Game Thread: Twins @ Rangers, 9/1 @ 7:10pm CT

[VATwinsFan]

Vasquez.  Interesting.

[Squirrel]

Uh... what about Vargas, Romero, Gordon, Anderson, Wade, and Reed?

Other than Romero, none of those are on the 40-man. Doubtful they make that many moves to call up people. Doubt we see Vargas, Gordon or Wade. We’ll see in the others.

[jtkoupal]

 

Every 9 plate appearances? And he's batting 8th?

So close and yet so far...

In all fairness, batting order actually makes virtually no difference over the course of a season.  

 

The difference between a perfectly-optimized lineup and a "clearly sabotaged" lineup is about 1.5 runs over 162 games... Carleton, Russell A. "The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking." Pg. 182-183.

 

It's still best to have an optimized lineup, and Austin batting 8th seems weird to me too, but the impact is not nearly as significant as one might think. 

 

[Winston Smith]

 

Other than Romero, none of those are on the 40-man. Doubtful they make that many moves to call up people. Doubt we see Vargas, Gordon or Wade. We’ll see in the others.

I think I saw somewhere that Ramos is getting close to an inning limit. 

 

Somebody looks nervous!!

[VATwinsFan]

So what's the record for most errors committed in the first inning of your first major league game?

[jtkoupal]

I'm anxious to see how "The Opener" works out tomorrow for the Twins.

 

I understand that there is opposition to the opener movement, but understand a few things:

1. The Twins don't care whether you support the movement or not.

2. If teams are doing it, especially good teams like the Astros and A's, then there must be some validity to it.

3. It's ok for baseball to evolve. Not everything has to stay the way it always has been. Baseball has evolved before, and it will do it again and again until it dies.

4. It makes sense to usher this in during garbage time when the games are meaningless.

5. If you were in charge and had to make decisions like this, and there was a strategy which could potentially prevent more runs without you having to spend an extra dollar, would you not explore it? Something tells me you probably would.

[wavedog]

Well, it’s very nice to see Vasquez pitch - he needs a little work on fielding his position though. He hit the trifecta, fielding error, throwing error and mental error.

[slash129]

Well, the pitching looks good from Vasquez,  I suspect what we are seeing is a guy who torpedoed through the system this year based on said pitching. He needs to be sanded down the rest of the way with lots of PFP.

[wavedog]

Ranger pitcher is rockin some great Degrom hair

[wavedog]

Pre-haircut deGrom I should add

[Squirrel]

I think I saw somewhere that Ramos is getting close to an inning limit. 

 

Somebody looks nervous!!

Ramos?

[VATwinsFan]

The Twins bring in a rookie who can't reach 90 MPH, the Rangers bring in one who almost hits 100.

 

And who then promptly throws a change up 20 MPH slower for the K.

 

Yikes.

[yarnivek1972]

Not sure if it is loss of focus, fatigue (which it should not be), getting “figured out” by the league, injury or something else. But Gibson and now Berrios have been horrid since their final start in July. This isn’t SSS anymore. This is 1/4 of the season to date for both. Berrios in his last 7 starts has given up 7 HR in 33 IP with an ERA well north of 5.

 

If those two aren’t top 30 pitchers in the AL this team isn’t doing anything for YEARS.

[Winston Smith]

 

Ramos?

Sorry Romero...

[wavedog]

There was a hanger from Drake.

[wavedog]

Ok, Sano let’s see you get a hold of one.

[wavedog]

Ok, that was a pathetic at-bat - down on 3 pitches

[mrmpls]

Bring up jake reed, him and addison , one as opener and one as closer

[wavedog]

Interesting line score - we gave up 5 hits and 3 walks which led to 7 runs. That was an efficient performance from Texas. Ok, back to College Football.

[sampleSizeOfOne]

In all fairness, batting order actually makes virtually no difference over the course of a season.

 

The difference between a perfectly-optimized lineup and a "clearly sabotaged" lineup is about 1.5 runs over 162 games... Carleton, Russell A. "The Shift: The Next Evolution in Baseball Thinking." Pg. 182-183.

 

It's still best to have an optimized lineup, and Austin batting 8th seems weird to me too, but the impact is not nearly as significant as one might think.

Alas, i was interpretting "homering every 9 plate appearances" both as predictive rather than statistical, and applying it to team plate appearances rather than individual, trying to infer that if they batted him 9th instead, he was bound to homer. And not just his first time up...

 

Here i am making a classic blunder Chief has berated me for in the past, of trying to explain a joke. But this time seemed worth it, at least the morning after. I want understand my joke too...

[sampleSizeOfOne]

Interesting line score - we gave up 5 hits and 3 walks which led to 7 runs. That was an efficient performance from Texas. Ok, back to College Football.

4 of the five hits were homeruns, one of which followed 2 of the walks.

 

But there were 2 errors besides what combined with the other hit to result in a semi-inefficient run.

 

Yeah, waste not, want not...