Parker Hageman

Thanks for transcribing, Jay. If you want to continue with the entirety, I'd definitely post it for all to see.

The interview was conducted a day or two prior to the news of Maddon opting out of his Rays contract broke.

Last week, we asked you to submit questions for Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter. Watch him answer those in the video below.For more from St. Peter, be sure to listen to this week's No Juice Podcast. Click here to view the article

On this week's No Juice Podcast, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman meet with Minnesota Twins President Dave St. Peter at Excelsior Brewing Company to discuss the state of the team and the outlook for 2015. Listen below.Also joining the guys is Excelsior Brewing Company owner, found and vice duke John Klink who talks about the state of craft brewing in Minnesota. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #27: DAVE ST. PETER For more from Dave St. Peter on payroll and the future of the Twins, listen to this week's NO JUICE PODCAST. Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins search for a new manager remains a fluid situation however, the hunt has seemingly narrowed to three final candidates in Paul Molitor, Doug Mientkiewicz and Torey Lovullo. While we know who the applicants are, what is not known is how and what the organization is looking for in the next manager. General Manager Terry Ryan offers insight on the hiring process. ***Download the Offseason Handbook FREE SAMPLE for more from Terry Ryan*** Outsiders might believe that because of the existing relationship with Molitor as a bench coach and observing Mientkiewicz’s style in the minor leagues, give the team an understanding of how they would operate as managers thus forgoing the need for a detailed download. How’s the family? Everything good? Thanks for stopping in, you’ll hear from us soon. Ryan was quick to dispel that notion. “No, it’s not informal. It’s very formal,” Ryan said frankly during our Offseason Handbook interview. “And you are going to get answers to questions.” Still, the process slightly favors Molitor and Mientkiewicz because of what the team is looking for. “People that are within the organization are going to be much more prepared to do an interview than outside people,” Ryan acknowledged. “The people outside better come very prepared, ‘cause I’m going to ask questions about this club, and about our minor leagues and our affiliates and the people that work within, our trainers, our team physicians, and they don’t know a thing about that. So hopefully they should be at least prepared enough to at least go through the interview process.” Despite giving Molitor and Mientkiewicz an advantage, reports of Lovullo’s interview have been glowing. While other external candidates -- such as Sandy Alomar Jr, Demarlo Hale and Joe McEwing -- have all been reportedly excused from consideration KSTP’s Darren Wolfson said last week that his sources said Lovullo “nailed his interview.” Based on that and Ryan’s admitted guidelines, it is safe to assume that the Red Sox bench coach is a well-prepared individual. In terms of in-game management, Ryan said the Twins are aware of the uses of defensive shifts, the effects of sacrifices, lineup construction and other analytical elements of the modern game -- things that Lovullo has been associated with and Molitor has embraced in his role with the Twins -- but Ryan considered that all a piece for the manager, not the focus. If anything, pitching was going to be an emphasis and he has expectations of how a manager should handle his arms. “Strategy is more important than some,” Ryan said. “The most important thing out of many managerial interviews is how they handle the pitching staff.” When it comes to pitching, as minor league managers, both Mientkiewicz and Lovullo have recent experience in this area while Molitor is more of novice. Of course, the next manager will have a pitching coach that he will be able to task with guidance. And that person will be selected by a joint effort from the manager and the front office -- not just the new manager’s old drinking buddy, as was the practice in a bygone era. “He shouldn’t have total control over his coaching staff, nor should I. But it should be a combination of what the front office deems as the right pieces and what a manager would deem and how much he can delegate those pieces.” Another element that has been discussed outside of the front office has been the possible inclusion of a manager with a Latin American background. Unless there is another “mystery” candidate not yet identified, the Twins are not currently considering this. With the increasing number of players from the Dominican Republic and Venezuela on the roster and in the pipeline, there was the thought that the Twins should target someone who can relate well to these players. But Ryan did not find this need a pressing one. “I don’t see it being important as long as we have people that are in this operation that can help anybody and everybody we have on our roster,” Ryan said. “Just like sabermetrics will be a piece. And strategy will be a piece. And who they hire or want to hire will be as a coaching staff. And it will all come together and I suspect every piece of information that you deem important, we have touched on.” ***Download the Offseason Handbook FREE SAMPLE for more from Terry Ryan*** Click here to view the article

Thanks everyone who contributed to this! Dave St Peter was a great guest, addressed many of the questions asked here and in the forum section. He did not physically harm me for asking unending questions on the payroll. The video will be up in the next few days. Thanks again to all!

Do you have a question for Twins President Dave St. Peter that you have wanted answered? A topic he should address? Now is your opportunity.Twins Daily and the No Juice Podcast will be hosting St. Peter in a special video Q & A session at the Excelsior Brewing Co.'s Taproom on Tuesday, October 21st. Submit your question in this thread below and it could be answered by the team’s president. http://excelsiorbrew.com/wp-content/themes/eddiemachado-bones-responsive-35e1022/images/main-logo.png Click here to view the article

If there is one position that will be different for the Minnesota Twins in 2015, it appears that it will be left field. And if the team wants to reward it’s pitching staff, it should be a defensive-minded individual.In 2014, the position originally was intended for the incumbent Josh Willingham but on April 7th he was sidelined with a fractured wrist from a Justin Masterson’s pitch. That forced Jason Kubel into duty. But before long the position turned over again when Kubel was DFA’d and Willingham was traded to the Royals at the non-waiver deadline. The Twins used a mixture of Chris Parmelee, Eduardo Nunez and Jordan Schafer to conclude the year. With the exception of Schafer, and a handful of games from Sam Fuld, this unit was not particularly good. In fact, you might say it was the worst in baseball, at least by advanced fielding metrics standards. According to Ultimate Zone Rating found at Fangraphs.com, the left field position held a -19.3 UZR, the worst in baseball. Over at BillJamesOnline.net, their Plus/Minus rating provided by BIS said the Twins left field was at -25. If you look toward Inside Edge’s scouted data -- how many balls which were hit to left field were converted into outs -- well, it gets just slightly better. Inside Edge assigns a catchability value to each play that is then loaded into their overall database. These are broken down into categories like 90%-to-100% catchable, 60%-to-90%, 40%-to-60% and so on. For the Twins, they managed to catch 98.7% (27 of 30) of all balls that fell within the 90%-to-100% range. In the 60%-to-90% range, they tracked down an MLB-worst 56% of those plays. Of course, advanced fielding metrics have flaws. Scouts have biases. In terms of just the raw counts, the Twins fared OK. A generous OK. According to ESPN/TruMedia’s data, the Twins left fielders faced 769 fly balls or line drives that traveled over 200 feet in the air and stayed in the ballpark. Of those, they managed to convert 59.9% into outs which was roughly comparable to the league average of 60.4%. For those following the playoffs and watching the Royals’ Alex Gordon, you might hear that he has been viewed as one of the best defenders in the game. Not just the best defender in left field: everywhere. According to Fangraphs.com’s UZR, his 25.0 mark is the best in baseball in all positions. He apparently did not just get that way by being born into in. Gordon has a pregame warmup routine in the field which is borderline psychotic: That’s how players go from good to great. If Aaron Hicks ultimately takes the left field role in 2015, he should adopt something similar to improve his game. Next to the Twins’ 769 total flies/liners hit in left field, the Royals are second in baseball. Whereas the Twins were below average in converting balls into outs, the Royals’ left fielders, headlined by Gordon, stopped 63.7% of those balls from becoming hits. For the visual learners, here is the ESPN/TruMedia spray charts associated with the two teams. Notice the significant real estate gap that does not contain hits from the Royals (right) compared to the Twins (left): Download attachment: MIN_KC Spray Chart.png Gordon has been a beacon of hope to his pitching staff when balls have been launched in his direction; he is particularly skilled at going back on balls. On the other hand, Twins pitchers have suffered due to the inability of getting back on plays such as this one. http://i.imgur.com/Lsdop8J.gif That Dayan Viciedo fly ball, which was catchable on the track, was turned into a triple thanks to the misplay. And if you look at the spray chart above, there are other examples of this happening. This was a far too common occurrence according to the data. While it may not seem critical to some, the defensive integrity of this position is important because of the nature of the Twins’ pitching staff. As high-contact, low-strikeout hurlers they tend to allow more batted balls in play. As mentioned above, the Twins had the highest number of liners and flies hit toward left field. Many of them were deemed catchable by Inside Edge’s scouts. At worst, failing to do so gives the opposing team more opportunities to score and at the very least it adds unnecessary pitches to a highly-compensated pitcher’s totals. Be it internal, through trade or free agency, employing a left fielder in 2015 who can turn more of these hits into outs should be a priority for the front office this offseason. Click here to view the article

On this week’s No Juice Podcast Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman talk about Parker's interview with Twins general manager Terry Ryan that will be released for the upcoming Twins Daily Offseason Handbook. Listen below.Other topics include the Vikings loss to the Lion and how awful announcer Mike Goldberg was, blacking out at the Gophers' football game, things to do in Crosslake and etc, etc, so on and so on. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #25: MY TALK WITH TERRY Click here to view the article

When we chatted this spring (or possibly last season) he mentioned that this would be a goal for them. Not sure where it progressed to this year.

The Minnesota Twins’ Manager of Baseball Research, Jack Goin, does not like to tip his pitches. Most statistically-inclined minds would like to hear that the team is working on finding the next market inefficiency to exploit or running regression models on supercomputers in efforts to find an in-game strategy that would help gain a win or two. Others might just assume they are just sorting the RBI leaderboard at Fangraphs.com. Either way, Goin isn’t going to tell me what they are working on.“I’m not overly concerned that people see us as middle-of-the-pack, below-the-pack or any of that stuff. Obviously, I’m working on where I want to get to as a department but I’m not concerned what the outside perception is, so to speak.” By most outside estimates, the Twins likely fall in the middle of the pack. Unlike the Houston Astros who went all-in on analytics from the top down in their ballclub, the Twins seemingly view that as one piece of the equation, one ingredient in the recipe. And, unlike the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Astros, who receive splashy tell-all write-ups from Grantland and Bloomberg touting their organization’s analytical deployment, Goin likes to keep his activities and goals close to the vest. This past August Grantland’s Ben Lindbergh revealed that the Pirates send 26-year-old Mike Fitzgerald on road trips with the team to provide information when the team is away from PNC Park. Lindbergh notes that Fitzgerald, whose title is Qualitative Analyst, is what most people would consider a friggin genius. A math graduate from MIT, Fitzgerald tags along with the Pirates to provide “direct, in-season information” to the coaching staff. “Fitzgerald, meanwhile, makes most road trips: If the Pirates are playing, he’s almost always at the park,” Lindbergh writes. “I surveyed several analysts from other front offices, and none of them knew — or would admit to knowing — of another employee with Fitzgerald’s statistical expertise who travels close to full-time with a team.” As a footnote to his statement, Lindbergh mentions that one of the reasons he may have been unable to find another team to admit they have the same practice is because, like the Twins, most research departments are mum on their methods. Baseball analysts, Lindbergh notes, are the secretive sort. Goin, however, admitted that the Twins have a similar practice in place, sending one of the members of the analytics department on about sixty percent of the road trips. Like the Pirates, the Twins would be able to feed data to the coaching staff on request. Having someone from the research department traveling with the team allows him to provide insight on pitching matchups, how to pitch opposing players and, what has become increasingly more common, defensive shifts. In 2013, the Twins fielders shifted -- aligning three infielders on one side of second base -- just 66 times (27th). This year, that number dramatically increased to over 500 times (16th). “Joe Vavra kind of chipped away at that in 2013, starting to get some shifts involved and then Gardy was starting to go along with it then and we took it to another level for us this year,” explains Goin. “A lot of that was Molitor, he did a lot of video work.” “I’m not sure how much Gardy liked the shift but as it started to pay off he liked it a little bit more", said general manager Terry Ryan. “We never shifted too much the last couple of years, but neither did anybody for that matter. It was always the David Ortizes, the guys you normally expect. Now all of a sudden you see shifts on three players in every lineup.” While Goin and his team would provide data, in addition to the video work supplied by the team’s director of Major League video, Sean Harlin, the coaching staff would be responsible for deciding the game plan. “Paul and Gardy would have a meeting, talk about who they were going to shift and how they were going to shift,” Goin said. “Then after that meeting they would have an infielders or defenders meeting with Gardy and Molitor and whoever else and then they’d talk about it: Here are the charts, how should we shift him? Step-pull, straight-away, two-steps pull or whatever it is.” It is hard to say if the emphasis on shifting was beneficial to the team’s record in 2014. According to the shift data, the Twins finished in the middle of the pack for hits saved. At the same time, the infield’s overall defensive efficiency took a step back in 2014. In 2013, the Twins’ opponents had a batting average on grounders in play of .235. This year that increased to .258. It is possible that it is, in part, due to that the pitching staff being hit hard or that the team did not position their players in the right spot enough. Consider this, on ground balls in the middle of the diamond, opponents hit .500, the highest in all of baseball. What Goin and his team provides to the coaching staff evolved based on preferences. “Sometimes it starts out with a question from him and then you create some type of report from what that initial conversation was,” Goin said. “‘Oh, that’s great but can we add this or move this?’ And you add a piece that you didn’t think of at the initial conversation. They get a standard package and then different coaches get a few one-off packages that they like on their own. Brunansky and Gardy got a couple and Molitor got a couple. Rick Anderson got hitters, Bruno got pitchers and some of the other coaches got reports too. Gardy got everything.” The Twins’ baseball research department, which started out as a one-man show several years ago, has expanded as the acceptance has increased. In addition to adding coordinator Andrew Ettel, they recently posted for a developer of baseball systems to “develop, deliver, and maintain data driven solutions for analytics and architecture of player information and evaluation systems.” This is more or less a position that has become commonplace within front offices to help create database systems for both readily available statistics like Pitch F/X and proprietary projections. Perhaps most important for the new hire might be working with MLBAM’s new field-tracking system that was installed in a handful of ballparks, including Target Field, this past year. Unlike the Pitch F/X system which was released to the public and allowed hobbyists like Josh Kalk to tinker with the data that ultimately led to his hiring by the Tampa Bay Rays, the new system will be provided to only the teams. One of the reasons this will not be made available for the general public is because each game’s data will be terabytes. MLB will purportedly release the data to all teams prior to the 2015 season, at which point, it will be a race to see which organization can leverage the information to their advantage. There is also the perception that the Twins decision-makers are not interested in or resistant to this kind of information. Both Ryan and Goin say that is not true, but that there is some education required. “I got that in here and I look at it,” said Ryan, gesturing to his computer when asked about his familiarity with Pitch F/X, “but for me to decipher it I have to go to him.” At the basic level, the Twins research department’s role appears to be the storefront of a butcher shop. Ryan does not need to know how the sausage is made, but he has trust in Goin and his staff that he is not receiving tainted meat. “There are things that I need to be educated about that kind of catch my eye, and I've got to make sure I know what the norm is, for sure, and I go to Jack,” Ryan said of the role the research team. **** It’s a piece. That’s the common phrase that the pair offered as a response to a lot of inquiries about the use of stats and analytics when it came to decisions in the front office. In the end, the team admits that it is not a guiding light for the direction of the organization. For the stats community and analytics proponents, that may be an unsatisfying answer. For others, that might strike a good balance. Click here to view the article

Yeah, who woulda suspected it would be Lindsay?

On this week’s No Juice Podcast -- live from Station 280 near Dinkytown -- Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman bring in local media mogul Lindsay Guentzel and former Twins minor leaguer AJ Pettersen to discuss the career of Ron Gardenhire and hash out the front-running replacement candidates in Paul Molitor and Doug Mientkiewicz. Listen below.Guentzel talks about her time with the MLB FanCave, her experience as a pregame show host for the Twins Radio Network and drops all of the names. Pettersen shares his thoughts on targeting a manager that can relate to the Latino players, his inside sources that are close to Paul Molitor and the shift from New Britain to Chattanooga. Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE 24: GOODBYE GARDY, HELLO________? Click here to view the article

Another year, another 90-loss season. Can you even remember what winning baseball smells like? Brighter days are likely ahead but the recent history has been depressing. Still, even with all the losses there are moments that continue to remind you that baseball is beautiful -- even if the results are ugly. Here are the Twins’ top 10 moments from the 2014 season: Honorable Mention On Sunday, August 3, the Twins decimated the Chicago White Sox 16-3. Within the offensive binge, Chris Parmelee, Oswaldo Arcia and Eric Fryer went back-to-back-to-back -- the first time the team had done so since July 12, 2001 when Doug Mintkiewicz, Corey Koskie and Torii Hunter took Brewers’ pitcher Jimmy Haynes deep at Miller Park. It would be the first (and last apparently) time this would happen with Ron Gardenhire as the Twins’ manager. While the feat is impressive it was the reaction of the fan that receives this mention. During Parmelee’s home runs, this guy -- who appears to have an onlooking lady companion with him -- hops the rail in the party porch in pursuit of the ball but fails to stick the landing. http://i.imgur.com/P9uFBD2.gif (via Twins Daily) Reminder: They’re baseballs, people. Yarn, wrapped with dead horse and held together with red stitches. Just baseballs. 10. Kurt Suzuki With A Ghostrider-Like Slider Around Salvador Perez Yeah, slides are not normally warrant a mention but after this throw beat Kurt Suzuki to the plate, the Twins’ catcher performs some sleight-of-hand, somehow got around a diving Salvador Perez and slapped his hand on the dish for the run. http://38.media.tumblr.com/58339045a8293974408ffc0e5a55447a/tumblr_nafh69I5OQ1rrei7qo1_400.gif (via TwinsBaseball.Tumblr.com) I mean, compare that technique to Kendrys Morales who apparently went to the school for kids who can’t slide good and want to learn other things too: http://i.imgur.com/sPsdyam.gif 9. The Rookies Arrive Both Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas made their major league debuts with the Twins in 2014 and both contributed offensively right away. Here are their first Major League hits: (via @cjzero) 8. Kennys Vargas Nearly Takes A Piece Off Josh Donaldson Vargas has been very good since joining the Minnesota Twins, specifically at hitting baseballs hard. During the series in Oakland, Vargas hit a ball that was registered at 120 miles an hour off the bat. That, according to Trackman’s 100,000 batted ball database, was the hardest hit ball ever. EVER. Because of this ability, it must be quite worrisome to have to play third base when he smashes pitches down the line. Oakland's Josh Donaldson narrowly avoided getting cut in half by a Vargas one-hopper and, once the ball clears, he double-checks to make sure he's "all there". http://i.imgur.com/57KEbRB.gif "One, two...three...OK, good to go." 7. Oswaldo Arcia Destroys Lumber The 23-year-old Arcia proved to be loaded with power -- as evidenced by his 20 home runs -- but he also had tendencies to be mired in slumps. He had been in the midst of a .173 stretch in July with a butt-load of strikeouts when he decided to take the frustration out on his bat. Splinters ensue. http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--tAzFTjHv--/c_fit,fl_progressive,q_80,w_636/zeqdpy5ynjvtrsrt90qp.gif (via Deadspin.com) But he can destroy baseballs too. According to HitTrackerOnline.com, a site that measures “true distance” of a player’s home run, said that he whalloped 10 No-Doubt bombs. No-Doubts are shots that clear the fence by 20 vertical feet and land at least 50 feet past the wall. Much like this one that ricochet off the flagpole at Target Field: (via @cjzero) In general, 27% of a player’s home runs fall in that category. For Arcia, half of his home runs were No-Doubts. Big time power. 6. Glen Perkins Really Loves Red Bull I don’t know. Closers have to stay up really late, I guess. (via @cjzero) Find moments 1 through 5 on the next page. Page 1 of 2 12 → Last » Click here to view the article

Click bait. Thanks Linus. I would encourage people to read the post before making generalizations in the comment section.