Doomtints

I like watching GoT, but talking about it is torture. Websites use GoT to generate traffic for themselves by posting bizarre predictions. Another favorite is to post episode summaries that appear to be written by people who missed every important detail of what they were watching. Real life GoT conversations tend to fall into, "Read the books, they are so much better, so much more detailed than what you see on the screen." Maybe I have a better imagination than others, but I bailed on the books after the first one as what I was reading was identical to what I saw in the first season. Life is too short, I can just watch the episodes again if I want to relive them! (Yes, I know some characters don't make it into the series. I'm OK with not knowing these details.) Other GoT conversations focus on battles and nudity, which are things I would prefer to watch than talk about.

The bullpen has actually been serviceable as of late. No, they should not pick up a bullpen arm right now.

I think it is Molitor who is holding back Gee. He is on record as having said after Gee was recently called up, "I still haven't seen you pitch yet, so I don't know how or when to use you." Well, you're the manager, Paul, whose fault is it that you didn't ever see Gee pitch?

I was not expecting the Twins to sweep the Brewers. It seems the middling teams who surged around the all star break are coming back down to earth. The Indians, Royals, Cubs, etc., are all looking like .500 teams again.

It was the current situation in the game, not "only allowing 2 runs." If we run the numbers on how many pitchers get pulled when the bases are loaded and a run is walked in, I am betting it is a high percentage.

Exactly. He will pitch again, and even if he made it out of that jam, the Twins *still* wouldn't have enough data to know if he could be consistently good!

Walking in a run is not a "quick hook." Bad bullpen, sure, but worse than what was going on? Not really.

If the Twins move on, I would guess it would be to someone we have not heard of much in Twins Territory. New blood. Who could be ready in the Cleveland or Texas clubhouses?

15% isn't good odds to start with. However, I would not put more weight on the "season stats" projections either. The Twins have a fairly easy schedule the rest of the way with a lot of games v. the Royals and Indians. The odds are long no matter how you slice it, but they're not out of it. I suspect the team will land with 78 wins and in 3rd place, but I would not count them out for more.

2016 Cubs - Bunt hits (No one on base): 23 - Sacrifice Bunt attempts/successes: 70/42 (60%) 2016 Twins - Bunt hits (No one on base): 20 - Sacrifice Bunt attempts/successes: 55/27 (49%) Doesn't seem like Molitor calls for bunts too often.

Bunting is a tool. If the defense looks unprepared for a bunt, do it or show that you will do it.

Perhaps, we'll see. I'm biased because I never would have traded for Meyer in the first place, nor would I have picked up Nolasco....

Again, no one is advocating for infinite chances.

I don't think anyone is advocating for "infinite chances." If the Twins are going to be thinking about "backup plans" for Polanco already, they're daft. He deserves another full year, minimum. I think we are seeing confirmation bias going on. Some people disliked Polanco before this season and are thus going into "I told you so" mode, rather than letting the kid learn the ropes of major league baseball. These are the same conversations we had about Brian Dozier a few years ago.

I'm still skeptical that Meyer will do anything except have a short, injury-riddled, inconsistent career. I have been waiting five years for him to prove me wrong. I completely understand the end of the team's patience with him. Besides, the trade helped us get rid of Nolasco. What would the Twins record be in 2017 if Nolasco were still around? Nolasco+Meyer on roster < Not on roster.

How much do you think scouting could have changed? It's not analytical.

I would wager that Gladden has spoken extensively with most, if not all, of the scouts in the Twins organization.

Gladden stated on the air that the only thing a scout needs is a love of baseball. I'm guessing the pay is roughly equivalent to minor league player wages, plus expenses. An additional skill would be the ability to work independently and still be productive. In these cases I would guess it is this that was failing.

Dozier and Odor are very similar players in that their 2B bats are feast-or-famine power coupled with competent but not spectacular defense. Odor may finish his career making twice what Dozier will make even though Dozier is successful more often. It's tough to say that the Twins are getting a bum deal with Dozier.

I don't think any of us know the true reason why this was done, or is being done now. However, I can make a guess as well as anyone else: The Twins org became a sort of "country club" where everyone knew each other and protected one another, creating a culture of privilege. Little work was getting done because of this, and initiatives were failing with a lot of fingers being pointed. Levine/Falvey learned of this issue upon arriving thanks to meeting with people who were candid about it. Levine/Falvey then spent the next ~6 months figuring out who the problem people were because, coming in, it would have been impossible to know who was telling the truth. Yes, this is a common problem in business. Structures tend to fail for only a handful of reasons. Check this out:

Without getting into it too much, I believe they are trying to win. What they are also trying to do is build a pitching staff for the future. Yes, this argument is old as we heard it for years under TR, but in this case there is evidence that actually backs this up. The Twins are down a closer, but managed transform 1 pitching prospect into 2. Plus, guess what, Kintzler is a free agent next year and could be back! A few more wins like yesterday and the Twins will believe in themselves again, and they might just manage to still be in contention through the last week of the season, something zero of us expected six months ago. If not for the resurgent Royals, the Twins would still be right there.

:roll: :roll:

Re: Jargon This was clearly a written interview and not a verbal one. This is what I would expect given that.

I agree with the sentiments expressed here. There is nothing inherently wrong with Polanco. His slump is absolutely normal for a young player. The data we have access to measures results, but not the approach. Coaches work on the approach. All the best data in the world won't help someone coach the kid properly as to what to do. Until we start looking at film we have no chance of knowing more than the Twins coaches when it comes to coaching a player.

Can Santana win 20 games this year? And if he does, will we still insult with him "Oh, he's just a #3" threads?