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Nine of twelve

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Everything posted by Nine of twelve

  1. Nine of twelve
    My guess (and ALL of our comments are guesses because only Pineda himself knows for sure) is that he did not know that what he was taking was banned. This reinforces a related point I've made previously in at least one other thread. The player and his team have a shared strong interest in having the player perform at his highest level as often as possible. The player should take no substances--none--without team knowledge and approval. (And, IMHO, that includes food.) And when it comes to any drugs or supplements, they should come only through team channels. And the higher-profile the player, the more that extreme caution needs to be used. A disaster waiting to happen would be for some unscrupulous individual to arrange to put some stanazolol into the food at the favorite restaurant of, say, Mike Trout. Maybe we're getting to the point where we have to have food-tasters, just like royalty in medieval times.
  2. Nine of twelve
    LEN III's piece in the Strib says that the team is not informed until near the final announcement. The Twins apparently found out late Friday, just before Pineda's last start. The article doesn't state when Baldelli was informed.
  3. Nine of twelve
    Slightly off-topic, but I want to comment on having 2 wild card teams. I think MLB added the second team to give another team a chance to make the postseason. (BTW postseason is the correct term, not playoffs.) But I think the best thing is that having two wild card teams puts a premium on winning a division. With one wild card team that team has essentially the same postseason as the division champions. The single postseason game that involves two wild card teams means that advancing is much more uncertain, and whoever advances has used its number one starter and possibly weakened its bullpen going into a series against a team with its number one starter and fresh bullpen. And the next game is a number three starter for the wild card team against the number two starter for the opposition. That's why it's very important these days to win your division if possible.
  4. Nine of twelve
    4 starters. 7 relievers including one who can go at least 3 innings in the event of a blowout either way. 14 position players. Adrianza makes the team for sure because of defensive versatility and switch hitting.
  5. Nine of twelve
    I think just about every manager in the majors would like to have four starting-caliber outfielders. If playing time is spread out evenly each one still starts 3 out of 4 games. In the case of the Twins' top four the most significant on-field problem is that Buxton is the only one who bats right-handed. But...looking at this problem from the general manager's perspective is different. Your team always has one good outfielder not playing. A GM would want to trade from a position of strength to address a position of weakness. The difficult part is finding a team who wants and needs an outfielder and is willing to give up (presumably) a good pitcher in exchange. Easier said than done. In the meantime, we have to put up with having one of the best outfield corps in the game.
  6. Nine of twelve
    Which and whose expectations are you citing regarding Sano? Because of the unreasonable hype associated with him in the past some people expect 50-HR-140-RBI-1.000-OPS performance. Other people expect nothing because they believe him to be a washout. As for me, keep in mind that he had a serious injury in 2017 followed by major surgery. This left him unable to work out during that off season, and that's why it should have been expected that he was overweight and out of sync all last year. After what appeared to be a successful off-season there was the fluke heel injury which deprived him of spring training. So I expected him to be very rusty when he was first put on the roster this season, and I expected his performance to improve as he rounded into mid-season form for the first time in over two years. I don't know if I expected him to be as impressive as he has been lately, but I am not one bit surprised.
  7. Nine of twelve
    The tough-guy approach athletes have traditionally taken is counter-productive. The training and medical staffs should be aware of any and all ailments. These people are highly-trained professionals and their job is to keep players on the field, performing as well as possible. Don't let a minor issue become a major one because it was ignored or hidden. Let them determine what you can play through and what you can't.
  8. Nine of twelve
    You may be right about Morneau, but I'll disagree about Mauer. He was the best baseball player in the world that year.
  9. Nine of twelve
    I agree that Duffey has been scrod out of a win. That said, relief pitcher wins are among the most unimportant stats in the game.
  10. Nine of twelve
    Actually, the job requires skill and loads of baseball-watching experience.
  11. Nine of twelve
    If the Rangers had told the Twins they were going to stop trying to win the game then the Twins would also have stopped trying and Rocco would have told Cave not to try to get a hit. But since that didn't happen Cave was justified in doing what he did. And the Rangers' pitcher and manager should have been ejected
  12. Nine of twelve
    When there is one out with a tie score in the bottom of the ninth you send the runner only if it would take a perfect play to get him. If the runner would be out on an average play you hold. Holding the runner makes it second and third with one out. Many, if not most, visiting managers will order an IBB or order the pitcher not to throw strikes in case the batter swings at pitches that are difficult to hit. Then you've got bases loaded, the infield and outfield play in, maybe with five infielders, and your odds are good. It is easy to see in retrospect that it was a major mistake by Diaz to send. It requires a certain skill to be able to read that play correctly and it seems that he may not possess that skill.
  13. Nine of twelve
    Didn't see the game. Haven't read these comments. Here's my take. I have enough confidence in Falvine to believe they believe Rocco has managerial talent. But all rookies, even talented ones, make mistakes. Sending a pitcher who is brand new to everything and everyone and who arrives during the third inning of his first game with his new team is probably not the best choice to enter the game in a save situation. At this point the best thing is to learn from the mistake and move on.
  14. Nine of twelve
    Reverse jinx, prevention of Murphy's Law, call it whatever you want. Having him available just in case prevented "just in case" from happening.
  15. Nine of twelve
    I didn't realize that but even so, after last year there wasn't much buzz about our team.
  16. Nine of twelve
    The thing about his no-trade clause - keep in mind he signed his current contract in 2015. The Twins had not been in the postseason since 2010 and even though they hung around that season there was no indication that the team was about to become a serious contender. Now that things have changed I would guess he could be persuaded to waive it for us with little in the way of compensation. If you were a good pitcher wouldn't you want to have our offense working for you?
  17. Nine of twelve
    This is very similar to Sano's situation. He was injured for the last 2-3 months of 2017, had major surgery which rendered him unable to work out during that off-season, was therefore out of shape at the beginning of 2018 and never got things together. It was somewhat better for him during the most recent off-season but then there was the fluky heel injury and he had essentially no spring training. When he finally was activated the rust was painfully apparent, especially compared to everyone else who was in mid-season form. Now that he has had a chance to get his timing and conditioning up to speed we have been seeing a marked improvement in his performance. There's good reason to think not only that he won't regress but that he can continue to progress even further both at the plate and in the field. It is beyond me that so many people seem to think that the issues he had with his health were insignificant and feel that he should be traded or even, as many have advocated, DFA'd. He has 50-HR-per-season talent and a cannon for an arm. He's not a perfect fielder but he has the ability to be the best third baseman in baseball.
  18. Nine of twelve
    If Hicks were still with the organization our four outfielders would be Buxton, Hicks, Kepler, and Rosario. All four are good enough defensively to play center field. It would be a dream outfield situation. However, it also means that a very good player would always be sitting on the bench, not contributing. A good GM would trade from a position of strength to improve a position of weakness, and in retrospect trading Hicks was probably the right thing to do. The problem is that trading him for John Ryan Murphy was certainly the very wrong thing to do.
  19. Nine of twelve
    I remember turning that game on somewhere in the middle innings. I also remember having the sound down, either because I was listening to music or talking on the phone. I saw the team exulting in their accomplishment and didn't realize until a graphic appeared on the screen in the next half-inning that it was their second of that game.
  20. Nine of twelve
    Rookie replacement ump. He was called up from (I assume) AAA after the HP ump went down with a probable concussion on Friday. His pitch calling was, to be polite, inconsistent.
  21. Nine of twelve
    Yes, the A's DFA'd him last year and nobody claimed him on waivers. So they kept him. 15 years ago we'd attribute his increase in velocity to performance enhancing pharmaceuticals. There's no reason to believe that's the case here so I guess we just have to assume he's a late bloomer. Every now and then that happens.
  22. Nine of twelve
    This is lifted from Michael Rand's piece on StarTribune.com: "Since that dismal 0-for-7 game against Tampa Bay on June 27 that had people ready to give up on him again, Sano is hitting .348 with an OPS above 1.100. He’s walked eight times and struck out 16 times in 55 plate appearances — far more acceptable numbers — to go with four home runs." It seems that he probably just needed to shake off the rust. No spring training, an essentially lost 2018 season due to recovery from surgery, etc etc etc. I think everyone who is paying attention has noticed the quality of his at-bats has improved markedly, especially pitch recognition. Does he take every breaking ball out of the zone? Of course not. Nobody does, not even Arraez. (Or Mauer.) But I think he's evolving just fine and I hope Rocco plugs him in at third base (and higher in the batting order) as often as is feasible.
  23. Nine of twelve
    The play DID develop fast. The ball was in the first baseman's mitt an instant after it was hit. The reason the throw to first wasn't very strong is because both the first baseman and the base runner knew it didn't have to be.
  24. Nine of twelve
    The original post explores WPA. The thing about WPA is that it kind of breaks down as a useful stat in some cases. For example, a relief pitcher could throw 5 scoreless innings in a blowout, but if his team is 10 runs down in the 4th inning his WPA will be minuscule. Or, a reliever could get the last out in the top of the ninth of a tie game and if his team walks off in the bottom of the inning his WPA will be huge. I think there needs to be a stat which compares WPA in each situation to the best or worst possible WPA.
  25. Nine of twelve
    A ball with less drag will travel farther and faster whether thrown or batted. It will break less.
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