Tom Froemming

I figured it out. It's bad tailormetrics. Twins lost because of their new jerseys.

That was horrendous. I am 100% pro robotic strike zone, but until we get that, framing is most definitely a skill. It doesn't show up on every pitch, umpires definitely just make bad calls on their own, but there are things catchers can do to help or hurt themselves.

This looks bad?

Here's a look back at Garver's first game catching Odorizzi last year. I'd say it's a pretty significant improvement, and it's not like I'm cherry picking his worst game or anything. That's my biggest concern with Garver. He doesn't need to be some strike-stealing wizard back, he just needs to get the pitches in the zone called strikes.Second, you can't really expect to get calls on the black. Here's every called ball Odorizzi threw last season. There are so many balls called on the black that you can't even barely see the black anymore. When I look at the info from today, I see two balls down at the bottom that were in the zone, but I also see three called strikes that were definitely outside the zone. Everything else, to me, looks like it's on the black. Some he got strikes, others he got balls. But this is most definitely all subjective, so certainly take a look and form your own opinion.

Garver doesn't need to be a magician. With his offensive potential, he merely needs to be adequate, which he was not last season. Just for reference, here's how things looked for Cleveland:

Twins pitching. Strikeouts. This appears to be a thing now. Temperature at first pitch was 34 degrees but there was no cooling off Jake Odorizzi. He struck out a career-high 11 batters over six innings. This is the second time since 1893 a team has opened the season with back-to-back double-digit strikeout games from its starting pitchers.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Odorizzi: 6.0 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, 62.0% strikes Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: None WPA of 0.1 or higher: Odorizzi .235, Buxton .206, Rogers .111 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Kepler -.237, Parker -.289, Cron -.472 Download attachment: WinChart330.png Despite Odorizzi’s excellent effort, the Twins entered the bottom of the ninth trailing 2-1. Byron Buxton lifted what appeared to be a routine flyball out to lead off the inning, but it was misplayed and he ended up at second base. Max Kepler struck out and Jorge Polanco lined out to center field, allowing Buxton to advance to third base. Nelson Cruz was intentionally walked to bring up Eddie Rosario, creating a left-on-left matchup with Brand Hand on the mound. He worked a walk to load the bases, bringing C.J. Cron to the box. Cron took a massive hack at the first pitch, a fastball over the heart of the plate, but whiffed. He popped the next pitch up to short right. Game over. On Odorizzi Through the first three innings, Odorizzi was completely overwhelming Cleveland. He had a no-hitter going and six strikeouts already in his ledger. With two outs in the fourth inning, Odorizzi fell behind 3-0 to Hanley Ramirez, missed his spot and left a ball right over the middle of the plate. Ramirez did exactly what you’d expect a major league hitter to do, depositing the ball 416 feet away in the seats. Last season, there were plenty of instances where Odorizzi got off to a brilliant start but ended up watching it all fall to pieces as his outing progressed. Not today. Odorizzi was at 80 pitches through the first five innings, but he went out for the sixth, which also was the start of his third trip through the Cleveland lineup. That’s spelled doom for him in the past, but he got a bunt popout, then struck out both Jose Ramirez and Tyler Naquin to end his outing with an exclamation point. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen330.png Next Three Games Sun vs. CLE, 1:10 pm CT Tue at KC, 7:15 pm CT Wed at KC, 12:15 pm CT Last Game MIN 2, CLE 0: Berrios Dominates, Sets Twins Opening Day Record for Ks More from Twins Daily Twins Daily 2019 Season Preview: The Minefield What to Expect From the Twins Newcomers to Start the Season Beginner's Luck? How Rookie Managers Typically Perform Click here to view the article

Nope.

My thoughts and some good visuals in regard to Castro's performance yesterday:

Jose Berrios made his first Opening Day start for the Twins this afternoon. It most certainly won’t be his last. The Twins’ ace set a new team record for Opening Day by striking out 10 Cleveland batters. He got 18 swinging strikes on 96 pitches and allowed just three batters to reach base in 7 2/3 innings pitched.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Berrios: 7.2 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 10 K, 69.8% strikes Home Runs: None Multi-Hit Games: None WPA of 0.1 or higher: Berrios .497, Gonzalez .253, Rogers .115 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Kepler -.102, Rosario -.109 Download attachment: Chart328.png It’s worth mentioning that this was a reunion of Berrios and catcher Jason Castro. The veteran catcher called for an unusual amount of off-speed pitches from Jose today. Berrios threw 37 curveballs (38.5 percent) and 12 changeups (12.5 percent). Last season, he only went to those offerings 30.4 and 9.1 percent of the time, respectively. It turned out to be a very good game plan. This was the first time the Twins shutout their opponent on Opening Day since 1970. Click here to view the article

I'm sure Twins fans will be very understanding if Cron gets off to his usual slow start ...

This is pretty amazing if you think about it. It seems like the trend is these brand spankin' new managers are being given the keys to some really solid teams, some with even World Series aspirations, while rebuilding clubs are the ones scooping up the retreads. An interesting development.

My guesses: How will the bullpen be used? Blake Parker will be used as a traditional closer. I just think that would make a lot of sense. Can the young core take the next step? Yes, to some degree. Rosie will be Rosie, Berrios will find consistency, Max will find better luck and Polanco will keep doing his thing. Buxton and Sano won't ascend to superstar status but they'll be solid. With Joe Mauer gone, who takes over as the face of the franchise? Eddie Rosario. Do the Twins have enough pitching? Nope.

It's almost all gone! Highs have been in the 50s most days and it even hit 64 here yesterday.

I followed Rocco's playing career from afar even back when he was just a prospect, but I didn't know anything about his personality. I was thinking maybe we'd be getting a Kapler type. He's a little, I dunno, high strung? He's what my wife would call extra. Instead, Baldelli seems like a super chill dude. I think it's beneficial to have a steady hand in the dugout to help keep things even over the long season. The guy he's replacing seemed pretty even-keeled too, I guess.

Their rotation is incredible. Their top four starters area all being drafted above Jose Berrios on average in fantasy leagues this year. Their fifth guy, Shane Bieber, had a 3.23 FIP and 5.13 K:BB ratio in his rookie season last year (Berrios was at 3.90 FIP and 3.31 K:BB). The rumors that they were shopping a starter this offseason makes me hope that if they stumble to a slow start the front office/ownership will be anxious to sell. Otherwise, it's tough to see a team with this good of a staff win fewer than 90 games in this division. Their lineup isn't great, but there's a lot of bad pitching in the AL Central I think they'll squeeze out enough runs more often than not.

This team is dangerous. Not saying they're going to compete, their record will be bad, but I'd bet there will be points at which they'll be a very difficult team to deal with. Colome/Herrera/Nate Jones/Jace Fry could be a very solid bullpen. The rotation is projected to be very bad, but it's young so who knows? If Moncada and Eloy Jimenez hit the ground running they could be a huge pain to deal with at points. Still difficult to see them maintain any kind of sustained success.

We are inching closer to Opening Day 2019 and, don’t look now but, current forecasts make it seem plausible that the Twins will be hosting the defending American League (AL) Central Division Champions Cleveland Indians on March 28 at 3:10 pm. The Thursday, Saturday, Sunday series will be the only three games of the homestand before they start their first road trip traveling to Kansas City, the new look Phillies, and the Mets of New York.April (12 home, 13 away, 5 off) Outside of three games versus the Phillies and five games versus the Houston Astros, the Twins have the opportunity to take advantage of an easy schedule in the first full month of the season. This includes a seven-game homestand versus the Tigers and Blue Jays in mid-April and six total games versus the Baltimore Orioles. May (13 home, 15 away, 3 off) Things get a little tougher in May as their first five games are versus Houston at home (2) and New York Yankees at Yankees Stadium (3). They will face a solid, but not great Angels (6) and Rays (2) team eight times throughout the month and will host the Brewers for two games toward the end of the month. The Blue Jays, Tigers, Mariners, and White Sox are also on the docket and will all be series the Twins really need to win. June (12 home, 15 away, 3 off) The third month of the year could be a pivotal month for the Twins as 16 of their 27 games come against division foes, and only three of those games are versus the Indians in Cleveland. That said, five games against the Rays and three games against the Red Sox at Target Field will be a challenge and, specifically with the Rays, could have Wild Card tiebreaker implications down the road. July (12 home, 12 away, 7 off) July will be another important month for the Twins as 13 of their games will be against teams who will likely be in the thick of the developing playoff race. Ten of those aforementioned games will be immediately following the All-Star break in Cleveland for three games and hosting the A’s and Yankees for seven games. If they struggle during that stretch, they then have the opportunity of playing the White Sox and Marlins to end the month. August (16 home, 12 away, 3 off) The “dog days of summer” will be something the Twins look forward to this season...kind of (see below). They have a tough 10 game homestand where they will face the Braves (3) and Indians (4) followed by two games in Milwaukee. Outside of those nine games, the other 19 will be against teams who are currently projected for 74 wins or less according to Vegas. September (13 home, 14 away, 3 off) Uf-dah (why does my Grammarly recognize this as a word?). In the season's final month, the Twins will have twelve consecutive games against teams who will likely be battling for a playoff spot, including six critical games against the Indians. The other six will be at Fenway and versus the Nationals at home. Unfortunately, these games occur earlier in the month which makes it less likely these teams have clinched anything at that point. This is by far the toughest stretch of the season and it comes during the most important time of the season. I should mention that they end the season with 13 games versus the bottom three teams in the division. Notes of Interest -The longest homestand of the season is ten games versus Aug. 2 through Aug. 11 versus the Royals, Braves, and Indians. -The longest road trip of the season is 10 games and 12 days, including a day of travel, starting May 29 and going through June 9 versus the Rays, Indians, and Tigers. -There must be some labor law I’m unaware of that teams will have at least one off day in a two-week period as the Twins play on 13 consecutive games at a few different points throughout the season. -That said, the Twins do have three different stretches of 26 games in 27 days including two such stretches that occur at the beginning and very end of August. -The most difficult stretch of the season was mentioned above, but what should be the easiest stretch of the seasons occurs in the 17 games leading up to the trip to Fenway. Those 17 games will be against the Rangers, White Sox, and Tigers. Notable Promotions - follow the link for full list March 28 (Opening Day) v. Cleveland - Twins Puffer Vest April 27 v. Orioles - Twins Plaid Flap Cap May 24 v. White Sox - Joe Mauer Bobblehead #1 June 15 v. Royals - Joe Mauer Day & No. 7 Baseball Cap July 19 v. Athletics - Joe Mauer Bobblehead #2 Aug. 3 v. Royals - Joe Nathan Hall of Fame Bobblehead Aug. 4 v. Royals - Joe Nathan and Jerry Bell Hall of Fame Pins Aug. 24 v. Tigers - Joe Mauer Bobblehead #3 Sept. 7 v. Indians - Joe Mauer Bobblehead #4 Breaking down a schedule is an interesting exercise. Not that you’re ever going to feel bad for someone making millions of dollars, but you can definitely appreciate how grueling the Major League Baseball season is. What are you looking forward to this upcoming Twins season? Any games or series you have your eye on right away? Let me know if the comments! Click here to view the article