JB_Iowa

I think he's at the game tonight with his Mom if I remember his tweets right .... maybe she can revive him.

Really disheartening .... and SO Kevin Correia.

A player with strength .... its such a novel concept in the Twins system.

Yee Ha!

This thread has taken a turn to the bizarre.

I'm thinking the warmer weather isn't all that much help to Nolasco. Maybe he needs it to hit 100.

There's probably one at home to go with Oswaldo and Orlando.

All right, Arcia!

Bremer's fixation on American League Rules vs. National League Rules is beyond irritating.

The power of home field.

In the Sports On Earth article on Dozier, I found this paragraph hilarious: Nor is Dozier, visually, someone who looks like a power threat. He's listed at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds. See his 6-5 teammate Joe Mauer walk past him, and you'd figure Mauer is the home run leader on the Twins, but it is Dozier who leads the team in home runs with 11.

I thought if I looked at his season splits, we'd see gradual improvement but alas, that really isn't the case. i guess we simply need to hope that his last game was a harbinger of good things to come.

There's probably an old one somewhere you could just dig up.

I really don't think either the author or I were putting much credit on the defensive change influencing the offensive change. I see three separate things happening here: 1. The Defensive change -- going from mediocre at shortstop to what appears to be an elite 2B man 2. The change in his stance and the hard work he and Bruno put in to identify the problem and also maturing as a batter (putting the foot down, better ability to identify pitches, laying off the breaking balls) 3. The work he is now putting in with Molitor and Vavra to improve his running game. Overall it just paints a picture of a player who is maturing very well.

First, I apologize to Levi for misinterpreting his statement about "smoke and mirrors". Second, I went ahead an posted the "Sports on Earth" piece about Dozier in a separate thread because I thought it was a good look at the changes for him both defensively and at the plate.

I was struck by the idea in another thread that Dozier's turnaround was, perhaps, somewhat attributable to "smoke and mirrors". I read this article from Sports on Earth earlier today: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/77999610/brian-dozier-remade-his-game-in-the-field-at-the-plate-for-minnesota-twins#!UASXt It gives a much better understanding of the transformation that Dozier has gone through both defensively and at the plate. Defensively, this explanation comes from Gardenhire about the move from SS to 2B: "Well the one thing, shortstop, you need to be a little more aggressive," Gardenhire said. "You have to come get the ball that's on the other side of the field. And Doz is one of these fielders that would kind of lie back. And every play at first base from shortstop would be bang-bang. And there'd be times when he'd lie back and a guy would beat it. So you start thinking about at second base, would be perfect, because you do lie back there a lot more. "He's very athletic. He's turned out to be perfect for it. But you never know. You say, we'll put you over here and see what happens over here. You know at shortstop, we constantly tried to get him to move up in the field, play shorter, because he'd back up so much. And he was never comfortable there. He'd always go back, go back ... we knew he was a good player, good hands, good arm, he could swing it a little bit, he could run. So now you just have to find a fit for him. So you try the other side. ... It's worked out for him." At the plate, he and Brunansky dissected hours of film: "So we dissected my swing for days upon days, that whole week in Detroit. And we saw I wasn't getting my foot down -- meaning, I was getting my foot down, but my toe. My whole foot wasn't flat, so when I started my swing, my whole foot wasn't down, I started [and] everything kind of collapsed. We made it muscle memory for a week, trying to get the foot down, and ever since then, I started seeing the ball more, creating more power, walks up, strikeouts down, just because I could see the ball better." Overall the author does a good job of looking at Dozier's transformation -- and it sounds like much of it was due to a "better fit" in the field and to a lot of hard work that Dozier willingly put in.

Maybe not but at least there appears to be a basis for the increase in his offensive performance (and defensive as well) rather than just "smoke and mirrors". This is a good article about the change: http://www.sportsonearth.com/article/77999610/brian-dozier-remade-his-game-in-the-field-at-the-plate-for-minnesota-twins#!UASXt A telling paragraph about the work he did with Bruno: "So we dissected my swing for days upon days, that whole week in Detroit. And we saw I wasn't getting my foot down -- meaning, I was getting my foot down, but my toe. My whole foot wasn't flat, so when I started my swing, my whole foot wasn't down, I started [and] everything kind of collapsed. We made it muscle memory for a week, trying to get the foot down, and ever since then, I started seeing the ball more, creating more power, walks up, strikeouts down, just because I could see the ball better." He also talks about laying off sliders and the author does a good job of describing his improved approach.

Unfortunately, without a change of manager, I think you're going to have to substitute a back-up catcher for Romero ,,,, which currently looks like Eric Fryer. Ludicrous but likely. I'd be happy watching your line-up even when they encounter difficulties because I want to see the development of Pinto, Arcia, Hicks, Escobar, Dozier and Plouffe. If Santana unseats Escobar, that's fine too but you're right, he needs to play SS unless they decide that just isn't the right position for him based on his skills not the team's need for a CF.

One of the nice things is that if you click on a link to a TD story on the PP, it takes you off the PP site directly to Twins Daily. That is a great bonus (as opposed to the TwinsCentric blog on the Strib that keeps you on their site and in their commenting format). Congrats, guys for a great tie-in! (And, not to divert from the main topic here but I find Berardino alone to be worth the entire Strib contingent. I cannot believe the sheer amount of information he imparts.) (Oh, but honestly the PP should consider having the TD articles open in a new tab instead of the same one. I always get a little frustrated when I click a link and can't easily get back to where I was originally.)

You are right. There's a $9 million club option with a $.5 million buyout. Pretty general consensus is that the option won't be exercised.

And just to clarify, the 2011 team was 20-37 on June 4; the 2012 team was 21-33 while the 2013 team was 26-29. Yet 2011 ended at 63-99; 2012 team ended at 66-96 and 2013 team ended at 66-96. Their routes to the 95+ losing seasons may not have been the same (abysmal starts in 2011 & 2012; so-so start in 2013) but they all ended up in a similar place. That DOESN'T mean that the same thing will happen to the 2014 team. It's just a precautionary note not to get too confident about anything.

Not to pick nits -- and I do agree that they are better this year -- but according to Baseball Reference, the 2013 Twins were 26-29 on June 4. I have difficulty seeing how 27-29 is "far better" than 26-29. The 2013 Twins managed to stay within striking distance of .500 until about June 23 (34-38) then had a horrible stretch before the All-Star break and ended up at 39-53 at the break. They seemingly have a better base this year and I do expect that the starting pitching may have stabilized somewhat ... but I also think it is better not to take anything for granted. Sit back and enjoy the ride and hope that the rubber band holds (at least from the downward side).

A split on the road is so nice.

Dana Wakiji ‏@FSDwakiji 30m #Tigers Nathan: You start to go, ‘What is going on right now w/me?’ Do I need to go to church more, say more prayers? What do I need to do?

I always thought he looked pretty good until I saw him in these abominations of unis. But then again, he may only have looked pretty good compared to Gardenhire.