Welcome to the New School

My feelings on the the Twins situation is that they haven't been relevant for at least nearly one decade. Possibly longer depending how you define relevant. It's finally time to really jump in with both feet and shake things up and upset the apple cart. Isn't that what most nearly everyone wanted near the end of the Ryan regime.

It will definitely be interesting to see how the college experience translates to MLB. There are potential bumps in the road that are concerning.

As a longtime Twins fan, it makes me MORE interested to follow the team in 2019, just because I will have multiple individuals to follow and rout for -- from young coaches, to young players, to new strategies, new approaches -- there will be a lot to look at, analyze and cheer for.

Just have the feeling that some of these guys will have success and we will want to celebrate that as a cutting edge improvement, not just for our Club, but maybe a trend-setter in the industry of baseball.

And, it is an industry.

One outcome I am hoping for with all the changes is that the Twins will play a fundamentally sound game, and take more from other teams than they give away. I hate sloppy, lackadaisical baseball.

Great article, Nick. IMO, you're on spot re: free agents and trades. This group isn't set up for 2019. Doesn't mean they can't win this year, just not the priority. 

With all the youth on the staff, the FO still salted in Diaz and Watkins - a couple of "been there/done that" guys - for position players (and for Sp. speakers). The surprise hire for me was Hefner. I thought they might add an experienced bullpen coach too. Not against the idea, but coaching a staff through a 162-game season is different from college. 

It's going to be interesting.

I find it interesting and funny both with what the Twins are doing with the organization we may win with this new philosphy. The funny thing is that Boston went back to more traditional head of baseball operations when they hired Dave Dombroski meaning more old school baseball people. It doesn't mean they abandonded their metrics side but i believe they were looking for balance between the two different schools in baseball. The look of present club looks like they got it right with how this club performed this past year and their run through the world series. Their new manager is of the new school but looking at way he managed in world series he also can manage like old school too. I have hope for our new manager and my first impressions of him have been good. The problem i see is that we have top management that is so involved in day to day managing that they won't let their people do their jobs. I have a theory the first year here top management had their plan already set in place to take place they were letting team perform which they assumed would fail based on their assessment. The problem is that they won even with no front office help of additional players and even subtracted from the team. So we have last year where they had all these problems injuries and club put together that did not have team chemistry and everyone playing for themselves we got last years results. I just see front office that has all these theories but it's one thing to have theories another to put organization together that can win and has common sense. Speaking of theories i wonder if we haven't overloaded these young players with so much information that we caused regression or lack of development by these young players. Second all these theories are not playing well with veterans to where there not happy getting performances we should out these players explaining why were seeing improved performances once they leave the Twins. Now we have this new approach on pitching i fear what were going to have here players  getting hurt more to just to get more speed and i am betting where veteran players are have hard time buying into this approach. The only saving grace so far is the Twins play in weakest division in baseball which has allowed us to be competitive on record with other clubs in the division. I just have feeling that is going to change where were not the second best team in the division but we could slip to third  because i have feeling Chicago is about have breakout year and Cleveland still will be very competitive no matter what they do this year. The other thing is i wonder if Detroit may play better than last year with development of some their players. The big question then comes how much is ownership and top management bought into this front office theories and there business plan that they are putting together organization to win long term. Because if we have another failure come next year because of players under performing and now start to see additional injuries to the pitching staff and fans choosing to go else where to spend their money than going to the baseball game. This is one possibility and other is that Sano and Buxton become top players in baseball and pitchers we have good years we contend for division crown.  This is make or break year and this Front office I believe heads are on the chopping block nobody wants to say it but I believe it is and they may be given another year after this but would be very much like the previous front office removal.

Was Dombrowski there when they drafted Betts, Bradley, Bogaerts, Devers or Benintendi? The Red Sox did a fantastic job of draft and development. The Twins need to work on that development part. Hopefully the new Twins staff can develop the young talent on the Twins.

Was Dombrowski there when they drafted Betts, Bradley, Bogaerts, Devers or Benintendi? The Red Sox did a fantastic job of draft and development. The Twins need to work on that development part. Hopefully the new Twins staff can develop the young talent on the Twins.

All were signed/drafted prior to Dombrowski arriving there.  Three of above mentioned had made there MLB debuts prior to his arrival.

Is that what wins ballgames, though? When you see it on the field, you know it played a role - but what you don't see is that if instead we had a big bopper who plays sloppy, lackadaisical baseball, you might have 3 more runs from his homer that would have made the run saved by a fundamentally sound play irrelevant. I just don't know.

I definitely won’t argue that point, but while a slick/solid defensive play may not win every game, the polar opposite will cost a team more games than they would like, and often at the worst times.

Oh, and the Twins need to steal Tim Hyers from Boston to be their Hitting Coach. He’s a fantastic coach (just look at the approach of Boston’s hitters, especially in the postseason) and he gets results from his guys.

Yes I’m biased... he’s worked with my sons high school team (they all love him) .

Hitting can salvage some games, but certainly poor fielding can lose tight games especially in the playoffs where the differences between the clubs is often minuscule. The Red Sox have a spotted history of losing critical games because of miscues in the field, but now they have a team that can hit and field and voile, they are the champs--deservedly so.

Here in Japan, the Japanese champion Softbank (Fukuoka) Hawks were a much weaker hitting team but matched the Hiroshima Carp in pitching and were far superior to the Carp in fielding. In my opinion, the Carp coughed up two games because of fielding miscues and another ended in a tie (yes, we still have tie games here in Japan), so the Hawks ended up winning the best of seven rather easily (4-1-1).

Here a breakdown of the Red Sox roster by acquisition.

 

https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/world-series-2018-how-the-red-sox-built-their-al-champion-roster-through-trades-free-agency-and-the-draft/

 

One thing that stands out is how well there draft picks picks have turned out 17 WAR contribution).  In contrast, the entire Twins roster combined for about 15 WAR last year (data is from Fangraphs).

https://www.fangraphs.com/teams/twins

 

This implies that their scouting of amateur talent and/or player development is superior to the Twins.  

Take a look at IFA. Few teams do as well as we do on a consistent basis.