Guardians 4, Twins 2: Too Little, Too Late, Too Naylor

[DJL44]

19 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Miranda is in St Paul but has yet to play.

Bride is doing what we hoped Miranda would do this year.

[mikelink45]

Umpires are always criticized.  They have how many calls per game?  Yes there are some lousy ones and I am in favor of the electronic strike zone.  But I keep seeing the umps mentioned in almost all our losses.  The same umps are there for both teams and it is usually the bad team that finds the most faults with the umpires.  Our problem is not with the men who call the game, it is with those who play and manage the team.

[DJL44]

Twins Hitters OPS+ (min 50 plate appearances)

Wallner 138

Lee 119

France 110

Jeffers 108

Buxton 108

Bader 104

[NYCTK]

10 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

So I’m watching the game and Stewart starts out Naylor with four straight 4 seam FBs.  Then he throws a change up.  Our brilliant tv analyst smartly says, that by throwing the change up, Stewart has now set up Naylor to not sit on the four seam. I literally yelled out “OMG - no, he’s sitting dead red for sure!”  Here comes the 4 seamer and goodbye Mr. Rawlings.  lol. 

I heard that too. Just pure dogshit analysis. Sure, if the change up was a competitive pitch and forced the batter to take or foul off, that commentary makes sense. But the change was in the dirt, not even challenging the hitter. 

Everyone knew he would immediately go back to the fastball and he threw it right down the middle. 

Terrible sequence. Terrible pitching. Terrible commentary. #TwinsBaseball

[UpstateNewYorker]

8 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I don't know how many times this needs to be said:

The Twins do not believe in slide steps. They don't ask any pitcher to use one.

They regularly ignore runners. 

Catchers are on one knee regardless the baserunner situation. 

The Twins, as an organization, do not put much weight on controlling the running game.

 

Decide for yourself whether that's good or bad, important or trivial. 

But it's factual. 

Stolen bases in MLB are as high as they have been since 1915.  Not controlling the running game is another "in the margins" area the FO is failing at.  https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-stolen-bases-highest-in-109-years

[thelanges5]

5 hours ago, knothole61 said:

So disappointing--but really, what can we expect with one-third of the lineup averaging .116. I think the over/under bet on hits per week for the trio of Keirsey, Jr., Gaspar, and Clemens would be two and one-half, and Gasper is by far the class of the group. Mr. Keirsey has done what I would once have considered impossible, made me long for Gasper whenever he is in the box...seriously. Is Miranda injured? If not, wouldn't it be a good idea to have him replace a member of .116 Club? After all, he shares an all-time MLB record for most consecutive hits...all-time! 12 hits in a row for Miranda--how long (months) do you think it might take Keirsey to collect 12 hits? Maybe half a season?

Let's win tomorrow for a split, and Go Wolves!     

Miranda hurt his hand picking up a pack of bottled water and is on the AAA IL. 

[NYCTK]

8 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Catchers are on one knee regardless the baserunner situation.

I can agree with your criticism of pitchers being unable to hold runners. But you've been making this complaint constantly and there's no evidence that I've seen that this hurts the pop time or ability for catchers to throw out runners. In fact I've seen claims to the contrary. 

90% of catching league wide uses this method because every baseball team has concluded there's limited drawbacks that are outweighed by the benefits. 

[Hubie29]

On pace for 68 wins. That sounds about right. 

[Hubie29]

10 hours ago, Parfigliano said:

Absent a shutout this game was 85% lost when Rocco submitted his lineup card.

Couldn't agree more! I had to look it over twice to make sure it was major league. But you know what they say, gotta keep everyone sharp! Hahaha

[thelanges5]

51 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Miranda is in St Paul but has yet to play. Truly McCusker is the only guy there I'd trust to help as May arrives.

Give McCusker the Clemens roster spot when Royce or Castro come back. 

[NYCTK]

19 minutes ago, UpstateNewYorker said:

Stolen bases in MLB are as high as they have been since 1915.  Not holding runners on is another "in the margins" area the FO is failing at.  https://www.mlb.com/news/mlb-stolen-bases-highest-in-109-years

The league intentionally changed rules to increase stolen bases. It's not because of some league wide indifference. And the Twins gave up fewer stolen bases than 2/3 of the league and still about middle of the pack this year. 

[thelanges5]

Sands hasn’t pitched since Friday. injured or just resting, has anyone heard anything?

[JD-TWINS]

10 hours ago, Nashvilletwin said:

So I’m watching the game and Stewart starts out Naylor with four straight 4 seam FBs.  Then he throws a change up.  Our brilliant tv analyst smartly says, that by throwing the change up, Stewart has now set up Naylor to not sit on the four seam. I literally yelled out “OMG - no, he’s sitting dead red for sure!”  Here comes the 4 seamer and goodbye Mr. Rawlings.  lol. 

Not enough pitch mix and his location isn’t sharp enough to make up for only two pitches. “Look for a fastball in a location I like” is literally the approach v. Stewart. Some days, a lot of days he looks electric……..he did throw the night before though.

Bottom line is just lack of execution by him and by Lopez as well. Lopez threw Ramirez 3 straight down and in fastballs to start his AB and the 3rd was lined into right field - no logic to the pitch mix nor location! I think Lopez got pulled because he was emotionally wound after the throwing error and Stewart strikes guys out - not a terrible move.

I gotta say here, & I generally like the guy, but Ryan Jeffers does his pitchers no favors behind the plate! His bobble of what was nearly a pitch out with Santana stealing was a blunder - happens. His inability to block pitch down & keep it in front of him allowed Santana to get to 3rd with only 1 out (maybe none?) - happens. However, his total lack of ability to frame anything close is really bad. The umpire is responsible ultimately to call strikes, strikes. 4 pitches within 2 batters were in the TV box (all called balls) and Jeffers catches the pitches and flails his mitt 18-24” away from where he catches the ball - it looks like he’s trying to steal every pitch by brining the to center of plate and belt high - it’s so obvious that (to me) it doesn’t give our pitchers (last night, Lopez) any chance of getting marginal pitches around the periphery of the zone. Catch the ball and be still - don’t appear surprised with each pitch’s location. Anyway, wish he was improving - don’t see it in defense. Costly!

 

[thelanges5]

Patrick Reusse doesn’t like the lineups either:

The lineups Twins are running out so far in 2025 are among half-dozen most feeble collections on a daily basis that we’ve seen in 65-yr history of franchise.
Brutal.

*Note:This opinion being offered by witness to their first-ever game at Met Stadium.
Complete waste of good pitching staff.

[Dave Borton]

Sherry, well written summary of the game. Some of the best germane comments of this thread as well.

Well stated, all.
 

 

[JD-TWINS]

32 minutes ago, thelanges5 said:

Miranda hurt his hand picking up a pack of bottled water and is on the AAA IL. 

Surprised nobody here has taken the opportunity to roast Miranda on this (maybe I missed comments?)……..I saw a female blogger, that I guess follows the Twins regularly, take a shot right after it happened - pretty funny. I wasn’t sure of the accuracy? Apparently, he was checking out at Target or similar and started to drop a case of water and grabbed to catch it and got hurt………..hard to imagine. Professional athlete.

[David Maro]

Scouting is telling pitchers fastballs down the middle to Manzardo and Naylor. Apparently no one payed attention to Naylor's at bat the night before. Paddock kept throwing fastballs by him until he timed him up.

Then of course the Little League team shows up with Jeffers and Lopez. Let's throw the ball into RF and hit the pitcher in the back. 

[TwinsDr2021]

No serious team thinks hey lets put Gasner at DH and lead him off, and just for sihts and giggles lets also play Keirsay today.

 

[Karbo]

2 hours ago, Mark G said:

In basketball they run a rotation of players each game, with the starters getting the most minutes, but the reserves spelling them for a certain number of minutes a game to keep them as fresh as possible.    Rocco does the same type of thing; our "starters" play more games than the others, but he runs a rotation of sorts using the bench guys to spell the starters a certain number of games a season.  Everyone plays and everyone rests.  Games like yesterday are simply an outcome of that overall plan.  It is simply who he is and how he believes players should be used.  Yes, it will keep players rested; and it will result in games like yesterday.  He simply believes the former is more important than the latter.  Actually, he uses the pitching staff in a similar manner, but that is a subject I get grief for pointing out, so..........😉

IMHO its a stupid plan. Especially against a division foe.

[Linus]

10 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I don't know how many times this needs to be said:

The Twins do not believe in slide steps. They don't ask any pitcher to use one.

They regularly ignore runners. 

Catchers are on one knee regardless the baserunner situation. 

The Twins, as an organization, do not put much weight on controlling the running game.

 

Decide for yourself whether that's good or bad, important or trivial. 

But it's factual. 

Preach. So frustrating to watch. 

[DJL44]

46 minutes ago, David Maro said:

Scouting is telling pitchers fastballs down the middle to Manzardo and Naylor.

I'm pretty sure no coach or scout in the history of baseball has told a pitcher to throw a fastball middle-middle.

[Linus]

10 hours ago, USAFChief said:

I don't know how many times this needs to be said:

The Twins do not believe in slide steps. They don't ask any pitcher to use one.

They regularly ignore runners. 

Catchers are on one knee regardless the baserunner situation. 

The Twins, as an organization, do not put much weight on controlling the running game.

 

Decide for yourself whether that's good or bad, important or trivial. 

But it's factual. 

Preach. So frustrating to watch. 

[Doctor Gast]

3 hours ago, Karbo said:

I can't believe he decided this was a throw away game. Starting not 1 but 3 AAAA guys. Rocco has got to go!

& leadoff with Gasper. How can you normally score more than 2 runs against a good team with this lineup that had 13Ks? 

[Doctor Gast]

A pretty sad game with so many bad calls, bad decisions & bad play. Glad I couldn't watch it.

[Mark G]

53 minutes ago, Karbo said:

IMHO its a stupid plan. Especially against a division foe.

I hope I did not leave the impression I thought it was a good plan.  I haven't liked it since day 1.  🤕

It is just who he is.  

[LambchoP]

What did Rocco expect with a lineup including Gasper (leading off BTW?!) Clemens and Keirsey? Three guys that have no business starting anywhere on the field. Injuries are turning this team into a minor league team that has 1/3 to half a lineup struggling to hit .200. very boring games to watch as well ....

[MMMordabito]

Gasper in the leadoff spot says it all.

What's that about needing an MLB manager?

[Parfigliano]

1 hour ago, TwinsDr2021 said:

No serious team thinks hey lets put Gasner at DH and lead him off, and just for sihts and giggles lets also play Keirsay today.

 

Don't forget Clemens.

[bean5302]

13 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I was criticized yesterday for saying that I did not think Julien was doing his job as lead-off.  Evidently Rocco agreed, but that does not make me feel better when Gasper is the solution.

I feel like I should just have a paste option for why pull the SP.  But old Rocco and I really diverge here.  Is our BP so great that we don't want to have our SP face the next rotation of the lineup?  I thought SP was a strength...

As I recall, there were a couple arguments somebody made about Julien leading off. Julien does see a lot of pitches so he can provide a lot of insight and data for other guys, but he's not swinging at the ones he should swing at and he is swinging at the ones he shouldn't. Personally, I think it's mental stress from the pressure to produce or be demoted fast, like he was last year. There's almost a desperation in his approach.

Julien hasn't been great over the past 10-15 games, but he has been adequate despite his shortcomings. Gasper is worse as a lead off guy by any reasonable strategy one can imagine, I think.

[Mike Sixel]

I too wish those guys weren't on the roster, but they are. Gardenhire played his whole bench also. At some point, if guys are on the roster, they play. 

The issue is the guys on the roster.