wsnydes

Arraez with an immediate response. I like that.

This game is going to be back and forth all day, isn't it?

Finally...employees can now play Oregon Trail on their lunch breaks!

I like the odds of a sweep today. I'll take Ryan over Lynn almost any day. I'm going to dig a bit and say that Miranda has a big day.

You're missing the point. It's not about the pitch count. Even your own findings back that up. I've even given you the Bundy case as an extreme example. And that's because the pitch count wasn't relevant to the decision. You may not find an better example of the irrelevance of the pitch count than this one Bundy start. But every team is trending away from pitch counts to make the decision, which is what our argument has been. FYI I found many examples where a pitcher was brought out for the 6th with about the same amount of pitches, and sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't, and there many that the pitcher stayed good and finished 7 or 8 plus innings. Based on this sentence alone, I would imagine that if you kept digging into this, that the number of times that it doesn't work out is higher than the times that it did. And that's why Bundy didn't go out. Especially with a backend starter like Bundy, the times where it doesn't work out is going to be greater than the times that it does. Teams are simply leveraging the odds, not paying attention to the pitch count.

The article I linked, the ESPN article @chpettit19referenced and everything he's stated says that it is not. I'll even grant you that the Bundy case is an extreme one, but they're not looking at pitch count. And that's the point we're trying to make to you. And we've demonstrated that it's not just the Twins doing this.

Which is why we're also seeing more power in the top third of the lineup as well. It's not table setters in the 1/2 slot and then power, it's power at 1-5. Your best all around hitter may still be in the 3 hole, but the power has shifted towards the top of the lineup rather than the middle.

Between @chpettit19and the article @Riverbrianlinked last week here (linked once again), plenty of back up has been provided to you against your point. You keep dwelling on pitch count when pitch count isn't even the determining factor of when a guy is pulled. It is a factor, but it's not THE factor anymore. If anyone is lazy here, it's me for simply referring you to someone else's post from last week linking to an article written by someone else!

As others have said, it's really dependent on the individual player. And even then, there are so many factors that it's hard to really condense that down into any sort of "rule of thumb" process. I like the question though. Good talker, good subject matter to think through.

Nah, gotta be Rocco's fault.

Just checking in and I see that you guys have this under control. I'll leave you to it before I jinx something! Good work everyone!

I'd say Urshela played it correctly too since he was backing up the throw, but that's mostly because nobody else appears to be where they should have been that it played out as it did.

Just because a fielder isn't at 2B to field a throw doesn't mean that's not where the throw was going. Was it on line? No. It wasn't in line to 3B either.

Homer!

It's not just a Twins thing though. It's happening across the league. @Riverbrian posted an article last week on this very topic, here. So, to say that it's a Rocco thing simply isn't true.

I guess that I would expect for this data to skew heavily towards the top of the order because if the pitcher allows a base runner from the top, it's less likely that he'll face the heart of the order. So that makes sense to me. One question that I have regarding the hitter data is if it's an apples to apples comparison relative to the pitchers. If the pitching data skews to the top of the order, does the batter data as well? Or is that "evened out" across the entire lineup? I'm not sure that I'm explaining that well...That data you've provided does seem to have a disconnect, I'm just not sure where it's at given the information here.

He's one of those unsung role players that don't get noticed. And that's kind of a good thing, in a sense. He can fill in reasonably well at many positions and be good enough with the bat. He won't push a starter for playing time, but he's good enough to give one a day off. Those kinds of players are important to a good team over the course of a long season. And considering everything he went through coming up through the minors, I'm happy to see him perform. Even in the bit role that he has.

So, Bugs Bunny is the greatest CF on the planet? And also simultaneously the greatest C, P, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, LF and RF? I can't argue with that. I think you're onto something!

I've been surprised by how inconsistent the bats have been. I think the bullpen is a much bigger priority, but the bats haven't done their job. If they were, they'd be covering up some of the bullpen woes and the team would be in a much better position. As it is, the pitching sits on a razors edge most of the time and that exposes the bullpen even more. That said, the pitching has largely done it's job. Holding opponents to 3 runs as often as they do yet still losing is frustrating. Speaking of the bullpen, I didn't have high expectations for them in the first place but they've been worse than I expected as well. Injuries have played into that, but I'm not sure that changes things for me much. I'm pleasantly surprised by the rotation and it's ability to keep the team in games despite the inability of the bats to score runs. Before the season, I predicted that the youth would determine how far the team goes. I still think that's holding true and believe it still will in the 2nd half. Perhaps even moreso given the injury and ineffectiveness situations. I still think this team is good enough to win the division, but not much else without big upgrades in the bullpen and at least one bat.

Should happy about this, or sad? I suppose I'll be sad then happy!

To New Orleans I go to do my part! And I'll enjoy some jazz while I'm there for good measure.

Walk-offs are quite a bit more fun on this side of them.