Major League Ready

Severino's surge started a few days after Wallner. Since 5/29, Severino's numbers are even crazier than Wallner's. For the last 15 games (67 PAs) Severino's line is (.412 .552 .784 1.337). It sure would be great if these guys have found something. Wouldn't it be great if we are still talking about production anywhere near this 2-3 weeks from now!

Actually, I am looking at the game log to see if his production has been up and down or did he clearly take off at a given point. That would tell us just how long he has sustained success. He had an OPS of .686 for 5/1-5/25. His incredible numbers blast off after 5/25 very clearly pulling up the overall numbers to something near 1.000 if you use a 5/1 start date. That in no way suggests he has been playing well since 5/1. It suggests he has been hitting at an incredible pace that make his numbers since 5/1 look good if you don't bother to look at the game log.

That's not really an accurate portrayal. From May 1 to May 24 his line was ( .192 .290 .397 .688) His first 32 after being sent down his line was ( .187 .275 .358 .632). He has put up video game numbers the last 20 games. (.346 .424 .827 1.251) Those numbers are so good they make it look like he has been better over a longer a period if you don't inspect the numbers beyond using a May 1 starting date. It's just not accurate at all to say he has been hot for longer than 3 weeks. I don't know what to think. I really want to believe but I don't see anything different in his swing. One the other hand, he is absolutely abusing AAA pitching right now. Let's hope he has found something that translates to the ML level. We need him long-term.

I have not seen him pitch 1 inning this year but I can look at the stats and say that I am also not excited about a guy with an ERA over 5.

Yep, the Orioles should just DFA that worthless kid they brought up earlier this year. Seriously, you know how this works. Borrowing Mike Sixel's description .... Development is not linear. Most of us understand that the most crucial aspect of building a contender in a market outside the top 1/3 in revenue is development. So, go ahead and root for the thing that is absolutely essential to success and ignore those who for some reason seem to hope a prospect fails.

Is there a difference between being worth next to nothing vs nothing in this case? The upside is far greater than the downside at this point. Not the time to sell.

Look at what is going on in Atlanta. Ozzie Albies is an all-star. His wRC+ is 92. Michael Harris / 84 Austin Riley / 82 and Adam Duval 69. Even Acuna Jr. is just slightly above average. Were they good last year because the coaching was better? We should not be surprised by inconsistency. Makes you appreciate just how hard the game is at that level.

I would have let Varland go until he allowed a base runner. However, I never played Milb or MLB. I have not had countless discussions with MLB pitchers and pitching coaches and I have not experienced the game from inside the dugout or the clubhouse and I don't know Louie Varland. Understanding stats is not all that difficult. The experience and critical thinking skills, and leadership ability to use them in the broader context of managing a team not so simple. Your post is appreciated by some of us even if those who think they are better equipped to manage a MLB team lash out at you.

He also has not been the problem the last month so the point Linus makes is far more germane to improving the team at the moment than what Farmer (a bench player) is doing. There are 7 players getting far more playing time of late that are performing worse than Farmer. # Name Team PA BB% K% BB/K AVG OBP SLG OPS ISO Spd BABIP UBR wGDP XBR wSB wRC wRAA wOBA wRC+ 1 Edouard Julien MIN 51 5.9% 33.3% 0.18 .188 .235 .208 .444 .021 5.3 .290 0.0 0.1 0.3 2 -4.2 .205 31 2 Christian Vázquez MIN 52 1.9% 13.5% 0.14 .163 .192 .286 .478 .122 2.5 .167 0.1 -0.1 -0.4 2 -4.1 .209 33 3 Max Kepler MIN 92 5.4% 22.8% 0.24 .179 .242 .286 .527 .107 2.5 .226 -0.1 0.1 -0.1 6 -5.1 .239 54 4 Ryan Jeffers MIN 89 9.0% 29.2% 0.31 .141 .239 .295 .534 .154 3.1 .163 0.3 0.2 0.1 6 -4.5 .244 58 5 Trevor Larnach MIN 71 9.9% 16.9% 0.58 .175 .254 .333 .587 .159 2.9 .163 -0.1 0.1 0.1 6 -2.6 .262 70 6 Byron Buxton MIN 74 5.4% 28.4% 0.19 .203 .257 .362 .619 .159 7.2 .244 0.6 0.1 0.3 6 -2.0 .274 78 7 Alex Kirilloff MIN 62 11.3% 32.3% 0.35 .167 .258 .370 .628 .204 1.0 .188 0.0 -0.2 -0.1 6 -1.5 .277 80 8 Kyle Farmer MIN 36 2.8% 19.4% 0.14 .219 .306 .313 .618 .094 5.2 .280 0.1 0.0 -0.3 3 -0.7 .284 85 9 Carlos Correa MIN 111 7.2% 21.6% 0.33 .260 .306 .450 .756 .190 3.6 .303 0.1 0.2 -0.2 14 1.1 .321 110 10 Jose Miranda MIN 90 3.3% 14.4% 0.23 .259 .289 .459 .748 .200 2.5 .261 -0.1 -0.2 -0.1 11 1.0 .322 111 11 Willi Castro MIN 110 12.7% 20.9% 0.61 .225 .373 .315 .687 .090 7.3 .292 0.3 0.1 0.3 14 1.3 .324 112 12 Carlos Santana MIN 90 11.1% 16.7% 0.67 .250 .333 .438 .771 .188 2.6 .262 0.0 0.1 0.0 13 2.3 .340 124 13 Manuel Margot MIN 54 9.3% 9.3% 1.00 .313 .389 .417 .806 .104 6.9 .349 0.2 -0.1 0.1 8 2.1 .359 136 14 Royce Lewis MIN 26 7.7% 19.2% 0.40 .261 .308 .696 1.003 .435 0.8 .188 -0.3 0.0 0.0 5 2.1 .411 172

I am not all that optimistic on Prielipp. I liked that pick at the time and it's been such a disappointment, so I continue to hope he gets healthy at some point. It would just be such a great boost if he finally stayed healthy.

You think 1 SP puts them on the level of the Yankees, Orioles, Dodgers, and Phillies? I don't think one SP even puts them on the level of Cleveland. We need to accumulate talent to get over the hump. Throwing away 6 year assets for 1/2 year assets in support of a mediocre team is not the way to get over the hump.

The other guy I am wondering if we should be considering as part of that depth is Morris. Then, there is Prielipp. Maybe he can be our Gil. By that I mean guy that finally gets healthy and lives up to his potential.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. I came to the conclusion a couple few months ago there was something in the works and what made the most sense was a collaboration among all the local teams. That conclusion was not popular with the people who insisted the Twins opted for a quick buck and did not care about the future. This sounds like a great long-term solution.

Thanks! Very interesting. However, I would think the reasons for bring in Lore are much broader than creating a TV network. That said, a Twins only product is not a solution for many of us, so it makes sense the Timberwolves, Wild, and Lynx would work together on a product. This would explain why they went with an interim solution.

Yep, I am with you. I don't know what to expect but I would ride it out for now given he is going in the right direction.

Kirilloff has been good of late so why now? He looks like he is making adjustments. Plus, I don't think the best plan for Wallner is to bring him back just yet. He was stinking it up in AAA until the last 10 games. They shouldn't bring him back until he demonstrates he can sustain whatever adjustments he has made. We are going to need him next year with Kepler likely gone.

You will have to elaborate on how asking Chpettit19 if he "would have made this announcement through Provus or would you have had a team official make this announcement". This seems like perfectly reasonable question. I also asked of him and other if they would have supported the announcement with information on your website as to where one could find these broadcasts? Would you have advertised this new service? Made announcements across multiple social media platforms? How about arrange an interview with one of the local TV channels? Email your season ticket holders? I leave room for the possibility they are completely this inept but it causes me to seriously question of their plan was to release this through Provus or if he jumped the gun in speaking about it. I asked the question of Chepittit19 because expect he would not enact a plan this inept. If I assigned this to a marketing intern, not that I would, I would expect a far more sophisticated plan. We all know this but to acknowledge that PBP guys don't make these kind of announcements and more telling, they did not in support of the announcement would cause an objective person to question if this was the Twins plan.

I guess the good news is there are signs of life from Matt Wallner. Last 10 games .333 / .450 / .970 1.420 OPS

Take whichever context you like. In the 40 years Dick Bremer was PBP announcer or across all of MLB, how many times did a team PLB person announce key organizational changes, new managers, 1st round signings, etc. Never, right? Was this a inconsequential announcement? Let's say they did something this unusual. Having made a business decision to drop the source of 20% of your revenue, would you have supported the announcement with information on your website as to where one could find these broadcasts? Would you have advertised this new service? Made announcements across multiple social media platforms? How about arrange an interview with one of the local TV channels? Email your season ticket holders? If this was their plan, they are incredibly inept.

You avoided the question once again. Your "answer" provides nothing that would tell me if "you would have made this announcement through Provus or would you have had a team official make this announcement" . That was the question. When you don't want to answer a question, you say it's no longer worth debating. Could it be that you know the objective answer is that there are two possibilities. One is that rolling out the news of a new broadcast program that eliminates blackouts would have been incredibly inept which points to that it probably was not their plan or two, they really are completely inept. Are you willing to answer the question or not?

You avoided my question. Would you have made this announcement through Provus or would you have had a team official make this announcement. If they told Provus no balck-outs were 100% certain they failed him but what he was told is not an official team announcement. I listen and watch a lot of baseball programming and I never heard his comments. Is this is really how they meant to announce it, I think their incompetent. As I said, I am not completely dismissing the possibility Provus was chosen for this announcement. I don't think that this is as crystal clear as you do. However, if their intent was to kick this off via Provus, the overall plan would have been incompetent for a number of reasons. They should have waited until they could tell people where and how to buy the subscription. The information should have been on their website immediately after releasing the information. They also should have had a social media campaign kicked off in the following days. They should have had an email campaign to season ticket holders and anyone who has bought merch on-line and St. Peter should have taken interviews with media. They did none of these things which means they either had a terrible plan or Provus jumped the gun. Yes, they should have done something to step-back the comments Provus made.

So, if you ran the Twins and were announcing something as impactful as a new method of providing TV coverage, would you instruct the Play by Play announcer to get the message out or would you have a team executive issue a statement? I am sure Provus was told their plan was to end black-outs and the plan changed. I leave room for the possibility they intended to have Provus deliver that message but that would be a really half-assed plan. If that was their plan, they might be as incompetent as you believe, at least in terms of business ops.

Man, you just know everything. The best way to do every single aspect of a MLB team. How is it possible you are not running a MLB team. Trades, roster construction, in game planning, medical, free agency, BOP strategy and everything else about the game and the business. I have been down this path countless times with employees of clients who think like you they know everything. Never once found that to be true. It's possible Provus was given permission to discuss this but it most certainly is not certain.

You are making an assumption. I have seen similar statements many times made by employees of clients who I know for a fact did not authorize them. I had to sign NDAs with every client to assure them I was not letting any cats out of the bag. This was big news, worthy of a press conference or official statement. While it's remotely possible Provus was authorized, this kind of statement is made my team executives, not broadcasters.

What do you think the odds are that happens in the next 4 months?