adjacent

Every sports fan is likely to believe the umps are biased against their team, but there have been several games lately that make it seem like the fates are working against the Twins. Let's look at some examples.
In last night's game against the Pirates, assistant hitting coach Derek Shomon was ejected for arguing balls and strikes. As it turns out, he was right to be frustrated, as HP ump Paul Clemons called a pitch to Correa a strike when it was a ball. Later in the inning, with bases loaded, a ball to Kepler was called a strike, impacting the shape of the plate appearance, the inning, and the game, as the Twins were unable to score a run. After the game, the folks at umpirescorecards.com released their scorecard, and Pittsburgh was awarded 1.17 runs in their favor.

During the Yankees series, there were several questionable calls and most seemed to go against the Twins. That seems to be a trend on the season. Let's take a deeper dive into the data
So far this season, if all pitches had been called correctly, the Twins should have scored an additional 5.22 runs. Their main divisional opponent, the Guardians, should have scored 17.82 FEWER runs than they have. Overall, that 23 run differential means that the two teams should be much closer in the standings than they are. However, not all runs are created equal. So, I looked at the ump scorecards for each game that was decided by two of fewer runs to understand exactly what impact the umpires have had on the two teams results.
For starters, there have been two head-to-head games that went Cleveland's favor that actually should have been Twins victories. Here are the scorecards for the 4/6 and 5/17 games.  
There have been other examples of Twins losses that the outcome should have been wins, or at least may have ended differently. On 4/14 against the Tigers, the final score was 3-4 Tigers, but they scored 1.32 additional runs due to ball and strike calls.
 
On 4/19, also against the Tigers, the 4-5 loss was in part decided by the extra .88 runs awarded to the Tigers. 

That's four losses directly attributed to incorrect ball and strike calls.
There was also a single example of the Twins recording a win that they may not have earned. On 4/23, against the White Sox, the 6-5 score was aided by an extra run in our favor.

Net-net, this likely means we should have at least three more wins than we actually do. 
Earlier, I mentioned Cleveland's 17.82 surplus runs. According to umpirescorecards.com, they lead all of baseball in favorable calls. How has this impacted their win total? In addition to the two-game swing based on the head-to-head matchups discussed earlier, they have had several one-run victories where they scored a half-run due to ball and strike calls. While these may still have ended in Cleveland wins, the outcome may have been different on 4/18, 5/6, 6/1, and 6/7.

Perhaps more importantly for Cleveland, they have only had a single game this season that calls went against them in a meaningful way - 4/13 against the Yankees. With a final score of 3-2 Yankees, the evil empire was granted an extra .55 runs.
.
Assuming that Cleveland would have won half those games anyway, it's fair to think their actual win total should be four wins less than reality.
What's the impact of all this? Well, entering play on 6/8/24, Cleveland is 40-22 and the Twins are 33-30. Based on expected win totals were balls and strikes called accurately and consistently, the ACTUAL win/loss records should be Cleveland at 36-26, and the Twins at...36-27. That reality would feel much different for fans than the one we are living. The good news is we are well-positioned the rest of the way, with one of the easiest remaining schedules in baseball. Cleveland has one of the hardest. With some fair umpires, we just might be able to run away with the division.
Thoughts?

The Twins have just been swept by the Angels. They were competitive for three games, but got beat up on Sunday. The fact is that, despite a fairly good offense in the five games, the Twins had no chance because the Angels are superior in all facets of the game. At least some of the young guys are playing and a few are thriving. Kennys Vargas is hitting and slugging and Danny Santana is established as a good hitter who has played center field more than his natural position of shortstop.
 
In the last four years, much has been made of the Twins' continuing futility and much of this stems from non-competitive Septembers. It sure looks like the same thing is happening again. Of course, this year, as mentioned above, they are playing some guys who will be around when the roster is turned over. What is particularly disappointing is that there apparently is no one ready to help the pitching staff. We've seen Phil Hughes go out almost every time and give the team a chance to win, Kyle Gibson has faded a bit, but has been satisfactory. Beyond that? Well, Ricky Nolasco has one good start since returning from the DL, Trevor May has improved, but previously was historically bad, the team has gotten nothing out of Tommy Milone. The bullpen is in tatters. All the guys who have been with the team all year seem to be worn out. The late-season reinforcements have been underwhelming and these are the guys that will be getting the first chance if some veteran arms are let go!
 
Maybe this gives guys like Jake Reed and Burdi a quick path to the majors. Maybe it is time for management to change. I have been embarrassed by my favorite team in the last four years and I just don't think it has to be this bad.

http://i58.tinypic.com/o7nbyq.jpg
Javier Maschrano, famously known as Argentina's "little boss", though it was unbelievable. As he is always ready to bleed blue and white for the cause. He started his professional career 11 and half years ago, initially he played for the Under-20s in the South American Championship. He made his debut for Argentina against Uruguay. However, it was his first international appearance for his Nation, before that he used to play for the club, River Plate.
Javier Maschrano’s country afterward identified his talent and skills and observed the Argentina’s rising star in him, thus he was given an opportunity to do something for his nation and make it proud.
However, it was not that easy as it sounds, playing 10 years for Argentina, achieving Olympic gold medals from 2004 and 2008, the entire nation was still waiting for his extraordinary performances indeed.
Eventually, Argentina won the competition in 2004 against Brazil, with the help of a young player Mascherano who secured the midfield. As a result they defeated Brazil by 2-1.
However, Argentina played against Brazil again in the next Copa America final three years later in Venezuela. It had become the strongest team of that time and was believed as the hot favorite team for the world cup, but unfortunately Argentina failed to turn its dream into reality once again.
Even though, both of Mascherano's previous World Cup battles have also over in quarter-final defeat - and both times to Sunday's competitors.
In 2006, Argentina faced another penalty shootout and finally they managed to win against the Dutch - which places Mascherano up for the biggest game of his life.
Despite the fact, Seven years ago Argentina won its last World Cup trophy Under-20 with a team that consisted of Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria and goalkeeper Sergio Romero. But the team selection seems to be getting down. Especially youth side of Argentina has been remained very disappointing.
Conversely, the FIFA World Cup always appeared like the golden opportunity for Argentina team but after winning 2 World Cups in 1978 and 1986. After that Argentina couldn’t win any other trophy of the world cup despite its best performances.
But Mascherano always emerged as an important player of his team by his exceptional late block on the Netherlands' Arjen Robben in the semi-final, which was for his defensive alertness and willpower, however, it is now deemed as one of the key moments of this World Cup.
Mascherano has made 28 tackles in the tournament, more than any other player. But his spirit to win the trophy and fierce covering work often obscures the reality that he is also a thoroughly skillful football player of his team.
Probably, the real hero of Argentina's campaign is Javier Mascherano, 'the little boss' who has been performing terrifically well for his team and nation both and has been striving hard to further flourish the future of his team.