New hitting coach; 'Are you Josh Donaldson?' [Twins Hyperlinks]
Hey folks,
Atlanta is in winning position but the Astros are taking the World Series back to Houston. Thankfully, there will be more baseball. And thankfully, we get a day to catch our collective breath!
This isn’t a post for World Series analysis, since that doesn’t really concern the Twins this year. We could do a retrospective on Eddie Rosario if you guys would like -- let me know. The short take is that I think it’s been an amazing run to watch — especially that tremendous catch in Game 4 — but I’m not sure you would expect the Twins to have made a different decision at this time last year.
One reader wrote me to say that Rosario is going to get a “fat contract” this winter and, again in short, I don’t really think so. Thirty teams passed on the chance to sign him relatively inexpensively last winter, and then Cleveland basically salary-dumped him at the trade deadline -- to Atlanta, where he’s now become a postseason hero. As the old saying goes: Sometimes, that’s baseball.
One bit of World Series trivia worth noting is that the Braves won 88 games this year and were 52-54 at the time of the trade deadline, when they added pieces and went on to win the division.
Inspiring? Instructive? Fluky? Depending on the outcome of Game 6 and possibly Game 7, there will be miles of column-inches on thinkpieces devoted to the subject in the coming months and years.
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In Twins news, they’ve reportedly hired their next hitting coach. David Popkins was plucked from the Dodgers organization to take a big jump to the big leagues and lead the Twins’ offensive charge alongside Rudy Hernandez.
Popkins had been the hitting coach for the High-A Great Lakes Loons -- the Loons! -- and is just 31 years old. The Star Tribune’s Phil Miller talked with Loons manager, Austin Chubb, who raved about Popkins.
"I learned a ton from [Popkins]. Mechanically, metrically, understanding the swing, he was ahead of the game and he really gets where it's headed," Chubb told the Star Tribune. "We'd be on the bus, and I'd see him reading a book about how the body works and how to [coordinate] movement. And I saw his ability to teach kind of a hybrid swing that can cover different areas, different swing planes, different pitches."
When Rocco Baldelli spoke at the end of the season about wanting someone for the role who would help spot opportunities for mechanical improvements across different swings, I wondered quietly if Triple-A Saints hitting coach Matt Borgschulte might be the guy for the job. It turns out that plucking someone from another smart organization was too tempting to pass up, and Popkins is the guy.
Why were the Twins in the market for a hitting coach?
James Rowson left after the 2019 season and the Twins promoted their own minor league field coordinator, Edgar Varela, to take his place. After two years on the job, the Twins reassigned Varela after this season and again were in the market to hire.
Note: the Twins finished 6th in the A.L. in runs scored -- ahead of the Yankees, who made the playoffs, and the Mariners, who almost did. Minnesota also finished 6th in the A.L. in Weighted On-Base Average, trailing only the White Sox within their division, and that’s despite trading away two months of Nelson Cruz, missing Mitch Garver for extended stretches, and losing 100 games of their best all-around player, Byron Buxton.
As noted many times before, it was the pitching that did in the Twins in 2021. Instead of doing the traditional thing and firing the pitching coach and bullpen coach, the Twins stuck with their convictions, and instead were out to replace a hitting coach. Credit the Twins on this much: clearly they don’t just follow the script of the way us outsiders think things are “supposed to” run.
Twins Hyperlinks:
Here’s that Phil Miller piece on the new reported hire for the Twins, hitting coach David Popkins
Speaking of hitting coaches, Tim Hyers has turned down an offer to return as the Red Sox hitting coach, according to the Boston Globe. “He plans to pursue other opportunities -- possibly including college openings, but more likely with another team, perhaps including a broader role in another organization.”
So there’s at least one free agent out there that would not cost the Twins $200+ million!
Another free agent? Nelson Cruz, fresh off winning the Roberto Clemente award for philanthropy.
Here’s another enjoyable piece on the lighter side. Josh Donaldson is currently in Toronto, the place where he won his first MVP, with his partner and their baby. The Toronto Star did this follow story after the manager at a sporting gear shop had the guts to ask: “Are you Josh Donaldson?”
“Sure am.”
Do-Hyoung Park for MLB dot com looks at 3 minor leaguers who put themselves on the radar, as well as 2 guys who could surprise next year.
Sticking with Dot Com, Mike Petriello examines through data: What happens to starters in the postseason … after they’ve pitched in relief?
He writes: “Is there a cost? How much of one? What does it mean to (potentially) increase your chances in the late innings of one big game while (possibly) injuring your chances in the early innings of a different big game?”
And we finish with this piece from Patrick Reusse, on NLCS MVP and Man of the Moments, Eddie Rosario.
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