Teflon

In 1971, the average age of MLB non-DH starting position players was 28.9. This began rising steadily year-by-year to a peak of 30.1 years of age in 1996. One could assume this was due largely to players’ careers being extended artificially by PEDs – or one could possibly assume teams were selecting older players in the amateur draft or perhaps being more deliberate with their prospects. Based on how the trend changes following a senate hearing, a BALCO bust and a couple of Jose Canseco tell-all books, however, I mostly assume the former. And here’s how the trend changed. The average age of starting MLB position players has dropped by 3 years! (To 26.9.) This reverting-to-youth trend is observed at every position. Pitchers -who have been hovering around the same average age of 29 for the last 35 years - were younger in comparison to hitters through the 70s, 80s, and 90s but are now older in comparison – even though their trend has been moving slightly downward since 2004. (Dotted black line - based on the top-10 innings-pitched pitchers on each team each season) A three-year shift in the age of hitters means teams are increasingly built around the earlier contracts of players. A larger number of players at low-end salaries means even more money thrown into the fewer top-end salaries - meaning the pay gap gets bigger and bigger and the already-dwindling MLB middle class gets even smaller. (Basically one Donald Trump on the payroll and 24 fast-food drive-through employees) To me, these changes represent a major philosophical shift in the way baseball teams now make decisions but no one seems to be talking about it. A three-year shift in the average age of players is huge.

I also think middle infielders should get to yank out second base and spike it every time they turn a double play. That would be cool.

Dealing a player with more value than Arcia both with the bat and the glove (Plouffe) so Arcia can have a roster spot as a right-hand only platooned DH is about as beneficial a roster move as Gardy insisting on carrying three catchers.

Arcia's poor play has actually been fortunate for the Twins this year in that it has enabled ample playing time for Rosario and another chance to look at Hicks - both of whom can also field their positions.

It seems less likely that a breakdown by every Twins starting pitcher has occurred at the same time than it does that an overall pitching approach that worked earlier is no longer effective. Any observations for or against this?

Wouldn't that make Mauer the rich man's Doug Mientkiewicz? I think Doug Mientkiewicz was already the poor man's Doug Mientkiewicz.

Stranger than fiction - other Beth Correia Twins hitting coincidences: "Correia" in Portuguese means "belt." If a Twins player belted one to left field you would say he "Correia'ed" it . (or you could say nobody on the Twins has Correia'ed it lately.) Coincidentally, the Twins once had a player named Portugal. http://thumbs1.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mr0MtMFHXCluk4_IAQz86Pg.jpg Bethe Correia was born on June 22nd, 1983 - a day that current Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky slugged a home run off Dave Steib in Exhibition Stadium to raise his average to over .200 on the season. Len Whitehouse and Ron Washington also played in that game and only four years later in 1987 Brunansky and the Twins would earn a trip to the "White House" which is in "Washington." http://img.beckett.com/news/news-content/uploads/2011/10/front-1.jpg Kevin Correia was once in the Twins lineup and got a hit. (July 12th 2014) Coincidentally, Kevin Correia was also once in the Twins lineup and got a win. Opponents routinely "Correia'ed" Correia's offerings all over the ballpark.

And if we traded him to Texas, he'd be "Walker, Texas Ranger" http://heavyeditorial.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/chuckpunch1.gif?w=780

Here is Bunker's page at Baseball Reference: Wally Bunker He pitched regularly in the Oriole's rotation through 1966 and part-time in 1967 and 1968 as recurring arm troubles cost him regular starts. The Orioles won the American League pennant in 1966 and played the Dodgers in the World Series, led by a surprisingly young rotation comprised of 20 year-old Jim Palmer (15-10), 23 year-old Dave McNally (13-6), 21 year-old Wally Bunker (10-6) and 28 year-old Steve Barber. (10-5) Bunker started game 3 in the World Series tossing a 6-hit shutout in Baltimore. In the top of the 8th, with the only scoring up to that point being a 5th inning solo home run by the Orioles' Paul Blair, the Dodgers got the tying run in scoring position when pinch hitter Tommy Davis singled for the pitcher Claude Osteen and Maury Wills sacrificed him to second. Bunker got Wes Parker to pop out to shortstop Luis Aparico and Willie Davis to ground out to second baseman Davey Johnson to end the threat in the 8th, however, and then set down the Dodgers' 4-5-6 hitters in the 9th for a complete game 1-0 win. When the Orioles returned to the postseason in 1969, Bunker was not a member of the team. He had been claimed in the expansion draft by the Kansas City Royals and actually threw the first pitch in that team's history. (April 8th, 1969) Wally pitched well -if under the radar - that year going 12-11 for a team that only won 69 games. He led the Royals in starts, innings pitched and even managed to save two games in relief, despite the arm ailments that had limited his starts the two seasons prior. He was not so resilient in 1970, making only 15 starts and suffering through a miserable 2-11 season. He tried to pitch again for the Royals in 1971 but only threw 32 innings before his season (and career) came to a close at the age of 26. In Googling Bunker, I discovered that he and his wife write children's books and are artists in residence at a Nature Resort in South Carolina - which sounds like a satisfying second career after baseball.

http://www.vintagecardprices.com/pics/1830/166907.jpg After making his debut as an 18 year-old for the Baltimore Orioles in the final game of 1963, right-handed pitcher Wally Bunker earned a spot in the Orioles starting rotation in May of 1964 and pitched a 1-hitter in his first start of the season. The teenager from San Bruno, California surrendered no earned runs in his next start and a single run in the next (all complete games) eventually extending his winning streak to six consecutive starts before losing to Camilo Pasqual and the Twins on June 7th. Blessed with outstanding run support on the season, (The O’s scored 5.11 per game in Bunker’s starts, 3.99 in all others), Bunker’s tidy 2.69 ERA translated to 19 wins and only 6 losses in 29 starts, pacing the American League in win percentage. While not an overpowering thrower, (4.0 K’s per 9) Bunker still limited opponents to only 161 hits over 214 innings in 1964, translating to a .207 batting average against. Unfortunately for Bunker, the Twins' Tony Oliva was also a rookie in 1964 and Wally finished a distant second in Rookie of the Year voting to Oliva, the American League batting champion that year. Bunker also received votes in the MVP balloting, finishing 12th behind teammate Brooks Robinson. Bunker became (and remains) the youngest player to ever receive MVP votes.

The Twins advanced metrics team likes that Pelfrey nearly always has a low earned runs total per hour pitched.

It's hard to fathom Bill James - a man who usually applies logical rigor to his suppositions - making casual steroid aspersions regarding Gaetti and Puckett. What's even more surprising is that James singled out a year that Gaetti followed a 5-HR season with 20 HRs as suspicious when anyone looking at the back of a bubblegum card could see that Gaetti had actually hit 20+ HRs each of his first two seasons before the sudden drop. Gaetti's lack of homeruns in 1984 was actually the aberration - which received ink in the local papers that year. Oh but Gaetti had acne and was balding. Ever take a close look at your hometown Royals, Bill? Doesn't Steve "Bye-Bye" Balboni's complexion or hairline seem a bit suspicious, too? Or how about the year George Brett amazingly went from 7 homeruns in 645 at-bats to 22 homeruns in 80 fewer at-bats the next? http://www.tradingcarddb.com/Images/Cards/Baseball/115/115-362Fr.jpg Also - if this wasn't a steroid rage, what was it?

It's just good marketing. The St. Paul Saints are selling one that's just all the Fireworks Friday night games at CHS Field. Coolest ticket package ever.

MacPhail was less risk-averse than his successors - much to his credit. I cite a couple of examples. One was the contract he gave Morris to sign in 1991. $3 million the first year and then player-controlled options the next two. (Who does that?) A good season and Morris likely walks away. A bad season - like the 18-loss season he just had in 1990 - and you're stuck for two more. You better hope hope a.) you get that one good year and b.) if you do, you don't squander it. The second was the next year, 1992. To replace Morris, MacPhail makes a deal for Pirates 20-game winner John Smiley who was only on a 1-year contract with Pittsburgh. It cost the Twins prospects Midre Cummings and Denny Neagle. Smiley goes 16-9 in that one year, the Twins win 90 but lose the division by 6 games. Smiley exits for Cincinnati and Neagle goes on to have a solid career for the Pirates and Braves and to make two all-star teams. In hindsight, probably not a deal you'd make again - but at the time the very deal you wanted him to make, A couple other MacPhail moves I also want to highlight that weren't mentioned are finding Brian Harper - who was a significant offensive upgrade at catcher over Laudner, Butera, Salas, Nieto et al, and the selection of the underrated Shane Mack in the Rule 5 draft.

Any new pitching coach the Twins hire can immediately improve the pitching staff by convincing Ryan and Molitor that outfield defense is indeed important. Put actual "defenders" out there with more speed than Josh WIllingham, more experience than Danny Santana, better instincts than Chris Parmelee and more common sense than Oswaldo Arcia and watch how much the ERA improves.

While I understand where your sentiments and bold-font indignation come from, OaklandFan, but both the ballpark assertion and rookie pitcher assertion are false The new ballparks of the 90s would have needed to appear as a group in 1996 and then disappear again in 1997 to have contributed to a one season phenomenon. The affect of more homer-conducive ballparks would be to cause an upward trend in Steinbach's homerun totals from their opening onward and not an isolated one year spike. There is no evidence, however, of even an upward trend from the new ballparks in Steinbach's stats after looking at his road homeruns by ballpark before 1996, in 1996, and then after. Steinbach's 1996 homeruns on the road in ballparks opened in 1989 or later were Texas-3, Chicago-3, Cleveland-2, Baltimore-1,and Toronto-1. (10 total) His road homeruns in stadiums open prior to 1989 were California-3, Detroit-3, Seattle-2, Boston-1. (9 total.) The Toronto Skydome - now Rogers Centre - opened in 1989. Steinbach hit 2 homeruns there in the 7 seasons prior to 1996, 1 there in 1996, and then none the final three years of his career. He hit 1 at the previous Toronto ballpark in three seasons. New Comiskey Park - now US Cellular Field - opened in 1991.Steinbach hit 2 homeruns there in the 5 seasons prior to 1996, 3 there in 1996, and then none the final three years of his career. He hit none in the previous White Sox ballpark in three seasons. Camden Yards opened in 1992. Steinbach hit 2 homeruns there in the four seasons prior to 1996, 1 there in 1996, and then none for the final three years of his career. The Ballpark in Arlington - now Globe Life Ballpark in Arlington, opened in 1994. Steinbach hit one homerun there in the two years prior to 1996, three there in 1996, and then none for the final three years of his career. He hit 7 at the previous ballpark in Texas over 7 seasons. Jacobs Field - now Progressive Field, also opened in 1994. Steinbach hit 1 homerun there in the the two years prior to 1996, 2 there in 1996, and then two over the final three years of his career. He had hit 5 at the previous ballpark in Cleveland in 7 seasons. I thought there might be something to your rookie pitcher assertion but that turns out a false assertion, as well. The pitcher Steinbach particularly feasted on in 1996 was Kevin Tapani, 32, who was pitching for the White Sox that year. Steinbach hit three homeruns off him in 10 plate appearances after only hitting 1 off him in 24 total plate appearances prior. He also hit 2 in 7 at bats off Darren Oliver in 1996, who was in his third year with the Rangers, (No other homeruns against Oliver in other seasons.) 2 off Mike Christopher who was 32 in his fifth MLB season, 2 off Rocky Coppinger, who was a rookie that year, 2 off 29 year-old vet Juan Guzman in 10 at-bats in 1996 although none in the other 30 at-bats versus Guzman in his career. The other pitchers who each surrendered a single home run to Steinbach in 1996 were Wilson Alvarez 7th season, Mark Brandenburg rookie, Norm Charlton 10th , Cal Eldred 6th, Alex Fernandez 7th,Jason Grimsley 7th, Erik Hanson 9th,Sterling Hitchcock 5th, Greg Keagle rookie, Mark Langston 15th, Dennis Martinez 21st, Jack McDowell 9th, Jaimie Moyer 11th, Charles Nagy 7th, Gregg Olson 9th, Paul Quantrill 5th, Brad Radke 2nd, Paul Shuey 3rd, Dennis Springer rookie, Mike Stanton 8th season, Matt Wagner rookie, Bob Wells 3rd, David Wells 10th, and Shad Williams rookie. The final tally for 1996 for Steinbach is 28 home runs off veterans (80%) and 7 off rookies.

I was watching the excellent ESPN 30-for-30 feature on the Earthquake Series of 1989 and in recalling various players on that Oakland A’s team, was again struck by how far off the charts Terry Steinbach’s 1996 was from any other season in his career at the advanced-for-baseball age of 34. Steinbach slugged 35 homeruns that season after never hitting more than 16 before or after. His 34 homeruns as a catcher (the other was as a pinch hitter) was the highest total for a catcher at that time in the American League. It was surpassed by Ivan Rodriguez (35) in 1999 which is the current record. In all of baseball history, only two other players over age 30 put up career high homeruns exceeding 30 in a season which more than doubled any other season homerun total in their careers. Brady Anderson – hit 50 homeruns in 1996 at age 32. The next highest HR total for Brady in a season was 24. George Crowe – hit 31 homeruns in 1957 at age 36. The next highest HR total for George in a season was 15. Crowe hit his 31 homeruns in the only season he ever topped 400 at-bats so is easily explainable. Brady Anderson and Steinbach, not so. While steroid rumors have always surrounded Anderson’s aberrant 1996, Steinbach’s similarly aberrant 1996 has remained unquestioned as far as I can tell from Google searches despite the Oakland clubhouse of 1996 also being the home to McGwire, Canseco and Giambi. So how exactly does a 34 year-old catcher who never hit more than 16 homeruns before or since become the all-time single season league leader in homeruns at his position? In looking for explanations, I thought of the following: Renovation to the Oakland Coliseum In 1995-1996 the Oakland Coliseum was renovated to enclose the previously open outfield with a massive steep double-decked grandstand for Raiders football. (”Mt. Davis”) Prior to that, the stadium had a symmetrical curved outfield fence with dimension of 330 down the lines, 375 to the alleys, and 400 to center field. With the construction, the configuration of the outfield changed to a peaked diamond shape that kept the same foul line and center field dimensions but was constrained to shorter dimensions in the alleys. A’s fans have also written that there was previously a breeze that cooled the ballpark on hot day games that disappeared once Mount Davis was erected. This suggests that batters no longer had to deal with wind blowing in. Shorter power alleys and more favorable wind conditions could have helped Steinbach’s power numbers, right? Steinbach hit a home run every 38 at-bats at home in 1994, every 21 at-bats in 1995, and every 16 at-bats in 1996, while the rest of the A’s hit homers every 36 at-bats in 1994, every 30 at-bats in 1995, and every 24 at-bats in 1996 – so the park (or the team) was trending upward. Unfortunately for the ballpark theory Steinbach’s rates on the road were a homer every 36 at-bats in 1994, every 36 in 1995, and every 13 at-bats in 1996, meaning his homerun rate increased 32% at home in '96 but increased 164% on the road! Not the ballpark. The Strike of 1994-1995 Steinbach lost at-bats that would have affected his overall homerun totals in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 season was wiped out after 117 games and the 1995 season started late and was limited to 145 games. Perhaps his aberrant 1996 power wouldn’t be as glaring in comparison if his two previous seasons had been completed. Projecting his production in those seasons to 1996 at-bat levels produces only 14 homeruns in 1994 (compared to 11 actual) and 19 instead of 15 in 1995. (For some reason the jump from 19 to 35 seems less staggering even though it’s still semi-staggering – especially given Steinbach’s age. Joe Mauer had his aberrant HR season at age 26, by the way.) Sold his Soul? With the lack of a better explanation, it’s possible Steinbach negotiated some kind of deal with Lucifer in exchange for his 1996 season. How else could you explain how following the greatest season of his career and one of the top seasons ever for an American League catcher, he inexplicably took two-thirds of his previous salary to join a moribund team Twins team that lost 90 games every season for the rest of his career.

I was excited to have Arcia play a year ago but the more I've watched him, the more I question his high regard on this website. The Twins sorely need good outfield defense to support their type of swing-and-hit pitchers but continually put the likes of Delmon Young, Jason Kubel, Josh Willingham, Chris Parmelee and this guy out there. Putting aside his .230 bating average and those beer-league softball swings that end up in K's every third at-bat, I've seen enough of his outfield gaffes to easily say bye-bye to his 20 long balls in favor of somebody with potentially less power but a more solid all- around game. - especially if that person can do it without the silly Sammy Sosa posturing.

The Twins smallest payroll since moving to Target Field is 25% in excess of what they spent their last season in the Dome and their average salary since moving to Target Field is 45% higher.

If the Pohlads truly treated this as a business as you wrote, wouldn't they have been more active in changing managers in a sport where that is a normal course of action? Instead, they gave both Tom Kelly and Ron Gardenhire the managerial latitude to each lose 90 games 4 years in a row - something accomplished only twice in the rest of baseball history. (And one of those other managers actually owned the team.) Also, if they were so concerned with saving money, dismissing Gardenhire with a year left on his contract doesn't make much sense since they now have to eat that money.

Jim Thielman wrote in his book, "The Cool of the Evening", that a long-standing joke about the team was that the TC logo on their hats really stood for "Twenty Cubans" since the team had a number of Cuban players in the 1960s like Oliva, Cardenas, Pasqual, Ramos, Valdespino, Versalles...

List of managers who have lost 90 or more games four consecutive years with the same team: Tom Kelly, Minnesota Twins, 1997-2000 Zack Taylor, St. Louis Browns, 1948-1951 Connie Mack, Philadelphia A's, 1940-1943

It’s an honor when an MLB player is recognized as the best offensive or defensive player at his position by his league but it’s an even greater honor when he’s recognized as both. Greater, but not all that rare, it seems. Since the Silver Slugger award originated in 1980, the two awards have been given simultaneously to players a total of 172 times or about 5 times per season out of the 17 possible occurrences. The first players to be awarded the combo platter* were Keith Hernandez, Willie Wilson, Mike Schmidt, Andre Dawson and Cecil Cooper in 1980. The first Twins player to earn the pair of awards together was Kirby Puckett in 1986. (Kirby went on to do it four more times.) The last Twin was Joe Mauer in 2010, the last of three consecutive seasons he did so. Only one other Twins player won a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove in the same season - Chuck Knoblauch in 1997. Ken Griffey Jr., Barry Bonds, and Ivan Rodriguez each won the pair of awards seven times– the highest totals in the 33 years that both have been awarded. Mike Hampton in 2003 is the only pitcher to win the pair together. Hampton actually has FIVE Silver Slugger awards, the same as Mauer, if you’re counting. (Mark Portugal even has a Silver Slugger award, Joe!) Inexplicably, there have been 16 occurrences of players being recognized as both their league’s outstanding offensive and defensive player at their position in a season in which they failed to reach the All-Star game. This actually happened to Matt Williams twice – in 1993 and 1997 – and most recently to Chase Headley and Adam LaRoche in 2012. This has never happened to a Yankee, however. * - No, I did not have a combo platter for lunch today. Egg salad, avocado, some sprouts and pepperoncini on a croissant. A little watermelon on the side.

On a previous lunch hour, between bites of an All-P sandwich* I was wondering if there was a usable correlation between the number of All-Stars teams have and an expected number of wins. I thought if a team had a lot of All-Stars and lower than expected wins, this might suggest lackluster managing. Higher than average expected wins per All-Star, perhaps good managing.It turns out there actually is a very strong step up in average winning percentage for each incremental All-Star a team has. Roughly this: one All-Star – average winning percent of .458; two All-Stars, .501; three All-Stars, .542; four All-Stars, .557, and so on. The problem with using this information is the incredible market bias in All-Star selections. To be able to evaluate Yankees managers and Twins managers on common ground, each team’s positive or negative bias in All-Star selections has to be compensated for. To do this, I counted the number of All-Star selections each year and totaled the number of league wins. I then computed each year’s average wins per All-Star and applied this to each team’s winning percentage to determine the equitable number of All-Stars each team should have had. Summing the actual number of All-Stars each team has had through its history and dividing this by the sum of equitable All-Stars creates an index value per team than can be used for the aforementioned manager evaluation. Which team has the biggest bias in All-Star team selection? Do I really have to ask? Of course, it’s the Yankees with nearly 52% more All-Stars than a fair distribution suggests, given the team’s success. This is far and away the highest bias, as the closest team, the Cardinals, are at +23%. Rounding out the top 5 are the Red Sox at +21%, and the Dodgers and the Reds both at 13%. Conversely, the Rodney Dangerfield teams of All-Star selections are led by the Rays at -20%, the A’s and Astros at -19%, the Pirates at -18%, and the Royals at -17%. The Twins, if you’re curious, are at -15%, which is 9th worst. If you’re curious about which managers overachieved or underachieved in their careers relative to the number of All-Stars their teams had, adjusted for All-Star bias, here are looks at the top 10 and bottom 10 calculated during today’s lunch hour between bites of a Waldorf salad. Results are based on average seasonal difference between actual wins and expected wins. And the manager had to be the manager for the majority of a team’s games to be credited for that season and had to manage at least 5 seasons. The Good: 1. Joe McCarthy +12.7 wins per season. 2. Billy Southworth +11.2 wins 3. Joe Girardi +9.9 wins 4. Bobby Cox +7.8 wins 5. Al Lopez +7.7 wins 6. Earl Weaver +7.7 wins 7. Walter Alston + 7.7 wins 8. Pete Rose + 6.7 wins 9. Billy Martin + 6.6 wins 10. Jimy Williams +6.5 wins The Not So Good: 1. Connie Mack -12.2 wins 2. Jimmie Wilson -11.8 wins 3. Billy Meyer -9.7 wins 4. Preston Gomez -9.7 wins 5. Buddy Bell -9.3 wins 6. Ossie Bluege -8.1 wins 7. Fred Haney -7.7 wins 8. Del Crandall -6.5 wins 9. Manny Acta -6.1 wins 10. Mary Marion -6.0 wins Twins managers: 1. Billy Martin +6.7 wins 2. Frank Quilici +3.2 wins 3. Ron Gardenhire +1.5 wins 4. Gene Mauch +0.7 wins 5. Ray Miller -0.3 wins 6. Sam Mele -1.2 wins 7. Tom Kelly -2.4 wins 8. Cal Ermer -2.6 wins 9. Billy Gardner -3.9 wins 10. Bill Rigney -5.4 wins * pastrami, prosciutto, provolone, peppers, poupon and pickles on pumpernickel Click here to view the article