4 Twins Statcast Standouts

I am amazed that Simmons rates so high defensively this year. I have watched him make more than the 5 errors he actually got officially, and make some real bonehead plays and decisions to go with the real good ones.

It is so easy for people to sell out on Cruz with the "has his age finally caught up with him?" Interesting to see he is actually one of the top hitters on the year so far. But carry on with the cheap shots. Everyone has some slump time. If you come out on top even with the slump, you are doing pretty fine.

I've also seen Simmons make some really poor defensive plays so it's interesting to see his OAA being so high. I hope Garver & Arraez will be back soon! These stats show how much they're missed in the lineup. Thanks for writing such a cool article with the statcast metrics!

Stat Cast I care about:  22-34, 6th worst record in MLB, 12 games under .500.  All other stuff is whipped cream on rotten cherry

35 minutes ago, umterp23 said:

Stat Cast I care about:  22-34, 6th worst record in MLB, 12 games under .500.  All other stuff is whipped cream on rotten cherry

How true. It's like exit velocity and distance they don't add any runs they just measure what happened. Wins are the ultimate measurement.

Simmons and his importance to the team has been so underrated by twins fans that who want to correlate bats to defense and never figure range in as defensive importance. Until covid bit, his bat was was close to Arraez. I'd hate to imagine where'd be without him.

This is ridiculous!  Digging deep through totally obscure statcast b.s.  most people realize wins and losses are what matters.  Most of the analytic "statistics" are mainly used by agents to try and get more money for their agents.  I am almost amused when I try and look up a new analytic stat and how they are supposedly so importantant.  Doesnt batting average, on base percentage, home runs, RBIs, risp mean anything anymore?  That's what used to be important.  Apparantly not anymore

5 hours ago, h2oface said:

I am amazed that Simmons rates so high defensively this year. I have watched him make more than the 5 errors he actually got officially, and make some real bonehead plays and decisions to go with the real good ones.

 

There is a issue with fielding errors. If a player isn't good enough to even get to the ball they won't get an error. If the player is good enough and goes for those tough plays they might get more errors. Bad decisions are different and should be called out

Situational hitting to me is an area of concern for me.  If it isn't a homer to score runs, we are in trouble.  I don't have the time to analyze the run production but driving in runs other than a HR seems be severely lacking.  I could be off base, but clutch hitting doesn't seem to be there

2 hours ago, hybridbear said:

I've also seen Simmons make some really poor defensive plays so it's interesting to see his OAA being so high. I hope Garver & Arraez will be back soon! These stats show how much they're missed in the lineup. Thanks for writing such a cool article with the statcast metrics!

In terms of Simmons, this is why metrics for defense are good to look at.  Many fans will see what they see as bad plays, but not pay attention to the many good plays that seem routine, but compared to the rest of the league are actually very good.  Errors are a terrible way to judge any player on defense.  The best defenders will many times have the most errors because they get to balls others would not.  The official score never takes into account the fact that very few players would have even had a chance on a play.  They have looked at some players that win gold gloves because they have low errors and make some good plays, but when the metrics came out the player was considered below average defender.  Derick Jeter late in career is one of them.  

1 hour ago, Whitey333 said:

This is ridiculous!  Digging deep through totally obscure statcast b.s.  most people realize wins and losses are what matters.  Most of the analytic "statistics" are mainly used by agents to try and get more money for their agents.  I am almost amused when I try and look up a new analytic stat and how they are supposedly so importantant.  Doesnt batting average, on base percentage, home runs, RBIs, risp mean anything anymore?  That's what used to be important.  Apparantly not anymore

The fact that the article only points 4 players should be a sign that this is a bad team, and the article isn't pushing any ideas that are "obscuring" anything. Individual players can have good seasons even when their team as a whole is playing like crap.

13 minutes ago, Dodecahedron said:

Defensive metrics have the wrong approach.  This should be the hierarchy of valuable-to-least-valuable to measure:

1. Error
2. Not an out
3. Out

In other words, defensive metrics have it backwards.  Just like how a home run is not the same thing as a single, an error is not the same as getting an out or even not getting an out.

Every fielder gets an out, what, I'm guessing 90% of the time?  Higher?  There's the baseline -- measure what happens in the rest of the plays and the how.

Outs are the most important measure of defense. Simmons gets outs on plays that other shortstops can't due to his range and arm. This year, his above-average plays have well exceeded his errors. 

5 hours ago, Trov said:

In terms of Simmons, this is why metrics for defense are good to look at.  Many fans will see what they see as bad plays, but not pay attention to the many good plays that seem routine, but compared to the rest of the league are actually very good.  Errors are a terrible way to judge any player on defense.  The best defenders will many times have the most errors because they get to balls others would not.  The official score never takes into account the fact that very few players would have even had a chance on a play.  They have looked at some players that win gold gloves because they have low errors and make some good plays, but when the metrics came out the player was considered below average defender.  Derick Jeter late in career is one of them.  

I mostly disagree. I also acknowledged Simmons "real good ones". But the scoring is atrocious. The official scorers now give hits away like candy to grandchildren. So many errors that all players should get to and touch but don't make the play are scored hits. Same with throwing errors sometimes. Official scorers are charity workers when it comes to scoring and they give far too many hits and don't score the poor defense, and not the other way around. Certainly they include range in that, and don't score them as errors, either, for the rangey players.

RBI’s and BA don’t mean anything. There are all kinds of ways to get on base besides hits. Like walks, HBP, or when the catcher misses that 2 strike slider outside the other batters box you swung at trying to hit a 5 run HR. As for RBI’s the runners should be able to figure out how to score without someone else’s help. 

On 6/4/2021 at 6:41 AM, Doctor Gast said:

Simmons and his importance to the team has been so underrated by twins fans that who want to correlate bats to defense and never figure range in as defensive importance. Until covid bit, his bat was was close to Arraez. I'd hate to imagine where'd be without him.

Last place

21 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Last place

It's one thing battling to getting out of last place with hope and being hopelessly in last behind despised Tigers.

Simmons keeps us in the game and occasionally winning a close one. Adversely getting blown away when he's not in the game. Hopelessness is a difficult hole to dig out of. And if we're not in the game who'd want to watch that humiliation.

Simmons another error tonight, this time just not stepping on second on the DP. Is that 6 errors now (4 total in the game, Pineda, Polanco, Astudillo, and the defensive wizard not focusing, Simmons)