How Have the Twins Been Impacted by the New Rules?

I don’t think the rules have effected the Twins in any way that they haven’t impacted every other team….

Shift Rules: negligible impact…basically zero impact; BABiP has not changed materially…players haven’t changed approach by hitting more balls on the ground, etc.

Pitch Clock: seems to be a universal hit, but doesn’t provide a unique advantage/disadvantage to any one team. Soon, the teams who have taken the most violations will adjust.

I think the one change that favors some teams is the pickoff attempt rule (in combination with the clock). Success rates on SB attempts are up, and IMO it’s all about the restrictions on how pitchers can hold runners, and not about the 4 inches. Regardless, the Twins lose ground on some teams here, because the Twins still don’t, and won’t, attempt stolen bases.

12 hours ago, jkcarew said:

I don’t think the rules have effected the Twins in any way that they haven’t impacted every other team….

Shift Rules: negligible impact…basically zero impact; BABiP has not changed materially…players haven’t changed approach by hitting more balls on the ground, etc.

Pitch Clock: seems to be a universal hit, but doesn’t provide a unique advantage/disadvantage to any one team. Soon, the teams who have taken the most violations will adjust.

I think the one change that favors some teams is the pickoff attempt rule (in combination with the clock). Success rates on SB attempts are up, and IMO it’s all about the restrictions on how pitchers can hold runners, and not about the 4 inches. Regardless, the Twins lose ground on some teams here, because the Twins still don’t, and won’t, attempt stolen bases.

I said before the season started, when everyone was thinking the shift rule would increase certain lefties a ton.  I said it will make little to no difference, and so far that has held true.  Sure, there may be a hit or two they get but for most part has made little difference.  

I agree no team will have an advantage from pitch clock.

Steals I think will just come down to if the Twins actually want to try.  They have guys that could, but have not chosen to yet. 

7 hours ago, Trov said:

I said it will make little to no difference, and so far that has held true. 

Yeah...I thought the shift rules were stupid when I first heard of them. Seemed intuitive to me that they wouldn't have any material impact...and certainly not the desired impact. Nothing's happening that would make me question that view.

The thing that bugs me about the narrative on shifts is that they are a REASON for the modern low BA/OBP. No. They. Are. Not. The extreme shifting has been around forever...Ted Williams saw extreme shifting, Killebrew saw it...many players saw it. It wasn't used as much as what we've seen recently because back then maybe 20% of the guys were trying to pull and hit HR's on every pitch. Now it's 95%. The reason for the low BA/OBP is the near total adoption of this approach. Back in the day, maybe 2 or 3 guys in a batting order regularly used that approach...and, even at that, it tended to be somewhat situational...guys tended to have more than one tool in their bag. Now it's all they know how to do...and they've been trained to do, from age 9. And it's compounded by the fact that they're using this approach into the teeth of a trend where the batter will see multiple pitchers every game, each able to max effort every single pitch. Swinging and missing is the reason for the modern low BA/OBP. And limiting shifts, at BEST, will have no impact on that...and, at worse, could add to the problem by validating attempts to pull and launch at every PA.

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@Cody Christiewrote: 

According to FanGraph’s baserunning metric (BsR), the Twins have been worth -2.3 runs on the bases, which ranks 24th overall.

Buxton's, and to a lesser extent Taylor's, brilliant baserunning can barely buoy the anchor, that is the rest of the roster, from the bottom of the league.

3 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I believe they were 29th or 30th last year. Moving up six spots is improvement, yes?

I'll take your word for it on last year. And that makes sense. Buxton and Taylor have played a higher percentage of the teams games this year vs last.