2015 Twins Game Logs

Game 20: Tigers vs. Twins

38 Comments

Sanchez (1-2, 5.96 ERA) vs. Big Pelf! (1-0, 2.65 ERA)

Welcome back to Tuesday game previews, Big Pelf!

Admittedly, he had a pretty good outing in his last start. It could even be argued that his last two were good. Hopefully that is something he can keep up tonight, although with his allergies to strikeouts, that may be difficult against the Tigers. A quick look at his 4.99 xFIP doesn't fill me with a ton of confidence that this isn't just smoke and mirrors.

I'm going to be in Toledo for the next couple days, so I might actually be able to watch this series. I hope to see a win against this dang team.

38 thoughts on “Game 20: Tigers vs. Twins”

  3. Only 2 G D comments? Is this the right day?
    You can't say G D in the forums
    Ah... no one's paying attention anyway

  5. The Tigers broadcast guys are really dry and boring to listen to. It's a very welcome change from DicknBert.

  6. They should trade Big Pelf tomorrow while his value is at its zenith. Git R Dun, Billy Sm1th!

    1. Wherever there are baserunners that need stranding...
      Whenever there is a two out rally that needs to be killed...

      ...He'll be there.

  11. Two straight really good starts by Pelfrey. I've been pretty down on him, but got to give him some dap. Good job Pelf!

      1. I knew where this was headed, but I still had to was excited to click it anyway!

        1. More the "send it to center"-ness of the fly balls. May as well hit 'em to the only part of the outfield that actually has an outfielder.

          1. Not if it's Schafer out there. The defensive metrics on B-Ref have him ranked as the Twins' worst outfielder this year and near the bottom in the AL. Robinson on the other hand is ranked near the top. ii is only slightly above Schafer.

            1. Oh. Well then, I guess I just assumed he was serviceable because I don't know why else he'd be in the lineup. (and I haven't been able to watch any games yet this year.)

            2. There's a lot of statistical noise this early in the year, especially with defensive statistics. I don't think Schafer is the second-coming of Devon White in CF, but I think it's safe to say he's much more competent than II and RCugh defensively.

              1. Also, he's been bad in center field. You can't look at Schafer's now -4 (DRS) and say he's been only slightly better than Hunter's -5 because they play different positions. You need to add in the positioning, conveniently done for you in dWAR, to see Schafer has been three runs better so far.

                Unless you like UZR. FanGraphs does this a bit better as the "Def" number in the season summary at the top does this for you. Plus so far UZR likes Hunter (+1.8 runs!) and doesn't like Schafer (-4.5 runs). Add in the position adjustments and you get 0 for Hunter and -3 for Schafer.

                And then realize it's been only 18 games for both of them and we need to base our expectations on projections. Hunter projects to be awful while Schafer projects to be bad.

                1. Tangentially:

                  Aaron Hicks, while hugely disappointing overall, has posted a .758 OPS off lefties in the majors and has always hit lefties much better than righties in the minors. Hicks may never develop into a quality regular, but he's already a quality platoon option. With a lefty on the mound he's a viable center fielder and/or better than Arcia offensively and defensively in left field. And that's the magic of platooning, which turns useless into useful by separating strengths from weaknesses.

                  Molitor has shown the mindset required to improve a lineup via platooning, but the Twins need to actually give him the pieces to make those moves worthwhile and a four-man bench of Robinson, Escobar, Chris Herrmann, and Eduardo Nunez doesn't qualify. Still, after 13 years of learning to view hitters strictly through Gardenhire's binary "everyday player or not" lenses it's refreshing to consider how open-minded managing might take better advantage of useful but flawed options.
                  -Gleeman

  19. Is Perkins's beard slowly moving up his face? Like next year maybe he'll have the mustache to complete it.

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