Paul Pleiss

Sunday will be the 10th anniversary of the death of Kirby Puckett, one of the most beloved Twins of all time.
 
I just thought it would be nice to offer some memories of Puckett as a Twin – from his infectious smile to his game-winning 1991 World Series Game 6 home run.
 
What's your favorite memory of Kirby Puckett?

In an effort to get back in the swing of writing about the Twins consistently, I'm going back to an old well: Cliff-Notes. After all, I end up checking the cliff notes of everything book I teach for plagiarism, I figure this is just getting ahead of the curve. (For the start on cliff-notes I made before September crushed my baseball loving soul click here)
 
With that, let's start looking at Volume 2 of the Twins' Cliff Notes
 
Chapter 1: "April"
Plot Summary:
With the traditional exposition of some vague optimism and pledges to change, the Twins opened the season with a crushingly grim display of flaccid and ineffective play culminating in a cascade of boos during the home opener.
 
Faced with trying times, the Twins responded with muted resolve. They continued down the pre-ordained path, changing players only when forced by injuries rather than performance. New leader Paul Molitor remained enigmatic, occasionally catering to long standing pleas from fans (eg. for platooning, against myopic use of closers), but frequently maintaining longstanding habits (eg. valuing experience over upside, offering limited knowledge of advanced statistics).
 
The players themselves were similarly nonplussed. The biggest news seemed to be that heroic Joe Mauer had grown a beard. Phil Hughes pitched well but failed to win enough games to earn the undying affection of the faithful. Returning favorites such as Torii Hunter, Glen Perkins and Brian Dozier were solid but not sensational. Promising prospects such as Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas regressed. New team members like Blaine Boyer and Shane Robinson did not win any fans or burn any bridges.
 
At the very end of the month a silver lining emerged, the Twins beat their rival White Sox handily. They beat the White Sox best pitcher (Chris Sale) emphatically. And in the eyes of fans throughout Twins Territory a small glimmer shone as if to say, "well, at least there was that"
http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/883*549/08-584722%202TWIN050115.jpg
 
Main Character Development:
With so much affirming of the way things have been (from Terry Ryan to Joe Mauer to Phil Hughes) and too little to develop a complete assessment on new people (Molitor, Boyer, Robinson), the greatest development came from an unlikely source.
 
Trevor Plouffe was not terribly impressive, but he was, also, not terrible. His consistent growth into a consistent presence has been satisfying, not sensational, but satisfying. His defense is competent, his pitch selection is solid and his willingness to meet league wide standards is gratifying. For a man whose errant throws and questionable swing choices led many to beat their heads against their coffee tables at home and their seat mates at the stadium, this is impressive growth.
 
He has, in effect, completed the same transformation as Neville Longbottom does in the first four Harry Potter books: from punchline to consistent presence. This is the first significant step on the road to heroism, whether it happens with us or with another team is a matter for Chapter 4 (July/the Trading Deadline)
http://media23.onsugar.com/files/2011/07/28/2/301/3019466/0e6c50e05413f3b1_Neville-before-and-after/i/Matthew-Lewis-Pictures.jpg Trevor Plouffe as a rookie (L), and in
two years ®
 
 
Key Quote/Stat Explained:
SO/BB v.s. W-L. Phil Hughes' Strike out to Walk Ratio in April was 13, that's two K's better than his record setting 2014. Yet over that time his record was an underwhelming 0-4. While these bloggers are often preaching to the choir, it doesn't take much to acknowledge that Hughes pitched far better than his record would suggest and that, popular though they are among lay-fans, a pitchers' record has very little to do with their over all performance.
 
Literary Term to Impress English Majors:
If you've ever willingly hung around self-important pseudo intellectuals you've heard people talk about how cliche certain things can be. Basically criticizing anything so overused and overdone that it loses all meaning: like how inspiring teams begin from humble beginnings or how self-important pseudo-intellectuals always call things "cliche".
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkandstormy_5013.jpg
 
 
The Twins opening a season with a run of terrible play was certainly cliche for a team with four straight 90 loss seasons, the baseball equivalent of starting a novel with the line: "it was a dark and stormy night". But a cliche can have power if, instead of following the familiar pattern (team grows, learns and overcomes the odds to win), it inverts things (refusing to change, continuing to struggle, willingly accepting mediocre play to gain the ultimate rewards of change--either in personnel or in management). So, yes, the Twins played cliche ball in April, which means they've got us exactly where they want us.

Trevor May’s career got off to an inauspicious start. After wearing out Triple-A pretty well — 2.85 ERA, 8.6 K/9, 1.16 WHIP — May was summoned for an Aug. 9 start last season against the A’s. May only lasted two innings, struck out none and walked seven as just 28 of his 63 pitches went for strikes.
 
May didn’t complete five innings until his third start, and didn’t pick up a win until his fifth. As August came to an end, May’s ERA sat at 10.42. September was markedly better — if still not perfect — for May, as he posted a 6.08 ERA with 29 strikeouts and eight walks in 26.2 innings. Over his final four starts, he threw at least 90 pitches in each, and never fewer than 60 strikes. If you wanted the breakdown of May’s September versus his August, here it is: he threw nearly the same number of balls (non-strikes) in August (151) as September (157). The difference is, he threw nearly 80 more strikes in September.
 
For a guy who has at times had issues throwing strikes in his career, that’s a reasonably big difference.
May himself will tell you he felt he turned the corner in September, most specifically when preparing for his final start against the Tigers. May didn’t mince words either, as a guy who isn’t shy about saying what he feels.
 
“I have a distinct memory of going into that start in Detroit kind of being like ‘I’m sick of letting guys dictate how I pitch. I’m really kind of tired of this Tigers team having the best time ever when they’re hitting,’” May said of his preparation for a six inning, seven strikeout performance against the Tigers. May was handed his sixth loss, but from a statistical standpoint, it was probably his second-best start of his cup of coffee with the big club.
 
May considers that a jump-off point for his offseason. “I just wanted to go after them,” he noted. “They got me a little bit, but I thought I had them guessing and some guys swinging through things they thought they were going to hit.” After that start, May said he realized he had run out of ‘physical gas’, and that he made a promise to himself that the poise, confidence and aggressiveness was going to be there coming into 2015 because, as he said “You can’t pitch without it.”
 
May doesn’t dodge questions about his control issues in the minors, and even last season. “I’m past the point of having jitters or just off my debut or all that stuff,” he said. “It’s time to get the job done.” May’s control woes were two-fold, at some points there were issues he could fix mechanically, and at other times it was just mind versus body. “There were times my body simply wouldn’t do what my brain said,” May noted. “But the vast majority of the times my big walk games were because I had a little bit of fear of throwing the ball over the plate. I’m not shy about that; it was happening.”
 
But it hasn’t happened this year; in fact, through five starts since his call-up, he’s walked just five batters, and just four unintentionally. May made 29 appearances last year (28 starts), and walked four or more batters on six occasions — a rather large adjustment. May attributes that to not only a philosophical change, but facing that fear head-on and pummeling it into submission. “Just being relentless,” May said of his new mentality. “Just making them beat you 100 percent of the time is, I think, a good philosophy for me to have.”
 
Since May is relatively new to the Twins landscape, he broke down his repertoire a little bit as well. He throws a fastball and a changeup as his strikeout pitches — his words — while the curve has been something he’s been working on with improved success in between-games action, whether it’s playing catch or side sessions. BrooksBaseball.net credits him with throwing 21 curves in Tuesday night’s game, which is more than any other two starts this year combined, so clearly that offering has evolved a bit.
 
Each pitch for May has a different usage, like you’ll find with pretty much every pitcher. The two-seamer — termed a sinker via Brooks’ tracking logarithm — is what he considers his groundball pitch, which the statistics prove to be true with a 58.3 percent groundball rate in his brief big league career. Incidentally, the slider has proven heavy with a 50 percent groundball rate as well, so even though May is predominantly a fly ball pitcher — he says it’s due to the run on his four-seamer — he has a couple offerings that can kill worms if he finds himself in such a situation.
 
The pitch we honed in on in discussions was the changeup, however. May has been a power pitcher as he’s risen through the ranks, but the changeup is something he’s wanted to reaffirm, and has done so with gusto this season. Thus far in his time in the majors, May has compiled a stellar 19.4 percent whiff rate on the pitch, a clean 10 percent-plus more than any of his other pitches. So while the fastball might be a strikeout pitch in May’s eyes, the changeup is without a doubt his putaway pitch.
 
He’s keenly aware of it, too. In fact, future teammate Torii Hunter approached him after the Detroit start last year gushing about it. “You got me with the changeup,” Hunter admitted. “I couldn’t see it at all.” Kurt Suzuki was on board as well, and asked May early in the spring if he was “ready to throw some changeups this year?”
 
May’s breakdown of the changeup is rather intriguing. “It moves exactly like my four-seamer does,” May said. “It’s an illusion. With the changeup, some guys get good action. For example, Gibby throws his as a sinker, so they see sinker action. So his action actually makes his changeup better. I kind of have a riding fastball as it is, so guys kinda have a tendency to swing under it because it’s going up over bats. But then the changeup is the same but it stays down and goes under there. It’s kind of an optical illusion, that’s what makes it so good.”
 
The nuance of the changeup is one of baseball’s great mysteries, at least to the casual fan. What might be difficult to understand for someone who hasn’t faced a good one is that it’s nearly imperceptible if the pitcher throws it with the proper motion and mechanics. Essentially, it’s a pitch that’s designed to look like a fastball out of the hand — same arm speed, same arm slot — but the deception is when you find yourself finishing your swing as the ball crosses the plate.
 
“It’s one of the harder pitches to throw,” May said. “I think fans see a lot of spin and they think breaking balls are the hardest thing to hit because it’s moving up or down or whatever. But if it’s picked up early, it’s not as hard to hit as a good changeup. A guy with a good changeup, if you can’t see, if it looks exactly the same and you can’t determine how fast it’s coming at you, you’re simply not going to hit it hard.”
 
Well, as long as May keeps dealing with his changeup, it seems quite likely he can keep this early-season roll going. The Twins obviously thought well enough of his start to keep him in favor of veteran Tommy Milone, so maybe there’s some fire to go with May’s smoke here.
 
This post originated at Cold Omaha. Please consider clicking through to support this content.

Spring training is meaningful. Jobs are won and lost as a result. They should be.
 
Statistics from spring training exhibition games have no meaning. They should not be kept, reported or used in support of roster making decisions. I hope the Twins don't keep them or use them. Not only is the data in a sample too small to be meaningful but the level of competition varies.
 
It is critical the Twins get the roster right though. They need to rely on the skill of the coaching staff and other staff in spring training to get the best 25. They need to be able to assess whether Milone, Pelfrey and Nolasco are healthy and throwing the ball like they did when they were more successful. Suzuki can help assess Milone also. They have to make the correct assessment on these three and have plenty of time and plenty of eyes to get it right. They need to assess whether Hicks has fundamentally changed his approach and possibly swing. They need to assess whether Schafer's numbers the last two months were result of a fundamental change or simply variation due to sample.
 
Last year's staff should have seen a fundamental change in Kubel's bat speed. They should have seen Bartlett's inability to play outfield. They should have seen the need for Pinto to catch every day in the minors. They should have seen enough from Worley to retain him in AAA once he cleared waivers and was off the 40.
 
The Twins can't afford to miss again this year. They need the skill to correctly assess the pitching and bring the best 12 north. They need to be right on Hicks and Pinto and put them in a role where they will best help the team win games.
 
Spring training is critical to the Twins this year. Let's just hope they ignore the numbers and rely on their eyes. Let's hope the new Twins staff is more skilled than last year's staff.
 
Spring training is meaningful. Spring training stats are not. Let's not use them.

It's strange to say for someone who has written this blog for nearly seven years, but I've never written in depth about my first Twins game. But I have a good reason for that.
 
I don't really remember it.
 
I've tried to. I've imagined Kirby Puckett legging out a triple. I wishfully think that it was the Orioles so I can say that I saw Cal Ripken in the midst of his streak.
 
But I just don't remember it. Not the day. Not the year. Not the opponent. Not the outcome.
 
But I remember my grandfather, the man who took me there.
 
I remember coming to Minneapolis from Montana, over a single long day's drive. And knowing it we had made it, when I could see the lights on the porch and hear the game on the radio.
 
I remember sitting on a porch swing on summer mornings looking over the box scores with him as he sipped his coffee in an old robe and I peppered him with question after question.
 
I remember holding his hand and walking down the Metrodome's concrete steps to our seats.
 
I remember him point to the turf, and the bases, to see if I was following along, and joining in the "Noooo Smoking at the Metrodome".
 
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/21U64pZLN9L.jpg
I remember him bringing me a swirled sundae in a Twins helmet cup and smiling kindly as the sundae ended up half in my mouth and half on my shirt.
 
I remember his kind questions, "did you like it?", "who was your favorite player?", "what was your favorite moment?"
 
I remember him happily lobbing underhand whiffle balls to my brothers and me, when we asked to play in the front yard that night and many other nights there after.
 
In the years that followed we didn't always go to Twins games, we out grew whiffle ball, and I actually became an adroit helmet sundae eater. But he still asked his questions while he sat in his barcalounger and I sat on the sofa beside him.
 
He still poured over box scores with the morning paper, and watched, and listened and read whenever he could. He had opinions about who was doing well, and how the old players compared and he shared them with me regularly.
 
We talked about Paul Molitor getting hired and remembered seeing him in downtown Minneapolis when I was a boy. We talked about Tony O missing the hall of fame again and how he used to watch the batting practice bombs. We talked about how he was convinced that my college friend should become my wife the moment he found out she was a singer with season tickets.
 
He passed away yesterday morning, after beating back cancer for longer than the doctors had thought he could. I knew he was tough, I knew he was proud, but when he passed I could only think about how kind he was and how happy he must have been with family around him, singing and sharing their love.
 
Just like he shared the game, and a sundae, and his hand with me.
 
Whatever day it was.

What do the Twins do about Plouffe and Dozier? Extend? Go year to year? Hope to sell high at 30?
 
There has been some great discussion started by Seth on Dozier and Plouffe.
 
There also have been studies that show aging curves in the post steroid era are changing. Fewer players are maintaining their peak seasons into their thirties. There are many studies to read. Here is one by Jeff Zimmerman for Fangraphs.
 
I wondered how players currently around 33 years old have aged. With the help of play index from Baseball Reference, I searched for all players that had seasons with an OPS+ of 100 or better in 2006-7 as 26 or 27 year olds. There were many others that were below that level but they were probably not in any team consideration for getting an extension.
 
Before getting to the group there is one player in the group that should be addressed. One player by age 27 was with his 5th team having been waived twice and traded for the likes of Justin Huber and Robinson Diaz. After over 1500 plate appearances through age 27 he had an OPS+ of 89. For comparison, Chris Parmelee sits at 96 as the Twins have released him. Jose Bautista's performance since age 27 has been outstanding with his opportunity in Toronto. He didn't make the group because at age 27 Pittsburgh wasn't thinking extension, they were thinking dump.
 
I would like to place a table of data below so you can see all of the players. The new blogging software makes tables very difficult. All of the players in the search can be found in this google sheet.
 
For each player, I grouped their performance in 3 season chunks using ages 25-27, 28-30 and 31-33. I did this so that any single year variation did not stand out. I also used three as it is the norm in many projection systems.
 
There were a few middle infielders in the group including Mike Aviles, Khalil Greene, Brandon Phillips and Dan Uggla. There were some former Twins like Ryan Doumit, Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel. I added Jason Bartlett, but he did not fit the first criteria since his over 100 OPS+ seasons came after 27. His decline at 31-33 is similar to several others.
 
I wondered how many of the players would play have a better OPS+ from 31-33 as well as more plate appearances in that time frame. With over 20 players in the group, no one had more plate appearances and a better OPS+ from 31-33 than they did from 25-27. No one.
 
There were two players with a better OPS+ from 31-33. Matt Holliday had an increase of 5% in OPS+ while coming to the plate 5% less than he did from ages 25-27. Shane Victorino had an OPS+ increase of 4% while injuries and platooning dropped his playing time by 17%.
 
Brain Dozier through his age 27 season sits at a career OPS+ of 98 in 1670 career plate appearances. Maybe the Twins will get lucky and he will follow a path similar to Brandon Phillips. He only dropped 1% in his age 31-33 seasons while playing time dropped by 6%. From age 28-30, he was up 13% compared to 25-27.
 
Trevor Plouffe through age 28 has an OPS+ of 99.
 
Plouffe and Dozier started at an older age. Does that make a difference? Aging curve studies suggest that it will work against them and later career starts lead to earlier declines. There are several players in the group who started at age 25 or 26. They did not age well. The two that improved debuted at 22 (Victorino) and 24 (Holliday).
 
The decline of players into their early thirties is real. Teams need to plan for it as they make any extension offer. Player with and OPS+ of 125 or better over three years have plenty of room for decline. That isn't the case for Dozier and Plouffe. If the Twins do decide to buy free agent years from either, the Twins must be certain that there is something different in Plouffe and Dozier that will keep them playing at their peak longer than anyone in this group.

You can download the new Talk to Contact (@TalkToContact) episode via iTunes or by clicking here, and if you want to add the show to your non-iTunes podcast player, this is the RSS Feed.
 
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rZl6xXzEO6k/VJrNsvxH7yI/AAAAAAAAKds/tW7cZWGDkBk/s1600/phil-hughes.jpg
 
Phil Hughes renegotiated a contract adding three more years to his deal and keeping him in Minnesota through 2019. This was such a momentous occasion that we asked the Twins Hangouts fellas, Seth Stohs and Jeremy Nygaard, to join us.
 
 
I'll warn you up front that E Rolf had his potty mouth out again, and that the beer was flowing on the podcast, so if you have children, or sensitive grandparents in the room, you may want to go elsewhere to listen.
 
We talk about Phil's new contract, and try to figure out exactly what the Twins acquisition of Tim Stauffer means for the organization going into 2015. For starters it means that Eric Fryer has been removed from the 40-man roster, but that might not be such a bad thing, depending on who you ask.
 
We discuss the recent minor league manager assignments, and some other minor league news before jumping into our winter series reviewing the roster. This week we take a look at Casey Fien, Lester Oliveros and Eduardo Escobar.
 
Thanks for listening and enjoy our show.

Forbes.com reported today that Major League baseball league-wide revenues jumped from $8 billion in 2013 to $9 billion in 2014, mostly due to the league's new national TV contracts and to revenue from MLB Advanced Media, the league's online streaming arm.
 
A look back: In 2001, revenue was $3.6 billion; adjusted for inflation, $4.66 billion in today's dollars, according to Forbes. That year, three MLB teams had payrolls over $100 million; the Yankees led the way with just over $112 million. 16 more had more than $50 million in payroll that season. Since then, revenue has doubled, more or less. The Dodgers had a $235 million payroll last year, and the Yankees nearly cleared the bar to $200 million as well. 14 other teams had payrolls of at least $100 million.
 
$200 million is the new $100 million, when it comes to payroll. $100 million is the new $50 million.
 
Since Target Field opened in 2010, the median MLB payroll has gone from $85 million to $107 million - right in line with revenue, which just like the median payroll, has jumped 25% in that five-year span. During that same period, the Twins' payroll has declined, from $98 million to $85million. Don't let the Twins fool you; they will try to tell you that they're spending plenty of money. They aren't.
 
Remember this the next time Terry Ryan or Dave St. Peter talks about being "fiscally responsible." Remember this the next time your neighbor complains about Joe Mauer's contract being the problem with the Twins. Remember that MLB's revenue explosion, and the great gobs of taxpayer money that funded Target Field, mean that the Twins are making more money now than they ever have before - indeed more money than they could ever have dreamed of.
 
They're just pocketing it, instead of spending it on improving the team.

Hopefully this story can bring you a little cheer for the holiday season, baseball season is right around the corner, hang in there!
 
While we all expected Miguel Sano to debut last season, we are still waiting to see him at Target Field. Having played with him for about 250 games, I have seen him do some incredible things. Here is why I am excited to see him in a Twins Uniform and also why I think you will love watching him play in Minneapolis for many years.
 
This is a two part story and it is probably my favorite memory from my time playing with Sano.
It started in Fort Myers playing the St. Louis Cardinals High-A affiliate, Palm Beach. We were down a couple of runs late in the game when Sano came up with the bases loaded. A penchant for dramatic situations, he promptly launched a grand slam deep into the Florida night off of this lanky, slinging righty. He probably stood at home plate a little too long and neither the pitcher, nor the opposing pitching coach, liked that very much. They exchanged words as he crossed home and later as he trotted out to the field the next inning. Things settled and the event ended without anything further. We all had thought it was over.
 
Fast forward two weeks and we were in Palm Beach playing the Cardinals at their place. We had a big lead early in the game and the lanky, slinging righty came out of the pen for some mopup innings. Sano was the first batter he faced. All of us had forgotten what had happened a couple of weeks prior, except the pitcher, pitching coach…and of course, Sano.
 
The pitcher proceeded to throw the first pitch right at his head, missing only slightly. Throwing at one of our top prospects wasn’t ok, so some choice words were exchanged between dugouts and the field. Sano stepped out calmly, stared down the pitching coach and the pitcher and stepped back in. When the count got to 3-1, the lanky righty threw a meatball and Sano angrily launched a towering blast to left center, spiked his bat, stood at home, and screamed a mix of expletives in English and in Spanish before walking towards first base. He was immediately ejected, which made Doug explode from his third base coach’s box.
 
The picture that is seared into my memory is Sano coming around third, a look of anger mixed with a smirk, as Doug is being ejected just inside the foul line.
 
I have never seen someone hit home runs on command like Miguel does.
 
That memory is one of many reasons I am excited to see Sano in Minneapolis. Not only is he a bubbly personality and a genuinely nice guy, he cares and he will bring a ton of excitement to the Twins, I know you will agree when you get the chance to see him play next summer. I promise you won’t be disappointed, he is worth the wait.
 
I wrote an article for the Prospect Handbook with a few lasting memories and lessons learned through my time in pro ball, it is being released soon, so check it out when it is!

I was watching the excellent ESPN 30-for-30 feature on the Earthquake Series of 1989 and in recalling various players on that Oakland A’s team, was again struck by how far off the charts Terry Steinbach’s 1996 was from any other season in his career at the advanced-for-baseball age of 34. Steinbach slugged 35 homeruns that season after never hitting more than 16 before or after. His 34 homeruns as a catcher (the other was as a pinch hitter) was the highest total for a catcher at that time in the American League. It was surpassed by Ivan Rodriguez (35) in 1999 which is the current record.
 
In all of baseball history, only two other players over age 30 put up career high homeruns exceeding 30 in a season which more than doubled any other season homerun total in their careers.
 
Brady Anderson – hit 50 homeruns in 1996 at age 32. The next highest HR total for Brady in a season was 24.
 
George Crowe – hit 31 homeruns in 1957 at age 36. The next highest HR total for George in a season was 15.
 
Crowe hit his 31 homeruns in the only season he ever topped 400 at-bats so is easily explainable. Brady Anderson and Steinbach, not so. While steroid rumors have always surrounded Anderson’s aberrant 1996, Steinbach’s similarly aberrant 1996 has remained unquestioned as far as I can tell from Google searches despite the Oakland clubhouse of 1996 also being the home to McGwire, Canseco and Giambi.
 
So how exactly does a 34 year-old catcher who never hit more than 16 homeruns before or since become the all-time single season league leader in homeruns at his position? In looking for explanations, I thought of the following:
 
Renovation to the Oakland Coliseum
 
In 1995-1996 the Oakland Coliseum was renovated to enclose the previously open outfield with a massive steep double-decked grandstand for Raiders football. (”Mt. Davis”) Prior to that, the stadium had a symmetrical curved outfield fence with dimension of 330 down the lines, 375 to the alleys, and 400 to center field. With the construction, the configuration of the outfield changed to a peaked diamond shape that kept the same foul line and center field dimensions but was constrained to shorter dimensions in the alleys.
 
A’s fans have also written that there was previously a breeze that cooled the ballpark on hot day games that disappeared once Mount Davis was erected. This suggests that batters no longer had to deal with wind blowing in. Shorter power alleys and more favorable wind conditions could have helped Steinbach’s power numbers, right?
 
Steinbach hit a home run every 38 at-bats at home in 1994, every 21 at-bats in 1995, and every 16 at-bats in 1996, while the rest of the A’s hit homers every 36 at-bats in 1994, every 30 at-bats in 1995, and every 24 at-bats in 1996 – so the park (or the team) was trending upward. Unfortunately for the ballpark theory Steinbach’s rates on the road were a homer every 36 at-bats in 1994, every 36 in 1995, and every 13 at-bats in 1996, meaning his homerun rate increased 32% at home in '96 but increased 164% on the road! Not the ballpark.
 
The Strike of 1994-1995
 
Steinbach lost at-bats that would have affected his overall homerun totals in 1994 and 1995. The 1994 season was wiped out after 117 games and the 1995 season started late and was limited to 145 games. Perhaps his aberrant 1996 power wouldn’t be as glaring in comparison if his two previous seasons had been completed. Projecting his production in those seasons to 1996 at-bat levels produces only 14 homeruns in 1994 (compared to 11 actual) and 19 instead of 15 in 1995. (For some reason the jump from 19 to 35 seems less staggering even though it’s still semi-staggering – especially given Steinbach’s age. Joe Mauer had his aberrant HR season at age 26, by the way.)
Sold his Soul?
 
With the lack of a better explanation, it’s possible Steinbach negotiated some kind of deal with Lucifer in exchange for his 1996 season. How else could you explain how following the greatest season of his career and one of the top seasons ever for an American League catcher, he inexplicably took two-thirds of his previous salary to join a moribund team Twins team that lost 90 games every season for the rest of his career.

This is Part 2 of 2, concerning the work to be done this week by the Minnesota Twins staff at their "organizational meetings" in Fort Myers this week.
 
Reports have estimated that as many as 100 members of the Twins staff may participate in the meetings this week. That's a lot of people, but then it's a big job.
 
In Part 1, we covered the manager and coaching staffing issues. In Part 2, we look at roster matters at the Major League and minor league levels.
 
As indicated in Part 1, over the coming days, weeks and months, the Twins need to
Hire a new manager for the first time in over a decade.
Work with said new manager to assemble a seven-person big league level coaching staff.
Assign manager and coaching duties to every level of minor league affiliate.
Determine which, if any, of their minor league free agents to attempt to retain.
Determine at which minor league level to place a significant number of their top young prospects to start 2015.
Determine whether to offer arbitration to a few members of their current big league roster.
Identify potential MLB level free agents and/or trade targets to pursue once the World Series is completed.

http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/ToDo-List.jpg
 
Some of the items on that to-do list are not common tasks for this organization, but even for some of those that are on the list every postseason, the stakes this year have risen significantly.
 
Concurrently with their efforts to identify and put in place big league and farm system managers and coaches, the Twins also have some work to do on the player front.
 
Filling out the roster(s)
 
When the subject of filling out the 2015 roster comes up among most Twins fans, the discussion generally focuses on which of the current Twins will/should be back with the club and who potential acquisitions might be that Terry Ryan should seek in the free agent and/or trade market.
 
Granted, those are important considerations.
 
But, given that 2015 is looking more like a bridge to the next era of competitive baseball at Target Field than it is a destination itself, the make-up of the organization’s minor league rosters may be equally important to that of the big league roster, if not more so.
 
For the past couple of years, as the farm system has been being restocked, even the most optimistic fans of the organization have conceded that most of the Twins’ most promising prospects have been in the low minors, multiple years away from being of any help to the parent club.
 
Sure, it was fun to watch Byron Buxton put on a show for the Fox Sports North audience in 2013 when the cable network televised one of Buxton’s Cedar Rapids Kernels games. But while the distance between Cedar Rapids and Target Field can be traversed in less than five hours, the time it takes for a prospect to progress from the Class A Kernels to the Twins is much longer – frustratingly so, in some cases.
 
The 2012 Elizabethton Twins won the Appalachian League championship. In 2013, many of those same players made up a Cedar Rapids Kernels playoff team that went 88-50. This past season, largely the same crop of prospects contributed to Fort Myers’ Florida State League championship team.
 
In 2015, that group should largely fill out the roster for the first season of the Twins’ new AA affiliation with the Chattanooga Lookouts.
 
No problem, right? Move them up there. Challenge them. A player who masters Class AA is generally considered a candidate to skip AAA and move up to the Big Club if a need for someone at his position presents itself and that player is deemed to be a more promising solution than whoever fills that position in Rochester.
 
The thing is, you don’t have to stretch your imagination far to find 30 or more players who, arguably, should be starting their season at AA. That’s a problem when you’re only allowed 25 players on the Lookouts’ roster.
 
Jeremy Nygaard maintains an excellent database at Twins Daily that includes a variety of important information concerning every player in the Twins organization. For example, did you know that the Twins also have 23 minor leaguers in their system eligible for free agency this offseason - or that 21 of them are already at Class AA or higher?
 
They also have a similar number of players eligible to be selected by another organization in the Rule 5 draft if they aren’t added to the Twins’ 40-man MLB roster by December.
 
Granted, few of those potential free agents would be viewed as potential lynchpins on future Twins teams and even fewer of the Rule 5 eligibles are likely to be lost in that draft, but with the promising class set to move up to Chattanooga, the front office does have its work cut out for it this week when they sit down to fill out preliminary rosters for their AAA and AA clubs.
 
Finally, there’s the minor little project to assemble a Major League roster.
 
And, by “Major League roster,” I mean a roster of players who have either demonstrated that they possess a talent level worthy of being on a Major League roster or, at least, have shown potential to be elite big leaguers in the not-so-distant future.
 
Of course, this topic can (and certainly will) warrant entire articles devoted to it all on its own. For purposes of brevity here, suffice to say that the Twins need to identify big league talent to fill the following positions:
A starting pitcher worthy of being a #1 or #2 starter for a competitive big league team.
Multiple bullpen spots.
A Major League center fielder.
A Major League left fielder.
Any other position that may open up due to trades.

That’s a pretty substantial shopping list. Some of these needs may be filled from within the organization, some via trade and some via free agency. What they all have in common is that, at the end of 2014, they did not have an incumbent that you would definitively declare to be a legitimate everyday Major League talent.
 
When you consider all the work to be accomplished this week – paring down the manager options, looking at coaching candidates for both big league and minor league positions, and assembling rosters at multiple organizational levels, not the least of which is for the Twins team itself, I’m not sure 100 people in Fort Myers is going to be enough.
 
Of course, I have some vacation time coming if Terry Ryan would like me to come down and offer some ideas. I’m just a phone call, email or Tweet away.

It’s that time of the year when everyone offers up their opinions on how they’d improve the Twins if they owned the team. Just like everyone else (including George Steinbrenner in real life), I’m going to ignore that the role of owner is distinct from the roles general manager and manager.
Here is goes. If I owned the Twins…
If I owned the Twins I would make Target Field the first carbon neutral ballpark in the country. The grounds crew would use push mowers, the concessions would run on wind powered from Twins’ bats whiffing, and the lights would be powered with solar panels on the empty seats. I would also buy carbon offsets to power Brian Dozier’s hairdryer.
If I owned the Twins I would fine anyone who bunts. I would fire any manager who orders a bunt. If the Twins get to a World Series, I would not use bunting to decorate Target Field. I just might trade away Bryon Buxton because his last name is an anagram for “Bunt XO” – which sounds to me like someone who loves to bunt.
If I owned the Twins I would clone Joe Mauer. Everyone always says they’d improve their team by cloning their best player. Well, I’ve been watching that Canadian show Orphan Black on Netflix so I think I know how I can get it done. I’d hire someone who knows something about genetic sequencing but I’d get to pick the types of Joe’s we’d clone. It’d be just like the show except on a baseball field: a street-smart Brit Joe in left field, a smart scientist Joe at catcher, and a psychotic Ukranian Joe as closer. I wouldn’t need to make a suburban soccer mom Joe Mauer, because we kind of already have that with the Real Joe Mauer.
 
If I owned the Twins, to attract a more diverse fan base I would redesign one of those two big white guys in the center field neon sign. I’d make over one of them (probably Minnie) from the big lug that he is to some sort of big ambiguous multi-ethnic amalgam of a lug.
If I owned the Twins I would hire Johan Hill as manager. In Moneyball he showed he had a brilliant baseball mind, in The Wolf of Wall Street he showed be could be a loyal member of a management team, and in SuperBad he showed he could draw real funny um... drawings. Those lineup cards would be something.
 
If I owned the Twins I would sign Paul Westerberg, Tommy Stinson and whoever else they have playing with them these days just to test out a theory – that every major league baseball player, from Mike Trout to Chris Herrmann, would have a Wins Above Replacements of 162. (Though if I could play Bob Stinson in his prime, Chris Herrmann’s WARs would drop to around 155, I figure – though it’s hard to judge players of different eras.)
If I owned the Twins I would cut salary to league minimum and put the savings into a Swiss bank account. My money would be two vaults over from the money Carl Pohlad stashed there from 1994 to 2001.
If I owned the Twins I would use advanced statistics like xFIP and Swing Percentage to rate all the free agent pitchers in the major leagues. Then I would realize I couldn’t afford any of the pitchers at the top of my ranking because all the other teams use those advanced stats too. Then I’d sign Kevin Corriea. I’d be able to sleep at night, because I tried.

The Twins announced on Monday that Ron Gardenhire will not return as the team's manager for 2015. Only two managers in the history of the game had survived four straight 90-loss seasons. One of those men was Gardenhire's predecessor, Tom Kelly. Minnesota is a very loyal organization but it seemed like the time was right to make a change.
 
When a manager wins over 1,000 games with an organization there are going to be some ups and downs. The Twins won six division titles in the Gardenhire era but the club found minimal postseason success under his reign. "You lose this many games, you've got to do something," Gardenhire said, "He called me in this morning, I said 'Terry, you don't have a choice here; do what you have to do.' "
 
There were some important wins in the history of the Twins during the Gardenhire era. Here's a look at the five wins Gardenhire will remember most as he leaves the Twin Cities.
 
ALDS Game 5 (2002)
The Twins used a strong pitching performance from Brad Radke and an AJ Pierzynski home run to squeak past the very strong Oakland A's. Brad Radke pitched into the seventh inning while limiting the powerful Oakland offense to one run. Eddie Guardado made things interesting by allowing three runs to score in the bottom of the ninth but he got the last out. Gardenhire had led his team to the ALCS in his first year at the helm but it would be the club's only postseason series win with him as manager.
 
Game 163 (2009)
The final victory in the Metrodome era was a game for the ages. The back and forth effort between the Twins and the Tigers is the closest thing to a World Series memory for a younger generation of Twins fans. It took seven pitching changes and multiple pinch hitting appearances but the Twins got the win. It also helped to have the speedy Carlos Gomez on the bench as a pinch runner for extra-innings. Things wouldn't go so well against the Yankees but the Twins had won the AL Central for the fifth time under Gardenhire.
 
Game 162 (2006)
The Twins were already guaranteed to go to the playoffs but this game took on a very different feel. During the course of the game, Joe Mauer was announced as the AL Batting Champion. This wouldn't be the only celebration on the day. After the Twins game finished, fans stuck around in the Metrodome to watch the Detroit Tigers lose to the lowly Kansas City Royals, a club that finished with 100 losses. The loss meant the Twins were division champions and a huge celebration erupted on the field in front of those that stuck around.
 
Win Number 1,000 (2014)
There have only been 10 managers in the history of the game to win 1,000 games with one club. Gardenhire is part of this elite group. The wins were few and far between over the last four years but Gardy survived long enough to pick up win number 1,000. He's respected enough across the baseball world that he could add to this win total with another organization but his final win in a Twins uniform came on September 27, 2014. It was his 1,068th win and the first time the Twins reached 70 wins since the 2010 season.
 
Ending Oakland's Winning Streak (2002)
This victory took on an entirely different meaning with the movie adaptation of the novel Moneyball. The Twins would also spoil Billy Beane's postseason plans by defeating the A's in October. Oakland went on to win their next three games so without this Twins victory their streak could have stretched to 24. It took a masterful performance from Brad Radke to stop the streak. He threw a complete game shutout with five strikeouts and one walk. Gardenhire had to leave Radke out there for 113 pitches and over 27,000 fans got to see the A's first loss in a month and a half.
 
Most of these wins happened many years ago and that's one of the many reasons Gardenhire is on the way out.

Here's the truth. Both of us peanuts love Ron Gardenhire. We know that we're in the minority there...especially after the last four years...but c'mon, he looks like a little garden gnome. He's ADORABLE!
 
Seriously though, thank you for the support you provided and the lack of lawsuits you threw our way Gardy. You're a cool dude.
 
But now our attention turns to the real focus of the hour. Who will replace Gardy on the top of the Twins dugout step?
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v289/pammyb20/jeUmEPao.jpg Maybe without the glove...
Right now the fan base seems split into two camps:
1--Someone in house who can carry on the "Twins Way" and maintain the loyal, disciplined, do the little things right mentality that helped Kelly and Gardenhire lead the Twins to seven more postseasons than they ever had before. (More postseason berths helped that too.)
2--Someone from outside the organization who can provide a fresh perspective, a new way of doing things and maybe, just maybe, EVEN MORE POST SEASON WINS!!
 
But why not split the difference and choose someone who has been loyal and integrated in the Twins for the last fifty-or-so years, AND is not yet part of the organization? Someone who knows "The Twins Way" AND can approach problems in a way that no manager has ever done before?
 
That's why my pick to be the next Twins manager is...MY MOM!!
 
Yes, I think my mother should be the next Twins manager and before you scoff, allow me to deliver the following points in her favor.
http://www.foxsports.com/content/dam/fsdigital/fscom/other/Images/2013/12/27/122713-FOX-SPORTS-North-Girls-HF-PI-2.jpg I'm sorry, I'm sure you're nice people
But what what if there was a girl...RUNNING things
Hiring her would give young female fans something to aspire and relate to OTHER than being a Fox Sports North Girl. [Nothing wrong with the girls, but rather than having the broadcast focus on appearances and introductions, focusing on a woman's strategy, intelligence and involvement with the on-field action]
She's a life-long Twins fan, a former member of the knot-hole gang in Bloomington, homer-hanky waver from Montana, and loyal knitter/shouter from her current home in Minneapolis.
She has over three decades of experience tending to unruly boys who don't know what's best for them
She's an excellent cook (so the Pohlad's can save on wasteful post game spreads in lieu of post game potlucks!)
She has better nicknames for players than most managers do, and can lead rally-chants like "Mientkiewicz, Mientkiewicz, Make me a Sandwich!"...which will be particularly useful if Douggie M. is her Bench coach.
She is wise enough to tell players after critical errors: "Don't do that!" in the kind of stern, but loving tone that players will definitely respond to. (Honestly, I'm sure Oswaldo Arcia can cut down on his strike outs just by hearing her reprimand him like a mom)
She speaks French which is kind of like Spanish...
She knows enough social media to engage with fans, but not so much that she would get distracted (unlike Ozzie Guillen)
She's a state championship knitter, which would be killer at charity auctions and events ("Bid on this award winning sweater from the Twins manager")
She's an excellent Mezzo-Soprano, so our national anthems will forever be on pitch!
She's working to understand SABR-metric statistics, but still appreciates a good RBI.

I know that many will prefer to debate the merits of Manny Acta versus Terry Steinbach, and others will say that managers don't make much difference anyway...but I don't care. I'm fully on board with this.
 
MY MOM FOR TWINS MANAGER!!

Vance Worley was awful as a Twin. An absolute disaster. What happened with the Pirates? Maybe we should release Pelfrey and Nolasco to get them back on track. OR maybe we should get a new pitching philosophy and coach in place. Just saying it can't all be coincidence.

http://www.twinsandlosses.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/30c5ebfa57730257176efea5450657cd.jpg 
Originally posted on www.twinsandlosses.com
@TwinsAndLosses
 
No, this isn’t a post about the recently demolished Metrodome (R.I.P. and screw you, Zygi), this is a post about something near and dear to my heart: The Twins’ “M” logo.



I’m a huge fan of the “M” logo the Twins have used since 1987. It seems that every year past 2010, the Twins have made small steps in moving closer and closer to the far inferior “TC” logo as the go to logo on their ball caps. Well the Twins officially “retired” the “M” logo before the start of the 2014 season, and I don’t need to tell you how that has negatively affected the season.
 
From ESPN.com (article linked below): “The Twins have had two navy alternate jerseys in recent years — one for home, one for the road — but now they’re scrapping the home version, along with their alternate “M” cap.”
I understand the point in removing some of their extra jerseys. I feel that most teams have way too many to begin with (I’m looking at you, Oregon Ducks…). Three jerseys should be the max, along with a retro uniform if the mood strikes you.
 
I don’t get why the team would also scrap their second logo that took them to two World Series championships, 6 more division titles, 2 MVPs, a three-time batting champion, a two-time Cy Young winner, 2 ROTYs (One if we’re giving Knoblauch the Chris Benoit treatment [too soon?]), and a MOTY award.
 
Call the Pohlads, e-mail Dave St. Peter, and bring signage to the games and let the Twins know we mean business. The Twins had some of their best years with the “M” cap, and it’s easy to see why. What letter is “M” flipped upside down? W. And what does “W” stand for in sports? Winning. You might think to yourself, “Smartass, what does the ‘TC’ stand for then?” Well the easy answer is “Twin Cities,” but anyone who’s watched the Twins from 2011-present knows it’s stands for something entirely different.
 
“Totally Clueless.”

Last season, I'm sure you remember the Twins' ill-fated attempt to charge a select group of fans to watch the Twins take batting practice at home games. To be fair, fans currently don't get to watch the Twins take BP at Target Field, and several teams have a similar program in place, so this idea was not at all unfounded. But the reaction was crazy. People railed against the team such that, only a few hours after the team released the announcement, it was retracted. I didn't blog about this at the time, because it was covered everywhere. But to me, this was an example of really poor timing -- not a poor idea. The team was bad and fielding rather pathetic lineups. The idea that fans would pay extra to watch players like Wilkin Ramirez or Pedro Florimon take BP -- players that would be in AAA on a good team -- suggested to me that the organization was out of touch with a large portion of its fan base.
 
Yesterday, as I'm sure you've heard by now, the Twins released a "brand" survey to some fans, which included the question "[c]urrently, which one brand is the most similar to the Twins brand?" The answer choices were all automobiles: Taurus; Volvo; Mustang; Ford pick-up; Cadillac Escape; BMW; Mercedes; Mini Van; Dodge Viper; Prius Hybrid. Accompanying the car names were descriptors such as "fast and sporty," "quality and luxury," and "efficient and forward-thinking." Of course, none of these automobiles, and none of these descriptors, match the Twins. Maybe mini van comes the closest, but perhaps a more accurate descriptor for the current Twins brand -- "cruising" toward its 4th consecutive 90-loss season -- would be "my '97 Honda Civic after the CD player was stolen and there was a big hole so you could see almost into the engine."
 
Not surprisingly, this question became a laughingstock. How bad did it get? Keith Olbermann named the Twins' marketing department as his nightly "World's Worst." On national television.
 
Fast-forward nearly 24 hours later, and the Twins have yet to say anything publicly about this. Nothing on Twitter from the team, President Dave St. Peter or Mike Kennedy (Twins PR). Do they need to apologize? Of course not. It was a stupid little marketing brand question that went viral, and that seems to happen frequently these days as businesses realize the importance of social/digital marketing and venture into previously uncharted territory. But it did suggest that, perhaps, the organization hasn't learned much in the past year. If the front office really thinks that the Twins are anything like a BMW, or are "urban and street-wise" (how can that even translate into athletics???), or any of those other vehicles or descriptors, the front office is still very much out of touch with what is apparent to everyone else.
 
Social media and digital marketing failures happen all the time. And people get past them. But this is still an embarrassment for the Twins who, in my opinion, are usually pretty good with their ads and marketing stuff. To do nothing for 24 hours, especially after you've been taken down on national television, is just stupid. So what do I suggest? Think like a minor league team would. Do something outside the box. Just. Do. Something. I'm not just going to sit here and make fun of the team without suggesting alternatives. So here are 2 awful ideas.
 
1) Really own this failure and give away a mini van at the last home game of the season. Or donate one to one of the many deserving MN nonprofits. It can be from Mauer Chevrolet. 2) Have a Keith Olbermann day at the ballpark. Invite him to throw out the first pitch. Or ban him from the ballpark for life. Whatever. Free or discounted tickets to people with the legal name "Keith" or "Olbermann." If your birth name is "Keith Olbermann," you get Champions Club seats.
 
Now, I'm an attorney, and I rarely get involved on the creative side at my job. You can see why. But at least these ideas are something. It's better than silence. At the very least, Dave St. Peter should get on twitter (where he is very accessible and patient with fans), and say something funny to Olbermann. Maybe take him down a peg?? Again -- something. Like the batting practice thing, this will go away in a few days. But the team: a) demonstrated once again that it's out of touch with reality; and missed an opportunity to turn an embarrassing negative into something positive, or at least a little funny.

Chs. 4-5: July and August
 
The fledgling, flickering hope alive in the hearts of the Twins and their fans at the end of June was doused with the frigid realization of inadequacy. The pivotal moment established by the previous chapters' foreshadowing was for the "All-Star Game" to be held in the middle of July.
 
 
http://www2.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Kurt+Suzuki+85th+MLB+Star+Game+m2g5VjqmdOnl.jpg Yay! The Party's Over!!
In hosting the party, the Twins had their moment to seize relevance and prominence, to rise up to a stature and status which has so frequently seemed out of their reach. When they threw the doors open to their guests they were confronted with the truth that they cannot hope to compete with the shining stars of the baseball firmament.
 
 
 
 
Like Tom Buchanan in The Great Gatsby or the Narrator in Proust's In Search of Lost Time the Twins are party-goers without an ounce of composure or self-reliance. Hidden away in a corner of their stadium until the final moments, they emerge just in time to see the celebration end. Yet when everyone leaves, the team collapses into a disheartened funk. Pulling themselves out of the doldrums to win just 3 of the next 10 games, leaving their fans disappointed and the team itself broken.
 
 
 
But, in a cruel twist of fate, the team is not allowed to creep back into anonymity, awaiting another spring and fresh start. Instead they are subjected to an extended August road trip, through the repeated self-flagellation of sporadic hitting and consistently implosive pitching. Moments of triumph (including an outburst of 32 runs against a vaunted Tigers team) are tempered by the now blatantly inverted hierarchy of the team's past glory, as former fools and patsies the Kansas City Royals repeatedly batter the squad.
 
 
Character Development
 
Kendrys Morales/Sam Fuld/Kevin Correia/Josh Willingham--These chapters are often paired together because they feature the departures of four previously significant characters. Each of these characters was fraught with contradictions that are both enticing to some readers and maddening to others (witness the previously mentioned Morales and his dualism: i.e. symbol of contender status/presence on a losing team). Tellingly, when each character exits the team clubhouse these moments aren't regarded with celebration, despair, or even much surprise. Instead they appear to be the annual sacrifices to whatever deity drives Twins' Baseball operations: a constant memento mori for their teammates and a simple transaction to their fans.
 
 
http://cache1.asset-cache.net/gc/453420426-kennys-vargas-and-danny-santana-of-the-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=GkZZ8bf5zL1ZiijUmxa7Qbr3ZJ4V4kmpG%2Bmu7qkubMtcEetrC9464mFqVoA11h8k Bam-Bam & Dan-San
Kennys Vargas/Danny Santana--While all the fixation on veterans around the trade deadline, and in the departure gates of the Minnesota airports serves to bring a glowering gloom over everyone, two of the most prominent replacements offer hope and opportunity. Kennys Vargas and Danny Santana (substituting in for Kendrys Morales/Sam Fuld respectively) also feature prominently in this volume's awareness of cultural differences, shifting the clubhouse away from non-descript veteran white guys to young latino players, a mirroring of the nation's demographics as a whole.
Trevor May--While Vargas and Santana emerge as options within the line-up, May is an intriguing study in the cyclical nature of expectations and reactions. Prior to the expulsion of Correia, a great many fans were clamoring for May's ascendency to the major league roster. Upon his arrival, May sputters, gags, and behaves precisely as you would expect an uncertain young man to behave. In his (admittedly small) sample of performance, he appears to be every bit the mockable man that the aforementioned Correia was, providing the clearest link between this team and the second section of TS Eliot's "Portrait of a Lady"--from which the title came.
Kurt Suzuki--The other figure with the clearest gain from these two months is new catcher Kurt Suzuki. One of the two Twins to attend the aforementioned awkward all-star party, Suzuki parlayed his early success to fondness from fans and a long term contract. However, these moments of growth and personal victory are balanced by the knowledge that many other longer-term Twins signing (including the recently departed Willingham) have collapsed.
 
Key Quotes/Stats Explained
Cumulative WAR for Morales/Fuld/Correia/Willingham-- 1.1
Cumulative WAR for Vargas/Santana/May/Schafer-- 2.7
 
WAR (or Wins Above Replacement) is often the go to quote/stat for fans to trot out, yet the creation of the number is a rather complicated and differ depending on which equation (or translation of the equation you cite).
 
Generally speaking, things that positions players do to create runs (including drawing walks, getting various kinds of hits, and stealing bases) are multiplied by their relative weight or importance (home runs matter more than singles, etc.) and adjusted in relationship to their position on the field (with center fielders/short stops getting greater credit than first basemen and DHs). Those positive numbers are compared to the average player in the league to create a viable means of judging one player against another. [Meanwhile pitchers are judged almost entirely on preventing runs, largely through runs allowed during their innings pitched]. While the best players might have a +8 WAR, the average starter would be around 2, while the average bench player would be between 0 and 1.9
 
Within these chapters the Twins removed four players from consistent play and gave their time to four others. The four who left totaled 1.1 (though Kendrys Morales' -0.7 pulled that down significantly), while the four who stepped up totaled 2.7 (again undermined by Trevor May's -0.9). The broad take away is that, even though it does not translate into immediate results in the "win column", this shift is for the best for the Twins and their team. However, the net gain amongst hitters (+2.5) fails to compensate for the net loss from Correia to May (-0.7).
 
Literary Term to Impress your Teacher/Attractive English Major Friend: http://cmclaughlin658.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/url1.jpeg Mmm...that's a good pastiche
Our recent literary and cultural history has leaned heavily on satire and parody. The Daily Show uses satire to deliver a pointed critique on common styles of tv news programs. The "Scary Movie" franchise uses parody to expand on cliches and tropes in horror movies to the point of making them explode in absurdity. But the Twins' use neither of these, preferring instead to use pastiche, which again uses styles and habits of others, but does so for the purpose of honoring and complimenting the initial creator, rather than mocking them. Like TS Eliot--whose "Portrait of a Lady" poem builds off of Henry James, Christopher Marlowe and Jules Lafourge--these chapters of the Twins' 2014 season pay homage to the wealth of talented athletes who played on the field during the all-star game, and the restarted franchises who regained their talent through creative destruction.

http://i.imgur.com/Xiw0AIe.jpg
 
Going to make this quick. A lot of four seam fastballs, and a lot less change ups. His Swinging Strike rates were down as a result, but he still picked up 6 Ks in 5 innings. He did walk one, and that walk came in to score on a 2 run homerun after he left a change up in the middle of the plate and Viciedo was waiting on it. His control did slip a little bit in the last couple innings. He got strike one on 15 out of 20 batters who didn't put the ball in play on the first pitch (happened twice). He didn't have a three ball count until the walk he gave up with one out in the fourth, but it happened two more times after that (both in the fifth), and both at bats resulted in a hit.
 
In the end, it's a 1.4 WHIP, a 10.8 K/9, a 1.8 BB/9 and, last but not least, a W.

The hometown hero lives.
 
On Monday night, under the lights of Minute Maid Park, Joe Mauer instilled hope back into the hearts of Twins’ fans after missing essentially the whole month of July with a strained oblique.
 
Before the St. Paul native injured himself on a July 1st game against the Kansas City Royals, fans were beginning to question, and even regret, Mauer’s 8-year, $184 million contract extension that, at the time, had made him the third wealthiest player in baseball.
 
Mauer’s lackluster first half of this 2014 season (.274 BA, 2 HR, 29 RBI) began to bring question to his future with the Twins. The baseball fans of Minnesota began to lose sight of the euphoria they had experienced when Mauer signed the extension on March 21 of 2010.
 
The injury and following placement onto the disabled list only substantiated the fans’ growing doubts for Mauer.
But hope returned to the Twins' organization last night in Houston, TX.
 
Mauer started his heroic night in the top of the first inning, extending the count to full and in turn, drawing a walk to fill the bases with no outs.
 
However, his night really began in the top of the 3rd inning as P Brad Peacock left a 2-2 pitch over the plate. Mauer slapped the ball high off of the short wall in left field for a double, missing a home run by just a few feet.
 
A solid start to the night. The resentment once felt by Twins’ fanatics slowly began to creep away. But questions still remained. Could his fielding back up his hitting, or would Joe’s previous injury hamper his dexterity at first base?
 
The answer was given in the bottom of the 6th inning with recently acquired Twins P Tommy Milone on the mound and Astros CF Jake Marisnick on first base. Anticipating an attempted steal, Milone made a pickoff attempt towards Mauer, and Marisnick took off for second. Having to react quickly, Mauer calmed himself and delivered a bullet of a throw “right on the bag,” as FSN North announcer Dick Bremer put it. SS Eduardo Escobar had no trouble putting the tag on the baserunner for the second out of the inning.
 
At that point, Mauer was 1-for-2 with a double, a walk, and a solid performance along on the first base line. A good start, but the Joe Mauer that Twins' fans know and love does not merely settle for good starts. He finishes games. And, on cue, in true Joe Mauer fashion, he executed.
 
It came with 2 outs in the top of the 9th. The game was tied 2-2, and in typical Mauer fashion, Joe had extended the count to full, allowing the runners (Dozier on first, Schafer on second) to be off with the pitch. Hard-throwing Josh Fields released the pitch, the runners were on their way to their respective bases, and Joe Mauer executed his classic swing, grounding the ball to left, splitting the third baseman and the shortstop, giving the Twins the lead. Schafer scored easily and due to some clever base running (along with some lackadaisical defense by Astros' LF Domingo Santana), Dozier scored as well. The clutch Joe Mauer had also returned.
 
With that clutch 2-out RBI single, the 2009 MVP began to be recognized once again for who he really is to this Minnesota Twins organization. Twins' fans were reminded of 7 seasons of a plus .300 BA, including a .365 BA in 2009. The three AL batting titles and two MLB batting titles also began to be brought back to light. The 6 All-Star Game appearances, 5 Silver Slugger awards, and 4 Top-10 finishes in the MVP race finally were pulled out from the shadows.
 
The hometown hero lives on.

As a die-hard cry-hard Twins fan commiserator, Joe Mauer makes me teary-eyed. First things first - I don't hate him, I'm not mad that he's not a great first baseman, I'm not pissed that he hit the DL again this year... but I am sad that I don't have a real reason to care if he is "earning" his dollars. The team continues to lose and no single man, not even Joe Mauer, can change that alone.
 
Mauer, to me, resembled a tremendous opportunity for this team to reload. [heck, if we turned AJ into Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano, and the indomitable Boof Bonser, what could we get for Joe?] When I heard that Cherington wanted Mauer in Boston a couple years ago, I started salivating over trades.
 
Only problem was, how could the Twins ever get away with trading away the baby jesus? the hometown hero?
 
They couldn't. Even when Boston came knocking, we weren't interested. We never were. Trading Joe Mauer was never an option. So when the team started losing, the fans kept asking for more from the man who had never let them down before. But the desperation of losing has made us start asking Joe for things that Joe doesn't do. Be a vocal leader in the clubhouse, turn on the ball, hit for power, frame every so-so pitch into a strike, throw out every baserunner, move to first and don't miss a beat, stop missing games just because first base is less physically demanding, tell us the location of your secret cabin.
 
Losing is hard, but losing faith in the hometown ball club is even harder. It's easy to blame the guy with the biggest paycheck, but the Twins aren't bad because of Joe or his contract.
 
I don't want you to turn it all around by yourself, Joe, I just want a free pizza to drown my sorrows in. Thanks for providing the latter, TD.