Woof Bronzer

I suspect this is who Buxton is going to be the rest of his career. He's not going to get magically healthier as he ages. My belief is the Twins made the calculated decision that playing the field will further shorten his career, and he's done playing the field (as a Twin, at least). What I don't understand - and this isn't just a Buxton thing - is whether he has been instructed by the organization to abandon his "hit" tool in favor of swinging out of his shoes every single time. If so, yet another indictment of the FO's faulty offensive philosophy. If not...is anyone in the organization telling him it aint working? What adjustments are being made in his approach? This is where I think Rocco's hands-off, "let players do whatever they feel is best" attitude really shows its flaws. Sometimes players need to be instructed - "managed", if you will - especially if a player is actively hurting the team with his chosen approach.

The Twins really don't scare the Guardians?

You keep answering a question I didn't ask. You think Ks are fine; I get it (and hey, the Twins agree with you!). We just disagree.

Agreed - much more to it than that.

Some interesting thoughts here, I think I understand what you are saying. However I think it's pretty clear that the team has directed the players to swing for the fences and not worry about Ks. There are many, many analytics guys and writers out there who have been banging the "Ks are just another out" drum for a while. This is just factually untrue, and emblematic to me of an extreme analytics approach that is hurting this franchise the same way a total lack of analytics hurt the franchise at the end of the Ryan era. Very few players can hit enough home runs to outweigh huge K rates, and this is exacerbated when the lineup is devoid of guys who can get on base and turn those solo HRs into 2 or 3 run shots. I don't agree with the notion that comparing Ks to balls in play is unfair when considering if Ks are just another out. There are a few at bat outcomes available; Ks are definitely, without question, the worst. I don't think hitters are totally in control of whether they hit a liner or a grounder; the point is simply that putting the ball in play results in a hit 25-30% of the time, unquestionably a better result for the team than striking out. Not to mention the fact that say on an 0-2 count hitters should take a different approach than at 0-0 - swinging for the fences in that scenario is just not smart hitting. The fact is not every player in a lineup can mash enough to make the extreme "grip it and rip it" philosophy successful. 2019 proves this - it takes a juiced ball and career years out of a half dozen guys to make it work, and even then it didn't translate to the playoffs. You seem to be saying approaches are different between at bats, players, scenarios, etc - I think what you are getting at is "situational hitting". My point is I don't see much evidence that the Twins teach or emphasize situational hitting,I think they are all in on "grip it and rip it, no matter the situation" and that's a huge problem here. Thanks for the good discussion!

The Twins are 36-45 against teams other than the Royals.

If after 6 years under Falvine the "expectation" was a .500 team in the putrid Central, then yes, Total System Failure indeed. It's ok as a fan to dream bigger than ".500 ball" and I'm not interested in giving the FO a pass because their failure to adequately address the roster in the offseason led to downgraded preseason predictions.

I am fascinated to learn where you are going with this.

Of course I'm using generalities but this is a good point. A strikeout can happen on any at bat; GIDPs require specialized situations and are therefore relatively rare. All the more reason why excusing strikeouts because GIDPs exist is craziness.

If a hitter is not going to the plate trying to put the ball in play then I don't know what baseball is. What's the point of a swing then? Seriously, what are they doing up there then? Working on their tan?

100%. If Ks were truly just a type of out, and teams wanted to induce GIDPs, they'd just fill up their staff with the Zack Grienkes of the world out there and force teams to put the ball in play.

I'm not asking about the outcome of a ball in play. I'm asking about the outcome of an at-bat. The Twins have grounded into 63 dps and have 708 hits. So by putting the ball in play they are 10x more likely to get a hit vs a dp. They've also struck out 916 times. So the team has 7x more outs via K than via GIDP. This narrative that strikeouts are preferable to putting the ball in play, on the off chance you ground into a dp, needs to stop. It's factually false. I truly cannot understand how someone can watch the 2023 Twins and say, yep, Ks are fine, just a type of out.

That Falvey quote seems to confirm what I have long suspected: he doesn't really see a problem here. Or rather, the problem is bad luck and a couple uncharacteristic poor performances (setting aside the fact Gallo, Kepler, and others are performing exactly to their stats.) This is "process is more important than results" in the extreme. 2.5 years of this and "nothing to see here". Truly, truly insane. We cannot afford to hold on to this FO much longer. They are quite simply running this franchise into the ground. I for one will not be investing a penny in this club until the FO is gone. I hold no illusion that it will happen mid season, but the housecleaning needs to happen day 1 of the offseason so the long difficult work of rebuilding this franchise can begin. I am very nervous about the trade deadline further setting the franchise back. If there's a silver lining it sure doesn't feel like Falvine thinks their job is on the line here so perhaps they'll be less inclined to make desperate short-term-only moves.

-moving the goalposts -dismissing any information that doesn't fit your narrative -attacking the people whose opinions you disagree with instead of the opinion -implying the entire world agrees with your opinion I've got to hand it to you, you are the bad faith internet troll equivalent of a 5-tool prospect. You can do it all!

I already gave you one! As I said, it appears you've done what you accuse your opponents of doing: not reading my post. It was 3 sentences long, one of which was the quote. Again, congrats.

Let's start with the first line of your post: Did you even bother to read their original post? it's that y'all refuse to engage with the conversation honestly. the clowns in this thread it's clear what you're really attempting to accomplish is pedantry or anti-intellectualism. I just can't figure out why you would waste your time with them There's more, shall I continue?

Congratulations, you've managed to accomplish several amazing things here: -doing the exact thing you accuse your opponents of doing -suggesting that anything you disagree with is "anti-intellectual" -constructing incredible strawmen, then barely even knocking them down -suggesting the only way anyone could disagree with you is because they didn't read the post -suggesting that anyone who disagrees with you is acting in bad faith -every accusation is a confession (re: "trolls") Again, very well done my friend.

The Twins are 36-42 against all non-Royals teams.

Off the top of my head, Gleeman, Hayes, every analytics-driven baseball writer ever, several of the posters here, the Twins front office.... I believe the direct quote I heard from Gleeman on the radio earlier this year was "no MLB team cares about batting average". Which is obviously a lie, but goes to show the extent to which the hardcore analytics guys are willing to die on the BA hill.

Of the few available outcomes for an at-bat - walk/HBP, put the ball in play, or strikeout - which is worse than a strikeout?

How does the OP define "accountability"? What concrete thing did Rocco do to hold a player accountable? The team has literally made no changes since his rant. They hit for 4 innings, then got tired off all the accountability and reverted right back to the same old same old for the last 22 innings of the series. There's no "reset", there's no leadership, and there's no accountability.

Agree, which is why I don't quite get why it's so hard to say the trade is looking poor right now and Arraez would undoubtedly be helping the 23 Twins, but the problems go much deeper than that.

How good were the Marlins last year with Lopez?

So it's not the roster? How much have the Angels won during Trout's career? He must not be a good player either. The idea that Arraez would not be helping this team is absolutely bizarre.

We're all upset but if Falvine would rather lose several games over the past 2 years with Pagan and Kepler than cut bait and admit they were wrong, there's a far, far, far better chance they'd hire either of those 2 as hitting coach than bring back Paul Molitor.