ThejacKmp

Yeah, you defiitely shouldn't use that word.

Well this is where the author's criticism of not taking into account who is up (and up after that) comes into play. Though Joe Mauer doesn't hit a lot of homeruns, I think most Twins fans would love to see him up with guys on 1st and 2nd in a two run game. He's not likely to hit a three run bomb but he's very likely to put the next batter in an advantageous position. It's not necessarily that you should get the 9 best home run hitters in your lineup - though that seems fun you'd have a lot of solo HR driven games. The tool seems like it needs some help - for example, the Tigers win % should probably have been higher given who was coming up. Having a higher OBP guy followed by their big bats is better than having Don Kelly coming up.

As to #1, Terry Ryan did give Willingham a large multi-year contract. He hasn't done it for a pitcher yet but Willingham actually fits the mold I can see the Twins pursuing. Not the Grienkes or Prices or King Felixi but a veteran guy who is looking for a good contract and fills a specific need (Willingham isn't an all-star but an above average pitcher). That sounds a lot like a #2/#3 starter to me!

1.) I'll agree that no one wants to become Steinbrenner Midwest. But it's frustrating to see the team run as a profit making enterprise when it really is just a luxury toy. Try to break even, trust Terry Ryan to be able to make the occasional splurge for a piece the Twins need. That time isn't now but if hitting prospects develop and one or more of the pitchers don't, it'll be frustrating if the Twins are a perennial .500 record third place team because the Pohald's insist on making $25 million every year. I guess my point is that you can have spending limits (which force team executives to do things smarter) but maybe they're not at the right level. It sure would be nice to see what Terry Ryan could do with $25 million more. 2.) The charity thing is hyperbole, clearly there are better ways to spend money. :-P That said, the stadium got sold to the legislature as a public good so we already treat it as such in some arenas, why not when it comes to profits? 3.) And finally, I also don't like telling someone how to spend their own money. That is, until they get the citizens to build them a ballpark without any sort of referendum (which clearly would not have passed). Then I think it becomes more of a public debate about whether or not they should be profitting from the club and how they should spend money. It would be interesting to explore some of the ways in which organizations can be held accountable after stadiums are built (I'm sure the 7 remaining Marlins fans would agree).

1.) I'll agree that no one wants to become Steinbrenner Midwest. But it's frustrating to see the team run as a profit making enterprise when it really is just a luxury toy. Try to break even, trust Terry Ryan to be able to make the occasional splurge for a piece the Twins need. That time isn't now but if hitting prospects develop and one or more of the pitchers don't, it'll be frustrating if the Twins are a perennial .500 record third place team because the Pohald's insist on making $25 million every year. I guess my point is that you can have spending limits (which force team executives to do things smarter) but maybe they're not at the right level. It sure would be nice to see what Terry Ryan could do with $25 million more. 2.) The charity thing is hyperbole, clearly there are better ways to spend money. :-P That said, the stadium got sold to the legislature as a public good so we already treat it as such in some arenas, why not when it comes to profits? 3.) And finally, I also don't like telling someone how to spend their own money. That is, until they get the citizens to build them a ballpark without any sort of referendum (which clearly would not have passed). Then I think it becomes more of a public debate about whether or not they should be profitting from the club and how they should spend money. It would be interesting to explore some of the ways in which organizations can be held accountable after stadiums are built (I'm sure the 7 remaining Marlins fans would agree).

I was reading this article and in the comments section came across this blurb in the comments section concerning the Twins not being able to get FA starting pitching: I don't understand where this assumption comes from. I know that the Twins haven't gone out and gotten this free agent pitcher in the last twenty years but that was also during the Metrodome-era when we realistically couldn't afford it.* I'm not saying the Twins will be signing David Price anytime soon but if the young field players improve and the Twins have 3-4 starters in place (May, Gibson, Diamond, Meyer?) I can see them finding a starting pitcher in that second rung of free agent pitchers for $10 million/yr - $15 million/yr for 3-4 years and rolling with it. It depends how much they're spending filling other holes (particularly the middle infield and first base) but it remains a distinct possibility. This is especially true since one of the benefits of trading Span/Revere is that the Twins don't have a lot of their core (and potential core) coming up for big $$$ for a solid 4-5 years. They've paid Mauer, the outfield will be all young guys and outside of maybe Plouffe - and even then he won't be pricey - all they've really got to worry about is perhaps inking Scott Diamond. The team even sheds a ton of salary via Morneau and Willingham this year and next. This is a team that profiles to be incredibly cheap, even with Mauer's well-deserved $23 million, for the next 3-5 years. That means the Twins will have the flexibility to throw out $10 or even $15 million/yr for 3 years and bring in a more elite starter. Or even two. I get not wanting to sign the seven year pitcher deals (and think its smart businses) but there's a value in the layer underneath. The obvious historical precedent would be Jack Morris, an aging elite pitcher who was available on a short-term high-dollar deal. A less apt one is Carl Pavano the second time - more of a stretch since he was coming off of injuries but in that same ballpark money wise. The point is, there are great #2 or #3 starter types out there who I expect the Twins to sign if the mini-rebuild goes as planned. Who knows who those pitchers will be in the future, but to say the Twins won't be able to go after them seems premature. Now I know everyone is going to point at the Twins current roster ($90 million-ish?) and say that they're already cutting spending but at least the front office is talking the talk about using that money for a sunnier day. As long as they do tuck that $20 million into a savings account with a nice interest rate (instead of a Pohlad's suit pants pocket) with the idea to make their dollars count, I have a hard time faulting them. This team wasn't going to take a huge jump by signing one solid pitcher this year (much as we'd like it) but that may not be true next year or (more likely) the year after. Its like a kid knowing that he could buy a crappy Craigslist bike in March and maybe ride when it isn't too cold but instead hoping for some snow so he can shovel some walks and sve the cash get a sweet brand-new bike in June, when having a bike really matters. ----- *A note on this which is a huge aside and a whole different post: when we say the Twins can't afford it, it's because we ignore the fact that the Pohlads are freaking billionaires. Owning a sports team should be the uber-rich guy equivalent of buying a Maserati - you don't buy it cuz it makes fiscal sense, you buy it because its fun to drive really, really fast and meet some babes. You know, like Mark Cuban. We forget that behind our mumblings about Bill Smith's trade abilities or Gardy's love of light-hitting middle infielders lurks the beast in the corner - the Pohlads run the Twins like an actual business and as cheapskates at that. The fact that they make significant money off of the Twins is an insult. Especially since the family fortune (that's right, not actually earned by the current trust fund bunch) was founded on Smilin' Carl foreclosing on families during the Great Depression. No really. Wikipedia him. No idea why we celebrated this man when he died. We didn't need to boo but I for one turned the channel. Foreclosing homes, trying to contract the Twins, squeezing every penny of profit out - this guy was Scrooge but without the redeeming flash of insight. It's almost enough to make a guy like the publicly owned Packers. Almost. When I think about what the Twins could do if the Pohlads (A) decided to just try to break even each year rather than make a profit ( decided to accept a $20 million loss each year as a public gift or © even accepated a $50 million loss each year (doable since they sold a side beverage business in 2010 for $2.12 billion and also totally tax deductible) it makes me want to cry. And hit someone. Stupid rich people. I get not wanting to pay taxes, that must suck to have your (hard earned?) money taken away. But let's do some real charity work, let's improve some lives. Life is better when the Twins win. Make it happen Pennypincher Pohlad Jr.

I was reading this article and in the comments section came across this blurb in the comments section concerning the Twins not being able to get FA starting pitching: I don't understand where this assumption comes from. I know that the Twins haven't gone out and gotten this free agent pitcher in the last twenty years but that was also during the Metrodome-era when we realistically couldn't afford it.* I'm not saying the Twins will be signing David Price anytime soon but if the young field players improve and the Twins have 3-4 starters in place (May, Gibson, Diamond, Meyer?) I can see them finding a starting pitcher in that second rung of free agent pitchers for $10 million/yr - $15 million/yr for 3-4 years and rolling with it. It depends how much they're spending filling other holes (particularly the middle infield and first base) but it remains a distinct possibility. This is especially true since one of the benefits of trading Span/Revere is that the Twins don't have a lot of their core (and potential core) coming up for big $$$ for a solid 4-5 years. They've paid Mauer, the outfield will be all young guys and outside of maybe Plouffe - and even then he won't be pricey - all they've really got to worry about is perhaps inking Scott Diamond. The team even sheds a ton of salary via Morneau and Willingham this year and next. This is a team that profiles to be incredibly cheap, even with Mauer's well-deserved $23 million, for the next 3-5 years. That means the Twins will have the flexibility to throw out $10 or even $15 million/yr for 3 years and bring in a more elite starter. Or even two. I get not wanting to sign the seven year pitcher deals (and think its smart businses) but there's a value in the layer underneath. The obvious historical precedent would be Jack Morris, an aging elite pitcher who was available on a short-term high-dollar deal. A less apt one is Carl Pavano the second time - more of a stretch since he was coming off of injuries but in that same ballpark money wise. The point is, there are great #2 or #3 starter types out there who I expect the Twins to sign if the mini-rebuild goes as planned. Who knows who those pitchers will be in the future, but to say the Twins won't be able to go after them seems premature. Now I know everyone is going to point at the Twins current roster ($90 million-ish?) and say that they're already cutting spending but at least the front office is talking the talk about using that money for a sunnier day. As long as they do tuck that $20 million into a savings account with a nice interest rate (instead of a Pohlad's suit pants pocket) with the idea to make their dollars count, I have a hard time faulting them. This team wasn't going to take a huge jump by signing one solid pitcher this year (much as we'd like it) but that may not be true next year or (more likely) the year after. Its like a kid knowing that he could buy a crappy Craigslist bike in March and maybe ride when it isn't too cold but instead hoping for some snow so he can shovel some walks and sve the cash get a sweet brand-new bike in June, when having a bike really matters. ----- *A note on this which is a huge aside and a whole different post: when we say the Twins can't afford it, it's because we ignore the fact that the Pohlads are freaking billionaires. Owning a sports team should be the uber-rich guy equivalent of buying a Maserati - you don't buy it cuz it makes fiscal sense, you buy it because its fun to drive really, really fast and meet some babes. You know, like Mark Cuban. We forget that behind our mumblings about Bill Smith's trade abilities or Gardy's love of light-hitting middle infielders lurks the beast in the corner - the Pohlads run the Twins like an actual business and as cheapskates at that. The fact that they make significant money off of the Twins is an insult. Especially since the family fortune (that's right, not actually earned by the current trust fund bunch) was founded on Smilin' Carl foreclosing on families during the Great Depression. No really. Wikipedia him. No idea why we celebrated this man when he died. We didn't need to boo but I for one turned the channel. Foreclosing homes, trying to contract the Twins, squeezing every penny of profit out - this guy was Scrooge but without the redeeming flash of insight. It's almost enough to make a guy like the publicly owned Packers. Almost. When I think about what the Twins could do if the Pohlads (A) decided to just try to break even each year rather than make a profit ( decided to accept a $20 million loss each year as a public gift or © even accepated a $50 million loss each year (doable since they sold a side beverage business in 2010 for $2.12 billion and also totally tax deductible) it makes me want to cry. And hit someone. Stupid rich people. I get not wanting to pay taxes, that must suck to have your (hard earned?) money taken away. But let's do some real charity work, let's improve some lives. Life is better when the Twins win. Make it happen Pennypincher Pohlad Jr.

Double bleh. A bleh in their faces.

Neither OBP or Batting Average take into consideration the number of bases the player earned. OBP just says how many times a person gets on base, with a triple counting the same as a single. Same thing for batting average.

This article would be helped by (A) breaking down how switch hitters did as righties and as lefties ( taking OBP into consideration and © taking plate appearances into consideration. Chili Davis (and not Roy Smalley) has the most home runs when you consider he batted 25% as often as Smalley.

Agreed. Using statistics arbitrarily and without context is a favorite tactic of many fellow purveyors of this site who like to rant. Well done sir, well done. Also, pitchers expect to keep pitching when they're doing well. That's why every manager's worst nightmare is having a pitcher with a no-hitter going hit 100 pitches in the sixth. What are you going to do take him out? It's bad for team morale. When guys have no-hitters, you can't take them out. When guys have shutouts going and less than 90 pitches, you have to send them back out. Especially in April. [Final paragraph deleted by glunn due to attack on another member. ]

Though this is all very interesting, perhaps you shouldn't quit your day job. Hicks didn't suddenly change his batting habits when he went to the majors. He didn't change his swing or start batting with his helmet on backwards. If he was doing something radically different the Twins would send him down no questions asked, or work to fix it. You can dislike the Twins coaching staff all you want (for good reason sometimes) but they are professionals who do this for a living. Maybe you should call them up and tell them what you saw? If you want us to see this you need to get fancy with some GIFs to show us what's different. Telling us you played tennis against 100MPH serves doesn't really convince me.

Not to be a naysayer but if you leave a guy in AAA all year you still don't know who he is long-term until he faces major league pitching. You also can have a guy struggle in the majors the entire year and not know that he's washed up. There is no magic way to handle guys: some do better getting brief chances at the majors whenever there's an option, other need that sense of security with "this is my job." The only thing we can really say with any certainty is that players need to play. If Hicks is going to be platooned, might as well send him down and let him work everyday.

I don't think that this is what the original guy was saying but that stat doesn't endorse the fact that a player is hurt by moving back and forth between AAA and the majors. The player could've gotten three months with a "you're not going anywhere" guarantee and posted the same OPS. No one has come up with proof that shuffling back and forth is bad because we don't have time machines and can't judge which method is worse by looking at both paths. I can make an argument in my head that its bad for continutity's sake and I can also make an argument that its good for a player to get a chance to look at both levels in turn and see the difference. Point is, just as the original guy can't prove that it doesn't hurt them, you can't prove that it does.

There's a clear logical fallacy to your point here. Having fewer strikeouts and walks does not mean that the Twins will have more home runs or even are any more likely to give up home runs. Those are separate variables. The only way your logic would make sense is if baseball involved no other outcomes - only a HR, a K or a BB was possibly in each at bat. Luckily for baseball fans, this is not true. Twins pitchers may replace those K's and BB's with more ground balls or pop ups or doubles or line drives or hit batsman. The three outcomes are all separate variables which do not directly effect one another.

You realize that when you say "in pinstripes" everyone thinks you're referring to the Yankees right?

But that's the thing, it wouldn't be that game deciding it. What decided it was the hundreds of games played earlier. Just because it's the last game doesn't mean that that game decides it. No team could complain - if they had won that game back in April, this situation would not have arisen. And wouldn't it be great to have that game matter? To have fans of playoff teams cheering for Starlin Castro or Feliz Hernandez in a meaningful game late in the season? Watching the Orioles last year was great because they got to experience a playoff atmosphere game. We should encourage that.

Since September 2010 the Twins have been the 2nd worst team in the AL. The Mariners are 112 and 167 for a .401 winning clip and the Twins are 117 and 159 for a .423 clip. You may call that nitpicking and say they're still not good but I'd call making up statistics worse. Check your facts. While you're at it, work on reading comprehension. Nick clearly stated that he was throwing out a fun hypothetical which succeeded in adding some levity to a disappointing season. I'm hoping your snide "I take it this is your first year following the club?" is just you being sarcastic and bitter because if you meant it that way I'd have to ask "Is this your first year on the internet?" since Nick Nelson founded this site and is one of the best Twins bloggers out there.

This has been proven to be false. He burned himself while ironing but wasn't wearing the shirt. Tough my cousin did do that. Amazing moment in family history.

I was Backpacking by myself in japan in 2008. If you haven't been to japan, it can be a very isolating place to be alone. No one talks to you in public, no one even overtly looks at other people. Anyways after about a week on my own, I was walking through a park when all of a sudden this old japanese dude starts jabbering away to me very excitedly. it takes me a minute but I realize he's saying "lew ford! Lew ford!" while pointing at my ever-present twins hat. We then had a discussion about how lew ford sucks. It was an amazing moment and I've loved lew ford ever since.

Doesn't mean it hasn't been covered a million times by Twins bloggers on this site and elsewhere. Nothing new is there - we get it, you all disagree. Stop beating the dead horse.

He pinch hits for Valencia when matchups late in a game work that way - which they often will since many closers and setup guys are righties.