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Thermos shopping huh? Must be a really special lady.

Nice turn Esco!

That is 2-week ago thinking.

12-1 odds Meyer is our closer by September?

Return of the... ? http://i.imgur.com/ZJpY73i.png

Oh man... I think I may have made a mistake. There is a Mt Caramel HS in Illinois, but you're right, Beane went to school in CA. So, not as big of a connection as I thought. Mea culpa!

Wanna hear the most ironic thing ever? Terry Ryan was the scout who "got it wrong" on Billy Beane. He was the Midwest Scouting Director for the Mets during that time. Wrap your head around that! Or even moreso, how he overcame that to become GM of the MN Twins.

Great article: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-traps-that-the-twins-need-to-avoid/ Basically the Twins were very lucky last year, and the pendulum of fate has swing mightily. It's not to say this club is THIS bad, but maybe it wasn't as good as their record last year. Which would mean this rebuilding process has a longer way to go than many expected based on last year's record.

That is sobering stuff. Thanks for the link.

Like Rachel Phelps, I'm now very actively hoping this team continues to lose. Not because I want the team to move to Miami or Portland, but because I think losing in historic fashion is the only way we'll eventually win. Whoa, mind blown! But it's true... Think about, this club will never get over the hump so long as TR, the front office, and his coaching regime are running the show. Yeah, I know he had good teams during the mid-2000s? Sure, but he couldn't translate one of the best pitching staffs to ever play the game into any serious run (Seriously, best K/BB of all-time). Plus, they did pretty awful with most of their high draft picks and most of the highly touted rookie position players always seemed to be woefully overmatched in the major leagues. It will take a monumental breakdown to reach a point where even the Pohlads can't defend keeping this front office regime, but at some point... some where out there in the distance, we'll find our event horizon. Then we can blissfully pass through this black hole of a season and hopefully be led by more competent executives and coaches to a championship. http://38.media.tumblr.com/2004b6d6b9038623faac8bca30b36b83/tumblr_inline_n8eh7ctyFj1qz65iu.jpg

Everyone's thinking it... http://i.imgur.com/ZJpY73i.png

FTFY

Classic Mauer xbh there. Can't believe he actually fit that in there with the OF shifts. Teams generally are taking that away though... leaving a HUGE gap in RCF.

Going to a game anytime soon, might I suggest some appropriate headwear...

Wonder what Torii is up to these days?

Astros and Pirates on standby.

Twins hitters rank 1-2-3 in terms of K% among AL hitters with over 20 plate appearances . Rosario also ranks 11th. That's almost half our lineup. Ouch.

I'm fine with the people we have in place and generally in how the playing time has been allocated. It's only been about a week and damn near anything can happen in a week of baseball games. So we need more information before making long term changes. It's too early to cut bait on the SanoRF experiment or Park, until that changes we have to see it through even if it means taking some lumps in April/May. The biggest improvements right now need to come from within. The bullpen needs to settle in and hit their spots. Perhaps DFA Fien or somebody else if their struggles continue. Maybe May has something mechanically going on as to why he's thrown so many wild pitches. Review the tape. Try to fix any issues. Clear the head and move forward, what's done is done. I'm sure they are doing this. On the hitting side, several guys need to have a better approach or hitter specific issues. Sano seems a bit pull happy right now. Maybe oppo BP drills? Park looks a little overmatched on fastballs from the ABs I've seen, shorten up and/or move up the BP screen? Buxton has looked better but let too many good pitches (meaning middle 1/3 fastballs) go by early in the count in the early games. He also has to be more selective with two strikes. Yes, you have to protect, but good hitters have the confidence to let close balls go. Rosario, more selective especially on high pitches. Also, Mauer is being given an enormous gap in RCF gap, hopefully he's working on stroking pitches to center/RCF in BP. How long these issues persist will say a lot about Bruno and the staff. If fans or announcers can pick up some of these things then you know opponents are game planning it, so the adjustments have to come quicker. That's one of my biggest concerns with this team, is the hitting approach analysis/process. I remember a few years ago Rod Carew got in touch with Chris Colabello who was 0-for-a-month with nearly as many K's. Told him to move closer to the plate, which was PAINFULLY obvious. He did and promptly went on a tear though his annual hitting stats were still putrid. That's the type of stuff that can't happen. Further, if any members of the media happen by this forum (and I'm sure some do occasionally)... how about some specific questions about how hitters are addressing their issues right now? We always hear they are "working their tails off" but given the years of less than expected performance, it's time to pull back the curtain a little bit and offer a deeper explanation about exactly how we are trying to get better. If not, at some point you have to assume that either 1) it's not happening or 2) it's not being done very well at all.

I was curious about the importance of bullpen performance. So I looked at playoff teams from the last five years and averaged their WPA and WPA/LI performance... basically how well did they do situationally and how good were they irregardless of the situation. A mix of results and "true ability". The average WPA rank for playoff teams was 11.8 and the average WPA/LI was 11.7. If the best bullpens always made the playoffs, the average would be 4.0 and if bullpen performance (in terms of ranking) made no difference, then the average would have been 15.0. Basically, playoff teams tend to have better than average bullpens. However, there's certainly many clubs who made the playoffs in spite of their bullpens. Further, World Series teams had a lower average ranking than all playoff teams, so at least for this 5-year sample, it suggests that overall bullpen quality/performance during the regular season wasn't a determining factor once teams were in the playoffs.

I have been a very vocal critic of this team's bullpen going back to the 2014/2015 offseason. I thought the bullpen would be one of the worst in the league last year, but to my surprise they were actually about average (in terms of Win Probability Added, and ranked between 11-25 in several other relevant statistics): http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=0&type=3&season=2015&month=0&season1=2015&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=2,d Further, we had 4 relievers in the top 120 WPA leaders in baseball last year. Even in terms of fastball velocity, we ranked 16/30. A thorough average bullpen, which given the expectations of many fans could be considered as huge success. This year's squad is essentially the same group as last year. Given the results of that squad from last year, the relative lack of relief depth in the FA pool, and our crop of young relievers... I can better understand TR's inactivity. Whether we started 0-7 or 7-0, I do wish that we would have brought in a few more relievers on NRI or minor league contract flyers, but this is basically the group the front office expected to have in the pen to start 2016 all along. A strong spring from an unknown (whether they came from inside/outside the system) probably wasn't going to change that.

This team doesn't deserve walk up music right now.

This painful to watch, but it might be the frostbite out here in section 133. Sun is starting to make its way through, so that's something I guess.

I feel bad for those contractually obligated to televise this team right now. Even worse for the post game clean up crew. Poor bastards.

That's a great f-ing point.

One of them will probably be "due" for a breather tomorrow. My guess is we see him in the lineup tomorrow.