Rising Twins prospect Alex Kirilloff is now represented by Scott Boras, Dan Hayes of The Athletic reports (subscription link) as part of a look at the super-agent’s commentary on the Minnesota organization. That puts both of the organization’s top pre-MLB players (Kirilloff and Royce Lewis) in the Boras stable. A burgeoning book of business with the Twins did not stop Boras from tweaking the club, though if anything it seemed more a playful jab to set up a free-agent or prospect promotional pitch. The Twins had a rough 2018 campaign, to be sure, but have loads of free payroll to work with and some exciting young talent reaching or nearing the majors. Their offseason remains a fascinating one to watch.
Elsewhere in the American League …
- Don’t look for the Tigers to return to their ways as big players on the free-agent market just yet, Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press writes. Asked whether the Tigers could return to playing at the top of the open market, general manager Al Avila told Fenech, “One of these days,” before adding that the timing of such a return could be deduced “without me telling you.” Fenech goes on to suggest that the Tigers may not reemerge as prime free-agent players until the 2020-21 offseason, when the contract of Jordan Zimmermann is off the books and when much of the team’s increasing crop of minor league talent has begun to surface in the big leagues. For the time being, though, Tigers fans shouldn’t get their hopes up with dreams of splashy additions like Bryce Harper, Manny Machado or Patrick Corbin.
- Cole Hamels’ success after being acquired by the Cubs has helped push the Rangers to re-evaluate their analytical practices, writes Jeff Wilson of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. General manager Jon Daniels acknowledged that he talked to Hamels himself about the post-trade improvements and explained to Wilson that the organization will make some additions to get back up to speed in terms of data utilization. “There’s probably five or eight clubs that are ahead of the rest of the industry in certain areas,” said Daniels. “We’ve been in that group before, and we are in certain areas, but on the R&D side we’re not. That’s an area we’re going to look to improve.” As Wilson points out, it’s perhaps no surprise that the Rangers’ two biggest hires of the offseason — manager Chris Woodward and assistant general manager Shiraz Rehman — came from industry leaders in that regard. Woodward was the Dodgers’ third base coach, while Rehman was plucked from the Cubs’ front office.
- The Athletics announced their player development staff for the upcoming season, and there are a few familiar names joining the minor league coaching ranks. Former big league third baseman Kevin Kouzmanoff has been named the hitting coach for Oakland’s Short-Season Class-A affiliate in Vermont — his first professional coaching assignment. Meanwhile, 2004 AL Rookie of the Year Bobby Crosby will be a general coach on the Double-A Midland staff. And former big league righty Chris Smith, whose career came to a close after pitching for the 2017 A’s, will embark on his coaching career by serving as the organization’s pitching coach for Class-A Advanced Stockton.
“No no, we’re gonna suck for a while” – Al Avila
Which is why i denied my season tix for another year.
I am sure you can get tickets to ANY game you want this year…smart move
I didn’t renew been with them since 2000. Sucking is as sucking does…
Im glad for Kouz. hopefully he can make it work.
I like the quote about the 5 or 8 clubs being ahead of the rest of the industry. The teams making the playoffs fall in that category right? Baseball is going into the sabermetic era. Bill James’s comments on replacement players is fascinating.
Yes, the teams doing the most with analytics are the playoff teams and Tampa Bay. The teams furthest behind are the Royals, O’s, Reds, Rangers, Mets, SF although they have a proprietary analytics system that relies heavily on batted-ball data, the Angels are behind, The Marlins, too, but they are still trying to sort out their front office in general.
Please…..
The Royals went to consecutive WS’s, and could no longer pay their stars. They’re in a rebuild.
The O’s, Reds, and Mets have had problems with ownership interference for years.
The Rangers have been a stat-oriented team since Jon Daniels was hired at age 28 in 2005.
The Giants won 3 WS’s in 5 years well after Beene, Epstein and others were certified geniuses. Their problem is that the team got old, but the owner spent even more money bringing in high-priced over the hill veterans to try to get to another WS. Tigers owner did that. Angels owner spent the budget on stiffs such as Hamilton and Puhols. Phillies should have rebuilt 4 years before they did. Braves. Lots of examples.
Marlins had a terrible owner that could not pay the stars they developed.
All teams have used analytic departments for over 20 years. There are other factors that go into winning. Start with the size of the payrolls most playoff teams had this year. And I believe the Red Sox and Dodgers were 1-2.
The biggest factor in playoffs is money not anything else. Big payroll teams has dominated playoff lately. All the other teams need to get lucky and see if they can make it work. Only way a bottom payroll team can compete is rebuild every few years.
Red Sox and Nationals were 1-2. Thanks for playing.
Oakland had the smallest payroll in baseball and won 97 games this season.
How many postseason wins?
Yes they did, playing the Rangers and Angels, any AAA team could win.
Most of MLB has been in a “sabermetic era” for 20 years now.
In fact, Jon Daniels of the Rangers has always been driven by statistics as opposed to fundamental factors.
Saying your team is going to upgrade their use of data seems to be the buzzwords an under-performing GM/ President uses to buy a year or two with the owners. I see it quite a bit lately.
Daniels had some excellent years, but the Rangers have flat-out stunk for some time now. Boras stuck Choo on him for a long-term superstar contract by selling irrelevant statistics (see, right here – he works the count. Sees a lot of pitches, hits a lot of foul balls. and gets a lot of walks. Heavens son – just look at that OBP!).
Boras didn’t sign the contract. Choo does the thing you mention – he gets on base. That’s the most important offensive skill a player can have. The rest of his game is in rapid decline, although he bounced back a bit this year. Choo isn’t the Rangers’ biggest problem; nowhere near it.
Did I say Boras signed the contract?
Daniels and his assistants were/are stat guys. And they had people running numbers. How come those numbers didn’t forewarn of the coming decline?
I saw Choo play, and I could not believe he got that contract. His arm was always inaccurate, but one could see it was weakening. He had lost a step in the field and on the bases. That contract ate up – and eats up – a disproportional percentage of the budget for what he produces. It has limited the Rangers from making moves for 3-4 years.
The Rangers have plenty of problems. The pitching and farm system have been subpar for years. The team plays inconsistent, sloppy, me-first baseball, and even Beltre can’t turn it.
How can that possibly happen when the front office has been stat-oriented for 13 years?
What is the point you’re trying to make?
I was thinking the same thing
His point seems quite clear to me; he doesn’t want to hear the excuses from an underperforming management team, and has cited an example of one particular player that the team got sold a bill of goods on in Choo.
Bobby Crosby. Now that’s a name I’ve not heard in a long time.
The Tigers could sign Harper, Machado and Corbin and I doubt they’d be a .500 club. The team has major holes at catcher, first, second, short and center field plus two starting pitchers and an entire bullpen. They are a couple years away from mediocrity.
I don’t think any Tigers fan in their right mind expects, or is even dreaming of the possibility of signing any FA of note, much less any of the most expensive ones.
Cabrera is now a bad contract that will stay on their books for a long time. There is no way they will go after even 2 high price free agents. Maybe 1 if they out bid everyone else.
The talent on the farm is finally there for the Tigers. The question is whether they have the right people to develop it. Hopefully AA made good hires when he beefed up analytics and player development. Love how fiery Gardenhire has been about fundamentals throughout the organization.
Ron Gardenhire has had to develop fundamentals at the ML level… They simply haven’t been developed in the minors.
In truth, I want to see a team that wins without ANY high priced free agents. The Royals 2014 came close with only Jeremy Guthrie. For 2015, they acquired Edinson Volquez, Alex Rios and Kendrys Morales.
Good for Kouz on the new job. I remember when he came back at Fenway in 2014. When he came up to bat, I stood up and cheered for him. Of course, it’s Fenway. so I got booed until I explained it’s his first at-bat back in three years because of injuries. The hostility finally cut down a little.
Can’t say I’m excited about Boras being the rep for the Twins’ top prospects, but at least it’ll be at least a few years before it will matter.
I feel great about it as both of these players deserve to be paid market value when they’re Major Leaguers, and Boras will make sure that they do.
I don’t see any big deal on the Cubs re-evaluating their statistical models. Considering the changes to hitter profile and the rapidly growing, boring, 3 outcome plate appearance, every team should already be refining their models.
People are now too driven by stats. Remember Lies, Darn Lies and Statistics.
So Daniels says we need to get back up to speed in terms of data utilization.
“Sabermetic” “Launch Angle’s” “the Shift”. (lets do 45 degrees on a 100 mph fastball)
Need to tell Daniels the data he needs to look at was 67 wins and 95 loss.
See if you can’t “launch angle” over that.
.I was happy to see Cole Hamels’ success in Chicago. It was pretty obvious he was a miserable person pitching in Texas, Wonder Why?
Maybe Daniels can resign Cliff Lee, lol.
How can Texas ownership allow Daniels to continue?