Minnesota Sports Forum

PorkChop wrote:It's one thing to strike out a lot, it's another to rarely walk. I love baseball becuz stats are so much fun to look at. Bonds walked 232 times in 2004 and only struck out 100 times in a season once. ( his rookie season)
Sano has walked 265 times in 6 years while striking out 834 times. In 20 years Bonds swung and missed 1539 times.
IMO Bonds stat line across the board in 2004 is the most impressive achievement in modern day sports.
Not fair to compare Sano to Bonds I know. I just really love glossing over Barrys numbers and talking about them!! Lol

Thanks for making the Twins forum worth visiting Jester.

Fun fact gleeman was talking about it on the podcast today. If Barry bonds hit 2nd his whole career instead of 3rd or 4th he would've most likely had 850-900 home runs to end his career based on the extra at bats he would've gotten each year.

Also brought up Lew Ford ironing his shirt while it was on. Lew Ford now denies this story but he went on the DL for this lol. Side note Lew Ford got a perfect score on his ACT.

Hey now! It's not just jester on the Twins side of the house bringing that grade-A dialogue! You might want to get your eyes checked!

Jester1534 wrote:
Fun fact gleeman was talking about it on the podcast today. If Barry bonds hit 2nd his whole career instead of 3rd or 4th he would've most likely had 850-900 home runs to end his career based on the extra at bats he would've gotten each year.

Also brought up Lew Ford ironing his shirt while it was on. Lew Ford now denies this story but he went on the DL for this lol. Side note Lew Ford got a perfect score on his ACT.

Love listening to them. That is crazy. I was such a big fan of Bond & Bonilla with the Pirates as well as the bash bothers in Oakland. How good was Eric Davis? His stats don't equal how good I remember him being.

Jester1534 wrote:

PorkChop wrote:It's one thing to strike out a lot, it's another to rarely walk. I love baseball becuz stats are so much fun to look at. Bonds walked 232 times in 2004 and only struck out 100 times in a season once. ( his rookie season)
Sano has walked 265 times in 6 years while striking out 834 times. In 20 years Bonds swung and missed 1539 times.
IMO Bonds stat line across the board in 2004 is the most impressive achievement in modern day sports.
Not fair to compare Sano to Bonds I know. I just really love glossing over Barrys numbers and talking about them!! Lol

Thanks for making the Twins forum worth visiting Jester.

Fun fact gleeman was talking about it on the podcast today. If Barry bonds hit 2nd his whole career instead of 3rd or 4th he would've most likely had 850-900 home runs to end his career based on the extra at bats he would've gotten each year.

Also brought up Lew Ford ironing his shirt while it was on. Lew Ford now denies this story but he went on the DL for this lol. Side note Lew Ford got a perfect score on his ACT.

Jester, I was arguing with a friend about why I hate HR hitters batting 1st or 2nd instead of 3rd or 4th, and he threw out the Gleeman stat about Bonds. I told him Gleeman is fun to listen to about baseball, but sucks at math! First of all, Bonds actually led off several games in addition to generally batting 3rd or 4th, so let's just say on average for his career he hit 3rd. Bonds averaged 135 games per year during his 22 seasons. If he had batted 2nd instead of 3rd, he would have had one additional plate appearance every 9th game (since every player in the lineup has a 1/9 chance of ending a game), so he would have had 135/9=15 additional plate appearances per year. So in his 22 seasons he would have had 22X15=330 additional plate appearances over his career. Since he homered once every 15.5 plate appearances, Bonds would have had 21 more HRs over his career or 783...not a very significant difference. If my math is wrong let me know...but that's what I come up with.

What had a more significant negative impact on his total HRs were his intentional walks. He would have had 44 more HRs if he had been allowed to hit every AB.

Relevance to the Twins? Why does Rocco continue to lead off Kepler with his abominable .319 OBP? Kepler is too poor an on-base guy and too good a HR guy to bat him 1st...doesn't make sense. I'd prefer to see Arraez and his .390 OBP there instead, or Polanco when Luis isn't playing.

Great stuff FNG

Im going to be honest FNG I have no idea why Kepler bats lead off. Theres not stat or reason why he should. The only thing I will say is Rocco loves his aleternating lefty righty in the batting order combinations.

Good suff on the Bonds thing.

I got my season tickets yesterday I'm pretty excited I get my first vaccine shot tomorrow. I'm ready to drink and enjoy target field again.

jester1534 wrote:Im going to be honest FNG I have no idea why Kepler bats lead off. Theres not stat or reason why he should. The only thing I will say is Rocco loves his aleternating lefty righty in the batting order combinations.

Good suff on the Bonds thing.

I got my season tickets yesterday I'm pretty excited I get my first vaccine shot tomorrow. I'm ready to drink and enjoy target field again.

It's an interesting thing that they bat him lead off since they are an organization that really crunches numbers. Is there some stat we don't have that they back up that decision with? Does Kepler seem to respond well to leading off and other people fall in line in the order? It's not like Kepler is a great hitter (although he is I think good) but the starting pitcher having to face him probably isn't exactly a fun time. The Twins have some interesting lead off hitters in various eras including Jacque Jones and Dozier who were more power hitters than lead off guys. The team had success that way but the question would be whether or not they would have had more success with a different lineup. There is a human element that can't be measured and we only have so much of a pulse on as fans compared to the team does when they make these decisions.

Jester1534 wrote:Im going to be honest FNG I have no idea why Kepler bats lead off. Theres not stat or reason why he should. The only thing I will say is Rocco loves his aleternating lefty righty in the batting order combinations.

Good suff on the Bonds thing.

I got my season tickets yesterday I'm pretty excited I get my first vaccine shot tomorrow. I'm ready to drink and enjoy target field again.

Nice going on the shot, jester! I'm fully vaccinated but my honey is not, so we've agreed not to change our habits until she is. It's a great feeling though when you get that second shot!

My ticket group decided not to take the offer the team gave us...tickets for every game, but no guarantee on location...and instead are going to wait until the stadium opens up completely. I voted to get our season tickets regardless of seat location, but was outvoted. So I'm in the lottery for tickets now and hoping to win a couple games. Really excited for this season to start!

FNG wrote:

Jester1534 wrote:Im going to be honest FNG I have no idea why Kepler bats lead off. Theres not stat or reason why he should. The only thing I will say is Rocco loves his aleternating lefty righty in the batting order combinations.

Good suff on the Bonds thing.

I got my season tickets yesterday I'm pretty excited I get my first vaccine shot tomorrow. I'm ready to drink and enjoy target field again.

Nice going on the shot, jester! I'm fully vaccinated but my honey is not, so we've agreed not to change our habits until she is. It's a great feeling though when you get that second shot!

My ticket group decided not to take the offer the team gave us...tickets for every game, but no guarantee on location...and instead are going to wait until the stadium opens up completely. I voted to get our season tickets regardless of seat location, but was outvoted. So I'm in the lottery for tickets now and hoping to win a couple games. Really excited for this season to start!

I haven't really even thought much about going to any sporting events. I did realize the other day I could probably go to the Nebraska Women's soccer games this year at least. Most of them aren't that crowded and it's outside. I'll just be happy to have another thing to be able to do with people especially in some cases outdoors.

My wife is getting her first shot soon but I have no timeline at this point to get one. Fortunately locally cases have gone down and stayed down the past few weeks. Another positive is since the population that I work with has been vaccinated, getting out of the office might and doing more things in person will likely happen more in the nearish future which would be nice.

Thank goodness I have an immune system.