Thrylos

Here is this other piece of data also: 2017 Total attendance: MLB 72,678,797 NBA 21,972,129 NHL 21,501,156 NFL 17,510,312 I wonder which league has the least problem here...

I totally agree. However you really need to figure out what better really looks like from the perspective of your customer. Got to make changes to improve the experience of your customer and solve his/her problems and speak to their needs, not to develop products for products' sake or make change for change's sake. I'd love MLB to go out there and gather data from customers (and they have plenty in their CRM, start with the mlb.tv subscribers) about what they want to see in the game. Go poll 50,000 people and publish the responses. If a particular change has more than 75% support, they should implement them. Also, they should go to prospectives who are not customers and ask what it will take to make them customers. Then take the higher answers and pass them through the group of customers. If 75% + of them say ok, implement it. That's how businesses make successful change. Data shows (up there) that baseball is a successful growing business. Unless particular changes will not alienate most of your customers you don't need to make changes.

What check engine light? Imaginary? Fact: MLB revenue by year: Look at the rates of growth from 2001-2009 and 2010-2017. This is a business in growth.

If it ain't broke...

How about Buxton and his hitting? Or there was no hype surrounding the top overall prospect in baseball according to many? You never hear anyone many questioning his abilities and/or motivation, like they do Sano's. Yes he is singled out, which is status quo for certain people

Sano is not the only problem with the Twins offense, and he is continuously unfairly and maliciously singled out. Only 3 of the current Twins regulars have wRC+ higher than the league average (Rosario, Escobar, and Kepler). As a matter of fact Sano has higher wRC+ than Morrison, Grossman, Garver and whomever happens to play CF for more than 2 games. It is not like Sano is hitting .156/.183/.200, with a -3 wRC+ like his fellow former top prospect does...

So the Twins have an 1.000 winning record when Dozier sits, and a .443 when he plays...

The irony in this is that Hocking played every position on the field in the majors, other than catcher. He never pitched also.

He cannot hit a lick against LHP: .578 OPS against AA LHP vs .890 OPS against AA RHP

Wade's problem is that he is yet another lefty OF.

Of course. The Twins are Eddies' team

Absolutely. Here is some additional food for thought: OPS at age 25 season: Corey Koskie: .435 Dan Gladden: .577 Brian Dozier: .603 Doug Mientkiewicz: .655 Gary Gaetti: .665 Kirby Puckett: .715 So Sano is doing better than all but the Hall of Famer in the list, and he is a good 3 day hitting streak away from passing Puckett's OPS

FTFY

Correct, and a fan base that has not got any titles since 1991 for the Twins and 1990 for the Reds, so the frustration level is pretty high...

I think that there is a need for some data & perspective in this discussion. This is a pretty good piece about the half lives of PEDs and how long they stay in the body. There are PEDs, including steroids and HGH, which are undetectable after a couple days of use. Unless someone is in the middle of a 15-20 day HGH cycle during the season, for example, it will be practically impossible to detect HGH users. Even the ones with the longest half lives are out of ones system in 2 weeks. So a user can use the whole off-season doping and stop 2 weeks before he reports for ST and all would be honky dory. One has to be pretty stupid to get caught these days. The steroid testing system is just for show. Really. If they really want to test, they would have to do what the international cycling federation does and test after each contest and randomly and often during the off-season, if they want to get the sport steroid-free...

Gonsalves will be in an interesting situation not only in 2018 but in 2019. By September this season the Twins will have 8 starters ahead of him (current 5 plus May, Santana, Pineda in anticipated order of return.) In 2018, they will have 6 (these 8 minus Lynn and Santana.) So unless there are trades and injuries, I just don't see it happening this season, and will be tough to happen next. As a matter of fact, in the minor league pecking order, Mejia would be ahead of Gonsalves as well, and maybe even Littell.

Sure. Then they will not be a contender. My point is that the teams on top of the standings in W-L are the teams on top of the standings in ERA and not xFIP. xFIP predicts that they have fared better than they deserved and their luck (and low ERA) might not continue. Still it does nothing to explain the fact that they are contending. ERA is a trailing indicator and xFIP a leading indicator. To explain the present you use trailing indicators and to predict the future leading.

Check B-R. The Cubs are 2nd in the NL in ERA, the measurement I used for the Twins... Even the "surprise" teams are highly ranked in ERA in their leagues Seattle (5th), Atlanta (6th), Philly (4th)

Not.So.True. The "vastly improved" pitching staff is 9th in AL in ERA. In 2017, it was also 9th in the AL in ERA. So Not.That.Improved. Unless the pitching is in the top 5 in the AL, no matter who hits how, this team will be around .500 at best

Any idea how many errors a 5-9 with heels on first baseman will cause? There is a reason that 1B are usually tall.

I'll take OPS. wRC+ is actually the best normalized offensive stat. WAR in any flavor has a defense component and they don't play the same position; thus comparing apples and oranges HR is a cumulative stat and really does not matter much, esp. when lots of them are single and one has 20% more PAs than the other. Probably matters even less than RBI BTW, if I wanted to pick a stat that Escobar for sure will be better, it will be WPA or one of its derivatives, like fangraphs Clutch.

Escobar is in his prime, while Dozier is exiting his. Bet you $1 that Escobar will finish the season with higher wRC+ than Dozier.

That's is exactly what the Yankees did not do with Cano, and Dozier and Cano are not comparable. Competing teams get the best player available to play a particular position, not good old fan favorites. As a matter of fact, Dozier is not even the best player available in the 2018 Twins who can play second base for them in 2019, Eduardo Escobar (who is 2 years younger as well) is.

I think that the lessons of Capps, Hughes, and Perkins should be clear: Do not extend older pitchers at their prime or older. Too much of a risk. As far as pitching goes, hate to break the news but the 2019 rotation looks just like the 2018 rotation, minus Lynn, plus Pineda. Which means that it will still be a middle of the road rotation, unless one believes that one more year of experience for Berrios and Romero will make a difference. As far as the position players go, I would not extend anyone who was been a starter in the pathetic Twins' teams at or around his prime or is close to or at the decline phase of his career. This takes care of the Doziers, Mauers, Castros, Grossman's etc. Extending for extension's sake makes zero sense. The Front Office should have a plan for each individual player and a projected depth plan for the team from 2019-2022, along with milestones for decision points. For example, some time around 2019 there should be a decision on whether Buxton is the centerfielder of the considerable future or the team is better with Lewis in that spot. If Lewis's ETA is 2020, then they should trade not extend Buxton. Same for every player in the organization. If they see that there is no clear replacement path for someone, they have the choice to extend today's starter, or trade, or go after a free agent to fill that gap. That's what good teams do, but the Twins have been ultra light in the trade front, esp. training "front line" players... So one just cannot do extensions in a vacuum. I think that all the close to arbitration players (other than Sano maybe) have clear potential replacements within the organization by when they become free agents. And Sano needs to show more at this point before an extension is warranted. The only player without a clear replacement and young enough that would deserve an extension at this point is Escobar.

I don't think that Gonsalves and Gordon will do it, and at this point, Gordon is probably penciled in as the starting second baseman in 2019. So it has to be someone else than Gordon (unless they extend Escobar.) Let's say Kirilloff. Still the Twins will probably need to add yet another player at that level and I am not sure they have it, because Lewis, Graterol (top end rotation), and Rooker (pretty much only RH power in the organization) should be untouchable. Would something like Gonsalves, Kirilloff, and Wade do it? Not sure that it is enough