Month: February 2017

Someone, please throw Falvey and Levine a life-line

What the heck? What is going on there in Twins territory? Just a year after signing Korean first baseman Byung Ho Park to a four-year, $12 million deal, the Twins decide to designate him for assignment. All this after paying a $12.85 million posting fee to win the rights to negotiate with him in December 2015. That is almost $25 million down the tube, owner Jim Pohlad must be proud of his organization.

With spring training starting in less than two weeks this story makes page 10 of the Star Tribune Sports section. WOW! Interest in Twins baseball is dropping faster than President Donald Trump’s approval rating.

Park appeared in just 62 games for the Twins in 2016 hitting just .191 but he did hit 12 home runs. The Twins ended up sending him to AAA Rochester where he played briefly before under-going tendon surgery on his right hand that ended his 2016 campaign.

The question I have to ask is why do this 10 days before pitchers and catchers report for spring training? What’s the point?

All this after the 2011-2012 fiasco with Tsuyoshi Nishioka, I know you can’t live in the past but you should be able to learn from history. Sadly, the Minnesota Twins are quickly becoming the laughing stock of MLB. The old term of doing it the “Twins Way” has a whole new meaning.

What are these guys doing?

clicking on the picture twice makes it bigger

I stopped off at the ballpark yesterday to see what was going on and if some veteran players have started to work out since TwinsFest was behind them.Turns out I saw no players that I recognized but I saw this small group of players along with some Twins staff members setting up some odd-looking devices so I stayed to see what would happen next. 

Come to find out there was a guy there with some electronic equipment to measure reaction and decision times. I watched them as they had a player act the part of a pitcher and then when he lifted his leg the player pretending to be a base runner would take off for the next base and the equipment measured the time from when the pitcher lifted his leg to when the base runner took off. It appeared to also measure the time it took the base runner to cover a certain distance showing how quick they could get to top speed. 

I guess the old stopwatch just doesn’t cut the mustard anymore, these folks are interested in timing things in hundredths of a second. Technology is definitely taking over the game of baseball. I’m not sure if it is good or bad but it is interesting never the less.

A bit later they changed fields and they started what appeared to be reaction times for infielders and outfielders A light would flash for 3/10 of a second and the player was measured on how quick he reacted to that light and went towards a predetermined point. Depending on the color of the light he might need to go either left or right. 

I was hoping to talk to the guy who seemed to run the equipment and find out more about the equipment and the company he represented but I had to leave before the testing was completed.

I took a few pictures and I will try to get them posted on my 2017 Spring Training photos in the near future.