Rangers 6, Twins 5: Jorge Alcalá Implodes, Extra-Inning Miscues Cost Twins Sweep

[Doctor Gast]

48 minutes ago, chpettit19 said:

What would better preparing them look like? The Twins are 2nd in baseball in pinch hitting PAs at 142 (Boston is at 149 and 3rd place is San Fran at 129). The Twins have played 124 games. Everybody who didn't start is either getting a full day off and they know they aren't playing at all (because Rocco told them before the game), or they know the chances are somebody is getting a PH AB that day so they should be prepared. And it's not hard to figure out that Farmer and Julien are a platoon and Margot and the corner guys are. Farmer goes into every game he's not starting but Julien is knowing that he's hitting for Julien if a lefty comes in. And vice versa. Same for Margot and the lefty corner bats.

They have more pinch hitting PAs than games played. They should all be doing the necessary work to be prepared to pinch hit as the game goes along. I'd bet a large sum of money that Rocco also tells them throughout the game that "if situation A plays out you're hitting so be prepared." Although, he may actually have his other coaches do the communicating, but the idea is the same. How would Rocco better prepare them?

OK, thank you for that info. We all know Twins love to PH. What is the Twins' PH BA? How successful are they at PHing? Seems to me they aren't very good at it. To be frank, I know PHing is very difficult, I'm not trying to criticize Baldelli & I certainly don't have the answer as much as I'm looking for answers & like the Twins to be better at it. And if they aren't successful at it should they change their philosophy or approach? Should they PH less? I'm asking for your opinion,

[chpettit19]

6 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

OK, thank you for that info. We all know Twins love to PH. What is the Twins' PH BA? How successful are they at PHing? Seems to me they aren't very good at it. To be frank, I know PHing is very difficult, I'm not trying to criticize Baldelli & I certainly don't have the answer as much as I'm looking for answers & like the Twins to be better at it. And if they aren't successful at it should they change their philosophy or approach? Should they PH less? I'm asking for your opinion,

Many of us question all their pinch hitting. Universally hitters are about 15% worse when they pinch hit. The Twins are currently 15th in BA for pinch hitters at .197. 22nd in wRC+ at 62. League best with only a 19.7% K rate as pinch hitters, though. 11th in walk rate at 10.6%.

Manuel Margot has hurt those numbers a lot. He's never been a very good pinch hitter, but he's been about as bad as possible this year. Their pinch hitting approach is tied to their platoon approach/belief. I strongly dislike the strategy, so my vote is that they limit their pinch hitting and platooning, but it's not at all likely that this front office changes their approaches on these things.

As you said, pinch hitting is hard. That's part of why I don't like it being such a big part of their strategy. As a whole, MLB hitters have an 81 wRC+ as pinch hitters this year. So slightly worse than the typical 15% dip in production. They have a .204/.294/.338/.632 line collectively. I'm sure the Twins have numbers somewhere that say it's a good strategy, but I don't see it.

[TheLeviathan]

5 hours ago, WLFINN said:

This.  With a four run lead put Richards, Okert or Thielbar out there with the thought that if it gets close you still have your best guys available. If they were down 1-0 it wouldn’t have been Alcala, seems to rigidly scripted at times.

If Rocco puts Okert in there and he gets shelled, I guarantee you the usual folks would be assailing him for not putting in Alcala.

He put in his 2nd or 3rd best reliever (depending on your belief of the rankings) with a four run lead.  He imploded in spectacularly quick fashion.  Sometimes....stupid stuff happens.  Good players strike out.  Good pitchers get shelled.  Bad players hit homeruns at the worst time against you.  That's baseball.  

Managing a baseball team requires a person to consider the workload of the humans in their charge.  The impact of arm fatigue.  Career ramifications.  Personal ramifications.  Effectiveness.  Money. Overuse.  Injury.  Rocco made a perfectly reasonable call that the vast majority of the time works into a win.  Then things happen and sometimes you just have to throw your hands in the air and move on. 

This manager, with a hamstrung budget and a ton of injuries, has the best record in baseball since April 22nd.  Read that again if you need to.  

[Wizard11]

The Rocco haters seem to dismiss the Twins wins as being in spite of him but all of the Twins losses are his fault.  Yet he is the winningest manager we have had in over 40 years.

winning %’s for Kelly .478, Gardenhire .507, Molitor .471, Baldelli .535.  That is a massive improvement over previous decades of futility.  Yeah, he sucks 🤔

[h2oface]

On 8/18/2024 at 4:34 PM, USAFChief said:

He gets no pass from me. Jax could have been up when Maki starts ambling to the mound. SHOULD have been up. At that point Jax is definitely coming in next inning anyway, almost no matter what. He could have been ready by the time Alcala faced Garcia, if not before. 

Easily.

I mean, this is the top of the Texas order. Once Seager reaches, the game is clearly on the line. Garcia is a long ball threat and has been hot. Alcala clearly can't locate ANYthing. 

We've all seen managers stall long enough to get a reliever ready.

That Rocco can't pull that off, or see the need, isn't a defense.

It's additional evidence for the prosecution. 

Plus........ Alcala could have had a problem with his fingers, or his arm, or his groin, or his hammy or or or.......and been removed because of injury, or suspected injury, and then the reliever gets all the time he needs to warm-up on the pitchers mound! 

Pretty simple, really. 

[Craig Arko]

7 hours ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

By the way, what does Gleeman say about using Duran in 4 out of 5 days? 

 

Beats me. You should ask him.

[DJL44]

14 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Jax is the most trusted high leverage setup guy who is routinely called upon - with success - to deal with the toughest parts of the opposing team’s order

A 4 run lead is not exactly a "high leverage" situation.