Riverbrian

I will only approve “The Grain Belters” or the “Tater Trotters”. Nothing Else

I... of course will not let them off the hook that easy. There will be no shoulder shrug "what can you do?" from me. What you present is very well written and it's a nice overhead view of what was 2018... Yes... everything you list contributed to the season that was 2018 and many people want to give the team a pass saying "what can you do in consideration?" The reasons you list are accurate but the reasons were still organizational decisions that they didn't have to make. We didn't have to lie there and take it. But we did lie there and take it. When players hitting .200 are deemed as impossible to replace... You have failed as an organization. I contend that Molitor simultaneously deserves "Manager of the Year" for getting 78 wins out of the performances he chose to work with. And he also deserves to not be coaching in 2019 for choosing who he chose to work with.

According to the Baseball Bill of Rights... That ball had no right to be a double.

It isn't when you consider that Castro, Astudillo, Cron, Schoop, Arraez, Sano, Polanco, Adrianza, Rosario, Buxton, Kepler and Marwin are in.

Average 6 wins every 10 games. You will win 97 games. Average 5 wins every 10 games. You will win 81 games. Average 4 wins every 10 games. You will win 65 games. Average 6.8 wins every 10 games. You will win 110 games.

It's gonna take a special talker with special talking skills. If they blow it up... My guess is that they will keep the core of Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin, Rendon, Robles, Soto and Turner. My opinion is that they will blow it up by selling (if anyone will take them) the following players: Zimmerman, Dozier, Eaton, Sanchez, Gomes, Suzuki, Doolittle, Rosenthal, Kendrick, Adams, Taylor and Barraclough.

BTW... Great Post. My Priority is for the Twins to find 25 players who can play and play them all. They have done what I have been asking for all off-season with the position players... I have depth and flexibility so I have no complaints. Now I'd like them to turn their attention to the depth of the pitching staff. We will have injuries... it's only a matter of time. I'm not sure what the answer is or will be... but this team can win it all so they will need to have an answer. Laying down and dying will not be acceptable. I'll bet money right now that the Indians will be selling at the deadline. They already dipped that toe... they will finish the plunge into those waters. The White Sox are young, The Tigers and Royals are just starting the rebuild. Our offense can compete with any offense... Go get some depth on the mound.

What you say is true if teams allow it to be true. I'm too far gone on the depth kick to change now. The Yankees for example... if they lost Chapman... Still have Britton, Ottovino, Kahnle, Green and Betances if healthy to pick up the slack. The Twins if they lose Rogers... They have Parker, May, Harper and ??? Speaking of Betances... the Yankees are an example of what I'm talking about. Take a look at their DL... they are building an entire new wing on the hospital to house the patients. 5 Starters on the DL. Paxton, Sabathia, Severino, Montgomery and Loaisiga. They have a rotation of 3 currently and are relying on 40% bullpen games just to get through and it's working because they have that bullpen that can absorb the loss of Betances and the loss of Chapman if it should happen. It ain't much better with the position players either. Judge, Stanton, Gregorious, Andujar, Bird, Tulowitski and Ellsbury are all on the DL. The Yankees have a current record of 32-17. It's a myth that you have to die when injuries occur. Depth can keep you alive but you have to prepare for the possibility by committing to depth and creating it. I don't doubt your research and I appreciate and respect the points you are making but the times are changing and baseball has been locked into a 5 man rotation come hell or high water for decades now and I'm not sure if that traditional model applies anymore. The Dodgers reached the World Series when every single one of their starters spent significant time on the DL. The Brewers almost reached the World Series with one starter and a damn good bullpen. The 2018 and 2019 Rays are an example that can't be discounted. There are new ways to skin a cat. Pressly has been awesome this year... But the Astros also have Osuna, Rondon, Harris, Devenski, James and Valdez. The Red Sox... it is not my intention to diminish the value or talent of Kimbrel... I'd be all smiles if the Twins signed him but... when you say "I'm not sure that the Red Sox would win the series without Kimbrel". You are placing a lot of value on someone who threw 10.2 innings in the playoffs and coughed up 7 runs. I'd be more inclined to make that statement and apply it to Eovaldi or Steve Pearce who the Red Sox picked up at bargain prices at the trade deadline. In total... I'm more inclined to say that the Red Sox made the playoffs and won the World Series because they had depth. 14 Position players made significant contributions during the regular season. 8 starters started more than 10 games... 6 were above average... 1 was average and 1 was bad (Pomeranz). 12 Bullpen arms pitched in a significant amount of games over the course of the season and of that dozen... only one (Thornburg) would have been classified as bad. It is my strong opinion and many can attest that I've been unbending, unabashed and frequent expressing it. Depth and flexibility is the silver bullet. If a team doesn't have the ability to cover for injuries and poor performance... it is the fault of the front office and it can be avoided.

I'm not sure if panic is the right word or if urgent is the right description. It's really hard to panic or think urgently in such great times. However... I am absolutely sure that if he we lost a starter and had to rely on the bullpen more to cover for the loss of the starter. Panic and Urgent will be closer to the right word.

I disagree that Minnesota has been future focused. But the rest of the article is absolutely spot on. This team deserves support and I'd be shocked if the front office doesn't provide it. We are all seeing what depth with the lineup provides. Garver and Cruz down... no problem. They are not even missing a beat and those are two large bats that would cripple most teams. Now the front office has to look at the mound and look at it hard. Don't get cocky thinking you've built it. The baseball Gods love to mess around with those sitting around admiring their handiwork. Imagine what would happen if Taylor Rogers gets knocked out for the year. That one loss out of the bullpen would be huge. In the rotation, what happens if Berrios, or Odorizzi or Gibson or Perez or Pineda goes down. What if two of them go down? You can prepare for it... you don't have to go down with the ship if the unthinkable happens. They need to find arms they can count on immediately out of their own system and they need to start adding arms via trade once June hits. If the starter price is too high, then you got to load that bullpen up in preparation for some bullpen games. Kimbrel would be awesome but it doesn't have to be Kimbrel... They just need to build a fierce pen that will shut down opponents when our OFFENSE provides a cushion and bullpen arms are always available at the trade deadline. Stay away from the Gregerson and Belisle types. We don't need crafty and experienced... we need destroy all hope rockets.

He was the player I was least worried about on the roster. He really looked like he was turning a corner last year... right out of his suspension when he was supposed to behind everyone because of the time on the shelf. I'm honestly not shocked. (Maybe a little shocked). Who could have predicted this?

I’m not so sure that he does. He appears to be more concerned with left/right handed hitter seperation in the order and I don’t have a problem with that.

We’ve seen enough left handed pitching for Buxton to overtake Kepler in overall stats and When we face lefthanders... Buxton still hits behind Kepler... If they are watching the splits.

If true... there is no reason for Buxton to bat 9th. He is currently out performing players slotted ahead of him. I’d assume that AL teams have weaker hitters as well. Most Catchers for example and the 8th spot is where most catchers hit.

I always type the disclaimer that I don’t care about the batting order that much. With that said. I absolutely get the concept and have no problem with it in theory but in our case. Does Kepler fit that ultra top of order mold to be fed by a Buxton in the 9 hole. Polanco and Cruz you bet. When your 9 is out producing your 1... you got it backwards. Especially when Cruz is our and now Buxton is feeding Kepler and Marwin. In that case you just have Buxton hitting after Adrianza for example and Buxton our producing the guys he is trying to feed. But... in the end I don’t worry about the order that much. My thing that I watch is a somewhat permanent slotting or a template that is only deviated from slightly. I just don’t see any harm batting Buxton wherever in an effort to get him an extra PA during a given game.

Since Managers tend to put their best hitters at the top of the order. Many Managers will put a guy with some talent in the 9 spot to feed the ultra talented guys at the top of the order. There are many managers who put their worst hitter in the 8 spot instead. Larussa and Maddon would/will frequently bar their pitcher in the 8th spot as a dramatic example.

With Cruz due to come back Friday (last I heard). Arraez has probably earned a longer look. This makes Austin Adams the most likely choice to be sent down. However... I’d like to see Adams pitch again before they send him down. His only appearance this year went pretty good.

This pretty much sums it up. This explains why I put Logan Morrison on a poster with the caption, this can never happen again and why I've been asking for the depth and flexibility that this team has. I have no complaints.

Inch wide mile deep or whatever. The Angels are near the top of my list of teams that just do it wrong. They have themselves in a hard to escape death spiral. They spent their budget to the max on a handfull of high priced free agents and drained the farm system acquiring additional talent. With no cheap talent on the roster and no cheap talent on the horizon. They are forced to continue being an inch wide mile deep. They have to keep spending and keep trading farm talent year in and year out. And then they are totally dependent on luck/health to compete and like most teams... they just don't get the luck/health necessary. If I was the GM... I'd blow it up and start over.

Agree with you 100% on having too many good players. Disagree about optioning Astudillo. Willans is a guy you fix at the major league level because if he can hit from the catcher position... this rarity will skyrocket his value. Not only value to the team in the pursuit of wins but future trade value that could bring back legitimate talent in return. Those coaches get paid to coach. Coach him up, add some walks to his repertoire and everyone will be happy.

I think Arraez is showing he can help and I’m 100% behind him getting lots of playing time but he will probably need to go back to Rochester eventually. It isn’t Arraez who should force Adrianza off the roster. It’ll be the return of Cruz and Garver. Arraez has options and I’ve been asking depth. I don’t want to shorten that depth on purpose.

Absolutely agree... I can't argue against a strategy that's resulting in one of the best offensive outputs in the league. Actually I can and I kinda am but I really don't spend a lot of time worrying about the batting order so I don't want anyone to think that I'm losing sleep over it. I just don't understand the asset of a template and I don't understand what consistency provides the hitter in the batter box. I mainly think it's ok to try and get Buxton (specifically) some more AB's.

Perhaps But... I'm not suggesting that it should be that reactionary. I'm asking the question... what damage is done if players hit in different spots in the lineup day to day? What damage is done if Buxton hits 9th and then moves to 1st and back to 9th? It's May 20th. Buxton has 142 AB's with an OBP of 335 and Kepler has 159 AB's with an OBP of .315. Kepler is getting the extra AB's by consistent hitting 1st while Buxton hits 9th. Why would it all fall apart if they swapped positions. Why does Astudillo simply plug into whatever spot in the order belongs to the player he's replacing. They bounce the turtle all around the lineup... Why can't they bounce Buxton around without injuring the consistency. Why is the Consistency important? Legit questions that will be very difficult for anyone (including Baldelli) to explain to me.

I still fail to understand the "set it and forget it" mentality when it comes to the batting order. I've said many times that I don't care much about the batting order but I really don't understand the reasoning behind a "somewhat static" "small fluctuating" "almost permanent" slotting. Why must Buxton remain in the 9th spot every single game? Any spot in the order 1-9 should be an option on any given day. If Buxton batted 9th on Sunday... Batted 1st on Monday and then Batted 6th on Tuesday and then batted 3rd on Wednesday. Will that ruin him? Will it ruin the team? I'm guessing that the next question could be: "Why Riverbrian do you want to move a batter around like that?". I'm not saying that I want to move a hitter around to that extreme but moving a hitter around based upon matchups or hot/cold streaks should always be a consideration in lineup construction despite the small sample sizes. If Nelson Cruz is 0-30 against Pitcher X... Does he have to stay in the 3 hole when we face Pitcher X? If Byron Buxton has barreled up Pitcher Y every single time he has faced him... Does he have to stay in the 9 hole against pitcher Y. If Max Kepler has struck out 15 times in his past 20 PA's... does he have to remain in the 1 hole or can the manager bump him down in the order until he starts making more consistent contact and then move him back to the 1 hole. Too many people discuss moving Buxton out of the 9 hole like it has to be permanent move. Like there is no going back again if he bats 6th in the order for tonight's game. I am trying desperately to understand the rationale behind the "Set It and Forget It" mindset. We have an analytics department analyzing every little detail just to find slight advantages, for the purpose of making our team just a little bit better and using a "somewhat static" "small fluctuating" "almost permanent" slotting totally ignores any slight advantage uncovered by metrics. I don't care about batting order in total other than: 1. Separate the Rights/Lefts as much as possible to make it hard on the other manager to manage his bullpen. 2. Whoever bats at the top of the order will most likely get one more AB then those hitting at the bottom of the order and if the top of the order gets 1 more AB... it will occur at the end of the game when the game could be on the line. Bottom Line: I just don't understand why it takes an act of congress to move a hitter to a different spot in the batting order.

His mechanics certainly look cleaner. With a cleaner swing, it's possible he is getting a better look, with a better look, he is swinging at better pitches. Swinging at better pitches leads to harder hit balls and less strikeouts. Tell Lavelle that he shouldn't argue with you.