With Tsuyoshi Nishioka back with the Twins, and having been a disaster in his series with the Indians, it reminded me of the poor decision making, the cajoling of Ron Gardenhire, and bad strategy that led to this. The halcyon days of 2011. Let’s hit the wayback machine, shall we?
Twins target velocity in Year 2 of new ballpark
Ah yes, Velocity! I think everyone realizes that the Twins needed some harder throwing pitchers, and the Twins recognized this a couple of years ago!
In its first year of existence, Target Field was the majors’ toughest home run park. So the Twins decided they needed to get a bit faster.
Oh. Never mind.
Nobody knew exactly how the new ballpark would play when it first opened last April, but by season’s end it proved to be the toughest home run park in the majors.
Since proven incorrect by Josh Willingham, Trevor Plouffe, everyone that faces Nick Blackburn and Jim Thome. Oh, wait, Thome was there two years ago.
That wasn’t all bad for the Twins. They posted the American League’s best home record, 53-28. But their offseason moves were designed to turn Target Field into even more of an advantage.
“Things went really well for us last year! Let’s change it!”
Manager Ron Gardenhire pushed for more speed in his lineup, following the trend in the majors of teams placing more emphasis on speed, defense and pitching
First: There is and was no such trend. There was a trend for advanced statistical analysis that basically said “get players on base”. It doesn’t matter if a player is fast or not if they can’t hit. Second, how does adding speed in the line up improve the pitching? Oh, and one more time….
Manager Ron Gardenhire pushed for more speed in his lineup,
Which led to the following conclusion….
So the Twins jettisoned middle infielders J.J. Hardy and Orlando Hudson, replacing them with Alexi Casilla and Japanese import Tsuyoshi Nishioka.
/twitch
But yes, this is all Bill Smith’s fault. He was the tenured manager that wanted to disrupt the thing that won them 94 games and the one who did some bad scouting when Nishioka came around. All Bill Smith.
Hardy and Hudson are solid major league hitters, but last year’s lineup was too station-to-station for Gardenhire’s taste.
Ron Gardenhire doesn’t care for it when batters advance from base to base in an effort to score runs.
The 2010 Twins won 94 games but struggled when they weren’t getting extra-base hits.
This season, the Twins have 191 extra base hits in wins, and 128 in losses. Also, there are a lot more losses than wins this year, so the problem hasn’t exactly been solved, has it? Oh, and let’s go back to 2003, the team that Gardenhire is trying to harken back to: They had 90 wins that season. They had 324 extra base hits in those wins, and only 190 wins in their losses. I guess, if there is a moral to this story it is that “not being able to win without getting extra base hits isn’t something you should worry about, especially if you have 94 wins the way you played the season before”. Also “Teams win when they get extra base hits, and lose when they don’t.” And lastly, if you dig deeper, “everybody poops”. That might be a different moral for a different story.
They like how the new lineup turns from the No. 9-1-2 spots with Casilla, Denard Span and Nishioka.
/twitch
The Twins might be able to add even more speed in coming years, though that would mean parting with some of their sluggers. Cuddyer and Jason Kubel are eligible for free agency after the season, and Young can hit the market after 2012.
Among the Twins’ top prospects are speedy outfielders Ben Revere, Joe Benson and Aaron Hicks. In the amateur draft, the Twins have placed an emphasis on finding speed for several years.
Just throwing this in here because apparently the Twins had a long term plan to be terrible. “Let’s replace Kubel and Cuddyer with Ben Revere and Joe Benson!” Ben Revere is pretty good and all, but, well, let’s just say that there is a reason the Twins made sure they got Josh Willingham.
The added speed should help defensively, too. Hardy and Hudson were above-average defenders, but Casilla and Nishioka should be able to cover more ground.
/twitch
Also, Orlando Hudson won 4 gold gloves. Alexi Casilla won the spelling bee in third grade.*
*unconfirmed
“We’ve never had that much power,” General Manager Bill Smith said. “We’ve won a lot of games through aggressive baserunning and doing the fundamentals.”
And pitching! PITCHING! Also, pitching. You won games with pitching.
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