Article: TOR 7, MIN 4: WHAT IS HAPPENING!?!?!?

[Tom Froemming]

 

... Morrison has been a bust (even worse than Park- wherever he is) ...

Park is back in the KBO and hitting .288/.468/.508 (.977 OPS) with more walks than strikeouts.

 

I've always assumed that players are human beings. If they are human beings... you got some pretty pissed off people in that locker room and they might be quietly pissed off and that could lead to... I don't give a damn attitudes. 

Reed was looking pretty pissed at himself in the dugout and I thought it was encouraging to hear the reports that Duffey was viably frustrated when he was (justifiably) sent down. But you're right, that same energy can turn into a "screw it" mentality pretty quickly.

 

If Molitor lets Gibson pitch the 6th, the relievers are all pushed back an inning.

I think it was the right move to take Gibby out, but you need to have a reliever or two who can get you more than three outs. Phil Hughes to the rescue!!! Ugh.

 

Okay lets call out Garvin and Guardardo.  Bert Blyleven and Morris are consultants, LaTroy is a special assistant, and I do not know who else in the office and minor leagues.  If, as one comment states, we are not developing our arms, we have to ask why not and who is to blame?

 

Gonsalves, Littell need to follow Romero.  Lets get the lumps out of the way and really develop a rotation. 

At some point, the players gotta play. Yes, the coaches, instructors and consultants have their jobs to do as well, but I wonder really how much those guys can make an impact. 

[Number3]

"Good luck tonight Gibson.Don't pitch too well or Molitor will probably yank you after 5."

 

From a post I made yesterday afternoon. No surprise.

[Halsey Hall]

I've gotta quit watching, I just can't sleep nights after these games.

[jtkoupal]

I still think the Twins heat up in May. The Indians haven't looked stellar lately either, so there is still hope, guys. However, if we can't get healthy and start performing like we can, then guys are getting traded. There is no way around it.

 

 

In short, here is what we are seeing:

 

1. Bullpen is being asked to pitch too much and it's taxing them. That is the fault of both the starting rotation and the fact that there hasn't been a long reliever out there until now.

2. Guys that shouldn't be starting are getting too much playing time because of injuries (i.e. Grossman, Adrianza, LaMarre). These are guys that play better when used less. You play them this much, you see why they aren't starters.

3. Underperformances by a number of key players. To name a few: Dozier, Castro, Rosario, Morrison, the whole pitching staff. These guys can't be this bad all year.

 

There is too much talent on this roster for them to suck completely for 162 games. With this American League, it's not going to be easy to grab a playoff spot. However, there is no gain in trying to tank because there are too many teams that do suck completely. Bottom line, there is no roster move that can fix what is happening. The only solution is for the guys already on the roster to step up like they can.

[Rosterman]

There must be something in the power water in the bullpen. Target Field run-off water is not the key ingredient.

 

[Blake]

Dear Mr. Froemming: You ask what is happening.

 

Well, how about some of the worst baseball the Twins have ever played?

 

I've heard rumors of the Butch Huskey era of baseball and that it wasn't a very good time to be a Twins fan.

 

However, with the way the Twins are currently playing, Butch Huskey era baseball may actually become a step up.

[Tom Froemming]

League average innings per start is 5.5. The Twins are at 5.2. League average pitches per start is 90, which is also where the Twins are at.

 

It's not unreasonable for a starter to not pitch into the sixth, especially if he's thrown 96 pitches as Gibson had last night. Toronto starter Marco Estrada only went five innings because he had thrown 99 pitches. Things worked out for them just fine.

[Jerr]

 

 

Our Twins with the same record, but with not all young players             

 

 

Edited May 2, 2018 by Jerr

[tw1ns]

Pitch the ball......catch the ball.  Where is Tom Kelly when you need him.  Make the plays that need to be made.  I have not been impressed with the effort of our catchers.  Especially in the fielding department.  Garver has botched some key plays...notably the roller down the line the other night, pick up the ball, tag the runner.  He and Castro miss balls with a guy on third that should be caught.  Back to the basics....

[Doubles]

 

That 10th inning was an embarrassment to the entire organization. Decent legion ball teams know how to defend 1st and third. Jr high teams.

Kendrys Morales wandered off first base, and the Twins were too frightened, or confused to throw the ball.

For Pete sake. That is not major league baseball.

Was pretty much gonna post this exact same sentiment.  I don't so much mind losing if my team is competing.  Typically happy to find myself in lock step with The Chief on most things, this is not one of those times, obvs. 

 

Not sure what was more infuriating-  watching this meltdown play out, or feeling like it was happening in slow motion and still nobody was able to do something, anything, to keep it from going completely off the rails.    

[Tom Froemming]

 

Dear Mr. Froemming: You ask what is happening.

 

Well, how about some of the worst baseball the Twins have ever played?

 

I've heard rumors of the Butch Huskey era of baseball and that it wasn't a very good time to be a Twins fan.

 

However, with the way the Twins are currently playing, Butch Huskey era baseball may actually become a step up.

There's still a lot of season to unfold, but I do honestly feel like this is worse so far. That 2000 Twins team may have had a really bad record, but they had a lot of guys who could catch the ball and there were positive developments that laid the groundwork for the successful years that followed. 

 

Hopefully things turn around, but this team is really hard to watch right now.

[gocgo]

What I'm trying to figure out is if we've hit the perfect storm (no pun intended given the spring weather) or whether there is one thing that needs to be addressed.

 

We've had to deal with injuries (Buxton is a key piece of the puzzle), weather (no denying that it was disruptive to practice), poor pitching (either from the starter, the bullpen, or both), bad defense (errors and lack of execution of the basics), bad luck (right now, the borderline calls aren't going our way).

 

Is it just a combination of all of the above?  or is it something much bigger?

 

Teamwork is a funny thing.  I've watched basketball teams swap out one player for another and you would swear the entire team was swapped out.  Teamwork went out the window and the "me first" attitude took over the team.  Are the Twins in a similar situation?  I'd be curious what the clubhouse chemistry is.

[wsnydes]

I've said this before in previous seasons.  It's not the losing that bothers me so much.  I don't like it, but sometimes your team just isn't as good as the opponent.  I can deal with that aspect.  It's how they lose that bothers me.  They shoot themselves in the foot consistently.  They leave scoring opportunities go wasted with regularity because they run themselves out of it or they string together poor ABs.  They play atrocious defense which only compounds the poor pitching problem.  

 

It's one thing to simply not make enough plays to win.  It's quite another to squander the few plays you do make and then top it off with mistake-laden play that even poor teams find a way to capitalize on.  Sloppy baseball is unacceptable because it requires little talent.  It only requires focus and attention to detail.

 

The Blue Jays have exposed the Twins defense.  They are forcing them to make decisions on the fly because they don't believe that they'll make the right play.  The Morales steal last night was a perfect example of that.

[spanman2]

 

Pitch the ball......catch the ball.  Where is Tom Kelly when you need him.  Make the plays that need to be made.  I have not been impressed with the effort of our catchers.  Especially in the fielding department.  Garver has botched some key plays...notably the roller down the line the other night, pick up the ball, tag the runner.  He and Castro miss balls with a guy on third that should be caught.  Back to the basics....

Agreed...add on to that an ole TK saying 'We will be/are as good as today's starting pitcher and how he performs'...gotta play fundamental baseball.  Make the plays that need to be/should be made!  Get some timely hitting/run the bases well...do those things along with your comments and you should be a good ball club.

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

In short, here is what we are seeing:

 

1. Bullpen is being asked to pitch too much and it's taxing them. That is the fault of both the starting rotation and the fact that there hasn't been a long reliever out there until now.

2. Guys that shouldn't be starting are getting too much playing time because of injuries (i.e. Grossman, Adrianza, LaMarre). These are guys that play better when used less. You play them this much, you see why they aren't starters.

3. Underperformances by a number of key players. To name a few: Dozier, Castro, Rosario, Morrison, the whole pitching staff. These guys can't be this bad all year.

1. Twins relievers have the 8th fewest innings pitched in MLB so far this season. Mostly a function of having the fewest games played, but even on a per-game basis, we are within 1 out of MLB average relief innings per game (MLB average is 3.2 IP, Twins at 4 IP). I'd guess we've used more total relievers than average too, so the workload has been spread out a bit.

 

Here are the IP ranks of individual Twins relievers:

14. Pressly

37. Reed

92. Hildenberger

156. Rogers

185. Duke

204. Rodney

240. Duffey

248. Moya

265. Busenitz

275. Kinley

282. Magill

 

2. Grossman started 75% of the time for the Twins in 2016 in 2017. He has only started 56% of the games in 2018 so far. I don't think over-exposure is the cause of his 2018 struggles. Adrianza has indeed started more in 2018, but he's only 2 starts ahead of his 2017 rate so far. LaMarre has only started 6 games all year. It's not like previous Twins teams haven't seen marginal guys get similar playing time (don't forget, the 2017 team had Danny Santana to open the season, later had mediocre performances from rookies Garver and Granite, and even had Adrianza start 9 games in the outfield).

 

3. Castro and Morrison are definitely under-performing, but Dozier and Rosario are within 10% of their career OPS+ figures. On the pitching side, Lynn and Rogers are really the only regulars who are under-performing expectations.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Also, short start expected today. Gibby has pitched well and I thought last night was a good night to let him pitch into deep, unknown territory. Of course 5 innings is the new 6 (quality start last night) and 90 pitches is the new 100, so there was pretty much no chance of that happening.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

1. Twins relievers have the 8th fewest innings pitched in MLB so far this season. Mostly a function of having the fewest games played, but even on a per-game basis, we are within 1 out of MLB average relief innings per game (MLB average is 3.2 IP, Twins at 4 IP). I'd guess we've used more total relievers than average too, so the workload has been spread out a bit.

nit pick-

 

We lost 7 straight road games without pitching a ninth inning (although I think one of those games went extras)

[USAFChief]

nit pick-

 

We lost 7 straight road games without pitching a ninth inning (although I think one of those games went extras)

And we played a 16 inning game.

 

It evens out.

 

More innings from the starters isn't realistic, not is it the primary problem.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

And we played a 16 inning game.

And I bet other teams have too. It evens out.

[SirLoin]

 

Going to be in trouble tonight out of the pen
Essentially have 2 1/4 arms available....
Hildy, Rogers and Duke

 

Don't we have Hughes in the bullpen now?  That gets us to at least 2 3/8 arms....

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

nit pick-

We lost 7 straight road games without pitching a ninth inning (although I think one of those games went extras)

I was talking about absolute reliever usage relative to league, rather than our team's relative reliever vs starter inning distribution.

[birddog]

Twins starters are exhausted after 5 or 6 innings of 90 pitches. If Moli doesn't want to throw them out there for more, send them to the bullpen to get some more throwing in to condition their arm (and head) that they can go longer.

 

Other than Mauer, Twins are undisciplined free swingers and it is killing us now as pitchers know they don't have to throw strikes to get us out. We'll get ourselves out--especially with runners on base. Twins only have to straighten out their pitching, hitting, defense, fundamentals, and most importantly their heads. Dr. Phil are you busy?

[Mike Sixel]

I don't think people realize how few pitchers finish six innings anymore, and how the game has changed. I know I struggled with this, until a couple years ago. But, the world has changed. Starters don't throw as many innings as we think. Like it or not, it just is.

[birddog]

And for teams who have a bullpen that works well.

 

[Blake]

I think we need to come up with a version of MST3K for calling the Twins games.

[Tom Froemming]

2017 Twins 

3.25 runs per game through the first five innings.

 

2018 Twins

2.16 runs per game through the first five innings.

 

It's a lot easier to pitch, and especially conserve pitches, when you have a lead.

[joefish]

Go T'ins.

[wsnydes]

 

2017 Twins 

3.25 runs per game through the first five innings.

 

2018 Twins

2.16 runs per game through the first five innings.

 

It's a lot easier to pitch, and especially conserve pitches, when you have a lead.

Out of curiosity, do you know what the figures are for the last 4 innings?  I know that it's typically tougher to score on a bullpen (unless you're playing the Twins), but this team doesn't seem to do a thing against opposing bullpens.  Curious if that notion is based in fact or just an ill conceived notion.

[Tom Froemming]

 

Out of curiosity, do you know what the figures are for the last 4 innings?  I know that it's typically tougher to score on a bullpen (unless you're playing the Twins), but this team doesn't seem to do a thing against opposing bullpens.  Curious if that notion is based in fact or just an ill conceived notion.

2017 runs scored innings 6-9: 1.83

2018 runs scored innings 6-9: 1.90

 

I believe the overall league average for runs scored innings 6-9 so far in 2018 is 1.95 per game.

[wsnydes]

 

2017 runs scored innings 6-9: 1.83

2018 runs scored innings 6-9: 1.90

 

I believe the overall league average for runs scored innings 6-9 so far in 2018 is 1.95 per game.

Interesting.  Interesting to see the variance in the splits too.  Thanks for the info!