Article: Angels 2, Twins 1: Angels Steal a Victory, Spoil Santana’s CG

[Doomtints]

Twins clearly never practiced or discussed how to handle a double steal. The idea was to cause confusion and that's exactly what happened.  

 

You can bet the team will be working on it now.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Bring unready, if true, is inexcusable. I really hope that their scouting and prep work is better than that. And, being able to pinch hit with granite or Garver would have been nicer than having that many pitchers.

 

Yeah but would you really want Granite and Garver not playing every day on the off chance that Mauer is unable to play and they need a bench bat in a close game? That seems like a pretty big stretch for a two day interruption. I'd rather see people playing every day.

[Tom Froemming]

 

Garver can sit in Minneapolis for a couple of days, in case he's needed. It wouldn't ruin his development and he's at an age where burning an option is not a big deal. However, he wouldn't have pinch hit against Norris, a righty, anyway, so it's moot as to impact on the game.

Thank you. Garver is 26 years old and Granite is 24. Having him on the bench isn't going to hurt their development. And they'd both better learn how to be bench players because that's more than likely gonna be their future roles. Also, being on the 40-man roster already, they're both burning an option year whether the Twins call them up or not. 

 

And in regard to Norris, he has crazy reverse splits this season. RHB have a .680 OPS while he's held LHB to a .408 OPS. That's probably a fluke/small sample issue,  but the point is that it's not like he's death to right-handed hitters.

 

Also, it's not like you're only able to pinch hit in the ninth. There were other situations in which it would have made sense to go to the bench late. Escobar led off the eighth against a RHP. His OPS vs. right-handers is just .662 (it's .949 vs. LHP).

[drjim]

I agree that calling up Granite or Garver wouldn't matter for development, might even help to get a taste.

 

But is it clear that the Twins would have used either of them as a PH in that situation? I'm not sure it's an upgrade.

[ThejacKmp]

 

Thank you. Garver is 26 years old and Granite is 24. Having him on the bench isn't going to hurt their development. And they'd both better learn how to be bench players because that's more than likely gonna be their future roles. Also, being on the 40-man roster already, they're both burning an option year whether the Twins call them up or not. 

 

And in regard to Norris, he has crazy reverse splits this season. RHB have a .680 OPS while he's held LHB to a .408 OPS. That's probably a fluke/small sample issue,  but the point is that it's not like he's death to right-handed hitters.

 

If you really think that bench player is their future roles, then it's hard to understand how not having them on the bench yesterday was really that big a deal. Guys whose ceiling is bench player generally aren't important enough for teeth gnashing over minor moves. I'd understand this if it was a Miguel Sano type but Garver? Granite? They're not pushing their way to the majors and they should be kept in AAA.

 

Norris's career OPS against was .703 vs. RHB and .808 vs. LHB. You're citing a small sample of 35 innings; I'll take the over 1000 career innings to mean more. For the first 35 innings of this year, Hector Santiago looked like a Cy Young candidate with his 2.78 ERA and .615 OPS against. But I wouldn't have mailed in my ballot quite yet.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Garver and Granite aren't served being on the bench for two days - they need to be playing.

Wouldn't a 2 day assignment be perfect for those guys? You don't want them on the bench long term, but 2 days is nothing.

 

FWIW, they'll get a multi day interruption for the all star break next week anyway. I don't think that violates the "play them every day" philosophy either

Edited July 6, 2017 by spycake

[SwainZag]

Double steal muff is on Castro to me.  Everyone in the building knows that Maybin has elite speed on 3rd base.  Even if they didn't know the Angels had previously done this, this isn't a new play, it's one that everyone should have seen being in baseball for years.  

 

Either way, it's hard to win a game only scoring 1 run, especially when you are down 1-0 before you even get the plate.

[Guest]

Thank you. Garver is 26 years old and Granite is 24. Having him on the bench isn't going to hurt their development. And they'd both better learn how to be bench players because that's more than likely gonna be their future roles. Also, being on the 40-man roster already, they're both burning an option year whether the Twins call them up or not. 

 

And in regard to Norris, he has crazy reverse splits this season. RHB have a .680 OPS while he's held LHB to a .408 OPS. That's probably a fluke/small sample issue,  but the point is that it's not like he's death to right-handed hitters.

 

Also, it's not like you're only able to pinch hit in the ninth. There were other situations in which it would have made sense to go to the bench late. Escobar led off the eighth against a RHP. His OPS vs. right-handers is just .662 (it's .949 vs. LHP).

Hard to see Garver having an MLB OPS against RHP much better than Escobar's .662. I'd rather Garver's right handed bat and positional versatility were on the bench instead of having a ninth reliever, but it's hard to see when he would have batted yesterday and it seems the odds are small that he would have positively affected the outcome.

[Mr. Brooks]

The Angels squeezed with two outs, not the Twins.

 

9 relief pitchers is a bit of an exaggeration by everyone - one of them is Buesnitz, who is only up for a few days until the Twins call up a starter to replace Santiago. We can argue that eight is too many (it is) but nine is a bit disingenuous.

No, it's not disingenuous. They could have used that roster spot on a position player. They chose to use it on a relief pitcher. They are carrying 9 relievers.

[Dantes929]

What is overlooked is that the shoe was on the other foot for a while.   Maybin almost certainly should have scored on the previous play when Kepler had to dive for a shallow fly ball.      That should have been the play that LA's fans could chew on.   Instead, the Twins bailed him out.

[h2oface]

Castro seemed to "stutter" on the throw to second, and not just throw it right out. I bet he even had second thoughts about throwing it, in the second it happened. That little extra time took away the time Dozier needed to get the ball back to him in time. Hey, my hat's off to the Angels for executing this play perfectly. The most embarrassing part, is that Maybin didn't even have to slide, and came in standing up. Dozier's return throw was a perfect placement it there had been a slide (but still might have been to late). The Angels are a running team, and that won them this game.

Edited July 6, 2017 by h2oface

[Mike Sixel]

Yeah but would you really want Granite and Garver not playing every day on the off chance that Mauer is unable to play and they need a bench bat in a close game? That seems like a pretty big stretch for a two day interruption. I'd rather see people playing every day.

For three days? Also, Garver won't play every day next year either. And it's not like either of them is young. So, no, for a few days, it doesn't matter to their development.

[yarnivek1972]

"Only" 13 pitchers.