29 thoughts on “May 15, 2017: NBD”

1. Not sure anyone else saw Dogtooth back when Bootsy suggested it, but actress Mary Tsoni is dead at 30.

2. I wish Vic had given my commencement address
   

   1. neighbor kid just graduated from Berklee. His commencement speakers: "Lionel Richie, Lucinda Williams, Todd Rundgren, Neil Portnow, and Shin Joong Hyun."

   2. That's great!

3. 

   Twins minor league moves: Engelb Vielma (.286/.362/.328 in Chattanooga) promoted to Rochester; Tanner English (.129/.236/.194 in Chattanooga) sent to Fort Myers; T. J. White off the disabled list to Chattanooga; Ryan Strausborger off the disabled list to Chattanooga.

   1. I wish Strausborger's first name was, like Steve, or something, so we could say we have our cut-rate Strasburg. Or our non-union German equivalent.

   2. Thanks to whoever put the Twins watch there. Cool!

4. Well, hell.

   Powers Boothe has died as well, and you certainly all know him.

   1. We know him so well that we knew he had died yesterday.

      1. Well, then, that's...very prescient or something.

         1. It's almost.... Spooky

5. Now, fielding percentage is obviously a dumb, flawed, mostly meaningless metric.

   Still, it's pretty great that Sano has the highest fielding percentage among all AL third basemen.

   1. Leads in put outs too.

      More notably, his Range Factor is 2.74 (Longoria is 5th among 3Bmen at 2.87). Not too shabby (but UZR has him worse, I think?).

      1. I don't get range factor so I need runs. UZR has Sanó at +2 runs this season. For his career he's at +4, or a +8 UZR/150. And he can hit a bit.

         1. GAAHHH, WHY DID THEY THINK LF WAS A GOOD IDEA??!?

            1. They've been sacked.

               1. That is a fair, calming point.

6. Defensive WAR
   1. Dyson • SEA 1.0
   2. Cain • KCR 0.9
   3. Kiermaier • TBR 0.7
   4. Polanco • MIN 0.7
   5. Castro • MIN 0.7
   6. Kinsler • DET 0.6
   7. Buxton • MIN 0.6
   8. Iglesias • DET 0.6
   Merrifield • KCR 0.6
   10. Simmons • LAA 0.5
   Odor • TEX 0.5

   1. Good thing for Castro since he sucks at the dish now.

      1. Castro hasn't had a good season at bat since 2013. He was signed to be a good defensive player, and I think most would agree that he has been. Anything we get from him at bat is a bonus.

         1. Oh yeah, for sure. I'm just reminiscing about the first week or two of the season when he was un-sustainably an on base machine.

   2. WAR takes defensive position into account, For instance, Mauer is at -.7 defensive fWAR but leads the AL in UZR at first base at 1.3.

7. At each position in the AL (according to Fangraphs):
   C: Castro is 7th
   1b: Mauer is 1st
   2nd: Dozier is 8th
   SS: Polanco is 4th
   3b: Sano is 2nd (tied with Machado)
   LF: Rosario is 4th
   CF: Buxton is 1st (by a wide margin)
   RF: Kepler is 8th

   1. and how does this compare to last year's starters? I think this isn't given enough credit for this year's turnaround

      1. Q: Wait, we're actually calling it a turnaround!?!

         A: For batters, I generally think of 100 plate appearances as having moved out of the SSS arena - could argue that correlates to ~33 games.

         Thoughts?

         1. we're talking defense here and how it applies to the pitching, and you can definitely call the pitching a turnaround, particularly from the starting pitcher standpoint

            1. Yes!
               Sorry, I didn't mean to impugn the idea that we're witnessing a turnaround - I'm willing to step into the void and say we are - I was just wondering if everyone else in the basement thinks 20% of the season provides enough info to step with me.

               1. that's a good question; even disregarding the SSS, you can see the difference with your own eyes (I'm not convinced about the bullpen)

               2. 

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