bean5302

Honestly, I just don't like Kirilloff's stance/swing process. It's really open with his right foot placed further towards 1B than his left foot. In addition, his leg kick seems to result in his right foot landing even further back, sort of like Tsuyoshi Nishioka's left handed swing, using his left hip to rotate his body rather than his core. This feels like it would place a great deal of strain on his hip, knee and ankle and seems like it wastes bat speed to me. In any case, I'm not bullish on Kirilloff right now. When Nick Gordon draws more walks than you and I see what seems like way too many strike three swings where you end the swing on your knees, it's not a good omen. I'm not sure if Kirilloff is pressing (seems like he is), but his walk rate has been pretty poor at other stops prior to AAA this year.

I think it's awfully tough to predict how veteran contracts are going to be impacted by the new CBA. A lot of money just got funneled to the younger guys and it will impact the veteran contracts. There's only "x" amount of money owners are going to spend. Aside from that, I utterly fail to see how this happens... Jose Berrios 7yrs $131 MM Marcus Stroman 3yrs $71 MM They were extremely similar comps. Ironically, they're both struggling this year. I'll hazard a guess on Sonny Gray. An extension voiding the option = 3yrs $65 MM. I certainly wouldn't want to offer it to him. Gray's velocity continues to slide and he's seeing what seems to be a trend of allowing more fly balls. Extending Gray feels very, very much like Phil Hughes right now to me.

I've had the Red Cow sliders 3 or 4 times now. The first time I had them, there was no mustard (early in the season) and subsequent times I've had them, there's been mustard, but the beer mustard wasn't acidic enough (or in a great enough quantity?) to cut through all that richness. I'd definitely go with the cone over the helmet. Seems like the helmet dishes (nachos/soft serve) aren't a great deal to me... but maybe that's because the helmet cost cuts in to the dish, haha. I was going to sample the LaTapia adobo tacos the other day, but alas, they're still having problems with TwinsPay. Sorry, but with every other stand having figured it out, the problems are now on the vendors.

Bummer you had a bad experience with it. I've had it a few times and as far as I can remember, it's always been good.

The job was undoubtedly a take it or leave it situation. Johnson took what is speculated as an enormous pay increase for a role involving an undoubtedly superior work/life balance. There is no possible way to fairly criticize Johnson for what is a decision that totally makes sense for him.

Pitchers are voted in by players, managers and coaches. My guess is nobody on the Twins pitching staff makes it. Duran is probably the closest candidate, but with 1/2 the WAR of other relievers and a ranking around 20 for WAR/ERA/FIP, I don't see it happening.

Plenty of stuff on the site about Contreras. Power bat outfielder range-y enough to cover CF in a tight pinch. Once a solid prospect who looked like he was flamed out at the plate in 2019. He came back in 2021 and suddenly started to hit more like he was expected to hit. Age 27 non-prospect at this point. Pretty high K rate, okay BB rate, limited projectability.

In a word? No.

Even if you believe the Twins are not built to compete or that they couldn't compete, there would have to be a team in the AL Central who was clearly built to lead the way, and there isn't right now. The 1987 Twins team was mediocre and they won the World Series. It's a long shot, but until the Twins look to be well out of the division lead, Correa is not going to be traded. This is probably the 10th "Trade Correa" topic I've seen in the past couple weeks. Aside from that, the Cardinals have an excellent value shortstop right now... Tommy Edman has 3.4 fWAR. Nolan Gorman, a 22yr old rookie is delivering big time at 2B as well. The Cardinals have no real need for Correa. The Giants might be a legitimate destination, with Brandon Crawford struggling at the plate and moved to the 10 day IL, but Crawford has another year left at $16MM on his contract. I could potentially see a Correa for Crawford and Kyle Harrison trade or something like that. It's unlikely Correa (at $35MM and a rental) brings back great talent on his own.

Sano's bad streaks have become deeper, longer, and more frequent as he's aged. There comes a point where players don't come back out of those "slumps." Sano is due for that to happen any time now. The Twins can either roll the dice, potentially lose other players or cut a poor performing veteran who is maybe 50/50 to ever step onto the field in an MLB game again after this year. You know what I would like to see? The Twins not only DFA Sano, but deny his compensation because he violated the clause requiring him to be in shape to play baseball. Sano is the one who owes the Twins, not vice versa.

Since Buxton didn't hit for the cycle, you can clearly see he's struggling and his knee is bothering him. He needs a trip to the 10 day IL!

1.0 WAR = scrub level. It's still bad. It's still a guy you don't want to play. A starting position player needs to be a 2.0+ WAR per season guy not to be a drag on the team performance. Saying a guy is marginally better than an average AAA call up doesn't help Sano's case.

1) So was it Sano's injury which had him crawl to a .196/.279/.426 triple slash for the first half of last year, all while playing defense like beer league softball replacement player level? I mean, we're talking truly, truly unspeakably bad defense at 1B that has continued into this year as well. 2) Comparing Sano to a union forklift driver? Well, there is an ever so slight difference in the fact Miguel Sano still gets paid after he's released or assigned. The Twins honor their commitment (to pay Sano). If the Twins promised to not only pay Sano, but also to play him regularly, no matter how badly her performed for the duration of his contract, you'd have a point. I can't say I've been part of Sano's contract negotiations with the Twins so I can't promise that didn't happen, but in MLB it would be pretty ludicrous to make such a promise. 3) Yes, it actually matters a lot to the team if they're concerned about what happens after just this year.

It was a little surprising the Twins had Wallner at Rookie ball level, especially for so long in 2019 after being drafted out of college. The loss of 2020 likely really slowed him down, especially with the broken hamate bone last year shutting him down for a couple months.

https://gregstoll.com/~gregstoll/baseball/stats.html#H.1.8.0.1.0.0 in case anybody wants to play with the tool

100% agree, and it won't stop at teams looking at 97% as the cutoff. They'll keep pushing and pushing. Top of the 8th inning, chances the visitor wins the game: 1 run lead = 75% 2 run lead = 87% 3 run lead = 94% 4 run lead = 97% 5 run lead = 98% top of the 9th visitor leading 1 run lead = 85% 2 run lead = 93% 3 run lead = 97% 4 run lead = 99% 5 run lead = 99% It gets even worse from a likelihood things turn around if the home team is winning, and visiting teams have no significant reason to care if the home town crowd is entertained. bottom of the 7th - home team lead 1 run lead = 82% 2 run lead = 91% 3 run lead = 96% 4 run lead = 98% 5 run lead = 99% bottom of the 8th - home team lead 1 run lead = 89% 2 run lead = 96% 3 run lead = 98% 4 run lead = 99% 5 run lead = 100% Statistically, if the bullpen has been significantly depleted up on the visiting team over the past few days, slapping a position player onto the mound starting with the bottom of the 7th down by 3+ runs is reasonable. Those games happen all the time and analytics will start driving the decision more and more, especially with the forced reduction in bullpens.

I'm not sure why you feel that way. He's .093/.231/.148 OPS .379 wRC+ 20 prior to the injury and he was well below average for the first half of last year. Sano's just not very valuable as a player and there's no way Sano's option is going to be picked up. The bottom line is Sano is a very poor performing player who brings no versatility on a crowded roster playing out the final year of a contract before free agency. When Sano reaches free agency, I'd find it somewhat implausible he won't have to accept a minor league contract at this point. That's not the kind of player who is entitled to plate appearances.

2:46 - 3-2 game, 8th inning. Detroit brings in position player to pitch vs. Twins. By your definition = blowout. This is the very first source I searched for. Almost all the examples used in the video are way into extra innings, but the fact I can find a perfect example in my first search attempt is enough for me.

Advanced defensive metrics are unreliable (at best) until a large enough sample size is created and Correa is no where near having that large enough sample size this year. A single expected play which doesn't go as "expected" has a big impact here. OAA isn't a garbage stat, but I also don't like the way it grades fielders on positions they're not playing. Correa is being negatively impacted by plays where he was graded as a second baseman even though he's never played second base this year. In years past, he was positive this way, I'd expect, and he should be since a SS would be expected to excel at 2B. Also, when it comes to Correa, UZR/150 is consistent on him and consistent with this year's performance calling him average. Career -2.7 UZR/150. This year, -1.5. Well within tolerances. I continue to favor UZR/150 as a defensive metric because it throws out the impact from the shift and seems to pass my eye test as well as being fairly consistent with expectations. A 1/2 season is no where near enough to fairly grade a player's defensive performance using these metrics, but if we were to take a wild stab at things... The Twins are +1.8 UZR/150 this year as a team, ranked 14th. 1B = 29th (6.9) 2B = 23rd (2.5) 3B = 20th (2.5) SS = 21st (3.1) LF = 5th 7.3 CF = 6th 8.1 RF = 17th (0.8)

I don't like relying on O-swing rates as a good indicator of a player's eye at the plate alone. Sano is a good example. Pitchers routinely throw him absolute junk. The fact Sano is able to lay off junk pitches... most of the time, isn't all that great. Sometimes pitchers stay away from the zone because the hitter is dangerous and sometimes because the hitter is going to likely give the pitcher a free strike. Sano is the latter. Almost 6% of pitches Sano see's are way low or way outside. In fact, down and down and away are hot zones for the concentration of pitches he sees. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/miguel-sano/12164/heat-maps?position=1B/3B&view=bat Compare that to another batter who sees a similar number of pitches in the zone, Manny Machado. You can see Machado sees far more pitches which are just outside the zone and fewer which are way outside than Sano. Machado is a tough hitter and pitchers do not want to throw him good stuff to hit, but they can't get him to chase garbage, either. Sano's O-swing is much better than Machado's, but not because Sano is better at plate discipline, Sano just gets more junk thrown his way. https://www.fangraphs.com/players/manny-machado/11493/heat-maps?position=3B&view=bat

The stat is designed to evaluate a player's value. Not that specific player's value to their specific team assuming that team's likely depth chart. Byron Buxton's value deflates enormously if you assume Max Kepler is the replacement.

Depends on what you would consider a blowout. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/dodgers-blocked-from-pitching-position-player-after-unwittingly-violating-new-mlb-rule-vs-mets/#:~:text=Picks-,Dodgers blocked from pitching position player after unwittingly violating new,Mets&text=The Los Angeles Dodgers were,recent addition to the rulebook. The Dodgers tried to bring in a position player when they were down by 5. That's not a blowout in a lot of people's books. The crew blocked the position player from pitching by enforcing a new rule, but the fact the rule had to be created suggests MLB disagrees position players lobbing 40mph Eephus pitches was limited to blowouts.

Gordon was a fireball pitcher in high school and now he's an outfielder... do I smell the next Shohei Ohtani???? That way we can have the next Mike Trout (Buxton) and the next Shohei Ohtani (Gordon) on the same team!!!

Urshela Apr - .279/.348/.328 wRC+ 99 May - .256/.307/.433 wRC+ 108 Jun - .254/.296/.433 wRC+ 106 While Urshela has seen some pop return to his bat after a cool start to the season, it's not like his overall bat has improved much. Unfortunately, moving a weak value third baseman may not be all that easy. Most contending teams are in good shape at the hot corner. The Angels just lost Anthony Rendon and Urshela would slide in nicely as a replacement there if Minnesota was willing to eat some salary, but not sure there's a good fit outside the Angels, who may be sellers rather than buyers.

Replacement is an expected performance of an average AAA player.