Jocko87

All they are saying is that the strikeout is the wrong variable to be concerned with and they are completely correct. “What gets measured gets managed — even when it’s pointless to measure and manage it, and even if it harms the purpose of the organisation to do so”. In simple terms, managing to the strikeout causes more harm than good. It reduces power production and doesn't increase run production in any meaningful way. We all lived through the piranha era and while it was fun, they didn't score more runs than the current approach. In fact, the 2019 Bomba squad scored more than 100 runs more than the best version of the piranhas despite striking out several hundred more times. We should all be able to agree that a better quality at bat leads to more run production. The outcome does not matter. Take higher quality at bats and the runs will come. Its a very common error to manage based on results rather than process and I'm glad to hear they are not thinking that way. The strikeouts we hated this year were very often tied to horrible at bats. The variable that matters is the horrible at bat, not the strikeout.

Yup, I have no indications he will be any great shakes on defense but if he can hit like Schwarber you can live with Schwarbers defense.

I wouldn't think Jayce would be at all. In my estimation of a structure, Jayce would work for Rocco. Rocco is the head of operations for the most important department in the business. In corporate terms he would be a Vice President level reporting to Thad who is a SVP/GM who "leads all facets of baseball operations" according to his MLB.com bio. I will grant that Rocco is not listed anywhere on the Twins.com front office directory, which is a fascinating read but he has the positional authority on the same level as Daniel Adler or Sean Johnson. They probably just list the coaches elsewhere because its sports but he is the room. https://www.mlb.com/twins/team/front-office I'm also fascinated by taking this list of people and putting them on a Visio flow chart and trying to work out the actual reporting structure. Probably not very fascinating to most but I'm that kind of nerd.

Exactly, with one additional point. If they do disagree, which I'm sure they do at times, they do it privately. Sort it out behind closed doors but when they move forward they are on the same page.

Considering the magic 8 ball is saying all the things I would say, I will put out there that Miranda will be working in the outfield in spring training next year. The fit is just too good, and he doesn't really have to be good on defense.

Rangers up 1-0 after an Evan Carter double and a ton of traffic on the bases. The traffic is familiar against Verlander, eh? I must admit I didn't see much in Evan Carter when I watched him for 3 AA games this season. I saw him on the prospect lists so I was paying attention but was not impressed. He had several negative plays, maybe he was bored with AA. I'm not a scout by any means but we already knew that.

I appreciate the optimism. So many want to punt long before its time. I'm actually encouraged by the news, it confirms my hunch that the medical staff is much more focused on the long term than short so much so that they will work more natural healing methods than just cut and splice. I was very skeptical with Polanco coming out of spring training that they didn't seem to "do" anything with the knee. The more I thought about it, the more comfortable I was as they were more concerned with letting the knee heal rather than the artificial opening day deadline. Obviously, they were doing therapy and stimulus an other fancy medical stuff but no surgery. No procedures us dumb fans would recognize. I'm also obviously not a medical excerpt (pun intended), and I'm not talking about healing crystals or something, I'm just getting the strong impression that the training staff is only mildly affected by artificial baseball deadlines. Sure, they got Buck up for the playoffs but I bet they knew weeks ago this procedure was needed and they weren't going to do further damage and risk next year.

One absolutely should, if they want to understand the dynamics. The front office and the owner sets the mission and touches base with each area as needed. They don't flippin set pitch counts or innings limits, they hire the people who do that. It's not different in the majors or minors. The minor league ops reports up to Falvey and/or Lavine (we don't know who does what) on their part of the mission. Rocco is certainly part of the discussion for what they need at the major league level. He doesn't have to concern himself with players until they come on his radar as major league players which positionally puts him at the right hand of the front office, at the least. The framing that he just takes orders and is some sort of foot soldier is not realistic and needs to stop.

You think Rocco isn't part of the front office? Really, I'm just going to cut and paste this for all these discussions.

That's not what he said either. To posit that as a theory requires accepting that its somehow possible to be an either or situation. It sounds to me like the upper levels of any other high performance, high functioning organization. You are responsible for your area achieving to the long term vision of the president/owner etc. How you do it is on you within legal/ethical boundaries. If you need something, call me, but otherwise we will touch base every couple weeks. Maybe we have a weekly staff meeting depending on how dynamic our business is. It's important to note that we don't know who Rocco reports to, who reports to him, Falvines separation of duties or how involved new Pohlad is. Without some of this information its hard to know what is going on so we have to make assumptions. I'm going to assume that they have something much closer to a structure and responsibilities laid out and work together when needed. Obviously they are going to be mostly on the same page. It's the only thing that makes sense. Frankly the narrative that Falvey is telling them everything from how many innings Dylan Bundy can pitch or to pull Joe Ryan after two or pinch hit all the time etc is ludicrous. How much time do you think the man has? Does he do it with all the minor league teams too? Do you suppose Rocco got a demerit on his performance review when Bundy went 8 innings on June 18th? They both would be welcome to pitch 9 everyday if they could have. Of all the arms in the organization the boss might ask him to protect, these are not them.

Or a couple teams with higher dollars for 3 years. Either one will do it and neither will be the Twins. They will be actively engaged though. As procedural matters the QO will be presented and declined with no hard feelings on either side. At that point I would expect the Twins to make offers but not what the open market will be willing to give. Just a rough comparison with Pablo's contract shows something about their range of comfort. They would have to give something similar to Gray at 34. Even the 3 year version isn't in their range. They can get three Mahle's for that. Also Sonny will be watching the Cy Young vote closely. It'll help his negotiating ability but also a cool million for 2nd or 3rd, 750k for 4th or 5th. 500k seems locked in for 6-10. Good luck to him.

Certainly, I think as a baseball move it was 50/50. Sure Buxton wasn't in form but MAT is career 50 points lower OPS against power pitchers and 50 points lower in high leverage. Basically full season Vazquez. He had a fantastic season to expectations but also hits 9 for a reason. I do think with a runner on they would have left Taylor in to bunt. When you add the emotional bump to the game, crowd pop etc plus long term good will there is almost no other choice. Even a walk there blows the roof off the place. A big hit brings the type of energy that lasts a couple weeks. The mound visit wasn't about how to approach Buxton, Abreu knew exactly what to do. It was part to let the crowd die down since that much excitement is hard to maintain and part to let Buck get his ovation. Very savvy and classy moves by Dusty.

They're about to. Also, not related to my post. They are a different team.

Very classy move for the Astros make a mound visit so he could have his ovation. As a baseball move, meh, same difference pretty much. No indication MAT was due for anything better and a spark was needed. As a non-baseball move, huge. Congrats to the Astros, congrats to the Twins as well. I’m not going to have a lot of patience with people who are anything but delighted with the overall direction of this franchise. There will be many things we will question along the way but something special is being built. They did need to see the Death Star up close to learn how to defeat it. 2/3s of this roster has never seen anything like this before and it showed a little bit. How they react will fun to watch.

Very classy mound visit there. Glad Buck could get his ovation.

Is that Royce Lewis over your shoulder? Why would we talk exceptions?

It's tough to immunize for the pressure the first time out. It's a process.

Castro if anything.

I'd bet on two innings from Duran with Varland held back for extras.

Buzzing through that inning against the unstoppables is just the thing to spark a rally. Next time up Alvarez will get to see Duran, one way or the other.

Correct, the error was on the previous play.

The framing of this article is insane. Loser mentality breeds losing, I’m just glad the team obviously doesn’t feel this way. What does Orioles daily sound like tonight? Not this. Did we think the Death Star wouldn’t punch back?

I have a feeling “pressure is a privilege” might find its way on a clubhouse wall somewhere eventually.

This applies to lineup construction, pitcher use and pinch hitting as well. What we are seeing in the postseason is what the true tendencies are and they are shockingly close to everything we have been screaming in the game threads relentlessly. In the regular season many other factors like rest, hangovers, putting folks in test positions etc are at play. It’s very easy for use to “manage” for the game we are watching but it’s apples to oranges in the regular season. More Jeffers, check. Let the starters stay in, check. Pinch hit in leverage situations, check. Don’t pinch hit just for platoon, check. Don’t pinch hit when ahead unless high leverage and doesn’t hurt the defense, check. All these are different from the regular season. So far it’s hard to point to a pinch hitting move and be upset when those were regular occurrences in the regular season.

The Correa play at the plate would’ve been a better place for a challenge. Vanishing small chance of any challenge on a rundown as the baseline is reestablished every time the runner changes direction. The defender generally has to full body block to get called there, fielder and runner both get reasonable movements and chances to make their plays.