Feed me CROW...

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

On Popkins and to an extent, Sonny Gray.

The second half has been quite the reversal for the line-up. I was screaming for Popkins to be fired. Adjustments were made. Kudos to him.

Similarly, Gray - I was all for trading him at the deadline and while he's still prone to implosions, he's been a bulldog for the Twins and pitched with very little run support.

Wrong on both and I'm happy to admit it.

[jmlease1]

2 hours ago, Twins_Fan_in_NJ said:

On Popkins and to an extent, Sonny Gray.

The second half has been quite the reversal for the line-up. I was screaming for Popkins to be fired. Adjustments were made. Kudos to him.

Similarly, Gray - I was all for trading him at the deadline and while he's still prone to implosions, he's been a bulldog for the Twins and pitched with very little run support.

Wrong on both and I'm happy to admit it.

Save a little for me on Kepler. I was ready to run him out of town on a rail, but he's been excellent in the second half of the season.

I will say I wasn't convinced Popkins was part of the problem or that moving him would be impactful, so I was surprised to see him catching fire.

[Craig Arko]

Does that come as a blizzard?

[Squirrel]

Just now, Craig Arko said:

Does that come as a blizzard?

I hope not!

[Brandon]

I was fine with Popkins ouster too but where I really need to eat crow is that I was fine with keeping Gallo.  I missed the mark on that one by a mile.  While I didn't think he was overly valuable, I figured a 110+ OPS was not too much of a loss as it would be short burst production followed by long deep valleys.  But the valley has pretty much lasted the entire second half except for now 2 days.  1 of those days was against Cleveland's position player.  

[Dave Borton]

14 hours ago, Craig Arko said:

Does that come as a blizzard?

I will run down the street and check. 

 

[Doctor Wu]

12 hours ago, Brandon said:

I was fine with Popkins ouster too but where I really need to eat crow is that I was fine with keeping Gallo.  I missed the mark on that one by a mile.  While I didn't think he was overly valuable, I figured a 110+ OPS was not too much of a loss as it would be short burst production followed by long deep valleys.  But the valley has pretty much lasted the entire second half except for now 2 days.  1 of those days was against Cleveland's position player.  

I was happy with Gallo too ... up to a point. But at this point the minuses outweigh his pluses. Right now, if we have a healthy Kiriloff coming back, and someone else who can play first base without looking ridiculous, I'm okay with saying thank you and goodbye to Joey.

[Major League Ready]

18 minutes ago, Doctor Wu said:

I was happy with Gallo too ... up to a point. But at this point the minuses outweigh his pluses. Right now, if we have a healthy Kiriloff coming back, and someone else who can play first base without looking ridiculous, I'm okay with saying thank you and goodbye to Joey.

Gallo has had 19 PAs in the past 3 weeks.  I think he would have been gone if Kirilloff had not been hurt.  It seems like they are making very sure Kirilloff is healthy.  Could that be because they are planning to let Gallo go when Kirilloff is reinstated?  

[Reptevia]

I think Popkins wasn’t allowed to make adjustments. This year was a real time experiment in 100% nerd baseball. Long past the time when it became apparent that it wasn’t the panacea we were led to believe, they finally gave the OK to let the actual baseball folks make adjustments. 

[Brock Beauchamp]

There is no need for anyone to eat crow about Kepler. Before his recent breakout, he was well over 1,200 plate appearances of below average hitting. That's close to 2.5 seasons.

Is it great that he has broken out? Absolutely, I want to see the Twins succeed. But it's also possible, maybe likely, we would have seen earlier success from Matt Wallner had Kepler not been here. Maybe we'd be watching a revitalized Trevor Larnach instead. Maybe the Twins would have - GASP - gone and found a capable RHB to play outfield at some point in the past 18 months.

Again, it's great that Max is playing well right now but that doesn't erase literally 1,000+ plate appearances when he was actively hurting the team's offensive capabilities.

[Brandon]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

There is no need for anyone to eat crow about Kepler. Before his recent breakout, he was well over 1,200 plate appearances of below average hitting. That's close to 2.5 seasons.

Is it great that he has broken out? Absolutely, I want to see the Twins succeed. But it's also possible, maybe likely, we would have seen earlier success from Matt Wallner had Kepler not been here. Maybe we'd be watching a revitalized Trevor Larnach instead. Maybe the Twins would have - GASP - gone and found a capable RHB to play outfield at some point in the past 18 months.

Again, it's great that Max is playing well right now but that doesn't erase literally 1,000+ plate appearances when he was actively hurting the team's offensive capabilities.

Actually Kepler had an OPS over .800 at the end of May last year and over .750 at the end of June.  I think he was hurt last year.  And in 2020 that was an off year for everyone. 2021 was the bad year to complain about.  

[RpR]

2 hours ago, Brock Beauchamp said:

There is no need for anyone to eat crow about Kepler. Before his recent breakout, he was well over 1,200 plate appearances of below average hitting. That's close to 2.5 seasons.

Is it great that he has broken out? Absolutely, I want to see the Twins succeed. But it's also possible, maybe likely, we would have seen earlier success from Matt Wallner had Kepler not been here. Maybe we'd be watching a revitalized Trevor Larnach instead. Maybe the Twins would have - GASP - gone and found a capable RHB to play outfield at some point in the past 18 months.

Again, it's great that Max is playing well right now but that doesn't erase literally 1,000+ plate appearances when he was actively hurting the team's offensive capabilities.

Wallner is heading for the Mendoza line with far less fielding,  inspite of improvement, ability than Kepler.

Right now Wallner is becoming a not as good fielding Gallo.

[ewen21]

On 9/7/2023 at 10:27 AM, Brock Beauchamp said:

There is no need for anyone to eat crow about Kepler. Before his recent breakout, he was well over 1,200 plate appearances of below average hitting. That's close to 2.5 seasons.

Is it great that he has broken out? Absolutely, I want to see the Twins succeed. But it's also possible, maybe likely, we would have seen earlier success from Matt Wallner had Kepler not been here. Maybe we'd be watching a revitalized Trevor Larnach instead. Maybe the Twins would have - GASP - gone and found a capable RHB to play outfield at some point in the past 18 months.

Again, it's great that Max is playing well right now but that doesn't erase literally 1,000+ plate appearances when he was actively hurting the team's offensive capabilities.

His lifetime average is .234 and his lifetime OPS is .749 and that is well below average for his position.  I agree with you in that no one should be eating crow for criticizing him, or even calling for his all out release.  He was very bad for a long period of time and we stuck with him much longer than most teams would.  He had a two month turnaround this summer and that is nice.  HOWEVER, I do not know if many have noticed, but he's in a minor dry patch right now.  We are going to need him in October so he better not conveniently slump down the stretch.  

And by the way.....Kepler has been completely catatonic in the postseason.  He is 1-18 in six games so he better snap out of this mini slump he has been in for now.  We cannot afford another postseason where our bats go catatonic.

 

[Jocko87]

On 9/7/2023 at 8:50 AM, Reptevia said:

I think Popkins wasn’t allowed to make adjustments. This year was a real time experiment in 100% nerd baseball. Long past the time when it became apparent that it wasn’t the panacea we were led to believe, they finally gave the OK to let the actual baseball folks make adjustments. 

That's one possibility although very unlikely as extreme as you've described.  I'm suspicious something like that happened though.  After Lewis comments about just letting it fly and apparent responses to the players only meetings makes me wonder how much credit Popkins should get.  Its one of those things we will never really know and won't get good info until after the season but if Popkins were moved to another role or something similar we would have a hint. 

Popkins may have gotten some coaching himself as well.  He could easily have made adjustments in his style or delivery or gameplaning that helped everyone.  He wouldn't be the first 33 yo in a big time role that had to adjust. 

[ICTwin25]

I will also eat crow on Popkins...same goes for Floro as once again he is awful. While I still think he is most efficient as 7/8 guys, he has been an awful addition. I think Royce Lewis has been a huge spark for the offense as this offense/team seems to rally when a guy is on fire (Nelson Cruz). Hope the bats stay hot to win the division and end the playoff drought.

[jmlease1]

On 9/7/2023 at 8:50 AM, Reptevia said:

I think Popkins wasn’t allowed to make adjustments. This year was a real time experiment in 100% nerd baseball. Long past the time when it became apparent that it wasn’t the panacea we were led to believe, they finally gave the OK to let the actual baseball folks make adjustments. 

Any actual proof on this one? Because any time there's an accusation made about a member of the staff "not being allowed" to do their job because of those meddlesome kids in the front office, I'm calling BS without proof.

The front office isn't filled with morons. We may not like their decision-making, their style, their process, or which tools they use and how they use them...but they're not actively or intentionally stupid. And hiring someone and then "not allowing" them to do their job is actively stupid. And it's not like Popkins was hired without their input.

[Brock Beauchamp]

1 hour ago, jmlease1 said:

Because any time there's an accusation made about a member of the staff "not being allowed" to do their job because of those meddlesome kids in the front office

[StormJH1]

I definitely was among the many voices earlier this season saying Kepler shouldn't have been re-signed and (later) should have been traded for whatever C-level prospect we could get for him.  Obviously, that looks wrong now.  But as others have said, I don't much regret the opinion for two reasons: (1) The entire trajectory of his career still makes it more likely that the last few months are a Chris Parmelee-like outlier, versus an actual indicator of his long-term production; and (2) The team has tons of young, talented position players that were being blocked by Kepler (and others), and arguably would have performed nearly as well with that additional playing time.

 

The crow I need to eat would probably be on the Mahle trade.  Not because I was so sure it would work out - I wasn't at all.  But because I applauded the Twins for finally taking a risk and flipping prospects for a potential upper-half of the rotation arm.  Unfortunately, Steer and Encarnacion-Strand are making it look like that trade look VERY bad, and there wasn't a way for me to know Mahle was already hurt and about to become even more hurt the following season.

[DocBauer]

I don't know that I'm going to eat crow on Popkins. I've stated before I felt there might need to be changes made in approach and possibly coaches for 2024. The first half of this season was inconsistent, to be generous. But at the same time, the turnaround has been partially the younger players getting their shot, but also improvement from a couple veterans. So don't we also have to offer some credit to Popkins and the staff for providing a steady hand?

I DO have to eat crow on both Kepler and Pagan. I wouldn't have brought Pagan back. And the trajectory of Kepler's career told me it was time to probably move on, though he wasn't bad at the very begining of 2022.

While it's still hard to accept, Pagan has actually been quite good this season, with only a couple meltdowns early in the year. I'd still feel better if he was the 6th or 7th man in the pen, you just can't deny SOMETHING has changed.

Don't really know what's happened to Kepler. But again, SOMETHING has changed in his approach that I can't pinpoint. He looks more confident. His sweet swing that has mostly made weak contact the past few years is suddenly barreling up on the ball with consistency. If I didn't know better, I'd almost suggest he's just seeing the ball better to get his bat squared up on a more consistent basis. We're way beyond the SSS of just a couple weeks hot streak. Hard to believe at 30yo he's actually "figured something out", but it sure looks like he has. I don't want to curse anything, but it sure looks like he's genuinely improved. And he looks like he's having more fun than I've ever seen him have before. No question his 2024 option will be picked up.