Monday Morning Madness: June 23, 2014

Weekend Recap

SWEEP!  SWEEP!  SWEEP!   SWEEP!   SWEEP!   SWEEP!   SWEEP!   SWEEP!   SWEEP!  SWEEP!

Oswaldo Arcia

On June 4, I declared my desire to legally adopt Arcia.  Since that day, he is 4 for 46 with 18 strikeouts.  I withdraw my application.  Not because I don't want to adopt him, but because it seems to be affecting him adversely.  He has been hit by three pitches since that day, likely from jealous pitchers.  A 4:3 hit to HBP ratio either means a batter is struggling or has been breaking a ton of unwritten rules.  Arcia has been struggling mightily.  He was recently benched for Chris Parmelee and that didn't help things whatsoever. 

The Twins could certainly send Arcia back to Rochester.  That's how they handled his slumps last year.  However, I'd recommend keeping him in the lineup to give him the chance to work though his struggles.  Arcia appears to be a pretty streaky hitter, but he's been consistently excellent in AAA.  Knowing that, the Twins need to figure out if Arcia can adjust in-season against MLB pitching.  I feel pretty confident that he'll be able to get it together if he's allowed to keep swinging through his slump. 

Kendrys Morales

Speaking of slumps.  Morales had just two hits last week.  He scored and drove in one run apiece.  I'm sure that if I betray myself and look at the Twins' Facebook page, there will be many calling him names and loathing that he was ever signed.  Ah, but it's just a slump.  In fact, Morales had just four hits from June 16, 2013 to June 22, 2013, proving that he just really hates that week.  Morales didn't have a Spring Training and he's only played a handful of games.  He posted a 123 OPS+ last year, despite that one-week stretch in mid-June.  He's a good hitter, he'll hit. 

Glen Perkins

Perkins blew the save on Friday, but managed to find the will to win.  He was a little shaky on Saturday, but got the job done.  I saw a few individuals questioning whether or not we should be worried about Perkins.  Emphatically:  no.  Perkins currently has the highest strikeout rate and lowest walk rate of his career.  His BABIP is thirty points higher than his career figure and his strand rate is nearly ten points lower.  Perkins is dominant and there's simply no reason to worry about his performance in the least. 

STOP WORRYING!

Former Twin Update - Kevin Slowey

The end of an era!  The Miami Marlins DFA'd Kevin Slowey to make room for some super prospect or something.  I hate that we live in a world where talent trumps Slowey, but I guess I'll have to learn to live with it.  Slowey did that cool thing he does where he put up a much better FIP than ERA.  That's so Slowey.  His 5.30 ERA wasn't cutting it for a surprisingly good Marlins team.  Normally, this is where I'd advocate the Twins taking a look at him, but I don't have the strength for a fake fight right now. 

Random Top Five List

2014 AL Ground Ball Rate Leaders

1. Dallas Keuchel - 63.7%
2. Justin Masterson - 59.8%
3. Jarred Cosart - 56.7%
4. Kyle Gibson - 55.8%
5. Sonny Gray - 55.0%

Clearly, Gibson owns one elite skill.  He has always had the ground ball reputation and it's manifesting in 2014.  I'd love to see his strikeout rate jump a tad, but elite ground ball pitchers are able to have some level of success without a ton of strikeouts.  However, Gibson's strikeout rate is significantly lower than those on this list and the guys who are in the 6th through 10th positions.  Something to keep an eye on.  

Random Photoshop - Chris Palmetree

I'll just show myself out.

Half-Hearted Mini-Rant - West Coast Baseball

So the Twins are in Anaheim for some baseball this week and I am not pleased!  What's with these 9pm start times?  Doesn't baseball know that I have a job?  Doesn't baseball know that I can't stay up past 11pm or I'll be somewhat tired and irritable?  Hey baseball, can we try to start these games at a reasonable hour?  Hey lawmakers, why not get off your lazy keisters and do something about this problem? 

My solution?  Eliminate time zones.  If it's 7pm here, it should be 7pm everywhere.  No one wants to do math to figure out when games start.  No one likes to count.  The sun won't cooperate?  Forget the sun, let's blow it up!  We'll be just fine without your heat and light, sun.  Look, this is America, we can do anything!  I refuse to believe that we can't engineer a better sun right here on our soil.  And, we can work on it from 8-5 and it will be super easy to call our friends in Estonia after work because the times will be the same and we can all watch the Twins game together as a culture.  This needs to happen.

New Poll!

Last month, I put up a poll and asked who would win the Twins' Cy Young Award in 2014.  The results are striking, but not shocking:

• Phil Hughes - 63 votes
• Sam Deduno - 4 votes
• Kevin Corr...hahahahahahahahahaha - 3 votes
• Glen Perkins - 7 votes
• Kyle Gibson - 2 votes
• Ricky Nolasco - 2 votes
• Brian Dozier - 24 votes

I appreciate the irreverence of those voting for Dozier.  Hughes appears to be the runaway choice and he also appears to actually be running away with this fake award.  Making fun of Correia seems to have inspired him and I'll gladly take full credit for that. 

I have added a new poll and if you respect the democratic process, you will vote.  If you don't respect that process, you can still vote.  The process respects you. 

Plugging My Way

Last Friday, I pondered how things would be different if the Twins had drafted Mark Prior instead of Joe Mauer.  It's interesting, to say the least.  Here's the full text.  If you just want the chain of events, here you go:

1. Twins draft Prior
2. Twins win 2003 World Series
3. George Steinbrenner develops cyborg player technology
4. MLB expands to 90,000 teams
5. Prior retires

It's all pretty logical. 

Parting Thoughts

Watching the Twins beat the White Sox all weekend was very satisfying.  Before the season started, I questioned how anyone could think that ratty White Sox team would be better than the Twins in 2014.  They're closer than I thought (the Sox are a bit better than "ratty," I guess) but I still think the Twins are better.  Oh, and that Adam Eaton is going to annoy the daylights out of me for about a decade.  He's scrappy.  Have a great week, everyone!

Monday Morning Madness: June 9, 2014

Weekend Recap

Ugh, not great.  The Twins got two pretty poor starts from their two most consistent starters and dropped two of three to the lowly Astros.  Houston has one of the worst offenses in the AL, but they looked like a powerhouse last weekend.  Oh well, it's just one series.  The Twins did make a pretty significant move to upgrade their roster, so that's nice. 

Kendrys Morales

And one that came out of nowhere.  Everyone knew that Morales would sign very soon after the draft, because the draft pick compensation attached to him would expire.  However, I didn't see one rumor linking the Twins to Morales.  I'm quite pleased though.  I don't think this changes the Twins' 2014 ceiling a ton, but having a professional hitter as the everyday DH is never a bad thing.  Morales has a career OPS+ of 120 and has basically met that figure each of the last two seasons.  He's a much better hitter from the left side, but he's competent from the right side as well.

The Twins DFA'd Jason Kubel to make room for Morales.  This is something I had advocated for a few times over the last couple weeks.  I was actually sad after it happened, as I really do like Kubel.  Unfortunately, a DH has to hit and Kubel hasn't hit since a hot start.  Of course, Kubel isn't the only player affected by this signing. 

I had been up in arms about Josmil Pinto's lack of playing time, but much of that was because he was losing starts to far less talented players.  Now, he's competing for ABs with a very talented hitter.  I would still like to see Pinto in the lineup more often than not, but I think that might start to happen naturally, as I still don't think Kurt Suzuki is capable of a full season at the level he's been hitting.

Now, the Twins have five above average hitters in their everyday lineup (Morales, Brian Dozier, Oswaldo Arcia, Josh Willingham and yes, Joe Mauer).  Pinto should provide good offense when he's in the lineup and Trevor Plouffe has been pretty good so far this year.  If the shortstops and center fielders can be halfway decent, the Twins' lineup could be very potent.  I'm excited, can you tell?

Kyle Gibson

Gibson was great on Saturday, leading the Twins to an 8-0 victory and winning his fifth game of the season.  Gibson matched a career-high with five strikeouts.  He also issued his first walk since May 16, snapping a string of 23 consecutive innings without giving a free pass.  Gibson has done a much better job of limiting walks since April.  He hasn't improved his overall strikeout rate, but he has totaled four or more strikeouts in four of his last five starts. 

Gibson will never be a high strikeout guy, but if he can manage about six per nine innings, he could have a really nice career.  Right now, his 54.1% ground ball rate is fifth in the American League, so he already has one elite skill.  His walk rate is no longer in the bottom ten and should continue to improve.  While he was getting dynamic results early in the season, he's actually pitching better now.   

Danny Santana

Santana hit his first Major League home run on Friday night.  He went 4-5 with a double and five RBI on Saturday.  Sunday...well Sunday wasn't really great for anyone.  Santana is quite fun to watch.  He's young, he's fast, he's new.  New toys are always exciting.  I thought Santana would be with the Twins for a couple weeks and then he would head back to Rochester until September.  However, he's been great and Ron Gardenhire seems to like and trust him.  It would be very hard to send him back to AAA right now.

Look, you know I love Eduardo Escobar.  I made this:

However, Santana is not a long-term option in center.  Byron Buxton owns that position from 2015 to 2035 (hopefully).  Santana is a long-term option at short and I don't think Escobar is.  Perhaps it might be time to get Santana a few starts at short, possibly transitioning him to that position full-time in the next couple of weeks.  Santana isn't as good as Escobar defensively, but he also needs reps to actually get better.  Escobar has cooled off a bit at the plate and Santana profiles as a better hitter anyway.  I'm not sure this matters a whole lot over the course of the next decade, but I'd hate to stunt Santana's growth just because he is very fun to watch and a utility guy is going through a hot streak. 

Madness

Former Twin Update - Johan Santana

This sucks.  Johan Santana was about a week from making his 2014 MLB debut when he tore his Achilles trying to make a defensive play.  Santana is an excellent athlete and made some great plays in the field in his day, but this one cost him the rest of the 2014 season and could be his final play as a professional athlete.  I hope that is not the case.  I'd like to see Santana come back for 2015 (with the Twins please) because I am a huge fan of his and I want him to have more success as a pitcher.  Ah, so awful, let's move on. 

Random Link - Grant Brisbee's Draft Analysis

On the much lighter side, Grant Brisbee analyzed the first round of the MLB draft.  Here's the link.  The article itself is outstanding, although it could be a bit confusing if you aren't familiar with his work.  The comments from the article are great, but the Facebook comments from the article are gold.  It's never fun to be the guy who isn't in on the joke, but being one of the guys who is in on the joke, watching the guy who isn't in on the joke is quite amusing.  Anyway, the article is fun on its own, even if you don't like making fun of innocent people.

What kind of food is Glen Perkins?

A brand new feature!  Award-winning, too!

Glen Perkins is pizza.  He's simple, but versatile.  He's basically fastball/slider (cheese and sauce), but he throws those pitches like he doesn't give a what (pepperoni?).  BUT, he also can adapt.  He can be a BBQ chicken pizza, he can be a Hawaiian pizza, he can be a garbage pizza.  He can be anything!  He's funny, he's personable, he's charismatic and he's awesome.  Plus, everyone loves him.  I have found few people in this world who dislike pizza and even fewer who dislike Glen Perkins.  Glen Perkins, the pizza of the Twins.    

Fun Stat - Power-Speed

No one has the Power-Speed of Brian Dozier!  What is Power-Speed, you ask?  Well, it's the harmonic mean of home runs and stolen bases, of course!  It's a Bill James stat designed to look at which players provide the best combination of these two skills.  Of course, there's a ton more to power and speed than just home runs and stolen bases, but it's still fun to see Dozier at the top of the list.  Someone should really teach that Bill James guy about sabermetrics. 

Improving Celebrations?

Last year, I proposed silly hats to improve celebrations.  I even made a picture:

Fun, right?  Well, every coin has a heads and a tails. 

See, now they don't add a whole lot.  Super unprofessional, trainer.  By the way, this is the last time I'll reference this event, Kendrys.  I promise. 

Plugging My Way

I did a mailbag last week.  It was about 1300 words and 500 were about snow pants.  You'll just have to read it to figure out why.  I also answered questions about Aaron Hicks, Oswaldo Arcia, Nick Gordon and Mike Pelfrey.  Woof, that list tapered off hard.  Here's the link.  

Parting Haiku

Morales is nice

Not going to win it all

Still great for the fans

Have a nice week, everyone!