Cup of Coffee

May 23, 2024: Master Plan

17 Comments

I couldn't pay as much attention as I would have liked to that game, but I'm hoping there's a Grand Plan from on high about to kick in (I don't mean that heretically, just that I hope a solution appears).

Man, it was a close game and I was distracted from most it so I can't nitpick, but I hope they can figure it out. From what I saw though, it sure did look like McDaniels and KAT had themselves a game.

17 thoughts on “May 23, 2024: Master Plan”

  1. Speaking of which, sacrifice bunting with Joey Gallo on deck is one heck of a master plan

    1. Here's two Joey Gallo numbers for you:

      .556
      .568

      Which one is his 2024 strikeout percentage and which one is OPS? I question the master plan of any team that has Gallo taking up a 40-man spot at this point.

  2. I think the Wolves are hiding Ant's injury. He hurt his back in game 6 and hasn't been the same since.

  3. Speaking of puzzling master plans:

    Ages of the Twins pitchers on their opening day roster in 1988: 29, 33, 37, 43, 31, 38, 43, 32, 28, 28.

    That's an average age of 34. By May 4th, the three oldest played their last games in the major leagues. By the end of the season, their average age was down to 29.6.

    Twins were 8-13 in April and despite not having another losing month they never could catch the A's.

    1. Considering the A's finished with 13 more wins, the Twins would've needed to go 17-4 that month if everything else stayed the same. Poor Blyleven led the league in losses despite a great FIP.

      1. Oh, for sure. But they never really competed all year and the year was seen as a "down" year by the media, despite the team being much better than the year before. Of course, a lot of that vitriol was for the Herr/Brunansky trade. While stupid, that trade didn't make much of a difference. I wonder if there's any articles out there from the Twins brain trust about why they thought Carlton, Niekro, or Martinez had anything left in the tank.

    3. The Twins essentially had two starting pitchers in 1987, three if you count Les Straker. The other rotation starters, at various points, were Niekro, Mike Smithson, Carlton, Mark Portugal, and Juan Berenguer (who actually was very good in six starts). In 1988 Allan Anderson came along, which gave them three starters, but Blyleven's ERA ballooned to 5.43 (although with a very good FIP, as sean points out). The other rotation starters in 1988 were Straker, Charlie Lea, and Freddie Toliver. I don't think their plan was specifically to use old pitchers. They were just desperate for pitchers, period. It's really pretty remarkable that their teams were as good as they were, given that starting rotation.

      The one constant, of course, was Frank Viola. He was very good in 1987 and even better in 1988.

      1. I wonder if, despite winning a World Series, decent pitchers didn't want to sign with the Twins because of the reputation of it being the homer dome. Or Pohlad was just cheap.

  4. Question 1, a two parter: would you want one, and if so, which?

    Question 2: would you prefer any of the other MN teams?

    1. 1) we're getting too much like blue line flags when you alter colors like that, in my mind. Die was cast - I'll just take the official one.
      2) huh?

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