Doomtints

Rosario = AL Player of the week. 4 HR, 1.484 OPS.

When I started looking at WAA (wins above the average player) instead of WAR (wins above the theoretical base level player) I noticed quickly that for some positions WAA is lower than WAR, and this isn't a fluke but is a common occurance. This is, of course, a mathematical absurdity and a shows a flaw in the system. I have since abandoned WAR altogether (not that I was a huge proponent of it in the first place) and I only use WAA. I only care if a player is above average at his position anyway, whether or not he is "replacement level" is a useless thing to measure for any team in serious contention.

Bill James, as usual, states exactly what some of us were thinking about baseball metrics. What you find in these calculations are artificial constants and assumptions which help certain types of hitters/defenders and hurt others, regardless of results.

I would be surprised if any position players other than Dozier and Mauer have green lights to do anything at their discretion, ever.

I would not read into this very much. Gee was held down in a bizarre manner. So were Polanco and Kepler, both were left with no options by the time they finally were starters which shackled the roster, yet both put up solid numbers in the minors. Vargas is still being bounced around whether he is slumping at that moment or not. One thing I have learned is that we can't read into how the Twins org treats people in the minors or even how they treat rookies. I put this on Molitor as I don't recall seeing this before he was managing. I have no clue what Molitor looks for in a young player, but performance seems to be secondary. Where Gardenhire sometimes put too much faith in young guys, only to be disappointed and bench them, Molitor is reluctant to give anyone a chance to start with.

This looks streaky to you?

The players who were lagging behind are now hot. Likely when they cool off, the usual gang will be out of their slumps. This is how a good team works. Exciting to see happening, finally.

This means he is not silent. He is siding with the bigots.

Cooler heads are prevailing in this thread. I like it. I'm was incredibly irked by this performance and I still am, but everyone's temperance here has rubbed off on me.

Gimenez almost blew the game for the Twins, but he certainly blew the game for Santana regardless. Everyone has bad days, but yes -- it's not like the Twins do not have other options. If they are keeping him around simply because he can pitch, that's the wrong reason.

In 2009, a girl I was dating fell into this crowd of white supremacists. They have a sizable online presence. Her and I broke up immediately, and I quickly read up on the group. I learned their beliefs, plans, and coded language. Nothing I saw today surprised me. This is who they are. They will crawl back into their holes now, "lie low" and plot more stupid schemes on their private forums. (These schemes usually only take place online, but they have long fantasized about today.) And, yes, 45 uses their coded language when he speaks. So did Ron Paul, mind you. It's a safe guess that the CIA and FBI both have infiltrated these groups, yet somehow we ended up with this president and with Charlottesville anyway. Perhaps they were waiting for this day to happen to take action, we will see.

A part time 1B is useless.

A bit of power is expected at first base. Mauer has 5 home runs. The next closest player at the position has 13. He will be 35 when his contract runs out. That's a good age to retire, especially for a player whose performance would have fallen off a cliff 5 years earlier.

Lesson learned!

Dozier went on a tear last year while the Twins were losing games badly. I don't expect his dingers to manufacture wins as long as he is in the leadoff spot, plus expecting the same performance this year is probably not reasonable at this point.

Yeah. That was harsh and unwarranted after 1 appearance...

As things stand today, he would no doubt want to continue playing. I can't imagine there being much interest.

Kaat was in the majors for a long time, but even his arm wore down. Moving to the pen is what kept him on the field at the end of career, which goes against his statement.

Yes, he was good in 2012-2013, but I wasn't going to say that. In 2006, 2011, 2014 his post-season ERA was around 5.75.

I see no reason to get any more excited than we probably were 1 week ago, 2 weeks ago, etc. We knew the team was in a funk, but not a collapse. We also knew that neither KC nor Cle were truly running away with it. There are a lot of games left to be played. Hopefully no one truly lost hope based on a small stretch of unexciting games.

Verlander seems to be pretty anti-Twins, plus he is expensive. Let him go the Yankees or whoever. Like A-Rod, Verlander is often terrible in the playoffs. Keep the tradition alive!

It would be interesting to look at the matchups he faced during those bad outings. There could be a clear indicator there of when not to use him other than a guess that he is tired.

Yeah, that's how you do it when the opposition starts teeing off.

Good analysis as always. I could buy into it that his curve & change, which require more concentration/control to throw effectively than hurling fastballs, could have been "off" due to the nervousness of his first start. The fact that he was called up suggests he will, eventually, get plenty of time to prove himself.

All distractions aside, Enns was decent his first time out. One bad inning. When he was done, he was done, but this was a good effort to build from.