Alex
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Everything posted by Alex
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Article: Twins Must Shake Loser Mentality This Offseason
Alex replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I know. And it's so nice because of all the work he put in last year he doesn't have to do as much work this offseason. Oh. -
Article: Twins Must Shake Loser Mentality This Offseason
Alex replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
The more I read from the manager and front office, the more I'd like to see a complete overhaul from the top down, not just limited to managers. Organizational philosophies come across as antiquated and the FO doesn't seem to see a reason to try to change it. -
Article: Twins Must Shake Loser Mentality This Offseason
Alex replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I think you could make an argument that the Twins are in worse shape than the Indians, especially in terms of pitching. -
With each interview I get more and more disappointed about how this organization is being run. In the last week, Mike Bernadino quoted Ryan as saying he's not a velocity guy and that he also held some disdain for win expectation. I actually don't mind the latter as the point was about the team outplayed the expectation by three, when that small of a number is really not indicative of anything, but tha wasn't how Ryan put it and it seemed to be another time the Twins scoffed at ideas outside of their traditional ones.
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If pitching is better than the ERA stat indicates, why did we carry 13 pitchers?
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Gotcha. My point was that Gomez believed he was beaned on purpose, which is an acceptable unwritten rule under certain circumstances in baseball, no?
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I'm giving Gomez a pass? Not at all. I think he acted like an idiot (see my previous post where I said I've got no problem with McCann and whoever else feeling like they can yap at him for being an idiot -- it was the blocking of the plate that was over the top). One person acting like an idiot does not require people to react to it in the same way.
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I think that's debatable,especially when it' those unwritten rules that got Gomez pissed off in the first place. Also, consider that the enforcement of the behavior was far more of a spectacle than the behavior itself.
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You get paid in the MLB for games you're suspended?
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Article: Catching No Longer an Option For Mauer
Alex replied to Nick Nelson's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
Not to mention that his money is moot since it's not keeping the Twins from spending. -
I have a tough time with people making McCann into a hero and with the fact that he's the clear reason the benches ultimately cleared and likely didn't receive more than a slap on the wrist. I've got no problem with him telling Gomez to run or even jawing with him the whole time but once he stood on the baseline, the outcome was inevitable. McCann is not the baseball etiquette police and the fact that he said he was going to step out of the baseline after he had his say really doesn't matter -- he's not entitled to that. I don't really see anyone's actions here as admirable, just a big bunch adult men who were acting like boys.
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Article: The Turnaround in Cleveland
Alex replied to Seth Stohs's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
I was really surprised that only two players on their roster were high picks from within the organization. -
I assume Gardy argued it with the ump?
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Article: Liam Hendriks Deserves Another Chance
Alex replied to Cody Christie's topic in Twins Daily Front Page News
There's a difference between these two and Hendriks -- Swarzak is 28, Duensing is 30. (Heck, Kyle Gibson is older than he is) .Hendriks is 24 has the equivalent of one full major league season under his belt. I'm not saying he'll be an ace, but I think it's a bit early to cut ties. I'd like to see if he can figure it out next year. -
That's a good point, and when the alternative was Doumit, that's a decent switch.
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Look at the article I posted. There were some good examples there
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I don't think that's true at all, especially as left-handed hitters in general tend to have more extreme splits than righties (I think I got that overall information from Tom Tango's book, but can't remember exactly). An example (all in good fun): Jamey Carroll had Morneau by almost 100 points of OPS against LHP this season and for his career has a higher OPS against LHP. That's a player that was considered on of the best hitters in the Twins history and you could have made an argument for platooning him with a utility infielder. And another fun note: Despite the fact that Morneau was terrible against lefties (hadn't put up an OPS over .600 for multiple years against them) he was still in the heart of the lineup against them. (All that said, Morneau was pretty good against lefties for the peak of his career).
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You are correct. In his case I had flipped the numbers. My apologies, but it definitely adds to the point that the opportunity was there and wasn't used and probably should have been.
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A rather comprehensive article on platooning. Need to add O, how about a platoon? - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN Among the subjects is "cross-position platooning" which we've talked about here and that the author notes is a more realistic option the way rosters work. They also look at specific examples. Surprising to me was that while I knew platooning wasn't a new idea I am amazed it went back to the deadball era (though it makes sense after seeing that fact).
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That's fine if you want to focus on that, but there are varying levels of discussion here and forcing the definition of this in such narrow terms it becomes pointless to continue.
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I agree that that would be useful, but the Twins also don't seem to construct their roster based on this idea even in the loosest terms which I tried to point out in one of my posts (options 1 and 2 on the depth chart were same-handed hitters) and that affects the numbers as well.
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First, as many have pointed out, we disagree about the talent level. You get the most out of platooning when you have struggling hitters who are only effective from one side of the plate. Platooning for hitters like Mauer or Willingham has very minimal effect. Also, as people have mentioned ad nauseum, we can certainly talk "rigid" platoons where two players are dedicated to one lineup and position spot, but there are other ways. For example, yet again, consider the Twins 2B, SS, and 3B. All three were better against LHP and two crushed it (Dozier and Plouffe) but were significantly worse against RHP. The Twins bench players for them? All better against LHP. This meant the Twins put 1500+ PA against RHP from this collection of infielders that were pretty awful (below .700 OPS) and had no answer for it (bench infielders all terrible against RHP). If the Twins had a player who could hit RHP you then have the option of either platooning straight up for one of them (Plouffe probably since his defense is lacking) or rotate between all of them. Either way you now lower that number of weak PAs against RHP to 1000. It's the same result in the end, people are just getting caught up in the semantics and some sort of rigid definition.
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No one is saying hold steady and platoons are all you need. The two ideas are not mutually exclusive, so I'd request that we not turn this into an either or argument. If the Twins go out and get an .800 OPS outfielder, that would be great, especially if he can hit both sides. Now we only need to fill in six more spots in the lineupwith better hitters as well.... The Twins are in a position where a platoon or two will be an effective way to improve the overall lineup because they aren't going to completely remake the lineup with free agents.
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Personally, I think it would be fair if the next pitcher to K Gomez (or players that take an especially long trot or taunt the pitcher) did a Jose Valverde "I just got a save" impression, perhaps including a full team celebration.
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Sale is 35th in run support with just over three while Max Scherzer is third like over a billion p/game (okay 5.5). Also, I like how Gardy used strategy to speed up that last inning so everyone can get home a little earlier.