stocker08
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Are we going to be able to watch this guy in the gopher's series this weekend?
I'd assume so.
Are we going to be able to watch this guy in the gopher's series this weekend?
Yep, the base running this year has been abysmal. Last week sometime Molitor had Adrianza pinch run for Grossman late in the game even though Adrianza is terrible and Grossman is actually faster than him.
Nice win by the Twins in the 1st game of the White Sox DH. Twins didn't do squat at the plate all game - went into the bottom of the 8th down 2-0. Dozier gets on via a 2-out error, and the Twins proceed to score 4 runs, including a 3-run HR by Escobar. Rodney gets the save and the Twins win 4-2, even though they were out-hit by the Sox 8-4 in the game.
Now, game #2 of the DH will be interesting. Twins brought up Zach Littell from the minors as the "26th man" to be the starting pitcher in the 2nd game - which is allowed by MLB rules. And for our North Carolina residents, Littell is from someplace called Mebane, NC and attended Eastern Alamance HS.
Molitor. When he was hired, if you would've told me the Twins would be awful at base running under him, I'd have said WTF, why are we hiring this guy?
Yep, the base running this year has been abysmal. Last week sometime Molitor had Adrianza pinch run for Grossman late in the game even though Adrianza is terrible and Grossman is actually faster than him.
Grossman's not faster than anyone except maybe Sano and Morrison. But Adrianza is a bad base runner or at least has been this year.
ESPN: 10 hyped players who are running out of time to become stars
Byron Buxton, CF, Minnesota Twins
Stats: .156/.183/.200, 3 BB, 28 SO, 0 HR, minus-0.2 WAR
Age: 24.170
Peak prospect status: Consensus No. 1 (pre-2014)
Buxton has shown flashes of brilliance -- September 2016 when he hit nine home runs and the second half of 2017 when he hit .300/.347/.546 -- but between those flashes have been long droughts of empty results at the plate. I talked to Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey in spring training and one notable thing he said is that Buxton wants so badly to be a great player and can put too much pressure on himself.
Buxton is on the disabled list with a broken big toe, but before the injury he was back into some bad habits at the plate, with a 39 percent chase rate. He was at 32.4 percent in the second half last year -- still high, but at least a figure he could still do some damage on. Buxton now has more than 1,000 big league plate appearances and owns a .285 career OBP. He doesn't have to be great at the plate -- he was worth 5.2 WAR last year even with a .314 OBP thanks to his brilliant defense -- but he does need to be more consistent.
Miguel Sano, 3B, Twins
Stats: .212/.282/.449, 12 BB, 52 SO, 7 HR, minus-0.1 WAR
Age: 25.026
Peak prospect status: No. 4 (pre-2014) by MLB.com
It's easy to see why the Twins have disappointed when two of their expected cornerstone players haven't done the job. Sano's strikeout rate has gone from extreme to scary. He was at 35-36 percent his first three seasons, but he is now at 40 percent -- and that has come with a deteriorating chase rate and thus a career-low walk rate (he was at 15.8 percent as a rookie but is at 9.2 percent this year). Sano has once again missed some time, but 52 strikeouts in 29 games translates to a mind-numbing 269 over 150 games. Somewhere, Joe Sewell is crying.
Sano was a 2.5-WAR player a season ago in just 114 games, so he isn't a lost cause, but the regression in plate discipline is a big concern. His conditioning is another issue, and while he played an OK third base last season (minus-6 defensive runs saved), if he moves to first that puts even more pressure on the bat. Sano looked like a 45-homer slugger when he was so impressive as a rookie. Will he ever get there?
http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/23708727/10-hyped-players-running-become-stars
Win Twins!!
Grossman is faster than Adrianza when running the bases. By a good margin actually.
https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/sprint_speed_leaderboard?year=2018&position=&team=&min=10
If we miss the playoffs, Molitor is done. Book it.
I hope he's gone no matter what. He's a terrible in-game manager.
Hey, it's not like Molitor is telling Sano to swing at sliders that are a foot out of the strike zone. Same with all of the stupid base-running.
I think Molitor is a pretty smart baseball guy. Granted, that doesn't always translate to being a great manager, but if you're going to rank the Twins' problems this year, Molitor is going to be fairly low on the list.
having said that, Falvine inherited Molitor, so I suspect they would like an opportunity to name "their" guy as manager. Depends on how hard Pohlad wants to push to keep Molitor as the mgr.
I disagree. His misuse of the bullpen has been a big factor this year.
I hope he's gone no matter what. He's a terrible in-game manager.
I like the guy, but he doesn't have it all together. I remember Tom Kelly explaining why he decided to retire when he did. He said he was starting to miss things and made a couple mistakes. A couple mistakes. Whether it's Molitor's lack of (minor league) managerial experience or what, he makes a lot of what I would characterize as mistakes; and I'm not alone in seeing that.
I don't think Molitor is that bad, he's not good but I don't think he's as bad as you guys are saying. GophersinIowa is right he has mismanaged the bullpen use at times this year and it's frustrating but most of the crap going on with the team is just the team being knuckleheads. Now does Molitor have some influence in that? Yeah maybe, but how much? I always feel like baseball managers don't influence the game as much as other coaches in other sports. You can't blame hitting (or lack there of), base running mistakes, stupid mistakes in the field etc on the manager.
Maybe I'm biased though as I liked him as a player when I was a kid.
In the 13 seasons under Gardy, a pitcher appeared in 77+ games three times (81 was the highest). This year there are five guys on pace to appear in 77 or more games (Pressley 94, Reed 85, Hildenberger 82, Duke 80, Rodgers 77).
Because the starters have been going out there and flaming out or hitting the magic 100-pitch count by the 4th or 5th inning.
In my lifetime, the biggest change in baseball has been the role of starters vs. relievers. In the 60's and into the 70's, the starter was expected to go 9 innings.
Nobody ever talked about pitch counts. the bullpen was the home to a couple of guys who failed as starters, and got to serve as "mop-up men" - what they call a long reliever today. Most teams had 1 or 2 short relievers - but the short relievers would routinely throw 2 or 3 innings at a time. Believe it or not, a lot of teams only carried 8-man pitching staffs, or maybe 9 tops.
There were a few relief pitchers who were used like today's closers, but they were the exception. Starters threw a lot more innings, meaning fewer innings needed for relief pitchers.
Today, if a starter goes 5 innings, the team is happy. 6 innings, he's an ace. Starters are throwing fewer innings, and bullpens are picking up the extra innings.
So, I don't think Molitor is doing anything radical with the bullpen. Starters need to pitch deeper in games to take the load off the pen.