Parker Hageman

To clarify: MBA requires all teams to have accident insurance to cover for things like "ambulatory services" for on-field injuries. From my understanding, if you tear something on the field, cannot move and require immediate medical attention, that is covered. If you throw out your shoulder or tear your UCL in your elbow and need Tommy John surgery, that is not covered.

On Sunday's radio pregame show, Jack Morris was talking about Pat Light and his use of the splitter-forkball and the disappearance of the pitch in general because of injury concerns. In 2011, the New York Times documented some of that, citing teams like the Twins discouraging pitchers from throwing it. While the pitch MAY be potentially harmful, I still haven't seen any scientific evidence that it is somehow more or less dangerous than all the other pitches.

I can't see if Dahl does the "Tommy John Twist" in that picture. LOL.

Just to clarify my stance on this issue: 1. It's town ball. I'm not advocating there should be any regulations to deal with pitch counts/limits. Everyone is an adult and is aware of the potential dangers. In regards to Dahl specifically, good for him. That's a hell of a performance that he will retell over and over again, regardless how the rest of his career goes. 2. I think there definitely should be pitch limits for youth/HS although I'm not certain I agree with the proposed 105 limit at HS level. Every pitcher is different. Some work and condition extremely hard and can easily hit those numbers. Others are bean poles and put a lot of undue pressure on the arm. Feels like there should be more case-by-case basis on how far a kid can go but I suppose the league would rather take that responsibility out of the coach's hands. 3. I think colleges need to be more diligent about their pitch counts but not as much as HS obviously. Especially around tournament time when there is a need to lean on arms. With the condensed schedule at that time and the finite amount of arms, I don't know what the recommendation should be. Guys like Roach who have college years ahead of him plus a possibility of playing pro ball shouldn't be leaned on for 170 pitches.

This past Friday, in the thick of the Minnesota State Amateur Baseball Tournament, the Moorhead Brewers’ pitcher Tanner Dahl threw not one but two complete games. When all was said and done Dahl, a recent University of Jamestown (North Dakota) graduate, walked away with two Moorhead victories, allowing just one run while running up his pitch count to a whopping 222 pitches. While the monumental performance was celebrated by Minnesota baseball enthusiasts as gritty and gutty, outside of the bubble, people were head scratching the decision to let a pitcher toss that many pitches. “It was simultaneously impressive as it was embarrassing,” Driveline Baseball’s Kyle Boddy told me about his reaction to reading Dahl’s stat line. Boddy, who works with pitchers from all levels of the game and uses a data-driven, science-based approach at studying the arm, understands the mindset of pitchers who often throw all rational thought out the window when the adrenaline is pumping.Baseball observers work themselves in to a lather over two triple-digit figures when it comes to pitching -- velocity and pitch counts. Whenever a pitcher encroaches upon either, it becomes a topic of conversation. Dahl’s totals are unfathomable at any level in this day and age. The news of Dahl’s feat spread among Baseball Twitter and soon the influencers were levying their thoughts on the crazy total of pitches. “I’m curious,” ESPN.com’s Keith Law tweeted. “Will the Brewers pay for his rehab or surgery if he hurt himself today?” The answer, obviously, is no, the Brewers will not. Not in a direct, insurance-policy-gots-you-covered-Chief sort of way. However, knowing the camaraderie and community that goes into a Minnesota town ball team, they would assuredly organize a Kickstarter or (more likely) a beer bust to help offset medical expenses incurred because of his dedication to his team. Clearly, that was Law’s point. When someone signs the mandated player contract to participate in the Minnesota Baseball Association, the language says nothing about bankrolling any major surgeries and rehab that may come from participating in the game. The 23-year-old pitcher -- who was recently a part of the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks independent league team -- was risking his future baseball livelihood and would be left paying for the repairs if his arm blew out. “Pitcher abuse” is a hot button topic. If it wasn’t, Jeff Passan’s amazing book, The Arm, would not be a New York Times bestseller. Each year during the NCAA tournament we see reports of a school having a pitcher throw 150 or more pitches only to throw again in another day or two. This season alone, a Minnesota State-Mankato pitcher caught everyone’s attention by tossing 171 pitches in an 11-inning game. On May 19, the Mavericks’ Dalton Roach threw 171 pitches in a victory over St Cloud State in NCAA D-II Regional play. Meanwhile SCSU’s starter, Reese Gregory, threw an efficient 121 pitches, just for comparison. Roach told the media after the game that he felt fine and it was OK because he threw mostly fastballs (“The single most dangerous pitch out there right now is a hard fastball. That’s typically the pitch a player gets hurt on,” Dr Pearce McCarty III, one of the Minnesota Twins’ orthopedic surgeons, told the Star Tribune recently). People called for his coach’s head. To prove how fine his arm was after the outing that incited all the pearl-clutching, a little over a week later Roach was pitching in the Northwoods League where, in his first start on May 31, he threw 101 pitches and struck out an Eau Claire Express-record 18 (he started the game by striking out the first 12 batters he faced). Roach, who is heading into his third year of college ball, would make one more start for the Express before being shut down because of an imposed innings limit. Maybe Roach is one of the genetically lucky ones -- the proverbial rubber arm. The guy whose mechanics and muscle structure refuse to break. (Or maybe the wear-and-tear just hasn’t caught up to him yet.) Still, the idea of risking his arm for a Division II championship feels short-sighted. As Boddy put it, almost all pitchers have the mentality of *wanting* to keep throwing but someone (I don’t know, a paid coach perhaps) has to be the adult in that situation. That burden of deciding when to lift the pitcher will likely be removed from the coach’s responsibility this coming season, at least at the high school level. In the Minnesota high school ranks, the state organization is currently weighing the idea of setting a pitch restriction for the young, developing arms. As it stands now, the rules are written in a way that says a pitcher cannot throw more than 14 innings in three days. That is a large enough loophole for a bullpen car to drive through. As written, it means a high school pitcher could essentially pull a Tanner Dahl, throwing back-to-back complete 7-inning games while amassing 200+ pitches. There’s nothing to stop a coach from doing that beside some attentive and vocal parents or their own conscience. It should be noted that the state’s coaches association already has suggested guidelines designed by the Mayo Clinic for pitch counts for their high school players posted on their website, such as a max of 90 pitches for a 17-to-18-year-old on four days of rest, but that’s like a beer company suggesting a fraternity “drink responsibly” during a toga party. That is why the Minnesota State High School League is taking measures to correct that. In October, the state coaches association will discuss the proposed pitch limits which caps the amount at 105 for the upperclassmen (Alabama has a 120 pitch limit) and 85 for the younger grades with required rest days in between outings. How would that process work? The high school association in Illinois recently outlined a similar proposal, limiting their pitchers to a 115-pitch count. It would require teams to keep track of both theirs and the opposing team’s pitch count, and compare pitch count totals during even-numbered innings. The oversight is needed. These are all good steps for the developing pitcher with a future ahead of him. While it makes sense to monitor a college pitcher whose financial aid or potential professional career may be tied to being able to pitch (and not recovering from arm surgery) or keeping the teenage hurler injury-free so that he may have better looks from colleges and the professional ranks, amateur players like Dahl and others operate in a Lord of the Flies-like town ball baseball society. From personal experience, I played on a team with a pitcher who had a decent college career and played for several years in independent ball prior to joining the team. Despite the fact that he was retired from his professional ranks, he was no less tenacious in his approach. He was six-foot-plus, the size of a fullback and had legs like sequoias. On his day to pitch, he had such intense, laser focus that I was positive that somewhere in the universe another planet exploded from its force. It was going to take a tranq gun to pry the ball out of his hand. He could, and routinely did, throw over 120 pitches a game. There’s no question in my mind that someone was constantly asking Dahl if he felt all right each time he came back in the dugout beyond the seventh inning of the first game and each inning into the second game. One of the team’s administrators tweeted back at Law and said that their number two starter was ready to go the moment Dahl said he was done. Hell, even former major league catcher Chris Coste plays on Dahl’s team (he smacked a dinger in the tournament). There were plenty of grown adults well aware of the situation. At 23 years old, you probably still want to play some baseball in the summer for a few more years, or eventually play catch with your kid, or not pay for major surgery. For outsiders, risking all that for a Class “B” town ball title feels like a silly gamble. That being said, if he does blow out his arm because of the 222-pitch day, Dahl will always be able to retell the story about the day he threw back-to-back complete games and helped lift his team into the 2016 championship game. Click here to view the article

Lewin Diaz was definitely one of my five favorite swingers coming into the season -- http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins-minor-leagues/five-hitters-deserving-of-your-attention-r4332 (four out of five ain't bad) -- good to see that he continued to mash.

As much as I like Bautista and having his presence around the lineup and clubhouse, I'm not sure there is room for him in the outfield -- as the Twins current envision things. He's another corner outfielder/first base/DH type that the system is lousy with. Now, if the Twins move Rosario/Kepler or someone else this offseason for pitching, Bautista would make some sense. I don't know what he is looking for but I'm sure it is a hefty price tag after the years he has had and, at age-35, he's prime for regression. How's that for talking in a full circle?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ But I will say, the Blue Jays routinely use Jose Bautista in the leadoff spot. The difference, I think, is that the Blue Jays have two or three other 30 home run bats behind him. What a terrible problem to have.

As the Minnesota Twins slipped across Lake Erie and back into the United States on Sunday night following a three-game series in Toronto, the pitching staff would not be blamed if they sat the entire flight curled in the fetal position. The stats were horrific. Over the weekend series the Blue Jays mashed nine home runs, ten doubles and scampered for one triple. They compiled 38 hits overall and plated 32 runs. They walked more than they struck out. This was nothing new. Since the beginning of 2015 Toronto has out-slugged, out-homered and out-scored everybody. They also have the second-highest on-base percentage, falling just being the Red Sox. The series against the Twins was just business as usual for the pride of Canada. When it comes to hitting, the Toronto Blue Jays just get it.Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky doesn’t think Toronto’s style of offense -- from the big movements and swings from likes of Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Edwin Encarnacion and others -- is anything new to the club. “It started a long time ago,” said Twins hitting coach Tom Brunansky. “I think that philosophy started when Cito Gaston was there, when he was their hitting guy. Then it kinda took off when Cito was the manager and then they had Dwayne Murphy there, you know Murph had a leg kick. I think you can go back to the days when George Bell, Lloyd Moseby and Jesse Barfield and the era that I played, those were the same type of guys, a bunch of free swingers.” It is true that Gaston and Murphy are credited with helping Bautista unlock his swing that has resulted in 243 home runs in 6 years -- the most in baseball in that time -- but there are also guys like Donaldson who refined his mechanics while in Oakland and other players such as Danny Valencia, Chris Colabello and Kevin Pillar who have patterned some elements of their swing after Donaldson (in conjunction with the Blue Jays coaching staff). After all, the Blue Jays third baseman blew the lid off the hitting community with his recent breakdown of his process on the MLB Network. That ideology goes beyond just grip-and-rip, what Donaldson talks about is closer to a cheat code. Twins third baseman Trevor Plouffe agrees that it is invaluable to have players around who like to bounce swing talk off one another. Brian Dozier said he learned how to decimate fastballs by watching and picking the brains of Justin Morneau and Josh Willingham. If it is Bautista and Donaldson encouraging organizational newcomers like Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki to add more rhythm to their swing or transfer more weight on their back legs before driving at the the ball, that type of communication can influence the makeup of an entire lineup. Plouffe, who the Twins drafted out of Crespi Carmelite High School in 2004, highlighted some of the differences in philosophy between the two organizations. Early in his development, Plouffe said there was an emphasis placed on just making contact and that came with a request to alter his swing. “I remember coming into my rookie ball season and I went and just played,” Plouffe said. “I thought I did a pretty good job. Then the following spring training our hitting coordinator, [Jim Dwyer], wanted to change some things and I was up for the change. I wanted to produce and do well by the team and the organization. He started to have me do a toe-tap thing. It started to evolve from there. I didn’t really have success with [the toe tap] and as I got a little older and further up the line, I realized that you have to do what’s comfortable for you.” Plouffe’s story does not differ much from that of Byron Buxton. Buxton says that the Twins staff changed him in rookie ball, slowing down his movement and installing a toe-tap stride. Four years later, Buxton is struggling to rediscover his original swing which made him the most sought after draft pick in 2012. Plouffe eventually landed on a leg lift as a timing mechanism, which coincides when he started hitting for power. According to Plouffe, Brunansky calls his swing “awkward” and “unorthodox”. The Twins do have plenty of hitters who come into the system, either by draft, trade or signing, who have incorporated the big movements in their swing similar to what is seen from the Blue Jays lineup. Some hitters who have passed through the organization have complained that the Twins have tried to get them to eliminate that portion of their swing, sending them into disastrous stretches because they are trying to overhaul a key component of their swing in season. Brunansky said that is not his philosophy and that the organization does not tell their hitters to tone down the swing. “One thing is you never want to take away somebody’s ability,” said Brunansky. “If they want to use a leg kick and that’s something they feel good about and that’s who they are, we will certainly work with it. [The leg kick] is gonna continue until they prove that they can’t [use it]. That’s the one thing once you get to this level up here, the game dictates whether you can or can’t.” In regards to copying the Blue Jays’ approach, Brunansky bristles a bit. “I think that they come in free to not worry about certain things,” Brunansky said of Toronto’s organizational hitting philosophy. “They’re not worried about striking out. They are not worried about putting the ball in play in certain situations. They are going to go attack. They figure they are going to do enough damage.” Brunansky said that differs from his philosophy, which places priority on not striking out in key situations. The Blue Jays approach, he believes, will lead to more strikeouts. “I’m not a big fan of strikeouts and I know the game has progressed to the point where strikeouts have become commonplace,” he emphasized. “I certainly don’t want it to be such a negative where hitters fear getting in the box with two strikes. I don’t like strikeouts with runners on base -- and certainly not with a runner on third. And I get it, you are not always going to put the ball in play with a runner on third but that has been a backbreaker for us.” It is a misconception that the Blue Jays’ approach equates to strikeouts. After all, since the start of the 2015 season, they have struck out in 20% of their plate appearances, 20th of the 30 teams. And their contributors in Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion all have strikeout rates well below the league’s average. Meanwhile, the Twins’ just-put-it-play mindset has led to a 21.5% strikeout rate, 9th highest out of 30. The Twins have had a history of players who have had minimal, foot-down-early approaches over the last decade plus. Joe Mauer excels at the craft of hitting by reducing his movement. Miguel Sano’s approach involves minimal movements. Brian Dozier’s power numbers are a testament to the notion that you don’t have to have any leg kick if you do everything else right in the swing. In the modern game, however, that kind of thinking has gone by the wayside, along with pitch-to-contact pitchers. “There is a lot more video available now, I think people understand now that you need to get to a certain spot but you can get to that spot in a lot of different ways,” Plouffe said. “In my opinion you don’t want to conform everybody to the same type of swing because everybody has grown up swinging differently. We’ve swung for 27 years now and it’s who we are. If you can get to that certain spot, people are realizing there are a million different ways to get there.” Click here to view the article

Per reporters: Twins are sending him and Tyler Duffey down to Rochester.

Still not fixed, btw.

Gotcha.

What? I'm not being technical. The point is the Twins are being too technical, and in this case, feeding him false information.

Another interesting tidbit is Berrios' release point has dropped some in August. Obviously there is not a ton of data from earlier in his development (mostly AZ Fall and MiLB All Star Game appearances) and the drop is roughly .3 inches but the Twins have driven home finding his release point.

Most Pitches Pulled, Last 30 Days: 1. Carlos Santana: 64% 2. BRIAN DOZIER 62% 3. Danny Espinosa 60% (Career Avg 51%) 4. Edwin Encarnacion 58% 5. Gregory Polanco 57% League Avg.............40% Don't believe the hype. As he has said, they've worked on keeping his barrel in the zone longer which has resulted in better struck balls going the other way versus rolling over on them, but his bread and butter is being able to yank pitches into the seats.

That was the best thing he said.

Let's just summarize all the (known) advice Jose Berrios has been given: 1. Ervin Santana told him he was "opening up his front hip too fast, spinning away from the target". http://www.twincities.com/2016/08/15/twins-using-village-to-help-struggling-jose-berrios/ 2. Neil Allen told him he needs to pick up the tempo. http://www.startribune.com/twins-ask-jose-berrios-to-pick-up-the-pace-on-the-mound/390656141/ 3. In the same article, Allen also told Berrios that wrapping the ball behind his back was hurting his command. 4. Bert Blyleven had told him to work on his release point. 5. And, finally, Blyleven said that they were working on pushing off that pitching rubber. That's a lot of things for a pitcher to take with him into a start.

Overall point: "pushing off the rubber" -- as he was describing it during the broadcast -- does little for power or command. I know (hope?) Bert means something different that what he explained on TV when he and/or Neil Allen were working with Berrios in the bullpen.

On Friday night in Kansas City Bert Blyleven described to viewers what he and the Twins’ coaching staff were working on with Jose Berrios in order to straighten him out. “Right...there!” Blyleven exclaimed as Berrios delivered a fastball for strike three to the Royals’ Jarrod Dyson in the bottom of the first. It was a beautiful pitch that was beautifully executed by the rookie. “EXPLODE towards home plate,” he emphasized. As the replay of the strikeout rolled, Blyleven further elaborated by saying “once you get to that balance point, utilize the rubber and explode towards home plate” and that Berrios needed to “push off” the rubber more. And just like that, Jose Berrios was fixed forever, right?For those who are able to see the embedded Twitter post, you can watch and listen to the entire conversation here: Berrios, of course, came unglued shortly thereafter. He issued four walks and allowed four runs to score during his four innings of work. He either stopped exploding towards home plate or that wasn’t the pitching tip that was going to remedy what ails him. Now, regular Twins broadcast viewers will recall this pitching advice. This, along with a “good downward plane”, have become common pitching jargon slung around for years. Scott Baker never figured out how to get a good downward plane. It has come to the point where if any Twins pitcher is struggling, the inevitable cure from the broadcast booth would likely be one of those two remedies. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that Bert Blyleven doesn’t know pitching. Bert Blyleven has forgotten more about pitching in the time it took you to get to this point in the sentence than most people hope to learn in a lifetime. However, when it comes to utilizing the rubber by pushing off, as Blyleven suggests, science might not agree with the Dutchman’s assessment. According to Kyle Boddy and his Driveline Baseball think tank in Seattle, Washington has studied the “push off” phenomenon and his preliminary research shows that the back leg push off is not the velocity-inducing catalyst that people think it is. Boddy offered the Mariners’ Arquimedes Caminero as a good example of how velocity isn’t generated off the back leg. When he gets to his balance point and goes forward, his foot disengages the rubber area but doesn’t push off. http://i.imgur.com/cxLJzHG.gif When it comes this particular pitching cue, Blyleven is incorrect. By Boddy’s account, coming from someone who has dedicated his career to understanding the science behind it, pushing from the back leg has little influence on velocity or command. What we hear from players, former players and coaches is a disconnect between what they FELT and what is actually happening during the process. To Blyleven, the act of driving off the back leg may have felt like pushing off the pitching rubber but that is not what actually transpires in the kinetic chain. Berrios’ problem does not stem from not utilizing the pitching rubber enough. In the case of Berrios’ development, as Mike Berardino of the St Paul Pioneer Press recently phrased it, the Twins are using a “village” approach. In addition to Blyleven, Berrios has been receiving advice from Neil Allen, Eddie Guardado and teammate Ervin Santana. While the guidance from multiple experienced baseball men can be beneficial, there is also the danger that a young prospect has too many messages being communicated -- especially when some of the advice, in spite of the well-meaning nature, is wrong. There is no denying that Berrios needs refinement. When it comes to his fastball command, he has found the zone just 46% of the time -- compared to the 53.5% major league average. In fact, of those who have thrown 350 or more fastballs, Berrios’ in-zone rate is the fifth lowest. Beyond that, Berrios also struggles to command his fastball in the zone, missing the glove by a wide margin and winding up in a hitter’s whump-em zone. Download attachment: Berrios KC.PNG That being said, in spite of the poor command, Berrios’ movement and velocity on his fastball has also incited plenty of swing-and-misses making it a very good potential weapon. Right now his fastball gets a swinging strike 9.3% of the time it’s thrown -- well above the league average of 7.5%. By comparison, the hard-throwing Noah Syndergaard gets a swinging strike 9.5% of the time. That would be good over the course of an entire season. That would be really good. http://i.imgur.com/VH4xtUF.gif Guardado told me something in spring training that resonated about his instructional approach and the psyche of pitchers in general. “I don’t like to go in there and fix a damn engine when you only need to change a spark plug,” he said. “That’s what I try to do. Keep it simple, keep it easy. Not too much to think about because it is already tough to go out there and the pressure out there trying to compete.” There is a lot of pressure. Especially for someone who has been deemed the team’s top pitching prospect and one -- through various social media channels -- who has also set a lofty expectation for himself as well. Berrios has talent, skill and dedication like few others have ever had or ever wish to have and he has carved up hitters in the minor leagues. It is only a matter of time before it all clicks. Click here to view the article

https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/762718005440589824

Jon Heyman is reporting the Twins and Red Sox have an agreement on Fernando Abad.

Before we get too excited about this, let's keep in mind that pitch f/x hasn't always categorized fastballs accurately. For instance, in 2014 they said he threw 17% 4-seam but he was almost exclusively sinkers. When you look at the game charts, the ones labeled "4-seamers" moved the same as the ones labeled "sinkers". The impressive part is that he is throwing very few secondary pitches in the mix. He's essentially a one-pitch pitcher. Only Kenley Jansen, Zach Britton and Sean Doolittle have leaned on one-pitch more than Kintzler. **Here's another thing: Britton probably has the best sinking fastball in the game right now. He grips it like a 2-seamer with a slight cross grip. Kintzler, who they categorize as a "sinker", holds his in almost the exact same way. They both have very similar vertical movement (Britton's is thrown much harder) resulting in sink but one is a sinker and the other is a 2-seamer. Shruggy guy.