Willihammer

I'll concede this about the Myers-Shields trade: The Royals sure haven't gotten much of an attendance bump from it.

Yeah I'm much more concerned about being "old school" than just old. I get the impression Mientkiewicz is as old school as they come, but I could be wrong about that.

I can't think of anything more counterproductive to the "fewer pitching changes" goal than enforcing a 12 second deliver time on a pitchers. Fatigue is already affecting him. Adding a shot clock will only compound the fatigue, thus leading to more big innings, and more pitching changes... There is only one surefire obvious way to improve the pace of the game, IMO, and that is to prep balls better. Pitchers should not have to re-rub up a ball after every foul ball / ball in the dirt requires the ump to give them a new one.

That choice is going to fall to whoever they hire as manager. If I were manager, I'd give Pedro a call. No seriously, I'd call The Pedro. If you haven't read him talking about pitching, you should. He is like a zen monk. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/pedro-martinez-on-the-art-and-science-of-pitching/

I'm not sure its safe to assume the difference between NY culture and Puerto Rican culture is any greater than the difference between Venezueland culture and Puerto Rican culture, for example.

I didn't know you could do Tommy John with just a local anesthesia.

Sold!

Its almost as if they're all buttering each other's bread.

I'm gonna go ahead and assume 90% the fans who want Dougie Baseball want him for the same reason people wanted the Vikings to draft Johnny Football - they like saying the name.

There is no way Jake Mauer could be the next manager, right? Conflict of interests anyone?

Clear? I'm confused.

Thoughts on Lovullo? His name seems to be circling in east coast/national circles. Morosi tweeted his name specifically as an outside candidate.

Gracious exit by Gardy today at the presser. "Sometimes you just need to hear a new voice" "I think this is the right move" "I'm not burned out at all," but "I'm tired right now, but that's just because the season's over." Jim Pohlad and Dave St. Peter asked TR to come back next year, and he will.

Anderson gone, Gardy stays.

Sure hope Buxton, Stewart, Gordon, and whoever they pick next summer turn into better players than Dave McCarty, Travis Lee, Ryan Mills, B.J Garbe, Adam Johnson...

OK, in fairness, its not quite half. There are only 19 names on Gleeman's list, and one of those probably deserves a spot next year (Oliveros). So, only 9/20th's of the roster might be considered dead weight. http://aarongleeman.com/2014/09/22/who-will-the-twins-purge-from-the-40-man-roster-this-offseason-2/

Line drives would more often go for extra bases than grounders, no? How does the team overall compare to the league average in converting line drives to outs? Grounders? Fly balls?

The link in that article is another good read. I'm wondering how you would reconcile it with the article. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304679404579459233064277204 According to the link(referring to the 2013 season): BIS measures this using its "defensive runs saved" calculation. This measures how many runs were prevented from scoring (or led to scoring) by individual fielders and team defense. The average MLB team has a runs-saved figure of zero. The Pirates defense "saved" 77 runs in all, or 77 runs better than an average defense, third-most in Major League Baseball. Are the Pirates' shifts cutting out extra base hits while allowing a couple extra singles, thus netting a positive gain in runs saved? Its interesting that the Pirates have had for two seasons running, the largest DRS-UZR spread in baseball. This suggests to me that the Pirates are using shifts to compensate for the poor defensive skillset of their infielders (with great success). UZR handles "shifts" as an on-off switch; the player is either shifted or he isn't. If UZR deems that a shift is on, the play doesn't count for UZR's tabulations. If they determine that a shift is not on, the player will be scored as though he were standing in the middle of his position's defensive zone, regardless of where he's actually standing. Whereas DRS takes no account of whether a shift is on or not: the numbers determines (using film study and computer comparisons) how many more or fewer successful plays a defensive player will make than league average. For instance, if a shortstop makes a play that only 24% of shortstops make, he will get .76 of a point (1 full point minus .24). If a shortstop BLOWS a play that 82% of shortstops make, then you subtract .82 of a point. And at the end, you add it all up and get a plus/minus.” (Joe Posnanski, Sports Illustrated) In 2013 the Pirates' DRS-UZR spread was the greatest in baseball at +63.6. The second most was the Brewers at +58 (Twins were +29.6). In 2014 the Pirates' DRS-UZR is again the most in baseball at +72.2 (second is the Astros at +45.3. Twins are -40.3).

Re: The 1B/DH logjam. I disagree with any plan that has Pinto spending his prime years on the bench in a backup role. He's overqualified for that job. It would be wasteful. The Twins need to find a way to turn one of Vargas, Pinto or Mauer into an asset they can actually use. Maybe that means talking to a team like the Dodgers about a contract swap - Mauer for Kemp or Crawford. If Joe wants to catch again (and I have no reason to believe he does), that might be a way to get him to waive his NTC. I'd also feel out the market for Vargas. He is young enough to dream big about, maybe there's a GM out there who would make a big offer for him.

Balls not put into play are still preferable, which is easier to accomplish at higher velocities. The fear of power arms has always been my chief complaint.

I queried fangraphs to find correlations between all pitch types and BABIP for 2014, the results are in this beautiful table: FA% (pfx) FT% (pfx) FC% (pfx) FS% (pfx) FO% (pfx) SI% (pfx) SL% (pfx) CU% (pfx) KC% (pfx) EP% (pfx) CH% (pfx) SC% (pfx) KN% (pfx) UN% (pfx) RA9-WAR BIP-Wins FDP-Wins F-Strike% SwStr% K% BB% correlation to BABIP 0.12098238 -0.317285126 0.100400287 -0.143752133 -1 0.016848709 0.313366373 -0.07527808 -0.137007319 -0.592004068 -0.149926515 -1 -0.254203539 -0.023788041 -0.71634591 -0.997160654 -0.892536334 -0.166202062 -0.252646251 -0.396551956 0.058421582 ERA 0.056016514 -0.303139756 0.148969511 0.132755349 -1 -0.035534044 0.314664732 -0.115678425 -0.217680181 -0.114985569 -0.178763239 #DIV/0! 0.121206546 -0.18457518 -0.820015675 -0.692303418 -0.767304764 -0.449334499 -0.625555669 -0.694031812 0.344774735 FIP 0.077989628 -0.152785053 0.06845779 0.23822841 1 -0.017451697 0.156006741 -0.292223036 -0.047086765 0.526721555 -0.199691975 1 0.219847832 0.013452483 -0.453502863 -0.158628888 -0.15219325 -0.560501491 -0.730187006 -0.708580704 0.510022856 Xfip 0.331709091 0.013962586 -0.149762294 -0.068729626 1 -0.236509949 -0.027494681 -0.25069382 -0.158124044 0.320832936 0.034632044 -1 0.266932707 -0.027568648 -0.442185851 -0.283279557 -0.297823996 -0.553444696 -0.881607623 -0.857356292 0.482278011 SIERA 0.354215998 -0.016366512 -0.119088992 -0.115210591 1 -0.233023831 0.002760747 -0.230924895 -0.134554357 0.304049645 -0.012713755 1 0.220216402 2.21498E-16 -0.489485504 -0.332957947 -0.308037593 -0.571423996 -0.884804457 -0.916295269 0.482447966 As you can plainly see, the highest negative correlation with BABIP is what pitchf/x calls a 2 seem fastball (-.32). The strongest positive correlation with BABIP are sliders (.31). The Pirates are 6th in 2 seem usage and 21st in slider usage. The Twins are 8th and 10th.

xFIP? SIERA? I don't think DIPS has held that view for maybe 10 years. Today its probably more accurate to say that DIPS theory holds that pitchers can influence the quality of the contact (but still can't influence the outcomes). As for the 2nd question, I imagine the high ground ball rate has a lot to do with pitch selection. According to the pitchf/x classifications on fangraphs, 36.9% of pitches thrown by Pirates pitchers are classified as either a 2 seem fastball or a sinker, which leads baseball by a wide margin. Team FT% (pfx) SI% (pfx) Combined Pirates 18.50% 18.40% 36.90% Phillies 10.50% 18.10% 28.60% Nationals 21.20% 7.20% 28.40% White Sox 21.10% 6.10% 27.20% Athletics 22.00% 4.80% 26.80% Brewers 16.30% 9.70% 26.00% Mets 20.90% 4.90% 25.80% Cardinals 11.30% 14.40% 25.70% Diamondbacks 8.90% 16.80% 25.70% Cubs 17.80% 6.00% 23.80% Angels 15.80% 7.10% 22.90% Yankees 9.40% 12.80% 22.20% Rays 19.20% 2.70% 21.90% Giants 15.60% 5.90% 21.50% Indians 8.20% 12.80% 21.00% Padres 15.80% 5.00% 20.80% Blue Jays 16.30% 4.30% 20.60% Reds 14.40% 6.00% 20.40% Astros 10.80% 9.30% 20.10% Twins 17.00% 2.80% 19.80% Mariners 11.80% 7.90% 19.70% Orioles 16.90% 2.80% 19.70% Red Sox 13.60% 6.10% 19.70% Dodgers 11.50% 8.00% 19.50% Marlins 14.40% 4.90% 19.30% Rangers 9.10% 8.10% 17.20% Tigers 14.10% 0.90% 15.00% Braves 14.70% 0.10% 14.80% Royals 11.20% 2.80% 14.00% Rockies 10.80% 2.60% 13.40%

Another Dozier doozy

Interesting. I wonder if Jeter even remembers that. In Verducci's article on the current SI, he asks Jeter about his warmup routine, because he is fantatical about it. Jeter said it was something he developed on his own.

Yes, "synergy" is the word you might apply to club like the Rays, Pirates, and A's. FO, field staff, and player skillsets are on the same page. Clubs like the Astros (under Porter) and Twins (under Gardy), not so much.