Richie the Rally Goat

RIP

That’s a very normal reaction for me. Usually it goes something like: ”Ha! …. …. Hey!”

I didn’t ask you, I asked Bill. Bill can speak to his own claims without evidence.

Why?

That makes the roster crowded, doesn’t it? When you need 8 players to fill 162 instead of 3

I love the grind of the season. I do agree with RB, games that matter in September, the fun of scoreboard watching into October is what makes that long grind so rewarding.

If not next year or two years, then why worry about Jeffers relative to automated strike zone? Jeffers likely won’t be a Twin in 4 years anyways. Unless you have Joe Mauer generational talent, you churn and burn catchers like relievers. Too many injuries

Correct, I am trying to weigh deficiencies and strengths relative to each other. A higher percentage of strikes on 16,000 to 20,000 pitches caught, vs 5-10 passed balls, vs 40-45 steals. Does anyone disagree that more strikes is better than fewer strikes? Of course not. MLB is very slow to change. I mean the Selig ball lasted 20 years. The NFL used replay and challenges for 15 years before MLB did. If you think robo-umps are coming next year, I love your optimism, but do not share it. I believe it will be 5 years or more.

It also projects his dWAR to be negative. He’s been a mid-to-high 90s wRC+ hitter his whole career. The shift ban helps all hitters, not just Kepler, so I would not assume his wRC+ would increase much because everyone else should hit a bit better too, at least lefties.

Jeffers was 8th (worst) in the AL with 5 passed balls last year. Sandy Leon was 6th worst with 6. 5 or 6 passed balls is maybe 3-4 runs per season at most. There were 2487 stolen bases league wide last year, 1/2 of a stolen base per team per game, that result in on average .3 of a run per steal. Jeffers had 31 steals on him, so that’s 10 runs estimated in the season. There are 100+ pitches thrown per game, getting a higher percentage of strikes impacts dozens of outcomes per game. Jeffers is ranked 21st (best) in the league. Improved counts puts at-bats in the pitchers’ favor. I think Jeffers is a high quality half of a catching tandem. The question is the other half. Narvaez seems like a good option. The Twins also have Banuelos, a good journeyman at the Saints but doesn’t hit, is supposed to be an excellent fielder. And Bechtold is progressing nicely (but doesn’t really hit either) if the rest of the lineup hits, Carlos Correa and a corner outfielder, DH… a black hole at catcher for half your games could be overcome.

Thanks Jack! We’ve seen him not being afraid to make changes with GoMedia and Bring Me The News. Did you interact on any of the analytical side? How receptive?

according to this, he managed Go 96.3 radio, so…. I’m leaning towards agreement https://tcbmag.com/tcb-100-people/chris-pohlad-joe-pohlad-and-tom-pohlad/ and yeah, he did oversee the brand refresh https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/joe-pohlad-to-take-over-as-twins-executive-chair/ar-AA14EQd5

Agreed, Kepler’s defense doesn’t fill that 8+ million delta between him and Gordon. I’d take Gordon too.

Under the sonar too. Deep-six this idea, I’d rather have Garlick

no returns, no exceptions

I disagree, the Yankees authentic version is regularly 12% cheaper and is currently 43% cheaper.

Hence The Big Short reference. Ash was dead-on.

The coaching staff and FO limited innings for the starting staff because 4/5 of the rotation wasn’t healthy enough or stretched out enough to pitch a traditional starter’s work load. I’m sure the FO and Coaching staff would prefer to take the reins off

I would do Sands, Balazovich and Kepler for Jansen in a heartbeat. Guessing too low, but a start

Well, the stats I quoted were ‘22 and career, so clearly last year isn’t all I care about. How’d Eovaldi do in ‘16, ‘17, ‘19? He’s had 2 very good seasons, 2 ok seasons, and several bad and injured ones.

Just ask Selena

Agreed 100% on the risks associated with buying high on a pitcher. The challenge is the Twins have not shown capability to buy low on a starting pitcher and get excess value. Chris Archer, Dylan Bundy, Martin Perez etc, etc…. Bad before becoming Twins, bad as Twins. While Nathan Eovaldi is a fine pitcher, he’s not better than Sonny Gray, and probably a touch below. Gray career - ERA 3.56, FIP 3.67, ‘22 - 3.08/3.41. Eovaldi career 4.16/3.83 ‘22 - 3.87/4.30. The Twins have tons of depth that’s all mid-rotation very similar to Nathan Eovaldi. What they don’t have is a front of the rotation starter, which Eovaldi is not. More importantly they don’t have innings. Last offseason the FO knew they weren’t getting traditional starter workload, but they still weren’t capable of executing a non-traditional pitching workload to get to 1500 innings, and Nathan Eovaldi exacerbates that deficit greatly. He’s pitched greater than 150 innings twice in his career. The Twins can’t rely on Eovaldi to be a traditional high quality 150-200 inning starting pitcher who also doesn’t move the needle on the front of the rotation. Go big, or develop internally

As today is Thanksgiving, I’d like to share my appreciation. I’m eternally grateful for TD and all the work to deliver content and platform that the owners, John, Nick, Seth, Parker and Brock, content creators, and my fellow moderators/community leaders do. This great group of people keep TD going strong after all these years. Most of all, I’m grateful for our community members. All the posters with their passion for the Twins and their minor league affiliates, with their respectful differing opinions makes this a great place to talk Twins. Thank you all so much!

Correa fired his old agent for a reason. Stating you’re dragging it out, and actually dragging it out too long, are very different things.

It is the Garden State