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Parker Hageman

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Blog Entries posted by Parker Hageman

  1. Parker Hageman
    Twins Daily’s Seth Stohs tweeted that this morning on ESPN1500’s Judd & Phunn show, co-host Joe Anderson, aka “Phunn”, “just bashed blogs and big-timed all fans for not being in the clubhouse.” Anderson apparently said that only then could bloggers and fans have opinions.
     
    Not having heard the rant live (you can likely go to the show’s webpage and catch it on-demand shortly), I cannot comment on the overall tone of Anderson’s remarks. He’s a radio guy that is likely making a statement just to push the envelope and rile people up. All in all, it’s likely not worth the time reacting to it.
     
    But, still, I feel as if I must.
     
    As a blogger, I do find his take unenlightened. We at TwinsCentric strive to put out high quality content that goes beyond the brick and mortar of the confines of the clubhouse. John Bonnes has done extensive studies on the team’s payroll. No need to access the clubhouse for that. Seth Stohs has limitless connections within and knowledge of the team’s minor league system that puts many in the Twins organization to shame. No need for clubhouse access for him. Nick Nelson provides unparalleled commentary on the team that does not require him to be in the pressbox nightly. Beyond our group are plenty of other writers who have used the internet to provide outstanding insight without ever having had stepped foot in a locker room of any sport.
     
    Certainly there is a genre of bloggers and fans that light up the internets or radio lines to offer their opinions that may have no grounding in reality. They may be out of left field but that does not mean they don’t have the right to have those opinions. Here at Twins Daily, we welcome those opinions – no matter how off-base they may be (just so they are not off-color). We hope you contribute all of your information. Having clubhouse access is not a prerequisite for providing thoughtful commentary or analysis.
  3. Parker Hageman
    One of the questions posed on our new TwinsDaily.com message board was how will the Twins account for 200 runs in their runs scored/runs allowed differential over the 2011 season which would bring the club back towards 81 wins and beyond.
     
    On the defensive/pitching side of the ledger, Minnesota allowed 804 runs – the second-highest in the American League behind only Baltimore. At the plate, they managed to score just 619 – the second-fewest ahead of only Seattle. It is simple enough: In order to become a competitive team again, this year’s squad needs to shave off runs allowed and increase the runs scored.
     
    Yes, the 2011 Twins scored less frequently than your standard World of Warcraft participant but there are plenty of reasons why fans should anticipate a boost in runs scored in 2012. One such reason more offense by the Twins should be expected is because of the overhaul at the top of the order.
     
    From this chart below, you can see that based on a team’s ability to get their first two hitters in the order on base regularly, their scoring tendency increased:
     
    [TABLE=width: 192, align: center]

    [TD=colspan: 3]Lead-off & Two-hitter (2011)[/TD]



    Team
    On-Base Percentage
    Runs


    BOS
    0.369
    875


    NYY
    0.355
    867


    TEX
    0.351
    855


    TBR
    0.340
    707


    TOR
    0.335
    743


    KCR
    0.334
    730


    CWS
    0.327
    654


    LAA
    0.321
    667


    DET
    0.320
    787


    CLE
    0.317
    704


    BAL
    0.317
    708


    OAK
    0.316
    645


    MIN
    0.304
    619


    SEA
    0.295
    556
    [/TABLE]
     
     
    Of course, there are a lot of variables that go into a team’s ability to generate runs that extend just beyond the first two hitters. For example, while the Rays were able to set their table extremely well, the team’s bottom of the order, spots seven through nine, hit a paltry .216/.219/.330 throughout the season. This top heavy production likely cost Tampa some runs over the year. On the other hand, the Detroit Tigers had the opposite effect. Their top of the order, starting with Austin Jackson, had a difficult time getting on base. Instead of getting runners on from the top of the lineup, the middle of Detroit’s order – hitter’s three through six – mashed to the tune of .305/.369/.482. This led to 787 runs, the fourth-highest in the American League last year. With the exception of those outliers, a team’s offense and their performance at the top of the order is fairly intertwined.
     
    Obviously, a team like the Red Sox, Yankees and Rangers have consistent lineup from top to bottom while teams like the Orioles, A’s and Mariners had holes everywhere. A team bursting with hitting is likely going to score more runs. In many ways, the Twins were no different from those bottom-feeding clubs. Injuries diluted the lineup so much it became as potent as a watered-down liquor bottle in the cabinet of a high school kid’s parents’ house.
     
    Even with a thin lineup, the 2011 Twins top of the order lacked any means to jumpstart the offense. Denard Span started the season off well but the concussion greatly reduced his production before he was sidelined. His replacement, Ben Revere, was learning on the job and posted a .310 on-base percentage – a very lackluster rate for a leadoff man. In the two-spot, Alexi Casilla posted a .322 on-base percentage but he too was injured and the spot in the order was given most often to Trevor Plouffe, who had a .305 on-base percentage. So even with the dilapidated lineup in the season’s second-half the Twins did not provide the middle-of-the-order much of an opportunity to drive in runs.
     
    It is clear that if the team wants to compete in 2011, they need to score runs. With Joe Mauer claiming to be in excellent physical condition this spring and Josh Willingham entering into the picture, the heart of the order should be at the very least incrementally strong than it was a year ago. The trick is having a pair of hitters that can be on base for the big sticks to do their work.
     
    While he admits there have been some good days and bad days when it comes to his recovery, for now, there is optimism that Span is ready to go. An owner of a career .361 on-base percentage, when he has been healthy, he’s been one of the game’s best lead-off hitters. Even though he has had a down year in 2010, he appeared to be on the path to a rebound season in 2011: Prior to his collision with Royals catcher Brayan Pena, he was holding an OBP north of his current career rate.
     
    Following Span in the order will likely be new addition Jamey Carroll. Carroll is a prototypical number two hitter – able to get on base as well as move runners over by hitting behind them. Provided that he can play serviceable defense in the twilight of his career, he should be a solid contributor out of the two spot.
     
    With Span and Carroll as the lineup’s opening acts, the Twins should be climbing the on-base chart and, as such, should be scoring more runs and thereby closing that important 200-run differential chasm.
  6. Parker Hageman
    La Valle had a good piece on Rule 5 pick Terry Doyle at the Strib today. The 26-year-old right-hander discussed some his route to the Twins organization, listening in on Internet radio at his home in Warwick, Rhode Island when he found out that Minnesota had drafted him.
     
    For their part, the Twins were impressed with Doyle’s performance in the Arizona Fall League in which he went while in the Chicago system and, as Neal writes, “Doyle he was dominant at times while going 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA in eight starts for the Mesa Solar Sox.” With their scouts on hand, Twins GM Terry Ryan told Neal that they were impressed by Doyle’s repertoire:
     
     
    Reaffirming the Twins scouting department’s belief in Doyle is Baseball America’s JJ Cooper assessment. Heading into the Rule 5 draft, Cooper wrote:
     
     
    Not to diminish the accolades of being anointed one of the league’s Rising Stars or what is perceived as solid stuff by Baseball America, Doyle’s small sample size dominance in the desert leaves some wondering if that was more enigmatic than breakthrough. After all, his batting average on balls in play was ridiculously low (.127) even for a workload of just under 30 innings. In a recent chat, ESPN.com’s prospect guru fielded a question regarding Doyle’s chances of being an impact player to which Law responded “[f]ringe guy. Don't see a big league role for him.”
     
    Again, Doyle appears to be a smart pitcher – as alluded to by both Ryan and Cooper – and majored in math at Boston College. During an interview with Fangraphs.com’s irreplaceable David Laurila, Laurila asked the math major what, if any, can Doyle as a pitcher derive from applied statistics. To which, the pitchers said:
     
     
    Reading that interview, you understand why Doyle is what has become the archetypical Twins pitcher – he throws strikes and he lets his defense do the work. What’s more is that he understands his limitations. He doesn’t have a devastating fastball but incorporates a cutter to provide a variety of movement. As Cooper said, he will use his secondary stuff early in the count to keep opponents off-balanced. Perhaps most important, he pounds the strike zone with all four offerings. This method has led to high ground ball rates and low walk-rates.
     
    Doyle’s road to Minnesota may be filled with plenty of hurdles this spring but, if he gets there, you can certainly envision him thriving in the organization’s pitching system.
  7. Parker Hageman
    Without a doubt, there will be plenty of storylines to monitor during spring training this year. One of the bigger ones that you should keep an eye on in Fort Myers is Francisco Liriano’s fastball.
     
    Injuries took him out of the 2011 season but it was clear that the southpaw was not the same pitcher as he was the season before. Between a decrease in velocity, an inability to locate his fastball and regularly falling behind his opponents, Liriano posted a career high in walks (75) and his second-worst ERA of his career (5.09). Perhaps a bit predictably based upon his delivery and past history, he succumbed to injuries midway through last season and missed a significant amount of time. Suddenly, not signing Liriano to a long-term deal became one of Bill Smith’s finest moves as a GM.
     
    For his part, Liriano, who was admonished for not following through with offseason workouts before last season, opted to participate in winter ball – the same platform that helped him regain his form two seasons ago. Unfortunately, the results were not quite as enticing this year as they were in the past. He threw 24.2 innings and posted a 25/16 K/BB ratio in winter ball. This outcome was a distant cry from his 2009 winter league performance in which he reintroduced himself to baseball as one of the more filthy pitchers in baseball. That year in 20 innings Liriano posted a 30/5 K/BB ratio on his way to becoming one of the Twins more dominating starters in the 2010 regular season.
     
    Admittedly, each pitch thrown between November and April means very little in the grand scheme yet the signs are not wholly positive at this juncture. What can Liriano do to become the pitcher the Twins so desperately need in 2012?
     
    There’s no question that he still has the nasty slider that can catapult him towards being a Cy Young-caliber pitcher, however, as I detailed following Liriano’s first outing this offseason in the Dominican, the main question is whether he can command his fastball.
     
    According to BrooksBaseball.net’s pitch f/x data, Liriano’s fastball was vastly different from the 2010 predecessor:
     
    [TABLE]

    [TD=colspan: 4, align: center]Liriano’s Fastballs (2010 vs 2011)[/TD]


    [TD=align: center][/TD]
    [TD=align: center]MPH[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]Called Strike[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]Whiff[/TD]


    [TD=align: center]2010 Four-Seamer[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]94.6[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]17.6%[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]15.1%[/TD]


    [TD=align: center]2010 Two-Seamer[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]94.3[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]21.2%[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]13.1%[/TD]


    [TD=align: center]2011 Four-Seamer[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]92.4[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]17.2%[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]10.8%[/TD]


    [TD=align: center]2011 Two-Seamer[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]92.5[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]14.7%[/TD]
    [TD=align: center]12.3%[/TD]

    [/TABLE]
     
    In addition to the decrease in velocity, notice the sharp decline in the amount of called strikes with his two-seamed fastball. This is the pitch he uses most often against right-handed opponents. This may explain why his walk rate when facing righties jumped from 8.5% in 2010 to 12.8% in 2011. Having scouted a couple of Liriano’s outings in the Dominican, you can see that he was still struggling to place the pitch in the Caribbean – specifically his two-seamed fastball against right-handers.
     
    Outside of Scott Baker, the Twins have little in their rotation of being an elite pitcher. In order to reach that echelon which the team so desperately needs, Liriano, besides being healthy, needs to see an improved fastball in 2012.
  8. Parker Hageman
    Hitting coach Joe Vavra recently shared some ideas behind what was causing the drought at the plate with the Pioneer Press’s Tom Powers. Plenty of factors played into the team’s offensive ineptitude but for those who did make it to the plate, Vavra felt that the approach was fundamentally lacking:
     

    Despite some fans objections to the contrary, Joe Vavra comes off as a smart, intelligent and process-oriented hitting coach. I have personally never had the opportunity to meet with him however in interviews and articles about him, he comes off as someone who has a keen understanding of the art and science of hitting. After all, as stated in this column and in previous interviews, he has a history of checking data to assist in his techniques and teachings – and advanced viewpoint coming from a position that has historically been of the “see ball, hit ball, spit chew, little bingo, how now brown cow” ilk.
     
    In that particular piece, Vavra does not outright say what constitutes “struggling” or rather which metric he uses to gauge that, however, he cited batting average a number of times. Because pull-hitting often takes a toll on a player’s average, you can see why the Twins would want to discourage this practice. Using more of the field is an indication that a hitter is able to handle more pitches in more zones. For example, if a right-handed hitter gets too pull-happy and attempts to turn on a pitch on the outer-half, odds are they will be pulling something towards the shortstop rather than “going with the pitch” to right field. In theory, opposing teams will recognize this and attack the outer-half more which will incite a player to turn-over on the pitch more often and drag down his batting average.
     
    This more or less seems to be what Vavra is saying happened to the 2011 squad, particularly the young right-handed hitters.
     
    Given that the Twins cycled through a greater number of younger hitters through the lineup that hit from the right side (Trevor Plouffe, Luke Hughes, Drew Butera, Joe Benson, etc) Vavra’s theory makes sense. Not surprising, the data indicates that the right-handers turned on 29.9% of their balls in play – a sizeable jump from the 24.3% pull rate in 2010. As such, righties hit .237 as a group, their lowest in the past three seasons:
     

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_hKDcxyuj2I/TzyTeNq-oVI/AAAAAAAAAT0/cYEjF4OJWXA/s1600/RHB_Pulling.jpg

     
    Now, the batted ball data shows the outcome but it clearly does not show intent. That is something that hitting coaches can detect and video can reveal a bit more on what a hitter was trying to do when being pitched away. While a near 30% pull rate is high, there may be more outer-half pitches that hitters attempted to pull but directed them towards center instead of right field. What data might show some of that is the precipitous drop in using the opposite field successfully over the past three years. The idea is that if a hitter is focused on going oppo, the result should be better:

     
    http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NLvtY0KW4pI/TzyTkrDc0iI/AAAAAAAAAT8/_MP1V7hKNUw/s1600/RHB_Oppo.jpg
     



    As you can glean, the 2011 Twins were considerably less successful at going the opposite direction than their predecessors. If the 2011 lineup was indeed less focused on driving shots to right field, it is reflective in those splits.


     
    So, redirecting those players who may have grown too pull-happy like Trevor Plouffe or Danny Valencia back towards the big part of the field may help bolster their batting average but what of the power?
     
    As I’ve written about extensively here, Target Field plays more favorably for pull hitters. This offseason, Josh Willingham and Ryan Doumit were added to the lineup and both hitters showed clear pull tendencies over their careers. In Willingham’s case, he moved to Oakland and grew increasingly pull-happy to combat the spacious park. Although he set a career high in home runs (29) that came at the expense of over 20 batting average points and a significant amount of on-base numbers. If the team wants the home runs added to the repertoire, they should encourage Willingham to keep the same approach he had as an Athletic.
     
    Not long ago, the Twins tinkered with Hardy’s approach at the plate, suggesting he was getting too pull-happy. Hardy had incorporated the opposite-field mentality to his approach which the Orioles hitting coach told him to forget. Not only did Hardy’s batting average remain at a high level after going back to being a pull hitter, he also jacked 30 home runs.
     
    Will Vavra allow Willingham and Doumit to retain their approaches? Of course it is up to the individual but it sounds as if Vavra had his way, it sounds like he would discourage the pair from this method. According to Tom Powers’ column, the Pioneer Press scribe posited the question if power hitters should try “to yank the ball” to which Vavra replied “I’d challenge them on that”. The reasoning behind Vavra’s contention was never clarified but I would speculate that it has to do with what amounts to a batting average drain.
     
    Clearly, talent certainly played a key factor in the degeneration of the batting average from the right-side for the Twins but the inexperience and the pull-heavy tendencies also contributed. The old adage “hit it where it’s pitched” applies. Still, pulling the ball is not as big of an enemy to the offense as some would think.
  9. Parker Hageman
    Each spring fans are entertained by non-news news from the southern camps in Florida relating to how great of shape a player is in, how re-dedicated they are, etc, etc. Early February brings a lot of "I feel great" moments from players who were injured the previous season and, of course, wealthy catcher Joe Mauer is one such player who draws this kind of attention from the media.
     
    In January, right around TwinsFest when Mauer made a quick circuit of local appearances, reports spread that the catcher had put on nearly 30 pounds - some of which was weight that needed to be replaced after supposedly losing so much over the course of the 2011 season. Mauer, who has a home in the Ft Myers area, has joined in with some of the early arrivals to get back into game shape. Reporters, milling around for a story, inquired about the added weight to which Mauer said:
     
     
    What may be important to the baseball-side of this quote is that according to the Twins roster, Mauer is listed at 235 pounds - roughly 10-15 pounds from where he is now. Since his marvelous 2009 season in which he slugged 28 home runs in 606 plate appearances, Mauer has tagged just 12 in his last 917 plate appearances dating back to 2010. So putting 10-to-15 pounds of muscle on his 6-foot-5 frame would be a good start towards hitting those 2009-type numbers again. Unfortunately, with the season a little over a month-and-a-half away, adding poundage seems like a tall task given the amount of conditioning and weight-loss players typically encounter in the spring.
  10. Parker Hageman
    Joe Mauer has spent a substantial amount of time over the past few weeks on various media outlets attempting to erase memories of his contributions (or lack thereof) to the 99-loss season.
     
    He’s working hard. He’s putting on weight. He’s eating Wheaties. He’s saying his prayers. He's drinking nothing but unicorn milk. He’s doing the Rocky IV training in Russia. He’s P90X-ing while Tae Bo-ing. Etc. Etc.
     
    Merited or not, he has earned himself a reputation among the media types as being soft. KFAN’s Dan Barreiro had an on-going bit entitled “How Long Would Mauer Milk It?” alluding to various other afflictions (rug burn, paper cuts, etc) and the time the Twins catcher would spend on the bench. This also leaked from being a local gag to a more national sentiment. In fact, Chicago Sun-Times columnist Joe Cowley recently wrote that “Joe Mauer is the guy in the foxhole who’d rather push someone else onto the grenade than risk his hair getting messed up.” That’s a pretty damning view of his character, especially coming from a visiting columnist who does not see the inner workings of the clubhouse last year.
     
    True, while he may have ticked off some teammates and writers with his spa treatment in the whirlpool facilities, when he was on the field his performance was substandard for the bar that Mauer had set. Clearly, one of the biggest mitigating factors behind this was his health. It is unfortunate that he has had to jump through these hoops to explain that he wasn’t 100% last year but that comes with the $23 million dollar territory.
     
    During an interview on1500ESPN with Tom Pelissero and Phil Mackey, Twins hitting coach Joe Vavra discussed what he perceived as causes for Mauer’s disappointing 2011 season and the effects the various injuries and ailments had on his performance. Because of his leg injury, Vavra said that the Twins catcher had troubles “getting off his backside and favored his legs a bit.” This, he said, led to more head movement as well as him being “unable to turn on the ball.”
     
    Vavra, a very astute hitting coach, said he first noticed the change in Mauer late in the 2010 season when he showed less of a tendency to turning on the ball. The subsequent offseason surgery and inability to fully recuperation likely exacerbated his leg issues into the “bi-lateral leg weakness” that sprung up. Without much of a foundation, Mauer struggled to pull the ball in addition to lifting the ball in the air.
     
    As anyone who has spent one iota of time watching the Twins knows, Mauer’s bread-and-butter has been his ability to go the other way. Not only is he able to drive the pitch on the outer-half to left field, he often uses that inside-outside to muscle pitches on the inner-half the other way as well. After all, he’s a .436 career hitter when going oppo and, during his magical 2009 MVP season in which he smacked 28 home runs, a high percentage of his home runs were actually hit to left field (11 opposite field home runs).
     
    Even though he made his millions feasting on left field, he still showed the potential to sock one to right every now and then. In 2011, that tendency decreased considerable. As you can see, Mauer’s ability to pull the ball has diminished some in comparison to the past several years and compared to his career too:
     

    http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_images/Mauer_Pulling.jpg

     
     
    Similarly, Mauer had troubles lifting the ball to center as well, showing little power when smacking a pitch back up-the-middle:
     

    http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_images/Mauer_Center.jpg

     
     
    Visually, his batted ball spray chart tells the same story. In 2009 and 2010 Mauer placed hits liberally to mid-to-deep center field and right field. That essentially evaporated in 2011 as only a handful of balls leaked out to (and over) the wall.
     

    http://apps.startribune.com/blogs/user_images/Mauer_Spray_Chart.jpg

     
    What all this says is that he did not drive the ball as well as he did as recently as 2010.
     
    As the data showed above, Mauer definitely struggled to get around on pitches but what’s more is that he was unable to generate any lift. In 2011, just 21.5% of the balls he hit were of the fly ball variety – the lowest rate of his career. This put him in the category with punch-and-judy slap hitters like Ben Revere, Wilson Valdez, Derek Jeter, Ichiro Suzuki and Elvis Andrus – the only hitters ahead of him who hit fewer fly balls. Without a strong foundation, hitters have troubles elevating the ball and without elevation, you lose extra base hit capabilities.
     
    A year ago, Vavra cited Denard Span’s head movement as a major impetus behind his drop-off in 2010. That season, Span’s number declined as his groundball rate grew a bit. According to Vavra, Span was demonstrating too much head movement, rising up when the pitch was coming and causing him to shift the plane which led to less square contact. Now Vavra has made a mention of this being one of the issues for Mauer. If Mauer has been doing the same thing, it is not showing up on video footage of him (at least not to the extent that Span’s head movement had shown).Nevertheless, his 55.4% groundball rate in 2011 was the highest of his career and changing his vision plane would be a logical source for this increase.
    What are the odds that Mauer can bring himself back up into shape for 2012?
     
    Mauer had said he has rededicated himself this offseason, reportedly adding 30 pounds after shedding so much during the season last year, but mostly concentrating on his knee:

    "My workouts at this point were focused on rehabbing the knee, and I really didn't get to work on other things. Being a baseball player, with all the other movements you need to make, you need to focus on total body, and I'm able to do that now.”
     
    If healthy in 2012, Mauer should be able to turn on the ball a bit more, adding some lift and distance, and make people forget that he spent in the infirmary. He will likely never match that special 2009 season but as a high average/high on-base, solid defensive catcher, he is capable of being the anchor this team desperately needs.
  15. Parker Hageman
    WCCO's Cory Hepola and Parker Hageman discuss the current state of the Minnesota Twins.
    Topics include:
    More depressing: 2011 or 2021 Twins? How is this happening? Should we have seen this coming? What’s worse: Pitching or Defense? What do you do with Miguel Sano? Give me ONE positive? Who does Trevor Larnach remind you of? Can this team save this season?
  16. Parker Hageman

    What I'm Reading

    By Parker Hageman,

    The Shift Is Burning Teams:
     
    I wrote about how the Astros dismantled the Twins’ infield shift during the Wild Card series. The Ringer’s Ben Lindbergh dove in further, detailing how right-handed hitters should not receive the shift treatment:
     
     

    In September, Tango took a more rigorous look. The noted sabermetrician, who now serves as MLB’s senior data architect, examined the results of bases-empty matchups since 2015 between the same batter-pitcher duos, with and without three fielders on one side of second. He found that left-handed hitters suffered a 24-point drop in wOBA against the same pitchers when the shift was on. Right-handed hitters fared 38 points better with the shift on. When Tango repeated his study but treated batter-pitcher duos as different if the pitcher had changed teams, the takeaway was even clearer: a 25-point drop for lefties against the shift, and a 43-point improvement for righties. Tango also found a similar boost to right-handed hitters’ stats when he looked into 2020 alone. 
    For the record, the Twins finished 5th in shifts versus right-handed hitters -- overloading the left side in 31.5% of plate appearances in 2020. That’s actually down from last year when they did that in 34.9% of plate appearances, second only behind the Dodgers.
     
    Bo Jackson Was Amazing:
     
    Jeff Pearlman tweeted a May 16, 1989 sidebar which lauded the Royals outfielder for hitting a batting practice home run into the upper tank at the Metrodome, one of the longest shots in stadium history.
     
    The twist? The right-handed hitting Jackson was doing this from the left side of the plate.
     
    Peter Gammons detailed that event in a Sports Illustrated article later that season:
     

    "Bo, it's your turn. One last swing," hollered Kansas City Royals hitting coach Mike Lum. The righthanded Jackson darted into the cage and jumped up to the plate—on the lefthand side. He took his one cut, and it was the last scene from The Natural, in nonfiction. The ball towered past the dome lights, crashing off the Hardware Hank sign on the facade of the second deck in far right center-field, an estimated 450 feet away and only 30 feet short of the longest rightfield homer ever hit in the Metrodome. 

    Kirby Puckett, standing in back of the cage with several other Twins, howled at Bo as he walked slowly toward the dugout to put the bat in the rack. Jackson glanced back at Puckett and yelled, "I got work to do," then picked up his glove and strolled nonchalantly out to leftfield to take some fly balls. 
    All Right All Right All Right:
     
    Not a read but an audio segment from an interview of Matthew McConaughey on the Tim Ferriss Show (full episode here). In the segment, the actor/pitchman describes how he keeps a journal: making sure to log something in during good times and bad times.
     
    Whereas some people have a tendency to spend more time journaling during tough times, McConaughey says he details the moments of success as well as failure. That way he can look back at the positives, helping him with his present mindset.
     
    This practice reminded me of something former Minnesota Twin and current announcer Justin Morneau talked about this year -- maintaining a hitter’s journal.
     
     

    https://twitter.com/HagemanParker/status/1306694753464061953

     
    “One of the things someone told me as my career was going on, write down what you are thinking right now,” Morneau said. “Write down what is going through your mind in your at bats, what you feel like you are doing well. So when you are struggling, you have something to look back on.”
     
    This is definitely something that can be utilized on and off the diamond.
     
    The 3 M’s Of Deliberate Practicing:
     
    Speaking of journaling, that’s one of the key tenets of deliberate practice. Here are three things to keep in mind while engaging in deliberate practice:
     

    Instead of mindlessly practicing a skill for months without improving, being deliberate can result in a better performance, and to a shorter road to mastery. Deliberate practice requires three specific skills:Measurement. You cannot manage what you cannot measure. Deliberate practice requires to objectively track and measure your progress. You do not need complicated tools: a simple note-taking app or a spreadsheet can do the job.
    Metacognition. Simply measuring your progress is not enough; it’s important to make space for self-reflection. Journaling can be a powerful metacognitive tool to understand and improve one’s performance.
    Mentoring. Finally, having a coach or a teacher can vastly improve the impact of deliberate practice. The mentorship often consists in assisting with both the measurement and the metacognitive aspect of deliberate practice. For instance, an expert could keep track of your progress while you are practicing, and recommend improvements before you give the activity another go.

    Random:
     
    Recently listened to The Office: Untold Stories of the Greatest Sitcom Series of the 2000s.
     
    It’s a fascinating look at how one of the most popular television series was conceived and executed -- recommended for any fan of the show as well as anyone interested in how to build a really good culture in an organization or team.
     
    One story that stood out was how Creed Bratton was added to the cast.
     
    Bratton had been a musician in The Grass Roots, a late 1960s psychedelic pop rock band that landed a pair of top ten radio hits and performed in large West Coast music festivals. Bratton however was kicked out of the group in 1969 after having a bad acid trip on stage during a show at the Fillmore West (Bratton had already stirred up issues within the band prior to that meltdown). As his music career fizzled, he would have bit parts as an extra or stand-in in movies and shows but no steady work.
     
    That is, until the American version of The Office.
     
    In trying to make the Dunder Mifflin office to look like a real workplace, the producers tapped several people for non-speaking roles. Bratton was one of them. One of the show’s original directors, Ken Kwapis, had known Bratton as a stand-in during their time together at The Bernie Mac Show and so Kwapis got Bratton a seat at a desk as a background role for the pilot episode.
     
    Because of the relationship, Bratton returned to the background in several more of the episodes during the first season.
     
    It was in the second season when the showrunner, Greg Daniels, had an episode where one of the office's employees -- background actors Bratton or Devon Abner -- would be fired by the branch’s boss Michael Scott. To the show’s producer, it didn’t matter which one of the background actors was permanently removed from the series. The two non-actor actors reportedly discussed who would get the ax from the show. Bratton, whose musical skill set and quirky improvisation endeared him to some writers, won out and Devon, who was slated to star in an off Broadway play, left.
     
    That episode -- Halloween -- was the first in which Bratton had an actual line in the show. The show's producers weren't even sure if he could act.
     
    At 60 years old, Bratton recognized he may never get an opportunity like this again. In the book, Bratton talked about how much time he devoted to learning his lines. He said he set up a tape recorder to listen to them as he fell asleep at night. He did an unbelievable amount of preparation for what amounted to a few on-camera words. Knowing the decision-makers might not present another chance like this to showcase his skills, he wanted to deliver the best performance possible.
     
    Bratton’s performance in that episode was well-received and so eventually he was given more lines and was later added to the full cast.
     
    Bratton was on the cusp of being removed from the show. Instead, he made his way from being a background actor who held up the scenery to one of the cast members -- a cult favorite at that -- of the biggest shows of the early 2000s.
     
    You never know at what point a life-changing opportunity is going to present itself.
  17. Parker Hageman

    What I'm Reading

    By Parker Hageman,

    Becoming a More Patient Leader:
     
    Two good tips on how to increase patience in these stressful times.
     

    Redefine the meaning of speed. The U.S. Navy SEALs are known for their saying “Slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.” These rapid-response special forces teams are paradoxically methodical and patient in both planning and executing their time-critical missions. They have learned over 60 years of operating in crisis situations that working at a slow and smooth pace reduces mistakes and re-dos and in the end speeds up the mission. In short, they have learned that leaders shouldn’t “confuse operational speed (moving quickly) with strategic speed (reducing the time it takes to deliver value).” And this of course means that leaders need to clearly define what delivering value means from the start. 

    Thank your way to patience. Gratitude has powerful effects on a wide range of our attitudes and behaviors. For example, keeping a journal about things you are thankful for increases generosity with others and lowers stress. It is no wonder then that gratitude may also positively spill over to our ability to demonstrate patience. Research in experimental psychology has found when people feel more grateful, they are better at delaying gratification and are more patient. 
    Travis D’Arnaud’s Offensive Breakout:
     
    Atlanta’s Travis D’Arnaud has transformed into a dangerous hitting catcher, finally living up to his draft expectations. Here’s some good insight on how he reached that level and an interesting take on how playing with the Rays versus one of the New York teams could allow him to focus on his development:
     

    Mottola would watch his batting practice swings, his on-deck swings, his in-game swings, and ask questions. Why are you attacking heaters this way? Why don’t you try to stay on top of the ball, without pulling off with your front side? Sometimes d’Arnaud didn’t have an answer. But because he knew Mottola — because he trusted him — he didn’t get defensive. This was coming from a place of compassion. 

    They tried every idea they could think of. D’Arnaud hit barefoot for a couple of days. One time, he added another tee to create a right bat path. Another time, Mottola had him try a wide-open stance, just so they could figure out what his straight line through the middle of the zone was. 

    “It was all these little moments that just finally came together,” he said. “In St. Pete, it was just like, man, the only people I have to answer to are my teammates and coaches. That’s why we’re allowed to do some things outside the box; we don’t have the same scrutiny. It seems like when you’re on the Yankees and Mets, you need to hang out in the cage all day just to get a little peace. 

    “To be yourself, and not always have to answer to your failures, is really refreshing for a lot of these guys.” 
    Loss of Sports Hurting Families:
     
    Sports have a way of bringing families together and without it, will some families lose bonding time?
     

    To Luker, the pandemic-fueled decline in youth participation is just one piece of a larger puzzle. 

    Few people are attending games of any kind. The fear of large crowds is wise, and it’s keeping most of us away from sitting in stands or standing on sidelines or even gathering for television watch parties. 

    But we need to be aware of the cost: Children, families and friends have been cut from fandom’s communal tradition. There are now far fewer chances to form friendships around watching sports together, and less opportunity for our youth to feel the generation-to-generation connections that come from getting together and rooting for a team. 
    Better Sleep Equals Better Results:
     
    Houston Astros’ reliever Josh James had terrible sleep habits as a prospect. He credits improving his rest to his improved performance (2020 stats notwithstanding).
     

    James did some research and finally saw a sleep specialist in December 2016. He spent the night hooked up to monitors and was diagnosed with sleep apnea, a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. The condition caused the 2004 death of NFL Hall of Famer Reggie White. 

    James was given possible surgical remedies that included removing his tonsils or fixing his deviated septum, though none of those were a guaranteed fix. Instead, he chose to start using a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), which delivers pressurized air through a mask that's worn at night to stop snoring. 

    The effects on James' energy were gradual. 

    "Just a little bit more refreshed in the morning, a little bit more refreshed about the day, and slowly I started feeling a little bit better every day," James said. "No naps needed. Normally, I'd come home and need a nap, and now I'd come home and be able to do stuff or cut the grass or watch TV." 

    The effects on James' career began blossoming this season. He went from sitting at 91-94 mph with his fastball, occasionally hitting 95, to touching 100 mph, to go along with a good slider and changeup. A beast was unleashed. 
    Improving Your Batting Practice Environment:
     
    As winter begins here in the north, baseball players will retreat to the comforts of indoor training. Brock Hammit has some excellent (and affordable) tips for coaches and trainers on how to improve that environment.
     
    Random:
     
    I recently finished reading The Fish That Ate The Whale, a story of a banana peddler’s rise to one of the most powerful men on the planet.
     
    The story of Sam Zemurray is fascinating as well as tragic for the Central American countries that he would disrupt in order to maximize profits for his fruit companies. In order to accomplish toppling governments and replace them with ones who would be more aligned with his business desires, Zemurray would require the help of Edward Bernays, the father of public relations, to tell his story and portray him favorably.
     
    Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s nephew, would use psychological tactics in his approach to managing people and brands. One of his specialities was indirection.
     
    Bernays was once hired by the publishing industry to increase the sales of books. Rather than take the message directly to the public that they should purchase more books for entertainment or educational purposes, Bernays approached homebuilders and convinced them to add built-in bookshelves to their new homes thereby making the owners head to the bookstore to fill the empty space.
     
    The subtle indirection greatly boosted sales of books.
  18. Parker Hageman
    MLB’s Brain Drain:
     
    The Minnesota Twins are hiring but it would seem that the industry as a whole might be in trouble.
     

    However the next several years play out, it appears that the baseball industry is in a liminal space. Front office gigs, long glamorized, have become less desirable to those with options. The individuals who remain in the industry feel underpaid, undervalued, and overstressed. The most conscientious are concerned that an already exclusive industry is going to build larger gates, and become more homogenous and bland because of misplaced priorities. The industry, then, is in a bad place -- and it might remain there for the foreseeable future.  

    "A lot of people call it their dream job," the former senior analytics member said. "This was one of those things that makes you realize that a dream job sometimes is still a dream." 
    Practice Analytically, Perform Intuitively:
     
    Training with data will not impede a player’s ability to improvise during play.
     

    Seeing the errors in how people intuitively think about the golf swing made Bryson question how other parts of the game were played. Having majored in physics at college, he operates like a scientist. He subscribes to Charles Dickens’ famous line from Great Expectations: “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.” 

    Where other golfers guess why they’re struggling at the driving range, Bryson brings two military-grade launch monitors so he can quantify his swing path to the tenth-of-a-degree. Where other golfers use standard grips, Bryson uses the world's largest commercially available grips so he can reduce wrist cock in his swing and hold the club with his palms instead of his fingertips. Where other golfers have a half-inch length difference between every iron, all of Bryson’s are cut to 37.5 degrees, the length of a standard 8-iron. Where other golfers change their putting technique based on how they feel that day, Bryson’s implemented a system called vector putting: he uses math to compute the break and determine how the ball will roll along the grass. Where other golfers hit 7-10 degree drivers, Bryson copied the world long-drive champion and put a 5.5 degree driver in the bag. Where other golfers use a 45-inch driver, Bryson’s experimenting with a 48-inch one. 

    Bryson showed that a determined contrarian, armed with the right data and a definitive plan, can upend conventional wisdom and prove that there’s a better way to do something. 
    Gophers Baseball PACK Mentality:
     
    The University of Minnesota’s offense has been good. That’s owed partially to a cultural mindset.
     

    One of the signature components of Gopher Baseball's offensive approach is the PACK Mentality, centered on four primary characteristics: performance, aggressive, consistent and knowledgeable. The goal of the PACK Mentality is to turn individual at bats into a team approach. As a unit, the offense is more effective than if at bats were attacked solely as individuals. 

    "The idea of this is like a pack of wolves hungry to hit," said Raabe. "No matter who is on the mound, we have a sense of 'no fear,' because you have eight other guys behind you if you fail… Everyone has an individual role in the PACK system." 

    {snip} 

    The PACK Mentality also drives Minnesota's success in these areas of emphasis, as the situational scenario of the game is different every time a player steps into the box. This requires absolute buy-in from every member of the offense, allowing each hitter to adapt to the unique situations that occur as they arise. 

    "We are all three-hole hitters that have many tools at our disposal in order to get whatever job done that needs to be done," said senior catcher Jack Kelly. "At the very least, be a tough hitter to pitch to by having quality at bats with lots of hard contact and good two-strike approaches." 
    Stock Up On Average Players ($):
     
    Some teams have found success by loading a roster with “average” players.
     

    Amid the welter of modern stat tools, one idea often gets buried: The difference between a great or near-great player and an average or slightly above-average player is enormous in terms of glamour, fan appeal, all-star and even Hall of Fame consideration. But the difference — on the field, in run differential and in the standings — often just isn’t that big. 
    The Mad Genius of Eddie Van Halen:
     
    RIP.
     

    The Van Halen family—father Jan and mother Eugenia, plus Eddie and Alex—left Holland for the United States in 1962; Eddie was 7 years old and spoke very little English when he arrived in Pasadena, California. Jan Van Halen was a musician—a working one, when he could find a gig. He played clarinet and saxophone, and in their teens, the boys would often join him in his various wedding bands. Eddie was an introvert, an inventor: He boiled guitar strings (for elasticity), dipped his pickups in hot paraffin, cut vibrato bars in half, transplanted the neck of one guitar onto the body of another. 

    One early El Dorado was something he called the “brown sound”—a distortion that was thick, sleek, organic, and unrelenting, but that didn’t blow up your amp. He pursued this brownness with endless mad-scientist tinkerings. “He tried aiming the amp at the wall,” writes the Van Halen biographer Ian Christe in his peerless Everybody Wants Some, “stuffing it with padding, and covering it with a plastic hood before discovering that he could overdrive it at a lower volume if he starved it for voltage using a Variac variable power supply.” Later, he would house a delay unit inside the hollowed-out body of a decommissioned U.S. Army bomb, to create what Christe calls a “big metal ordnance-cum-reverb-chamber” that he would face onstage while playing “Eruption.” 
    Telling A Great Bedtime Story:
     
    Some excellent advice for the newer parents out there.
     

    “Listening to the story without the benefits of the illustrations requires the child to picture the characters and the events in their own mind,” said Rebecca Isbell, Ph.D., an early childhood education consultant and professor emerita at East Tennessee State University. “They are creating the story for themselves. They are listening to it, and as they do they’re turning on that movie in their head.” 

    These mental movies are powerful — in her research, Dr. Isbell has found children understood (and retained) more of a story they were told out loud than having the same story read to them. “I think that’s something that gets lost with reading,” she said. “You’re focused on the words and the phrases, not the deeper meaning of it.” When you tell a story, there’s no book to focus on, for you or your child, so you can use gestures and eye contact to add drama, suspense and intrigue. 
    Podcast Recommendation: Gaynor Strength & Pitching
  19. Parker Hageman
    On this week's episode of the No Juice Podcast, Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman begin with some big news. Like, really big. Then they talk about the Minnesota Twins which includes the recent trade of Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners, the potential of trading away Kurt Suzuki and the overall status of the team heading towards what is projected to be another disappointing second-half.
     
    Other topics on the show include the Minnesota Vikings training camp, idiotic media responses to domestic violence and stealing other podcast’s Twitter questions.
     
    Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher:
     


    THE NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #15 - BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

     



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