Whoopsie on the Mound: Twins Coaches Discover They Forgot Pitcher Fielding Practice

[Cody Christie]

Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-Imagn Images

MINNEAPOLIS—In a development that can only be described as vintage Twins, sources within the coaching staff admitted Wednesday that an “unfortunate oversight” led to the complete omission of pitcher’s fielding practice (PFP) during spring training. The reason? A printing error.

Yes, you read that correctly. Apparently, a kink at Kinko's derailed months of player development.

The mishap came to light after yet another baffling defensive play by a Twins pitcher—this time, a harmless comebacker that somehow resulted in a run scored, a balk, and two fielders being charged with errors while not even touching the ball. It was then that bullpen coach Colby Suggs, while reviewing spring training notebooks, noticed a curious absence.

“I kept flipping the pages, and I was like, ‘Wait… where’s the PFP section?’” Suggs recounted. “Turns out, the original practice schedule had it, but the final printed version cut off everything after ‘Pop-ups and Pickoffs: A Modern Philosophical Debate.’ So yeah, PFP got yeeted into the Gulf of Mexico—or America, whatever we call it these days.”

Manager Rocco Baldelli addressed the issue candidly before Wednesday’s game, stepping into the media room with what could only be described as the “I left the oven on in Minneapolis” look.

“I take full responsibility for this,” Baldelli said. “When we talk about preparation, we always emphasize holistic development—mental skills, breathing exercises, swing planes, beard maintenance. But somehow, we missed the part where pitchers learn how to field baseballs. Honestly, that’s on me.”

Pitching coach Pete Maki admitted that, in hindsight, perhaps the balance between data and doing had gotten skewed.

“I was deep into refining our pitch tunneling models and optimizing spin mirroring ratios,” said Maki, while holding a clipboard with enough graphs to launch a SpaceX rocket. “So when someone asked if we’d covered PFPs, I assumed they meant 'Pitch Framing Projections.' By the time I realized they meant 'fielding,' I was already waist-deep in release point variance charts. My bad.”

Sources confirm the PFP omission may explain a rash of early-season defensive calamities involving Twins pitchers, including:

• A pickoff throw from Pablo López that sailed into the hot dog stand and somehow injured a fan who had already left the stadium.
• Louie Varland running directly past a bunt, apparently assuming someone else would materialize to handle it.
• Jhoan Duran doing a full wind-up before underhanding a ball to first and still throwing it into right field.

“It’s like we took Gold Glove-caliber athletes and handed them hot potatoes,” said Josh Kalk, the team’s Vice President, Baseball Operations Strategy & Innovation. “Although according to our models, statistically speaking, hot potatoes might’ve produced better outcomes.”

Front office head Derek Falvey also weighed in, defending the team's usual attention to detail.

“This is not indicative of our overall process,” said Falvey. “We pride ourselves on thoroughness. This was a rare, print-related glitch. We’ve already taken steps to ensure future practice plans are printed using the entire ream of paper.”

The pitchers themselves responded with a mix of confusion and mild relief.

“I was wondering why we never did PFP,” said López. “But then I figured, maybe we’re just evolving past the whole ‘fielding’ thing. Like a shift in baseball’s collective consciousness.”

Said Chris Paddack, “Look, I can throw a 95 mph fastball on the black. But ask me to throw underhand to first? That’s a bridge too far, man.”

As for Joe Ryan, he offered the most pragmatic take: “I just assumed it was a Scandinavian baseball tradition—no fielding, just vibes.”

Moving forward, Baldelli promised that PFPs will be “front and center” in all future practice schedules, including an emergency in-season minicamp cleverly titled "Fielding: It’s Kinda Important."

Meanwhile, a new sign has been posted above the entrance to the Twins’ clubhouse: “PFP: If You Can’t Field, You Can’t Win. Unless the Other Team Also Forgot PFP.”

Spring training, folks. It's where the fundamentals are learned—unless they’re not printed.

View full article

[thelanges5]

McCusker’s height and wingspan would help with our errant throws to 1B. 

[Cody Christie]

Pablo Lopez must have read this article today.

[Bodie]

An organization once renowned for solid fundamentals, even on some bad teams, simply doesn't care about them!

Bunts?  Not a guy on the team is even asked to try.  Hitting under .100 and need to advance a runner?  Swing away and "trust the process".  Someone bunting again you?  Look like a bad little league team that had never heard of the concept, let alone defended one.

Stolen bases?  Pitching staff looks like they have never heard of trying to hold the runners.  And catchers who by default have virtually no chance of throwing out runners, and who keep setting up the same behind the plate, regardless. 

They watch any team who tries run unimpeded, and do nothing.  Not even trying to run themselves (though to be fair to the players on the last several years' rosters they were obviously not signed to steal bases.  Or run the bases, play defense, move runners along....)

 

Very simply, the Twins have come to believe that anyone can be coached up to fit "the process".  The.simplest, and painfully obvious hole in their theory is that no one hits the ball hard on a swing and miss.  And this team (several years on now) is a bad contact hitting team. 

They seem to think that everyone can get Puckett results by using an exaggerated power swing.  Somehow they struggle to get Laudner numbers. Somehow...

 

[Sjoski]

Watching our pitchers air-mail throws to first base is starting to feel as routine as the 7th inning stretch....what inning did Lopez make that throw???

[Maybe Next Year]

7 hours ago, Bodie said:

An organization once renowned for solid fundamentals, even on some bad teams, simply doesn't care about them!

Bunts?  Not a guy on the team is even asked to try.  Hitting under .100 and need to advance a runner?  Swing away and "trust the process".  Someone bunting again you?  Look like a bad little league team that had never heard of the concept, let alone defended one.

Stolen bases?  Pitching staff looks like they have never heard of trying to hold the runners.  And catchers who by default have virtually no chance of throwing out runners, and who keep setting up the same behind the plate, regardless. 

They watch any team who tries run unimpeded, and do nothing.  Not even trying to run themselves (though to be fair to the players on the last several years' rosters they were obviously not signed to steal bases.  Or run the bases, play defense, move runners along....)

 

Very simply, the Twins have come to believe that anyone can be coached up to fit "the process".  The.simplest, and painfully obvious hole in their theory is that no one hits the ball hard on a swing and miss.  And this team (several years on now) is a bad contact hitting team. 

They seem to think that everyone can get Puckett results by using an exaggerated power swing.  Somehow they struggle to get Laudner numbers. Somehow...

 

Why bother with fundamentals when you have analytics! Analytics solve everything! Right Rocco?