IndianaTwin

Difference being that Austin also has significant minor league innings at 1B, and Mauer was a good enough athlete to be a Gold Glove catcher. That's not to say that Austin won't improve with experience, but I'm skeptical he'll improve to the level of Mauer.

I was told the reason for the game flow in the early season is Minneapolis hosting NCAA basketball. The Twins play three games at home and then are on the road for series before, during, and after the Final Four. I also note that they have five off days scheduled in the first 15 days. Not only can they get by without a No. 5 starter for a while, they could even skip the No. 4 one time. (Edit: Oops -- I was looking at a printout and hadn't read the link. I see the article referenced that.)

Well, that was boring.

Settle in, folks, we're about to experience the FRE!

Who says there's no late-season drama this year?

The rest of the team has had RISP on 24.25 percent of its at bats. Mauer has had RISP in 20.10. Also, I don't know how to easily figure out who was on base for Mauer, but with where he has been in the batting order, the vast majority of his games have come with guys like Garver, Wilson, Grossman, Lomo, and even the pitcher batting up to three batters in front of him. Specifically, in his 63 games as a lead off hitter, 47 times the No. 9 hitter has been Wilson (27), Garver (7), Adrianza (7), or a pitcher (6). When your guy on 2B is Wilson, you're not going to get as many RBIs as when your guy is Rosario. Also, take into account that Mauer doesn't hit homers. The batter, by definition, isn't in scoring position. Mauer has driven in 34 base runners. For context, in more at bats for each, Dozier drove in only 36 and Kepler 29 base runners. All factors in why a guy with great success with RISP may not have gobs of RBIs.

Thanks. They only showed the pitch from the CF camera.

How many of Kopech’s rookie cards do you think Bucknor has? In addition to Mauer, did Sano go around on his first at bat? The Sox broadcast didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to show a replay.

We had the same from Cavaretta on. Going backwards, a better person for both of us is Babe Ruth, from 1914-35. There are several guys who could start the string, going from 1901 or before until 1914. Bobby Wallace played from 1894-1918, which was the earliest starting string for six players that I could come up with.

I found a string as short as 6: 1. Tommy Leach (1898-1918) 2. Jimmy Dykes (1918-1939) 3. Phil Cavaretta (1934-1955) (Note -- there were several players who started in 1939 and played later than Cavaretta, but they all missed at least one season during WWII.) 4. Brooks Robinson (1955-77) 5. Dennis Martinez (1976-98) 6. Adrian Beltre (1998-2018) https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_most_seasons.shtml

Yes, Cliff, and also have the first name "George."

Trivia question my son gave me last night... Babe Ruth, Tom Seaver, George Brett, Ken Griffey Jr., Rube Waddell -- top 5 in career WAR with what in common?

Don’t dislike it, but prefer a slight variation. Romero is at 134.2 innings for the year. At the 150-160 limit many of us were advocating for, he’s got 20-25 left. Bring him up for the two starts needed before the end of August. Then move him to the pen. Stewart back down for two starts in Rochester to end their season, then back up to work from the pen. (And that leaves 3-4 MLB starts for Gonsalves.)

SIGN HIM UP!!!

Frosty!

I'm not averse to an SP upgrade. Having a Sale would be great, but the best way to improve the SP ERA is to eliminate 20 starts of Lynn (5.10), 11 of Romero (4.69) and 26 combined from Santana, Slegers, Hughes, Stewart, and Littell. That's 48 percent of their games. I'll use them because they are convenient, but a healthy Santana and a healthy Mejia probably would have eliminated a whole lot of those crummy starts. (And while I'm at it, I'd like to see how much Odo would improve following an Opener.) The Twins have used 11 different starters. By contrast, the Astros have only used 5 starters all year. Boston has only had 12 starts from guys with an ERA over 4.04 for the year. (I'll also note that only 20 of Houston's and 22 of Boston's are from guys under age 27. I like the Twins prospects a lot, but that kind of experience is why I'm reluctant to have two rookies in the rotation from the get-go.) My preference for an SP upgrade would be to wait for May (the month, not Trevor). The Twins have lots of potential for next year, but still a fair number of question marks as well, more than can probably be dealt with in a single offseason. Even with what appeared on the surface to be a significant offseason, one more upgrade wouldn't have made the difference this year. Similarly, I'd be reluctant that even signing Kershaw this offseason wouldn't be enough if we have similar bad luck due to injury. By waiting 40 games or so to make the big splash, we know whether it's worth it.

I’m going to offer an opinion and then prepare to get crushed. But I hope that they give Santana as many starts as possible to see if he’s able to fully recover and then consider picking up his option. You named several options, and I like all of them, but I’m also not excited about going into the season with two guys who are unproven. That calls for a one-year make-good contract on someone. With his option, that’s effectively what Santana is. He’s also a known quantity in the clubhouse and to the staff, which I think is an advantage. I thought Lynn was a great signing, but something apparently didn’t work here (though it’s working in N.Y.). I’d rather the devil you know than the one you don’t. In other threads, there have been “only on a reduced contract” comments. With the amount of payroll flexibility, I’m not sure it’s worth alienating a guy by trying to nickel-and-dime a veteran over a couple million. If he demonstrates that he’s far enough back and trusted doctors are of the opinion that another six months will provide more healing, I’d go with the full option.

Frosty the Sano Man!

Greenwood Memorial Park, Lower Burrell, Pa., according to this excellent bio: https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/cdec8871

What a neat story, and I’m sure the set provides significant meaning. I have a handful of cards from those Post sets and always thought they were cool. That’s a couple years before I was born so they would have been cards I traded for. Cards on the box also reminds me of another story. When I was a kid in the mid-70s, Hostess would put three cards on the bottom of their packages. When I went grocery shopping with Mom, she would let me sort through all the boxes of Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho-Hos and Suzy Q’s to pick out the box that I wanted while she did the rest of the shopping. Letting me get a box of Ding Dongs was probably a small price to pay for her being able to shop in peace!

So, apparently Topps has made this (Aug. 11) "National Baseball Card Day," and one can stop in at one's favorite participating shop to pick up a free pack. Which got me thinking -- what are your favorite baseball cards and/or card memories? Here's three for me: 1. I was eight when my older brother went to college. I'd heard of baseball cards, but never had any of my own. When he came home for Christmas, he said he had "just happened" to pick up a pack, and would I like to have this Rod Carew. Uh, yeah. 2. I was hooked. And my friendship with Doug was cemented when we both accumulated enough cards to spread them out over the floor, make trades, and sort them by position, and then by team, and then by year, and then by team again, and then by position, and then by... 3. And one of the best Christmas presents I ever got was when I was about 10 and my brother-in-law gave me his entire collection, mostly 1968s and 1969s. Carew was his favorite player, so as an adult, I gave that one back to him.

Per radio guys, Williams Astudillo just pulled off the hidden-ball trick at Rochester.

Thanks for bringing a smile to my face by mentioning Craig Kusick. For some reason, I have the vivid memory of choosing to sit in Dad’s pickup truck to listen to the game over watching the tractor pull and hearing the announcers talk about this Craig Kusick guy making his debut. I was only seven, but I was pretty sure that he had the skills to replace Mr. Killebrew. Uh, not so much. And below is link to exactly the baseball card that came to mind when I thought of him. As to Briggs, I could never be a big fan of him because I was mad that they had traded my guy Bobby Darwin to get him. https://img.comc.com/ebay-both/85ab2a7a-a4e9-401d-b48e-1af40102946e.jpg?refresh

We have general agreement that the concussions turned Joe into significantly less than his best. And even when he got back on the field, it took a while to be fully back. In 2017, he had his best season after the concussions, playing what many of us thought was Gold Glove defense and turning in an OPS+ of 115. I say that because I don’t think enough has been made about the potential influence of the concussion this year. In his first 38 games, his OPS was .839. In 44 games post-concussion, it’s .658. Those may not be huge sample sizes, but in my mind they are big enough to suggest a good likelihood that something is up. That he was “only” out for about 25 games suggest that this was a minor concussion, which is how it was described. If this is the case, it also seems possible that with a full offseason and further distance from the concussion, he could more quickly be back to the .839 OPS guy. That said, with the number of concussion he has had and with the research that we are getting from medical professional, my hope for him as a person is that he takes seriously the risk of continued playing. But if the concussion protocols and medical analysis suggest that 1) it’s safe to play, and 2) he’s indeed fully back to health (not just “healthy enough to play), then I’d like to see it be largely Joe’s call. (By the way, though my post isn’t primarily about “clutch” and though he just made an out in that at bat, the radio guys just noted that he’s leading the league with a .431 average with runners in scoring position.)

Oh, never mind.