LaBombo

I'm a five-minute walk away from the east-west commuter train that also stops at Fenway Park. So with Game 1 of the World Series being held at Fenway, Tuesday night, despite not being a diehard Red Sox fan and despite the forecast of iffy weather I felt like I'd be a fool not to take advantage of the logistics.
 
The title for this blog entry is deceptive because I didn't actually "attend" the game. I didn't have tickets, and of course no way was I going to pay scalper prices. But I thought I'd enjoy the atmosphere outside the ballpark. It's like Wrigley, and maybe a few others, with thriving neighborhoods that are worth enjoying even when the home team isn't playing.
 
I decided to arrive early, in part because I wasn't sure whether the train might already be packed with fans from further out, if I left nearer to game time. My train wasn't too bad, but they only come once an hour, and who knows what the next one was like. So, at 5:15 I arrived at Yawkey station (still so-named even though nearby Yawkey Way has been renamed back to Jersey Street).
 

 
David Ortiz Drive is a short block leading to Brookline Avenue which is one of the bordering streets for the ballpark. It has uniform-number monuments to some of their greats. Here you see the ones for Boggs and Ortiz, and to the left you can see the obscured number for Pedro (45).
 

 
My general plan was to wander around, until game time (8:10 or so), and then take the next train back home assuming things had quieted down outside the park. I was prepared to stay later, if some kind of awesomeness broke out. The area was already busy with people milling around. Cars were double-parked in several places, apparently with official blessing, and the parking lots were advertising a pretty consistent $60 fee. The commuter rail station had a sign stating that the last train of the night would be held until 1:00 am, more than an hour later than its normal schedule; since the game lasted until about midnight, that wasn't really overkill.
 
I took a long way around, heading south on Brookline and then heading back up on Van Ness.
 

 
Boston isn't really laid out on a grid and you can get disoriented pretty easily, but I've learned my way around Fenway by now. I reached the intersection with Jersey Street where several street vendors are set up and some of the entry gates to the ballpark are. That part of Jersey Street is actually part of the team's venue - the metal detectors and turnstiles are outdoors and the street is just a ballpark concourse on game day - which is why I couldn't use Jersey as part of my circuit.
 

 

 
I kept walking, to Ipswich Street and then Landsdowne Street. It all was pretty busy - here is Landsdowne at its junction with Brookline, basically the end of my circuit. All the bars or restaurants I would have considered trying had huge lines of people waiting to get in, to little surprise.
 

 
Security was everywhere you looked. Dogs sniffed the trunks of cars entering the parking lot within Fenway Park itself, SWAT team humvees were stationed in various places, heavy city trucks were eventually parked to block key intersections, and of course you were never out of sight of police officers (uniformed and I'm sure plainclothes).
 

 

 

 
There also was the expected swarm of media vehicles.
 

 
I mentioned not being willing to pay scalper's prices, but actually I don't think I had an opportunity. There were plenty of scalpers, but they were always asking if I had tickets to sell, not if I wanted to buy. I think I had seen $400 for standing room tickets, on StubHub. Whatever few tickets changed hands on the street at game time were apparently already spoken for. I saw a couple of people who seemed more normal and less scuzzy than the typical scalper, with signs begging for cheap tickets because they were diehard Sox fans or whatever, but I have little doubt that they would have immediately forgotten their loyalty to the team and would have turned a quick profit had someone been suckered in by their pleas.
 
It wasn't raining when I arrived, but around sundown there started to be drizzle, and pretty soon it rained hard and there was significant lightning a mile or two away. I had brought an umbrella and was walking in light hiking boots, but those who had decided to rely on their hooded jackets decided to cram into the already crowded bars and restaurants, or else (if they had tickets) make their way into the ballpark, because the streets were suddenly pretty sparse of pedestrians. I walked the perimeter of the ballpark again. For some reason I never get tired of photographing the Citgo sign.
 

 
Somewhere along the perimeter, I spotted a window into which you could see a makeshift Media Room.
 

 
Even aside from the rain, I have to say that the atmosphere somewhat disappointed me. I guess I was expecting something like a big block party. There was one guy playing makeshift drums on the bridge over I-90, and a couple of times I heard a "Let's Go Red Sox" chant or similar commotion from people lined up to get inside the park, but that's just like a normal game day. A couple of locations on my circuit had a very strong odor of weed, I think maybe from the broadcast media enclave behind a chain link fence within the Fenway Park premises. I believe the Mayor and the Police Commisioner had let it be known that no nonsense was going to be brooked, and maybe that accounts for what I saw on the streets. Certainly, I wasn't hoping for hooliganism, especially with the presence of a smattering of Dodger Blue jerseys and hats, and I'm not sure exactly what I was hoping for, but this was altogether too normal. So buttoned-down. I opted to cut my evening slightly short and take a train that departed shortly before first pitch.
 
Still, I'm glad I went. After sundown, the Prudential Building had their lights on to urge on the Sox to victory, and I think any baseball fan would have felt some excitement, Sox fan or not. Game 1 of the World Series, baby!
 

 

 

Yesterday a picture was leaked of a napkin left at an Applebees in Santa Monica, California, last month while the Twins were visiting the Los Angeles Angels. The napkin was left there inadvertently by, reportedly, Twins Major League Coach Jeff Pickler who was dining at the restaurant with other members of the Twins coaching staff.
 
The napkin had pictured, among other things, sketches of proposed fielding alignments. Some of the alignments were titled “Ryan Suter,” “Mexico,” and “Mauer.”
 
 
Jeff Pickler was hired during the 2016-2017 offseason by the Minnesota Twins as a coach to help with various aspects of the Twins at the major league level, but most notably by studying tapes and determining outfielder positioning for a talented trio which included Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton, and Max Kepler to start the season.
 
The Applebees server, who requested to be left anonymous, stated that Pickler “Seemed like a nice guy…” but was “a crappy tipper” and “deserves to have his strategies exposed.”
 
One anonymous bench coach for a Major League Baseball team commented, “These are ****ing stupid. Except for the Mauer one. We’ll probably use that one.”
 
Shown below are graphics for the various shifts sketched on the discovered napkin:
 
"Ryan Suter"
 

 
"Sieve"
 

 
"T-ball"
 

 
"Mauer"
 

 
"Mexico"
 

 
"Broadcast Interview"
 

 
"Chris Davis"
 

 
"Batman"
 

 
Twins coach Jeff Pickler could not be reached for comment for this article.

-SHTICKBALL-


 
Yesterday afternoon at a major league baseball game, Cody Goldstein, 26, had to endure the pain and subsequent later consequences of eating an entire baseball helmet full of tortilla chips, liquid cheese jalapenos, and a meat-like substance. This unfortunate turn of events came about when Cody’s girlfriend, Amber, only ate approximately three chips, thus fulfilling her craving for the salty snack.
 
“That was rough, polishing that whole thing off, but I was able to power through it.” Goldstein said in a postgame interview “The problem is, I think the worst is yet to come, if you catch my drift.”
 
It’s unclear at this time how much Cody actually wanted said nachos, but it has been confirmed that the idea of purchasing nachos was Amber’s idea. The decision to upgrade for the typical flimsy tray of nachos to a full batting helmet was likely Cody’s, but that has yet to be confirmed as well.
 
It’s been speculated that Cody’s decision to top the oversized portion of food with traditional jalapenos may have been a factor in Amber’s reluctance to eat her share, as she’s been quoted as calling them “Too spicy” and also mentioned that she was “not a fan” of them during previous food ordering experiences.
 
Eyewitnesses have said that Amber seemed at least mildly disgusted at the amount of food that Cody consumed, but also that she seemed very content with the small portion that she had. It’s been said by a few that this situation shouldn’t affect their relationship in any negative way, but that remains to be seen. Cody reportedly told Amber that “You do this all the time” when finding out that she wouldn’t be eating anymore of the helmet nachos, but it appears to be only a minor nuisance, like how Cody takes off his shirt when drinking heavily.
 
Regardless of the situation, it appears Goldstein is no worse for the wear after such a herculean consumption of the massive third rate appetizer, and it’s likely that this hasn’t ruined his willingness to eat nachos in the future. While he’s likely told himself that he’s not going to be influences by Amber’s whimsy like this again, it’s likely it’ll happen again upon their next trip to that place with the buffalo wings that Amber thinks she likes, but they really aren’t that good. It seems as though Cody is up to the task for just about any kind of gluttony, regardless of the food.

In 2016, very few things have gone right for any extended period of time for the Twins. Whether it be losing, injuries, or mismanagement, the group has not had a good showing coming off of a near playoff year (flukey as it may have been). There's one guy, and his situation, that may embody most of the shortcomings for Minnesota this season, Jorge Polanco.
 
Now, before you go leaping off the deep end, Jorge Polanco has been arguably one of the best players from the Twins in 2016. He's absolutely nowhere near their list of problems. However, the handling, utilization, and understanding of Jorge Polanco may almost perfectly describe a host of the Twins shortcomings this season.
 
Starting the year off down at Triple-A, Polanco was looking up at a roster that didn't seem to have much room for him. Brian Dozier was entrenched at second base, and at some point, the plan was for Miguel Sano to take over at third. Really, the only thing left up in the air was whether or not Minnesota had a real shortstop. For the better part of the first half, Eduardo Nunez played out of his gourd, earned an All Star trip, and held down the role. When he was flipped to San Franscisco though, it finally became time for Polanco to play.
 
By this time, Polanco had already been shuffled between Triple-A Rochester and the big leagues three different times. Each time he was called up, manager Paul Molitor seemingly didn't know how to use him. He didn't find time in the lineup, and he was passed over for lesser options. Molitor's public comments were of the vein that as a young player, there may not be much of a role for him one the big league club at the current juncture.
 
Here's the problem with that train of though, Jorge Polanco is 23 years old, and already out of options a season from now. He's one of Minnesota's best prospects, and there's very little track record of him being given any considerable run to showcase his talents at the highest level. On a team with a record among the worst in baseball, there's no excuse to continue to exclude him.
 
Finally, the training wheels come off. Since his most recent promotion he's played in 18 games for the Twins. Polanco has hits in 16 of those games, and has gone from hitting at the bottom of the order, to being among the top three. He owns a .347/.355/.440 slash line, and has been a catalyst for the Minnesota offense. If there was one thing known about Polanco, it's that his bat would play, and it has.
 
Then there's the other side of the equation, defense. Molitor shuffled Polanco around between third, second, and short to start. Despite knowing that two-thirds of those positions were supposedly spoken for, Polanco still being utilized as a utility type. It wasn't until his eighth game with the club, following his recall, that he finally played shortstop. Then, Molitor played him there three games in a row, and eight of the last 11 contests. The decision is only concerning because of the way in which we've gotten here.
 
Despite playing nearly 3,000 minor league innings at short in his career, Polanco played a whopping zero there this season for Triple-A Rochester. Although it appeared that was his best bet for consistent playing time, Minnesota operated using the idea that Polanco's arm wasn't strong enough for the role, as absolute truth and didn't manage their roster accordingly. Since, and with the understanding that it's a small sample size (just 72 innings), Polanco has been worth 3 defensive runs saved and posted a 1.8 UZR. Those marks make him easily the only productive defensive shortstop the Twins have had this season. Having had 40 chances now across his post-recall time at short, Polanco has committed just one error, and it was of the fielding variety.
 
At this point, Jorge Polanco is no more than long term answer at shortstop for the Twins than he may have been entering the season. What he has been however, is a tale of youth that has been underutilized, an organization that was ill-prepared, and a management style that doesn't suggest awareness of the positioning in the standings relative to the long term goals of the club. If Minnesota is actually going to rely upon their developed talent as they should be, knowing when to get the acclimated, comfortable, and productive is something that can't continue to be overlooked.
 
For now, Polanco may have given the Twins enough leash to save themselves, but this is a trend that can't continue to happen.
 
For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz

The first 81 games for the Minnesota Twins were dreadful. A mere 27 wins, the worst record in baseball, is the result of bad pitching, hitting and just really, really bad baseball.
 
Usually the mid-way point of a season gives us, the fans, a time to reflect and think of the positive things. Things we believe the team can build on moving forward.
 
Nope! Not this year!
 
The straw that broke this camel's back, for me, was when the Twins designated Kevin Jepsen for assignment. If you are having a tough time remember who this guy is, let me remind you.
 
The Twins, in need of some bullpen help last season, traded away two minor league players to the Tampa Bay Rays in order to get Jepsen.
 
He had a stellar two months with the organization. He appeared in 29 games giving up just one home run, striking out 25 while walking just seven and giving up just five earned runs over 28 innings.
 
Now, he's no longer on the team. And that's not even the worst part of the Jepsen story.
 
It's a mess, for sure, and one that I would like to reflect on by handing out some awards. Not your high school make-everyone-feel-good-participation awards. No, these awards are a bit different.
 
Biggest Disappointment
Oh man. You want to talk about tough. So many people to consider for this award, Jepsen and Joe Mauer included. In the end, however, I have to give it to Eddie Rosario.
 
I believed that he was going to improve after a solid first-season in 2015. Sure, he is a free swinger that thinks taking a pitch is some sort of illness. Sure, he was pegged for regression knowing that he has no idea what a strike-zone is. Still, I believed.
 
That is why his .200 batting average through the first 32 games of the season, along with 31 strike-outs and just three walks, were so sad. Not disappointing. No. Sad.
 
After a stint in the minors, where he hit .319 over 41 games with 21 extra-base hits, he's back in the majors.
 
Rosario will have his work cut out for him with Robbie Grossman and Max Kepler both playing well. If the strike-outs continue, he may find himself the way of Oswaldo Arcia.
 
I guess this will teach me to pin my hopes on a dude who is a free-swinger.
 
Most Similar to Tsuyoshi Nishioka
Is this fair? I mean, we all know who this award goes to. Byung Ho-Park, now in the minors, hit .191 through 62 games. His 80 strike-outs is a team high and his .409 slugging percentage is worse than Kurt Suzuki's.
 
The "big move" in the off-season for the Twins, Park started off well enough. He had a .578 slugging percentage through the first 32 games along with nine home runs. Then, he fell off a friggin' cliff.
 
Over the last 30 games, Park has hit .123 with 42 strike-outs and just three home-runs.
 
He's now in the minors trying to figure it out but that's not where you want a guy you spent $12.85 million on just to negotiate a contract. He is suppose to have "figured it out" already.
 
I said when the signing went down that we could have another Nishioka on our hands. A terribly easy correlation, I know, but still one that is beginning to come to fruition.
 
Worst Pitcher
Again, so many options. Phil Hughes? Trevor May? Kyle Gibson? All viable candidates. For me, though, I like Kevin Jepsen for this role.
 
Those other three have been dealing with injuries this season. Hughes' injury is so significant he has been shut down for the rest of the year. Jepsen, though, hasn't had to deal with any of these things.
 
I already covered the statistical side of things in the opening of this post. I think that would do more than enough to make you understand why he has been this season's worst pitcher.
 
Then there is this: One of the players the Twins gave up in the Jepsen trade, Chih-Wei Hu, is headed to this season's Futures Game on July 10. Which leads me to my next and final award...
 
Who Is To Blame
Terry Ryan. What kind of bullpen help did he bring in? Frenando Abad. Granted, he's been the lone bright spot for the Twins this season. Past that...
 
What kind of rotation help did he think about bringing in? Re-signing Tommy Milone and hoping a guy like Ricky Nolasco could turn it around. He figured Phil Hughes and Ervin Santana would be better. He also figured guys like Tyler Duffey and Jose Berrios would push the veterans like Milone and Nalsco. Yet....
 
You also have the issue of Trevor May. Is he a starter? Isn't he a starter? They couldn't quite figure it out. I can't imagine what that does to the psyche of a pitcher. A guy that either has to mentally prepare every day or every fifth day. He can't get into a grove for either job.
 
The Jepsen trade, which at the time was questionable, now just looks laughable. The Aaron Hicks for John Ryan Murphy trade? Would have been the worst in his tenure as Twins' General Manager if not for the fact Hicks has been awful for the Yankees this season.
 
There is the lack of looking to trade Trevor Plouffe and insisting that Miguel Sano will be just fine out in right field. Now, Plouffe's trade value is much lower than and Sano has never seemed comfortable in right field.
 
The organization lacks pitching prospect depth and a catcher of the future.
 
Last season's success seems more like a fluke than something the Twins could have built on.
 
If you want to blame the coaching staff you certainly can. I won't argue with that point. I believe the problems rest more on Ryan's shoulders than anybody else.
 
I don't think he returns for 2017. He may be the beginning of a long list of changes the organization should go through this off-season. Or sooner.

Source: Park vs, Desmond- Another case of misdirected FA $$$

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

To kick off the week, the Minnesota Twins welcomed the Baltimore Orioles into the friendly confines of Target Field. Looking around the diamond, it's hard not to get a little upset knowing J.J. Hardy is standing at shortstop while Jim Hoey is off building computers somewhere. Although the Twins have been on the short end of the stick in their fair share of roster moves, this season it's been about one of the best trades in recent memory.
Despite looking to make a run at the playoffs in 2014 by bringing in slugging designated hitter Kendrys Morales, the Twins sealed their fate by mid-summer. Sellers at the trade deadline, Minnesota had few assets that other teams coveted. The one they did have however, was an outfielder claimed off of waivers just a few months earlier.
 
Cast off by the Oakland Athletics, Sam Fuld was snagged by the Twins. With Aaron Hicks struggling, Oswaldo Arcia being what he is defensively, and the options running thin, the Twins needed a capable fielder. Snatching up Billy Beane's castoff, the Twins employed Fuld for 53 games last season.
Over the course of those 53 games, Fuld proved extremely valuable for the Twins. The scrappy outfielder hit .274/.370/.354 with 10 doubles and 17 runs batted in. Then it happened, on July 31, the Athletics came knocking. Needing to make up for the oft-injured Coco Crisp, and outfield deficiencies of their own, Beane wanted Fuld back for his playoff run. In return, he would off the Twins Tommy Milone.
 
Milone is far from an elite level major league pitcher, and he's probably not even a front end of the rotation type guy. However, for a team in the doldrums of the Major League Baseball ERA standings, the amount of value was through the roof.
Sure, Milone's first impression for the Twins was less than ideal. In six games, he owned a 7.06 ERA, his 4.6 BB/9 ratio wasn't good, and the former Oakland pitcher was rarely healthy. Coming off of that performance, spring training was going to be an uphill battle as well. Competing for the 5th and final rotation spot, Milone just squeaked into what was slated to be a much improved Twins rotation.
 
After a rocky start to the season, Milone was given a chance to let things click. Being sent down to Triple-A Rochester, Tommy really turned things on. On the farm, he pitched five games going 4-0, owning a 0.70 ERA, striking out 47 in 38.2 IP, and walking just three. On top of that, he allowed opposing hitters to bat just .182/.200/.248 off of him. By all accounts, he was absolutely brilliant.
What's better is that it hasn't stopped.
 
Since returning to the Twins on June 4th, Milone has pitched six games and owns a 1.95 ERA across that span. He's struck out 29, walked just nine, and pitched 37 innings. Allowing just a .243/.289/.350 slash line against, major league hitters have been overmatched by the soft-tossing lefty as well.
The level of production Milone has afforded the Twins in 2015 couldn't have been predicted by even the most in tune baseball minds. Knowing that the Twins gave up nothing to get him (or more accurately, rented a player and then received a pay day for it), makes the situation all that much better.
 
It's probably not fair to suggest that this run of brilliance is going to continue, at least not at this level. His current ERA ranks amongst the American League leaders, and after all, he still remains a less than ideal top end starter. For the Twins though, he absolutely makes sense, and remains a massive asset going forward.
Knowing that pitchers like Jose Berrios, Trevor May, Tyler Duffey, and Taylor Rogers are all readily available to provide quality depth, Milone's brilliance only bolsters the Twins going forward. Not eligible for free agency until 2019, Minnesota has a very controllable asset at their disposal, and they will continue to be all the better for it.
From the get go, Terry Ryan and the Twins absolutely fleeced Billy Beane, the Athletics, and the AL West by sending Sam Fuld back in exchange for Milone. With his emergence in 2015, the icing on the cake looks even tastier.
 
For more from Off The Baggy, click here. Follow @tlschwerz

With eight MLB at-bats under his belt, its not fair to say we've seen what Miguel Sano is made of yet. He is hitting .375 with a double, an RBI, a run scored and a .500 slugging percentage. Those look pretty good, but his 50% strikeout rate does not. All that is simply to say that he has not shown us enough to judge from his stats what kind of a player he is going to be. I have noticed several things from him though aside from his stats about the way he plays the game, and they make me feel pretty optimistic about his chances of being here for good.
 
1. He is not afraid to hit MLB pitching. We saw Byron Buxton debut several weeks ago and he looked positively over matched against big league pitchers. Even though Miguel Sano has struck out 4 times in 8 at-bats, I don't think he has looked over-matched in a single one of them. He has the look of a guy who knows he can hit at this level and hit off these pitchers. As much as I hate to say it, Buxton looked overwhelmed and over-matched. The three fastballs that Guthrie threw by Sano late in the game was simply an instance of an eager young batter in an RBI situation late in an important game, and a savvy veteran taking advantage of that. I don't think pitchers will be buzzing three fastballs by Sano for very long. He barely missed all three of them, and had he connected, the twins would have won that game 4-2.
 
2. He is surprisingly athletic for such a big guy. Sano's first major league hit was an infield hit to a good shortstop. He beat it out with no room to spare, and looked good doing it. Vargas would have been out by three steps on that ball. His second hit of the night last night was a rocket that he stung over the head of Alex Gordon. Again, had that been Vargas, you have to believe he would have been thrown out as Sano barely beat the tag. And he also had a clean, athletic, injury-free slide that looked really good for 6'4" and 260 pounds. I'm looking forward to seeing how he plays third, as he looks to me to have too much athleticism to spend his career as a DH. For now, though, I'm just happy with him in the lineup.
 
3. He does not plan on going anywhere anytime soon. The way Sano has played, and the confidence he has shown look like a player who thinks, and intends to prove that he belongs here at the big league level. We have seen with Danny Santana, that confidence is key, and Sano looks like he has it.
 
So what are your thoughts? Do you expect Sano to stay in Minnesota for the rest of the year? If so, why? And if not, why not?

The other day, I was watching Moneyball, one of my favorite films. My favorite scene is when Billy Beane is in the room with a bunch of scouts saying the team should sign a bunch of questionable players. His response, as I'm sure most of you know, to all the criticisms he receives is "He gets on base." This got me thinking, how important is it to get on base?
 
Using Fangraphs, I collected a bunch of data from last season, focusing on the team as a whole rather than individual stats. My goal was to see which aspects of hitting (OBP, OPS, wOBA, etc) had the largest impact on the number of runs the team scored. Some of the stuff I found seemed obvious, other stuff was quite surprising.
 
For each statistic I ran a linear regression between total runs(y) and that statistic(x). I have reported the slope and correlation coefficient for each one:
AVG: slope=4.76(r=0.81)
OBP: slope=4.96 (r=0.89)
SLG: slope=2.91(r=0.90)
OPS: slope=2.04(r=0.94)
wOBA: slope=5.00(r=0.94)
BB%: slope=4.18(r=0.48)
ISO: slope=2.87(r=0.60)
HR: slope=1.47(r=0.53)
SB: slope=-0.08(r=-0.03)

It comes as no surprise that wOBA has both the strongest correlation and the most runs per percentage point of all the statistics I looked at. If anything, all this means is that wOBA truely is a great way to measure offensive value. In addition, the fact that OBP has a slightly larger impact than AVG indicates that getting on base via BB, HBP, Error, FC, etc. does create more run-scoring opportunities. However, the correlation between BB% and total runs was quite weak. Now that I think about it, this may be because a team can walk less and hit more and still recover their OBP, so this is really no different than AVG having a lower r-value than OBP. I'm surprised that SLG and OPS have a smaller impact than AVG and OBP, but I think this just exposes the weakness of those stats compared to wOBA. The fact that ISO has such a weak correlation with total runs further emphasizes that hitting for extra bases does not tell you as much as simply getting on base. I figured ahead of time that using HR and SB would provide weak correlations since they are counting stats, but it was interesting to see there is no correlation whatsoever between stolen bases and total runs scored.
 
I guess I didn't really learn all that much from doing this, but I can say the simple act of getting on base is more important to scoring runs than the business of how one gets on base (OBP vs AVG or BB%), and that wOBA is an awesome and useful statistic. So I guess Billy Beane was right, if a player gets on base, he's worth having on your team.
 
I'm new to Twins Daily and this is my first blog post! I love numbers but I also love the other aspects of the game, so as I continue to publish I promise not everything will be quite this dry
 
Thanks for reading and feel free to share your own thoughts and analysis!