ashbury

(Checks calendar. It's mid-February.) He is!

I'd be curious to know more of the context of those comments. Maybe Rocco was referring to the coming weeks before Opening Day? France's antipathy toward analytics is interesting. Hopefully the new batting coach and assistants are better at communicating than last year's seemed to be.

I look forward to trying to lip-read his conversations in the dugout with Matt Wallner. "Well, sure, it's easy to get plunked from YOUR side of the plate." 😀

.734 isn't all that great in the first place, for a 1Bman with minimal defensive prowess. Do the Twins' talent evaluators go any deeper than, "oh yeah, I've heard of him," like a fan? I sometimes wonder, when they bring us players like Manuel Margot.

Mauer. With what they paid him, he still owes them something.

Pick a lane. 😀

His OPS with bases empty last year was .680 and was .706 with RISP. The one remaining situation, batter on first, he was an uncanny .768. Make of that what you will. 😀 The problem for me is that Willi's just not a very good hitter. Oh, he's a good hitter for a shortstop, except that he isn't a very good shortstop. He's fine in the utility role but should not be leading a team (with ideas of contention) in plate appearances.

Amazing rebuttal. So you have no particular explanation for how a team can finish dead last in something and still make the post-season? I mean, and still have that "something" be of importance?

The Tigers had the fewest innings pitched by starters in the entire majors in 2024, and they made the post-season. I think that amounts to a passing grade whether on a curve or not. Innings per start just isn't a way to judge anything.

It's interesting to compare the 2017 Astros (who won the WS) and the 2017 Twins (who had a surprising winning campaign after Total System Failure in 2016). In a nutshell, the Astros bludgeoned their way to the title, and for every Astros batter who contributed hugely, the Twins had a similar candidate who came up short by comparison. All the Astros' bets seemingly came up aces; we had Buxton beset by injuries compared to Correa, and Sano beset by, well, being Sano compared to Altuve. The Astros signed a big contract with Josh Reddick, which paid off handsomely for them in their WS year and then he was below average for the remaining 3 years of his contract. I didn't analyze any deeper, but those observations on the surface lead me to expect that the conclusion comes down to execution and luck, more so than the master plan itself. One thing I remember, though, is that supposedly the Astros' TV ratings measured literally 0 at one point during their 3 years of 100+ losses, and ballpark attendance declined significantly during that period. It's a lesson I suppose can be taken - that Ownership has to be on board with losing money or breaking even on low revenue for a few seasons in the pursuit of potential profits down the road. The Twins seem to have a plan that involves a profit every year even if the team on the field is bad. (I also note that the Astros didn't get back above .500 before they started trading for players making significant money and signing free agents again. Chicken and egg, somewhat.) Anyway, Terry Ryan never uttered the word "rebuild" to the best of my recollection, but it was evident when he came back as GM that that was exactly what he was doing. It just didn't work. But signing Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit didn't impede Byron Buxton's development. Carlos Correa panned out; Buxton, at least to the same degree, simply didn't. Perhaps, with perfect hindsight, the plan should have been to take Kevin Gausman or Max Fried instead of Byron, but Correa himself was off the board on draft day.

Ha, we seemed to be typing at the same moment. 😀

Twins starting pitchers in 2024 went 852 1/3 innings or almost exactly major league average. This despite slightly worse ERA than average (4.33 vs 4.15 for the majors). Said another way, only St Louis starters pitched more innings despite an ERA as bad as Minnesota's. The stats in 2023 were even more pronounced, when Twins starters were actually performing well. Then, they were 4th in the majors in starters' innings. The trope that "Rocco has a quick hook" is old and tired. When he's got the horses, he manages them much like his peers.

None really. Castellano is the one who might raise the FO's off-season grade if he performs well. Everyone else is close to a known quantity, within narrow bounds.

Better than that, about a week ago there was a story about how no one is coming off of surgery or rehab this off-season. IOW, every player is arriving in THE BEST SHAPE EVER™.

What, and shine a light on the vaunted Pitching Pipeline™ being a tad thin?

Pssst, Seth, Friday the Thirteenth came on Thursday this month.

Give Zebby a first-baseman's mitt and see if he's any good.

/ edit - I checked after posting and you used this exact idea last year. Oh well, I thunk it up on my own and I'm leaving it. 😀

According to sources, TD executives have been looking for ways to cull the herd here anyway. Ty France Fever can only help with this goal.

See, that's where I have the advantage: I've been told many times that I know bupkis. Anyway I go back and forth on whose draft was better. I'm not a big believer in either Prielipp or Eeles, so I guess I give the nod to Cody, but only by a hair.

I started out replying to someone referring to 3-base errors, so I discussed on the terms presented. It's not really how I judge defense, but was fine for conversation's sake. Still, for one of the two players on the Twins who managed to put in a full season's worth of plate appearances, Santana's counting stats on offense don't really stand out versus the league. His glove is what made him arguably a slightly above-average player in 2024, and I give him credit for it, but it takes multiple bad plays to amount to an actual run scored in most cases, while an HR is guaranteed to score 1 and might knock in 1 or 2 or 3 others. It's virtually impossible for any player who isn't up-the-middle to prevent enough runs to make up for so-so offense.

I offer my condolences to the player. I offer my condolences also to the team

So now they're trolling fans of all other teams, with a player who is booed everywhere.