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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    May, not even close. Pelfrey can go to the pen, Milone can sit in Rochester until he's needed for a spot start. I still like Meyer better, and like the highest upside guys infinately more than high floor guys, but May isn't without upside even if it's not quite as high as Meyer.
  2. nicksaviking
    That would be great and I'd love to go but alas my wife has me schedulded for some pretty substantial renovation work for her photo studio. Tell him I said hi, I'm sure he remembers me
  3. nicksaviking
    Lauder was one of my favorites as a kid. We went to Rod Carew Day at the Dome in 1987, they drove him around the field in a convertible and then retired his number. Pretty cool stuff to a kid. We were sitting behind the Twins bullpen but all game long I couldn't work up the nerve to ask for any autographs which was probably good since Mike Smithson was pitching which meant the guys in the pen needed to be alert and ready for action. However Sal Butera was starting that day and when multiple bp arms were warming up (again, Smithson was pitching, so basically all game long), Laudner would trot out to the pen to help out. I already thought highly of Laudner because the back of his baseball card said that we shared a birthday, and to an eight-year-old, that's a pretty big deal. He was warming up Jeff Reardon for the 9th and I finally got the nerve to ask for his autograph but he turned to me and said, "Not right now kid, I got to go catch" and he trotted to the field with Reardon to close out the Blue Jays (but not before giving up a bomb to Cecil Fielder). In the top of the 8th Buetera had been pinch hit for by Roy Smalley, and my undevloped baseball mind hadn't yet pieced together what the logical outcome would be for Laudner heading into the bottom of the 9th. I should have found my nerve earlier. The funny thing is that I've gotten many autographs since then, and have largely forgotten the circumstances in which I got them. The fact that Tim Laudner gave me the time of day during the middle of a game probably meant more to me than an autograph I probably would have lost by now.
  4. nicksaviking
    I'm not sure which awards show that is taken from. Are you suggesting the Twins hire Paul DePodesta who Jonah Hill portrayed in Moneyball, or the guy he portrayed in The Wolf of Wall Street?
  5. nicksaviking
    Honorable, but paying players for what they did yesterday instead of paying players for what you think they will do tomorrow is how teams start giving out $100 million deals to 35-year-old pitchers. It's bad business sense.
  6. nicksaviking
    And that Michael Cuddyer was a super utility player.
  7. nicksaviking
    Good stuff Parker. One other thing that sticks out to me in the videos: He looks thinner in the later. Perhaps white is just more slimming than grey, (I know jack about fashion but I thought black was the "thinning" color) but he looks like he's in better shape in 2014. Not only is it logical to think that improved conditioning could help his game, but a concerted effort to get in shape usually indicates a concerted effort to better oneself in all stations of life, possibly including a more intense focus on his occupation.
  8. nicksaviking
    I prefer a "baseball guy" to run the organization too, but even if we use MacPhail as the template, there might be issues in what we consider a "baseball guy." As far as I can tell, the MacPhail clan's only on-field experience is Andy's stint playing DIII ball. He got started in the business because of his dad, who got into the business because of his dad. Patriarch, Larry, was a lawyer who bought a minor league team for what seems like just a hobby. If we're being critical (and I'm really just playing devil's advocate) the only reason anyone would think of the MacPhail's as baseball people is because of generations of nepotism started by a rich lawyer who went to law school with Branch Rickey (who would also then not be a "baseball guy"?) So along those lines, would Bill Smith's kids automatically be considered "baseball guys?"
  9. nicksaviking
    That's funny, because if one only watched him when he pitched against the Twins, it would be the other way around.
  10. nicksaviking
    I have to say, no matter how one feels about the job St. Peter does and the oft ill-timed comments, he certainly is a friend of TD. It's great he's granted more face time.
  11. nicksaviking
    Everyone should notice that Seth listed the 99.999% for Meyer for 2014. It might have been an oversight, but that number sounded pretty close to accurate this time last year too.
  12. nicksaviking
    Yup, that could very well be. He could be a hero in this market. In a larger market at best he's key supporting figure and at worst he's the goat that gets 100 media members at his locker after every start asking him 100 different ways why he sucks so bad.
  13. nicksaviking
    Right, or roughly the same age Alex Meyer will be when he finally becomes a free agent.
  14. nicksaviking
    Yeah, demotion is probably not an apt term.
  15. nicksaviking
    I don't know, the Twins are paying Ervin Santana more per year than him and Nolasco will only be making 200K less. Hughes has a much higher ceiling than either I would think. Had Hughes come anywhere close to his 2014 numbers the next two years and hit the free agent market as a 30-year-old, I'd think he would have been very likely to get a 5 year +, $100 million + deal. I think Hughes took some risk that he left money on the table, possibly a lot of money. I'm leary of 5 year deals, but he's only going be 6 months older than Santana is now when his contract is up.
  16. nicksaviking
    Well getting Quade was quite the coup. I actually would have been disappointed if Quade was in play but the team chose to give the job to Smith. Your first point seems pretty logical though. It's likely that the Twins wanted to move Mientkiewicz up and Smith then let it be known that he'd prefer to be in Ft. Myers. Whether he truely did prefer the move or whether it was to make it look like a demotion was his idea, who knows. Really doesn't matter now I guess.
  17. nicksaviking
    I'd guess much of it is based on who was around him. It might be impossible to look bad when you're sandwiched between Willingham and Arcia. By default you're the best outfielder on the field. Also, most of his mistakes seemed to be of the mental variaty. People probably assume those can be corrected with coaching, experience, focus or repetition. Same reason most people aren't closing the book on Arcia just yet.
  18. nicksaviking
    Add Nick Punto to the list as a minor league deal with a ST invite. He was just released from the A's.
  19. nicksaviking
    My opinion is that Atlanta will just take him back. Maybe I'm wrong, but the guy is really talented so unless the Twins offered something really good, I can only see him making the big league bullpen or being offered back. I would think so, but the Braves have had a terrible stretch of arm injuries to their young pitchers. They non-tendered and have made no effort to bring back Beachey and Medlin, they may be cutting bait with some of these guys and starting fresh.
  20. nicksaviking
    I'd have to say there doesn't seem to be much consistancy between MiLB AB's and IP and WARP. The Mets were the poster child in the article as to why not to call up guys early. They probably did call up guys too soon, but the better teams according to WARP were all over the board. Oakland had the best WARP yet were one of the teams with the quickest call up for pitchers, conversely they were among the slowest call up for batters. Tampa, who was 3rd in WARP was just the opposite, being slowest for pitchers, and among the fastest for batters. Meanwhile Cincinatti, which was 2nd in WARP, was sitting exactly in the middle in both catagories.
  21. nicksaviking
    I'm not a fan of their moves individually. I guess if you're going to go for it, you might as well not half ass it though. The White Sox attempted to fix most of their major holes, including getting a starting pitcher and corner outfielder, both of whom are better players than the Twins signed. I don't think it will work out for them, but at least no deals were longer than three years.
  22. nicksaviking
    I would agree that the Twins have seemed to have a change of mentality about young players the last several years. At least offensively, several have been called up straight from AA. Pitchers are a different story. My guess is that since they have had such trouble developing them, they are not exactly sure what they need to do to get them ready. Internal debate or second guessing would likely slow down pitchers when they get to the upper levels.
  23. nicksaviking
    Great data Seth. Glad to see the minor leaguers are ahead of the curve age-wise. I wish the MLB roster was the same. For a rebuilding team, they have too many players 30+ for my taste..
  24. nicksaviking
    Which is why they should have been called up and allowed to struggle as soon as the Twins were out of contention last year. I'm of the mindset that there is very little minor league seasoning that is going to dampen a pitchers MLB struggles. Pitchers like Felix Hernandez, Clayton Kershaw and Jose Fernandez took the league by storm and pitched few MiLB innings. You're either a prodigy, or you aren't. If you aren't, you're just going to have to take your MLB lumps. Doesn't mean you can't be a star, but AAA is just homework, on the job training is always best.
  25. nicksaviking
    But May and Meyer shouldn't have been afforded the same MLB learning opportunities? Had they gotten June/July callups, they'd both be on the same learning arc as Gibson was but a year behind.
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