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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    The Marte situation reminds me of the Brady Aiken situation a few years ago when everyone was ripping on the Astros for trying to screw over the #1 pick and making him take a minimum deal due to "bogus" medical evaluations, then they turned out to be right as he quickly blew out his elbow.
  2. nicksaviking
    Considering the past front office lived and died by pitch-to-contact methods and made little attempt to intentionally increase MLB strikeout numbers, I seriously doubt they sent out any memos telling Gibson to lessen his sinker usage.
  3. nicksaviking
    Nobody is convinced, but if you're seriously asking why there is optimism from 2017 when folks were fooled in 2015 look at the dynamically different pitch usage his last two months of this past year: http://www.brooksbaseball.net/outcome.php?player=502043&b_hand=-1&gFilt=&pFilt=FA|SI|FC|CU|SL|CS|KN|CH|FS|SB&time=month&minmax=ci&var=pcount&s_type=2&startDate=03/30/2007&endDate=12/06/2017 Considering the change coincided with the return from a recent demotion, it looks like he finally got the memo to lay off his bad sinker.
  4. nicksaviking
    I'm always excited about a velocity jump but the effectiveness very well could be due to the secondary pitch. Though I'd think any velocity increase would also benefit a slider and a slider always does seem to be part of the package of starters turned good relievers.
  5. nicksaviking
    Why would they let him go at all? Maybe his last two months were a fluke, but considering the dramatic uptick in usage of his four-seamer and the dramatic reduction of his sinker, it seems like there is at least enough evidence that his strong second half production was due to the fact that he got on board with what the team was preaching and he'll continue to do so. Seems odd he'd be kicked to the curb after he's done what was asked of him and it actually paid off.
  6. nicksaviking
    I don't know, it seems to me the starters who get tossed to the pen thrive or dive with very little forewarning. Glen Perkins, Mike Minor, Wade Davis, (examples only, they were more well known for sure) all had good control but were rather blase at best as starters. They had pedestrian fastballs a slider and an off speed pitch, but they go to the pen and pick up 3 MPH on their fastball and become good relief pieces. Looking at Fangraphs data though, that velocity increase doesn't typically happen until the first full season away from starting. So regardless if it's Slegers or a guy like Tom Koehler who I was a bit interested in, if the team wants to give them a fair shake in the pen, they need to know going in that their roll is to come on in relief.
  7. nicksaviking
    I hope anyone they plan on converting to the bullpen gets the news in the off season. It seems that guys do much better in the pen if they went in to the season as a reliever. With his current low ceiling I'd probably move Slegers to the pen now and see if he gains velocity. Stature and stuff he has a lot in common with Jon Rauch; that wouldn't be a bad bullpen piece.
  8. nicksaviking
    The Twins are still on the sidelines this offseason so my patience is starting to wear thin but some of these arguments seem contradictory. Yes the front office incorrectly believed the team was out of contention at the deadline, nearly everyone did, but I guess it's fair to say they were wrong on that front. But the team improved when Kintzler and Garcia were removed from the club. Why weren't they right on that front then? The bullpen was better after Kintzler was removed, and Kyle Gibson was re-inserted into the rotation after Garcia was dealt and he was the best starter down the stretch and better than Garcia. So the team was an extreme long-shot to make the playoffs and the front office gets demerits for not believing. Also an extreme long-shot was the fact that the team would improve without Kintzler and Garcia, including their direct replacements, but no credit is given on that front? I mean for all we know, this team does not make the playoffs if they DON'T make those now unpopular moves.
  9. nicksaviking
    The Mariners don't seem to be a very well run team as of late. So I guess if an AL team was going to get him, let him go to a place I don't view as competent enough to win. It was a long shot, I did keep some hopes based on all the various reports that Minnesota was a possibility but I kept those hopes in check so this is still rather emotionless news to me. Doesn't change much, I still think the Twins need to sign one big free agent arm and trade for another. And absolutely nothing has happened league-wide this year which kind of indicates most teams aren't feeling overly motivated. Could be a good year for the Twins to do the unconventional. Also, let's go get a handful of those now free agent former Braves prospects.
  10. nicksaviking
    Says my kid every night that he has to do homework. It was a courtesy to allow all teams in the offer, it wasn't a jerk move. And who knows, perhaps some team would have presented him with some persuasive information that otherwise wasn't available to he and his agent.
  11. nicksaviking
    No kidding, they should have borrowed that machine from Rick and Morty that teleported the house and used it to move Minneapolis to the Bay area.
  12. nicksaviking
    Crash was naive, I want my pitchers a mean, intimidating, fascist dictator on the mound. A strikeout prevents errors, sac flies, Texas Leagures, seeing-eye-singles, runners moving from 2nd to 3rd, bad umpiring calls, Eddie Rosario throwing to the wrong base, Steve Bartman and those times when outfielders forget there is only one out and toss the ball into the stands. Pitchers: get the freakin' out yerself and let your fielders chase butterflies and build sandcastles.
  13. nicksaviking
    I don't know that Santana's shoulder slowly gave out though. He missed 2011 but in 2012 he had an excellent 2.38 ERA and he was back to striking out over a batter an inning until the Mets let him throw 134 pitches to get that No Hitter on June 1st. That was 25% more pitches than he'd thrown any other time since his initial surgery. It was all downhill after that game. Forty-five ER in his final 49 innings, an 8.27 ERA. Fourty-nine innings seems like a pretty abrupt end to me and it's hard to believe the 134 pitch outing wasn't the primary culprit considering he was back to elite form prior to that start; he looked like he had a lot left in the tank.
  14. nicksaviking
    Having kids is the best. Getting to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas with the family is one of the best things ever. One of the top ten greatest individual TV episodes of all time.
  15. nicksaviking
    Santana and his age and peripherals would be closer to John Lackey on the free agent market than to Cobb and Lynn, neither of whom I want. This team needs to remove high contact arms, not add them.
  16. nicksaviking
    Yup, the Twins need to stop being the team holding the bag on these guys when they go bust. If The Twins signed two superior pitchers and Santana was the #4, I really wouldn't care either way if he's traded. But this team should not be going into 2018 with both title hopes and a blind eye to what has happened to every other veteran starting pitcher this team has acquired.
  17. nicksaviking
    Santana gave up 31 HR last year, and fortunately 20 of them were solo shots. Of the 11 HR he gave up with runners on, 7 of them occurred in the nine games between June 3 and July 21, the stretch where Santana was absolutely brutal and his early season glow had worn off. He gave up tons of HR all through the season last year but got by early and late because his HR were almost exclusively solo. I'm in the minority, but yeah, I do think Santana falls apart next year. He somehow had his best H/9 and WHIP season at the age of 34 so he kept guys off the bases when he gave up the bombs, but his HR totals skyrocketed and his strikeout rate is failing to keep up with the increasing league trends. If he was a free agent with no ties to the Twins we'd all be looking at his peripheral numbers and nobody would want to trust him on a multi year deal.
  18. nicksaviking
    He'll need the narrative to change. Maybe he'll get in once everyone takes a look at his game logs and starts talking about how his career was effectively over after the Mets let him throw 134 pitches so the team could get it's first ever no-hitter. If he's a league-wide sympathetic figure who's downfall was due to the Mets callousness, he might get in. And it's not like the Mets reputation with pitchers won't help the cause, they are well positioned to play the villain, fair or not.
  19. nicksaviking
    It would be more about having his type of players as opposed to Kill/Claeys' types of players. Either you have to field a team of mostly underclassmen that you recruited, or you have to field a team of recruits that don't necessarily posses the skill set and body types you are looking for.
  20. nicksaviking
    I think Rooker deserves all Top 5 spots. My list goes: 1: Brent Rooker 2: Brent Rooker 3: Brent Rooker 4: Brent Rooker 5: Brent Rooker 6: Nick Gordon 7: Brent Rooker
  21. nicksaviking
    Right but last year everyone knew their record had over-performed their true talent based almost solely on an incredibly easy schedule. Add to that that they were having a QB competition between two guys who couldn't beat out one of the most maligned QBs in program history the last several years and I don't see how anyone could have had reasonably optimistic expectations this year.
  22. nicksaviking
    My brother-in-law is a Big 10 official and was assigned to do some late summer Gopher practices. He said at the time that this team looked to have as little talent as it's ever had and it wouldn't surprise him if the team went winless in the conference. I don't know, I don't follow the Gophers like I used to, was this collapse that unexpected considering how bad the offense was expected to be from the onset?
  23. nicksaviking
    Kyle Gibson wasn't getting results because he was pitching like a sinkerball pitcher, however upon his recall in the second half this year he was a pitcher who just so happened to be able to throw a sinker but was missing bats and getting outs with his superior breaking pitches. I would think that if the Twins thought that success was repeatable with Stewart that they would have protected him. So I wonder if at this time they feel he is either incapable or unwilling. To me Stewart looks like one of those top prospects who's going to need to experience a strong dose of failure and a willingness to make changes if he has a shot at reaching his potential; that might not be in the cards as long as he stays with the same team.
  24. nicksaviking
    In Boshers' case it's probably nothing other than a dearth of LH relievers ready to contribute at the MLB level. Also, with four spots available, it's probably not fair to blame anybody who kept their jobs for costing the team any of the younger guys the team exposed. The team had room to do both but for reasons they'll probably never detail, they didn't.
  25. nicksaviking
    It seems Twins did most of their DFA'ing a week or so ago, looks like most teams waited until today. Perhaps the Twins have kept their multiple 40-man spots to target some of these guys they knew or hoped would become available. Anyone see any interesting arms let go today?
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