NCtwinsfan

Let’s just hope he doesn’t stink up the clubhouse like the last Knoblauch.

I get that, and I’m not broken up over it, 8 know that is how professional sports works, and money talks loudly and factors heavily in these decisions. Still, to me it is similar to overhearing your wife talk about how she would rather be with her high school sweetheart, but chose you because you were the safer, financially stable one. Yeah, you gave her your heart and she chose you, but really her heart is elsewhere. I fully expect JD to be a professional, and it’s only baseball. Anyway, in the end, yes it’s alright.

Yup. Even seemed disappointed that he signed here, but because no one else was even close to offering as much as the twins, he had to choose Minnesota. These two lines in particular: ““It was tough to make that decision, but ultimately (the Twins offer) wasn’t in the same realm for me as far as financially is concerned,” Donaldson said of his decision to leave the Braves after a one-year stint.” and, “Ultimately it didn’t end up the way that we wanted it to.” That stings a little as a twins fan.

I realize Dozier and Altuve are not the same player, Altuve is also younger and better. But Altuve getting 5yr/$151mil seems like it could affect what Dozier might get in free agency. Not that he will get close to that, but maybe more than the numbers I have seen thrown around so far. Anyone else have an idea if Altuve's contract will have any impact on how much Dozier gets?

I was not responding to you, or anyone in particular, just throwing my own thoughts out there. I agree with your post above. We should not be disrespecting people who are using a system to it's full potential, especially if we are supporting that system. In some cases, we don't always have much of a choice. But I agree, with baseball, we do have a choice because we don't need it.

If I am going to be ok with players demanding to get their maximum market value, I think I ought to be ok with owners also trying to make as much money as possible. Most people seem to be out to make as much money as possible, and have that right in our society today. To me it should not matter if it is the on field product, or the owner/management behind the scenes. Musicians and actors need producers to get paid, athletes need owners to get paid. I don't see it as the owners making money off of players, it is the owners making money from the fans, and giving a portion of that to the players. Fans make the owners rich based on how much they are willing to spend. I get that owners are the ones making the most money, they often seem distant and cold, and don't really seem to do much beyond being professionally wealthy, and it is the actors, singers, and athletes who are the face of our entertainment, and the ones we root for. But that is how our system works, and fans are the ones who give their money for entertainment. And we give that money to ownership. It seems to me in my simple view of things, it is the fan's money making owners very wealthy, who in turn are making the athletes very wealthy. I don't particularly care for the system, I don't like paying $200 for a family to go to a game, $12 for a beer, and $100 for a shirt with another persons name on it, and so I don't. (I listen to the radio, or watch the games on MLB.TV with the free subscription my mobile carrier gives me - advertisers paying on my behalf) But if I am willing to do that, and if I think players should be free to seek maximum dollars, I don't see why owners should not be allowed to as well.

Yeah, I definitely can't top that. It's nice to know there is at least one other fan in NC though.

Sorry, I beg to differ Anyway, Congrats to Molitor!

Midre Cummings - May 10, 2000, a game forever etched in my memory, I remember listening to the radio in bed (it was a school night and way past my bedtime) as the Twins came back against Cleveland from an 8-1 deficit. Scored 6 runs in the 7th, and then with two outs in the bottom of the 9th, Midre hit a 2-run walk-off homer. I think it may be the moment I became a true Twins fan. For me that is one of my favorite moments in baseball. During that season, even though they lost 90+ games, I remember being convinced that 2001 would be their turn around year. I think most people laughed at me. I wish I could get a clip of John Gordon's call for that one...

I was re-surprised to notice the Twins have only been shut out 2 times so far this year by my count (June 22, White Sox and August 1, San Diego). Last year they were shut out 8 times. On the other side, they have scored 10+ runs 14 times so far (one was in a loss to Detroit), with totals in those games of - 11, 14, 11, 20, 10, 11, 11, 10, 12, 10, 11, 17, 10, and 16.

If I had to choose between Terry Mulholland and Jesse Orosco, I have to go with Terry. I always enjoyed watching him pitch for some reason. It always looked like his arm was made of rubber.

Twins current 2017 win total: 67 Year – Number of games to reach 67 Wins 2011 – NA (63-99) 2012 – NA (66-96) 2013 – NA (66-96) 2014 – 157 2015 – 130 2016 – NA (59-103) 2017 – 130 Today, with 5 weeks to play, the 2017 team surpassed the 2012 and 2013 teams, leaving only 2014 and 2015.

Twins current 2017 win total: 61 Year – Number of games to reach 61 Wins 2011 – 159 2012 – 148 2013 – 137 2014 – 139 2015 – 122 2016 – NA 2017 – 120 I could not believe the jump the 2011 team made. It took 2011 team 22 games to go from 58 to 61 wins.

The 2015 Twins went 7-3 over their next 10, and something like 17-10 after that before falling off a bit. So it will still be a challenge to keep pace. This point was basically the low point for 2015 - they were 7-18 leading up to win 58.

Twins current 2017 win total: 58 Year – Number of games to reach 58 Wins 2011 – 137 2012 – 140 2013 – 133 2014 – 128 2015 – 116 2016 – 161 (can someone check my math… that can’t be right…) 2017 – 114

Giminez made a comment today that got me thinking. There are a lot of baseball clichés thrown around, and one that had bothered me is the old “hitting is contagious.” Giminez repeated the adage in today’s post-game interview. That’s just some old-school non-sense. Right? “Hitting is contagious” sounds like it is repeatable, and good “sequencing” is often a measure of how “lucky” a team is – so, not repeatable. I realize these are not exactly the same thing, but still, both refer to hits being bunched together. This study suggests there might actually be something to the “hitting is contagious” statement: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1073145-brain-researchers-agree-that-baseball-hitting-is-contagious In recent years, more and more it seems to me that luck is attributed to certain aspects of teams/players performance. BABIP for example. A higher BABIP suggest a player has been “lucky.” An expectation of regression might be justified. But is luck really the right word? While I like the idea of using data to project sustainability and expected outcomes, I feel much less comfortable attributing luck to players/teams performance. I don’t like viewing a .400 BABIP as lucky, or .200 BABIP as unlucky. Or that a team has won based on lucky/unlucky sequencing and other factors. Instead, I prefer thinking of it as a player is over/under performing their expected outcome based on historical data. And at best, as the study above suggested, some of it might actually be repeatable. For me, luck seems more like rolling dice or spinning a wheel - you get a random outcome. I am sure there are some elements of luck in baseball, but how much is not so clear to me. Has it been a little over stated in recent years? Perhaps some others could help me out, but which elements of the game can we truly attribute to luck, or true randomness? And do sequencing, BABIP, etc, have a measure of luck and/or skill, and if so how much? Perhaps some of the experts can help me out. Thanks

Interesting read: http://www.espn.com/mlb/beisbolexperience/story/_/id/19606693/how-twins-proving-value-defense It's not just twins fans/writers. There is a lot of praise for Buxton in that article. A lot. The point I liked the most was that defense/fielding seems to be much less prone to "luck" and inconsistent fluctuation. The author says he is much more confident in Buxton maintaining his range than Aaron Judge maintaining his .405 BABIP. Buxton may be up and down offensively, but I feel pretty confident in saying his defense will almost always be excellent. Also mentions the discrepancy between what teams will pay for runs prevented vs runs created is significant.

Update: Twins current 2017 win total: 34 Year – Number of games to reach 34 Wins 2011 – 79 2012 – 79 2013 – 72 2014 – 72 2015 – 62 2016 – 93 2017 – 63 Still pretty much on pace with 2015. However, it still feels like quite a different season for me. 2015 seemed to have more hot and cold stretches. 2017 seems to be more consistent. 2016 just doesn't seem to fit in this snapshot. Other thoughts?

yes, I have had the same error using chrome, and I know everything is up to date. So now I have to use the microsoft browser for MLB.TV

In 2015, Brock had a thread tracking wins as a reminder of the rotten baseball we have watched in recent years, and compare where we stand in W/L compared to previous seasons. Let's see how 2017 plays out. Tracking is by number of games instead of dates because games by date/month varies from year to year. Twins current 2017 win total: 25 Year – Number of games to reach 25 Wins 2011 – 64 2012 – 60 2013 – 54 2014 – 52 2015 – 43 2016 – 76 2017 – 43 Other notes: -Both 2015 and 2017 squads both needed 43 games to reach 25 wins (25-18). -At the 43 game point in 2015, the Twins were in the midst of a hot streak. They went 7-3 over their next 10 games and peaked at 32-21. After that, they cooled off and went 51-58 over the remainder of the season. I will try to update this at various points throughout the season

Probably

Since I love comparisons - It was not until July 10 last year that the Twins had 13 road wins... and were 13-29 ...and they had 5 road losses on April 9

Last year, Twins record on July 1 was 25-54. Can they win one more game this week, and be a full month ahead of last year? And they have been playing for what, 7 weeks. Good times.

I just read that the Twins are one of three teams that have not been shut out so far in 2017. I took a look to see how many times they were shut out at this point last year; three times. That wasn't particularly stunning. But being reminded how truly terrible they were last year was. May 13, 2016 Twins Record - 8-26 May 13, 2017 Twins Record - 18-14 The 2016 Twins didn't win 18 games until June 8, and were 18-40. I hope that can brighten everyone's day just a little bit.

"Mauer will still be homerless on May 25th - guaranteed." I don't get it, am I missing something? What is the significance of May 25th? The Twins don't have a game scheduled for that day. And what if he does hit one before that - do I get my money back?