bean5302

The Twins increased the padding thickness in 2014 in response to Aaron Hicks and Sam Fuld giving themselves concussions by running into the center field wall. The new padding was thicker (4") than most stadiums so I'm skeptical the padding on it's own is the issue. Running at high speed into the wall and hitting it at an awkward angle is going have risk of injuries. Perhaps the wall construction itself behind the padding is stiffer than other stadiums, though, necessitating special order extra, extra thick stuff.

I have it on good authority Lewis asked if he could have the wall padding removed entirely because he was going to show that wall who was boss and he didn't want the wall to have an excuses for losing the fight. He'd never even looked at the wall before the game. He always averts his eyes because he wants to have all new immersive experiences.

Wait... what? Are you saying Royce Lewis' crashing into a wall and bruising his knee is related to him not playing last year while he recovered from a torn ACL? For the record, Lewis returned to action about as quick as possible from surgery last year. I can't remember anybody suggesting the Twins were holding him back unreasonably and should have taken chances with Lewis' recovery, but maybe my memory isn't perfect.

Re: safety issues. Violent crime is up in downtown Minneapolis despite it being dramatically less busy. On top of that, there's the perception of Minneapolis as a whole (Uptown is a friggen disaster). Plenty of people experienced bricks being thrown through windows at restaurants they were dining at downtown restaurants when the Floyd riots started. Those types of experiences don't just get forgotten in days. Seemingly every month businesses announce they're closing due to safety concerns in Minneapolis and the owners of the businesses are scared to even speak about it. I'm close friends with a number of service industry workers who simply won't take jobs in Minneapolis because they do not feel safe based on their actual personal experiences. I'm talking about people who've taken solo trips to Africa and often travel out of the country alone... So is it really that bad? Maybe, maybe not. Reputation is what matters and people aren't going to risk getting held up at gunpoint, shot, carjacked or assaulted to find out, regardless of their shadowboxing skill level... I haven't been shot yet, but I do understand why people are afraid of Minneapolis.

Fun games like that will make for great memories Cavaco can look back on when he hangs up the cleats. Now that he's been moved off SS to 3B/DH, I think the book on Cavaco has largely been closed. He's a non-prospect, but I'm certainly not rooting against him.

Baseball Reference's HoF monitor is pretty good with comparisons on this stuff. 55.2 career bWAR (60 bWAR used to be an automatic yes, but it's turned into 60 bWAR merits consideration over the past decade it seems.) Mauer's career WAR is 156th in all of baseball history. There are 236 people who've been inducted as players. 39.0 7yr peak bWAR, which is a bit on the low side only when compared with other position players Compared to the only 16 HoF catchers, Mauer is better than average 55.2 vs. 53.7 bWAR career and significantly better with 39.0 vs. 34.7 peak bWAR. If he hadn't gotten the concussion, Mauer would likely be a 1st ballot HoF in my opinion. That's the trajectory he was on and voters do take that into account. Injury altered or shortened careers get weighted in the player's favor a bit. In addition, a quick peek at the BRef leaderboard is pretty eye opening. You have to scroll to get through it all. Comparing Joe Mauer directly to specific players, especially historical figures from different eras in baseball, doesn't make much sense to me. I expect Joe Mauer will get in. He was one of the biggest names in baseball and was one of the best players in baseball long enough that his reputation precedes itself.

After your response, I spent about 15 minutes searching and eventually found the interview. https://www.si.com/mlb/2019/04/30/tim-anderson-white-sox-speaks-out Tim Anderson compared himself to Jackie Robinson because Tim Anderson is breaking the barrier of fun and I saw this comparison being made by Anderson several times since. Essentially, Tim Anderson is just like Jackie Robinson because Jackie broke the color barrier and Tim is breaking the celebratory barrier. Two takes on that. First, Tim Anderson comes across as disrespectful towards Jackie Robinson to me. Comparing what Jackie Robinson endured to the chastising for high flying bat flips seems tone deaf to me. Second, there have been a lot of baseball players who've been very expressive and broken those types of barriers before. Honestly, the Latin American players have led the way on the celebratory and emotional expression front in MLB for the past decade and have made a major impact in softening the unwritten rule blowback from emotional outbursts. I can't find anything which supports your position.

So Josh Donaldson just randomly knew about a 2019 interview Tim Anderson gave where Tim Anderson compared himself to the next Jackie Robinson (one of the greatest baseball players of ALL TIME)? Come on. This absolute obsession with making everything racist is gross. That said, I will stand 100% corrected if such interview comment did not occur.

There are 150 position players who've played more than 90% of the games so far this year. Like 100 who've missed 2 games or fewer. Across the league it's uncommon to just sit guys who are healthy. Injuries happen and the Twins have had some very injury prone guys the last few years.

Regardless of what the Twins have said they were interested in doing, Lewis has played shortstop in 22 of his 24 games in St. Paul. The only other position was DH. I expect Lewis will continue to play SS almost exclusively. Polanco - Starting 2B, can we all agree the Twins aren't going to cut/trade him to play Lewis? Correa - Anybody okay with giving Lewis the starting SS job? The Twins "could" DFA Correa and I DO expect a team may well claim that contract on waivers because of its potential upside, but there's a risk the Twins eat $100MM on this... Not happening. Furthermore, trusting Lewis is as good as perennial MVP candidate Correa today or this year is... well... pretty aggressive. Arraez - Utility infielder. He has 2 options remaining, but let's get real. Arraez has proven himself to be a better than average MLB starter over the course of 275 MLB games. He's not getting demoted so Lewis can play. Even if Arraez was traded, the Twins have been primarily using him as a DH because there's already a shortage of space for infielders. Urshela - Arb 2 ($6.6MM). He has no options remaining so he cannot be demoted, but he has limited to no value right now. If the Twins were to DFA him, he'd probably pass through waivers, decline his assignment and become a free agent and the Twins would be on the hook for his contract. I don't know as this would be a terrible move, but certainly uncharacteristic of the front office to cut bait and eat that contract so early in the season. This would push Lewis to 3B Gordon - He's technically played SS a little this year, but he's not the starter and won't be. He's a utility fielder who often comes in as an injury or defensive replacement and doesn't see every day playing time. He has no options and would refuse an assignment so he'd be gone and Lewis replacing him means occasional play rather than every day opportunity. Miranda - Demoting him really doesn't open up any positions for Lewis, TBH. I guess Urshela could be moved to 1B and Lewis to 3B, keeping Arraez at DH but I'm sure the Twins badly want to get a look at Miranda after his performance explosion last year at AAA. Kirilloff being ready to be recalled would put the Twins right back into the same spot. Lewis can't be the reason Kirilloff stays in the minors, either. Honestly, Lewis playing every day shortstop at AAA makes the most sense while the Twins sort out the roster picture on a larger scale. Minnesota has created some nasty log jam situations, but nobody expected Lewis to perform like this. Absolutely nobody. If somebody in Spring Training had come out and said Lewis would be OPS'ing .800 at AA so far this year, 95% of fans would have been ecstatic. Saying he was going to be OPS'ing 1.000 at AAA and continuing to rake at MLB would have been met with questions regarding sanity.

In regard to this front office, previous front offices are obviously having an impact still, though it's waning quickly as we've now entered year 6 of the Falvey regime. We're starting to enter into the phase where previous regime draft picks have either made it to the big show or won't ever make it and contracts signed under previous regimes have long played out.

Terrible free agent signings? Smith did a good job with a limited budget. A budget he elevated through the retention of key players who didn't make it to free agency like Mauer, Morneau, Cuddyer and Nathan. Smith brought in Orlando Hudson, Joe Crede, Jim Thome and Carl Pavano and all wound up being good free agent signings. The waterfall of trades wound up being pretty poor as Smith continued to lose ground with each step. It's not like all his trades were bad, though, or super impactful. Smith brought in Orlando Cabrera in 2009 which was a good move. Gomez for Hardy was a good trade. It was the Hardy for Hoey trade which was terrible, but as I recall, Gardy was a driving force on getting rid of Hardy. Capps for Ramos got the most vitriol, but Ramos never really amounted to anything due to injuries and Capps was very good down the stretch for the Twins in 2010 who were relying on the very shaky Jon Rauch to close games at the time. Honestly, the Capps for Ramos trade and the singular bad season in 2011 seemed to cement Twins fans' opinions on Smith who became the scapegoat for poor decisions by Ryan in 2012 and later.

27 plate appearances this season at MLB. Only 35 plate appearances at AAA and 258 plate appearances in his entire MLB career. I don't see Kirilloff as any more of a question mark now than he was at the beginning of last year. It is pretty clear he's struggling (pressing?). I feel like it would be worthwhile for him to spend a couple months in AAA to get things ironed out and build some confidence and the Twins certainly have the depth to move him there.

I think it's unfair to make the assessment based on the "80+" grade power and annual 40-50 HR expectations baseball fans had of Sano in 2015. It's obvious he's a huge bust from that standpoint. Sano made it to MLB and posted a little positive value as an every day starter and even made an All Star Game in 2017. I certainly won't call that a bust. Apart from his rookie breakout in 2015, he's never posted better than scrub level WPA's though. I'd stand by Sano being an easy out when a team needs to get that out and I wouldn't consider Sano to be a boom, either. He's just a fringey MLB caliber guy.

Ryan wasn't hitting his spots and the Astros were patient enough at the plate. It was obvious to me (in attendance) the Astros had Ryan's number well enough. Verlander just seemed to know what the batter would struggle against all night. In the end, the Twins lost by 5 runs and didn't put a single hit on the board until the 8th inning. A handful of ball/strikes calls had little or nothing to do with the Twins losing.

Gordon has 51 plate appearances this year and he's slumped a bit in the last few. His batted ball data shows his average exit velocity is solid and he's been very unlucky overall. Honestly, he just needs a much bigger sample size to judge. Gordon's ceiling at this point is probably MLB average hitter with a more likely expectation of well below average, but he provides the aforementioned defensive versatility. He's the prototypical utility player. A guy you can play every day for a couple weeks if you need to while another player is on the 10 day IL, but not somebody you'd want as a starter. There's a lot of value in those kinds of players because they're inexpensive, but don't come with the risk of an untested AAA replacement player. With Lewis off to such an inspiring start and the addition of Correa and Urshela this offseason, it's awfully crowded, but Gordon is a better fit in the traditional utility role than pretty much anybody else because of what he does (and doesn't) bring to the table.

I'd have to think Cavaco will be released by mid year at this point.

Yes. It's exactly the same general concept as fans cheering for fights in hockey, which I dislike... yet it's extremely popular. Though there is an enormous difference between a physical fist fight which can end careers and cause serious injury or death and a manager kicking dirt over a plate or offering to buy an umpire a lifetime subscription to Lens Crafters. A manager arguing balls and strikes amps up the crowd and the team. It's a fact and it's often considered an endearing trait for a manager. Fan and crowd engagement is important. Regardless of what a few people on this board like, the manager getting tossed or the crowd commiserating together over a bad call is fan engagement and baseball desperately needs more fan engagement.

Robo umps are bad for the game. They remove controversy and fan engagement. Umpires get things wrong occasionally, but hating the ump is part of the game which gets the fans excited. How many times have the fans been engaged watching an angry manager trot out of the dugout arguing balls and strikes? How many times have cheers rained down on the field watching a manager get ejected for arguing those calls?

The Petty trade could definitely end Falvey's tenure with the Twins. The reports on him made me feel he was just soooooo far ahead of what people were expecting.

2020 = $6.7MM 2021 = $21.0MM Total = $27.7MM

Buxton might as well get his 1/2 a year on the IL taken care of now. At least he'll be more likely available if the Twins surprise the league and make the playoffs then.

Petty would have made the list, though Graterol is no longer a prospect as he lost his rookie status. MLB grades Chase Petty's fastball as a 70. They put his slider at 55 and his changeup at 50 while Baseball America was even more bullish with a 70, 70, 55 ratings on those pitches, respectively. The MLB world will know far more about him once he starts pitching against professional competition this year.

Velocity isn't the only thing with fastballs. Jim Hoey is the perfect example. A 100mph straightball is easy for an MLB hitter to knock out of the park. Deception on delivery and movement are key to fastball value. Velocity matters, but the type of fastball matters too. Sinking fastballs generate weak ground ball contact with late break downwards (Jordan Hicks) and four seamers generate strikeouts (Chris Sale) while cutters can generate both on unpredictable movement (Mariano Rivera). Other pitches wind up playing into the fastball as well. A pitcher with a great changeup automatically makes the fastball better because it adds to the deception if the hitter can't figure out which pitch is coming their way. Great control adds to it again since results do kind of find their way into the grades of the pitches themselves as well.

As a season ticket holder, I'm excited for the pitch clock. So many 7pm games going until well after 10pm makes it hard for me to stay and watch the full games when I have many friends along next to me. They have to be up for work the next morning and leaving at 10:30pm, either taking an express shuttle to a park and ride or an uber/drive back to my house gets them home and in bed close to midnight. Then there are the extra innings games... forget it. I've been to many games which don't end until after 11pm. Considering there are already rules in place governing pace of play like the pitch delivery time rules and batters constantly stepping out of the box, it's clear the players won't follow the rules unless they're enforced in a consistent and obvious manner. Just like the "sticky stuff" pitchers were warned and warned about. The extremely slow pace of play adds to the perception of baseball being boring and hurts the game's marketability as well.