Terry Ryan on The Ride with Reusse Yesterday

[East Coast Twin]

Terry Ryan was on with Patrick Reusse yesterday for about 15 minutes.  The talk began at the 20 minute mark of hour 1.  It was an interesting discussion about a variety of players.

 

Here is the link

 

http://www.1500espn.com/shows/the-ride-with-reusse/#

 

[Seth Stohs]

Yeah, Reusse asked about the main stories heading into spring. Ryan's always great to listen to.

[Riverbrian]

The ole horses mouth.

 

Great interview... Touched on all the hot button stuff briefly.

[jharaldson]

Couple of items I thought interesting.

 

1. Joe's Vision - He confirmed that he was unaware of the vision issues until Joe mentioned them in the paper.  Heck of a thing to keep from your employer for 2 years.

 

2.  Joe's Strikeouts - Terry was "shocked" at how much Joe struck out last year.  I am confused by his shock because last year was Joe's best K% since 2012.

[Thrylos]

19:45 as a matter of fact (thanks for that tip, the previous is pretty much irrelevant) .

 

Interesting stuff about Arcia, Meyer and Mauer... 

 

And he is considering Fien a weapon in the pen.  Mercy.

[HitInAPinch]

Thanks for posting!

[ewen21]

 

Couple of items I thought interesting.

 

1. Joe's Vision - He confirmed that he was unaware of the vision issues until Joe mentioned them in the paper.  Heck of a thing to keep from your employer for 2 years.

 

2.  Joe's Strikeouts - Terry was "shocked" at how much Joe struck out last year.  I am confused by his shock because last year was Joe's best K% since 2012.

I agree with both of your points.  How is it not that big a deal to keep that from your employer?  I can't understand why this is being downplayed as much as it has.  It doesn't need to be a huge deal, but it becomes one when Joe refuses to follow up.  Now Terry and Molitor have to pick up the slack and make sense of it in the media. Bad job, Mauer.

 

Joe's strikeouts have been on the rise since before his concussion.  Joe has always had a lot of bat lag because of his propensity to try to "go the other way" with just about everything.  That is more of the reason why he's striking out now.  He simply doesn't have the same stuff he did in his 20s.  Joe needed to adapt and he has not.  This is why shifting has had such a drastic afftect.

[Otto von Ballpark]

The only way you could be even mildly shocked by Mauer's strikeouts last year is if you looked at counting stats with no accounting for rate...

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Nothing this team says about Alex Meyer ever adds up.

[mikelink45]

Joe has a basic Minnesota personality - one I see in many places.  He is introverted.  He does not complain, but he also does not share.  He suffers in silence without reaching out and he will just keep going out each day hoping it will be good.  Quite lonely.  But as far as shock - I only ask TR if he watched the games, if he looked at the stats, if his new team of stats geeks ever mentioned anything.  Isn't this the superscout General manager?  The old eye test he likes might have worked if he was watching.  I believe I have read something about Maurer's issues every week for years on Twins Daily.  

 

He might not have had a personal confirmation before, but to not know?  I do not buy it Terry.

[huhguy]

I have listened to that link twice have not heard Ryan, what part is it on?

[East Coast Twin]

 

I have listened to that link twice have not heard Ryan, what part is it on

 

1500 updates that link everyday to the most recent broadcast.  You want to listen to hour one of the Thursday, 18 February broadcast.  Here is the link to recent broadcasts:

 

http://www.1500espn.com/the-ride-with-reusse-ondemand/

 

[drjim]

 

I have listened to that link twice have not heard Ryan, what part is it on?

 

Go here: http://www.1500espn.com/the-ride-with-reusse-ondemand/

 

Thursday link, Hour 1, starts around 19:45

[PseudoSABR]

 

He might not have had a personal confirmation before, but to not know?  I do not buy it Terry.

In the interview he talked about Mauer's increased strikeouts and how that wasn't supposed to happen to Joe; so clearly he saw something.   Ryan was resisting pinning Joe's failures  one-cause (blurry vision), and seemed more satisfied with the notion that Joe "hasn't been quite right" and insinuated maybe he won't ever be.

[Dantes929]

 

 

Joe's strikeouts have been on the rise since before his concussion.  Joe has always had a lot of bat lag because of his propensity to try to "go the other way" with just about everything.  That is more of the reason why he's striking out now.  He simply doesn't have the same stuff he did in his 20s.  Joe needed to adapt and he has not.  This is why shifting has had such a drastic afftect.

Just my opinion but I think Mauer has tried to adapt to his detriment.   Its the shift that has stopped him but trying to pull the ball which has ended up with the weak ground outs to 2nd and strikeouts.    They pitch him outside to get him to hit the ball to the shift but that is where he likes it so squaring up more balls should make up for more balls being caught by the shift.     

As far as not telling management I believe, somewhat from experience that the effects of concussions can be quite subtle.    He might no feel super sharp but also feel like he can work his way through it.   Keep in mind that he faces the best pitching there is and his average was still better than league average and his OBP was the best on the entire team among the 8 guys that had more than 335 at bats.   I don't know if he will ever get it back but the farther away he is from the concussion the better his chances become.    I don't expect another batting title from him but it wouldn't shock me if it happens.     Anecdotal evidence isn't evidence that it will happen for Mauer but a LOT of people wrote off Morneau saying he would never play another game and he came back with his only batting title.

[USAFChief]

 

Just my opinion but I think Mauer has tried to adapt to his detriment.   Its the shift that has stopped him but trying to pull the ball which has ended up with the weak ground outs to 2nd and strikeouts.    They pitch him outside to get him to hit the ball to the shift but that is where he likes it so squaring up more balls should make up for more balls being caught by the shift.     

 

Where's the evidence of that?

 

He was always likely to hit the ball in the air the opposite way, on the ground to the right side.  That's the reason teams started shifting...they can read a spray chart and adapted.

 

It's his inability and/or unwillingness to adapt that is at least part of the problem, not the fact that he HAS adapted.

[jharaldson]

 

He might not have had a personal confirmation before, but to not know?  I do not buy it Terry.

 

I disagree with this.  Terry likely had general knowledge that Joe had a diminished capacity since the concussion but I see no way he could have looked at Joe playing the last 2 years and said to himself "I bet he is experiencing vision issues due to the sun manifested as blurriness."  

 

I would also point out that Mauer himself said he was not good at communicating:

 

 

 

Mauer was asked whether he shared his pitch-tracking concerns with hitting coach Tom Brunansky, manager Paul Molitor or the front office as he tried playing through them.

“You know, I probably haven’t done that great of a job of doing that,” he said. “There’s days where it’s been really difficult and those when it hasn’t been very difficult. It just hasn’t been very consistent.

 

In short, it is not Joe's fault he is having issues.  He had a concussion and concussions impact all people differently.  It is inexcusable that he is being paid $23 million a year and choosing not to report issues to Twins management that they could be helping him address and that is solely on Joe.  

[Loosey]

I don't think Ryan was saying he was shocked at the strikeouts after looking at the stats after the fact.  It seemed he meant to say as the season progressed he was sort of surprised Mauer was striking out so consistently last season. 

 

From Reading the Comments it comes off as if Reusse told Ryan that Joe struck out 112 times last year and Ryan goes "OMG really?!?!?".  When in reality Ryan just said he was surprised last year at how much he was striking out, and that comment came after they were speaking about his vision blurriness.  So as much as I like to rip on Ryan, this quote to me isn't a rippable one.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I don't think Ryan was saying he was shocked at the strikeouts after looking at the stats after the fact.  It seemed he meant to say as the season progressed he was sort of surprised Mauer was striking out so consistently last season. 

 

From Reading the Comments it comes off as if Reusse told Ryan that Joe struck out 112 times last year and Ryan goes "OMG really?!?!?".  When in reality Ryan just said he was surprised last year at how much he was striking out, and that comment came after they were speaking about his vision blurriness.  So as much as I like to rip on Ryan, this quote to me isn't a rippable one.

Mauer actually struck out at a lower rate in 2015 than he did in either 2014 or 2013.  How could TR have been surprised by that rate?  It's possible he hoped the rate would go down further in 2015, but the result hardly seems to merit surprise.

 

I brought up the counting stat thing because it's the only way the statement made any sense -- Mauer set a career high in strikeouts in 2015, going into triple digits for the first time in his career.  With the move to 1B, Mauer setting a new career high in playing time shouldn't have been that surprising either, but again, those raw numbers seem relatively more "surprising" in 2015 than the rates.

[jharaldson]

 

I don't think Ryan was saying he was shocked at the strikeouts after looking at the stats after the fact.  It seemed he meant to say as the season progressed he was sort of surprised Mauer was striking out so consistently last season. 

 

I have done my best to transcribe the section and here is what I have:

 

 

 

33:25
Terry Ryan: I have stated it in a couple of these interviews.  I was shocked at how much he struck out.  That is not him.  He is going to get doinks and he is going to put it in play but last year he struck out and that is not what we were expecting.

 

I do not see any reference to season progression.  Is there another section or interview that he made that point in?

[Mike Sixel]

That doesn't read with much nuance to the rate vs counting aspect........

[Dantes929]

 

Where's the evidence of that?

 

He was always likely to hit the ball in the air the opposite way, on the ground to the right side.  That's the reason teams started shifting...they can read a spray chart and adapted.

 

It's his inability and/or unwillingness to adapt that is at least part of the problem, not the fact that he HAS adapted.

I didn't say he has adapted.  I am saying he has tried to adapt by trying to pull the ball.   I also said it was my opinion and I don't have the time to go do in depth analysis but are you saying that he is doing the same thing he has always done but the shift is causing him to strike out more and to square up fewer balls?    I see him trying to pull the ball and getting fooled by breaking balls and either being in front them or grounding out weakly to the right side when he used to hit those up the middle or to the left.    I think he has been trying to pull the ball more and as a result has squared up fewer.    Some people can make the adjustment from an inside out swing and some can't.     I don't think he should change from what got him batting titles and I don't think the shift would have cost him any batting titles..    The shift has caused some of his hard hit balls to be caught but it hasn't caused him to hit fewer hard balls.   That is something else.    It looks to me like he has tried to pull the ball more and there have been articles about it.   It might also be the concussion and aging plays into it.    I just go by what I see..