bean5302

Sorry you hate Nishioka so much the mere mention of him dooms a player to futility. In any case, Kirilloff refuses to take walks at the MLB level, and had poor walk rates at almost every other stop in the minors. I think that's a valid concern because Kirilloff has a big hole in his game already as he will never provide significant defensive value. If Kirilloff won't take walks, he's not going to get good pitches to hit and he's not going to feast off mistakes at the MLB level. I think everybody should see where this is going. No matter how glowing the scouting reports and writeups here at TD may be, it doesn't mean he's impervious to criticism.

Steer is scouted with average speed and an unimpressive arm, neither of which bodes well for him covering shortstop. Still, Steer has played a handful of games at short this year, but the underlying numbers are pretty awful. Tough to say how the Twins view his potential to cover the position, even in a pinch.

Communication style is critical when you're trying to get people on board with your ideas or changes to the way they do things. It important to make people feel like there's a better way rather than making people feel like they were doing it the wrong way. Johnson clearly has a great rapport with the players and a leadership style that gets players to buy in. It's a great asset, but it's not a unique one. The system Johnson put into place should let the results be continued.

Trivino is probably a major hard luck candidate, but as previously mentioned, he's allowing a 40% line drive rate and both his changeup and four seam fastball have been driven hard with exit velocities north of 92mph on each. Trivino's BB/9 and K/9 rates are being elevated by the BABIP issue. Simply put, Trivino is seeing more batters per inning than he probably should. The K% and BB% are good, but sometimes the hits are just a factor of the pitches not working rather than hard luck. Tough to say here.

Honestly, I just don't like Kirilloff's stance/swing process. It's really open with his right foot placed further towards 1B than his left foot. In addition, his leg kick seems to result in his right foot landing even further back, sort of like Tsuyoshi Nishioka's left handed swing, using his left hip to rotate his body rather than his core. This feels like it would place a great deal of strain on his hip, knee and ankle and seems like it wastes bat speed to me. In any case, I'm not bullish on Kirilloff right now. When Nick Gordon draws more walks than you and I see what seems like way too many strike three swings where you end the swing on your knees, it's not a good omen. I'm not sure if Kirilloff is pressing (seems like he is), but his walk rate has been pretty poor at other stops prior to AAA this year.

I think it's awfully tough to predict how veteran contracts are going to be impacted by the new CBA. A lot of money just got funneled to the younger guys and it will impact the veteran contracts. There's only "x" amount of money owners are going to spend. Aside from that, I utterly fail to see how this happens... Jose Berrios 7yrs $131 MM Marcus Stroman 3yrs $71 MM They were extremely similar comps. Ironically, they're both struggling this year. I'll hazard a guess on Sonny Gray. An extension voiding the option = 3yrs $65 MM. I certainly wouldn't want to offer it to him. Gray's velocity continues to slide and he's seeing what seems to be a trend of allowing more fly balls. Extending Gray feels very, very much like Phil Hughes right now to me.

I've had the Red Cow sliders 3 or 4 times now. The first time I had them, there was no mustard (early in the season) and subsequent times I've had them, there's been mustard, but the beer mustard wasn't acidic enough (or in a great enough quantity?) to cut through all that richness. I'd definitely go with the cone over the helmet. Seems like the helmet dishes (nachos/soft serve) aren't a great deal to me... but maybe that's because the helmet cost cuts in to the dish, haha. I was going to sample the LaTapia adobo tacos the other day, but alas, they're still having problems with TwinsPay. Sorry, but with every other stand having figured it out, the problems are now on the vendors.

Bummer you had a bad experience with it. I've had it a few times and as far as I can remember, it's always been good.

The job was undoubtedly a take it or leave it situation. Johnson took what is speculated as an enormous pay increase for a role involving an undoubtedly superior work/life balance. There is no possible way to fairly criticize Johnson for what is a decision that totally makes sense for him.

Pitchers are voted in by players, managers and coaches. My guess is nobody on the Twins pitching staff makes it. Duran is probably the closest candidate, but with 1/2 the WAR of other relievers and a ranking around 20 for WAR/ERA/FIP, I don't see it happening.

In a word? No.

Even if you believe the Twins are not built to compete or that they couldn't compete, there would have to be a team in the AL Central who was clearly built to lead the way, and there isn't right now. The 1987 Twins team was mediocre and they won the World Series. It's a long shot, but until the Twins look to be well out of the division lead, Correa is not going to be traded. This is probably the 10th "Trade Correa" topic I've seen in the past couple weeks. Aside from that, the Cardinals have an excellent value shortstop right now... Tommy Edman has 3.4 fWAR. Nolan Gorman, a 22yr old rookie is delivering big time at 2B as well. The Cardinals have no real need for Correa. The Giants might be a legitimate destination, with Brandon Crawford struggling at the plate and moved to the 10 day IL, but Crawford has another year left at $16MM on his contract. I could potentially see a Correa for Crawford and Kyle Harrison trade or something like that. It's unlikely Correa (at $35MM and a rental) brings back great talent on his own.

Since Buxton didn't hit for the cycle, you can clearly see he's struggling and his knee is bothering him. He needs a trip to the 10 day IL!

It was a little surprising the Twins had Wallner at Rookie ball level, especially for so long in 2019 after being drafted out of college. The loss of 2020 likely really slowed him down, especially with the broken hamate bone last year shutting him down for a couple months.

https://gregstoll.com/~gregstoll/baseball/stats.html#H.1.8.0.1.0.0 in case anybody wants to play with the tool

100% agree, and it won't stop at teams looking at 97% as the cutoff. They'll keep pushing and pushing. Top of the 8th inning, chances the visitor wins the game: 1 run lead = 75% 2 run lead = 87% 3 run lead = 94% 4 run lead = 97% 5 run lead = 98% top of the 9th visitor leading 1 run lead = 85% 2 run lead = 93% 3 run lead = 97% 4 run lead = 99% 5 run lead = 99% It gets even worse from a likelihood things turn around if the home team is winning, and visiting teams have no significant reason to care if the home town crowd is entertained. bottom of the 7th - home team lead 1 run lead = 82% 2 run lead = 91% 3 run lead = 96% 4 run lead = 98% 5 run lead = 99% bottom of the 8th - home team lead 1 run lead = 89% 2 run lead = 96% 3 run lead = 98% 4 run lead = 99% 5 run lead = 100% Statistically, if the bullpen has been significantly depleted up on the visiting team over the past few days, slapping a position player onto the mound starting with the bottom of the 7th down by 3+ runs is reasonable. Those games happen all the time and analytics will start driving the decision more and more, especially with the forced reduction in bullpens.

2:46 - 3-2 game, 8th inning. Detroit brings in position player to pitch vs. Twins. By your definition = blowout. This is the very first source I searched for. Almost all the examples used in the video are way into extra innings, but the fact I can find a perfect example in my first search attempt is enough for me.

Advanced defensive metrics are unreliable (at best) until a large enough sample size is created and Correa is no where near having that large enough sample size this year. A single expected play which doesn't go as "expected" has a big impact here. OAA isn't a garbage stat, but I also don't like the way it grades fielders on positions they're not playing. Correa is being negatively impacted by plays where he was graded as a second baseman even though he's never played second base this year. In years past, he was positive this way, I'd expect, and he should be since a SS would be expected to excel at 2B. Also, when it comes to Correa, UZR/150 is consistent on him and consistent with this year's performance calling him average. Career -2.7 UZR/150. This year, -1.5. Well within tolerances. I continue to favor UZR/150 as a defensive metric because it throws out the impact from the shift and seems to pass my eye test as well as being fairly consistent with expectations. A 1/2 season is no where near enough to fairly grade a player's defensive performance using these metrics, but if we were to take a wild stab at things... The Twins are +1.8 UZR/150 this year as a team, ranked 14th. 1B = 29th (6.9) 2B = 23rd (2.5) 3B = 20th (2.5) SS = 21st (3.1) LF = 5th 7.3 CF = 6th 8.1 RF = 17th (0.8)

The stat is designed to evaluate a player's value. Not that specific player's value to their specific team assuming that team's likely depth chart. Byron Buxton's value deflates enormously if you assume Max Kepler is the replacement.

Depends on what you would consider a blowout. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-blocked-from-pitching-position-player-after-unwittingly-violating-new-mlb-rule-vs-mets/#:~:text=Picks-,Dodgers blocked from pitching position player after unwittingly violating new,Mets&text=The Los Angeles Dodgers were,recent addition to the rulebook. The Dodgers tried to bring in a position player when they were down by 5. That's not a blowout in a lot of people's books. The crew blocked the position player from pitching by enforcing a new rule, but the fact the rule had to be created suggests MLB disagrees position players lobbing 40mph Eephus pitches was limited to blowouts.

Gordon was a fireball pitcher in high school and now he's an outfielder... do I smell the next Shohei Ohtani???? That way we can have the next Mike Trout (Buxton) and the next Shohei Ohtani (Gordon) on the same team!!!

Urshela Apr - .279/.348/.328 wRC+ 99 May - .256/.307/.433 wRC+ 108 Jun - .254/.296/.433 wRC+ 106 While Urshela has seen some pop return to his bat after a cool start to the season, it's not like his overall bat has improved much. Unfortunately, moving a weak value third baseman may not be all that easy. Most contending teams are in good shape at the hot corner. The Angels just lost Anthony Rendon and Urshela would slide in nicely as a replacement there if Minnesota was willing to eat some salary, but not sure there's a good fit outside the Angels, who may be sellers rather than buyers.

Replacement is an expected performance of an average AAA player.

Little article from 10 years ago for people who've forgotten about the Miguel Sano age controversy. What if Sano really was 3 years older and now he's 32 instead of 29? In any case, the Twins were comfortable with signing him regardless of what they felt like his real age was. I'm also on the fence of whether I think the Twins are likely to pick up Kepler's option considering how Kepler is playing now. Kepler is an adequate starting outfielder in terms of value, a 2 WAR kinda guy. That's not a guy you need to replace, but not a guy you build a team around, either. With a swing that looks very pretty but spends too little time in the meat of the contact zone and an extreme pull tendency, he just doesn't forecast as a guy who'll ever make the most of his plate discipline. It's the same gripe many people have had with Kepler over the years. It just FEELS like he could hit .300 with 25 HR instead of .225 with 30 HR if he wanted to. I don't think this front office makes any decisions based on popularity, but even if they did, Kepler doesn't feel like a fan favorite. Polanco... In a position where the Twins have far too much depth already, I thought Polanco's position was set in stone at the end of last year. Arraez slumped badly down the stretch last year causing his stock to fall quite a bit and he was banged up quite a bit last year as well. This year, he's on pace for 139 games and I could see him playing in even more than that... and he's taken a big step forward at the plate. He's even showing signs of developing more pop lately. I still feel strongly that one of Polanco or Arraez NEEDS to be traded. The Twins are wasting value putting a middle infielder at DH or 1B. Even now, Polanco arguably has more value, but he's also more expensive.

I'm not sure as the front office is truly going to start advocating attempts to steal more often, but it's excellent practice to get players tuned in to reading pitchers habits and base running skills in general. Being in the right position and getting the right jump can make all the difference when scoring from 1st base on a double or scoring from 2nd base on a single.