Dodecahedron

FL is nicer than CA in the winter, usually, at least if "nice" to you is consistent temps in the 80s. Personally, I think temps in the 80s are too hot. I like the 50s and 60s.

Dozier was a cornerstone of the Twins turnaround. I look forward to a retirement ceremony at TF some time this year.

I would not classify all of the moves as "dumpster diving." Didn't they spend something like $35M-$40M in the past month? That's one hell of a dumpster.

There was a 123 OPS+, good season in there which is pushing the numbers up. If you think that season is the norm, sure, he is underrated (but still not a star). His statistical mean is lower than his peak season, of course, so if you believe in regression, he is still an important piece of the team, but still not a star.

LF was Arraez's primary position in 2019. Metrics suggest he isn't very good out there, but it's a small sample size.

Good write up. My opinion since Sano moved to first base: He is a pricier version of Kennys Vargas. We never saw a full season of Vargas, but if we had his floor would probably be higher than Sano's floor, both offensively and defensively. Remember when the fanbase had visceral reactions to putting a poor defender like Vargas at first? Now the team has a worse defender at first. Of course, if Sano ever fires on all cylinders, great things can happen when he hits the ball. Hopefully no one is holding their breath on that occurring for a full year on a regular basis, since it has yet to happen once.

Yes, I was being snarky.

Yes I am happy, thank you. For Kepler, I think we saw his floor in 2018 and his ceiling in 2019. He will reliably perform between 97 OPS+ and 123 OPS+ for the bulk of his career. This isn't bad by any means, and he's an asset to the team, but the Twins need other better players on the roster if they want to get anywhere.

You still think this after all the moves they made in the past couple of weeks?

I'm not convinced that offensive stats are what make a good catcher, though it's certainly a "nice to have." I'm also not convinced Garver still has to prove himself offensively. He performed well through the minors, last year was goofball, and it's unlikely he will suddenly forget how to hit for the rest of his career. Was Garver fighting a nagging injury last year?

Not trying to be contrarian for sure, but I don't think any of these players are underrated. We know Kepler can play; if anything the Twins fanbase overrates him. We know Taylor Rogers can pitch, and at this point none of us know much about what Jeffers will do in the majors.

They spent far more cash than I expected. I'm not too proud to admit that I was way off on their budget and plans for the year. I am pleased but not blown away by their moves, but I will say this has been a very atypical Twins offseason. Most of us did not expect most of these guys to be signed, and I think at the same time most of us don't know what the end result will be.

I haven't read the reports, but you know you are watching a game played in Yankees Stadium by the high number of zoomed-in camera shots of the opposing catcher's signals, particularly when the Yankees are not winning.

Park Factors jumps all over the place, year over year, when it comes to Target Field. But so did the Metrodome in the later years, so I think it's a fair argument that Park Factors is swayed heavily by the offensive prowess of the home team. However, for TF, Park Factors tends to swing much further to the hitter's side than it ever does to the pitcher's side. I would call TF a hitter's park for that reason alone. In year's where TF is rated a pitcher's park, it's still rated very close to the median.

I lived in Texas for many years, and frankly how they respond to bad weather is maddening. They don't want to pay for deicer for the roads. We saw what happened in Fort Worth, but this happens routinely. A bigger pileup happened on I-35 in Austin in 1998* and again a few years later. There were other pileups on I-35 in Waco, San Antonio, etc., in the past. I-35 is designed in a way to where water sits on it, so even in the rain the road is dangerous, which contributes to its icing up. Texas utilities don't want to pay to weatherize the power grid. They even try to blame "Green Power" -- or wind farms. For those who have travelled through Illinois, you know the heartland of the state is full of wind farms. Like in MN, IL has seen temps near zero for a few weeks. I'm not aware of any forced blackouts or other power outages in IL (though I'm sure there were some power outages). One thing to point out is that rolling blackouts are also routine in Texas when in the heat of summer, so it's not just about the cold weather. Texas is known to be hot, and the utilities can't handle that either. What's also "interesting" is Texas always claims they haven't had rolling blackouts for years every time they have rolling blackouts ... which again happen nearly every year, if not every year. This is what a "No regulations!" atmosphere in government gets you. I'm glad that national media is finally reporting on this heavily. It's good for Texas to have a stable power grid and interstate freeways that are not covered in invisible ice for miles at a time! It would be a completely different thing if this were truly a "new" situation, but Texans know about this stuff and government does not address it. *The 1998 pileup was so bad, they closed I-35 from Round Rock to downtown Austin. Cars could see the pileup on the horizon but still could not stop in time, so they just shut it all down, miles away from the pileup.

My mother in law, who is very high risk and 77, has not received a vaccine. She has not left the house since July and our kid is doing remote classwork primarily because of her grandmother's health issues. Her school district has the option to attend classes in person or remotely, thank goodness. We are blessed in that we were able to give her a full apartment in our house, so she has been fine even though she cannot go anywhere. And the best part is, other students can go to school if they do not have a similar living situation. I got the virus early on (March/April), and I can tell you it's not something to take lightly. I am on blood thinners anyway, and I think that's what kept me from having a serious reaction. Precautions like masking are a minor inconvenience and are a good idea. You may not care if you die (give me freedom or give me death over a virus? mmkay, but I don't think the virus is listening to your demand), but you have friends and family who would not be pleased about losing you. /rant

I think there's no question there were too many home runs in 2018 and 2019. To see who will be most affected, look at BABIP. Of the people listed, Kepler will be affected the most. Garver and Polanco should be fine, or at least their performance should not dip more than league average.

This policy makes all the sense in the world. There are interactions that happen before and after people get to their seats, where people will be in very close contact. Heck, if the Twins were playing anywhere except the affluent part of Florida, most people would probably be wearing masks anyway and the team wouldn't even have to point out the policy.

Rooker was MVP caliber when he had his cup of coffee. It's impossible to read into that one way or the other. He has great numbers in the minors too, so there is no reason to believe he will turn into a pumpkin. Most players stumble a bit as they acclimate to the majors, even if they don't stumble right away. We all need to remember to be patient when Rooker has a 20-game slump or finishes a year with a sub-.800 OPS. Also, yes, don't sleep on Brent Rooker. His elbows are very pointy. Sleep on La Tortuga.

Shoemaker has been injured with various things since 2017. He pitched ~160 innings in the past 4 years, or what most starters pitch in 1 year. I'm assuming this signing is for long relief, though he does not have the rubber arm that is usually required for the role. Maybe he will stay healthy in the bullpen. I'm hoping the Twins don't want him as a starter.

His wife is named Ms. Garlick-Bread.

OPS+ takes eras into consideration as it compares players to other players who played the same year. So does WAR. There is a reason I suggested looking at those metrics. And, to be clear, I did as I suggested before I wrote my post. I wasn't going to go and do it a second time to respond to someone who seemed to be unreasonably angry at the assertion that Astudillo would not have been the worst player on the 87 and 91 teams. And really, what would have been the point? Why play ball with someone who is unreasonably angry?

I don't see the problem. Astudillo will probably play 30 games too. Y'all keep thinking you are making zingers or something, but you're just confirming his place on the team.

Except that Astudillo is a major league player, not a prospect. As you say, he should have performed very well against this competition -- and he did.

You have the same access to the data that I do. 1) Go to baseball-reference.com. 2) Look up Astudillo. The good macro stats to look at for comparison to others are OPS+, WAR, dWAR (i.e., no cherry picking specific stats). 3) Pull up the 87 and 91 teams and look at the same macro stats. It's a 5 minute exercise, or less.