Jdosen

For me, none other than the Chicago Cubs. My favorite city in the world and baseball's version of the Vikings. I've had my eyes laser focused on a long weekend in Wrigleyville, Friday afternoon game, go out, sleep, then hair of the dog in the dark corners of Sluggers before the Saturday afternoon tilt at the Friendly Confines. God, it sounds like I should just move to Chicago and follow the Twins from afar.

I think the Twins should do what they can to keep Plouffe at 3B if at all possible because most of his value this year has been accumulated on the defensive side of the ball--he rates out about 9 runs above average defensively, while rating about about average at the plate (105 wRC+). With that being said, a move to another position, presumably a corner outfield spot, would in theory make him a less valuable player. I can envision that a Plouffe at 3B/Sano at LF package would produce more WAR than Plouffe at LF/Sano at 3B, but we don't know that yet. Which is ok, because we don't need to decide right now, and I think it's a decision (i.e. the decision to defensively move either Plouffe or Sano) the Twins shouldn't make until they must.

Ricky Nolasco, 31, was pulled after two innings and 42 pitches on Sunday after giving up six earned runs to the New York Yankees. That start pushed Nolasco’s earned run average to a career-worst 5.90. Just six of his 18 starts have been quality starts. Over his past 11 starts he has posted a 10.64 ERA in the first inning. He held opponents scoreless in the first inning over his first seven starts. After signing the richest free agent contract in franchise history, it’s no secret that Ricky Nolasco has been a huge disappointment. His 5.90 ERA is more than 1.5 runs higher than his career mark entering 2014. He is striking out fewer batters, walking more, and giving up more home runs than his track record would suggest that he should. He’s leading the league in hits allowed. His deal has been one of the biggest disappointments from free agency this past winter. Download attachment: image.jpg After seeing these facts or simply watching him pitch a few times, it’s evident he’s not the same guy he’s been for the majority of his solid big league career. No one should be overly surprised that he’s been pitching hurt. Ok, so he’s hurt, and that sucks, but at least there’s an explanation of why he’s been so underwhelming. Seems like a pretty straightforward story, right? That’s where this starts to get interesting. Pioneer Press Twins beat reporter Mike Berardino, who does great work covering the Twins night in night out, tweeted this out not long after his story was posted: I like to picture Gardy volunteering this small look into his philosophy in the clubhouse, in between giving Eddie Escobar a quick instructional on the art of the sacrifice bunt and watching an episode of M*A*S*H on his tube RCA TV that Tom Kelly bought new in 1986. Try harder to sound like the game has passed you by Gardy. He sounds to me like someone’s dad talking Twins at a bar: Mauer’s soft, Nolasco’s soft. They’re all soft these days! Unless you’re really hurt, you go out there when you see your name on that galdang lineup card! Every time. Period. Gotta try to go the distance and get the win! Bartender, gimme another Busch Light! Seriously, this kind of tough guy, suck it up, you’re not injured you’re hurt BS is so outdated in today’s game. What exactly is that “certain level” Gardy? Because it’s evident to me that Nolasco reached that certain arbitrary level of injured a while ago. If this is the kind of mindset that Gardy wants his players to have, a 1980s bite-the-bullet, grit it out approach, then he is no longer a viable option. Berardino’s article says explicitly that only after some coaxing could the Twins brass get Nolasco to admit his arm has been tight since spring training and that he hasn’t been right all year. I have never set foot in the Twins clubhouse, so I don’t feel comfortable making these broad generalizations about a company I have no internal knowledge of, but it certainly screams cultural problem to me. Why else would Nolasco, a very good and most durable pitcher whom the Twins have a lot invested in, feel compelled to hide an injury and pitch ineffectively for months on end rather than feel comfortable admitting he isn’t right and needs some time before he’ll be able to get out on the mound and pitch to his talent level and perform up to the expectations of his contract? There is no point to playing injured or feeling like you should have to hide an injury. I realize that it’s a long season and no one is 100% as the season wears on, but there is a difference between sore/hurt and injured. And as it stands, Ricky Nolasco at whatever percent he was pitching at isn’t a very good pitcher. Had he felt comfortable going to Gardy and saying, “Hey, I’m not right, I need some time, put me on the DL,” the Twins could have easily gone to the minor leagues and gotten someone who could have helped the team more than an injured Nolasco has for the past couple months. Trevor May or Alex Meyer potentially could have come up and helped the club. I have no knowledge of the internal workings of any other clubs either (again, shocker), but I imagine smart teams do their best to make sure their players feel more than comfortable disclosing injuries and getting treatment. Instead of that approach, the Twins Twins’d and Nolasco toughed it out for more than a handful of starts, being ineffective and possibly further injuring himself and hurting the club’s investment in him. I do realize this is a culture problem with layers upon layers upon layers. I ripped up my shoulder in high school and didn’t tell a soul until months after it happened, afraid of what answer I would get. Who knows if I hurt it worse by continuing to play baseball while eating Advil like they were Skittles. No one wants to admit they’re hurt or to miss any time. It’s incredibly frustrating. So I get that this is not all the Twins’ fault. Nolasco has probably been conditioned to go out there every fifth day, no matter how he feels, for upwards of a couple decades. That being said, I’ve become less and less enamored over the past few years with how the Twins do business. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. Originally posted at troywilliamsonshands.blogspot.com Click here to view the article

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php/3206-Nolasco-and-Injury-Culture

Originally posted at troywilliamsonshands.blogspot.com Mike Berardino, Pioneer Press—SEATTLE – Eighteen starts into his Twins career, veteran right-hander Ricky Nolasco finally admitted he has been struggling with some level of soreness in his throwing elbow since spring training. Nolasco, signed to a four-year, $49 million free-agent deal during the offseason, left the team on Monday and flew back to the Twin Cities. The Twins’ Opening Day starter was due to undergo a magnetic resonance imaging exam on Tuesday, when he will be examined by Twins medical director Dr. John Steubs. According to Twins assistant general manager Rob Antony, Nolasco had not sought treatment from the club’s training staff all year. Nolasco mentioned the elbow issue during a Monday meeting with Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson. “After some coaxing he finally admitted he’s been struggling since spring training with a bit of a sore elbow,” Antony said. “He said he can’t get loose more than anything. Said it gets tight. Some days it’s better than others. (Sunday) he had a real difficult time getting loose, so we called it a day after two innings.” Nolasco, 31, was pulled after two innings and 42 pitches on Sunday after giving up six earned runs to the New York Yankees. That start pushed Nolasco’s earned run average to a career-worst 5.90. Just six of his 18 starts have been quality starts: six or more innings with a maximum of three earned runs. Over his past 11 starts he has posted a 10.64 ERA in the first inning. He held opponents scoreless in the first inning over his first seven starts. After signing the richest free agent contract in franchise history, it’s no secret that Ricky Nolasco has been absolutely awful and thus far a huge disappointment. His 5.90 ERA is more than 1.5 runs higher than his career mark entering 2014. He is striking out fewer batters, walking more, and giving up more home runs than his track record would suggest that he should. He’s leading the league in hits allowed. It’s no question his deal has been one of the biggest disappointments from free agency this past winter. After seeing these facts or simply watching him pitch a few times, it’s evident he’s not the same guy he’s been for the majority of his solid big league career. No one should be overly surprised that he’s been pitching hurt. Ok, so he’s hurt, and that sucks, but at least there’s an explanation to why he’s been so underwhelming. Seems like a pretty straightforward story, right? That’s where this starts to get interesting. Pioneer Press Twins Beat guy Mike Berardino, who wrote the piece above in italics and who does great work covering the Twins night in night out, tweeted this out not long after his story was posted: @MikeBerardino: I asked Gardy if he wants his pitchers to tell him when they're sore. He suggested he did not want to know until it rose to a certain level. I like to picture Gardy volunteering this small look into his philosophy in the clubhouse, in between giving Eddie Escobar a quick instructional on the art of the sacrifice bunt and watching an episode of M*A*S*H on his tube RCA TV that Tom Kelly bought new in 1986. Try harder to sound like the game has passed you by Gardy, you can’t. I mean, he sounds to me like someone’s dad talking Twins at a bar. Mauer’s soft, Nolasco’s soft. They’re all soft these days! Unless you’re really hurt, you go out there when you see your name on that galdang lineup card! Every time. Period. Gotta try to go the distance and get the win! Bartender, gimme another Busch Light! Seriously, this kind of tough guy, sack up, you’re not injured you’re hurt BS is so outdated in today’s game. What exactly is that “certain level” Gardy? Because it’s evident to me that Nolasco reached that certain arbitrary level of injured a while ago. If this is the kind of mindset that Gardy wants his players to have, a 1980s bite-the-bullet, grit it out approach, then he is no longer a viable option. Berardino’s article says word-for-word that only after some coaxing could the Twins Brass get Nolasco to admit that his arm has been tight since Spring Training and that he hasn’t been right all year. I’m not in the Twins Clubhouse on a daily basis (shocker, I know). In fact, I have never set foot in the Twins clubhouse, so I don’t feel comfortable making these broad generalizations about a company that I have no internal knowledge whatsoever, but it certainly screams culture problem to me. Why else would Nolasco, a very good and most durable pitcher whom the Twins have a lot invested in, be compelled to hide injury and pitch ineffectively for months on end rather than feel comfortable admitting that he isn’t right and needs some time before he’ll be able to get out on the mound and pitch to his talent level and perform up to the expectations of his contract? There is no point to playing injured or feeling like you should have to hide an injury. I realize that it’s a long season (cc MightyFlynn) and no one is 100% as the season wears on, but there is a difference between sore/hurt and injured. And as it stands, Ricky Nolasco at whatever x% he was pitching at isn’t a very good pitcher. Had he felt comfortable going to Gardy and saying, “hey, I’m not right, I need some time, put me on the DL,” the Twins could have easily gone to the minor leagues and gotten someone who could have helped the team more than an injured Nolasco has for the past couple of months. Trevor May or Alex Meyer potentially could have come up and helped the club. I have no knowledge of the internal workings of any other clubs either (again, shocker), but I imagine smart teams do their best to make sure their players feel more than comfortable disclosing injuries and getting treatment. Instead of the approach, the Twins Twins’d and Nolasco toughed it out for a handful of starts, being ineffective and possibly further injuring himself and hurting the club’s investment in him. I do realized this is a culture problem with layers upon layers upon layers. I ripped up my shoulder in high school and didn’t tell a soul until months after it happened, afraid of what answer I would get. Who knows if I hurt it worse by continuing to play baseball while eating Advil like they were Skittles. No one wants to admit they’re hurt or to miss any time. It’s incredibly frustrating. So I get that this is not all the Twins’ fault. Nolasco has probably been conditioned to go out there every 5th day, no matter how he feels, for upwards of a couple decades. That being said, I’ve become less and less enamored over the past few years with how the Twins do business. When something like this happens I feel justified in thinking that the Twins brass is filled with people who are simply incompetent boobs. I hope I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure I’m not. Originally posted at troywilliamsonshands.blogspot.com

I sure hope they don't just cut bait on him and rather demote him and hope he figures some things out in the minors. The mishandling of Hicks from the get-go last season is one of the things that makes me the maddest in looking back on the past handful of years.

I think I would him a C, C+ at best. My main qualms with the job he's done this season have to do with Josmil Pinto, who for most of the season has been the Twins' 2nd or 3rd best hitter. In order to develop in any regard, he has to be in the lineup, and because of Gardy's refusal to use him as the DH when he is the backup catcher, he has wasted away on the bench far more than was actually necessary. Another one of my gripes is his weird obsession with infielders in the outfield. He's trotted out some of the weirdest lineups that I can ever remember, with Nunez and Santana in the outfield, and he doesn't seem to make any point of avoiding this when Phil Hughes is starting, as having competent outfielders during his starts is especially important due to his profile as a flyball pitcher.

More #ribbies

The only thing on that list that I could reasonably expect to improve based on any type of analysis is the Mauer thing, so that's what I chose. He's been too good for too long to keep this up forever. I think at some point, he's going to have one of those Mauer months where he's scorching hot. Maybe not to the extent of June 2006 or all of 2009, but he will get hot at some point this year and I'll feel stupid for ever considering thinking he may be done. His track record is too long not to.

Just being realistic about this team's talent level is all. I'm as big a Twins fan as any, but I don't realistically see us contending for a division title this year. If I'm wrong, that's great. If not, wee have the luxury of giving some guys who *may* have a spot on the next Twins division champion a chance to prove that they belong.

I, like everyone, love Brian Dozier. From last June on, he's been a very good player. This year, he's been great, and if this performance is sustainable, he has shown that he can be a fixture at 2B for the next 4-5 years. That's all great. Many people on here and on twitter feel that the Twins should attempt to extend Dozier and give him a deal that's in the Jed Gyorko range of 5 years $30M. I think in doing this, the Twins would be outsmarting themselves. In my mind, Dozier is the quintessential year-to-year player. He turned 27 years old today, but will not have accumulated 2 years of service time after this year. He is not arbitration-eligible until 2016, and won't hit free agency until 2019, when he will be 32. The guys you lock up are guys that you think will command high arbitration prices and hundreds of millions of dollars in free agency. You lock up an Evan Longoria, a Mike Trout, etc; guys who will hit free agency while in theory hitting their primes. Brian Dozier is a good player, but not in that caliber. If he does end up making a lot of money in arbitration, that's fine. The Twins can afford it. But if aging curves tell us anything, at 32 when he hits free agency, his best years will be behind him, and any contract he receives will be an inefficiency. I love Dozier, but I think we should wait and see before giving him a wheel barrel full of cash.

Do I like what I see? Absolutely. Am I sold? Absolutely not. Need to see more, but one of the silver linings of having a team that isn't super competitive is that we can afford to give him an extended look without worrying about losing tons of value by playing him over the alternative.

Wow, this was really cool! I've been a Plouffe critic, but I've always liked the image he portrayed off the field and I remember meeting him at TwinsFest when he was in the low minors, always a class act.

Under, the hitters will cool off (to an extent) and the starting pitching will remain largely inadequate.

Maybe, and perhaps it's a bit concussion-related as well. If I remember correctly, Morneau started slow the year he got one when he was hit in the head with a pitch in Seattle and subsequently rebounded. If he's still hitting like this in mid-May to early-June, I'll be a little more worried, but right now I think it's simply a case of SSS.

I'm going to be honest, I was extremely skeptical of him coming into Opening Day. I thought after last year that he was just washed up, but it appears that he still has something left in the tank. I'd be surprised if he kept hitting at this rate, as those are All Star caliber numbers, but I'm encouraged by the signs of life. I would be ecstatic if he ended the season with 125 starts (he's always been prone to get dinged up from time to time) and a line of .275/.335/.450 or so. That's right along with his career line of .265/.332/.456

If in another 4-5 starts Pelfrey has not starting pitching at least competently, I would love to see him DL'd or sent to the bullpen while Meyer or May gets the call to the big leagues. If and when Pelfrey proves that he is healthy/competent enough to start again, you either send Meyer/May back to Roch or make way for them to stay up for good by dealing Correia who is in the last year of his deal.

My response to your saying it's "galling" for him to bunt: On that play I believe the Royals were using a slight shift towards right field, with the third baseman playing a few paces towards 2nd more than he would usually and back. I have no problem with Mauer taking a free (!!!) base by getting a bunt down in the direction of a 3B who is not in position to field one, especially with the bases empty as they were (he was leading off). It would be more troubling if it were 2011 again and he bunted with RISP, but it isn't. My response to Colabello in RF: I mentioned to my dad this weekend as we watched Colabello tip toe around RF (we were in KC for the series) that if I ran the Twins I would consider putting Mauer in RF and Colabello at 1B when neither are the DH, as I feel Mauer's athleticism would make a better fielder in right than Colabello. I wish they were more willing to use Mauer in a role that had him playing in the outfield corners as well as 1B.

Even if the batted ball profile is at this point a fluke, the improved approach and patience at the plate itself is a welcome adjustment. I'm not ready to say that he has turned a corner, but his performance has been very encouraging.

I wish Jason well as he rides off into the sunset, so to speak. He was one of my favorite players (aside from the obvious Mauer, Morneau, Santana, Liriano) on the 2006 Twins which was one of the first teams I really fell in love with. I felt that was our best roster of the Gardy era by far, and the team really didn't take off until Bartlett and Punto supplanted Juan Castro and Tony Batista at SS and 3B, respectively. Never felt he got much of an opportunity here the first go-round, and it now looks like the deal that shipped him out of town was one of the worst in franchise history.

As far as Hicks hitting 2nd, he has a 57 wRC+ so far this season, with a .180 batting average. I'm not quite ready to give up on him completely, but he hasn't done anything this year to warrant hitting higher than 8th in the order. Dozier/Mauer 1/2 at the top of the order is just fine with me.

Right now, Chris Colabello (this feels like a montage at the end of a 'The Rookie' type movie), and simple pepperoni!

He won multiple (I think) Gold Gloves behind the plate, an MVP, and carries a career .404 OBP while playing the most physically demanding position in baseball. If he's not, I'll care even less about the HOF than I do now.

Congrats Gardy on 1K! I often criticize him, but I'll always be nostalgic for the teams he managed in the early 2000s when I was falling in love with baseball and the Twins. Here's to many more W's.