Week in Review: Searching for Answers

[Nick Nelson]

It's getting late early for the Minnesota Twins, who have dropped six of seven and fallen eight games out of first place as they struggle to escape a repetitive cycle of poor hitting, shoddy defense and ill-timed miscues. 

Image courtesy of Mitch Stringer-USA TODAY Sports

 

Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 4/15 through Sun, 4/21
***
Record Last Week: 1-5 (Overall: 7-13)
Run Differential Last Week: -18 (Overall: -25)
Standing: 4th Place in AL Central (8.0 GB)

Last Week's Game Results:

Game 15 | BAL 7, MIN 4: Varland Gets Blown Up in Third Straight Start
Game 16 | BAL 11, MIN 3: Paddack Implodes as O's Blow Out Twins
Game 17 | BAL 4, MIN 2: Misery Crescendos in Sweep-Clinching Loss
Game 18 | DET 5, MIN 4: Cold and Sloppy Play Match the Weather
Game 19 | MIN 4, DET 3: Twins Narrowly Avoid a Sixth Straight Loss
Game 20 | DET 6, MIN 1: Varland Rocked, Offense Remains Dormant

NEW this week: The Twins Daily Week in Review is now available in podcast form if you prefer to listen on the go as opposed to reading the column. SUBSCRIBE AND LISTEN HERE. Also available on Apple and Spotify.

NEWS & NOTES

Following his breakthrough rookie season, the Twins stuck with Matt Wallner despite a thoroughly unimpressive spring, but evidently his leash wasn't all that long. Following a 2-for-25 start – with one of those hits being a homer against a positon player – Wallner was optioned to Triple-A on Tuesday, replaced by fellow lefty-swinging outfielder Trevor Larnach fresh off rehabbing a turf toe injury.

The Michael Tonkin reunion was short-lived. Freshly claimed off waivers from the Mets, Tonkin made one appearance for the Twins in Detroit last weekend before being placed back on waivers, where he was claimed on Wednesday by ... the Mets. The life of a fringe major-league reliever – which is not to say Tonkin's journey has been anywhere near typical.

On the flip side, the Twins also added a fringe major-league infielder in the form of Tony Kemp, signed to a minor-league contract after being released into free agency by the Orioles a week earlier. The veteran infielder has logged more than 700 games in the majors. He's been playing second base for the Saints and could become an option for the Twins in the near future, especially because...

Another 40-man roster spot is about to open up. The team shared over the weekend that Daniel Duarte is set for season-ending elbow surgery, which is a big downer after his impressive early showing out of the bullpen. 

On the bright side, Jhoan Durán is nearing an earlier-than-expected return, as he prepares to embark on a rehab assignment in St. Paul this week. Meanwhile, Max Kepler, who was rehabbing with the Saints over the past few days, appears on track to get activated on Monday. The Twins are starting to get back some of their injured stars.

On a final roster note, reliever Josh Staumont was activated from the injured last and option to Triple-A. He's got some work to do to convince the Twins he can be an effective MLB pitcher again.

HIGHLIGHTS

The rotation-leading trio of Pablo López, Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober has looked good. That's an encouraging fact as the Twins stare down a steep uphill climb to escape their early hole. When it comes to rattling off wins, consistent starting pitching is a vital part of the puzzle. This trio continues to look good each time out, with the exception of Ober's weird first start in Kansas City.

López was brilliant in Wednesday's start against a high-powered Orioles lineup that otherwise decimated Twins pitching, holding Baltimore to one run on two hits in six innings, with seven strikeouts and zero walks. Ryan and Ober followed with strong showings against the Tigers on Friday and Saturday; Ryan's effectiveness may not have been reflected in the box score (5.1 IP, 4 ER) but don't be deceived. Entering play on Sunday, Ryan's 2.26 FIP ranked as the sixth-best in baseball. Last year Sonny Gray led the majors with a 2.83 FIP.

LOWLIGHTS

As good as the top half of the Twins rotation has looked, the back end has looked almost equally bad, negating much of the value Minnesota is getting from its top three starters. Louie Varland and Chris Paddack do not appear up to the task in the fourth and fifth spots.

Paddack was pummeled by the Orioles on Tuesday, coughing up nine runs (all earned) on 12 hits in 5 ⅓ innings. He looked good in his late bullpen stint last year, but Paddack has inspired minimal confidence as a starter this year with a 9-to-5 K/BB ratio and 1.039 OPS allowed through 14 innings. Hopefully he's just trying to regain his sharpness after a long time away from pitching in a rotation.

The immense struggles of Varland are just as concerning, and maybe even more so. He got shelled for six runs (four earned) in five frames in Baltimore, yielding two more homers, and then was an erratic mess at home against the Tigers on Sunday, inflating his ERA to 9.18.

The lopsided rotation performance almost feels like a moot point in light of a Twins offense that routinely gives the team very little chance to win, lacking explosiveness or timely contributions from top to bottom. Despite a philosophy that is seemingly geared entirely toward hunting mistake pitches and hitting for power, the Twins have been vastly below average when ahead in the count and rank 28th out of 30 MLB teams in slugging percentage, ahead of only the lowly Marlins and White Sox. 

I legitimately cannot think of an entire example all season of an inning where the Twins put together an actual rally fueled by multiple legitimate run-scoring hits. Their only modest outbursts of scoring seem to come on sacrifice flies, or when opposing teams misplay fly balls or grounders. 

Aside from Ryan Jeffers (who himself has fallen into an 0-for-10 slump), no one's been especially productive at the plate. There are a few laggards who are really dragging the offense into the dregs with their complete inability to get going: Christian Vázquez went 2-for-13 with no walks and two GIDP. Kyle Farmer went 1-for-13, also with no walks; his batting average sits at .079 through 38 at-bats, and he's hitless in 15 plate appearances against lefties. Manuel Margot was 1-for-10 and continues to look rather unimpressive defensively in the outfield.

Arguably no one looks visibly worse than Carlos Santana, whose offensive aptitude has plainly evaporated at age 38. He went 2-for-12 and his OPS on the season sits .374. There are no redeeming qualities to be found in his performance, aside from looking solid on defense at first. His signature patience has become meaningless as pitchers attack the zone with impunity. There were multiple instances last week in which Santana got meatballs right out over the plate, swung his mightiest, and watched fly balls die in the medium-deep outfield.

Beyond the relentless lackluster performance across the board, this team is just difficult and maddening to watch on a basic level. There have been a lot of preventable lapses that seem really unacceptable for a team trying to scrap its way back into relevance.

In the second inning of Sunday's game, Edouard Julien failed to keep a tag applied on Javier Báez when he overslid second base, potentially costing the Twins an out. On Friday night, Byron Buxton finally got into a pitch, then stood and stared as it sailed toward left field, basically until it landed at the warning track. He cost himself at least one base by inexplicably failing to run out of the box, which is less annoying than the message it sends as a veteran leader on a floundering, power-obsessed team. It was one of the team's only big hits of the weekend (they were otherwise 1-for-23 with RISP) and even at that, felt jarring and unsatisfying. 

When you're down bad, and missing several key players, you need to do everything right on the margins and try to gain any advantage you can get. The Twins can't seem to do much of anything right.

TRENDING STORYLINE

Is regression (or, progression) to the mean coming? Even if you believe this is a pretty bad offense, and the players mentioned above are in fact not very good ... the eternal ebbs and flows of baseball would suggest better days are ahead that will draw some of these guys closer to a level that could be considered merely "bad."

I mean, for cripe's sakes. Farmer is batting .079, and Castro .158. Vázquez has a .120 BABIP. Paddack and Varland have two of the worst ERAs in the majors. The Twins, as a team, are batting .194, grouped at the bottom of the league with a bunch of teams that aren't even trying. And it's even worse than that in scoring opportunities.

Aside from baseball arithmetic seeming to favor a turnaround of sorts, the Twins are also poised to start getting some of their key players back. And the softer upcoming portion of the schedule is conducive to going on a run. The Twins are counting on those things coming together because if that doesn't happen, they're going to be in extremely bad shape by month's end.

LOOKING AHEAD

The Twins have lost six of seven and are 2-6 at home. You can't ask for a much better opportunity to reverse these pitiful trends than a four-game serries against the pitiful Chicago White Sox at Target Field. Chicago has been the worst team in ball, playing at a sub-replacement level and padding the records of all opponents with their 3-18 start. If the Twins can't take advantage and win at least three of four in this series, it's going to be pretty tough not to write them off.

MONDAY, 4/22: WHITE SOX @ TWINS – RHP Jonathan Cannon v. RHP Chris Paddack
TUESDAY, 4/23: WHITE SOX @ TWINS – RHP Erick Fedde v. RHP Pablo Lopez
WEDNESDAY, 4/24: WHITE SOX @ TWINS – LHP Garrett Crochet v. RHP Joe Ryan
THURSDAY, 4/25: WHITE SOX @ TWINS – RHP Michael Soroka v. RHP Bailey Ober
FRIDAY, 4/26: TWINS @ ANGELS – RHP Louie Varland v. LHP Patrick Sandoval
SATURDAY, 4/27: TWINS @ ANGELS – RHP Chris Paddack v. RHP Jose Soriano
SUNDAY, 4/28: TWINS @ ANGELS – RHP Pablo Lopez v. LHP Reid Detmers

 

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[LastOnePicked]

In January, the heat went out in our home. Gas furnace. The fan worked, wiring good, sensors clean. It was a cracked ignitor. Whenever a spark was needed, there was no ignition. 

Can't think of a better metaphor than that. This team just cannot ignite, and the players needed to stop the spiral just aren't on the field. I watched a bit of the game for the first time this year. Zero heat, zero fire - just no life.

Regardless of what happens against the White Sox, I truly believe it's over already. Eight games back? Sorry, folks - with this roster and rotation, it's not going to happen.

[mikelink45]

Time for a change - at least SWR for Varland.  Who do we have to take Paddock's place?  Can we bring up someone to replace Farmer?  This is two bad years for Vazquez - what next?  Castro may have had a career year last year.  

Jax had been erratic, Thielbar has been bad, Jackson has not been good.  Okert has not been what was advertised.   Why is Acala in the minors?  The pitching was supposed to be the strength, but too many holes.  

The hitting is not worth talking about - it has been covered.

And we are hoping for wins against the Sox - we were supposed to beat the Tigers too. 

[CRF]

It makes for a very, very, long season when things start out like this. Could things somehow turn around? I guess it's possible...heck, anything is possible, but I really can't see it happening. Ownership and the FO let the team and the fanbase down, but they don't swing the bat or pitch...that's on the players. This is an organizational failure, from top to bottom. Everyone. All the progress that was made last season, is totally gone. Changes need to be made.

[Mike Sixel]

I'm starting to lose confidence. But then, I didn't like nearly anything they did this off season, and so far, I'm disappointed to be right...

[silverslugger]

When you're shopping behind the store, in the garbage bin near the employee parking, well, you find yourself in the garbage bin.   

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, mikelink45 said:

Time for a change - at least SWR for Varland.  Who do we have to take Paddock's place?  Can we bring up someone to replace Farmer?  This is two bad years for Vazquez - what next?  Castro may have had a career year last year.  

Jax had been erratic, Thielbar has been bad, Jackson has not been good.  Okert has not been what was advertised.   Why is Acala in the minors?  The pitching was supposed to be the strength, but too many holes.  

The hitting is not worth talking about - it has been covered.

And we are hoping for wins against the Sox - we were supposed to beat the Tigers too. 

Mike this is the most panickmode Ive hurd you.

I agree.

[DocBauer]

1] Jeffers recent slump is only 10 AB. That's just a few games. Vazquez has been good behind the plate, but not good AT the plate save the first couple of games. But if I'm not mistaken, I've heard he's actually been barreling up on the ball pretty decently. Are the hits going to start coming to at least an acceptable level?

2] Then pen has been pretty damn good considering all the injuries. I'm sure not giving up on Thielbar after a couple appearances, and one where the defense really let hum down. Okert has been solid, but maybe stretched a little. Duarte looked like he might be a keeper, so his injury stinks for the Twins, and for himself. What in the H*LL are the Twins doing with Alcala? Despite some injury issues, he's been really good, sometimes dominate, when he throws 1 inning. But they INSIST throwing him multiple innings. A week ago he was going to be asked to throw a THIRD inning before he begged out with some soreness. Then a couple days later they threw him back to back and 2 innings again. At AAA, he threw 2 innings! I'll be ecstatic when Duran is back! But Alcala should be with the Twins throwing ONE inning at a time as a valuable set up arm! Sands has looked downright GOOD. Can he continue?

3] Miranda hasn't looked great, but he's looked like he belongs and MIGHT be ready to settle in. Kirilloff has been really good, as I expected/hoped he would be. Martin isn't THERE just yet, but he looks like he belongs and should be playing daily. Santana is just looking like toast. Despite how horrendous the offense has been, I don't like to have knee jerk reactions this early in the season. But something wasn't right in Wallner's head. Some DISGUSTING umpire calls probably had something to do with that. When a big part of your game is working the count and the umps screw with your approach, it has to exasperate the struggles you're going through. His demotion for a reset makes sense. Can Larnach take advantage? Nice to have Kepler healthy, back, and looking solid in his rehab. Farmer and Castro, and the aforementioned Vazquez are just NOT THIS BAD. The worm WILL turn, but how soon? Lee will need some AAA rehab time, but shouldn't he be close to actually taking the field again? Buxton? COME ON! You're healthy and playing great defense and feeling good again! You've always been streaky, but this is ridiculous! Is he applying too much pressure on himself? Is he fighting bad habits left over from 2023? He needs to GET RIGHT.

4] Varland's STUFF is good. He's just never been this bad at ANY level, including ML. I've heard he's not even throwing the 2 seamer he brought in to the season to help against RH batters who seemed to be his bane. What's in his head right now? Paddack is coming back from TJ and reminds me a bit of Maeda last year. Maeda got a reset, and then looked really good the rest of the 2023 season. I believe Varland has had 4 starts and Paddack 3 until he throws Monday. That's a SSSS to send either of them down for a reset at this point. FURTHER, despite some real hope for SWR and his ONE really good start in the Detroit double header, he's ONE arm you might promote to send one of Varland or Paddack down for said reset to work on some things. With Headrick out at the moment, the AAA cupboard is pretty bare. AGAIN, it's way too early to panic, but at least one of these guys might need a reset soon.

5] INJURIES BE DAMNED, and they are NUMEROUS, at the ML level and at AAA...even the Saints have had to make moves to add guys due to injury...the Twins just shouldn't be this bad! If they didn't GOOF the last game against the Tigers a week ago they would have been .500, or a game under, forgive my memory. Even being swept by the Orioles would have STILL had them a coming home close to .500. But they booted that game away, got swept by the Orioles. 

Now back at home, they blow the 1st game against the Tigers and bottom out in game 3. But they were good enough to go 1-3 against the Dodgers and probably should have been 2-1?

Just NOT booting the ball, just a COUPLE key hits, despite injuries and uneven/bad performances from the back end if the rotation,  the 2024 Twins coulda/shoulda be about .500 right now. And they should be about ready to get some guys back, have a favorable schedule, and be about ready to climb above that .500 mark. 

INSTEAD, we have this MESS that really makes ZERO sense!

I really wish there was some easy answer. I am a lifelong, super dedicated fan. But so far...and I understand we're only about a month in to the season...this is, so far, one of the most disappointing seasons I can remember. Is this poor luck? Are the approaches from the pitching side wrong? Well the top 3 SP seem just fine. Is our offensive approach wrong? Well, despite a bad start to 2023, the Twins still scored runs enough to rank in the top third despite inconsistent production. And they only trailed Houston in the 2nd half of 2023 in run production with our outstanding rookie class, with Buxton a non factor and a very limited Correa. 

MY APOLOGIES!

I'm ranting because I need to!

You can blame ownership as much as you want to. But the TRUTH is, there is enough talent on this roster to be a good team. Much better than they've been so far, despite injuries. 

Rocco and his coaches can only do so much. When arms don't work, is it on the coaches or the players? I mean, we have 3 really good SP. The pen has been solid, for the most part, despite the injuries. The lineup, despite injuries, isn't completely devoid of talent. So do we blame the approach, the "report card" handed out to batters, or their inability to proceed? 

Or is this some weird cosmic Loki baseball god who enjoys messing with the Twins?

My ramble is done! This team is not perfect, but it's a hell of a lot better than we've seen so far. 

[rv78]

Disagree with you Doc. This team is exactly what it is... bad. Who's to blame? The FO, the Manager and the Coaches. Why? Their approach to everything they do. You aren't going to win when you acquire injured pitchers, 1 year wonders, and washed up veterans. Then throw in the all or nothing swing at the plate and they are getting exactly what they want. Right now that is nothing. Add a Manager that plays the lefty/righty matchups to death, which only shows, no confidence in your players to be good except in a situation that was determined by their past and not the present gives any hitter little to no incentive to try. I could just see Kirby, Herbie and G-Man getting pulled in the middle of a game. The boo-birds would have been flying. Only way things will change is when they clean house starting at the top. 

[Fezig]

.193 collective batting average. But wait, according to the data heads the only thing that matters is hard contact and speed of the ball off the bat. Striking out every other at-bat is a by-product of the swinging for the fences approach. Making the pitcher work is much more important than putting yourself in a defensive position each time at the plate.

It's time to ditch that philosophy. Put away all the analytics. Play baseball. 

It's a simple game. You catch the ball. You throw the ball. You hit the ball.

[Doctor Wu]

9 hours ago, DocBauer said:

But the TRUTH is, there is enough talent on this roster to be a good team. Much better than they've been so far, despite injuries. 

Very true, which makes this current condition all the more puzzling, or at least very frustrating. We still have a week to go until the end of April, so hopefully there is still SOME hope for a rebound soon. But man, this team has really looked awful thus far. 

[MABB1959]

If I owned this team I would tell Rocco he will be fired if they don't sweep the White Sox.  I would tell Falvey and Levine to fix this team or they will be gone too.  Twins fans do not need to put up with this nonsense every year.  They did make the playoffs last season but only because of the Division they play in.

[Eris]

“And the softer upcoming portion of the schedule is conducive to going on a run”

haven’t they played Detroit and KC 10 times this month. On average it doesn’t get a lot softer than that. The White Sox are bad but still. 

[Guest]

Martin looks like more of a leadoff hitter than Julien.  Sands looks like more of a starter than Paddock.  Same for SWR and One-Inning-Louie.   Well, that's a start....

[Karbo]

IMO they need to get back to fundamentals, something that doesn't seem important to this team, from the top on down. Hit the ball hard somewhere, anywhere, just hit the ball. Catch and throw the ball to the proper places. Run the bases. Play the guys that are hitting and bench the ones that aren't. Use the hit and run plays. Use bunts to advance guys. Steal a few bases. Just put the darn ball in play with guys in scoring position.

[NotAboutWinning]

Ownership that runs the team like a business instead of a luxury item. FO that totally squandered what little payroll they had to spend. A manager with no feel for the game. Players that are dispirited and a farm system to match. If that doesn't sound like total system failure, I don't know what does. 

[Five minute major]

Geez, how nice would it be to have CES and Steer in this lineup.  I simply do not understand how this trade did not cost the FO their jobs.   This FO is inept and combined with a manager who has no business in the big leagues and you get this putrid product.  It is absolutely unwatchable.   Fire the manager now and the FO immediately after the season.   BUt of course this requires the Pohlads to care about the product and not the bottom line.

 

[nlites09]

Rocco's approach sucks.  Platoon, platoon, platoon.  

 

Move Martin to infield for a bit.  Let Larnach play a complete game.  How many games has Margot won for us?  Farmer & Castro are backups.

 

Rocco must go.

[LastOnePicked]

11 hours ago, DocBauer said:

You can blame ownership as much as you want to. But the TRUTH is, there is enough talent on this roster to be a good team. Much better than they've been so far, despite injuries. 

Here's what puzzles me - many fans here seem to rule out the coaching staff as even a potential source of the problem, but then they admit (rightfully) that there's enough non-injured talent remaining on the roster to be at least be a .500 team. All that remains is to shake a fist at the baseball gods.

No.

Failure to live up to expectations, inability to hit with RISP, injuries on low-contact plays, poor defense and baserunning - these are hallmarks of Twins baseball under this coaching staff. There have been instances and stretches where these issues have faded, but when it rains bad baseball with this team, it pours.

Ownership didn't set the payroll up for "next-level" playoff success, that's true. The FO didn't make the shrewdest off-season moves, that's also true. But in terms of direction, development, preparation, accountability - in a word, coaching - that's where this team really continues to suffer.

[TwinsDr2021]

20 minutes ago, Five minute major said:

Geez, how nice would it be to have CES and Steer in this lineup.  I simply do not understand how this trade did not cost the FO their jobs.   This FO is inept and combined with a manager who has no business in the big leagues and you get this putrid product.  It is absolutely unwatchable.   Fire the manager now and the FO immediately after the season.   BUt of course this requires the Pohlads to care about the product and not the bottom line.

 

Well CES has a slash of 185/190/321 so he would fit nicely with the rest of the guys that are playing and Steer has dropped almost or more than 100 points in everything the last 9 games. But yes he would be much better than everybody on the team as of now (I believe Julien at the end of the year will have just as good of numbers as him)

Can't really argue the rest of your comment.

[Fire Dan Gladden]

Should we be surprised at how this season has started?

Lopez, Ryan, and Ober have been as expected.  Paddack was a wild card that blew up.  The Twins lack of faith in Varland was strong enough bring in DaSclafani in the offseason.  That lack of faith is showing in spades...

While the amount of injuries is worrisome, they are really not the primary blame for the poor start.

Correa, Kiriloff, Jeffers have been good or better.  Everyone else has been exceedingly poor.

I find it hard to blame the coaching staff for a majority of offensive issues.  The lack of player moves in the offseason has severely handcuffed them.  You currently have 12 players with 33+ PA, six of them are batting under .200, three of them are batting under .100.  This is a player issue.  They have to perform on the field. 

This isn't just a bad start, but a historically bad offensive start.  I do expect some regression to the mean (i.e. improvement), but the hole they have dug is almost insurmountable at this point.

The one issue that I have not seen addressed so far is the clubhouse morale.  To go from the highs of last season and the initial optimism of the offseason to having ownership basically say we are gutting the team and do not care about winning.  Moving Polanco, possibly the strongest clubhouse presence outside of Correa, for nothing.  It is easy to see a very negative clubhouse environment to start the season.  You can compound that with the high number of injuries.  Yes, they are professionals, but they are human.  Confidence and morale are very, very real when it comes to success... 

[John Belinski]

The biggest thing the Twins lack is leadership.  They can't change all the players, but they can change team leadership. If they wait too long the season will be over. Rocco just doesn't have a feel for the game and needs to be replaced now, but that will probably not happen. Hard to be a Twin's fan when they are playing so poorly.  Players are making mistakes that should not happen at this level of play and that will not change without a change in leadership. Even good starting pitchers can not pitch a shutout every game.

[Doctor Gast]

After a successful '23 post-season, this FO finally admitted to their "all or nothing" approach & giving all the credit to this approach. But our success wasn't because of this approach it was in spite of it.  IMO we could have gone further w/o it. Most of our production came from the anti-type players Lewis & Correa.   When confronted about league high SOs, they dismissed it as a necessary by-product & doubled down. Maintaining the same HR swing makes it easy for pitchers to adjust plus hoping for pitchers to serve up meatballs in clutch situations is delusional.

IMO FO wants us to blame the players, coaches & even the ownership. Anything that detracts from the real problem of faulty hitting philosophy. I'm in favor of analytics but feeding in crappy philosophy info, yields crappy results.

[MMMordabito]

Fire Baldelli

[Vanimal46]

This upcoming week is as close to must win as you can get in late April. If there’s any chance at salvaging the season they need to reel off at least 6 or 7 wins. 

[Hubie29]

16 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

Time for a change - at least SWR for Varland.  Who do we have to take Paddock's place?  Can we bring up someone to replace Farmer?  This is two bad years for Vazquez - what next?  Castro may have had a career year last year.  

Jax had been erratic, Thielbar has been bad, Jackson has not been good.  Okert has not been what was advertised.   Why is Acala in the minors?  The pitching was supposed to be the strength, but too many holes.  

The hitting is not worth talking about - it has been covered.

And we are hoping for wins against the Sox - we were supposed to beat the Tigers too. 

Thanks for the "chicken little" speech.  Sad thing is you are right. 

[Hubie29]

12 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

This upcoming week is as close to must win as you can get in late April. If there’s any chance at salvaging the season they need to reel off at least 6 or 7 wins. 

Not sure I want them to "salvage" the season.  That will just give them more ammo to repeat roster construction the same way year after year. Sign washed up vets, scrap heap pitchers, and keep the wallet fat.  I think we need a total collapse at this point, and clean the house!

[Hubie29]

13 hours ago, rv78 said:

Disagree with you Doc. This team is exactly what it is... bad. Who's to blame? The FO, the Manager and the Coaches. Why? Their approach to everything they do. You aren't going to win when you acquire injured pitchers, 1 year wonders, and washed up veterans. Then throw in the all or nothing swing at the plate and they are getting exactly what they want. Right now that is nothing. Add a Manager that plays the lefty/righty matchups to death, which only shows, no confidence in your players to be good except in a situation that was determined by their past and not the present gives any hitter little to no incentive to try. I could just see Kirby, Herbie and G-Man getting pulled in the middle of a game. The boo-birds would have been flying. Only way things will change is when they clean house starting at the top. 

I couldn't agree more with your disagreement. You have to dig awfully deep and put on rose colored glasses to see anything positive so far. 

[Hubie29]

5 hours ago, MABB1959 said:

If I owned this team I would tell Rocco he will be fired if they don't sweep the White Sox.  I would tell Falvey and Levine to fix this team or they will be gone too.  Twins fans do not need to put up with this nonsense every year.  They did make the playoffs last season but only because of the Division they play in.

How can you demand that as an owner when you are pinching pennies!!!  I would argue just the opposite! If I was Falvine or gawd help me, Rocco, I would tell Pohlad YOU FIX THIS ####Hole of a team!  Give us some money or we are out of here!!

[bean5302]

6 minutes ago, Hubie29 said:

How can you demand that as an owner when you are pinching pennies!!!  I would argue just the opposite! If I was Falvine or gawd help me, Rocco, I would tell Pohlad YOU FIX THIS ####Hole of a team!  Give us some money or we are out of here!!

Levine tried to get "out of here" last year and the Red Sox didn't even want to see him for a 2nd round of interviews. Being GM of the Twins is one of the most coveted jobs in the world, and I bet you'd absolutely desperately seize the opportunity if it were offered to you. I would. Every poster on this site probably has it as a dream job.

The Twins are operating at $130MM this year with an estimated $163MM in luxury tax payroll. Right in line with being a mid-market team, consistent with their revenues. Their spending rank has been higher than their attendance rank for like 5 years running.

If the Twins were running a payroll of $60 or $80 or even $100MM, you might have a leg to stand on. Instead, they have the 2nd highest payroll in the AL Central and the Pohlad's have green lighted major, if not huge, free agent contracts and expenditures in recent years.