Is Max Kepler Figuring Out Lefties?

The Twins' rebuild began with the disastrous 2011 season, and it has yet to truly produce a contender. Long-term improvement and short-term overperformance have taken the team to winning records in two of the last four seasons, as well as a Wild Card berth in 2017, but the Twins haven't surpassed averageness.

A significant reason the Twins have failed to break out thus far has been a struggling group of young players. Eddie Rosario and José Berríos overcame initial difficulties to become the team's most valuable hitter and pitcher, respectively, but the Twins are still waiting on a few others to find their ways.

Byron Buxton was MLB.com's top overall prospect in 2013, 2014, and 2015. Though he plays center fielder like a Gold Glover, Buxton has struck out too much and repeatedly hit the Disabled List.

Miguel Sanó, ranked seventh on the 2014 list and third the year before, has phenomenal power and takes plenty of walks. But he's been unable to make contact consistently, reported to spring training overweight, missed time due to injuries, and was accused of assault last winter.

Jorge Polanco has had moderate success since becoming the starting shortstop in late 2016, but a PED suspension kept him off the field for half of 2018.

And then there's Max Kepler. The German has provided excellent defense in right field and shown enough flashes of offensive prowess to be a decent regular, but one thing held him back in his first couple of seasons.

2018 College Football Preview: Predictions

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

After all the conference previews, we wrap up with the usual preseason features: a Heisman watch list, a top 25, bowl projections, and Playoff predictions.

Heisman Watch List

1. Khalil Tate, Arizona QB
2. Bryce Love, Stanford RB

3. Jonathan Taylor, Wisconsin RB

4. Trace McSorley, Penn State QB

5. Jake Browning, Washington QB

2018 College Football Preview: Big Ten

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

We've finally reached the last conference in FBS: The Big Ten.

Big Ten Conference

West

Predicted standings:

1. Wisconsin

2. Northwestern

3. Iowa

4. Purdue

5. Nebraska

6. Minnesota

7. Illinois

2018 College Football Preview: Southeastern Conference

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

Today, we cover the SEC.

Southeastern Conference

West

Predicted standings:

1. Alabama (conference champions)

2. Auburn

3. Mississippi State

4. LSU

5. Texas A&M

6. Mississippi

7. Arkansas

2018 College Football Preview: Atlantic Coast Conference

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

Today, we delve into maybe the deepest conference in college football, the ACC.

Atlantic Coast Conference

Atlantic

Predicted standings:

1. Clemson (conference champions)

2. Wake Forest

3. Florida State
4. Louisville
5. NC State

6. Boston College

7. Syracuse

2018 College Football Preview: Big 12

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

Today, the wild and parity-ridden Big 12.

Big 12 Conference

Predicted standings:

1. Oklahoma (conference champions)

2. West Virginia

3. Oklahoma State

4. TCU

5. Texas
6. Texas Tech
7. Kansas State

8. Iowa State

9. Baylor

10. Kansas

2018 College Football Preview: Pac-12

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

Today, we move onto the Power Five, beginning with the Pac-12.

Pac-12 Conference

North

Predicted standings:

1. Washington (conference champions)

2. Stanford

3. Oregon

4. California

5. Washington State

6. Oregon State

2018 College Football Preview: American, Independents

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

Today, we wrap up the mid-major conferences with the AAC, and then we cover the six independents.

American Athletic Conference

West

Predicted standings:

1. Memphis

2. Houston

3. SMU

4. Navy

5. Tulane

6. Tulsa

2018 College Football Preview: MAC, Mountain West

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

In this post, we discuss the MAC and Mountain West.

Mid-American Conference

West

Predicted standings:

1. Toledo (conference champions)
2. Northern Illinois
3. Western Michigan
4. Central Michigan
5. Eastern Michigan
6. Ball State

2018 College Football Preview: C-USA, Sun Belt

College football's annually grueling hiatus is almost over. To celebrate, Ski-U-Blog previews and predicts the 2018 season, going conference-by-conference across the country.

It's still some time until the first FBS games on August 25, but it's never too early to start talking about the mid-majors. Today, we cover Conference USA the Sun Belt.

Conference USA

West

Predicted standings:

1. UAB

2. North Texas

3. Louisiana Tech

4. Southern Mississippi

5. UTSA

6. Rice

7. UTEP

Eddie Rosario Continues to Evolve

Last year, you may recall that I published a quick post on Eddie Rosario's plate discipline dramatically improving, which in turn made him a much better hitter. Rosario finished 2017 with the best walk and strikeout rates of his major league career and, for the first time, an above-average line: .290/.328/.507 with 27 homers, good for a 116 wRC+.

I now call your attention to another significant development in Rosario's career. Through Tuesday's games, only 19 qualified hitters (one of whom, somehow, is teammate Eduardo Escobar) lead Rosario in isolated slugging. Rosario leads the Twins in batting average, hits, home runs, slugging percentage, OPS, and wRC+; he shares the lead in runs with Brian Dozier.

Eddie Rosario is now a slugger.



This is a major step for a player trying to prove he belonged in the majors last Opening Day. And the way he's developed has resulted in a unique profile without a perfect comparison in recent memory.

An Exercise in Resurrection: Crafting My Dream Stevie Ray Vaughan Setlist

Recently, at the invitation of a friend, I saw a Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute at a West Bank bar. It was an up-and-down, but ultimately enjoyable enough, night with plenty of skilled guitarists playing the work of Dallas' best musical export and one of my all-time favorite artists.

Of course, there were some moments where I was reminded that I was not watching Vaughan himself – mainly on the vocal side, since he had such a powerful and distinctive voice that perfectly fit his brand of blues rock. Anyone would sound underwhelming by comparison.

I've told friends before, and I still believe, that if I could bring back any one musician that died prematurely for a one-off show, it would be either Keith Moon or Stevie Ray Vaughan. In the interest of serving the latter fantasy, and of relating to my tribute show experience, I present my ideal setlist for a Vaughan resurrection concert.

As said in the Iron Maiden iteration of this exercise, the rules to which I hold myself are straightforward: The setlist must be roughly the same length as what the artist would typically do. On his last tour, Vaughan played 14 or 15 songs, so we'll do 15. I can pick whatever songs I want (as long as he played or recorded it at least once) and choose their order, though my hypothetical setlist doesn't necessarily have to match a list of my 15 favorite songs he recorded. I try to include a good mix of standards and B-sides, and I try to avoid redundancies.

With everything properly introduced, let's get on with it.

Perkins Reinvents Himself, Finds Unexpected Success

Chandler originally submitted the following piece for a journalism class. He shamefully recycles it here, with minimal modification, as content for his blog. The format and style may be a little different from that of the usual content published in this forum, but hopefully it is no less enjoyable to read.

In September 2006, Glen Perkins made his major league debut at Fenway Park. He got out all four batters he faced, striking out the first of them, Carlos Peña, on three pitches. The Twins lost the game 6-0, making the chase for the AL Central title and home-field advantage throughout the playoffs a little tougher, but for Perkins, it was an easier "L" to take.

From the day he was drafted by his boyhood team, the Stillwater native and University of Minnesota alumnus took just 836 days to rocket through the minor leagues. When the team got back to Minnesota four days later, he marveled at using the same locker room as Kirby Puckett and Kent Hrbek, and he remembered asking Tom Brunansky for baseballs in right field.

"There’s all these moments where it's a whirlwind," Perkins, who retired in January, said. "And then you get to take a second and think about, 'Man, I got to do this.'"

After an impressive cup of coffee and a postseason cameo, Perkins was included in both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus' preseason prospect rankings lists. He thought the experience wouldn’t end.

"When I got up, I… thought, like, I was just going to be there forever," Perkins said. "'Okay, I made it, and now here I am.'"

2018 Southwest Basketball Tournament

Seven Texas schools made the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. Four of them didn't make it out of the Round of 64. Texas Tech was the most successful, but the Red Raiders fell to No. 1 seed (and eventual champions) Villanova 71-59.

The only Texas school to win the Tournament was, famously, Texas Western (now UTEP) in 1966, and the only other school to finish even runner-up was Houston in 1983 and 1984.

Texas produces plenty of talent despite its reputation as a football state, but it hasn't translated that into Tournament success.

What if they had another prize to win?

2018 Baseball Preview: Predictions

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series.

Having given his analysis of every club in the majors, Chandler now predicts the eventual standings, major award winners, and postseason. Included are links to each division preview.

2018 Baseball Preview: American League West

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

Today are the final five team previews, featuring the imposing Astros and the muddled rest of the American League West.

2018 Baseball Preview: American League Central

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

Today's post is on the AL Central, which means we finally can talk about the most important team in baseball, the Twins.

2018 Baseball Preview: American League East

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

With the Senior Circuit out of the way, we turn our attention to the American League, beginning with the East.

2018 Baseball Preview: National League West

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

Today, we close the book on the National League with a look at the West.

2018 Baseball Preview: National League Central

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

We continue with the NL Central, featuring three teams with realistic playoff aspirations.

2018 Baseball Preview: National League East

With baseball peeking above the horizon, Ski-U-Blog gives its second annual season preview series. Rather than one massive post for each league, there will be a post per division.

Today, we begin with the National League East.

Who Is Today's Otto Vélez?

Otto Vélez's major league career began in 1973 with the New York Yankees. The Yankees signed Vélez as a 19-year-old out of Puerto Rico in 1969, advancing through the system resembling what we call today a three-true-outcomes hitter, striking out more than most other batters but making up for it with above-average power and exceptional plate discipline. In his last full year at AAA, Vélez averaged almost a walk per game as part of a .269/.450/.562 season. The corner outfielder never fully clicked in the Bronx, however, and he never consistently saw the field until he was selected by the Toronto Blue Jays late in the 1976 expansion draft.

The 52 Albums I Listened to in 2017, Part III: 10-1

Below are the best 10 albums I listened to in 2017. If you want the other 42, they can be found here (with proper context) and here. Let's get right to it.

The 52 Albums I Listened to in 2017, Part II: 31-11

I listened to 52 albums in 2017's 52 weeks. In my previous post, I explained everything and began my rankings and reviews of them. Here are numbers 31 through 11. From here on out, I include my two favorite songs from each album.

The 52 Albums I Listened to in 2017, Part I: 52-32

In April, two of my friends constructed, with much assistance from the internet, a list of 365 albums they were going to listen to in as many days. Many, but not all, were considered classics. Some were just albums they wanted to cross off their personal lists. With a few exceptions though, neither of them had heard any albums on the list before, so the whole thing was meant to be an exercise in music self-education. For each album they listened to, they provided ratings, their favorite songs, and brief reviews, which were contained in a lengthy Google spreadsheet.

They asked if I wanted in on this. I told them I had no intention of doing the whole 365, but I agreed to pick those on the list that interested me or that I heard were essentials.

The idea worked longer than you might expect, with one friend filling almost all his cells in the spreadsheet into early August and the other giving his ratings and reviews here and there, but when school started, it became harder to keep up with the list, and the thing just kind of faded away.

However, I kept selectively participating, and on my own, I started listening to other albums I'd heard or read about, or which otherwise got my attention.

I don't pretend to know exactly how many albums I tend to average in a year, but by late November, I started to think that I had to have listened to more than whatever that average was. I created my own spreadsheet where I listed and ranked all the albums I had listened to since the beginning of 2017, and, noticing I was not far away from 50, decided to make that my new goal. When, with a couple weeks left, I reached 50, I got the idea to add on a couple more.

So, I can say that in 2017, I listened to 52 albums in 52 weeks. (Hardly 365 in 365 days, but it's something.) Beginning below, I ranked and reviewed each of those 52 albums. Some I actively sought out, and some I happened to be in the room and heard.

I've divided them into three groups: the top 10; and then the top and bottom halves of the rest. Here is the bottom half, numbers 52 through 32.