Parker Hageman

The same Nick Hanson who required Tommy John surgery, yes.

You gotta keep in mind, too, that the level of competition throughout Minnesota -- particularly for the elite baseball prospects -- has increased rapidly over the last 5-10 years. With the proliferation of club teams, MN players are facing a lot of strong competition from around the country on a regular basis in the summer, fall and winter. Carlson was a Blizzard guy. The Blizzard Elite team was ranked 33rd in the national by Perfect Game. So scouts have seen him, and others, matched up against the country's top-end talent. Not to mention, there are at least three new baseball development centers in operation around the Twin Cities that have opened in the last four years, allowing for more developmental time for baseball players that simply wasn't available ten years ago. There is the ability to at least maintain a level with southern states that can play throughout the year.

Ha, no. Not my Facebook post.

Here's a little insider look at what Sam Carlson is going through right now. In a recent start against Rosemount, Carlson had an entire entourage of scouts looking over his every more -- including his bullpen session. Another coach in that conference told me that when his team faced Carlson, he was throwing 95 with an unhittable slider. His report was "repeats his mechanics well, good feel and presence." He felt that Carlson was "very comparable" to Nick Hanson, his pitcher who was drafted in the 3rd round by the Reds in 2016, but that Carlson has a better feel for the offspeed pitches than Hanson did at this point in their careers.

Considering Mauer had the team's third highest exit velo in 2016 (89.7), this shouldn't come as a surprise. Mauer's issue last year was that his launch angle was 3.7 degrees -- the lowest among any starter in the Twins' lineup. He was simply killing worms. The surprise this year is that he has been able to produce batted balls with a launch angle of 12.3 -- very much improved. We have yet to see the results -- partly because of the defensive alignments -- but he is churning out batted balls in the right way. While we know what exit velo and launch angles make the best recipe for hits, we don't know some of the factors like when those numbers equalize. How many plate appearances/batted balls does it take in a season for a launch angle to become the norm instead of a sampling blip? I love that we have this data and that people are finally using it, but there are still so many questions remaining.

Ground balls are just long bunts.

I mean, PARKER AND JOHN? Get off your wallets people.

Not sure if it is related to the bullpen switch or not but Duffey's biggest improvement is being able to throw his fastball for a strike. He's thrown 72% of his fastballs in zone (compared to 51% last year). He has also gotten strike one more frequently (68% vs 62% in 2016) which sets up other pieces of his arsenal nicely.

I'm not sure if it is a glitch in the Pitch F/X calculation or not (it's been known to happen) but Santana was supposedly throwing a two-seamer dating back to 2010 (http://www.espn.com/los-angeles/mlb/news/story?id=5007541). Sometimes these pitches aren't captured by the pitch recognition formulas. Then again, maybe he never threw it much during game action or didn't have the same type of movement he does now. Overall, Fangraphs charts Santana as throwing fewer than 30 two-seamers each season over the last two years, which is surprising. Another note for his rebound includes improving his mechanics and changing his changeup grip from a split-change to a four-fingered grip: http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/what-to-expect-from-ervin-santana-r3252

SDI is a terrible metric for actually measuring defensive abilities. It's a mash-up of multiple flawed defensive metrics.

RE: Buxton. I should save this for an actual article but given our HS baseball season starts today (Go Holy Angels), I don't know when I will have the time to put it all together. That said, here is some boring technical stuff about his swing… Buxton has made a few cosmetic changes to his pre-swing mechanics that I believe is hindering him to some degree. The first is he has closed up his front side. In September last year he would start with his front side open before closing it during the leg kick. This year he starts more straight up facing the pitcher. The other thing he's gone away from is the pre-swing barrel tip. Last season during his load process Buxton would bring his barrel up almost vertically before getting into the launch position. This season the bat never goes that direction. These are rhythm components of a swing, not major changes like a leg kick, but the barrel tip is something that helps create bat speed (here’s a very good read on that subject from Jerry Brewer). Think of it this way, tipping the barrel is like a running start in a race versus starting from a standstill. Last season we saw Brian Dozier add a barrel tip to his pre-swing before he started to take off. In addition to activating back and shoulder muscles, it can help timing and getting your body in the right sequence at the right time. Are these the reasons he is having such a difficult time making contact? Possibly. As I mentioned, both elements play a role in timing a swing. At the end of last season we saw he crush all types of pitches in various counts which makes me think Buxton has a plenty good eye at the plate to pick up spin and whatnot. I had a very brief conversation with him during our spring training visit. Like most reports, he was teeming with confidence which was a stark contrast to where he was at last spring. “The leg kick is me now,” he told me in a way that made it seem like I asked if he would give up something special. But what sticks out to me now was that he said would send Torii Hunter video of his swing over the winter and Hunter would give him advice. “He just told me the things he sees in the video that he would want to work on that’s really about staying in the groove and staying with the leg kick,” Buxton said. “So Torii and a few other guys, actually, I’d send them videos and they’d send me feedback.” I don’t know what specific feedback Hunter gave Buxton on his swing. Knowing the Twins’ past hitting philosophies, I would bet that keeping his bat still was one instruction given to him this winter. Buxton also said last year that the Twins coaches had “closed him up” in rookie ball – which is probably why you see him with the more closed batting stance this season. Buxton said he had not worked much with James Rowson in camp at that point. Rowson was seen as a coach in observation mode rather than dispensing regular advice. I’m curious to know how Rowson will approach Buxton’s struggles. Hitting instruction is not simple but the first thing I would encourage is trying to go back to all the elements that made him successful in September/October. Sorry not sorry for hijacking the thread.

He's reportedly the emergency first baseman.

Not that they themselves have had successful moments but that they've played in successful moments in time. While he didn't play in the playoffs for Cleveland this year, Gimenez was involved in all the meetings with the coaching staff and pitchers. Here's a report from Fangraphs:

I believe last week Molitor said the backup is Gimenez with Kepler as the emergency beyond that.

Like always, the Minnesota Twins’ Opening Day roster decisions seemed to surprise many. The reaction was understandable considering Byungho Park had manhandled pitching and appeared to have found some semblance of plate discipline in the process. More than that, they opted to carry 13 pitchers and not one of them was the younger and perhaps more potent arms like Jose Berrios and JT Chargois. Not to mention Alex Wimmers, who many thought earned a spot this spring, was also ticketed for Rochester. On paper the roster is powerfully unsexy. As unattractive as it looks, the Twins front office say they have the necessary personnel on the roster to start the seasons in the right direction.“I think when you look at a team and when you are building toward what we talk about all along -- a championship caliber team -- you need to build around a young core of players,” Twins Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey said in the drizzling rain during Sunday’s workout at Target Field. “I think a lot of that core is here.” Over in fair territory, Falvey’s inaugural 25-man roster took infield and batting practice on a gloomy and chilly Opening Day eve. Falvey, of course, did not construct the roster on his own. In replacing Terry Ryan, the Twins organization now has a two-headed decision-making monster in the form of Falvey and general manager Thad Levine. Combine that with the vital input from field manager Paul Molitor and suddenly there are multiple voices and influence over roster decisions in the new front office era. While the three tenors are singing in unison, the process of finalizing the 25-man roster did not come without what Levine considered positive debate from the group in private. “Everyone has a difference of opinion,” the Twins general manager said about the whittling of the roster. “I think one thing we are going to do throughout our careers here together is that we’re all able to air those conversations behind closed doors but when we walk out we are going to be in concert with one another. I think that’s healthy.” Any analytical-slated front office worth its weight would tell you that spring training statistics are virtually meaningless. Heck, even the old-school scouting front office knows better than to trust spring training performances. Nevertheless, it was hard to dismiss Park or Alex Wimmers’ performance over the month of March. Sure, the games may be meaningless but Park was still mashing the ball. He was showing improvement on higher velocity fastballs. He was controlling the strike zone better. That had to account for something and that undoubtedly led to interesting internal discussions in the manager’s office. “Quite frankly, I think if everyone thinks the same way and it’s quote a no-brainer we’re probably missing something,” said Levine. “So whether or not someone is specifically playing the devil’s advocate to make sure we’ve talked about the other side of it, I think that’s healthy towards the decision-making process.” As Falvey tells it, emphasis on the final roster spots was placed on players who they believed can establish the identity of the team. Falvey said that the Twins believe they have the right core of young players in Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Jorge Polanco and Miguel Sano to build around, so they wanted to have experienced players who have a strong track record of being prepared and diligent about their work. “We talked a lot about the culture we wanted to create in the clubhouse and how that leads to what we want on the field,” Falvey said. “Guys like Matt Belisle, Chris Gimenez and Craig Breslow, guys who have been around other organizations and some really successful moments in time. They know they have to hold themselves to high standards at two o’clock in the afternoon when no one is paying attention or nine o’clock in the morning on the backfield in Fort Myers.” With the current roster working out on Target Field, Levine stresses not to focus on the here and now because that will change in an instant. As a veteran of the Texas Rangers’ front office, he’s seen how quickly the roster can churn due to injuries and performance. One of his strengths coming into the Twins organization is his ability to diagnose roster issues and swiftly respond. “Unequivocally, we all put a lot of pressure on that 25-man roster for Opening Day but in practice, it’s going to change dramatically over the course of a year,” said Levine. “It may change dramatically over the first 10-to-15 days of the season, you never know.” “Our focus at the beginning is to make sure you have the next wave of defense and the next wave of defense after that ready and lined up and I think that’s what a lot of spring training is nowadays. It’s less about who is making your Opening Day and who you believe can help you win games throughout the course of a year.” That means Park, Vargas, Berrios, Wimmers and others better be ready in Rochester when their time is needed. “Those guys will help us at some point this year,” Levine said. “We know that. We feel more confident about that coming out of spring training. It’s not an if, it’s a when.” Click here to view the article

It should be noted that our friends at 612Brew will also be present at Target Field this year:

One of the things that jumps out about Santana's 2016 season is how much more he was able to coax hitters to swing at fastball out of the strike zone. OOZ Sw% 2012 - 18.9 OOZ Sw% 2013 - 21.6 OOZ Sw% 2014 - 24.6 OOZ Sw% 2015 - 20.0 OOZ Sw% 2016 - 27.2 Threw a few more fastballs off the plate. A lot of hitters made contact with those but they weren't square.

Great work John.

Right, yes, -- it's a three year period.

As one catcher said, it's hard to frame a pitch that never gets to you.

I mean, this is where people will argue the value portion of the framing statistic. Did Suzuki, et al's play really cost the Twins' 65 runs? Probably not that simple.

One of things we talked about that I did not include in this piece was how much focusing on framing can hurt the running game. Here's what Castro had to say about that... "I think if you devote your entire attention to it, it can take away from other aspects. That’s what you put in the time to practice and then when the game comes you rely on your ability and trust that what you’ve been working on will coming in during the game...You’re not going to try to "frame" a pitch a guy is trying to steal on. You are less worried about trying to stick it and have the umpire see as long as he can because if you do that, you’re not going to have a chance to throw anybody out. There are sacrifices to be made if a guy is running, the framing aspect goes right out there window."

And that's how the industry is starting to look at it too. Nick Nelson has a good quote from Mitch Garver on the subject in this week's Write Of Spring newsletter. Check that out.

I'm partial to this one... https://twitter.com/KentMurphy/status/813596227472334852