What Happened to "The Twins Way"

[strumdatjaguar]

The Twins, maybe out of short-term necessity, seem to be winging it, rather than engaging in a strategy of designing a competitive team for Target Field for the long term.  That long term vision should be based on creating a Twins Identity, bringing back the Twins Way -  a three part philosophy::

1.  The Twins will never be able to consistently compete with the "big market" teams for the top free agents. often power pitchers and power hitters, and will have some trouble consistently retaining these types of players on the roster.   So, concentrate on less fan-friendly, and less-expensive attributes like consistent, low-free-pass pitchers (yes, the "dreaded" pitch to contact guys), smart and effective base-running and excellent defense (especially up the middle and in the outfield to chase those balls hit when there's "pitch to contact").   . Preach these as the "Twins Way" throughout the minor leagues.

2.  Design and "coach up" a line-up for Target Field of line-drive contact hitters, who can hit to all fields and the gaps, bunt, and advance runners, as well as acquiring and  developing speedy hitters who can leg out the bunts and dribblers.

3.  Recognize that certain players will not fit the blue-print of the Twins Identity, and be flexible in allowing very good and excellent players to make contributions in their own way (a Miguel Sano for Example).  Avoid settling for average or below average players who do not fit into the Twins Way. The Twins should try to stick with a plan - a design, but should not be so rigid as to be stupid.

 

So, under this blue print, the Twins would not have gone out of their way to pick up a Bjung Ho Park to simply be a DH and part-time first-baseman.  Park appears to be a very good defensive first baseman and should only have been signed to take advantage of that in addition to his potent bat - It's too early to bring in a player to replace Joe Mauer, and Park was a superfluous signee.   Under this blue print, Trevor Plouffe would have been dealt in the off-season (or would be traded around the trade deadline)  to make room for Sano to play 3B.   Sano should be a corner infielder.  The Twins can sacrifice defense at the corner infield positions because of the minimal amount of foul territory at Target Field.   Putting a Miguel Sano in Right Field, or Josh Willingham (or even Oswaldo Arcia) in Left Field is contrary to the philosophy that the Twins should be pursuing as a mid-market team in a ballpark with a lot of real estate in the outfield.   

[Thrylos]

Nothing happened to the Twins' Way (and I don't mean the Minneapolis Street)

 

What you see is the result of Ryan and the Front Office following the Twins' Way.  When the Twins were wining horrible divisions and were going belly up in the post-season most people and fans did not complain.  When the division got stronger and the Twins are going belly up in the season, people might start thinking twice about the Twins' Way and its architects.

[Blake]

The "Twins Way" came into being under MacPhail and Kelly and survived on momentum until Kelly stepped down.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Agreed w/ Thrylos. "Twins Way" is a less sexy moneyball. All the hype about on base guys and strong bullpens have made home run hitters and mid rotation guys cheaper on a relative output over a season basis. We're watching Twins Way baseball. The rest of the division and baseball just got better

[Badsmerf]

You believed in that saying huh? The baseball you described, is losing baseball. The game has changed in the last 15 years. Strikeouts, productive at bats, on base skills, and extra base hits win games. The media in Minnesota has been called the twins media machine for a reason.

 

The product you see on the field isn't a surprise. All these guys with the exception of park, are who they are. I don't think many expected this team to be this bad, but i don't think it is a huge revelation either.

[Winston Smith]

Lots of potholes and cracked pavement. Needs a complete re-do.

[strumdatjaguar]

So, what should the Twins philosophy be - as they construct this team?   The current mishmash, including no viable left-handed starter, has become a train wreck.  My vision is: power for the corner infielders and DH, speed in the middle infield and outfield, control pitchers (except for high-speed guys we develop), and a line-up that stresses speed and hustle over power (balanced 75-25 ratio versus 60-40).   The Twins need to bring back the Twins Way, and teach it up throughout the farm system.  It can be tweaked a bit, but good defense, smart pitching and speed is not passe. 

[Kwak]

"The Twins Way" is a "we are family" approach and everybody knows their place and pulls their oar.  The "Way" is to put likeable guys in the field who get their uniform dirty and entertain everybody at minimum salary--the St. Paul Saints.  Unfortunately this is MLB, and most teams  are doing their level best to put the most useful players on the field to win BB games.  The Twins aren't very good at turning amateur players into winning MLB players.  As Pohlad stated:  "...a total system failure"--but he could have added "...the system is a total failure..." and be just as correct.

[darin617]

You can say the Twins way went away when Bruno became hitting coach. I only see Park & Sano the only ones that should be swinging for the fences. I would like to see some more speed and doubles to the gaps and spray the ball around. And bunting for one thing would be nice for the speedy guys struggling.

[Boom Boom]

Nobody called it the Twins Way until they started winning. They were preaching all that same stuff during the miserable mid-to-late 90s.

 

Once they had a winning team, they convinced themselves that it was because they were smarter than everybody else. That's when they coined the term.

[Jham]

Twins way being pitching, defense, and timely hitting?  I don't think there's anything wrong with that. But I think the talk of the Twins Way is largely overstated.  The real Twins Way was probably getting lucky with Santana and Liriano, while taking advantage of decent players like Hunter, J Jones, and Koskie in their primes.  Those aren't really pitch to contact guys, or high contact low K hitters.  Our best teams were pretty stinkin' solid when you look at those rosters, whether or not we felt they were super strong at the time.  Our biggest problem has been either bad luck or poor development of young players.  Our players, especially our young players, are not producing at the level expected.  I'm also not sure we play as hard as we once did.  Guys like Dougie, Ortiz, Hunter, Radke, and yes even Punto compared with these kids...  I'll say those guys weren't more talented than the current team per se.

 

 

 

 

[Platoon]

Not all of your post is to be disconsidered. In a way the team is still playing Twins Way baseball. Our pitchers are PTC, to a fault. That's half of TW. The defense half is missing. Once Buxton left, we were left without an elite defender on the team. This weekend you saw what good OF offense could do. Last weekend you saw what bad offense can do. Not ours, but Marlon Bird did a legitimate impression. Another part of the TW not mentioned was base running! It's horrid. Today when Nunez got doubled off second it was idiotic. It would have been the time for Molitor to jerk him, and make an example. Sooner or later the Twins will have to get their heads out of somewhere and realize that straightening out this roster, and teaching some lessons trumps a win. Then the wins would follow. May in the 8th 2 down? Really. There is no off day tomorrow. What if we actually need him. It's truly hard to define where the line between inept management, and desperation lie.

[Linus]

I think TK was the Twins way. Since then I don't really see a pattern.

[stringer bell]

One of the big components of "The Twins Way" was pitching that emphasized staying in the strike zone, but permitting contact. It wasn't so bad when the Twins had six or seven above-average defenders, but things have changed. The coin of the realm for pitchers has become the strikeout and the Twins are far behind the curve in getting guys who force swings and misses. Defense has slipped appreciably as well, putting pressure on the offense to score and refrain from going for one run, but going for more because the pitching isn't reliable enough to consistently hold a small lead.

 

Offensively, there are too many strikeouts and too many other unproductive at-bats to put consistent pressure on the opponents. The final thing that has reared it's ugly head is fundamentals--throwing to the wrong base, getting doubled off base on a line drive, keeping the double play in order, trying to take the extra base when there is no percentage in doing so. It is a toxic stew. I do know it is a sad day when Oswaldo Arcia is one of your fundamentally more sound players.

[jokin]

 

One of the big components of "The Twins Way" was pitching that emphasized staying in the strike zone, but permitting contact. It wasn't so bad when the Twins had six or seven above-average defenders, but things have changed.

 

The coin of the realm for pitchers has become the strikeout and the Twins are far behind the curve in getting guys who force swings and misses.

 

Defense has slipped appreciably as well, putting pressure on the offense to score and refrain from going for one run, but going for more because the pitching isn't reliable enough to consistently hold a small lead.

 

Offensively, there are too many strikeouts and too many other unproductive at-bats to put consistent pressure on the opponents. The final thing that has reared it's ugly head is fundamentals--throwing to the wrong base, getting doubled off base on a line drive, keeping the double play in order, trying to take the extra base when there is no percentage in doing so. It is a toxic stew. I do know it is a sad day when Oswaldo Arcia is one of your fundamentally more sound players.

 

 

The Twins' pitching staff K/9 has improved appreciably year-over-year- 8.20 vs 6.52 in 2015. They've actually improved to 7th in the AL from dead last in 2015- ahead of the mighty White Sox- who are only 9th best- despite having the best overall AL pitching staff. That tells you a whole lot about the value of a good defense. And this improvement by the Twins has come with an uptick in walks- BB/9 3.39 vs. 2.59 in 2015. Along with a BABIP that has gone up marginally- .316 vs. .300 in 2015... leads to... Too many baserunners, liberally taking too many extra bases once they get on base.

 

We all knew the OF was going to take a big step backwards, especially since many of us weren't even counting on Buxton being in the opening day lineup. But the play at 2nd, SS and 3rd has also somewhat surprisingly slipped badly. This is almost inexplicable given that there are 3 firmly ensconced veterans who have all played reasonably well in the recent past.

[Bill Brown69]

The Twins Way was really more about players with a chip on their shoulder playing the game hard for 9 innings. The coaches installed all the other parts. The trouble with the big boppers is when they try to play harder they squeeze the bat harder and that rarely produces results that are positive.

[HitInAPinch]

 

One of the big components of "The Twins Way" was pitching that emphasized staying in the strike zone, but permitting contact. It wasn't so bad when the Twins had six or seven above-average defenders, but things have changed. The coin of the realm for pitchers has become the strikeout and the Twins are far behind the curve in getting guys who force swings and misses. Defense has slipped appreciably as well, putting pressure on the offense to score and refrain from going for one run, but going for more because the pitching isn't reliable enough to consistently hold a small lead.

 

Offensively, there are too many strikeouts and too many other unproductive at-bats to put consistent pressure on the opponents. The final thing that has reared it's ugly head is fundamentals--throwing to the wrong base, getting doubled off base on a line drive, keeping the double play in order, trying to take the extra base when there is no percentage in doing so. It is a toxic stew. I do know it is a sad day when Oswaldo Arcia is one of your fundamentally more sound players.

You've really hit it on the head.  And I'm not fully convinced that the MiLB hitters will be much better.

I like the potential of Berrios and Duffey.

 

Arcia?  Did you see that, currently, he's averaging just under 1 walk every other game?  Color me stunned!

 

http://f161666main.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/shock.jpg

[Mike Sixel]

The fundamentals on this team are quite bad. That shows that either the minors' coaching is bad, or well, I don't know what, really.

[Seth Stohs]

It's a nice term, but the Twins haven't been good at fundamentals (with some exceptions) for 15 years.

[Mike Sixel]

 

It's a nice term, but the Twins haven't been good at fundamentals (with some exceptions) for 15 years.

 

This is one area you and I have agreed on for some time.

 

My question is........How can a bunch of professionals be so bad at this? 

[Vanimal46]

Lots of good comments and I agree with most who've posted so far. IMO we haven't seen the "Twins Way" in 10+ years since the "Piranhas" year.. Something has been lost in translation along the way. There used to be a huge emphasis on fundamentals and team defense. I'm not quite sure what's happened over the last decade or so where it's fallen off the map. 

[Craig Arko]

I think it's buried under one of the goalposts at U.S. Bank Stadium.

[Pardon My Dinger]

 

 The media in Minnesota has been called the twins media machine for a reason.

Hm. Makes sense to me. 

[DJSim22]

We look more like some bad White Sox teams than the Twins.  Bad defense, non stop strike outs, without much increase in power.  There doesn't seem to be much in the way of fundamentals either.  This reminds me of the White Sox teams the Twins used to beat up on, expect this Twins team is even worse. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

It's a nice term, but the Twins haven't been good at fundamentals (with some exceptions) for 15 years.

I know that the TK-Gardy switch is a convenient marking point, but Gardy's lineup through 2004 was largely the same at TK's last few years. Did those players just forget their fundamentals under Gardy?

 

Also, the mid 1990s Twins were a pretty bad team, and unlike the early TK teams, not all spots were staffed by quality veterans. Are we to believe that TK still received a high level of fundamental play from that motley bunch?

 

I realize it is all qualitative, but it seems like one of those things where we take our subjective evidence and fit it to our favorite theory.

[gil4]

 

I think TK was the Twins way. Since then I don't really see a pattern.

 

That's what I remember, too.  TK teams were very sound in the fundamentals, even when they weren't very good.  I remember plenty of discussions about Gardy's good teams where it was mentioned that broadcasters still talked about the Twins way, but the Twins didn't really play that way anymore.  (This was before TD, both on Seth's site and on Gleeman's.)

[gil4]

 

I know that the TK-Gardy switch is a convenient marking point, but Gardy's lineup through 2004 was largely the same at TK's last few years. Did those players just forget their fundamentals under Gardy?

Also, the mid 1990s Twins were a pretty bad team, and unlike the early TK teams, not all spots were staffed by quality veterans. Are we to believe that TK still received a high level of fundamental play from that motley bunch?

I realize it is all qualitative, but it seems like one of those things where we take our subjective evidence and fit it to our favorite theory.

 

I do remember noticing a steady decline in fundamentals under Gardy, even when the team was good.  Maybe we were just predisposed to notice every mistake and think "so much for the Twins Way" after every mistake, but I do think standards were allowed to slip over time.

 

TK's greatest strength also could be his greatest failing as well.  Young players often weren't given the opportunity to succeed because the leash was so short.

[KirbyDome89]

I'm surprised by the amount of support out there for the "Twins Way." It must be a nostalgia thing where somebody forgets all the bad things that drove that person nuts and only remembers the good times. Similar to getting back together with and ex....

 

But seriously you have to go all the way back to 2002 to find a playoff series W and from there you have to go back even further to 1991 before you find another series win. They've won a playoff series in 2 of the last 25 years (yes I think its safe to count this year). That isn't exactly a track record of success.

 

Everybody wants solid defense and pitching. IMO there are a lot of ways to build a team with these attributes and if this really is the end of the "Twins Way," then I'm all for it.