Rod Carews Birthday

As I read this article, (and many articles for that matter), I feel like a lot of pent up Twins anger is coming out for people in the comments. The cut in payroll. . . frustrating. . . I get it, but it isn't ruining my season of being a baseball fan and you shouldn't let it ruin yours. The TV situation. . . also frustrating. . . but that doesn't really have to do with the players on the field. Falvine bashing. . . I suppose, but what good does it do you. . . that's not always based in reality either. In this case it has turned into a debate over the definition of "pipeline" and whether or not the acquisition/development of a pitching staff has followed a particular path, with outrage from some that we aren't drafting two or three pitchers a year who become successful major league starters. If they can't do that then we're not going to give them any credit at all. Spoiler alert: We aren't doing it, and neither is anybody else. It is pretty inarguable that the Twins have one of the better rotations in their history during the past couple of years, and yet, we want to complain about how we got there. Some were drafted (Ober, Varland, Jax, Sands). Some were traded for young (Duran, SWR) Some were traded for and developed a little more (Ryan). Some trades became injury reclamation projects (Paddack). Some were already established (Lopez). Does it really matter? YMMV, but I would say that it doesn't matter at all. We're in pretty reasonable shape at the moment, so I'm willing to accept it and be happy. It could be (and has been) a LOT worse. Imagine how hard we would have laughed a few years back if we were stressing over whether starter number 7 could handle it and who was next if he couldn't. Lots of years we were worried if we had a competent third starter or even a number two sometimes. Just for fun . . . who was the seventh starter in 1998? 2005? 2014? 2017? How about in their best years. . . 1965? 1987? 1991? If you can't even imagine who those names were, then that's exactly my point.

Or maybe not exactly like that. Those ERA targets are placed pretty low. Last year's league average pitcher had a 4.28 ERA. So. . . there are 30 MLB teams. Each of them have five starters. That's 150 starting pitchers. You're telling me that you would take 90 of those 150 starters before you would take Joe Ryan? That seems pretty ridiculous to me. Maybe (maybe!) you could argue that you would take 60 of them before you would take him, but even that seems like a stretch to me and that would at least make him a number three. I would argue that calling him a number two might be debatable but it isn't crazy either.

THIS. A thousand times this. I remember watching the Twins pitchers closely in the Terry Ryan era, but usually just to see when the blowup would happen and how ridiculous it would get. We usually had a decent pitcher or two but there were some pretty terrible players pitching as our fourth or fifth starter EVERY year. It was painful. Watching pitchers will never be completely pain free, but it is certainly better around the Twins than it used to be. It’s much better thinking that a game might be won 3-2 or 2-1 rather than knowing we had better score at least 5 or 6 runs to even have a chance.

I think calling it a “pipeline” by most people’s definition is probably a stretch, but as stated by others here, I really don’t care. They have managed to put together the best top to bottom rotation that the Twins have had in a long time and the team is winning and being successful. They have a couple of pitchers that they drafted originally, and several pitchers that they had the good sense to trade for. That they had the capital to trade is probably something else that can be considered for inclusion in the “pipeline.” If people want to argue about semantics, that’s fine, but for me, I would rather judge the team by its results, and those have been really solid.

That is true. Considering how much flopping goes on in that sport, it's hard to believe though!

In pretty much any sport, you go until the play is stopped by the ref/ump/official. Period. There was no way to know whether it was a serious issue when the player went down (certainly not in the heat of the moment). From the third base vantage point, he could have just as easily popped up, grabbed the ball and thrown him out. No controversy here.

Well, that could be cool. They certainly have the bandwidth, the funds, and the name recognition to be successful. Or will they price it so high that it isn't very accessible. Time will tell.

People job hop for a lot of reasons, some of which are bad but others of which are good. A strong up and coming performer is often plucked away after a couple of years in a job. In this case, she moved to the Bears, who had a bunch of big PR and money things happening. That would seem like a pretty great place to be (even if it is the Bears). Or, if you suck at your job, it's a pretty prime time to get fired. The length in and of itself doesn't really mean much of anything to me.

Your first sentence hit it entirely on the head. I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that ownership can't seem to see the damage being done. They didn't become billionaires by making a bunch of short-sighted financial decisions. They obviously had better planning than that, and yet, in this circumstance they can't seem to get out of their own way. It seems impossible that they are really that risk averse here. What information are we missing?

Great article Nick! I find it truly amazing that the billionaire owners of a baseball team take the most conservative approach. Bally contract done -- chance to really try something different but having to take a few short term chances for some long term gain -- nope, we'd rather have this dying bird in the hand for sure $$$ and long term harm. Argh!

Haha! Thank you. Apparently I needed that!

OK. I'm an idiot I think. I can't seem to find the stars you speak of. Also, as I guy who has been following this site since it started, I'm a little embarrassed. Can you screen shot this? Sorry!

This is exactly the problem with Buxton. He has shown us flashes (even extended flashes) of what could be, but has never been able to be either consistent enough or on the field enough to convert those into the MVP caliber player that those flashes hint at. And now. . . he is hurt again. My hope is that they will immediately take him out of the lineup and put him on the IL so he can heal completely before he comes back. Half as many games from healthy Buxton will be better than lots of games of unhealthy Buxton. I do also agree that he is a tremendous centerfielder when he is healthy, but the gap is probably less than it has been in the past as he ages, making that part of his performance less of a difference maker as well. I worry less about his replacements in centerfield than I do about the issues he's having with his bat. Just think, and some of us thought that Tony Oliva was a big injury problem!

Sorry don’t know why it triplicated.

Julian’s ready to go! x

I also show up here virtually every day and I really love the site in general. It is one of the highlights of my internet day. Having been a long time reader, I also miss the articles by some of the owners that were one of the main reasons that this blog became successful. I know you probably all have other things to do, but those were really good (and consistent) voices that aren't always present currently. I know you asked about the forums specifically, but you opened the door! This post is starting to sound repetitive after the others, but my biggest issue with the forums is the overly emotional, over-reactions that border on irrational about the team. It hasn't quite reached the "TRADE ALL THE PLAYERS, ROCCO MANAGES ONLY BY SPREADSHEET, FIRE THE COACHES, GET RID OF MANAGEMENT, SELL THE TEAM!!!!!" level (at least not in all caps and not all in the same posting), but there are times when it gets close to that and repetitively so. As a (facetious) remedy, I might propose a "we've all heard you complain about this before" reaction emoji or a "that's a really tired argument that probably doesn't apply" reaction emoji, with the rule that if you receive it, you need to leave that argument alone for awhile. I get that we don't all want to be homers either, but sometimes it can really veer off the road. It wouldn't work, but it's fun to think about!

You are probably correct in that things can get different come playoff time, but his ability to be a "pitcher" rather than a "thrower" will also serve him well there. I'm glad to have him around. From some of the posts on this topic, however, it seems like some already want to turn him into this year's version of Pagan et al who we dread seeing come into the game. That COULD happen, but I'm pretty sure we're not there yet. The SSS problem of relievers is killing him right now, but throw out his first appearance this season, and things look just fine.

I think one of the things that adds to Thielbar's effectiveness is the contrast with the flamethrowers around him. Between Jax, Stewart and (eventually) Duran throwing fire, he's a little bit mentally hard to deal with for the batter. It works a little the other direction as well, keeping the hitter off balance. I also am curious to see just how long he can keep up his effectiveness, but he's earned a pretty substantial leash over the past few years.

Interesting take on batted ball data. The two big questions are whether the relatively positive results that it shows for the Twins ultimately correlate to better offensive production, and whether the players (and coaches) have the ability to further affect these numbers and improve upon them. It might be interesting to look at these numbers for some historically excellent (and historically terrible) offensive teams in order to see what those look like.

There’s a little bit of perfect storm here, as all of those play a role. I would add injuries to the list as well. Figuring out where to go from here is in the hands of players and coaches. Complaining about ownership may make us feel better but it isn’t changing so it won’t make the team better.

I would like to think Santana’s leash isn’t very long, but right now there isn’t anyone forcing him off the 26 man roster. Maybe when Correa and eventually Royce Lewis come back he could be gone (and that depends on nobody else getting hurt!) but it’s probably still only a maybe.

Good thought, but that back end of the rotation arm would need to be pretty far back end! He is here to tease and tantalize us with more maybes again. And sadly they don’t have anybody to replace Kepler at the moment.

What a great event! Sadly, I live too far away to bring my pups. Seems like those dogs barked up some hits, so we’ll take that too!

Makes some sense. They don’t really need a starter until Friday and their bullpen is a little spent so some reinforcement would be useful for the next series. Come Friday, they will send out a reliever and bring up a starter, likely SWR I assume.

Rodriguez is obviously an excellent prospect, but this article does a nice job of identifying what is left for him to work on (something pretty big!). If he continues to have success, you have to move him up the ladder until he is presented with some hardship. This will likely happen in AAA. Then it will be up to him (and his talent). Will he make the adjustments and make more consistent contact? If so, he could be a star. If he continues to be hyper-selective to his own detriment, he’s not likely to make it far in MLB. It may seem a little harsh, but I think forcing the issue upon him (when he’s ready) is probably the only way to make this happen, because until he experiences some real difficulties, he has no obvious incentive to make changes in his approach.