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A diamond dusting of everything baseball

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Podcast

The Bomba Show: What Comes Next?

26 and 39? Oh boy. WCCO's Cory Hepola and Parker Hageman discuss the current state of the Minnesota Twins. Topics include: What are you hoping to see right now? If the Twins stayed 50% more healthy this year - what’s their record right now? Managing a Bullpen? WALK OFF WIN: Are you able to enjoy the moment? What needs to be done for the Twins to compete in 2022? Watch ⬇️    
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman in Podcast

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Get Better Baseball

Let Them Swing How They Want

Byron Buxton, a father who happens to play center field for the Minnesota Twins, was asked how he approaches working with his young son on his game. On the Sports Info Solutions podcast with Mark Simon, Buxton said that he lets his kid hit anyway he wants.  “When we go out to hit, before we do anything, he’ll hit like any player he wants to hit like. He wants to hit like Max Kepler or hit like Cody Bellinger. Anybody he wants to hit like, that’s what I let him do,” Buxton says. “For hi
Podcast

The Bomba Show: Can The 2021 Twins Season Be Saved?

WCCO's Cory Hepola and Parker Hageman discuss the current state of the Minnesota Twins. Topics include: More depressing: 2011 or 2021 Twins? How is this happening? Should we have seen this coming? What’s worse: Pitching or Defense? What do you do with Miguel Sano? Give me ONE positive? Who does Trevor Larnach remind you of? Can this team save this season?
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman in Podcast

0
Drill

Using Football To Get Better At Baseball

Ted Williams wrote in The Science of Hitting that the “slightly upward swing is the ideal path.” It took years for Williams’ theories to be embraced but he has largely been vindicated in the modern era: Hitting the ball in the air has proven to be more impactful than driving it into the ground.  (If you think otherwise, you can yell at me on Twitter.) Understanding a hitter’s swing path is one way to tell if they are capable of getting the ball in the air on a regular basis. 
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman in Drill

0

What I'm Reading

The Shift Is Burning Teams:   I wrote about how the Astros dismantled the Twins’ infield shift during the Wild Card series. The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh dove in further, detailing how right-handed hitters should not receive the shift treatment:     In September, Tango took a more rigorous look. The noted sabermetrician, who now serves as MLB’s senior data architect, examined the results of bases-empty matchups since 2015 between the same batter-pitcher duos, with and without three fielders on one
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

0

What I'm Reading

Becoming a More Patient Leader:   Two good tips on how to increase patience in these stressful times.   Redefine the meaning of speed. The U.S. Navy SEALs are known for their saying “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” These rapid-response special forces teams are paradoxically methodical and patient in both planning and executing their time-critical missions. They have learned over 60 years of operating in crisis situations that working at a slow and smooth pace reduces mistakes and re-dos a
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

0

What I'm Reading

MLB’s Brain Drain:   The Minnesota Twins are hiring but it would seem that the industry as a whole might be in trouble.   However the next several years play out, it appears that the baseball industry is in a liminal space. Front office gigs, long glamorized, have become less desirable to those with options. The individuals who remain in the industry feel underpaid, undervalued, and overstressed. The most conscientious are concerned that an already exclusive industry is going to build larger ga
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

0

What I'm Reading

Welcome to this week’s What I’m Reading.   This is a collection of interesting or insightful articles that you might enjoy.   The Brilliance of Brad:   Facing American League-favorite Oakland in the opening round of the 2002 playoffs, the Twins got off to a horrendous start. Radke issued a one-out walk in the first inning to Scott Hatteberg and Pierzynski’s error on Eric Chavez’s two-out single would ultimately lead to two runs scoring.  The Twins got a run back in the top of the second inning
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

1

What I'm Reading

Welcome to What I'm Reading. This is a collection of interesting or insightful articles I’ve read this past week.   Behind Nelson Cruz’s Maniacal Preparation:   From his Seattle Mariner days but a reminder of how much work the 40-year-old Cruz puts in to maintain his elite level of play.   Nap time can vary, but it’s daily.  “If we play at home, I like to do it after BP,” he said. “If we are on the road, I do it before BP.” Post nap will include a dip in the cold tub for about five minutes, fo
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

2

What Are We Going To Do About This Hand Twin Thing?

A friend of mine passed away over the holiday weekend.   We had attended high school together, were distant friends through college, and spent two years as roommates back in the cities after that.   When we lived together, he was attending culinary school and the roommates would have the benefit of eating food that is normally not accessible to broke post-college kids trying to repay student loans. He would concoct four course meals and we were more than happy to be test subjects.   We’d decl
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

5

Baseball Is Back. So Am I.

The question I’ve received the most the past few months is why was my original Twitter account suspended.   On March 13 I was covering the Twins in Fort Myers on what would be the last normal day before everything in this world went goofy.   I awoke at the Twins Daily-rented AirBnB, and immediately checked Twitter on my phone as I am wont to do in case I missed something earth shattering in the six hours since I last peeked in.       Account suspended, it read.   I couldn’t pull down the stream
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

4

MUST SEE: Brian Dozier Shares Hitting Insight

Brian Dozier was on MLB Network yesterday and the Twins' second baseman -- in the midst of a 25-game hitting streak, by the way -- and demonstrating the changes he made in order to go from a puncher of a middle infielder to a a second base capable of bopping 40 home runs.   If you are a player, coach, instructor or just a fan curious to know the thought process behind Dozier's development, you have to watch this.     The overall segment could have gone smoother (or shorter) if Mark DeRos
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

2

Why Do We Care About Launch Angle?

By now, you are probably sick of hearing the words “launch angle”. I assure you, you are not alone.   On a recent spring training broadcast, Twins radio announcer Dan Gladden noted that more teams are “teaching launch angles” but the practice has been out for several years. However, you know if Gladden is talking about it then the concept has certainly gone mainstream.   This is how baseball works: Several teams find an advantage in something different – be it infield shifts, outfield shifts, ca
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

5

Improving Your Two-Seamer

Here's a great piece of advice from a professional player for pitchers trying to learn or coaches trying to teach players to throw a better two-seam fastball.   Houston Astros' pitcher Lance McCullers Jr, who recently diced the Twins lineup in spring training action, has incorporated a new grip on his two-seam fastball that is giving him (so far anyways) superior movement over his two-seamer a year ago. I mean, just watch this unfair action he dumped on the poor, unsuspecting Ehire Adrianza.  
Parker Hageman

Parker Hageman

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