Matt Wallner was 1-for-3 with a walk. He is batting .273.
Andrew Bechtold was 0-for-4. He is batting .214.
Evan Sisk struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. His ERA is 7.45.
Fertile-Beltrami Falcons won their 9-man sectionals in Grand Rapids last night, beating Mountain Iron/Buhl 44-22, and play in the state tournament in US Bank Stadium in a week.
Today is Championship Friday in ND. The nine-man game features two undefeated teams and they are the only squads to beat SBGville this year. The SBGville nine is young and they might have a chance to play for a title in the next two years.
Since we're talking high school football, the Potter County Battlers lost in the championship game yesterday, falling 44-42 in two overtimes. The Battler quarterback was named MVP despite the loss.
Our local Alexandria squad, has won their last 2 playoff games with incredible last minute heroics and now play this weekend in the state tournament. Their section semifinal against Moorhead included 6 total touchdowns in the last 5 minutes and Alex won on a hook and ladder play to end the game. The section final against Bemidji featured 2 touchdowns in 20 seconds. My cribbage partner's grandson tore a ligament in his knee during first game of the year and only played defense during regular season. He returned at running back for the playoffs and had a 3 TD game, followed by a 4 TD game. It is a fun squad to watch. It's kind of like if your home team is playing the Vikings every week.
Champlin Park had an absolutely abysmal season this year. Just two years after making it to the state tournament championship game (and losing to Wayzata), they finished 0-6 in the Metro-Gold North conference and 0-9 overall.
Nick Nelson has some interesting thoughts on potential Twins pitching approach next year(s).
This actually isn't a bad idea to try in a "transition" year -- we have a handful of young pitchers that seem to have good stuff but haven't built up to a heavy workload yet, and it would be ideal for them. It'd also allow for more money spent on our lineup.
This is what I wanted to do with Terry Mulholland back in the day. Let him go out there and start. As soon as he allows a couple of runners, yank him. If he gives you three innings, great.
Nick is right to think there may be cost efficiencies that the club could realize by taking this approach, but I think those are offset by inefficient use of roster space. A 13–14 man pitching staff may be one solution to a somewhat self-inflicted deficiency in the rotation, but is that sustainable or even desirable from the position player side? Even from a cost efficiency standpoint, positional versatility is in vogue, and thus, increased demand has driven acquisition & retention costs for flexible players higher than in the past. The Dodgers saddling Chris Taylor with a $18.4 million qualifying offer as he enters free agency after making $7.8 million this past season is Exhibit A.
Beyond that, a string of multi-inning relievers may be an innovative and strategic potential solution, but it’s aesthetically hideous. I know that can’t be a primary consideration for the front office — fielding a perennial contender with the resources available is — but they can’t ignore the fact that they’re selling an entertainment product, and that the market for entertainment products is already heavily saturated and is growing more fractured. Winning will always retain some fans, and exploiting market inefficiencies can generate interesting online fodder, but routine bullpen games will not make for appealing baseball.
Given the status of the rotation, likely workload limits, and the player development challenges they’ve had imposed on their system by the pandemic, I think some type of 6-man rotation, with or without an opener/follower slot, is feasible with the rest of the roster they have right now. If they’re going to really explore the limits of pitching staff construction, then they need to jettison single-position guys at the lowest ends of the defensive spectrum and heavily invest in productive hitters with multi-position versatility, who ideally have a blend of infield & outfield serviceability.
That means trading not just Sanó & Rooker, but the majority of cost-controlled first-rounders they’ve drafted — Larnach, Wallner, & Sabato. To replace them with free agents or players available in trade who possess several well-worn gloves and starting-caliber hitting tools will not be easy. That strategy also involves banking heavily on Polanco continuing to cover some innings at shortstop, Arráez staying healthy and not having to fill in for injuries elsewhere, Gordon being both healthy & serviceable, Miranda’s season at AA/AAA being indicative of his future production in Minnesota, Lewis’ knee recovering completely and soon enough for him to overcome two lost seasons of development, Martin retaining multi-position viability and rediscovering his college power, and more.
Stay tuned for a Very Special Podcast where we discuss an idea we hinted at in the last podcast that looks strikingly similar to this.
Coming soon! Maybe. I mean, it's possible.
A little real world data on vaccine effectiveness.
And based on this observational data — which isn’t as informative as a randomized control study — cases are about 4 times more prevalent among unvaccinated Minnesotans than the vaccinated.
Hospitalizations and deaths are about *16 times* more prevalent among the unvaxxed. pic.twitter.com/OTIR8QaydN
AFL report:
Peoria 4, Scottsdale 0.
Matt Wallner was 1-for-3 with a walk. He is batting .273.
Andrew Bechtold was 0-for-4. He is batting .214.
Evan Sisk struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings, giving up one hit. His ERA is 7.45.
Fertile-Beltrami Falcons won their 9-man sectionals in Grand Rapids last night, beating Mountain Iron/Buhl 44-22, and play in the state tournament in US Bank Stadium in a week.
Today is Championship Friday in ND. The nine-man game features two undefeated teams and they are the only squads to beat SBGville this year. The SBGville nine is young and they might have a chance to play for a title in the next two years.
Since we're talking high school football, the Potter County Battlers lost in the championship game yesterday, falling 44-42 in two overtimes. The Battler quarterback was named MVP despite the loss.
Our local Alexandria squad, has won their last 2 playoff games with incredible last minute heroics and now play this weekend in the state tournament. Their section semifinal against Moorhead included 6 total touchdowns in the last 5 minutes and Alex won on a hook and ladder play to end the game. The section final against Bemidji featured 2 touchdowns in 20 seconds. My cribbage partner's grandson tore a ligament in his knee during first game of the year and only played defense during regular season. He returned at running back for the playoffs and had a 3 TD game, followed by a 4 TD game. It is a fun squad to watch. It's kind of like if your home team is playing the Vikings every week.
Champlin Park had an absolutely abysmal season this year. Just two years after making it to the state tournament championship game (and losing to Wayzata), they finished 0-6 in the Metro-Gold North conference and 0-9 overall.
Nick Nelson has some interesting thoughts on potential Twins pitching approach next year(s).
https://twinsdaily.com/index.html/minnesota-twins-news-rumors/minnesota-twins-thad-levine-unconventional-pitching/
This actually isn't a bad idea to try in a "transition" year -- we have a handful of young pitchers that seem to have good stuff but haven't built up to a heavy workload yet, and it would be ideal for them. It'd also allow for more money spent on our lineup.
This is what I wanted to do with Terry Mulholland back in the day. Let him go out there and start. As soon as he allows a couple of runners, yank him. If he gives you three innings, great.
Nick is right to think there may be cost efficiencies that the club could realize by taking this approach, but I think those are offset by inefficient use of roster space. A 13–14 man pitching staff may be one solution to a somewhat self-inflicted deficiency in the rotation, but is that sustainable or even desirable from the position player side? Even from a cost efficiency standpoint, positional versatility is in vogue, and thus, increased demand has driven acquisition & retention costs for flexible players higher than in the past. The Dodgers saddling Chris Taylor with a $18.4 million qualifying offer as he enters free agency after making $7.8 million this past season is Exhibit A.
Beyond that, a string of multi-inning relievers may be an innovative and strategic potential solution, but it’s aesthetically hideous. I know that can’t be a primary consideration for the front office — fielding a perennial contender with the resources available is — but they can’t ignore the fact that they’re selling an entertainment product, and that the market for entertainment products is already heavily saturated and is growing more fractured. Winning will always retain some fans, and exploiting market inefficiencies can generate interesting online fodder, but routine bullpen games will not make for appealing baseball.
Given the status of the rotation, likely workload limits, and the player development challenges they’ve had imposed on their system by the pandemic, I think some type of 6-man rotation, with or without an opener/follower slot, is feasible with the rest of the roster they have right now. If they’re going to really explore the limits of pitching staff construction, then they need to jettison single-position guys at the lowest ends of the defensive spectrum and heavily invest in productive hitters with multi-position versatility, who ideally have a blend of infield & outfield serviceability.
That means trading not just Sanó & Rooker, but the majority of cost-controlled first-rounders they’ve drafted — Larnach, Wallner, & Sabato. To replace them with free agents or players available in trade who possess several well-worn gloves and starting-caliber hitting tools will not be easy. That strategy also involves banking heavily on Polanco continuing to cover some innings at shortstop, Arráez staying healthy and not having to fill in for injuries elsewhere, Gordon being both healthy & serviceable, Miranda’s season at AA/AAA being indicative of his future production in Minnesota, Lewis’ knee recovering completely and soon enough for him to overcome two lost seasons of development, Martin retaining multi-position viability and rediscovering his college power, and more.
Stay tuned for a Very Special Podcast where we discuss an idea we hinted at in the last podcast that looks strikingly similar to this.
Coming soon! Maybe. I mean, it's possible.
A little real world data on vaccine effectiveness.
But...but...natural immunity!
Muh fwreeeeeeeeeeeedom.
It's good that Dos a Cero is a thing again.