Parker Hageman

But wait! That’s not all! If you act now, you will also receive non-baseball talk which includes Parker Hageman’s Health Issues, Dan Anderson’s State Fair Visit, the Minnesota Vikings and much, much more! Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: THE NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #19: AUGUST AND EVERYTHING AFTER

There are plenty of scouts in the Braves, Astros and Twins organizations who would say they knew he was capable of this type of production. Once upon a time, Schafer was a top-50 prospect in the Braves system but that promise never came to fruition in two stints in Atlanta which sandwiched time in Houston as well. A vicious cycle of injuries and subsequent ineffectiveness contributed to the struggles over his big league career. In all, from 2009 until he was claimed by the Twins this season, Schafer put up a sad trombone line of .222/.307/.304 over 1,251 plate appearances. At 27, to begin the 2014 season, Schafer was back with his original organization and was hard-pressed to find a consistent role. He started just 14 of the 63 games he played in for the Braves. Offensively, his career hit a jagged rock bottom when he could not hit anything. Perhaps it was pressing to do too much in order to gain more playing time but Schafer’s swing rate increased exponentially as he offered at every other pitch regardless of where it may have been located. Is this stretch a breakout or a blip? With the sample size as miniscule as it is, it is easy to consider this streak one of those sample size flukes. There certainly is an element of that, no question. However, with the regular playing time Schafer has seemingly tightened up his wild swing --reducing his chase rate from 33% to 25%-- and increased his connectivity, dropping his swing-and-miss rate from 31% to 22%. What’s more, the contact is far better, as his line drive rate has jumped from 16% to 28%, as has his hard-hit average from .084 to .162. These marks show solid progress. When the Braves re-obtained the outfielder in 2013, Schafer confessed to falling into bad habits at the plate that dragged down his numbers. He was trying to pull the ball far too often and lost the ability to drive the ball up the middle and to the opposite field. Turning over when being pitched away resulted in ground-outs instead of base hits where he could showcase his blazing speed. He reached out to Braves’ hitting coach Greg Walker to help fix this. While he did show more ability to go the other way in 2013, a foul ball off his ankle led to a stress fracture that sidelined him for 31 days that year. Schafer did not return the same and it seemed the sound approach at the plate he had displayed before the injury had disappeared. Opposing teams in the National League exploited Schafer’s overzealous approach and targeted the outer half of the zone: According to ESPN/TruMedia, when being pitched on the outer-half (middle and away), Schafer pounded a vast majority of those into the ground, yanking almost 50% of those balls in play and predictably performed poorly, going 6-for-52, .115. Maybe it was because of regularly scheduled at-bats or a sweet nothing that Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky whispered in his ear, but after the Twins got their hooks into him, Schafer turned things around, particularly in this area. On pitches on the outer-half, Schafer has driven 60% of those to the middle of the field which has yielded plenty of hits (14-for-39, .359). As an example, here is a clip of Schafer versus Joba Chamberlain in which Schafer -- rather than turning over on the pitch -- stays behind the ball to intentionally drive the pitch to the spacious 5.5 hole where the third baseman is drawn in and the shortstop is playing at double-play depth. http://i.imgur.com/pBEpDSa.gif What does the future hold for Schafer and the Twins? After his performance against the Royals, manager Ron Gardenhire said that the organization is going to continue to feed him playing time for the rest of the year and see how he responds. “That’s what we’re trying to figure out here. We’re letting him play and giving him plenty of at bats and he’s responding and he’s doing well,” Gardenhire told reporters after the game, “You see him running the bases, he can fly -- he scored on that ball late in the game there. He was absolutely flying, I thought he had no chance to score. He has a lot of talent and we’re going to see how he does here the rest of the way for us. And we’ll to kind of figure out how he fits in this organization. We like the young man, he’s come over here and he’s shown some of his skills.” So we will see more of Schafer in September and the Twins will make an evaluation on what to do with him heading into 2015. He might not be a starter but he could be a very good contributor both defensively and offensively. The Minnesota Twins stomped on the Kansas City Royals, so Friday you can get 50% off a L or XL pizza at PapaJohns.com. Enjoy!

Joining the pair was a live studio audience of Tim Rollwagon and Jordan Johnson who helped piece together the previous day's events. Other non-pub crawl related topics included the latest with the Minnesota Twins, the preseason happenings of the Minnesota Vikings and going to Kid Rock concerts at the State Fair. (BONUS LINK! Here is a GIF of Dan Anderson falling really hard while rounding second base during a recent softball game.) Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: THE NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #18: TOUCH 'EM ALL PUB CRAWL

Oh, and one of those home runs? Yeah, that hit Target Field’s flag pole just like former Twins bruiser Jim Thome. It has been his ability to drive the ball with total disregard for human life that has made his plate appearances “must see” events, as far as “must see” events go this season, anyway. At the same time, it has been his inability to make contact with the ball for the bulk of the season that has come at a heavy price to his overall numbers. While he has deposited a ball in the seats in every 20 at-bats, he’s whiffed once in just under every three at-bats. Arcia’s strength has been prevalent throughout his professional career. In the minors he displayed a more balanced approached at the plate with less of a leg-lift stride that allowed him to use all fields. Of course, Arcia has eschewed this style for his prefered all-or-nothing pull approach at the major league level that has paid off well as of late. Take a look at his follow through earlier this season: His front side opens far too much -- particularly on a pitch that was middle-in in the example above. This pitch was an off-speed that Arcia did not stay back on and flew open in a failed attempt to yank it on to Nicollet Mall. If he continued to do this, he would see a reduced coverage on the outer-half of the plate (which he did) and this is something that can been seen throughout his at-bats early in the season. As I pointed out in June, because Arcia drops his hands, he has already shown a weakness to fastballs up in the zone and the Twins were trying to fix that issue as well. By the end of July, he was hitting a paltry .219/.299/.383. Needless to say, here was a lot to work on for the talented young slugger and, if his August numbers have anything to say about it, he appears to have turned a corner. While Arcia’s focus may be on pulling the ball with ferocity, manager Ron Gardenhire has said he would like the outfielder to temper his swing instead of trying to hit the ball “8,000 miles”. Though some may interpret that as an attempt to convert Arcia from a power hitter into a punch-and-judy slapper, the reality is the Twins were looking for him to stay in on the pitch in order to drive the ball. Since August 1, this message apparently has resonated with Arcia and he has remained closed instead of flying open: This practice should be enable him to handle left-handed pitchers, who up to this point have been the bane of his existence. The 23-year-old Arcia is making progress at the plate and it could spell more offense for the Twins in 2015. Twins beat Cleveland on Thursday afternoon, so Friday you can get 50% off a L or XL pizza at PapaJohns.com.

You can listen by downloading us from iTunes, Stitcher or find it at GleemanAndTheGeek.com. Or just click below. GLEEMAN & THE GEEK, EPISODE 158: JUST A CONCUSSION AND THE PURGE

They also talk about status of the Minnesota Vikings quarterback situation after one practice and one meaningless preseason game and drinking the world’s worst alcoholic beverage, .BONUS: Dan took his Mom to the recent Paul McCartney concert. They sang the na-na-na-na portion of "Hey Jude" together. Dan's Mom video'd it. Spoiler: Dan is not blessed with a good singing voice. . Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: THE NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #17: TWINS ROSTER MOVES Thanks to the Twins first win against the Oakland A’s in nearly two years on Sunday, on Monday you can get 50% off a Large or Extra Large pizza for the fourth straight day (on Monday) when you use the “TWINSWIN” promotion code at PapaJohns.com.

In 54 starts, Correia finishes his Twins career with a 14-26 record and a 4.49 ERA which was a product of his high-contact/low-bat miss abilities. According to Fangraphs.com, over the past two years Correia had the highest contact rate (80%) and the lowest swinging strike percentage (5.7%). "I enjoyed every minute of it," Correia told reporters in the clubhouse after the game and being told the news. "The guys on the team, the coaching staff, everything was great. I wish we would have won more games, obviously. Besides that, I couldn't have enjoyed the time any more in Minnesota and this organization." To fill Correia's roster spot, the Twins recall left-handed pitcher, Tommy Milone, who they received in the Sam Fuld trade with Oakland. Milone will start on Monday.

Ortiz is the most frequently recited comp based upon the pair's relationship that blossomed in Fort Myers and Vargas's admission that he based his left-handed swing Ortiz's. From this example -- his Futures Game double last month at Target Field -- you see the big leg-kick and hands-drop, a la Big Papi, from the left-side: http://i.imgur.com/C0O2M6U.gif In New Britain, Vargas displayed power from both sides of the plate but hit 11 of his 17 home runs from the left side with this swing: http://i.imgur.com/ebKMw5c.gif When he joined the team in Chicago, his swing was changed slightly. Though the big hand-drop before the swing was still prevalent -- as was the large leg-kick -- he had closed his stance. Most noteworthy is that the White Sox pitching staff did not let him see very many fastballs. According to ESPN/trumedia, Vargas saw 47 pitches and just 14 of those were fastballs. The vast majority were changeups and an assortment of breaking pitches: http://i.imgur.com/t8oO9qR.gif While the results were not bad for Vargas, his swings often produced bloops to the opposite field as the plethora of off-speed pitches disrupted his timing. As the team returned from Chicago for a series at home against the Padres, Twins Daily reader Willihammer astutely pointed out that Vargas had altered his swing. Instead of the leg-kick and hand movement, he was keeping himself still and his weight back: http://i.imgur.com/Xe2J7Ia.gif In at least the example above, Vargas kept his weight back effectively on the hanging breaking ball and was able to send that ball effortlessly into the stadium’s overhang. The Padres, for their part, sent more fastballs Vargas’s direction than the White Sox did. For those older fans who remembers the Twins teams at the turn of the century, this all should sound familiar. In 2001, David Ortiz was struggling to stay healthy and the Twins had him go through a series of adjustments at the plate to improve his overall approach. This from The Sporting News of that year: After Ortiz was released, he joined the Red Sox and continued to implement his big leg-kick swing and generated plenty of power and the ability to drive the ball to all fields, like the Twins had wanted him to do. This is not an attempt to open up old wounds from the past or berate the organization for a decision that probably still haunts them to this day, but the comparison is uncanny. To be sure, Vargas, a player who came straight from Double-A, is coming from a league whose pitching landscape is often filled with talented power arms but are still learning to locate their secondary pitches. Many analysts will tell you that if you succeed in Double-A, you should be able to succeed at the highest level. While that may be true in some cases, developing hitters miss out on the experience gained at Triple-A where pitchers do not have the same sexy velocity as their Double-A counterparts but are able to locate breaking balls and changeups. Players like Oswaldo Arcia and Aaron Hicks both have seen what can happen when pitchers can deploy secondary pitches with precision. What Vargas learned in his weekend in Chicago is that pitchers at this level can spot a change down and away with regularity. Hitting is an evolution and Vargas’s tweak may just be a temporary adjustment until he feels more comfortable with the mix of pitches he is now facing rather than a long-term change to his swing. Either way, Vargas represents a reason to watch the Twins even as the team wallows at the bottom of the division yet again.