theBOMisthebomb

Yeah, RD is still the worst ever reliever in Twins history. The 2026 bullpen version might be the worst Twins bullpen ever. That's a different conversation, though.

I had a feeling this detail would get the focus of any replies. Prior to 2002/2003, WAR (Wins Above Replacement) calculates defense for previous eras by using historical play-by-play data, primarily from Retrosheet, to determine how many runs a fielder saves compared to an average fielder. Before modern tracking, this "TotalZone" method uses data points like outs made and hits allowed, adjusted for position and park, to estimate defensive performance over an entire season. (Full disclosure: info taken from a Google search.)

Adam Dunn had 462 home runs in his career yet only accumulated 18.0 bWAR. That's a lot of baseballs hit over the fence for only 18 WAR regardless of how poor of a fielder he might have been. For Eddie Rosario's 2019 season, fWAR had 1.2 and bWAR had 1.6 with Eddie hitting 32 bombas that magical season. Can you at least see some value in a finite number of WAR each season being allocated to the league and assigned to the players? Or that WAR can be used to assign an (approximate) overall value to a player's worth? I'm not here to defend the WAR statistic, I'm just curious. I get that there's some variation in how different places calculate WAR and it's not a perfect stat. I do like the ability to compare players from different eras using the WAR statistic.

I don't know what Brenda said means, it made me laugh though.

They are spreading the wealth and truly bullpen by committee as per MLB.com: Eric Orze recorded the Twins’ fifth save on Thursday, and every one of them has gone to a different pitcher – including one in each of the four wins against Detroit. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the third time since saves became an official statistic in 1969 that a team has won four straight games in a single series with four different pitchers getting a save.

This recap seems to be what we might see for the majority of 2026 weekly summaries. You might just be able to cut and paste and fill in the relevant names for the next 24 weeks.

2036 if we are fortunate.

At least the Twins took Acton to address their bullpen woes.

I had the (mis)fortune of attending in person last night at CHS Field. I arrived late so missed the 1st inning debacle. Then, I left once the 6th inning down slide began so I missed most of the really brutal stuff. Regardless, it was a cold, miserable night. The hoodie giveaway was the saving grace.

The baserunning blunders were disturbing and must get cleaned up quickly. The ABS challenge system seems clunky and a poor system after the first weekend of games. Either use the ABS full time or don't use it. This hybrid system is awful and the manufactured "strategy" it brings is maddening.

He was the extra playoff ump and basically his only job being the fair/foul calls. The ball hit the glove AND still landed fair. Worst call ever. Why no reaction from Mauer? Especially, why no argument from Gardy? Perhaps another ump could have overruled the obviously blown call. I think that was possible before replay.

That's a reasonable take although I just have a difficult time accepting any baseball tournament that is single elimination in the championship rounds.

I am not a WBC fan, so this is great news.

The numbers say he's been a slightly above average starter type of player. 109 OPS+, .255 career BA, 4.0 bWAR accumulated over 258 games. Everyone says he's a neat guy, although he's maybe not profiling as a clubhouse leader with some of his comments. I hadn't ever really thought of this until now - if Lewis can improve a notch or two and have a Byron Buxton type career numbers wise that would be a slight improvement and not a terrible outcome for his career. Of course, more games played consistently over many seasons is the key for Royce.

Spring training just started. It's alright to be optimistic.