Cup of Coffee

November 14, 2011: Inefficiency

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I just found out my company placed me - just ten days before the biggest day of the year - in one of the only two departments I'm not qualified to be in. I'm just dreading going in. I don't want to be the guy who customers see right through, knowing he can't help them.

84 thoughts on “November 14, 2011: Inefficiency”

  2. From The Most Valuable Part-Time Players of All Time, posted on Beyond the Boxscore yesterday, comes this tidbit:

    The Least Valuable Part-Time Players of All Time
    [for the purposes of the post, "part-time" is a season with 300 or fewer plate appearances – CH ]

    #1 Juan Castro, -9.9 part-time WAR
    . . .

    Last season, at age 39, Juan Castro posted a 0.0 WAR in 15 PAs. Remarkably, that ties for the 2nd-best Baseball-Reference WAR in his 17-season career. His best mark was a 0.1 WAR in 5 PAs in his rookie year, way back in 1995. He's had a negative WAR in all 14 seasons in which he received more than 15 PAs. Not only is that a record, but it's not even close; no one else has more than 11 such seasons. It might, in fact, be an unbreakable record.

    Lest anyone think I'm just ripping on Castro, let me be clear: I think that record is fantastic. It's not Castro's fault that he lacks the talent of many of his peers, but it is certainly to his credit that he persevered, kept himself in good shape, and convinced so many teams to give him some playing time. Most players with his skill set fade from the scene far more quickly. We should all congratulate him on having one of the more improbable 17-year careers in MLB history.

    I recommend reading the entire post, which features two recognizable former Twins on the all time most valuable list.

        1. Indeed. I think he is a friend of mine's all-time favorite Twin. Naturally, he called him "Phil".

        1. Jim Dwyer I should have remembered because I probably had more than a couple '89 baseball cards of him. I probably blinked and missed McCracken's 70 PA in 2001. Russ Nixon would never have registered on my radar.

          1. I was actually at one of the games where McCracken at least one of those PA's, with the aforementioned friend. It was not that memorable.

    2. Actually, there are three former Twins on the all-time most valuable list: Mike Redmond, Jeff Reboulet and Jim Dwyer, who was traded to the Twins in Aug. 1988 and was the Twins' primary left-handed DH in 1989, but still had less then the prerequisite 300 PAs in 1989.

    3. I noticed that Moe Berg weighs in at second "least valuable" catcher on the list. Of course, that's only because most of his value was top sekret.

      1. After reading The Catcher Was A Spy, I was flabbergasted by Moe Berg. The guy was practically a sociopath.

  3. Surprise! Ceremonial puck is dropped at a Bruins game, and what the couple doesn't know is that their son is about to join them in the ceremony after being in Afghanistan for seven months. Great video.

  4. Now that the Twins have signed a middle infielder with some on-base skills, what's next on your offseason wishlist? I'm trying to decide between Ryan Doumit, another rotation arm, and an outfielder with some power who can fill in at the corners or pinch hit. (I'm taking it for granted that they're going to work on improving the bullpen.)

    1. Plouffe! is going to be an outfielder, so I think catcher would be the next priority. However, there might be a lull in signings for the next week or two until the new labor contract is signed. There are going to be some big changes in it and I bet owners will wait a bit since all signings this offseason will be covered by the new contract.

      1. There was speculation I read somewhere that anything done this offseason would be grandfathered in under the old contract, so it wouldn't be affected by the new rules.

      2. I guess I was thinking more about our personal "If I were Terry Ryan" wishlists than Terry Ryan's actual wishlist. I don't see Plouffe as much better than a platoon outfielder, thus my thinking that I'd prefer to find a better alternative.

        1. The Plouffe comment was done with tongue firmly in cheek. Honestly, I think my #1 priority would be middle infield followed by catcher. With Carroll, I think it would now be #1 catcher, #1.5 other middle infielder. Outfield would be my next priority, tied with bullpen. Filling any individual bullpen position is easy, but the entire thing really needs to be redone (again..). For outfield, the Twins really just need a right-fielder, but a backup left-fielder for Span would be a good idea. Benson might suffice if Span doesn't need much time off (and Revere starts hitting), but right now I think he would be overexposed if he gets any semblance of regular playing time.

          1. When it comes to the bullpen, it's probably better to think of it as a multi-year renovation project. Given that we currently have little (almost nothing?) for a bullpen, if we can scrape together even two pitchers who will be solid contributors (the type you would typically feel good about using in the 7th or 8th innings) for the '13 bullpen this year, it seems like it would be a pretty big success.

            1. I think two is a pessimistic number, since as of right now, it looks like the Twins have at least one in Perkins. If Duensing performs well, that's two, albeit both lefties. Now, if the Twins can find two additional arms this year for 2013+, then I think it's a success.

              1. I count Perkins as half. He's got the talent, but can he stay healthy?

                Duensing could be decent/good in the 'pen, but will the Twins definitely move him out of the rotation? I'd think of Duensing more as a 2-inning guy than a lefty, I guess, and I'd generally like to see the Twins worry more about finding pitchers who can pitch a full inning than worry about which hand they use to accomplish that goal.

    2. I'd agree with sean...I think catcher will be next. TR was on 830 with Sid yesterday and did not pull any punches when talking about Butters and Rivera and the lack of offense from the back-ups. It was the position of need he was most frontal about after middle infield. He also indicated that everyone (front office, management, etc.) felt Plouffe! should spend the off-season working on his outfielder skills and informed his agent of this preference.

  5. So I just went over to Wilson Ramos's Wiki page to see what was up with him, because somehow, I completely missed the fact that he had returned home safely. This left me free to focus on the bad news there: I'd completely forgotten that the Twins also sent Joe Testa to Washington along with Ramos to get Capps. That would have been a horrible one-for-one trade, but the fact that the Nationals pinched BS for another piece on top of Ramos - no matter the level of that piece's value - blows my mind.

    1. Yea, that trade along with Hardy for Hoey and the Twins stopping the Sunday broadcast on network TV completely turned me off to the Twins before the season started. At least they've taken a step in the right direction with letting BS go..

  6. Star Trek fans: Just wanted to let you all know that on my blog I have started a countdown of the episodes of THe Next Generation. Today I started with the worst episode.

        1. i like ST:TNG as much as the next guy, but i'm questioning your preference to listen to the audio of old episodes in the car instead of anything else. if you don't want to listen to music, there's podcasts, spoken word, books on tape, etc. even so, there's still so much good music out there, like, say, TV on the radio! oh, wait...

              1. honestly, i don't know the band, just the name; twas used for the joke. that said, i know that they're someone i should eventually start listening to.

  7. NBAPA rejects NBA owner's offer, will decertify, and file suit.

    That doesn't mean that there will be no season, as there could be ongoing negotiations, even after the union decertifies. But, I do think that the chance that there is any season at all just fell below 50%, way below 50%.

      1. Yar.

        According to a recent report, the NBA has the highest average salary of any "major" sports league in the world.

        By franchise, the Twins ranked 25th in the world.

        and, special for NBB and other cricket lovers:

        When only weekly pay is taken into account, the No2 league by average pay is cricket’s IPL. It last just six weeks per year but with multi-million dollar short-term contracts for the best players and six-figure deals for many more, it is justifiable for inclusion, not least because many of those involved earn other incomes elsewhere during the rest of the year.

        1. The Twins are 6th in MLB? Not sure I'm buying that. Do other teams have more roster spots than we do? Per Cot's, the Angels, Mets, and Giants should all be ahead of the Twins, if we're going by 2011 payroll.

    3. Yeah, it's not looking good for the NBA. It's kind of a bummer given the off season the Wolves had.

    4. I find myself reading these news blurbs wishing that I understood the BRI split better. If I am understanding this correctly, though, the players seem to be suffering almost from a sort of Stockholm syndrome. In this case, they have become so accustomed to just having a few teams throw their money around, and they continue to desire a system where those few teams are given the opportunity to throw their money around, even if that's not the best thing for the league as a whole. And ultimately, if the league as a whole does worse, the players as a whole ought to do worse, especially if they are negotiating a slice of the pie rather than a fixed dollar amount.

      Not that I think the owners are saints here, mind you, but I do think the players could potentially stand to gain by really doing away with the status quo and adopting a system that allowed more teams to compete for free agents, rather than the same teams year in and year out.

      1. Such is the life of a Wolves fan... right? For years we have suffered and now that there's a glimpse of hope? Armageddon. And what about the 2012 draft, you know, the one where the Wolves have surrendered their pick? If no season, the Wolves would have the highest number of ping pong balls!

        Ugh. I knew that pick would turn into the #1 pick overall.

          1. Indeed. What makes it perfect is that its definitely not the scenario I imagined as to how it would be the #1 pick, but its much, much worse than that.

    1. I figured those jokes were around last year when they were still touring with Dio at the front. it'll be interesting to hear what they put out, though, what with Ozzy's solo stuff being not so good these days.

    1. .

      Line last year: .218/.281/.323
      Last 5 years: .265/.295/.384
      Career line: .296/.334/.464
      Turns 40 in 2 weeks...
      By way of comparison, Butters last year: .167/.210/.239

      1. It's a pretty sad commentary when Gerald Laird has more OBP upside than the guy the Twins are considering to improve their offense at backup catcher.

        1. I'm still trying to get my head around just how bad Butera has been as a hitter. It's nearly impossible to hit worse than Butera did last year. Since 1919, only 7 players in baseball have amassed 250 PA in a season and had a worse OPS. Only 3 players have had a worse OPS+.

          Livan Hernandez, in 1100+ PA, has a better career OPS+ than Butera. That is, if Livan and Butera were both playing on a high school team, you might decide to DH for Butera instead of Livan. Since expansion (1961), there have been 18 pitchers with over 600 PA and a better career OPS+ than Butera.

          This comment also prompted me to go look up splits for the NL last year and I found this tasty tidbit:

          .214/.270/.387 - 2011 NL DH's
          (.216/.298/.319 - 2011 AL PH's for comparison)

          I'm honestly surprised it's that bad. I'd figured more teams would move some of their better hitters to the DH spot and put a good glove bench guy in the field. Are bench players in the NL really not even good enough as fielders to make it out of the DH spot when they are the worst hitter in the lineup? NL DH's hit like pinch hitters with some pop.

          1. Butera is the modern-day Bill Bergen, except without the incredible defense Bergen was reputed to have.

            1. The White Sox have paid Rios about $25M for 1 rWAR since picking him up on waivers. Nice job, Kenny.

            2. They also paid $12M for -2.7 rWAR from Adam Dunn. They've got three years and $44M left on that deal and 3 years, $38M left on Rios' deal. How does Kenny Williams still have a job?

            3. Rios was a risky pick-up, but at least there was upside there. What's the upside in Butera? Maybe as good as Henry Blanco? Rios had 3.7 fWAR last year, which would have made him the most valuable position player on this year's Twins squad. He's had one good year and one bad year for the White Sox.

              From '08 to '11, Rios was worth 5.6, 0.3, 3.7, and -0.7 fWAR. From '07 to '10, Cuddyer was worth 2.5, 0.0, 2.8, and 0.8 fWAR. Even with Cuddyer making good last year and Rios having a poor year, I bet that Rios for 3/$38M is a better deal than whatever Cuddyer gets.

              In contrast to the Rios move, Dunn for 4/$56M was just dumb from the time pen was put to paper.

          3. We could have had Wilson Ramos as our backup catcher, but think of all those Matt Capps blown saves we would have missed.

        1. Looking at whether there are any milestones pudge could get to:
          408 AB away from 10000 (270 PAs over 10000),
          156 H away from 3000
          28 2B away from 600
          151 Starts away from 2500 at catcher

          The only thing reasonable I find is that he's 84 PA away from 10000 PA as a catcher.

          Sorry, he's not chasing anything. I'm against signing him.

  12. I have good news for everyone. It would seem that Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau are taking their off season regimen very seriously. How would I know? Well, neither of them attended my wedding on Saturday. To miss the social event of the season they must be really focused on 2012.

    3. Congrats! I would have been there, but I was busy planning the activities for Mr. Gardenhire's three extra days of spring training.

    1. That's the only person I would think of. I don't know who the other one would be.

      I know a guy (Tom Proctor) who's, uh, "good looking" enough that he's been a stuntman for Cobb a few times.

      1. Apparently neither would have worked because the league decided to improperly score defense this week. Somehow the Lions D got me docked points because their teammates allowed 3 non-defensive TD's.

  15. This just in: filling out the College Board's financial aid profile form is an onerous, time-consuming pain in the butt. Particularly when your wife keeps the books but is fundamentally opposed to actually filing anything. And particularly when you wait until the last minute to fill it out (the Carleton early admission deadline is today -- he says, noting that it is now 2 a.m.).

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