IndianaTwin

Have you been including the period in “rocco.baldelli@twinsbaseball.com”? It’s easy to miss in his email signature.

What? Were his parents ballet dancers or something?

Because the Astros went to a righty? Do you think that with a righty warming in the bullpen, Rocco didn’t know Houston is going to change pitchers if he brings in Margot? You may or may not like his choice, but I think it was pretty clear that Rocco knew he was choosing Margot against the righty over Julien against the lefty.

Sleep is overrated when brisket is involved. 🤣

I had the same thought.

Joaquin Andujar? Though I always thought it was spelled, “Youneverknow.” EDIT to add: I did have it before you gave the answer. I use the quote regularly. I think I remember it from a “They Said It” in Sports Illustrated. That was an awesome feature.

Perkins. I did find a preseason article saying Gladden would be doing fewer games.

For those that lean on the radio broadcast, does it seem that Dazzle is off “on assignment” more often? I’m not complaining, mind you.

Do or don’t do.

We’ve had a few sets where we’ve had perspectives — you’ve liked them and I didn’t or vice versa. This is one we agree on. The overall look is a little bland, but you’re right, it’s a clean look. It feels lacking to not have positions on the front, but I liked the back with the factoids accompanying the stats. I also liked the Record Breakers. After a number of years of not collecting much, this was a set I went after. I’m sure it was prompted by the World Series in ’87, but my brother-in-law started buying packs and cases. My nieces would have been 8 and 6, so they would sort for him. In response, I started buying them as well. I couldn’t really afford it, since we were broke college students, me having just graduated and Mrs. IT with one year to go, but I was making big money at my $11 per hour job, so I felt like there was money to burn. Another uniqueness of this year is that they made school pocket folders with the design of some of the cards. I don’t remember that happening with other sets. I had (and maybe still have) a couple of Puckett folders.

One of the more disappointing parks for me. I was really looking forward to it and thought the possibilities were great with the train and the uniqueness of the hill, etc. When I got there it seemed like they had tried to stick every gimmick into it. It felt a bit like a Hollywood movie where they give everybody big belt buckles, cowboy hats and spurs, exaggerating everything for effect. Except they weren’t trying for effect.

The BBQ, however, is legit.

I don't think I'm disagreeing, but part of the challenge is in the question of what you're going to do in the off-season loading up. Going into the offseason, you essentially had six guys who were considered to be every day players (barring injury): Catcher, Julien, Correa, Lewis, Buxton and Kepler. Four (but really five, since the Catcher is shared between two guys) of those are right handed, two left-handed. Then, you had three guys (Kirilloff, Larnach and Wallner, all left-handed) that you were generally planning to have in one or two roster spots. The remaining spots went to Farmer and Castillo, who were already on the roster, but were non-tender options, and Santana and Margot, who were added. Barring trades, you weren't weren't going to change the first group of players. Two of the last quarter are switch hitters, so that helps the situation when trying to maximizing platoon splits. What are you going to do with the remaining spots? Are you suggesting they should have pursued lefties for Farmer and Margot's spots? The constant chatter we heard all offseason was that we've got too many left-handed hitters. The easy solution is to say, "Trade some of those lefties for righties," but that's easier said than done. Maybe I am disagreeing, but I don't think the issue is that they chased the wrong side of the platoon -- the issue is that the guys who are most underperforming (Vazquez, Farmer and Margot) happen to all be right-handed.

I recognize that this is the Internet, so there's always an element of recency bias and "what have you done for me lately"? In 2022, TD was up in arms about Rocco pulling starters early. In 2023, Rocco let pitchers go longer, and people finally realized that the reason Rocco pulled starters early in 2022 was because they sucked. In 2023, they had better starters and, wheeee, they pitched longer. This year's approach is really not much different than last year. Last year, we picked up Vazquez, Solano, Gallo, Taylor and Farmer and platooned a lot. As a whole, I think Taylor, Farmer and Solano were seen as wins, Vazquez probably a draw and Gallo became the whipping boy (even with his 103 OPS+ and generally good defense, but that's a different discussion). And all in all, there was praising of the front office for their emphasis on depth that allowed them to withstand injuries and bring along young guys like Lewis, Julien and Wallner. This year, they've arguably allotted fewer PAs to vets (Vazquez, Farmer, Santana and Margot) and still platooned, but because the veterans have not performed to their career average (and in a couple cases, have been significantly below), the front office are suddenly idiots (or perhaps more accurately, idiots for a different reason, but that's also a different discussion). Given that there is a solid likelihood that not all will go swimmingly in 2025, I predict TD will find a new thing to focus on next year.

A 3 (or 3.5) man bench really, given that it's tough to do much with the catcher spot on a given day.

Because they don't play the White Sox enough?

Though Miranda has played only 10.2 innings at 1B for the Twins this season and last, he did play five of his six defensive games at 1B in St. Paul, which suggests that may be where the Twins see him as more viable. I would imagine he'll get at least some run at 1B when Lewis is back. Though it wouldn't be popular, I could also see them sending him down for a week or so to specifically work at 1B. Personally, I'd send down Julien for the reset, assuming that Farmer and Castro can handle 2B until an injury happens. I don't see Miranda playing 2B, however, with Lee also on the doorstep.

It's on the Splits page on baseball-reference.com. For example: https://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/split.cgi?t=b&team=MIN&year=2024 In this chunk... it's saying that short stops (i.e., mostly Correa) have an OPS+ of 132 in comparison to the rest of the team. The DHs are at 82 and the 2Bs at 81, etc. That the catchers are at 96 suggest that Vazquez's drag only slightly outweigh Jeffers' benefit in the context of the team. The sOPS+ to the right of that is in comparison to the league as a whole. If you hover over the heading in each chart, it will give a fuller explanation, but if I'm understanding it correctly, it's saying that Jeffers and Vazquez combine to be a little below average in the context of the Twins lineup (the 96), they are a tiny bit above average (the 101) in the context of the league as a whole. I haven't spent gobs of time diving into this, but at least I think that's how the two relate to each other. From the descriptors, it says that sOPS+ is not park-adjusted. It doesn't have that note on tOPS+, so I assume that one is. An interesting tidbit, completely unrelated to the Vazquez discussion -- you'll see that the Twins have had one plate appearance from a pitcher this year. You may wonder where that's from, since none of the pitchers have hit. In the May 18 game, Willi Castro came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth and then hit in the top of the ninth, so that plate appearance was treated as a pitcher. (At least I thought it was interesting.)

In terms of who starts, it's very much been an alternating of games, with a couple of exceptions that give Vazquez a 29-25 edge in starts: April 23-24. Not sure if there was a logical reason, though it was in the midst of a stretch with 13 straight games. April 28-29. Later in the same stretch. That it was soon after the first time and that Jeffers DHed on the 24th, 28th and 29th makes me wonder if Jeffers was dinged up a bit, but I don't know that. May 12 and 14. So back-to-back games for Vazquez, but not back-to-back days. May 20-21. And now that I look at it closer, in all four situations, the second day was facing a lefty and Rocco was going with an entirely right-handed lineup. To do that, you have play both Vazquez and Jeffers, so he went with the stronger defender behind the plate. Jeffers has not started behind the plate against a left-handed pitcher since April 15.

Jeffers has played in all but six games and is third on the team in plate appearances. Realistically, catching Jeffers more wouldn't get him the lineup more. He would just DH less. Said another way, Vazquez isn't costing Jeffers at bats; he's costing at bats to someone else in the lineup as the DH. And frankly, the "someone else" crew hasn't hit well. The DH tOPS+ is 85, meaning that they have hit 15 percent worse than the team as a whole. For context, the only position that has been weaker is 2B (at 82). Then, consider that more than one-third of the DH at bats have gone to Jeffers, and it suggests that the remaining DHs have been significantly worse than that figure. Not Vazquez-level worse, but with not nearly as large of a discrepancy as one might think. In fact, given the toll that catching takes, one wonders if Jeffers might actually have fewer total at bats if a bigger percentage of them came at catcher. It will be interesting to see if there is some shift in the catching ratio, with Larnach seeming to be coming on a bit as a DH and if Lewis (hoped for) leads to more DH time for Miranda. If those guys hit well as DH, maybe there's more reason to have Jeffers catch a bit more, since his DH at bats are needed quite as much. Rocco plays the long game during the regular season. If part of balancing the role and giving lots of DH time to Jeffers is to keep his legs a bit fresher so he can catch a little more down the stretch, that's helpful as well.

Listening to Josh Staumont on the radio postgame. He’s very articulate.

Not if the runner doesn’t advance to third. EDIT: Double ninja’ed.

Captain Jax got us by tonight.

I asked Mrs. IT what she wanted for her birthday. She said that nothing would make her happier than a diamond necklace. Found out the hard way that she actually wanted something.