Twins and GroupThink vs Accountability

[drivlikejehu]

Except that the Twins have more than one full-time stats guy. Ryan has said as much in recent interviews.

 

Are they late to the game? Sure. But let's put the "ONE STAT GUY" thing to bed already.

 

I must have missed it then. Where and when did he say they have more than 1, not counting interns?

[Brock Beauchamp]

I must have missed it then. Where and when did he say they have more than 1, not counting interns?

 

Well, the Twins Daily Offseason Handbook interview, for one.

[Oxtung]

What innovation are the Twins lacking in your opinion?

 

Let's flip this around because it might be easier to answer. What have the Twins done that is innovative?

 

Off the top of my head:

 

1) Aggressively pursue intl FA's in Australia and Europe. To date though this has provided almost nothing to the major league club, to be fair there are a few nice prospects that might turn the perception around. Of course their pursuit of Australia and Europe were a result of being late to Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. At best this seems like a double edged sword.

 

2) The Twins marketing team clearly has something going for them. Bloomberg's recent analysis ranked the Twins 17th in Attendance and yet 8th in Gate Receipts. That is pretty impressive. Of course the Twins are far behind in the local media TV deals. So again, double edged.

 

3) Perhaps something on the scouting side of things. I am not informed enough in what the Twins are doing or what their competitors are to make any judgements. The scuttlebutt implies the Twins are a great scouting team though.

 

4) Depending on how you view the Twins FO one could claim their insular attitude and hiring practices are innovative.

 

The Twins certainly haven't been innovative with respect to Japanese/Cuban international free agents. Traditional FA is another no. Ryan has made some good trades that have been almost universally liked but none were particularly innovative. Whether there are one or more people within the stats department the Twins aren't pushing the boundaries with advanced metrics. Defensive shifts? Platooning? No and No. Experimentation with the definition of starting rotation, perhaps dropping to 4 starters or limiting innings or piggybacking pitchers? Nope. How about using your best reliever outside of the traditional "closer" role so that he can effect more innings and situations? Pitch framing? Over-budget on international FA's? Scoff, Guffaw and *eye roll*.

 

Perhaps some of those are good ideas. Perhaps none are. Perhaps the Twins have good reasons for not embracing these ideas, I don't know. What I do know is that when you are the worst franchise in baseball over a 3 year time period something needs to change. What you have been doing isn't working. When I look at the Twins I just don't see those changes. I don't see the innovation, the trying of new and creative ideas to jump start the organization.

 

If you always do what you've always done then you'll always get what you've always got.

[Oxtung]

There's also a disadvantage to not looking within - your best people leave. Also, within the organization, people have less motivation to perform or go the extra mile.

 

If a company goes outside the organization 3 or 4 times and passes over an employee for multiple positions because they find better candidates and that employee ends up leaving then what has the company actually lost? If your best people aren't as good as the outside talent then it sounds like something needs to change and your employees leaving isn't a bad start. In fact perhaps that is where it should start. With pink slips. Or perhaps with better training. Either way it shouldn't result in a promotion just because someone happens to reside within your company.

 

I'm not making any statements about whether the Twins should or shouldn't clean out their house, just making some general comments.