Doomtints

mlhouse - Griffith knew how to build teams with great defense, particularly in the infield. He was also not bad at all with building a starting pitching staff. He struggled a bit with bullpens and was terrible at hiring managers. Crossing the bridge between a good defensive team and a team that can fire on all cylinders doesn't necessitate making huge moves, as you say. This team, however, has had holes all over the place on the field. Bad defense, bad hitting, bad pitching. Of course today's team isn't impossible to fix (and a few more years of growing up will go a LONG way), but as you suggest it's going to take more steps to get there.

I disagree. If we all had a dollar for every time someone described Hicks as a "toolsy" player who was going to break out at any moment, we'd be all be retired and hunting with Bud Grant right now.

Didn't I say I already did those things? Why would I do them again for you? You have two hands, no?

This would have to be from scouting reports (or more ikely, second-hand from someone else who has read a scouting report and wrote a blog post about it). Any good fielding by him certainly does not show up on paper. Gordon looks just as good if not better at fielding. I have learned to completely ignore second hand scouting report information (blogs) and go by the stat sheet. After the Aaron Hicks debacle I would have hoped every Twins fan learned that lesson too. Forget about the ditto head opinions, we gotta start looking at the numbers or directly reading the scouting reports ourselves.

I don't understand the love for Vielma. He has not hit well at any level and his fielding looks sub-par. He is speedy, sure, but I don't see any way he blossoms into a player who can survive in the majors for more than about a year and a half. Nick Gordon is 2 years younger and only 1 level below Vielma in the minors. Likely they will both be ready for the majors at the same time. Vielma is fine for minor league filler, but the best course of action is to just keep Escobar until Gordon is ready. I am far from excited by Escobar but there is no way Vielma is better than he is, especially for 2017.

The 84 collapse wasn't considered heartbreaking by many. At that time the Twins had not been to the postseason for as long as anybody could remember. People in the Twin Cities were generally not paying attention to the Twins and those who were had been expecting them to collapse, being used to the fast-starting teams having terrible second halves, or vice-versa. Even though the Twins were in contending late in the year, few were surprised by the end result. In any case, the 84 team did not have many holes. With any other closer in the league, they probably make the postseason. They were a good team. By the time the 85 season was rolling, people had mostly forgotten about the Twins again and few were expecting much. It was not until late in the 87 season before fans in the Twin Cities truly started paying attention full-time. The instant the Twins made the postseason, there was an electricity in the air that you had to experience to truly understand. *Everyone* was excited. I think in many ways, the residents of the Twin Cities needed that championship. It was quite a party and the beginning of a new era -- not just for the Twins but for the Twin Cities.

I know players go to the KBO. I think the usual course is via free agency. What are some other examples of teams selling players to the KBO?

Yet another Twins player who was promoted too slowly during Ryan's second stint. Three years of rookie ball? Another two years at A? Come on. He didn't have a chance. He should have been at A+ two years earlier judging by his stat sheet. Rk 2011 & 2012 A 2013 A+ 2014 2017 could have been his coming out year instead of his getting sacked year.

I don't think Revere would fit with the Twins at this point. I would prefer the Twins chase players who are a bit louder in the personality column if they are going to chase sub-100 OPS+ guys. Revere probably has a couple of productive years left, but he has been described as having the weakest arm strength in the league. When he stops being able to run at an elite level he will be done.

This means the going rate for 'boring' is $2.6M. Sounds about right.

OK, Thanks.

I would guess it would be more like .280. But still..... I'm not quite as willing to write him off yet. I would love to see him play and see what happens. Likely he has a short career but I still want to see it.

Exactly. There's room.

Eh. The Rule 5 draft is the most unexciting thing about baseball. Don't expect anything earth shattering to happen here. It's teams shuffling around their slowest prospects. The Johan Santana pick is often thrown around as being brilliant, and it was. And how long ago was that? And what's happened since then? Wake me when it's over.

Never fear. Some bad pitchers go on to become bad actors with ill-fitting toupees. So not every bad ball player turns into a swan. http://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.cgi?id=patter001sco

The next question -- will he be the manager starting in 2018?

It's very popular to say Smith was a failure but there was just one bad year. And that team wasn't as hopeless as we thought. They needed a new pitching staff but could have fixed the positional deficiencies without much hassle. Fast forward five years and they still need a pitching staff and can still fix the positional deficiencies without much hassle. Would Bill Smith have kept the team on pause for five years like Ryan did? Probably not, even if we would question is methods for doing so. The Pohlads pulled a bit of a Steinbrenner by having Smith on such a short leash. Some of Smith's moves were certainly not good moves. Same with Ryan, though.

I don't know him. His resume looks decent. I'm betting he will do a good job and will be an upgrade.

The Twins could stand to have defensive improvements at every position. They were at their worst after the strange pitching changes at the end of the year, so there is every possibility that they will be better in 2017. When the manager benches veterans for guys like Albers and Dean, the message being sent is rather clear: Why bother. Sure the pitchers who were let go were not great either, but they weren't as bad as those two. If the manager gives up, that attitude is going to trickle down.

Has any other team sold players off like this? It seems underhanded as you say.

They do? The starters at AAA were mostly a steaming pile of nothing last year. The AA team had another group who underperformed. A+ has a bunch of exciting guys who certainly won't be ready to play for the Twins in 2017. The Twins still have to be patient with Berrios. May has a role now and he needs to prove himself again. Meyer is gone. With the other cuts the Twins made, the logjam is pretty much gone. Let's hope Berrios at least works out. Be that as it is, yes, they need someone like Santiago, or anybody, who can hold down the fort for another year.

Classy guy. Best of luck to him.

Yes in capitals with 50 exclamation points.

Good research. The city he grew up in (Castro Valley) is an affluent, mostly-white city. This doesn't mean he does not know Spanish, of course, as he could have learned it in school. Seeing as he went to Stanford he no doubt has a very good academic record and is probably at least familiar with a foreign language.

Well we can end this right now. Everything is my fault. All of it! Whatever anyone did or did not do is all on me. I apologize for my transgressions and hope you all have it in your hearts to forgive me. Now we can move on.