ashbury

It's always awkward for a moderator to have to shift gears and stop participating in a given thread to say something else, but... Moderator's note: The tangent about 2 runs this-or-that has managed to divert from the actual topic of the thread, and isn't showing signs of getting resolved. If you feel inclined to pursue the hypothetical issue of bullpens with ERAs 2.00 higher, please start a different thread.

Frontrunner. Where was his damn article the week before the season started? He doesn't get to woof for my guy after results start showing. Any hack can do that.

What's your recommendation for a good defensive metric to base year-end awards on?

You're basically just expressing the misgivings about CERA that to my knowledge have always dogged that stat. The guy with the best CERA on the team stands about a 50-50 chance to not be the best next year, with no change in personnel, the last time I looked at a writeup. Of course framing is also still somewhat of a fuzzy concept to pin down analytically. So, it's not much surprise if the intersection of the two isn't satisfying.

That is not how ERA works. The relievers don't pitch nine innings. If they did, we'd call them starters. So, if the bullpen pitches 3 or 4 innings a game, an extra 2 runs would mean an ERA of more like 4.50 or 6.00. Yes, an extra 2 runs a game would change the outcome of several games. But we already know having relievers with ERA trending toward 6 is bad for a team. Chief basically said this above.

Fellow TD member SD Buhr posted an article with a very nice photo sequence of Ben applying a tag to capitalize on a good throw from the outfield: http://knuckleballsblog.com/2017/04/08/kernels-home-opener-in-photos/ Here is some Bob Sacamento video of Ben swinging the lumber: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0n2xgdVQZI In a scary incident, Rortvedt was one of four Twins players, along with manager Mike Quade, involved in an auto accident in Ft Myers back in February, returning from fun at the beach. All emerged unscathed: http://www.startribune.com/twins-minor-league-manager-mike-quade-ok-after-frightening-car-accident/414822754/

Benjamin T. Rortvedt September 25, 1997 (Age: 19 this season) Birthplace: Verona, WI Signed via amateur draft in 2016, 2nd round (56th overall, $900,000 bonus) Height: 5-10 Weight: 190 Position: Catcher Throws: Right Bats: Left Stats at baseball-reference.com (He had no Twins Daily Adopt-A-Prospect page in his initial season.) Ben Rortvedt, Twins Daily's 19th ranked prospect, is a catcher who will go as far as his bat takes him, because by most accounts his defense will be major-league ready very soon. He grew up near Madison, WI. Here is an article from a local newspaper after he was drafted, indicating the local buzz when this high-schooler was taken: http://host.madison.com/wsj/sports/baseball/professional/mlb-draft-verona-s-ben-rortvedt-a-second-round-pick/article_9d128ca9-9fad-5f75-bf64-a0855c7d8265.html Here is another photo of him from Spring Training 2017 like the above photo as well: Ben looks very smooth and assured behind the plate, with a low, quiet, and athletic stance that I have to believe will be looked on favorably by umpires (by making their job easier) as well as by talent evaluators. He also has a strong and accurate arm, which I witnessed put to good use in one of the minor league games in Spring by gunning down a couple of would-be base stealers. His bat is another story, and fresh from high school he did not have an easy time of it in rookie ball, posting only a .222 batting average across the GCL and Appy League (Ft Myers and Elizabethton, respectively). On the plus side, he showed an ability to draw a walk (10 in 113 plate appearances), and also did not strike out inordinately (10 also). He must like the number 10 because that's also how many RBI he had, meaning that he provided pretty good production from the hits he did get. Only 3 of his 22 hits were for extra bases, so power is not yet part of his game by any stretch of the imagination. His muscular build suggests to me that this will come. As a second round draft pick, he has inspired high hopes from the front office, and he begins 2017, not yet out of his teens, at single-A Cedar Rapids. From this observer's perspective, he exudes a maturity beyond his years. How about a little bingle, Ben?

Are the Twins (and maybe the Braves before them) babying his arm a bit? In yesterday's game he came out after 6 good innings, raising a topic for bleacher conversation. He used to routinely reach 210+ innings, while last year he reached only 181 in 30 starts (and in his suspension year there was simply less mileage to put on his arm). Or, drilling down a little further, last year he finished with fewer than 3000 pitches, ditto for with Atlanta, whereas earlier he would go 3400 pitches in a season. Dialing back only a little on his workload, if indeed his sweet spot has been found, might be what is paying dividends. "Give me what you've got for as long as you've got it" rather than "pace yourself for 8" - not just in terms of an individual game's results but for the long haul. The other thing I looked at was the number of strikes thrown. A little counter-intuitively, he has been throwing fewer strikes as a Twin than his career norm, and thus slightly more pitches per plate appearance, even though the walk rate isn't up. Anything to that?

Here's a photo from the back fields in Spring Training 2017, where you can see his grip, for whatever that is worth, as a complement to Bob Sacamento's nice video: And, on another pitch, his follow-through:

Twins batters have a BABIP of .307, pitchers have a BABIP of .220. Versus a league average of .276. This helpful trend will obviously continue.

I am curious what you saw that led you to think that, as opposed to him putting down some fingers and then setting up for the pitch.

The Lakers!

Aaron Allan Slegers (pronounced SLAY-gers) Born: September 4, 1992 (age 24 this season) Birthplace: Scottsdale, AZ Signed via the amateur draft in 2013, fifth round (140th overall) Height: 6' 10" Weight: 245 Position: Pitcher Throws: Right Bats: Right Pitching arsenal: fastball, slider, circle change Stats at baseball-reference.com OK, let's acknowledge the elephant giraffe in the room about Aaron Slegers right away: the dude is tall. Really Tall. Six-ten Tall. Man-among-boys Tall. Hows-the-weather-up-there Tall. Blade-of-grass-the-lawnmower-missed Tall. He-must-be-sick-of-hearing-about-it Tall. Here's a photo I'm unreasonably fond of, out of focus and all, from Spring Training 2015. That's him in the middle with the high-waisted trousers, in case you need a hint: Here's a more recent one that shows him at work, warming up during a Spring 2017 game on the AAA field: OK, with the height out of the way, what do we know about him? The Twins signed him in 2013 after a three-year career at Indiana University, where he won Big Ten Conference Baseball Pitcher of the Year honors in 2013, putting him in good company with Tyler Jay (UI 2015), Alex Wimmers (OSU 2009-10), and Glen Perkins (UM 2004). After an initial season in Elizabethtown he has moved up in the organization with pretty good speed, seeing time in both Cedar Rapids (A) and Ft Myers (A+) in 2014, Ft Myers and Chattanooga in 2015, and then Chattanooga again in 2016. You can look up his numbers at the above link better than I can repeat them. He has done well at every stop - never consistently dominant, but always a workhorse getting the job done. Aside from his get-the-feet-wet time in Rookie ball, he's been used strictly as a starting pitcher. He has a good fastball - I saw 94 on the radar gun during the one Spring game of his I watched, or 91 at times (maybe a sinker?). Off-speed at 86 but I don't know if he has anything really slow in his arsenal. He got a very nice "failed checked swing" for a strike 3 on one batter, and in the next inning I saw another called 3rd strike for a 3rd out. I have no idea if those were changeups or sliders. But those batters at least were not able to get a good read on his delivery - if it were the changeup it would be sweet - good two-strike changeups are always sweet, at least except if the batter is sitting on it. Here is Seth Stoh's most recent TD article about Slegers, which contains lots of good tidbits that I won't (directly ) plagiarize. Bottom line for me: he passes the eye test, and he passes the stats test, and he passes the Seth test, and he passes the "organization has faith in him" test (which means I can dispense with the other tests). He's got a chance. Aaron is on the Rochester roster for 2017 in their starting rotation, making him only one long-strided step away from the big show. (Yes, I'm probably going to work oblique references to his height into my reports all season. Sorry, Aaron.) Here is his previous Twins Daily Adopt-A-Prospect page: Aaron Slegers Adopt-A-Prospect 2014

It's been 25 years, but the memory does not fade.

Felix pitched an abbreviated workload of four innings (71 pitches) against the Mobile BayBears this afternoon, with so-so results that amounted to two runs on six hits but no walks. He notched three strikeouts, two of which came at a most opportune time. He gave up a solo homer to Mobile's Caleb Adams in the second inning. This followed a ragged top of the first, in which three of the first four batters singled, but damage in that frame was limited to a single run thanks in no small part to over-aggressive baserunning by Mobile. The third inning was 1-2-3, so except for the homer he basically cruised through the second and third. But the fourth quickly had runners on the corners with nobody out, a rally that was snuffed by two clutch strikeouts and then the runner on third getting caught in what was scored as a failed steal of home. He left with a 4-2 lead, which was later erased but then won 5-4 by home team Chattanooga in a literal walk-off (bases-loaded walk to Dan Rohlfing to end the game). I don't think minor league rules are different from the majors, in that Felix would not have been in line for the win anyway, not having gone five innings. We'll all hope for something a little more dominating in his next try, after this flirtation with disaster. Hopefully, he can dial up whatever he found, for those strikeouts in the fourth inning, a little sooner in a game.

People scoff and say you can't read anything from minor league stats. But I've had the conviction for a long time that Polanco's bat would develop, likewise Kepler's, and so far it's bearing out. Of course the same could have been said about Joe Benson.

What happened to the narrative that the players were angry because Park was sent to Rochester?

Ash: Ask me how Buxton was at the plate today. Jaykay: Huh? Ash: Ask me how Buxton was at the plate today. Jaykay: Why? Ash: Just ask me, how was Buxton at the plate today. Jaykay: Um, OK, how was Buxton at the plate today? Ash: DON'T ASK!

Roses are red, Violets are blue, The Twins almost have 10 percent Of last year's win total. I like it!

I am pleased that I did not need to use my other two wishes from that kind genie.

No, our first baseman is fine. (Kintzler is having some issue with a finger.)

Effective, but not efficient.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Mlp_Gcc_5Q

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5TqIdff_DQ This is not a jinx - I'm not declaring victory prematurely. Merely, like I said above - feels good.