Brock Beauchamp

I'm very intentionally not allowing this to happen. While I think one of Jax, Barnes, Ober may work out... I certainly do not believe all of them will continue to pitch as they have for the past couple of weeks.

Too little too late but watching winning baseball is always better than watching the other kind of baseball.

That was an incredibly fun game. So at this point the Twins have faced the three division leaders of the AL in consecutive series: Houston, Chicago, Tampa. The Twins have gone 6-3 in those games. As we all predicted, of course.

Well done, sir. Well done.

Oh no, sorry, my jokes were all R rated so I can’t type them here, that’s all. No offense taken and none given.

I have no witty retort to this that isn’t R rated so imma just gonna go watch some baseball now.

First, you need to ratchet the rhetoric down about 90% and chill with the hyperbolic exclamations. Second, Stu is given a lot of liberty to write and satirize by Twins Daily ownership, of which I am a member. You may disagree with his take and that is fine but he’s here writing by invitation. We support his content and pay him to continue producing it. If you don’t like what you read, feel free to move on to the next (probably much more straight forward baseball) article. Personally, I think Stu is funny as hell and that this was one of his best pieces yet. YMMV. Third, don’t waltz onto a website and tell people to “keep X out of this space” when you haven’t bothered to learn the site’s mission statement or even who you’re responding to in comments. It’s bad form.

I don’t really have evidence to support this but I’ve always considered them largely working in tandem.

Simmons did not take the vaccine and has stated he will not take it.

Really? Yikes, bro. I had no idea.

All sides have a right to their opinions but the difference is that we've invited Stu to share his without editorial oversight. The same cannot be said for user comments. If Squirrel has asked users not to go too deep into the coronavirus weeds over a tongue-in-cheek editorial piece, that request needs to be respected. Squirrel is a representative of Twins Daily and is following owner policy.

No, it doesn't. The first amendment is protection from the government restricting individual speech, not a private organization telling an employee/contractor "you're a pain in the ass and bad at your job, now get lost".

Oh sure. I personally don't believe refusing the vaccine is enough on its own, at least in the case of Simmons where actual danger to other humans is moderate at most, but it can certainly factor into a larger decision of whether he's worth the effort at this point. I'd argue he's not, mostly for on-field reasons, but him being a significant part of the April Torpedoing Of The Season would also factor into my decision. If I was in this front office, I would have spent the afternoon of July 30th calling other teams literally saying "you can have Andrelton Simmons for $1m and nothing else" in part because of his anti-vax nonsense.

Well, there comes a point where headaches no longer become worth it. Simmons, with his anti-vax stance, sidelined a significant portion of the team when the Twins were still in contention for the season. The wheels completely came off after that point and Simmons has been a terrible baseball player as it unraveled. There's nothing wrong with letting "you're a pain in the ass and have been a negative influence on the team and season" factor into the decision whether to release a bad baseball player. This front office prioritizes character and frankly, benching a portion of the roster because a player doesn't believe in science and other things way above his pay grade to the detriment of the rest of the team is a slight on his character. But for the record, I'd be very wary of firing someone ONLY for refusing the vaccine.

Not really sure how you got that from this: But okay, you do you.

Just the anti-vax stance? No, probably not. But it just so happens that Andrelton Simmons is also really bad at baseball right now, which makes the decision much easier.

Perhaps Stu’s best piece yet.

Holy ****, how did I never notice that before? I knew Joe did well in certain situations but a tOPS+ of 129... wow...

BTW, Tony Gwynn was indeed clutch. 116 tOPS+ with 2 out, RISP which is insane for a guy who had a career 132 OPS+. To be 16% better in that situation over a career is bonkers. Clutch Stats I 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+ 2 outs, RISP 823 974 795 465 255 49 9 16 311 56 3 176 41 .321 .446 .465 .911 370 0 3 0 0 104 10 .324 116 Late & Close 1305 1768 1551 250 547 82 10 28 234 71 21 184 88 .353 .418 .473 .890 733 42 2 13 18 87 31 .357 111 Tie Game 2069 3546 3189 381 1041 192 29 48 349 109 46 297 156 .326 .381 .450 .831 1435 101 4 24 32 92 55 .329 96 Within 1 R 2269 5938 5397 748 1781 310 47 80 588 204 93 444 272 .330 .379 .449 .828 2425 151 13 35 49 131 81 .334 96 Within 2 R 2358 7606 6910 1007 2320 406 65 106 816 252 111 573 332 .336 .385 .459 .844 3174 188 16 42 65 159 102 .339 99 Within 3 R 2391 8634 7827 1150 2637 472 73 119 953 283 117 672 375 .337 .387 .461 .849 3612 211 17 44 74 185 111 .340 100 Within 4 R 2410 9272 8412 1246 2824 494 79 128 1022 304 122 718 400 .336 .386 .459 .845 3860 232 20 45 77 195 121 .339 99 Margin > 4 R 599 960 876 137 317 49 6 7 116 15 3 72 34 .362 .409 .455 .865 399 27 4 0 8 8 18 .368 105 Ahead 1351 3086 2754 565 946 165 28 36 396 108 54 284 115 .344 .403 .463 .866 1275 60 10 11 27 100 38 .346 105 Behind 1548 3600 3345 437 1154 186 28 51 393 102 25 209 163 .345 .382 .463 .846 1549 98 10 10 26 11 46 .349 99 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 8/11/2021.

I was hoping I'd never have to post this damned chart again now that Rosario is almost a season removed from this team but I guess it needs to be posted one more time. "Eddie Rosario is clutch" is mostly a made-up narrative just like the other "player x is clutch" statements of the past 50 years. True clutchness over a long career is exceptionally rare. IIRC, Tony Gwynn is one of the only examples of it actually happening, though I'd have to look that up to confirm. Clutch Stats I 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+ 2 outs, RISP 277 335 309 113 76 14 2 11 105 10 2 25 61 .246 .304 .411 .715 127 0 1 0 0 9 3 .274 86 Late & Close 352 481 443 70 123 28 5 17 78 9 2 26 98 .278 .317 .479 .796 212 8 1 8 3 6 1 .320 105 Tie Game 514 802 757 86 201 44 3 29 114 11 6 33 150 .266 .294 .446 .741 338 10 1 3 8 4 5 .294 90 Within 1 R 691 1595 1495 217 412 82 12 66 238 25 13 77 301 .276 .309 .479 .788 716 18 1 10 12 8 11 .304 102 Within 2 R 741 2113 1976 290 551 107 18 83 302 35 14 103 389 .279 .312 .477 .789 943 27 2 12 20 11 12 .307 103 Within 3 R 751 2454 2299 335 621 123 19 93 337 39 18 120 469 .270 .304 .462 .766 1061 30 2 12 21 12 14 .300 97 Within 4 R 758 2695 2521 367 685 132 21 102 367 46 21 137 506 .272 .307 .462 .769 1165 34 2 12 23 15 15 .301 98 Margin > 4 R 245 441 423 62 125 17 2 24 67 2 1 13 80 .296 .315 .515 .831 218 5 1 0 4 0 3 .313 112 Ahead 484 1231 1152 186 330 59 13 50 193 23 13 63 199 .286 .321 .490 .811 565 17 1 3 12 8 10 .306 108 Behind 475 1103 1035 157 279 46 7 47 127 14 3 54 237 .270 .304 .464 .768 480 12 1 6 7 3 3 .306 97 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 8/11/2021.

Definitely, and I was really impressed by how aggressive the Sox were up until the Madrigal trade. I think that will end up being reckless and wasteful for yet another aging right-handed reliever.

For sure, but you just listed the two best-run organizations in all of baseball. 28 teams are jealous of what those teams accomplish on a yearly basis.

Oh, I'm not diminishing what the White Sox are doing but it's hard to compare two franchises that are in different stages of competition. While the Twins were drafting low and competing, the White Sox were effing terrible, to put it bluntly. If the White Sox bomb out of the postseason and the loss of Madrigal burns them badly while the Twins bounce back and are competitive soon, will the Twins then be geniuses?