Brock Beauchamp

I appreciate how many times the announcers worked the word "nice" into commentary about Sands' 69th pitch.

In 1990. rapper MC Hammer may not have been on the top of the world - yet - but he was close. While in the Twin Cities finishing up his soon-to-be 3x platinum 2 Legit 2 Quit album at Paisley Park, he dropped by the Metrodome to take batting practice with the 1990 Twins squad. While there are many familiar faces in the crowd, what stands out is the short conversation between Hammer and Twins great Tony Oliva. Keep an eye out for the other Twins players lurking in the background, such as Randy Bush and Kent Hrbek. View full video

By "that pathetic rut", I assume you really mean "pretty much all of the 2021 season". Split G GS PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO BA OBP SLG OPS TB GDP HBP SH SF IBB ROE BAbip tOPS+ sOPS+ April/March 14 13 53 45 7 12 4 0 0 4 0 0 7 8 .267 .377 .356 .733 16 3 1 0 0 0 0 .324 163 113 May 27 27 101 92 9 21 1 0 2 9 0 0 9 21 .228 .297 .304 .601 28 2 0 0 0 0 1 .275 116 71 June 20 20 72 67 9 17 3 0 1 3 0 0 3 9 .254 .296 .343 .639 23 0 1 1 0 0 0 .281 130 75 July 25 24 88 80 7 13 1 0 0 4 1 0 6 7 .163 .221 .175 .396 14 4 0 2 0 0 0 .178 42 10 August 25 24 82 77 3 17 2 0 0 8 0 0 4 10 .221 .268 .247 .515 19 2 1 0 0 0 0 .254 85 44 Sept/Oct 6 6 18 16 1 3 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 .188 .278 .188 .465 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 .188 66 32

Okay, fair enough.

It's rare but Edgar Martinez accumulated over 1,000 plate appearances in AAA with a ~.940 OPS before receiving a legitimate chance at playing in Seattle. That's a pretty long time by my standards.

While I have lots of not-nice things to say about Simmons and his anti-vax stance, I can't agree with your take on his on-field demeanor. Simmons is constantly talking to his teammates, directing action on the field, and I think his smoothness looks like laziness just because he's that damned good (or was, as his athleticism is now on the decline). Look at the way the guy throws the ball. No effort, looking flat-footed quite often... and it drops right into the first baseman's mitt almost every time. He makes it all look so easy.

Except the expectation was that Simmons would be a pitching assist player. His signing was primarily to supplement the entire pitching staff after several seasons of terrible infield defense.

Given that I control the god account on the site, I’m considering logging in under 100 different accounts just to like your post, ash.

You’re right, I had the payers reversed. What I meant was that giving back Baddoo out of ST was Detroit essentially throwing away a little bit of money.

Oh, velocity isn't everything but it sure doesn't hurt. And I believe Ryan can be a good pitcher, I'm only saying we need to temper our expectations a bit, particularly after a night where he posted an amazing stat line but actually watching the game, he was slightly less dominant and with 1-2 more mph on a few of those balls (or even a slight pull instead of to dead center), could have merely posted a middling start. Again, I'm very encouraged by Ryan and excited to see more, I'm just suggesting people not get too drunk on his stat line from last night.

While the game was fun and really exciting in the moment, I feel we should pump the brakes on Ryan a little bit. At the end of the day, he's still a two-pitch pitcher whose second pitch isn't great and he has little velocity, to boot. I think he can have a really nice career because he really seems to have the right mojo on the mound, which goes a long way with a starting pitcher, IMO. But Ryan had quite a bit of hard contact last night, it just fell into Twins' leather until the seventh inning. Good start, loved to see it, want to see more. But it wasn't as dominant as it looked on the stat line.

How is it "cherry-picking" to use WAR, which is generally regarded as the best catch-all single stat to measure a player's value? Sure, most players decline in time but it's not a guarantee to happen with high-end pitching, just look at the likes of Verlander or Greinke. They may have declined from "elite" but they're still quite good.

Detroit kept Baddoo on the roster because they had to keep him or literally pay the Twins to take him back. The good spring was just a bonus.

I appreciate the ability to be awarded an F- in this grading. ”You were so bad, we created a new bottom rung for you to occupy.”

No other options is how it started. Why is it still happening? Not sure, but Gant hasn't been horrible so I guess that's okay.

That's entirely possible, my main point is that he was jerked around enough that he deserves a real, healthy look before making any decisions.

You know there's someone out there who has had Simmons as their pick to click for the past 137 games and for the first time...

While I've been quite unimpressed with Rooker this season, he still has fewer than 200 MLB plate appearances with an overall 102 OPS+. My biggest issue with Rooker is this roster and his glove but Miranda doesn't really fix that problem, either, because Josh Donaldson and Luis Arraez are occupying third base and Jorge Polanco is occupying second. Before we christen Jose Miranda the second coming and Brent Rooker a waste of roster space, we should look at their numbers: Brent Rooker AAA: 541 PAs, .932 OPS Jose Miranda AAA: 285 PAs, .917 OPS Obviously, Miranda is younger and has a position (though it's blocked in Minnesota) while Rooker is older and positionless but we need to temper our expectations and valuations of players just because we're frustrated with a different player in the moment. But a blocked position doesn't really help Miranda that much in the here and now. He's not 35 year old Josh Donaldson at third base, much less 23 year old Josh Donaldson at third base. I expect Rooker will not be on the Twins 40-man next season and I'm pretty okay with that, though it's slightly risky. But I also understand why the front office is giving Rooker one more shot before kicking him (or another position player) off the 40-man roster to add Miranda for September. Personally, I thought the time to call up Miranda was when Arraez was banged up and Donaldson wasn't playing third base but that window has passed.

Except they didn't force him to overload on sliders, as he has thrown it slightly less this season than he did last season. He has actually returned to leaning more heavily on his sinker this season than he did last season, too. I think we can chalk up most of Randy's issues to injury and not having a defined role. I suspect being thrown into the bullpen in a rush set him back and by the time he would have normally recovered, he was injured. Season Team Level FB% SL% CT% CB% CH% SF% KN% XX% 2019 MIN MLB 59.3% (92.7) 27.9% (84.2) 12.9% (85.8) 2020 MIN MLB 48.4% (91.6) 35.3% (83.5) 16.3% (85.7) 2021 MIN MLB 59.5% (91.7) 33.2% (84.3) 7.3% (84.6) Total - - - MLB 55.2% (91.9) 32.8% (83.9) 12.0% (85.4)

I don't think they tinkered with his primary pitch at all, it was the addition of the slider they worked on. And given his finger injuries, I'm not sure we should be surprised his sinker stopped working, as it's such a feel pitch.

To be fair to Nick Blackburn, he was a legitimately solid pitcher for two consecutive years, averaging 200 IP and a little over 2.5 rWAR a season. Ober could easily end up worse than Blackburn when all is said and done. I don’t think he will but it’s certainly possible.

The Twins would have to go 3-23 to finish the season to finish with 100 losses but hey, I guess it's possible.