Brock Beauchamp

The White Sox were also in contention last season.

We usually don't discuss moderation in threads but I'll make a small exception here because your post was thoughtful and we had a previous discussion recently about something else (if you wish to respond to this further, please PM me). One of our core missions here at Twins Daily is to raise the level of discussion. The world already has Twitter and I think we've all seen what happens to the typical conversation over there. For every decent response, you have to wade through several posts of sewage to find it. We have no interest in participating in that world. In this specific instance, any salient point about Baldelli can be made without a snarky nickname. If a point is good, make the point and let it stand on its merit. But being intentionally antagonistic without substance is not an arena Twins Daily wishes to participate in and there are literally hundreds of places a poster can go to satisfy that desire. Maybe everyone ignores "Mr Spreadsheet" in this one case (though that's generally unlikely) but it creates a tone where everyone raises their hackles and conversations become about antagonistic posters instead of the subject at hand. And that antagonistic attitude bleeds into the next thread... and the next thread... and the next thread. Pretty soon, that's the tone of the forum itself, just as it's the tone of pretty much everything on Twitter and Facebook. As for censorship, we're a private entity and we never claimed to be a place for open discussion on every topic nor are we a place that allows all voices equal footing. We're very intentionally attempting to carve out a specific niche, curate both our content and its resulting discussion, and create a place where people don't want to vomit after reading "the second half of the internet". The banning of pejorative nicknames is just one of many measures we take to reach that goal.

Wheeler is the logical starting point. Here are Wheeler's stats with the Mets: Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards 2013 23 NYM NL 7 5 .583 3.42 17 17 0 0 0 0 100.0 90 42 38 10 46 2 84 4 0 6 431 104 4.17 1.360 8.1 0.9 4.1 7.6 1.83 2014 24 NYM NL 11 11 .500 3.54 32 32 0 1 1 0 185.1 167 84 73 14 79 3 187 11 0 9 794 97 3.55 1.327 8.1 0.7 3.8 9.1 2.37 2017 27 NYM NL 3 7 .300 5.21 17 17 0 0 0 0 86.1 97 53 50 15 40 1 81 3 0 1 386 79 5.03 1.587 10.1 1.6 4.2 8.4 2.03 2018 28 NYM NL 12 7 .632 3.31 29 29 0 0 0 0 182.1 150 69 67 14 55 0 179 9 1 2 744 112 3.25 1.124 7.4 0.7 2.7 8.8 3.25 2019 29 NYM NL 11 8 .579 3.96 31 31 0 0 0 0 195.1 196 93 86 22 50 4 195 2 0 5 828 104 3.48 1.259 9.0 1.0 2.3 9.0 3.90 7 Yrs 53 43 .552 3.53 151 151 0 2 2 0 916.2 835 391 360 85 308 13 897 39 1 26 3844 109 3.54 1.247 8.2 0.8 3.0 8.8 2.91 162 Game Avg. 12 10 .552 3.53 34 34 0 0 0 0 206 188 88 81 19 69 3 202 9 0 6 866 109 3.54 1.247 8.2 0.8 3.0 8.8 2.91 And Berrios' stats through today: Year Age Tm Lg W L W-L% ERA G GS GF CG SHO SV IP H R ER HR BB IBB SO HBP BK WP BF ERA+ FIP WHIP H9 HR9 BB9 SO9 SO/W Awards 2016 22 MIN AL 3 7 .300 8.02 14 14 0 0 0 0 58.1 74 56 52 12 35 0 49 5 0 1 281 53 6.20 1.869 11.4 1.9 5.4 7.6 1.40 2017 23 MIN AL 14 8 .636 3.89 26 25 0 0 0 0 145.2 131 71 63 15 48 0 139 13 1 7 616 114 3.84 1.229 8.1 0.9 3.0 8.6 2.90 2018 24 MIN AL 12 11 .522 3.84 32 32 0 2 1 0 192.1 159 83 82 25 61 1 202 13 0 2 797 111 3.90 1.144 7.4 1.2 2.9 9.5 3.31 AS 2019 25 MIN AL 14 8 .636 3.68 32 32 0 1 0 0 200.1 194 94 82 26 51 0 195 9 1 8 842 122 3.85 1.223 8.7 1.2 2.3 8.8 3.82 AS 2020 26 MIN AL 5 4 .556 4.00 12 12 0 0 0 0 63.0 57 28 28 8 26 0 68 3 0 5 271 107 4.06 1.317 8.1 1.1 3.7 9.7 2.62 2021 27 MIN AL 7 2 .778 3.49 13 13 0 0 0 0 77.1 64 32 30 10 20 0 81 4 0 1 311 116 3.68 1.086 7.4 1.2 2.3 9.4 4.05 6 Yrs 55 40 .579 4.12 129 128 0 3 1 0 737.0 679 364 337 96 241 1 734 47 2 24 3118 105 4.05 1.248 8.3 1.2 2.9 9.0 3.05 162 Game Avg. 15 11 .579 4.12 34 34 0 1 0 0 195 180 96 89 25 64 0 194 12 1 6 825 105 4.05 1.248 8.3 1.2 2.9 9.0 3.05 Those are close enough that I'd consider them a wash, though Berrios has a one year age advantage over Wheeler, which is worth noting. Also, Berrios' injury track record has been phenomenal in today's game.

I’m not even saying you’re wrong, I’m only saying it should not be assumed Ober cares about a W in this era of baseball and having come through this farm system. Even if he does care, I’d hope there are plenty of clubhouse conversations happening between him and the coaching staff that explains their reasoning and brings everyone onto the same page.

I probably would have left Ober in but, as I said, the decision to pull him is quite defensible for a few reasons. As for "getting that first win and boosting confidence", I'm not sure that's a thing anymore. Ober was drafted by and has spent his entire professional career in an organization that has essentially told its players (either directly or indirectly, not sure) the pitcher win is a worthless stat. So would Ober care about getting a W? I'm skeptical, to say the least.

The bullpen gets a day off today, that wasn’t really an issue either way. I don’t think I would have pulled Ober yesterday but the move is definitely defensible. It’s a lost season in mid-June. The Twins will want Ober to get as many starts as possible in his rookie year before they’re forced to pull the plug on his 2021 season. It’d be nice to see the kid get his first win but in the grand scheme of things, an Ober win yesterday doesn’t matter in the slightest bit. It’s entirely reasonable for the organization to care more about whether he gets a couple more starts in august than whether he goes 5+ innings a few times in June.

It's not about stretching him out, it's about keeping him on the mound as long as possible this season. Here are Ober's innings pitched since being drafted. I'm not sure it's possible for the Twins to be too cautious with the guy right now, given how little he has pitched in recent seasons (including zero game innings last year). Year Age AgeDif Tm Lg Lev Aff G GS IP 2017 21 0.3 Elizabethton APPY Rk MIN 6 4 28.0 2018 22 0.1 Cedar Rapids MIDW A MIN 14 14 75.0 2019 23 3 Teams 3 Lgs A+-AA-Rk MIN 14 13 78.2 2019 23 -1.3 Pensacola SOUL AA MIN 4 4 24.0 2019 23 0.1 Fort Myers FLOR A+ MIN 8 8 45.2 2019 23 2.7 Twins GULF Rk MIN 2 1 9.0 2021 25 -2.2 St. Paul AAAE AAA MIN 4 4 16.0 2021 25 -3.8 MIN AL Maj MIN 4 4 17.0

I agree that Ober still has a lot to prove but he looks WAY better than I expected. 2-3mph more on the fastball than previous seasons while retaining that excellent control and command. Add in his absurd height advantage throwing to the plate and he could stick for a few seasons, provided he doesn't fall into the tall guy trap of losing his mechanics constantly... but given how he has such a track record of control over his pitches, I think that's maybe less likely to happen than it would be with other guys of his height.

Hard to say with Buxton. If he comes back and mashes for a month, I don’t think teams are going to hesitate any more than they would in the off-season.

I think that loses too much value in trade. If the Twins want to make an offer, do it now or trade them. Teams are likely willing to pay a lot more for that half a season while in contention and to fill an immediate need. In the offseason, teams can sign or trade for anyone on the market and the supply is more limited at the trade deadline.

Neither do I but all those names you listed are likely to be just as bad as Shoemaker. Different isn't better. The thing is that you can't predict literally half your 26 man roster being on the injured list at once. Shoemaker has been absolutely awful, we can all agree on that. If the Twins don't move on from him in the next 7-10 days as formerly injured players return to the team, I'll be right there with you.

The league has a record number of injuries after a year of no minor leagues. There aren’t guys just waiting to be claimed, not guys any better than Shoemaker, anyway.

People really need to realize there literally isn’t anyone ready to call up, as spy just pointed out. At this point, it’s either Shoemaker or a waiver claim, someone who’s also going to look and perform a lot like Matt Shoemaker.

Yeah, last night was a good example of how we as fans view win “probability” versus the actual win probability of a situation. That was a low leverage situation in the ninth.

I don’t get why this trade makes sense for the Twins but then I remembered “oh, Mark DeRosa”. Either the Twins want to offload salary or they want to compete. This deal makes no sense for either option.

I'm relatively down on Rooker, though he probably deserves (and will likely get) another real chance to hit in MLB later this summer. I suspect there's going to be quite a bit of open roster space around 3pm on July 30th.

@Tom Froemming Why stop at five? 26 is a pretty good number, in my humble opinion...

Some guys don't do well with back-to-backs, even fewer do well with back-to-back-to-backs. My statement wasn't that it should be universally employed, only that the Twins don't seem to shy away from it in general. They may avoid it with specific pitchers, I've never really looked closely enough to notice.

Everything is snappy for me but if it continues for you, please let me know.

There's a balance in there somewhere, depending on the player and their batting profile. You don't want a low power hitter striking out constantly but you also don't want a high power hitter choking up with two strikes just to make (probably bad) contact. The current problem extends well beyond Josh Donaldson and even the Twins; it's a universal MLB problem. Pitchers have too great an advantage and it feels as if hitters are striving to become too homogenous in the wake of that pitcher advantage. There are fewer ways for hitters to succeed in the modern game so they all start trying to do variations of the same approach. It's not a good combination, which is why I'm heavily in favor of MLB making significant rule/policy changes following the 2021 season.

The front office and coaching staff doesn't believe this at all. Guys pitch back-to-back all the time. What the Twins haven't been doing is using a single person in the ninth inning and instead base the ninth on matchups, which means the same guy doesn't get the ninth on consecutive days very often. Here's the bullpen usage as of Wednesday night. As you can see, lots of back-to-backs in there. Robles had back-to-back ninth innings on May 22-23, less than a week ago. SAT SUN MON TUE WED TOT Robles 27 24 0 13 20 84 Rogers 9 14 0 26 0 49 Duffey 13 15 0 0 15 43 Thielbar 0 18 0 2 16 36 Alcala 17 0 14 0 0 31 Colomé 2 0 8 13 0 23 Farrell 0 0 16 0 0 16 Stashak 0 0 0 0 0 0

The old Twins Daily had a pretty simplistic version of the feed but I felt it was so awkward and weird to use that I hid it away from most users' eyes. Not so with the new version and I suspect after reading this, some of you (particularly forum users) may set a custom feed as your Twins Daily landing page. It's that useful. Instead of having to click through the (kinda insanely large now) Twins Daily site, you can tailor a feed to show basically whatever you want: select authors, topics you've followed, fellow users, unread content only... the list goes on. First, to find your personal feed, near the top right of the screen you will see a newspaper icon in the red bar below your user information. That brings you to the default view, which is Unread Content. Here you'll see a variety of options to tailor your custom stream to do almost anything you like on the site. I'll spare you going through each item in detail individually, as it's all quite self-explanatory. You can choose tagged content, type of content (news, forums, blogs, status updates, etc.), read/unread only, content you've participated in or started, followed content, and finally, how it's sorted. Depending what kind of device you're using, you can also choose Condensed or Expanded. Condensed just gives you the title and link while Expanded offers a truncated version of the content as a preview. Once you've decided on your changes, you can save this stream using the save prompt below. You're allowed to have multiple custom streams so name this new stream and it joins the others. Once you're done customizing your stream, Click Stream Options at the top right of the selection drop-down, and your choices become your default custom stream. Every time you click that newspaper or visit your stream, the selections you've made will remain in place. That's it, enjoy the new site!