Article: Twins Have Managed Just Fine Without Sano in the Past

[MMMordabito]

 

Who knows, maybe this will get Willians Astudillo on the OD roster after all!

 

I'm hoping for a modern day, completely unconventional and successful Wally Pipp-type story to unfold

[Richie the Rally Goat]

I see a few possibilities, besides the likely one that it's just an outlier:

 

1) Defense at third is worth WAY more than we suspect. I like the odds on this one, because I think we have poor metrics on defense, and a poor theory on how the metrics translate to run prevention and to wins.

 

2) Large numbers of strikeouts are more damaging than we suspect. I can think of a few examples of teams that outperform expectations by striking out less (recent Royals and Astros champions), but that is anecdotal.

 

3) Extra-base hits given too much weight in run-creation and win-creation models. RC, the basis of WAR, would seem to account for this. But maybe there are factors (e.g. opportunity cost of outs) that are not well-calculated

Could also be coincidental to other players performing better in those periods.

 

Correlation does not necessarily mean causation

[KirbyDome89]

IMO the W-L record doesn't mean much of anything over those years. All of those rosters suffered from underperformance and a lack of talent, especially on the pitching side. There are much better measures of Sano's value to this team; using the W-L record over the last 4 seasons seems a bit disingenuous.   

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I'm hoping for a modern day, completely unconventional and successful Wally Pipp-type story to unfold

Hopefully this story eventually diverges from Pipp-Gehrig, though!

 

*dark humor warning*

 

Astudillo, 2033: "Today, I consider myself, the luckiest tortuga on the face of the earth..."

Edited March 6, 2019 by spycake

[MMMordabito]

 

Hopefully this story eventually diverges from Pipp-Gehrig, though!

 

 

I certainly don't want to wish ALS on the man.  That would be horrible.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

Possibly it has something to do with batting 4th or 5th in a lineup...after the best table setters...and then striking out at a very high rate, stopping potential run scoring rallies and not advancing runners. 

[Riverbrian]

 

We all have friends or people we know that seem to always "be in the wrong place at the wrong time".  I've concluded that isn't just bad luck. In my experience, the people who fit that description tend not to be very focused or "in the moment" and tend to let events control them rather than the other way around. I honestly think that's Sano. He is blessed with a lot of talent, didn't have to focus much coming up, and doesn't really see the connection between bad choices made without much thought (his diet, lack of off season training) and results later (can't move or hit well because he's overweight/rusty at the plate). 

 

The hopeful news is that this type of person can rapidly and greatly improve "when the light goes on" and they start to connect daily life with long term results and take control of their own lives. I think Sano is starting to get it so I'm optimistic. 

 

I agree... I've always assumed that baseball players are also human beings. 

 

As long as the front office realizes that the entire team and fan base doesn't have to stumble along in the dark waiting for him to locate the light switch. 

 

I'm not sure that they have realized this yet but I also assume that the front office is also made up of human beings. 

 

 

 

[Doomtints]

This is a terrible analysis because Sano played the most games in the Twins' 103 loss season.

 

Here's my take on Sano right now:

 

- It's irresponsible for a journalist to write that the wound "looks like a dog bite." First of all, the journalist surely didn't see the wound himself so he shouldn't write that. Secondly, Sano certainly didn't tell a journalist the wound looks like a dog bite. Third, the Twins are again up to their terrible innuendo-driven messaging around Sano and mouthing rubbish to reporters. We can all predict right now the next words from the team will be, gosh, Sano sure gained a lot of weight when he had that boot on his foot.

 

- It's unfortunate that Sano doesn't know to clean a wound, esp. on an extremity. Had spring training not started when it did, it's possible this guy would have lost his foot due to infection. He had at least two procedures now to remove infection and tissue from this wound.

 

- For whatever reason the Twins just don't like Sano. They should end the relationship rather than dragging this out.

Edited March 7, 2019 by Doomtints

[LaBombo]

I only had time to look at the graph. So the Twins lean Republican with Sano in the lineup?

 

Anyway, I'm more worried that Sano will have a bad season at the plate than I am that he will have a great offensive season but seemingly not help the team win.

 

And more than either of those two, I'm thinking that Sano will be just ok (2016) offensively and the Twins will just be bad regardless of his contribution.