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USAFChief

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Everything posted by USAFChief

  1. USAFChief
    That'll teach 'em. Way to get in their faces, Molly!
  2. USAFChief
    Does your opinion that the manager of an organization is irrelevant extend past baseball? Or is it your opinion professional baseball is the only organizational leadership situation where organizational leadership doesn't have any effect on performance?
  3. USAFChief
    Like last night?
  4. USAFChief
    But doesn't mean that OBP is twice as valuable as SLG.
  5. USAFChief
    Or on the struggles of individual players, or solely the W/L record. I don't blame Tom Kelly for having losing seasons when given rosters that couldn't hope to compete. But even those teams played good baseball for the most part. They just weren't talented enough to win. The Twins under Molitor don't play good/smart/fundamental baseball with regularity.
  6. USAFChief
    Concur with paragraph two, although even in isolation, a walk isn't as good as a hit.
  7. USAFChief
    All three could, and would, pull the ball regularly. None of them were exclusively opposite field hitters. The post I responded to recommended Buxton be "an opposite field hitter." He should "look for pitches he can hit the other way." I hope that never happens.
  8. USAFChief
    We'll have to agree to disagree. "Not making an out" isn't the most important thing a hitter can do, and here's why I believe that: Two hitters, one goes 0-0 with four walks for his team, the other 1-4 with a HR. Which hitter guaranteed his team a run?
  9. USAFChief
    https://www.fangraphs.com/community/when-slugging-percentage-beats-on-base-percentage/ Are you sure?
  10. USAFChief
    Nobody should be an opposite field hitter. Pulling the ball is how you hit for power, and hitters should always look to hit with power. There is nothing wrong with pulling the ball. You just can't be married to it. Once the pitcher has control of the count, you have to be willing to hit the other way. But that should never be the goal. The shifts we see today were invented to counter Ted Williams, an extreme pull hitter. He was pretty good as I recall.
  11. USAFChief
    I might be wrong, but if Tom Kelly was still managing, I believe the throws from Rosario that sail to the backstop would cease after one occurrence. He and Eddie would be out there after the game practicing hitting the cutoff, and if it happened again, they'd be back out there after the game practicing again, and Eddie wouldn't be in the lineup the next night. It's not that the players don't KNOW the fundamentals, it's that Molitor doesn't know how to get players to pay attention to them.
  12. USAFChief
    What's the big deal? He's got two knees, don't he?
  13. USAFChief
    Check the number of games played by each team. Hint: The Twins have played the fewest games in the majors, so counting stats are going to be a little misleading. Rate stats, less so. /// Also: Pressly's numbers by month: Apr: 0.59 ERA, 1.109 WHIP May: 4.15 ERA, 1.462 WHIP Jun: 9.00 ERA, 1.833 WHIP Some of that might be SSS noise, but the trend is pretty striking, no? So I'm not sure he really "likes" the way he's been worked. And I'd like to see where his ERA ends up at the end of the season if he keeps appearing in every other Twins game as he has so far.
  14. USAFChief
    The Twins have played 68 games. Pressly has appeared in 36, Reed/Duke 32, and Hildenberger 31. At that pace, Pressly will make 85 appearances, Reed/Duke 76, and Hildenberger 73. For reference, those numbers would have been 1st, 4th, and 5th in the majors last year. 79 appearances led the majors. Rogers led the Twins with 69 appearances (but only 55 IP), Matt Belisle was second with 62. No other reliever had more than 57. All four of Pressly/Reed/Duke/Hildy are, or certainly appear to be, overworked IMO
  15. USAFChief
    "I do know this: It takes some contorting not to see him as part of the problem." Bingo. My personal opinion: His baseball IQ actually works against him. He takes things for granted--when/how to take an extra base for example--because they are second nature to him, and always have been. He just assumes others view things as intuitively as he does. The result is, details get ignored, and it shows in the quality of play. And I don't think it's unfair to say the quality of baseball this team plays is not upper level MLB. Also my opinion: really poor at pitching decisions. Reactive, rather than proactive. Removes pitchers immediately after disaster, rather than anticipating it and reacting before disaster strikes. No manager can avoid having his pitcher give up runs. But when a starter is obviously tiring, and you watch a lead disappear, over and over again...well, that's on the manager, not the pitchers. I also think it's fair to say he overuses certain relievers, and ignores others.
  16. USAFChief
    In terms of yesterday's game, he also was a part of the RBI-deficiency problem.
  17. USAFChief
    Particularly galling to me was Mauer watching strikes 1, 2, 3, and 4 sail by without so much as a swing, with 2 out and 2 on. All four pitches were clearly strikes, too, including the first pitch which was called a ball. Swing the bat, ferpetesakes.
  18. USAFChief
    No, I think it’s more than that. He still falls behind hitters, except now he doesn’t feel he “has to groove one.” More 4 seamers, fewer 2 seamers. More breaking balls. End result, walks are up, hits down. Hard contact down. K’s up. WHIP down. ERA down. He’s not pitching the same, IMO.
  19. USAFChief
    My opinion: the walks aren’t exactly intentional, but not exactly unintentional either. They’re a byproduct of his changed approach. Instead of the previous regime’s “pitch to contact and avoid walks AT ALL COSTS” approach, he’s not throwing a cookie every time he falls behind 1-0 or 2-1. He’s still trying to throw a pitch on the edge of the zone. Sometimes he misses and walks guys...sometimes he hits a corner and gets back in the count. Either way, there’s fewer “sinkers” in the whomp-em zone. Walks are less damaging than hits. Giving up 2 walks more per game, but 2 fewer hits works in a pitchers favor every time. He’s also K’ing more hitters, which helps. Give me this approach every time over that pitch to contact mantra we’ve lived with for years.
  20. USAFChief
    Wrong thread, but my two cents on Gordon: the only issue I see is room on the 40 man. And if there’s room on the 40 man for Motter (or Petit for that matter), there’s room for Gordon. I don’t see roster room or service time as issues. However, there’s no reason to do that unless you’re going to call him up to Minnesota, AND play him every day while he’s here. I’m not sure he’s ready, or even a prime prospect (but I’m always skeptical of prospects), and I doubt Molitor would play him if he WAS here. So, to wrap this up, forget Gordon until next year, or until Molitor has no choice.
  21. USAFChief
    So not just "mechanical." Just one man's opinion, but I find the idea this is purely about his swing to be...doubtful.
  22. USAFChief
    The difference is...a manager can't just decide to have the team score more runs. But a manager absolutely can, and does, make the decision about when to remove a pitcher. The good ones rarely have a starter lose a lead late. The bad ones wait until the train has left the station to buy a ticket, and then lament the schedule.
  23. USAFChief
    I asked this in the game thread, I'll ask again here. I wonder how many times Molitor has removed a starter, after the 5th inning, immediately after the starter gives up a tieing or go ahead run. He's possibly the worst manager I've ever seen at waiting until the damage has been done before the grim faced trudge out to the mound to take the ball.
  24. USAFChief
    I also wanted to mention...last night's top of the 8th was why you put the contact play on. Escobar's at third, with one out. Sano hits a chopper that the pitcher doesn't field cleanly. If Escobar is running on contact, as he should be in every case IMO, he scores easily. Instead, he's left standing at third as Sano is thrown out, and now there's two out and you need a hit (or mistake) to score him. Sometimes you lose that gamble, and Escobar gets thrown out at the plate. But it's a much better gamble than waiting for a 2 out hit. Another mark in the "against" column when judging Molitor, IMO.
  25. USAFChief
    IMO giving up 0-2 hits isn’t “unfortunate.” It’s an indication of poor “stuff,” poor location, and/or poor pitch selection. I didn’t view last night as at all unlucky. It was more of the same. Too many 90 MPH fastballs in very bad locations.
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