Dodecahedron

Yes, of course, Pitching coaches exist. They have a role. However, the idea that Baldelli knows nothing about pitching and never says anything about it to his players is assuredly false.

Tom Kelly seemed to know a lot about pitching. He never played professionally as a pitcher. Baldelli may not know all the "nuts and bolts" but I'm certain he has a lot of "meaningful input" he can share. I have strong doubts that the Twins would hire a manager who knew absolutely nothing about pitching. I'm betting if someone handed Baldelli a baseball and asked him to show us a couple of different ways to grip it, he could demonstrate a few. And heck, Baldelli had Tommy John surgery, that alone gives him unique insight as to what some pitchers have to go through.

It seems like a 4 hour baseball game would be unusual. I think it's more likely that the NFL is charging more because that's what the market bears. I would wager that for broadcast networks, the NFL is one of the few things they air that still makes them a lot of money.

The NFL charges a hell of a lot more for advertising. The only thing common between the NFL and the MLB is that they are both sports.

Not exactly. Although the response was predictable, sometimes I feel like I don't give people enough credit. What can I say, I gave it a shot.

Advertisers want your full attention.

I don't remember 6 or 7 center fielders going down due to injury. The Twins may have rotated that many players through the position, which I would wager is very close to the average number of CFs a team fields over the course of a typical year. The point isn't the total number, it's the level of talent in the number. I'm surprised you raised the point of the CF depth instead of pitching. Anticipating that type of response coming down the pipeline from you or someone else, most teams put over 30 pitchers on the field over the course of a season. The 2021 Twins have used 35, the 2019 Twins used 31. I'm doubting that those 4 extra pitchers are responsible for 30-40 more losses. I'm betting you have the same doubt. So yes, injuries are a factor. The Twins knew this but did not adequately plan for it. Choosing CF as your example is even more strange, given the Twins know the name on the back of the jersey for their starting center fielder and know he is often injured.

The pessimistic part of me who isn't happy with the one-dimensional front office tells me that this looks like another home run guy with questionable defense. The optimistic part of me sees a guy who has potential to be a very exciting player who can fill Sano's shoes.

I think injuries are a factor, but as you say -- all teams have injuries. This comes down to bad planning by the front office and coaches. If you know injuries are coming yet you still field a team with no depth, that's on you, not the injuries. With good planning, injuries will still have an effect, but a less dramatic effect.

. . .and it's on the coach to coach against dinking around the strikezone in that situation. I have seen it too many times this year where the Twins pitchers are Walter Johnson for the first 2 pitches, and Sam Deduno for the rest of the at-bat. If you can't imagine what a coach should say in this situation, all I can say is that it's good that you're not a coach.

Surely he is making contact at least once in most of his strikeouts? I have nothing against Sano, but everything about him is predictable. I wish the Twins would have traded him years ago. And no, I don't believe that trading him is impossible today, it just would not be the blockbuster trade the Twins are hoping for. If the Twins want to compete in the future, they have to be willing to swallow that jagged little pill once in a while.

None of us have seen that, but let's talk about what we have seen. This year, I have seen Twins pitchers getting ahead 0-2 and then dinking around the strike zone until the pitcher's advantage is gone. One pitcher gets pulled after this doesn't work out for them, only for the next pitcher to come in and do the same thing. Twins pitchers who never made a habit of this before have been doing it this year. My assumption is the number of conversations it would take for Wes (or whoever) to stop this practice could be counted on one hand.

Fans expect HOF numbers from aces, though I don't think said fans realize their definition of "ace" only includes superhuman pitchers. In any case, given this, Berrios is not HOF caliber and is not an ace.

Baldelli is back. You can tell by the W-L record. I have not looked at the box scores, but I know from experience I will see something nonsensical either in the lineup or the pitching management for every game if I do. At this point, that's a boring exercise. In light of that, MOAR DINGERS. It's the only way to win with this manager.

If you look at the radar chart, "poor results" is shorthand for the two categories "Coaching" and "Team Performance." When I decided to use the shorthand at the top, I knew someone would fall on the sword and ask this question before thinking about it. I believe you should be able to see that the graph does not have a category labelled "Poor Results." Let me know if you are still having trouble.