Summer Bummer

[denarded]

From MLB.com Regarding Playoff chances. I've watched all but one game this year and had no idea we've already played 5 extra inning games. I need to start monitoring beer intake I guess.

 

 

Biggest fallers
Twins: -31.9 (63.3% to 31.4%)
Minnesota’s season hasn’t been without its positives. The Byron Buxton breakout is upon us, Nelson Cruz continues to defy Father Time and José Berríos, Michael Pineda and J.A. Happ have been solid. Overall, though, the Twins have put themselves in a tough spot with their 9-15 start.

Kenta Maeda (6.56 ERA) is the biggest concern for Minnesota, followed closely by its bullpen, which has the fifth-worst ERA (4.59) in the Majors and has contributed to the team's 2-6 record in one-run games and 0-5 mark in extra innings.

 

[ashbury]

If I did the advanced math correctly, we're 7-9 in non-"one-run-games", and 9-10 if you factor out the games that went extra innings. Even if you slice and dice a bit further, just no way to spin this start as losing the close ones but being basically solid for a deep playoff run.

[Dave The Dastardly]

The Twins are carrying too much dead weight to be a play-off team. Consistency is what wins short (play-offs) seasons and this team has too many inconsistent players. Colome - can't count on him; Shoemaker - ditto; Sano- way too streaky. Occasionally gets hot and hits a half dozen mind-boggling homeruns, but also gets into mind-boggling long slumps that produce nothing but strikeouts, not even moving runners along; Cave - mostly kept for insurance for when Buxton goes on the DL but that's a job any of the Twins' plethora of outfielders could do better, or at least just as well; Donaldson - another inevitable DL candidate; Garver/Jeffers - a catching rotation based on hitting potential but too streaky with the bat. One or the other, sometimes both, in slumps.

 

My uninformed opinion: Cut Colome, Shoemaker and Cave and take your lumps. You can't beat a dead horse. Chalk it up to experience. Look for a sucker, er, a more desperate team to take Sano in trade, maybe for a year's supply of Tough Actin' Tinactin and a dozen baseballs, whatever. He's never been consistent and probably never will be consistent. Plop Kirilloff at first and ride him like a the thoroughbred you think him to be. Keep Rortvedt, the only "real" catcher you have, and rotate Garver or Jeffers, whichever one starts hitting consistently as your other catcher. Quit fooling around with Dobnak and give him the starter's job you're paying him for. Bring up one or two of those fire-throwing young guys you have in the minors and give them Colome and Dobnak'e role in the bull pen. Quite screwing around with pitching reclamation projects and give your prospects a chance to gain some experience and prove themselves in the majors before you do any more dumpster diving. Pull up a couple of those minor league outfield prospects everybody is high on to replace Cave and Sano on the roster for the same reason. Lastly, keep the Turtle. With all the expected injuries from Buxton and Donaldson, "day's off for no apparent reasons", and inevitable shifting of position players you need the Turtle's flexibility to cover the gaps. The Turtle is the Swiss Army Knife of bench players. He's like three guys on the bench.

 

Oh, and don't put all your eggs in one basket. Forget counting on homeruns to win games. That's feast or famine thinking. Makes you too one-dimensional. Learn to play small ball when the big bats go silent. Remember, it's consistency we're after.

 

Quite a sermon. But what the hell, it's Sunday.