Parker Hageman

According to Jeff Passan, Major League Baseball ownership groups expect Major League Baseball to join multiple sports leagues in canceling their events to limit the spread of COVID-19. It is not clear when the announcement will come, but would likely include immediate suspension of remaining spring training games and a delay of the 2020 season.The reports comes after MLB ownership groups had a league-wide conference call with Commissioner Rob Manfred this morning. This story will be updated as more information becomes available. MLB's official statement: Click here to view the article

This has been my fifth or sixth time in camp with the Twins covering it for Twins Daily. I can honestly say this has been the weirdest experience yet.

Minnesota Twins pitching coach Wes Johnson assigned homework to the local media this week. 'I’ll challenge you with this, then,' he told no one specifically in the media scrum. 'Go back and watch what [Dakota] Chalmers did. He didn't throw one over 96. We've had a couple other guys hit 100. There's one big, distinct difference between those three guys. I'll let y'all find that one out.' Here’s what we found.First, some background. The “couple other guys” Johnson referenced were Jorge Alcala and Jhoan Duran. All three were optioned to the minor league side this week but all are highly touted arms in the organization. Chalmers, who was acquired in the Fernando Rodney trade in 2018, impressed in the Arizona Fall League. He flashed a mid-90s fastball and, what one American League scout told Baseball America, the best curveball in the fall league. He has swing-and-miss stuff, the critical lifeblood to becoming a successful modern pitcher. In 17.2 innings facing the game’s most promising prospects, Chalmers struck out 25. That said, he also walked 12 in that same time. Johnson referenced velocity when comparing Chalmers to Alcala and Duran. The latter two have seen their fastballs touch triple-digit territory while Chalmers has not. Johnson says there is a mechanical reason for this. Here are the three pitchers from their 2019 season: Download attachment: FSFrameGIFImage (2).gif Chalmers differs in his delivery in the use of his lower half, beginning with his feet. This is the critical component of a pitcher’s mechanics as pitchers who have the tendency to get to their toes limit their velocity ceilings. This is something that Jose Berrios' has wrestled with last season using quad-dominant mechanics. Johnson spoke extensively about the subject last spring, noting how having contact into the ground through the heel (but really the entire foot) aids in creating additional hip speed by engaging the gluteus muscle along with the quadriceps muscle. Here are shots of the pitchers’ feet. Notice that Chalmers’ foot is entirely on his toe while Alcala and Duran maintain more contact throughout. Chalmers gets quad dominant quickly. This leads to reduced hip speed which leads to lower peak velocity. Velocity, it is said, comes from the ground up. Download attachment: IMG_5412.jpg More issues can spring from these mechanics. When using predominately the quad muscle, less velocity and more stress is put on the arm. It may be one of the reasons Chalmers required Tommy John surgery in April 2018 while with Oakland, placing additional strain on the UCL. Another factor is command. When rotating from a stable full-foot, there is consistency in the mechanics. The Twins aren’t guessing on all this either. Sure, they can look at the video or watch a bullpen session and see this happening, but with the various array technological devices at their disposal, they can break down exactly what these movements mean to the pitcher. Starting with the release and working backwards, the Twins have available to them the standard pitch flight data systems available, like Trackman and Rapsodo devices, which measure the velocity and spin rates. They can track release point consistency as well. They have a legion of Edgertronic cameras which isolate all or small portions of the delivery, including how the ball comes out of the hand. These programs have now been widely utilized throughout baseball. Even some high school programs have invested in that equipment. Here is where things start getting advanced. From the ground up, the Twins recently invested in Newtforce ground plates. These data-collect mounds allows the Twins to capture how much pressure and where during the delivery process it is being created or applied. They can tell a pitcher just how much force they are generating from their back leg. On the field, the Twins have a Simi Motion system installed at Target Field and now at Hammond Stadium. This system can feed the team’s analysts information on components like hip speed, the driving factor in velocity, or valgus stress applied on the elbow (which could be an indicator of potential injury risk). In short, the Twins are no longer just visually assessing pitchers and telling them to make changes. They come armed with more data than NASA. The Twins players themselves are not necessarily diving into all the data after every pitch or every outing. Taylor Rogers says that he does not look at the information unless a coach notices something is off. Others have used the numbers to improve. Trevor May spent last season adding to his velocity and cited hip speed as a factor. The key has been having a coaching staff and analytic department that has worked together to identify and deliver the message to the player in ways that can help them understand how it will help them on the field. The other aspect is implementing the plan that the Twins create for their pitchers. Chalmers, for example, could be told exactly what he needs to do -- i.e. stay in his heel more and engage his glute more -- and be on board with the plan, but that specific movement may require additional physical preparation on Chalmers’ part. A pitcher could lack some hip mobility that would restrict his movements. The Twins training staff assesses all their players to figure out how their bodies move and then creates a plan to help them reach optimal movements. Chalmers told Twins Daily’s Seth Stohs that he had spent the off-season working on strengthening his core and lower half to stabilize his delivery. Still, given Johnson’s quotes this spring, the Twins haven’t seen Chalmers incorporate those changes in his mechanics just yet. Furthermore, Chalmers will be on an innings restriction so his work this spring has been varied from that of Alcala and Duran. If he does, we may see an uptick in his velocity, command and health this season. When contemplating the immediate potential of the three arms just sent down to the minor league camp, Johnson says the Twins are looking for swing-and-misses to add to the big league staff. “Those are the guys that impact your bullpen. We don't need ground ball guys coming in out of the 'pen.” Swings and misses can come from breaking balls, such as on Chalmers’ impressive bender, but velocity always helps play it up. 96 is cool but 99 is really cool. While this is a story of just one minor league pitcher’s journey, the real takeaway is how impressive the Twins development system has become in a short period of time. With numerous tools and minds at their disposal, the Minnesota Twins could soon be a pitcher development factory unrivaled in the game. Click here to view the article

Yes, he's had a few stand-in ABs. This was the first swings he would take.

The Minnesota Twins have emphasized that when it comes to Byron Buxton, his recovery process will be taken one day at a time. On this day however he reached a fairly significant milestone for the 2020 season: Live swings. It happened in front of a near-empty minor league stadium. There were no fans, no fielders and no pressure. A congregation of coaches and a smattering of players lined the wall behind the plate and lingered in the dugout. Buxton’s first live action in the batter’s box since last August didn't exude the gravitas that perhaps the moment should have. In this moment, one of the players with the most electrifying tools in the game, was inching closer to his return.What was Buxton’s instant analysis of the hacks? “It’s the first day, so I was just up there, basically looking at pitches, trying to swing at good pitches, see how the arm feels,” he said. “Felt pretty good, so take the positive side out of it, put the ball in play a little bit. It’s a good day all around.” On Tuesday, Buxton faced a quartet of Twins pitchers, including a couple of Baileys — Homer and Ober -- as well as Bryan Sammons and Lachlan Wells. The field was empty besides on the mound and at the plate. Catchers called pitches and occasionally announced a count. Buxton saw about 16 pitches in all, including a pair of split-changes from Bailey. “I'm glad he's over here and I don't have to deal with that split-change anymore,” Buxton said after the session. “Oh my goodness. It was good.” For the Twins, having Buxton in center field and adding his speed to the lineup to give the opposing battery panic attacks is a massive weapon. After all, in 2019 the Twins were 62-25 when he played, which is certainly notable, but Rocco Baldelli feels that there is something extra that Buxton brings to the team. “There are a lot of skill sets that you see a fair number of in the big leagues, his skill set is not one you see very often,” Baldelli said. “When he does make these plays, there's an energy and it becomes contagious. It gets our team and his teammates a confidence when he's out there. That's something that he does.” Buxton’s emerging leadership is becoming more evident too. During the live session, once the pitchers were done for the day, Buxton would walk out toward the baseline and greet them, giving them a knuckle smash and offering words of encouragement. In regard to his shoulder recovery, Buxton noted that the little things, like a healthy day after live swings, makes a difference. It’s possible, too, that little things such as a passing platitude to a teammate makes a difference. As far as his progression, if all goes well Buxton says he will see live pitching again on Thursday and Friday. Once comfortable with that, he will begin game action but there is no timeline for that -- which is something the manager and player agree upon. “His comfort and progression and health are the most important thing,” said Baldelli. “I don't have a schedule for Byron Buxton. Our training staff does not have a schedule for Byron. He's going to show us what his schedule will be by how well everything goes as it is laid out.” “We are all on the same page,” Buxton said. “Each and every day we take it one day at a time. Today was the first day of live BPs and it felt good.” What does it mean for Opening Day? “Obviously I want to make Opening Day, but if the situation isn’t here, it’s not here,” he said matter-of-factly. “Keep doing what I’m doing, keep working hard, and go from there.” One day at a time. Click here to view the article

The culling of the Minnesota Twins' roster started on Monday.Reassigned to the minor league camp are pitchers Lewis Thorpe, Dakota Chalmers, Jhoan Duran, Jorge Alcala, outfielder Gilberto Celestino and infielders Nick Gordon and Travis Blankenhorn. Of the cuts, perhaps the most surprising was Lewis Thorpe. Thorpe started to gain traction as a left-handed reliever late in 2019, striking out 17 in 13.1 innings in September, but he had left camp earlier this month for personal reasons and had yet to throw in a spring game. Rocco Baldelli said that Thorpe took the news well. “He knows what we are asking him to do,” said Baldelli. “What we are asking him to do has been very well laid out for him. And now he has to go and follow through and do it. We know the ability that he has. We know that he's not (just) close to being a big leaguer. He's a guy that can pitch in the big leagues and do it well. He just has to prepare for his season and make sure he's ready once the bell rings.” Dakota Chalmers, who is returning from an elbow injury from 2019, would be stretched out at a slower pace than the rest of the pitchers. “Our view of this from the beginning was we were going to slow-build him in spring training anyway,” said Falvey of Chalmers. “We're focused more on the end of season than the beginning. I think that's true of a lot of young arms, but for him in particular, coming off the surgery and an injury, we'd rather start him slow and let him finish the season strong than start him now, get to a point in the season where you feel like you have to cut off his innings because you've run out of buildup time.” “By all accounts, he had a great camp.” Duran, Twins Daily’s number six ranked prospect for 2020, has a hard sinking fastball which can reach upwards of 99 miles per hour and struck out 136 over 115 innings split between Pensacola and Fort Myers. This spring, the Twins were working with him to smooth out some of his mechanics in hopes of achieving better command of his repertoire. Baldelli did not want to put labels on the roles of the reassigned pitchers just yet. Chalmers would have the limits in place. Others would potentially see hybrid roles. For instance, when it came to the hard-throwing Alcala, Baldelli says he could see him used in a number of ways. “It’s not always a pure start, reliever, short reliever, there are a lot of different categories these guys can fall into,” the manager said. “Alcala is going to fall into that he's-going-to-be-lengthened-out category. He may help us at this level in a number of different ways.” Gordon performed well in his second stint at Triple-A, collecting 29 doubles in just 70 games with Rochester, but injuries limited his 2019 season. The former first-round pick remains decent middle infield depth even as his once vaunted prospect status declines. Celestino, acquired from the Houston Astros in the Ryan Pressly trade, left a strong impression on the team with his athleticism in the outfield. The Twins also announced that pitcher Fernando Romero has been added to the restricted list. According to Twins’ Derek Falvey, unlike the reassignment moves, adding Romero to the restricted list simply acknowledged that the player is not currently with the team and will not be for an indefinite amount of time. Once able to join the team, Romero could face another transaction. He has remained in the Dominican Republic because of visa issues while throwing in the Twins academy in Boca Chica while exiled from the team. “We've got staff and scouts around there that are connected with him more regularly, so probably the best way to describe it is a continuation of his offseason program and a little more throwing,” Falvey said. “Obviously, he's not pitching in games and playing here, but he's prepping." The academy has similar technology to the team’s Fort Myers complex, including Trackman and Rapsodo, so the organization can continue to monitor his progress. The Twins are now down to 55 players in camp. Click here to view the article

As long as the ball stays in the ballpark, Kenta Maeda’s outings can be really satisfying to watch. Maeda oozes precision. His preparation -- the pre-game plyo workouts, the stretching, everything -- is performed succinctly. Prior to his warmup pitches, Maeda walked off three or four steps down the mound and marked the dirt where he wants to land. It is almost as if he is a pilot going through a pre-flight checklist.He can be methodical but Maeda is far from a plodder. For instance, in the third inning during Sunday’s game at JetBlue, after the Twins went down quickly in order, where other pitchers might slow foot it to the mound, Maeda raced out, beating his entire team, and tossed the rosin bag until his catcher was ready. It is his time to pitch. His delivery is fascinating to observe. His style doesn’t have fluidity nor would his slow-mo be glamorized on PitchingNinja’s twitter feed -- but Maeda’s mechanics feel deliberate by design. Maeda presets his split-change grip, digging deep before engaging the rubber and looking for his sign. When ready, he will draw his left foot back and wait for a moment. Then he will raise his leg, pause for another beat and pump his hands multiple times at the peak of his balance point. Only then will he kick his front foot and initiate the most electric portion of his mechanics. The lower half just whips at hitters and the arm unfurls in kind. Slow, slow, slow and explode. Rocco Baldelli doesn’t want to outright say it but he believes there is some portion of Maeda’s delivery that interferes with a hitter’s timing. “There are certain aspects of deliveries from some of the players that have come from Japan, some of the hesitations and some of the timing mechanisms and things like that,” Baldelli said. “Do I know if all of them lead to some sort of deception? I can’t tell you that for a fact but I bet there’s something to it.” There may be a psychological benefit from this approach. Whereas most pitchers flow through their delivery, giving hitters a reliable timing mechanism, Maeda’s sputtering technique encourages opponents to second guess themselves even before the pitch is delivered. It’s hard not to. His fastballs’ velocities -- a four-seamer, two-seam and cutter -- fluctuate like the weather in Minnesota in March. He will show 90 and run it up to 93. He’ll back some off to 89. The two-seamer will run, the four-seam will carry and the cutter will cut. No two fastballs are alike. “I’m not a pitcher who can throw 100 mile per hour heaters so I try to use all of my pitches to get strikeouts,” Maeda said through his translator. “That’s who I am as a pitcher.” It was almost a nod to Brusdar Graterol, the player whom the Twins sent to Los Angeles and has been lighting up spring training scoreboards with his triple digits. Maeda knows he doesn’t have the raw stuff that Graterol has and needs to employ other tactics to get swinging strikes. “All his pitches” includes a darting slider and his falling split-change. It was the latter pitch that Maeda ramped his usage of, which he perfected in 2018 after discovering the new grip. His previous changeup had tunneled well off of his fastball but the split grip effectively killed 300 RPMs of spin and gave him six inches of vertical drop. It now looked like a fastball out of his hand that fell off the face of the earth. The results were a spike in swinging strikes. The swinging strikes were on display on Sunday for Maeda and how he operated impressed his new manager. On this afternoon against the Red Sox, he was both economical and surgical. In four innings, he needed just 44 pitches to render the Boston lineup scoreless and threw 77 percent for strikes. Red Sox hitters swung wildly at his split-changes and sliders. Any contact would be classified as weak. “You really get to see a tremendous version of Kenta out there,” said Baldelli following his outing. “You watch how he attacked all hitters but you watch how he attacks some of these really good right-handed hitters and he can really compete against those guys pretty well.” Maeda was satisfied with his spring performance too. He considered his delivery -- the timing mechanism-messing pauses -- in sync. It was, according to him, the best so far and the fact that he didn’t give up a home run he said with a smile, made it even better. Click here to view the article

Great idea and I am really looking forward to seeing how this grows!

This is a really good profile on slider usage. The one thing I would add is that in my cursory research, Chacin did stop commanding his slider in 2019. When you look at the pitch on BrooksBaseball, you'll see a slightly different spin axis and less vertical and horizontal movement. It did not flatten out, but it wasn't as sharp as the previous two seasons. Mechanics were a big issue for him and when you go look at video of his sliders on Baseball Savant, you'll see him back up a lot of sliders and general misfire. When you look at his release points, you will see that it was a little more haphazard in 2019, a product of not being able to find consistency in his mechanics. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/1224078079422877702 The other interesting thing about Chacin is that while he did throw his slider more, it was used more in hitters and even counts. This may have been because he lost faith in his fastballs (which he had good reason), either way, he really ramped his use early in the count. Typically when you see some increases in a secondary pitch it happens when pitchers are ahead and are trying to put a hitter away. In those early parts of the count, hitters took or fouled off the slider at a high percentage. I think Chacin had a good sounding board in Derek Johnson his first year with the Brewers and lost that when he went to Cincinnati. It's possible that Wes Johnson will be able to help him regain that consistency. One of the things I expect Wes and the Twins might address is shortening Chacin's stride length.

Oh, and Frawley just posted these graphics of Polanco:

These are some really good thoughts on Polanco and I'm very interested in seeing how the Twins coaching staff attacks this. We had Billy Boyer in for our inaugural MN BAT Summit a couple weekends ago and we took the speakers out to dinner the night before. Boyer had some incredible insight into how the organization is attacking infield development and trying to expand the use of analytics into that sector of the game. The number one goal, he said, was get to as many balls as possible and get outs. They put a lot less stress on errors so long as a player is getting to more balls and trying to make plays (obviously reoccurring routine errors are addressed but if a player is doing everything they can to make the play, it's less important). One thing I found interesting is that we were discussing if an infield should keep from forcing plays, just pocket the ball on a play that has little likelihood for success. Sort of a discussion on Joe Maddon's Respect 90 bit. It seemed to me that Sano had a few errors trying to make plays that had little chance of getting an out and then gave the runner second base. Turns out, the Twins are training their infielders to fire the ball in almost all circumstances -- do everything you can to try to make the play. Another aspect of Polanco's arm slot change was to match his posture better. The Twins felt he would force the over-the-top action when his posture was better suited for a lower more natural slot. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/1117961354953089024 The Twins recently hired Tucker Frawley out of Yale (Boyer was a huge advocate for his addition) and Frawley has a lot of interesting charts on what the optimal release point should be based on the player's posture after fielding: https://twitter.com/INFchatter/status/1216712814808698881/photo/1 In reality, infielders shouldn't have one slot but should be able to make throws from all angles based on how they fielded the ball. I didn't ask Boyer specifically about Polanco but I am assuming the Twins will want to get Polanco better at using all the tools in the tool belt, so to speak. In general, Boyer talked about exchange time for middle infielders which can be better than velocity. He cited David Eckstein (calling it the Eckstein factor) as a player who had sub-optimal arm strength but was so good at getting the ball off that it made him that much better. The Twins have some smart, smart people in their organization and it can only help improve player development.

I like Kent Hrbek.

I like vodka.

I like whiskey.

Spin rate can't necessarily be taught but it can be enhanced. I wrote about developing fastballs with our high school program this past summer (you can read about it here). There's a consensus among the industry that you can't really teach it, you have it or you don't. Driveline says if you want a significant jump in spin rate, you add tack (rosin, bullfrog, pine tar, etc). This is another thing that the Astros have been accused of practicing, by the way. Legally, let's say you have a guy who is throwing a sub-optimal four-seam fastball -- he's cutting or turning his hand at release and reducing the spin. You can train that player to release the ball better and gain some spin (but more spin efficiency, which won't change the spin rate but a better spin efficiency will result in more carry, which keeps the pitch on that high plane like Odorizzi, rather than cutting or diving). This is where Rapsodo and Edgertronic cameras become so valuable to teams.

This was absolutely emphasized by the coaching staff last year. Part of it is to keep from breaking their wrists early (like Buxton below). Part of it is to drive middle of the field and reduce hook on the ball. If you hit the ball square rather than clipping and adding backspin, you get better results. https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/1130450194393370625

The output changed because he made physical changes to his set-up/swing. In 2018 his profile was that he would hit balls in that 95+ exit velo and 10-30 degree launch angle into the opposite field gap, so a lot of those were tracked down. He made some modifications to his posture and didn't stride to the plate as much with his front leg, thereby closing himself off, in 2019 and that resulted in driving the ball better to the pull side. The increase in pulling the ball more was by design and it has worked well for him.

I have yet to see a clip of Cavaco demonstrating a lot of head movement in his swing, like this in-game swing: And, at least when he made contact, he showed that he wasn't a pure pull hitter: Moreover, he went to work this fall to improve elements of his swing: Sure, the contact rate is troublesome but he's 18. You'd love to see him jump in and do damage right away. But players struggle. He doesn't have any massive mechanical flaws at this point. He can certainly develop better pitch recognition and smooth over other issues. I don't think anyone needs to hit the panic button yet.

I would argue that the Twins put him (and many others) into a swing that gave him the ability to have success at those levels -- high contact, ball on the ground, etc. As the competition improved, he wasn't able to adjust, wasn't able to get the ball in the air and eaten alive by breaking balls. Part of what you hear internally is that the Twins believe they failed in that they *didn't* let Buxton fail early.

No, this is not currently being worked on (or at least wasn't a part of his development last year).