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Thrylos

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  1. Thrylos
    More information about "Twins Pitching Woes: 2013 and 2014"
    I'm always interested in new pitching metrics development, and not only because I have myself taken part in the endeavor. This is an interesting metric, albeit much more complex than PE and xPE. It also correlates well with SIERA, which along with xPE (because it is easy to calculate) are my two favorite predictive metrics regarding pitching performance. I will not steal Jonathan's thunder, please read that excellent article, but I will present his framework and then present his work as applied to the Twins' pitchers. (He calculated cFIPs for every pitcher in the league for the past 4 years, including Jamie Carroll.) The cFIP scale is normalized to 100 for average, just like OPS+ and ERA+, but it is a minus scale, meaning that less is better, like ERA and FIP and SIERA and all similar metrics. (It should have been called cFIP-, but that is a different story.) So 100 is average and less is better. Jonathan Judge has the following buckets of pitchers, according their cFIP: 70 and less = superb 70–85 Great 85–95 Above Avg. 95–105 Average 105–115 Below Avg. 115–130 Bad 130+ Awful Let's put the 2014 Minnesota Twins' pitching staff in those buckets. For reference, players that are not still with the team are in parenthesis. I am also including the 2014 cFIP numbers of the newcomers this off-season. They have an asterisk behind their names. Superb: Phil Hughes 70 Great: Glen Perkins 74 Above Avg.: Casey Fien 89 Tim Stauffer 91* (Yohan Pino 94) Average: Aaron Thompson 98 Logan Darnell 99 Ricky Nolasco 100 Trevor May 101 Ervin Santana 101* Michael Tonkin 102 Caleb Thielbar 103 Blaine Boyer 103* Lester Oliveros 105 Below Avg.: (Jared Burton 106) (Kris Johnson 106) (Sam Deduno 107) Stephen Pryor 108 Kyle Gibson 109 (Anthony Swarzak 111) A. J. Achter 112 Ryan Pressly 112 Brian Duensing 114 Tommy Milone 114 Bad: (Matt Guerrier 116) (Kevin Correia 119) Awful: Mike Pelfrey 132 A few observations: According to this, in 2014, the Twins had one superb pitcher, Phil Hughes, one great pitcher, Glen Perkins, and 13 pitchers (that is a full MLB staff, ladies and gentlemen) who were average, above average, great or superb. Mike Pelfrey (who tied for worst in the majors in this metric) was the only awful pitcher in the Twins' staff. But, the Twins had the second worst bullpen in the majors according to xFIP and SIERA and the third worst rotation in the majors, according to SIERA (fourth according to xFIP). Other than Yohan Pino, who was an unfortunate loss, the Twins' front office seems to behave pretty well according to this metric. The pitchers they let go were all below average or worse. They did keep a few below average pitchers, and they did keep Mike Pelfrey, who is better suited for the pen and was injured. Other than Duensing who had a down season, the other below average pitchers are all young. The big issue in the big picture here: The Twins had a whole staff worth (13) pitchers who were average and above, yet they managed to be almost at the bottom of the league in pitching. Those things seem to be in conflict. Let's dig deeper and check out the 2013 Twins' cFIP buckets that Jonathan Judge calculated. For reference purposes, players who left after 2013 are in parenthesis and I added Ricky Nolasco (with an asterisk) as well. Superb: Glen Perkins 63 Casey Fien 67 Great: Nobody Above Avg.: Jared Burton 91 Caleb Thielbar 91 Ricky Nolasco 93* Michael Tonkin 94 Average: Anthony Swarzak 97 Brian Duensing 97 (Shairon Martis 105) Below Avg.: Mike Pelfrey 109 (Liam Hendriks 110) Ryan Pressly 111 (Cole DeVries 114) (Andrew Albers 115) Bad: Kevin Correia 116 Samuel Deduno 116 (Josh Roenicke 118) (P.J. Walters 122) (Vance Worley 124) Kyle Gibson 125 (Scott Diamond 129) Awful: Nobody This is some really interesting data. Here is what I see: I think that I either underestimated the Twins' front office use of metrics in personnel decisions in building the team or Jack Goin should buy me a beer this week at Hammond Stadium, because this tool really describes what the Twins are doing regarding personnel decisions. Recently, they have tended to get rid of below average and worse pitchers and add average and above pitchers. Hughes was around 100, but I did not add him here. This is a stop the presses type of statement. I'm close to nodding my head in approval of what the front office is doing. For 2013 this tells a tale of two categories: all the average and above pitchers were relievers. All starters were below average or worse but not awful. And Pelfrey was the best of that lot. Enough with 2013. What happened in 2014, relative to 2013? Every single reliever from Perkins down regressed, while the starters (save the injured Pelfrey and replacement-level Correia) improved. This is fundamentally interesting, because it breaks some commonly accepted narratives. One excuse for the decline of the Twins' pen in 2014 was that they were too tired because the rotation was so bad. This data turns this upside down. The Twins 2013 rotation was worse than the Twins 2014 rotation, and the 2014 Twins' pen made the 2014 Twins rotation worse. So a bad pen can make a rotation worse. Like a reliever coming in with two outs and the bases loaded to give a grand slam and four runs to the starter's record. What a concept... I am starting to really like this metric. So, and this is really hard for me to say, the front office did make some improvements for 2014 that actually seem to be supported by real data, but the pitching tanked compared to 2013. Why? I'd love to hear your theories after this, and this is what I am thinking: Look at that 2014 list up there. In your mind, normalize it for playing time. That would shift the buckets heavier to the below average. How many games did Pino or May start compared to Pelfrey, Correia, Deduno? Why was Burton used in high leverage situations over better relievers? Yes. Do the same normalization for playing time for the 2013 data. And you are looking at evidence of what has been written here, loudly and clearly, about mismanagement of the Twins' pitching staff by Gardy and Andy. This has to be part of the reason for the pen decline in 2014. And it had to be fixed. And, yes, metrics can be devised to normalize and approximate defense independent pitching, but I have not yet seen one that could estimate the madness of the Twins' 2014 OF. (What is the range factor of a bucket? ) This actually makes me more hopeful, because it seems like the Twins are making an effort to address some things that need addressing. So, what do you say?
  2. Thrylos
    I think that we have seen Santana's ceiling...
  3. Thrylos
    Definitely last year they had a giveaway of those shirts the first game of Spring Training. Not sure if they did it for the Gopher game
  4. Thrylos
    The AA team won 5-4. Was out there too. Did not realize that you and Stringer were around. Will try to look for you guys Saturday if there
  5. Thrylos
    Unlike for the pitchers, hitter's BABIP is more of a skill. Players tend to regress to their skill's average and BABIP can vary as one hitter develops. .273/.317/.391 - Danny Santana's Minor League slash line. Early in his career his BABIP was in the low .300s. The last couple seasons in the minors it has been .353 (2013) and .371 (2014) with .405 in the majors last season. His BB/K ratio last season was .20 (this means that if that BABIP goes down to .330-.340 (Ben Revere or Rickey Henderson territory), his OBP will approach about his career minor league average (.310s-.320s.) Agree that a .405 BABIP is not sustainable for Santana. And Molitor should know it...
  6. Thrylos
    Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ----- Today the Minnesota Twins played against the Rays at Fort Charlotte, which meant minor league side by side double-header action of Rochester and Chattanooga against the Red Sox' AAA and AA squads at fields 4 and 5 of the Complex. The much anticipated moment today was the return of Glen Perkins who got the first inning with the AAA club against the PawSox. Based on reports from people who were at Fort Charlotte, he did not feel any pain. He was carted to and fro field number 4, which is the furthest away from Hammond Stadium and he threw warmup tosses to Kyle Knudson, who was also the starting Catcher for the Red Wings. During the game, he threw 14 pitches, most strikes. His fastball was sitting at 90-91, hitting 92 and 93 once each. His slider was at 81-82, all figures that are a good 4-5 mph below his season form, but it is still the second (he pitched against the Gophers) game for him. During his warm ups he did seem to throw a couple of changeups, but could had just been slow fastballs. All in all a good appearance, but he has to ramp up pretty quickly. The second biggest name, as far as players are concerned, was Miguel Sano who played at Field number 5 with the Chatanooga squad. His agent, Rob Plummer, was on site and had a change to have a very enlightening (but off the record) conversation with him. Interesting guy and he seems really proud of the fact that he signed Sano when he was 14. Miguel answered with a three-run monster home run that likely broke a window or two at the subdivision past the fence, with this swing, off William Cuevas : As a side note, Sano appears fitter than last season. Speaking of celebrities, Tom Kelly was at hand and had a chance to meet with one of his former pitchers, Paul Abbott, who pitched for Kelly's Twins from 1990-1992: I had a chance to see several other prospects and here are quick notes: Greg Peavey was selected by the Twins from the Mets in the AAA portion of the Rule 5 draft last winter. He came in to pitch after Glen Perkins in the AAA side and was pretty impressive. He has three pitches: A 90-91 mph Fastball, a low 70s slow curve and a low 80s change. Pitching mostly with the first 2, but his change did produce strikeouts. Good control and command of all his pitches, very fluid motion; he is definitely a dark horse. A mature pitcher. Also in the AAA side of things, Cole Johnson made a good appearance. He is a fastball slider pitcher with his FB hitting 94 but his slider location was inconsistent. Pretty early in Spring training for that. On the AA side of things, both Nico Goodrum and Michael Gonzalez appear different. Gonzalez appears much fitter and for the 27 year old, this might be his last chance in a Twins' uniform. Goodrum has been working with a personal trainer this off-season and he got some muscle. He is also taking much more robust at bats, than last Spring Training. If you squint really hard, you might confuse him with Byron Buxton, as far as physique goes: As far as the pitchers at the AA side went, Tyler Duffey started, but I chose to look at Glen Perkins and Greg Peavey next door. I did have a good look at Jeff Reed, who was unhittable at the Arizona Fall League and was really impressed. His fastball was at 95-96 this early and his slider at high 80s. I will not be surprised is he and Nick Burdi are with the big club come August or so. Interesting 3/4 delivery with a fairly aggressive motion. Tim Shibuya pitched a couple good innings. He is really deceptive and one of those "rubber arm" guys. Good repeatable mechanics, good control and command, I really see him as the long man in a major league bullpen some day. It was a treat seeing Jorge Fernandez, my 19th Twins' prospect, to catch today. Really good hands , excellent feet (he got a guy out on a difficult high bounce off the home plate) and very good receiving ability. I never had any doubts about his bat, but really liked what I saw with the glove today. He is a guy who is not considered a prospect, does not get many praises, but I really enjoyed watching Stephen Wickens play today. Good fundamentals and instincts on both sides of the ball, good glove and versatility, might get the 26 year old into the big leagues some day, if he gets his contact rate and plate discipline a bit higher. As a parting shot, here is Sam Perlozzo, the long time major league coach and manager, who started his playing career with the Twins, having an 1 on 2 base-running tutoring session with the Twins' number 2 and 3 prospects. Tomorrow the Twins are hosting the Pirates at Hammond Stadium and I will be there. You can find all my 2015 Spring Training posts here.
  7. Thrylos
    Absolutely. If they get 4 OFs, Robinson is in only if Schafer is the starting CF. Also, their a battle for the last spot on the bench, and I see that between Nunez, Herrmann and Robinson. Robinson is probably behind the other 2 at this one because of versatility, but if Herrmann makes the backup catcher position, he could end up beating Nunez. Still 2.5 weeks left. Long time.
  8. Thrylos
    I agree for selling high, but if you are competing the goal of deadline trades should be: 1. make the MLB team better now with the trade 2. do not screw up the future with the trade. 3. sell players at the peak of their values (could be major leaguers or prospects) and when their perceived value is higher than their actual value. Players that fulfill #3 above are: Dozier, D. Santana, K Suzuki, T. Plouffe, G. Perkins, P. Hughes, C. Fien, K. Thielbar, N. Gordon, B. Buxton, K. Stewart, J. Berrios. and a few more possibly. All I am saying is that I believe that the aforementioned have higher perceived value than actual value. If you can fill up holes and close those from the inside (eg. replace Hughes with Meyer, Perkins with Burdi, Dozier with Polanco etc,) you should go ahead and trade. But you got to trade value. You cannot package someone with low perceived value, like Nolasco, because a. you are selling low and b. the actual value that you get will be equally low. Think Pierczynski trade: Sell high, target players with lower perceived values than actual values. But hard to trade all the players who have banners above the Hammond Stadium ticket office (minus Mauer.)
  9. Thrylos
    Are you sure that a team with Rosario at CF and Escobar at SS, does not beat them both? Santana is not that great fielding SS and is a worse Centerfielder, and Rosario is better with the bat than him.
  10. Thrylos
    Would you say that if the Twins are, let's say, 10 games above .500 at the deadline? It is all relative.
  11. Thrylos
    Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch --------- Today was my first full day at Fort Myers and the Twins had a split squad duo of games, with the half of the team hosting the Orioles at Hammond Stadium and the other half a few miles away playing the Red Sox at Jet Blue Park. This was the second year in a row as far as renovations went for the facilities, and the Hammond Stadium looks really great. The front facade is extended to both broaden the concession place plaza and put a roof over it and to host a couple new elevators and gift shops. There are 4 gift shops in all now, which are much better than the single closet-size one that was there 3 years ago. The main one, which about the size of an average AA ballpark gift shop, even had Miracle T-shirts. For some reason there was no pregame batting practice on field number six, as it has been the norm the seasons before; I suspect that it has to do with the split-squad games today. Joe Vavra was throwing batting practice to someone's kid in the under-stadium cages. Not much activity in the minor league parks also; Sporadic batting practice at the Chattanooga, including Miguel Sano and DJ Hicks hitting some good ones off Stew Cliburn, who looks scarily like Rick Anderson these days. Jorge Polanco and AAA infielders had bunt practice at the Rochester field. Nothing much there as far as minors go, other than Nick Burdi was surrounded by a whole slew of autograph seekers when he showed up. No home game tomorrow, so I will be able so spend a full day with the prospects. As far as the game today went, there were a few things of note: In the first inning, Joe Mauer hit a routine soft grounder to the shortstop, who had a hard time fielding it, dropped it, recovered it and threw to first to get a slow trotting Mauer out. This was not a great thing to see from the Twins' highest paid player. Had he run full speed, he would had been safe. I hope that these kind of plays do not happen again. On the other hand, the subsequent inning Eduardo Nunez beat out a non-trivial cleanly fielded infield single to the shortstop; hard not to see the contradictions between someone who has a job and someone who is fighting for one. Torii Hunter is a yeller at the outfield. And this is a good thing. And he does not only yell "I got it". In couple of situations, a fly ball to right center and a shallow fly to the right, he yelled for Schafer and Dozier respectively to go and get it. And it worked. That was a good thing to see. Eddie Rosario was great with the glove at left. He did throw out Delmon Young when he tried to stretch a single, but even more importantly (and you cannot see that on the scoreboard) he took a triple away from an Orioles hitter with a great route and a great below the knee catch. He made it look so easy, that I bet that most of the Stadium thought that it was a routine play. It wasn't. Speaking of routes, I am not sure that Jordan Schaefer is the best one out there. Had a long fly really misjudged and hit the wall, allowing eventually Torii Hunter to make the throw to the infield. That ball was catchable. Being a left hand throwing Centerfielder might have some disadvantages. As far as pitching went, Stephen Pryor really surprised me. He pitched fine, but there were earlier reports about him being healthy and being back with his mid- to high-90s velocity. He topped at 92 in Hammond Stadium's (fast) radar today, which is not extremely thrilling, to say at least. For comparison's shake, Ervin Santana hit 93. Back there tomorrow morning and expect a full report on the prospects, tomorrow evening.
  12. Thrylos
    " Mike Pelfrey is back from elbow surgery and (evidently) finally healthy. And then there's Milone, who might be the most accomplished big-leaguer of the bunch." Nah. Not really Pelfrey: 9.7 fWAR 5.4 bWAR Milone: 5.0 fWAR, 3.2 bWAR
  13. Thrylos
    Regarding what being in a top 100 (or so) prospect list: If you are not familiar with this study from 4 years ago, you should be. Really enlightening...
  14. Thrylos
    Last time the Twins held that (or any) title was in 1991. In the 00s they were the poster boys of "good enough" but not cigar.
  15. Thrylos
    And, seriously, after the Hunter and Garnett happenings, I thought that this thread was a Vikings' reference
  16. Thrylos
    I'd rather have Vargas, thank you
  17. Thrylos
    Sure, but do we agree that Duensing is the best MLB-ready reliever the Twins have not named Perkins? (Btw, I would not mind seeing Perkins in a Duensing role, but that would require fast tracking Burdi & Reed for the late RHP roles...)
  18. Thrylos
    Have you seen the likes of Colabello, Parmelee, Kubel, Barlett, etc at the OF? Have you seen the massive cut that Molitor just did to play the players who have a chance? Do you remember who Gardenhire had pitch important innings that later and later in Spring Training the last 4-5 years? Did Gardenhire ever had the whole team take short flies extra fielding practice because of on-field screwups? Nope. Not. The. Same. Thankfully.
  19. Thrylos
    Give me one LHRP, not named Perkins, who is MLB-ready and better than Duensing right now. One.
  20. Thrylos
    Indeed re: Milone; thanks! Fixed it. Did not realize that he was a Sept. callup in 2011 and did not go down at all in 2012. Also agree with you about Herrmann and Rosario. As far as the others go, we have 3 weeks left of Spring Training. The bullpen situation is the most unclear right now, because 2-3 good or bad games can move people one way or another... Also, there might be trades.
  21. Thrylos
    I think that by the All-Star break (or even earlier, if Vargas collapses or get hurt) that would be Hunter's exact role in 2015
  22. Thrylos
    I think that those 2 charts tell a lot: Rochester: Chattanooga: And I don't think that it was small part in the Twins' decision to move from New Britain...
  23. Thrylos
    That really does not affect the Twins or the Twins' players. There has been somewhat of consolidation of ownership of franchises to gain advantage in operating costs leveraging their size. Hot dogs and buns, beer, t-shirts etc etc, cost much less to those guys if they give a quadruple order to the same vendor. All about operations and economies of scale that reduce supply and operational costs. Might even increase secondary revenue, but getting the same musical gigs to all ballparks, etc etc. Makes sense.
  24. Thrylos
    Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- After the 18 recent cuts the Twins made (some of them unannounced yet) yesterday, the camp roster was trimmed to 43 players. I did provide a break down of those players by position yesterday, also mentioning whether they have options or whether they are on the 40-man roster. Based on these numbers, I am taking a preliminary look at the Twins' potential opening day roster, position by position: Position players (13) Catchers (2/3) Suzuki, and one of Pinto/Fryer/Herrmann. Herrmann might be added as a third catcher/Utility. Fryer is not on the 40-man roster Infield (6/7) Mauer, Dozier, Santana, Escobar, Plouffe. One or both of Vargas and Nunez. Nunez is out of options Outfield (4/5) Arcia, Hunter and two or three of: Hicks, Rosario, Robinson, Schafer. Schafer is out of options, Robinson is not on the 40-man roster. Pitchers (12) Starting Pitchers (5) Hughes, Santana, Nolasco, Gibson; one of Milone, Pelfrey, May, Meyer. All have options, but Pelfrey has to accept assignment. Relief Pitchers (7) Perkins, Duensing, Fien one or two of Milone, Pelfrey, May, Meyer two or three of Pressly, Stauffer, Thielbar, Tonkin, Achter, Graham, Thompson, Boyer, Pryor, Hamburger. Stauffer and Graham (rule 5) have no options, Boyer and Hamburger are not on the 40 man roster. These are the major battles right now in the Twins' camp: The Starting Centerfielder and fourth outfielder: Hicks/Scafer/Rosario/Robinson. The first two have higher probability to win the CF starter. If Scafer wins, both Hicks and Rosario will be optioned because they will need to play daily, making Robinson the fourth outfielder. If Hicks or Rosario win the starting position, both Schafer and Robinson can make it as a fifth outfielder. Robinson is on the 40-man roster, but might take Graham's spot if he does not stick. Verdict: Too early to tell, but looks like Hicks & Scafer will be the 2 who are going north The backup Catcher: Pinto, Herrmann and Fryer are fighting for one spot. Fryer is not on the 40-man roster, thus having a bigger mountain to climb. Herrmann will be in the utility fight as well. Verdict: Too early to tell, both Herrmann and Pinto have been good with the bat this Spring, Fryer has not, but has been very good with the glove. This might go until the last days. The Utility Position: Nunez, the one of Schafer or Robinson who did not make the cut in the Outfield and Herrmann will be fighting for one position. Verdict: Too close. Scafer and Nunez are out of options, Robinson is not on the 40-man roster. The 5th Starter and one or two bullpen positions: Milone, Pelfrey, May and Meyer are fighting for one spot. Verdict: Milone and Pelfrey are the forerunners here, in a battle that will be bought to the end with the loser going to the pen. I think that Meyer will likely start at Rochester; May has a chance to make the Twins' pen, thus getting 2 pen positions from this group. The final 2-3 bullpen positions: Pressly, Stauffer, Thielbar, Tonkin, Achter, Graham, Thompson, Boyer, Pryor, Hamburger. The three most veteran pitchers in this group (Pressly, Stauffer and Tonkin) have been the Twins worst pitchers in Spring Training, while Hamburger, Pryor, Graham and Thompson have been shining. Verdict: This can go both ways. The safest would be to option May, and start with Stauffer, Thielbar and Graham. Would it be the best? Likely not, based on what Stauffer and Thielbar have shown. Will be interesting to see how this will shake out as well. This decision will also be very telling about Molitor's and Allen's philosophies.
  25. Thrylos
    Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- This is the third and last, but not least, segment in this series. You can find the first segment (fixing the bullpen) and the rationale for the series here, and the second segment (fixing the outfield) here. I think that the most important (and some times the hardest or the easiest) thing to fix for the Twins to win, is the team attitude. How do you measure attitude and how does attitude prevent some one to win, and what is that "attitude" thing anyway. Isn't that thing that your parents and teachers talked about when you were growing up, or something else. Well, as far as baseball goes, I will let former Twins' player and Texas Rangers' manager Ron Washington describe it in this 30 second video. To borrow Washington's words from there, a winning attitude is when you "expect to win" and "do everything you need to do to win". Arguably, the Minnesota Twins the last couple of decades has as motto (at their best,) do all you can do (aka bust your tail) and you win some, you lose some. Those were exactly the words of a smiling Michael Cudduyer at the Twins' dugout, on September 30, 2008, after the Twins lost game 163 at the White Sox (and part of the reason was that Cuddyer did not do what he needed to do to win, colliding with and forcing the ball out of AJ Pierzynski's glove to score.) And giving it all and being "good enough" has been the Twins' motto. And the majority of the fans were ok with "good enough", winning the title of the weakest division in baseball about half of the time, going belly up during the post-season and when they played the AL East, in the 00s. And if the fans are happy with "good enough", you get a brand new ballpark and brand new season ticket sales and that is more that "good enough" as far as revenue goes, when it is not broken, why even bother to think about fixing it? That was the Twins' past decade of "Glory", in half a paragraph. And then it went South. What happened? Well, the Twins did not even do all they could do in the ballpark; add that to a culture of favoritism in the clubhouse, where it did not matter to whether the veterans did all they could do, but when people outside the inner circle opened their mouths were thought under the proverbial bus; add that to not expecting to win, to start with, and you got 99 + 96 + 96 + 92. And most importantly, no excuses for even the most single-sighted fans to believe that this team can win, thus a drop in tickets, thus a drop in revenue, thus... To win, a team needs a leader who expects to win and make sure that his players and coaches do everything they need to do to win. Here was the most common expression of the previous Twins' leader during games the last several seasons (hanging on to the dugout railing optional) : Is this the expression someone who is doing all he needed to do to win and lead by example. Is this the expression of someone who expects his team to win? Or is this the expression of someone who looks defeated and solemn? Rhetorical question. There was not a more obvious time for me to see that the Twins players not only doing what they needed to do, but not even all they could do, and was fine with the manager and the coaches, than this particular game last spring training. Before I went down there last season, I did have hopes that with the changes they made in the rotation, plus some players improving, had a chance to break even and have an 81-81 record. But after what I saw, I predicted that the Twins will end up the 2014 season with a 70-92 record. That is the past, and tomorrow I am landing at Fort Myers where I will be for more than a week and be able to see how thing are, but I have a good feeling that they are heading the right way. Other than getting rid of their manager and pitching coach, which by itself is adding 10 wins pretty much, and replacing them with good baseball people and a Hall of Famer as manager, they brought back Torii Hunter. It did not make much sense at the beginning, and I think that they guy is a prick, plus he left the Twins' in free agency just for money and he added insult to the injury, by singing with the biggest division rival in his second free agency, but there might be something positive: As I indicated here, Hunter can help the young players (who were tainted by the Twins' clubhouse attitude, it is no secret) realize that they have to at least give it all and lead by example. I have seen signs from Molitor that he is leading his players towards doing what they need to do. First example, was the no-cell phone policy during game days, which was awful last season. Players need to focus in the game and not in their social media during game day. Second, he benched Aaron Hicks during a game for losing track of outs; a gesture that has not happened during a Twins' Spring Training since 1965, when Sam Mele, the Twins' manager, took Zoilo Versalles (the eventual 1965 MVP) out of the lineup because of lack of effort. And you know what the Twins did in 1965. Also, after a couple of mishaps in short fly balls and lack of communication between infielders and outfielder, Molitor had extra drills of those circumstances with the whole team. The whole team. In previous years, veterans and the inner circle would be excluded and only few would participate in similar drills. There are a lot of positive signs about (at least) a realization that the teams attitude needed to change to win, and actual steps taken this direction. I will be able to know more about how things will play out in this department, in 10 days or so, after I return from Fort Myers and see the team play this Spring. Last year I predicted that 70-92, based on what I saw, I hope that this year, it is the reverse...
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