Doomtints

And probably 5% in any year going forward. Vielma can't hit. If he is on the MLB roster it is because the team is having major depth problems. Again.

Very good analysis. I think Vogelsong is very much in the mix because it will be hard for the Twins to say with a straight face that the other guys are better. Who he would replace from your list I don't know. It will be a tough decision.

I also changed my delivery in order to save my shoulder from unnecessary strain. I simply dial 1-800-PIZZA-YUM from any touch tone phone!

Hans Zimmer's body of work is very impressive. He can probably get any TV or movie gig he wants.

Prostate cancer is a slow moving, usually treatable cancer. But these days they usually do not remove the prostate altogether so this might not be a good sign. Best of luck to Gardy and I'm looking forward to the Twins putting him in the team HOF.

So ... scouting.

His memory isn't quite correct. He played SS in the minors both of those years almost exclusively.

I think the takeaway is this: The Twins wanted Polanco to play 2B after Dozier left. This is why there is a glut of SS players now and this is why Polanco was playing at 2B in the minors last year for the first time. This is probably still the plan. Dozier could be gone at any time. When that happens Polanco slides over. This might happen tomorrow, at the trade deadline, or next offseason. A lot of people who noticed Polanco playing 2B assumed it was because the Twins did not have faith in him at SS. This was an incorrect conclusion.

Yes. Clearly the plan was to trade Dozier and move Polanco to 2B. That's not a bad plan, and that is probably still the plan. This isn't a huge deal. In, 2016, Polanco got a lot of time in the majors at SS and a lot of time in AAA at 2B (something like 55% v 45% 2B v. SS). It's not like they moved him to DH or something, he is getting relevant middle infield experience.

Polanco has been mishandled for 3 years. Someone, somewhere, wanted him to fail. Many fans bought into the idea that Polanco isn't good, which is part of the travesty.

Power pitchers are good at inducing infield grounders. This is an anti-infield-grounder swinging style (as long as the timing is right). Ultimately it would be good if Vargas (and all of the Twins) knew how to do both types of swings and when.

This is the way to hit against power pitchers. The "Twins Way" is how to hit against finesse pitchers. With all the power pitchers that end up in the postseason it is no surprise how the Twins failed miserably in the playoffs during their last run of success. Vargas should indeed keep doing what he's doing.

Here's my skeptical view of this. Analytics for the draft are going to be untrustworthy unless drafting college players. High school data and foreign data is going to be incomplete and untrustworthy. For drafting these types of players, scouting is essential. No player at this level should be drafted without being scouted. Now, where analytics comes into play is when drafting college players or analyzing players who are in the minors. There is data there to trust, and the data is going to be complete. These players should still be scouted, but data is more important and analyzing the data the right way can make a huge difference in helping to target players that you should watch. My feeling is that this is a feel-good puff piece written to smooth over relationships with fans who think the Twins are behind with analytics. Because, literally, the idea of pre-draft analytics of non-college players making a difference is laughable.

It's not like Berrios would say his command is still terrible. But yes I agree it's good to read some baseball stories again.

The Twins are not always interesting. Few people followed in them in the late 70s, fewer still in the early 80s. Later, the team almost folded because people were not interested in them yet again. Last year, after a surprisingly disappointing start, was the most predictable chain of events in history.

As an aside (yes I know I'm digressing), Bill James wrote at the end of this edition that he was done with baseball metrics. He felt nobody was paying attention. He felt he was coming up with great algorithms and theories and yet he was constantly seeing ignorance. He wrote that the whole process was depressing, that people would argue with him even though he had the data and they didn't. He was also upset that the NL MVP in 1987 did not deserve the title and, to him, this confirmed that he was wasting his time. He felt he kept being called on to defend himself v. fans and journalists who were not doing any research. He closed the book off saying that all of his algorithms and theories were from that point on free for anyone to use (or make money off of). Today we owe a lot to James. Without this gesture, fangraphs would not exist. B-R might exist, but it many of the metrics on it now wouldn't be there. Keeping real -- the reason he wrote this is still very much with us as this thread just proved. I'm not calling out TD in particular because this is the entire community for every team. We are a strange group of know-it-alls when few of us do any research or even make much of an effort to understand the metrics we see on websites. In any case, this book is essential reading as he poured everything he knew at the time into it. Go get it.

James, in the same chapter, talks about the difference between power and finesse pitchers. I think you should find this book and read it rather than guessing at the meaning. There's a reason Bill James is so famous.

That's not what he wrote. That's not what your link says he wrote, either.

Sure. Look at the Padres segment in the 1988 Abstract where he talked about the most relevant things he has learned from baseball research. In SABR circles they worship this chapter as if it were the ten commandments, so I would call it essential reading for all baseball fans. The book is out of print but used copies are floating around.

Definitely not. His books are available. I will even mail you one.

I'm wondering what kind of "analytics" are available for 17-18 year old kids.

I'm supposed to flip to this chapter from Bill James's books and spoon feed it to you now? I'll get on that right away.

I will let Bill James know that you know more than he does.

Much of what people think of as being pitching is actually defense.

Not competent enough, clearly. 103 losses is no joke. "Sequencing" isn't the random thing we think it is -- it's a reflection of competence. And yeah, Dozier is a known quantity. Pitchers knew he had power but apparently weren't worried about it. They made the right bet.