Doomtints

DrNeau, you made your point a couple of weeks ago. Thanks for sharing your opinion. Let's start a new topic.

Those temps are fine if it's not windy.

I feel like 95% of the people around here never wanted Lynn. There were only a couple of us saying he would be a good pick-up (we were wrong, clearly). I think he's a good pitcher but the timing wasn't right. Speaking of timing, didn't the Twins drop Anibal Sanchez to get Lynn? Not that I expect Sanchez would have been as good had he remained a Twin, he nonetheless had a nice year and even got a 3-year deal out of it. He was playing for his future baseball career and the Twins could have taken advantage of that. As for Kimbrel, Keuchel: I see very little talk about them around here. I don't think many of us care that much... or maybe we know how the Twins think and we don't want to consider fruitless scenarios... This wouldn't be like the Vikings signing Brett Favre or something, so ultimately who cares ... these two would just be cogs in the machine and would not be earth-shattering upgrades.

This is a good time of year for these articles, were I find myself with my highest level of skepticism and lowest level of confidence in how the Twins business acts/treats players/chooses who to sign and play.

Why not? 1) He's getting a paycheck year-round I am sure. 2) He can expense these trips to the team. Sure, drinking margaritas by the pool during the offseason is more fun, but I doubt that's how champions are made.

Castro is going to have a very good year because if he doesn't this will be his last year in baseball. This means he could get flipped at the trade deadline if the Twins aren't in it. This also means that if Astudillo is "The #3 Catcher" we won't see him for a long time.

Right. The DH role exists, and that role is solely to hit the ball. Nothing else. Journalists scoff when a team signs a player to DH only, bemoaning how this hurts the team by not having a person who can play defense. They completely miss the fact that the DH position is not defense, it was never designed as a roster spot to give your regulars a breather. In the rare instance when a team has used the DH slot as it was designed -- with a hitting specialist -- it has accomplished the goal of boosting their offense without affecting their defense. The AL still hasn't figured out how to DH, and heck it wouldn't surprise me if the NL figures it out first once they get it. Imagine a company hiring a VP and someone bemoaning that the VP doesn't work the tech support help line, therefore this VP is somehow a detriment to the company.......

I would think any "projection system" the Twins rigged up likely projects one simple thing: Will the player get worse, get better, or stay the same? I find it hard to believe that any "projection system" they are using can't answer this question when they pump in Astudillo's decade of data. Now, the Twins might not like the result of that projection -- which I think we can agree is true -- but that's not the same thing.

Who me? Not really. The Twins? Probably not, but it's not impossible.

It says to me what I always suspected: what a player looks like and the "gut feelings" of management will trump metrics -- "advanced" metrics or not -- every single day of the frigging week. I agree with your post 100%.

This is a terrible analysis because Sano played the most games in the Twins' 103 loss season. Here's my take on Sano right now: - It's irresponsible for a journalist to write that the wound "looks like a dog bite." First of all, the journalist surely didn't see the wound himself so he shouldn't write that. Secondly, Sano certainly didn't tell a journalist the wound looks like a dog bite. Third, the Twins are again up to their terrible innuendo-driven messaging around Sano and mouthing rubbish to reporters. We can all predict right now the next words from the team will be, gosh, Sano sure gained a lot of weight when he had that boot on his foot. - It's unfortunate that Sano doesn't know to clean a wound, esp. on an extremity. Had spring training not started when it did, it's possible this guy would have lost his foot due to infection. He had at least two procedures now to remove infection and tissue from this wound. - For whatever reason the Twins just don't like Sano. They should end the relationship rather than dragging this out.

This article might be what tips the scales in his favor to start the season with the team. I'm happy the writer wrote about how the skepticism is based on what he looks like and not at all about his performance. I wonder when the Twins will admit that, if ever.

And I'm saying you don't know what they are being paid. Are they being paid $200k or $50k? If they are being paid closer to $50k (and they probably are), let's not overestimate their value to the franchise. Teams are rolling the dice. Are they being paid as experts or consultants, or are they taking a job at any rate doing what they love to do? I would bet it's the latter. This is still win-win for both parties involved. We simply don't have enough information to know how much MLB truly is investing in these guys. Are they hiring them to be brainchilds of the future ($$$), or are they hiring them because they know they will be dedicated workers who will happily move numbers around for them ($)?

I'm not even sure what you're arguing about here.

I mean numbers. I don't trust the majority of algorithms on fangraphs.

I would imagine they want statisticians who are also baseball nerds, though they may find the math skills aren't quite what they were expecting with some of these guys..... I worked with "numbers people" who have no clue what they heck they are looking at. It takes a keen eye to spot things that stick out in a mountain of data. Few people have the skill, even in the circle of people who build these massive databases. Besides, what kinds of salaries are we talking about? $50k? $75k? These are upgrades for a lot of people but nothing to a baseball team.

I'm betting most executives think a lot of the numbers on Fangraphs are bunk, yes. They'd be crazy not to. Everyone has metrics they like and don't like.

This team is being run like the Rangers were run. *shrug*

TF is designed to be playable in the snow and ice, but it's smarter to play elsewhere for as long as possible to start the season so as to maximize home field revenue. Just because they can play doesn't mean fans will show up. It is what it is. The MLB makes an effort to have midwestern teams play elsewhere to start the season, but it doesn't work out for every team every year.

Who else would they hire if they want to crunch numbers? I think a lot of the stuff on Fangraphs is nonsense (though it's much better than BA), but I recognize they have the market cornered.

As a child of the 70s/80s, when it was dang cold in the Twin Cities, I like the cold. To me, nothing is more satisfying than the feeling of snow crunching under one's feet. The way the air feels super clean after a big snowfall is masterful, it's a great feeling on the lungs. However, after living in Texas for ~25 years before heading back north to Chicago, apparently my body disagrees. After two winters of pneumonia and pulmonary embolisms, I think it's time to head to California or somewhere nice.

He's the guy to put there, yeah. In other news, the water in the ice tray will turn to ice after we put it in the freezer.

I definitely recall mainstream media saying the Indians were about to dominate the AL Central all throughout the 00s. They were good a couple of years there but couldn't really keep up with the Twins who had this uncanny way of finishing strong. As you said, everyone who makes the same prediction every year is right eventually.

I wonder how many times other AL Central teams read about the Twins tanking in the 00s and how they were about to lose their grip on the division. The Twins had a lot of turnover in the 00s and won the division many different ways, sometimes with smoke and mirrors. They knew how to play in the division.

I find it strange that anybody gives the Twins this kind of an allowance based on the players involved in the trade. Prediction: In a few years eyebrows start to rise over these types of transactions and we hear about this again.