Adalberto Mejia Recalled, Vargas Optioned

[Mr. Brooks]

75 putouts in 78 chances is about all you can ask for out of a guy learning the position, especially for a power hitter. He can overcome those three miscues with his bat. It is the 87 putouts in 99 chances at 3rd that is unacceptable.

When you charge in on a ball over your head and never recover does that count as a chance?

Counting putouts and chances is probably the least effective way of evaluating defense out of all of them.

[Doomtints]

 

Second is actually a pretty power-packed position these days. Could be a temporary thing though.

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-best-year-at-second-base-ever/

 

Good article.  2B is currently the "average" position with a wRC+ of ~100, leapfrogging LF and CF.  Throw in the good defense required to be a 2B and you have some very valuable players there at the moment.

[Doomtints]

 

When you charge in on a ball over your head and never recover does that count as a chance?
Counting putouts and chances is probably the least effective way of evaluating defense out of all of them.

 

The 78 signifies balls he could touch.  

 

The number of balls hit his direction was 147.  At first glance this looks terrible, 75 putouts out of 147?  Terrible!  This is 51% balls fielded!  But let's look deeper.

 

For comparison, the average number of balls fielded by a player in RF was 50%.  Taken strictly, Sano was a slightly above average right fielder.  Considering a reasonable margin of error, he was an average right fielder.  

 

The "eyeball test" Twins fans used was biased.  Basically, people who thought it was a bad idea for him to be in the OF saw enough to confirm their biases.  And he was far from perfect out there.  However, he was average, because the average right fielder lets HALF the balls hit their direction to drop.  And that's what Sano did.

To throw in his numbers at 3B, he has fielded 81% of the balls hit his direction.  League average is 87%.  

 

 

[jimmer]

 

75 putouts in 78 chances is about all you can ask for out of a guy learning the position, especially for a power hitter.  He can overcome those three miscues with his bat.  It is the 87 putouts in 99 chances at 3rd that is unacceptable.

So by metrics, you meant errors/fielding %?  That's what you're using?  Well, okay. That's not anything a person who references the word metrics uses. That's old school stat.  Fielding % is based on balls he could get to and what happened. If you read a ball wrong (like running in on a ball and then having to turn around as it goes over your head), or you were too slow to get to a balls others would, it's not considered a chance. Completely discounts range, completed discounts reading the ball well, completely discounts whether or not he threw to the right base and many other things.  For all intents and purposes, it only counts balls you got glove on.  He could stand in one spot, never move, only try to catch the balls that went right to him, and that's what fielding %/errors would measure. Horrible, horrible way to evaluate defense.

 

You mentioned metrics. I gave metrics. If you watched him play out there all year and actually think he handled himself well, I don't really know where else to go with that except to say that I'd imagine your opinion is the severe minority. He looked ridiculous out there. That's not bias.  No one wanted him to stink out there, cause that hurts our team. It's just reality.

 

 

As for eye test goes, here's an article about it

 

http://www.startribune.com/it-s-time-for-twins-to-pull-plug-on-sano-in-right-field/382047201/

 

 

Back to metrics.  A comparison: 37 RFs, he was tied for 34th in DRS (even though he barely broke the 300 innings played out there, the guy he tied with had twice as much time out there). The two with worse DRS played way more than him.  If he had 600 or more innings out there, he'd be dead last. Horrible.  That's not on him, that's on the braintrust who decided putting him out there was a good idea.

[howieramone2]

The Sano experiment at 3B has failed, and he will get most of his PA's at DH the rest of this season. When we see him at 3rd, it will be more geared toward face saving and/or keeping him engaged. They will hang on to Vargas until the new GM decides if Sano will be included among the board favorites traded for established starting pitching this off-season. Strong possibility Vargas plays for the Bad News Bears next season.

[Danchat]

Turning this conversation back to Mejia, I just read something interesting....

 

 

From Derek Wetmore, 1500 ESPN

Paul Molitor said Tuesday that Adalberto Mejia, acquired in the Nunez trade, will make a few more starts with Triple-A Rochester and likely will not be recalled in September when rosters expand.

I don't understand why Mejia won't be given any starts in the majors. Or even given long relief opportunities over Pat Dean. Unless this is about some sort of innings count, I don't see how this makes sense.

[Vanimal46]

 

Turning this conversation back to Mejia, I just read something interesting....

 

I don't understand why Mejia won't be given any starts in the majors. Or even given long relief opportunities over Pat Dean. Unless this is about some sort of innings count, I don't see how this makes sense.

Not sure if it's an innings limit or not. He's at a career high 125 IP this season... But even so if there's any hope that he could be a rotation piece in 2017, he's got to build up the arm for more than 125 innings... 

[wsnydes]

 

Turning this conversation back to Mejia, I just read something interesting....

 

I don't understand why Mejia won't be given any starts in the majors. Or even given long relief opportunities over Pat Dean. Unless this is about some sort of innings count, I don't see how this makes sense.

Because this team refuses to understand the position they're in.  They refuse to rebuild.  They refuse to admit that they need to focus on the young talent and players that will contribute to the future.  Does it make sense? No.  That's also part of the reason TR was fired.

[Mr. Brooks]

On Mejia, the team said somewhere a few days back that they'd like to cap him at 150 innings.

 

That is why he won't get a Sept. callup.

[SwainZag]

 

On Mejia, the team said somewhere a few days back that they'd like to cap him at 150 innings.

That is why he won't get a Sept. callup.

 

Thank you for posting something of value rather than the used and abused "front office is trash and has no plan" automated response that is spewed out way too often.

[howieramone2]

 

Thank you for posting something of value rather than the used and abused "front office is trash and has no plan" automated response that is spewed out way too often.

Exactly. Trader Rob said pretty much the same thing on Inside Twins last Sunday.

[TheLeviathan]

 

Thank you for posting something of value rather than the used and abused "front office is trash and has no plan" automated response that is spewed out way too often.

 

In fairness, it'd help if they looked like they had a coherent plan more often.  It's easy to jump to "what the hell?" when that appears to have been our guiding theme to this season.

[SwainZag]

 

In fairness, it'd help if they looked like they had a coherent plan more often.  It's easy to jump to "what the hell?" when that appears to have been our guiding theme to this season.

 

I understand that, but it gets really old after each question there is the immediate "FO is trash, Mollie is clueless, there is no plan" response followed by 2-3 people with snarky jokes and then finally someone comes up with a quote or a reason or an explanation.  I'm just saying it's OK to cut out the middle man from time to time and save the over used pot shots.

[TheLeviathan]

 

I understand that, but it gets really old after each question there is the immediate "FO is trash, Mollie is clueless, there is no plan" response followed by 2-3 people with snarky jokes and then finally someone comes up with a quote or a reason or an explanation.  I'm just saying it's OK to cut out the middle man from time to time and save the over used pot shots.

 

At this point...what else we got?  At least the pot shots might be clever, beats watching the baseball games...

 

[jimmer]

 

At this point...what else we got?  At least the pot shots might be clever, beats watching the baseball games...

 

Well, we have all the pot shots taken by some at fellow posters deemed too critical.  Those are fun.

[Squirrel]

Come on guys ... back on topic and let's quit with the polarizing characterizations.

[wsnydes]

 

On Mejia, the team said somewhere a few days back that they'd like to cap him at 150 innings.

That is why he won't get a Sept. callup.

 

 

Thank you for posting something of value rather than the used and abused "front office is trash and has no plan" automated response that is spewed out way too often.

At least in the context of this thread, I'll freely admit to being wrong about trashing the FO.  I did not see that bit about Meijia being on an innings limit.  It does get tiring seeing the constant bashing of the FO, of which I'm at least partly guilty of.  It is hard to avoid sometimes when there are so many "what the hell?" moments.  However, this doesn't appear to be one of those moments.

 

Edit:  so my 1,000th post ends up being a pseudo apology to the Twins front office.  I find that amusing.