CDog

As I've said in response to another of your posts (I think), when Mauer tried to play at the start of '11 and clearly wasn't right, the main cause of the not-rightness was lack of strength in his left leg. The result of that not-rightness was a lot of grounders and almost always to 2B. There was also some not-rightness at the end of the prior season (leading to the surgery) and there was an increase then, too, of grounders to the right side. Now he takes a nasty foul ball off that same leg (one he described as one of the worst he's ever gotten hit with), in the same area that was the cause of problem, and he immediately is hitting a ton of grounders to 2B. Yeah, I think there's a pretty natural inclination to worry about that. I know I am. As for a couple other things you mention, yes two of the games were against Weaver and Hernandez, but the rest were not. Big time not. And for whatever reason, Mauer had previously absolutely RAKED King Felix (with a small sample as all individual matchups are, but a fair amount more than those usually have). And the infield hit to shortstop wouldn't have been an error anywhere, I don't think. It was a crispish ground ball right up the middle that the shortstop got his glove on well behind the second base bag (he was several feet into the outfield grass). A play he maybe could have made and would sometimes, but certainly not an error.

Not sure if you're considering the fact that that was in 70 games last year and 26 this year. If not, it certainly is a big thing to consider. Those both project to around 4.5 wins for a full season.

Fielding Independent Pitching. It's on the same scale as ERA, but attempts to take fielding out of the equation and only look at things the pitcher controls.

I wonder if Fanatic Jack will be able to see this thread.

You mean something like this? "He was doing everything. He kept us off-balance, changed speeds and finished strong." That's a quote from Denard Span after Wednesday night's game according to 1500ESPN's article. The next sentence mentioned being especially at tough at home.

Was there a particular pitcher recently on the waiver wire that you're thinking of?

And just to be clear...No, I don't think all is right with the world in Twins Territory. I have the same question as the article's title. I don't know the answer, and I don't think the article helped me to find it.

I think I remember an early bunt attempt, but I can't remember the details of who or when, so take that for what it's worth. I actually was thinking of starting a thread or writing a blog post about the "unwritten rule" that one shouldn't at some point in a game. I'll give the Cliff Notes version now: I think it's a stupid unwritten rule.

I got a chuckle out of that because as I was reading I was thinking that almost every point was at least a little bit sketchy. Funny how the same thing can get opposite responses in different subjects. The combination of the complaint about the Young/Garza trade with the complaint about not making a "get over the hump" move seems a bit conflictual. AT THE TIME the Twins were trading from a perceived position of depth to gain something they badly needed. The MAKE A TRADE point also feels a little sloppy when one thinks of Ramos-Capps, which was essentially that same attempt. Maybe not a good one, but that's my point here. The article suggests taking chances just like that. As for the Grienke trade, I don't know that the Twins farm depth was what it needed to be to get that particular one done, nor another comparable. Maybe it could have been done, but it sure seems like a good way to get people screaming in a few years about how there's nothing on the farm to compete with. I just get a little skeptical of "why didn't we do this move?" stuff like we hear all the time. The other example of this (although not from this article) is the frequent calls for all the players we could have had for Santana from people who don't really know what offers were made or counter-made or what. Another flag went up when I heard the oft-repeated "Who has improved under Anderson?" questioning. I started just poking around as names came to me and almost everyone has some and some lots. Scott Baker steadily improved. Joe Nathan obviously took huge strides here compared to before he got here, and even for several years after the trade before plateauing and then falling back a small amount. Pavano's first full year with the Twins was near the best of his career. Swarzak 2011 was way, way better than Swarzak 2010. Jon Rauch is interesting because he's played a lot of places, and his second best best FIP (and second best xFIP) was his one full season with the Twins. Duensing 2010 was much better than Duensing 2009 (Duensing 2011 got thrown into the rotation and he regressed...I'd say that's not a great comparison because of having to face all the righties he struggled against, and he's rebounded in the early going this year). Even Blackburn's improved on some peripheral stuff. From the counter-example pile, I went to the two most common that I see. Kyle Lohse in his first full year post-Twins was almost exactly the same as he was his last full year with Twins. Then he had a much improved season before going three more years almost exactly as he had with the Twins including a huge stinker in 2010 before having another very good year five years after leaving the team. Matt Garza showed great improvement from his first year with Twins to the second. Then he was pretty much that same pitcher for three years in Tampa before popping up a level in 2011 four years after leaving. Obviously those are all anecdotal, but finding more general results seems like a bigger project. And those aren't cherry-picked, that's every one I looked at.

I'm sure it's probably case by case to some extent, but I thought either with Morneau's or Nathan's injury that someone pointed out (good specific citation, I know) that they were often insured year-by-year, though. So while Morneau's 2010 may have been (likely was), it's possible that they weren't able to do beyond that. Again...just to reiterate...these are half-baked thoughts and hearsay pretty much, but that was the impression I was under.

If there was such a transaction, I would think they'd be moving some of their current relievers around and Capps would slot in somewhere other than closer. And of course that's a big if at the start of that first sentence.

I can think of a catcher that was drafted in the top couple of picks who made it to the big leagues pretty quickly, too. And he came from high school. And no, I'm not suggesting to expect the same path or even close to the same results, but just echoing the point that sometimes the player can make a quicker ascent happen. I'd say even if it was a three-year plan that it wouldn't be terrible considering the big league club has a very good catcher who should be able to stay there for at least a few more years. Hopefully.

When I saw the Brackin article, before I even read it, I knew I was going to be in for a little bit of a treat. For a while I read all the comments on Twins articles on that paper as a bit of a guilty pleasure. Eventually it got to be too much to take and I quit. But I knew that article would get some great nonsense going, and it surely didn't disappoint. All of that doesn't really have much to do with what's written here, but here's what does: it reminded me how happy I am to have this site where there are rational thoughts, actual discussion, and even people who can hold more than one thought in their head at one time. I know it's been said elsewhere by others, but thanks to the founders of the site and to the folks that come here to make it an enjoyable place for fandom.

So you tell a lie and count that as a victory? That's kinda sad.

Why are we still talking about this? CDog wants Las Vegas!!!!!! CDog may be getting a little loopy today. Tough times in Twins Territory. CDog doesn't think he likes using the third person. CDog will stop that now.

Excellent argument. You've pulled off the written equivalent of putting your fingers in your ears and running around the room shouting, "Lalalalalala I can't hear you!" WAR is a mathematical combination of measurement made from recorded observations. That's what I "say it does." The documentation is available for anyone who wants it. You claim to have read it. You have exhibited that you do not understand what you have read. In another thread you made claims that imply either a) you think temperature, pressure, and time are measured on the same scale in the same units or that you don't get the idea of adding. In that same thread, you claimed that arithmetic is not objective. At least this time you didn't make any claims quite that embarrassing, you only acted childish and ignorant. We get that you don't understand the statistic. It almost seems "personal," though. Did WAR do something to you? It's just math, dude. It's not the enemy.

Did you break the '0' key on your keyboard and couldn't add the proper amount of them?

It's not a sports movie.

I think it's just looking to stir up drama where there is none. Do you really think Span got in the clubhouse and started shouting that if it weren't for the rock pile they wouldn't have gotten no-hit? Or do you think he was asked likely multiple different versions of questions that wanted him to comment on why Weaver was especially hard to hit and he mentioned many and included comments about how great Weaver pitched? I still don't see how this is even close to a sour grape.

This seems to be an indication that you don't understand how WAR is calculated or what it's measuring. It measures exactly what your second paragraph says you want it to.

The "defensive approach" that yields ridiculously offensive output? As for the second part quoted in the first paragraph above, you haven't read or listened to a lot of morons that I have. Many, many people believe exactly that (or at least pretend to, in my opinion, for the sake of their own ego). How do you know what Mauer wants? I never felt any sense of mystery over why Mauer was out in 2011. If you could read and not get caught up in mob mentality, it wasn't that hard. His legs didn't recover strength after knee surgery. The end.

Yes, 2009 he missed all of April. I thought the bunt thing was extremely overblown and--probably related to that fact--I don't remember if it was last year or the year before. I feel like it was later in the year, though, but that's just from faint memory (like July or August). I guess I'd say that the Twins and their fans might be some tiny amount more accepting of the idea of trading him. I still would be shocked if that got all the way to "it happens." And I would be just as surprised if that had anything to do with the reasons he's been in the lineup as much as he has.

Did I just read that the Twins could have a AAA affiliate in Las Vegas? Is that why my pulse just quickened???

I needed a chuckle in relation to the home nine today. Thank you, sir.

Wow! You sat in the stands and could spot him leading away?!? Color me super impressed. Or maybe it's skeptical.