We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 263

We draft musical artists whose next albums we want to produce.

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On Mental Health Awareness Efforts in Sports

A warning: This post addresses in detail depression and thoughts of self-harm.

At the start of May, the Minnesota Twins hosted their Mental Health Night during a game against the Seattle Mariners. The board showed a video of Twins players saying whatever they could about taking care of oneself and others.

At tonight's game we are highlighting Mental Health Awareness and the importance of taking care of your mental wellbeing.

We love you, Twins Territory! 💚 pic.twitter.com/AvN4mkY8Ou

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) May 8, 2024

A couple of times between innings, the stadium emcee led a breathing exercise for whoever wanted to partake. The team warmed up in T-shirts featuring slogans promoting self-care. 

As an attendee, I felt conflicted. I cannot deny that the proliferation of efforts such as this are a positive step in society, particularly in such a stereotypically masculine space as sports. Encouraging people to look after themselves is good. The more people who see the suicide & crisis lifeline, which was posted throughout the game, the more likely it is people remember it and call when they are in a dark place. (That number is 988.)

I still could not help but view the presentation with a skeptical eye. By the standards of sports, the Twins did a fine job. The standard, however, could be higher.

We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 262

The Timberwolves-Mavericks series and Aaron's interview with Don Was.

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Christian Vázquez and a Philosophical Question

Christian Vázquez is a bad hitter. You know this.  Rocco Baldelli knows this. Derek Falvey and Thad Levine knew this when they signed him going into the 2023 season. Christian Vázquez surely knows this.

But for completeness' sake, let's put his badness at the plate in context. This century, exactly 100 players have taken at least 300 plate appearances in a Twins uniform. Using wRC+, FanGraphs' measure of overall offense where anything above 100 is above average, only six of those players have been worse hitters than Vázquez.

Vázquez has had such a long career, however, because he has not been an awful hitter for his position. Since his debut in 2014, the league-average catcher's OPS sits a bit below .700 — the worst of any position. Vázquez's career OPS is .678, more or less in line with what one should expect.

Catcher is the hardest, most physically draining defensive position, so defensive value is a better measuring stick. In this regard, Vázquez is stellar: Among active catchers, he has been the 3rd-most valuable framer and saved the 5th-most stolen base runs. To this day, he is an elite catcher. This is before taking into account the harder-to-quantify aspects of his value that he possesses at least by reputation: handling pitchers, calling games, contributing to overall team chemistry. Vázquez's glove and veteran presence mean he is still worthy of a major-league roster spot.

Should that be somewhere else, however? If the Twins were still getting a previous version of Vázquez, his place would be unquestionable. The problem is that his hitting has gone from underwhelming to abysmal.

To start 2024, Vázquez has posted a .200/.216/.243 line. That is not far off from what Jake Arrieta, a pitcher, batted in his career. By wRC+, his hitting is 77 percent worse than the major-league average.

There is not one explanation for the drop-off. We will start by looking at his Baseball Savant chart from this year. The ends of each bar are his percentile ranks for 2024. Over that I have laid in blue text Vázquez's percentile ranks from last season, which provides a comparison.

Click to enlarge. Stats through May 9.

You can see that when Vázquez has made contact, he has actually hit the ball harder than a year ago. Based on that, according to xBA, his average "should" be close to 40 points higher. However, batted-ball stats take longer to stabilize, and I do not think that a 33-year-old has finally found his physical peak. That trend will probably not hold.

We Are Maroon and Gold 261

 

Aaron's trip to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and checking in on the Timberwolves.

(We recorded this before Game 1, but the Internet Archive, where the episodes are hosted, was not cooperating Saturday morning.)

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 260

Previewing the men's Final Four and catching up with Gopher basketball.

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 259

The 2024 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament.

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We Are Maroon and Gold Episode 258

 

Aaron and Chandler select their "dream" Beatles setlists. You can view the final products as Spotify playlists on the episode page.

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