In today’s Three Strikes Roundtable, we’re going to look at the biggest disappointments of the season, how much you care about minor league baseball playoffs, and which of the Braves young pitchers you’d want most on your team.
Strike One: Which team this season do you feel has been the biggest disappointment overall?
Mark Smith: The Twins. I had them down as the AL Central champion because of the weak division and reputation, but injured or off years from almost every key player has driven that team into the ground. I just hope they don’t overreact to it.
Garrett Wilson: I had big hopes for the Marlins coming into this season, so I am definitely disappointed in them personally, even if they aren’t as disappointing overall as a team like the White Sox. I just thought the Marlins had the perfect storm of young, big-time talent with Hanley Ramirez, Mike Stanton, Logan Morrison, Gaby Sanchez, Anibal Sanchez and Josh Johnson. Injuries have played a role in their poor season for sure, but they aren’t even an average team at this point and all the fallout from Hanley’s maturity issues, the organization’s poor handling of Logan Morrison’s lack of a censor button and their ongoing attendance problems have cast a pall over the whole organization. They should be a team on the cusp of contention and about to move into a great new stadium, but instead they are going the wrong way. Heck, even the move into the new digs is going over about as well as L’il Wayne performing at a Klan rally.
Matt Lindner: The correct answer here is the Twins but I’m going to take this in another direction since everyone else is jumping on that bandwagon and say the Cardinals have been the biggest disappointment. The NL Central was theirs to lose and now the Redbirds are sitting and watching as Milwaukee runs away with the division. The Cardinals’ bullpen has been awful and their starting pitching hasn’t done much to inspire confidence either.
Pat Lackey: Since everyone is saying the Twins (which is hard to argue with), I’ll go with the Rockies. That lineup with that young rotation should’ve been able to win that division over the two half-teams fighting it out for first place (San Francisco’s pitching, Arizona’s hitting), and instead they’re limping along behind the Dodgers in fourth place and they’ve traded Ubaldo Jiminez and the playoffs aren’t even a thought at this point.
Strike Two: Minor league playoffs are close to starting. Do you care about how the minor league teams do, or just how the players on the teams do?
Mark Smith: Don’t care. I’m not going to learn anything about them from an additional start or two, and the minor-league team winning a championship doesn’t really mean anything. That being said, I hope they perform well because it’s fun to win, regardless of being in the major or not.
Garrett Wilson: They mean almost nothing. It doesn’t matter at all who wins any of the leagues, especially since some of the rosters get robbed of their best players so the big league team can use them in September. The only iota of interest I have in it is to see if a quality prospect can’t handle the pressure of the post-season, but even that isn’t worth all that much since the minor league playoffs aren’t taken that seriously.
Matt Lindner: I care more about the players not getting hurt. One year from now, nobody is going to remember – or care – who won the Midwest League championship. Hell back in 2008 I believe Burlington won it 2 games to 0 because there was torrential rain in South Bend and neither team wanted to wait any longer to finish the series. Minor league baseball is the only professional sport where attendance actually dips for the playoffs. If the fans don’t care about the outcome, why should I as a casual observer?
Pat Lackey: Shoulder injuries are definitely scary, but early indications are that Hanson’s injury isn’t serious. So long as that’s the case, Hanson should be the one other teams are after because he’s insanely talented. Jurrjens wouldn’t be a bad fit for the right team in the right ballpark, though (of course, it goes without saying that that team could probably get a pitcher similar to Jurrjens without his ERA a little cheaper and … well … I suppose it’s not time to go down that rabbit hole).
Strike Three: The Braves are rumored to be dangling one of their young arms this offseason. Who would you rather your team trade for: Tommy Hanson, with his shoulder problems, or Jair Jurrjrens, and his underwhelming peripheral stats?
Mark Smith: Based purely on talent, no question I go with Hanson. But shoulder injuries are scary for pitchers, and unless I get a good look at the medicals, I’m not touching him. If I’m looking to deal prospects, I look elsewhere, but if you want me to pick, I’d take Hanson (bigger potential) if I were an AL team and Jurrjens in the NL (would get killed there).
Garrett Wilson: If I am the Braves, I want to trade Jurrjens over Hanson, but if I am another team, I very much want to get my hands on Hanson. His potential is tremendous and rolling the dice on his shoulder is well worth it. Plus it isn’t like Jurrjens has been a picture of health in his own career, so if I am going to gamble on a pitcher with medical red flags, I’m definitely taking Hanson.
Matt Lindner: Give me Hanson please. I’ll take the high risk high reward guy over the one who looks like he’s the second coming of Steve Trachsel – solid member of the rotation but overall nothing spectacular – any day of the week.
Pat Lackey: Shoulder injuries are definitely scary, but early indications are that Hanson’s injury isn’t serious. So long as that’s the case, Hanson should be the one other teams are after because he’s insanely talented. Jurrjens wouldn’t be a bad fit for the right team in the right ballpark, though (of course, it goes without saying that that team could probably get a pitcher similar to Jurrjens without his ERA a little cheaper and … well … I suppose it’s not time to go down that rabbit hole).
