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Yawn Gardenhose

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Everything posted by Yawn Gardenhose

  1. Yawn Gardenhose
    To me Baldelli is an avatar for hyper-analytics, and so I tend to take out my general frustration on the decline of baseball on Baldelli himself. I realize this is a bit unfair because he strikes me as a decent human being, and he certainly didn't come up with the hyper-analytics approach himself, but I do think he is a horrible baseball manager. I might be done with baseball because of Baldelli and this front office. He has zero feel for the human side of management - though I think "Maggi-gate" has been greatly overblown, that's a nice small illustration of this. Data is a good thing, in general, but a dependence on it to the extent that Baldelli has is maddening. There is a way to combine data and a more gut-feel/holistic approach to managing. Baldelli ain't it. It's so widespread that my enthusiasm for the game is really waning. I'm really not sure if I'm going to be renewing MLB TV next year. I realized after midnight last night that I missed the BOS-NY wild card game and don't plan on watching much of the playoffs. I'm rooting for the White Sox as I see LaRussa winning a WS as a possible corrective against hyper-analytics (which is wild, considering LaRussa was *the* embodiment of new school not that long ago). But I don't see the Sox making a run, really. I don't do letter grades, so let's just call it "Driving Me Away from the Sport."
  2. Yawn Gardenhose
    The Joe Ryan lovefest is getting really hilarious. At this rate I'm half-expecting him to be inducted into the Twins Hall of Fame on Saturday alongside Morneau. Listening to Bremer, he's the second coming of Roger Clemens; it's hard to keep his schoolgirl-crush giddiness a secret when he's announcing a game Ryan pitches. Keep in mind he's pitched four starts against two teams, CLE and CHC, which are both bottom-5 offenses in their leagues, in the midst of a meaningless September schedule. Garbage time versus garbage offenses - Cubs looked very uninterested in playing baseball tonight, for instance. Ryan might end up being decent (my initial takeaway is that his stuff maxes out as a third or fourth starter, which isn't without value) but my god give it a little time for the scouting report to go around and let's see how he fares against a halfway decent opponent before he's anointed Johan junior.
  3. Yawn Gardenhose
    Ball four to Gardner was not a strike. The problem here is that people treat the Bally Sports box as if it were drawn by God. From the MLB rule book: "The Strike Zone is that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the top of the knees. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball." Which means, first of all, that the strike zone is variable from batter to batter, not a static unchanging box superimposed by a cable network. And in this case, ball four landed around Gardner's shoulders, not a strike. That's a big unaddressed problem with robot umps, in my view - is the strike zone going to be static or variable by batter? Seems like a nuance that technology might make worse rather than make better. In Loserville USA, er - Minnesota, rather, players and teams take these "aggregious calls" and turn them into the reasons that they lose. Not, hey, let's not give up three-run homers late in ballgames, but "the damn umps! Grr! They're out to get us!" Between Duffey's infantile tantrum, Rockhead's mealy-mouthed "why can't you be like robots!" to Morneau's constant, year-long bitching and moaning about calls that go against the Twins (and silence when "bad calls" go the Twins favor), it's just so delicious. They made the decision to lose that ballgame once Nelson called it ball four. The "righteous" anger feels better for them than winning a game in New York for the second time in 24 games or whatever the pathetic streak is at now. Truly classic stuff.
  4. Yawn Gardenhose
    See, saying "quick hook" implies that Baldelli is acting on impulse. Sparky Anderson had a notorious "quick hook." Baldelli is the exact opposite in my view - I imagine he pegged 70 pitches as his arbitrary "pitch limit" (saying nothing of the fact that Barnes pitched 90+ in his last AAA start), and he decided to pull the plug when there was a righty/lefty matchup that the "numbers" said it's best to avoid such a matchup. It was entirely planned, and that's what makes it so pathetic. You're dealing with professional athletes in the physical prime of their lives, getting babied to an obscene degree. Ugh. The drama of the starting pitcher battling their way through 9 innings was one of the top-5 elements of dramatic action in baseball up until about 6 years ago. Analytics have purposefully killed that bit of drama in favor of parades of bullpen arms - the playoffs is nearly unwatchable now because of this. Yes, very "data-driven," "new-school," "smart," and "progressive" - entirely at the cost of entertainment and drama. It's sickening. I've set the introduction of robot umps as my point of no return for following baseball, but frankly I don't know if I'll make it another year or two. Game is a shell of its former self, completely caved to entertainment-sapping technocrats. Really, really sad.
  5. Yawn Gardenhose
    Well the tough part is out of the way. I *guarantee* that Shoemaker will be called back up sometime after the fire sale. He'll have three or four "encouraging" outings in St. Paul, perhaps in a tweaked bullpen role; maybe there will be reports about how he's honing his splitter and using it as his primary pitch. The FO doesn't seem to prefer quick and clean breakups. I'm still baffled at the odd love affair they had with Matt Belisle.
  6. Yawn Gardenhose
    Isn't there a non-zero chance Shoemaker stays with the organization? No other team is claiming him, obviously, so it might be up to Shoemaker's pride whether or not he wants to accept a St. Paul assignment. Not that I'm endorsing this, of course; I just know this franchise and won't be shocked if he's seen pitching for the Twins again.
  7. Yawn Gardenhose
    Big fan of Kaat's clear and consistent rejection of analytics. Not sugarcoating it, yet not coming off as a sourpuss. That's a tough needle to thread these days, and he did it deftly. More please.
  8. Yawn Gardenhose
    If it weren't for Trevor Bauer he'd easily be the most loathsome player in the entire league.
  9. Yawn Gardenhose
    Correct, that's what a lot of people are misinterpreting about this. La Russa is getting dragged hard for this, and while I don't agree with all of what La Russa said, this became more than an "unwritten rule" issue when a player openly disregards his manager's instruction. Same with the Tatis thing last year, and I'm also a Padres fan. You can say that not hitting a 3-0 pitch in a blowout is a dumb unwritten rule, but when a player defies a clear instruction like that it transcends the discussion from one strictly about unwritten rules. Particularly when it's a rookie defying a literal Hall-of-Fame manager, I understand La Russa's reaction a lot more.
  10. Yawn Gardenhose
    Absolutely no forfeits or mercy rules. Why should you get the benefit (slight as it is, but still) of saving your bullpen when you're getting blown out? I would outlaw position players from pitching. The Astudillo clownshow performance was far more of an embarrassment to the game than anything the Sox did batting. You're losing by 12? Find a mop up pitcher who's actually a pitcher to close out the game, and if that's not working, burn out your bullpen until someone can. No forfeits, you put yourself in that spot, eat your a** and suffer the consequences of a burned out bullpen if you continue to eat your a**. The position player pitching has entered more "unwritten rules" into the game. The unwritten rule is to swing the bat when facing a position player pitching, and Mercedes taking a walk would have "violated" that unwritten rule. Which means that batters have to sacrifice taking a good at-bat in those situations and negatively affecting their stats. It's not fair to the other team, who's ahead by a dozen runs, to have to play wiffleball rules for an inning or two, especially since the team down by a dozen isn't approaching at-bats against real pitchers the same way in the late innings. Outlaw position players pitching and you get rid of this additional set of silly unwritten rules.
  11. Yawn Gardenhose
    I can't stand Romo. Dude acts like he's at a Metallica concert 24/7. I really hate the move where a pitcher gets out of an inning and then yells the f-word into their glove at the top of their lungs as they stalk off the mound wearing the look of death. Trevor May is famous for this too. What's especially irritating about Romo - and Rich Hill, who throws a temper tantrum that a six-year old would be jealous of every time he's taken out of the game - is that these are supposed to be the 40-year old wise-beyond-their-years cagey veterans who ostensibly are supposed to be the mentors to the young players. If your "World Series-seasoned" vets are acting like psychopaths, that wears off on the rest of the team. Not a good look.
  12. Yawn Gardenhose
    I keep getting flashbacks of 2011 when I read articles like this. That spring all the talk was "we just need to figure out how to get past the Yankees." While I don't expect a 99-loss season like that squad, I certainly don't think this is a *great* team and it wouldn't shock me if the team is closer to .500 than it is to topping 101 wins.
  13. Yawn Gardenhose
    Keep in mind that it's the Hall of Baines now, not the Hall of Fame. Voters now have the fact that Harold Baines is in the Hall of Fame in mind when they cast their ballots. Because he's a player who played against most of the guys still on the ballot, it'll be tougher to keep certain guys out due to a Baines comparison. Walker is a good case; I think his chances this year were greatly helped by Baines getting in, because he outperforms Baines measurably in most criteria and to leave Walker out while Baines is in fails a basic logic test for some voters. I expect the number of annual inductees to rise over the next decade or so; instead of 1 or 2 guys getting in per year, more like 4 or 5. I've always been pro-Bonds and Clemens, but I understand the argument against letting them in too.
  14. Yawn Gardenhose
    Was this a pun? Well played, if so. Unlike the vacuums, let's hope that this Dyson doesn't suck.
  15. Yawn Gardenhose
    I'd like to say it was an entertaining game - it was surely a Yankee classic. It shouldn't have been though. Blake Parker shouldn't be on a major league roster. Since his very first outing this year that's been apparent. His stats aren't even close to indicating how terrible he has been all season, plus all his twitchy gimmicks and labored mouthbreathing on the mound have been annoying since his first pitch this year. Parker's "FIP" coming into the game was about 5.5, and surely skyrocketed last night, which other than making me a believer in "FIP," should indicate to the front office how dreadful he has been and how he should be cut from the roster ASAP. 9-5 lead in the 8th inning...we should have been spared all the dramatics, if only the front office cares about the bullpen, which they clearly don't, seeing as Parker has been their only out-of-organization major league addition since the calendar year 2018. The Twins bullpen this year reminds me of a famous Pauline Kael movie review. Paraphrasing here: "It's easy to see what to cut; it's less easy to see what to keep."
  16. Yawn Gardenhose
    I absolutely think that money is a big reason for lessening starter workload. The "opener" is a way to game the arbitration system - it should be no surprise that the Rays introduced the opener, that the A's used one in the playoffs, and that the Twins were one of the teams that used the opener most prominently last September; they're all teams that have historically pinched pennies. I read an article about the Rays' pitcher (Yarbrough I think) who vultured a bunch of wins due to the fortune of being the ostensible "long man" after the opener, and he had an arbitration battle over the winter because his stat line was all goofy - a lot of wins, but very few starts and not enough innings to qualify as a starter. It's frustrating how seriously it's being taken as a strategy. It's less of an analytics innovation than it is a way to keep your payroll down. The more 5 innings (two trips through the lineup) becomes the norm for starters, the more likely that a full season for a starter will approach closer to 150 innings (under the qualifying threshold), thus muddying the arbitration game and ultimately keeping salaries down. And we wonder why Kuechel is still sitting at home? Why pay $18M for one year when you can just have three bullpen pitchers combine for his workload for a tenth of that contract? And as a bonus, by doing so you can be viewed as "smart" and "innovative" by the spreadsheet crowd? Cal Griffith was just born too early.
  17. Yawn Gardenhose
    Hard to be upset over this team right now, they're playing great. A couple things bugged me in this game, though: Why take Polanco out of the game after his fifth hit? He had a good chance at that point to either get the second cycle or a sixth hit (his turn in the order did end up coming around in the ninth). Off day tomorrow, just...why? And why did we need four pitchers to get through an 8-run win? Gibson had 88 pitches through 6 and was coasting along. Now it's "we need to get the bullpen work," where early in the year it's "we need to rest guys who pitched 1/3 of an inning in back-to-back games." I hope the analytics nerds will someday put the proper weight back on the starters; all we hear now is of how bad pitchers are when they face the order the third time, yada yada...The more bullpens are relied on, the less starters are used (look at the playoffs). Seems to me the best way to rest your bullpen, and hence maximize the utility of your bullpen, is to have your starters pitch deep into games. When you're up 8 runs and your starter has thrown 88 pitches, I don't know, have Gibson go out another inning or two. It strikes me as the perfect situation to stretch out a starter. I realize this makes me sound like a fuddy-dud/Jack Morris type, so let me have it, but it just bugs me.
  18. Yawn Gardenhose
    Nice to see the offense come out today. And Cleveland blew a seven run lead tonight, including a 7-3 lead in the ninth (five walks in that ninth - that sounds familiar). Bullpen issues not limited to the Twins.
  19. Yawn Gardenhose
    What's Reddit?
  20. Yawn Gardenhose
    An embarrassment of a series. 10% into the season is a small sample size, of course, but I don't see this team as being all that close to Cleveland, who mind you hasn't had a fully healthy Ramirez or any of Lindor yet - frankly they've been terrible offensively, and they're still four games over .500. As TK used to say, the three most important things are pitching, pitching, and pitching, and that's still holding true nowadays.
  21. Yawn Gardenhose
    Didn't catch all of the game but what I saw I liked. I don't mind Kepler in the lead-off spot, but I'd rather see Polanco there. He's good. Have they worn these blue retro-esque unis before? I can't watch every game (though usually can at least listen), so this was my first view of them. Not bad.
  22. Yawn Gardenhose
    Lineup was weird, Cruz needs another day off? I guess it's good to see Cave get in the lineup. Bullpen issues hardly need to be rehashed again, it's a grave that the front office apparently decided to dig. Duffey looked good, but we've seen that before - taking his performance with a shakerful of salt.
  23. Yawn Gardenhose
    Hildenberger has pitched 5.1 innings in 8 outings. Three of those outings lasted one batter. Five of those outings he pitched 8 pitches or less. I don't consider that "overworked."
  24. Yawn Gardenhose
    Game was managed as if they can afford to lose this game. You've had, what, eight off days in the first two weeks, and you're already got your key bullpen guys on ice? Don't know if this is Baldelli or Falvine, but it's frustrating that there was the need to dump a potentially helpful bench/part time bat (Austin) in order to get another reliever to get them through a first-week-of-the-season road trip (a seven-gamer with three off days), then have both of those "extra insurance" relievers pitch precisely like minor leaguers. Relying on Blake Parker as your ninth inning guy? I've already had it with him. Then you bring in a lefty to face all righties?? These moves make no sense individually and less sense big-picture-wise. I understand not wanting Kimbrel, and maybe they really wanted a Soria/Robertson type and just got turned down, but relying on the current group isn't exactly what contending teams do, what with the uber-importance of bullpens in today's game.
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