Cap'n Piranha
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Everything posted by Cap'n Piranha
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Eddie Rosario after last night now has a 99 wRC+, and is only worth 0.9 WAR, due to being the 10th worst defensive outfielder in the game. His OBP is under .300, and his supposed strength (big moments) is also eroding, as he's down to a 103 wRC+ in high leverage. He hasn't had a monthly OPS above .800 since June (and even that was .810). Either Eddie is hurt, or he needs to be dropped to 8th or 9th in the order now.
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Game 5 has an off day on either side. All other games come in bunches of 2 or 3, but as Brock said, Taylor Rogers will not be needed to pitch 19 times in the postseason.
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Front Page: Twins Need Rosario to Rein it In
Cap'n Piranha replied to Ted Schwerzler 's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Miguel Sano's walk rate this year is 12.4%, compared to his career MLB walk rate of 12.0%. -
Because not all back-to-back appearances are the same. If Rogers only has 1 day off before his back-to-back, that's probably different than having 3-5 days of rest before the back-to-back, which should be the case going into the ALDS.
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By WAR, over the last 3 years, there are only 18 pitchers better than Berrios. Scherzer--potentially available, but at a King's ransom deGrom--potentially available, but at a King's ransom Sale--probably don't want him Verlander--not available Cole--available at about $35M a year Corbin--potentially available, but at a King's ransom Kluber--not available/probably don't want him Strasburg--could be available, if so, at about $30M a year Nola--not available Greinke--not available Carrasco--potentially available, but at a King's ransom Bauer--not available/probably don't want him Morton--potentially available, but at a King's ransom Severino--probably don't want him Kershaw--not available Paxton--probably don't want him Marquez--not available Lynn--probably don't want him There's obviously the caveat that any player is available for the right price, but the players above I listed as not available would take a deal starting at Graterol + Lewis/Kiriloff (if not both) to get. There is almost no way the Twins get two of these guys (or others that might be more desirable now and for the future): one will be hard enough. It's also worth mentioning that over the last 3 years Odorizzi is 50th in WAR--if you restrict that to the last 2 years (only his Twins years), he's at 22nd. I think 1 year at ~$18M or 3 at ~$45M is a very reasonable price to pay for a guy who has upped his k rate while dropping his bb rate, all while increasing velocity and getting more swinging strikes.
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I didn't say anyone has suggested it. I highlighted the fact that the Twins are unlikely to improve their rotation through expenditure (whether capital or prospect). Even if they do, it will be only 1-2 spots, and not a wholesale rebuilding of the rotation. That leaves only a couple of options; Use largely the same rotation they had this year by picking up options/extending QO's/agreeing to new deals with their current starters Put the burden on the members of the Rochester shuttle to man 2-3 spots in the rotation throughout the entire year Dumpster dive and hope you can affect improvement in underperforming playersOf these 3 options, option 1 seems like the best balance between risk and reward--it has the lowest ceiling, but the highest floor. All that being said, how would you propose fixing the rotation?
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While this is technically true, I don't think anyone is ok with next year's rotation being Berrios, Perez, Smeltzer, Thorpe, and Dobnak. I'm certainly ok with the members of the Rochester shuttle collectively being our 5th starter, but if they're asked to be more than that, or Perez is asked to be more than the 4th starter, we should all be very upset with ownership.
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I mean, I'd like for the Twins to sign Cole, Keuchel, and Ryu, then make the Nationals a godfather offer for Scherzer, but I'd put the over/under on number of those pitchers in a Twins uniform next year at 0.5, and still pound the under. The fixes to this rotation are in all likelihood going to come in the same way Cleveland built their rotation--through consistent incremental improvement driven by development of minor league talent and the odd shrewd trade for undervalued assets.
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It's actually not that bad, when you think about it. Berrios is a given, but I think Perez is likely to have his option picked up--$7.5M feels totally reasonable for a pitcher with 1.7 WAR this year (57th in baseball amongst pitchers with 130+ IP; he's also 55th in FIP and 52nd in xFIP), so long as he's your 4th/5th starter. Extend the QO on Pineda (if you can, I'm not sure if he's eligible) or Odorizzi, and you're left with only 2 spots, one of which will be filled by Smeltzer/Thorpe/Dobnak/Poppen. Is it a great rotation? No--but you're not getting to great until either Graterol/Ober/Balazovic are succeeding in the Majors, or Jim Pohald opens the pocketbook. Because of that, I have a sneaking suspicion Falvine doubles down on the lineup and looks for under the radar rotation moves, counting on trading for pieces in July, or prospect emergence to round the staff into playoff form.
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Aaron Judge this year has 6 homers in 178 PA's at Yankee Stadium, and 11 in 163 PA's on the road. This is a flip from his career splits, but it's not quite so cut and dry to attribute all of Judge's power to the Bronx.
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Twins bullpen in August, with MLB ranks; 9 k/9 (15th), 2.2 bb/9 (1st), 0.95 HR/9 (3rd), .332 BABIP (26th), 35.5% GB rate (28th), 4.02 ERA (8th), 3.36 FIP (2nd), 4.16 xFIP (7th), 1.7 WAR (2nd). Perhaps Falvine knew what they were doing at the deadline.
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As I understand it, that is incorrect. When predicting playoff odds, the data is input, and then simulations are run. Based on the numbers I gave above, if 1,000 simulations are run, the Twins made the playoffs in 974 of those simulations (883, 336, 149, and 73 for the other rounds, compared to 824, 524, 216, 91, and 44). As to whether Cleveland is more likely to advance given the same position as the Twins, that is slightly true based on reaching the division series (38.1% to LCS, 16.9% to WS, 8.3% win WS for Twins, 41.2%, 17.4%, 8.4% for Cleveland), but flips back to the Twins favor for reaching both subsequent series.
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- jake odorizzi
- lucas giolito
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According to Fangraphs, the Twins have a better chance than the Indians to make the playoffs (97.8 to 81.5), make the ALDS (89.1 to 51.8), make the ALCS (36.4 to 20.7), make the World Series (15.0 to 9.1), and win the World Series (7.2 to 4.6).
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- jake odorizzi
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The difference between May and Duffey being options 2A and 2B, and May and Duffey being options 4A and 4B is absolutely massive.
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Dude, we can debate multiple definitions at the same time. I've stated, explicitly and multiple times, that based solely on on-field production (which is the current criteria), Trout is the MVP, it's not close, and it should be unanimous. If the MVP is restricted to the current year (which it should be), but pay is included (which it also should be), Trout is much less valuable, due to the fact that each point of WAR costs $4.2M (Kepler is $1.7M, Acuna is $196k, Bellinger is $88k). Those 3 players cost less than half of Trout this year, but have combined for almost twice the WAR. Here's an example for you; say you are told you can have one bowl of ice cream, and you get a choice between two bowls. One has 3 scoops, and costs $5, while the other costs $2 for 2 scoops. If all you care about is maximizing your ice cream, you'll get the 3 scoop bowl. However, if you get the 2 scoop bowl, you can use your extra 3 dollars to buy a brownie, some hot fudge, whipped cream, and a cherry. The latter option clearly has more value, which should perhaps be taken into account when conferring an award that has the word Valuable right in it.
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If the MVP vote is based solely on current year production, Mike Trout is the clear and only choice. If he doesn't win it unanimously, people should have their voting privileges taken away. If it's based on current year value, which would include salary, arguments can be made Trout shouldn't be in the top 5. To illustrate this, think about if the Twins had signed Berrios to a 6 year, $150M deal before the season started, but Berrios had the exact same season. He's clearly less valuable in that scenario than in one where he's not extended, despite identical production. If we're talking organizational value, Trout shouldn't even be on the ballot. Anthony Rendon has put up 5.2 WAR this year so far (8th among hitters). However, since he cost $18M this year, and is a free agent after this year, Juan Soto, Trea Turner, and Victor Robles all have far more value. Think of it this way; who do you think would require more in prospect capital to acquire; Mike Trout or Ronald Acuna? If the answer is Acuna, that would seem to make it pretty obvious that Acuna is more valuable.
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Other than much of what determines a player's value to his organization comes from his salary, age, and future seasons. If you throw those things out, the Twins should clearly trade Lewis, Kiriloff, Graterol, Larnach, Sano, Garver, and Berrios for Trout. After all, by MLB WAR, Trout is better than all 7 of those players this year combined.
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That's why I answered twice. If my name is Jeff Bezos, and I just bought a team with the sole goal of winning a world series, no matter the cost, Trout. In literally any other scenario, Acuna is a vastly superior option. Also, while I'm sure voters don't take contracts into account for MVP consideration, they probably should. Bellinger on a rookie contract is massively more valuable than Trout on his contract. In fact, if a metric that divided WAR by salary existed, Trout is probably not one of the 25 most valuable players ion the league by that measure--he might not even be top 50.
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In a vacuum? There is no player I wouldn't trade straight up for Trout. In the real world? I'd rather have Acuna. Acuna will cost the Braves a maximum of $123M for the next 9 years--a time period in which he will probably post more WAR than Trout who will have cost a minimum of $329M. What do you think you might be able to do with an average of $22.9M every year for the next 9 years?
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You could argue that in a macro sense, Mike Trout is the least valuable player in baseball. The Angels are currently 63-66; subtract Trout's 8.4 WAR, and that drops to 55-74. In other words, Mike Trout single-handedly drags the Angels to mediocrity, ensuring they don't get access to the premier talent at the top of the draft, or the larger bonus pool needed to get talent in the second and third round. The Angels can't enter a full-scale rebuild, dumping veterans to buttress the farm system, and throwing their own prospects out to see who sticks. Over the past 7 full seasons, the Angels are 584-550 (average of 83-79). Take out Mike Trout's 64.2 WAR, and they're now 520-614 (average of 74-88); to put that in perspective, over the same timeframe, the Twins have been 507-627 (average of 72-90). Further, while there is no other player the Angels could get to replace Mike Trout, his large salary (along with Pujols and Upton), prevent the Angels from getting immediate help. Put another way, Kepler and Polanco have combined for 7.4 WAR this year (88% of Trout), but at 25% of the cost, leaving the Twins $26M free to play with. Is Mike Trout the best player in baseball? Currently there is no doubt that he is, and perhaps the best ever. Is he the most valuable? At least in my opinion, no.
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I don't know that outrage is the right word here. I think annoyance is a better term. If that ball slips a little bit when the pitcher throws it, maybe it hits Kepler in the head. Maybe it hits him in the wrist, breaks a bone, and Kepler is done for the year. Neither of those are implausible, and both would be ridiculous, given that the beaning was in retaliation for a hitter attempting to hit. If the Rangers don't want the Twins to try up 8 in the 9th, then forfeit. Otherwise shut up and play the damn game.
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- michael pineda
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First 3 runs came against the starter. Next 3 came against two guys who rank 3rd and 4th by FIP and 1st and 4th by xFIP in the Atlanta pen. They also have 87 IP between them, so it's not like it's SSS (at least for relievers). I think it's quite likely the Braves would've handled their pitching largely the same regardless of how many runs they had.
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I put this loss on Rocco. When he sent Berrios out for the 6th inning despite Jose already having allowed 6 hits, 3 walks, and 5 runs, to me Rocco was signalling saving the bullpen was more important than winning the game. If Stashak is given a clean 6th, and Littell a clean 7th, perhaps this game is more like 7-6 or 8-6 going into the 8th.
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