Willihammer

I'm much more willing to roll with short benches offensively than conventional wisdom dictates though. We have mounds of data that prove that on average, if you take anyone off the bench cold and ask him to pinch hit, well, the effect is the opposite of relief picthing. They stink. They take a horrible penalty, worse than the platoon penalty for the starter he's PH-ing for, in most cases. So the primary reason to keep bench players is as pinch runners, defensive replacements, and injury backups, IMO. If you had couple Eduardo Escobars in your system, guys you could stick anywhere in a pinch, then you could roll with a 14 man pitching staff. That gives you 10 relievers. I think it would be a viable strategy at that point (provided the bullpen guys are, you know, real MLB Pitchers).

The angles involved actually cause the opposite - more fly balls to RF than LF due to more RH hitters. Balls hit off the inside of the bat tend to stay on the ground (or leave the park) while balls hit on the outer half will become fly balls. http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/1708873/FBsByAngle.png

Its an interesting strategy. I was a little skeptical of the assumption that a lousy group of starters like ours gets through 5 IP every day, esp. only facing lineups twice. Because as it is, with a 5 man rotation and 100 pitch count limit, the 2013 Twins starting staff is averaging less than 5.2 IP per start. I pulled some stats. These include 3rd and 4th time through the order, so they are a little skewed, but as a staff, the Pitches per PA and Whip are this [TABLE=width: 200] PPA WHIP 3.814 1.522 [/TABLE] That's 4.522 batters per inning, and 17.25 pitches per inning on average. If you take them out after 2 trips through the order, that would only equate to roughly 4 innings. If you change the criteria to Pitch count, instead of trips through the lineup, you see this: Split BA OBP SLG OPS Pitch 1-25 .258 .314 .395 .708 Pitch 26-50 .292 .338 .438 .775 Pitch 51-75 .274 .342 .424 .765 Pitch 76-100 .318 .374 .490 .864 Pitch 101+ .328 .418 .517 .935 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 9/7/2013. Not surprisingly, the same problem shows up. it would require over 86 pitches to get through 5, on average. That's 11 pitches or so too many. So, realistically, you'd be asking your bullpen to complete innings 5-9. A 6 inning guaranteed workload on 9 guys. Sounds taxing, but maybe it could be done. See the days rest splits: Split PA BA OBP SLG OPS 0 DaysGR 247 .235 .313 .304 .617 1 DayGR 607 .227 .299 .345 .644 2 DaysGR 437 .222 .282 .365 .647 3 DaysGR 365 .269 .316 .424 .740 4 DaysGR 155 .210 .265 .343 .607 5 DaysGR 39 .237 .256 .421 .677 6+ DaysGR 128 .231 .278 .274 .551 Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table Generated 9/7/2013. Probably skewed a little because the guys pitching back to back are limited to the back end guys (Fien, Burton, Perkins). We really don't know much (or I don't know much) about optimal rest days and pitch counts for relievers. If you can get away with throwing these guys 4-6 days a week, for 15-25 pitch stints, then it would be a very intriguing strategy. I'm a little dubious about the ability to get through that kind of guaranteed workload over the course of a season though.

What was the result of that at bat? I can't remember. Like to have that first inning back for sure. FIrst pitch of the game, Pedro boots a ground ball. Next batter, wild pitch due to a cross up. Ground ball and sac fly later, 1-0.

That was a bomb. Must have cleared the 411 sign by 25 feet watches replay. ok maybe 10

I guess Girardi demoted Hughes to the bullpen on Wednesday New York Yankees demote Phil Hughes to bullpen - ESPN New York Yep, should fit in perfectly around here.

Wanna trade spots?

Wuzzah!

Question for all (1) of you Canadians: Have you heard of hi-def TV? 16:9 and all that? This is the Toronto broadcast right now http://i.imgur.com/OxprRm7.jpg?1

Affirmative

Eh?

Baseball Prospectus has pretty comprehensive injury history on players: Mike Pelfrey | Baseball Prospectus 2006: shoulder strain for month of August Mar 2009: lower leg strain Apr 2009: Forearm inflammation 2010: Bilateral knee soreness (ha!) shoulder again, general arm fatigue, neck, thigh, then the elbow Pitching is hazardous.

How's this for karma: 2 day before Jays come to town, Jose Bautista shut down for the season

Darvish is arguably the best pitcher in baseball and put up gawdier strikeout numbers in Japan. Tanaka's peripherals look more like Kuroda's and Iwakuma's, with one notable distinction: fewer dingers.

The buy low guy that interests me is Ubaldo. Velo is dropping but the slider and changeup are still there. If someone fixed that delivery, we'd have an ace.

I can't get this idea out of my head.

Some might also be triples. Let's say he's a 4.00 ERA pitcher at TF. That's an improvement, I guess. Not much though.

I pulled the HRs hit at Yankees Stadium since 2009. Hughes has allowed 40 HRs that were pulled to the right side (under 90 degree horizontal angle). Of these, 10 have a Park # greater than 26. Meaning, 10 would be home runs in TF and 30 would not (using fangraphs' Park Factor for TF, it is the 4th most difficult park for LH HR power). That is 6 HRs per year, on average, which might have been saved playing at TF instead of New Yankee Stadium. I admit that's more than I expected, but I'm still skeptical TF would turn Hughes into a substantially better pitcher than the 4.5 ERA guy he's been to this point. Freddy Garcia, another RH flyball guy, managed a 4.5 ERA for the Yankees in two seasons too. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5pIzP28qdp-TkdVUGRsZXYzNk0/edit?usp=sharing

Dozier's unlikely success in the MLB doesn't change the fact that Rosario will probably fail. There was a study just posted on the board that found 70% of top 100 specs bust. So either path you go, there is risk. Rosario's value could easily be at an all time high right now. Gun to your head, what is the one position the Twins are currently secure in for the next 5 years? My answer, even before Catcher or closer, would be second base. Therefore I think if there's one blue chip spec you dangle, its the 21 year old (soon to be 22 year old) backing him up.

I wonder about this. A quick glance at ESPN's HR tracker for 2013 shows a 351 foot "Just enough" home run to right field by Chris Parmelee on July 1: ESPN Home Run Tracker :: Player and Field Detail This is the shortest home run hit to right field at TF this year. Hughes has allowed 2 home runs in Yankee Stadium shorter than that distance this year, of the 23 total he's allowed. And its possible both of those would have hit the wall and gone for doubles at Target Field.

That would be the ideal but I think extremely unlikely best case scenario. Rosario's 2nd half, after the promotion, wasn't all that promising. It was only 300 PAs and he's only 21, so he is not a lost cause, and that's exactly why he still has some value, I would think.

I misread your post. I thought you described a Dozier for top 50 prospect trade, didn't realize you were talking about Rosario (is he a top 50 spec?) In any case, the Twins are in a similar spot at 2B that they were in last year with CF: a young guy recently broken into the league finding his legs is backed up by a promising AA talent. You can either get rid of the young, fairly established MLB guy and risk the AA guy bombing (as Hicks did), or you can trade the AA guy while he still has some guaranteed value. Or you can keep both but have redundancy on your roster if the spec works out.

Its not unreasonable. But I'm not open to trading Dozier for prospects, owing to the fact that he is only 25 is one of the few Twins prospects to demonstrate actual success in the MLB (even if its only 3 months worth). Given the Twins batting average on prospects this year, I don't understand why people remain so adament about moving established (or establish-ing) MLB talents for more prospects. If anything, the Twins ought to consider doing the opposite.

Hopeful on Dozier? He's the 2nd best 2B in baseball since June 1. I think Arcia is fine in RF. Yeah he will bungle a few plays but this team needs bats more than defense IMO.

I still like Plouffe's swing. Very balanced and easy. The pop is there, esp. to the pull side. If they can squeeze him into the middle infield, I'd take another look at him there, personally. But I'd understand if they gave other guys a shot at this point.