SB Nation User Blog: Johnny Safron

Life ain't fair

Johnny Safron — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 05:22:37 -0000

When Juan Castro was a Twin, he was ripped constantly for many things, most of all his lack of offense.

This season in Tampa, we hear nothing but accolades about Jason Bartlett.

The below chart shows how awful Bartlett has been offensively. He has provided far, far less punch than Juan Castro gave the Twins. Even if Bartlett is fielding well it's all not enough to explain the polar opposite approaches that fans took to these two players.

Bartlett has gone to Tampa and become a virtual zero on offense. He's terrible so far. As he approaches the AB totals Castro had during seasons in which he was a Twin, here is what we see. Top two lines are Castro's. Bottom is Bartlett in 2008.

Year	Ag	Tm	Lg	G	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS+
2005	33	MIN	AL	97	272	27	70	18	1	5	33	0	1	9	39	.257	.279	.386	74
2006	34	TOT		104	251	18	63	10	3	3	28	1	2	11	36	.251	.281	.351	62
2008	28	TBR	AL	66	233	23	59	5	1	0	17	15	3	12	37	.253	.295	.283	60

Not pretty

Johnny Safron — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 05:05:58 -0000

The strikeout totals of Carlos Gomez have been front and center most of the season, but down in AAA, one of the players who was thought to be in the Twins' CF sweepstakes this year is screwing himself into the ground at an alarming rate. Against AAA pitching. And he's not trading the whiffs for power.

Gomez was at 58 strikeouts in 223 big-league ABs before last night, but at least was slugging .404 with 4 home runs and 23 RBI. And doing it all in the big leagues.

In Rochester, Jason Pridie was at 60 strikeouts in 227 ABs, hitting .225 with no power. Slugging .348. And only 15 walks. Awful K/BB ratio, and you can't trade a .348 SA for 60 strikeouts in AAA at his age, which is 24.

Pridie never walked much, and it can be a career killer when you strike out 113 and 114 times in consecutive seasons in A ball. But sometimes a little experience quells that free-swinging. Unfortunately, Pridie has already obliterated his '07 AAA strikeout totals, and if If he's given the 530 ABs he had in '03, he will bury his career minor-league high in strikeouts as well.

Looked cold there in Detroit

Johnny Safron — Sat, 24 May 2008 19:27:58 -0000

In fact, I've seen a lot of parkas all spring dotting the corporate seats, the ones behind home plate that are predominately on display during MLB games.

No domes in Detroit? Colorado? Boston? Ooooo. Boston. I think that was one of the coldest games I've witnessed this spring. So how is it that:

1. Fans in other states can attend games when it's so cold?

2. Everytime it's nice in Minnesota, as it was for this past week's day game, I never hear anyone say, "Man, that outdoor stadium is going to be great. Blow off work just before Memorial Day, sit in the sun and contribute to an actual attendance of 22,000, rather than a reported one."?

Last fall during the playoffs there was rain and cold at most of the venues, yet on those same nights last fall a baseball game could have been played comfortably outdoors in Minnesota because WE were having better weather than places such as Cleveland and Colorado. It's true, because I was keeping track.

Instead of hearing people gripe about no cover on the new stadium, it would be nice for them to recognize you can't control the weather anywhere, yet domes are a thing of the past in most states, and with no optional lid you won't have people making stupid decisions, like the one that was made for this past Super Bowl. With a THREAT of rain in Arizona, they closed the damned roof. It was a nice night in Phoenix, yet some moron, given a choice, closed the roof. For football. A game that was played in minus-1,000,000 temperatures a few weeks earlier in Green Bay.

Good riddance to the Dome. Now if we can just get those soft upper Midwesterners to see the upside of outdoor baseball, rather than the downside.

Who'da thunk?

Johnny Safron — Sat, 10 May 2008 04:44:24 -0000

We're almost two weeks into May and Delmon Young's OB% is higher than his slugging average.

And both are well under Jason Tyner's '07 numbers.

Tyner was .331 obp and .355 sa last year, and for his career he's .314 and .324. Delmon's at .314 obp and .310 SA, according the MLB stats as of roughly midnight CDT. At this point in the season, I didn't think Delmon and I would have the same number of home runs.

The genius of Terry Ryan

Johnny Safron — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:44:52 -0000

That was a shrewd move for Terry Ryan to let Jacque Jones become a free agent after '05 - the last time the Twins swept the Tigers in a series - have him hide out with the Cubs for a couple years, and then let Detroit pick him up so he could contribute to the Tigers' three-game loss at the Domes this weekend.

One really bad throw. A couple of poor routes to balls. A terrible weekend at the plate: Friday's GIDP -- after the catcher-formerly-known-as-Pudge popped out on Pitch One with the bases loaded and Livan in a jam -- gets the biggest thank-you.

A lot of GMs don't think three seasons ahead, but Terry was special.