Doomtints

????????? Wow.

Speaking of that, let's bring in Dusty Baker.

What I think is weird is that anyone thought his suckiness is anything other than a fluke. Fans around here never liked his signing and I don't see why. Baseball-reference says his similar pitchers include: - Corey Kluber - Jake Arrieta - Clay Buchholz etc... No hall of famers, but some pitchers who were or are very good. This is based on numbers, not opinions.

Everyone who has ever worked more than one job knows how effective leaders influence organizations. There always has been and always will be people in baseball circles who will die on the hill insisting that such a thing doesn't exist. They demand hard evidence. Yet soft sciences are real -- businesses run on them, universities teach them, and we all experience them. We can't put a gauge on language development but we can learn a thing or two about it and be predictive about it, same with countless other fields, processes, and products. What people don't realize they are saying is that baseball teams don't need leaders, and of course that's not true. No one says these words directly, but when people argue this point this is ultimately what they are arguing without realizing that's what they are arguing. No leaders = no coaches, no mentors, no managers, no collaboration. I would argue that Torii's leadership style was counter to what people think of as leadership. He is in the work/life balance camp. Work hard, but also take the time to blow off steam and to put that extra energy into letting your guard down. This is a good philosophy for a job that has a countless 12-hour days in half a year. Sure Hunter helped with baseball skills, but every team has people to do that.

My skeptical spidey-sense is tingling. If an org knows it sucks at communication, but they have good communication with a catcher on someone else's team, would they bring in that catcher to bridge the gap?

2017 Santana: 16-8 (+8) 2018 Twins without Santana: 67-78 2017 Santana on the 2018 Twins: 75-70* A more realistic impact of Santana on the 2018 Twins: 71-74* *This is current state, AFTER the talent dump-off. You can add a handful more wins if the talent dump didn't happen, which it might not have if Santana's production had been available.

The point is Escobar turned into a different player in 2018. We would have all taken that level of production from Vargas, and I think it's possible he could do the same. Yet, most people dislike Vargas and never want to see him again.

I read somewhere earlier in the year that Odorizzi broke some 100 year old record for number of starts in a year before recording an out in the 7th. However, that seems unlikely and I haven't been able to find the article since. For the record, it was 26 starts.

Odorizzi was clearly *completely* out of gas in the last at bat. I hope his arm is OK, he was shaking it a lot between pitches. This current Yankees team is good, but this is NOT the same team that dominated the Twins year over year. The lineup looked completely defeated midway through the game. The Twins will be able to beat these guys in the coming years if they get on track soon enough.

I'm 100% on board with delaying a rookie's debut for service time considerations. After all, you're only talking about three weeks to start the season. Who cares. It's a smart investment. But doing this after a guy has played for a couple of years, after he leads the team in WAR in a year and earns a Platinum Glove? Wow. Sure, send a guy like that to the minors if he needs it. But keep him there for service time? Again, wow.

It's interesting that, because the Twins hit a grand slam, the Yankees had to hit one too. Of course. I'm looking forward to the Twins doing a 25-0 beatdown of the Yankees someday.

Yes. By the numbers, #3 pitchers are league-average. #4 and #5 pitchers are net minuses, especially the #5. Can he do that? Yep!

No one thinks Buxton is going away any time soon.

If he is brought back, he can perform as the #3/#4/#5 guy most of the Twins fans kept expecting him to be anyway. May as well bring him back.

Exactly. He lead the team last year in WAR ... and he hit like crap most of that year too. Buxton is valuable even when he isn't hitting, the MOST VALUABLE PLAYER ON THE TEAM. Yes, this is a bizarre concept as it's something no one has ever seen before in baseball. Nonetheless, it's true. If he's healthy, let the kid play. His hitting will only get better if he's playing baseball. For a front office that is supposedly data-driven, they sure seem oblivious to a lot of data.

This is literally what every article on the issue has stated, and the front office said so too....

Exactly. The first couple of years of Ryan's second tenure allowed us to coin the phrase "AAAA players." No outfield, no pitching. I get depressed just thinking about it and this was over five years ago. And heck, the first few years of Ryan's first tenure weren't any better. He took two teams that needed some work and gutted them completely without addressing the issues that actually needed working on.

Hicks was decent for one year with the Twins. He was also terrible in his first crack with the Yankees. Don't forget, Hicks was becoming "expendable" as Buxton was about to debut as the full time guy. What should really make you angry is not only did the Twins give up on Hicks, but they gave up on JR Murphy, who they traded him for, after a mere 26 games. Anyway, for the older people in the audience, it's no surprise that someone was traded off from the Twins only to become very good. This has been going on my entire lifetime. It seems like a Twins-centric problem but it's probably simply a common thing in baseball.

If you can notice that Busenitz can't locate a pitch, why can't Molitor and the rest of the coaches? Why not pull him rather than wait for the inevitable? Do Molitor's bosses ever ask him questions like this, I wonder?

We all understand this viewpoint but many of us disagree. Buxton gets better by playing baseball, preferably with the Twins, not by sitting at home playing with his XBox while the Twins play on without him. The Twins could have used this time to work on Buxton's skills AND work on fostering the relationship. Even sitting on the bench is better than sitting at home.

True. The entire history of the Texas Rangers ball club can be summed up thusly: They are great when Nolan Ryan is running things ... and they're not so great when he isn't. As for the Indians, they haven't lost a step, so it doesn't seem like the Twins nabbed anyone essential from them.

The front office might figure things out. They need more time. - They chose to do nothing their first offseason. I can buy it that they were working on figuring things out internally (though I'm not sure doing both was impossible). - Last year's trade deadline flip flop was laughable. - They did a good job picking up people in the offseason, but they were not perfect. Morrison was nonsense, and the franchise mistreated Vargas one last time which finally broke him. I'm sure they love shouting "I told you so" from the rooftops after Vargas finally performed like they always wanted him to this year in the minors. - They did a good job selling off people when the season was hopeless, though they won't be able to replace Pressly nor Escobar. - They jacked up the bullpen because they weren't patient enough. - Good leaders communicate. With everyone. If a worker doesn't know where he stands, he's not going to be happy and he's not going to perform well for you. - Most of us have seen enough of Molitor. He doesn't do poorly enough to get fired (although 103 losses in between two >.500 seasons with mostly the same players ... hmmm), but mediocrity is his middle name. What it boils down to is this team needs to 1) be more patient, 2) communicate better, 3) look at data just a little bit harder before making a move, 4) install their own manager.

Astudillo seems a lot like the type of player the Twins won games with in the 00s. He would have fit in on those teams.

More resources = better development. This holds true for any organization, not just in baseball.