Willihammer

Is it a tight zone or is everyone just wild today? I'm listening on radio

Attaboy Plouffesy

Maybe Mauer can hit the rapist in the cup too if he gets up

JM on AJ Reed: Again I wonder what more Reed would have to do. He lead all college batters in ISO by over .100 points as of Apr 17.

John Manuel isn't willing to comp Chavis to Russell either http://www.baseballamerica.com/chat/?1398267269

For his career, Mauer has 8 HR's in 277 swings at the first pitch. That's a rate of 2.9%. He has produced 157 outs after swinging at the first pitch, a rate of 57.3%. Whatever cost-benefit analysis people do about Mauer's swing habits and pitch selection has to account for his actual power, and not whatever speculative power you think he's hiding in his back pocket. Especially when the tying run isn't even on base yet. I don't care what he's being paid or where he bats in the order - Mauer is not a power hitter.

I was thinking the same, but then I looked at their 25 man roster - only 12 pitchers.

With the way our luck's going today, Burton will have a 1-2-3 inning

Alright lets' Dedu this

Are the catwalks out on this fine evening?

Well, there are conflicting reports about his hands then. MLB.com says he has "terrific" hands with plenty of arm strength. Also scouts predicted Russell would move to 3B but there he sticks at SS (for the moment at least). And I know high school stats are "meaningless" but Russell finished his senior year batting .368 with 7 HRs. Chavis finished the regular season batting .627 with 7 HRs.

Chief, I'm disappointed. don't you think its a little preposterous that Mauer lugs around this perception when nobody can find a single instance where it would have made sense for him to act the way you people want him to? Would you rather the team win, or would you rather Mauer pad a couple extra RBI to his stat line? It sounds to me like you are a lot more concerned about the latter.

Well my retort would be to look at the game in KC where Plouffe hit an opposite field double off Ventura scoring Mauer all the way from first. That was a different game situation, but my point is that by getting on base in that Oak game, Mauer increased the team's chances of bringing the tying run around to score, because he could have scored 4 different ways instead of just 1 (by hitting a HR) - a Plouffe HR, a plouffe double, a Plouffe walk and then a hit by the next guy, or a Plouffe single and then a hit by the next guy. That is a lot to gamble by swinging at the first pitch when you haven't even gotten the tying run on base yet.

http://mdjonline.com/view/full_story/24966823/article-Prep-Roundup--Chavis-slams-Sprayberry-to-win?instance=special%20_coverage_right_column That's his 8th HR. Could Chavis be this year's Addison Russell?

Here's a reason - he's batting .492 on a .500 ballclub. This lineup can't afford to have more than one Florimon in it. The whole rationale for keeping Florimon around is that "he doesn't need to hit if everybody else hits." Well, that isn't happening. There are bright spots, but these two are black holes and if the Twins have any pretension about being competitive into August and September, they need to address one or, preferably, both positions ASAP.

Chief, you watch games as actively as any member here. When's the last PA you can recall where Mauer did what was comfortable instead of what was needed? This perception has an awful lot of legs despite my repeated challenge for you critics to cite a single instance of it. Nobody has been able to deliver. Its almost like people just listen to Barreiro on their drive home and don't watch the games, but that can't be right...

Bryce Harper did this once last year too, except I think the shortstop fielded it. I'm surprised you don't see guys take 3rd more often like that with no outs. You would think its about as easy as stealing 2nd on a pitch.

Just watching the game now. Holy moley.

Ok so this game? http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN201404090.shtml Yup, I'd say Mauer handled that perfectly.

Ok, if you want to grill Mauer on this particular at-bat let's get into it. What game was it? What was the score? what was the inning?

Interesting article at Crawfishboxes about high school arms and overuse. And this from Tom Verducci: The Astros blog article notes that Aiken took the winter off, Kolek didn't. Not sure about the rest of the class.

They know its not a fastball, but they don't know if its a strike, so a lot of times they give up on it. The get me over curve still has a place, IMO. Specifically in first pitch and 0-1 counts.

I love this. I attempted an adjustment of the ISO values based on park factor. Assume half the games played so far are at home. The adjustment is ((100-home park factor)/2+100)*ISO Here is the revised leaderboard in descending order of adjusted ISO. [TABLE=width: 500] [TABLE=width: 451] Hitter PA ISO 2008-2011 Home Park Factor Hammer's adjusted ISO A.J. Reed, lhp/1b, Kentucky 169 0.4 97 0.406 Casey Gillaspie, 1b, Wichita State 166 0.281 91 0.293645 Rhys Hoskins, of, Sacramento State 141 0.272 86 0.29104 Aaron Brown, lhp/of, Pepperdine 154 0.261 80 0.2871 Bradley Zimmer, of, San Francisco 168 0.252 81 0.27594 Austin Byler, 3b/1b, Nevada 153 0.281 107 0.271165 Kyle Schwarber, c/1b, Indiana 158 0.25 93 0.25875 Jordan Luplow, of, Fresno State 166 0.256 98 0.25856 Connor Joe, c/1b, San Diego 183 0.244 95 0.2501 Aramis Garcia, c, Florida International 163 0.236 101 0.23482 Taylor Sparks, 3b/1b, UC Irvine 164 0.241 108 0.23136 Jeff Gardner, of, Louisville 146 0.203 83 0.220255 Mike Papi, of/1b, Virginia 166 0.202 84 0.21816 Dustin DeMuth, 3b, Indiana 131 0.204 93 0.21114 Chris Marconcini, 1b/of, Duke 175 0.202 92 0.21008 Yale Rosen, 1b, Washington State 141 0.222 112 0.20868 Sam Travis, 1b, Indiana 153 0.191 83 0.207235 Kevin Cron, 1b, Texas Christian 156 0.184 80 0.2024 Max Pentecost, c, Kennesaw State 187 0.192 99 0.19296 Matt Chapman, 3b/rhp, Cal State Fullerton 133 0.184 107 0.17756 J.D. Davis, 1b/3b/rhp, Cal State Fullerton 146 0.182 107 0.17563 Alex Blandino, 3b, Stanford 125 0.173 100 0.173 Mark Zagunis, c, Virginia Tech 222 0.169 98 0.17069 Garrett Boulware, c, Clemson 160 0.169 100 0.169 Mark Payton, of, Texas 179 0.152 79 0.16796 Brandon Downes, of, Virginia 149 0.155 84 0.1674 Taylor Gushue, c, Florida 161 0.166 103 0.16351 Michael Conforto, of, Oregon State 160 0.151 84 0.16308 Nick Torres, of, Cal Poly 162 0.162 109 0.15471 Joey Epperson, of/1b, UC Santa Barbara 144 0.156 102 0.15444 Dylan Davis, of/rhp, Oregon State 152 0.141 84 0.15228 Skyler Ewing, c/1b, Rice 182 0.149 97 0.151235 Boo Vazquez, of, Pittsburgh 156 0.146 94 0.15038 Michael Suchy, of, Florida Gulf Coast 167 0.137 84 0.14796 Trea Turner, ss, North Carolina State 162 0.143 94 0.14729 Grayson Greiner, c, South Carolina 141 0.151 106 0.14647 Austin Cousino, of, Kentucky 179 0.143 104 0.14014 Brian Anderson, 2b/3b/of, Arkansas 169 0.15 119 0.13575 Mason Robbins, of, Southern Mississippi 165 0.144 112 0.13536 Ross Kivett, 2b, Kansas State 180 0.128 96 0.13056 Derek Fisher, of, Virginia 56 0.118 84 0.12744 Hunter Cole, of, Georgia 173 0.128 109 0.12224 Dante Flores, 2b/of, Southern California 148 0.114 94 0.11742 Joey Pankake, 3b/rhp, South Carolina 149 0.119 106 0.11543 Brett Austin, c, North Carolina State 156 0.111 94 0.11433 Tanner English, of, South Carolina 145 0.095 106 0.09215 Chris Mariscal, 3b/ss, Fresno State 164 0.09 98 0.0909 Mitch Gunsolus, 3b, Gonzaga 163 0.086 90 0.0903 Ben Roberts, of, Washington State 97 0.081 112 0.07614 Mark Laird, of, Louisiana State 145 0.07 101 0.06965 Greg Allen, of, San Diego State 172 0.057 115 0.052725 Branden Cogswell, ss, Virginia 171 0.029 84 0.03132 [/TABLE] [/TD] [TD] [/TABLE]

Get out

I think Gardy played the 8th fine. Yeah maybe Nunez should have swung away there, or maybe Gardy should have PH for Nunez instead of waiting for Escobar. But, down 2 with runners on 1st and 2, 0 outs, I can live with a sac bunt attempt out of a hitter of Nunez's caliber. Then plug in Plouffe with an eye to drive em in. Worst case scenario they give him the open base and then you have arguably your best hitter up (Dozier). Works for me.