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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    Funny you mention that, I almost included Herr in my post to preemptively acknowledge it doesn't always work, but I figured no one would make that connection. Ya got me!
  2. nicksaviking
    I remember back in the day when the Twins traded for Shannon Stewart and Luis Castillo. The Twins didn't just acquire them because of the position they played, but because they filled a specific need in the lineup. It doesn't seem like the Twins have done much of that lately.
  3. nicksaviking
    That Paul Molitor is summoning is inner Al Haig. "As of now, I am in control here, in the Twins Club House, pending return of the Vice President of Baseball Operations and in close touch with him. If something came up, I would check with him, of course." So glad you'd check with him.
  4. nicksaviking
    I don't necessarily disagree with this paragraph or your post in total, but once again using Phil Hughes as an example, he's been bad for two years, is now on the wrong side of 30 and has seen a large drop in velocity. History would surely show there is much less chance of him bouncing back than there is of a prospect being successful. Now the front office may have other interests than the fans such as managing a bad contract, but he still is getting every benefit of the doubt over the young guys due to nothing that he has done on the field. Baseball isn't like other industries, we know that due to physical limitations caused be age and repeated injuries that youth is and should be a huge advantage but it's not treated that way. Not just with the Twins, I'm not singling them out.
  5. nicksaviking
    I get it and we do tend to want to give the young players the benefit of the doubt, but I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that it's almost always a completion between young vs veteran and the veteran seems to always get the playing field slanted in their favor even when recent production and age should probably dictate otherwise. Cheering for the underdog in a rigged contest is a pretty natural reaction.
  6. nicksaviking
    Ha, please let that be a scout for the White Sox! It's a real shame that rival scout's team couldn't muster $1.5M to match the Braves offer to gain the rights to Kurt Suzuki.
  7. nicksaviking
    I understand those who don't want a rebuild, but it's really hard not to roll one's eyes when bringing in vets to go for the "trying to win now" strategy basically boils down to Castro, Giminez, Beslise, Breslow, Stubbs and Vogelsong. No rational baseball mind is going to say a defensive only catcher and 5 DFA candidates is what a 100 loss team needs to contend. If that's the kind of effort put into free agency, is there really much downside to going for the rebuild?
  8. nicksaviking
    I can see it considering the skill set, but Granite is considerably bigger than Revere or Dyson. I'd think that would translate into a greater ability to drive the ball instead of slap them into the turf should someone advise him on a different approach. Not that someone necessarily would, just that there is greater potential to do so than a more slight guy. I actually think the Dozier comp in the title is more apt than we recall. Prior to his demotion Dozier was much more of a high contact slap hitter. He significantly changed his approach only after his original MLB demotion.
  9. nicksaviking
    After watching Buxton's success last off season, I think I'd like to see these speed guys stop using their speed by intentionally hitting grounders and trying to beat them out and instead drive the ball and turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples.
  10. nicksaviking
    If for some reason they had some kind of Chris Sale comp in mind I could see them doing it. Maybe there's a development angle we're not privy to. Unlikely, but we're largely in the dark on this one. I'm not a huge fan of the move but I will admit that doing this right now raises many fewer red flags than if they did it mid-season. Not that there still aren't plenty of red flags. I just really hope this isn't all driven by Jay. Say, he prefers closing but knows he's not getting drafted high if he doesn't tell teams he wants to start. Probably not the case but it's lingering in the back of my mind.
  11. nicksaviking
    I would prefer Berrios in the rotation over Mejia but I'd like them both. Putting Mejia in first might accomplish that goal fastest simply because everyone wants Berrios to get a spot so he's less likely to be held back by a semi-competent veteran starter. Also, the Twins likely will insist on having at least one lefty in the rotation, so if Mejia performs fine at the onset, it will be easier for the Twins to make other arrangements with Santiago.
  12. nicksaviking
    I don't like 30-year-old pitchers, there's nowhere to go but down. I'm also in the camp that spending on position players is a better move. If the team still can't develop their own arms, I'd rather trade for a young arm, even if it's a painful trade. Or you know, the team could instead spend the money needed to make the team's scouting and development of pitchers the cream of the crop in the league. How much would it actually cost to steal other teams best scouts and minor league instructors? It's probably a pittance compared to what they'd pay for even a back of the rotation starter.
  13. nicksaviking
    I think you mean Tim Salmon.
  14. nicksaviking
    And now that the strikezone is being raised this year there might be a greater emphasis to pitch up in the zone regardless of upper-cut swings.
  15. nicksaviking
    You just have to put in a year there then you are eligible to get hired by the D-backs.
  16. nicksaviking
    Yeah, one of these days fangraphs is just going to up and hire Parker.
  17. nicksaviking
    Yes, it was a key talking point for the new front office, something that is more than welcoming. I'm great with everyone having a swing that best suits their skills. I just want the players, Kepler included, to have an open mind when it comes to listening to the coaches who may have more insight than him.
  18. nicksaviking
    I think the problem is that the batters embrace his changeup and curve as well. They're just not very good pitches. He'd just be throwing more of a bad pitch. There have been plenty of relievers who have succeeded on a cutter heavy approach though.
  19. nicksaviking
    Max knows more about hitting than I do (but less than Parker!) so at this point I'll judge his swing by his results. But in my view this is a completely unacceptable attitude. With how often players and teams change their swings, approach at the plate and in-game strategy, a guy can't be this resolute in what he wants to do. It 100% does not prove everyone else wrong and thinking so and saying it on record to a reporter is just going to make him want to commit to that swing even if it ends up needing to be revamped.
  20. nicksaviking
    Phil is making 13M per year. While that's too much for a back of the rotation arm, it's actually not really out of line with back of the bullpen arms these days. If Phil could show some effectiveness in the pen he still might have some value. Hughes also still has some name brand appeal likely. Mark Melancon is making way more than Hughes for example. Melancon also has low velocity and largely uses a cutter.
  21. nicksaviking
    Hughes doesn't have a very good curve though and he's barely thrown a change up in five years and it wasn't very good when he did. He just doesn't seem to have very usable off speed stuff. Also, Buerhle was a lefty. Lefties just seem to have so much more leeway when it comes to velocity than righties do.
  22. nicksaviking
    He'd likely have a better chance of ramping the velocity back up to a usable range in the pen. Just my two cents. Mariano Rivera worked with a 90-92 MPH cutter exclusively for years. That's Hughes' only reliable pitch anyway. Heck, Rivera might have been who he learned that pitch from.
  23. nicksaviking
    It's not the Twins call, they're not opting for anything. Kirilloff isn't a piece of property, he's a young man who gets to make his own medical decisions. Which of us would immediately choose the torturous process of getting knocked out, cut open and subject to a very lengthy period of incapacitation if there was a chance something else would work?
  24. nicksaviking
    The team may be lacking veteran leadership, but they aren't lacking veterans. If they feel that leadership is important and the current vets don't have it, then they need to be making some hard decisions, not easy ones like optioning the young guys. Who is supposed to be learning these leadership skills anyway, the young guys sitting in AAA or Robbie Grossman and Phil Hughes? If Hughes, Gibson, Mauer, Dozier, Escobar, Kintzler, Pressly, Perkins, Grossman etc. aren't good enough veteran leaders that the team has to bring in more, then they should go, not Kepler, Berrios and Chargois. Even if it hurts. Even if it makes some people look foolish. Even if it costs money. If those guys ARE good leaders, then they have more than enough.
  25. nicksaviking
    Barring an injury or surprise trade, it's pretty much a lock that 11 of the players on the 25-man will be 27 or older. I'm really flummoxed as to how it's possible that this is not enough veteran leadership. How many vets do they want, because it sounds like they want to find a way to have 13 or 14 minimum. Is there a specific ratio of vets to pups I'm not aware of? That seems like a lot for a team that lost 100 games last year.
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