TheBoofIsLoose

Agreed, his walk rate in particular worries me since he only has 13 walks this season in nearly 300 PAs. The league is going to adjust to him so when teams figure out what and where to throw to him he'll need to control the zone much better.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this analysis. Maybe it's rose-tinted glasses, but it didn't feel quite so negative on here even during the 2016 season. The success of the 2019 season definitely brought a large influx of new users to the site and I genuinely believe that the creators/writers/contributors deserve the level of success this site has achieved, but it's a bit of a double-edged sword as discussions have gotten considerably worse in my observation. Repetitiveness might be the most glaring issue, it would be one thing if we had these same arguments even once a week rather than seemingly every other day. I'm starting to feel like McConaughey in True Detective ranting about time as a flat circle, maybe I should just be crushing Lone Star like he does instead.

Math was never my strong suit, but a 43 game win swing for Rocco's managerial career would put his record at 295-164 or a 64% winning percentage, which over the course of a 162 game season averages to around 105-106 wins a year. But this is irrelevant because we can't be making up statistics and pretending that they have a basis in reality; Manager WAR simply doesn't exist.

Where are you getting that stat from? I'm actually curious because Manager WAR seems to be nonsense; how would you even determine what a replacement level manager is? How would you quantify both the on and off-field decisions that every manager makes? Also, you're telling me that a replacement level manager would be worth 43 more wins since 2019? That essentially equates to mean the Twins should have averaged winning 106 games a year, which seems an extraordinarily generous interpretation of the facts.

The team scoring 14 runs after falling behind 10-0 shows that the team hasn't quit, at least from an offensive perspective. This is an abysmal pitching staff. At this point it seems like pick your poison and the question becomes less, "which guy gets us out of this jam" and more "which guy would you like to give up three runs in an inning today?"

I don't think any of us non-professional athlete keyboard warriors should be taunting players going through heat exhaustion. Something about glass houses...

I get it, I think we just have different definitions of what constitutes, "wit." Personally, I prefer a level-head for a manager, let the players get fired up and emotional, but the manager needs to make the cool, rational choices. I don't know what to say about down and dirty, because I'm not sure what you're implying.

Definitely a mountain out of a molehill situation. This wasn't Bryce Harper and Jonathan Papelbon going after each other in the dugout. When you foster an environment that encourages a player's competitive drive this is going to happen, but all parties involved handled it well. Donaldson and Arraez got their say, Cruz mediated it, and Rocco focused on the game at large. Had this escalated to anything notable then coaches get involved. Can we just stop with this critique? Criticize Rocco for his lineups, or his defensive placements, or pitching management, but this is such a lazy take that it's all but worthless.

All these, "boring" stats have existed for decades and teams have been using them for years. Now they have names, so a guy doesn't have "warning track power" we might instead look at ISO or a different statistic. If anything this can make it easier to understand the game for newcomers as it doesn't read like insider baseball information. Look at Earl Weaver being arguably the most famous example of a manager altering his lineup based on favorable matchups using slugging or on-base percentages. If you watch the game you should notice there are plenty of managers, Rocco included, who ignore what the "computer" says they should do quite often. I really don't understand this argument, if you don't like statistics just ignore them, RBI, batting average, and runs still exist in the stat line. It's not information that's making the game, "unwatchable" there are many other factors that have led to baseball's viewing decline.

Don't tell me you've forgotten the illustrious career of Twins legend John Ryan Murphy.

I don't think Rocco has been great this season, but it doesn't seem like you're giving him any credit for things he has done well. For one, he had a touching perspective on Buxton's injury that you should read https://www.startribune.com/byron-buxton-rocco-baldelli-share-a-history-of-injury-setbacks/600070980/. Two, I really don't understand how calling guys out publicly would help make matters improve. If you think there's a clubhouse problem, something I don't see any evidence for, then does anyone think it would be better by Rocco tattling to the media? He seems to have a good rapport with the players and they handle things internally, I see no issue with that approach. I don't want to come across as a Rocco stan here, because I'm not, but some of these feel like unfair accusations.

Well, he has a .668 OPS and an 81 OPS+ which means that Kirilloff and Larnach are hitting better than him in every category except RBI, so it's fair to say the corner outfield spots are doing well in the interim. Plus we got to see classic Eddie when he was thrown out walking back to second on an admittedly boneheaded play. Honestly who would you rather have in LF, Rosario or Larnach? The answer seems pretty straightforward. I agree that it seemed people were too eager to get rid of him and I like Eddie as a player and he seems like a good person, but this narrative that he was an irreplaceable bat and clubhouse leader just doesn't make sense.

Because WPA takes the context of the game into account. A batter getting a hit in an 8-0 game has much less impact than that same batter getting out with a runner on base in a 3-0 or 0-0 game. Blowouts effectively negate WPA, as they should.

I don't get these either, sure this team is absolutely frustrating but was nobody watching from 2011-2016? Those years with few good players and no quality prospects in the minors close enough to make any positive impact. I saw Yohan Pino pitch a game in person and thankfully we haven't hit that low yet. Be frustrated with this team, and feel free to criticize the many criticizable aspects, but let's be rational as well. Stop this, it's not going to happen, nor should it. What team would fire a manager coming off two straight division titles after a few admittedly bad months? An incompetently run team, that's who. I swear we're starting to sound like the Strib comments section on this site.

They're probably not saying he has to remain in the rotation, but they are almost certainly saying he has to remain on the 26 man roster. If Rocco is lobbying the FO to keep him, you're right that's entirely the wrong decision. However, it's almost a pick your poison scenario, they'll never say it publicly but they don't trust him starting, but they also don't trust him in the bullpen either. That's a longwinded way to say it's a bad signing that for some reason this team seems reluctant to admit to.