27 thoughts on “March 6, 2018: Rotation”

1. Sorry, I'm not going to let things stand now. Waste of time this early in the preseason.

2. Fun little story Matt Trueblood shared on Facebook. He's doing a "three good things" each day during Lent, and sharing things that make him happy. Mostly it's stuff like spending time with his kids. But today there was this:

   'A fun baseball story, if a little long'

   SelectShow

   Can I tell you a baseball story? (I promise, it’s not *just* about baseball. In fact, it’s almost entirely an off-field story.) Tommy La Stella is a great little hitter. He bats lefty, but he’s not an automatic out against fellow lefties. He’s listed at 5-foot-11, and he’s probably shorter than that, but he has line-drive, doubles power to all fields. He rarely strikes out and draws a fair number of walks. Unfortunately, La Stella isn’t a great athlete. He’s a below-average defender at second base, and his arm is so weak he almost can’t play third in the Majors. He’s too small to play first base very well, and will never hit for enough power to play there. He gets hurt a lot—too much to be relied upon. Worst of all, for him, he plays for the Cubs. They traded for him prior to 2015, and they’ve had 10 or 11 better players on their roster almost ever since. In July 2016, the Cubs found themselves in a really tough roster crunch, and had to send La Stella to the minor leagues. There were too many good players on the bench, and they needed to make room for a pair of late trade acquisitions on the pitching staff. La Stella had been just tearing it up, though. Despite an earlier injury and very scant opportunities, he’d posted just about the same batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging average as star center fielder Dexter Fowler, at the time of his demotion. La Stella was the only guy they could farm out without materially harming the club or losing a player on waivers, so they assigned him to their Triple-A team in Iowa, but everyone knew there was no justice in it. So La Stella didn’t go. Instead, he just went home, to New Jersey. The Cubs said, over and over, that they understood, and that they would give him time to figure things out. La Stella, for the better part of a fortnight, said nothing. Questions from reporters to teammates drew shrugs and demurrals. Questions directed to his manager and the front office drew very diplomatic, trying-hard-to-be-patient answers. But this cloud kept hovering over the whole situation, and getting darker. In baseball, stuff like this does not fly. Insubordination of this kind is considered unacceptable, and persisting in it is usually unforgivable. Eventually, La Stella spoke. Yes, he still liked baseball. No, he didn’t plan on reporting to Iowa. No, he didn’t want to be traded. In fact, this group he was part of, the Chicago Cubs (not the Iowa Cubs) was so special that if he were traded away from them, he’d retire. In fact, he’d considered retiring the previous winter anyway. He was ready for that, if it came. He was ready to say goodbye to baseball, at 27. He wanted to play for the Cubs, in the Majors, or not at all. Generally speaking, that interview was not popular. Most fans (and most team builders) believe that playing baseball for a living is such a phenomenal privilege that anyone willing to let it slip away before their physical faculties desert them must be either insane or unbearably arrogant. The Cubs, however, also talked to La Stella in private, and realized he was being sincere. There was no power play afoot. The guy just knew he was good enough to play in the Majors, and didn’t want to be anywhere else. Nearly three weeks after he was optioned, La Stella took the field for the Cubs’ Double-A affiliate in Tennessee. A few days later he was in Iowa, and before September even came, he was back with the Chicago Cubs. He was only a very marginal part of the team’s World Series run, on the field, but he meshed right back into their clubhouse. After the team lost several vocal leaders (Fowler, David Ross, and eventually Matt Szczur) heading into 2017, La Stella became a crucial contributor to the team’s culture. Joe Maddon loves him. Many of his teammates count on him to keep the mood light, and he has helped young players fit into the team in their own way. Last season, he had a diminished role again, but hit like Fowler for the entire season, when he was called upon. Today, La Stella (who parks in the spots designated for the Cubs’ front office members at spring training, to mess with them) got to his locker and found khakis and a polo shirt, instead of a uniform. Those staffers had stolen his digs and replaced them with their own uni. La Stella put the new outfit on, of course, and the whole team got a few laughs out of it. I love that story. I love that we’re making more space to understand one another and meet others halfway, in situations like these. I love the way the experience engendered growth from La Stella, and what it surely taught the Cubs’ key decision makers about giving someone a second chance, and about being patient with people in the first place. Today was a milestone on La Stella’s journey to becoming a really beloved, long-term piece of big-league history, a guy who hangs around as long as he wants because he’s a good hitter and a good person. To get this far, though, required a bunch of people to, for a while, bravely do and say nothing.

3. We lost power from the snow storm yesterday at home. So before I left work I downloaded some stuff onto the computer so that we could still watch Netflix with the kids last night. Technology is cool.

4. Here we go, and much higher than Iowa, too.

   1. Will we see a whiny column in the Des Moines Register?

      1. heh heh

5. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary embiggens itself

6. The Wolves are tied for 4th in the West and only 1 game back of the Blazers in third place. However, the Wolves also are only 2 games ahead of the ninth-place Clippers. The finish to this season could be very crazy.

7. Does anyone know who wrote the Twins entry for the 2018 BP Annual? I’m debating whether to pick it up.

8. Kevin Love discusses his mental health in view of a panic attack he suffered in a game earlier this year.

   1. Thanks for sharing that piece, Stick.

9. Buxton nearly perfect on the bases.

   1. I hope Buxton steals more this season. When you're 29-for-30, and the one time you're thrown out you beat the ball, it may mean you're only running when you're sure you'll make it. You don't want to run into a bunch of outs, obviously, but I'd like to see him run when he's only 80 or 90 percent sure, rather than going when he's 100 percent sure.

      1. I agree; I think Moli is smart enough to put that bug in his ear.

      2. On Sunday when he walked I told my daughter (age 6) she had to stop coloring so she could watch him steal second base.
         "I already know he's fast, Dad," was her response, as she kept coloring and he immediately swiped the bag.

         That was kind of fun.

      3. In his first 2 seasons, Buxton attempted to steal in about 10% of his opportunities, while last year, it was about 20% of the time, so I think it's just a matter of him getting more confidence and knowing pitchers and situations better and he'll be more aggressive. In my observations, it seems like as the season went on, he got more aggressive in not only stealing but stealing earlier in counts, so not waiting for a more likely offspeed pitch. The other day in a spring training game, he went on the first pitch. So that will help his teammates and make it so the batter isn't forced to protect and foul a pitch off when he's attempting to steal.

10. Twins finally had some offense today...and it was needed

11. I mentioned it on Twitter and LinkedIn but not here....

    I started a new job on Monday. I’m the Director of Community Development at Model Cities St. Paul, which is a small CDC centered around Victoria and University in St. Paul. Definitely a step up in responsibilities but it’s a small org so less pay. But is a cool organization that needs help. Should be challenging and satisfying.

    Unemployed for exactly 3 months which isn’t’t bad for a mid-50s guy.

    1. Congratulations!

       3 months and a couple major holidays in there too. Not bad at all.

    2. Congratulations! Hope everything goes really well for you.

    3. congrats, free!

       hope for all of us mid-50s guys lives!

12. Twins still looking for pitching help. It's a buyers' market, so might as well take advantage.

    1. I think the Twins made a fair offer to Lance Lynn. If he can get a better deal elsewhere, more power to him.

       1. Yes, although he might be more interested in a one-year deal to try to build up his value for another free agent run next year. It is interesting that we're in March and the report is that he rejected the offer instead of that they're "in negotiations," which makes it sound like he's not willing to listen to the Twins at all.

    2. They also made a run at veteran lefty C.C. Sabathia in December before the 37-year-old re-signed with the New York Yankees for one year at $10 million.

       wait....what?! That would have been, um, something. Is this nugget new, or did I miss it back in December?

       1. I don't remember there being much other than speculation and not much of that. He signed pretty early. If the Twins did make a serious run at Sabathia, they definitely kept it out of the media. Of course, I don't remember the Twins ever being linked to LoMo until the deal was pretty much done.

13. Piazza is frickin' pissed off.

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