BD57

Happy Birthday to the Site!!!! May the team experience such success ... And if not ... "free agency."

Having umpired games - granted not at a high level .... wrong. Umpires are taught to position themselves where they can see the ball into the glove. With that said, I'll freely admit that I've often wondered how some of the MLB umpires I've seen can see the low outside pitch - there are umpires who appear to be hiding behind the catcher more than they are getting themselves in position to see the ball all the way in. I can even understand why - take a few foul tips off a 96 mph fastball & "not getting hit" can move up on the priority list. But here's where I think "framing" is an issue. When the catcher moves, he distracts - sometimes his movement blocks the umpire's vision (one of the concerns about Joe Mauer when he started was how big he was, that he'd often block the umpire's vision). There's another point in there - the less the catcher moves around to catch pitches, the more "command" the pitcher appears to have. Umpires are more likely to call strikes for pitchers who hit their target - even when the target is off the plate.

Please tell me there are better "realistic" options ....

Half-empty. Willingham, Doumit, Revere & Plouffe had the best years of their careers; Joe Mauer, meanwhile, was merely "very, very good" ... and we still only improved to "mediocre" in terms of scoring runs. While you can win with the offense we put on the field - there are playoff teams which have scored a similar number of runs - you'd better pitch REALLY well. And we don't. The challenge for us is we have to home-grow enough of the "top-flight" talent that we can afford to add a piece here & there which pushes us over the top.

I'm not so concerned about DL management. It's important, yes, but I can't see how it's really cost us the past two years. My concern? We seem to have a lot of pitcher's arms blowing up & it seems we manage them all the same .... wait a while hoping to avoid surgery, doesn't work & now our guy's out for two years. Obviously, surgery's a big deal. Obviously, we'd like to avoid it. BUT ... if there was a decent chance of avoiding surgery, wouldn't we be somewhere closer to 50/50 on "turns out surgery wasn't necessary"?

Good article, good topic. IMO, the stats are interesting - how much they're telling us is open to interpretation. Butera's numbers are decent - which pitchers? What are Mauer's numbers with those pitchers? IMO, to really "get at it," we'd need to study the video of the stolen bases ... how big a jump are opposition base-stealers getting? If we studied enough tape, I bet we could find the "jump" dividing line - for the catcher to have a reasonable chance, the runner can't be more than X feet toward 2nd base when he receives the ball. Find out what the league average is and then compare your guy's number to that average ... My sense ... and I hate to say this ... our staff's been lousy the past two years at a lot of things, holding down the running game included. It has to get frustrating, especially during a long season of losing. IMO, this is an "off season" project. Get this year over, let Joe rest & recuperate, then - when the aggravation begins to wear off and enthusiasm is renewed, go to work on those fundamentals. Oh, and tell Joe "We're busting the pitchers' asses about getting the ball off too."

"Third .... it's not like you've been very good at evaluating pitching talent lately ..."

Things like this are the biggest "downside" of the DH. If Oswalt had to hit, we could drill him in retaliation.

iPhone app works well for audio, not bad for video (if signal strength is decent).

So disagree with the idea that the 2006 team "choked." Mid season, our playoff starters were going to be Santana, Radke & Liriano. THAT would've been a powerful threesome. By playoff time, two of them were gone - Liriano was out completely, Radke's arm had fallen off. Everything was premised upon Johan winning game #1 - and he got outpitched. No shame or "choke" in that.

No. The Red Wings are trying to get to the playoffs. Same reason we can't call up Arcia or Hicks now either. This is the reason but its maddening that the Twins are basing THEIR roster off of what is best for ROC/New Brit/ Prob means another yr in AA for Hicks/Arcia....ala Benson/Parm as we will need to sign more Carson/Matt Tolbert types to make Roc happy Seriously? This Twins team is going NOWHERE. Gutting an affiliate that's in a playoff race? Might as well tell them you don't give a darn about their organization, fans, etc. It doesn't work that way. I'd rather our guys play in a pennant race - even if it's a minor league pennant race - than come up to play out the string here. Don't want to start the clock running on anyone unnecessarily, would rather have a Chris Parmalee get a chance to carry a team into the playoffs. Success breeds success at the next level. We could use some of that.

Greg Gagne hit .225 in 114 games his first year playing any significant amount. Granted, he was 23 at the time .... if that really means anything. Dozier has done some good things and has screwed up some things. He has obvious weaknesses - issue isn't "how old are you?", it's "will you learn & improve?" Not saying he's going to become a "average or better MLB SS" .... I am saying I think it's a mistake to write hom off.

"Global Warming" .... that's the answer to everything, right? Seriously, though - - - it's the same ballpark. Unless MLB is juicing the baseballs - about which I've not heard a peep all year - the variation is statistical noise.

The start's important. As I understand it, MLB is going to start us out on the road every year to avoid cold weather; past couple of years, we've started with the AL East (yes?). As long as that continues, sucking early is going to bury us year after year - - - the Central isn't THAT weak. This team is far more entertaining than last year - - - - except when they play the Rays (ugh!).

What better offer for Liriano did Ryan not take? Seriously - I'd like to know .... Pre-injury, Liriano was a world beater, someone who had "future Cy Young candidate" written all over him. Post injury? #1, He's not one of those pitchers who "got better" after TJ surgery. Velocity down, not nearly as dominating stuff. #2, Wildly inconsistent. Sometimes good, sometimes "barf bag" bad. And there's really been no way of knowing which one you'd see. #3, too often, emotionally fragile. Dominate for an inning, then unravels & couldn't get near the plate with a grenade. The Twins were not going to invest the kind of money that would be required to get him to give up exploring free agency. There's no way, based on past performance, that they could justify that. Which meant he was going to explore the free agent market. Where the Twins could not afford to risk spending that kind of money on him & have it turn out badly. Which means Liriano was gone at the end of this year, no matter what. So the only real issue was "trade him for something" or "keep him around to play out the string for a team which (a) isn't going anywhere this year; and ( won't have him on its roster next year." When you're not in contention, trading a guy who doesn't figure in your plans for the future makes sense. If nothing else, it forces you to put someone else out there in his place ... you get to judge what you have going forward based on more than what they've done in the minors, etc. I wish Francisco had pitched so well last year that the FO would've felt comfortable extending him. I wish he'd pitched so well this year that we'd either extend him or get a haul for him at the deadline. Bottom line - neither of those things happened. No one was beating down our door trying to get him - perhaps in part because we had no good reason to keep him.

Finish out the year and then evaluate. Morneau's been really good for the last month. Maybe it's just a 'good run' ... maybe it's a "return to form."

Can't solve this problem with one big FA starting pitcher (IMO), which makes it unlikely that Ryan will want to go that route - chews up too much money on a roster with too many other holes. We're more competitive with the starting 8 this year than last - which isn't hard to do - but we're not "contender class" there yet (IMO). What we'd need (a) Mauer stays healthy and productive; ( Willingham continues to produce; © Morneau returns to pre-concussion form; (d) Plouffe proves he can do it consistently; (e) middle infield becomes more useful offensively. Biggest issue is starting rotation. We don't have reason to be comfortable with any of them - getting more so with Diamond, start by start, but I want to see more. IMO, the plan is to rebuild the farm system & use FA to add complimentary / "last" pieces. We aren't close to needing "last pieces" yet.

Any club contending would find a way to get Mauer & Willingham's bats in the order pretty much every day. After that - - - not so much. Span would probably be in the lineup for the majority of contenders. Morneau has been that kind of player in the past, but he's a couple of years removed from the last stretch when he was that guy. We don't have a great offensive club - it's better than last year, which (IMO) is why we see it more positively .... but "better than last year" really isn't saying that much. And the starting rotation ... yeech .... as well as Diamond has pitched, he's not a #1 - but that's who he's been for us this year. Who do we have that you'd want to give the ball for a playoff game? This isn't a good team. It can't be fixed by adding a piece or two.

Good read - thanks!!! Given the difficulties of the last two years, it's obvious we have to rebuild from within. Nice to hear there are some youngsters coming up who have promise. As far as Hicks progress - - - - I have no problem with a 22 year old kid being in AA. Baseball is not an easy game to play well.

If Diamond turns out to be a 3.50 ERA innings eater, we have a "good" #2. What we don't want is to start next year with our #1 being a 4.00+ ERA, 4 SO/9 "innings eater."

Always amusing to see how many people think they should have a say in spending other people's money ..... ya'll have a future in politics.

To be fair - a quibble, not a criticism really - the pitches in the first two videos have a lot to do with the swing we're seeing. The top 2010 video is a fastball down the middle of the plate. The top "current" video is a ball down & away, well out of the strike zone. It'd be interesting to see the numbers re: pitches seen per at bat against lefties. My guess - no number crunching here - is Morneau is seeing fewer pitches now. Perhaps because lefties aren't pitching him as carefully now, given his struggles; perhaps because Justin's offering at more balls out of the strike zone now.

Would have to have an extension at a reasonable number. Don't think it's really an option, though - I can't see why Greinke would pass up on seeing what's out there as a FA. And I think he could find a lot of places where things would be "small enough" for him to be happy.

It managed to sink the Twins again ...

Most frustrating sequence (for me): Dozier on 1st, Butera pops up the sacrifice bunt (one out), followed immediately by Dozier getting picked off (2 outs), followed by Carroll single. Do your jobs & Carroll drives Dozier in ... maybe we win, maybe we're still playing. Would like to see some of this fundamentally sound "Twins baseball" we keep hearing about. ....