Home opener: Short-handed, long review, bad trade

I went to the Twins home opener Monday. The weather was good, and the Kramarczuk's bratwurst was even better than I remembered.

But Kevin Correia pitched like Kevin Correia, and Sam Deduno committed another balk (that's two for him already), and the Twins were outmatched by the Oakland A's.

That's not surprising -- the A's have legitimate World Series aspirations this season, and the Twins do not. But there were a number of aspects beyond the score that soured my outlook on this team.

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As it turns out, the Twins didn't put either Oswaldo Arcia or Josh Willingham on the disabled list when they brought up Chris Herrmann. They put Jason Bartlett on the DL instead.

And in the ninth inning, down five runs, Pedro Florimon was allowed to hit for himself to lead off the inning. That's the way to wave the white flag. (He struck out.) Since the A's were using a righty at the moment, why not at least send Herrmann up?

Ron Gardenhire can say the Twins aren't going to play shorthanded this year. What they do, or at least what they're doing, is completely different. Watch -- they'll wait a week or more before DLing at least one of the ailing outfielders.

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The official review time on the non-home run by Jed Lowrie was 4:11. I had it exceeding five minutes.

This was the second marathon replay review involving the Twins this week, and I doubt they've been the only overly-long ones.

I not-so-humbly suggest that if the replay crew in New York can't make up its mind in 90 seconds or less, it's inconclusive and let's get on with the game.

Eduardo Nunez plays third base during a spring
training game for the Yankees.

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The Twins traded Class A lefty Miguel Sulbaran to the Yankees for infielder Eduardo Nunez, who had been designated for assignment last week. Nunez, 26, goes on the 40-man roster and will play at Rochester.

Nunez is a mediocre shortstop (that might be a generous evaluation) and not much of a hitter, and personally I wouldn't trade a lefty who had a 2.96 ERA in more than 100 innings in the Midwest League at age 19 for him. I'm not even sure I'd trade Bartlett for him, and I regard Bartlett's presence on the major league roster as an unamusing joke.

Here's something to chew on: The Yankees cut Nunez loose because he got beat out by Yangervis Solarte for their utility infielder job. Solarte spent six years in the Twins system and was jettisoned after hitting .329/.367/.466 in Double A, presumably because the Twins couldn't stand watching him try to field ground balls.

So the Twins dump Solarte, and the Yankees pick him up to dump Nunez, and the Twins pick up Nunez. Somebody's wrong on this series of moves.

That the Twins made this deal either tells us how dissatisfied they are with their current infield depth and/or starters or how unhappy they were that Sulbaran reported to camp in poor condition. Or both.

Notes, quotes and comment

Workers removed seats from the Metrodome last week.
Power to the building is to be cut off today, which
will deflate the Teflon-and-canvas roof.

Today the Metrodome is to be deflated, I believe for the first time intentionally. I had a bird's eye view as a college student living in a high-rise apartment to the east of the Dome as it was being built. I attended, I dare say, hundreds of games there. I was witness to some of the best moments there, and some of the worst. Some of them, to be honest, are kind of the same. I'm thinking of the Dave Kingman popup that never came down; I was there, wondering if the law of gravity had been repealed. It was both a travesty and impressive.

There's a piece of me that will miss the dump. Target Field is a better place to watch baseball, to be sure. But I spent too much time in the Dome not to feel some fondness for it.

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Friday was the deadline for exchanging arbitration figures, and hence a day when the posturing between the two parties ends.

The Twins had three arbitration-eligible players -- Trevor Plouffe, Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak -- and signed all three Friday. The projected payroll is roughly $85 million, slightly more than in 2013. (It's projected because there are only 12 players officially signed; most of the 40-man roster has too little experience to have the leverage of arbitration or free agency.

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The approval of instant replay was announced earlier in the week. I was wary when Bud Selig announced that expanded replay was coming; I remain wary today.

A couple of pluses: The system put forth last summer has been refined; and its clear that management and players union alike expect further revision after it's been seen in action.

It's worth noting, as well, that the "neighborhood play" on double plays is exempt from review. Nobody wants to force middle infielders to linger around second base to get clobbered.

So that's one significant change down, one to go. Exactly how baseball is going to legislate the home plate collision out of the game remains to be seen.

MLB's coming replay fiasco

Bud Selig prays that replay
will make blown calls go away. 

The announcement Thursday of MLB's plan for enhanced replay review of all calls other than balls and strikes — a plan that hinges on managerial challenges — was greeted with predictable criticism.

That the criticism is predictable doesn't lessen its validity. And valid criticism isn't necessarily reason to junk a proposal or an existing system.

The current umpires aren't perfect — but I am certain that the quality and consistency of umpiring is much better now than it was 40 years ago. Better isn't perfect, however, and we cling to the illusion that perfection is attainable.

It isn't, not by mere human beings, and not by systems designed by human beings.

The plan put before the public Thursday (which requires the agreement of both the players union and the umpires union) isn't going to solve the "problem" of missed calls changing the outcome of games, and it is an invitation to abuse by managers.

Point One: Games are decided in the early innings as often as they are late, no matter that we tend to buy into the narrative of late-inning drama, so why limit the challenges early in games and open the spigot late?

Point Two: As I said here some time ago: Managers are not interested in getting the call right. They are interested in getting the call to go their way. Putting them in charge of triggering the system to get the calls right is a blunder. They are, by definition, not interested in the goal. Managers will use replay challenges frivolously — to gain time to warm up a relief pitcher or to break the opposition pitcher's rhythm.

To be fair, the booth-oriented proposal — championed by Craig Calcaterra, author of the first link above, and others — is flawed as well. That idea calls for a fifth umpire off the field with access to replays who would alert the field crew to incorrect calls.

The problem with that idea is obvious to anybody who really pays attention to telecasts: The definitive replay is almost never the first one shown. As low as my regard for the various permutations of Fox Sports and ESPN are — and that regard sinks lower on a regular basis — I doubt that's the result of  incompetence. I think it's technological. The first replay is always the game replay, because that's the one the producer can access instantly. The shot that is focused on the right base at just the right angle — that takes some time to dig up.

So then what happens? The game stops dead every time anybody thinks a call might possibly be overturned.

Nobody can make the umpires perfect. And nobody can dream up a perfect review system. The best we can do is chose the flaws we live with.

More musings about replay

To expand a bit on the last thought in my quasi-philosophical post of Friday:

The only people in the park for whom the correct call is the priority are the umpires. The players, managers, coaches, even the fans — what they want is the call that helps their team.

I'm bound to complain about whatever form of replay eventually infects major league baseball. No matter the format, it will be an imperfect pursuit of perfection.

But I will complain most bitterly if the format relies (as does the NFL's) on a challenge system. Baseball would do better to squeeze more of the dead time out of the game, not add to it. There are certain managers — Joe Torre, Tony La Russa, Joe Girardi, Terry Francona — who have made stalling the game an art form. Giving them another tool to do that is a really bad idea.

Install an NFL-type system, and I guarantee you that on some 35-degree World Series night some manager will use a challenge to make the opposing pitcher freeze in his own sweat while an umpire goes into the peep-show booth.

Keep the managers out of the system. Their interests are not baseball's interests.

Umpires and the pursuit of perfection

A veteran umpire (the story goes) noted that at one city the same leather-lunged fan berated him constantly. He made a few inquiries and learned that the loudmouth was a prominent local physician.

Next day, the ump worked the plate with the fan doing his abrasive thing — until the veteran arbiter approached him: "Doctor, you get to bury your mistakes. Mine live forever."

Jim Joyce's mistake on Wednesday will certainly live forever. Indeed, Armando Galarraga's imperfect game is likely to be remembered longer than Dallas Braden's perfecto because of Joyce's miscue.

There's an umpiring adage that says it's the only job at which you're expected to be perfect on the first day and then improve. Actually, that's true for the conscientious worker in any field, be it copy editing, pitching or haircutting. If the people putting cars together on the assembly line slip up, bad things can happen.

We pursue perfection, but achieving it is another matter, and sustaining it well-neigh impossible. Even when an individual is doing everything right, perfection can hinge on somebody else doing his job right. Had one of Galarraga's infielders let a grounder go through the wickets or overthrown the first baseman, there would have been no perfect game for Joyce to wreck on the 27th batter.

The people demanding instant replay are seeking perfection from technology. I'm not an advocate of instant replay; I don't believe that perfection is any more possible from machines than it is from humans. It's going to happen; the Galarraga-Joyce game has probably made the pressure for it too strong for even Bud Selig to resist much longer, and even if Bud does continue to hold out, the next commissioner probably won't.

The broadcasters like to tell us that the idea is to get the call right. They forget, or conveniently ignore, the reality that the only people in the park for whom the correct call is the priority are the umpires. The players, managers, coaches, even the fans — what they want is the call that helps their team.