Parker Hageman

The Minnesota Twins were not overly active in the free agent market but there are plenty of new faces in the clubhouse. With turnover on his coaching staff, Paul Molitor has spent the better part of the spring getting to know his new coworkers. Gone are Tom Brunansky and Butch Davis. New faces include hitting coach James Rowson, first base coach Jeff Smith and bench coach Jeff Pickler. Since mid-February, the new coaching staff has tried to jell in efforts to create a cohesive vision and team. “It’s like Derek and Thad,” Molitor said in regards to his new coaches. “Getting to know these guys better all the time.”The first change started on the hitting side. While outsiders may have looked at the numbers and suspected the pitching may receive an overhaul, Molitor and the front office agreed that the right message was being delivered in spite of the lackluster results. What they determined was that there needed to be a different voice and a different approach with the bats. Rowson, Molitor said, came highly recommended. “We had a lot of good input before I even had a chance to sit down and have a nice, long conversation [with Rowson],” Molitor explained. “There’s a certain energy component to that role, there’s a certain ability to communication and build relationships in that role and obviously you got to have guys hitting.” Molitor quickly found out when they started working together that Rowson checked all the boxes he was looking for in terms of the ideal hitting coach characteristics. “I think the important component in that role is knowing the hitters, knowing what they do well, be available, be positive, be there, give them a game plan when needed. He’s got all that stuff.” Like most hitting coaches, Rowson spends batting practice behind the turtle shell, occasionally giving some advice or encouragement, but mostly observing and learning his hitters. His philosophy, boiled down, is hit the ball hard. If the hitter is putting on his best swing, the direction will take care of itself. No need to aim the ball to the opposite field. When the game starts, Molitor said, Rowson tones down the instruction. “I’m not big on breaking down every pitch in every at bat,” Molitor said. “He might ask what you are thinking on that count but gotta let them play when the game starts.” Jeff Pickler comes to the Twins by the way of the Los Angeles Dodgers and has been asked to use all the tools at his disposal in order to improve the defense, which includes tasks like positioning the outfield in optimal alignment in order to reduce runs allowed. “Picks got a lot of layers,” Molitor said. “He’s embraced the outfield thing, guys really love him out there. His involvement is with him trying to dissect data and what we can use as a team or for certain people that would maybe find a way to advance rather than staying stagnant.” Molitor said that Pickler has been very active in the spring training games already. One example Molitor provided for Pickler’s value added is his ability to think ahead. During Wednesday’s game against the Orioles, with Chris Johnson at the plate, two outs and no one on base, Pickler approached Molitor in the dugout with a suggestion to shift to a no-doubles defense. His reasoning was that light-hitting Johnny Giavotella was on deck. If Johnson were to reach second, he would almost surely score on a single. Taking away the extra base hit opportunity would possibly prevent that run. Molitor respected that kind of foresight. Jeff Smith, the newly added first base coach, is a mountain of a man, every bit the same shape as Miguel Sano but with a few more years. Before the game, Smith roams the field with a catcher’s training glove, a shaved down version of a standard catcher’s mitt that trains backstops to receive the ball with minimum movement. More simply, it helps a catcher in their framing. Molitor acknowledged Jeff Smith’s role as the first base coach is different from his recent stretch as a manager in the minor league system and the new angle of the game will take some getting used to but Smith’s catching background has been a welcomed addition. “I’ve been pleased with how we’ve handled ourselves behind the plate,” Molitor said. The game of baseball has moved beyond simply hiring the manager’s drinking buddy to keep him company on the bench. Coaching staffs have slowly expanded and roles like defensive specialists have emerged as teams have placed a greater emphasis on using data to position their players around the diamond. The Twins have started to adapt to this dugout revolution as well. At least from Molitor’s viewpoint, the Twins feel they have the right collection of coaches in place to get the most out of their players. Click here to view the article

I'd have to check again but by my count, Hughes didn't register a swing and miss in that outing.

In a way, Thursday’s outing in Sarasota was a microcosm of Phil Hughes’ previous two seasons. His velocity was down, he threw a ton of strikes, and he struggled to put hitters away. Nevertheless, Hughes left the game after 45 pitches -- 30 of which were strikes -- and felt that he had made significant progress towards returning to his pre-injury form. “Compared to last time, it was miles better,” said Hughes.Last time, of course, was his two inning, four hit, two run outing at JetBlue Park. It was his first game action since his thoracic outlet syndrome surgery and the Red Sox monsters made loud and consistent contact. His pitches lacked velocity and precision. This time his pitches simply lacked velocity. Ed Smith Stadium’s radar gun showed that Hughes was sitting around 88-89 with his fastball/cutter combination. He touched 90 a couple of times. But Hughes wasn’t overly concerned over those figures. “I don’t necessarily want to say ‘OK I have to throw this pitch as hard as I can right now because I have to prove that I am healthy and back’,” Hughes said. In evaluating the difference between the two outings, Hughes said as opposed to his start against Boston, he felt like he was in the driver’s seat, working ahead in the count which allowed him to open up the tool shed and deploy some of his secondary pitches. Facing a formidable Orioles lineup which included Adam Jones, Manny Machado, Mark Trumbo and Chris Davis, Hughes was able to use his cutter, curveball and changeup. “Starting off with some strike ones, throwing some decent cutters, moving the ball around the zone, elevating. I actually had a chance to work on some things instead of trying to get back into some counts like I did last time.” He did start hitters off with strikes. Phil Hughes threw a ton of strikes as Phil Hughes is wont to do. Phil Hughes throws a ton of strikes. That has never been an issue. He was ahead in the count on a regular basis, giving him the chance to use some of his secondary pitches. And, like he said, Hughes did throw some decent cutters. His best was perhaps the first one he threw when he froze Baltimore’s Hyun Soo Kim on a classic backdrop cutter. “I think I had a seven or eight pitch sequence to [Kim]. I figured I’d take a chance on 3-2 so it was nice to execute that pitch,” said Hughes. “It was a pitch that really eluded me my last outing, it felt kinda all over the place. I guess that is sorta to be expected for my first one and today I felt a lot more comfortable and located the ball better.” On the flip side, Hughes had five hitters in 0-2 counts. He allowed three of those hitters to reach base. In the first inning, Manny Machado pulled what Hughes called a “decent curveball” on 0-2 down the third base line for a double. One batter later Hughes found himself 0-2 against Mark Trumbo, only to fall behind in the count and eventually walk him. He did the same thing to Kim in the third inning, who wound up being his last batter of the afternoon. One of the issues Hughes has struggled with over the last two seasons is finishing hitters in strikeout situations. According to ESPN/TruMedia, Hughes has a .243 average against in two-strike counts, the third-highest among qualified pitchers. In 0-2 counts specifically, Hughes has a .250 average against compared to the .155 league average. “A big thing with us is to try to limit the 0-2 hits,” Hughes said. “There’s a fine line because you still want to make a competitive pitch on 0-2, not just waste one, but at the same time make sure it is a quality pitch.” Hughes did make the effort to put hitters away. Against Trumbo, he threw two fastballs at Trumbo’s eye level, only to have him foul the two back. Back in 2014, Hughes had success throwing his fastball in the upper third or higher, resulting in 42 strikeouts. That, however, was when he was sitting 92. The current 88-90 version of his fastball is not likely to achieve the same outcome. Manager Paul Molitor said that Hughes executed the game plan despite not getting the desired results in those two-strike situations. With Trumbo, the Twins wanted to work up above the zone, which Hughes did several times. Molitor credits Trumbo for battling what he considered tough pitches. Hughes’ style, Molitor said, was going to occasionally allow counts to swing from 0-2 to 2-2 in a hurry as he tries to set up an out pitch. “I think Phil understands that he’s such a command guy that he has to push people off the plate, especially when he is ahead in the count and elevate a little bit,” Molitor said. In terms of how he feels compared to previous seasons, Hughes wouldn’t take the bait. “I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself and compare it,” he said after his second start of the spring. “I’m just trying to go through every day and do what I have to do and I feel like at the end of spring I’ll really have a more clear idea of where I’m at.” There are several more weeks of spring training remaining for Hughes to ramp up, add velocity, and improve his command. At the very least, Hughes is happy with his progress so far. Click here to view the article

And so it begins. Twins Daily’s Report From The Fort 2017 kicks off from Sarasota where the Twins will tangle with the Baltimore Orioles. The visiting media at Ed Smith Stadium is placed directly under the Earth’s sun so there will be interesting tan lines by the end of this game. Not that I am complaining. On to Twins baseball...Phil Hughes will make his second start of the spring. Hughes, who is returning from thoracic outlet syndrome surgery, surrendered four hits and two runs in two innings of work against the Red Sox in his first outing. According to the Pioneer Press’s Mike Berardino, Hughes reached 90 on the radar, which is about what he averaged on his fastball over the past two seasons. Ideally, he would like to see that velocity creep up closer to the 92 mile per hour average he posted in his first season with the Twins. Hughes will have to navigate through some big bats in the Orioles lineup. Adam Jones, Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Mark Trumbo will present a solid challenge for the veteran Glen Perkins turns 34 today. In case you were wondering, the closers with the most saves after turning 34 are Mariano Rivera (369), Dennis Eckersley (326), Trevor Hoffman (287), Jose Mesa (184) and Doug Jones (182). Former Twins closer Joe Nathan is seventh with 177. From now until the end of March, Twins Daily will have you covered from Fort Myers. Be sure to follow Twins Daily on Twitter for live updates, breaking news and insight. Click here to view the article

I definitely mentioned this multiple times at the on-set of our work together. I distinctly remember bringing that idea up at a meeting at Seth's townhouse and it was met with silence. At the time, I was miffed because I thought everyone was being shortsighted. Later, I came to realize that it was easy for me to accept that proposal because I had the least about of "blog equity" of the group. I was ready to consolidate my work because I had only been working on it for less than three years at that point. Meanwhile, Seth and John were almost a decade in and Nick wasn't too far behind. Without a cohesive vision, I can see why it would be difficult to roll that die. After the FOX meeting and the agreement that we were going to combine efforts on one site, I also recall that Seth, Nick and myself were fairly indifferent about having a forum section attached to the site. John, however, was persistent and insistent. The site had to have a forum or the whole venture wouldn't work. It needed a built-in community. Personally, I was skeptical, mostly because I had never spent any time in forums and the only one I was familiar with was the flaming pile at either KFAN or ESPN. I wasn't even aware of BYTO until Nick introduced Brock to the group. It didn't take long to realize how wrong my stance was on the forums. This has truly been a great collection of thoughts and ideas (mixed with the occasional snark for flavoring).

Good info. Thanks for sharing.

"...but he has shown signs of being more than an all-or-nothing type of hitter like Walker."

Correct. Radcliff was high on his athleticism for a guy his size. I'd like to hear from some of the Twins Daily members who are down at camp. If you get a chance to see his infield chops, let us know.

When the Minnesota Twins signed Lewin Diaz for $1.4 million in 2013, he was a 16-year-old kid who was weighing in at a reported 210 pounds. Two years later he had grown to 263 and was being compared to having “Miguel Sano-type” power. That’s certainly intriguing but baseball has seemingly lost interest in the 30-plus home run guys who add no other value. So the question is, can Lewin Diaz provide some other value?Age: 20 (DOB: 11/19/96) 2015 Stats (Rk): 46 G, .310/.353/.575, 9 HR, 37 RBI ETA: 2019 2016 Ranking: 18 National Top 100 Rankings BA: NR | MLB: NR | ESPN: NR | BP: NR What’s To Like With the exception of Daniel Palka (our 14th-highest rated prospect in the system), Diaz represents the only source of raw power on Twins Daily’s top prospect list. While the long ball potential is substantial, the baseball industry has started to devalue the power-only players. Teams no longer place a premium on dingers, as evidenced by the offseason employment plight of Chris Carter and former Twins prospect Adam Walker (11th on our list in 2016). With his size, Diaz’s career is limited to a first base or designated hitter role but he has shown signs of being more than an all-or-nothing type of hitter like Walker. Admittedly it was only rookie ball, but Diaz’s .310 average is a mark that Walker never even came close to matching. The Twins believe that Diaz may also be able to provide batting average value (for whatever that’s worth) as well as avoid making regular outs. What’s Left To Work On Despite teeming with raw power potential, Diaz hasn’t applied that much in game action until this past season when he hit nine home runs in 187 plate appearances as a 19-year-old in the Appalachian League. That is not out of the norm for prospects -- especially at his age -- but there are some indications that a few tweaks for Diaz could tap into that talent. Big and strong, Diaz’s swing has a solid foundation but his current barrel path doesn’t necessarily lead to towering fly balls which translate into huge home run totals. When the Twins signed him as a 16-year-old in 2013, Baseball America said that Diaz struggled to “tap into that power in game situations”. The swing is level down to and through the ball and results in plenty of base hits but his power is limited to almost exclusively his pull side. That's not a bad thing, but with his size you would like to see a few more towering flies to the alleys as opposed to just at the right field foul pole. There is time to develop that swing. What’s Next Diaz has yet to play over 50 games in a season so that will be his first challenge in 2017. The second is just continuing to produce like he did last year. Remember: At 20 years old this season, Diaz has plenty of time to develop as a player. However, as a 2013 signee, he is starting to get to the point where the Twins will need to consider adding him to the 40-man roster, which makes 2017 an important season. Click here to view the article

Finally. I was waiting for some wet, hot urban planning takes on this message board.

When the Minnesota Twins hired Derek Falvey to rebuild the organization, the most significant task to tackle was to improve the pitching. Pitching is one of the most important facets of baseball and being able to reach into one’s own minor league system for more talent is crucial to long-term success. For the Twins, numerous high draft pick arms have stalled out. While there are several graduates like Kyle Gibson or contributors like Jose Berrios or Tyler Duffey, the development pipeline has been rather scarce when it comes to providing Major League-ready pitching. In response, the Twins have had to spend big on free agent pitchers like Ricky Nolasco, Phil Hughes and Ervin Santana. How exactly does Derek Falvey intend on improving the broken system?Here is just one example of how the organization can and will change. Across America weighted ball training has become an integral part in pitching development. Out east, Eric Cressey’s Cressey Performance Center has used those training methods since 2007. Down south, just outside of Houston, Ron Wolforth’s Texas Baseball Ranch has launched and re-established the careers of numerous arms, including the resurrection of Scott Kazmir. In Seattle, Driveline Baseball’s Kyle Boddy has made weighted ball training a household name. At baseball training centers everywhere in between young pitchers are picking up heavy spheres and throwing them in the name of velocity. Major League Baseball’s evolutionary process moves at a glacial pace and pro teams are slow to embrace change. MLB.com’s Lindsay Berra pointed out in December, organizations such as the Dodgers and Indians have tapped into the benefits of the systems designed by Cressey, Wolforth, Boddy and company. Still, there are some teams who have flat out refused to allow their pitchers to participate in those kinds of workouts. Perhaps not surprising, as recently as last year the Twins have reportedly discouraged some of their prospects from throwing heavy baseballs, suggesting that the practice can lead to more arm injuries despite the science saying otherwise. Thanks to new leadership, that mentality will change. Falvey arrived in Minnesota touting “evidence-based practices” at his introductory press conference, signaling that the days of discouraging new methods for unfounded reasons are over. His time with Cleveland’s player development system -- a more forward-thinking front office by comparison -- enlightened him to the benefits of working with weighted baseballs and other programs not necessarily on the mainstream radar. That said, even with the successful track record Falvey was not so quick to say that the Twins would be distributing heavy baseballs across the organization tomorrow. “Everything has to be individualized,” Falvey told Twins Daily. “I think what we need to do if find out what systems work for some of our players, what they are already doing. We need to learn what they are doing now and ask how do we build toward a vision and if that vision means a different type of arm care, or maybe a different type of velocity and growth, we’ll employ those tools for those players. I never like to shut the door on any of those systems. I like to evaluate them and see where they fit within the mix of what we are doing.” To be clear, this is not about weighted balls. Throwing weighted baseballs is not a magic elixir that is going to help someone’s arm suddenly from throwing pooh to pumping one-oh-two. What Falvey is saying is about more than that. For the Twins front office, this is about a bold step in exploring new methodologies for improving performance -- not restricting ideas based on gut feelings about a practice. In 2015 Cleveland’s minor league pitching coordinator Ruben Niebla provided a peek behind the Indians’ development curtain. One of their organization’s main objectives was to help their pitchers reach their maximum velocity in the minor leagues. In order to do so, Niebla told Fox Sports that they try to “enhance our pitchers’ flexibility, explosion, and athleticism” overall and feed the arm through various long-toss, symmetry bands and weighted ball programs. More importantly, Cleveland did not have a one-size-fits-all program in place in order to achieve their objective; they learned from Trevor Bauer’s experience with the Arizona Diamondbacks, who bristled at Bauer’s unorthodox conditioning and pre-game warm-up routine, that pushing a prospect into a team-mandated regimen can have backlash. Individualization is key. Furthermore, Niebla said that Cleveland emphasized building strength in their pitchers, which means dabbling in some powerlifting. That’s why in the offseason, Bauer can be found at Driveline’s squat rack or Corey Kluber deadlifting at Cressey Performance. Other flamethrowing pitchers like Aroldis Chapman and White Sox prospect Micheal Kopech both owe part their eye-popping radar gun readings to their adherence of lifting heavy things. The Twins, on the other hand, historically haven’t pushed their pitchers in that direction. Locally, you will find stories about Trevor May’s yoga practice or Glen Perkins’ avoidance of weight lifting. That doesn’t mean that one or the other is better. ”Ultimately we’re going to blend some of the things I think we do well here with maybe some of things that I felt was part of developing in Cleveland over time,” said Falvey. “I talked to [pitching coordinator] Eric Rasmussen about it and [Director of Minor League Operations] Brad Steil and what we are going to do in the minor leagues and I think we’re going to open the doors to new ideas that haven’t existed here in this organization before but I have every expectation that there is an embracing of that conversation.” In addition to the physical contributions of the player, Falvey also believes that leveraging data -- even at the lowest levels (an area in which the Twins might actually already have a head start) -- will help improve pitching development. Understanding through the numbers what works best for them and what they may need to improve upon quickly. Baseball is enamored by its new tool, StatCast, and the data it has produced at the Major League level. That left teams wanted to measure and analyze pitching prospects with the same lens so they have installed the Trackman systems in their minor league parks. One significant credit to Terry Ryan’s leadership was the Twins got ahead of the industry when they installed the same system in their top four minor league affiliates, providing the same velocity, spin rate and other metadata as their big league counterpart. “I can’t speak to how it was utilized in the past [in Minnesota] but I do know how we used it in Cleveland,” Falvey said, “and I felt that it was really something that was a difference maker for us.” How big of a difference maker can that be? So much so that the Los Angeles Dodgers, the second largest employer in the state of California, have created a “Pitching Department” which consists of six people including three former pitchers and an ex-Driveline Baseball medical expert dedicated to researching the hell out of it. Fangraphs’ David Laurila recently interviewed Brandon Gomes, a former pitcher added to that staff, who discussed how they will leverage that data. “The biggest thing is to understand the characteristics,” Gomes said. “It might be, ‘Hey, this guy has elite carry, so we want to look at pitching in this part of the zone.’ Or maybe it’s, ‘This is a power-sinker guy, so we want this,’ or, ‘He has an above-average slider, so he should use it more than he’s currently using it.’ Those kind of avenues. Nothing overly new, but we’re implementing it in a slightly different way.” Pitchers are not always certain about their identity. They may feel certain pitches are behaving one way when they are not. Providing them with the concrete data will give the a better direction or a quicker understand of what makes them successful. Training systems and data analysis improvements aside, player development comes back to the individual and Falvey places great emphasis on the human side as well. In his vision, there will be more communication and dialogue between the front office and the players. “It is a two-way conversation,” he said in regards to handling a player’s career. ”You go to a player and you talk about who do you want to be. How do you want to develop? All these guys have goals. All these guys want to be big league pitchers. What’s that look like?” It is honesty. “Let’s not be afraid to have a candid conversation about that. Let’s not be afraid to have some feedback on here’s where you are and here’s where you want to be. There’s a gap, how do we close the gap? And not focus on limitations but focus on opportunities to build and grow and develop. Build goals.” You could take that entire last statement from Falvey and apply it to the redevelopment of the pitching pipeline overall. Build goals not only applies for the individual, but for the team as whole. As Falvey said himself, there is a gap, a gap for where the Twins are as an organization when it comes to developing talent and where they want to be. How do they close that gap? It is not an easy nor quick fix but Falvey appears to have the right plan in the works. Click here to view the article

I also enjoyed when Hawkins said he would punch a certain umpire in the throat if he saw him again.

Not only do they have video, they also have Trackman radar -- the same data captured by StatCast. I think there are still some questions regarding how to implement that data but they have been capturing plenty on their own players and data on other players when they visit.

I believe baseball is starting to realize how much information they have and how important it is for players to have a basic understanding of how it works. The Boston Red Sox bench coach Tony Lovullo discussed how their organization emphasized it from day one so that when those draft picks or signees reached the big leagues, they weren't overwhelmed by the data reports. This offseason Houston (I believe) was hiring coaches for their minor league affiliates specifically with analytics backgrounds in order to communicate the message to the players better at a lower level. So when a guy like Byron Buxton reaches the bigs, the language he hears is the same thing he heard at low-A ball. Again, the hitting side is just one aspect of using data. Pitchers and fielders have to get used to being fed reports regarding pitch breakdowns and various positioning in the field.

Work smarter, not harder. That’s a mantra which permeates the corporate world, imploring workers to take full advantage of tools and resources available to improve productivity. It’s cliche, to be sure, but there is something behind the notion that production can be improved by simply leveraging existing systems and processes. When it comes to getting the information into the hands of the hitters, the Minnesota Twins appear to have moved in the direction of working smarter.For almost a decade now baseball’s front offices have been harvesting analytical insight which could positively influence on-field performance. Well educated and highly trained individuals front office staffers have been slicing and compiling video, PitchF/X data, and now StatCast data in attempts to deliver potentially beneficial information to a roster of players who, by and large, have varying degrees of interest in receiving it. Since the conduit of communication is occasionally faulty, one of the growing trends over the last few seasons in Major League Baseball is that teams have been hiring analytically savvy coaches to work the dugouts and clubhouses. These new hires with real on-field baseball experience are able to distill the information into digestible bites for the players. The Twins recent hire Jeff Pickler doesn’t pretend to be a heady stat guy, but his experience with technology has made him uniquely qualified to dissect the video and data while working with players. As an assistant coach with the University of Arizona Wildcats in 2009, Pickler introduced the video BATS system to the program. The BATS system captures all plays on video, adds the necessary metadata, and is able to index and recall at-bats at a click of the mouse. “The thing about statistics — and this includes BATS — is that it allows you to explain the 'how' and 'why,' as opposed to just the 'what',” Pickler told the Arizona Daily Star in 2009. “We can all see the 'what' — we can see a guy's 3 for his last 14, that he might as well not be in the lineup tomorrow. The 'how' and 'why' is a little more complicated; that's what the data and video is able to show us. … We can figure out the how and why, and maybe fix things a lot sooner.” Pickler’s role with the Twins has not been crystallized and yet his addition could be necessary to maximize the growing mountain of information. And for coaches and players, the growing mountain of information can be overwhelming. As Tom Brunansky once said after he assumed the duties of the Twins’ hitting coach, he was fed enough data to “choke a cow” and that was before launch angles and exit velocity were in the common lexicon. Taking all of that info and trying to deliver the message to his hitters takes tact. The key to coaching is to be able to help players make adjustments to their weaknesses without drowning them in the numbers. Boiling it down, it's the old line from Tommy Boy about trusting the butcher. For instance, if the data shows fastballs on the outer-half of the zone have proven to be a hitter’s kryptonite, coaches should set up drills that helps address the issue. That way players can continue their careers blissfully unaware of the amount of computing and brain power went into solving that problem. While the insight can be valuable, using it can be a matter of personal preference for players. Some may crave it, others may avoid it at all costs. For Jose Bautista, one of the game’s most impressive and cerebral hitters, knowing the information is a key component of his success. In 2011 he shared with the Toronto Star how he uses this data. Bautista revisited a matchup with White Sox pitcher John Danks. “I know he only throws a change-up away and a cutter, which is a small slider, inside,” Bautista told the Star reporters. “He complements that with a fastball on both sides of the plate. He only throws like 7 [percent] curveballs. He threw me five curveballs. I didn’t swing at any of them because I eliminated that pitch from his repertoire before the game started. So I knew anything that had a big spin or that started up in the zone would either be a ball or a curveball.” Bautista’s preparation and knowledge allowed him to look for one pitch in one zone or one area. That being said, longevity plays a role just as much as being fed a detailed heat map or chart breakdown. Bautista was able to draw upon his years of experience to know what the shape of Danks’ curveball was. Or the tilt of his slider. There’s no substitute for major league reps yet a hitter can layer on information to better their odds. For instance, recent Oakland A’s acquisition Trevor Plouffe said that over his career he was able to internalize what certain pitchers were doing and pair that with the data nuggets in order to capitalize in certain situations. “I think you get to know pitchers around the league and understand what they are trying to do to you,” Plouffe said last spring training. “And also we have so much data now, we can look and see, 2-1 count, seventy percent of the time this [pitch] is coming. If you have seen a guy enough and you understand what his breaking ball does, why not look for it in that count? If he wants to throw it for a strike it’s probably going to go.” Historically, that information was available through observation. Players weren’t asked to trust the data like they can with PitchF/X and StatCast in the modern era. In the not too distant past they also had to simply trust the scout or peers. "When I came up, there was none of this," Atlanta's Chipper Jones told MLB.com in 2009 regarding the proliferation of video. "You basically relied on word-of-mouth from your teammates to get the pitcher's repertoire and what their tendencies might be." Former Twins third baseman Corey Koskie recently shared his thoughts on using analytics as a player earlier this month at the MinneAnalytics hosted SportCon at St. Thomas in Minneapolis. Koskie was asked by the moderator Mike Max how much information he wanted to know going into an at-bat. Koskie responded by saying he was a ‘see-ball, hit-ball’ player in his career. The more information he got, the more it clogged his brain. Past experience getting burned when playing the percentages had created a bit of a distrust for the big lefty. “I didn’t want to be the one guy that gets up in a situation where I’m like, 3-2, runners on second and third and this guy throws a change-up (at) 3-2 seventy-six percent of the time or eighty-two percent of the time and the pitcher throws a fastball right down the middle and I was sitting on a change-up,” Koskie told the crowd. Koskie pivoted and said that he did have one example where trusting the information paid big dividends for him and the team. “We were in the ALDS against the A’s and Tim Hudson was throwing,” Koskie said. “Paul Molitor, who the Twins had him doing some advanced scouting, and he comes up and says, Corey, I know how you feel about this stuff but when Tim Hudson gets 2-and-0 he throws a change-up ninety-seven percent of the time over the last four weeks.” As it would just so happen, Koskie found himself in the exact situation during the third inning of Game 1 of the 2002 ALDS. The Twins were in a 5-1 hole at the Coliseum courtesy of some shaky defense. With one out, Cristian Guzman laced a single to center, bringing Koskie to the plate. Hudson quickly fell behind 2-and-0. “So I’m stepping in and all this stuff is going through my mind. Should I chance it? Should I chance it? Timeout, timeout,” He recalled as Molitor’s advice came flooding into his mind. “I took a step out, I said, you know what? If I’m ever going to do this now is the time because I have a ninety-seven percent likelihood he’s going to throw a change-up here and I gotta sit on this thing because if I don’t sit on this thing and he throws it and I’m sitting fastball, I’m going to look like an idiot anyway, so why don’t I just sit on this thing?” Koskie, of course, sat on it: For hitters, there is no right or wrong answer when it comes to how much information you should consume. Koskie had a fairly solid offensive career relying on his own experience to guide him. Plouffe has found the data to be a good supplement to his internal catalogue of pitchers. Bautista, meanwhile, believes the information to be a vital part of his mental preparation. Coaches, on the other hand, need to examine all the data in order to be effective. From the outside, with the hiring of Pickler as well as James Rowson as the hitting coach, the Twins appear to be moving toward working smarter. Click here to view the article

I want to preface this by saying, like Nick, I'm not confident in Polanco being an everyday shortstop. As he wrote, I believe Polanco has some tools to be serviceable but does not seem to have that first step necessary to be an elite defender at the position. This isn’t meant as an add-on to Nick’s Polanco analysis and it is a bit of a tangent and data dump and a steam of consciousness, but I do want to clear up some issues when weighing analysis on advanced defensive metrics -- especially regarding middle infielders – which have been bandied about the site lately. Since 2003, when Fangraphs began to collect and publish Revised Zone Rating (RZR), shortstop conversion rate for plays within a shortstop's zone was at an all-time low in 2016. For those unfamiliar, RZR is essentially the raw form of Ultimate Zone Rate (UZR). Last year, just 77% of balls in a shortstop's designated zone were converted to outs. By comparison, they were converted to outs at an 82%+ rate in 2008, 2011, 2009 and 2003 (although I think 2003’s 88% is an outlier). The biggest difference, of course, is the increased use in defensive shifts over the last three seasons. According to Fangraphs, traditional shifts were employed in 13,000 plate appearances in 2014 and 28,000 in 2016. These means there were that many alignments where the shortstop was positioned not in the designated shortstop zone. When a grounder slips through the left side while the shortstop was positioned on the right side of second base, well, that data point is still bucketed in RZR's "ball in zone" (BIZ) and the shortstop is marked for not having made that play. On the flip side, with some many additional shifts, shortstops now have seen a large jump in Out Of Zone plays (OOZ). This past season, there were over 1,300 plays made outside of the standard zone by a shortstop over the 2003 season mostly due to the new positioning. For those unfamiliar, RZR is essentially the raw form of Ultimate Zone Rate (UZR). UZR is based on a grid zone chart of plays made/missed before they synthesize it to make it comparable across the league’s average. However, before UZR spits out its final number, they remove all shift plays from the equation. If a shortstop is lined up on the right side of the base and makes a play, UZR doesn’t count it. Likewise, if he’s in a shift and Adam Eaton slaps a ball to the left side to the vacated space, the shortstop doesn’t get hurt on the play (like he would in the RZR metric). So UZR simply ignores potentially hundreds of batted balls a year. UZR is also factored into other metrics such as WAR and the SABR Defensive Index. To me this feels incomplete and reducing the metric – particularly in the face of a growing practice of defensive shifts. Even the founder of UZR has voiced his opinions regarding the use of the data: https://twitter.com/mitchellichtman/status/720422490359476225 More and more I wonder if those elite shortstop defenders – the Carlos Correas and the Francisco Lindors – also benefit from having outstanding coaches/front office members who are able to line them up in the optimal location (as well as a pitching staff who executes their pitches). The Cubs curbed their use of defensive shifts in part because they believed they could put their players in the right spot and have their pitchers execute. Likewise, the Dodger, who have every sabermatrician born in their front office, rarely used the defensive shifts. Now, both teams have very good defenders at short that may compensate but the Twins seemingly used limited batted ball data compared to those two organizations. If the Twins are truly gearing up the front office and coaching staff to utilize data more, defensive positioning will be critical and could lead to improvements (so long as pitchers do their jobs which, yeah…). Again, I know the Twins’ coaching staff has been privy to batted ball data and chart for years but from reports, what the Dodgers, Cubs, Astros and others are doing with that information is way ahead of other teams.

http://m.mlb.com/images/6/3/8/154473638/101415_tor_bats_batflip_lowres_gjvlzoc9.gif PIMP EVERYTHING.