The Boy is home again, after four years of growth and exploration. I'm guessing it won't be long before he's itching to get the heck out.
34 thoughts on “June 15, 2016: Now What?”
11AM and no posts? Good one, bS. Okay, a gimme:
Day game alert: Cedar Rapids hosts Burlington at noon Central today.
The Twins currently have a 5.16 team ERA, ahead of only the Reds (5.44!!!), and almost a full run worse than the AL average. That is horrible and I'm trying to think of how it is going to get much better.
A good team defense will certainly help (current FIP is 4.46), but what will the 2017 rotation look like? These guys are all under contract or team control (small sample caveat applies):
Ervin Santana - 5.10 ERA / 4.58 FIP
Phil Hughes - 5.95 / 5.06
Kyle Gibson - 6.49 / 5.33
Tyler Duffey - 5.33 / 4.06
Ricky Nolasco - 5.12 / 3.46
Pat Dean - 4.17 / 4.36
It is a pretty underwhelming list. Sure, all of them except for Dean can probably be expected to be improve on their 5+ ERA if given another chance but how realistically can you expect one to break out to be much more than average?
I don't follow the minors very closely, is anyone other than Berrios knocking on the door or breaking out this year? I would like to see May get another shot at a starter, it isn't like he needs to be Clayton Kershaw to be an improvement over what the Twins have now.
Grossman for Kershaw, who hangs up?
Sell high, bro.
I wouldn't mind seeing Tommy Milone get another chance. He's doing tremendously in Rochester. Jason Wheeler and Logan Darnell are pitching pretty well there, too.
And let's not forget Duffey was a minor leaguer just last year, with growth and improvement hopefully ahead of him.
Unless Logan Darnell has switched to the knuckleball, I'd really like to see his k/9 get above 3.5.
I'd like to see Berrios back up here.
Ricky's career FIP is almost a run lower than his ERA. I wonder why that is. His home run rates have typically been good, so I wonder if he's always had bad defenses behind him or he just has a terrible line drive rate.
His career numbers with RISP are worse than his overall numbers. That's a big part of it.
So maybe he's better out of the windup. Interesting.
We had this discussion on here a week or two ago. (Too lazy to look.)
He's a guy that I kept drafting in fantasy just waiting for the ERA to revert. It never has.
I had decent luck with Nolasco years ago when he was a Florida Marlin. Probably '09ish?
Likewise. He was a pretty solid No. 3 for me for a decent stretch.
Everyone's numbers are worse with RISP.
Here's the league in 2015
Split
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS
tOPS+
RISP
.257
.336
.405
.741
106
---
.248
.306
.398
.704
95
Kershaw career.
Split
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS
tOPS+
RISP
.197
.276
.307
.583
106
---
.204
.257
.297
.554
96
Nolasco career.
Split
BA
OBP
SLG
OPS
tOPS+
RISP
.288
.347
.439
.785
108
---
.265
.302
.433
.735
93
It does appear Nolasco is better than the average pitcher when the bases are empty and then is worse than average with RISP.
This is where I disagree. It isn't bad luck if it is consistently true. I'm not saying he doesn't have a bad defense behind him, but his ERA is consistently worse than his FIP.
For those here who like outer space and have young kids: both of my boys have really been enjoying The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot lately. They don't often agree on a book (given the 3-year age difference) and even more important, it's a book I also happen to truly enjoy reading aloud. While it's not nonfiction, there are some accurate tidbits about our solar system included, which is a fun bonus.
Greep! Boink! Eep!
A 9:05 PDT game in LA tonight, and a 7:10 EDT game in NY tomorrow? Thanks for the getaway, MLB/Angels!
My Twins schedule says 9:05 p.m. CDT, but still.
Angels have always been like that. I'd say return the favor but when most of the time they're headed back to PDT from CDT, it really doesn't matter to them that much.
That's why their front office is ranked 29. Jerks.
If the game tomorrow is in New York, then Sheenie's company really chose a bad day for the company game.
Elder Daughter is home for a few days (we're celebrating my mom's 80th birthday Saturday) and the connection worked out nice. She landed around 5:30 pm and texted me. I left work and walked across the street for a beer, drove over to the ballpark and parked next to the radio station until her train got in, no more than a couple of minutes. Total can of corn and I didn't have to fight rush hour traffic getting to the airport.
Hey Mags, thought of you yesterday. We are in San Diego this week, and I saw two women at the grocery store who were wearing what looked like Team USA Women's Rugby practice jerseys. A bit of googling didn't show up any event going on in the area, but maybe they are based down here or something?
There's an Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. There might be training camp going on right now for Rio.
Unfortunately, Trey's Astros lost in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions last night. Trey had a leadoff single in the third inning with his team down a run. He was pinch run for because their one bench player needed to get into the game. He eventually came around to score the tying run on a bases loaded walk. With 2 outs in the fifth inning, Trey reached on a error with two outs in the fifth that drove in the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the other team hit a grand slam in the sixth inning and the Astros final out in the bottom of the sixth was a lineout to center field with the bases loaded. So Trey is now done with Little League for this season. Junior's season is still going because he made All-Stars. He's just practicing now. His first game is in about 10 days or so.
pete rose is a blow hard. I know that the level of talent is something to examine, but if Ichiro! had spent his entire career in the MLB he would have likely passed charlie hustle. So, congrats mr.'ro. 3000 hits here we come.
Ichiro's is a significant achievement, but unless we also want to say that Sadaharu Oh has the home run record, we need to say that Pete Rose still has the hits record. Ichiro might well have the record had he spent his entire career in MLB, but the fact is that he didn't, and I don't think we can give him the record based on what he might have done.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I totally agree that MLB records are just that, but I was reacting to what I'd just read from Pete. Ichiro! is an incredible talent, and it's been fun watching him play baseball.
I considered buying some cheap tickets to take the kids to that game today, and decided against it without even thinking about who they were playing. Oops!
(Though based on the meltdown we just dealt with, it was probably better we didn't go.)
Robbie Grossman leads the major leagues in walks in June.
11AM and no posts? Good one, bS. Okay, a gimme:
Day game alert: Cedar Rapids hosts Burlington at noon Central today.
The Twins currently have a 5.16 team ERA, ahead of only the Reds (5.44!!!), and almost a full run worse than the AL average. That is horrible and I'm trying to think of how it is going to get much better.
A good team defense will certainly help (current FIP is 4.46), but what will the 2017 rotation look like? These guys are all under contract or team control (small sample caveat applies):
Ervin Santana - 5.10 ERA / 4.58 FIP
Phil Hughes - 5.95 / 5.06
Kyle Gibson - 6.49 / 5.33
Tyler Duffey - 5.33 / 4.06
Ricky Nolasco - 5.12 / 3.46
Pat Dean - 4.17 / 4.36
It is a pretty underwhelming list. Sure, all of them except for Dean can probably be expected to be improve on their 5+ ERA if given another chance but how realistically can you expect one to break out to be much more than average?
I don't follow the minors very closely, is anyone other than Berrios knocking on the door or breaking out this year? I would like to see May get another shot at a starter, it isn't like he needs to be Clayton Kershaw to be an improvement over what the Twins have now.
Grossman for Kershaw, who hangs up?
Sell high, bro.
I wouldn't mind seeing Tommy Milone get another chance. He's doing tremendously in Rochester. Jason Wheeler and Logan Darnell are pitching pretty well there, too.
And let's not forget Duffey was a minor leaguer just last year, with growth and improvement hopefully ahead of him.
Unless Logan Darnell has switched to the knuckleball, I'd really like to see his k/9 get above 3.5.
I'd like to see Berrios back up here.
Ricky's career FIP is almost a run lower than his ERA. I wonder why that is. His home run rates have typically been good, so I wonder if he's always had bad defenses behind him or he just has a terrible line drive rate.
His career numbers with RISP are worse than his overall numbers. That's a big part of it.
So maybe he's better out of the windup. Interesting.
We had this discussion on here a week or two ago. (Too lazy to look.)
He's a guy that I kept drafting in fantasy just waiting for the ERA to revert. It never has.
I had decent luck with Nolasco years ago when he was a Florida Marlin. Probably '09ish?
Likewise. He was a pretty solid No. 3 for me for a decent stretch.
Everyone's numbers are worse with RISP.
Here's the league in 2015
Kershaw career.
Nolasco career.
It does appear Nolasco is better than the average pitcher when the bases are empty and then is worse than average with RISP.
Speaking of which, Nolasco is one of five unluckiest pitchers.
This is where I disagree. It isn't bad luck if it is consistently true. I'm not saying he doesn't have a bad defense behind him, but his ERA is consistently worse than his FIP.
For those here who like outer space and have young kids: both of my boys have really been enjoying The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot lately. They don't often agree on a book (given the 3-year age difference) and even more important, it's a book I also happen to truly enjoy reading aloud. While it's not nonfiction, there are some accurate tidbits about our solar system included, which is a fun bonus.
Greep! Boink! Eep!
A 9:05 PDT game in LA tonight, and a 7:10 EDT game in NY tomorrow? Thanks for the getaway, MLB/Angels!
My Twins schedule says 9:05 p.m. CDT, but still.
Angels have always been like that. I'd say return the favor but when most of the time they're headed back to PDT from CDT, it really doesn't matter to them that much.
That's why their front office is ranked 29. Jerks.
If the game tomorrow is in New York, then Sheenie's company really chose a bad day for the company game.
Elder Daughter is home for a few days (we're celebrating my mom's 80th birthday Saturday) and the connection worked out nice. She landed around 5:30 pm and texted me. I left work and walked across the street for a beer, drove over to the ballpark and parked next to the radio station until her train got in, no more than a couple of minutes. Total can of corn and I didn't have to fight rush hour traffic getting to the airport.
Hey Mags, thought of you yesterday. We are in San Diego this week, and I saw two women at the grocery store who were wearing what looked like Team USA Women's Rugby practice jerseys. A bit of googling didn't show up any event going on in the area, but maybe they are based down here or something?
There's an Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista. There might be training camp going on right now for Rio.
Unfortunately, Trey's Astros lost in the semifinals of the Tournament of Champions last night. Trey had a leadoff single in the third inning with his team down a run. He was pinch run for because their one bench player needed to get into the game. He eventually came around to score the tying run on a bases loaded walk. With 2 outs in the fifth inning, Trey reached on a error with two outs in the fifth that drove in the go-ahead run. Unfortunately, the other team hit a grand slam in the sixth inning and the Astros final out in the bottom of the sixth was a lineout to center field with the bases loaded. So Trey is now done with Little League for this season. Junior's season is still going because he made All-Stars. He's just practicing now. His first game is in about 10 days or so.
pete rose is a blow hard. I know that the level of talent is something to examine, but if Ichiro! had spent his entire career in the MLB he would have likely passed charlie hustle. So, congrats mr.'ro. 3000 hits here we come.
Ichiro's is a significant achievement, but unless we also want to say that Sadaharu Oh has the home run record, we need to say that Pete Rose still has the hits record. Ichiro might well have the record had he spent his entire career in MLB, but the fact is that he didn't, and I don't think we can give him the record based on what he might have done.
Sorry, I wasn't clear. I totally agree that MLB records are just that, but I was reacting to what I'd just read from Pete. Ichiro! is an incredible talent, and it's been fun watching him play baseball.
I considered buying some cheap tickets to take the kids to that game today, and decided against it without even thinking about who they were playing. Oops!
(Though based on the meltdown we just dealt with, it was probably better we didn't go.)
Robbie Grossman leads the major leagues in walks in June.