Trov

I am confused on how two metrics for hard hit% are so different. One has him at 36%, but then other has him on high end. How can two metrics looking at same pitcher have two different claims of his hard hit percent?

I wonder how much is fact very few of guys have seen him. Lets see how things go when he starts facing same hitters several times. I am still big on him, do not regret the trade at all because Graterol was not going to be a dominate starter that people hoped. Boston learned that and back out of deal. As seen, you can find quality pen guys all over the place, they just need the right small changes. Wes seems to know how to get a guy to throw the right pitches.

I love to keep seeing scrap heap guys that the Twins identify as someone they can make adjustments to and fix. Right now they are slider heavy guys and looking get high fastballs with good tunneling(at least that was what I read before) I wonder in a few years if hitters start to adjust to new heavy pitching if there will be a swing back to heavy sinker guys. Right now so much of the league learned to hit the low sinker well, so Falvey identified that high fast balls and sliders have become good change. If hitters made changes I bet Falvey will help adjust who to recruit and how to teach them.

It is good where they are, some timely hitting and great pen work is what has done it mostly. However, being we are not even full 2 weeks in many of those numbers will change quickly, the batting numbers for sure. I am concerned with all the starters going down so quickly with arm issues. Hopefully, they will get back quick and can help soon. The pen will need to get widdled down with rosters shrinking soon.

These games are always close games to watch. Both games really came down to single at bats. First game Lindor homer only runs scored. Second game Eddie 2 run double the main at bat. We had a lot of chances later in the game to add on but in terms of runs scoring that was the big one. I expect both teams to make playoffs this year. If Detroit can keep it up they may leapfrog the sox, who are lacking pitching and defense, for a wild card spot. Remember last year Detroit got off to strong start too and fell off, but this year a strong first 30 games is half the season. I am just glad the Twins have not stumbled out of the gate.

Bieber was dealing last night. Dude was hitting his spots got some borderline calls and had Twins chasing late in the game. He really seemed to mix speed an location well. Only a couple balls were hit hard off of him. Lets hope the bats come around tonight.

To answer the question of the day, I do not care either way about the cutouts. People paid money to have them. The money goes to charity and not ownership so I am fine with it. On another note, that Sox line up looks like they will put up some good runs. Their defense and pitching is what will hold them back.

With the new playoff system for this season it takes the pressure off of each game because each division will send 2 teams then top two wild cards. What is interesting is doing this means that there is a good chance three teams make it from central. Mainly because Detroit and KC are expected to be bottom feeders raising the wins for all three other teams. Assuming none of the remaining three crush one of the the others and they are nearly same win totals in the division. So the NL is what will make the difference and the NL central is supposed to be the weakest of the NL divisions as well. It is an interesting concept with not playing the other divisions the wild card teams will really come down to how weak the other teams in the division are. If three of five teams are competing for top two spots it increases the chances that three make it. If two of five are competing for top spots it decreases chances wild card comes from that division. It will also be very unlikely that two wild cards come from same division, unless they crush the other leagues teams, raising their non division wins. I predict Twins Cleveland and Sox make it out of central. Ray and Yanks out of the east, with Boston and Toronto being a team to watch because both could go on good short term runs, and the West will be tough both in division and on NL west. There are 4 teams in AL west that are competitive, and at least 3 in the NL that are. That may lower the overall wins in the AL meaning if either Boston or Toronto can beat up on Baltimore and the other team between them they will be in good wild card position. The crazy season is getting crazier with a crazy playoffs. Buster Onley reported there may be a selection show of who will play who in the first round of playoffs. Meaning the top seed will get first pick of opponent, of bottom four teams I would assume, then on down the line. Figure after that it will be normal seeding. This is not official, but rumored from a source.

I like the approach of using soft toss, real balls, and real bat to hit fielding practice. As a coach that hit grounders to fielders I agree it is not like a real hitter. Will this make a huge difference, no, but it will make a small one I believe. I really fear how bad Sano will be at first. I have long advocated that first base is an underrated important defensive spot. Many think first is just there to catch the ball, which for most part is true in most plays, but they can save so many errors and make outs that many not have been one. In a perfect world the throw will hit the first baseman in the chest every time without a need to stretch. However, all too often even in a routine play the throw may sail some or hit the dirt. A bad first baseman will not catch it, and yes the error goes to the thrower, but a good first baseman will make the play and save the error from happening. In plays were the other infielder makes a good stop but needs to make off balanced rushed throw this increases the chance the throw will be off target. This again will be affected by the guy at first ability to get the out. As much as I love to see Sano hit, I cringe to watch him field, and now he should be involved in most of the ground ball plays and that scares me.

One thing I want to point out, speed does not equal good base runner, and good base runner does not equal speed. That being said, it can help, but good base runners will do little things to help out with any lack of speed. Some speed guys will make mistakes that their speed makes up for. Paul Molitor was always a great base runner, but never known to be a speed guy. Good base runners will read hits quickly to know if they should take off or stay put. Good base runners will know when to steal or when to run on certain out fielders, how to slide. They also know when not to take chances. Buxton for example is not a great base runner, just fast, but he makes mistakes on when he tries to advance bases. Also good base runners know how to approach bases best to cut down distance, some guys will take too big of a round when going through bases and they increase the distance to the next base. Of course, if you are slow, you are slow and you can only do so much to run bases well. However, if you are average speed the little things can make a huge difference. I would not say the Twins lack that much speed overall, but agree they lack much burners. However, in the few games that would go to extra innings I doubt in the grand scheme of things that will make a huge difference. Yes, each game matters and not having a speed guy on 2nd may lead to a loss, but hopefully that will not make the difference between playoffs and not.

If I recall correctly, Cleveland normally starts of slow, and does well later in season. If they start off slow this time it will be an issue for them, but maybe they start off slow because of weather, so that will not be an issue, not sure. I believe Cleveland will go as far as Ramirez will go. He is the main person in their line up that when he is hot, they do well, when not they fall. Their lineup can have no slumps from anyone because they have no offensive depth.

Really, the question is if hitters adjust, will Randy? Only time will tell. That is the true sign of a good player, will they adjust to what others are doing to stop them, or keep going to the well when it is dry?

There defense is terrible, and until a player does it back to back years I am never convinced they will do it each year. They will be better generally I believe, but I believe their defense will hurt them more than people expect.

I am not going to argue where Twins should be on the list, but I agree they should be in top 10. We will play the games and see where it all shakes out. No list will determine the season, the play on the field will. So pumped.

A few comments I have. First, to simply look at WAR and say we won or lost a trade is a pretty simple way of looking at things. It is one way, but it takes out the dynamics of the team at the time of the trade and what they were thinking, or needed. Also, your list does not include the small trades that get done over the years. You bring up Ortiz, and confused on why Kelly is responsible for his departure, but Ortiz came to Twins in a trade for Dave Hollins. Johan came to Twins in a trade, technically. Did we win those trades? What about Brian Buchanan, of the Knoblcoch trade, that got Jason Bartlett, did we win that trade? How about the Eric Milton for Carlos Silva and Nick Punto trade? How about the Lirinano for Escobar trade? These were all younger players that could have had longer careers or did, but you fail to mention them. I would put most if not all into wins for the Twins. Bert was traded back in 86, not sure for who and he went on to pitch a few more years after. Every team will have Trades they win and trades they lose. In hopes both teams get what they wanted out of it. To point to some failed trades, by past GM's to suggest not trading in future is something to do is crazy. Bill Smith made terrible trades in his history, not sure he "won" a single one, part of why he is no longer around. What your trades also do not point out is what may have led to them. Knobloch was forcing the trade. Sure, Twins could have kept him, but they knew they were going to be terrible for a few years so bring in young talent for aging 2nd baseman is not a bad deal. Some of that talent got moved for more talent. The Matt Capps trade was terrible all the way around, but at the time, the belief was Mauer would catch for several more years, blocking Ramos. It did not work out that way, and we most likely could have got more for Ramos, but that was Bill Smith for ya. Johan, was going to walk so get something, we got Gomez, which at the time were criticized for because another OF was ranked higher, who never did much. Yeah, Bill sent him for JJ hardy, which was a fine trade until he compounded for the terrible follow up trade. Again Bill Smith here. Carew said he was not playing again anyways, so again why not get something for him, but when your hands are tied value may not be there in trades. You bring up the recent relief pitcher trades of Presley and Anderson. Anderson was 29 and yet to make the majors, never a top prospect and may fizzle out as quick as he rose up. Presley did well for Houston and maybe he could have helped a tiny bit last year, but we may get more out of the players we brought over, you never know. Hendricks left in 2013, he did not rise to his level until 2019 where was top level closer, so it is not like the second he left he blew up, that is a lot of years replacement level relief pitching. You bring up the CF trades. The Hicks trade was terrible, but he was not doing much with Twins at time of trade. Possible the sand box that is Yankee stadium helped him and new coaching who knows, but yeah it was a loss. Span and Revere may not have worked out as planned but they were traded to make room for Hicks. Only so man positions on the field and sometimes players get traded because no room for them. Some times players get traded because you will not resign them and something better than nothing. Sometimes your team is terrible and you give up a good player now in hopes the prospects work out later. Sometimes you give up a prospect for a short term fix vet. To really evaluate the trades in history you need the full context of them. Sometimes it was just a blunder, sometimes it was a huge find, or sometimes you get what you wanted at the time but regret it later on. It does not mean trades should fully stop, or they should happen more often. They are what they are.

They may steal some games with their offense, but their pitching will let them down more often than not. They were the first super bullpen of the area, now they do not have much. For whatever reason they seem to play us tight though over the years. Normally fun games to watch.

What makes the lineup interesting is how balanced they are. From top to bottom each can hit for some level of power, save a couple. We do not know how the ball will be different this year, but the hard hit rates are still high for many players. Runners should be on base a lot and hitters should get pitches to hit. Previous articles suggest that even with a less juiced ball the Twins hitters should still fare well overall because of hard hit rates.

I am not saying the Dodgers did not use the contract Maeda signed to their advantage, but would not call it "Bush League" to do so. Maeda signed the deal, he did not have to, and he knew the possibility of how it could play out. Same thing with the CBA. Sure the owners have worked the deal to their advantage, and the players are not happy about it, but the deal was made and the teams are working within it. Now collusion is another thing, but collusion requires that teams actually worked together to keep pay down, not that they separately decided that the player was not worth the price they wanted. Just because the player feels they are worth a certain value does not mean the teams agree. Teams have changed their valuation process since the last CBA, that is why there will be a work stoppage because players signed a bad deal that is working against them. They did not have the foresight of how it could be manipulated against them. Maybe their union leader should have thought of those things. It is not like the players were conned or anything, they just did not expect the change in thoughts by teams and evaluating players. The fact that they are opposed to a cap and floor means they want the largest part of the revenue pie, while owners are trying to the same. Both sides trying to get more, instead of sharing in the wealth means the other side will get less. It is like sales generally. Stores will charge varying prices and some people will shop around for cheapest price, or price match, but the store is hoping customers will pay more for same product you can get else where.

It will depend on what the trade was for. It was for cash, then no case, in my opinion, if it was for a portion of his actual pay then they may. Some deals as I understand it call for a part of the actual pay, meaning if the player gets suspended and the player does not get paid that portion, then the trading team saves as well. For example, if the deal was for 50% of the actual pay, then the trading team will save. However, if the deal was for just cash, say 5 mil, and the assumption was to pay for a portion of the contract, the deal for 5 mil would still stand.

I did not watch it, but looking at the lineups I cannot help but thinking either one could have a chance this season, but when you take the best of both the lineup has depth. Defense may be a little bit of a question, but if Buck can get back 100% that will help a ton.

In a short season any team can be a thorn for anyone. A single hot streak for hitters in short series or run of hot pitching may swing this whole season for anyone. I would not take any team light. Detroit will be a terrible team still, but they started out hot last year, it is possible they do it again.

It depends on how many games Joe West umpires. There is not a single series that I can think of where Joe West umpired that Gardy was not ejected at least 1 time, sometimes more than that. Joe West goes out of his way to eject people. I get he is crew chief but I have seen him waddle across the whole field to do it.

I have always been huge on character and chemistry when it comes to baseball. It plays some in other sports, but feel baseball is much larger. You basically spend just about every day with the same people from end of February, to hopefully end of October. No work place are you expected to do that. In other sports the season length may be as long, but there are more off days. I also feel the character of teaching the younger players is always important. Some older guys will not do it, in fear it will cost them jobs down the line, or they just do not like doing it. Some guys just cannot teach very well. However, when you can get a guy that can and does it is great. Coaches can only see so much, and sometimes they may not connect to the player like another player can. I believe the Twins staff do a good job of connecting to players because they do not seem them as a one size fits all and fit our plan or leave kind of approach. They see each player as an individual and understands what works for player A may not work for player B.

The men in the industry that put down her passion or warn her to stay away are more afraid of her success than warning of her failure. They fear that her success will lead to more women coming into the area and taking jobs from the men that feel entitled to it. I am glad she managed to get connected to Bauer, a guy that many think is eccentric in his views, but that may be what led to his decision. He is one that bucks the trends and in this case hopefully it leads to great success for her and paves a path for other women that may have been deterred from the warnings of the fearful men that women will take their jobs. Gender has nothing to be with ones ability to perform her job. The only reason she will be stopped is if the men in the industry block her out of it. Keep knocking down those walls Ms. Luba.

I have to commend her for writing the "I can't afford to play this game" piece. She took a huge risk to do this. She is already a small set of women in baseball, and to write about how bad the minor leagues get exploited. She took a huge risk, and now it looks like she is getting huge rewards for it. She could have been blackballed by MLB for bringing to light about minor league players disrupting the MLB minor league system. She helped break the gender wall, and she took a risk that many before her never were willing to do. Good for her, and I hope great things for her in the future.