ashbury

Dis-concur. I don't believe in the no-win scenario.

f. PROFIT !!!

My assertion is that I don't understand what I'm seeing either. I don't believe the team size is 3. From what I've read of Kalk, he seems to be a valuable guy, but as a cog in the machine. He profiles wrong (IMO) for the guy that will lead an analytics team - conversely if they had the analytics team I want, then the org chart wouldn't get down in the weeds of listing them all. They don't list all their scouts on that page, for instance. Again, though, what we are shown on that page may not correspond to reality.

Concur. I am bothered on this front in terms both of process, and of results. It boggles my mind that Jack Goin wasn't re-deployed within the organization almost immediately; he's apparently a good guy, who was put in over his head by the prior regime to run a state of the art analytics program. Both Falvey and Levine surely daydreamed, when thinking about a future job at the next level, about the many talented people they crossed paths with in their respective roles, and who they would want to go after if they ever needed a hire. Much of what they inherited with the Twins was reasonably functional and did not merit a quick replacement, but the Analytics situation was manifestly in need of quick revamping. Jack Goin's resume shows him as remaining at Research Director until August 2017 when FalVine had come on board eight months earlier; that was unfair to a generalist like Goin, and it was unfair to the organization. FalVine should have been ready to hit the ground running, in this important facet of team management. The front-office listing at mlb.com, https://www.mlb.com/twins/team/front-office may or may not reflect reality, but when I see Josh Kalk's name dangling as it does without any implied chain of command, I feel as though the analytics effort remains nearly as much of an organizational afterthought as under the prior regime. Kalk sounds like a good get, but he should be in a department of a dozen others similar to him. (BTW, while doing a little fact-checking on this, I noticed that the Astros' Mike Fast recently left his position at a Director level within their organization. I would think other teams would have his phone ringing off the hook, and hopefully the Twins are part of this.) Apart from these "process" concerns, which Pressly's quoted remarks also apply toward, I remain unimpressed with the personnel moves that would seem highly analytics-driven. I'm a broken record with regard to the past two Rule 5 drafts. And we don't seem to do better than treading water where it comes to minor leaguers allowed to depart versus ones we bring in. Year One was more than enough time to see progress in the process, and Year Two should have been showing some results. I'm really disappointed relative to what I thought we were getting.

That's really my reaction too. I mean, I'm probably like a sizable group of people at this site, who excelled at written tests back in the day. So you'd think I'd be favorably disposed. But, how many important decisions that a manager makes arrive at his desk in well-constructed form like a written test likely will be? And if the questions on the test are sufficiently free-form to negate that concern, then why not just ask the questions and listen to the nuanced answers, in an interview? If the concern is to determine whether a candidate is "analytical enough", it can be done without the artificial scenario of a test. I wonder how many viable candidates have said "pff" and walked away when they heard of this. PS. No programmable calculators. Slide rules are allowed however.

I'm sorry. You asked. And, to be clear, my response is directed toward the Angels.

It's the thing to try. But it's not as though it hasn't been known as his weak point (no pun intended) as he came up through the minors; I expect strengthening has been tried. Indeed he's been a little better at SS than I ever dared imagine, and I chalk that up to likely extra attention to building up his arm strength further.

I thought this would be the FIRST thing FalVine would fix.

Do you ever watch Drunk History? Read this transcript from our president, and tell me it wouldn't be a good basis for a Drunk History re-enactment:

True, it's a Polanco thread. The tangent about corner OF crept in by stealth. But no, I wouldn't accept a "bad but not horrible hitter" at every given defensive position, such as corner OF. No.

If Delmon had become the .900 OPS hitter the Twins thought they were getting, we would have just accepted the occasional fielding blunder as part of the package.

Compared to the parade of shutdown guys I see this post-season, I have to say that the Twins currently have not one bullpen piece that would figure prominently for any of these teams. Not one. I like Rogers but he'd be a LOOGY for a winner. I like May but he hasn't put it together. WAR is a counting stat, so I don't think it's useful to look at WAR totals for a bullpen unless it's in the context of innings pitched. You can rack up higher WAR total due to overuse, and indeed the Twins starters went less deep into games than, say, the Yankees. The Twins bullpen is solidly below average, and I don't even see the pieces currently available that will change that. Fundamental changes, like catching lightning in a bottle by converting a failed starter, or by signing big-time free agents, are needed.

Don Mossi had two. / sorry

Home plate umpire is having a solid game. Completely in line with the Fox tracker, and getting no arguments from players.

So now we're reduced to complaining about the unSelfish Modern Ballplayer.

Eddie and Willians are baseball players.

FanGraphs is supposed to look beyond that. But no, as soon as Pressly is off the Twins and onto a favored team, He Is Important. I'm just grousing, I know.

Ryan Pressly has been one of the more anonymous ones. He’s been in the majors since 2013, but we’ve almost never written about him here. Rian Watt did change that a month ago. He wrote a whole article about Pressly, who was dealt from the Twins to the Astros near the end of July. They're like everyone else. If a player is on the Twins, he's unimportant.

I'm on the east coast now, but still get to spend a few weeks a year in the Pacific time zone, and I treasure that time out there where it comes to sports.

I was thinking it was the Infield Flaw Rule, but your analysis seems right.

Is there any source with good inside information on what they will spend? I don't expect $130M. Even $120M is doubtful. I'll guess $105M. I think someone else here was saying below $100M.

Oh, that's just Dozier and Escobar having some fun with a mock spat, there.