whydidnt

Agreed, it's not a great way to judge a team, but it's also not completely meaningless, just really insignificant. I couldn't find recent numbers, but studies in the 90s showed that runners on 1st usually score between 25-30% of the time (depending on the year in question). I'm taking the 25% number because it's easier for my purposes...but if you hit into 1 DP a game you are essentially preventing your team from scoring 40 runs over the course of a season. That sounds like quite a few runs to me, of course it matters a lot more if you only scored 600 times in the season to begin with than if you scored 800, and it matters more if you are in a very tight playoff race where 1 win matters. Of course, every other team is also hitting into double plays, even in a bad year you probably won't hit into 40-60 more than any opponent, meaning the actual "cost" in runs compared to the best in the league is probably no more than 10-15 runs over the course of the season. That really doesn't seem like it's a number that would have much of an impact on too many teams, especially when you consider a lot of those double plays occur in games you lose by more than a couple runs anyway. HOWEVER, if you're the Minnesota Twins and you seem to end up playing in game 163 more often than most mortal teams, that 1 game you lost because you hit into so many dang double plays could matter. But, it's real slim odds of that being the case.

Actually the point wasn't that he WAS being underutilized. The point was that it's a bad move to bench him in favor Thomas. Keep in mind this was Monday morning, at that point we had 1 whole game on record with Thomas on the roster, you are among those that have tried to twist this into a discussion on Gardy's utilization of Doumit to this point. My point was that he has a known concern about putting his backup C's in the lineup and that it would be a bad move to take Doumit's bat out of this lineup in favor of Thomas. We can argue all day about whether my presumption that Doumit is better than Thomas for the lineup is right or wrong. However, since the only arguments any have posted disagreeing with this premise have limited it to a 10 game stretch of this season tells me the premise itself has merit: Gardy is a worrywart about his Catcher. It's a fact, he's admitted it to be the case, and I think it's a mistake on his part to be so concerned about it, and apparently so do some in the national media.

Mattsaari may have better details about the meaning of this, but you should pay attention to your own quotes. These are the OBP and GDP stats for the Twins over the last 7 years (your selection criteria not mine) and using AL only since that's where they play.Yr. OBP GDP 2011 13 10 2010 4 1 2009 5 1 2008 9 7 2007 10 3 2006 5 3 2005 10 1 So the Twins have let the league in GIDP 3 of the last 7 years, they have been in the top 1/2 of the league in all but 1 of those years, and have only been in the top of the league in OBP 3 of the 7 years, NEVER finishing higher in OBP than GIDP in the entire time. There maybe some correlation between OBP and GDP, but it's not as clear as implied. The Twins are clearly DP machines when it comes to offense, any argument otherwise just proves you're a shill for the Twins. There is a lot more that goes into scoring runs than OBP an GDP though. I think it's save to say getting on base is a lot more important than not grounding into DPs as far as that goes. Further to mattsaari's point though: Using guys like Gonzalez and Cabrera aren't great comparables, the last I checked we didn't have anyone with their power potential on our team, their value is obviously enhanced by their power. I'm not statisically inclined enough to be able to dig deep enough to see if your numbers have any meaning since the number of runs the Twins scored would have to be compared to the league average to see if the GIDP had any impact on production. I think the fact that they typically hit into more DPs than average, but aren't on base more than average tends to support your assumption though. Enough number crunching for me for now, though, the game's about to start!

Well, I think Revere is an outfielder in a second baseman's body. I think he could turn out to be a productive Major League Outfielder, but I still think his best fit is a 4th OF. If he stays in Twins organization we may never know, though. Where's he going to play. Willingham is signed for 3 years, Span is entrenched in CF and they clearly don't see him as a RF, the DH position is best served by guys like Morneau, Doumit, Mauer, etc. I will say this, I think it's good for teams to have guys that play with Revere's enthusiasm in the lineup on a frequent basis. How can you watch him go all out like he does and not want to do the same?

I don't think it was a great move from the standpoint that there are a few guys on the roster that I think are worse than Hughes, and i'm looking right at you Sean Burroughs and Jeff Gray. I also think it's unlikely that Hughes will ever amount to much as a major leaguer and losing him isn't the end of the world. However, it sure wouldn't surprise me if he ends up like Garrett Jones and pops up somewhere and belts 25 HRs out of the blue before fading into the background again.

I'm going to be contrarian on the offense. Despite a few outbursts, the offense this year has been pathetic. There is only 1 team in the league that has scored fewer runs than the Twins so far, the budget strapped A's. They are still extremely vulnerable to lefties, as they have been it seems forever. Isn't it strange to see lefties that have no pedigree coming into high leverage situations over and over again, like you've seen against the Twins (Ross, Rapada, Boone)? The Twins need another guy that can hit lefties in the top part of their order to keep teams honest. At least Gardenhire FINALLY put a RH between Mauer and Morneau, it's been good to watch the Yankees burn through a couple guys early as they deal with that, something not too common against the Twins over the few years.

I expected him to be an offensive upgrade over Cuddyer, but a 12 game hitting streak? Not what any of us saw, I don't think!

Here's your small sample size stat of the day. Since we acquired Thomas, 4 games ago, Thomas has played in all 4 games, starting 3, Doumit has played and started in 2. Notice a trend? Doumit has not set the world on fire with his bat, but neither has Thomas. Doumit has a track record of being a good offensive player at the major league level, Thomas does not. It's too bad Thomas is a LH hitter, he would make decent platoon partner with Doumit if he could mash lefties. The good in a small sample: Twins over the last 4 games: 2-2, before that 2-6, so that's a positive trend.

I think you're right that the starting rotation is weak and they should address it from a very strong (as of now) free agent class. However, Terry Ryan indicated before the season began that he thought our starters were the strength of the team. If he felt that way going into 2012, I'm not sure he'll change his mind going into 2013. I hope I'm wrong, but how the Twins evaluate pitchers is pretty different than how many of us do and it really wouldn't be surprising to see them go bottom fishing for another guy like Marquis again. One thing to keep in mind that the fact there are going to be a large number of FAs mean that those teams are also going to have rotation spots to fill, so the market might not be as great as we think since there will also be more buyers.

Depends on how Blackburn feels, if he has any doubt about being able to go next time, I'd DL him. If not, then DFA Gray, I don't think anyone will claim him and that gives them a spot to work with for Bowden . I don't really want to see them carry just 3 bench players.

It appears Pitchers in low A don't really want to throw to Sano. I'm hoping the Twins move him up before too long so he can face some pitchers that are probably not as intimidated. He has the talent to move fast, and I think he'll get better as he faces better competition.

I disagree, the profit is what they take out of the organization AFTER paying the bills. That's the definition of profit. They don't "need" to budget to make money to pay the owners as the owner will get paid when they sell the organization. Like I said if you think MLB franchises should be run like a regular business, then I think we need to take away their anti-trust exemption and tax-payer funded stadiums. The Pohlads are rich enough to lose 25 million a year for Ten years and they would still be Billionaires (yes with a , and if they sold the team they would get that $250 million back in a heart beat.

One other thing, I know a lot of you feel it's a "business" and they need to run it like a business. Let's not forget that many, many big businesses do NOT pay dividends to their owners each year. Despite Apple's huge incomes, it's only this year that they are paying the owners. Lots of owners have made lots of money on Apple stock by buying and selling it without every taking any income out of the organization. Sports franchises are unique in that they receive anti-trust exemptions, subsidized stadiums, etc. They almost always greatly appreciate in value regardless of what the owner does, or the economy...see the LA Dodgers as an example. There is no reasonable "business" reason for them to budget to make money, they are making a great ROI just on the teams increased value.

This is certainly true, but doesn't cutting the payroll mean you'll probably stay the same or get worse, and in that situation lose even more fans? Based upon this hypothesis we'll eventually see a payroll back around 60 million and only have about 10,000 fans a game. It's the late nineties all over again! Which comes first the chicken or the egg? One other point, I know the Pohlads have and will always manage this like a business, but let's not forget they are one of the richest owners in all of sports. They certainly "could" spend enough to lose money without any real impact on their personal wealth or long term goals. Heck I'd be happy if they just put all of their revenue back into the organization, but they don't even do that. When you consider the ROI they already have banked from the teams increase in value, they are simply taking advantage of a willing fan base.

Very scary. What is going on with these Twins pitchers? We absolutely need a healthy Perkins in the pen this year. Was I the only one nervous last night when we saw Burton warming up in the 8th?

Yes, it's almost shameful he's not in the HOF at this point. Whether you like what he forced to happen or not, he is a huge figure that shaped the game as it is today.

I agree that this is the case, but I don't think the Twins view either of those guys as future MLB players, so one would certainly sit if Parmalee is sent down. He's played decent, but I tend to agree that perhaps a few more at bats at AAA would be better for him than playing 2-3 times a week for the Twins. And the option thing comes in to play too. Unless the Twins are ready to bring up Dozier, and I don't think they are, they need to keep Plouffe as a BU shortstop, as lousy as he has been in the field so far. I think we can count on Carroll needing more time off as the season wears on, and someone is going to have to fill in for him.

Have to agree with the premise of the article. It's not as easy as it looks, and with the deals in place most of the guys are either employees of the Twins, or the Twins have a say in who's hired and fired. That's my only frustration as sometimes it seems Dick and Bert are more cheerleaders than announcers. I know that's what they are paid to do, but it still is frustrating when you see obvious flaws in the game and they gloss it over. Of course, if they criticized the team like some of us do (myself included), they probably wouldn't have jobs long.

Definitely a nice win! Fun to watch when they play like that. Hoping they have some more tricks today vs. the big lefty.

I wasn't trying to imply that in the 10 games this year Gardy had under utilized-Doumit. Come on guys, talk about a small sample size! Amazing how people that complain regularly about small sample size use it to rush to Gardy's defense after 10 games. The jury is out this year, and perhaps Gardenhire has gotten over his fixation, but you can't deny he has publicly stated many times his concerns about putting his backup C in the lineup. How many times over the last few years did many of us ask why Mauer wasn't the DH on days he had off from Catching? Why wasn't he in the lineup? Gardy has a long history, that includes direct statements of fear of losing his C in a game. If some of you want to deny that, then we'll just have to agree to disagree. We will see what happens going forward, but I still think that either a 3rd C is called up to replace Parmalee or Doumit starts losing playing time to Thomas. I hope not, and I hope Gardenhire really has moved on from this, but history indicates one thing. Finally, it's possible to criticize certain aspects or decisions a manager makes without thinking he's an awful manager and that he should be fired. It doesn't have to be an either or thing. I would argue that questioning manger's decisions is a huge part of baseball, the slow pace leads to lots of time between at bats, pitcher changes etc. to debate these items. I think it's great we have divergent views on this, even though I don't agree with all of them, it's what makes forums such as this relevant.

Sounds like a cherry picked stat to me. How come we only count the top 5 on the plus side, but the entire bottom half for the negative. It sounds to me like 7 of the last 10 World Series winners finished in the top half of the league in HRs. Sounds like hitting more HRs than the competition is pretty important.

Gardenhire is the one who brings it up regularly, as reported in the local papers. If you want to call me out, at least make it for something he hasn't been quoted as saying over and over. Let's not forget, Thomas has been on the roster for a total of 2 days. But, hey don't let me get in the way of a good old fashioned irrational, the Twins are never wrong argument.... I'm expecting an announcement that Parmalee has been sent down and a 3rd C called up sometime within the next few days if Mourneau proves he can handle the field. Just hoping it's not Butera.

You certainly are accurate, but sorry my expectations were set higher when we subsidized a new stadium. We were told the new stadium would help us compete with the best teams in the league for a change. Here it is not even into the 3rd year of the stadium yet, and everyone is just hoping to win 1 of three games against the top teams! I am soooo tired of low expectations for this team. When do we get to expect them to win? We should expect to be a team to considered in the same light as Texas, California, New York and Tampa, BTW of those 4 teams mentioned only 50% of them have payrolls significantly more than the Twins. Why should we be happy with a 2-7 start just because the schedule is "tough".

I actually think Willingham should be batting 3rd, with Mauer 2nd. Mauer is much better suited at this point to bat 2nd and that would break up the lefties. It was pretty interesting seeing Ron Washington exploit the Twins lineup with a rookie left handed RP this weekend. Moving guys up or down in the order generally has little impact on your teams offense...it's certainly less important than "who" you have in the lineup, but in these days of specialization why not split the lefties up forcing the opposing manager to at least think about how he's going to manage the bullpen.

I like your premise, but the problem with Thomas is the guys he'll replace in the lineup (Doumit/Plouffe) probably have more power potential and better overall offensive potential. The problem is the Twins lack power from all SS, 2B, 3B, C and CF. They need to find someone at a couple of those positions that can at least put a charge in one every couple weeks. Mauer should be able to help, but until he figures out how to do more than ground to 2nd... and Valencia is simply not a power hitter, at least as far as 3B goes. Add-in Gardenhire's fetish to bat a middle IF 2nd regardless of ability and you usually end up with 3,4 or 5 guys in a row that don't scare the pitcher.