Jack Goin

Way to zig while everyone else is zagging Parker. While the technology movement has taken over the game, and sports in general, there are probably two final frontiers in player development. One is medical. Who can keep their players healthy? The one you are talking about is mental. Take away the physical health portion because it is proving to be quite difficult, though not impossible. A large number of players end up not making it for makeup (mental) reasons more than physical reasons. I've believed for a long time orgs should develop off-field programs for Minor League and Major League players. When you look at it, sports teams have a large number of coaches for on-field performance. But the area that probably needs more coaching than any physical tool is the mind. Not just for what Parker is talking about in his article. But how to believe in yourself. How to develop mental toughness. How to deal with failure. How to minimize or eliminate distraction. It's high performance coaching for the mind to go along with high performance coaching for the body. Russell Wilson seems to have this figured out right now. But there also needs to be an emphasis on mental health. Which is quite a large topic. But no person, no matter their job really, can perform at a high level without being healthy mentally. Somehow mental skills coaching and mental health need to be seamlessly rolled into a more holistic approach with trainers, doctors, physical therapists, etc.

It's unfortunate, and not fair to the player. Can you imagine not knowing where you are going to work for 7 days, not by your decision? Not an easy thing to go through. The human side of the game that gets forgotten about.

Or, you needed Optional Waivers on a player (when they existed) to option a player to the Minor Leagues. But you didn't have them for one reason or another. You would DFA that player, ask the Optional Waivers, and then option that player after the Optional Waivers had cleared. This used to happen frequently after a pitching staff got blown up but a starter only going an inning or something.

Jeremy, nice work. I think the recent transactions by the Twins really help to clarify the process. Couple of things to clear up: Waiver request deadline is 1:00 CST (2:00 EST). If you request prior to the deadline that day, the waiver request is processed that day. If you request after 1:00 pm that day, the waiver request will processed the following business day. You may make a claim up until 12:00 CST (1:00 EST). A couple of additional points. A club may only request waivers on 7 players per day (either Outright or Unconditional Release). You may not place a player on the Injured List on Outright Waivers unless their time limit has expired or they are on a rehab assignment (healthy enough to play) and then you must reinstate them from the IL within 72 hours after the waivers have expired. You cannot request waivers on a player who is on any of the Paternity, Family Medical Emergency List, etc. A club does NOT have to outright a player to the minor leagues after Outright Waivers have been secured. The are a number of further rules, limitations, etc with regards to Outright & Release Waivers if anyone is interested.

Thanks to all who came out and said hello. Nick & Bonnes were there and said hello. Unfortunately I wasn't able to spend more time there yesterday to learn and talk with more people.

You cannot physically trade picks. You make agreements with other clubs that will make a selection for you and then agree to trade them to you. Usually for cash. Nobody really wants to give a up player to make a selection. That transaction can happen when you do not want to keep the player on your 25-man roster but would like to keep him in you system. See Scott Diamond. We traded Billy Bullock to keep Diamond in the system but off the roster.

So no credit for turning O'Rourke into a usable reliever, Rogers (11th round), Tonkin (30th round), Dozier (8th round senior), Polanco, Kepler, Rosario, Vargas (undrafted free agent sign & couldn't catch the ball at 1B when he reported to the GCL), Rosario, Sano? Garver and Turner didn't go over the heat maps, catching reports, and video alone and make themselves better catchers. They did it with the help of Minor League staff. Guys like Mientkiewicz, Joel Lepel, Jeff Smith, etc.. I get the struggles of Berrios & Buxton stand out like a sore thumb but you have to be a little objective here.

The entire thing was handled within the rules of a club's ability to add a 26th man for a double header the day after a rainout. Just because it doesn't make sense to you does not mean it was poorly handled.

I'm not sure why this article is titled the "Andrew Albers Circus". What occurred is pretty straight forward. We selected Albers for the second game of the double header. Designating a player occurs when the active list (25-man) or reserve list (40-man) limits have been reached and a club wants to add a player(s) to either list. Int this case Albers was designated off the active roster to make room for a fresh arm. Designated players must be either released or assigned (traded, optioned, outright) within 10 days of the assignment. Optional waivers are required for an optional assignment if the date of the option is three or more years after the date the player first reported to a Major League club during the season. There are more exceptions within the rule but for Albers purpose it had been more than three years. After his optional waivers cleared he was optioned to Rochester (the assignment part of "release or assignment"). This series of transactions happens very frequently when a player is recalled or selected for only a day or two with the intent of them being sent back to the minor leagues in one form or another. That's it.

Please give me some examples you want the organization to do that you believe we are not doing that would make us better?

Every year an NFL team wants to hire a Patriots coach, coordinator, personnel guy hoping they are going to recreate the Patriots. And about each time it doesn't work. I'm not saying any of these outside names wouldn't be good GMs. What I am saying is you are overrating candidates based strictly on who their current employer is. Maybe Rob is biased. But the other person may come in biased and wreck some of the momentum that has been built just because and cause a bigger setback. Just keep an open mind.

And this is part of the problem. There are an awful lot of people on here who claim to know Rob can't do the job based solely off their opinion of Terry or an interview he did almost SEVEN years ago. And they also assume someone from the outside is more qualified even though they have the same job duties as Rob because they are from a different org.

Good to see @dwade contributing here. Very nice addition to the writing staff. Hope to see more posts from you Dan.

I realize I can't win any arguments in these forums or even change anyone's mind for that matter. Thanks for being passionate about Twins baseball.

I think I've had this argument with you before so I am not going to have it again. Looking at your signature quote you have your mind made up. I'm sorry you feel that way. By the way, Theo's degree is in American Studies.

20 years in baseball ops doesn't count? Theo started in media relations. Jeff Lunhow was a consultant. AJ Preller who started as intern in the Phillies ticket office. Most people don't just get a job in baseball ops out of the shoot. There are not a lot of jobs available.

What's your definition of a "baseball guy"?

That's quite an involved process, one that might be extremely difficult to explain here. Depending on the risk of acquisition you usually have analytics, scouting, medical, and makeup/background all play a role. If Brad Steil needs a minor league free agent utility infielder at 2A we don't do as much "work" on him as when signing a Major League agent or extending a player to a long-term contract. Terry has to take in all that info and make a decision. Then we make an offer we feel ok making based on our scouting reports, internal projections, and how our medical staff feels a player will hold up over the course of contract. Then the player has to agree. There are times we make an offer and another team blows us out of the water either with dollars, years, or both. It's not as black and white and some may make it. Some years a player you didn't expect to be available right before Spring Training is available and you get him.

That would take the fun out of it. Then you would know when I was being sarcastic and when I was not being sarcastic. And sometimes, on this site, it is WAY more entertaining for people to question that and stir the pot even more.

We like OPSBI as a measurement of overall offensive effectiveness.

We have added some new metrics to our pitching dashboard since this interview was conducted 6 years ago. It's our version of WHIP. (Wins + Hits)/Innings Pitched. ***this is getting to be a little like David Ortiz.

I switched full-time in 2011. I had been working on various projects for 3 years maybe before that. Maybe two. The Phillies, Marlins, Tigers for sure didn't have someone at that time. Joe Sheehan had just started with the Blue Jays. I think teams like the Rangers and Braves had a person or two working on things but nobody focused on analytics. I think around 2010 or 2011 was around the time that teams not named the Rays, Pirates, or Cardinals started to understand they needed to do something in this area. There are other areas analytics can make an impact besides the field. gardy in the end started to realize that and having Paul and his staff has definitely helped in areas. Jos Vavra started implementing shifts, Paul expanded it, and Gene Glynn has done even more. Just knowing where we were when I started up until now, the changes have been pretty good.