Doomtints

Tom Kelly didn't suddenly start making silly mistakes when the talent evaporated. In his first year, I once saw Kelly keep a rookie pitcher in for a full inning. The guy was really struggling. But Kelly kept him in because he saw the guy was going to pitch incredibly well in the future. I don't remember which pitcher it was, but he was right -- he became a key pitcher for the Twins. And Kelly didn't just let him deflate out there, Kelly walked out to encourage him to make it through the inning. He did this BEFORE runs scored.

School was too easy. I breezed through without doing any work, simply acing every test they threw at me. This didn't work in college, mind you. College was a wakeup call, I actually had to work. I got a 32 on the ACT and a 1420 on the SAT, back when the SAT topped off at 1600 (or was it 1500?). We had to pass a standardized test to graduate, and I got one question wrong on it. In my senior year, in one of the classes that I didn't do any work, I needed something like a 92 or 94 on the final exam to pass the course. I got a 98, and I wasn't worried for a second about not passing it. No, I didn't study. If we want to start throwing around GRE scores, then I might be impressed.

Sure, every manager makes those mistakes. The good ones don't make the mistake a couple of times a week.

Right. They are voting like the southern tea party evangelicals want them to vote ... never compromise, always cut taxes, the Democrats and liberals are Satanic so no matter what the GOP does it's better, etc. etc. The Democrats ignored the hatred for a long time, and they did this at their own peril ... a lot of people were listening to this fringe group and they grew in power every year.

This article makes me think the Twins found a gem. He looks like a good project manager, and good PMs are the best of all worlds. If you can effectively manage without authority and turn chaotic ideas, data, and situations into action, good things happen. http://www.tampabay.com/sports/Rays-give-Rocco-Baldelli-new-title-of-major-league-field-coordinator_162758395

He skipped AAA and probably doesn't feel good about being sent to AAA after playing with potential in the majors. The dude was jerked around. It doesn't help that everyone writes that he has no future. He's not dumb, he reads that ****.

Yes it is. The GOP in DC are not following the will of their own constituents.

Vargas is no longer on the 40-man roster. We'll probably never see him again.

The last time the Twins hired a manager with experience Gerald Ford was president, so I wouldn't really call this idea taking a chance and trying something new.

Not sure what you want us to say. Escobar is an average player and his contract was up. He would be a free agent right now and probably wouldn't come back to the Twins. As others have said, getting anything for him at all is good.

Hrbek was truly exciting in those early days. He was smart, always smiling, and his positive attitude was spreading. It was clear that good things were coming.

Arizona really likes him and the feeling is mutual. Like others, I was initially surprised Escobar didn't test out free agency. Now that that I look at his Arizona numbers, I see this is a great deal for him. He is a regression candidate (and in fact his regression is already in process, he was merely average in Arizona) but he is a versatile, if unexciting, infield defender. His offense surprised everyone this year but I don't think his offense is the main reason Arizona signed (not re-signed) him.

1) Know what a tired pitcher looks like. 2) Know how to play matchups. 3) Put the players recently called up from the minors in the lineup and at their natural position. 4) Communicate with players so there are no unnecessary surprises for them, esp. when the front office has a "lapse" in communication. 5) Know the profile for a leadoff hitter. 6) Coach proactively. If the front office has to step in to solve a problem, you lose that player to the minors, a release, or a trade. This feels all like basic stuff that I shouldn't have to mention. Note that analytics isn't anywhere on this list. If you can't do the basic stuff nothing else matters.

Emphasis added. Also, keep reading, there's another passage where Kepler is disregarding Bonds' advice.

The article literally says a famous player coached him AND the Twins coached him, but in the end it was, "Nah, I'm not gonna do any of that, I gotta be me." And the Twins coach accepted that response.... Since he's out of options, the Twins coaches can't make him do anything.

Coachable eh? Check this out. https://www.twincities.com/2018/03/05/max-kepler-wont-change-his-launch-angle-just-for-homers-sake/ This one is cool too. http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins/max-kepler-looks-to-bonds-for-hitting-inspiration-r5406 Give these a read and let me know if you think no one has yet tried to coach him, then look at his stats again to see the results of said coaching.

Good pitchers induce weak infield hits and lazy pop flies. So yeah, he's swinging at bad pitches.

The Twins don't have any "serious problems." They have holes to fill (because players left, not because players suck) and they have a huge wad of cash to do it with. This is the year the front office gets to prove itself. This is what every front office dreams about.

The level of competition in Germany is pretty good. It's mostly American families who live over there playing baseball, and there are some well-known coaches from the US running the teams. They're not "little league world series" caliber teams, but they're better coached than 80% of the neighborhood teams in the US, and I'm being very generous on the US side with that figure.

He was very good in the minors and was probably kept down there too long, contributing to his one-dimensional hitting.

He is swinging at bad pitches. Pitchers are inducing pop flies off of him with regularity.

Statcast suggests Kepler's hitting is exactly where it should be when considering his K+W+Quality Contact Rates. I would say trade him, but every other GM has access to this information. Good luck. https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/expected_statistics Having said that, per this page Mitch Haniger is the next legit big star. Get him on the team, Twins. (And, BTW, it also suggests Jake Cave is due to break out).

Wouldn't "advanced command of the strike zone" mean getting on base with regularity? He was one of the worst on the team for OBP -- and this year was his personal best. I'm not saying Kepler is a lost cause but I don't understand this line of reasoning. K and W rates mean nothing if they don't get you on base. When looking at Kepler's spray charts, he can literally hit the ball anywhere. He is unique in this regard. The problem is on his fly balls, which he hits a lot of, the hang time is too high. He is basically an outfielder's dream, and this isn't a new problem. How do you coach a guy to stop hitting lazy fly balls? And if pitchers can induce lazy fly balls out of him so often, isn't that as good as striking him out? Pitchers usually win their at-bats v. Kepler.

As long as the Twins don't dink around with Logan Morrison again, I think 1B will end up OK. 1B is a position they need to fill but this is the easiest job to hire for in all of baseball. (Unless you maybe think Logan Morrison is a good player ... then god help us.)

Right now it sort of feels like Berrios and Gibson are Scott Baker-types. This isn't terrible but it's rather meh. I have been high on Berrios and I hope he continues to improve, but I'm also rather bored of typing around here that I hope someone on this team will continue to improve. But back to the topic ... yes, these are the guys who have to perform well for the team to have a chance.