Riverbrian

It seems like you are asking for a new fool proof projection when the old projection isn't working. I don't have the answer for that and neither does the front office. All I'm asking is that instead of taking those projections and developing 9 hitters... develop 12 hitters instead and increase your odds in the process. Let the players separate themselves and the projections will change accordingly. Projections are based upon on how players perform. If you don't let the player perform... he can't change the projection. You can make the right decision in the short term based on performance today. Let the players who are hitting continue to hit. Slow down (not bench completely) the usage of players like Marwin who are not. If the tide turns... follow it. The players should dictate... not the projections. If you find that you can't play a player anymore... get someone else. If the Astros decided to trade Correa to us tomorrow for International Signing Pool Money. Would you bench Polanco tomorrow because Correa is projected to be better? I wouldn't. Would you pass on Correa because you have Polanco... I wouldn't. Now replace Correa and Polanco with Astudillo and Marwin. Do you really put Astudillo on the bench for Marwin at this moment? I wouldn't. Get yourself 12 players who can play and play them. Baldelli is doing a pretty good job getting everyone in and letting them compete. We will see what happens when clear separation starts to rear it's ugly head. For now... I hope he keeps it up and I hope the team keeps it up so he has to sweat figuring out who plays today. I've been asking for depth... I've gotten it. The Dodgers have been doing this for years and they are miles ahead of most teams as a result. It isn't the FA money they are spending... it's their ability to find talent all over the place and playing that talent. Dave Roberts and the Dodgers would not bench Astudillo but Molitor would. The Dodgers will bench Dozier and Forsythe... Molitor will continue to play them. You develop depth by playing your depth. I apologize if I haven't answered your question directly... Maybe a specific scenerio will help me zero in on what you are asking.

I responded to a similar question earlier... Specifically asking about a couple of bullpen arms but the same would apply for hitters. See below: Hitters or Pitchers... the first move is always slowing down usage while you identify the problem. If the problem is taking awhile to correct... there are a bunch of considerations that will factor into any subsequent action. Does the player have options, Is the player listening to coaching, is the player progressing. Projections are important but waiting for the projection to realize while absorbing lenghty sub-par play will kill your season. The Twins front office needs to think of this team as contenders right now and continue doing so until the team gives them a reason to think otherwise.

That would depend on many factors. The peripherals, is the issue fixable and how many struggling arms are you needing to absorb poor performance from at the time of having to make a decision. You can slow down usage and control leverage with one guy for some rope to turn it around. Two guys can be handled but it’s obviously more taxing depending on the length of both players struggling. 3 guys and you need to start making hard decisions and make those decisions quickly. Bottom line: We should never allow a struggling player the opportunity to drag the team down by forcing poor performance into the collective output.

25 guys who can play and a manager who trusts all 25 is what I’ve been asking for since Logan Morrison. I would have no problem with this continuing all season long. Next step... cull the struggling herd. If members of the bullpen don’t improve... replace them and try someone else.

Repeating myself I know but... . I (for the most part) don't care about batting order. It is the manager's job to construct it and whatever he goes with is fine with me but I would like to know that the manager is constructing it daily based upon real time data and not constructing a lineup based upon a template created prior to game one. The question I ask for all TwinsDaily-ites is this: What damage is done to the performance of the club/player if you bat a player 1st on Monday, 4th on Tuesday, 7th on Wednesday and 1st again on Friday or any combination of batting order slots. The reason to move players around could be based upon matchups with the starting pitcher that day, Hot/Cold streaks each player is currently exhibiting or Right Handed/Left Handed lineup balance and separation? Why is the consistency of a player hitting in the same spot every game necessary? Why does the consistency of Kepler (for example) batting lead-off every single game trump Kepler striking out 4 out of 6 career AB's in his history against the pitcher he is scheduled to face? Why does the consistency of Marwin (For example) batting 6th in the order every game trump a month long slump. Teams are mining data to search for tiny grains of advantage, yet absolutely willing to ignore any advantages discovered in day to day lineup construction for simple consistency and I don't understand why the consistency trumps any such information. What happens if Buxton bats 9th, is moved to 1st and back to 9th. Is that it for him now... Did we just ruin him forever? I personally believe that players can move around the batting order free and easy without any mental, physical or plain ole' performance repercussions. It's your turn to bat... go bat. Each AB comes with a unique circumstance that can't be controlled based upon where you hit in the order. I don't understand why static batting orders are necessary at all. Get your best hitters to the top of the lineup... they will get an extra AB that way. If the Twins feel that Max Kepler is one of our best 4 hitters, fine but we are still talking future (I do believe in Max Kepler) because at no point in his current career with the Twins has he been one of our top 4 hitters. Why can't Kepler hit 7th, 8th or 9th until he starts hitting like we hope he does? (Disclaimer: I'm not picking on any of the exampled players... I believe in all of them).

That would be my guess also but... a minor league deal? I know it had heavy incentives based on MLB appearances that would have greatly increased the value but ultimately it was a minor league deal and surely someone would have offered him an actual rotation spot. I have no idea.

I can't escape this thought. Why did he sign a minor league deal? Lance Lynn got 30 million over 3 years. What does every team in baseball know that we don't know.

Badly is too kind.

I know it's going to sound like I care about the batting order but honestly... I don't care that much. However... I don't believe there is any benefit to a static batting order... I only see detriment. I honestly can't imagine a logical argument that makes sense to keep a static batting order and I've been forced to endure it for way too long. Dozier bats leadoff every single game... No Matter if it's the multiple month long slumpy Dozier who produces out after out or the Power Hitting Monster Dozier who hits a ball out of the park every 3 AB's. Neither Dozier is an ideal leadoff hitter but that's where he hits every single game. Mauer hits third every single time and it took dynamite to move him to the #2 slot. What is the benefit of locking players into a batting order and leaving them there through good times and bad. Why does Marwin hit 6th? I'm happy he is here... I believe he will get it going... I wanted the Twins to increase flexibility and I wanted them to sign Marwin and I'm still happy we signed him but he is now 54 AB's into the season and he's slugging .278!!! I believe Marwin will find it but why can't he hit 9th until he finds it and then move him into the 6th spot. Do we ruin Buxton if we move him from 9th to 1st and have to move him back to 9th in case he is just fooling us right now? Personally... I don't think so... if players are so mentally fragile that they can't move to different spots in the batting order... then how will they get through the playoffs when mental toughness is flat out required in almost all circumstances. In my opinion... I'd like to see Polanco, Buxton, Cruz and Rosario getting the most AB's at this moment. I reserve the right to change my mind later based on who is putting the barrel of the bat on the ball. However... I'll state again... I honestly don't care that much about batting order... other than... when I see a locked in batting order... I start to believe the manager is on auto-pilot. Think about this... When Adrianza plays... he hits in front of Buxton because Buxton is locked into the 9th spot. This can't be justified other than, you'd like to have a good hitter to roll over into the top of the order but there we are with Kepler at the top of the order. So you rolling into a struggling leadoff hitter who is locked into the leadoff spot even if he isn't really producing like a leadoff hitter at the moment. None of this can be justified. But as long as the team wins... it won't matter and I really don't care about batting order.

I share your concern. I've been asking for the Twins to get "Bullpen Serious" for awhile now. However... Fine... OK... If you are not going to grab some FA's then you got to find out what the kids can do during a lost season and we were throwing Belisle into 25 games that could have been used to see what someone with a future could do. And now we are looking at Burdi and Anderson looking quite impressive elsewhere. I'm almost so pissed about Belisle wasting our future time and space... that I have no strength left to be mad about the off-season bullpen efforts.

Looked like Ball Four on TV... It looks closer to the line on Savant but still Ball-ish. It's a win for my team so I'm declaring a one day moratorium in my advocacy for automation because it benefited me. I'll be back with usual stance after Midnight tonight. Unless something happens that is not to my benefit during the current game in which case I reserve the right to immediately end the moratorium.

Rollie threw 138 Innings while racking up 37 Saves in 78 appearances. I'm not suggesting that our bullpen go all Rollie Fingers out there but I am suggesting that there is middle ground between the 190 innings thrown by starters and the 60 innings thrown by the bullpen arms and ultimately we should be looking for ways to get our top bullpen guys more innings to make up for the less innings that will be thrown by our starters. The question is how much rest is required between efforts and what does max effort do to the equation. Hader is already starting to break down the walls.

I won't argue the conditioned usage but we are already seeing examples of certain pitchers going against that grain. Hader for example and it all starts by starting to do it. Taylor Rogers may have struggled as a starter previously but he has done some nice sized improvement on his slider to the point that I don't think his past numbers are applicable today.

I watch a lot of baseball on TV. I see it happen all the time. I'm at the point where I can't un-see it anymore. Then I come to Twinsdaily to discuss it and I end up feeling like Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense.

We just got a missed strike call victory. Rogers should have just walked in the game tying run. Ump missed the call and the batter is eventually retired F9 for a Twins win. I am absolutely in favor of an automated strike zone but if the calls from an umpire will consistently benefit the Twins... Then I am in favor of umpires.

I think it is safe to assume, that the majority of players, office staff, broadcasters, producers read Twinsdaily and not just the articles. They are on these forums because it is only human nature to see what is being said about you. Kind of like putting your tongue on a canker sore just to know you are alive. They may not admit it, but yeah they know how to navigate the internet and find comments about them.

Buck hasn't had any sacrifices nor has he hit any home runs so far in 2019. He has 16 hits in 56 AB's for a batting average of .285. He has struck out 15 times (25%). So you get to take those 15 AB's that resulted in strikeouts out of the equation and make it 16 hits in 41 AB's for a .390 BABIP. 4 more balls caught by defensive players over his 17 games. Would result in 12 hits in 41 AB's which would normalize his BABIP while lowering his batting average to .214 because he hasn't parked anything yet. Instead he is hitting line drives with the 2nd highest exit velocity in the league thus far. (BTW... Provus said it last Sunday so I took it as gospel and didn't verify. I'm looking at exit velo's today and Harper is not #1 and Buxton is not #2... but they are up near the leaders). I'd rather move him up while he is doing that instead of waiting for the regression that is inevitable. You can always move him back down. Anyway... I know you get all the numbers better than most. I could have shortened up this whole thing by simply saying... Buck is hitting the ball hard right now.

Very few things are repeatable from year to year. That's why these front offices keep getting burned on those free agent contracts.

I also heard someone (Provus I believe) say that Byron ranks 2nd behind Bryce Harper in exit velocity which coupled with his speed leads to a possible logical (not concrete) explanation of the .390 BABIP. I'm not seeing fortuitous doubles. I'm seeing line drives of the base off the LF wall and some singles in the gap that he turned into doubles with pure speed. Personally... I rarely look at BABIP as a luck stat to be normalized down the road. I feel BABIP is more of an indication of solid contact and other factors like speed. Some people tend to use BABIP as a way to marginalize or downplay current success. When I look at a high BABIP, I tend to say "Nice Job... Good For You... Keep it Up". He already has 12 extra base hits in 61 AB's. I do agree that I'd like to see a big cut down in his whiff percentage. It's better so far this year in a small sample size but I'm salivating over the thought of him getting his strikeout percentage to Astudillo levels.

I thought of another potential complaint that I’m not ready to complain about yet. Baldelli does seem to have a locked down slotting of players in the batting order which leads to the question. Wouldn’t we all like to see Byron Buxton get an extra AB every game he plays? It doesn’t have to be permanent but isn’t Buxton currently out performing the nine hole that he has been consistently hitting out of? I normally don’t care about batting order but I’d put Buxton in the 1 or 2 hole as long as he’s hitting like he is and let him be a distraction on the bases while the pitcher is trying pitch to Cruz and Rosario. Polanco... Buxton... Cruz... Rosario... Looks like a great 1-4 at the moment start to any batting order.

I continue to have no complaints with how the team has been run. Rocco is utilizing his entire roster. However... I feel a complaint coming on. In my opinion: I think he has been great defensively at 3B but, It's time to start moving Marwin around the diamond. Sano is coming back eventually, Garver is hitting the ball and earning more AB's and Astudillo has been earning AB's all along. Let Garver catch more, Let Astudillo play 3B more, Move Marwin around the diamond spread the playing time burden around to everyone. It's time.

I've been saying this for quite some time and will continue to say it. Every team should be trying to sign, acquire or create their own Andrew Miller or Josh Hader type. Taylor Rogers is our candidate for this type of role. 2018: Josh Hader -- 55 Appearances - 81 Innings. 2018: Taylor Rogers -- 72 Appearances - 68.1 innings. 2018: Jose Berrios -- 32 Appearances - 192.1 Innings. The Hader and Rogers numbers kind of highlight the difference in how they were deployed last year and it shows how Rogers can throw more than 1 inning per appearance if the organization looks at the Brewers and Josh Hader and considers it. Jose Berrios is listed for the hell of it to show that anything in between is also possible with Taylor Rogers and to simply ask the question back: Would you rather have Berrios pitch in shorter bursts and be available to appear in more games? Or would you rather him cover multiple innings but be limited to fewer games? Baseball has been Auto-Pilot for way too long. Starters don't have to go 6 innings and relievers don't need to be limited to 1 inning. Everything in between is possible!!! It doesn't matter what inning... Taylor Rogers should be deployed whenever the game is tight and should remain in the game (there is a limit) until the offense provides separation. You won't create this type of weapon until the coaching staffs and front offices get over the 1 inning bullpen mentality and get out of the prefabricated boxes of closer, 8th inning guy, 7th inning guy, LOOGY. If you have a guy who can hang zeroes... let the guy hang more of them. Don't pull him just because you can't fathom anybody on earth throwing an additional inning out of the bullpen or because it was how your grandfather constructed his bullpen. Don't limit him to 55 special innings... increase his innings. The goal of every bullpen is to hang zeroes. Let the guy hanging them... hang more. Once you create a guy like this... there is nothing stopping you from creating another one so the other can get some rest. This is how you get Bullpen serious. Stretch out everyone. Quit creating these specialists... Quit saving your best guy for the 9th inning only and only when you have a 1 to 3 run lead. When I see Baldelli get another inning out of Taylor Rogers... I am hopeful that it's an indication of a different bullpen usage mentality. I know it doesn't mean he is in lock step with me because it was just one time but I'm hopeful because it needs to happen. How do you get Rogers more innings?... Not appearances... Innings? That's the question that needs to be asked.

For the record... I only considered your opinions an expression of your opinion and absolutely fair content at all times. Please continue. I'll stick around to let you know when you're wrong.

Long enough to get another year of control?

Fill it with interesting out of the box, non traditional content, that both entertains and educates, Provide content that will give major league baseball a fighting chance of reaching demographics that are currently not there and currently scaring the marketing people when they look to the next decade, which has led to the creation of focus groups that are telling baseball powers that be that the game is too slow... when they really mean the game isn't entertaining them. Use this opportunity to... wait a sec... I took your post literally.