Article: Twins Being Overwhelmed By Underperformance

[d-mac]

 

Wow, somehow I hadn't been paying attention to Chris Herrmann this year. .844 OPS.

 

Look at his HR/FB rate. He's had quite a bit of luck there. But it's not like he never hit in the minors. He put up above average numbers in AA and AAA. Pretty good for a catcher, which to me always made his Drew Butera-ish hitting line perplexing. Drew Butera hit like Drew Butera in the minors. Herrmann didn't. 

[Shane Wahl]

 

Look at his HR/FB rate. He's had quite a bit of luck there. But it's not like he never hit in the minors. He put up above average numbers in AA and AAA. Pretty good for a catcher, which to me always made his Drew Butera-ish hitting line perplexing. Drew Butera hit like Drew Butera in the minors. Herrmann didn't. 

Yes, and I had decent hopes for him. One wonders what the D-Backs saw in him to be willing to give up Palka.

[savvyspy]

 

Mauer has played in every game all year, til yesterday.  Dozier could use a week off the way he looks.

Yes. Exactly what I said. Mauer needs to start and play everyday.

[d-mac]

 

Tossing Aaron Hicks away for a Murphy, who was obviously going to be bad (not this terrible, but still) was an awful decision (Hicks has been bad offensively for the Yankees, but he had been playing one out of every three games for the Yankees until Ellsbury went down--every day PAs would help him). Banking on Kevin Jepsen (I really should dig up my history of posts on that guy for "I told so" moments) to be an anchor with Perkins instead of adding another high quality reliever was a mistake. Favoring a declining 3B over a likely superstar and putting that superstar out in the OF is a horrific mistake.

If several of us morons on a sports jabbering site (no offense, TD) can see this ahead of time, what does that say about the GM?

 

 

Speaking of Kevin Jepsen, Chih-Wei Hu, made 4 starts for the Rays AA affiliate- he put up a 0.44 ERA, 1.88 FIP, 11.51 K/9, and a 2.66 BB/9. He was recently promoted to AAA. 

 

Since the trade, Kevin Jepsen has given us 40 mediocre innings to a 4.17 xFIP and K/9 just over 7. 

[d-mac]

 

Are the players as bad as they are currently performing? That's a tough case to make. I named about 20 players in this article and a total of two (TWO) are playing up to their established career baseline or above.

 

 

There's no "reality" that pointed toward a .250 winning percentage. I'm not sure how it's an inflated set of hope-fueled expectations to believe this team could hang around .500 this year after winning 83 last year. If the Twins were merely bad it would be a different story but this is beyond that. 

 

If 20 players are underperforming at once, that cannot possibly be a mere coincidence.

[savvyspy]

 

Just a gut feeling:  I think some of the young players have a sense of entitlement.  They've had their 1 year in the MLB's and think the job is theirs no matter what. 

 

Tom Kelly would never have allowed that to happen.

Tom Kelly would have quit before letting a GM make him put a 280lbs DH in Right Field.

 

[d-mac]

 

I have led multiple teams to multiple championships in MLB 2K and The Show. Ryan just needs to figure out how to turn down the difficulty settings, but you know how older people are with technology.

 

http://i.imgur.com/wW1dH66.gif?noredirect

[d-mac]

 

There is no player on this team over the age of 33. I find that to be a red flag. The fact that Dozier and Plouffe are two of the guys being leaned on as "veterans" on this team is crazy. Dozier has 3 full seasons to his name, and Plouffe only 4. They themselves should have an established veteran to turn to keep them in check.

 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/are-these-the-best-young-hitters-in-baseball-history/

 

There is plenty wrong with this team, but that's not it. Guess again. 

[Riverbrian]

I remember watching MLB Network around the trade deadline and the Twins had just traded Denard Span and Ben Revere. 

 

Terry Ryan came on and was asked if the team was rebuilding with these trades and Terry Ryan said that he doesn't believe in rebuilding because it's just an excuse for losing. 

 

As the years went by... Everything Terry Ryan did supported this statement. Now we have reached the point where Terry Ryan has been over run by the youth piling up on the farm and spilling on to the 40 man and the 25 man roster and Terry Ryan hired a manager who doesn't want to play youth and youth is pretty much all he has to work with. 

 

A GM in our situation needs to ask any candidates for the manager. position.. Do you have a problem playing youth? The reason I ask is... We have a boatload of them arriving and I need to know if you have a problem playing youth. It's going to be a necessity in the very near future. If he did ask Molitor this question before he hired him and Molitor said... "Yeah no problem". Well... you got a problem now. 

 

Molitor is going to have to change and adjust to the state of the Minnesota Twins and quit trying to fight it with the Mastro's of the world. 

 

This is on Terry Ryan and I hope Terry Ryan can step back and look at it objectively and say to himself.

 

Yep It's on me

 

I shake my head... We just had a recent come to Jesus meeting which resulted in a fairly large shift of the 40 Man and 25 man roster and the result of that meeting was bringing in Mastroianni, Centeno, Kintzler and Dean to fix it? 

 

Just step back and look at that... Mastroianni, Centeno, Kintzler and Dean... That's the solution? 

 

 

 

[Thrylos]

 

Tom Kelly would have quit before letting a GM make him put a 280lbs DH in Right Field.

 

Bet Puckett had a higher BMI than Sano when he played RF for the Twins.  For the record, Kelly did not quit.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Bet Puckett had a higher BMI than Sano when he played RF for the Twins.  For the record, Kelly did not quit.

 

This can't be a serious comment.........Puckett played OF his entire career. Try harder.

[d-mac]

 

This can't be a serious comment.........Puckett played OF his entire career. Try harder.

 

I got a laugh out of it. Puckett is my favorite player of all time, but even I admit he was getting a little tubby at the tail end of his career. 

[Vanimal46]

 

Speaking of Kevin Jepsen, Chih-Wei Hu, made 4 starts for the Rays AA affiliate- he put up a 0.44 ERA, 1.88 FIP, 11.51 K/9, and a 2.66 BB/9. He was recently promoted to AAA. 

 

Since the trade, Kevin Jepsen has given us 40 mediocre innings to a 4.17 xFIP and K/9 just over 7. 

That's underselling Jepsen a bit. He pitched 28 innings that were way above any expectations last season that kept the team in contention. Clearly it hasn't worked out this year. 

I would have traded an A ball pitcher for even a rental player when a team's close to the playoffs 100% of the time. They got another year of control on top of that. 

[Thrylos]

 

This can't be a serious comment.........Puckett played OF his entire career. Try harder.

 

missed the /sarcasm button 

[Riverbrian]

 

That's underselling Jepsen a bit. He pitched 28 innings that were way above any expectations last season that kept the team in contention. Clearly it hasn't worked out this year. 

I would have traded an A ball pitcher for even a rental player when a team's close to the playoffs 100% of the time. They got another year of control on top of that. 

 

I agree

 

I will never fault Terry Ryan for trading young talent for a player like Kevin Jepsen during a year that we were in contention. 

 

I will fault him for waiting until the very end of July to make the deal and I will fault him for it being the only deal he made to fix the bullpen

 

and I will fault him for not improving the pen during the off season. 

 

If this was all he was going to do... Might as well kept this Hu guy. 

[Vanimal46]

 

I agree

 

I will never fault Terry Ryan for trading young talent for a player like Kevin Jepsen during a year that we were in contention. 

 

I will fault him for waiting until the very end of July to make the deal and I will fault him for it being the only deal he made to fix the bullpen

 

and I will fault him for not improving the pen during the off season. 

 

If this was all he was going to do... Might as well kept this Hu guy. 

Yes, those were very frustrating times in June-August last season... When we were all begging to get anyone with a pulse to come in and save the bullpen. I will also fault him for saying the bullpen was the "top priority" this off-season and basically punting the position minus a couple of minor league signings. 

I still don't care whether or not Hu is in this organization. He's a lottery ticket that's working out well in a SSS. The Twins hit the lottery last year by getting the 28 best innings in Jepsen's career. 

[d-mac]

 

That's underselling Jepsen a bit. He pitched 28 innings that were way above any expectations last season that kept the team in contention. Clearly it hasn't worked out this year. 

I would have traded an A ball pitcher for even a rental player when a team's close to the playoffs 100% of the time. They got another year of control on top of that. 

 

I guess we disagree then.

 

1.) As a rule I don't like trading for relief help at the deadline, especially one that has thoroughly ML average numbers. Average relievers are about as close to a commodity as there is in baseball. Only the elite bullpen arms are really only truly valuable on their own. Even then a bullpen is sort of a "sum of its parts" unit. Trading for relief help at the deadline is always done as a desperation move and as such the buying team will always have to overpay on general mediocrity. Did we all forget the lessons we learned from Matt Capps?

 

2.) We were/are still rebuilding. We should be acquiring young talent, not trading it away. 

 

3.) I liked Hu as a very underrated sleeper of a prospect. I always thought he had #3 potential.

 

4.) It's the Rays. I can't imagine they didn't take advantage of Terry Ryan's ineptitude.  

Edited May 9, 2016 by d-mac

[alarp33]

 

 

 

If this was all he was going to do... Might as well kept this Hu guy. 

 

Correct. Some of the moves he makes if taken completely alone, make sense.  When put in context with everything else he does... not so much.  Kevin Jepsen was great last year, but he was never going to single handidly get that team to the playoffs.  Why even try

 

 

Edited May 9, 2016 by alarp33

[Mike Sixel]

missed the /sarcasm button

Ha, well, I am supposedly also working today.....

[nicksaviking]

 

 

If this was all he was going to do... Might as well kept this Hu guy. 

 

I didn't like the trade last year because Jepsen wasn't very good in TB and looked to be on the decline. That was an incorrect read, at least last year.

 

But this is exactly right, it was just more half-measures. This team just cannot commit to anything, whether it's going for it at the trade deadline or committing to a full rebuild, they hedge their bets every single time and it's beyond frustrating.

 

They have clearly resolved to get harder throwing pitchers in the draft and trade, but then are hesitant to promote them or put them in key spots.

 

They commit to increasing the payroll, but only by getting multiple average players, not a couple of really good players.

 

They replace most of the field staff, but they do it mostly with other organizational guys.

 

Come on, get off the fence and stop being so wishy-washy.

[tobi0040]

 

I guess we disagree then.

 

1.) As a rule I don't like trading for relief help at the deadline, especially one that has thoroughly ML average numbers. Average relievers are about as close to a commodity as there is in baseball. Only the elite bullpen arms are really only truly valuable on their own. Even then a bullpen is sort of a "sum of its parts" unit. Trading for relief help at the deadline is always done as a desperation move and as such the buying team will always have to overpay on general mediocrity. Did we all forget the lessons we learned from Matt Capps?

 

2.) We were/are still rebuilding. We should be acquiring young talent, not trading it away. 

 

3.) I liked Hu as a very underrated sleeper of a prospect. I always thought he had #3 potential.

 

4.) It's the Rays. I can't imagine they didn't take advantage of Terry Ryan's ineptitude.  

 

That is the frustrating thing for me.  You could have signed a Jepsen two off-seasons ago and kept Hu.  We knew we would need more relievers this season and if we were sniffing contention, we would have done the same thing.

[gocgo]

 

Literally the first time I've heard anyone lament the loss of Herrmann. Just goes to show you, we will never agree on anything when it comes to our baseball team.

My thought was - how bad are things when someone laments the loss of Chris Herrmann?  Have we really fallen that far?

[wsnydes]

I'm generally one to say that managing is overrated - not unimportant, but overrated.  Jim Leyland once said, "I give the players all of the answers to the test, but they still have to take that test."  That being said, I'm pretty alarmed at the level of unpreparedness and stupid baseball shown this year.  Much of that is on the players, but the coaching staff needs to get these guys preparing the correct way if they can't figure it out themselves.

[gocgo]

OK, so....we suck....I've come to terms with that by convincing myself that I was waaaay to busy to watch the Twins anyway this summer.  Besides, I can watch my 12 year old and his buddies play bad baseball for free!  No need to spend money to go to Target Field.

 

We are an astounding 13.5 games back only 5 weeks into the season.  Wow!  I don't think in my wildest dreams I could fathom being that bad.  In years past, I could at least rely on the White Sox being worse than us.  Now my only consolation is that the Yankees might be as bad as us.

 

So, what's the right answer?  Trade everyone?  Fire everyone?...I say NO!  You get to sit right square in the middle of the hot mess you made.  Smell it every day and breath deep baby because this is what you created.  Don't like it?  Then clean yourself up and get yourself out of it.

[Circus Boy]

 

I'd say there has been some bad luck. They won't lose at this clip all year.
But mostly they are reaping what they've sewn with decisions that were completely predicted to be mistakes.

 

So true. It can get worse.

[birddog]

Twins fans are justifiably on the warpath. Enough blame in this putrid season to go around for everyone associated with the Twins. This season hit us like the foul tip off Suzuki's mask hit him, and I think we are in more pain than he was. Still over 130 games left in the season, but not even the most optimistic fan would hope for anything other than a strong finish to the season. Mauer and Nunez are having great starts to the season, but neither provides enough punch to carry the team to victory. Very few bright spots, indeed, and we bring in Mastro, Kinzler (Ian would have been nice), Centeno, etc. What a joke and a slap in the face. We have to hope that Berrios and Duffey, the few bright spots, are here to stay and TR starts bringing up the young bullpen arms very soon. I've been a strong TR supporter, but my faith in him is heading down the same drain as the Twins' season.

[Pardon My Dinger]

 

Seriously funny post.

 

Well played sir.  Well played.

Well, hey, I mean, you're one of my greatest influences. 

[tobi0040]

 

 Besides, I can watch my 12 year old and his buddies play bad baseball for free!  No need to spend money to go to Target Field.

 

 

 

While completely true, you can cope at a Twins game by jamming down adult beverages.  Society tends to judge when you do that during a little league game.

[Vanimal46]

 

I guess we disagree then.

 

1.) As a rule I don't like trading for relief help at the deadline, especially one that has thoroughly ML average numbers. Average relievers are about as close to a commodity as there is in baseball. Only the elite bullpen arms are really only truly valuable on their own. Even then a bullpen is sort of a "sum of its parts" unit. Trading for relief help at the deadline is always done as a desperation move and as such the buying team will always have to overpay on general mediocrity. Did we all forget the lessons we learned from Matt Capps?

 

2.) We were/are still rebuilding. We should be acquiring young talent, not trading it away. 

 

3.) I liked Hu as a very underrated sleeper of a prospect. I always thought he had #3 potential.

 

4.) It's the Rays. I can't imagine they didn't take advantage of Terry Ryan's ineptitude.  

What were the Twins supposed to do last year except make trades for relief help? TR banked on one or multiple young RP's to be ready last year. He did it again this year, and we're still waiting for any young RP to make their way up. 

We were still rebuilding last year, that I agree with. But there would be a ton more bickering and calling for TR's head than there is now if he did not give the illusion that they were going for a playoff spot. There was plenty more that TR & company could have done to take advantage of a lucky May. 

 

Hu is certainly underrated alright. If we took a poll of most casual Twins fans, they wouldn't have a clue who Hu is, other than reading the occasional Hu? joke on TD...

The Rays probably took advantage of the Twins... who knows. IMO there's bigger blunders to tally up for TR than this trade. 

[gocgo]

 

While completely true, you can cope at a Twins game by jamming down adult beverages.  Society tends to judge when you do that during a little league game.

Very true, but the hot dogs are only a buck.