Article: Twins Walk Their Way To 3-0

[Thrylos]

What a difference firing Tom Brunansky made...

[Mike Sixel]

 

What a difference firing Tom Brunansky made...

 

Three games. Against a terrible pitching staff.

 

You might be right, but let's not JUMP to conclusions.

[Dantes929]

 

Oddly enough, in 2015 the team had its worst walk rate during that excellent month of May.

 

March/April: 7.1 BB%

May: 6.1

June: 7.0

July: 7.0

Aug.: 7.0

Sept./Oct.: 9.2

 

And last year's gawd awful team drew significantly more walks than that 2015 squad, 513-439.

Every thing about that post shocks me.   The excellent May was fueled more by better pitching that month but your stats are correct.    Then again, in 2016 we walked more than 2016 and we scored more so the correlation between walks and runs still holds.    We were still in the lower half for walks taken and struck out a lot also which means there is room for improvement.   It seems realistic to score 40 more runs than last year and to give up 100 fewer.    Combine that with a good pythagorian as opposed to a lousy one and it can make a big difference.  Certainly we are off to a good start in that regard.

[Dantes929]

 

What a difference firing Tom Brunansky made...

What a difference the automatic intentional walk and shortened replays makes.    Our team full of millenials has a shorter attention span so this makes all the difference in maintaining focus.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I don't think that was as true last year.   They struck out the 6th most and were in the lower half for walks taken.   I agree with Halsey that they were pressing last year and I think Buxton still has that going on now but as you pointed out some of these guys are young and relatively inexperienced and should just get better with more reps.

Strikeouts are definitely a problem in this lineup, I was merely pointing out that many of the players have acceptable or better walk rates.

[Doomtints]

The Twins have to play well against a couple of more teams before we can get truly excited.  

 

But 3-0 certainly doesn't hurt.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

They struck out the 6th most and were in the lower half for walks taken.

Where are you getting this stat? According to MLB.com, the 2016 team was fifth in the AL in overall walks. Fangraphs had them fifth in BB% in the AL as well.

 

The 2016 squad had a ton of flaws but patience wasn't one of them and the team should only improve in that regard for 2017.

 

Subtract Suzuki, add Castro. Subtract Santana playing time, add Kepler. Subtract Escobar playing time, add Polanco.

 

When all is said and done for 2017, it wouldn't surprise me to see this team third- or fourth-best in AL BB%.

[Oldgoat_MN]

Immediately after a 4 pitch walk, Buxton comes to the plate and swings at a ball almost in the dirt. The third pitch (the strikeout pitch) was well outside.

Makes you wonder why Moylan threw that second pitch over the plate.

 

Buck has to stop pressing.

[Mike Sixel]

some thoughts from FG:

 

mike sixel
9:53 You got power, Jeff? The Twins walked A LOT already, is this partly the new FO and batting coach, or just KC being bad at pitching?

 

Jeff Sullivan
9:53 KC has bad pitching
9:54 Jason Castro already has six walks in 12 plate appearances. One strikeout. Yikes
9:55 It is amazing to me that Eddie Rosario already has two unintentional walks. Last year he had 10

[chpettit19]

The Royals pitching was awful and made it easy to take walks. But the Twins still deserve credit in doing what they should and taking those walks. My hope is that seeing how much taking walks helped them win games will help them continue to be patient as the season moves on. Especially Rosario. He has an incredible talent to get the barrel to the ball and with just a little patience to get better pitches to hit he could be a big time hitter. Buxton needs to be dropped in the order starting tonight. He never should have been in the 3 hole to start, but he's clearly pressing and trying to do too much right now. He needs to hit in the bottom 3rd until he relaxes and starts having success. Overjoyed with the success of the team so far, but have a terrible feeling in my gut that we're watching Mollie completely torpedo Buxton's career by putting him in a terrible position.

 

It's amazing how much more fun it is to watch good baseball than that trash we had to watch last year. Even if they don't make the playoffs or even reach .500 I'll be much happier with it all if they just continue to put up professional at bats and play sound defense.

[Dantes929]

 

Where are you getting this stat? According to MLB.com, the 2016 team was fifth in the AL in overall walks. Fangraphs had them fifth in BB% in the AL as well.

 

The 2016 squad had a ton of flaws but patience wasn't one of them and the team should only improve in that regard for 2017.

 

Subtract Suzuki, add Castro. Subtract Santana playing time, add Kepler. Subtract Escobar playing time, add Polanco.

 

When all is said and done for 2017, it wouldn't surprise me to see this team third- or fourth-best in AL BB%.

Whoops.   Got it off ESPN and misread it.   They were 13th rather than 18th in the major leagues which puts them barely in the upper half.    I still think the high strike out rate was related to discipline and recognition rather than just missing balls in the zone but I could be wrong. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Whoops.   Got it off ESPN and misread it.   They were 13th rather than 18th in the major leagues which puts them barely in the upper half.    I still think the high strike out rate was related to discipline and recognition rather than just missing balls in the zone but I could be wrong. 

In situations like these, I prefer to use league stats over MLB stats. There's just too much noise between the NL and AL data.

 

And the Twins were fifth in both overall walks and BB% (the better stat of the two, IMO) in the AL last season.

 

And that's pretty good overall.

 

As for strikeouts, I think it's six of one, half dozen of the other. Some of the young players certainly struggle with pitch recognition and swing at bad pitches but they're making up that ground at times, laying off pitches at an acceptable rate overall.

[John Bonnes]

As a team, they're striking out nearly as much as they walk: 23 BB/25 K. And that's including Buxton's abysmal start.

 

They supposedly brought in Castro for his leadership as much as his glove. Is it coincidence that just as he is being uber-patient at the plate, that the whole team is?  

 

(Probably. But still....)