Clock's Ticking: The Tyler Kinley Decision

I vote send Hildenberger down. He's had a rough spring and could gain some confidence back in AAA. Keep Moya and Kinley on the big roster to start the season. I don't understand the whole purpose of giving these guys the chance to prove themselves in spring training, perform better than others, and then they get sent down anyway. Are all organizations like this or is it just the Twins way?

That's not, or at least shouldn't be, the purpose of ST.

It's practice to get warmed up for the season. It shouldn't be an audition.

While Spring stats should be taken with multiple huge grains of salt, it seems to me that this view takes it a little too far. Management wants to see how players operate under all different kinds of pressure, given that the ultimate goal is to win the WS where the pressure is at its highest. Telling all the players that their job may ride on how they perform in Spring, and backing that up with the occasional reward/demotion for others to see, is part of that. If a guy stinks in Spring, with an excuse of just getting warmed up for the season, I see nothing wrong with sending him to AAA and being told to show he's ready there, if management chooses that route, taking his entire body of work into account of course. As with most things in management, it's a balancing act, dependent in some part on the personality of the individual player, and in some part on the group. You don't want management to be tyrants, you don't want them to run a country club.

Well, I disagree. Mainly because in baseball, even the greatest players to ever play the game go through extended slumps, relatively often.

I'd make my roster decisions based on talent, tools, and track record in actual games. Spring Training would have almost no input in my roster decisions.

That's how I'd do it, that may not be how it's actually done.

Joe Mauer isn’t winning or losing a job based on spring training.

 

The backup outfielder, a bullpen job or two, the backup catcher...these are often a different situation. There is a competition going on in ST, and those jobs will be won or lost based on talent, tools, and track record, AND on how those players perform in spring. As mentioned above, spring includes not only the games, but over a month of daily workouts and practice from which the staff can judge.

 

How else would you do that?

Of course.

But I'm referencing posts that are making judgements based on ST stats, not those other things.

And to me, ST stats have no meaning whatsoever. Not even as a tie breaker, or for the 24th or 25th guy.

To be clear, if it's me, I'm using everything except ST stats to make the decision. All the things I listed, and all the things you listed.

I honestly would make sure I didn't even know what the ST stats were, just to make sure I wasn't subconsciously influenced by them.

I wish they wouldn't even keep track of them.

My guess is that Kinley has made it this far, he's going to stick around for a month and if he does ok he'll get another month. If he does well for a couple of months then he's here for the duration and goes to AAA next year. Just my guess at this point.

If he's good enough to stick all year on a playoff contender, I'm not sure why they'd put him in AAA next year, as a 28 year old.

28 year olds in AAA are career minor leaguers, they don't have a future in mlb.