Mark Armour and Dan Levitt have a guest post at John Thorn's MLB blog this morning. This is a short essay on the history of Baseball Operations, riffing off Moneyball, which serves sort of as an introduction to their new book.

http://ourgame.mlblo...-the-evolution/
 
Give yourself some time to read it. It's a meal, not a snack. 
 

Twelve years ago Moneyball shone a light on analytics, another chapter in the continual evolution of Baseball Operations. But it was not the final chapter. The recent marriage of video technology and high-speed computing, which has led (so far) to increased defensive shifts, a better understanding of swing mechanics, and further advances in pitch selection, was but a dream when Moneyball was published.

What’s next? Imagine a team that figures out how to reduce pitcher injuries—how big of an advantage would that be? You can be certain that the best organizations are working on this problem as you read this. Teams are also using the latest research from neuroscience and other disciplines to try to better understand the mental side of player performance.

From the end of the article "The best organizations have always been ones that looked for new solutions, or better ways to implement the old solutions. New challenges will inevitably lead to larger and more complicated Baseball Operations departments, working ever harder in their search for an increasingly valuable extra win."

 

Obviously the Twins are doomed. NEW isn't a word that we see a lot in Twins Territory. Tried and True. That's the Twins way. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. And even if it is broke, just keep waiting, it may fix itself.

 

The Twins are moving in the right direction, the team is getting better, but I wonder if they're moving fast enough, or if they're getting out run and falling further and further behind.