Riverbrian

Someone needs to move that runner on 2nd base with nobody out forward. Someone needs to lace that ball into the OF with a runner on third and one out. OPS is a nice stat but there is a lot of baseball that happens away from it. Someone needs to get on base when those OPS guys step up to the plate and do that OPS thing. Luis Arraez is a plus to any team. Very hard to find type talent... Santana is doing alright but there are a lot of players doing just as alright or better. Not many... if any... do what Luis Arraez does better. His strikeout rates are incredible.

I'll trade Carlos Santana for him!!!

Interesting. That would be off the charts funny because it would mean that Joe currently has St. Peter blocked on Twinsdaily.

Yesterday the wind was blowing in from the North at around 40 MPH. The Wind blew my car door shut before I got all the way into my car. Trapped my head between the Door and the Frame. It hurt a little bit. Today It's a light breeze from the South. It's about 75 Degrees. It Feels real good... going for a walk tonight after work. Baseball player assessment is a lot like licking your finger and sticking it in the air.

To those in the room at 1 Twins Way the forums are an apt comparison. I've experienced it first hand. During my time in Radio... We had chat rooms where outsiders would discuss our performance. It often times wasn't kind. It was most times misinformed often times cruel. The sensible thing to do was ignore it and never ever go there because there isn't much point in subjecting yourself to it... but you can't help it so you check out what is being said about you or your friends working with you.. You know it's there and they are saying stuff about you so lets find out what is being said today. You'll tell your co-workers that you don't go there and they tell you the same but you do and they do. Like putting your tongue on a canker sore. It hurts a little but you do it and you do it for absolutely no good reason at all. Twins staff and players put their tongue on Twins Daily.

It's tough decision time? I seriously doubt that it's tough decision time. Decision time comes when there is an injury and who gets hurt will make that decision easier. Farmer and Margot are not going anywhere. The Roster will operate how the roster operates.

Let me put my tongue on that.

I'm not sure if any post. Some might because it's awfully tempting to fight back. But I will guarantee that they lurk. Like putting your tongue on a canker sore... they will lurk because they are being talked about. I Guarantee it.

Reynaldo Lopez -- 1.69 Seth Lugo -- 2.40 Ronel Blanco -- 2.43 Jordan Hicks -- 3.01 Garrett Crochet - 3.16 Zach Littell -- 4.24 A.J. Puk -- 6.84 #1 - Can you hang zeroes. #2 - How many zeroes can you hang, Sticking players in pre-fabricated starter or reliever boxes is limiting and those boxes are the only reason this discussion exists. Shut down relievers should throw more innings and inning eating starters should eat less. Varland needs to work on the hanging zeroes part.

The lamentation will not stop. You forgot to add my favorite. Just gonna lose in the playoffs anyway.

Julien does have the infield advantage over them. Julien can still compete with Wallner and Kirilloff for an OF opening because of Castro. If Julien gets the call. Castro vacates the handcuff with Farmer at 2B and Castro can plug any spot that opens. If Santana stays healthy. I wouldn't bet against his leading the team in AB's. If Wallner leaves immediately after his game today in St. Paul... He should have time to drive over and catch the 2nd game today and sit in the LF bleachers... have a dog and a beer.

Just a handful of superstars in the game. Royce is one of them. If he can just stay healthy for a decent stretch. The world will see.

Wallner, Kirilloff and Julien have themselves in interesting situations. Now that all 3 of them are in the minors. Instead of 3 MLB jobs for 3 guys when the season started... the three of them will now be competing with each other for 1 single solitary MLB job. That solitary job opens when an injury occurs to someone because Margot and Farmer are not going to be let go.

I'm intrigued. Can you expand on this.

I can't argue that because I think you are right... However... If the skill is stable. Why are Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner down in the minors? What are we gaining using two roster spots to keep a Farmer on hand to protect a Julien? Just being the devil's advocate.

I just used OPS down and dirty. I make no effort to bang the gavel down on any small sample size metrics. I just use it to make a point that the numbers are unstable. Castro hit right handers last year and Castro is hitting left handers this year. Agreed on your point. You need more data to stabilize any data and it's this bouncing ball that is being chased to justify the platooning.

Failure is a strong word with both the young lefties and it's a strong word for the front office as well. The proper word is something less than failure... Call it a slip... But it was at least a degree of a mistake of some sorts. Yes all 3 young left handed batters haven't been what was hoped and they are all down in the minors now. The front office built this roster with the expectation that those 3 young left handers would not slip or fail or no gets injured (Slip and Fall would work for injury). 😉 Our extra roster inventory was used up entirely for players who are best used to cover for the young left handers and hopefully not needed to face right handed hitters. Well those left handers are gone now and Santana, Margot and Farmer will now have to cover for them against right handers with a .667, .525 and .502 OPS.

Using Julien as an example. His numbers looked pretty good last year. .263 Batting Average - .839 OPS - 16 Home Runs in 408 AB's. I'm not anti-platoon. I believe that it is quite possible that if he was allowed to hit left handers last year. Those numbers may not have looked as nice. I'm willing to recognize that the platoon helped at least the optics of his overall numbers in his rookie season. I'm willing to concede that Julien facing left handers may have dragged, drug his overall numbers down. Corbin Carroll in 2023 a young left hander who was not platooned. (I know that Julien is not Corbin Carroll). Had 174 PA's against left handers - He had a total of 650 PA's for 26.7% against left handers. Julien in 2023 had 48 PA's against left handers - He had a total of 408 PA's. That's 11.7%. In order to reach the Corbin percentage. Julien would have to add 83 PA's against Left Handed Pitchers to reach the Carroll every day percentage. I won't use OPS because there are way too many assumptions that need to be made on these hypothetical extra 84 AB's for OPS. In terms of Batting Average. If he maintained his .196 BA over those extra 83 trips to the plate against left handers. His overall batting average would drop to .252 and the fan base isn't as excited. However... and this is important. Assuming that Julien remains at .196 in those 83 AB's against Lefties. I don't assume that... I assume that he will be better over time but let's leave him static. That's 17 hits over 83 AB's. A. 333 batting average against lefties in 83 trips to the plate is 27 hits. 10 more hits for the .333 guy on the short side of the platoon. But... we are not talking about a .333 batting average on the short side of that platoon. Margot is .300 and Farmer is .224. they combine for .266 .266 over 83 AB's is 22 hits. If Julien doesn't improve with more exposure. I think he would... We gained 5 hits with the platoon over a fairly significant period of time. Those extra 5 hits came at the cost of development. They came at the cost of an extra roster spot dedicated to achieving those extra 5 hits. And they came at the cost of short side right handers needing to face right handers because there are so many of them. The 5 hits are nice

The Twins are holding them by the ankle and dipping them in cement. They will never be able to hit left handers because even if they did hit left handers... the sample will never be big enough to justify it. If I'm Walter Jenkins... I'm hating that the Twins drafted me because the Twins are going to hurt him. You practically guarantee that the Twins will have to replace Margot next year with another Margot because someone has to wait for the left hander. Every Margot you sign... it's one less spot to develop a player who won't need to be platooned and if you don't develop players who don't need to be platooned... you have to sign more Margot types. Which leads to less spots to develop a player who doesn't need to be platooned... which leads to the need to sign more Margots. Now of course... If the Twins do happen to develop someone who doesn't need to be platooned... He is going to be a right handed hitter because the left handed hitter still needs to sit to feed the Margot. Endless cycle that you can't get away from and it will spin with increasing momentum.

Nearly every team in baseball utilizes a platoon or two or even three. No team in baseball places every single left handed hitter they have into handcuffs, grabs the top of their head and shoves them in the back seat of the police car for the crime of being left handed.

Which brings up another point. The Ole' Bouncing Ball. Castro was better against right handed pitching last year... This year he is better against left handed pitching. Years prior... left handers. Ryan Jeffers is all of a sudden better against right handers this year.

If Rocco was asked why he platoons. I'm pretty sure that whatever he says... long answer short answer... it doesn't matter... he will be telling you that his players are not good enough in some form or fashion. Players who are good enough are not platooned.

I don't know much about my neighbors financial situation but he sold his boat and bought three canoes.

I had a friend and his job required the occasional flight and he wouldn't fly because he was afraid of a crash. Actually... more specifically... he was afraid of a bomb being on the plane. I told him that he was being silly because the odds had to be astronomical but he still wouldn't get on that plane and he spent his weekends driving from North Dakota to California for his job. I kept on him... the company is buying you a flight... He didn't trust me telling him about the odds so he called Las Vegas to get the odds that a bomb would be on his plane and Las Vegas said 100 Million to 1. He still didn't like those odds so he wouldn't get on a plane. So... he called Vegas again and asked what the odds are that two bombs are on a plane and Vegas said 10 Billion to 1. He was OK with those odds and now he is flying to California for his job but he always carries a bomb with him when he does.

The front office shouldn't have set up the roster in the preseason this way. Now that it is set up this way. I agree with you when you ask... What is Rocco supposed to do? Indeed... what is he supposed to do?. Same question you ask a person who is painted into a corner. Gonna have to leave some footprints getting out of it. Probably ruin your shoes.