Willihammer

It is a realllly good curveball. Fastball looks like it has some rise to it too.

Allard's back was injured, his elbow's fine. Right?

I think I could get behind Allard.

I wonder if Rosario fits a profile the Twins like more. He is the opposite of Arcia in many ways - doesn't strike out much (hasn't struck out since Apr 25), speedy baserrunner, can bunt(?), better defender. People point to the decision not to go day to day with Arcia as a diffference between Molitor and Gardy, but I wonder if it had more to do with capitalizing on an opportunity to compare and contrast. Pure speculation of course.

I wonder if this was less of a Hicks vs. Rosario decision than people think. Perhaps it was more Rosario vs. Arcia.

That is well written and gives a lot to chew on. One thing I think people struggle with is the point about being presented with information about other racial groups. Particularly when that information is overwhelmingly negative. On one extreme are whites who seem to process that information without empathy or considering that their perspective is limited. On the other extreme are people who seem unable or unwilling to confront the negative information and even seem to take the blame for it. IMO neither viewpoint is very helpful.

It does seem like, this year (knock on wood) that, if nothing else (sign of the cross) this team's misfortunes (Alhamdulillah) have turn around (tosses spilt salt over left shoulder), eg. health, prospects doing well, etc (horseshoe on door).

I'm just glad he caught Billy Butler's short fly ball in the 9th without herniating anything

Actually that just shows how much more difficult, if not impossible, it must be to be a color blind cop. On top of handling crime reports that are skewed heavily towards black males, they are charged with arrest quotas. Its no wonder some - a guy looking to climb the ladder maybe, would play the odds. That is not to excuse pulling people over with out cause or excessive force or anything else illegal, obviously.

I know the cops are out of line in a lot of places but I do sympathize with the difficulty of their job with respect to racial profiling. I work at the U of MN. You may have heard that President Kaler recently asked the police department to stop including racial descriptions in its crime reports which are sent to every student, faculty and staff. This is because literally 9/10 reports had a description of 18-25 year old black male, often dressed in black, but not much else. These are victim-provided descriptions. If you're a cop - forget that. If you are a male human, and the overwhelming majority of suspect descriptions are your basic, Type A1 male, that is going to creep into your brain at a subconscious level and impact your decisionmaking. It isn't fair but I believe its motivated more by the crime reports, and less by racial prejudice these people bring to the job.

If you are the minority race in your neighborhood, wouldn't that make it even less likely that the cops would be looking for a white suspect? That is on top of the criminal stats which are already racially slanted.

You think you might be making a leap there? Maybe the cops had a report of a black suspect who took your bike (or a similar looking one). Perhaps the cops had a suspect description of a white male with a different hair color, etc.

I wouldn't expect that pace to hold over a full season either. But over small samples I think you have to weight a true outcome like home runs more heavily than other hits. Its a lot easier to get lucky with singles and doubles after all. Especially when you're talking about a guy who has historically struggled against RHPs and nobody can offer a specific, non-statistical reason that he should be performing better against them.

Hicks just got his first HR against a RHP yesterday. If he had a .150/.225.450 line with 4 HRs against RHPs, for example, to me that would be more suggestive of a turnaround than his current line which could just be fluky BABIP.

Re: Arcia, he's actually been decent against LH starters (SSS warning). Its the LH relievers that he's been completely helpless against to this point. Maybe you let him start 100% of the time, slot him in front of a RH hitter, and PH/defensive sub for him later in games if the opponent brings in a lefty reliever. Of course it would help have a viable RH bat on the bench (cough Pinto cough).

Just because they collapsed last year in the 2nd half doesn't mean they will this year. Every year there are a couple teams who go .900 in 1 run games and outperform their pythag by 10+ games, maybe the Twins are that team this year.

I thought you might have recent examples chambered based on your comment above. In a thread about Aaron Hicks, it seems painfully ironic that the solution to CF would be to rush the next guy before he's dominated AAA.

I'd be curious to know what, if any, adjustments Hicks has made against RHPs this year.

Like who?

Yeah. That Seattle club went on to get swept by the Astros in a 4 game series. They look awful so far. The Whities can't seem to block a pitch to save their lives and their bats have been worse than the Twins' so far. Next 3 series should be tougher tests: A's, Indians, and Tigers.

No not most things but from the 2nd row of 129 you're almost directly in line with the plate and the SS. It gives you a vantage point almost the same as the fielder and you could see how balls were hopping on the left side, and the fielders reactions to those hops, which I don't think you get from the elevated angle of most cameras or from the dugout cameras on the side, although they give you better perspectives on other things.

I sat in the 129 bleachers last night, right behind Santana. Ramirez's ball in the 4th was a scalded buzzer on the ground hit to Santana's backhand side. His error appeared to be lifting the glove as if he anticipated the ball to hop at the last second (it didn't). The Ramirez ball in the 6th was hit at a similar angle only slow just slow enough that Santana opted to field from his forehand side and his throw sailed as a result of the rush in re-positioning himself. Its a tiny sample to judge from but both errors appeared to result from a lack of confidence in his backhand.

You know Kennys is trying to hit one over the 3rd deck in left during BP. I would be too if I were him.

Actually, looking at the SEC stats for all players (http://assets.espn.go.com/sec/baseball/2015/lgplyrs.htm), something called Andrew Benintendi of Arkansas is leading the conference by OPS. 5' 10" outfielder from Arkansas. Probably worth considering strength of schedule differences so far, some cream puffs. First Last School AB OPS H HR BB SO Andrew Benintendi, AR...... 159 1.213 61 14 33 25 Christin Stewart, UT....... 138 1.094 43 12 22 29 Harrison Bader, UF......... 154 1.093 52 11 26 29 Logan Taylor, AM........... 148 1.092 55 10 14 20 Kyle Martin, SC............ 160 1.053 55 9 30 21 Dansby Swanson, VU......... 178 1.051 62 7 31 35 Mikey White, UA............ 167 1.027 58 4 19 38 Wes Rea, MS................ 122 1.014 39 4 39 24 Alex Bregman, LS........... 182 1.008 60 8 27 12 Andrew Lee, UT............. 101 0.994 33 5 11 24 Zander Wiel, VU............ 173 0.989 57 9 26 36 JaVon Shelby, UK........... 157 0.988 53 5 31 37 Nick Banks, AM............. 168 0.986 64 5 19 36 Josh Tobias, UF............ 138 0.985 49 4 9 19 JJ Schwarz, UF............. 162 0.979 47 13 17 30 Ronnie Gideon, AM.......... 117 0.97 38 7 13 37 Elliott Caldwell, SC....... 150 0.964 53 2 25 32 Kade Scivicque, LS......... 155 0.957 57 5 10 16 Rhett Wiseman, VU.......... 190 0.953 58 9 29 47 Casey Hughston, UA......... 177 0.949 62 6 17 45 Anfernee Grier, AU......... 186 0.947 67 1 22 31 Zach Bowers, UG............ 138 0.946 37 7 28 50 Mitchell Nau, AM........... 162 0.94 59 3 22 24 Ka'ai Tom, UK.............. 174 0.931 64 3 17 21 Hunter Melton, AM.......... 125 0.924 42 4 21 28 Chris Chinea, LS........... 177 0.915 63 6 11 21 Blake Allemand, AM......... 169 0.913 57 4 26 13 Tyler Spoon, AR............ 164 0.911 57 4 10 16 Nick Senzel, UT............ 154 0.896 52 1 17 30 Bobby Wernes, AR........... 158 0.895 50 3 21 21 Sikes Orvis, UM............ 157 0.888 38 9 34 38 Colby Bortles, UM.......... 153 0.884 46 7 21 50 Max Schrock, SC............ 157 0.879 49 4 29 16 Richie Martin, UF.......... 171 0.877 55 3 23 20 Daniel Robert, AU.......... 139 0.877 44 3 21 26 Keegan McGovern, UG........ 116 0.874 35 3 23 19 Bryan Reynolds, VU......... 183 0.869 60 3 20 39 Andrew Stevenson, LS....... 172 0.864 60 1 12 17 Jared Foster, LS........... 151 0.862 42 8 12 27 Conner Hale, LS............ 181 0.86 59 4 13 28 Stephen Wrenn, UG.......... 178 0.848 56 5 21 34 Jacob Robson, MS........... 157 0.84 54 1 31 23 Daniel Nichols, UG......... 127 0.837 37 4 18 23 J.B. Woodman, UM........... 170 0.837 47 6 34 46 Cody Brown, MS............. 136 0.835 41 1 21 21 Ryne Birk, AM.............. 159 0.831 45 4 25 23 Jake Ring, MO.............. 170 0.831 48 3 26 40 Kyle Barrett, UK........... 188 0.828 65 1 14 22

Bregman is having an impressive spring. .330/.420/.588. 8 HRs, 17 doubles, 3 triples in 182 ABs. Also 26/31 in SBs. He's the best hitter on the best hitting team in the conference so far.