The 3 Most Problematic Developments From Twins' First Week

[BsuNemo]

What are the analytics on players over thinking analytics. I think they're in their own heads. I know it's not that easy but I think, especially in baseball, too much thinking it's not a good thing. See ball, hit ball right? 

[jkcarew]

10 hours ago, Reptevia said:

Looking at his entire career-we are getting Kepler. For the majority of his career, this is who he is. The months he “figures it out” are the outliers. 

Kepler’s a career 103 OPS+ guy. Not great for a corner outfielder, not atrocious, either.

Perceptions seem different, but in reality, Buxton’s about the same offensively….with a 106 career OPS.

Neither are going to drive a team to a great offensive performance over the coarse of a season. We’re in a situation where we’re hoping that Correa plus a couple of the newer guys can be that. Whole lot of veterans on this club that are just “they are what they are” guys. Passengers on a truly good team.

Not a good place to be in when your main rival (Cleveland) has the youngest lineup in the majors.

[Major League Ready]

19 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Margot should never have been signed

His wRC+ is 144  Buxton's is 91.   It won't stay that way but in a thread about the most problematic developments, he is at the bottom of the list. 

[Riverbrian]

On 4/8/2024 at 6:30 AM, Ted Schwerzler said:

No one was expecting Willi Castro to start every day, and Kyle Farmer rotating in was supposed to be less frequent and less necessary than this. Then, Lewis got injured, and everything went out the window.

The roster was all pretty out of spring training. A right hander in place for each young left handerd hitter. 

It didn't take long for the prettiness to go away.

We had no room for Polanco. Or did we? 

Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner still not allowed to face left handers in year #2 and now Austin Martin is a short side platoon, pinch runner. 

The Twins can't survive in the future without talent coming from the farm. What we are doing to Julien, Kirilloff, Wallner and now Austin Martin is not development. 

Santana is playing every day. Kirilloff is not. 

This isn't right. 

 

[Reptevia]

3 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

The roster was all pretty out of spring training. A right hander in place for each young left handerd hitter. 

It didn't take long for the prettiness to go away.

We had no room for Polanco. Or did we? 

Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner still not allowed to face left handers in year #2 and now Austin Martin is a short side platoon, pinch runner. 

The Twins can't survive in the future without talent coming from the farm. What we are doing to Julien, Kirilloff, Wallner and now Austin Martin is not development. 

Santana is playing every day. Kirilloff is not. 

This isn't right. 

 

Yes. Obviously, the #1 problem is the increasingly inflexible analytics based philosophy that ties the hands of the coaches and manager. People on here have railed against batting average as a useless metric, yet instead they are relying on other metrics averaged over a player’s career to make decisions for today. That results in Kepler batting cleanup when he’s batting .050 and a player who is 3 for 4 today being lifted in a key situation because the cold guy on the bench got a bunch of hits off this pitcher 5 years ago. It simply isn’t sustainable. 

[Riverbrian]

1 hour ago, Reptevia said:

Yes. Obviously, the #1 problem is the increasingly inflexible analytics based philosophy that ties the hands of the coaches and manager. People on here have railed against batting average as a useless metric, yet instead they are relying on other metrics averaged over a player’s career to make decisions for today. That results in Kepler batting cleanup when he’s batting .050 and a player who is 3 for 4 today being lifted in a key situation because the cold guy on the bench got a bunch of hits off this pitcher 5 years ago. It simply isn’t sustainable. 

Yep... The past is the past. The future is yet to be determined and of course the now is resulting in Wins and Losses in real time. 

[bean5302]

6 hours ago, Major League Ready said:

His wRC+ is 144  Buxton's is 91.   It won't stay that way but in a thread about the most problematic developments, he is at the bottom of the list. 

Margot will absolutely, 100%, not stay there. He's a below average hitter. Always has been, and he's not getting any younger. Seeing Margot in the lineup all the time has been exceptionally frustrating for me. The results have been there, but that's been luck, not methodology.

[RpR]

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Margot will absolutely, 100%, not stay there. He's a below average hitter. Always has been, and he's not getting any younger. Seeing Margot in the lineup all the time has been exceptionally frustrating for me. The results have been there, but that's been luck, not methodology.

Yeah, put the rookies and throw the crap against the wall and see what sticks!

[bean5302]

3 hours ago, RpR said:

Yeah, put the rookies and throw the crap against the wall and see what sticks!

What rookies? Austin Martin is literally the only position player on the active roster who hasn't lost rookie status.

[Finlander]

Meanwhile, James Rowson has the Yankees hitters rocking. Granted, they have some great hitters and really improved by adding Soto. But I'm paying attention to the improved hitting of Cabrera, Wells, Volpe and others, and continue to wonder what the circumstances were that caused the Twins to let Rowson leave. I hope it wasn't a few thousand dollars.

[jorgenswest]

23 minutes ago, Finlander said:

Meanwhile, James Rowson has the Yankees hitters rocking. Granted, they have some great hitters and really improved by adding Soto. But I'm paying attention to the improved hitting of Cabrera, Wells, Volpe and others, and continue to wonder what the circumstances were that caused the Twins to let Rowson leave. I hope it wasn't a few thousand dollars.

Going from hitting coach to bench coach is a promotion. 

[stringer bell]

On 4/8/2024 at 9:34 AM, mikelink45 said:

Miranda makes sense, Martin is a waste of space on the bench unless Rocco decides he should get out and play - I mean start and get 3 - 4 games of real effort.  No one gets hits when they get 3 ABs in how many games? 

Margot has not shined - I know it is early season, but we need some new energy and Kepler and Wallner are not giving us what we need in the OF.  

The team slash line is 191/308/300 - no one wins with that production.

The pitching staff has a 3.54 era - not bad, especially if you remove Varland and Ober from the stats.  The Twins have scored 3 runs per game - It is necessary to score more than the other team - maybe Rocco should explain that. 

We have two players hitting over 300 - Correa and Kiriloff.  We have six of the regulars hitting in the 100s (actually Kepler is 050).  On the bench Margot 250 and Farmer 231 are the leaders. 

Farmer has a BA of .000, but he’s drawn four walks. 

[ashbury]

24 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

Farmer has a BA of .000, but he’s drawn four walks. 

Good.  I hate batting averages when they are empty.

[RpR]

1 hour ago, stringer bell said:

Farmer has a BA of .000, but he’s drawn four walks. 

He has 4 Ks and 2 stolen bases, so that means: in 14 plate appearences he has 4Ks, 4 BB and hit the ball 6 times.

At this point, Wallner has one more At Bat and one more hit than Farmer; If Farmer ges a hit next time at bat will they have the same BA?