Trov

Yankees playing on the road for 4 may be what keeps them in 5th. Jays are still fighting to lock down wild card. Miami is fighting neck and neck with teams as well. Yankess may win out or close to it giving them home field against us. I will assume that means 2 quick losses. I will have mild hope if we finish 4th.

Yes, the article did not address that issue, which most likely meant why it is more of a coin flip, because of that exact thing. The bigger issue in the article was the history bias, meaning zone would change based on court and passed called pitch. Meaning, you could throw the exact same pitch if you could repeat it perfectly, and if on boarder, the pitch would be called differently. The article addressed the non-boarderline calls were much more accurate and would get worse as you went outward, which makes sense. The article did not address it, but I think it gets brought up a lot on how catcher movement of glove affects the call too. You see some where the pitch was well in the zone, but well off of target so pitch gets called ball, but when cater sets up out of zone and hits the mit pitch is called a strike. So that is accuracy biased I would say too. Thanks for info on the test leagues, as I have not read anything about them.

I personally think Rocco is doing what he planned to all along with the pen. Use the guys in where they match up best regardless of inning. Last year, he started out using Roders in 8th at times and 9th other times. Until he eventually became only 9th inning guy, becoming "the closer." Now that seems to have changed back to matchups again. I am all for this. If his 8th will be easier than a 9th, why send out romo in the 8th to face a bunch of lefties, to then send Rodgers out in the 9th against the righties? This is what Rocco stood for when he first came over, which I was a huge fan of. I hate "the closer" title for any pitcher.

I will agree the failure of the system will be the biggest risk of it. What happens if it fails during a game? Assume we just go with the home plate ump doing his thing, but will they be trained like before? I doubt many umps will train their craft of pitch calling if they will only need to do it when the system fails. That is the only thing that I worry about when they shift to it. I know they will shift to it, the writing is on the walls. Once broadcast media put that box up, it was certain to happen. It only has led to more arguments about umps. Now the viewer can see they blew the call. I read an article a few years ago, cannot find a link now, that showed the big human element of the calling of pitches. It found that on boarder line pitches umps were about 50/50. So when advocates point to percent right, they were no better than a coinflip on boarder line pitches. The bigger problem was even more of a human bias, was history of called pitches. What that is, an umpire was more likely to call a strike on borderline pitch on a 3-0 count. Torii pointed this out when he used to broadcast. Then, they were more likely to call a ball on 0-2 count. So they were biased to lean towards the call that does not end the at-bat, because most likely they did not want to be the reason for it to end and take the pressure off. Further more, they were less likely to call a strike after calling one. So imagine if it is 0-1 count, then a called strike to make 0-2. This even further reduced the chance of a called third strike. I think mainly, the umps did not want to get yelled at by the side that felt it was wrong. So now, they are 50/50 generally, keeping in mind that has the biased calls just mentioned, but now you have 0-2 pitch that is borderline will be even less likely so less than a 50/50 call. The study clearly showed how flawed the human ump is. It is a very difficult job, watched a sports science on it, and do not envy the umps that do it. However, we can get it right, so lets hope it happens sooner than later. I personally think you will get more fans back. I think some fans see how bad the calls are and get annoyed. I also think you will get less walks. You will get more offense though. After a while pitchers will learn to hit the zone more. Right now, it is part of the catchers duties to steal strikes. So the pitcher will try to throw a pitch outside of the zone in hopes they get the call. Well when that goes away they will just go into the zone more. This will lead to more swings I think, could be wrong, maybe more hitters will take knowing it is more likely to be the right call. I mean, do we keep track of negative framing for catchers, when a pitch should have been strike but called a ball? I do not know but never heard of it.

Yes, I agree if they are not going to use electronic zone they should use grading to determine what league they get to up in, kind of like players. However, I would bet that in the contract with umps that is not allowed. I disagree with Donaldon who claims the umps do not care if they are good at all. My guess many do care about being good, but what happens when they just are not? I am sure there has to be some kind of performance thing in the contract if not, there should be.

Why does the call need to go to ump on the field? Why could there not be a display showing the call, then no need to relay it? In cases of 3 ball runner going situations, runner should assume it is a strike until otherwise indicated, so should fielders. If you want to assume it is a ball and stop running or not throw that is up to the players. The other day there was what appeared to be a delayed strike call by ump causing runner to slow down thinking it was a ball four situation, well that is on runner for slowing down. I cannot think of other plays were knowing in an instant would implicate the outcome of a play. There is no need to have someone tell the ump on the field that was strike or ball, or even a buzz or anything. Display it on score board, or some guy who has video feed can hold up a sign. I mean we watch the box in real time and see, how long does it take to have someone watching in real time relay that info? That even makes it easer on umps they can pay attention then to foul ticks, hbp, or other things and not have to take any brain time on listening to some relay of if pitch is called strike or not. Unless the tech is not reliable and breaks down I see no reason to delay in using it. If it is not reliable no need to use it to judge umpires. So that leaves breaking down, which yes will be a concern, what to do if that happens? Figure that out, then go from there. Maybe backup system. I would not want to then put on umps because they will have lost their edge and practice, or maybe they will get better because they can think strike, and oh look at that I was wrong, or yup I was right and get instant feed back.

This whole series shows how bad umpiring can get under players skin. Overall, the umpiring was terrible on balls and strikes, but what do you expect when you are dealing with a crew led by Angel. It was bad on both sides, but when some are so bad it starts to pile up. A difference of a single pitch can change the whole at bat and possibly game. Yes, Donaldson should not have been dumb, he still won the at bat. However, Cruz has been getting hosed on so many outside sliders being called strikes early in at bat that it makes him swing at them later more often. I have been advocate for electronic zone for years. Manfred claims it is not good enough tech, but they use the tech to judge umps on accuracy, so it is good enough to judge the people on accuracy, but not accurate enough to be used? Seems odd to me. Sounds more like umps pushing against it and too many old traditionalist pushing against it. I know it will happen eventually. Normally, it takes a major call in a major game to be blown to say okay enough is enough. That is where HR replay came in, and then other replay. I mean how many years was replay in NFL and so many bad calls remained in MLB and people just said, well the human element of bad calls is just part of the game, why? If you can get the call right, get it right. I also wish you got more than 1 challenge, so many times you see a loss early on, and then later on you get the clear wrong call but cannot challenge. It should not be a decision on what could happen later will affect your decision now. Yes, I do not want unlimited allowing a ton of challenges on every close play, but at least a second one should be allowed. It does not slow it down that much most of the time.

I agree that they need to start ramping up for postseason, this is not like normal where they have had months of a grind that maybe relaxing to let some nagging injuries heal up. So getting set up ready to go for that final sprint will be important. I am one that you manage the regular season different than you should in postseason. For example, throughout the season you will give guys a day of rest or get bench guys mixed in to stay sharp in case needed. You will see the value of players that can play multiple positions more during regular season. In post season, you should mostly plug and play. Sure look at matchups and what not, but there is very little need to plan in a day of rest for a guy. Same with pen, no need to get a guy some work if he is not reliable. Of course if game is a loss or big lead you can use different arms to let the high leverage arms rest. The only caveat I have is you still need to keep the team healthy going into playoffs. So making sure that happens is important.

I was happy when we made the trade, mainly because who we traded away was slotted to be only a pen arm, and our pen clearly has not missed him. Gratoral has been fine this year with better FIP than last year but pretty low K rate for someone with his stuff. He has only pitched 19 innings, Maeda has given much better value, because if you fliped the two, we would be down to Smeltzer or Thorpe getting Maeda starts. I was very high on Ryu as well, and wish we could have brought in both, but Maeda has been great so will need to settle. Will he be this way for years to come, who knows. But lets enjoy this year. Hope he picks up a W in first round of playoffs, looking more and more likely against the Yankees. Could you imagine if he pitched a shutout against the Yankees in the playoffs? The statute of him would start getting carved. Black Jack would get bumped from most iconic pitching performance in Twins post season history. Well, maybe not that far, but we would be talking about it for a long time.

First, I feel real bad for Odo this year. He was hoping to build off of what he did last year and show he is worth a 3-5 year deal. Instead, he has not pitched a single game to 5 innings. He has had different stints on DL. He was gutting out last night but when you are throwing a biohazard up there hard to stay in the game. For the people upset the Twins are not hitting singles and advancing runners. I am pretty sure the opposing pitchers are trying to stop those exact things from happening as well. Hitting MLB pitching is one of the hardest things to do in sports, when average player is only successful between 25% to 28% of the time. Then if you are just hitting singles the players hear, "we need more extra base hits, singles won't cut it." So they then change approach to increase extra base hits, knowing that lower overall average but higher slugging produces more runs, which is what you need to win. Now they do that and people are upset that they are not hitting more singles but trying to hit extra base hits. Guess unless they are the best hitters in the game that can make that switch easy no one will be happy. Think about it. If a hitter is told to change approach to hit a certain way, how can you expect the player to just say hey this may be a good spot to change everything I have been working on to advance this runner to third base, in hopes that the next guy will drive him in. Screw trying to get a double or a HR like I have been training to do. Lets hit a weak grounder to right side, possibly something I have never tried to do in years, or ever, and see how that turns out. Basically, if you are being asked to do something you never practice it is unlikely you will be successful in doing it. The team is built the way it is, they will not change that now. They are not a small ball team that will look to steal bases, bunt runners over, and hit sac flies. They want to hit extra base hits. Yes, it can be frustrating when they fail to score runs when they are walking a ton like the other night, but it is who they are.

I am not surprised by Dobnak's recent struggles, I was always hoping he would be the exception, but seems like his pitch to contact approach has started to fail him. As more hitters see him for multiple times they are being fooled less and fouling off many pitches. Also, one risk you have with the shift, as shown last night and recently, is that you leave giant holes that soft contact will get through. If you are hoping for soft contact ground balls the need for the shift is reduced. Also, if hitters are not expected to hit HR due to downward movements of the pitch they know hitting other way even weak will produce hits. If you are going to **** you need to pitch to it as well and have the pitches come inside more often. I am getting annoyed with Dick talking about how Dobnak is not getting beat around, well no, but he is hitting guys, walking guys and giving up hits to giant holes in the field. You do not need to give up hard contact to get beat. Those weak ground balls to giant holes was not bad luck, it was good hitting.

Polonco has look much better this year, his throws have not been crazy off like in the past. To me the biggest surprise is Sano. He has looked much better than I expected. Is he gold glove no, but I was very worried he was going to let way too many throws past him.

Terrible, not fun game to watch. I blame the terrible home plate ump, I have not like Angel Hernadez for years. The man's zone is all over the place, with all the walks you would think it was tiny, but he was not consistent at all. Sure, he did not hit into the inning ending double plays, but when both pitcher and hitter are guessing on what will be called it is hard to have an approach up there.

If the games are played in a bubble, how will this affect the schedule? Will it mean less, more, or same off days. Meaning will you need to plan for a 3 man, 4 man or 5 man rotation? That really affects plans. After that is figured out, you can plan the starters. The pen is up in the air with so many doing well, but Rodgers not doing well. Finally, the lineup will be what it is not much you can do about injuries. Lucky we are deep and Jeffers is doing better on both sides, in my opinion, than Garver was this season before he went down.

I will not take much from what has happened this year as a trend for anyone. This is not any kind of normal year. Players did not get same way to prepare and you are seeing many different players not playing like you would expect. The different in aggressiveness could be pitchers different approach, or maybe he is needing to track pitches and still off on timing, who knows. In a normal year we would be in May, and starting to talk about adjustments that need to be made. Lets hope he makes the adjustments that need to be made and he has a hot end of the year. If not, we can see what next year brings and if it continues to look like 2019 was an outlier season, then we look to move on from him.

I am kind of sick of the Rodgers getting unlucky argument. This has been going on all season, when is bad luck just going to be he is getting beat. Last night, he walked lead off guy, was that bad luck? Even when you have terrible ump behind the plate you knew what he was doing back there, pitch to the ump you have not the one you want. Then he walked second guy, okay the box said ball 4 should have been a strike, but it was right on edge, again pitch to take that call away from ump. Then you have the "bad luck" weak contact, or was it just really good hitting by Engle who saw Polonco vacate the middle of the field meaning anything hit hard enough to reach outfield was going to be hit. Okay, then you have the lazy fly, sweet he got an out. Then the rocket hit by Anderson for a double. I honestly turned it off because in a 1-1 game in normal time it should not have been that late. So I cannot comment on what happened after that, but overall Rodgers has not looked like he has in the past. I will agree 17 inning is not a huge sample size and I am not going to say he is cooked, but I am also not going to say he should get the last 3 outs every game or more like he did a few times last year. He is not lights out right now, so go with hot hand or who you think will get job done. I cringe when he goes out there right now. Can he have a 17 inning stretch of no runs, yes, but until he looks lights out I will still cringe. Either way, enough with the just bad luck stuff, it is not just bad luck every time.

There is some argument to be made here, that this would be best year to break the trend. I just loath seeing those games, even in regular games.

I would be more worried about Duffy, if we were not as deep as we are in the pen, and we did not have a manager that will not just march his guy out there because he is the guy in that spot. If the team thinks Duffy is cooked or will not get it done they will choose someone else. Other managers will just follow the well Duffy is top setup guy so put him out there in this spot. Rocko does not roll that way. Dobnak I am not worried about either because he is not in top 3 starters, may be number 4, but not like we are leaning on him to carry us, he has just been a nice story and been good, but he will not be the reason we fail in the playoffs. Polonco is worth keeping an eye on, but at this point playoffs are going to be a lock basically, just against who. Let them rest if they need it.

I expect Rooker to be on a MLB team next year, maybe not Twins but he looked solid enough that he is MLB ready.

Anyone but the Yankees. I really do not care who, but anyone but them. I see the Yankees getting fully healthy and sweeping us in 2 games if we play them. We could play them anywhere at any time and we would lose. They could send out little league players and we would lose. For whatever reason we just fold when we face them in playoffs. Judge and Stanton will most likely be back too by playoffs and will not be the same offense that they are fielding right now.

This series will be very interesting to see how Twins do. We have not performed well on the road this season, but we have done well against the Sox overall. 4 games we will see how each team a whole compares. Twins have been hitting well lately. Hopefully this carries over to the road and they keep it up. Pitching overall has been strong too. I hope they can stay hot rest of the season right into October.

There will be a lot of suitors for him next year if DH is across the board. However, I think he has been happy here and Twins will try to keep him. I think it would take a strong push from a team that is similarly set to win now to get him to move on to them. He is not from U.S. so no I always wanted to play for home town team at end of career like some U.S. born guys do. I bet he is back with Twins unless some other team just pays a ton for him and Twins not willing to match.

In terms of Yankees, they at least still have their starting catcher, sure he is hitting like he is on the injured list, but we are on catchers 3 and 4. We also lost our starting 3b for half the season, starting cf for a few weeks, and been rotating pitchers like crazy because of injuries. Every team has dealt with injuries some maybe more than others. It is the fact that the starters or fill ins have faded when the stars have gone on shelf. Maybe it is the pressure, or maybe it is the circumstances of COVID that is messing with players heads, but there are a lot of top talent that are not playing anywhere close to what they normally do this season.

Has there been an announcement for a bubble in playoffs yet? I have not seen it. I know they have talked about it. That being said, home team, regardless of where, has an advantage of hitting last.

I would not move any of the starters to pen, if they do not make starting list they can sit out the post-season. Out of pen you want guys that can strike out guys, which is what we have now. This is because if you ever come in with runners on the K is the best way to limit runs from scoring. If they are the 5th or 6th starter it is unlikely they would be ahead of the 6th or even 8th pen arm. If I had to choose, Hill would be the guy only because he has done pen work in the past and would be a change of pace for a short burst. Overall, the pen has been good, and even the unproven guys have stepped up to look good. Yes, each have had a rough outing or two but that is going to happen, just hope not in the playoffs.