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nicksaviking

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Everything posted by nicksaviking

  1. nicksaviking
    I would really like Wheeler, but I don't know that I'd be in agreement that Wes Johnson is likely to unlock something new with him. Wheeler has just spent the past two seasons with Mickey Callaway as his manager and Mickey Callaway was Wes Johnson before any of us had heard of Wes Johnson. I really like Johnson, I think the Twins found a great pitching coach there, but there was a reason Mickey Callaway made the rare leap from pitching coach to manager, he was revered as a pitching guru and he had the results to back it up.
  2. nicksaviking
    I don't think the Twins will lose Javier and Rijo, but those are the only two I really care if they get taken. If someone wants Jax, Clay or Wiel, good for those players.
  3. nicksaviking
    Also, this deal looks about as foolish as the Lynn deal last year. If Gibson follows in the footsteps of Mike Minor and Lance Lynn their pitching coach, Julio Rangel, is going to start getting looked at as the next new pitcher whisperer.
  4. nicksaviking
    Ha, well I guess my wacky prediction was similar, not my sensible prediction. Which I suppose makes my prediction nonsense-ible? Anyway, good for Kyle.
  5. nicksaviking
    This early of a signing makes me think national projections (MLBTR at least) for Gibson's free agent stock was probably too high, and at least in this case, Twins fans' perspective might have been more accurate. What's everyone's predictions? I'll go with 1 year at $8M with a $10M option for 2021. But it is the Rangers, they might have done something wacky like 3/36M.
  6. nicksaviking
    I really don't want to give Marwin a permanent position to play, I like him as a super utility player, but don't like him enough offensively to give him a corner spot. I'd still take Brock Holt though. With the expanded roster this year a 2nd super utility player with a non-negative bat sounds like a fantastic idea to me.
  7. nicksaviking
    Well there’s really only three maybe four pitchers that could be considered a big signing and there are 30 teams. I’m guessing just about everyone here would like the team to get one, but should they come up empty, isn’t it better to upgrade the offense than nothing at all? And really, it’s not an either/or scenario. They can comfortably do both.
  8. nicksaviking
    With the only lock being Jeter, I predict a big jump for the non-steroid-accused also-rans. I'll predict that Larry Walker misses out, but just barely maybe getting close to 70%. I'll also predict surprisingly big jumps for Rolen and Wagner, nearly approaching 50%. Vizquel is tough because the community seems pretty split on him, I'd guess he sees gains, but not as big of a jump as the others. It's been awhile so I'm a big foggy, was Andruw Jones suspected of PEDs? Seems to me he was only suspected, not actually busted so he could be a big riser as well. I also predict that I will be wrong on over 50% of these predictions because I am terrible at this kind of thing.
  9. nicksaviking
    The Chiefs have to pay Patrick Mahomes in the next year or so, I don't think you can afford to waste the cap space. Why don't you just let the Twins have him?
  10. nicksaviking
    Forgive me for what’s surely going to be an error in physics, but I’d guess exit velocity tends to be lower on off speed pitches? If so, since he’s the rare starter that rarely throws one, he has a lot more batted balls that are in that sub-100-MPH-but-still-capable-of-clearing-the-fence range than most pitchers. And without a sinker, he’s got way more balls that carry 380 feet as well. It’s probably more about volume than anything; his repertoire encourages a smaller assortment of outcomes than most.
  11. nicksaviking
    I’m only surprised Blankenhorn was added, not because he shouldn’t have been, but because he was the only guy added that this front office didn’t acquire; I might have guessed Rjio instead. I’m not worried about Jax, if he can’t strike out AA batters he’s probably not going to be terribly attractive. The TD community would lose it’s collective mind if the Twins added someone like him.
  12. nicksaviking
    That's fair. But as long as it's possible that some pitchers can be "fixed" and turned into good if not great arms, I'd still like to see our team continue to attempt to do so.
  13. nicksaviking
    I'm not sure if Atlanta is on to something, or if they've just got their blinders on. Free agent relievers bombed like never before last year, which seemed odd because at first glance there seemed to be so many good ams available AND nearly every team seemed mostly disinterested. It seemed to me that most clubs had picked up on something with these bullpen guys. I'd like to see the Twins get some free agents early, but after last year the bullpen is the last place I hope that happens. I don't think much about Atlanta's front office but I guess we'll have to wait to see if these were smart moves.
  14. nicksaviking
    I want them to spend on free agents, but I think there's still a need to get cute. There are a lot of free agent pitchers who can help the team get to the playoffs, but only a couple, at least in my view, that can help the Twins win in the playoffs. Guys like Keuchel, Ryu and Hamels would certainly help solidify a rotation, but at this point in their careers I don't think any of them could logically turn into a front line starter. If you rank those guys with Archer based on floor, Archer would likely be at the bottom, but he's still got the velocity and the wipe-out slider, he'd still have the highest ceiling of any of those guys, I don't think it's even close.
  15. nicksaviking
    Cole wasn't a stud, he'd come off of two average seasons which was extremely disappointing considering his pedigree, his velocity and his movement. I get the Archer comp, but from a bit of a different angle. The guy had never thrown a sinker before, but that's the Pittsburgh staple and as soon as he got there they had him throwing this new pitch at the expense of his superior four seamer and slider. Houston had Cole do the exact opposite and he took off. For what it's worth, I think Archer clearly knows that was an issue because the last two months of the season he stopped throwing the sinker. Yeah, I'd take a flyer on him. But that wasn't going to be the pitcher I thought Nick was going to bring up. I thought it was going to be Jon Gray, another top draft pick with elite velocity, and good but not great results that may or may not be heavily influenced by his organization and environment.
  16. nicksaviking
    I want Boyd. But only after he’s non-tendered. He is or at least should be a slider/FB bullpen guy and I think he’ll be lights out when he finally makes that move. No interest as a starter though; minimizing his poor off speed pitches worked for about two months last year until everyone caught on.
  17. nicksaviking
    Polanco is a DH playing the outfield in the NL and still guaranteed 24M while only once being an above average batter. I think Pittsburgh would give him away if someone would take his whole salary.
  18. nicksaviking
    They may have changed or they may have been a fib to keep their intentions of trading for starting pitching, not trading away, was kept obscure.
  19. nicksaviking
    I hope not, Graterol is the only guy who makes me think good thoughts about the future. I want them to sign free agents this year as there is a hole in the rotation, but I guess to more concisely state my point, I don't think it was unreasonable for the front office to think one or two other rotation spots for 2020 would have been filled internally. Unfortunately most options disappointed last year. Also, while I'll take Bumgarner or Wheeler, I'm not a big fan of the typical 2nd tier starting pitching free agents. The Santana/Nolasco/Hughes/Lynn type deals don't really seem to work out any better than the third or fourth tier free agent pitchers. There's rarely any real talent difference while there is minimal upside to these types of arms and the contract length more often than not has an inherent risk. I'd rather go year to year with the bounce back pitcher du jour. Or L' annee I guess, I'd hope he's good for more than one day.
  20. nicksaviking
    The team had and still has a bunch of pitchers under team control for more than 1 year. Most are still under team control for up to seven. Presumably they planned last year for some young guys to step up eventually. It can be debated whether or not that was a good plan, but aside from Berrios, Perez's 2020 option and the possibility of Gibson, Pineda and/or Odorizzi becoming worthy of a QO, it probably wasn't terribly out of line to think that one or two of Gonsalves, Thorpe, Romero, Graterol, Stewart, Smeltzer or Dobnak would have taken the steps needed to compete for a rotation spot in 2020. I agree that most teams don't have three open rotation spots at the conclusion of a season, but most teams also don't have a rotation that is 4/5ths free agents. Most teams do expect to produce enough of their own starters so they don't have to blow their free agent budget on starters every year, which this team has had to do more often than not due to about two decades of poor pitching development, which finally appears to be on the upswing.
  21. nicksaviking
    I think we will get a pretty fair estimation of his value once we start hearing contract offers for Marcel Ozuna and Nick Castellanos.
  22. nicksaviking
    This could also indicate that at least as far as Odorizzi’s research goes, free agent pitchers may not be getting paid as much was the pundits expect. Which is also good for the Twins.
  23. nicksaviking
    I'd think the assumption being made is that Hamels + Odorizzi more likely means the Twins don't get Wheeler or Bumgarner.
  24. nicksaviking
    Older pitchers with good velocity seem to have the best staying power, with Verlander, Scherzer, Morton and Lynn being the best examples from last year. And it's starting to seem like holding your velocity is something guys are better at doing these days.
  25. nicksaviking
    If Odorizzi does accept the QO, and if the rumors that his agent had already met with Toronto are true (they may not have been, his agent also represents Randall Grichuck), then it probably means Odorizzi already had a feel that at best Toronto's hypothetical offer would be only a minimal improvement to the QO salary. If so, that probably is a pretty good indicator that salaries, particularly to pitchers, are going to be lower than expected once again this offseason. Which probably means the Twins can be in play for anyone with mutual interest, but also probably means there won't be much free agent action until 2020.
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