Monday, May 20, 2013
Mackey: Quality of Twins’ defense has garnered mixed reports
(www.1500espn.com)
Wonder if this includes yesterday’s gripping Trevor Ploof…
Read More...But those numbers don’t tell the whole story.
Advanced defensive metrics tell us what our eyes have likely suggested all season—that the Twins’ defense, for the most part, has very limited range.
It’s true that Twins fielders, collectively, don’t make many errors on balls hit to their range radius—but that radius is not very large. And it’s impossible for a fielder to make an error on a ball he can’t get to.
Ultimate Zone Rating ...
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1. Jacob posted on December 22, 2011 at 01:40 PM # hit 0 | hit 0Well, they would have been fifth last year, not fourth. And that's for the AL. Comparing to non-dh teams isn't particularly relevant.
I'm sure Mauer will continue to hit pretty well for average (even last year, by far the worst season of his career, he was able to get a respectable-for-basically-any-catcher-but-him .287 as he fought through all of the injuries and such, and I wouldn't be surprised if he's well above .300 again next season once he's had a full spring training and such), but I don't think he's ever going to get that power stroke back, especially with Target Field's current dimensions (alot of his 2009 HRs became doubles in 2010).
But Morneau, jeez, I worry about him. Concussions suck. I mean, I honestly have no idea- and nobody else does- if he'll ever be the same again. Same goes for every other concussed person in sports.
I think he's saying more than that. He's saying that the Twins offense actually has a chance to be above-average, which would be news after their putrid output in 2011.
I think their pitching is going to be putrid though. Who will be better? Liriano likely. Baker is likely to regress. Rumors are they are signing Jason Marquis. That's not an upgrade. Matt Capps is their closer. On paper, I think the Twins are the worst team in the division.
A non-zero chance, but can you say any more than that about Morneau's chance for a return to form?
Not only is he assuming health by some very risky guys, most of the projections seem pretty optimistic. Some guys seem to get excessive regression toward the mean, which only makes sense if you assume that a major league hitter can't REALLY be as bad as Tosoni, or Nishioka, or Casilla, or Plouffe, or the missing but ever-popular drew Butera.
Nishioka is a guy who I could easily see improving much more than expected. Between the adjustment to the majors, the broken leg, and the positional flip in spring training and back after his injury, he had a lot working against him last year. I'm not saying he'll be a star, but it wouldn't be shocking if he was able to get to being an average (for the position) offensive player in 2012.
The other guys you listed, however, really do seem to suck.
It's pretty lousy. The Twins actually don't consider him an infielder anymore....he's an outfielder who can play infield in an emergency. I like him, but I'm a little surprised that he's still hanging around. He seems like a bad fit on the Twins...he'd make a pretty good 25th man on an NL team. I was sort of hoping the Twins would have packaged him and Mijares or Slowey for a little better return.
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