Fay Vincent: THE UMPIRE FIX

TONY RANDAZZO NO MISTER ROCK AND ROLL, MR. COMMISSIONER.

Major League Baseball should immediately adopt reforms to the umpiring system. MLB is now a $7 billion dollar industry awash in cash so the costs of these changes can hardly be the reason to defer making them.

  1. MLB should buy the umpire schools and take over the training and development of all umpires in professional baseball. The recruitment, training and compensation of minor league and major league umpires should be controlled by the commissioner and modern personnel programs instituted to insure proper professional development.
  2. Minor league umpires as employees of MLB should be offered the opportunity to become members of the same union as major league umpires to insure all of them are properly represented and protected by Federal law.
  3. The use of technology to improve the accuracy of on field decisions should continue to be explored with the full involvement of the umpires. Additional use of replays should be carefully adopted with careful attention to the risks of further delays in the games.

Over the years the umpires have been the victims of benign neglect as generations of owners and commissioners were content to focus on what they believed were the more important economic and unions issues facing the game. Now, however, there is time and ample money sloshing throughout baseball to warrant the kind of broad changes I am suggesting.

For that reason and because reforms are so obviously warranted I believe the baseball leadership under Commissioner Selig will take the action all of us close to the game have believed is so long overdue. The game will be better as the umpiring improves.

And finally, moving the umpiring profession into the modern era of personnel and management development will surely result in more and better qualified young men – and women – deciding to join the profession. The reform makes so much sense it has to happen and soon.

Tangotiger Blog: Ensberg and Tango speak on being locked-in

“locked-in” with Tom Tango and Morgan Ensberg!...(also check out Kevin Goldstein’s FB page which has been having a terrific back/forth)

Below you will find an unedited transcript of an email correspondance between myself and Morgan Ensberg.  This exchange is a result of Ensberg taking a position with Brandon McCarthy on Twitter, and seemingly against me.  As this thread will show, we don’t really disagree on anything, once we were able to say more than 140 characters to each other.

As long-time readers of this blog know, Morgan is quite receptive to the kind of work and research that we produce.  He is also an extremely respectful person, and it’s a real pleasure to interact with him. ​  And the correspondance below is typical of how Morgan presents himself.  I am grateful that he was kind enough to have this exchange.

...To put it plainly, if you have Ryan Braun with 3 HR in 3 PA and you have Miguel Cabrera with 3 SO in 3 PA, then what we will expect to happen on the 4th PA is EXACTLY what their historical record would suggest: equal greatness.  We do not expect Braun to suddenly be like Barry Bonds, and we do not expect Cabrera to now be John MacDonald.

And your example of yourself is perfect: you were locked-in for 8 games, but you only acknowledge this after the event occurs.  And even if you felt the same way on game #9, outcomes didn’t follow you.  And it didn’t follow you for the next 8 games.  And that’s because these feelings are so transient that it becomes irrelevant in terms of it being actionable.

Tom

  Yes. I agree. But I think everyone would agree with that.

  Morgan

  I think I have to be clearer in my belief. Locked-in is being in the zone. It is real. But unpredictable in future events.

  Morgan

OMNICHATTER for May 24, 2013

Remember folks, it’s Miguel Cabrera’s world, we just live in it. Except for when it’s Mike Trout’s.

Five Notes On the Ridiculous Pablo Sandoval

A teaser:

I can’t … It’s just … that is so beautiful and hilarious. Again, that’s batting-average against from the catcher’s perspective, so picture a lefty-swinging Sandoval with his back to you over on the right side of your screen. The place you go in the strike zone is in on his hands but, for goodness sake, don’t go too far in! If you miss outside the zone and come close to hitting him, he kind of rakes those pitches. Which doesn’t make sense. But, hey, neither does Sandoval.

Richie Ashburn’s Widow in Tears Over His Endangered Gladwyne Grave

It has been nearly 16 years since Philadelphia lost Richie Ashburn, one of the greatest Phillies players of all time. The beloved Hall of Famer, who played for the team from 1948 through 1959, died of a heart attack in 1997 after broadcasting a Phillies-Mets game from Shea Stadium. His family buried him in the cemetery outside of Gladwyne Methodist Church, where all was quiet until some developers announced plans to turn the church into condos and put a parking lot next to the cemetery. Ashburn’s widow, Herberta, is calling foul.

Dig him up hand him a mitt and sit Ben Revere, I say.

FanGraphs: Cameron: The 2013 Cubs: Better Than We Think

Light at the end of the ridiculously low-ceilinged tunnel.

The Cubs have actually played pretty good baseball when sequencing is not considered. By wOBA differential, they’ve been a well above average team. Their record is almost entirely a reflection of the power of the timing of various events.

In our Win Probability section, we track a stat called “Clutch”, which basically looks at the wins a team has gained or lost due to the leverage of the game when their positive or negative events occurred. The Cubs are 28th in clutch hitting and 30th in clutch pitching. When you combine their clutch scores from both sides of the ball, you can see just how far removed they are from the rest of the teams in baseball in season-to-date “clutch” performance.

At -4.3 clutch wins, no one is even close to the Cubs in terms of underperformance by leverage. It’s not even just that they haven’t converted hits into runs, but that when they’ve scored those runs, they haven’t occurred at the right time to translate into wins.

So, as we approach Memorial Day, the Cubs stand at 18-27, and even if we just did a basic pythagorean adjustment to account for their run differential, we’d only upgrade that “expected” record to 22-23. But, when you look at the full accounting of all of their plays, the Cubs context neutral performance suggests something more like a 24-21 record. And that’s with Matt Garza spending basically the entire season on the DL.

The Cubs are in a ridiculously difficult division, and this isn’t their year to try and make a run for it, but the pieces that the team added over the off-season have made them a competitive team. Even if they end up selling off veterans for prospects at the trade deadline, don’t be surprised if the Cubs start winning more games over the next four months of the season. Based on their first 45 games, there are reasons to believe that this team is actually decent.

The night Ted Turner managed the Braves

Maybe Magic Johnson would like to try his hand in the Dodgers dugout?

Ted Turner was the “Mouth of the South,” “Terrible Ted” and “Captain Outrageous,” a brash, outspoken business mogul who had a golden touch.

He launched the first successful cable news network with CNN, sailed to victory in the America’s Cup and used his cable empire to turn his Atlanta Braves into “America’s Team.”

But 36 years ago this month, Turner discovered there was one thing he couldn’t do: manage his own baseball team.

USA Today: This college baseball team is the best at postgame interviews

Justin Turner, take notes.

Mariners sending Jesus Montero to Triple-A

Amen amen there’s a lower power.

Bold move in Seattle, as the Mariners are optioning catcher Jesus Montero to Triple-A Tacoma, reports Ryan Divish of the Tacoma News-Tribune.

Montero, whom the M’s acquired from the Yankees as part of the Michael Pineda deal, was ranked by Baseball America as the sixth-best overall prospect coming into 2012. This season, however, Montero has authored a grim batting line of .208/.264/.327 in addition to playing spotty defense in his 225 1/3 innings behind the plate.

Last season, Montero showed promise by putting up a passable 95 OPS+ and making strides in the second half. In 2013, though, he’s obviously failed to maintain those gains. Montero’s still just 23 years of age, so there’s plenty of time to right himself. Consider this a bold step in that direction.

Also worth noting is that Mike Zunino, the Mariners’ top prospect, is the regular catcher at Tacoma right now, and he already has a backup in place.

Demystifying Red Sox Ownership - What Do They Do? (WEEI)

“I have [former Red Sox CEO] John Harrington’s old office. The day he turned over the reins, he was sitting at the desk and handed me his pen with a warm smile,” Henry wrote in an email.“I still have it. Red ink. I work more of my hours though in my home offices in Florida and in Brookline. But there is nothing like driving into Fenway Park to go to work. I am thankful every day that I get to do that. It’s one big reason why these rumors of a potential sale of the Red Sox are so laughable.At the risk of a double negative, I don’t know of anyone, personally, who works for the Red Sox that doesn’t feel extraordinarily blessed to be working there.”

At an operational level, one can characterize six different levels of decisions in the organization, some of which require ownership input, some of which do not.

...

Fourth level: A decision on which the owners’ opinions will be sought at the outset before moving forward. For instance, ticket pricing decisions necessarily will involve ownership feedback at the outset (rather than a rubber stamp) before moving forward.

Fifth level: Collaboration and involvement from the outset. The trade between the Red Sox and Dodgers last August represented a notable and significant demonstration of such a case. The conversation started between Dodgers president Stan Kasten and his Red Sox peer, Lucchino. From the outset, and throughout the entirety of the deal, it necessarily involved not only the entire baseball operations department but also the full attention of the ownership group.

Sixth level: Ownership suggest or initiates a program for the club and the front office executes it. Often times, these ownership-directed programs (in the case of the Red Sox) will relate to charitable undertakings, such as Werner’s Run to Home Base. The instances of ownership-mandated baseball operations decisions are virtually non-existent. Indeed, the instances of owner fiat are virtually non-existent, in part because of the philosophical commitment on the part of the organization to collaboration and consensus-building.

Leyland breaks his own rule, lets Verlander get win after delay

Must…let…him…tie…Bob…Purkey…in…career…wins…at…all…cost…...

Wednesday, though, Leyland got a little sentimental. After a 65-minute stoppage in the fifth inning, he let Justin Verlander go back into the game and get the two outs he needed to pick up the victory.

“Since I got here in 2006, that guy has been our horse, and tonight was a reward for that,” Leyland told FOX Sports Detroit’s Shannon Hogan after Detroit’s 11-7 win over the Indians. “I stretched it for five minutes because of what he’s done for us. I wouldn’t have gone 15 or 20 minutes, but I gave him five. Thank heavens it worked out.”

The decision wasn’t as easy as it sounds. While Verlander is considered one of the best starters in baseball, he’s been in a rare slump. He came into the game coming off two bad losses — allowing 11 runs in 7 2/3 innings — and was struggling again against Cleveland. He allowed single runs in each of the first two innings, then gave up a two-run homer to Carlos Santana just before the delay.

Leyland, though, thought he understood the problem.

“I think I’m right on this one,” he said. “He was a little jittery in the first couple innings after what’s happened to him, and then he got into a great rhythm in the third and fourth. In the fifth, he was trying to beat the Indians and trying to beat the rain and beat the umpires and get everything done before they pulled the tarp. He just started rushing everything and they got him.”

...Verlander used his best skills of persuasion to get the last two outs, and may have even resorted to simple bribery.

“I was lobbying him, but when it got to be close to an hour, I knew I was running out of time,” he said. “I might owe him a sleeve of golf balls. Or a dozen golf balls. Maybe a case of golf balls.”

Mets’ Ike Davis On Struggles: ‘I Can’t Do Any Worse’

IKEA: Join our free loyalty program!

Despite growing calls for his demotion, Davis won’t be sent down to Triple-A before Friday’s series opener against the Braves, according to the New York Daily News.

“Maybe after the weekend,” a source told the paper.

It’s been a frustrating season for Davis, batting .147 with nine RBIs after getting off to a miserable start last year, too.

“I know I’m going to play better, especially hitting-wise. I can’t do any worse,” he said. “If my teammates weren’t behind me, it’d be the worst thing in the world.”

Fans are losing patience, and plays like Wednesday’s killer in the ninth won’t do much to help his cause.

...Davis has one hit in his last 38 at-bats after going 0 for 2 with two walks Wednesday. He flied out to the center-field warning track to end the sixth, leaving him hitless in his last 25 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

“He feels absolutely great this year and had a great spring,” manager Terry Collins said. “So this is baffling to everybody. We base what we’re doing on the fact that we’re looking down the road, we’re trying to look at the big picture here, and we’ve got to get this guy going, because we’ve got to figure out, where is he going to fit?”

Primer Dugout (and link of the day) 5-23-2013

Milwaukee Journal, May 23, 1913:

Big Ed Walsh, twirling star of the White Sox, announced today that he has joined the faculty of a correspondence school and hereafter must be addressed as “Professor”. For a paper dollar Walsh will send out to aspirants for fame six lessons on the science of moistening the ball and putting it where the batter’s bat isn’t. Walsh starts his classes Monday.

This is not something that strikes me as a useful service. Nonetheless, I’d love to be able to read Walsh’s lessons.

FanGraphs: Sullivan: Vance Worley and Losing the Magic

Mescaline Mike, to me at the bar. “If you want a real sleeper for your fantasy team this year…think Vance Worley.” #mind-fogging

Vance Worley just got clobbered again, this time by the Braves. There’s no set and certain point at which a start turns into an official clobbering, but looking through Worley’s 2013 game log, I’d say this was the fifth or sixth time he’s been clobbered, in ten games. That’s an ugly ratio, and to make matters worse, recall that Worley was Minnesota’s opening-day starter. The Twins’ de facto ace owns an ERA over 7, with 82 hits allowed in just under 49 innings. His strikeouts are way down and on Wednesday he was chased by a double that followed an Evan Gattis grand slam. Two seasons ago, Worley finished third in the voting for the National League Rookie of the Year.

...There’ve been more swings at strikes, and since Worley throws hittable strikes, there’s been more contact and therefore more hits, at the expense of some strikeouts.

I don’t think this is Worley’s problem on its own. I think this is a symptom, indicative of a bigger problem. Worley’s command, perhaps, is worse than it was. Worley’s catchers, perhaps, aren’t setting up so much on the edges. Or Worley’s act, perhaps, has simply been adjusted to. I don’t know if it’s fair to suggest the league has adjusted to Worley, since he just switched from the NL to the AL, but if a guy relies on deception, then somewhat intuitively it makes sense he could be figured out. Yet Worley’s called strike ability didn’t change between 2011 and 2012, so. It would be weird for an adjustment to happen suddenly, instead of gradually. And as easy as it would be to pin this on Worley ending up in the AL, look at McCarthy up there, and remember that he just made the opposite switch. This, probably, is a complicated issue.

But it ought to be a high priority for the Twins and Worley to figure it out. When Worley’s been at his best, hitters have been caught in between. So far this year, hitters have been a lot more willing to swing, presumably getting better reads of the baseball, and Worley allows far too much contact for that to be a positive. Worley’s strength was throwing strikes that didn’t look to the hitters like strikes. Now they’re looking like strikes. Now they might just be looking like meatballs.

Daugherty: Brandon Phillips has been Reds’ MVP so far

Ow. Ow. Ow. Mouthbreathers/Mindbreathers now on full tilt boogie replay. (better now)

In some ways, we take Phillips for granted. Especially his glove. I’ve watched the Reds actively since I arrived here in ’88. Bret Boone was good. Pokey Reese could be spectacular, but not always steady. No one has been in BP’s universe. (Nor in the league. How he has only 3 Gold Gloves is a black hole mystery. Darwin Barney: Hahaha.)

But his offense is the MV reason he is his team’s best player now, and was last season. He’s not a cleanup hitter, but he leads the NL in RBI. Phillips has been the Reds MIP — Most Important — for several years, if only because he has been bounced around the lineup like a lottery ball, and has succeeded in every spot. And, of course, his glove has saved a lot of runs.

Peers have been turned off by his personality which, as my son might say, sucks for them. Baseball’s antiquated notions of conduct need to step aside, to make room for a player who actually smiles a lot. Phillips isn’t Showing People Up, OK? He’s enjoying himself. I’ve written this several thousand times, for what seems like a decade. MLB needs more players like DatDude, not more guys stuck with the behavioral conventions of 1950.

Jay Bruce is whacking the ball now. Joey Votto is hitting lots of singles. Choo has been more than the answer at leadoff. Phillips has been better than all of them. If the season ended tomorrow, he’s the Reds MVP.

Comes this analysis of BP, from ESPN. The author basically says BP should lead the league in BI, given he has Choo and Votto getting on base ahead of him. Well, duh.

Don Mattingly rips into players and makeup of Dodgers

Hitting Is Simple (and so is the manager).

Manager Don Mattingly benched Andre Ethier for the Dodgers’ series finale at Miller Park on Wednesday, saying he did so because he wanted to field a lineup “that’s going to fight and compete the whole day.”

Asked if he was trying to send a message to Ethier, Mattingly replied, “We’re last place in the National League West. Last year, at this point, we’re playing a lineup that basically has nobody in it, that fights and competes and battles you every day for every inch of the field. We talk about it as an organization. We’ve got to find the club with talent that will fight and compete like the club that doesn’t have that talent. If there’s going to be a message sent, it’s going to be over a period of time.”

Mattingly wouldn’t say if Ethier is now a part-time player.

“For me, today, I’m putting out my lineup that I feel is going to be the most competitive and going to compete the hardest,” he said.

Asked if Ethier is no longer a player he automatically writes into the lineup every day, Mattingly said, “Well, he wasn’t today.”

Does Mattingly think Ethier won’t fight?

“I can’t really say that,” he said. “I don’t really want to say that, but we’ve got to compete.”

Asked if he was dissatisfied with Ethier’s toughness and mental approach, Mattingly said, “I want to put a club out there that I think for the long range that you can trust, that’s going to fight and compete the whole day.”

Astros vendor brings snow cones into bathroom stall, gets fired

Astros snow cone vendor just doesn’t give a crap.

OMNICHATTER for MAY 23, 2013

Only five games today? Yeesh. Well, Kevin Gausman gets his MLB debut. Or, since he went to LSU, I guess it is his debeaux.

Mitchell: Pedroia, Cano and Magical Thinking

Pedroiadolia: The psychological phenomenon of seeing wacko images on dirty uniforms.

The narratives around the two players, however, could not be different. Pedroia is almost the prototype of the over-achieving “scrappy” player. He is a 5’8” middle infielder who does the little things well. This ignores that he was also a second round draft choice who played baseball at a top baseball school. Cano, on the other hand is bigger, more athletic and does not project scrappiness at all. Throughout his career Cano has been criticized for his playing style and even called lazy. It is disappointing that these epithets are still used against talented, and hard-working Latino players like Cano, but that has been part of the Cano narrative for years.

Cano’s intangibles are almost never mentioned, but an argument can, and probably should, be made for them. Cano handled a starting job in New York during a rough time for his team gracefully and smoothly. He has also transitioned from being a supporting player on a team of stars, to being the best player on an old team last year, and on a team of castoffs this year. There are many reasons why the Yankees are surprising so many people this year, but Cano has been a big part of that, hitting .290 while leading the league in home runs. Cano also starred on a Dominican team that, under a fair amount of pressure to succeed, completely dominated the recently concluded World Baseball Classic.

Pedroia and Cano are both excellent players, but the debate over who is better should not be settled by imaginary, unprovable or tautological concepts like intangibles. If, however, analysts and journalists want to go that way, Cano should get his due. Derek Jeter’s numbers and consistency make him one of the greatest players ever. Overhyping leadership and other characteristics have at times overshadowed that and made Jeter hated in many quarters outside New York. It would be unfortunate to see a similar thing happen to Pedroia as well.

Chase Utley ‘scared’ by injury, could be headed to DL

“I scare myself
and I don’t mean lightly
I scare myself
it can get frightenin’”

Chase Utley swung for the first time in batting practice Tuesday and it did not feel right. He took a second hack, then another, and one more. That is when he went to Charlie Manuel and told him his right side hurt.

“It definitely scared me a little bit,” Utley said Wednesday.

Depending on what an MRI examination Thursday in Philadelphia shows, the Phillies could be without their second baseman and top offensive performer for the foreseeable future. Utley and team officials would not speculate on whether his rib cage injury will require a stint on the disabled list, but they all prepared for that reality.

Utley consulted with teammates, past and present, who suffered similar injuries. Their advice was consistent.

“The main thing they said was, ‘Don’t rush back,’” Utley said. “That’s when you can make it worse and prolong the time you’re out.”

...Utley said he has never suffered an injury to his midsection like this, so he had nothing to compare. He said he felt about the same Wednesday as he did Tuesday. He was glad he did not attempt to play through the injury, something he may have tried in the past.

“I think it was a smart thing to do,” Utley said of informing Manuel. “You want to be careful with these things because they could linger and get worse if you try to play through it. I think we caught it early enough but it’s hard to know until we have some imaging on it.”

Jose Canseco to join Ft. Worth Cats as player/coach… or maybe not.

Former Rangers slugger Jose Canseco posted some “breaking news” today on his Twitter account:

Breaking news this is a first folks las vegas police was just at my house i have been charged with rape by a [name withheld] from las vegas — Jose Canseco (@JoseCanseco) May 22, 2013

He goes on to tweet a photo of the fitness model, along with her phone number (stay classy, Jose), then suggests a polygraph to “get the ball rolling.”

“Stay tuned to another day in the life of jose canseco,” he tweeted.

No word yet on how this will affect the 48-year-old’s debut Thursday as a player/coach with the Fort Worth Cats, but he says he’s at the airport on his way to Fort Worth.

Verducci: Offensive decline leads list of 10 early-season trends to watch

And not clicking on Verducci is quickly becoming another one!

1. Hitting in the major leagues is fundamentally broken

What will it take for teams to start admitting that this passive-aggressive, run-up-the-pitch-count philosophy isn’t working? Apparently almost a decade of declining results isn’t enough. Entering this week:

• The number of hits per game is down for the seventh straight year.

• On base percentage has been stagnant or down for the seventh straight year.

• Strikeouts are up for an eighth straight year.

• Batting average has sunk to an all-time low (.253) since the DH was instituted 40 years ago.

• Runs per game is tied with the rate from 2011 for the lowest rate since 1992.

When you go to a baseball game today you will see fewer hits on average than at any time since 1972—and yet the game is taking more than 20 minutes longer to play. That’s more than 20 minutes of added dead time without the ball put in play.

And yet you see hitter after hitter giving pitchers strike one and taking 2-0 and 3-1 fastballs. It’s like a major corporation with seven straight years of operating at a financial loss insisting that nothing is wrong.

ESPN: Forging bond with Pete Rose has helped fuel Joey Votto’s desire to be great

How many Votto triads of numbers have not yet been drawn?!

Several years ago, Votto was standing in the on-deck circle at Great American Ball Park while Pete Rose was watching from a box seat. The two men struck up a conversation, and the Hit King passed along a few pearls of wisdom that resonated. Among other things, he told Votto that it’s no sin to reach for the last cookie in the jar. Rose would never have amassed 4,256 hits if he didn’t have a touch of the greed-monger in him.

“Early in my career, Pete kept an eye on me,” Votto said, “and the one piece of advice he gave me was, ‘When you get the second hit, get the third hit. And when you get the third hit, get the fourth hit. And when you get the fourth hit, get the fifth hit.’ That really stuck with me, because it’s a genuine challenge when you’re tired, or you’re sick, or the score is mismatched, or you’re facing a tough pitcher, or you’re not in a good mood that day. Whatever it is.

“What I took away from Pete’s advice is, ‘You’re playing for yourself. You’re competing for your team. You’re doing the best you can every day to get the most out of your abilities.’ So when I have that at-bat when the score is 10-0, yeah, I usually check in with myself and make sure I’m in a prime place to hit and I’m ready to go and I’m not about to give away this at-bat. I’ll take my time before the at-bat or call timeout so there’s no excuses and nothing I can look back and regret.”

...Now along comes Votto, who pays zero attention to conventional stats like runs scored and RBIs and focuses strictly on having the most productive at-bats possible in his quest to make life hell on pitchers. Votto doesn’t step in the box looking to draw walks, but he does adhere to a standard that many new-school bloggers and statistical types hold dear. In an insightful ESPN the Magazine piece by Buster Olney in March, Votto explained his philosophy and talked about “reframing the challenge.”

Sources: O’s calling up Kevin Gausman

Guys, the Orioles have pitching prospects not named Dylan Bundy!

The Baltimore Orioles hope this year’s high-profile midseason call-up is as good as last year’s high-profile midseason call-up.

The Orioles will promote right-hander Kevin Gausman from Class-AA Bowie to make his major league debut Thursday against Toronto, major league sources told FOXSports.com.

Gausman is reaching the majors less than one year after the Orioles selected him in the first round of the 2012 draft. He is 2-4 with a 3.11 ERA in eight starts for Bowie. Sources say the Orioles are comfortable with the move because of Gausman’s ability to throw three pitches for strikes, as evidenced by his otherworldly ratio of 49 strikeouts to five walks.

Megdal: The Reds have grown up together as a team

Scroggy Durnbaugh...all a part of The Reds Way.

For his part, Reds manager Dusty Baker believes there’s a commonality to his group that makes them better collectively, and perhaps even easier to manage.

“I don’t know if it’s easier,” Baker said, pondering as he sat in his visiting manager’s office at Citi Field Tuesday afternoon, surrounded by a few reporters. “But consistency is a key over time [building a club]. I was on the Dodgers like that, I came in to a locker room that was like that. And most of the guys I played with had been taught the same way to play, came from the same mindsets on how to play.” Those Baker Dodgers teams, by the way, went to the playoffs four times in eight years, and won the 1981 World Series.

According to Baker, the Reds actually face a problem most teams would love to have, which is how selective they have to be in adding to a mix that’s mostly been developed as one.

“It’s actually harder to add players from outside,” Baker said of his team. “Some players, you can tell, come from places, for instance, take the Minnesota Twins,” and I wondered if Baker was going to single them out for abuse. Just the opposite, though. “Their players are fundamentally sound. Whereas some other organizations, you can tell that offense is the only thing that’s important, or defense isn’t important. You know, that’s more difficult, over time, to kind of change.”

But still, the Twins are 18-23, and production is production, right? Joey Votto, after all, would be a star on any team fortunate enough to have his 170 OPS+. Same with Homer Bailey’s 131 ERA+. How to quantify a collective edge? Mesoraco says you can’t.

“It’s hard to put a number on that,” Mesoraco said. “You have to have good players to win ballgames, first and foremost. And we have that. But at the same time, if everybody gets along, it makes things easier, as opposed to not looking forward to coming to the field, that kind of stuff can kind of wear on a team. Guys become individual players.

“But I think the main part is really having good players.”