Rod Carews Birthday

After Miranda shows signs of complete recovery, I think this could be a potential option. Solano isn't getting any younger and Miranda can potentially replace him at the plate. He may not currently be better, but could definitely get there. As for no second base, we have a bunch of people who can play second base, so that isn't very important.

And also magically, if the strikeouts are cut dramatically, the We Hates Strikeouts crowd will declare that This Club Strikes Out Too Much - kind of like the starters' innings pitched per game!

I'm less enthusiastic about trading Vasquez. Camargo looks like he could be an adequate backup, but to think we will make it through another season where two guys catch 162 games is probably a fool's errand. Because the Twins have Jeffers for so little money, it sort of balances what they are paying Vasquez to make it work. I know that seems crazy and unfair to the better (at least right now) player, but that's unfortunately how it works. As to signing a pitcher. I am very much in favor of this, but signing Blake Snell scares me a lot. Signing high on a (probable) Cy Young pitcher makes you very vulnerable to some regression, not to mention injury. Snell hasn't been consistently good for long enough to make me want to pay him 25M+ for 4 or 5 years. I would rather they look for pitchers (who we can't even name) who seem like they could take another step and become good to great (like Lopez or to a lesser extent, Ryan. I agree that a lefty would be handy and Ed. Rod could fit that bill for less coin. I more worried about CF than 1B right now because I think corner infielders that can hit aren't in short supply league wide so filling that later could be OK. The CF situation has me baffled. I agree that thinking Buxton is going to play the lion's share of the innings (or even any) in CF isn't very realistic and I would like them to bring back MAT to play again. He was great in the field and OK enough at the bat to not hurt us. I think that Castro is absolutely fine as a sub for a day or two or even a week or two if necessary, but he's not the full time answer. I think that Gordon is a roster casualty and Martin isn't an option until mid-season. Interesting for sure!

It's easy to find something you disagree with in a manager and use it to decide that the guy is an idiot. You can do the same thing with your boss or the CEO of your company. Those things are like watching the stock market minute by minute. There are people that do it and it's probably ridiculously stressful. If you take the long view of the stock market (at least so far!) things will work out in the end. The same thing is true with baseball managers. I've written many times that they get too much credit and too much blame, but what is undeniable is that he has the support of his players and they just had a successful season, particularly in the second half. That makes him a good manager. At the end of the day, what he decides regarding pitchers, pinch hitters, batting philosophies, or making Castro his fifth starting pitcher just for the fun of it doesn't matter. We can decide that we would do it differently, but that doesn't make the manager a fool. There are just too many decisions to be made for all of them to be "right."

While PECOTA (and other projection systems) takes a great deal of data into account and works very hard to come up the best projections they can, there are innumerable human factors at play that throw everything into flux -- injuries, unexplainable ineffectiveness, crazy unexplainable breakouts, etc. They are just another tool to try to predict what will happen. Sometimes, they hit on a few things, sometimes they miss by a mile. It's always interesting. I commend them for their efforts. I wouldn't want to try to do it better. However, the fact that the predictions aren't more accurate is why we play the games, and frankly, what makes it more fun!

What about the President dating Taylor Swift?

I don't think it's a case of wanting to get rid of Polanco. I think it's a case of looking at the lineup and potential surplus spots where there could be some trade value, and he is a pretty logical candidate given the number of alternative infielders on the team and his potential to still be a good player for a team in need of a second baseman.

And those who stop reading prematurely are not very confident in their position either. Hate to have someone question your views but. . .

You are assuming that there was a series of pitchers that would have given up no more runs after Ryan came out. No matter how you look at it, giving up three total runs is a solid performance and if the offense scored some runs would have resulted in a win. We would take that nine times out of ten.

Exactly this. From the sounds of it, the two innings and bullpen situation was the plan, and it most certainly worked. Under the best of circumstances, it wasn't that likely that Ryan wasn't going to give up additional runs, and the Astros lineup is hardly the best of circumstances for a pitcher. I've also read that "Well, that's it, now Ryan wants out too!" That is borderline idiocy. He's a young pitcher who is very promising but is a long way from an ace. He (and all other players) are going to do what they are asked. They know it's the playoffs. Would Ryan have liked to pitch longer? I'm sure he would have, and I would be disappointed if he was hoping to be removed. I'm sure he's already over it. He'll be fine. He'll be back for more. Let's just hope he keeps on developing so that he resembles Pablo Lopez a bit more.

This. Exactly this. The total cost outlay for the position is completely fine. Vazquez is more than fine for a backup catcher. It doesn’t matter who the $$ go to if it works. I’m sure it matters to their moms, but not so much to the Twins. I was a little surprised that Jeffers didn’t get a game off (or partial one) just to give him a little breather, but on the other hand, Jeffers is young and should be able to bounce back quickly for playoff games.

Agreed about the high quality of the article, even if it did throw me for a loop without reports from Stan in Ely or Brad in Fairmont. @LastOnePicked, your examples are interesting. I take particular note of number 2. He did not establish any such streak. He contributed to it, AND he broke it. That seems more likely to be a plus than a minus. Taken as a whole, these could all be pointed at Ron Gardenhire, Paul Molitor, and some even to Tom Kelly. I’m neither a Rocco lover or hater. I just don’t think that most managers make a whole lot of difference in the bottom line results - good or bad. These are professional players. Establishing a positive atmosphere is important, but these guys aren’t really “learning how to play” for the most part. From my point of view, whatever Rocco is doing, his team got further than they have gotten in 20 years, so I think that earns my support.

Love it! Looks great!

That article has a pretty weird take on things. It seems to say since Lewis had ridiculous expectations after the WC series, he didn’t go off on the Astros. There is plenty of blame to go around but this is silly.

I missed the regular season win total (I said 90 games) but I did have them winning the ALC. Interestingly their Pythagorean expected win total was 93. I also hoped they would win a playoff series, which they did and the monkey is gone! Now let's come back and do it again! Go Twins!

Fantastic article. I think we are all disappointed today, but as that wears off it's pretty easy to see that this was a really fun baseball season. Last time I was this excited for the future Justin Morneau was a rookie! As we move ahead, there will be surprises both positive and negative. A few players will really develop and others may inexplicably stall, but the foundation for winning baseball would seem to be firmly established. I hope that the front office can make some quality additions to the roster over the winter and all of the injured players heal and get ready for spring training. Next year, I want to be that team whose season doesn't end with a loss. Unfortunately, it would appear that there are a bunch of other teams that will try to win as well. Go Twins!

Thank you Minnesota Twins for a fun year of baseball! We ended the streak and won a series. The last game is a victory for only one team. Let’s make that next year’s goal! Go Twins!

Pinch hitter only. I'm OK with that. Just please don't start him at DH in place of EJ. I'm not sure that Larnach wouldn't have been a better choice, but that's probably splitting hairs.

I’m not sure that the umpiring is really that bad. I think there have certainly been a few poor umps, but I think that the rest are professional and try to be as accurate as possible. With regard to favoring one side or the other, individual perceptions are going to cloud judgement. It’s the same thing with results of a ballgame. If Player A hits a homerun off of Pitcher B, Player A fans talk about the incredible hitting job and Player B fans talk about the bad pitch. In the same way, the losing team’s fans are likely to be frustrated by individual and collective calls during the game because they have very little to be joyful about. Objectively, calls will certainly favor one team over the other by some margin in every game (and every sport). However, over the course of a larger sample size, those numbers should equalize so that there isn’t an overall benefit in one direction. In these cases, the umpires’ overall rates of accuracy were substantially better than expected in three games, and a little bit worse in two. Perfection, while desirable, isn’t actually achievable - whether by a person or machine. None of that means that we shouldn’t try, but I don’t believe that the umpiring has been egregious enough against the Twins to rail against it.

Remember Marwin Gonzalez? We targeted and signed him a few years back and called him our 10th man. Marwin did have one truly outstanding year with the Astros in 2017 (let’s not debate why or how.), but otherwise was a guy who hit slightly better than Castro (both switch hitters) but lacked his speed and defensive chops. Will he be a star on a great team? No, but he does completely eliminate the need to bring back Gordon or look for a utility guy. I think he will have a nice career as a utility guy with the Twins and could do well for himself if traded to a team in need of infielders. Bottom line. . . Yes. He’s actually good.

Wow. What a deep dive into a fine pitcher! I think that one of the biggest turnabouts over Twins starting staffs of the past would be the analytical piece of the equation. I feel like there was a time when it was just “see ball” “throw ball” and that has certainly changed a great deal. Good luck today Sonny! Go Twins!

I'm not sure why/how that would happen at this point when it hasn't happened all season. Taylor's defense is just as good as Buxton's even when Buxton is healthy and his offense hasn't ever gotten moving this season. I'm just not seeing it happen.

I think the thought of Buxton showing up and playing even a respectable (let alone an awesome) CF are just a pipe dream for these playoffs. He hasn't been able to get healthy all year and when he tried to play CF at AAA it didn't go well at all. This isn't even accounting for the lack of timing he would have at the plate coming in without any rehab game experience. This season, their offensive stat line isn't much different, and if he can't play CF, he just adds another poor hitter to the lineup at DH further clogging up the lineup. Buxton needs to show up in the dugout, cheer on the team, and heal for next season.

Ok. After that game maybe the ladder has been climbed! He was an absolute powerhouse tonight!

And Lopez! Wow!