Jim H

Keep going. If you cut 6 players and promote 6 to Rochester, you have to promote 6 to New Britain, 6 to Fort Myers, 6 to Cedar Rapids, 6 to Elizabethan, and 6 to the GCL team. And probably hope nobody gets hurt at any level because you could run out of bodies, at least at some positions, plus having people playing at levels they may not be ready for.

Doc, I would take another Radke in a heartbeat. In the 50 plus years of Twins history, it would be hard to find 5 better Twins pitchers.

[QUOTE=jorgenswest;259488]The teams would certainly have access to any of those details and splits by park. Baseball Prospectus or Baseball Savant may have that detail. I am interested in watching how teams make roster and lineup decisions based on the pitch level data and soon batted ball fielding level data. Teams are in very different places right now with their decisions based on shifting and valuing defense from a catcher. The new data related to fielding should cause further variation in team decision making. I would certainly hope teams would have access to and actually look at those details. The stuff we see would be worthless to teams unless they actually take on faith that there is that much impact from pitch framing. This is a huge problem with most of the so-called advanced stats. Since we have no access to the formulas they use for the various FIP's, UZR, or WAR, you have to trust the creator that he is giving the same weight to the various components that you would. Since that is pretty unlikely, I just look at the components. Walk rates, SO rates, and even HR rates can tell you a lot about a pitcher. Whether FIP does, even though it contains those things, is a large question for me. Whether I would understand the formulas they use is another question. But that in itself, is part of the problem. If you don't really understand how it is derived, how can you trust what those numbers are saying.

For a counting metric, they sure make it complicated. How about if someone shows us, the actual numbers (i.e. exactly how many strikes each catcher supposedly steals). Then you look at the total games caught. If Molina steals 1 more strike per game than Suzuki, is that significant? How about 2 strikes? What if it is only a half a strike a game? This is part of issue in pitch framing for me. People are telling me it is an important stat. Let me see the raw data, and let me or you decide. And yes there are probably some significant issues with the pitch f/x data. As wonderful as modern technology is, it has to be properly set up, calibrated or whatever the right term would be. I would not be surprised if in some parks pitch f/x squeezes the strike zone, or is overly generous in others. Since the plate is only 16 inches wide, being off even an inch(which the pitch f/x literature admits could be the case) could have a large effect. It would be interesting to see if the number of disagreements between pitch f/x and the umpires varies widely by ballparks.

So how do you know he would benefit from being in the majors? How is he going to work on his 3rd pitch working out of the pen? He probably wouldn't need it in the bullpen, and in short stints, unless he has confidence in the pitch he likely wouldn't want to use it in crucial situations. Would you let him pitch in back to back games? Is it really a good idea to change a guy's whole routine when he may still be recovering from the shoulder problems from last year? I get bringing him up in September to use in the bullpen, with an expanded staff, and rather strict usage rules. I don't know about now. If he can't come up and be used as a starter, then leave him in the minors to work on things. He is not going to make a difference to Twins success this year, getting mechanics worked on and 3rd pitch work might be better served in the minors. I wouldn't mind seeing him in the majors either, but I am not as sure as you seem to be that it would be any real benefit to him.

These kind of ratings don't mean much to me. The Twins had no chance to draft Correia so they took Buxton as the one they believed was the best talent available. That is looking pretty good so far. If others from draft end better, well good for them. So far anyway, Buxton looks like a good choice for the Twins. Sometimes I think the expectations for him are a bit unrealistic but it looks like the Twins got a good one. That is what is important going forward.

Aaron Hicks is a talented player. I expect a good part of the "blame" for his failure so far is on Hicks. He should of been far enough along the development path to handle the majors better than he has so far. Some of the blame should also be on the Twins. If they don't trade both CF's, if Mastroianni stays, healthy, if there was another better option, the Twins don't let Hicks struggle like he did. I don't care particularly about why he struggled so much, hopefully he learned from it, and clearly the Twins have revised their timetable for Hicks as well. I do agree there is little value in some the comments made about both Hicks and the Twins by various posters. That however is part of what happens on these forums, especially thanks to the frustrating performance by the Twins and many players over the last few years.

I don't know the whole story on Williams, but the simple answer is for him to play better. That is how you progress in the minors. What does happen with prospects like him is that while I wouldn't classify him as an org type guy, he isn't probably considered a real high ceiling guy either. Often guys like that get worked in around higher ceiling guys who are placed where they need to be. That is my perception anyway.

I think this right. There could be a point when trading Dozier makes sense. When Rosario or Polanco get close enough to the majors and show enough to make a solid replacement for Dozier. Dozier may not get much/any better than he is now but barring injury, he is not likely to get worse. Whatever trade value he has, will be there in a year or two, if the Twins want to go in that direction. When you are rebuilding with young players, it takes a bit of time for all of them to figure things out and finish development. At some point the Arcias and Santanas have to be in the majors working things out. It is clearly better to have a solid team(like the Twins of the mid 2000's) and only have to filter in a young player or twp every year. The Twins aren't there yet, and aren't likely to try to shortcut the process through free agency or trades. At least not massively so. Perhaps we will see selected free agents and a few, mostly minor trades. I am hopeful that the pitching will be good enough over the next few years, so that we don't have to watch a trainwreck while the young, hopefully premium talent position players figure things out at the major league level. It is possible to be borderline contenders while the young talent grows into what we all hope and project they can be.

We have 70 games to look at these guys, unless there is a trade. I wouldn't be in hurry to extend any of them. Maybe Willingham gets traded, I doubt if anyone else on this list gets traded. So, let's get through the season, see how everyone did, and then make some decisions. I doubt if the Twins have ruled Pinto out as a fulltime catcher, why would they? I have no idea what the Twins should do with Morales, I doubt if they do either. Let's watch Suzuki for the rest of the season, maybe get Pinto back up in August sometime. Maybe things look a bit clearer at the end of the season. I think the Twins like Dozier a lot. But there is no big hurry to extend him or trade him or do much of anything but let him play. At some point, maybe Rosario or Polanco will get close enough to the majors and show enough that the Twins will have to make some decisions. I don't think that point is now.

One of the problems with the whole pitch framing idea is this: Pitch F/X calls the front edge of the plate, but the plate has depth(16 in). The catcher catches the ball a couple of feet? behind the plate. Where the catcher catches the ball really shouldn't matter. It is the track of the pitch that matters. Since Pitch F/X calls the front edge of the plate, it is going to be wrong sometimes on close pitches. Since umpires are apparently graded by Pitch F/X technology, I suspect the umpires are less concerned by where the catchers catch the ball, and more concerned with getting a good look at where the ball crosses or not crosses the front of the plate. That is probably what pitch framing is mostly about, trying to give the ump a good look at the ball. As far drjim wonders, I think those are good thoughts. I doubt if the cameras used in different stadiums are in actually the same places in all stadiums. I doubt if everything is always perfectly correlated either. As to the 2nd wonder, clearly when you watch games on TV it seems that different pitchers don't always seem to get the same calls from umps. It seems that pitchers like Deduno for example and maybe Gibson as well, guys who have a lot movement but not consistently the same movement don't get as many close calls. I have a hard time blaming Suzuki for that.

It is only about 2-3 years old. It is based on Pitch F/X. If a pitcher gets a strike called by the umpire on a pitch Pitch F/X called a ball, the catcher gets credit for it because of pitch framing. There are a few things to be nervous about, whether there is as much impact from a few stolen strikes as the creator suggests, the fact that Pitch F/X can't possibly be always right, whether the catcher should be the one to always get the credit, and a number of other things. It is an interesting stat, but almost certainly needs refinement, and is certainly not the end all of ways to evaluate catchers.

I am assuming/guessing that Santana will split time between CF and SS. Escobar will play SS when Santana doesn't and backup 3B and 2B. Perhaps(I would like to see) Plouffe gets a little time in LF. Since the Twins will likely be sellers as the trade deadline approaches, trades may change this a bit. I think Willingham is probably the only position player likely traded, but you never know.

It is easy to root for Walker but the contact issues are a huge concern. When you add in plate discipline issues as well, it is hard to see him as a top prospect, yet. When you compare him to say Arcia, Arcia is struggling with contact issues in the majors, yet was able to hit for average at every level as well as show comparable power to Walker. I hope Walker figures some things out, but I feel that Adam Dunn type players are somewhat overrated. Their production generally comes in bunches, with long stretches of time where they not only almost worthless offensively but are often a drag on the team if they have no defensive value or aren't walking much. I suspect there is some hope for Walker because he is considered a good athlete rather than just a bat, like several other prospects in the Twins system. I am also sure he will get opportunities, he certainly has a high ceiling.

We know that some people will take shots at the Twins organization whenever the opportunity presents. That is OK, the Twins deserve some shots. Just don't be so surprised when facts are presented to counter the shots. Especially here, where I am having a hard time figuring out what Gomez has to do with the troubles that Hicks has had. Largely, the Twins have screwed up with Hicks. Either they believed he was closer to being a major league ready hitter than he has appeared to be or there were other issues that the Twins didn't recognize soon enough. In any case they probably should of gotten him back to the minors much sooner or perhaps given him more development time before promoting him to the majors in the first place. Having said that, I am rooting for Hicks to figure it out. He certainly has talent. By the way, I was under the impression that he is switch hitting. I suspect that if he had gone back to being a right handed hitter again, it would have been widely reported.