What is the biggest problem with this Twins team?

[beckmt]

Twins need to fix the bullpen now,  Bring up some of the younger players.  It can get to be a mental thing with losing late all the time.  All that is happening now is the Twins are in a 2 week stretch of playing 2 bad to below average clubs.  Beating these teams are not going to move the needle much, except to maybe convince the front office to stand pat a while longer.  If this blows up in mid June, we will have lost a month in getting things fixed.

[JW24]

In my opinion, the biggest problem with this Twins team is that all the depth they thought they had in their lineup, rotation and bullpen has been bad.

2019 was a year where everything went right. 8 guys with 20+ homers, 11 with double-digits. 9 guys with a qualified OPS+ over 100 (better than league average). The pitching staff by measure of ERA+ got great performance from all 5 starters (Perez was at 88, not bad for a 5th starter) and from the bullpen.

Injuries happen and scheduled rest days are becoming more common. To make it through the 162 game slog, the depth has to be effective, and this year, it isn't. Cave, Jeffers, Arraez, and Rooker were all guys coming into the season the FO thought were going to be major pieces to the offense and they have all been bad. The pitching staff has underwhelmed, starting with Maeda and Berrios. Only Rogers and Robles have above-league-average ERA+ out of the pen.

This is not a Rocco issue. This is not a front office issue. This is not a players issue. It is a collective issue.

Finally, the Twins need to figure something out throughout all levels of their organization regarding player health. Coming out of spring training and playing in the cold for the month of April might be part of the issue, but the Twins have seen key contributors spending so much time on the IL the past couple years, and have seen injuries throughout the MiLB system they manage hindering player development for years at a time. They need to look long and hard at their efforts to keep their players on the field because that is where they are failing spectacularly, in my opinion.

[USAFChief]

On 5/26/2021 at 9:30 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

These narratives about Baldelli need to stop. I'm hardly in the mood to defend the guy - I don't think he's done well as a field manager this season - but the hubris in comments and forums are driving me up the wall.

Rocco Baldelli knows more about what it takes to play Major League Baseball than anyone on this forum or Twitter. Full stop.

He was an above average centerfielder at age 21, for crying out loud. He was on the path to having a really nice professional career before being knocked out of the game by a freak malady. But he "pays more attention to analytics than he does to fundamentals"? Get out of here with that nonsense. There's plenty of room to criticize Baldelli for a myriad of reasons but he literally succeeded at the highest level of this game for multiple seasons. He's not some guy who spent a weekend learning Excel macros and exporting B-Ref tables, yet that's the way I see keyboard warriors talk about him on a daily basis.

Nice bully rant, but you haven't addressed the OP's assertion. You've simply responded to "he does X" with "No, he doesnt." And then followed with the classic "Rocco played the game" argument. 

And for the record,, there's at least some reasonable evidence for the OP's position.  Clearly the organization, and to some degree Baldelli, have decided analytics drives decisions on removing starters. Taking BP and infield before games has been de-emphasized. Catchers go to one knee, even with runners on, because someone has decided pitch framing is more important than preventing runners from advancement. That's an assessment clearly based on analytics over what might be called fundamentals. They appear to me to have abandoned "no doubles" defense late in games they lead. These are just a few examples off the top of my head.

I don't know what weight Baldelli places on "fundamentals" vs "analytics," but I think it's a fair question. At the least one that deserves a better answer than a beat down.

For that matter, haven't we spent the past 4 years singing the praises of the  organizations new found reliance on data and analytics?

[stringer bell]

29 minutes ago, JW24 said:

In my opinion, the biggest problem with this Twins team is that all the depth they thought they had in their lineup, rotation and bullpen has been bad.

I’ll dispute the position player depth opinion. Larnach, Kirilloff and Refsnyder weren’t on the Opening Day roster and all have contributed. Garlick has also done very well in a limited role. I agree that the bullpen depth has not been productive. As for the rotation, there have been five starts from those not in the Opening Day roster. Thorpe has been okay, but not eye-opening, Dobnak had a good start and Ober’s wasn’t a disaster (and the Twins won). 
 

I’d classify three Twins players as clearly disappointing—Columé, Jeffers and Maeda. Most everyone else that would be considered frontline players have been mildly disappointing—excepting Buxton and perhaps Pineda. 

[cHawk]

10 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Nice bully rant, but you haven't addressed the OP's assertion. You've simply responded to "he does X" with "No, he doesnt." And then followed with the classic "Rocco played the game" argument. 

And for the record,, there's at least some reasonable evidence for the OP's position.  Clearly the organization, and to some degree Baldelli, have decided analytics drives decisions on removing starters. Taking BP and infield before games has been de-emphasized. Catchers go to one knee, even with runners on, because someone has decided pitch framing is more important than preventing runners from advancement. That's an assessment clearly based on analytics over what might be called fundamentals. They appear to me to have abandoned "no doubles" defense late in games they lead. These are just a few examples off the top of my head.

I don't know what weight Baldelli places on "fundamentals" vs "analytics," but I think it's a fair question. At the least one that deserves a better answer than a beat down.

For that matter, haven't we spent the past 4 years singing the praises of the  organizations new found reliance on data and analytics?

You are right, it probably deserves a question. What he’s beating down is those who pretend they have access to the clubhouse and have regular chats with Baldelli.

I don’t think he was directly beating OP. Rather, he’s indirectly beating the numerous hacks on this site that I described in the paragraph above.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, USAFChief said:

Nice bully rant, but you haven't addressed the OP's assertion. You've simply responded to "he does X" with "No, he doesnt." And then followed with the classic "Rocco played the game" argument. 

And for the record,, there's at least some reasonable evidence for the OP's position.  Clearly the organization, and to some degree Baldelli, have decided analytics drives decisions on removing starters. Taking BP and infield before games has been de-emphasized. Catchers go to one knee, even with runners on, because someone has decided pitch framing is more important than preventing runners from advancement. That's an assessment clearly based on analytics over what might be called fundamentals. They appear to me to have abandoned "no doubles" defense late in games they lead. These are just a few examples off the top of my head.

I don't know what weight Baldelli places on "fundamentals" vs "analytics," but I think it's a fair question. At the least one that deserves a better answer than a beat down.

For that matter, haven't we spent the past 4 years singing the praises of the  organizations new found reliance on data and analytics?

You think Baldelli, the ex-centerfielder, is the guy training catchers to drop a knee in Wichita, Kansas?

Basically everything you described is game strategy, not "fundamentals". Maybe we define that word differently but I consider "taking the base", "getting front of the ball", and taking good, basic approaches to routine elements of the game "fundamentals", not whether the front office decides when a starter should be pulled on a nightly basis and the manager implements that data-driven plan.

And while you may think I'm beating someone down, I'm not the person who has implied Baldelli is stupid, doesn't know anything about baseball, or is wildly deficient in any myriad of ways, which is what happens on this forum basically daily, particularly in game threads.

[JW24]

11 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I’ll dispute the position player depth opinion. Larnach, Kirilloff and Refsnyder weren’t on the Opening Day roster and all have contributed. Garlick has also done very well in a limited role. I agree that the bullpen depth has not been productive. As for the rotation, there have been five starts from those not in the Opening Day roster. Thorpe has been okay, but not eye-opening, Dobnak had a good start and Ober’s wasn’t a disaster (and the Twins won). 
 

I’d classify three Twins players as clearly disappointing—Columé, Jeffers and Maeda. Most everyone else that would be considered frontline players have been mildly disappointing—excepting Buxton and perhaps Pineda. 

At the time he went on the IL, Jake Cave had the 5th (or so) most plate appearances on the team. Arraez was off to a hot start at the plate in his utility role, and has been bad for about 4 weeks since. Both guys were supposed to be major factors in the Twins offense this year.

Thankfully the big time prospects were ready when called on -- they have been great. But that does not change the fact the Twins created a roster with the intent of having depth that could play like the regulars and that hasn't fizzled out, it has crashed and burned.

[mnfireman]

"Berrios could have cost himself the game last night when he went for the spectacular double play and threw a 90 mph slider to Simmons who was charged with the error."

 

Low percentage play or not, he threw a waist high strike that beat the runner to the base by 10-15 feet, which would have given Simmons plenty of time to turn the DP. That is part of the problem, not making plays when needed. Donaldson did the same thing earlier this season.

This team doesn't move runners over, strikes out too much, bungles routine plays, misses cut-off men and throws to the wrong base far too often. The offensive woes are painstakingly obvious under the current extra-inning rules. The defensive miscues have to be contributing to the pitchers sense of have to make the perfect pitch, often resulting in 3-0 counts and having to "groove one." Also, the pitchers seem to think that when they get ahead 0-2, they can throw 3 pitches 3 feet off of home plate, and then they have to "groove one." 

Can these shortcomings be fixed? I believe so, but skipping BP and pre-game infield are not the answers. 

[Dodecahedron]

53 minutes ago, stringer bell said:

I’ll dispute the position player depth opinion. Larnach, Kirilloff and Refsnyder weren’t on the Opening Day roster and all have contributed. Garlick has also done very well in a limited role. I agree that the bullpen depth has not been productive. As for the rotation, there have been five starts from those not in the Opening Day roster. Thorpe has been okay, but not eye-opening, Dobnak had a good start and Ober’s wasn’t a disaster (and the Twins won). 

OK, but what's left after these guys? 

I was surprised at how quickly the Twins ran out of depth this year.  Ober is good depth, Dobnak was only "depth" because of a strange decision to bump him backwards.  Kiriloff was expected to be around.  Refsnyder is not a prospect, he's a break-the-glass guy.

[Brock Beauchamp]

3 minutes ago, Dodecahedron said:

OK, but what's left after these guys? 

I was surprised at how quickly the Twins ran out of depth this year.  Ober is good depth, Dobnak was only "depth" because of a strange decision to bump him backwards.  Kiriloff was expected to be around.  Refsnyder is not a prospect, he's a break-the-glass guy.

No team has depth when you're digging into your eighth outfielder option in May. Depth has its limits for every team. I mean, who could have predicted that in the middle of May, both Kirilloff and Larnach would be every day starters for this team? That wasn't even on anyone's radar.

[denarded]

I think the biggest problem (bullpen aside for a second) is the offense in two parts. We score early and seem to go stagnant the last 4 or 5 innings. I know there are instances like the 8th inning on Tuesday, but to my eyes that how it seems to go game after game. Part of the problem is the horrendous RISP. I'd hate to see how many lead-off doubles have returned to the dugout from said base. I'm not going to dive into numbers. This is eye test only, but that's what a fan does.

[Brock Beauchamp]

17 hours ago, cHawk said:

So...is Tyler Duffey just a horrible pitcher that got lucky the last two years? “The hitters will eventually hit,” I mean hopefully they do. Will this team quit constantly ignoring fundamentals and playing awful defense? We’ve seen the infield defense cost us multiple games thus far.

What makes this conversation complicated is that two of the biggest perpetrators of infield blundering have been Josh Donaldson and Andrelton Simmons.

Josh Donaldson is a 35 year old veteran with a career +25 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved).

Andrelton Simmons is a 31 year old veteran with a career +184 DRS (!!!! that's literally legendary status).

They're two of the greatest fielders at their positions (in the case of Simmons, one of the greatest defensive shortstops of all time).

I cannot blame their miscues on the coaching staff. Those two veterans could teach master classes at their respective positions, they don't even need a coaching staff.

[JW24]

7 minutes ago, denarded said:

I think the biggest problem (bullpen aside for a second) is the offense in two parts. We score early and seem to go stagnant the last 4 or 5 innings. I know there are instances like the 8th inning on Tuesday, but to my eyes that how it seems to go game after game. Part of the problem is the horrendous RISP. I'd hate to see how many lead-off doubles have returned to the dugout from said base. I'm not going to dive into numbers. This is eye test only, but that's what a fan does.

I've spent a little time looking at this, here is what I see:

Saturday, April 10 is the start of the Twins 6 week skid. From that date, they went 10-26 through Thursday, May 20. During that time they scored 10+ runs 3 times (went 2-1). They scored 3 or fewer runs 21 times (went 1-20). 19 times they held their opponent to 5 runs or fewer (went 10-9).

60% of their games in, what I hope is, their worst stretch of the season, the offense could do no better than 3 runs. The bullpen losing games late is extremely frustrating, but when every single pitch is high-leverage and there is no margin for error, well...

I agree the offense has been the biggest issue this season, though I would go a step further and say it is an even bigger issue than the bullpen simply due to expectations coming into this season relative to performance. Good news is the bats are heating up and now the arms need to do their job when they get more runs.

[stringer bell]

10 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

"Berrios could have cost himself the game last night when he went for the spectacular double play and threw a 90 mph slider to Simmons who was charged with the error."

 

Low percentage play or not, he threw a waist high strike that beat the runner to the base by 10-15 feet, which would have given Simmons plenty of time to turn the DP. That is part of the problem, not making plays when needed. Donaldson did the same thing earlier this season.

This team doesn't move runners over, strikes out too much, bungles routine plays, misses cut-off men and throws to the wrong base far too often. The offensive woes are painstakingly obvious under the current extra-inning rules. The defensive miscues have to be contributing to the pitchers sense of have to make the perfect pitch, often resulting in 3-0 counts and having to "groove one." Also, the pitchers seem to think that when they get ahead 0-2, they can throw 3 pitches 3 feet off of home plate, and then they have to "groove one." 

Can these shortcomings be fixed? I believe so, but skipping BP and pre-game infield are not the answers. 

I think the Twins have made an inordinate number of mental mistakes, especially for a veteran team. I don't know if the culture has anything to do with it. A botched rundown and two separate dropped balls at second base by plus defenders probably happen occasionally to most teams, but the timing of the Twins' gaffes has been critical. There also have been outs not recorded on slow choppers and a ball stuck in the webbing of a glove happening at the worst possible time. I would submit that they've had more than their share of bad luck. Their lack of execution has been nearly incomprehensible and it is much harder to blame that on random breaks. 

Some topline numbers suggest the Twins should be closer to .500. Here's the biggest surprise to me--the Twins are a Top Ten offense. That is by runs scored and OPS. They're a bottom ten pitching staff, although some stats indicate they should be better--including BA against and WHIP. Overall run differential is closer to Oakland (first place in AL West) than it is to Detroit or Baltimore although the Twins are barely ahead of the Tigers and Orioles. 

I think some things will even out but this is a team that isn't as good as the assembled talent The bad bullpen exacerbates many of the deficiencies. It is probably the one thing the front office can upgrade if they think they can contend.

[RedBull34]

1 hour ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

And while you may think I'm beating someone down, I'm not the person who has implied Baldelli is stupid, doesn't know anything about baseball, or is wildly deficient in any myriad of ways, which is what happens on this forum basically daily, particularly in game threads.

Nobody on this thread has said Baldelli is stupid or doesn't know anything about baseball

Your counter-arguments are full of a great many flaws in logic Brock.  You can't blame what somebody else has said on somebody else.  

Besides, Baldelli might KNOW a great deal about fundamentals but is unable to communicate them effectively to his players in a way that takes!

Ultimately the performance of the team rests on the shoulders of Falvey and Baldelli.  If the team is underperforming, then the blame lies with one of the two.  Since most still think that the roster construction (Falvey's job) should not have brought about a record this poor, people are logically and rightly looking at Baldelli, who is responsible for on-field performance.  As to what the problem is, that is purely hypothetical.  We don't know. 

Nonetheless, there is a deficiency with the club.  I'm not advocating for Baldelli's removal at this point, but he needs to take some time to introspect and figure out what is wrong and how to fix it.  

[Brock Beauchamp]

35 minutes ago, RedBull34 said:

Nobody on this thread has said Baldelli is stupid or doesn't know anything about baseball

Besides, Baldelli might KNOW a great deal about fundamentals but is unable to communicate them effectively to his players in a way that takes!

No one in this thread has called him stupid but this thread isn't an island. We've all seen the same recurring themes about Baldelli, everyone here knows what I'm talking about and the original post was more of the same, just a tamer dog whistle version of it.

Anyway, we all know where we each stand on that topic. Back to fundamentals, there are a few problems with this "theory" (I'll mostly gloss over the "analytics over..." portion of the statement, though that's my primary problem with it):

1. What about 2019 and 2020? Were the same fundamentals issues plaguing this team? What's different now? If anything, they should be far more fundamentally sound, as they have a rock-solid veteran left side of the infield (and that's actually been a key problem re: defensive blunders), which they essentially did not have either of the past two years (Donaldson's 2020 was basically non-existent).

2. In the modern game, I don't think the manager actually drills much with players anymore, at least I haven't seen any evidence that's the case. The modern manager approaches their job so much differently than they did 30 years ago and teams appear to be moving toward something closer to an NFL model. I've neither seen nor heard of Baldelli spending hours with a bat in his hand, pounding grounders at Sano. Tom Kelly did, Ron Gardenhire did, but I have no evidence Baldelli does. The manager's job appears to have evolved into more game theory and less daily implementation.

3. The core of my point, which is also linked to point #2, is that Baldelli does not drive the analytics of the Twins. He's a communicator and manager of people. He's not the one building, analyzing, or even deciding the importance of data. The Twins have entire teams of people doing that job. And as an ex-player, Baldelli was hired in large part because he understands the daily rigors of the game, the perspective of players, and surely tries to balance that viewpoint with the data he's being provided and is expected to implement.

[mnfireman]

If a MLB player is learning fundamentals at the MLB level, so many coaches have failed that player.

Baldelli is a coddler, he doesn't hold players responsible. Yes, Rortvedt was sent down, but he showed he isn't ready for The Show even before the botched rundown. Guys make mistakes and are in the line-up the next day, and make the same mistakes. Injuries are part of the reason for this, but when you know you can make a fundamental mistake and still be playing almost everyday, why work on fixing it. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

5 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

Baldelli is a coddler, he doesn't hold players responsible.

See, and this is exactly the kind of thing I find fascinating about conversations regarding MLB managers.

What is your evidence of this? Why do you believe it?

I mean, maybe it's true. I honestly don't know... but I suspect you don't, either. None of us do, really.

I only have a very vague, general understanding of what it is Baldelli even does every day. And I follow the Twins very closely.

Which is why I tend to not go ballistic over the manager, I don't think their on-field impact is even that large anymore (other than specific on-field moves that can be viewed somewhat objectively).

And attempting to evaluate what they do behind closed doors is nothing more than wild speculation.

[In My La Z boy]

Pitching is the answer to the question. Blame has to go to Falvine. Hindsite says we should have spent the Donaldson and Simmons money on the pitching staff. Definitely should have gone after Trevor May. This was not the off season to nickel and dime the staff. We did. 

[cHawk]

7 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

No one in this thread has called him stupid but this thread isn't an island. We've all seen the same recurring themes about Baldelli, everyone here knows what I'm talking about and the original post was more of the same, just a tamer dog whistle version of it.

Anyway, we all know where we each stand on that topic. Back to fundamentals, there are a few problems with this "theory" (I'll ignore the "analytics over..." portion of the statement, though that's my primary problem with it):

1. What about 2019 and 2020? Were the same fundamentals issues plaguing this team? What's different now? If anything, they should be far more fundamentally sound, as they have a rock-solid veteran left side of the infield (and that's actually been a key problem re: defensive blunders), which they essentially did not have either of the past two years (Donaldson's 2020 was basically non-existent).

2. In the modern game, I don't think the manager actually drills much with players anymore, at least I haven't seen any evidence that's the case. The modern manager approaches their job so much differently than they did 30 years ago and teams appear to be moving toward something closer to an NFL model. I've neither seen nor heard of Baldelli spending hours with a bat in his hand, pounding grounders at Sano. Tom Kelly did, Ron Gardenhire did, but I have no evidence Baldelli does. The manager's job appears to have evolved into more game theory and less daily implementation.

3. The core of my point, which is also linked to point #2, is that Baldelli does not drive the analytics of the Twins. He's a communicator and manager of people. He's not the one building, analyzing, or even deciding the importance of data. The Twins have entire teams of people doing that job. And as an ex-player, Baldelli was hired in large part because he understands the daily rigors of the game, the perspective of players, and surely tries to balance that viewpoint with the data he's being provided and is expected to implement.

I wasn’t trying to drive the narratives about Baldelli, I was just questioning if he was the “right fit” for this team. When a team with championship aspirations is vastly underperforming, that does need to be a question. I said nothing about analytics. I was suggesting that these fundamental problems that we’re seeing in 2021 may be the product of the coaches. We saw success in 2019 for sure, and in 2020. And we do have a veteran left side that should be rock solid and it hasn’t.

I just don’t know how you hold Simmons and Donaldson accountable other than cutting them or demoting them or benching them, none of which fixes the problem.

I don’t think Rocco is dumb, or doesn’t put enough emphasis on fundamentals, or too much on analytics. I’m speculating that something about his coaching may be off this year, that goes beyond his main decisions.

And this isn’t at all a Rocco centered-criticism, it’s the coaching staff as a whole. For example, Edgar Varela. While SSS, the offense hasn’t been successful under him. That said, I don’t really know much about him.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 minute ago, cHawk said:

I wasn’t trying to drive the narratives about Baldelli, I was just questioning if he was the “right fit” for this team. When a team with championship aspirations is vastly underperforming, that does need to be a question. I said nothing about analytics. I was suggesting that these fundamental problems that we’re seeing in 2021 may be the product of the coaches. We saw success in 2019 for sure, and in 2020. And we do have a veteran left side that should be rock solid and it hasn’t.

I just don’t know how you hold Simmons and Donaldson accountable other than cutting them or demoting them or benching them, none of which fixes the problem.

I don’t think Rocco is dumb, or doesn’t put enough emphasis on fundamentals, or too much on analytics. I’m speculating that something about his coaching may be off this year, that goes beyond his main decisions.

And this isn’t at all a Rocco centered-criticism, it’s the coaching staff as a whole. For example, Edgar Varela. While SSS, the offense hasn’t been successful under him. That said, I don’t really know much about him.

If you felt that post was targeted at your OP, that is certainly not the case. I think this is a very good thread and question (which is why I featured it on the forum index today, which is what's driving a lot of commentary on it).

[Brock Beauchamp]

16 minutes ago, cHawk said:

And this isn’t at all a Rocco centered-criticism, it’s the coaching staff as a whole. For example, Edgar Varela. While SSS, the offense hasn’t been successful under him. That said, I don’t really know much about him.

And this is a really good point, I want to highlight it a bit more. Given what I know about modern coaching staffs (which isn't a lot because it's hard to know much of anything about MLB coaches), I'm inclined to blame Baldelli less for some of the things I've seen but blame the lower coaches more because I think they're the ones primarily interacting with the players in drills, hitting/pitching approaches, defensive practices, etc.

Baldelli isn't without blame, but I'm pretty down on the hitting, bench, and pitching coaches in a big way this season.

[cHawk]

4 minutes ago, In My La Z boy said:

Pitching is the answer to the question. Blame has to go to Falvine. Hindsite says we should have spent the Donaldson and Simmons money on the pitching staff. Definitely should have gone after Trevor May. This was not the off season to nickel and dime the staff. We did. 

You can’t win in the playoffs with a ****ty offense, scoring one or two runs a game. You will not beat the any team, under any circumstance, when you score one or two runs a game. You will not beat any team when you suck comedically at the fundamentals (like the Twins have these past two postseason appearances).

[Cap'n Piranha]

23 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

People can suggest any hypotheticals they please, but it's also my right to push back hard on the worst of them, as I've done here. And it wasn't some innocuous "it feels like Baldelli has deprioritizing fundamentals", it was "Baldelli is prioritizing analytics over fundamentals", which just made me roll my eyes, as Baldelli was a solid fundamental player himself (good defensive player, good baserunner IIRC) and he just coached two fundamentally solid teams in 2019 and 2020.

It's just another variation on the lazy and tired "Baldelli doesn't understand baseball, only spreadsheets" take that has littered Twins Territory for the past couple of years and I'm gonna push back on that awful, lazy take every single time.

I have no problems with people criticizing Baldelli but I do have problems with bad takes that are just riffing off the worst, dumbest takes of talk radio and Twitter. 

The Twins did indeed have the 2nd fewest errors last year, but they actually had the 6th most in 2019.  I don't know that they were fundamentally bad in 2019, but they clearly weren't fundamentally solid.  Rocco has now been the manager of this team for 271 games (about 1 and 2/3 seasons), and the Twins are 13th in errors over that span of time (if they had committed only 4 more errors over that timeframe, they'd be 17th).  This is not a fundamentally sound team by that metric, so given that we know this is an analytically-driven organization, and Baldelli got the job due to his fluency in analytics, it's not totally unreasonable to suggest that fundamentals are not being emphasized to the appropriate level.

[Cap'n Piranha]

9 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

And this is a really good point, I want to highlight it a bit more. Given what I know about modern coaching staffs (which isn't a lot because it's hard to know much of anything about MLB coaches), I'm inclined to blame Baldelli less for some of the things I've seen but blame the lower coaches more because I think they're the ones primarily interacting with the players in drills, hitting/pitching approaches, defensive practices, etc.

Baldelli isn't without blame, but I'm pretty down on the hitting and pitching coaches in a big way this season.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all those coaches report directly to Rocco?  Is it not his responsibility to receive reports from those coaches on what they're doing with the players, and course correct as necessary?  If the team is clearly struggling with fundamentals, doesn't it fall on Rocco to drive his coaches to be better?

[In My La Z boy]

11 minutes ago, cHawk said:

You can’t win in the playoffs with a ****ty offense, scoring one or two runs a game. You will not beat the any team, under any circumstance, when you score one or two runs a game. You will not beat any team when you suck comedically at the fundamentals (like the Twins have these past two postseason appearances).

Agreed, but I stand by my comments. Pitching is by far our #1 problem. Pitching wins championships. Look up how many times just this year we've had a lead. It will surprise you. We've hit well enough to be an above .500 ballclub. 

[Mike Sixel]

9 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

The Twins did indeed have the 2nd fewest errors last year, but they actually had the 6th most in 2019.  I don't know that they were fundamentally bad in 2019, but they clearly weren't fundamentally solid.  Rocco has now been the manager of this team for 271 games (about 1 and 2/3 seasons), and the Twins are 13th in errors over that span of time (if they had committed only 4 more errors over that timeframe, they'd be 17th).  This is not a fundamentally sound team by that metric, so given that we know this is an analytically-driven organization, and Baldelli got the job due to his fluency in analytics, it's not totally unreasonable to suggest that fundamentals are not being emphasized to the appropriate level.

Or, maybe, the players just aren't good fielders....and the FO cares more about their other traits? Or, maybe, they have been unlucky. People have a tendency to simplify, and look for a reason something(s) happens...when sometimes there isn't a reason. Sometimes things just happen.

Not aimed at you...but this idea that people aren't being held accountable, we have no idea. Also, I'm not sure that anyone should be "held accountable" after this few games. 

[cHawk]

8 minutes ago, In My La Z boy said:

Agreed, but I stand by my comments. Pitching is by far our #1 problem. Pitching wins championships. Look up how many times just this year we've had a lead. It will surprise you. We've hit well enough to be an above .500 ballclub. 

Often times we’re up like 1-0 or 2-0 early. Then, we don’t do **** on offense the rest of the game, requiring the pitching to be absolutely perfect.

The pitching hasn’t been good, I agree. Too often our pitchers get ahead 0-2, and then start dinking around the zone, leading to longer counts, leading to more pitches thrown, leading to the starters leaving early, leading to bullpen overusage, leading to, well...what we’ve seen.

[mnfireman]

19 minutes ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

See, and this is exactly the kind of thing I find fascinating about conversations regarding MLB managers.

What is your evidence of this? Why do you believe it?

I mean, maybe it's true. I honestly don't know... but I suspect you don't, either. None of us do, really.

I only have a very vague, general understanding of what it is Baldelli even does every day. And I follow the Twins very closely.

Which is why I tend to not go ballistic over the manager, I don't think their on-field impact is even that large anymore (other than specific on-field moves that can be viewed somewhat objectively).

And attempting to evaluate what they do behind closed doors is nothing more than wild speculation.

You, sir, are correct, I should not be accusing. Terms like " I believe", "In my opinion" and "It appears to me" should be used instead. I will be more diligent going forward.

[Brock Beauchamp]

10 minutes ago, Cap'n Piranha said:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't all those coaches report directly to Rocco?  Is it not his responsibility to receive reports from those coaches on what they're doing with the players, and course correct as necessary?  If the team is clearly struggling with fundamentals, doesn't it fall on Rocco to drive his coaches to be better?

Without a doubt. I've never said that Rocco doesn't deserve some blame for pretty much any way this team fails to perform, I'm just pointing out that the game has evolved and I don't think modern managers perform some of the roles we have historically attributed to the manager of an MLB team.