The Twins have several openings including head of research team.  Help make your team awesomerr.   https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/minnesota-twins-job-openings.html

12 hours ago, Brandon said:

The Twins have several openings including head of research team.  Help make your team awesomerr.   https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/minnesota-twins-job-openings.html

This is one of those things I never really thought about, but of course the team has a dedicated technology / operations group to support the organization. Just where are the team offices actually located?

Also, in looking up the people that work in those functions for the team, I am super amused that Mitch Garver has a LinkedIn profile.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mitch-garver-028910a0

 

I was amazed to see this in Trade Rumors. Ugh! 

 

Looks like Twins going full court press. And they are "seasonal" jobs!?!

1 hour ago, Sousy said:

I am super amused that Mitch Garver has a LinkedIn profile.

It never hurts to network, network, network!

Kidding aside, I don't remember who previously had the Director position for research.  I don't remember seeing anything about someone leaving, either.  It helps to look at the team's FO:

https://www.mlb.com/twins/team/front-office

For research I don't see the Director position, even as "vacant", although there are 7 employees listed with research in the job title.

They could intend to promote from within, but are posting the opening just on general principles.

Intriguing, though I'm not in the job market.

11 hours ago, Sousy said:

This is one of those things I never really thought about, but of course the team has a dedicated technology / operations group to support the organization. Just where are the team offices actually located?

In Target Field. 

I checked out the job description, and other than the first seven pearled items* in the "required" category, I am eminently qualified!

 

*There are only seven pearled items.

I looked further and noticed that they no longer have any scouting positions on their org chart. The head of research position requires a masters in sabermetrics and proven ability to evaluate talent (or not) without ever seeing the player. Only rows and columns of numbers are available for making evaluation decisions. Previous experience necessary does not include having played the game or being knowledgeable about the game in general.

16 minutes ago, Number3 said:

I looked further and noticed that they no longer have any scouting positions on their org chart. The head of research position requires a masters in sabermetrics and proven ability to evaluate talent (or not) without ever seeing the player. Only rows and columns of numbers are available for making evaluation decisions. Previous experience necessary does not include having played the game or being knowledgeable about the game in general.

Are you suggesting the Twins have no scouts and base 0% of their decisions on eyes on observations?

20 hours ago, ashbury said:

Kidding aside, I don't remember who previously had the Director position for research.  I don't remember seeing anything about someone leaving, either.  It helps to look at the team's FO:

https://www.mlb.com/twins/team/front-office

For research I don't see the Director position, even as "vacant", although there are 7 employees listed with research in the job title.

They could intend to promote from within, but are posting the opening just on general principles.

Intriguing, though I'm not in the job market.

I believe it was at one point Daniel Adler who was promoted to Operations but I assume for a while he kept that part of his job duties. Guessing they are splitting it up to free up Adler 

From the Twins org chart:

Assistant Director, Baseball Operations: Nick Beauchamp

Hey Brock! Any relation?

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

From the Twins org chart:

Assistant Director, Baseball Operations: Nick Beauchamp

Hey Brock! Any relation?

Don't even start.

Nick.

You ****ing ****, I'll never forgive you for that time you ****ing **** did that thing that ****ing ruined every **** **** thing ever.

**** **** bitch **** little piece of ****.

Yeah, we're family!

For those who remain unclear, I obviously have no relation to Nick Beauchamp.

17 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

For those who remain unclear, I obviously have no relation to Nick Beauchamp.

Anymore.

21 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Anymore.

That ****ing piece of **** just unfriended me on facebook wait until I tell his mother that ****ing useless piece of ****

19 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

Are you suggesting the Twins have no scouts and base 0% of their decisions on eyes on observations?

I am suggesting that I am having some fun with this. I do have the opinion that all of this reliance on ....metrics garBAGE has gone way too far and overall has not been beneficial to the game or acquiring the best baseball players.

11 minutes ago, Number3 said:

I am suggesting that I am having some fun with this. I do have the opinion that all of this reliance on ....metrics garBAGE has gone way too far and overall has not been beneficial to the game or acquiring the best baseball players.

I'd argue it's done a great deal to help teams acquire the best baseball players, but agree it has not been beneficial to the game. Our understanding of what makes a player good has grown exponentially, but it's ruined the product on the field and that's a shame.

6 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd argue it's done a great deal to help teams acquire the best baseball players, but agree it has not been beneficial to the game. Our understanding of what makes a player good has grown exponentially, but it's ruined the product on the field and that's a shame.

Yep. The performance level of baseball has never been higher while the entertainment of baseball has never been lower.

Well, maybe 19th century baseball was worse but we’ll never know. 

Do I need a job? that's been the existential question I've asked myself since getting laid off 4 years ago......I mean, what, really, is a job? I do lots of stuff, some of which I almost break even on.....

On 10/13/2021 at 1:01 PM, Number3 said:

Previous experience necessary does not include having played the game or being knowledgeable about the game in general.

Wait... what? They're looking for a new manager?

9 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

I'd argue it's done a great deal to help teams acquire the best baseball players, but agree it has not been beneficial to the game. Our understanding of what makes a player good has grown exponentially, but it's ruined the product on the field and that's a shame.

Math isn't fun to watch? Shocking!

17 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

Yep. The performance level of baseball has never been higher while the entertainment of baseball has never been lower.

Well, maybe 19th century baseball was worse but we’ll never know. 

I think the performance level has little to do with metrics and a whole lot to do with athletes in all sports today being bigger, faster, stronger. Plus the days of showing up for an afternoon game with a hangover are long gone. Reminds me of the Mantle story when he showed up at game time totally wasted not planning to play that day but did have to pinch hit. Hit about a 500 foot home run and had no idea how.

15 minutes ago, Number3 said:

I think the performance level has little to do with metrics and a whole lot to do with athletes in all sports today being bigger, faster, stronger. Plus the days of showing up for an afternoon game with a hangover are long gone. Reminds me of the Mantle story when he showed up at game time totally wasted not planning to play that day but did have to pinch hit. Hit about a 500 foot home run and had no idea how.

Six of one, half dozen of the other. Where do you draw the line between analytics and strength conditioning? Many times, they're two sides of the same coin. Josh Donaldson obviously does a lot of strength conditioning but he also speaks very highly of how things like force plates allowed him to study what his body is doing and how to maximize that strength.

3 hours ago, Number3 said:

I think the performance level has little to do with metrics and a whole lot to do with athletes in all sports today being bigger, faster, stronger. Plus the days of showing up for an afternoon game with a hangover are long gone. Reminds me of the Mantle story when he showed up at game time totally wasted not planning to play that day but did have to pinch hit. Hit about a 500 foot home run and had no idea how.

Where the 'metrics' have impacted the game has been the ability to train for small improvements.

Old days: "If you want to really sneak one past Babe Ruth, you gotta pitch low and put a little english on the ball."

Today: "If you want to really sneak one past Babe Ruth, we've analyzed that his contact percentage on low and away breaking balls is 27% less, and we've determined that if Bob Pitcher wipes his forehead twice, touches the rosin bag once then sets his shoulder to a 27 degree angle on the windup the low and away pitch breaks at a 55% faster rate."

The ability to train and coach for those kinds of scenarios can make a big difference over the course of a game.  For whatever reason in the pitcher vs. hitter scenarios, the small improvements - even without sticky stuff - seem to favor the pitchers more than the batters in 2021.