 40-man ads from November until after spring training, right?). But msot of the "prospects" are in the deep minors. I don't feel bad about total inactivity during the trading deadline,a s basically the Twins were probably offered nothing they can't grab on the waiver wire for certain players. I don't think they want to let Morneau walk. And they still want to convince Pelfry to stay...so the biggest loss with no return players are still possibilities.

[James]

0

 

Outfielder @A (Ok, fine, it's Arcia): .257/.317/.408 in MLB .320/.430/.608 in AAA Rochester.

 

Outfielder A# (Surprise! It's Hicks!) I know, right !?!)

.194/.262/.344 in MLB .190/.261/.238 in AAA Rochester.

 

Welcome aboard, FNG. All due repect, but why would you even post that.... stuff?

I don't really think you really make a valid conclusion about how Hicks would hit in AAA based on his 23 plate appearances there. Talk about small sample size.

 

I'm not trying to be combative or anything, but your AAA numbers argument isn't very strong.

[drjim]

At some point the Twins have to make a decision on Parmelee and.or Morneau. I think they do want Morneau, but at what price is the question. They need to get rid of the chaff: Carroll, Bernier, Roeincke, Thoams, WIllingham, maybe Doumit. They need to strongly think about the needs of Plouffe, Pelfry, Correia. Some are not repalceable until sometime next season. But better to be looking at Beresford, Bigley, Arcia, Romero, Sano, etc. Yes, we have the 30-year-old rookies to wince about, Deduno and Collaburro! Long-term, no. Some possible tradebait, maybe. But what could we get for Parmelee right now, let alone Plouffe.

 

The team IS in shambles. There aren't alot of players that would bring anything in exchange. Few of the minor league free agents, let alone free agent signings, panned out. WIllingham WAS worth something last year, but still wasn't in demand. Other bargaining chips have fallen value. The bullpen arms that are worth something are no better or worse than any other team can go trolling for in the off-season.

 

I was a little taken aback when I actually looked at the AAA and AA rosters to decide who should get a September callup, let alone a 40-man roster add early. There's not a lot of choices that I would add early...even when you can remove some names like Tim Wood, BJ Hermsen, Cole DeVries, Masto or Ramirez and even after deepsixing in August folks like Carroll and Roeinke. You have to add someone to remove during the free-agent spree of the offseason (you can't remove 40-man ads from November until after spring training, right?). But msot of the "prospects" are in the deep minors. I don't feel bad about total inactivity during the trading deadline,a s basically the Twins were probably offer

ed nothing they can't grab on the waiver wire for certain players. I don't think they want to let Morneau walk. And they still want to convince Pelfry to stay...so the biggest loss with no return players are still possibilities.

 

I agree more or less with your analysis of the major league team but your thoughts on the minors need a little perspective. There will always be more prospects in the lower levels based on the nature of prospects, as they advance there is a certain amount of attrition. That said, the have three elite bats in the upper levels and mlb quality arms in Meyer/May/Tonkin. There probably isn't a franchise that can match that, though Boston would be close.

 

Outside of Arcia I'm not too concerned about anyone else in AA or AAA because they either aren't quite ready or will be fringe starters at best.

[cmb0252]

And in addition to my implicit hatred of scouting, I'm also clearly against recycling and animal rights because I didn't put in a pitch for them either, right?

 

If you have some sort of actual thought about the subject of the thread, serve it up, Meat. If not, why are you posting in it?

 

There are at least a 100 threads that go into fine detail about Hicks poor start of the year and how since then he has played better. While he has stalled at the ~.200 line he has shown improvements offensively and defensively as the year has gone by. The Twins were/are going to be bad with or without him playing CF. He has already passed the chance to save his service time so what is the point of sending a kid down who is making adjustments?

 

We could also look at what the "expert" scouts have suggested. Law, Callis, Sickels, and J.J. Cooper have all said Hicks deserves to take his lumps in the majors even though he was rushed to the bigs. While the fact if they are experts or are qualified to say this could be debated, the fact they are more qualified than an average fan cannot. Also, the fact the Twins have kept Hicks in the bigs suggests they see it too.

[PopRiveter]

He has already passed the chance to save his service time so what is the point of sending a kid down who is making adjustments?

 

I think momentum affects players. I believe Hicks (or Arcia, or Parmelee, or anyone) is more likely to find success in the majors when following a hot streak in AAA than he would be when following a 4-month slump in the majors. I think they should demote him to help him get some traction and some confidence.

Arcia has come up hot 2x this season and it has served him well. Thomas did the same. Colabello too. Conversely, Parmelee and Hicks have spun their wheels all year.

[Mike Sixel]

Why would you want to keep Morneau?

[cmb0252]

I think momentum affects players. I believe Hicks (or Arcia, or Parmelee, or anyone) is more likely to find success in the majors when following a hot streak in AAA than he would be when following a 4-month slump in the majors. I think they should demote him to help him get some traction and some confidence.

Arcia has come up hot 2x this season and it has served him well. Thomas did the same. Colabello too. Conversely, Parmelee and Hicks have spun their wheels all year.

 

While I can't disagree with this theory I also can't agree to it because I have never seen evidence either way. What I do know after following Hicks minor league career is that he has always been a slow starter, switch hitters historically are, and develops slow. These traits have both been made more evident with his major league performance.

 

I believe Hicks bloated spring training numbers got people prematurely excited. Arcia has always had a more advanced bat but his positional value, or lack there of, has always hurt him. As long as Hicks shows improvement developmentally then he deserves to stay with the big league club. We just need to find room for Arcia.

[LaBombo]

I don't really think you really make a valid conclusion about how Hicks would hit in AAA based on his 23 plate appearances there. Talk about small sample size.

 

I'm not trying to be combative or anything, but your AAA numbers argument isn't very strong.

Sss kind of goes without saying unless you're posting at the strib. The unspoken point of including AAA numbers for Hicks is just that: there are hardly any. He skipped a level, has been consistently overmatched against rhp, and yes, while brief, his time in aaa exactly mirrors his mlb numbers.

 

That leads me to believe he either has things to learn there, or would at the very least benefit from the confidence of lighting it up there. My guess is the former.

[jorgenswest]

Yeah, the defense would likely suffer but I think it's about developing the young bats at this point, defense be damned. Put Arcia and Parmelee in the middle infield for all I care, I just want to see these guys adjust to MLB pitchers. Thomas is a good story, but at this point he is taking away valuable evaluation time from guys who the Twins are going to need to make decisions on starting opening day 2014.

 

For our young pitching to develop, they need a good defense behind them.

 

When they get a routine groundball, it needs to be turned into an out. That didn't happen consistently for the previous two years at SS. When they get a lazy fly ball hit off the end of the bat, they need to get more outs from the corners OFs than they get from Doumit and Willingham. When they throw a ball low in the strike zone, they need to get a strike call.

 

When pitchers consistently get poor defense and catching, they try to fix something that in their pitching that wasn't necessary and that sets them back. A good defense will give them true feedback about their pitching and we need good defense to develop that pitching.

 

You may not care who the Twins put out on defense, I hope the front office doesn't share your views.

 

Arcia should have the tools to play RF in Target Field. Put him out there and demand hard work in improving that skill. Find guys with better range to play LF in Target Field. If the only guys they have that can defend that position are Thomas and Mastroianni, send them out there until they get someone better.

[LaBombo]

There are at least a 100 threads that go into fine detail about Hicks poor start of the year and how since then he has played better. While he has stalled at the ~.200 line he has shown improvements offensively and defensively as the year has gone by. The Twins were/are going to be bad with or without him playing CF. He has already passed the chance to save his service time so what is the point of sending a kid down who is making adjustments?

 

We could also look at what the "expert" scouts have suggested. Law, Callis, Sickels, and J.J. Cooper have all said Hicks deserves to take his lumps in the majors even though he was rushed to the bigs. While the fact if they are experts or are qualified to say this could be debated, the fact they are more qualified than an average fan cannot. Also, the fact the Twins have kept Hicks in the bigs suggests they see it too.

How much objective evidence is there that he's improving, other than not looking completely lost like he did in April? If there's good news, I've missed it. Won't be the first or last time.

 

Subjectively, we can agree to disagree. He's certainly better than he was on opening day, and he's still young enough to make dramatic improvements in his game. Still looks overmatched left-handed and erratic in the field to me, though.

 

Yes, it's a popular notion that Hicks 'deserves' to stay up or wouldn't benefit from being sent down. But it's hard for me to put much stock in the opinion of anyone (especially the Twins) who thought it was a good idea for him to skip AAA entirely and even bat frigging leadoff, for heaven's sake, on opening day. That was a no-brainer bad call.

 

As for the others, well, their opinions would mean more if they supported them with examples of other players who were developed effectively by keeping them in the majors despite their being among the worst players in baseball in a major facet of their game, which Hicks is when he bats left-handed.

 

it should go without saying that I'm not a Hicks hater, but I already know that it doesn't for some people. He seems a good kid, poised and anxious to learn and improve his game. If there's a good reason why that shouldn't happen at aaa for a while, I still haven't heard it.

[LaBombo]

Agreed on playing the younger players more, but that does not seem to be the strategy. Not sure what the strategy is, frankly.

Pretty much sums up the past 18 months.