The Twins' Signature Offensive Skill Disappeared Three Weeks Ago. It's Why They're Fading.

[S Bart]

3 hours ago, karcherd said:

Have you seen him try to bunt?

Hey now......you obviously are unaware that he has set a Twins record.  Nobody has been hit by a pitch more than Castro this year!!!! Think of all the bruising that has taken place.

Will get in the Twins Hall of Fame?

Seriously, he has been moved around to so many positions without complaining (unlike Superstar Lewis). He is also close to setting a record as a position player doing the pitching chores in lopsided games.

[Riverbrian]

As I watched this latest Cleveland series. 

One thing kept hitting me over the head. Actually it is something that has been hitting me over the head since the two pickoff attempt rule and the extra inches added to the bag.... but it was something that was really hitting me over the head this week. 

STEALING is back and a part of this game.

It isn't back for the Twins but Cleveland sure seems to be taking advantage. The Twins are last in baseball with 64 swipes which is exactly how many bases Elly De La Cruz has. Could you imagine if your entire team hit as many home runs as Aaron Judge has. That's how far down we are on the spectrum. A single player is producing as much as the entire team does. 

There have been 1,851 bases stolen in 2024 so far. This is back to the level it was at in 1980's. Back when Tim Raines was raining down.

I remember when I used to say things like... it's nice to have a patient Joe Mauer hitting after Carlos Gomez so Gomez could go take a bag. 

Teams will go up and down offensively throughout a season. When a team goes through those teamwide slumps were they just are not producing... The theft of a bag can produce a run when we struggle to produce them in the traditional way. Speed never sleeps is what I heard someone say. Can't remember who. It might have Usain Bolt or Herschal Walker or somebody like that.  

When they put together the 2025 roster in the off-season. I am hopeful that they work on trying to balance the roster out a bit by adding some base stealers and then... of course... letting them do just that. Adding another club to the bag when needed... creating another way to win a game when needed.  

Just go get that Ohtani guy whoever he is... 51 bags is pretty good. He might help. 

 

[Craig Arko]

I seem to recall something Rod Carew said; when he’d find himself in a slump (yeah, it happened) he’d work harder on bunting for hits. Find a way to get on even when stuff isn’t working. That’s why he’s in the HOF.

[Doctor Gast]

4 hours ago, karcherd said:

It is a coaching and organizational issue.  They are retooling the swings in the minor leagues to this approach.  Both Martin and Lee have stated they went back to their original swing at St. Paul and had more success.  Lewis has talked about it at the major league level as well.  

They keep drafting college sluggers because this is the approach they want.  When it works, it produces a lot of runs.  The problem is, it is feast or famine and that rears its ugly head in a short series like the playoffs against better pitching.    The Falvine philosophy is not going to produce a consistent winner without playing more fundamentally sound and just not swing for the fences.

'19 was the year of the "juiced ball", Twins players picked up on it early & started to advise each other on how to capitalize on it & everybody was hitting HRs. We got the MLB HR record & Falvey became the MLB "darling". Everybody loved him including me. Thus started the "moonshot mania" where Sano was the poster child even though the next season the "juiced ball" stopped. 

We still had moderate results with a lot of SOs until the MLB had the book out on us this season. We still had a lot of SOs but very few HRs that started our terrible slump. The approach had to change the focus off HRs to good ABs. If they weren't going to give us pitches to hit HRs, we have to take what they give us. IMO this current slump is due to desperation of trying to solve our run problems by returning to focus on hitting HRs even though they aren't giving us pitches to hit them.

[Parfigliano]

2 hours ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

Two Twins have played more than 122 games and one is a first baseball. Margot has played in 122 but as we know he didn't start at least 29 of those games.

Margot has played in 122 games...asteroid hitting earth problem right there.

[Whitey333]

The Twins are a train wreck and have been for quite some time.  If we miss the playoffs the FO and manager need to go.  Falvey and Rocco need to go nk matter what.  Put players at their best position and keep them there.  Quit moving them around everyday.  Try to maintain a steadier lineup.  Don't expect players to bunt if they don't know how.  Not knowing how to bunt and stealing bases is a direct result of poor management.  Truth is this Twins team has been quite boring to watch for the past 3-4 years.  Yes and all ww hear is excuses about the Twins.  The radio announcers have it down.  We are told daily it's bad umpiring, bad field conditions when on the road,  bad luck, etc.  Could it be these players aren't as good as they are hyped to be?  Could we maybe get a major league manager?

[LA Vikes Fan]

C'mon guys, I think we all know why the Twins are in a tailspin they can't get out of - we're not that good as a team. We know that the pitching is very top heavy without much depth, and I think the same is true on offense The best 2 position players are Correa and Buxton. A lot of their value is on defense. Both are having good years at the plate but neither is have a kind of year where they should hit 3 or 4 and be counted on to consistently produce. That's not who they are.  Correa is a #2 hitter, and Buxton should hit #6, maybe #5. 

Who is supposed to be the meat of the order that will carry us on a daily basis then? Lewis, he of 513 career MLB ABs, Wallner with 477 ABs and a career 40.9% (!) strikeout percentage, Larnach with 977 ABs and a lifetime .230 avg/.723 OPS, and Miranda with 980 ABs and .268 lifetime avg/.734 lifetime OPS? Is it the 38 year old defensive specialist Santana, or maybe the Tiger castoff Castro for whom we're celebrating a .250/.337/.394/.731 "breakout" season? Hopefully we aren't counting on Kepler, he of the lifetime .747 OPS/.232 avg, with the former inflated by his big 2019 (5 years ago) or Jeffers, who's a good hitter for a catcher, but only a slightly above average hitter for any other position.  Neither of those last 4 guys hit above 6 or 7 on a contending team. Santana has hit 3 or 4 the last week and we wonder why we can't score any runs? Really?

My point here is not to run guys down. My point is that this team has punched above it's weight for most of the season but we probably should have seen this coming. The Twins have about 2/3 to 3/4 of a contending team. We're missing real #3 and #4 hitters - think Jose Ramirez/Bo Naylor light at least -  a real #2 starter assuming we think Lopez is a #1, not a #2, and a least 2 late inning relievers, one of whom needs to be left handed.  We really have 1, maybe 2 All Star caliber players in Correa and Lopez, and a group of solid to pretty good complimentary players. Complimentary players are great when they have someone to complement. We don't. 

This has been a fun year but it's pretty much coming to an end. I don't think the Twins will limp into the playoffs, and they go nowhere if they do. They might be better next year if all of the young guys who have had so many MLB ABs or pitched so many MLB innings improve with the experience. I think there's a pretty good chance that at least SWR, Lewis, Wallner, and Miranda will be better next year. Looking back at everything, this was an 85 ish win team all along. Oh well, at least the Vikings are 2-0 (on their way to 9-8). 

[bean5302]

7 hours ago, Patzky said:

It's a lot easier to blame one person, Alcala or Rocco or Thielbar or Zebby, than to point fingers at an entire group ("The Offense") because we all love a scapegoat. Really if the bats did anything at all, anything, we wouldn't even be having this conversation after the Cleveland series. 

So who gets held accountable for failure? Nobody because the Twins have more than 1 employee?

Falvey, Levine and Baldelli's jobs are to get the Twins' employees (players) to deliver competitive performance. It's their responsibility.

The other MLB coaches have responsibility, too, but are you going to blame Pete Maki for not getting enough out of 3 rookies in the rotation including a guy who started the year in A+ ball? Or Maybe you fire Suggs for the reliever meltdowns when Falvey is playing musical chairs with the bullpen roster and Baldelli keeps putting relievers in the positions? How about put it all on the 3rd base coach, Tommy Watkins because he doesn't seem to be able to gauge player speed? Blame the hitting coach for Rocco Baldelli playing Christian Vazquez, Manny Margot and Brooks Lee every single game? Or Popkins for not getting more out of Eddie Julien this year when the Twins have 12 regular hitters at or above MLB average production level?

There is a common denominator. It's the front office and Baldelli. They created the philosophy and they choose the players. The ownership bares responsibility for pulling the rug out at the deadline, but even that could be on Falvey if it was clearly communicated there would be no additional payroll room beyond what he started the year with.