Trov

Wow the hate for Rocco one year removed from manager of the year, and just a week from first place. We will still most likely make the playoffs, unless we never win again. The playoffs no matter 1st or 8th will be a crap shoot the first round. I take almost no stock into this season on what we have as a team or staff. The lack of ability to really assess prospects on who to maybe bring up or not is a huge loss. The fact that you needed to pick the 60 guys you wanted to work with right away. With the compressed schedule and difficult living situation for players it is hard to know how it is affecting each one. Yes, each team is going through it, but we also are having much more injuries than some. Less than others. Those injuries just increase the issues with the team when others are struggling, and the normal bench players are being asked to step up, and they fail to do so. I sure hope the middle infield have been educated on the rules. The bases loaded play should have had them tag the runner on second first, he would have been out, then step on the base for a double play. If they were really thinking they throw to third, tag the runner there, step on the base, then throw to second for the triple play, assuming the runner from first would not have made it to second in time. For those who do not know, you are not safe on the base if you are to be forced off of it, meaning the runners on base cannot simply stay there to avoid being tagged out but once you get the force play, then the runners are now safe to remain on the base. It is all about timing, and most people panic in that situation thinking get on the base I will be safe. Players may encounter that type of play maybe 1 or 2 times in their career, not something you practice, but educating players on rules can always help.

Last year they attacked first pitches, specifically fastballs. I wonder if they are getting less fastballs based on that, which then leads either missing breaking balls or sometimes taking get me over breaking balls. It is important to note that in a normal season we would be just over a month in, fighting for first and we would say give them time. However, this year we are over half way through the season and we are in panic mode. Could the players have a different idea, or the hitting coach that is possible. It could be this year more thoughts at getting deeper into counts has been a plan to get into pens sooner with shorter starts. Now we are in the second month starters are going deeper so if that was the plan first month maybe they can change it up. I pointed out in another article that Polonco's numbers last year were loaded from first 2 months, and what he did rest of year is much more on par with what he is doing this year. I do not feel what he is doing is much different from last year, I think pitchers adjusted to him when he crushed for 2 months. Teams changed approaches against him, giving much less fast balls. In general, you are seeing much less fastballs early in counts against Twins hitters it would seem.

I do not know the man. I know when he was here before he was not happy with the lack of contracts offered to him and he signed with Twins late on a bargain contract. He may have taken this out on Twins. Maybe he did some self-reflection and change is ways, maybe he just did not like being here. Maybe he will like it a second time. Personally, if you can get him for a bargain trade, I would take a flyer on to see. He has value, and to pitch well in TX is always tough. The main risk you can face is if he is a bad club house guy, but again if he was, maybe he has changed after that season with Twins.

I have not read all the comments on this, a few too many to get caught up. Here is my stance. I am in support of the players choosing to do this, it is their right not to play. I am happy the Twins ownership is in support of them. However, I also agree that being the season it is, it appears to a hollow protest because the owners are out really nothing because no fans refunds, and the game will be made up so neither side sacrificed anything. They do not need to sacrifice anything to help bring more attention to issues though. Now, the sacrifice of something is what shows how strong they feel about a particular issue. I am not saying the players or the owners do not feel strong about this issue, but without the threat of loss you will never know how strong they truly feel. Personally, I am glad sports are starting to use their platforms to push the issues they want. I get very upset when people respond with "just shut up and play." These are human beings that get paid well to entertain us, and we put up large amounts of money to do that, but they should still get to have a voice and be heard. If you do not like what they have to say, then do not support their sport, but to try to shut them down and say just play the game is demeaning to the person. I love sports, and baseball in particular. However, it is just a game and my personal entertainment. I can be entertained through other means. If the players and owners want to cancel their seasons in full in protest to help push change they feel is needed, then I support. I am not entitled to have them entertain me. Last night instead of watching baseball I watched other tv, played games, read a book. I will survive if sports do not happen.

I am always open for a possible addition to relief pitching at the right price, no more top prospects for a rental reliever, or starting defensive short stop that can hit for reliever, thanks Bill Smith. I am not looking for OF, unless it is Pillar for defense and price is low. I would be for replacing Adrianza but again if price is low. We will make playoffs, that is almost certain at this point. How much will replacing Adrianza help in a 3 game playoff, or 7 game playoff? Not much most likely. So not worth giving up potential years of MLB level play for maybe a game or a couple at bats. Same thing for starter, we do not need one to make playoffs so unless they will be a top 3 starter for us, I see no reason to bring them on for a prospect. For me, you should either trade for cash for rentals, or if they have at least 1 more year of control you trade for next year. No prospects for rentals in this season.

I agree, that is why I would not just get rid of Garver for nothing, but if a good value trade comes along it would be worth taking it, and continue to use other back up catchers. There is value in having two good catchers that can split time pretty even. I would not give Garver away by any means, not like we did years ago to get Capps. Right now, I do not see what kind of trade that would be and to whom, but just keeping options open.

Interesting on who is leading in WAR. Even more so that Rendon is, when his team is not doing well at all only 9 wins. Same with Giants in NL. So many people have wanted MVP connected to WAR, but this would for sure be a time not too. I get you may be valuable to your team, but if they are in last place, well Giants are on 6 game win streak to be second to last, should you still get MVP? I am not one to say it should always go to best player on best team, but to go to best player on the worst or nearly worst team does not make much sense either. I see this game going either Hill pitches deep and they have another pitching duel, or Hill struggles again but either he or Acala and Coulombe are asked to take a few innings regardless of how well they are doing. With Beiber on the mound if we give up 3 runs there is not much of a chance of winning and should save the pen for tomorrow.

I sure hope Hill can go deep today. My guess Duffy will be saved for last inning with both Romo and Rodgers pitching last 2 days. I wonder how long they will wait to put Clippard on IL if he cannot go. Sounds like he may have nasty welt on forearm for a few days not allowing him to do much.

If Garver can show some sign of hitting again, I would look to move him if possible. He is in his prime and will be under team control until he is out of his prime. If Jeffers is the primary catcher going forward as long as Garver has some value I would look to move him. I do not see a platoon with the two of them and why, if Garver is starter level and can get value in trade for him not do it. Of course this is only the Twins feel they are getting fair value. It is always nice to have two good catchers, even if both RH. The article suggested Jeffers may have better numbers against RH pitchers than LH in his career, assuming it is minor league numbers.

First, were those videos taken from end of 2019 and beginning of 2020? It is a great article pointing out the differences. However, the reason I ask the question is his first couple months last years were his big slugging months and then he trailed off to what he did the first month this year, for most part. So if he kept the same swing all 2019, then I would not say it is his swing that is the difference, at least not the only difference as his slugging did not get over .500 after May last year in any month, and was below .400 one month. He was at .414 July this year, this month is terrible. The point is, if the 2019 video is from early on that season I would be interested to see if he changed later in season, or not. That would lead me to believe there is more than swing leading to this. Maybe, after his break out two months last year pitchers adjusted how they were pitching to him and now he is trying to adjust to that. The longer load will normally lead to more power, but as you stated possible late on pitches too.

What I get out of this is he has better launch angle and better luck for what his results are, but overall not swinging much better because still missing half the pitches he swings at. It is interesting how just a small difference mere fractions of inches to change the launch angle is changing the outcome so much. Lets hope he can stop missing so much because he clearly is showing his margin for error is so tiny.

I think the walk rate is a huge deal, and that is mostly not luck. Last year he had huge chase rate, maybe league picked up on that, or maybe his pitches are easier to pick up this year. Sure he will get some bad calls ball strike wise, but he will get some good ones too. He cannot seem to find where he wants to throw the ball. He keeps missing spots. The bad luck part of will hopefully even out, if it has not. I agree BABIP is not a true teller by itself of "luck". You need to look at hard hit and barrel rates to compare to it. If you are top tier in having weak contact, bad launch angle, and low barrel rate, but have a high BABIP, that means bad luck. But if you give up hard contact at good launch angle and hitters barrel up, you BABIP should be high.

I am wondering if for Rodgers it is becoming more of a head game. The unlucky hits can start to get to you, thinking I need to be perfect because even when I am good they just find holes. Then you get out there in save spots and over think over throw and falter. I am thinking take Rodgers out of "closer" role, and do the committee thing they did much of first half last year. Rodgers is striking much like Latrell Hawkins was. A great reliever overall, but for some reason putting in "closer" role eventually they faltered. I am not saying never have him out for the 9th again, but not say he is our 9th inning guy no matter what. I know Rodgers was used in 8th the other day, did well.

Personally, I am not "disappointed" in either. They have both shown they can be MLB players for years. Yes, they both have had set backs and issues. If I had to pick one it would be Sano more for his lack of being in shape not improving on his defense. Buxton tries so hard to be the best he can be. This has lead to so many changes in hitting. He is willing to go through walls to make catches, which has led to injuries. He will try as hard as he can to be as good as he can. That is not disappointing to me. We heard the Mike Trout comps, which was not fair for Buck. Trout, barring falling off the table in the next few years, might go down as best player of all time, if you go by WAR that is nearly a lock. So to have that comp is just not fair for anyone. Has Buck become the best player on our team, no. Has he become an all star year in and out and future HOF, no. But is he a flop, no. There are many other players drafted in top 5 that never make majors let alone show they are top defensive player in the league.

This game showed how big a single missed call by umpire on the strike vs ball call can be. The article mentioned missed call in Arcia at bat, I did not see that one, but I did see later in the inning what look to be a clear strike on 3-2 count called a ball loading the bases that then followed up with two run single. If hill gets the right call inning over 2-1 game and hopefully he comes back the next inning shutting down the hitters. It was 1 missed call that made huge difference in the game. I am so for the electronic strike zone. In regards to Sano at first, I am very surprised he has been playing it as well as he has. He is digging balls well. He has had a couple of moments he made wrong decisions to go after ball or not, but that is learning curve, and even harder now with shifts.

I have not seen the corresponding move for bringing hill back. Has anyone? I hope Hill can stay in rotation for awhile this time. We will really need him playoff time but will need him to be able to pitch more than 60 pitches in a playoff start too. He has the track record in playoffs to be great. He shows you do not need velo but change speeds, movement and location is key. What is interesting is most of our starters are not top velo guys and the one that got more velo, Berrios has done the worst. Just goes to show that if you know what you are doing keeping guys off balance, you can do well.

Should they get rid of the rule of foul tips caught is an out on third strike? I mean they hit the ball foul why should it matter that the catcher managed to hold onto it? How about when there is a ball inside and the hitter is diving out the way and the ball hits the bat should it be considered that it hit the bat or because the hitter clearly had no intention of hitting it and no where close to the strike zone it should be ball, even if it goes in play? What about the rule that if you swing at a pitch but hit hit by the pitch it is a strike because you swung? The rule you are against is in, my guess, is to make the catcher do his job when no one is on first base or with 2 outs, as it only applies in those cases. If not the catcher could let every ball go past, maybe even intentionally sit on opposite side of plate of the intended target. If the rule is not in place I could see catchers doing all kinds of things to toy with hitters. I understand the hitter swung at a pitch out of the zone, but they catcher still has a job to do. To answer you question of when a player is out but then is not, it happens when there is ruled runner interference, many times instigated by the runner. KC runner tried to get it earlier this year when they ran out of the baseline to run into Sano claiming Sano blocked his path. Lucky the umps decided it was not interference, but if the runner was tagged out, the ump could over rule the out and say nope interference. The sliding rule is another one, with sliding to home the catcher needs to give a lane to slide, if they are out but no lane given, provided the catcher did not have the ball prior to the slide, the runner is called safe and not out. So there a few examples where a guy would have been out, but gets called safe.

Nice write up. I feel it is important to point out signing any of them would have affected other moves, like Maeda trade or Donaldson signing(jury out on how that will work out) Also, with the age of the pitchers each will need to show they adjust to loss of velocity as they age. Ryu was the main one I wanted to sign out of the group because as stated that is not his game. My thought on pitchers these days. Sign the young guys with good velo, but do not sign the 30 something guys to long term with good velo because that will fade. We have seen time and again guys that relied on high velo get crushed when it fades because they never really knew how to get by on other stuff. Some of those guys learn, but takes time. Look at big sexy he was velo guy, was bouncing around for years and finally became good pitcher again for few years, not like his prime with good velo, but serviceable. It will be interesting to see how Wheeler adjusts as he ages. Mad bum I had high hopes he would adjust well, maybe injury affects him more than expected. Does not help AZ is hitter park.

Last night is perfect example of the no-hitter no bunt rule. Yes, it was not a bunt, but it was a weak hit that got Meada out of the game due to no-hitter broken and pitch count. What happens? Three runs later game is tied. The question is how close is too close, or if the guy would normally bunt. If shift is on and they giving the base hit should it be taken? I mean once the pitching changed happened the whole game changed, if it was done via bunt people would be outraged, but the hit gave brew crew chance to win, thankfully they did not. The point is, getting runners on base is how you win and change the dynamics of the game. If you know a bunt will get the pitcher out because of pitch count, do the bunt change up the game give your team a chance. I will agree if say it was 10-0 lead in the 9th a bunt for a hit to get pitcher out may be bush league, but 10 run innings happen. The beauty of baseball is it is never over until that last out happens. In terms of celebrations, if you cannot handle the other team celebrating, do give them something to celebrate. If you beat them and shut them up how will they shove it in your face? It is not the other teams job to help you look good. What is even more crazy is when the other team is upset about 1 player they throw at other players, like it is that players fault for the "broken rule" that is even more bush league to me. Also, the celebration rule is very much against non-white cultures. In Hispanic ball they will do all kinds of celebrations but then they are expected to form to the white norm of not doing it when they come to play MLB. I got an idea, lets not make guys run bases on HR anymore, like they do in slow pitch softball just hit and walk to bench. Do not allow curten calls or 50 game suspension, if you do not run out of the box or do a bat flip, 50 game suspension. If anyone on the bench claps or screams when something good happens 50 game suspension for them all. Lets take all celebrations out of baseball so not upset people if you "cross the line" The line will be any, because if not then the line is subjective for each person and how do you know if you have crossed it.

This is similar to most pitchers. If you fail to locate your pitches to where you need to they will get hit hard. Any pitcher who leaves pitches middle of zone will get rocked. This is not limited to sinker pitchers. It really comes down to movement and how the hitters adjust to knowing when the pitch is a ball or not. If movement gets limited and hitters staying off the boarder line pitches causing pitcher to go middle zone with little movement it will not be good. The biggest issue I always had with sinker pitchers was the high babip allowed, and the huge reliance on defense and DP. When they start walking guys it makes it worse. All that being said, I am not sold on Dobnak as some great pitcher for years to come, but until he fails lets ride the sinker as far as it can go.

It used to be sinker pitchers were the big thing. Then they went out of favor because everyone was trying to get them and hitters adjusted swings. Now that the league has changed approach some sinker pitchers may do well. The biggest issue will be if he can never get a strikeout pitch of some kind good hitters will just foul off so many pitches.

Cruz is a beast. As long as he can stay healthy he looks like he has at least another year or two left of swings in him. I think it would be great for him if he can last another 2 to 3 years after this season and get to 500 HR. I know it is not what it used to be, but since he was never a full time starter until 26 and even then it was not until 28 that he broke out HR wise to get to 500 would be hell of a feat and maybe get him into the hall. Even if not with Twins I hope he plays and is productive. He sounds like a class act guy overall. His numbers have been great unlike many sluggers that can still hit HR they strike out a ton and stop hitting anything else. Cruz still gets base hits and strike out rate similar to rest of career. Until he cannot do it, let him do it.

The unwritten rules are so dumb. You cannot celebrate too much, you cannot bunt for a hit with no hitter late in game, you cannot swing 3-0 with large lead late in game, so on and so on. I agree with T-J that I have seen 6 run come backs late in games. If teams are so worried lets put in a mercy rule. What if he Swung 0-0 and hit it, should be yelled at for not falling behind in count? How did the others get on base? I mean come on.

Good to know, I was under impression from other articles was you were only limited to 60 man groups. ESPN even had article lately about that is a reason for limited trades because ability to trade an A ball level prospect for rental pitcher is limited because very few teams brought those type of players to 60 man group.

Lets hope they carry the offense from last game into Target Field. We did not hit well against the Royals at all during the sweep.