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Capps

Eric Wettschreck

By Eric Wettschreck
in Baseball

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Big Dave2 Grand Master

Big Dave2

Posted
Posted

How did I get owned again?

I try to look at reality versus somebody's far fetched opinions. If you don't understand how Capps has improved our closer position actually giving us a closer versus a journey-men set-up guy and improved our over all pitching staff putting Rausch back where he belongs there isn't much we can do for you guys!

Go Twins!

I happen to actually agree with you that Capps was a decent aquisition for the Twins but if you don't understand how you got owned there isn't much I can do for you!

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jwmiller33 Grand Master

jwmiller33

Posted
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oswalt was never gonna come here and they wanted to much, Lee hasnt pitched well at all since going to texas and has been hurt and those players were rent a players at least we have capp through next season correct?

Capps is arbitration eligible next year and the Twins essentially traded Ramos and Vesta for 1.5 seasons of Capps. Unfortunately part of his inflated perceived value includes his likely price-tag in arbitration, which is sure to rise from this year's $3.5 million salary to over $5 million (and perhaps well over $5 million) thanks to those same shiny-looking save totals. Next season the Twins will pay a premium for a quality setup man they perceive as something more because of a reliance on a flawed statistic and they gave up a good catching prospect for the right do that.

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jwmiller33 Grand Master

jwmiller33

Posted
Posted

some of you must think that i strongly dislike capps... which, although he is EXTREMELY shaky at times during save opps, is not true. i like the fact that the twins went out and made a trade to make our bullpen better. we are obviously a better team with an extra "good" (not great) arm in the bullpen. however, i will still stand by my opinion that we would have been better off to trade for a SP. sure, you guys can talk all you want about this guy being bad, or this guy has sucked since he got traded, or we would have never got that guy.. the fact of the matter is, neither you nor myself work in the front office for the twins and know EXACTLY what teams wanted for which guys... there are several different SPs we could have acquired that would have made our rotation much better... and as a result of trading for that SP, we would have moved one of our starters to the bullpen, thus making our bullpen better as well, thus we effectively killed two birds with one stone. we would have made our bullpen better AND our rotation... now i'm not going to say i know the inside scoop on what teams wanted for what players, but i can only wish the twins were more aggressive in their pursuit for a quality arm in our rotation. the fact that this year's market had many more buyers than sellers didn't help our cause one bit. but, the debate remains... is capps better than rauch? not really. are either of them better than nathan? no. is our bullpen better off with the acquisitions of two "closers"? yes. would i have liked to see a guy added to our starting rotation? yes.

the real question is going to be how does our starting rotation match up against the likes of the rays or texas in a 5 game series? i'll tell you one thing, i would MUCH rather have cliff lee on our team as opposed to facing him, regardless of how poor he has performed since being traded to texas. i can only hope that we can pull off some miracle and some how compete against the yankees for once in the post season, and what it comes down to is starting pitching. i dont care how good your bullpen is, if your starters get you in a 5+ run deficit to start the game, it is a very steep mountain to climb to get back into the game and how "good" the back end of your bullpen is doesnt really matter..

starting pitching wins championships

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soldoncass Experienced

soldoncass

Posted
Posted

Pitching and defense wins championships.....NOT just starters. Our defense has been pretty GOOD, not GREAT, but good. Pitching has been GOOD, not GREAT, the second half. The one thing that I would like to see IMPROVE for the play-offs is some basic stuff....situational hitting. Hitting behind runners, bunting skills, base-stealing, sliding technique,etc. . Wish we had a little more speed also....can't teach that grin.

Capps was a GOOD addition, Fuentes also, but gotta be healthy. If we could have gotten a "Koufax" type as a starter ,it would have been GREAT ....not possible, but GREAT to think about. Teams don't give them up , without a HUGE RETURN. One assumption you made (about moving this "displaced starter" to the pen, makes our pen stronger)...is flawed. Any starter relegated to the pen, because he ISN'T pitching WELL is unlikely to HELP the PEN. Neither closer we have is better than Nathan WAS....WAS.... Nathan may NOT be as good as he WAS either. Uaually it takes 18-24 months after tommy-john surgery to get back to 100%. Nathan is getting older, so it remains to be seen how he recovers.

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jwmiller33 Grand Master

jwmiller33

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Posted

obviously not only starting pitching wins championships... my line was in reference to the bullpen vs SP debacle. anybody remember when AZ beat the NYY some years ago? or should i say randy johnson and curt shilling beat the NYY? i firmly believe that having good starting pitching is much more crucial in terms of pursuit of a pennett or ring than a bullpen is. like i said before, if your starting pitching blows and hands a 5+ run deficit over to your bullpen, it is a steep hill to climb back into the game, especially if you are playing at yankee stadium in late september.

go twins

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PierBridge Grand Master

PierBridge

Posted
Posted

Of course quality starting pitching is huge particularly in play-offs. It doesn't grow on tree's though and that's why EVERY team in the league is hoping or looking to acquire it but its not realistic. So rather than chase the pot of gold at the rainbows edge you do other more realistic and attainable things to improve your team.

Yeah we're all frustrated we didn't get Oswalt who was one of the 3 so called starting pitchers available and one of the 3 that is actually pitching well.

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mrklean Grand Master

mrklean

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i agree with you but dude having johnson and shilling that year was like a once in a million thing they both had over 20 wins and 300 strikeouts each. Plus i think ppl started to see ramos might not be as good as everyone thought which in the end brought down his value and made teams want more

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mainbutter Grand Master

mainbutter

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Posted

Yeah we're all frustrated we didn't get Oswalt who was one of the 3 so called starting pitchers available and one of the 3 that is actually pitching well.

As a former Houstonian, I was really hoping to get to see some of my old favorites play at Target Field. That said, our starting pitching has given me serious surprises in quality outings this year.

I wonder, if we win the world series this year, will all the people who have complained about the management of the team come around a LITTLE bit at least?

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PierBridge Grand Master

PierBridge

Posted
Posted

Never said they or we were the best team.

I have said on numerous occasions we are the premier Professional sports franchise. With all that is wrong in Pro Sports today we from top to bottom all things considered are what Pro sports teams should be. We do it the right, fair way.. We don't over-pay these jocks based on what they HAVE done in the past we pay them on what they are worth to us in the future hence not being burdened or crippled for years by large contracts like Santana who just had his 2nd surgery since we traded him and an aging Hunter who have made a combined 1/4 billion dollars guaranteed.

We do it year in and year out with team-work and class along with fiscal competency.

So on the behalf of the Twins and the Pohlads I except apology's and give forgiveness to ALL! smile

Go Twins!

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