ashbury

I've been trying to be brief (for me) because I'm on the road, taking part in a hiking club this week for some short hikes near Yosemite. Meanwhile you broke up your reply into shorter, more digestible chunks for discussion. Bad timing. It's not my intention to ghost a friend so I'm just going to hit a couple of highlights. You took my reference to "OPS .800 against lefties and righties alike is super valuable" like it's some kind of minimum standard, even though I made sure to include "super". What's perfectly acceptable in order to be a full-time player is to mash the opposite-hand pitchers and "not be unplayable" against the same-handed ones. I think a big difference in what we write is a) a matter of patience, and b) where does development happen. I really don't know how long you are proposing to let someone like Larnach keep trying to be "not unplayable" against LHP. He's now up to 360 PA against LHP and with a .583 OPS to show for it. Do you go down with the ship by playing him consistently against LHP? It's great if the major league coaches can provide helpful advice, but the development was supposed to happen in the minors. Now, the dilemma is that Larnach seemed to have pretty good L/R splits in the minors. So what happened when he reached the majors? Did the coaches in Minneapolis fail to do their jobs? Or did the coaches at St Paul (and below) fail to prepare him, and others like him, for how much better the pitchers in the majors will be? I mean, tactics that help you hit a 30-year old lefty whose fastball tops out at 85 will help your AAA stats, but provides perhaps little meaningful practice, and if the coaches can explain to a prospect how to learn the things that will really matter at the next level? Many prospects, whether they bat left-handed or right, wash out because they can't do a particular thing; It's practically a cliche that when batters reaches a level where the pitchers can throw curves for strikes, some just never learn and their pro careers are soon over. The history of the baseball draft is that it's very difficult to predict which prospects will wash out like that. I don't see why it's difficult to believe, turning to L/R splits, that some batters just never will learn, when the level of competition is at the majors. And when that starts looking like it's the case what do you do - keep beating your head against a wall thinking that the lefty hitter will learn to hit LHP? How long do you keep throwing away plate appearance, in the name of hope?

I'm not sure anything in the article changed the summary I already had of him at bat. He crowds the plate. Outcomes like the broken arm will happen. He thinks it's a fair tradeoff for an advantage hitting outside pitches. It's a tale as old as fast-pitch baseball. His own quote pretty much confirms what we knew. If he asked me, I would tell him he may be underestimating the career-altering outcomes that each HBP carries as a risk. But he's neglected to ask. He's young and indestructible; the name Tony Conigliaro might not mean anything to him.

It has been unnecessary to wait. Since August 2024 he has delivered consistently: an aggregate OPS in the .600s. That's struggle on a silver platter.

Reverse splits are rare, almost to the point of nonexistence. Which is why I said the results this season were weird. You aren't taking into account that the manager can push the right buttons and the machine puts out unexpected results. Platooning isn't some weird new analytic thingamabob. Casey Stengel did it. Earl Weaver did it. They weren't purposely trying to develop half ball players; they were playing the cards they were dealt. If development is your real issue, major league usage of the finished product might be the wrong place to be looking. I agree we want complete ballplayers - a guy who can OPS .800 against lefties and righties alike is super valuable. Why do you think the Twins aren't trying to develop those?

You're missing my point. Some people here (not you) want to trade Byron Buxton because, while he's good when he's on the field, his absences make him worth less than he seems. Byron will finish the season with 408 plate appearances. Unless Trevor comes back from the 10-day IL, he will finish with 433 plate appearances. (It will take more than 600 plate appearances to lead the team this year.) Trevor didn't have any time on the IL until a few days ago. His frequent absences were because his manager didn't want to write his name in the lineup. Think about that.

Short answer, no. Long answer: noooooooooooo.

And Emma is batting low, in keeping with his recent slump. 8 strikeouts and 1 measly walk in 15 tries, the past 4 games. Maybe it's just late-season randomness but at the moment it looks for all the world like Shelton is choosing to ride the hot hand in his lineup construction.

I took a look. He threw 90 or more pitches 19 times this season. I counted 6 of those in which he did not complete 6 full innings - I chose a slightly different threshold than you stated, in the belief that today's game considers 6 innings the minimum for a start to be really good (given other factors such as runs allowed also being good). Taj Bradley, as a comparison, had 24 such games, and completed less than 6 innings 7 times. That's a little bit better ratio, but not so stark that I would call Ryan deficient by comparison. I'm lazy and that's as far as I'm taking it. Perhaps I could automate the process a little bit using b-r.com's Stathead feature - but have I mentioned that I'm lazy? 😁

The run of luck caused by the shortened season will end at the start of the 4th game of the World Series, prompting much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and calls to gut the roster and rebuild from scratch.

The manager thought an extra infielder would help encourage the pitcher to strike the batter out.

I did not. True art is a passion that consumes.

Oops, maybe spoke too soon......

After three gifs, I was expecting "no mas, no mas."

Or, this?

Or maybe this was more what you had in mind.