Beemo

I like to stop in every once and a while and note that catcher CS stats include pick-off caught stealings. Jeffers' one credited CS this year was a pick-off, so he has thrown out 0 base stealers. He's technically 0-for-4, but realistically, he's 0-for-3 as two steals came on a double steal. Can't throw out both of them!

You're forgetting the games the Twins lost before before their 18 game losing streak. The Twins also have a 4-1 series loss to the Angels and a 3-1 series loss to the Yankees for a grand total of 25 post-season losses since their last series win. That's 1.39 post-season losses per year! There's your doom and gloom. On the other hand, the Yankees have lost 56 post-season games in that same 18 years. What a losing bunch of losers!

Eagle River?

I don't know what the A's were thinking, going with the bullpen game. They should've done what the last team to face the Yankees in the Wild Card game did and started their best starter. I'm sure it would've worked better.

I often like to point out that a catcher's CS% also includes pitcher pickoff caught stealings. Suzuki has been credited with 209 CS in his career but he's actually only thrown out 126 of those. 106 of Castro's 119 credited CS are throws by Castro himself. Adjusting for this, Castro's career throw-out% is 24.6% and Suzuki's is 16.2%.

I could be wrong but I don't think you can pull a player off waivers in this situation. It would be considered irrevocable waivers and if someone claimed him, he'd be gone.

Why is Danny Santana continually referred to as the 25th man? Until Molitor proves something different to me I assume that if Santana is on the roster he will play in three out of every four games, just like he did last year. Are you really the 25th man when you play more than half of the roster?

You left out this one: 2007 Twins (with Hunter) 79-83 2008 Twins (without Hunter) 88-75

I doubt it would matter much. Mauer was leading off that inning, so there was no RBI. He got on an and eventually he made it to third base and they still couldn't score him. Since we're talking about the Twins against the Yankees in the post-season, I'd assume that even if Mauer had hit a homerun there, the Twins still lose the game.

Regarding Chargois, how is that behind/ahead in the count ERA split calculated? I always thought you couldn't really split the ERA based on factors that change from batter to batter. It's like asking what a pitcher's ERA versus lefties is.

I really wish someone could track blown calls because I would be willing to bet that it doesn't even out for every team over the course of a season. Most teams are probably pretty close but there must be a team or two that end up plus or minus a dozen bad calls after a season. Combine blown calls with something like WPA to figure out how much each mistake hurt or helped a team and get a total score for how every team was affected.

Nitpicking a little, but Papelbon is on the Nationals now who are still pretty good. I definitely agree with your overall point. It's why the I think Twins really should have tried to get maximum value by trading Perkins when they were terrible. Most closers don't stay as elite closers for long.

Three of the teams ahead of the Twins in total Ks have played an extra game. St Louis has more Ks in the same number of games, but the Twins still have them beat in K% at 32.7% to STL's 31.9%.

Nope, with over 5 years of MLB service, the team still has to pay him. Under 5 years is a different story.

Nolasco has over 5 years of service time, so if the Twins DFA him, he'll refuse, become a free agent and the Twins will still have to pay him.

Those are all reasons WHY takeout slides happen, not why they should be allowed. I'm looking for a reason for why you think a slide like Utley's should be allowed but other forms of contact and interference, like the ones I listed, should not and are not.

Why shouldn't more be tolerated? Why is bowling over the fielder only acceptable if there's the pretense of a slide? Why not allow him to flat-out tackle the guy? Why can they only make contact when it's a play at a base and not on, say, a popup to an infielder? What makes the takeout slide so different from all the other possible ways runners could be interfering with fielders trying to make outs but aren't allowed to?

Postseason performance is important so we've fired our manager. However, postseason performance doesn't really mean much, so we've hired this guy who was even worse at it. I want this to happen.

If anyone is interested in a catcher's actual caught stealing numbers, baseball-reference.com has advanced catcher fielding statistics that have it. Here's a link to Kurt Suzuki's page as an example. CSctch is the stat showing how many runners that catcher has actually thrown out himself.

No, it's the top 100 overall. There are only 3 shortstops and 4 second basemen on the whole list, while there are 30 starting pitchers.

No way. All a six man rotation does is take innings from your best starter and give them to your worst. Do you want some of Hughes' innings going to Pelfrey?

I don't understand your reasoning here. A double is more valuable than a single, but an out that prevented a double isn't more valuable than an out that prevented a single? What are the cases where making a hard catch is less critical than making an easy one, especially if a catch is a catch?

I want to note that the pickoffs counted in Pinto's 5 caught stealings were not pickoffs by Pinto himself. I'm not sure if that's what you thought or not, but I got that impression based on you asking about Pinto's pickoff attempts last year.

I'd like to hear a good argument for Jack Morris being a better pitcher than Mike Mussina.

It should help the team score more runs, not change how any single guy hits. Basically, put the best hitters at the top of the lineup. Don't give worse hitters more at bats than good hitters because they're fast or they can "handle the bat well". However, Molitor's "bunt early to get a lead" strategy does conflict with the SABR-constructed lineup idea. It'll mean either you're having one of your best hitters bunting in the first inning, or you've gone with the "handles the bat well" guy batting second.