Hosken Bombo Disco

For curiosity sake, I went back to check, and Alex Meyer didn't have control problems when he was acquired. Ryan called him a power guy who throws it over the plate. So I wonder if the insistence that Meyer master a change up pitch has anything to do with his control and two month shoulder soreness (by the way, two months is not a full season and Meyer was pronounced fully healthy when he did return and pitched in Arizona Fall League that year). Combine this with the myth that "young pitchers must struggle" (the Yordano Ventura comparison is helpful here too) and I feel the Twins may be blowing a huge opportunity. Meyer might realistically have been positioned to become an ace as of Day One of this upcoming 2015 season (if perhaps on an innings limit of some sort). Instead, it's also a real possibility that Meyer in AAA continues to issue walks at a rate not acceptable to Ryan and Molitor, with Meyer consequently being kept down in AAA because of it. And somehow this is all proof of the wisdom of the Twins front office. Ok, I'll stop my rant for now. For all that, it's also more likely than not that we see Meyer by mid-May or sooner, and that if he does struggle that the Twins work with him here at MLB rather than return him to AAA.

Bummer. Not yet I guess.

Agree, tweaking the mechanics can be tricky business. Only the pitcher knows what's comfortable and there are a lot of different ways to sling a baseball.

Quick point. The comparison is not the career potential of Alex Meyer to Randy Johnson or Sam Deduno, the comparison is actually to the control issues those guys all had. I don't want to be the guy who attacks every time an Alex Meyer article pops up, so I'll let it go. We will see him this year I agree completely. Hopefully very soon. Free Alex!

Good reporting Nick. Even looking at photos, Meyer looks like he's still a work in progress. But here again, Meyer is a top prospect. I also don't feel Terry Ryan can use "control problems" as a reason to leave Meyer in the minors. Samuel Deduno, right? It was a point of pride that nobody knew where a Deduno pitch was going to fly off to. Wildness was Deduno's calling card. I would think Ryan would want Meyer up ASAP regardless. If he struggles we'll all see it and Ryan can just send him back down with everybody's blessing. It will be fun (I think) to watch how this develops, and to see Meyer finally make his debut.

Didn't realize it was only a couple weeks. At this point, why not. I do think the Twins would have been better off calling him up last year, even after his innings limit, even to just ride with the team.

The "service clock" argument for Meyer needs to be retired immediately.

I'm ok (I suppose) with Milone winning the spot. But that comes with the real possibility of Meyer and May being packed back to Rochester. Hard to get excited about that idea. Those guys could use the MLB appearances. Like others have said, the wear on the arm is the same, whether they're throwing a pitch in AAA or MLB.

Sorry 'bout that

Can a person even be absolutely sure about that anymore?

I would like to hear Torii say: "Granted, my UZR dipped to -18.3 at Comerica but my wRC+ is still strong and if my BABIP and slash lines see positive linear regression, I'm coming back."

I'm glad Gibson has pitched well, because with competition for this final spot of the rotation, I'm not convinced Gibson might not have been one of the guys optioned. Looks like Milone is a couple lengths clear of the field to this point.

Would love to make it down there. I never realized the teams were all so close together until I heard Will Ferrell played in five different games in one day

I agree. This gap between cFIP and what really happened seems to point to the Twins outfield fielding. Eduardo Escobar Chris Colabello Chris Parmelee Jason Bartlett Eduardo Nunez All these guys and more were designated outfielders at some point last year; Parmelee was probably the least bad option among these. Hopefully it's all on the past. Doesn't matter anymore if it was Gardy insisting that anyone who shagged fly balls during BP was qualified or if it was Ryan trying to "ride it out" (Ryan did acquire Sam Fuld, who despite his poor arm was able to keep many balls from hitting the ground). Schafer seemed to get to balls in left that Willingham and Kubel had no chance at, this is why I would be fine letting Schafer hold a place somewhere out there, until Buxton and others get their chance. This is also why I respect Molitor's judgment to not want to use Santana as a CF even though Santana did improve as the season went along.

So according to cFIP the Twins have a league average staff, or thereabouts. The Twins pitchers are also at the bottom of the league in getting strikeouts, and it's not even close. If cFIP has validity (it appears so) then what does that mean for the value of a strikeout?

"When I hear a pitcher is throwing a “simulated game” my first thought is that he repeated the opposing lineup 10,000 times." -Jonathan Judge tweet

and I think Mauer throws for 380 yards in that game

I will make the opposite prediction. It's the first two weeks of spring and he's already making mental gaffes. To me that's a sign he won't have the discipline to maintain his gains and will (again) start to lose interest when things get tough. I'm sure he's a great guy but he's not going to make it in MLB (would be happy to be wrong, etc). Give Schafer the first chance to hold the CF spot instead.

Very interesting. Mauer was quite a star all those years and gave people a lot of enjoyment, but there still is some dissatisfaction about that last decade. And now the past few years, we're back to chasing third place again.

Absolutely. It starts with the player and Plouffe gets credit for wanting to be a better player. Which goes back to Sano joking about his diet. If Sano comes to the majors and for some reason doesn't take it seriously or is a distraction, Ryan is justified in sending him back to Rochester. But I hate to think the Twins are planning to invoke some long ago discredited wisdom about prospect development clocks, or that Sano will need to play a full season in the minors "to see how his elbow holds up" or something like that. It feels like other teams don't go by those old unwritten rules much anymore. Of course this is just the fan in me talking. Bring up Sano!

Great link, great play. Where will Sano play? He will play third base. Nice that Molly could turn around Plouffe's defensive game. We sat through full seasons of Plouffe and Valencia playing pretty bad baseball at third. Sano couldn't be any worse than those guys were. Plouffe is a decent player now and should have some value to some teams. He should be dealt ASAP. If Sano has a nice spring then put Sano on 3B on Day 1 and if he struggles or is a little too squirrelly and you need to send him down, then send him down. This ain't rocket science. Also that might be as hard as a third baseman had ever thrown a baseball. Mauer is probably still soaking his hand in ice as we speak........

You are right. It doesn't look like Pinto knows where home plate is.

Yes that is what I thought. Thanks for pointing it out (again I see). My belief was that a catcher's SB-CS stats were measured solely by whether a base runner was safe or out on a steal attempt where the pitch was delivered to home plate etc. (why would the stat be anything else?) I will take another look.

Clarified-thanks. More like 2-8 then. I would assume most qualifying catchers have similar data, however. Still, Pinto's small sample of 5-11 or 45% would have put him among the leaders. Did Pinto attempt any catcher pick-offs in 2014 or did the coaches see those wild throws and tell him to stop throwing to bases? (It would be very defensible advice, in my opinion, but might play tricks with Pinto's confidence.) Not sure that "pickoff attempt" data is observed and recorded anywhere, so it's just an idle thought.

Also for the sake of fairness, Pinto in 2013 threw out 5 of 11 base stealers and in 159 innings was not charged with a passed ball. What changed between 2013 and 2014 (besides adding Suzuki and Steinbach). Another good question. Correction: Steinbach also coached in 2013