What Harrison Bader Means to Matt Wallner: Anti-Platooners, Rejoice!

[sweetmusicviola16]

Wallner has less than 100 PA's against LHP in his Twins career. Yet we are convinced that he can never hit one. Wallner will sit and continue to not develop in place of a guy who makes every effort he can at the plate to get himself out.

RF Castro

LF Bader

C Vazquez

1B Julien

2B Gasper

Yes I can see Rocco doing this.

 

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

Wallner has less than 100 PA's against LHP in his Twins career. Yet we are convinced that he can never hit one. Wallner will sit and continue to not develop in place of a guy who makes every effort he can at the plate to get himself out.

RF Castro

LF Bader

C Vazquez

1B Julien

2B Gasper

Yes I can see Rocco doing this.

 

Me too.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

7 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

IMO, against lefties (and everybody healthy) Bader (LF), Buxton(CF), Wallner (RF, taking turns with Larnach), France (DH), against righties, Castro (LF), Buxton(CF), Wallner RF, Larnach DH.

Bader will also get time in CF when Buxton needs time off against righties. My guess is that Bader plays the most games in the outfield.

I agree with you, also if you are right that Bader plays the most outfield innings the offense will be really bad.

[sweetmusicviola16]

1 hour ago, Parfigliano said:

Me too.

The worst thing is, I firmly believe that Gasper has already made this team. It is guys like Lee, Martin, Julien that have to prove themselves. Keirsey not a chance. 

[TheLeviathan]

My biggest takeaway from this is that it cements the idea that the team is down on Brooks Lee and he's not even getting a real shot to win a spot in the lineup.  Combine that with the red carpet they rolled out for France and I'm less than encouraged with the mindset we're walking into ST with.

[DJL44]

6 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I concur that Bader will be fine as a 4th OFer this year, but he damn well better not get 100+ games and 400 ABs.

That's Buxton numbers. 

He'll get 250 at-bats just playing when Buxton is injured. Then another 80 when there are lefty starting pitchers.

[bean5302]

16 hours ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

The worst thing is, I firmly believe that Gasper has already made this team. It is guys like Lee, Martin, Julien that have to prove themselves. Keirsey not a chance. 

Hahaha, really? As of right now, I'd give Gasper a 1% chance.

I mean, sure, Boston put him at 2B... but he only started 18 games in his entire MiLB career there. It was pretty wild to put him at the keystone, IMHO. Gasper had 108 GS at catcher, 179 GS at 1B. The 18 games he started at 2B were almost all from the Yankees' system in 2023.

1B - France (R), Miranda (R), Julien (L), Gasper (S)
2B - Castro (S), Julien (L), Lee (S), Lewis (R), Gasper (S)
C - Jeffers (R), Vazquez (R), Cartaya (R), Camargo (R), Gasper (S)
DH - By committee

Gasper is going to have to prove a lot this spring. I'm not even sure how the organization actually views him right now.

[Parfigliano]

15 hours ago, TheLeviathan said:

My biggest takeaway from this is that it cements the idea that the team is down on Brooks Lee and he's not even getting a real shot to win a spot in the lineup.  Combine that with the red carpet they rolled out for France and I'm less than encouraged with the mindset we're walking into ST with.

New year and FO and Rocco making same mistakes. Wish I was surprised.

[Riverbrian]

14 hours ago, DJL44 said:

He'll get 250 at-bats just playing when Buxton is injured. Then another 80 when there are lefty starting pitchers.

If he remains healthy. Margot led the team in AB's vs Left Handed Pitching last year with 156.  

Interestingly... Shohei Ohtani (Left Handed Hitter) led all of baseball PA's against left handed pitching with last year with 249. 

Even more interesting and I mean real interesting. The top 8 batters in baseball in 2024 plate appearances against left handed pitching... ARE ALL LEFT HANDED HITTERS. Ohtani, Schwarber, Duran, Harper, Soto, Freeman, Devers and Henderson. 

Additional Interest... The highest ranked right handed hitter in plate appearances against left handed pitching isn't a huge name but a rather young name. It was Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies with 209 plate appearances. He was tied for 12th... with Alvarez and Carroll... who are interestingly... both left handed. 

9 and 10 on the list are switch hitters: De La Cruz and Marte. Jazz Chisholm... another lefty is 11th. 

Just to keep the interest going... Arraez checks in at 15th and he is... again left handed.

For those who don't want to do the math. 12 of the top 15 players in plate appearances are pure left handed hitters.   

I find that interesting. Others may not have any interest. 

 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

15 hours ago, DJL44 said:

He'll get 250 at-bats just playing when Buxton is injured. Then another 80 when there are lefty starting pitchers.

My money is on Baldelli finding a way to put Bader in the starting line up opening day. And the Cardinals don't even have a left handed starter from what I can see. I'll guess he's in LF and Larnach or Wallner will DH. 

Manny Margot of all people was the opening day DH last year. 

Bader seems like exactly the kind of player Baldelli falls in love with, he's going to play a lot and get a ton of ABs.

If this team is planning on starting France, who's only making 1M and not guaranteed a roster spot, they almost certainly plan on their budget buster free agent this year being a near every day player.

[Mike Sixel]

5 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

If he remains healthy. Margot led the team in AB's vs Left Handed Pitching last year with 156.  

Interestingly... Shohei Ohtani (Left Handed Hitter) led all of baseball PA's against left handed pitching with last year with 249. 

Even more interesting and I mean real interesting. The top 8 batters in baseball in 2024 plate appearances against left handed pitching... ARE ALL LEFT HANDED HITTERS. Ohtani, Schwarber, Duran, Harper, Soto, Freeman, Devers and Henderson. 

Additional Interest... The highest ranked right handed hitter in plate appearances against left handed pitching isn't a huge name but a rather young name. It was Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies with 209 plate appearances. He was tied for 12th... with Alvarez and Carroll... who are interestingly... both left handed. 

9 and 10 on the list are switch hitters: De La Cruz and Marte. Jazz Chisholm... another lefty is 11th. 

Just to keep the interest going... Arraez checks in at 15th and he is... again left handed.

For those who don't want to do the math. 12 of the top 15 players in plate appearances are pure left handed hitters.   

I find that interesting. Others may not have any interest. 

 

 

 

I'm guessing that's because other teams realize most pitchers are RH......and they let their best hitters hit. Like, you know, Wallner....

[Linus]

7 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

If he remains healthy. Margot led the team in AB's vs Left Handed Pitching last year with 156.  

Interestingly... Shohei Ohtani (Left Handed Hitter) led all of baseball PA's against left handed pitching with last year with 249. 

Even more interesting and I mean real interesting. The top 8 batters in baseball in 2024 plate appearances against left handed pitching... ARE ALL LEFT HANDED HITTERS. Ohtani, Schwarber, Duran, Harper, Soto, Freeman, Devers and Henderson. 

Additional Interest... The highest ranked right handed hitter in plate appearances against left handed pitching isn't a huge name but a rather young name. It was Ezequiel Tovar of the Rockies with 209 plate appearances. He was tied for 12th... with Alvarez and Carroll... who are interestingly... both left handed. 

9 and 10 on the list are switch hitters: De La Cruz and Marte. Jazz Chisholm... another lefty is 11th. 

Just to keep the interest going... Arraez checks in at 15th and he is... again left handed.

For those who don't want to do the math. 12 of the top 15 players in plate appearances are pure left handed hitters.   

I find that interesting. Others may not have any interest. 

 

 

 

You could win a bar bet or two with some of those numbers

[DJL44]

11 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

My money is on Baldelli finding a way to put Bader in the starting line up opening day.

I don't disagree. I was commenting more that 350 PAs is a minimum expectation for Bader. I don't think he'll get 500 mainly because I don't think Bader can stay healthy for a whole season.

[nicksaviking]

2 minutes ago, DJL44 said:

I don't disagree. I was commenting more that 350 PAs is a minimum expectation for Bader. I don't think he'll get 500 mainly because I don't think Bader can stay healthy for a whole season.

I also wasn't disagreeing with you, just emphasizing that I think Bader is going to get way more PAs than even his biggest supporters will like.

[Riverbrian]

23 minutes ago, Linus said:

You could win a bar bet or two with some of those numbers

Don't need to go to a bar. I could win those bets with some of the folks on TD.

Which is the same thing because the TD forums drive me to drink. 

[Riverbrian]

27 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'm guessing that's because other teams realize most pitchers are RH......and they let their best hitters hit. Like, you know, Wallner....

The thing I find interesting... is just another data point that can be used to illustrate how the Twins compare to the other 29 teams in regards to the commitment to keeping left handed hitters away from left handed pitching. 

Wallner isn't good enough to face left handed hitters? Some believe this. 

OK... how about this:

The Twins are 30th ranked in left handed hitters facing left handed pitching. So no left handed hitter on the Twins apparently is? .

Still think this is still on Wallner's ability to hit left handed pitching? 

OK... here is another data point to chew on? 12 of the top 15 in plate appearances were left handed hitters. 

What's that... Those top 12 are the best hitters in baseball... Wallner doesn't belong in that group? 

OK... Well... I guess... The Twins will make sure that he never gets into that group. 

The Twins either failed to develop left handed hitters who could compete against left handed hitters or they are simply shutting it down on purpose.

Either way... they spend the off-season shopping for right handed hitters. Investing millions. 

 

 

[nicksaviking]

15 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

The thing I find interesting... is just another data point that can be used to illustrate how the Twins compare to the other 29 teams in regards to the commitment to keeping left handed hitters away from left handed pitching. 

Wallner isn't good enough to face left handed hitters? Some believe this. 

OK... how about this:

The Twins are 30th ranked in left handed hitters facing left handed pitching. So no left handed hitter on the Twins apparently is? .

Still think this is still on Wallner's ability to hit left handed pitching? 

OK... here is another data point to chew on? 12 of the top 15 in plate appearances were left handed hitters. 

What's that... Those top 12 are the best hitters in baseball... Wallner doesn't belong in that group? 

OK... Well... I guess... The Twins will make sure that he never gets into that group. 

The Twins either failed to develop left handed hitters who could compete against left handed hitters or they are simply shutting it down on purpose.

Either way... they spend the off-season shopping for right handed hitters. Investing millions. 

 

 

The Twins let Max Kepler be terrible hitting against left handed pitching for years, until he wasn't, (Eh, relatively speaking.....). He started to hit them better in 2018, Molitor's last year.

Kepler had a .453 OPS in 2017 against lefties in 137 PA. Neither Wallner nor Larnach were nearly as dreadful as Kepler was yet they only got 67 PA against left handed pitchers last year. Combined.

But it was a memorable season, not like we'd have wanted to taint that beautiful memory with seeing young guys struggle with the goal of improving the following year.

[NYCTK]

8 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The Twins let Max Kepler be terrible hitting against left handed pitching for years, until he wasn't, (Eh, relatively speaking.....). He started to hit them better in 2018, Molitor's last year.

Helps that Kepler played good defense. If either Larnach or Wallner contributed defensively, they'd get a lot more play against LHP too. 

Plus, Larnach hasn't hit LHP since 2019. Wallner should get a chance, but Larnach? Literally couldn't give less of a ****. 

40 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Those top 12 are the best hitters in baseball... Wallner doesn't belong in that group? 

No. 

41 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Either way... they spend the off-season shopping for right handed hitters.

The shopped for a backup CF for when Buxton is injured half the season, that just so happens to bat right handed. 

[Linus]

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Don't need to go to a bar. I could win those bets with some of the folks on TD.

Which is the same thing because the TD forums drive me to drink. 

Certain topics, certain posters can be an acquired taste 🙂

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

The Twins let Max Kepler be terrible hitting against left handed pitching for years, until he wasn't, (Eh, relatively speaking.....). He started to hit them better in 2018, Molitor's last year.

Kepler had a .453 OPS in 2017 against lefties in 137 PA. Neither Wallner nor Larnach were nearly as dreadful as Kepler was yet they only got 67 PA against left handed pitchers last year. Combined.

But it was a memorable season, not like we'd have wanted to taint that beautiful memory with seeing young guys struggle with the goal of improving the following year.

Kepler's PA/G against lefties declined pretty much every year from my recollection.
2019 = 1.83 (27.3%)
2020 = 1.61 (27.0%)
2021 = 1.82 (26.3%)
2022 = 1.75 (26.7%)
2023 = 1.49 (18.2%)
2024 = 1.40 (19.5%)

Buxton
2019 = 1.84 (23.1%) 
2020 = 1.88 (22.2%)
2021 = 2.53 (33.9%)
2022 = 2.43 (29.8%)
2023 = 2.31 (25.9%)
2024 = 2.19 (26.5%)

Larnach PA/G
2021 = 1.75 (28.0%)
2022 = 1.57 (26.7%)
2023 = 1.64 (10.8%)
2024 = 1.28 (5.8%)

Wallner PA/G
2022 = 1.64 (27.7%)
2023 = 1.70 (18.1%)
2024 = 1.58 (15.0%)

Seems to me, Baldelli has grown more and more stringent on his platoon philosophy. Doesn't matter who it is, Baldelli would rather platoon them.

[nicksaviking]

38 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

Seems to me, Baldelli has grown more and more stringent on his platoon philosophy. Doesn't matter who it is, Baldelli would rather platoon them.

I don't disagree that this is a manager thing. That's why I pointed out that Kepler was free to be terrible against lefties throughout Molitor's tenure as manager, and in his final year it paid off.

Well, not for Molitor, he still got fired. But the persistence set Kepler up to get paid.