I'm so immersed in work right now I have nothing worth saying here.
65 thoughts on “November 29, 2011: Got Nothin’”
Got my laptop back in 3 business days. That is awesome.
broxton signs with the royals. i kind of hoped the twins would sign him only because he was probably the cheapest of the "proven closers" if the twins still have the desperate need to sign one of them.
I, too, had hoped they would sign him, because it seems like he could be one of 2012's low risk, high reward free agent signings.
Chili Davis is one of those guys who, even after he joined the Yankees, I still really loved to watch hit the baseball. Congrats to him on the coaching job.
Dido. Good for him - he was a favorite of mine even before he came to Minnesota.
When's the last time TR signed a Proven Closer? My history of following the team closely dates back to around 2001, and in the '01 to '07 TR years, the Twins basically had Hawkins, Guardado, and Nathan as closers, and none of them were "proven" in the role before they got it. When TR talks about not being a big payroll guy, I think part of that is wanting to find the next Joe Nathan when he is a set-up guy somewhere instead of signing Joe Nathan when he is an aging Proven Closer. I think this is probably his weakest bullpen since before '01, so that may also change things.
The Royals get low risk with Broxton wanting a one-year deal, but also only a short-term solution.
The Royals can (will?) also trade Broxton at the deadline. Broxton gets up to four months to prove he's back and the chance to pitch for a team in contention if traded.
Not sure if trading him at the deadline will be worth all that much. If someone else valued him a lot more than the Royals, he'd probably be signing elsewhere. Those things always depend on whether or not someone is going to press the panic button, so I guess there's a chance they can flip him for a bunch.
I think he signed with the Royals on a one-year deal because, if he returns to pre-2010 levels of performance and Soria either fails as a starter or remains The Closer, then he would be superfluous on a non-contending team. That means he gets four months to work in a lower pressure situation, get things working, get traded to a contending team, do well down the stretch and in postseason, and turn that into multiyear contract next offseason. Basically, exactly what Pavano did in 2009.
I don't think they're going to flip him for anything of substance, but they could flip him for some role player(s). The Royals have a bunch of prospects nearly ready, so I'm guessing they just want part-time players to complement the future stars.
Ryan said he doesn't see Perkins as Minnesota's next closer.
"He doesn't have any experience in that role," Ryan said. "I think you're wise to ultimately see if you can find a guy with experience."
there's been hints that he's leaning that way. i know his track record, and hopes he sticks to it. time will tell, i guess.
That may be how he feels in principle, but that sort of principle can get thrown out the window when he sees how much that experience is going to cost him. Like you said, though, time will tell.
Still, I'm hoping Perk sticks with the high pressure situations, and not closing.
Disagree. While in a perfect world, our best reliever would be dispatched to high leverage situations rather than situations driven by the save stat, almost every year the closer has the highest LI on the team. Sure, closers get some 3-run gimme saves, but on the whole, as a rule, they get the highest leverage situations. Last year, Perkins managed a pretty high LI for a set-up guy, but even then, Capps had the highest gmLI (leverage index when the pitcher enters the game.) And over the years, here are your Twins leaders in that stat:
If Perk is our best relief pitcher, and he can get righties and lefties (which is more important for closers than set-up guys), then he should be our closer, at least as long as Gardy is in charge.
well, hopefully the Twins are as good as most of those past teams you listed so that the closer actually gets the opportunity for high leverage.
"He doesn't have any experience in that role,"
I seem to remember that he does. He even cleaned up the mess that a proven closer had made a time or two.
Agree with RhuRu, though. Perks did a lot more good from his setup role than he would have as a closer.
yar. LaTroy was a proven mediocrity as a starter when he moved into the bullpen in 2000 and took the lead in a closer-by-committee (serial closer?) arrangement.
Guardado was "proven" mostly as a setup man and occasional lefty closer prior to supplanting Hawkins in late 2001.
Joe Nathan was a proven rehab patient when the Twins stole him from Brian Sabean (1 career save and 14 GF in 121 career appearances, including 29 starts).
In 2004, it was pretty grim going into the season for the bullpen. Guardado and Hawkins had left and Johan had moved to the rotation, which left J.C. Romero as the only guy with any real experience as a setup reliever. Juan Rincon was used as a swing reliever, going from long to middle to setup relief during the season and had modest K rate for his career (6.6). Of course, the Twins traded for Nathan, but he was only a setup man in SF. Grant Balfour had been used somewhat, but only for 17 games with mediocre results, but more than 1 K per inning. Of course, in 2004, the bullpen was a strength, not a weakness as Nathan was a dominant closer and Rincon became a dominant setup man. Romero was Romero and then the rest of the bullpen was pieced together. Crain came up in August and was very good.
In '04, perhaps it seemed grim from the outside looking in, but the Twins had assembled enough arms that it wasn't grim in reality. I wish we had some relievers as talented as Balfour and Crain coming up from the minors this year. We were lucky that Rincon took a step forward that year, but unlucky that Balfour wasn't very effective.
It may not have been all that lucky that Rincon took a step forward. Ask Mike Scioscia.
Something you might have missed in the post-Thanksgiving torpor: Joseph Stalin's daughter died on 22 November. She had for many years lived just 60 miles west of Madison.
Looks like I may be taking a trip this weekend to interview in Bratislava.
"Bratislava"? Now you're just making this up.
I spent several weeks on a work assignment in Bratislava back in the late 80's. Still under the coldwar blanket, but people were nice/friendly.
NBBW and I did a Prague/Bratislava/Budapest trek two years ago - I wanted to see how/what had changed since I had been there 25+ years ago.
Bratislava was completely redone - nothing was familiar. Back then many gypsies wandering around town - I didn't see any of them this time around - wonder where they went?
Skoda has been a good play for the Slovaks - modern manufacturing infrastructure, etc.
Lots of work underway on the fort on the hill. We'll see.
I was almost about to say that this one more than made up for it, and then I looked at the back view.
I'm not a fan of the m (apparently the new site doesn't like underline HTML tags) logo, but I could almost set that aside because of how beautiful this one is, what with those wide stripes. Give me a TC version and I'd be all over it.
I agree. I wasn't going to even mock the first coat because the wool coat is so sharp, but yeah, the back of the wool jacket is pretty unnecessary.
Sheesh, I stop seeing you in the halls and forget all about you. Sorry about that, Can! In my defense, my final trial was today, so I my mind was a little preoccupied.
Here's a story of idiocy. Everybody knows that the mattress is the appropriate tool.
Saw this on MLB last night, I really like Kaat's take on his own HoF standing.
"Hall of Enjoyment." That's pretty awesome.
Will he get in as a broadcaster some day?
New research indicates that itdoesn't happen every seven seconds.
I'll be around later to tell my side of the story. Have a fun evening, y'all.
PS: Call me Chuck. What you wore during our mancala matches are game-used, how thoughtful of you to leave them behind. I just need you to sign something that says you did wear them, and during a game. Otherwise I can't use them to help me out of my situation.
Can't you just borrow some money from your in-laws?
That first link took about 3 tries before I got it to work and I actually thought you were bankrupt. I feel better knowing you aren't. I guess that site was just flooded with people who were concerned about you. 🙂
I just took the top Google News items that used my handle in a way that it could mean me. Maybe that cruddy site might have had a lot of GNews traffic.
was anyone watching the NBC Nightly News tonight? out of nowhere, the fire alarm goes off in the studio and Brain Williams keeps on chugging.
I don't normally link to articles about church or faith, because I don't feel this is the place for that, but I thought this was an interesting article about Jerry Sandusky's church.
Great piece, Jeff A. Thanks for linking.
I just wanted to remind all of the new fathers in the nation once again that babies can be real melon farmers if you don't put them in their cribs from the start. Serious melon farmers.
When I saw this at FiL's Liquor store, I thought it was just "Beer Light," as the 30 was the number of cans per case.
(I know, Case = 24, but what do you call a 30-pack? "Five-quart case"? "Case-plus"?)
what do you call a 30-pack? "Five-quart case"? "Case-plus"?
scheiss, usually.
Too late. With the trinket's reflux issues, her swing has been our only real option. We're hoping to get started putting her in the bassinet this weekend, now that she'll be 3 months. I remembered your warnings, but the only way we could get any sleep so far was to ignore them.
Just putting this out there - there is hope in the near future.
GRZ has been sleeping in her "big girl bed" for about 4 months (she's almost 19 months old now), and has a night time routine of brushing teeth, reading a book, praying, being held for about 2 minutes, and then heading straight for bed. I usually lay with her for about 5 minutes after that, and she's out for the night.
I'm definitely going to use this post as a means to focus some optimism on our current situation. We have a fairly comfortable couch (the swing won't fit in our bedroom), but I'm tired of sleeping on it every night.
That was the intent. I didn't post too much on here, but from months 6-10 or so, night time was an absolute disaster. She would struggle getting to bed, needing to be rocked for upwards of 20 minutes, then wake up every 2-4 hours and demand that we come get her. Eventually, we started letting her cry more, which was hard but worthwhile.
I think the real turning points were getting all her teeth and then moving into a bed, which allowed us all to start a new routine.
Doc Rivers kid has a sick handle. His Duke Blue Devils are also down 20 to Thee OSU.
Tonight on NBA TV, Reggie Miller, Shaq, Kenny Smith, Steve Kerr, Steve Smith, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber making fun of each other. Nobody rips on each other like NBA dudes. This is quality tv.
It must've been taped. Shaq was sitting next to D Wade in Columbus during the first half.
Coming out of commercial breaks they are showing embarrassing clips from each player's career. It is just a group of guys laughing non-stop. I enjoy this.
That's a personable bunch of on-air talent.
did they show clips from Shaq's movies or music videos?
Got my laptop back in 3 business days. That is awesome.
broxton signs with the royals. i kind of hoped the twins would sign him only because he was probably the cheapest of the "proven closers" if the twins still have the desperate need to sign one of them.
also in the news recently, chili!
I, too, had hoped they would sign him, because it seems like he could be one of 2012's low risk, high reward free agent signings.
Chili Davis is one of those guys who, even after he joined the Yankees, I still really loved to watch hit the baseball. Congrats to him on the coaching job.
Dido. Good for him - he was a favorite of mine even before he came to Minnesota.
When's the last time TR signed a Proven Closer? My history of following the team closely dates back to around 2001, and in the '01 to '07 TR years, the Twins basically had Hawkins, Guardado, and Nathan as closers, and none of them were "proven" in the role before they got it. When TR talks about not being a big payroll guy, I think part of that is wanting to find the next Joe Nathan when he is a set-up guy somewhere instead of signing Joe Nathan when he is an aging Proven Closer. I think this is probably his weakest bullpen since before '01, so that may also change things.
The Royals get low risk with Broxton wanting a one-year deal, but also only a short-term solution.
The Royals can (will?) also trade Broxton at the deadline. Broxton gets up to four months to prove he's back and the chance to pitch for a team in contention if traded.
Not sure if trading him at the deadline will be worth all that much. If someone else valued him a lot more than the Royals, he'd probably be signing elsewhere. Those things always depend on whether or not someone is going to press the panic button, so I guess there's a chance they can flip him for a bunch.
I think he signed with the Royals on a one-year deal because, if he returns to pre-2010 levels of performance and Soria either fails as a starter or remains The Closer, then he would be superfluous on a non-contending team. That means he gets four months to work in a lower pressure situation, get things working, get traded to a contending team, do well down the stretch and in postseason, and turn that into multiyear contract next offseason. Basically, exactly what Pavano did in 2009.
I don't think they're going to flip him for anything of substance, but they could flip him for some role player(s). The Royals have a bunch of prospects nearly ready, so I'm guessing they just want part-time players to complement the future stars.
there's been hints that he's leaning that way. i know his track record, and hopes he sticks to it. time will tell, i guess.
That may be how he feels in principle, but that sort of principle can get thrown out the window when he sees how much that experience is going to cost him. Like you said, though, time will tell.
Still, I'm hoping Perk sticks with the high pressure situations, and not closing.
Disagree. While in a perfect world, our best reliever would be dispatched to high leverage situations rather than situations driven by the save stat, almost every year the closer has the highest LI on the team. Sure, closers get some 3-run gimme saves, but on the whole, as a rule, they get the highest leverage situations. Last year, Perkins managed a pretty high LI for a set-up guy, but even then, Capps had the highest gmLI (leverage index when the pitcher enters the game.) And over the years, here are your Twins leaders in that stat:
'11 -- Capps
'10 -- Capps
'09 -- Nathan
'08 -- Nathan
'07 -- Nathan
'06 -- Nathan
'05 -- Nathan
'04 -- Nathan
'03 -- Hawkins/Guardado (effectively a tie)
'02 -- Guardado
'01 -- Guardado
If Perk is our best relief pitcher, and he can get righties and lefties (which is more important for closers than set-up guys), then he should be our closer, at least as long as Gardy is in charge.
well, hopefully the Twins are as good as most of those past teams you listed so that the closer actually gets the opportunity for high leverage.
I seem to remember that he does. He even cleaned up the mess that a proven closer had made a time or two.
Agree with RhuRu, though. Perks did a lot more good from his setup role than he would have as a closer.
yar. LaTroy was a proven mediocrity as a starter when he moved into the bullpen in 2000 and took the lead in a closer-by-committee (serial closer?) arrangement.
Guardado was "proven" mostly as a setup man and occasional lefty closer prior to supplanting Hawkins in late 2001.
Joe Nathan was a proven rehab patient when the Twins stole him from Brian Sabean (1 career save and 14 GF in 121 career appearances, including 29 starts).
In 2004, it was pretty grim going into the season for the bullpen. Guardado and Hawkins had left and Johan had moved to the rotation, which left J.C. Romero as the only guy with any real experience as a setup reliever. Juan Rincon was used as a swing reliever, going from long to middle to setup relief during the season and had modest K rate for his career (6.6). Of course, the Twins traded for Nathan, but he was only a setup man in SF. Grant Balfour had been used somewhat, but only for 17 games with mediocre results, but more than 1 K per inning. Of course, in 2004, the bullpen was a strength, not a weakness as Nathan was a dominant closer and Rincon became a dominant setup man. Romero was Romero and then the rest of the bullpen was pieced together. Crain came up in August and was very good.
In '04, perhaps it seemed grim from the outside looking in, but the Twins had assembled enough arms that it wasn't grim in reality. I wish we had some relievers as talented as Balfour and Crain coming up from the minors this year. We were lucky that Rincon took a step forward that year, but unlucky that Balfour wasn't very effective.
It may not have been all that lucky that Rincon took a step forward. Ask Mike Scioscia.
Something you might have missed in the post-Thanksgiving torpor: Joseph Stalin's daughter died on 22 November. She had for many years lived just 60 miles west of Madison.
Looks like I may be taking a trip this weekend to interview in Bratislava.
"Bratislava"? Now you're just making this up.
I spent several weeks on a work assignment in Bratislava back in the late 80's. Still under the coldwar blanket, but people were nice/friendly.
NBBW and I did a Prague/Bratislava/Budapest trek two years ago - I wanted to see how/what had changed since I had been there 25+ years ago.
Bratislava was completely redone - nothing was familiar. Back then many gypsies wandering around town - I didn't see any of them this time around - wonder where they went?
Skoda has been a good play for the Slovaks - modern manufacturing infrastructure, etc.
Lots of work underway on the fort on the hill. We'll see.
The Twins sure do sell some ugly coats.
I was almost about to say that this one more than made up for it, and then I looked at the back view.
I'm not a fan of the m (apparently the new site doesn't like underline HTML tags) logo, but I could almost set that aside because of how beautiful this one is, what with those wide stripes. Give me a TC version and I'd be all over it.
I agree. I wasn't going to even mock the first coat because the wool coat is so sharp, but yeah, the back of the wool jacket is pretty unnecessary.
Oui. Tres ugly.
Great picture of a young Kirby from the SI Vault.
that dude does not look like he'll hit 31 home runs just two years later
so, you're saying revere's the next kirby puckett?
yes, yes I am
Timely
This is pretty cool
Paging the Bossman, strategery, and Sheenie
...*ahem*...
Sheesh, I stop seeing you in the halls and forget all about you. Sorry about that, Can! In my defense, my final trial was today, so I my mind was a little preoccupied.
Here's a story of idiocy. Everybody knows that the mattress is the appropriate tool.
Saw this on MLB last night, I really like Kaat's take on his own HoF standing.
"Hall of Enjoyment." That's pretty awesome.
Will he get in as a broadcaster some day?
New research indicates that it doesn't happen every seven seconds.
Well, it's been a tough afternoon for me: I'm out of money. Some of you may say they saw this coming, what with my cornering of the game-used Chuck James jersey market, but that doesn't make it any easier.
And really, it's all your fault; you encouraged me to buy those Jerseys. A-holes.
The Alström Bros have my back, though. Finally, I don't even know this guy, but he knows me well.
I'll be around later to tell my side of the story. Have a fun evening, y'all.
PS: Call me Chuck. What you wore during our mancala matches are game-used, how thoughtful of you to leave them behind. I just need you to sign something that says you did wear them, and during a game. Otherwise I can't use them to help me out of my situation.
fortunately, you have a disaster response team at the ready.
Can't you just borrow some money from your in-laws?
That first link took about 3 tries before I got it to work and I actually thought you were bankrupt. I feel better knowing you aren't. I guess that site was just flooded with people who were concerned about you. 🙂
I just took the top Google News items that used my handle in a way that it could mean me. Maybe that cruddy site might have had a lot of GNews traffic.
I'm ticked about this, because I was going to make some killer soup.
That's what I get for setting it there to cool, though.
was anyone watching the NBC Nightly News tonight? out of nowhere, the fire alarm goes off in the studio and Brain Williams keeps on chugging.
I don't normally link to articles about church or faith, because I don't feel this is the place for that, but I thought this was an interesting article about Jerry Sandusky's church.
Great piece, Jeff A. Thanks for linking.
I just wanted to remind all of the new fathers in the nation once again that babies can be real melon farmers if you don't put them in their cribs from the start. Serious melon farmers.
Looks like poor parenting. Should go with a a better brand.
Says the guy who declared bankruptcy today.
Only Chapter 11!
Plus, if I'm going cheap, I'm going really cheap. Bad beer is good penance for ruining my finances, right?
what do you call a 30-pack? "Five-quart case"? "Case-plus"?
scheiss, usually.
Too late. With the trinket's reflux issues, her swing has been our only real option. We're hoping to get started putting her in the bassinet this weekend, now that she'll be 3 months. I remembered your warnings, but the only way we could get any sleep so far was to ignore them.
Just putting this out there - there is hope in the near future.
GRZ has been sleeping in her "big girl bed" for about 4 months (she's almost 19 months old now), and has a night time routine of brushing teeth, reading a book, praying, being held for about 2 minutes, and then heading straight for bed. I usually lay with her for about 5 minutes after that, and she's out for the night.
I'm definitely going to use this post as a means to focus some optimism on our current situation. We have a fairly comfortable couch (the swing won't fit in our bedroom), but I'm tired of sleeping on it every night.
That was the intent. I didn't post too much on here, but from months 6-10 or so, night time was an absolute disaster. She would struggle getting to bed, needing to be rocked for upwards of 20 minutes, then wake up every 2-4 hours and demand that we come get her. Eventually, we started letting her cry more, which was hard but worthwhile.
I think the real turning points were getting all her teeth and then moving into a bed, which allowed us all to start a new routine.
Doc Rivers kid has a sick handle. His Duke Blue Devils are also down 20 to Thee OSU.
Tonight on NBA TV, Reggie Miller, Shaq, Kenny Smith, Steve Kerr, Steve Smith, Charles Barkley, and Chris Webber making fun of each other. Nobody rips on each other like NBA dudes. This is quality tv.
It must've been taped. Shaq was sitting next to D Wade in Columbus during the first half.
Coming out of commercial breaks they are showing embarrassing clips from each player's career. It is just a group of guys laughing non-stop. I enjoy this.
That's a personable bunch of on-air talent.
did they show clips from Shaq's movies or music videos?