Twins Let Korecky Slip Away
Another reason to get angry.
Bobby Korecky is gone. For nothing. He was selected off waivers by the Diamondbacks, which “conveniently” opens up a space on the 40 man roster for Luis Ayala.
I suppose Korecky was probably last on the list of relievers on the bubble (Bonser, Humber, Breslow, Mijares, Korecky), but I don’t see any reason to just throw him away in favor of a proven bad pitcher like Ayala, who will cost three times as much.
Korecky didn’t actually do all that well in the majors last season, and was worth -0.1 wins. Meanwhile, Ayala was worth +0.1 despite his struggles. And Ayala is projected to have a better FIP than Korecky in 2009.
But I’ve always said that doing nothing is better than doing something stupid. I’m not really happy about this move. It doesn’t seem like it helps the team at all, and we lose a valuable asset (an arm that can get outs) without getting anything in return. That’s the worst kind of move.
Can anyone think of a reason this is an acceptable move?
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I’m sure gardy was against cutting one of our nine catchers we have on the 40 man roster. You know, just in case.
Dude. If all of our catchers were in the same van, and that van were struck by a meteor before Baby Jesus could throw it out, then we’d be shit out of luck and a pitcher would have to bat once or twice in a game.
It is COMPLETELY reasonable to have a whole slew of catchers. Especially when the starter is just some “best catcher in baseball” bum like Mauer.
and the one time a pitcher DID have to bat, he got a hit. That pitcher was Korecky.
That’s hilarious. Especially today.
Or the example from 2007. We lost the DH because Redmond got hurt (by Jim Thome hitting him in the head with a bat), so Garza had to bat. He went 0-2. This would seem to vindicate Gardy’s fear of losing the DH, except that in the first game of the double header, Jason Tyner WAS THE DH AND WENT 0-5.
Raise your hand if you’d rather have Jason Tyner as your DH than letting your pitcher bat.
I don’t see any hands. Exactly.
and didn’t we score double digit runs in both those games despite having no hits from the DH?
As a matter of fact yes. 20 in the first game, 12 in the second.
The only thing I remember about Korecky was that Twilight Zone game against Texas last season- but I honestly don’t think we’ll be pining for Korecky at ANY point next season. Twins needed a spot, Korecky was expendable. My response is: shrug.
He was a capable reliever. I know I was pining for about 5 of them last year. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: our bullpen is built on a lot of assumptions (Crain and Guerrier will bounce back, Mijares and Breslow will repeat, Bonser will adapt, etc) so I don’t think we were in a position to allow bullpen arms to walk away. I’m not saying korecky would make the team or anything, but it would have been nice to have lots of options in camp for a unit that was very weak last year.
I remember dozens of times last year when we’d trot our Brian Bass or something and I’d pine for Korecky who was busy racking up saves in Rochester because Bass was out of options and we didn’t want to risk losing him on waivers.
Well, what happened to that desperate fear of losing guys on waivers? Do you think teams other than the Twins only look at the shitty guys on waivers and ignore the decent ones?
The Twins added two new bullpen options, Dickey and Ayala, and they let one go. I think they came out ahead. Yeah, they could have dumped a catcher, but the Twins could have done far more awful things, too (like sign Eric Gagne for 3 mil…)
When I said we had 9 catchers on the 40 man roster, I was only a little bit off. We have 5. That seems absurd. It just seems odd that we let someone who contributed to our bullpen last year walk. I’d rather have Korecky than RA Dickey. We had him for a minute last year and let him leave, how/why is this year different?
I don’t know much about Dickey’s situation, or why the Twins let him go last season (I was unaware that even happened). Maybe they didn’t anticipate Matty Guerrier falling off a cliff in August, or maybe Dickey was released before Pat Neshek got injured. The bullpen wasn’t a priority at the beginning of last season- it is now. That might be the difference.
That is lot of catchers, though. Maybe some are considering switching to third base?
Shortly after we signed Dickey last year, the Mariners took him in the Rule 5 draft. Even they weren’t dumb enough to think he could be in the majors, so they traded us A CATCHER, AS IF WE NEEDED ANOTHER ONE, so they could keep him.
They wised up, though, regarding their thoughts as to whether he could be in the majors. They called him up, and he set the record for most wild pitches in an inning against the Twins. Four. Four wild pitches in one inning. If I recall correctly there was a fifth that didn’t count as a wild pitch because the baserunner decided not to advance, or something.
He’s 34 years old. He HAS NEVER HAD AN ERA BELOW 5!!!
This is a guy we wanted more than Korecky? This is the savior of the newly-high-priority bullpen?
In fact, its quite the opposite. Gardy’s kid recently switched from middle infield to catcher. I am not familiar enough with our 40 man roster to know who would be better suited to be removed from it, but 5 catchers is pretty excessive. Considering the two on the major league team started all 163 games last year. I think.
And Morneau can catch in a pinch. And I’m sure Punto wouldn’t turn down the opportunity.
Oh, and does anyone else think Toby Gardenhire would have been a better candidate to be taken off the 40 man? In what circumstance will he EVER be on the Twins?
You want Morneau catching?! I strongly disagree! (Punto, sure.) He’s got to keep those legs strong so he doesn’t fizzle out late in the season.
I think I remember Dickey now- or at least, reading about that ridiculous game. Hmm. I’m just going to assume that Andy can work a miracle.
I said “a pinch.” As in “Mauer and Redmond get attacked by Jim Thome and beaten to the point of being unable to catch that day.” And we need someone to fill in until someone can be called up from AAA the next day.
There is simply no reason any team needs FIVE catchers on the 40 man roster. Or three catchers on the 25 man roster.
Maybe that is why Gardy, Jr. switched positions. It basically guarantees him a spot on the 40 man roster. And that is a very significant pay increase. Morneau probably does have the third most catching experience on the 25 man roster. Wasn’t he a catcher (or at least a catcher/1B in fantasy baseball terms) when we drafted him?
He was purely a catcher when we drafted him. I don’t know if his transition to 1B happened because we drafted Mauer, but they happened close to the same time. He was a catcher through 2001.
Which is why it wouldn’t be horrible for some of those catching prospects to take a good, long look at third base. If Morneau can transition, they can too.
a) Not everyone is as good as Morneau. b) It’s easier to transition to 1B than 3B, defensively. c) They’re catchers because they can’t hit or run. If they weren’t catchers they wouldn’t even be in the minor leagues.
Of the 5 catchers, 2 aren’t moving (Mauer, Redmond) One is the catcher of the future (ramos), and Drew Butera is a catcher first, and a hitter, like, third. He is the son of a former twins player second. I don’t know much about Morales other than he has a sweet mullett. The latter two mentioned are probably two guys who could clear waivers. Butera especially, he was a toss in in the Luis Castillo trade.
Morales would not clear waivers. He has a career OPS+ of 521!!! (He went 3-3 and then blew out his knee sliding into second base on his third hit.) Last year he hit .315/.348/.426 at AAA.
Butera, on the other hand, probably would clear waivers and if not … big deal.