Dantes929

How about Gardy and Nicky Punto? Gardy: "That bunt by Buxtie was a little hard" LNP: "It was close. He would have made it with a head first slide" Gardy: "I don't understand this lineup. Why isn't he batting all his lefties consecutively?"

I was thinking along those lines. Real entertainment TV. I think Morneau has a pretty good sense of humor and he can take the baseball analyst part. Have the play by play guy be more like Conan Obrien. Rethink the entire dynamic. Have a season of just play by play guests rather than a regular. Conan, Bill Murray, Chuck and Josh, Sarah Silverman, Trump, Obama.. Riverbrian can fill in all the gaps.

Both great points both of you but you can see that it is quite likely that when Kelly left that guy in for those reasons if the game goes south USAchief is going to consider it a bad move and if he pulled him and it went south doomtints is going to consider it a bad move. Kelly was not immune to criticism for his handling of the pitching staff. I remember people bitching about it even before the advent of these baseball sites. I am guessing most people thought he was ok in the winning years and was bad at it in the losing years. Several years ago when Gardy was getting ripped for bad management I checked all the scores for a time and for the close losses I would go to the losing team's websites and managers not knowing when to pull guys was always a common theme with every manager on good teams or bad except for some reason Mike Sciosa. Every manager on every team got ripped except one. The problem with putting the best guy in the best position is that those situations happen really often. Guerrier, Crane, and now Rogers were the best option in a close game even when it happened on consecutive days but consecutive days happened often enough that eventually they were overused. Now you can give them more rest but when the next best guy blows a game you know you're going to get ripped. Sure, making the best moves long term and short term to put your team in the best position to win the most games is desired and is great in theory but really hard in practice. I believe Molitor probably tried to do exactly that and no, I don't think he was particularly good at it but I don't think anyone is really all that great at it. Its why you constantly see guys like Molitor win MOY one year and fired the next.

Nothing wrong with Devon White. He had a nice career but I am pretty sure those were the projections for Buxton's floor, not his ceiling.

The good ones are the ones with Verlander, Sale, deGrom and Scherzer in their rotations with shut down bullpens. I'm not calling those situations above mistakes except sarcastically. Its akin to a pitcher giving up just a solo home run in a game and the announcers saying he just made one mistake. It was probably a pitch he threw a dozen times the same way but it is only a mistake cuz one of those times a guy connects on it. I am by no means saying Molitor is a great manager. Just saying that with the way this group pitched most of the time it didn't matter if he left the starter in or pulled him, runs were going to result and Molitor was going to be blamed for it. That's what I was trying to illustrate in the two identical scenarios above where he makes different decisions but the results are the same. Every manager has those D..... if you do D..... if you don't decisions to make. The "good" ones just don't face the consequences as much because their pitchers get the job done.

I will give him the benefit of the doubt until a starter is throwing a 5 inning shutout but then give up runs in the 6th (pulled to late) or throws a 5 inning shutout and then is pulled for a reliever who then give up runs (pulled to early) which will be proof positive he doesn't know when how to handle a bullpen at which point I will lump him with every other manager ever.

I get all that and agree with most of it. I don't have a ton of faith in all the defensive metrics especially for first basemen. Are scoops defined as any ball that hits the ground? If a throw is a little high for a 6' first baseman or a little wide it is an error for the thrower that probably doesn't exist with a taller or more adept first baseman. It definitely affects the thrower adversely statistically. Does it also work into the metrics for the first baseman? Whose home runs are you talking about? If 30 errors is acceptable for Polanco because he can hit is it still acceptable at 40 errors because the guy he's throwing to doesn't save him as often? If you are talking about Mauer's home runs it should all be part of the equation but I don't think his defense is insignificant.

Hah! No disrespect. Before my time. Not even saying others are bad but when a shortstop or 3lb threw one in the dirt to Sano or Vargas I was hoping he would scoop it. With Mauer I expected it. The error goes to the guy throwing it. If I am Polanco, I am hoping Mauer doesn't retire.

Just not buying it mainly by the eye ball test. Last year when Ortiz and Sano were playing in place of Mauer when I watched there would be at least one play that they messed up that I mentally said Mauer gets that one. Not all scoops are created equal and Mauer would make some while I watched that I thought "Most Sano, or Ortiz or Austen miss that most of the time" The stats say Mauer scoops one every 4 games. Hard to believe but I accept your facts. Of course once in every 4 games sounds like more than 20 time in 753 innings. Yes, other 1st basemen have scoops but do the stats track the ones that aren't caught? It is said one hit every two weeks is what separates an average hitter from an all star and my eyes still tell me Mauer caught one ball every two weeks that Sano would not. Every one has played ball since young age and hitters have unique athletic ability but Rod Carew was a great hitter and mediocre fielder and I could probably cite hundreds of examples of athletic skills not translating. I'm sure Sano was fielding fly balls since a young age also but it didn't make him an outfielder. Doesn't mean he can't get better though. Morneau was good but not great. Still did that hockey thing where he made the big wave at the ball on scoops. Looks flashy as heck and he was good at it but balls still got by him every once in a while. Good but not great. If Mauer is gone next year I think you will notice the difference. Might be only once in 10 or twenty games but games hinge on that kind of thing.

This is a big one. Judging how the replacements to Mauer have done over the past two years I am guessing Mauer has saved somewhere between a lot of runs and a whole lot of runs. I was actually thinking I am ok with Polanco at short. He should only get better with reps and his arm doesn't appear all that weak to me but you reminded me I am only ok with Polanco at short as long as Mauer or someone else really good is at first. Most players that let loose overthrow their target but Polanco does it smart by throwing low. It only works if there is a guy on the other end that catches balls in the dirt routinely. Hrbek, Mauer and mr. alphabet have been the only Twins that have done that.

Sorry. They absolutely shopped the bargain bin in 87. Don Bayolor was 38 years old coming off a couple so so seasons and the epitome of aging vet hoping he had a little left. One swing the entire year probably changed the hindsight view of him. Odorizzi and Lynn look like Koufax and Kershaw compared to 42 year old Carlton and 42 year old Niekro. Yeah, they spent money on Morris but he was 36 and coming off seasons of 21-32 with ERAs of 4.51 and 4.86. Do you really think if TD was around at that time everyone would be cheering the move before the season began. . Again. More a case of players performing that could very easily have gone the other way. My motive here isn't to say the Twins are doing great. They are obviously not at the moment. Its more echoing that there are different ways to have success. For every Brewers story there are several similar that have failed. For every several teams that have been built similar to the Twins and failed there have been some that have done well. ie A's and Braves.

Not so great. Worked pretty well the prior decade. Didn't work out so well in the late 90's. Worked out really well some of the years in the late 80's and early 90's. Ask again in 5 years. I was pretty happy with Odorizzi and ok with Lynn. Didn't take too much imagination to think Buxton, Kepler, Sano, and Dozier would have good years among others and that the Twins looked much better on paper than the team that made the playoffs last year. The predictions on this site were uncharacteristically optimistic this spring. There was a very reasonable basis for it. Also easy to imagine is Crain and Yelich simply having average seasons and missing the playoffs. I made fun of the formula but the most basic formula for looking like a genius is to have the players that you think are capable of playing well to actually play well.

Ok, I get the formula. In a depressed market go get a solid outfielder at age 32 sign him to a 5 year contract and have him play 10 points better on OPS+ than his career average of 108 and better than any other year save one. Take a 24 year old guy that just hit 30 homers and had a 126 OPS+ season and start him in the minors. Trade 4 prospects for a solid outfielder coming off a 120 OPS+ season and have him play to a 1.000 OPS, a 164 OPS+ and likely MVP. I really don't know why the Twins didn't sign Cain to a long term deal, start Rosario in AAA and give up Buxton, Kiriloff and Thorpe to get Yelich. I'm not trying to take credit away from the Brewers but just temper it a little with snark because yeah, they had their share of luck.

I wish he had swung at first pitches a little more often but two myths about Mauer abound. One is that he was a great two strike hitter. While its true he was better than most batters when behind in the count he only hit .226 with an 0-2 count and .215 with a 1-2 count. Even at 2-2 he only batted .251. The other perception is that he was always behind in the count. If that were in fact true then the stats listed above would prevent him from being anywhere near a .306 batter. His stats for all counts are similar to a lot of decent but not great hitters in that they do much better when ahead in the count so what separates Joe from decent hitters like Delmon Young and Mike Cuddyer is that Mauer was actually ahead in the count way more than the others. The only way to get ahead in the count is to not swing early in the count. I wish Joe had been a little more aggressive early in the counts but not a lot more because there is logic to his approach that worked for him.

I once watched a weekend series where the Twins scored 9 runs as a direct result of Joe getting on base or moving guys over and the net result statistically for him was 0 RBI and 1 run scored. The 4 and 5 baters (Morneau and I don't remember) got 8 RBI from a bunch of sac flies, ground outs and singles. That is why Mauer did pretty well with the runs created stat that the casual fan just doesn't recognize or appreciate much. Mauer is at #205 with lots of HOFers behind him and a lot of players ahead of him that only were ahead because they played longer. Piazza is the only catcher that was ahead of him for runs created/seasons played. I think Mauer's longevity actually hurts his case a bit. His average career stats have taken a big hit from the last 5 years.

Sadly, I think Mauer should have been lead off or 2nd for most of his career. Ask Morneau, Cuddyer, Young, Kubel and Thome if they appreciated Joe bating in from of them. A lot of ground out RBI and sac flies can be credited to Joe who would advance guys on the rare occasions that the guys ahead of him got on. We know he isn't a home run hitter so the low number of RBI with RISP is still indicative of guys not getting on base enough. Casilla, Punto, Everett, Hocking, Dozier are just some of the guys that Mauer batted after. Not exactly high OBP guys. As far as clutch the Twins had 3 of the closest pennant races in history and Mauer was fantastic in the last months of those seasons. Look at his last two months of the wild card race last year. Personally, I hope he comes back next year because even if he is not one of the best 1b batters, he is still one of the Twins best batters.

Its small sample size. I don't know how to do it but if you took all his batted balls at Target Field and put them in Fenway I am gussing an awful lot of those balls would have hit the wall instead of warning track outs. That doesn't mean he would have been pitched the same way or that there might be other factors but I gotta believe he would have been better in Fenway full time also.

8 BB/9 Sandy Koufax couldn't overcome that stat. There is no way this is how he pitched in the minors. Good to get it out of the way now. I think there have been worse arms that have had good careers. There is no one that has had worse control that has had a good career. He needs to get that walk rate down to 3.

For what its worth, while Mauer was a catcher pre concussion his career batting average was .320 which puts him even with Cochran and ahead of everyone else.

"and there are some fans where no amount of context matters, they just like to get mad.” There is that and there is also short memories. If you went back into the archives (I was on the Trib more than here I think) you would see that at least 98% of the fans were absolutely demanding that the Twins extend him and that they defended his right to get market value. 98%!!! If you went back to the archives in 2013 you would see 98% saying they were against the contract to begin with. Now of course the posters in 2009 may have been somewhat different than in 2013. I suspect that most of them both demanded the contract and then later said they were against it from the start.

Hey. Good team on the road and if it were a 27 inning game we would have won 13-11

Two more walks scored. Just sayin.

Ok, the Twins are middle of the pack in strikeouts which is an improvement but they are 23rd in ERA. I know a lot of fans and advanced stats people love strikeouts. I like them but I HATE walks and judging by the games I watched and my review of MLB on games I missed every guy the Twins walked ended up scoring. Ok, big hyperbole there but middle of the pack in strikeouts and toward the bottom in run prevention is not a good trade off for me and I consider a main culprit to be that we are near the top in walks allowed. We are third in the AL behind Whites Sox and the Orioles. I don't think it is coincidence that those are two of the few teams that have a worse ERA and it is not the kind of company I would like to keep. Seriously, it seemed like walks were involved in nearly all the key rallies by the other team during the season. I was never a critic of the theory of pitch to contact just a critic of the Twins execution. I am not a critic of the miss the bat theory but I think the Twins are doing a poor job of that also. They are missing bats enough but missing the zone way too much.

If it meant a dozen fewer runs scored over the course of a season it might translate into an extra win statistically and possible two. If you knew it would be worth two extra wins over the course of a season would it help you get over the feel of the game issue. How about one game? Would be meaningless most seasons but every once in a great while it is the difference in making the playoffs or not. Would you sacrifice that possibility your traditional view of the game? Maybe you would and that is fine but maybe you would look at it differently. Of course the hard part is determining exactly how much it does impact the season. Didn't work well for a few games and has now worked well for a few. Those pluses and minuses should still result in fewer runs over the course of the season. Again we are talking not a lot of runs but if I thought it was worth a dozen runs over the course of the season I would be for it. Its not for your front line starters anyway.

Over the years I have seen Joe swing hard plenty of times where he fouls the ball straight back. It seems like when he tries to hit for power his swing goes on a different plane and he just doesn't square it up. In this case when he says he was just trying to hit a fly ball to score the run I believe him. In this case it was 97 mph that he hit on the screws. Carew used to say he could hit 20 homers a year but he would bat .270 instead of .330. I have always appreciated Joe for who he is rather than get down on him for who he is not.