Brandon Warne

This is an excerpt from an article which originates at Zone Coverage. Click here to read it in full. It’s not hard to find people with the opinion that the Minnesota Twins need to make a move to address their bullpen. Those people aren’t exactly wrong, either. As of this writing, the Twins are ninth in the AL with a bullpen ERA of 4.73. They’re also ninth in WHIP (1.39) and 11th in strikeouts per nine innings (8.3). Each of those numbers, on their surface, are not terribly exciting. But consider the plight facing the current AL reliever — the average marks right now of each of those is 4.51, 1.34 and 8.7. The Twins are more or less average when it comes to unadjusted stats, and even better when they’re adjusted. Peeking at Fangraphs for adjusted figures paints a bit more of a favorable picture. Twins relievers have combined for 1.0 fWAR, the fifth-best mark in the AL. In other words, they’ve pitched better in some higher-leverage spots, while outings like Chase De Jong and Andrew Vasquez’s against the New York Mets have sullied otherwise decent results from this bunch. But no matter how it’s sliced, it’s still not indefensible to suggest the Twins could use some more help out in the bullpen. Some of that help showed up on Friday in the form of Matt Magill, who was activated off the disabled list to take the roster spot of Kohl Stewart, who was returned to Rochester after his start in Houston on Wednesday night. Curiously, the Twins also outrighted Chase De Jong off the 40-man roster, leaving an open spot with no real move on the immediate horizon. The smart bet is that a reliever will eventually fill that role, but let’s take a look at how the Twins could end up making an addition in the bullpen in the near future. Promote internally Two relievers who could easily get the call who aren’t currently on the 40-man roster are Mike Morin and Jake Reed. Morin has big-league experience with the Angels, Royals and Mariners — 3.32 FIP in 174 innings — and a baseball contact recently told Zone Coverage that he was the “best pitcher for Rochester right now.” Morin has not allowed an earned run in 9.1 innings with the Red Wings with nine strikeouts, two walks and a WHIP of 0.86. Morin turns 28 next week. Reed has no MLB experience, but has been terrific in Triple-A the past four seasons: 2.16 ERA, 8.9 K/9 and 1.13 WHIP in 100 innings with the Red Wings.

This is an except of a post originating from Zone Coverage. Read it in full at this link. You could be forgiven if the Minnesota Twins recalling Tyler Duffey on the last homestand didn’t register on your radar. A lot of things are going on with this team right now — most notably, winning and hitting homers — and the return of a reliever who posted a 7.20 ERA when fans saw him last probably doesn’t many of them too excited. But if you think it’s the same Duffey you’ve seen before, you’re sorely mistaken. Duffey’s early results have been fairly positive — it has only been three appearances spanning four innings — as the 28-year-old righty has fanned five of the 16 batters he’s faced while allowing just one earned run. A furtive glance at his HR/9 would indicate he hasn’t graduated from last season’s bombing, but that’s just one homer allowed in a small sample size. It doesn’t indicate much, and if the things Duffey has been working on continue to stick, that number will come down quickly. Duffey is the newest convert to the concept of tunneling. What is tunneling? It’s really a simple concept that has picked up steam in recent years with the increased usage of GIFs on social media platforms like Twitter. Tunneling is the idea that the baseball travels down the same path regardless of what pitch it is, only deviating from that plane at a point where a hitter is either unable to differentiate what it is, or unable to react to it. Basically, for a pitcher like Duffey it’s like throwing his curveball and fastball on the same plane, with the high fastball mixing beautifully with the curve down that is his bread and butter.

Always a treat to see new people have their first Stu experience.

Appreciate it. Kohl has really, really rounded into a really awesome young man.

WRITER NOTE: This is an excerpt from a story that appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. On Saturday afternoon, that place was Bat & Barrel — the restaurant that used to be known as the Metropolitan Club — down the right-field line at Target Field. Twins players and fans gathered at the stadium for the yearly gathering known as TwinsFest, which caps the club’s winter caravan and begins the road to Spring Training each year. Most of the 40-man roster and a smattering of prospects show up each year to what has to be among the top five or so best fan fests in the game today. The whole thing is basically a large autograph party, with fun events mixed in where players and fans — especially kids — can mingle on the concourse and surrounding areas of Target Field. Beyond that, it also gives fans a look into the Legend’s and Champion’s Clubs — two exclusive areas that have more restricted access at the stadium. The Legend’s Club housed food areas, a few games and booths and the WCCO radio setup, while the Champion’s Club housed a large majority of the vendors selling game-used apparel, baseball cards and etc. Bat & Barrel was set up half as a restaurant, but also a stage for players to take questions from fans or play games with a crowd watching. In this case, it was a quartet of Twins playing Headbandz, a charades game with players teaming up in pairs — Matt Magill with Trevor May and Blake Parker with Kohl Stewart — with a player holding an iPad to their forehead while the other gave clues to the mystery word on the screen. After Magill and May beat Parker and Stewart, stadium announcer Jim Cunningham said they had a few more minutes left to take some questions from the fans. One kid asked May how he got so good at Fortnite — “Get injured kids, and you’ll have a lot of time for video games.” — and another asked what position each of the players played. Another humorously asked if he could get autographs from each of the pitchers, but it was the final question that brought the room to a poignant silence. A young girl got the microphone, and meekly asked Stewart how he handles playing in the big leagues with Type-1 diabetes. Stewart climbed off the stage, knelt down next to the girl and talked to her for a few minutes and took a number of pictures while also signing her jersey.

he re-signed here because he didn't have a choice. he's under team control.

I'm not going to commit $60 million, move Lewis off short and sell low on Buxton.

Hard pass.

...because the closest thing the Twins have to Crawford is probably Byron Buxton, and the Twins probably aren't looking at a four-year solution at shortstop.

If it was that easy, hitters would do it.

Gordon, Gonsalves and another lower pitcher doesn't even get the phone answered.

Why? 2B has more options and Polanco, while not great, is fine at short.

Not needing an opener for any of those five starters might help, but that's not an invalid point. In that case, they probably don't sign Descalso.

This is an excerpt from an article that appears at Zone Coverage; click here to read it in full. The celebratory alcohol is barely dry on the shirts handed out to the Boston Red Sox after winning the World Series on Sunday night, but in a news cycle that never sleeps, we’re already moving onto the 2019 season via offseason moves. The Minnesota Twins are facing a pivotal offseason. The brain trust of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have overseen a swinging pendulum so far through two seasons, and are coming off a big hire in new manager Rocco Baldelli late last week. How will they attack an offseason with ample cash to spend, a few big holes on the roster and a handful of youngsters with plenty to prove at this level? Well, here’s what I’d do: Arbitration Decisions (numbers from Matt Swartz, MLB Trade Rumors) Jake Odorizzi - $9.4 million (tender) Kyle Gibson - $7.9 million (tender) Eddie Rosario - $5.0 million (tender) Robbie Grossman - $4.0 million (non-tender) Max Kepler - $3.2 million (tender) Miguel Sano - $3.1 million (tender) Ehire Adrianza - $1.8 million (tender) Taylor Rogers - $1.6 million (tender) Byron Buxton - $1.2 million (tender) Trevor May - $1.1 million (tender) Most of these are pretty easy. I have no gripes with Grossman -- he’s plenty useful from an on-base and pinch-hitting standpoint -- but I think the Twins can go younger, cheaper and more defensively able in the outfield with Jake Cave, Johnny Field or even Zack Granite. Free-Agent Signings C Yasmani Grandal - four years, $80 million 2B Jed Lowrie - two years, $16 million IF Daniel Descalso - two years, $10 million RP David Robertson - two years, $22 million RP Cody Allen - one year, $8 million (plus incentives)

Hadn't seen it. Sorry.

This is an excerpt of an article that appears at Zone Coverage, click here to read it in full! By the looks of it, it was going to be a battle reminiscent of David and Goliath. Well, that is, the way Vegas might have seen that battle before it happened. In one corner was the team everyone expected to be there. The Los Angeles Dodgers opened the year with a payroll of a touch over $187 million, and that was on the heels of spending $200-plus million in each of the previous five seasons. In the other corner was a team that hadn't spent that much in the previous two years combined. According to Cot's Contracts, the Milwaukee Brewers ended the 2016 and '17 seasons 30th in MLB in payroll, and opened this season with a total of just under $91 million on the books. Over the past two years, the Brewers had Opening Day payrolls of just a touch under $164 million -- combined. And the Brewers didn't just roll over, but push the NL's answer to the New York Yankees to the brink of elimination -- a decisive Game 7 at their own home park. Even if you didn't read the title to this piece, it isn't hard to see where we're going here. By comparison, the Minnesota Twins opened the season with a payroll of $128 million and change. They haven't had a payroll finish a season in the top half of MLB since 2012, and only once since the turn of the decade have they been among the game's top-10 spenders. That was in 2011 -- the year they lost 99 games. The 2012 team wasn't much better. People will label you a "Pohlad Pocket Protector" if you say it publicly, but ultimately it comes down to how a team spends rather than what it spends. Last season's AL Wild Card qualifier finished the year 21st in payroll. The team the year before that lost 103 games? They finished 20th. Money really won't be an issue this offseason no matter how someone slices it. The team only has about $30ish million hard committed for next year -- guaranteed money to Addison Reed, Jason Castro and Michael Pineda as well as dead money to Phil Hughes and buyouts of Ervin Santana and Logan Morrison's deals -- and the payroll estimator over on Cot's projects the Opening Day payroll at just a touch under $69 million as things currently stand. That includes the following arbitration figures, in case you want to do some back-of-the-napkin math about who you might non-tender if you were magically granted a seat at the table with Derek Falvey and Thad Levine. For comparison's sake, we'll put the estimates from MLB Trade Rumors in parentheses: Jake Odorizzi - $7.75 million ($9.4 million) Kyle Gibson - $6.75 million ($7.9 million) Robbie Grossman - $3.25 million ($4 million) Eddie Rosario - $3.25 million ($5 million) Miguel Sano - $2.75 million ($3.1 million) Max Kepler - $2.5 million ($3.2 million) Byron Buxton - $2.25 million ($1.2 million) Ehire Adrianza - $1.5 million ($1.8 million) Taylor Rogers - $1.5 million ($1.6 million) Trevor May - $1.25 million ($1.1 million) Add and subtract as you see fit -- for instance, Grossman could be a fairly easy non-tender with Johnny Field, Zack Granite and Jake Cave in the mix -- but this still doesn't put the Twins in any sort of payroll trouble. If the Pohlad family green-lighted an identical payroll from 2018 to 2019, the team has as much as $60 million to spend this offseason in a market that has depth and quality at a wide variety of positions. After a virtually identical team went from in the playoffs to stumbling for 95 percent of the season, how can the team get back on the path to frigid October baseball at Target Field? How about taking a page out of the Brewers' book? It's not exactly a copycat league and each team has different strengths and weaknesses, but here are a handful of ideas the Twins can embrace to push them in the right direction. 1. Don't be afraid to aggressively target improvements -- even in places of strength The Twins obviously like where their future lies in the outfield with Rosario-Buxton-Kepler, and Cave's emergence last season gave them a nice contingency plan as well. The same was true for the Brewers a year ago, when they gave the most playing time in their outfield to Ryan Braun in left, Keon Broxton in center and Domingo Santana in right. Brett Phillips made a cameo and acquitted himself fairly well. Lewis Brinson struggled but was one of the top prospects in the game. Like the Twins, the Brewers were flush with talent and youth in their outfield. So what did they do? They went out and signed Lorenzo Cain and traded for Christian Yelich. They locked down Cain -- once traded with Odorizzi, by the way -- for five years and still have the rights to the likely NL MVP through the 2021 season. If the Brewers exercise Yelich's 2022 option -- which right now seems likely based on the year he had and that he'll be finishing just his age-30 season -- they'll have five years of him for a tidy sum of $58.25 million. That won't even buy you two seasons of Bryce Harper. That's not to say that identifying the next Cain in free agency will be easy, or that his deal is guaranteed to pay dividends over the next four years. He's signed through his age-36 season, so while the early returns are good, it isn't without risk. But who might be a player like this in free agency? Michael Brantley (32) comes to mind, though perhaps the best fit would be A.J. Pollock. He's heading into his age-31 season, and his price tag will be kept down -- at least a little -- by the fact that he's played more than 130 games just twice in his seven-year MLB career. He's a terrific player and a great defender in center, and a nice fall-back plan to Byron Buxton's development -- and beyond that, would theoretically be an incredible corner outfielder defensively. Andrew McCutchen (32) could be a good fit in that respect as well. The days of him being a superstar may be gone, but even the last two years he's been a really nice player while finally seeing his way out of Pittsburgh. This dynamic isn't strictly limited to outfielders, either. Between Jason Castro, Mitch Garver and Willians Astudillo, the Twins have a combination that would amount to one heck of a catching clone. But each has question marks. Castro's coming off meniscus surgery, and it isn't the first time he's dealt with the issue. He's a great defender but the bat leaves a bit to be desired. Garver dealt with a concussion down the stretch, and has been more of an offense-first guy -- though that's not to say he hasn't worked hard at improving his defense. And Astudillo is a total wild card in more ways than one. Despite his second iffy October in a row, expect Yasmani Grandal to be a hotly contested commodity this offseason. He's a career .240/.341/.441 hitter, bats from both sides and the defensive metrics love him for his career. He also won't be 30 for a couple more weeks, either. Don't be surprised if he commands a four or five-year deal in the neighborhood of $18-20 million per season, but that's a small price to pay for a transformational catcher behind the plate and at it. The Twins should absolutely be in the discussion as a spot for him to land this offseason. 2. Understand that prospects are nice, but parades are even nicer To get Yelich, the Brewers had to go to a well-stocked cupboard and part with some nice pieces. Brinson was a consensus top-30 prospect prior to last season, and while his early-career MLB numbers are eerily reminiscent to Buxton's, it's way too early to give up on him. He won't turn 25 until a month into next year. Isan Diaz is a middle-infield prospect who has appeared in top-100 lists each of the last two seasons, and at 22 got a look at Triple-A last season -- albeit a bit of an ugly one (.639 OPS). Still, he was four-plus years younger than the average PCL player, so that's not too shabby. Monte Harrison was a top-75 prospect across all platforms and in his age-22 season took a bit of a step back this year in Double-A, hitting .240/.316/.399. Most concerning is that he fanned 215 times in 136 games (583 PA), but he was still nearly a 20-20 guy (19 homers, 28 steals) along the way. The physical tools are tremendous. The final piece was starter Jordan Yamamoto, a 22-year-old righty who doesn't project as a top-of-the-rotation guy despite eye-popping numbers in the minors this season. Across three levels, Yamamoto posted a 1.83 ERA, 11.1 K/9, a 0.83 WHIP and just 1.8 BB/9. He'll be 23 in May and could be pitching in the big leagues by then. None of this is to say the Twins should make Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff available or that another Yelich will be on the market this winter -- though Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto will almost certainly be dealt with two years of control left at reasonable rates -- but the overarching theme here is that creativity will rule the day.

This is an excerpt of an article that appears in full here at Zone Coverage. The Minnesota Twins announced their 2018 Diamond Award winners late last week. The Diamond Awards are presented every year on the eve of TwinsFest at a banquet held at Target Field, and the upcoming presentation will be the 14th time they've been handed out. Here are the awards, as voted on by the Twin Cities chapter of the BBWAA: Calvin R. Griffith Award (Most Valuable Player): Eddie Rosario Rosario built off a strong 2017 season by having a particularly good start to 2018 before the end of his season was waylaid by shoulder and quad issues. After hitting .290/.328/.507 in 2017, Rosario hit .311/.353/.537 in the first half before slumping to just .240/.262/.361 in the second half. Joseph W. Haynes Award (Pitcher of the Year): Jose Berrios Even with a bit of a late-season fade -- 4.74 August ERA, 4.40 in September -- Berrios took another step toward establishing himself as the cornerstone of the Twins rotation. Berrios posted a 3.84 ERA, a slight improvement on 2017's 3.89, but added a strikeout per nine innings, kept his walk rate stable and dropped his WHIP while being selected to his first All-Star team. Despite all these accolades, the workaholic righty will still open 2019 just 24 years old, with still more room to grow. Bill Boni Award (Most Outstanding Rookie): Jake Cave Cave was acquired by the Twins in Spring Training for minor-league pitcher Luis Gil, and after a slow start at Triple-A Rochester came up and provided some thunder to an offense desperate for it. With players like Brian Dozier and pretty much everyone other than Rosario and Eduardo Escobar off to slow starts, Cave provided a nice shot in the arm with 13 homers in just 309 plate appearances with a slash line of .269/.316/.481. The jury is out on if he can handle a full-season worth of playing time -- added defensive value or plate discipline would make him a slam-dunk everyday player -- but after seeing the Twins give reps to replacement outfielders like Jordan Schafer, Logan Schafer and Clete Thomas in recent years, Cave's emergence was a breath of fresh air in an otherwise dreadful season. Jim Kaat Award (Defensive Player of the Year): Max Kepler It certainly bolstered his case when Byron Buxton went down more or less for the season in late May, but Kepler did a nice job in right field for a team that otherwise didn't have a ton of defensive stability. Defense can be hard to nail down from a value standpoint, but new defensive metrics released by Statcast called "Directional Outs Above Average" attempts to quantify how good a player is at going in each direction an outfielder can move. By that measure, Kepler was 12th among outfielders with a plus-10 rating and had a zero or positive mark in each of the six directions listed. Dick Siebert Award (Upper Midwest Player of the Year), Bob Allison Award (Heart, Hustle, Etc.): Joe Mauer The Siebert Award is often up for discussion among writers since it's more geographically-specific rather than Twins-specific. Non-Twins names who are also frequently mentioned are Jeremy Hellickson (Des Moines native), Tony Watson (Sioux City, Iowa) and a few others, but in this case, Mauer was kind of the easy pick with how the season ended and how it became clear he was at least seriously considering retirement. Not that the Siebert Award is some kind of magical send-off, but it's a nice honor for a player who has meant a heck of a lot to the baseball in the area. As for the Allison Award, it's hard to imagine giving it to anyone else after this season.

I saw Taylor Motter walking a golden doodle on the plaza after a game this year. Edit: This guy https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjdztbR5vfdAhXIx4MKHZy9CwQQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Ftaylormotter7%2Fstatus%2F938864885177442305&psig=AOvVaw2oqdMZ3hhxEJ04u_IlR5Jb&ust=1539120987144028

I'd be careful with the speculation one way or the other, especially with the language barrier.

(because I put it at the start of the article)

This article appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it all. Perhaps the most brilliant mind in contemporary baseball analysis — at least among those creating products available to the public — is Daren Willman, the proprietor of Baseball Savant, a website he created on his own before joining forces with MLB.com. The site is a treasure trove of everything you could ever hope to imagine to learn about the game. You truly are limited only by your own imagination. I wrote an article before the 2017 season chronicling Byungho Park’s struggles with velocity from the year before with data completely pulled from the site. Somehow, the site continues to get better. One of the most recent additions to the site is rating outfielders by “directional outs above average.” Here’s how the site explains it: Directional Outs Above Average takes Outs Above Average, the Statcast range-based metric of fielding skill, and splits it into six different segments to express a fielder’s performance directionally. The middle of the circle is the fielder’s starting point, and the 360-degree range around them is broken up into six 60-degree segments, where “in” is always “towards the plate.” The direction a player must go to get to the ball’s projected landing point from his starting spot dictates to which directional slice his play will be credited (or debited). (Due to rounding, a player’s full-season OAA may not align perfectly with the total values of the six directional segments.) For further clarity, it uses this image to show the zones: (image credit: Baseball Savant) All of the vantage points are from a home-plate view, by the way. Each direction can be sorted for a high- or low-water mark, as can moving in or out (left, right and straight in that direction). They’ve put together three years of data — sorted by number of opportunities — so let’s take a look at how some Twins show up on these leaderboards. For ease of sorting, I used a minimum of five fielding opportunities. 2018 Max Kepler: +9 on 327 attempts Byron Buxton: +2 on 74 attempts Jake Cave: +1 on 150 attempts Johnny Field: 0 on 136 attempts Eddie Rosario: 0 on 253 attempts Taylor Motter: 0 on nine attempts Robbie Grossman: -1 on 127 attempts

hmm

what

Cave needs better CF defense or plate discipline to be a starting outfielder. How he's playing right now is like a perfect-world fourth OF, because I don't see how it's super sustainable.

Trading them to contenders?