Brandon Warne

This is an excerpt from an article on Zone Coverage; read it in full here. Over the weekend the Minnesota Twins made waves in the baseball community by announcing that they were not bringing Byron Buxton up when the Triple-A season ends on Monday. The decision effectively ended Buxton’s 2018 season before it really got a chance to get going, and created a take-storm for one big reason. By not bringing Buxton up for the last month of the season, they’ll retain his rights through the 2022 season. If he’d been with the team something like a dozen games this month, he’d eat up enough service time to reach free agency following the 2021 season; or in other words, the same winter he’d turn 28. Let’s just try to talk through all the potential reasons — good, bad, otherwise — and at least get into the thought process behind it. Buxton’s season was an absolute disaster. There’s no sugarcoating it. He came down with migraines in Puerto Rico in April, was put on the disabled list to allow the Twins to not operate with a short bench in Tampa and broke his big toe on his first rehab game at Fort Myers. He came back too quickly — just under a month — and hit just .122/.140/.163 before the Twins again shut him down in Kansas City. They put him back on the disabled list to let the toe fully heal, and when he returned he was sent to Rochester — where he spent the rest of the season. If that wasn’t enough, Buxton dealt with wrist issues in late July that again put him on the shelf. The upshot was that Buxton spent three months with the Red Wings, and still got into just 35 games. Buxton hit .272/.331/.456 with the Red Wings — well below his career marks of .310/.364/.537 at the level — and even that doesn’t tell the entire story. While a .787 OPS at Triple-A is certainly respectable — in Buxton’s case, doing that for a season in the big leagues with his defense and speed would make him a star — doing it in such a small sample size makes it easy for those numbers to be distorted. Take a look at how Buxton’s numbers break down: First 29 games with Rochester – .234/.298/.405 Final six games – .458/.500/.708 So can the case be made that he didn’t exactly play at a high enough level for long enough to merit a call-up? I mean, maybe? There isn’t really a strong enough case on either side to make this the rallying cry of torch-and-pitchfork nation. In Mike Berardino’s column on the subject, he mentions that general manager Thad Levine suggested Buxton has been playing through a nagging left wrist injury, and that it — along with on-field performance beyond raw stats in the minors and a lack of playing time in the majors — were factors that led to the non-promotion. Let’s look at each of those individually. Well, we already looked at the numbers part of it. If the statistic is “games played,” it’s a valid argument, and a sub-.800 OPS and four strikeouts for every walk doesn’t really scream promotion either. Strikeouts aren’t the be-all, end-all argument for a lot of players, but that’s more the case in the major leagues for guys who hit the ball out of the ballpark. Buxton, a career .230/.285/.387 hitter, has struck out 31.7 percent of the time in the big leagues, and fanned 28.4 percent of the time with Rochester this season.

I mean it's a 5-6 win player, so....this year that's Aaron Judge, Javier Baez, Paul Goldschmidt, J.D. Martinez.... Those are all superstars.

After May 1 last year he hit .272/.325/.454. With his defense, that's a superstar.

The end goals for Field and Buxton are not the same.

How so? It's now an issue. I said it wasn't an issue until it happened. It has now happened. I think it's the wrong decision.

A lot. Even subtracting April from his stats shows he was more than just a September wonder last year.

1. This isn't a "service time issue" until he's not on the roster when the Triple-A season ends. All of this is merely conjecture and frankly rallying the troops for something that isn't even that likely. 2. True enough, the optics would be bad if Buxton isn't brought up. "Service time" is something to worry about with guys like Acuna/Bryant, not guys who have 300-plus MLB games with middling results. 3. See above with how Ted's mind changes from day to day. I'm surprised more people haven't noticed this. 4. Buxton has been away from the MLB team for three months and has played a grand total of 35 games -- one at Fort Myers, and 34 at Rochester. Let's look at the Rochester games, as he's hit a respectable .280/.336/.470 with the Red Wings. First 29 games: .234/.298/.405Last six games: .524/.545/.810To say his numbers overall deserve a promotion is totally true, but dig deeper and it's easy to see he was still knocking off some rust. 5. The Twins already know if they're bringing Buxton up -- they just aren't saying publicly. There's no reason for them to. Again, until he's not up on that day, this is just sounding the alarms for no other reason than to draw page views.

I mean I get that, but if the argument is that he should never play, I don't really agree.

I mean if you want to ignore that Grossman is hitting .315/.386/.427 since July 1, sure.

Still, it's only one game.

This is a strange point. Robbie Grossman has started one game since Tyler Austin has been up. That was last night -- against a righty, which Austin has struggled against.

This is an excerpt of an article from Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the entire piece. Mike Herman still remembers it like it was yesterday, and can recall it down to the minute. “June 8, 2012....10:30 a.m.,” he said when we sat down in his satellite office in the Twins clubhouse at Target Field prior to an early-August game. Prior to that moment, Herman was the team’s No. 1 public relations guy. Dustin Morse -- who has that role now -- was second in command. But that morning, then-Twins general manager Terry Ryan walked into the team’s communications office on the service level of Target Field, pointed at Herman and said, “Mike, you are the interim director of team travel. Dustin, you are the interim director of baseball communications. Do you have any questions?” The two exchanged bewildered looks due to the abruptness of the move, but otherwise took on their duties head-on. Now, some six years later, both are still in those roles and thriving. It wasn’t an unwelcome move for Herman, who had already interviewed for that position with the San Francisco Giants earlier that year. But again, the suddenness sort of made Herman have to spring into action. Fortunately, it was the beginning of a homestand and he had a little time to get ready for the upcoming road trip, but it was still a baptism by fire. Herman’s wife Brittany was very helpful. As a former hotel rep, she knew a lot of the little details Mike would have to deal with, and helped him rein those in quickly. “Find the hotel contracts for every city,” she instructed him. “Print them off and bring them home.” She went through them with a highlighter and helped him learn about the specific needs and things to ask for when dealing with hotels on the road. “That was extremely helpful,” he said with a laugh. The first road trip proved to be a unique challenge as well, as the team was headed to Pittsburgh and Cincinnati -- two road cities the Twins play in roughly once every six years. “If it were Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland or Kansas City, I would have had some more familiarity with being in those cities a lot,” Herman said. But nevertheless, seven baseball seasons later, Herman is still at his post and enjoying it. But those seven seasons have brought seven MLB trade deadlines, and while fans see the players who are coming and going, they almost certainly don’t know the work going on behind the scenes once things are set in motion. The 2018 trade deadline was the most active in club history. On a Friday night in Boston, the Twins dealt Eduardo Escobar to the Arizona Diamondbacks before the game, and after the game news broke that Ryan Pressly was headed to the Houston Astros.

This is an excerpt from a story originating at Zone Coverage. Please click here to read the full story. One thing I really like about baseball is that there’s always just so much going on. If you don’t pay attention 100 percent, you can easily miss something. One thing I hone in on is weird personality quirks or tics players have while on the field. Josh Willingham used to open his eyes really wide before stepping into the batter’s box. Addison Reed immediately props his cap atop his head the second he walks off the mound because he hates how they feel pulled all the way down. But the other night, I tweeted that one of my favorite things this season was the “Bobby Wilson monocle” celebration every time he gets a hit. This is what it looks like: To me, it looks like Mr. Peanut and perhaps could signify a seeing-eye single. In baseball slang, a seeing-eye single is a ball that just sneaks through the infield. In some circles, you might hear it called a “Texas Leaguer,” but the general idea is all the same. But when I approached Wilson’s locker to talk to him about a completely unrelated subject — for a column that’ll come out sometime this weekend — I figured I might as well shoot my shot and find out what it was all about. I wasn’t expecting much of an answer. Wilson isn’t exactly Chris Gimenez as far as quotes go, but he’s a friendly face in the clubhouse who is always willing to talk shop. In this business, you grow to like the guys who let you put away the recorder and notebook as much as those who fill them up. Wilson is one of those guys, but it isn’t like I served him a hunk of choice beef waiting for him to sear it and send it back medium-rare. It was me lobbing him a softball to break the ice for the conversation I was really hoping to have. “It’s actually a good story,” Wilson said as he reached into his locker. “I was going through an especially difficult stretch offensively, and I went up to (Twins radio voice and former player) Danny Gladden and just said, ‘Danny, I need a hug.'” Wilson got his hug, but not before he got an education. “You ever heard of the Eye of the Tiger?” Gladden quizzed Wilson. Wilson thought for a while, and was like, “Uh, you mean like the song from Rocky or whatever?”

Santana wasn't nearly the pitcher with the Mets he was with the Twins, and if you thought Torii was going to play at a high level into his late-30s, you'd have probably been alone. And don't be so sure they wanted to *keep* Dozier in the first place. Why did they try to trade him two years ago, if so?

I love Escobar but this looks like a classic overpay candidate.

Garver is playing two of every three games lately. Sometimes more. The idea that this is less than he deserves doesn't make any sense.

"As a latin player he can probably be effective to his late 30 s" ......

Thanks for the support!

This is just part of the full story, which can be read at Zone Coverage here. In case you've been under a rock over the past four days, you've no doubt seen the widespread reaction to how the Minnesota Twins handled the trade deadline. It hasn't been great! But most of it isn't rooted in facts or solid rationale. And I get it; fans are fired up because they get to know these players and then one day they're gone. I don't want people to lose sight of this even though I don't watch the Twins through the lens of a fan anymore. All I'm really saying is that if people want to voice their opinions loudly where they're open to being consumed by others, they should be rooted in facts, you know? But instead of replying to every single Facebook commenter lamenting the current ownership under "Carl" Pohlad (yeesh) or the fact that Brian Dozier was the only reason they bought tickets and never will again, I thought I'd just try to debunk as many of them in one fell swoop so that when you're caught between a rock and a hard place with one of your relatives ranting about the "cheap" Twins, you can share this link with them and we can both make this world a better place. So this is really the foundation of it all. The Twins moved Dozier because he's a free agent at the end of the year, and at the time they traded him, they had less than a 1 percent chance of making the playoffs according to industry sites Baseball Prospectus, Fangraphs and FiveThirtyEight. The long and short of it is this: The Twins did right by Dozier in letting him go play in a pennant race, and did right by themselves by opening up some spots for guys to see a little more playing time down the stretch. The same thing is true of Escobar, who is having a career year and no doubt wants to see what the free market has to offer before deciding where he'll sign. When push comes to shove, these guys were going to be free agents anyway, and if they find their way back to Minnesota in the offseason, it was going to happen anyway.

The full story can be read by clicking through here. It’s no secret this year hasn’t gone as planned for the Minnesota Twins. It’s also no secret that the Twins — who look drastically different than they did even a week ago — will see significant turnover this offseason on the roster. Not only were traded players Eduardo Escobar, Brian Dozier, Lance Lynn and Zach Duke slated to become free agents in the offseason, but so too are Joe Mauer and possibly also Ervin Santana. The upshot here is that the Twins, who had a franchise-high $128.7 million payroll to start the season according to Cot’s Contracts, have just $31.7 million hard committed to next year’s team. Here’s the breakdown of those commitments: $8.375 million to Addison Reed $8 million to Michael Pineda and Jason Castro $1.25 million in possible buyouts to Fernando Rodney and Logan Morrison $5.95 million in dead money owed to Phil Hughes Now that number will obviously jump with guys like Jake Odorizzi, Kyle Gibson, Ehire Adrianza, Robbie Grossman and Trevor May eligible for arbitration again as well as first-timers Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Max Kepler and Byron Buxton, and there’ll be guys making the MLB minimum that’ll factor in as well, but the overarching theme is that the Twins are going to have some money to work with. It’s also coming at a truly great time; this is going to be one of the best free-agent markets in recent memory. Superstars available include Manny Machado and Bryce Harper but there are also players across a number of other spectrums that will improve whichever team they sign with. Clayton Kershaw and David Price can opt out of their deals — though both have had their issues in recent years — and Josh Donaldson also still carries some name value. All three could be big targets for most of the league if they hit the open market. Charlie Morton, Nelson Cruz and Jed Lowrie are having great seasons in their mid-30s, and could make for good bridge guys for teams waiting on prospects. Marwin Gonzalez is a Swiss Army Knife who can hit a bit, Elvis Andrus can opt out of his deal and there are lots of players who’ll be looking for short deals to bounce back, like Andrew McCutchen, A.J. Pollock, Daniel Murphy, Jonathan Lucroy, Neil Walker and even Lynn, Morrison and Dozier as well. Nobody would argue that it would be terrific to see the Twins land Harper or Machado. But at the cost of $30 million plus per year on what’ll likely be a deal with an opt-out in a few years — extremely player friendly, a la Jason Heyward — the odds just aren’t in favor of this happening. That’s before considering if that player would come to Minnesota — even if the Twins were the highest bidder. It’s also worth noting that both players would chew up a large part of the financial flexibility the team would likely wish to have as some of its youngsters move into their more expensive seasons. Not only that, but it’s not like the Twins really have an outfield spot or a lack of depth at shortstop in the years to come. Don’t mistake that for someone saying “CAN’T SIGN MACHADO BECAUSE ROYCE LEWIS IS A-COMIN’” or anything to that effect, but it certainly is a consideration. But that’s why I’m coming out and endorsing the following like a politician endorsing a colleague: The Minnesota Twins should make Dodgers catcher Yasmani Grandal their No. 1 free agency target — with a bullet — this offseason.

I bought all four of them. They are awesome.

I’ve decided to re-format these a little bit, as I’m going to separate them into position players and pitchers. It’s hard to truly gauge the effect between a utility infielder and a lefty specialist — just an example — but separating the positions out seems to make the most sense to me. If you have an objection, feel free to air it in the comments section, and it will be heard. Position Players (10 words or less) OF Eddie Rosario – Saving the entire team’s bacon, one hack at a time. IF Eduardo Escobar – Swings at everything — hits most of it. Fogo power. 2B Brian Dozier – Only this high in down year because offense is struggling. OF Max Kepler – Crushing lefties, struggling v. righties. What? IF Ehire Adrianza – No offense should have him this high. A bad sign. 1B Joe Mauer – Offense better with him around; no power, though. C Mitch Garver – Supremely streaky; .855/.584/.632 OPS by month. 1B/DH Logan Morrison – Needs more May (.822 OPS), less April (.503) and June (.549). OF Jake Cave – Total wild card; has some pop. UTIL Taylor Motter – Still seeking first Twins hit. C Bobby Wilson – Only plays because of defense, great behind plate. OF/DH Robbie Grossman – Really struggling; possibly on borrowed time. To see the pitchers, please click through to Zone Coverage here.

This is part of a story that appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it in full, and consider subscribing! You wouldn’t think Logan Morrison and Ryan Pressly have much in common. Morrison is a little over a year older, married with a child and is not necessarily brash, but definitely outspoken. That outspokenness has led to times where he’s butted heads with people in charge, but he’ll tell you he’s never said anything he didn’t mean or felt was true in the moment. Pressly, meanwhile, turns 30 in December. He’s Texan to his core, all the way down to the cowboy boots, tattoo on his back and even dating a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader. Pressly’s presence is more of the strong and silent type, with a quiet ferocity that has turned him from a Rule 5 flier into a strong late-inning reliever for Paul Molitor’s Minnesota Twins. But baseball is the great unifier. Both grew up under tough-love fathers named Tom. Morrison’s father was in the Coast Guard, a mountain of a man who clearly passed on his size to Logan, who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds. He worked on oil rigs before joining the Guard, and as a result, it’s no surprise he instilled work ethic with a no-nonsense approach toward his son -- his and Diane’s only child. They moved around quite a bit when Morrison was a kid, settling in Louisiana where Morrison went to Northshore High (Slidell, La.), the same high school attended by Twins prospect Ryan Eades. Morrison does the Coast Guard salute after every home run in honor of his father. Pressly’s dad was old-school Texas. He raised Ryan similarly, to respect everyone he came in contact with and to work hard. “He raised me with the right manners in a very southern way,” Pressly said at Target Field on the last homestand. Pressly smiles when you ask him about his dad. Morrison is less outward with his emotion, but you can sense the pride in his voice when he talks about the elder Morrison. Both players lost their fathers to cancer; Pressly’s dad passed on Nov. 1, 2013 due to renal cell carcinoma, while Morrison’s dad died of lung cancer on Dec. 12, 2010. As a result, Father’s Day can be complicated.

This is part of a story that appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it in full, and consider subscribing! It’s Father’s Day, and with the Minnesota Twins on the road wrapping up a three-game series against the Cleveland Indians, it can be easy to forget that these guys spent 100-plus days per year away from their families. Think about it; they’re guaranteed 81 days on the road just by virtue of away games, and then factor in six weeks of spring training and well over one-third of the year is spent away from their families. The Twins clubhouse, as one might expect, is full of fathers, and a lot of them have to burn the candle at both ends to be good in their careers and fulfilling their duties as fathers. There’s lots of FaceTime and countless calls and texts back and forth, but there’s no substitute for being with your families, and these guys sure seem to get it. So since I’ve never read a story like this, I decided to write it: What’s it like to be a father in today’s MLB? — Left-handed pitcher Zach Duke “The most challenging part is making sure you create the time in your way, making sure they know they are a priority,” Duke said on the most recent homestand. “Even when I am at the field, (I’m) FaceTiming with them, making sure they know where I am at. I have figured out, when we are together to really block out all distractions, put the phones away, turn the tv off and focus on family time. It helps.” Duke has a seven-year-old girl and a three-year-old, with a four-year-old boy sandwiched in the middle. He feels fortunate to have become a father in the iPhone generation, which has made FaceTime part of the mainstream and allows him to stay close even when he’s far away. “Before (FaceTime) thankfully my oldest was too young to even realize what was going on,” he said. “When facetime came on it was great. My oldest was born in 2011, so iPhones weren’t a big deal to her then. By the time she was able to start remembering, that stuff was all there so that was good.” Living arrangements vary player-to-player — even more so for players on one-year deals like Duke — but he and his wife Kristin try to keep the family together as much as possible. “Yes, as much as we can,” Duke said of this preference. “Because there is one thing we figured out, we don’t operate too well when we are apart for too long. It has become a little more challenging now. My daughter just finished first grade, and so thankfully we have got her in a school in Nashville that is very willing to work with us and very flexible with the schedule. It’s a private school where attendance doesn’t matter too much. But what they will do, they will send the curriculum and we will hire a tutor and make sure she gets the school work and make sure that is a priority but we are able to still have the family time.” Spring training is part of the equation, too. “They were able to be in Florida in March for all of spring training and they came up here in the middle of May,” Duke said. “They were also here for the opening weekend, went back to Tennessee, came up about a month ago and have been the whole time and will be for the rest of the summer. It’s good to be together.” The kids never have to look too far for kinship in their friendship, as other baseball children know the drill. “One of the coolest aspects that I’ve been able to experience in baseball life is that no matter where we go the kids have built-in friends, with the other kids on the team,” Duke said. “Unless there is a situation where there just aren’t a lot of other kids on the team, but nowadays, these organizations are doing such a great job of making these families feel welcome and providing child care for the kids and making sure they are well looked after.” The ballpark experience is unique for the kids, but it works even if they’re a bit too antsy to take in the action that Rob Manfred is working to shorten up. “They have sitters here (at the ballpark),” Duke said. “The wives can go and actually watch the game. My wife will take my son up into the stands because he likes to watch the games too, but the girls can stay down here and play. It’s really nice to have that, and I know that my kids have really benefited from that social aspect even when they are outside of school, getting the social interaction with other kids. “I feel blessed that we get exposed to the baseball life with different backgrounds and different cultures and we have Latin ballplayers and we have you name it, and they get to experience people from all over the world, and the kids get to interact. My daughter has been learning Spanish, and she gets to interact with Eduardo Escobar’s kids and try to speak some Spanish with them. It’s been pretty fun.” All told, Duke has been around the block as a big leaguer. He debuted in 2005 with the Pittsburgh Pirates as a starter, and has spent time with the Diamondbacks, Nationals, Reds, Brewers, White Sox, Cardinals and now Twins. He’s pretty much seen it all. But he says pretty much every team has been good for a ballplaying father. “I’ve seen it in different organizations at different levels,” he said. “The Pirates always had a really good family program. The Diamondbacks did as well, the Brewers did really well. The White Sox had a great setup. I think a lot of organizations do their best to accommodate the families, and it is something that doesn’t go unnoticed by us, and we are very appreciative of it.”

This is an excerpt of a post that appears in full on Zone Coverage here. Please click through to read it, and consider subscribing here. Tommy John celebrated his 75th birthday last Tuesday, but the surgery that bears his name is well over 40 years old. In fact, enter a room of pitchers and you’ll find that the sampling of those who’ve had Tommy John surgery is akin to going to a fraternity and trying to find a dude who has ever had a hangover. Orthopedic surgeon Frank Jobe performed the first procedure — also known as ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction — on the Los Angeles Dodgers lefty back in 1974. Ever since, it has not only become more ubiquitous, but also more proven in terms of players returning their previous form after extensive rehab. With a room full of pitchers who’ve had the procedure and a seemingly different story of recovery from each one, I thought why not give each pitcher a chance to explain what their triumphs and tribulations were like as they battled to come back from the surgery. Previous editions: LHP Zach Duke Every pitcher is asked the same questions; every pitcher will almost certainly give different answers. These are the Tommy John Files: Player – Twins advance video scout Jeremy Hefner The surgery — when/where/who performed it? The first one was Aug. 28, 2013 by Dr. David Altchek, the Mets’ team doctor in New York City. He does Tommy Johns for a lot of guys. Dr. James Andrews did my second one on Oct. 9, 2014 — 13 months later. The injury — when/where did it happen? I think I actually tore mine maybe in Spring Training or April in 2013. So I pitched most of the year like…not in pain necessarily, but in discomfort. It didn’t really affect my velocity or movement until like late July or August. After the All-Star break, I was really starting to hurt and it was starting to affect my performance. So that’s when we decided to go ahead and pull the plug, get the MRI and try to see what was in there. We kind of had the idea that it was torn, but we didn’t have images of it torn until August. Then I ended up having the Tommy John surgery after that. I had two of them. (Rays reliever) Jonny Venters has had three. I don’t think anyone’s ever had three in pro ball, but I’m not sure about that. I think he had one before pro ball. Was the pain instantaneous, or over time? Mine was a chronic deal. I was having discomfort, but it was manageable to where it wasn’t affecting my performance. That’s why we decided to just continue on. It eventually got to the point where it wasn’t manageable anymore. I basically handled it like Matt Magill — (writer’s note: the next Tommy John File) — with anti-inflammatories between starts. It just got progressively better as I got closer to my next start date. So like the day after (a start), I couldn’t even wash my hair. It was so painful. But then once I eventually recovered and ready for my next start, I was relatively normal. The second time around, I was rehabbing and was full go. I was in Florida State games in late July. I was throwing 90-94 mph — back to where I normally was. I had a long game against Daytona — a long first couple innings — and after that, I kind of wasn’t the same. I struggled getting through my between-start bullpen. I made another start in St. Lucie, and I was throwing like 82-83 mph on the scoreboard. I was like “OK, that was a misfire.” I was throwing against (Twins High-A affiliate) Fort Myers, actually. So I threw another fastball as hard as I could, and it was like 81 mph. So I was like “Uhhh, OK.” There was no pain — well, not much pain — like I could feel some discomfort but I thought it was normal working back and getting used to throwing again. I pulled myself out of the game. They did the tests and I was in NYC the next day for an MRI. I went and got a second opinion from Dr. Andrews. At that point, I thought I was going to retire. Like I was done. I didn’t want to do any more surgeries. I had put a full year worth of work into rehabbing and all that kind of stuff. So I took three months off, went home and talked to my wife and my family. Eventually, I got to the point where I felt like I had something to give to the game, so we had our third child and two weeks later we flew to Pensacola for the second surgery.