Is it too early for whine?

[denarded]

Man, we cannot score with RISP. Kepler looks to be inept. Julien is taking too many looking strikes, and boy howdy things are not going good on the offense. On the other hand, pitching is looking great. I know it's early, but jeepers creepers we should be knocking a team like Cleveland around. Yes, I know it's early,but these are not the games I want to be pulling my hair out in September

[Rosterman]

I'm wondering: What is your thought of the PERFECT lineup that the Twins should put on the field every game. Forget trying to be clever. Let's figure out who works off each other, can make a pitcher throw some pitches, can advance runners when necessary.

[denarded]

22 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

I'm wondering: What is your thought of the PERFECT lineup that the Twins should put on the field every game. Forget trying to be clever. Let's figure out who works off each other, can make a pitcher throw some pitches, can advance runners when necessary.

 

27 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

I'm wondering: What is your thought of the PERFECT lineup that the Twins should put on the field every game. Forget trying to be clever. Let's figure out who works off each other, can make a pitcher throw some pitches, can advance runners when necessary.

 

23 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

I'm wondering: What is your thought of the PERFECT lineup that the Twins should put on the field every game. Forget trying to be clever. Let's figure out who works off each other, can make a pitcher throw some pitches, can advance runners when necessary.

 

[denarded]

I don't argue with the lineup. It's the best we have. I'm just stating (6 games in) that we still lack the urgency that we displayed last year. Our runners stranded is bad. I'm not here to argue, just wanted to express my EARLY concerns for our team

[Squirrel]

For me, it takes too much energy. I don’t have high hopes for the team anyway, so, my expectations were already tempered. Yeah, I get it, I hate losing, too. But I think I’d give it until mid-May. Didn’t we start out slow last year, and then took off when Royce was ready at the end of May? I could be misremembering. It’s a looooong season and there are a lot of games left.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, Squirrel said:

For me, it takes too much energy. I don’t have high hopes for the team anyway, so, my expectations were already tempered. Yeah, I get it, I hate losing, too. But I think I’d give it until mid-May. Didn’t we start out slow last year, and then took off when Royce was ready at the end of May? I could be misremembering. It’s a looooong season and there are a lot of games left.

‘23………….17-12 in April……..then below .500 in May & June………started to take off in mid-July.

Pitching is good - team will start winning.

[JD-TWINS]

10 hours ago, Rosterman said:

I'm wondering: What is your thought of the PERFECT lineup that the Twins should put on the field every game. Forget trying to be clever. Let's figure out who works off each other, can make a pitcher throw some pitches, can advance runners when necessary.

Without Lewis, Lee, or Larnach as an option……….v. RH pitching:

Julien - Buxton - Kirilloff - Kepler - Correa - Wallner - Jeffers - Santana - Castro

Trying to protect Buxton & Kepler ……hoping they see better pitches to hit. Kepler looks broken, unfortunately.

Can’t stack Kepler & Santana in the order at this point. Santana was signed to bat from the Right Side & he’s a hole in the order from left side.

Until at least one of the 3 of Kepler - Wallner - Santana get going, the line-up is going to struggle…………….Carew & a hypnotist are my solutions for Julien’s inability to swing at pitches when he has 2 strikes - specifically 3-2 counts……tough to watch!!

[Peter]

Never to early to panic! Need to get on roll but with dodgers upcoming it will be sweep by them and twins will be 3-8 if they get game in today. But very infuriating to watch.

[Fatbat]

It’ll be fine. Calm down.

[CRF]

The game today has been postponed. Probably a good thing, the way we've been going. 

[Craig Arko]

Apparently not.

[bean5302]

Yes. It's too early for whining from a rational standpoint. That said, emotions aren't rational, haha.

It's frustrating to watch the Twins struggle so much against the Guardians and parts of the team sputter so early. Honestly, I'm with @Squirrel when it comes to how much wind was knocked out of my sails by Lewis' injury. It was catastrophic to my excitement level.

On the bright side, did you guys see that awesome infield grounder play by Julien? He really looked like a stud at 2B there. I was impressed as all hell watching it in the stands. Sprint towards 3rd and in, grab the slow grounder, spin 180* and fire dead on to 1B for the out. It was great.

Optimal lineups? Well, here's what I'd wish for.
vs. RHP starter
1. 3B Castro
2. 2B Julien
3. SS Correa
4. LF Wallner
5. DH Kirilloff
6. CF Buxton
7. RF Kepler
8. C Jeffers
9. 1B Santana

vs. LHP starter
1. 2B Martin 
2. 3B Castro
3. SS Correa
4. CF Buxton
5. DH Farmer
6. C Jeffers
7. LF Wallner
8. RF Kepler
9. 1B Kirilloff

[ashbury]

5 hours ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

My other observation is that last year we get better when Royce started to get aggressive earlier in the count and shorten up his swing with two strikes to put the ball in play.  Others followed and we improved greatly in the second half on offense.

Baseball is a sport for romantics, and the idea of gritty determination taps a deep vein. 

Still, if you look across MLB in 2023 you see that once the count reached two strikes, the resolution of that PA had an average OPS of .522.  Five Twenty Two!  That's worse than having a league full of Pedro Florimons*!   And far below the .734 across all plate appearances in 2023. 

Maybe Royce Lewis is so special that he wills himself to not fail with two strikes on a consistent basis for the rest of his career**, but it's hard to imagine a whole team being smarter than the experienced batters in the majors.

Joe Mauer was reputed to have pretty good command of the situation with two strikes.  His career numbers show an OPS of .651, which is a lot better than the .522 in the majors last year.  But then again, he put up outstanding overall numbers, with a career OPS of .827.  No matter how good, or gritty, you are, you're gonna lose a couple hundred points of OPS by letting the count reach two strikes.

I find myself bringing this up every few months, but here's what I see as the real problem for the 2023 Twins with two strikes: they led the majors in the number of plate appearances that reached that number.  Their overall performance is weighed down by a greater mix of the bad stuff than other teams.  Bad outcomes are built strike by strike, not simply on the pitch that decides it.  Over the long haul, once you reach two strikes you're pretty well hosed.

 

* To be fair, during his career Pedro Florimon himself OPS'ed .412 with two strikes, built on a BA of .133, LOL.

** Spoiler: so far in his career, Lewis hasn't, as he sports a 2-strike OPS of .576 .

[Guest]

17 hours ago, Squirrel said:

For me, it takes too much energy. I don’t have high hopes for the team anyway, so, my expectations were already tempered. Yeah, I get it, I hate losing, too. But I think I’d give it until mid-May. Didn’t we start out slow last year, and then took off when Royce was ready at the end of May? I could be misremembering. It’s a looooong season and there are a lot of games left.

Maybe when RL comes back and tells the hitting coaches to “SCREW OFF I’ M HITTING THE BALL WHERE EVER AND NOT GOING TO ONLY PULL THE BALL”, maybe others will listen. Just like last year!!!

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Bigfork Twins Guy said:

I'm not real concerned since it is a long season and this is a SSS.  That said, it does seem that our offense starts slow each year (no stats, just a gut feel).  Maybe we need to be doing something different in ST to start off faster.

My other observation is that last year we get better when Royce started to get aggressive earlier in the count and shorten up his swing with two strikes to put the ball in play.  Others followed and we improved greatly in the second half on offense.  Are we falling into the same trap this season?

They start out slow because they do not use spring training to get ready. To often I’ve heard Gleeman and others mention all the golf bags clogging up the locker room. Maybe if they took baseball seriously and golf less seriously they would be ready for April v be baseball. 

[Mike Sixel]

Just now, Verified Member said:

They start out slow because they do not use spring training to get ready. To often I’ve heard Gleeman and others mention all the golf bags clogging up the locker room. Maybe if they took baseball seriously and golf less seriously they would be ready for April v be baseball. 

This isn't a real opinion, is it? You think these guys don't take their job seriously?

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

This isn't a real opinion, is it? You think these guys don't take their job seriously?

Of course it’s a real opinion. And it is verified by their performance year after year. Too often they are not prepared to play April baseball because they are not held accountable. Quit being naive!

[Linus]

26 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Baseball is a sport for romantics, and the idea of gritty determination taps a deep vein. 

Still, if you look across MLB in 2023 you see that once the count reached two strikes, the resolution of that PA had an average OPS of .522.  Five Twenty Two!  That's worse than having a league full of Pedro Florimons*!   And far below the .734 across all plate appearances in 2023. 

Maybe Royce Lewis is so special that he wills himself to not fail with two strikes on a consistent basis for the rest of his career**, but it's hard to imagine a whole team being smarter than the experienced batters in the majors.

Joe Mauer was reputed to have pretty good command of the situation with two strikes.  His career numbers show an OPS of .651, which is a lot better than the .522 in the majors last year.  But then again, he put up outstanding overall numbers, with a career OPS of .827.  No matter how good, or gritty, you are, you're gonna lose a couple hundred points of OPS by letting the count reach two strikes.

I find myself bringing this up every few months, but here's what I see as the real problem for the 2023 Twins with two strikes: they led the majors in the number of plate appearances that reached that number.  Their overall performance is weighed down by a greater mix of the bad stuff than other teams.  Bad outcomes are built strike by strike, not simply on the pitch that decides it.  Over the long haul, once you reach two strikes you're pretty well hosed.

 

* To be fair, during his career Pedro Florimon himself OPS'ed .412 with two strikes, built on a BA of .133, LOL.

** Spoiler: so far in his career, Lewis hasn't, as he sports a 2-strike OPS of .576 .

A thousand times this. 

[Mike Sixel]

16 minutes ago, Verified Member said:

Of course it’s a real opinion. And it is verified by their performance year after year. Too often they are not prepared to play April baseball because they are not held accountable. Quit being naive!

Wow. Just. Wow. 

[Mike Sixel]

Twins were 15-11 in the first month last year.....too bad they didn't try!

[vander]

There must be a challenge to see who's worse than Angel Hernandez this season.

[Guest]

6 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

Twins were 15-11 in the first month last year.....too bad they didn't try!

This is gonna be so quotable come May 1.

[JD-TWINS]

7 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Yes. It's too early for whining from a rational standpoint. That said, emotions aren't rational, haha.

It's frustrating to watch the Twins struggle so much against the Guardians and parts of the team sputter so early. Honestly, I'm with @Squirrel when it comes to how much wind was knocked out of my sails by Lewis' injury. It was catastrophic to my excitement level.

On the bright side, did you guys see that awesome infield grounder play by Julien? He really looked like a stud at 2B there. I was impressed as all hell watching it in the stands. Sprint towards 3rd and in, grab the slow grounder, spin 180* and fire dead on to 1B for the out. It was great.

Optimal lineups? Well, here's what I'd wish for.
vs. RHP starter
1. 3B Castro
2. 2B Julien
3. SS Correa
4. LF Wallner
5. DH Kirilloff
6. CF Buxton
7. RF Kepler
8. C Jeffers
9. 1B Santana

vs. LHP starter
1. 2B Martin 
2. 3B Castro
3. SS Correa
4. CF Buxton
5. DH Farmer
6. C Jeffers
7. LF Wallner
8. RF Kepler
9. 1B Kirilloff

Santana was acquired to bat RH as the platoon at 1B - he is well below average as a LH bat - he’s been proving it routinely.

V. LH pitching

Buxton - DH …Farmer 2B …Jeffers - C …Santana - 1B ….Correa - SS …Kirilloff - LF …Castro - 3B …Kepler - RF …Martin - CF ….who bats where can be massaged but these are the best bats we have.

Pitching stats…….to date:

1.15 WHIP - 8th

3.54 ERA - 9th

10 of our 13 pitchers have below 3.18 ERA to date.

If Ober’s 8 runs and 1 1/3 innings are removed, the staff’s ERA is 2.26. Not any sort of pitching issue going on to date…….encouraging, since the 3 starters that weren’t great are all assumed to be better.

 

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Verified Member said:

This is gonna be so quotable come May 1.

Not sure what last year has to do with this year. You said they were bad in the first month every year ..

[akmanak]

Here is the thing, the Twins didn't change anything in regards to how they approached at bats. They still are striking out at an awful pace, unable to drive in runs and not taking walks. 

It is early but how exactly do you think it would change from last year when there was zero personnel changes in regards to hitting ? 

We squeaked by with our pitching, but we got rid of a decent innings eater starter and made no move to replace him with someone comparable.

It really is a head scratcher hearing from some that they are surprised at how we are doing, even though it is only April I see nothing but a downward trend for this team until they make significant changes to their conditioning personnel, hitting coach and head coach. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TwinsDr2021]

I watched most of the game Saturday and the batting was gross, Kepler looks the worst I have seen him, Jeffers last K was horrible, two swings for the fences where he ended up falling to a knee and wasn't even close to either pitch. Castro looked like a guy that isn't supposed to be an everyday player.  How do you take 7 walks get hit by 3 pitches and score 1 run. (I get the strike zone was crazy bad)

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

It's not about trying or effort, It's about approach. It's a feast or famine approach. They will eventually start to hit some homeruns, but the strikeouts aren't going anywhere. We've already seen that this type of offense doesn't lend itself to the post-season. The Twins should still win the division, though. The Tigers might be a year or two away and Cleveland, meh - everyone would look good after having played Oakland to open the season.

[Twins_Fan_in_NJ]

4 minutes ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

I watched most of the game Saturday and the batting was gross, Kepler looks the worst I have seen him, Jeffers last K was horrible, two swings for the fences where he ended up falling to a knee and wasn't even close to either pitch. Castro looked like a guy that isn't supposed to be an everyday player.  How do you take 7 walks get hit by 3 pitches and score 1 run. (I get the strike zone was crazy bad)

Something to be said for continuity but also as much to be said about hanging onto players for too long. Kepler hit his ceiling a long time ago. He should be a platoon player at this point. Good teammate and certainly some sentimentality but the Twins should have moved on from him this off-season even if it was a low return.

[nicksaviking]

I've got three kids, so yes, it's too early to whine, I get enough of it at home.

I like the young core of the team, but I think the organization has bungled the hitting philosophy and I don't see that as something that can easily be fixed mid-season. They also bungled the rotation by not replacing Sonny Gray. 

So while I still see them getting hot enough for stretches to win the division, I don't see post season success in the cards this year. Ergo, I'll listen (not watch because they also bungled the TV situation) with interest but low expectations, sans whining.

[laloesch]

16 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Not sure what last year has to do with this year. You said they were bad in the first month every year ..

actually he said "year after year."