ejoh24

Download attachment: Hot Stove.jpg We live in a society of instant gratification. This is certainly not a provocative or groundbreaking statement to make in 2012, but that doesn’t make it less significant. We’re one month into the hot stove, one week from the Winter Meetings and about three days from a five part expose on Kyle Gibson’s GOOD arm. Needless to say, the offseason is dragging a tad for Twins Fans. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Why, however, is this? Is the offseason really dragging, or are we just impatient and – let’s be honest – a tad ornery? I’m not saying Twins fans shouldn’t be frustrated coming off two years of “hunting for 100,” but maybe we should try a little patience. As hard as that is. While watching the Vikings (you know, that other disappointing Minnesota sports team) on Sunday, I began considering football, baseball and the hot stove. The conclusion I came to is this: Football is the reason so many sports fans are impatient. It’s the instant gratification sport to our instant gratification society. Nobody can argue that football is the most popular sport in the United States right now (it is not, however, the national pastime . . . the national pastime doesn’t change with popularity, but I digress). As a baseball guy, the popularity of football annoys me to the extent that the popularity of a given sport can logically annoy a person. Not because I am petty, but because football’s popularity represents how small the collective attention span of sports fans really is. (Also, I’m petty.) I love baseball for a lot of reasons: The 162 game grind. Prospects. A summer of games followed by a winter of moves and non-moves. Baseball takes patience. It takes a certain type of person to agonize over something that produces action—however small—every day. Baseball takes commitment. Football is for the lazy sports fan. It takes place once a week. There are only 16 games. You can wake up on a Sunday after a week-long bender, flip on your TV and be no less informed than the guy who scours the fantasy waiver wire to pinpoint which running back will carry the load for the Eagles this week. You can overreact to every game without having a brain aneurysm because you have a week to recover. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with football fans—football is a fine sport with fine followers. It just happens to be the perfect allegory for an impatient society. Most sports fans follow all sports, which mean most of us Twins fans are watching the Vikings during the offseason. It’s easy to get caught up in being un-instantly gratified by the Vikings and carrying that over into our offseason frustration with the Twins, but let’s try to be a little patient. I know the Twins are coming off two terrible seasons, and we are all skeptical about 2013 at best, but let’s give things a little more time to shake out. We’re baseball fans. We may need results, but we’re willing to wait. Click here to view the article

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2809[/ATTACH] Imagine, for a moment, you are looking for a job. You’re a pretty hot commodity and you have offers on the table from two companies: Company A has spent the last two years floundering and has seen massive layoffs. Based on the company's history there is optimism for the current year, and they aren’t just hiring, but talking big about the future. The company offers you a competitive salary, a little higher than others perhaps, with great benefits and delightful little travel perks. Company B is a powerhouse. Steady growth. “Recession proof.” They are able to offer you stability and the work atmosphere that you covet. The salary is slightly lower than Company A, but overall, the company is safer bet. Which company would you choose? This is the exact scenario facing free agents with an offer from the Twins. The Twins are Company A. It seems many Twins fans forget that the worst team in the American League the last two years has been . . . well . . . the Twins. Free agents, especially in a market where guys like Jeremy Guthrie and Shane Victorino are getting paid, shall we say, "handsomely" can not only get paid, but paid by a team of their choice. Take, for example, Joe Blanton. He just signed a deal with the Angels for two years, $15 million. How much more would it have likely taken for him to sign with a non-contender? Two years, $18 million? Perhaps a third year? My point is fairly simple: We're all well aware that we've been watching one of the worst teams in the league the last two years, so it's time to be realistic about free agents. The worst team in the league has a hard time bringing in top talent, because top talent wants to win. The right free agent deal is hard to come by. It's even harder when you perform terribly. Eric Johnson @ejoh24

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2745[/ATTACH] We live in a society of instant gratification. This is certainly not a provocative or groundbreaking statement to make in 2012, but that doesn’t make it less significant. We’re one month into the hot stove, one week from the Winter Meetings and about three days from a five part expose on Kyle Gibson’s GOOD arm. Needless to say, the offseason is dragging a tad for Twins Fans. Why, however, is this? Is the offseason really dragging, or are we just impatient and – let’s be honest – a tad ornery? I’m not saying Twins fans shouldn’t be frustrated coming off two years of “hunting for 100,” but maybe we should try a little patience. As hard as that is. While watching the Vikings (you know, that other disappointing Minnesota sports team) on Sunday, I began considering football, baseball and the hot stove. The conclusion I came to is this: Football is the reason so many sports fans are impatient. It’s the instant gratification sport to our instant gratification society. Nobody can argue that football is the most popular sport in the United States right now (it is not, however, the national pastime . . . the national pastime doesn’t change with popularity, but I digress). As a baseball guy, the popularity of football annoys me to the extent that the popularity of a given sport can logically annoy a person. Not because I am petty, but because football’s popularity represents how small the collective attention span of sports fans really is. (Also, I’m petty.) I love baseball for a lot of reasons: The 162 game grind. Prospects. A summer of games followed by a winter of moves and non-moves. Baseball takes patience. It takes a certain type of person to agonize over something that produces action—however small—every day. Baseball takes commitment. Football is for the lazy sports fan. It takes place once a week. There are only 16 games. You can wake up on a Sunday after a week-long bender, flip on your TV and be no less informed than the guy who scours the fantasy waiver wire to pinpoint which running back will carry the load for the Eagles this week. You can overreact to every game without having a brain aneurysm because you have a week to recover. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with football fans—football is a fine sport with fine followers. It just happens to be the perfect allegory for an impatient society. Most sports fans follow all sports, which mean most of us Twins fans are watching the Vikings during the offseason. It’s easy to get caught up in being un-instantly gratified by the Vikings and carrying that over into our offseason frustration with the Twins, but let’s try to be a little patient. I know the Twins are coming off two terrible seasons, and we are all skeptical about 2013 at best, but let’s give things a little more time to shake out. We’re baseball fans. We may need results, but we’re willing to wait.

We live in a society of instant gratification. This is certainly not a provocative or groundbreaking statement to make in 2012, but that doesn’t make it less significant. We’re one month into the hot stove, one week from the Winter Meetings and about three days from a three part expose on Kyle Gibson’s GOOD arm. Needless to say, the offseason is dragging a tad for Twins Fans. Why, however, is this? Is the offseason really dragging, or are we just impatient and – let’s be honest – a tad ornery? I’m not saying Twins fans shouldn’t be frustrated coming off two years of “hunting for 100,” but maybe we should try a little patience. And yes, that is hard. While watching the Vikings (you know, that other disappointing Minnesota sports team) the other day, I began considering football, baseball and the hot stove. The conclusion I came to is this: Football is the reason so many sports fans are impatient. It’s the instant gratification sport to perfectly fit our instant gratification society. Nobody can argue that football is the most popular sport in the United States right now (it is not, however, the national pastime . . . the national pastime doesn’t change with popularity, but I digress), and as a baseball guy, this annoys me to the extent that the popularity of a given sport can logically annoy a person. Not because I am petty, but because football’s popularity represents how small the collective attention span of sports fans really is. (Also, I’m petty.) I love baseball for a lot of reasons: The 162 game grind. Prospects. A summer of games followed by a winter of moves and non-moves. Baseball takes patience. It takes a certain person to agonize over something that produces action—however small—every day. Baseball takes commitment. Football is for the lazy sports fan. It takes place once a week. There are only 16 games. You can wake up on a Sunday after a week-long bender, flip on your TV and be no less informed than the guy who scours the fantasy waiver wire to pinpoint which running back will carry the load for the Eagles this week. You can overreact to every game without having a brain aneurysm because you have a week to recover. I am not saying there is anything inherently wrong with football fans—football is a fine sport with fine followers. It just happens to be the perfect allegory for an impatient society. Most sports fans follow all sports, which mean most of us Twins fans are watching the Vikings in the offseason. It’s easy to get caught up in the instant gratification that football represents, but let’s try to be a little patient. I know the Twins are coming off two terrible seasons, and we are all skeptical about 2013 at best, but let’s give things a little more time to shake out. We’re baseball fans. We may need results, but we’re willing to wait.

True, but what is his ceiling in an absolute best case scenario? Is he really capable of being more than a below-average starter? He doesn't have a good enough glove to be a utility guy.

It's been awhile since I've written about the Twins. I have one Twins Daily blog post, and a few months of inconsistent blogging, under my belt, so The Random Prospect Review seemed like an apt title for this post. It gives me the option of posting again, or disappearing into the abyss. Both very real possibilities. If there is one infield prospect that we've been over-saturated with the last couple of seasons, it's Brian Dozier. From his minor league hot streak in 2011, to his misguided rave reviews last Spring Training, to his questionable but inevitable call up in 2012, we've all become pretty familiar with Brian Dozier. The question is, why? What portion of the prospect test does Dozier pass? Not the saber test. Not the old-school two-eye test. Not the baseball IQ test. Certainly not the hair test. The guy simply doesn't look like a Major League infielder. The question becomes, who is at fault for pretending that Dozier is a legitimately hot infield prospect? It's partially our fault for wanting so badly to latch onto a Twins prospect during a time when the upper Minor Leagues are so devoid of legitimate talent. It's partially the Twins fault for forcing him down our throats for the same reason. And it's partially the media's fault because they needed a token "prospect who could break with the big club this spring" guy. Whatever the reason, Dozier is a mediocre prospect at best, who rode an incredible hot streak for a few months in 2011 to an unfortunately prominent position in the Twins infield pecking order. The one thing I will say is that Dozier reminds me a little of Chuck Knoblauch. A slower, less-savy, untalented version of Knoblauch, and one who has never hit Keith Olberman's mom in the face with an errant throw (yes, Knoblauch actually did that) but a Knoblauch nonetheless. (Ok, so he's no Knoblauch, I just thought Target Field could use a good hot dog tossin'.) The problem with Dozier is that he just hasn't been worthy of the accolades he receives. The numbers don't lie, and the numbers ain't great. His age 25 season looks like this: AAA: .232/.286/.337 MLB: .234/.271/.332 Those, might I add, are both career lines in AAA and MLB. If you ain't into that fancy book-learnin and prefer to trust your peepers, lets keep in mind how slow Dozier is to the ball. How unsure of himself he looks. And how poor his decision making skills are. He's a defensive liability on his worst day, average on his best day and somewhere in between most days. All Dozier has proven is that he can be a solid, albeit unspectacular, AA middle infielder. I don't know what's really next for Dozier, but I know I'm not comfortable with him manning the middle infield. Maybe it would help if he got a haircut...

It's been awhile since I've written about the Twins. I have one Twins Daily blog post, and a few months of inconsistent blogging, under my belt, so The Random Prospect Review seemed like an apt title for this post. It gives me the option of posting again, or disappearing into the abyss. Both very real possibilities. If there is one infield prospect that we've been over-saturated with the last couple of seasons, it's Brian Dozier. From his minor league hot streak in 2011, to his misguided rave reviews last Spring Training, to his questionable but inevitable call up in 2012, we've all become pretty familiar with Brian Dozier. The question is, why? What portion of the prospect test does Dozier pass? Not the saber test. Not the old-school two-eye test. Not the baseball IQ test. Certainly not the hair test. The guy simply doesn't look like a Major League infielder. The question becomes, who is at fault for pretending that Dozier is a legitimately hot infield prospect? It's partially our fault for wanting so badly to latch onto a Twins prospect during a time when the upper Minor Leagues are so devoid of legitimate talent. It's partially the Twins fault for forcing him down our throats for the same reason. And it's partially the media's fault because they needed a token "prospect who could break with the big club this spring" guy. Whatever the reason, Dozier is a mediocre prospect at best, who rode an incredible hot streak for a few months in 2011 to an unfortunately prominent position in the Twins infield pecking order. The one thing I will say is that Dozier reminds me a little of Chuck Knoblauch. A slower, less-savy, untalented version of Knoblauch, and one who has never hit Keith Olberman's mom in the face with an errant throw (yes, Knoblauch actually did that) but a Knoblauch nonetheless. (Ok, so he's no Knoblauch, I just thought Target Field could use a good hot dog tossin'.) The problem with Dozier is that he just hasn't been worthy of the accolades he receives. The numbers don't lie, and the numbers ain't great. His age 25 season looks like this: AAA: .232/.286/.337 MLB: .234/.271/.332 Those, might I add, are both career lines in AAA and MLB. If you ain't into that fancy book-learnin and prefer to trust your peepers, lets keep in mind how slow Dozier is to the ball. How unsure of himself he looks. And how poor his decision making skills are. He's a defensive liability on his worst day, average on his best day and somewhere in between most days. All Dozier has proven is that he can be a solid, albeit unspectacular, AA middle infielder. I don't know what's really next for Dozier, but I know I'm not comfortable with him manning the middle infield. Maybe it would help if he got a haircut...

Hello, Twins fans. Some of you may remember me from my old blog, Undomed. Some of you may know me from my Twitter account, @ejoh24. Or, more likely, most of you have no idea who the hell I am. Regardless, allow me to state two things: 1. I love this Twins Daily page. Most importantly, it allows Twins fans to congregate in one place. Less importantly, it allows wayward bloggers like myself to write occasionally without people wondering why we disappeared from our blog for six months. 2. I need to start this post with a preface, and let me be perfectly clear about this: I DO NOT THINK JOE MAUER DOES STEROIDS. Got that? We good? Because if so much as one person tries to call me out as a “Baby Jesus” blasphemer, I will beat you to death with a copy of Seth’s Prospect Handbook and run you over with the Territory Train. I know how the internet works, so let’s all just agree to not put words in my mouth and avoid that whole mess. Capiche? Having said that, allow me to transport you to a mystical fantasy-land for a moment: A Candyland of needles and pills. A pretend world where Joe Mauer does steroids. How would you react if the Twins’ superstar was in Ryan Braun’s shoes? It’s pretty safe to say that public opinion of Braun is that of vitriol and accusations. He weaseled his way out of his suspension on a technicality, and seems to have lucked his way to innocence. He even had gall to make a Clinton-esque, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” defense. The only difference being that Braun was allegedly injecting himself with a needle and Clinton was allegedly injec—er…moving on… Braun’s “acquittal” is irrelevant to me. I, for my part, don’t care if a player does steroids. In fact, there is a part of me that wishes Joe Mauer would do steroids if it gives him a competitive edge and he can get away with it. If he isn’t caught and the Twins win a World Series, for my part, Mauer has done his job. Is that cheating? Sure. But it’s also winning. And as a fan, what do we want more than a World Series? The ultimate example of steroids is the home run chase of 1998. Now that we are afforded the luxury of hindsight, we scoff at memories and mock Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. But try, momentarily, to do the impossible and jump in a time machine. Remember how much fun 1998 was? Nobody can change that. Yes, in looking back, you can convince yourself that the home run chase wasn’t magical. But it was. 1998 is one of the most memorable baseball seasons of all time, and no level of hindsight can take that distinction away. You can’t undo a feeling, no matter how hard you try. Maybe it’s because I’m cynical, but I want my players to do everything they can to win. If Joe Mauer takes steroids and wins the Twins a World Series, I’ll be the first person to say it was worth it, because you can’t take the feeling of victory away, dammit. Let me leave you with a question: What’s more important, perception or reality? Particularly in the world of sports. Is reality truly reality without perception? Who would you rather have on your team: A clean player who everyone assumes is dirty, or a dirty player who never gets caught? I’ll take the latter, especially if it means a World Series. So ‘roid up, Joe, especially if can you get away with it.

Hello, Twins fans. Some of you may remember me from my old blog, Undomed. Some of you may know me from my Twitter account, @ejoh24. Or, more likely, most of you have no idea who the hell I am. Regardless, allow me to state two things: 1. I love this Twins Daily page. Most importantly, it allows Twins fans to congregate in one place. Less importantly, it allows wayward bloggers like myself to write occasionally without people wondering why we disappeared from our blog for six months. 2. I need to start this post with a preface, and let me be perfectly clear about this: I DO NOT THINK JOE MAUER DOES STEROIDS. Got that? We good? Because if so much as one person tries to call me out as a “Baby Jesus” blasphemer, I will beat you to death with a copy of Seth’s Prospect Handbook and run you over with the Territory Train. I know how the internet works, so let’s all just agree to not put words in my mouth and avoid that whole mess. Capiche? Having said that, allow me to transport you to a mystical fantasy-land for a moment: A Candyland of needles and pills. A pretend world where Joe Mauer does steroids. How would you react if the Twins’ superstar was in Ryan Braun’s shoes? It’s pretty safe to say that public opinion of Braun is that of vitriol and accusations. He weaseled his way out of his suspension on a technicality, and seems to have lucked his way to innocence. He even had gall to make a Clinton-esque, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman” defense. The only difference being that Braun was allegedly injecting himself with a needle and Clinton was allegedly injec—er…moving on… Braun’s “acquittal” is irrelevant to me. I, for my part, don’t care if a player does steroids. In fact, there is a part of me that wishes Joe Mauer would do steroids if it gives him a competitive edge and he can get away with it. If he isn’t caught and the Twins win a World Series, for my part, Mauer has done his job. Is that cheating? Sure. But it’s also winning. And as a fan, what do we want more than a World Series? The ultimate example of steroids is the home run chase of 1998. Now that we are afforded the luxury of hindsight, we scoff at memories and mock Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. But try, momentarily, to do the impossible and jump in a time machine. Remember how much fun 1998 was? Nobody can change that. Yes, in looking back, you can convince yourself that the home run chase wasn’t magical. But it was. 1998 is one of the most memorable baseball seasons of all time, and no level of hindsight can take that distinction away. You can’t undo a feeling, no matter how hard you try. Maybe it’s because I’m cynical, but I want my players to do everything they can to win. If Joe Mauer takes steroids and wins the Twins a World Series, I’ll be the first person to say it was worth it, because you can’t take the feeling of victory away, dammit. Let me leave you with a question: What’s more important, perception or reality? Particularly in the world of sports. Is reality truly reality without perception? Who would you rather have on your team: A clean player who everyone assumes is dirty, or a dirty player who never gets caught? I’ll take the latter, especially if it means a World Series. So ‘roid up, Joe, especially if can you get away with it.