Red Sox 6, Twins 1: Ryan Jeffers Homers in Sisyphean Loss

[Danchat]

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

Alcala needs to be off the MLB roster. I don't think he's tradable anymore, and with his stuff, I'm hesitant to DFA him and watch him turn into the next Yennier Cano.

I'm not, we gave up on Cano only after 10 appearances in the majors compared to Alcala having 144 and 5 years of service time. Even if Alcala reverts back to his peak performance, he's still a guy with a career FIP over 4.0 and his strikeout rate never reached his truest potential. He's a lost cause now, and sometimes to have to bite the bullet and let a guy go even if he randomly overachieves later on. Sometimes players need a change of scenery and he won't get that here.

[S Bart]

4 hours ago, Bodie said:

If Clemens was half as personable as a player as he was in the Twins booth for an inning, he'd be in the Hall...

I can only speak from experience. I have been fortunate to meet and have conversations with players ranging from Mantle to Killebrew. Harmon was my all-time favorite, but Clemens was so very kind to my son. He spent time chatting with him and signed his cast. It was memorable.

[FargoFanMan]

2 hours ago, jorgenswest said:

Agree on McCusker.

As for bullpen use I think there are several teams with similar or more extreme use of the pen this year. The Twins are 7th in bullpen games and 15th in bullpen innings. The Dodgers have the best record in baseball and go to their bullpen more than any other team. Other winning teams also make frequent use of their bullpen. Teams can win going to their bullpen frequently. They can’t win when they score two or fewer runs in nearly half their games. They need more offense and McCusker might be the best hope right now.

Exactly! Having a lineup that can consistently put up more than let’s say 1 run allows the bullpen to be used in a way where they don’t have to be perfect in order to keep the team in the game. For most teams even being down by one or two runs is technically to them still in the game. This bullpen is tasked on a game by game basis with having to preserve a tied ballgame or at best a one run lead where the score is 1-0 with no chance of this team making a comeback. Alcala is a head case but he’s just the weakest link in a solid bullpen tasked with having to be perfect every night.

[laloesch]

26 minutes ago, FargoFanMan said:

Exactly! Having a lineup that can consistently put up more than let’s say 1 run allows the bullpen to be used in a way where they don’t have to be perfect in order to keep the team in the game. For most teams even being down by one or two runs is technically to them still in the game. This bullpen is tasked on a game by game basis with having to preserve a tied ballgame or at best a one run lead where the score is 1-0 with no chance of this team making a comeback. Alcala is a head case but he’s just the weakest link in a solid bullpen tasked with having to be perfect every night.

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I wouldn’t exactly call this bullpen solid.  They’ve definitely got some very weak links.  Can they be fixed?  Possibly.  But truth is they do have to be perfect with this anemic offense and Rocco is not making it easy on them pulling starters early.  The more I see of SWR this year the more I think he needs to transition to the pen for a while.  

[bean5302]

1 hour ago, Danchat said:

I'm not, we gave up on Cano only after 10 appearances in the majors compared to Alcala having 144 and 5 years of service time. Even if Alcala reverts back to his peak performance, he's still a guy with a career FIP over 4.0 and his strikeout rate never reached his truest potential. He's a lost cause now, and sometimes to have to bite the bullet and let a guy go even if he randomly overachieves later on. Sometimes players need a change of scenery and he won't get that here.

Alcala had a 3.24 ERA last year, dude. In his only other full season, he was also solid.

He's got 12 appearances this year.

While he's not getting results, it's pretty clear his "stuff" isn't the issue. Obviously struggling with location, but unlike a guy like Varland, Alcala doesn't give up a ton of hard contact and exit velocities.

[FargoFanMan]

1 minute ago, laloesch said:

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I wouldn’t exactly call this bullpen solid.  They’ve definitely got some very weak links.  Can they be fixed?  Possibly.  But truth is they do have to be perfect with this anemic offense and Rocco is not making it easy on them pulling starters early.  The more I see of SWR this year the more I think he needs to transition to the pen for a while.  

I would agree they are probably not top 5 like they have been projected now 2 years in a row but I think this bad lineup is bleeding into the bullpen if that makes sense? I watch quite a bit of baseball besides the Twins and on a night by night basis I watch a lot of good teams and good bullpens give up runs late. But, those teams in a lot of cases put up a fight once they go to bat and the score is hardly ever 1-0 or 1-1. The fact that the game is essentially over once the other team scores the go ahead run and the fact that the bullpen is only ever protecting a one run lead puts a lot of pressure on that bullpen to be perfect night in night out. This isn’t a twins problem. It’s a twins offense problem. Also when you can’t rely on your infield defense it puts even more pressure on the relief pitchers. Not being able to score just hampers the whole team machine that is “winning”

[Bad News TC Bears]

Seems like the curse right now is strong starting pitching, occasional good bullpen, then followed by gut wrenching offensive gymnastics. I.E. Lots of hits with a couple of runs... Exciting start only to throw up our themselves late in the game. I love watching some of the guys battle... But really this needs to be consistentcy throughout a game... Maybe somebody should care enough to get mad and throw a bunch of bats into the field or kick dirt on the ump like the good ole'days... Jack Morris, Dan Gladden, other old Twins wouldn't let teams dance on them........…….................

[joefish]

It might be Zebby time. 

Alcala can go reset.

[FargoFanMan]

26 minutes ago, laloesch said:

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I wouldn’t exactly call this bullpen solid.  They’ve definitely got some very weak links.  Can they be fixed?  Possibly.  But truth is they do have to be perfect with this anemic offense and Rocco is not making it easy on them pulling starters early.  The more I see of SWR this year the more I think he needs to transition to the pen for a while.  

SWR is a capable, reliable, dependable 5th starter. This isn’t on the pitching at all. It’s on the offense. Plain and simple. The lineup is bleeding into the pitching. If the lineup consistently put up 4 or 5 runs the pitching would be a non issue. Also, Festa and Mathew’s are not the saviors everyone claims them to be. They’re good with lots of upside but they’re not the second coming of Johan. They’re not good enough to overcome an offense only scoring 1 run game after game. Neither was Johan.

[joefish]

15 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Offense has scored 7 runs in the past 4 games. 

That's Noffense.

Or offensive indifference.

[jkcarew]

17 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

“In slang, "clowned" generally means to be ridiculed, mocked or made fun of

I thought the term had something to do with John Wayne Gacy.

This doesn’t seem that bad.

[Danchat]

4 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Alcala had a 3.24 ERA last year, dude. In his only other full season, he was also solid.

He's got 12 appearances this year.

While he's not getting results, it's pretty clear his "stuff" isn't the issue. Obviously struggling with location, but unlike a guy like Varland, Alcala doesn't give up a ton of hard contact and exit velocities.

His numbers were solid last year, but that didn't stop him from collapsing down the stretch enough to earn a demotion to AAA. So it's not just the past 12 appearances that he's been struggling.

[Parfigliano]

6 hours ago, laloesch said:

I’m not saying you’re wrong but I wouldn’t exactly call this bullpen solid.  They’ve definitely got some very weak links.  Can they be fixed?  Possibly.  But truth is they do have to be perfect with this anemic offense and Rocco is not making it easy on them pulling starters early.  The more I see of SWR this year the more I think he needs to transition to the pen for a while.  Aaa

AAAA

[bean5302]

4 hours ago, Danchat said:

His numbers were solid last year, but that didn't stop him from collapsing down the stretch enough to earn a demotion to AAA. So it's not just the past 12 appearances that he's been struggling.

Sure. Might be as many as 13 games. You're right.

 

[JD-TWINS]

23 hours ago, bean5302 said:

Yeah, would have ended the inning 1-1. Tough not to find fault with that play by Julien. The long standing conventional technique would be to lean over and field the ball on the run or dive for the stop because it prevents the ball from getting past the fielder, period. Julien's technique, that I've seen him use many times, is to knee slide while fielding. It puts him in a bad position to view the ground ball and at what seems like an awkward angle to field it, but it's kind of a combo move. It provides him with a somewhat better chance of stopping the ball from going into the outfield if he mishandles it (didn't work here) than fielding the ball on the run, and it provides him with a faster throw than a full dive. Devers was out by a mile even if Julien dove. Bad instincts, bad technique, bad situational awareness in this case. Does the fault lie with Julien or the Twins' coaches for having Julien use that technique?

PLAYER - PLAYER - PLAYER if you haven’t learned techniques and refined them by age 25 you’re just not very good! You can’t coach results. You can coach strategy - placement - & yes, technique, but the player has to put in the reps and perfect/master. Coaches don’t make plays.

There’s a reason that many, many successful coaches (numerous sports) say “………..good players make good coaches”!

Eddie has zero instincts and that’s tough to overcome at his age - not impossible but pretty tough.