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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    Established pitchers tend to be pretty close to free agency, I don't know that guys nearing the end of their contracts are a good fit for a rebuilding team. At least not good in terms of being a centerpiece of a deal for a prime trade chip.
  2. nicksaviking
    It's not like the Twins have one of those now who would be kicked to the curb though. Maybe Kepler will hit lefties; he hasn't yet. Also perhaps I missed the premise, but I thought it was under the hypothetical that Kepler ended up playing 1B, so it's not like the team would be losing him. If Palka is the back up plan, again only for the hypothetical, a bargain free agent shouldn't stand in the way. Bellinger does interest me and I like Kepler in the OF for what it's worth.
  3. nicksaviking
    There's also a glut on RF in the free agent market of all levels of skill. If a team was free agent shopping this year (not that the Twins are) corner bats are where the bargains are going to be. With that said, if there is interest in Eddie Rosario and there's someone out there the front office likes, there's room for movement there too.
  4. nicksaviking
    Yeah he has power, his K rate dropped from 27% in A ball to 20% in AA while his BB rate increased from 9% to 12%. This guy is is starting to look really good.
  5. nicksaviking
    I'd have to disagree, Ryan seemed to be a bit of a fence straddler to me. I don't think he ever embraced the "All" part of all or nothing. He never made the big move to go for "All" likely because he was fearful that if it didn't work out he would have "Nothing" which is what his half-measures got him anyway. I'd welcome a new approach even if it doesn't work out, and if it doesn't, try something different the next time.
  6. nicksaviking
    And even if they would buy it, there's none to buy. And it might not just be a fluke this year, it's just as likely a trend that nearly all teams are willing and are able to meet the demands of their best pitchers enabling the club to retain them into their early 30's. It's trade or bust this year and could be for the foreseeable future as well.
  7. nicksaviking
    I'd like the Twins to get some pitching back for Dozier, but power hitting 1B prospects just seem to be a dying breed. That's not to say there aren't power hitting 1B in the league, it just seems that most of them didn't come up as 1B, they used to play something else. If Bellinger ends up being the target, I really hope Falvey already has multi-year game plans written in pencil for Sano, Vargas, Park, Kepler and Mauer. Bellinger is really appealing though, he sure looks a lot like Anthony Rizzo. Also a thought, if the Dodgers have to cut payroll what would people think about throwing in Santiago and taking back Scott Kazmir? He's got a couple of ugly years left on his contract but it's not like the Twins are going to be hurting for payroll flexibility in the next couple years. Taking on his contract might really sweeten the offer from the Dodgers if they truly have their backs against the wall in terms of debt.
  8. nicksaviking
    If MLB viewed pitch framing as cheating there's a pretty easy solution, that being balls and strikes called electronically. Of course now that the Twins signed a guy good at pitch framing and perhaps not much else, I fully expect that to be in the new CBA.
  9. nicksaviking
    Yup it's great. I finished it a week or two ago. I still catch myself thinking about some of the episodes, a couple of them really, really stick with you. Did anyone else feel guilty after the first episode? The schoolboy in me thought the premise of the pilot was really funny right up until the conclusion at which point I felt as ashamed as all the random characters in the episode. It set up the series perfectly as I had no clue what to expect going in but knew exactly what I should expect after. The episode that was probably the biggest gut-punch to me was Shut Up and Dance in Season three.
  10. nicksaviking
    I would guess it's the opposite, otherwise good pitch framers would likely suffer extreme swings year-to-year once it's known that they are good pitch framers and I don't think that happens. I think umpires appreciate good defensive catchers and I also think they would prefer a 3 hour game if possible. I think if the umps know that if they are working with a good catcher, they tend to give him the benefit of the doubt.
  11. nicksaviking
    It's probably just as much about the pitchers thinking that they can get those calls as actually getting the calls. I think the Twins and probably all Minnesota teams self-fulfilling prophesies have been of the negative variety for a long time, swinging that the other way might create more wins than anything else they can do this offseason.
  12. nicksaviking
    If this signing infuses the pitchers with more confidence, even if it's only a placebo, it's probably worth it. Not sure that it will, but signing a defensive catcher is really about getting the most out of your pitchers. I'd like this deal a lot better if the team also signed Geovany Soto to complement him. Probably not in the cards but he'd be cheap and we really have no clue what is going on in Falvey's head.
  13. nicksaviking
    Maybe a little, but I doubt much. He's looking for a short term deal anyway to rebuild his value. If he gets a one year deal what good does that do the Twins? If it's two years then it means he and his agent almost certainly know he won't be catching next year and want the second year to rebuild value.
  14. nicksaviking
    So you sign a catcher in the 2016-17 off season who probably won't catch until 2018, if ever?
  15. nicksaviking
    I just hope the team doesn't have to start all over again with the guys they have now. If guys like Berrios, Gonsalves, Stewart, Romero, Jorge and Jay have to go back to remedial classes to catch up on things that the previous regime may have not been doing correctly we're going to start running out of option years. I don't want to have to cross my fingers that these guys can be retained after being DFA'd like Cleveland did with Carrasco. I'll have patience, as long as it doesn't start costing the team prospects. Of course at that point it's unlikely I'd lay the blame at the feet of Falvey.
  16. nicksaviking
    Plus even if the GM wants to give it a shot, he's not the one making the pitching changes. I have a feeling that the current field manager would have a hard time holding his nose and keeping these guys in multiple innings, particularly if they allow a base runner or two. Allowing multiple base runners has been nearly an automatic hook for the past two managers.
  17. nicksaviking
    I wouldn't be sad to lose Grossman, but his ability to get on base is kind of rare in the organization right now. He doesn't need to be in the field, but he's a pretty decent pinch hit option late in the game if the catcher is up and you just need a base runner. Now personally I'd hate to carry a guy on the 25-man for that singular specific reason, however if rosters are expanded to 26 I don't think any of us can predict what the best dynamic for each team will be for that one extra spot until we start seeing these situations play out. Well, I mean I can probably already predict that most of us hope it doesn't mean adding an 8th arm to the bullpen.
  18. nicksaviking
    If Allen and Falvey are really on board with the "teach all the pitchers a good changeup" philosophy, bring him in and once it's clear it's not going to work out for Johan which would be approximately February 14th (I see pitchers and catchers report February 13th), see if he wants to, and has what it takes to work with the young guys. Also, I'm not one to want to bring back old players, but Santana's changeup was special. If there's any thought he could teach it, I'd at least be interested.
  19. nicksaviking
    I could see that happening for aging hitters who end up "cheating" on pitches. Seemed to me that kind of thing happened to Craig Biggio, Dave Winfield and Eddie Murray. Those guys were probably older than Mauer is now though when they gave up on being great all-around hitters and started going with the old "grip-it-and-rip-it" approach. Though typically those types of hitters acknowledge that their contact skills are diminishing due to age and slower reaction time so instead take advantage of the fact that power/strength doesn't typically deteriorate at the same degree and actually quite often increases in healthy males (i.e. not me).
  20. nicksaviking
    You talking about Mauer? Or Gibson? Or Berrios? Edit: Interestingly, both Mauer and Gibson had a hard hit % of 31% last year. Mauer was trending up, Gibson regressed. A lot.
  21. nicksaviking
    I'm waiting for my wife to become less busy with work so we can watch The Crown together, we don't have many shows we have in common any more. I finished episode three of season two of Black Mirror last night, and wow, how completely fitting. I was going to start season three but The Naked Gun is on MLB Network and I can't quit it. I forgot how brilliant this movie was. Update: I forgot the plot of Naked Gun was stopping the assasination of Queen Elizabeth. I didn't remember the character was actually Elizabeth, I thought it was some fictional Royal. Talk about a spoiler for The Crown .
  22. nicksaviking
    I'm OK with the Soto signing as well and it sounds pretty plausible. Lavine traded for Soto once back in 2012 and a familiar reliable defensive backstop seems like something a new GM would target. It was also the Rangers who made him a platoon catcher so I'd guess Lavine wouldn't go back on that.
  23. nicksaviking
    Well Allen didn't say the Twins weren't teaching FB command but he did say they didn't actually make the young guys get a handle on it. The Allen retention also surprises me, but to be fair we as fans have seen this abomination for much longer than Favely and Levine have. We may be too deep into the forest to see the trees. We did want outsider perspective after all, it's not like we're outsiders.
  24. nicksaviking
    With how popular Castro is here, the dearth of free agents to spend money on and the Twins annual unlucky timing in terms of need vs supply, I'm guessing Castro is going to command more money and/or years than we expect. Not that the Twins won't be or shouldn't be the team to bite. Ha, it is fun to picture the Twins fans who only know back-of-the-baseball-card stats seeing his career .232 avg and flipping out about signing him to a multi-year deal.
  25. nicksaviking
    If I'm a new GM, the only way I keep Plouffe is if I know for a fact that the field manager will make him a bench/utility player if that's what I say he needs to be. If I think for a minute that the manager may not be able to help himself and will give the veteran 500+ PA and start the majority of games at 3B, I'm taking that temptation away from him. As a new GM, I need time to see various combinations of Sano/Polanco/Escobar on the left side of the field to make some future decisions. Drew as well in this scenario I guess. I wouldn't want both Drew and Plouffe I don't think.
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