To paraphrase what Bill James wrote in a similar situation, if you're not going to hustle in the playoffs, just when are you planning to?
If I'm the Twins GM, I'm moving Arraez this off-season. His value will never be higher.
😥
MLBTR projects $5 million arbitration salary. Twins should get a decent amount in return.
If they are getting Mike Trout in return, pull the trigger
Low OBP, low power, no position, often injured. He's fun to watch but I'd move him if you can get something for him.
Low OBP? He had a .375 OBP this year and .374 for his career. He walks at a league average rate. Not overall disagreeing with your thesis, but he OBPs quite well.
I stand corrected. I thought it was lower than that.
Although, I'd say you really need an OBP of .400 to make up for that lack of power.
Fwiw, he led the team in doubles this year (31).
Substitute "Carew" and it's the same thing I heard most of the 70s.
Carew's career ISO was .101; with the Twins it was .114. Arraez's career ISO is .096 though this season it was .104. Carew was a second baseman until he moved to first. There are similarities.
A lot of that ISO came in '76 and later, plus with his speed he added an extra base here and there as well
And you could compare Sano to Harmon after his first couple seasons.
11th in the majors in OBP, which is lower than 10 other guys, I guess
Of all that, I worry most about the injuries. Performance-wise he’s pretty solid and I trust the team to value him a lot more rationally these days than if we’d had a player with his skills 15 years ago.
Another similarity to Carew...
I'm in the "not Carew" group.
And I think this team has way too many position-less players.
I enjoy Arraez but he's the only one with much trade value.
I think this too many position-less players is a huge issue that needs to be addressed going into 2023. Arraez, Miranda, Larnach, Kirilloff...
I think part of the problem is these guys DO have a position, but since no one can stay healthy for any length of time, they're getting jerked around the field. But yeah, reminiscent of Harmon -- what's up with that?
If they all turn into Hall of Fame players, they can be lacking a position. I guess I'm in the not-Hall-of-Fame camp on all of them. I hope you're right and I'm wrong.
I'm not sure how I can be right when I'm not taking any position here. I was just remembering how Harmon was without a position back in the day, and I'm not sure any of us have figured that one out.
Lots of players are position-less. You're choosing Hall of Fame players as comparison. I guess that's just a coincidence.
No no no -- there was no comparison being made! Just a side observation.
I'd say you really need an OBP of .400 to make up for that lack of power.
Arráez posted a 130 OPS+ this season and has a 120 OPS+ for his career. Here are some career numbers of Arráez’ teammates for comparison:
Player
PA
ISO
OPS+
Cruz
8244
.241
131
Donaldson
5667
.227
131
Correa
3813
.200
129
Arráez
1569
.096
120
Sanó
2859
.248
116
Cron
3765
.213
113
Polanco
3186
.174
111
Sánchez
2665
.242
109
Buxton
2140
.229
108
Rosario
3512
.192
105
Kepler
3361
.195
101
Schoop
4465
.178
97
I think Arráez more than makes up for a lower ISO compared to some of his low-OBP, slugging peers.
As long as the current environment leads to a high number of strikeouts and outs on balls in play, players like Arráez seem essential to keeping rallies going. One of the most frustrating things about watching the Twins over the last several years has been a tendency for the lineup full of guys who kill rallies with a penchant for unproductive outs. Arráez, along with Cruz, Donaldson, and Correa, has been an essential counterweight to that. (Miranda looks like he may be one, too.) Yes, they’ve been decimated by injuries, but look at that table above. The promise of guys like Kirilloff and Larnach is that they are likely to hit for moderate-or-better power while having better on-base skills than Sanó, Kepler, Buxton, & Rosario have exhibited.
(Side note: Bo Jackson is Buxton’s most similar player through age-28. I find this both compelling and disturbing.)
Huh. Good for him.
People are rediscovering that Randy Johnson is an amazing photographer, and the incredible logo of his photography business https://t.co/0hLf8z3rek
Looks like Nate Tubbs Rules has published this year's Top 300 Twins list. La Tortuga, we hardly knew ye...
Still chuckling at this.
Okay his first base coach didn't help
To paraphrase what Bill James wrote in a similar situation, if you're not going to hustle in the playoffs, just when are you planning to?
If I'm the Twins GM, I'm moving Arraez this off-season. His value will never be higher.
😥
MLBTR projects $5 million arbitration salary. Twins should get a decent amount in return.
If they are getting Mike Trout in return, pull the trigger
Low OBP, low power, no position, often injured. He's fun to watch but I'd move him if you can get something for him.
Low OBP? He had a .375 OBP this year and .374 for his career. He walks at a league average rate. Not overall disagreeing with your thesis, but he OBPs quite well.
I stand corrected. I thought it was lower than that.
Although, I'd say you really need an OBP of .400 to make up for that lack of power.
Fwiw, he led the team in doubles this year (31).
Substitute "Carew" and it's the same thing I heard most of the 70s.
Carew's career ISO was .101; with the Twins it was .114. Arraez's career ISO is .096 though this season it was .104. Carew was a second baseman until he moved to first. There are similarities.
A lot of that ISO came in '76 and later, plus with his speed he added an extra base here and there as well
And you could compare Sano to Harmon after his first couple seasons.
11th in the majors in OBP, which is lower than 10 other guys, I guess
Of all that, I worry most about the injuries. Performance-wise he’s pretty solid and I trust the team to value him a lot more rationally these days than if we’d had a player with his skills 15 years ago.
Another similarity to Carew...
I'm in the "not Carew" group.
And I think this team has way too many position-less players.
I enjoy Arraez but he's the only one with much trade value.
I think this too many position-less players is a huge issue that needs to be addressed going into 2023. Arraez, Miranda, Larnach, Kirilloff...
I think part of the problem is these guys DO have a position, but since no one can stay healthy for any length of time, they're getting jerked around the field. But yeah, reminiscent of Harmon -- what's up with that?
If they all turn into Hall of Fame players, they can be lacking a position. I guess I'm in the not-Hall-of-Fame camp on all of them. I hope you're right and I'm wrong.
I'm not sure how I can be right when I'm not taking any position here. I was just remembering how Harmon was without a position back in the day, and I'm not sure any of us have figured that one out.
Lots of players are position-less. You're choosing Hall of Fame players as comparison. I guess that's just a coincidence.
No no no -- there was no comparison being made! Just a side observation.
Arráez posted a 130 OPS+ this season and has a 120 OPS+ for his career. Here are some career numbers of Arráez’ teammates for comparison:
I think Arráez more than makes up for a lower ISO compared to some of his low-OBP, slugging peers.
As long as the current environment leads to a high number of strikeouts and outs on balls in play, players like Arráez seem essential to keeping rallies going. One of the most frustrating things about watching the Twins over the last several years has been a tendency for the lineup full of guys who kill rallies with a penchant for unproductive outs. Arráez, along with Cruz, Donaldson, and Correa, has been an essential counterweight to that. (Miranda looks like he may be one, too.) Yes, they’ve been decimated by injuries, but look at that table above. The promise of guys like Kirilloff and Larnach is that they are likely to hit for moderate-or-better power while having better on-base skills than Sanó, Kepler, Buxton, & Rosario have exhibited.
(Side note: Bo Jackson is Buxton’s most similar player through age-28. I find this both compelling and disturbing.)
Huh. Good for him.
His logo:
Dude has always been one of my favorite ballplayers of all time, then I see that he did concerts for Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.
That is pretty cool.