Article: The Torii Hunter Hangover

[Loosey]

Maybe the Twins can bring in Mike Yeo to smash some bats and swear a lot.  That seemed to work for the hockey team occasionally.

[jimmer]

I will say this........

 

I understand why people think this. They were terrible, Hunter came, they were good. Hunter left, now they are worse than terrible. Our brains are wired to think that there is causation there. But, those relationships in and of themselves are insufficient to show causation.

 

The other thing I'll say is that people vastly underestimate the role of luck in outcomes over 162 games......and that last year it is clear they had lots of good luck, and this year they have had bad play and bad luck (though it is mostly bad play).

 

If I had to guess, this is more about terrible team defense, utility guys in the lineup every day, and other issues much more than it is about culture. But, I do think there is a cultural issue. Not sitting there day to day, though? I have no idea if there is, or what it is.

thing is, we had one awesome month last year.we only had one other month over .500. If his leadership was responsible, did he take a break the other 5 months of the season? Leadership is needed of course, it obviously helps in many areas of work including team sports, but sequencing was the main cause of our record last year and I doubt having Torii here would make a huge difference in our record this year.

[Mike Sixel]

 

thing is, we had one awesome month last year.we only had one other month over .500. If his leadership was responsible, did he take a break the other 5 months of the season? Leadership is needed of course, it obviously helps in many areas of work including team sports, but sequencing was the main cause of our record last year and I doubt having Torii here would make a huge difference in our record this year.

 

I don't disagree with any of this......I just understand why people believe otherwise. I also believe that leadership and culture matter, but we don't have a good understanding of it, or it's effects.

[USAFChief]

 

thing is, we had one awesome month last year.we only had one other month over .500. If his leadership was responsible, did he take a break the other 5 months of the season? Leadership is needed of course, it obviously helps in many areas of work including team sports, but sequencing was the main cause of our record last year and I doubt having Torii here would make a huge difference in our record this year.

Or perhaps having a leader who has been there, is widely respected, and can effectively convey the need for an even keel, but maximum effort day in and day out, was one reason why last year's team was able to overachieve.  Able to, after a rough first week, put it behind them and at least, if not winning, avoiding long, demoralizing stretches of sub-MLB quality play.  Keep the losing months respectable, so the winning month mattered right up till the end.

 

I doubt having Hunter here would make a huge difference either. 

 

Just like having Mike Trout wouldn't make a huge difference.  

 

But little differences add up, particularly in a sport where a .550 winning percentage is pretty good, and .450 is pretty bad.

[Deduno Abides]

I'm willing to consider that Torii Hunter is a special person whose presence elevates an atmosphere. Perhaps it's a rare skill. Based on the correlations being cited between his departures from the Angels and Tigers, it sounds like he (and by implication, his leadership) was irreplaceable, even by veteran teams with Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander, four of the greatest players of this century. Tongue partly in cheek, but if Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera couldn't overcome the loss of Torii Hunter, what hope could the Twins possibly have? More seriously, his on-field performance this year was likely to be lesser than last year and definitely worse than Park's (Hunter would play either RF or DH), and I'd much rather have Park. Also, Hunter is being credited with too much, such as helping Milone with his pitches. It reminds me of the Phil Hartman skit where he played Reagan and solved every problem. It was a farce, as are some of the claimed problems that Hunter would have solved. At some point, the biggest problem is everyone whining about the loss of Hunter, instead of looking internally and taking ownership for solving the team's miasma.

[savvyspy]

 

1.) It's silly to assume that Hunter's presence on this team would make them even a .500 team right now.

 

2.) It's silly to assume that Hunter's presence on this team would not have a significant impact. 

Playing an actual replacement level outfielder in RF instead of Sano would insure #2 is correct. I don't think that outfielder needs to be named Torii Hunter.

 

This disaster has nothing to do with Hunter and everything to do with a front office that is unable or unwilling to do its job correctly.