Article: How Can The Twins Add To Their Defensive Strength?

[Thrylos]

 

 

6. Look closely at the catcher position. Castro may have been better than 2016 Suzuki, but he wasn’t great.

 

Castro is partially the reason of the ERA drop from 2016.  He is part of the good defense.  Castro's 2017 fWAR: 1.6, bWAR 2.5;  Suzuki's 2016 fWAR 0.5, bWAR 0.4.  10th best C as far as fWAR is concerned, higher with bWAR

Edited October 30, 2017 by Thrylos

[Guest]

Castro is partially the reason of the ERA drop from 2016.  He is part of the good defense.  Castro's 2017 fWAR: 1.6, bWAR 2.5;  Suzuki's 2016 fWAR 0.5, bWAR 0.4.  10th best C as far as fWAR is concerned, higher with bWAR

Well, if we’re going to discuss WAR, 2017 Suzuki had 2.7 fWAR and 2.8 bWAR, which is way better than Castro. But the topic is improving the defense, so WAR is not really on point. One way to improve defense would be to be better than tenth. Of course, you can have a different opinion.

[Platoon]

MN's ranks in swinging strike %:

 

2013: 30th

2014: 29th

2015: 29th

2016: 29th

2017: 28th

 

Regardless of what moves they make in the offseason, a majority of this year's staff will surely be returning and I don't think it's realistic to expect them to suddenly vault into the top half of the league.

 

So what your are saying is that there has been improvement over these last 5 years! (Albeit incremental) .

[Platoon]

I did not see much of Garver behind the plate this year, but from what I saw in that SSS was not promising. If I had to ump behind him, I would consider wearing my own catchers mitt as a backup.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

1. Get the best possible padding for the outfield walls, regardless of cost. Keep Buxton healthy.
 

 

I'm thinking that they could invest heavily in some sort of sci-fi tech that instantly becomes bubblewrap as he hits a wall...

[Guest]

I'm thinking that they could invest heavily in some sort of sci-fi tech that instantly becomes bubblewrap as he hits a wall...

Winner. I hope you get rich.

[kab21]

 

In particular, the answers to these three questions will be telling:

1) Will they bring back Robbie Grossman?

The most patient hitter in baseball took a step backward after his exceptional first season with the Twins, but was still a relatively useful piece, splitting time between DH and the outfield corners while providing a steady – albeit unexplosive – offensive presence.

Grossman's on-base skills fit nicely in a power-packed lineup, but it wouldn't be hard to find another fourth outfielder who can match his .741 OPS, and upgrading his glove would be be easy. When he's in the outfield, Grossman is a rare defensive liability for the Twins, lacking the range to track down anything outside his immediate vicinity.

 

 

I disagree with both of the bolded parts of the parts of the article. Robbie performed just as anyone would have expected unless they base their projections on a 99 game sample size. He was a player brought in on waivers (or similar) and had one full minor league season with a .800+ OPS. I still don't know why people thought he was going to .800+ OPS last year.

 

I don't think it is as easy you think to find a .741 OPS with an upgraded glove as a 4th OF. Robbie (and his .741 OPS) ranked about 150th in the entire majors for OPS with 400+ PA. And 6th on the Twins.

The key to improving (more like maintaining) the Twins defense will be whether or not they choose to force Vargas onto the roster. Doing that requires Sano to play more 3B and/or Grossman to play more OF. If they don't do that then Granite is the logical last hitter to make the team and it is less likely than both of Grossman and Sano are in the lineup defensively.

 

I do really like Vargas though.Tough fit on the roster though with Grossman also needing DH AB's and Sano likely getting plenty of DH days.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

MN's ranks in swinging strike %:

 

2013: 30th

2014: 29th

2015: 29th

2016: 29th

2017: 28th

 

Regardless of what moves they make in the offseason, a majority of this year's staff will surely be returning and I don't think it's realistic to expect them to suddenly vault into the top half of the league.

sign or trade for 2 starters and a reliever, and 2 or 3 of Jay, Chargois, Burdi, Romero, Gonsalves and May become significant contributors and you’ve turned over half your pitching staff.

 

You can make significant improvement when you turn over half your pitching staff

[Doomtints]

 

sign or trade for 2 starters and a reliever, and 2 or 3 of Jay, Chargois, Burdi, Romero, Gonsalves and May become significant contributors and you’ve turned over half your pitching staff.

You can make significant improvement when you turn over half your pitching staff

 

Yeah. As you and others are pointing out, this statistic can change overnight by getting rid of pitchers who are bad at this and signing pitchers who are good at it. In fact, that's probably the ONLY way to fix this problem, which goes back to what we already knew -- the Twins simply need a lot of turnover on the pitching side.

Now bear in mind this is just one statistic and is no guarantee of wins. There are pitchers who can make players swing and miss who also get shredded once contact is made.....  The Twins need a multitude of pitching styles on the roster to be truly successful (and no, they don't currently have that).

Edited November 1, 2017 by Doomtints

[Richie the Rally Goat]

 

Yeah. As you and others are pointing out, this statistic can change overnight by getting rid of pitchers who are bad at this and signing pitchers who are good at it. In fact, that's probably the ONLY way to fix this problem, which goes back to what we already knew -- the Twins simply need a lot of turnover on the pitching side.

Now bear in mind this is just one statistic and is no guarantee of wins. There are pitchers who can make players swing and miss who also get shredded once contact is made.....  The Twins need a multitude of pitching styles on the roster to be truly successful (and no, they don't currently have that).

Even the LOOGYs are high contact types.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Dozier is my favorite Twin, but I don't think he has the arm for 3B.

And defense would almost certainly be a downgrade with Dozier at the hot corner.

 

Remember Trevor Plouffe? Most guys can't just pick up third base in Spring Training. Plouffe spent most of his MiLB career at short and was absolutely terrible at third base when he hit the majors.