NotAboutWinning

Rocco Baldelli has been a polarizing figure in Twins Territory since his 2019 managerial debut. His new-school, analytics-forward approach led the Twins to back-to-back AL Central crowns in Baldelli’s first two seasons at the helm. Since then, the Twins have disappointed with consecutive sub-.500 seasons, including a last place finish in the 2021 AL Central.
Entering his fifth season as manager, Baldelli needs to demonstrate that he is a source of success, not an obstacle that Twins players need to overcome.
Why is the jury still out on Rocco? Let’s argue both sides of his case.
 
(Rah-Rah Rocco) Supporters might say…
Baldelli debuted in 2019 by taking over a team that went 78-84 a year earlier and immediately winning 101 games, overseeing the franchise’s first 100-win season since 1965. This feat won him AL Manager of the Year. For his second act, Rocco skillfully handled the extreme roster flux of the Covid-shortened 2020 season to repeat as AL Central champs.
Modern baseball favors data-savvy franchises, and Baldelli is the quintessential modern manager. He began his coaching career with the Tampa Bay Rays, getting an inside look at the small-market franchise best at using analytics to squeeze extra wins out of every dollar they spend. The Twins’ payroll will always be middling; they need a manager who knows how to leverage the troves of data at their disposal. Baldelli embraces data and uses analytics to optimize his players’ probabilities of success, even if that sometimes means pulling his starting pitcher after four or five effective innings.
Next point: Twins players like playing for Rocco. He’s a relatable 41-year-old former player who keeps things light in the clubhouse. Manager-player chemistry isn’t insignificant. Last year’s White Sox showed how a rift between manager and players can create an on-field disaster. Byron Buxton has blossomed under Rocco, who lets Buck swing freely and tap into his extraordinary athleticism. Meanwhile, after one year under Baldelli, Carlos Correa re-signed with the club knowing Baldelli would be leading the team going forward.
During his two losing seasons, Baldelli was tormented by injuries. In 2021, Twins players missed more games due to injury than any other team in the AL Central (see the data here). And last season, the Twins were the most injury-plagued team in MLB, missing out on 10.06 wins due to injury, according to this analysis. Rocco was forced to regularly trot out lineups featuring the likes of Rob Refsnyder, Jake Cave, Gilberto Celestino, and other backups while his team sputtered. It’s not the manager’s fault when they don’t have any good buttons to press.
 

Rocco Baldelli ranks 10th in managerial wins in Twins/Senators franchise history. If he wins 91 games this season, Baldelli would vault himself up to 6th place all time.
(Boo Baldelli) Haters might say…
Ah yes, 2019, the glorious year of the hyperbouncy baseball and the Bomba Squad. If you hired a squirrel to be an MLB manager and its team set an MLB record by hitting 307 homeruns in 162 games, the squirrel would probably have a division championship on its managerial resume. Baldelli deserves little credit for the Twins’ 2019 AL Central crown. Sure, Rocco followed up 2019 with another division title in 2020, but are we certain that a 60-game MLB season packed with Covid-list absences means anything in the big picture? And Baldelli is 0-5 in the playoffs, after all!
In the post-2020 world, Baldelli’s teams have consistently underperformed. Twins ownership is spending more money than ever before, only to be rewarded with two losing seasons.
Baldelli’s offenses never bunt or steal to stimulate run-scoring, despite mediocre offensive numbers. The Twins ranked 14th and 17th in runs scored in 2021 and 2022, respectively. And Baldelli’s knack for prematurely pulling starting pitchers hasn’t paid off either, with his pitching staffs finishing 26th and 19th in ERA during those two seasons. His overreliance on underperforming veteran relievers has cost the team wins. It’s impossible to forget Alex Colomé blowing save after save to start the 2021 season. More recently, Emilio Pagán has filled the role of overused bullpen punching bag.
Baldelli’s in-game pitching management clearly rubs some players the wrong way. Earlier this week Sonny Gray effectively called out Baldelli, saying this year’s starting staff won’t take kindly to being yanked early.
An MLB manager should subtly complement their roster like a fine wine accents a good meal. Instead, Baldelli is a pungent sauce that smothers everything on its plate.
 
It’s time for a verdict.
Personally, I’m conflicted about Baldelli. I support using analytics to supplement decision making and I value his management style. He’s data-savvy with good vibes, but his in-game tactics seem to consistently backfire.
Barring a World Series title, Baldelli will continue to have his detractors; however, a successful 2023 season would do a lot to lend him legitimacy as Twins manager. If the Twins instead miss the playoffs for a third straight season, Baldelli’s tenure in Minnesota will probably come to an end.
Bottom line, Baldelli is out of excuses. The Twins have two bona fide stars in Buxton and Correa. The front office built a pitching rotation that is at least six deep, and the Twins’ bench is full of starting-caliber position players. Heading into the 2023 season, Baldelli’s control panel has more buttons, levers, and switches than ever before. If he is indeed the man for the job, Baldelli needs to prove that he can press the buttons, pull the levers, and flip the switches that spur his team to a postseason berth (and a freaking playoff win!!).
It’s go time, Rocco.

The end is in sight. While I'll have one eye on Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeye team's amazingness the next six weeks (hopefully), it's great to see Spring Training starting this week. Much speculation has been made about the roster, so I'll add my read on how I see things shaking out. Here goes: 
Offensively, I see the Opening Day roster as:
Group A: C - Jeffers, Vazquez Group B: 2B/SS/3B - Polanco, Correa, Miranda, Farmer, Gordon Group C: 1B/LF/RF/DH - Kirilloff, Gallo, Kepler, Larnach Group D: CF - Buxton, Taylor They'll move around, of course, but this provides a framework. The other three position players on the 40-man roster and healthy are Julien, Wallner and Celestino. If one of the guys in Group B gets hurt, the door opens for Julien. If a Group C player gets hurt, the door opens for Wallner. If a Group D player gets hurt, it could be Celestino, but with Gordon's (and even Gallo's) ability to play CF, it could mean either Wallner or Julien, so that Celestino stays in St. Paul.
If a catcher gets hurt, they have to make a corresponding 40-man move, but they have Wolters, Sisco and Greiner in St. Paul and Paddack and Canterino (and maybe Lewis) as possibilities to go on the 60-Day IL. And hey, it's a catcher. If they get hurt, it could well be the 60-day for him anyway!
I didn't mention Lewis, but momma always said, "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." When Lewis is healthy, something will have happened to provide a spot for him. And if not, awesome! As for other prospects not on the 40-man, they'll take a number and get worked in as spots become available. And spots will become available. Injuries happen. So does suckitude. 
On the pitching side, the starting pool looks like:
Group 1; Ryan, Gray, PLopez, Mahle and Maeda as the intended starting five. Group 2: Ober, Varland, Winder and Woods Richardson are all on the 40-man and have made starts in the majors, so any are options to step into the rotation when one from Group 1 goes on the IL. Otherwise, it's assumed they'll start in St. Paul. They're listed in the order of when they made appearances, so that may be a clue as to the order. Group 3: Paddack can go on the 60-man as needed, but it's assumed that he'll get starts at some point.  Group 4: Dobnak, Rodriguez and Sanchez are also in St. Paul, but not on the 40-man. I think they'll churn through Group 2 before going here, but they are available if needed. By the time it gets to these guys, at least one of the injuries will likely have been of the 60-day variety, creating another spot on the 40-man. Group 5: Balazovic and Headrick are two guys on the 40-man that I'm guessing they aren't ready to move them to the pen yet. With great starts, they could theoretically move to the back of Group 2. The bullpen looks like: 
Group 6: Duran, JLopez, Jax, Alcala, Thielbar, Moran, Megill, Pagan as the assumed bullpen. Alcala, Moran and Megill have options. Group 7: Sands and Henriquez. Sands only pitched in relief in August and September, but it was usually multiple innings. That could be a sign of moving him to the pen full time. Henriquez bounced back and forth between starting and relieving, and I wonder if he might move to relieving full time as well. They could join Alcala, Moran and Megill on the St. Paul shuffle. Conceivably, either of these could bump one of the guys in Group 5, particularly given that they are viable multi-inning guys. Group 8: Coulombe, DeLeon, Ortega are three guys not on the 40-man, but who have major league experience. Once Canterino goes on the 60-day IL, any of these could be added to the 40-man in his spot. With that in mind, several observations: 
I really like the flexibility they have created on the position player side. I also don't trade Kepler, unless it's for a right-handed hitting 1B or OF, but that's just tinkering. If it was going to happen, it would have happened earlier. Groups 1-3 make 10 starting pitchers that I can feel good about as options. And Group 4 is a nice group to have in St. Paul, hopefully beating down the door with good performances, and otherwise providing enough starts to keep the prospect pipeline flowing. I've been one of the group wishing they would have signed a Fulmer-type for the bullpen. As I play this out, I'm not that sure it's a big deal. He'd add another player to Group 6, but it feels like they have enough options to not worry about that.  Pagan deserves his own observation. Folks want him gone. I see one of two things happening. Best case scenario is that he pitches like he did the last couple months and earns his keep. But I think he'll be on a relatively short leash. Consider last year -- when Duffey and Smith stunk and they had other bodies available, they cut bait and DFAed both. What was different about Pagan was that he had another year of control, so there was hope of a turnaround. Now that he's in the last year of control, I think his leash will be much shorter. I think this is a playoff contender. From what I gather, this group is WAY deeper across the board than Cleveland or Chicago. Ace/Schmace. I hate the articles debating what classifies as an "ace" and how an "ace" is needed in the playoffs, but here's the way I view it: Are any Twins starters Hall of Famers? No. Are any of them Sure-Fire Top 10 (or 15) MLB Starters, or however you want to define this "Ace" term? Probably not. BUT, and I've got a big but(t), I think that any of the guys in Group 1 or Group 3 can pitch like an "Ace" on any given night and even for an extended run. Consider Maeda's 2020, for example. And if the Twins have made it into the playoffs, it's likely because at least one has been pitching like an "Ace," so I'll take my chances. I'm sure we're biased and have rose-colored glasses on Ober, Winder, et. al, but if you look at the depth charts of other teams, there's very few that have the kind of depth we, both in the top five and particularly in the top 10. Goodness -- we just waived A.J. Alexy and he shows up as the No. 7 starter on one list for The Team That Shall Not Be Named.   What did I miss? 
Besides noting that we're at T-minus 44 days and counting to Opening Day. 

I believe that injuries to outfielders could be greatly reduced if the outfield padding at Target Field were replaced with high tech padding.  
One option would be to replace the existing padding with much thicker padding that has a layer of low density foam on the outside (facing the players) and thicker densities closer to the concrete wall. I have a mattress that came in a box that has this arrangement and believe that this approach could be adapted to baseball to cut the trauma from hitting the wall by 80% or more.
Or the Twins could borrow from Hollywood stunt people and use technology based on the air bags and crash mats that lets stunt people fall from high places without injury.  https://fall-pac.com/news/fall-protection-for-stunt-men/
Based on some rough math, I believe that for $500,000 of R&D, $1 million of manufacturing cost and $500,000 of installation costs, the Twins could have an outfield wall that could cut the injury rate by more than 50%, perhaps more than 90%.  This would be peanuts compared with the loss of value if Buxton gets injured on the current wall.  To me this is a lot like adding roll cages to race cars -- a small cost for a lot of safety.  
What value of WAR will be lost if Buxton gets injured by the wall?  And I firmly believe that Royce Lewis would not have been hurt at all last year by his wall collision if the high tech wall had been in place.  
One small side benefit would be a slight home field advantage -- balls that hit the padding would tend to stick and die there, not bounce back into the field of play.  The Twins players would develop expertise in dealing with that.  Players from other teams would have to learn how to adapt, like with the ivy at Wrigley.  Another side benefit would be that players could be more aggressive when they are near the wall, knowing that it is by far the safest wall on the planet.
I believe that eventually all teams will have this.  Why not get out in front of it and maybe even develop some patents to make other teams pay to get it?