Thursday, May 23, 2019

Newsletter Excerpt, May 23, 2019 -- "Twins!"

This is a preview of the Joe Sheehan Baseball Newsletter, an e-mail newsletter about all things baseball, featuring analysis and opinion about the game on and off the field from the perspective of the informed outsider. Joe Sheehan is a founding member of Baseball Prospectus and a contributor to Sports Illustrated and Baseball America. He has been writing about baseball for more than 20 years.

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"Ah, the catchers. The best season any single catcher has ever had at the plate was by Mike Piazza in 1997. Piazza, riding the crest of a hitters’ era, hit .362/.431/.638 with 40 homers, for a 185 OPS+. Twins catchers -- Astudillo, Garver, and Jason Castro -- are hitting .307/.389/.699 with 17 homers already, a 198 OPS+. Garver and Castro are both way out over their skis, but a surprise team usually has a performance or two like this in it. If the Twins do win the division, 'randomly assembling peak Mike Piazza' will be a big reason why."