Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Notes quotes and comment

Two more cuts from Twins camp on Tuesday: the suddenly homer-prone Buddy Boshers and non-roster invitee Tommy Field. Boshers was optioned out, Field reassigned.

Boshers' departure, and Ryan O'Rourke's injury, pretty much secures a bullpen spot for Taylor Rogers, and I'm fine with that. My sense is that Rogers is the better pitcher, but, as I said before, I don't know that I can prove it.

Field ... I never considered him a candidate for a utility job, and I'm a bit puzzled that he made it into the final week of camp.

More cuts -- and something at least close to a definitive opening day roster -- expected today.

---

An interesting piece here by Grant Brisbee, who found video of two games, one in 1984 and the other 2014, with almost exactly the same number of pitches, baserunners, runs, mid-inning pitching changes. The 1984 game took 2 hours 31 minutes; the 2014 game took 3 hours six minutes.

Why the difference?

I was certain that Brisbee would find that the difference is in the commercial breaks. Not really.:

Based on one unscientific deep dive into a pair of similar games, though, the biggest problem with the pace of play is, well, the pace of play. Pitchers don’t get rid of the ball like they used to. Hitters aren’t expecting them to get rid of the ball like they used to. It adds a couple minutes to every half-inning, which adds close to a half-hour.

---

Toby Gardenhire was named to the Rochester Red Wings coaching staff. The son of the former big-league manager was already part of the player development system, but now the Triple A team has an extra full-time coach.

This is almost certainly rooted in the auto accident early in spring training in which Mike Quade, the Rochester manager, was rear-ended and wound up needing shoulder surgery. He can't throw batting practice. Neither, because of a shoulder injury of his own, can hitting coach Chad Allen. There is a certain amount of physical labor involved in coaching. Young Gardenhire will get to do a lot of it.

No comments:

Post a Comment