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-- From "Ted Williams' Year in Minnesota" by Bill Nowlin https://sabr.org/research/ted-williams-year-minneapolis The Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR is a group of baseball fans and researchers that are interested in all aspects of baseball, from analytics to uniforms. We meet as a group twice a year at our Chapter meetings to listen to the latest in historical baseball research and presentations from former Twins, talk about baseball, and eat pizza/donuts. We also have a number of other events throughout the year to sate the appetite of the most diehard of baseball fans. Our next Chapter Meeting is Saturday, May 18th, 2019 at the Faith Mennonite Church, 2720 E. 22nd Street in south Minneapolis. Registration for the meeting is at 8:30 AM with research presentations beginning at 9:00 AM. A business meeting will be held during lunch with a featured guest to follow. The cost for the meeting and lunch is $10. The meeting only is $5. Research Committee The Halsey Hall Research Committee is currently working on "The Spread of Baseball in Minnesota" project as well as an On-line Baseball Research Tools Panel Presentations scheduled for the University of Minnesota in February. The Research Committee will meet Monday, January 14 at 7:00 PM in Room I at the Brookdale Library, 6125 Shingle Creek Parkway, Brooklyn Center 55430. Other Upcoming Events Pre-Festivus Hot Stove Grumpy’s Gathering of Baseball Enthusiasts Join your fellow fans to talk baseball at Grumpy’s Bar and Grill, 2200 4th Street Northeast, Minneapolis 55418, on Friday, December 21. Gathering begins at 5 PM Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning The next Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 AM on Saturday, January 5 at Bunny’s Northeast, 34 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis 55413, 612-545-5659 (in what was the keg warehouse of the Grain Belt Brewery). Chapter Outing to Play Ball! Exhibit in Shakopee Jim Cox is organizing an outing to the Play Ball! Sports in Scott County exhibit at the Scott County Historical Society, 235 Fuller Street South, Shakopee 55379 on Saturday, January 12. Jim attended the opening of the exhibit on September 27 and invites others to join him on a return visit. Admission is $4. Those interested in lunch may meet at 11 AM at Wampach’s Restaurant, 126 Fuller Street. The congregation will then go two blocks south to the museum at noon. Twinsfest The Halsey Hall Chapter will again have a table at Twinsfest at Target Field from Friday, January 25 to Sunday, January 27. If you are interested in volunteering for a shift at the table, contact Doug Skipper, 612-876-1408. Caribbean Series Viewing Party A Caribbean Series viewing party will be Sunday, February 3 at 2:00 PM at Adelita’s Mexican Restaurant, 2405 Central Avenue NE, Minneapolis 55418. Book Club The Halsey Hall Chapter Book Club will meet Saturday, February 9 at 9:30 AM at the usual spot, Barnes & Noble in Har Mar Mall in Roseville. The book selection is Powerball: Anatomy of a Modern Game by Rob Neyer. More Information For more information about SABR and the Halsey Hall Chapter: http://www.sabr.org http://www.halseyhall.org Hans Van Slooten is the Membership Chair of the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR. He currently works in the Baseball Operations department of the Minnesota Twins. He is also the former Manager of Baseball Operations at Sports Reference.

As I mentioned, the idea that SABR is about sabermetrics is an accident of history because Bill James named his creation after SABR. Ironically, analytics was and is only a very small part of SABR. It is mostly historical research and comraderie.

"Baseball research" in modern circles tends to be seen solely in the analytical sense. However, the group for which "sabermetrics" was named (by Bill James), the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR), is so much more than analytics. In fact, they are a research society focused on every aspect of baseball research which includes committees ranging from ballparks and the Black Sox to statistical analysis and Women in Baseball. Not currently researching anything or not really planning on researching anything? No worries, most of us are just there because we enjoy talking about baseball. You don't need to be a researcher to be a member and take part. The Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR is based in the Twin Cities and welcomes everyone interested in baseball to come to any of our events. We meet semiannually at our chapter meetings (in the Fall and the Spring) and have a number of research presentations as well as guest speakers. At our most recent meeting in November, we had former Twins pitcher Dick Stigman and Gulf Coast League umpire Emma Charlesworth-Seiler. We have a number of events upcoming the in new year, including: Halsey Hall will have a table at TwinsFest, January 19th-21st. Stop by and say "hi"! We will be having our Spring chapter meeting in April (specific date TBD) Our research committee meeting is Monday, December 18th at 7PM at the Hennepin County Southdale Library, 7001 York Avenue South, Edina. It is continuing its work on an exhibit displaying the names of Hall of Famers who played in Minnesota prior to the arrival of the Twins. The next Fred Souba Hot Stove Saturday Morning, an informal breakfast gathering for the purpose of talking baseball, will be at 9:00 AM on Saturday, January 6 at Bunny’s Northeast, 34 13th Avenue NE, Minneapolis 55413 In addition, the national organization has its Analytics Conference in Phoenix from March 9th-11th and its National Convention is in Pittsburgh on June 20th-24th. If you are interested in keeping track of what we are doing and want to know when our next event is, you can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter (HalseyHallSABR). For more details about joining SABR or attending Halsey Hall Chapter events, feel free to contact me, Hans Van Slooten. We look forward to seeing you at our next event! Hans Van Slooten is the Membership Committee Chair for the Halsey Hall Chapter of SABR as well as the Manager of Baseball Operations at Sports Reference

I was hoping to fix my one blog entry (and article) as the chart image I posted was an important part of the article. Looks like the image management doesn't seem to be working (it fails when I try to delete the broken image or upload a new one). I also can't edit the article, so the image is just broken in that one. Obviously not your highest priority. Nice work with the redesign. As a web developer, I know what it's like to roll out migrations of new sites.

Download attachment: Carew_Oliva_ShakingHands_US_720.jpg With the All-Star Game just around the corner, it's a perfect time to look at some of the best batters throughout Twins history and see how their paths crossed over time. While having a great collection of hitters is one part of a playoff caliber team, the following chart shows that it is a necessary, but not sufficient criteria. Looking at WAR over time (in this case, from Baseball-Reference.com) is a good way to get a general sense of the quality of batters over time as it is adjusted for era and playing environment. http://twinsdaily.co...ntid=8218&stc=1 (Click here to see the chart much bigger.) A few interesting things jump out from looking at this chart: The "lean years" of Twins wins (mid-70s to mid-80s, mid-90s to early-00s) were also lean years for impact bats. But also notable is that some of the best years for Twins individual batters (Carew and Knoblauch, specifically) came during those "lean years".Harmon Killebrew's career stands out for both its longevity and consistency. Every Twin fan knows that "Killer" was a great player, but placed against the other great hitters of Twins history, it becomes even more obvious.The late-70s to early-80s were not quite the wasteland for Twins that the chart shows. While the only "dominant" player (picked by an arbitrary cut-off) was Roy Smalley, there were actually a number of other great years in there by Tom Brunansky (1982 being a standout for him at 5.6 WAR, but 1983 and 1984 were also good years with WAR of ~3 each), Hrbek (from 1982 forward), Butch Wynegar ('76, '77, '79), and even Rob Wilfong (3.1 WAR in 1979).Rod Carew was really good.Charts like this are fun because they are really just invitations to do deeper research and look below the surface metrics. Besides the obvious things (e.g. the dominant players of the 60s and the World Series years of the 80s and 90s), there are also the blank spots that beg to be filled in (e.g. what was going on in the late 70s?). For the next installment of this series, I plan to take a look at the dominant Twins pitchers since the franchise was moved to Minnesota. NOTES: The idea for this post came from a recent XKCD comic title "Dominant Players over Time".Data is from Baseball-Reference.com, both the Play Index and individual player pages for WAR.Players were selected for having approximately 20 WAR over their career with the Twins. Ultimately, the value went down to about 17.2 to include Mack, Gagne, Battey, and Span. Click here to view the article

I agree. I'm not the type to call for a manager's job (I don't think they have that much control over the fate of the team), but if Gardy is actively encouraging the injury problems that have plagued the Twins for years, then I agree that it is time to find someone with a bit more modern approach to baseball management.