h2oface

This team CAN hit, after all!

Kinda wish they could save some of those runs for tomorrow and the next day. They sure looked good today. First in the Central, last in the East. Good thing we are in the Central. I hope they don't get the getaway blues and play to win all game tomorrow. Keep it up and the fans will come.

Curious how Ryan is allowed to extend and when. Today, Against the Cubs, coming into the 6th with 88 pitches, ahead 7-0, and cruising, he is allowed to pitch the 6th, and stretch out, finishing the 6th with 102 pitches. Two starts ago, he was very economical and cruising against the White Sox, pitching a 1 hit shutout, and entered the 6th with only 69 pitches, and finished it with only 87. (He did have a 12 pitch walk to Anderson who was than doubled off in a DP, and had thrown 60 strikes in 87 pitches total). But it is a close game, with a brand new 1-0 lead, and he is not allowed to pitch the 7th with one less pitch thrown than he entered the 6th with today, even though he is throwing a one hit shutout! A "fresh" Jorge Lopez was put in the game instead, and he deGrom'd Ryan in only 8 pitches, and gave up the dinger to Jimenez after a single to Vaughn. So in the close game, he is not given the confidence of the bench, and pulled, throwing a one hitter with only 87 pitches, but with a comfortable lead and also cruising, he is extended at 88 and allowed to finish the 6th with 102. Which is great. But it makes his removal 2 starts ago even more curious. Doesn't make sense to me. The close game one-hitter, I give him the ball to start the next inning. He is my guy. He earned it. Maybe there is more to it. Maybe he said he was finished, I don't know. (Drop in velo concern against the Sox? Just looking at some fastballs here..... 91.1-92.6 on the severval Ryan threw to Anderson in the 6th. 1st inning: 92.9-95. 3rd inning 91.6-93.6. 5th inning he only threw 3 fast balls, 91.1, 91.2, and 91.3 and finished the inning with 69 pitches. Other than the amped up first, Ryan had a little more gas in the 6th than the 5th, about the same. And he was throwing a one-hitter...... only 2 walks.) But with what I do know, it would be my decision to let Ryan pitch. He deserved it. He certainly didn't deserve Lopez's so called relief.

It was never the right trade, so it certainly can't still be the right trade.

Correa doesn't get booed at Target for what he does deserve to like he does everywhere else (except Houston). That should be enough. After he doesn't even run out of the box even during the horrid slump? Wake up Carlos. The fans might find a breaking point, and bring up the past at home, too.

We should try to trade for Luis Arraez.

I'll give you 2 then. If he doesn't play the position, there is no defense at all (4 & 5) and (1) he doesn't hit for average except for occassional streaks. Adjusted for the lack of players hitting for average across the board? I'll give it 1/2 if you like. #3 Run? Sure, but part of that is stealing bases, which he/they are afraid to let him do. OK. I'll go 1/2 for running around the bases and stretching singles into doubles. But he doesn't steal and isn't using any running to get to baseballs in the outfield. It is almost worse that he has developed 4 of them, (Or 4.5 if you like, and ignore his career average) and doesn't use 2 1/2 of them. I hope he starts to again. Surely his knee is getting stronger, and I read the plan was to use him at DH through May and then...... As we all know, when he is cooking, he is perhaps close to if not the best in MLB.

"Buxton has been hitting the cover off the ball lately,"...... "While his numbers have been incredible...." 1 for his last 24 (it was a solo homer) in the last 7 games, (7 BBs and only 8 Ks at least). 0-20 in the last 6. I guess the 8 or so games before he got hot...... for about a week. 4 homers that 8 games. Even if you go the last 15 games and include that week, lately he is hitting .189. 5 homers in 15 games. Maybe you meant just that one long week of 8 games before as the "lately"?

Because he was already hurt, and you only had him for a year and a half, just about all of which he spent not pitching for you. This was give up something for nothing.

People tried to sell the trade hard, and support the trade full steam. Me? Loudly hated it from jump. Horrible trade now with final confirmation. Hurt when they traded for him. And a 4ish career ERA to boot. What a total failure.

Thanks for your help, Correa. 5 tools down to one. Good plan? Not in my book.

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I think what all want is for the balls and strikes to just always be called correctly. I think that those that quest to be a part of baseball and be umpires are trying their best to get it right (I hope). I also feel that some unintentional bias and pride can get in the way as they defend the best that they can humanly do, which is a trained best guess. I also struggle to understand the options, and try the best I can to. I thank you very much for the link to the article. It presented new information that I can learn from, and that is very beneficial to a curious mind. I don't really know that I have the expertise to understand exactly what this math you quoted is saying. I do understand pretty clearly that this discussion in the article is about the machine/tech/camera/method/software that is grading the accuracy of actual systems in place at the ball parks, and is not one of the systems in use, of which TrackMan is the current one held in favor by MLB and being used. "Ground-truth testing refers generally to the independent on-field evaluation of the in-stadia ball-tracking systems. The goal of this testing is to validate accuracy and assess tracking health using a precise and independent method. Ground-truth testing is done after a tracking system is installed and calibrated at a stadium while the field approximates game-ready conditions. It can also be performed periodically as a health check for stadium tracking or when field changes or tracking issues present an opportunity to benefit from an independent assessment." "The ground truth method relies on the frame-synchronized filming of a ball passing over the plate by two high-speed cameras. " And I understand the summary: "This post briefly explains MLB’s ground-truth measurement method and shares some example videos. This program allows us to measure with high precision where the ball is when it crosses the plate or when it’s released. We compare this data to a stadium’s ball tracking system to assess accuracy and precision. This ground-truth testing exercise has been performed annually across all 30 MLB parks. Additional tests are scheduled to validate new tracking system installations and to conduct in-season health checks. The ground truth testing program is important to MLB as a broad quality control tool for ball tracking but also as a foundational assessment of the many metrics derived from pitch positional data." The article doesn't seem to tell us how the systems they are grading work, just if they are accurate. So I am still looking for that info, and particularly from/about TrackMan. Thanks again for posting this great and informative article.

Please provide documentation of this belief. I just spent a half hour looking for an article about the actual tech at that level and am still looking. This is the first I have heard that it is not where the pitch crosses the plate, and it is quite a claim to just throw out there with no support. I did find this to clarify how the strike zone is set for each individual batter: https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/robot-umpires-how-it-works-and-its-effect-on-players-and-managers-in-the-atlantic-league-plus-whats-to-come/ "TrackMan, or "robot ump," sits up above home plate (at all eight Atlantic League ballparks), and looks like a black box from afar. In reality, the box is a 3-D Doppler radar dish that analyzes each pitch thrown. Using a three-dimensional strike zone, TrackMan is able to calibrate each batters' size and stance, adjusting the strike zone accordingly. So, the system works so that it doesn't allow a 6-foot-7 player to have the same strike zone as a 5-foot-7 player." ......and this is really interesting, even if it is a couple years old: https://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/mlb-umpires-strike-zone-accuracy/ "MLB Umpires Missed 34,294 Ball-Strike Calls in 2018. ------------------- Graphing performance results also highlighted a natural divide—umpires with at least 20 years of experience made more incorrect calls than those with 10 years or less of experience. For 2018, Ted Barrett and Joe West were the top poor performers, making 495 and 512 incorrect home plate calls, for an average of 17.7 and 16.5 errors per game, respectively. --------------------- MLB is simply ignoring valuable, available data. Despite the hard evidence, each season, MLB continues to keep questionable performers, some past their prime, on the job. The past three World Series were only the most recent examples. Game by game, season by season, poor-performing umpires remain on the field. ----------------- It is unrealistic to assume that home-plate umpires, unassisted, can collectively achieve the accuracy rates increasingly demanded by the sports industry and deserving fans."

Big deal. Then, until the glitch is fixed, we just go back to having the plate umpire guess again for a spell.

I like this comment a lot for the info, and dislike it as well for its extreme bias, which was very very clear. I never umpired as much as you, but my experience taught me that no matter how much one does it, the most important close calls will always be a guess, and robbing the players of the correct call in the inhuman part of the game. I don't know how one can ever not want to use the best tools possible.

I contend that before the advancement of the tech, the human element is removed from the players, and given to the umpires who have always given it their best guess. The umpire is the least human part of the game, or should be, especially for the strike zone. The robo ump gives the human element back to the players, where it has always belonged. The perfect take that rewards the best with the greatest eye instead of the well meaning but incapable umpire calling it a strike. The perfect pitch that only touches the zone or exact corner of it so barely instead of the well meaning but incapable umpire calling it a ball. People excuse the wrong call when it is closest. It is those pictches the batter or pitcher deserves the most. They are the human element of baseball that matter. The players, not the best guess from an umpire that tries his best, but fails way too often. The plate umpires rob the game, in just about every inning, and too many at bats. And the tired "as long as the umpire is consistent" BS? Consistently wrong is just more wrong. Go robo. This step is just a cop-out. It still misses the wrong calls that even the batter and pitcher are guessing at. The point is to get it as right as we can, and that will never be a human guessing now, and hasn't been for years. You don't see judges telling us who won the swimming race and ingnoring the touch pads. Baseball should not ignore the tech, either. It is, after all, what is used to grade the umpires, and a tool, if their arrogance doesn't prevent them, to help them get better.

Ryan was saying that he peppers the zone because he knows he has such great defense behind him in a past interview. Well, he got weak singles hit against him in the first. And with Miranda at third, and Solano at first (not today) he is being forsaken. Today he, like others, just keed saying they have a great team. The think they are great. Hopefully, they results start to show it.

One of Carlin's 7 words. Twins Daily getting racey. 😇 It's not 1978 anymore. "In 1978, the Supreme Court, in a 5–4 decision, ruled that the FCC's declaratory ruling did not violate either the First or Fifth Amendments, but it limited the scope of its decision to the specific broadcast that caused the declaratory ruling and declined to consider whether the FCC's definition of indecency would survive a First Amendment challenge if applied to the broadcast of other material containing the same or similar words which had been cited in Pacifica's brief (e.g., works of Shakespeare – "pissing conduits", "bawdy hand of the dial on the prick of noon"; the Bible – "he who pisseth against the wall"; the Watergate Tapes). It noted that while the declaratory ruling pertained to the meaning of the term "indecency" as used in a criminal statute (18 USC 1464), since the FCC had not imposed any penalty on Pacifica, the Court did not need to reach the question as to whether the definition was too vague to satisfy the due process requirements of the Fifth Amendment."

Just because a player will or has or can play multiple infield positions, doesn't mean they should when they are really poor fielders. No mattter where you play Solano, he is a tremendous liability. His bat is not that beneficial, especially considering that he can cost games in the field. I really don't like begging for the "out of the baseline" call, but it does seem that the Twins get that called against them too much when they do it just a little bit. It is a stupid rule, i think. There should be like 10 feet or so you can juke about. Runners are constantly out of the base line around third especially, but all the time running out doubles and triples and even on the homer trots. One shouldn't be allowed to be crazy and run in circles and outfield, etc, but they certainly should be able to move around within 10 feet each side of a straight line to avoid a tag. I mean really, you are supposed to try not to get tagged out. Miranda sure looked funny. It made me laugh.

It was good to see Baldelli not pull Lopez after 6, and start the 7th with only 88 pitches and behind 2-1, having given up 6 hits, 3 for extra bases (1 homer and 2 doubles) 8 Ks, only 1 walk. He was pitching fine, and handled the 7th fine. Great to see Lopez throw another good game after 2 in which he game up 11 earned in 10 innings (9,90 ERA) However, Baldelli pulled Ryan after six ahead 1-0, with 87 pitches, 60 for strikes, throwing a 1 hitter (single), 7 Ks 2 walks, the last a 12 pitch walk in the 6th to Anderson, and 18 total pitches in the last inning. His velo was down slightly in the 6th. But still, why? So shakey Jorge Lopez could blow his game up in 8 pitches. Arguably a better game pitched than Pablo Lopez, and Ryan gets pulled with the same # of (1 less) pitches and didn't get the opportunity to pitch the 7th. Or consequently, win the 6th start to start a season, and set a franchise record (I think). He was still in line for it, though, until Jorge Lopez. Maybe Ryan was tired, and said he was done? Seems he deserved the opportunity if it was Baldelli.

I don't know that an angel was involved 😇 . However obdurate the take, I am not interested in disputatious dialogue here. Many on the site will engage you. In the end, whether he was calulating or going on feelings, he was wrong, and embarrassingly out at second, and from the look on his face, personally embarrassed as well. I bet he even apologized to his teammates, and will be changing his behavior in upcoming games. I will never be advocating a player should just hustle selectively. Too much unexpected can happen on each and every ball in play, as we saw on this one.

Horrible result of the trade. He was damaged goods when they traded for him. His arm problems were in progress. To me, the only smart thing about the trade with the Reds was that Mahle’s wildness couldn’t break Buxton’s wrist again if he was on the same team. I guess the do nothing plan for rehab since he shut down last August 17 (except for 2 innings on September 3) was as ineffective as it seemed it would be. Free agent at the end of the season. Please stop trading for damaged arms. And to think we let Tyler Wells go unprotected in rule 5 december of 2020 to have slots open on the 40 man for pretty horrible 2021 roster additions. He was "damaged" at the time though, out all of 2020 recovering from May 2019 TJ surgery, and we needed slots in the bullpen for guys like Alex Colomé, Hansel Robles, and Randy Dobnak on the active roster and guys like Nick Vincent, Brandon Waddell, Derek Law, Ian Gibaut, Andrew Albers, Shaun Anderson, Charlie Barnes, Kyle Barraclough, Beau Burrows, Luke Farrell, John Gant, Edgar Garcia, and Ralph Garza Jr to have space on the 40 man througout the year. The Orioles were building and saw the talent that had made the 6'8" Tyler Wells the TD Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year in 2018. Pitcher identification is not easy.