No Juice Podcast #57: Setting The Playoff Rotation

Other topics include Terry Ryan on stats and more. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher:

One day older?

Actually, probably pretty similar to what you see now. There may be a replacement at short either internally (Eduardo Escobar) or from the farm system (Jorge Polanco is crushing right now) but I can't see the Twins going out for an upgrade in the trade market. Then again, I was very surprised when they traded for Orlando Cabrera in 2009. Other than that, the DH spot will likely be different than it is right now. With a lot of those at-bats going to Eduardo Nunez right now, I would suspect you see either Kennys Vargas back, Josmil Pinto recalled or (gasp) maybe even Miguel Sano during the playoff stretch run.

There will be regression but I'm not certain there will be a collapse. On the show, I said I felt like they've run into trouble during their west coast road trips and if they do so again this year, let's say the heavy regression begins on July 17 when the Twins begin a six-game road trip through Oakland and Anaheim. The Twins also have to tangle with Cleveland 13 more times and with Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar clicking, man. Man oh man.

http://www.fangraphs.com/fantasy/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/klubercurveball.gif

Dan shares some of his stories on the podcast but even with a few days to think about it, I've got little to offer in this department. More power to Shock G, aka Humpty Hump, for doing what he did in a Burger King bathroom.

Selfishly, yeah, I want this to happen. Would save me a ton on commuting and parking downtown. Obviously it would be super inefficient as far as parade-routing goes but, as I type this, the Alabama Shakes are playing a mile down the road at Prince's Paisley Park and the Vikings are interested in building a new practice facility in Chanhassen as well. I got to say, this has been a big year for Chanhassen.

Dan has stated numerous times on the last few podcasts that he does not want this season to be real for the Twins. Frankly, I don't think anyone really cares how a team wins a World Series so long as they win a World Series, or hell, even just reach the postseason. Believe it or not, there are other ways to have winning seasons that does not involve blowing up the organization. Yes, ideally, there would be a long-term vision which results in years of sustainable winning -- and that may be coming in Minnesota with the arrival of various prospects in the pipeline.

I would love to believe the Twins brain trust sat down and created a five-year plan which involved analytical studies that only Will Hunting could understand. I would love to read something later that somehow one of their stats people discovered via the StatsCast data a way to steal one win a season by never using a cut-off man or something like that. Or that using light-hitting infielders as your Designated Hitter actually helps increase your WAR. That would be amazing. But, hey, Torii Hunter's got a great smile, right?

As always, the coolest Twin ever is Kent Hrbek.