Sam Morley

After Hughes performance tonight, hopefully, he is hurt and heading to the DL. Otherwise, what a disgusting outing. So, maybe we'll see Meyer back in short notice after all. I thought Molitor was too quick to pull him last night, especially after he got a couple outs. Molitor went for the lefty-lefty matchup with Milone though, which seems pathetic in the third inning. But maybe Meyer was out of gas. His fastballs had dropped down into the 93 mph range. The whole thing was disappointing because he was pitching pretty well. The Castro HR was a fly out. The first walk I don't remember, but the second one was tough- it came to a full count, and Altuve checked his swing on what was called ball four, without an appeal- I thought he went (but even if he didn't, it was still a good pitch to a great hitter). The wild pitch to Rasmus was unfortunate. Berrios struck him out three times on the same pitch the night before. Also, I thought the strike zone was even more inconsistent than it was the first game of the series. So all that made the demotion even more disappointing. I thought there was enough good in his start to build on in a succeeding start. I thought he was close to a breakthrough. Clearly, there is a problematic trend with the way some of the young prospects have been used this season: Polanco, Kepler, and Meyer all being called up to limited use. Kepler is struggling since being back at Rochester. On a positive note, Buxton hit a homerun yesterday, and his hitting like 280, so at least he's headed in a good direction.

Replay in baseball is a total disgrace. It's easily the worst thing that's ever happened in the game, by far. It's worse than gambling. It's worse than steroids. It's worse than the weird plate blocking rules. It's bad in football and basketball too, but those sports are already just mediums for fantasy and gambling anyway. It's a stain on the purity of the game- the actual structure and beauty of the game- the game is bigger than mlb, played by millions of kids and amateurs around the world, and it doesn't have the right to jack around with adding elements like replay review and mound meeting timers that can't be implemented by everyone else. I don't care about pace that much, but it is slowing the game down in a manner that is far more obnoxious than meetings at the mound or batters stepping out of the box (timeless and accepted aspects of the game, that often have strategic purpose). Worse than pace, it's ruining the excitement and drama of close plays. Instead of responding in awe and astonishment to a close play and call, we just sit back and wait for the replay to tell what happened. When the call is against you, it's fun to be angry at the ump, and satisfied when your manager goes out to argue, even though you know it's to no avail. Even when a call is blown, it just becomes a part of the drama of the game, a part of what you remember and talk about, even years later. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn't matter even a little bit to anything if a call in a baseball game has been made incorrectly, because it's just a game. It's about having fun, being entertained, and for some, making money. None of these are impacted by occurrence of incorrect calls. And lastly, and of least importance, the replay review doesn't even work- the video is subjectively reviewed, and even with all of the cameras it's often still inconclusive. I say this is of least importance, because even if it did work, it would still be wrong. Personally, I don't have much hope for seeing replay review end. I actually am dreading further future implementation- probably an eventual automated strike zone. When Mlb announced replay review, I'd said that was it for me, that I wouldn't watch anymore- but I love watching the game enough that I couldn't not watch. The day of the automated strike zone, or strike zone review, that will be the end for me.

It's interesting to me that you identify these as fundamentals. I would have identified them as elements of a certain type of offensive strategy, maybe most commonly known as 'small ball'. If you are going to employ that type of strategy, then you would need to be proficient in the fundamentals of each of those elements. A lot of teams have moved away from playing small ball, and so you are probably right that they are likely less proficient in executing the fundamentals of the elements of small ball, but they tend to be more proficient in the fundamentals of the elements of the strategy they employ. I agree with your assessment that the Twins seem to lack identity in this regard. It seems like they are caught somewhere in between. Maybe this is due to their abundance of young, inexperienced players; maybe it's due to the inexperience of their coaching staff and manager.

dang it

...or maybe you're saying that the Twins should be calling Lenny Webster out of retirement, not Torii Hunter!

yeah, that's what I meant when I said what's happening is crazy: to lose nine in a row is crazy, to lose nine in a row to start the year is crazy. It's crazy for a bad team... and this isn't a bad team. but your sound logic and application of probability is a welcome check to my emotional intuition. it also feels like losing nine to start is worse than a nine game losing streak later in the season. Maybe it just feels like that now. I might need another dose of advanced statistics to combat all these feelings I'm having...

my point is that I don't see Dozier being the vocal leader that Hunter was, even though he seems to be the most natural fit for that role, and I'm just speculating as to why he might be struggling to fulfill the role. It is difficult to be a vocal leader, to do those things I listed, when you are really struggling yourself. My point is that if you're the leader, you have to be it despite your poor batting average. Hunter did have the luxury of being the emotional leader of the team without having to carry very much performance weight and responsibility. Dozier certainly has more performance responsibility than Hunter did last year. It's not really fair to Dozier that almost everyone else is sucking too. It really puts the magnifying glass that much more on the team's perceived leader. Obviously, the whole thing is mute, because Hunter isn't on the team. Hopefully, the team's recent struggles will birth the next natural leader of the team; these situations have the potential to do that. Batting averages and Torii Hunter aside, do you think this team, right now, has a leader, a vocal leader, an emotional leader? Do you think it's Brian Dozier? Someone else? Do you think a team needs that type of leader? I guess these are the types of situations- an 0-9 start- where a good leader can keep the team from really falling into the abyss, and I'm worried we don't have that guy.

I don't know, I agree with him. I think if Torii Hunter was on this team, we would not 0-9. I can't substantiate that claim. Leadership isn't quantifiable. I would say that his leadership did vanish, though, yes. This team does not have a leader. Mauer is doing the best he can at leadership (leading by example) and that's it. Seems like Dozier was in line to take over for Torii. But it's pretty tough to be a vocal leader when you're batting 160 or whatever. One, would Torii be batting 160? I don't think so, but it's possible. Two, if he was, it would not affect his confidence or his ability to be the vocal leader of the team. What does a vocal leader even do in this situation? Get pissed and fired up, get in guys' faces? Keep things loose and light, not let guys get down? Both? Sounds like Torii Hunter to me. Is Brian Dozier doing that stuff? Somebody else?

I think I had a similar reaction to this post as many others, in that I strongly agreed with some points and strongly disagreed with others. First, I don't fully understand the fascination with the concept of the Twins Way that is 'out there'. It seems to be this thing that sort of developed out of the Twins marketing dept, slash out of nowhere, as a way to get people to accept and root for a team with substandard talent and a management staff unwilling to acquire more when needed. It's contingent with the false concept that the Twins are a small market team. It seems like when this concept of the team is voiced, it's something along the lines of 'the Twins are a team of scrappy hard workers, they're piranhas'. This post doesn't focus on scrappiness so much, but rather on 'fundamentals'. My problem with this is that all major league teams practice fundamentals to perfection pretty much all the time. No one is out there doing anything fundamentally wrong at this level- I would argue that it's not even possible. It was a mistake, and maybe even a curse, to accept and embrace Ozzie Guillen's insult as a compliment when he called the team piranhas. We beat his Sox because we were better than them, not because we played some weird brand of scrappy try-hard and do the fundamentals baseball. If you go back and look at those teams, we had great players- some scrappy guys too- but then, all said and done, we probably needed a few more great players. But we embraced that annoying false identity and it's sandbagged us for a decade. This post is spot on with it's take on Sano. Said it pretty much perfectly. There is no way that Sano's transition to the outfield is not affecting his performance at the plate. Unless he looked totally comfortable and effortless out there, he would have to be mentally affected and distracted from his most important responsibility, which is at the plate. We have seen Sano play third base, and he is good at it. He is not as good as Plouffe, but he probably with time will be better. He has better raw tools than Plouffe, better range and a better arm. He just doesn't have the time in yet. The only reason he's not playing third is because the management is overly attached to Plouffe. As others have said, I like Plouffe. He's a good player. It would be sad to see him go. He was a Twins' draftee. We watched him ascend through the minors. We watched him struggle and emerge. He weathered several terrible losing seasons and deserves to be rewarded for his diligence and patience. In an ideal world, we would somehow keep them both. But, he has to go. A role player from one of the worst four season stretches in franchise history is blocking possibly the one of the best players in franchise history from playing his position- forcing him to playing an unnatural position, and hindering his performance. It doesn't even matter if his trade value is 'not that high'- it would be okay if all we got was a few low level minor league marginal prospects. The other thing that jumped out at me was the take on Buxton, specifically that he's being expected to carry the offense. I guess I just wanted to affirm what others have said. He's not expected to carry the offense. He's batting 9th. There are 8 other players who are expected to carry more offensive weight than he is. I think, as opposed to Sano, they are doing what they can to protect Buxton and alleviate as much pressure from him as possible. I think the mentions of Santana and May really bolster the post's main point that the org doesn't seem to have a plan for the development of its young players, and is willing to sacrifice said development for whimsical, desperate stop-gap solutions. Seems like a good way to squander a flush farm system.

I agree. This is the most concerning thing to me in terms of management. It smells of irrational bias against Arcia. I'm about to say something irrational myself now, but it's how I feel, so bear with me: The Twins know Arcia is talented, but they don't like him. They don't like him because he is a fiery, emotional, free-swinging, Latino power hitter who is a little indifferent to playing quality defense. This is not to say that their dislike is personal, but more so that it is based on some un-stated concept of the ideal Twins player. But! maybe it is personal! And maybe they are railroading his career out of spite by neither playing him- nor releasing him, because they know he is talented and will likely go crush for some team that can handle his passion and make them look stupid and stiff and old-fashioned (in a bad way) for the next fifteen years ala David Ortiz! (of course, secretly, or not so secretly, they are doing the same thing to Miguel Sano by jerking him around- hey, big guy you're going to play outfield now with no preparation, and you're still going to hit third in the order, with Trevor Plouffe and Byung-Ho Park for protection- good luck!)

In no way, was this kind of start even remotely foreseeable for this team. What's happening is crazy. 7 out of 9 starters are hitting below 200 Mauer is hitting damn near 400 The pitching staff is actually keeping this team in games despite the woes of the offense- we've been blown out once. If even one of those 7 guys hitting under 200 was hitting say 250, we'd have at least a couple of wins, maybe even be close to 500 (if that one guy hits between Mauer and Escobar) I think optimism for this season was reasonable (maybe a little less so now). I don't think that our expectations for success, for building on last year's success were ill-founded just because we have several young players primed for regression and bound for periods of adjustment. If Dozier, Plouffe, and Suzuki were performing anywhere near league average at the plate (let alone their own historical standards) this team would be 500 or better. This lineup should be more than able to handle the developmental lumps of Sano, Rosario, and Buxton- especially given the performance of the starting pitching staff (not that we should necessarily expect that to continue). I said to my brother the other day, there's no way we'd be 0-9 if Torii Hunter was on this team. I don't know if there's a way to substantiate that claim. I mean, if we're going to sign David Murphy, did we at least give Torii a poke first?

Do people think he looks better this season than last last season, or the same, at the plate? I think he's looked much better. Last season, the way he looked at the plate- I've never seen anything like it. He wasn't even close. It was breaking ball over for a called strike, breaking ball over for called strike two, and then breaking ball off the plate for swinging strike three- every single time. Very weird, and you could never pitch like that to a professional hitter. I'm sure no-one pitched to him that way in the minors. I'm sure in the minors, he was pitched to with a typical approach, and probably even with some added respect. He was surely used to being more selective; used to seeing more fastballs early in the count, and more balls off the plate early in the count. Watching him last season, it was like he couldn't believe they were pitching him the way they were, like he was waiting for things to get normal. It was surprising that he was never able to adjust, that he never started going after those breaking balls over early, and that it was so easy to get him to chase when he was behind. This season, I would say things are looking more normal. He seems more prepared, and the at-bats seem more balanced. In the game with the two doubles he smoked, I thought things were looking really good. Obviously, looking at the batting average, the results are not demonstrative of the improved approach. But given the batting avgs of the rest of the lineup minus Mauer and Escobar, I don't know how to differentiate his failures at the plate from anyone else's. I mean, they all look terrible at times, and have had some bad luck- that opening game against KC, we had like four dingers get blown back in, including one by Buck. Hopefully, we can get David Murphy plugged into this lineup as soon as possible, because that will solve all the problems.

I was handling this bad start pretty well until I saw this. What a bummer.

Aside from Nolasco having a career year- which would mean being a servicable back of the rotation starter- the best case scenario is that he's horrible in his first couple starts and goes on the DL for the rest of the season. This is the next best thing to him being cut- which is unrealistic- and effectively the same. A trade for even low level non-prospects might not be plausible even if he is having the aforementioned career year. (If he stinks it up or gets hurt again, he's obviously untradeable. If he pitches his best from the five spot, there is no way the Twins will trade him, unless the team is totally out of contention). In my opinion, Nolasco going to the bullpen is unlikely and would be almost just as bad. First, I think it's unlikely because I think he'll go on the DL before he takes a bullpen role. Second, how many actual relief prospects are going to be knocking on the door by the time the Twins would be ready to try to send him to the pen? two, three, four... Burdi, Reed, Chargois, etc- maybe those are one inning guys and Nolasco would be seldom-used long relief, but just his spot on the active roster is an impediment. Sending him to the pen creates the same problem we have with him in the rotation: blocking younger, more talented players. Ricky Nolasco is like some chicken breasts you bought a week and a half ago, cooked one and put the others back in the fridge and forgot about them. They sat in your fridge- not your freezer- and one day day, you were like, "I wonder if these are okay? I paid for them, I should at least take them out of the shrink wrap and give them a smell, they were good before." You smell, and they seem okay... maybe, you can't really tell. You know you're going to cook them, the whole universe knows you're going to cook them, you know you shouldn't. You do, and you even use other, quality, fresh ingredients, because now you are committed, and you believe you are composing an excellent meal. You use pasta and fresh vegetables and you make a savory sauce. You season the dickens out of the chicken. You put cheese on it. You plate it, it looks okay, serviceable, maybe good, not new york, five star, expensive good, but good enough for you. You sit, you cut into a breast- it's a little tough- maybe you just overcooked it a little. You take a bite... hmmm... something is not right. It's seasoned well. The cheese is good. What is it? Is it bad? You take another bite. Is it bad? No, it's good. "I don't know, I think this might be bad." You take another bite. You get whoever you live with to try a bite, "Come here, try this chicken." They do, "This is chewy." You ask, "Is it bad?" "Um... um... why?" "It was in the fridge for like a week" "Oh" "Week and a half" "Ugh, it's bad. Why didn't you throw it out?" You've taken two more bites now. "I didn't want to waste it, it was expensive- free range, organic... from california. I think it's okay. It was good before." "You're going to get sick." "The sauce is good." You know you eat all of it. You know that. And maybe you get sick, maybe not. Probably not, you have an iron gut, you can stomach some old chicken breasts from time to time. But.... yuck. Personally, I know that the best thing to do is to just throw those breasts away, and get some new ones, or just eat the meal sans chicken entirely; but I also believe that what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger. Does Ricky "Ol Chicken Breasts" Nolasco" have the power to kill us from the five spot in the rotation, or from the long relief spot in the pen? Nah, but every one else might have to pick it up a notch or two to make up for it. You see the nickname right, 'Ol Chicken Breasts'? Support it. I actually feel a little better about the whole thing, if he ends up being called Ol Chicken Breasts all season.

Where is the appropriate thread for me to say: Should've traded Plouffe so Sano can play his position; Nolasco stinks; and Park should be in AA because he's never played major league baseball before; and If we lose Arcia, he's going to go somewhere else and mash; and If Duffy isn't going to make the rotation, shouldn't Berrios. Nolasco stinks; and Nolasco stinks.

They should like it, especially if that player is Ricky Nolasco, and he's pitching for Detroit, Cleveland, KC, or Chicago.

"Booo. Different shirt. Booo." Nah, they're okay. The gold is still a little weird for me. But they didn't mess with the font. As far as alternate jerseys go, I think this one accomplishes most of what is cool about an alternate jersey: it features the secondary color and lesser-used (but still traditional) logo more prominently. I would never want the Twins to use red jerseys as the standard, but red is one of the traditional colors, so I don't have a problem with it being featured in an alternate- even though lots of teams have red (lots of teams have dark blue too- and everybody has the powder blue throwbacks- which I think are great). It's also cool to see the TC logo featured on the jersey- probably what makes it look like a BP jersey (they used to have the dark blue pullover BP jerseys with the TC logo in the 90s- wouldn't mind seeing those reappear). The only thing I would change about the jersey is I'd make it a pullover with the two buttons on top. But overall, I think they were pretty successful in coming up with something new and interesting without messing with traditional elements. Also, jerseys do matter in that they are part of the art and beauty of the game. I would compare it to a quality chef plating his/her dish. Is the presentation as important as how it tastes? No, but it definitely matters. Personally, if a team has really bad uniforms, it makes it harder to watch. The Timberwolves, for example, have some of the most exciting young players in the league, but between the black t-shirts with the zigzags and hideous multicolored WNBA-looking tank tops that look like they were assembled from scraps, it's embarrassing (missing ten free throws and loosing by three is also embarrassing).

5:08- "You gotta take certain things out of it. If you're going to compare all the planets, just take the sun out of it. Okay, the sun is a totally different class of planet, star-planet, whatever they call it." They call it a star. Also funny from this, listening it 2016: "Don't lump the Twins in with Kansas City." Sheesh, where did things go wrong? Maybe the Herd jinxed us.

I agree. And I think he should start at AA, just like the last 29 year old DH we signed from an independent league- Chris Collabello.

i think a different and maybe better comp to the park signing is the chris colabello signing. both are older high k power hitters from independent leagues. i think the way the twins handled cola's development is a good model for park. he should report to chattanooga. if he plays well, advance quickly. he'll see the velo in AA we're concerned he hasn't in the kbo- and we won't have to suffer the expieriment on what is going to be a competitive mlb team. nishioka shouldve reported to double a as well. i don't think any of the cuban players who've hugely successful have come over and right into the show- correct me if i'm wrong. if park does go right to the twins then i think critical nishioka comps are just- not because of their hailing from asia, but because they were both granted a free pass to the show without merit- performance in an indy league is not merit enough. obviously, it didn't take a bajillion dollars to sign cola. the money involved with getting park will pressure his advancement but i don't think it's a mandate to pencil him in for opening day. we couldn't get TR to bring up the best sp in the org during a playoff chase we lost by a game- i think he's immune to pressure.

this thread is just as disgraceful as the bash hunter thread that was started back in april. 1 he is obviously still good. 2 the twins might actually make the playoffs and he has contributed significantly toward the effort. 3 he is a g-d twins legend. when he does retire it should be in a twins uniform, and when he is ready- and just like everybody else becomes ready when they start to suck so will he- but he doesnt yet. 4 even if he did suck- which he doesnt- i am happy to reward him an extra year or two, or as many as he wants, really, in appreciation of the ten freaking seasons he spent destroying his body in the concrete floored abomination that was the dome- rip. in case anyone has forgotten, those were the days in which the twins were about to be disappeared, and whether it did or not, it sure felt like hunter's contributions had something to do with saving the team from nonexistence. 5 even if haters are correct about some of what they say- namely the blockage of some milb talent- so what? is voicing that opinion really worth disrespecting one of the best twins of all time? is it really worth having that on your TD record? 6 hunter may not make the hall of fame, but he will get votes and there are players in who are less deserving. he will certainly make the twins hall and we should expect to see 48 up next to 3 6 29 34 14 and 28. let the man have his swan song without craping all over it, clamoring for untested milbers who havent earned didly and can wait their turn. 7 i'm excited for the young guys too, and if hunter chooses to retire it will be fun to see who gets a shot to replace him. if not, we get another year of a twins legend rounding out his career at 20 years and 40 plus years of age- an amazing accomplishment. there will always be a bevy of milb talent in the wait. there will never be another torii hunter. 8 if you really have to hate, at least save it for the off season lest your mudslinging jinxes the post season aspirations of the present season. 9 there is a chance that the twins get into the playoffs. there is a chance they go to the world series. there is a chance they win. maybe the chances are slim, but they are real, and just the chance of seeing hunter win a world series with the twins is worth the risk of blocking or even losing some prospects.

booyah

I feel like Mauer's defense has been pretty good. I have nothing to validate that, I just feel it. I don't feel like he has been a total disappointment this season at the plate. I think he's been slumping during this bout of losing, along with pretty much everyone else, but I think his performance at the plate was positively significant during their success in May. All of Parker's analysis in this piece is fascinating. It would be interesting to split some of the highlighted stats between pre-slump and post slump and reconsider whether or not they are really indicative of overall downward trending performance, or just a regular slump. It's easy to speculate in general that the concussion is responsible for a great deal of his offensive struggle, but it's really hard to specify why. His average was good through May and he was driving in runs, so the concussion wasn't affecting him then, but now that he slumping, it is? (obviously, I'm over simplifying). If Mauer's efforts to conquer the shift by focusing on learning to pull with more frequency and authority are behind his recent struggles (and I think this is a better hypothesis than concussion) I think he has earned a significant measure of patience. I also think it will be worth the patience. I think we have seen some signs of success- both of his home runs were pulled and hit with serious authority. If you revisit those clips and freeze frame the point of contact and then freeze the follow through, it's a thing of beauty. I remember watching the second one with my brother, and him saying something like, "jeez, why doesn't he do that all the time?" which sounds sort of silly, but when you see Joe hit a homer like that, it does look like he should do it all the time. Anyway, I think that with time, the grounders he rolls over to the right side will turn into line drives and even deep flies. Mauer's swing is perfect. As Parker presented, his bat speed is fine. I think the difference between grounders and liners is subtle, and that he'll find it if he persists. I think he should persist, because the payoff is worth it. I don't think he should be working on it from the three spot. I do think the down and away calls going against him are disgusting, and I hope he sticks to his guns and keeps taking them. Don't give in to the bastards, Joe! You're Joe Mauer. You tell them where the strike zone is. Show them your batting titles and MVP trophy. (God, that would be the ultimate demonstration. The next time he gets rung up on that down and away crap, he should come back to the plate in his next at bat with his trophies, and just leave them at the plate when he gets tossed... and throw his batting gloves and jersey).

It feels pretty good to be on the same page with a hall of famer, doesn't it?

No need for the apology, my friend. I deserved some pointed feedback for dropping "99.9% insane". I agree that he can do it. I'm sure he can judge and track a fly ball. I'm sure he has the quickness and the wheels. I'm sure he has the arm. I'm sure he knows the situational throws. It's the tailing liner from right handed batter that you need a lot of experience to field. It looks like it's coming right to you, and then it just takes off away toward the line. Also, finding the wall and making the catch is hard to learn. Most major league outfielders make those plays look so routine you don't even think about it, but they are really hard.