AlwaysinModeration

I hold my breath every time he goes up against a wall. He doesn’t seem like he has figured out yet to minimize impact — always seems a bit awkward crashing, limbs going everywhere. I think I already mentioned this once, but there was a great article last year by Chad Jenning about Jackie Bradley Jr and his spectacular catches; he ranked his top ten catches. He talked about how he worked to get better at avoiding injury / awkward crashes. I don’t want Buxton to stop making spectacular catches, but he needs to get better at navigating walls to save himself from missing playing time.

I think he is very cautious. He only steals when he knows he will make it. That means very rarely against lefties, and almost never third base, and frankly, not that often in other circumstances. Makes me wonder if he is aware of the streak, and wants to gun for the record. Which...I'm ok with. After he breaks the record, though, I'd like to see him steal third some more (or some).

Didn’t they announce that there was going to be a split game double header yesterday?

Back on May 23, 2017 in Baltimore, Byron Buxton led off the third inning with a walk off of Dylan Bundy. After a foul bunt pop-up out (come on Dozier, gotta get that bunt down), Robbie Grossman came to the plate, and Byron duly took off for second. Wellington Castillo threw down to second and JJ Hardy received the throw, but Buxton had already reached the bag safely, as he usually does. Unfortunately, Buxton’s momentum - as it sometimes does - carried him past the bag, and Hardy (as he often does) alertly tagged Buxton out. Now, you can debate whether Buxton should be credited with a stolen base for getting to the base ahead of the throw, but the box score - and the record books - now reflect this as a caught stealing of second base. Since that moment, Buxton has not been caught stealing again. In 2017 he went on to steal: 4 more in May 4 in June 3 in July 8 in August and 5 in September That totaled 24 consecutive stolen bases without a caught stealing against. In 2018, as we all know, Buxton had a lost season. Well, that’s not entirely true. He did not, in fact, lose everything that season. He did not lose an out on the base paths due to a caught stealing, nor, therefore, did he lose his consecutive stolen base streak. He stole: 1 bag in March 3 bases in April and 1 more base in May It wasn’t much, but it did add five more steals to his totals, bringing his running total up to 29 consecutive bases stolen without being caught. This year, Byron has started the season is 3 for 3 on the bases. He missed out on nabbing a March steal, but he has notched steals in three different April games - thus far. So as of today, (April 13, 2019) Byron Buxton has 32 consecutive steals without being caught. Where does that stack up? Those 32 steals means that he’s already got the Twins record for consecutive steals. In the history of MLB, there are only 8 men who have gotten to 35 consecutive steals, including three who have done it twice (Davey Lopes, Jimmy Rollins, and Tim Raines.). Three have managed 40 or more; Raines (40), Ichiro (45), and the all-time record is held by Vince Coleman, who managed a nice round 50 consecutive stolen bases without being caught. So just exactly how far Buxton can climb up this list is the question. Or rather, the questions: —Will he become the ninth player in MLB history to steal 35 straight bases? —Will he keep the streak alive until May 23, thus going two whole years without getting caught? —Will he join Raines, Ichiro and Coleman as the fourth all-time to notch 40 consecutive stolen bases? —Or...will he manage 19 more straight steals, thereby getting to 51 and setting a new MLB record? Let the countdown begin. Run, Buxton, Run!

Will Ichiro be eligible for the Hall the same year as Mayer? He played in games this year; does he wait, or do he, Joe and Beltre all go on the ballot together?

I don’t want it to happen, so I will take tonight, April 9 versus deGrom, who has 24Ks in 13IP this season. (Willians needs to be in the starting lineup tonight...can’t bring a knife to a gunfight!). On his career, he has 3BB and 3Ks. By the way, that home run he robbed in CF was from Jesus Aguilar.

What happened to him?

Apparently the ability to hit the ball with exit velocity of 108mph or greater has been proven statistically to correlate with OPS. Two Twins have four such hits this year (placing them tied for seventh in MLB): Nelson Cruz Byron Buxton Oh, and Schoop has three.

It is clear now that Tyler Austin was the sacrificial price the Twins had to pay for Buxton to return to action Friday night, rather than being out until June.

If that’s what we have to worry about, I’m fine with that. Between Brusdar, Duran and Balazovic, there is some serious talent to keep tabs on. Fun.

I think Arrieta served up the homer to Max because he was irritated that Buxton scored. And then Willians hit a pitch at his eyeballs 15 rows deep. The double play from Buxton to Willians was a thing of beauty all the way around. Those two guys are quickly becoming “must see TV” on both sides of the ball. My only problem with this game was that Pineda got charged with a run after exiting with a man on first base, doubling his ERA from 1 to 2. Such a dumb system. I think that inherited runs scored should be divvied proprionally to the exiting and incoming pitchers, .25 to the exiting pitcher / .75 to the incoming pitcher for a runner on first, .50 to a runner on second, etc. Thus Pineda should have a 1.25ERA, not 2.

0 for 2 on Odorizzi starts. Well, now we get to see if Pineda can pitch more than 4 innings, since he lost his shadow.

Non-concur. The man, the myth, la Tortuga. Wasn’t one of the TNMTs named Willians? (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Whatever he is, he is NOT just a human.

And....Buxton is on the bench again today against the Phillies. There was an article several months ago about Jackie Bradley and how he has studied how to handle the wall. Seemed very savvy about it. To me, Buxton needs to start being more cautious around the wall. Period.

1. That Adrianza flip was a lousy play that should have gotten Gibson out of the inning. Garver or the pitching coach really should have talked to him at that point - he seemed to lose it a bit there, and then he gave up the 3-run homer. That was a bit of “old Gibby” right there. The infield sure didn’t do him any favors, though. 2. Having someone on the bench who can get the ball in play almost guaranteed is a huge weapon for key spots. Now, maybe he hits so much that he earns regular starts and this becomes moot, but his uncanny contact ability could be used really strategically in late innings. If he is used as a late inning PH to always put the ball in play to get the key run over or in, “The Assassin” will become even more of a cult hero.

Wow, that is pretty astounding that MLB does that. I love this quote from the Deadspin article: “The most striking but also maybe the least surprising thing about all of this is that no one in baseball, at any point, said to themselves, maybe we shouldn’t do this.“

I think you left out an option: just start Astudillo all the time.

Martin Perez highest average fastball velocity [in any given year] 2012-2018: 93.1mph. Martin Perez average fastball velocity 2019: 95.2mph.

liked for the use of “technically” in this sentence.

Actually, I think Garver tried to be too cute with it a couple of times. There was a pitch to the last batter of the second inning that was clearly a strike on the lower left corner. Garber pulled the pitch back in several inches. Cuzzi called it a ball. I think if Garver catches it and holds it where it was, it gets called a strike. Similarly, but less obviously, on the Hanley Ramirez Home run AB, the 2-0 pitch was a strike. Garver pulled it in a bit, and again Cuzzi called it a ball. I think Garver needs to do a better job holding strikes on the edge rather than pulling them in. Or be less obvious about it. Or, use technology to help the umpires actually call balls balls and strikes strikes. Please.

I haven’t listened to the entire podcast yet, but I can’t believe John and Aaron didn’t include Delmon Young on the “Mt. Flushmore” of the biggest bummer all-time Twins.

I think I speak for all of us that we look forward to seeing it when you finish. (Also, Jamie, thanks for coordinating the host program and posting here. Really interesting information on the program and about your experience. Please post more during the season about the Wahoos this year. Hope you get enough volunteers!)

You mean...the outfield?

Is it too much to ask for an undefeated first month of the season?

Who had 2-0 in the opening day pool? Four games had that score...