Brock Beauchamp

It's picking nits a bit but Jay was drafted as a college reliever. It was during that weird stretch of a couple drafts where the Twins drafted college relievers in an attempt to convert them to starters, none of which worked out to my knowledge.

I agree in that he should be playing at least three times a week right now and even more than that after the deadline.

I don't mind the inspections for now as a "STOP CHEATING TODAY" response. But it's a pretty terrible long term solution and should not extend past the 2021 season.

If umpires are doing inspections every inning, there's no real reason to allow managers to call for... an... inspection.

Pitchers could have easily avoided this situation by, you know, not cheating constantly and egregiously. The 2021 version of baseball is the worst I've experienced since I began watching close to 40 years ago. A large reason it's so bad is because pitchers have used illegal substances to gain an even larger advantage over batters than they already had in the modern game. I don't have much sympathy for their bitching and moaning right now. It's their own damned fault they're in this position (MLB also gets their fair share of blame for allowing it to become this bad and widespread but I've numbed myself to the fact MLB is feckless when it comes to the quality of the game).

Pitchers don't use grip enhancers to avoid the HBP but a stickier ball has the side effect of being easier to control. Ergo, fewer errant pitches. Ergo, fewer hit batters. I agree that it's eyewash to claim they use sticky substances to avoid the HBP, pitchers use sticky substances to add spin and control while maintaining velocity.

It’s unlikely Gordon is a starting player anywhere but he *could* be a capable utility player. The team knows he can play second but can he play short? Hard to say, as he hasn’t really played there in a few years. Move him around the diamond, see what he’s capable of doing. Given the constant stream of injuries, it’s also the best way to get him the most reps to get a better feel for where his bat is right now.

I’m all in favor of Gordon getting reps in center but no way do you just roll out a guy full-time at a position he’s never played. Especially because he also needs continued reps in the MI and third base.

To me, the jury is still very much out on Arraez's 2021. He was obviously injured when he went into that tailspin and since returning from the IL, has done this: Luis Arraez Batting Gamelogs for Career Games 164 to 171 Date Tm G GS Rslt PA AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO HBP SH SF ROE GDP SB CS BA OBP SLG OPS BAbip aLI WPA acLI cWPA RE24 DFS(DK) DFS(FD) Jun 14 to Jun 22, 2021 MIN 8 6 5-3 30 27 4 9 1 1 0 3 2 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 .333 .367 .444 .811 .360 1.19 0.214 .16 0.01% -0.34 52.00 65.30 per 162 games 162 122 608 547 82 183 21 21 0 61 41 0 61 0 0 21 0 0 0 0 4.4 0.3% -6.8 1054 1323 As for his position (in)flexibility, I pretty much agree. I'd like to see him get a shot at third not because I expect him to be good but because I think he might be least bad there (given that the Twins have no space in the OF for him any time soon).

Kepler is coming back from a hamstring injury and Gordon isn't a centerfielder. The prudent decision is recalling Celestino.

Thanks for digging this up. This is roughly what I expected the more accurate graph to look like, actually. There's still a significant increase but not quite as pronounced as the earlier graph.

This feels correct to me. Luis Arraez is not a huge, lumbering guy but his sprint speed is the 36th percentile (Sano is 39th percentile by comparison). Arraez is a slow dude and I suspect that hurts him a lot more at second base than it does third. Of course, his arm also isn't very good, which doesn't help his case at third. Either way, if he's going to play a position for the Twins in 2021, I'd like to see him get a lot of reps at third base, which lets Gordon also get a lot more reps.* *all of this assumes Josh Donaldson will remain perpetually injured

This. I've mentioned velocity a few times but I believe I only mentioned it on the context of "the faster a pitch is thrown, the more it will hurt someone". But you're spot-on with the max effort part. Pitchers going 100% on every pitch is a relatively new phenomenon. In the past, there was little reason to go max effort on the #8 hitter, who was probably a .620 OPS shortstop. And pitchers were expected to go deeper into games or longer in relief appearances, which meant they needed to conserve energy and the easiest way to do that is to not give max effort on every pitch.

Literally not the point anyone is making but okay.

The Buxton incident only prompted the creation of a poll/thread about it. The conversation at large has been happening in baseball circles for a few years now as HBP numbers have been on the rise year after year.

What the hell happened with Winker there? I'm trying to work while watching the game and missed it.

Me either, I'm just talking options here. It's a complicated problem that, if left unaddressed, will lead to more injuries like Buxton's last night. On the other hand, MLB forced this issue a bit by banning all grip substances but I didn't see any good options left them because pitchers were cheating so dramatically and often that it was literally damaging the game itself.

Damn, two inches over and Max catches that ball.

I chuckle every time I see Johnson approach an MLB pitcher.

What if those "accidents" keep happening in ever-increasing numbers because pitchers with limited control are routinely encouraged to go max effort 100% of the time and throw the ball beyond their capacity to control it? And are they actually "accidents" at that point or a flaw in the approach promoted by coaches and teams?

I think "max effort" is part of the problem here and I'm not sure how to solve it. Pitchers are increasingly going all-out on every. single. pitch. Perhaps some HBP solution, with some other rules changes, can start to encourage fewer max effort (and more likely to be wild) pitches, thereby reducing both HBP and increasing pitcher durability and innings pitched.

Catch him in the right mood and you might get a touch of socially regressive idiocy sprinkled into the frank baseball analysis. (Bauer is a real love/hate guy with me)

Wheeeee home run!

Best of luck, may you see better fortunes than I have the past few years (I'm like 2-6 in games since 2019).

The NCAA needs to be cut down so many pegs and this is one step in the right direction. They're just such an awful organization that hides behind a bunch of kids and their "well-being" while the organization rakes in billions of dollars. I stopped watching all college sports quite some time ago and a significant part of the reason for doing so was the NCAA's behavior.