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Platoon

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Everything posted by Platoon

  1. Platoon
    Managing a baseball team includes managing the 162 games also. Meaning in game decisions, based on many moving parts. A good baseball man once told me, "every pitch changes a game". I have never doubted that philosophy. If it’s even borderline true, there is no way to manage a team from the FO suite. There are ever fluid situations, and frankly some of them are gut reactions. Pitcher Bob may have a 4.00 ERA, but that’s an average. The managers job is to decide whether this is one of Bob’s 2.00 days, or 6.00 days. At the end of two games like this he will still have a 4.00, your job is to make use of him on the good one, and get him out on the bad one. Otherwise, all you are doing in the dugout is wasting sunflower seeds. One last thing, This team has be horrendously undisciplined all year on fundamentals. The baserunning has been basically high school level FO running the show or not, that’s on the manager to control and correct.
  2. Platoon
    There is a lot of bad luck in injuries. Buxtons do not belong in that category. His history made this predictable. He is what he was. And the Twins got what they paid for!
  3. Platoon
    Repeat after me: RBI’s are analytically insignificant!
  4. Platoon
    Was this a Randball piece?
  5. Platoon
    This play is simply indicative of what has happened to MLB the past 10 years or so. A lot of it is caused by the administrators of the game. But some of what they decree is also caused by us the fans. We are the ones who expect perfection from human beings. We think umpires (or referees as someone posted) should be flawless. We want instant replay for everything with the exception of the players scratching themselves in the dugout. When it takes ten minutes and 14 looks at a play and it STILL can’t be clearly determined, then that’s what the umpire is for. An arbiter. BTW, it’s not easy making your living deciding whether a 92mph slider nipped the lower outside 3/8” of the plate. The two plays shown, here and Pittsburg were similar. Obviously one was called wrong. Which one? Who knows. The rule is so stupid that’s it’s almost impossible to consistently enforce. Frankly I agree that the play was correctly called by the plate ump. The catcher had to be in position to catch the ball, which he was, and he made the tag. Same thing in Pittsburg. But it’s not the call that was bad, it’s the rule that is stupid. . Make it so a slide into a catcher with intent to knock him over to jar the ball loose is an automatic out. It won’t be any more confusing than this, and it allows the catcher to be a catcher. One last thing, enough with the umpires and big wigs in NY hate the Twins. Sheesh! While I am pretty sure most umpires could give a rats behind who wins, I can guarantee the wheels in NY love the Twins. Think about it!
  6. Platoon
    Fortunately nothing else happened in the three plus preceding hours that changed the outcome of the game! ???
  7. Platoon
    Would not pulling the starters even earlier simply cause the bullpen more stress. Years ago Bill Clinton said "it’s the arithmetic". Whatever your SP doesn’t pitch your pen does. In another context if you had a group of starters consistently going deep into games, you would either drop a relief pitcher, or end up with rusty ones at the end of the pen bench!
  8. Platoon
    It still doesn’t make sense to arbitrarily pull a SP at a set time. Maybe the stats say that jerking SP in the fourth is working on an average? But surely individualizing this decision has to be part of the process. Nolan Ryan removed for Caleb Thielbar? Or Joe Ryan for Joe Nathan? Slight difference. The game requires x amount of innings by x amount of pitchers, the less innings you alot to your better ranked pitchers, pitchers able to get through a lineup at least twice, the more your lesser ranked pitchers, good for an inning, have to pitch. If you had a longer pen this might work. But in the current situation, you are throwing cannon fodder out there towards the end. You want to shorten the leash on a SP that’s one thing, but preplanning his inning limit seems more like scheduling than managing.
  9. Platoon
    If he would have pulled that pitch any farther it woulda hit the batter in his unmentionable areas! Lol
  10. Platoon
    In Little League softball and baseball they will sometimes put a parent at the backstop to retrieve the endless balls that get buy those 8 yr. old "catchers"! This could be the solution to our problem. Guys from my era like Jim Thome and Tony O could have transitioned behind the plate. Since it’s been statistically proven that wild pitches, passed balls and allowing throw out rates on stolen bases that would get most VFW catchers benched, (not to mention not having to learn how to hide your pinkies between your legs for all those confusing little sign thingies) all our elderly transitional players would need is a little 3 legged stool to sit on! Yes, they would have to promise to remove it for a slide play at the plate, but maybe since the umpire has extra time he could help out?
  11. Platoon
    Baseball is getting confusing. So catching has now become an offensive position for a player who can "frame" pitches? Passed balls, non blocked wild pitches, and base stealers running Willy nilly mean nothing. Defensively turning a walk or single into a double is fine? At the same time turning a singles hitter into an extra base guy is celebrated ? Letting someone get another base is a defensive liability regardless. Add on the fact that no pitcher wants to miss with that 1-2 slider down and away to a one legged pitch framer would seem obvious. I have never been a fan of Robo umps. But maybe it’s time for us to get what we deserve. We have turned a wonderful, albeit slow, game into a dreadful slog! Replays to determine a call which require measurements that would make a NASA engineer proud. That stupid tv box which makes every fan an umpire, and every umpire wrong. I think it’s time to bring on the bots, and finish the job. A statistically perfect game, that maybe a couple of analytical professors at MIT will watch over lunch?
  12. Platoon
    Bunts, stealing, the hit and run, and old baseball adages are highly frowned upon in the analytical age. ???
  13. Platoon
    Is the "dead ball era" the problem? Or is it the possibility that baseball sold itself out to launch angles, exit velocity, and going for the long ball even when behind on the count? Basically you are playing the long game with a dead ball. Maybe admitting the Bomba Squad wasn’t as much Bomba as the ball was Titleist would help the team and fans see baseball in a more realistic light?
  14. Platoon
    I would never miss a Twins game when Garlick bats cleanup. Brings back fond memories of Harmon, Hank, and the Babe!
  15. Platoon
    He is Buxton. If he went into umpiring he would trip over a base, fall into a dugout, or get hit in an indelicate area whilst behind the plate. More and more I think Bud Grant knew whereof he spoke: You aren’t valuable to a team if you can’t stay on the field. Who would have taken 7 as the over/under before games were missed due to an injury?
  16. Platoon
    The other problem is when does he launch these cookies into the stratosphere? Hitting something 485’ late in a close game is impressive. Hitting one like that when way ahead or behind off the #5 reliever in someone’s pen has no value whatsoever. There’s enough mediocre pitching in baseball for Sano to get his fill of cookies by the end of the season. But, good pitchers who execute get him out too often, too easily, and with little chance of even an RBI groundout. He remains my #1 choice to pitch against with the game on the line. I would rather see him up there than Arreaz, Polanco, or Buxton.
  17. Platoon
    All this angst for a guy who is 0 for 1!
  18. Platoon
    It’s quite possible this IS why everyone complains about Sano? That said I am very impressed by Winder, I checked his stats, still no runs allowed!
  19. Platoon
    Someone will dig up the stats on this but IIRC didn’t Rogers struggle on back to back appearances? If so, this diminishes his value as a closer.
  20. Platoon
    So are we now back to the 3 catchers on the roster situation if Sanchez is the DH?
  21. Platoon
    Does having picked up two Yankees who are familiar with NY improve our chances when we meet them in this years ALCS? Maybe all this is, is an attempt to overcome the "jinx"? On a more serious note we seem to have again went to the possibility of a bat first SS? And since I read somewhere that pitching has a lot to do with winning in baseball, who’s gonna do that. This seems like a move towards a rebuild year, unless they miraculously pick up two top flight SP. Frankly I would find that preferable to getting stuck in the middle. Which I define as pretending to be competitive, and not going wholesale into the rebuild. I really don’t care which way they go, just don’t do it half a^~ed!
  22. Platoon
    I am not sure what’s out there for SS besides Simmons, which didn’t pan out, but the bottom line is almost anything that keeps Polanco from SS is good. He had a nice year at second, I could see no upside in moving him back to SS. Maybe the real problem lies in the Twins long term inability to draft a legitimate SS. Almost all Twins SS draftee announcements come with the "but most scouts see him as a third baseman or CF" caveat. Add to this the logjam at first base and the fact that Sano has virtually no current trade value. You want to see pain and angst, wait till they start trying to trade for a SP!
  23. Platoon
    Good point! There is so much interesting high school, legion, and even town ball to watch that I doubt I will miss any 4 hour MLB games. Are these games played at MLB levels? Nope! But you do get to see balls put in play, steals, the antiquated bunt, and even a SS playing between second and third. While it may be analytically bereft, it has an ingredient MLB currently lacks. Action! Last summer I saw some excellent Legion games at the district and state playoff level. And, if you are in MN and have the opportunity go see some of the good class B amateur teams. You will be surprised and pleased by the talent level, and intensity.
  24. Platoon
    I would keep Garver and Jeffers much as it pains me to keep a catcher who can’t catch. The robo ump would help Garver somewhat, since he could abandon that idiotic one legged stance and block a few pitches. While this will help him, I imagine it will help every other catcher also, maybe him more as his athleticism is wanting. Come trading g deadline time would be the time to decide between Jeffers, Garver and Rortvedt. Our place in the standings, our end of the year needs, and our future would direct which way to go. Normally I abhor hitters who can’t catch, and prefer a mediocre hitter, who is an excellent defensive catcher. NeitherRortvedt or Jeffers qualify as mediocre. So it is what it is. That said unless the FO does the unimaginable on the SP front, I doubt little of this matters anyway.
  25. Platoon
    Well deserved by both. And about time. Plus, both stayed in the game for years afterward and still are in one form or another. Oliva is virtually a walking talking Mr. Baseball and Kaat is easily the best baseball analyst the game has known.
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