Nationals 9, Twins 3: Twins and Ryan Embarrassed by the Nationals at Home

[NotAboutWinning]

Embarrassed is the right word. This team needs a wake-up call. Make some trades, demote a couple, bring up some AAA players who are willing to hustle. The remainder might realize their place is not guaranteed. Don't know if it would result in more wins, but might be a whole lot more fun to watch!

[Steven Trefz]

4 hours ago, Blyleven2011 said:

The Minnesota twins have now turned into the ----

The Minnesota possums  , play dead at home and get killed on the road  ...

It's been a year long blunder dating back to August of last season  ... 

I'm stealing that possum line for next winter's road trip series... absolutely stealing it. Like other teams steal bases I've been told.

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, Aggies7 said:

I agree with this sentiment but you should see how the Phillies fans feel about Kepler these days lol

 

Fair. It wasn't a bad decision to let him leave. But the point is they didn't replace him. They thought a DH playing a bad RF that strikes out in a third of his trips to the plate would make up for it. Turns out that's bad! 

[NYCTK]

1 hour ago, Hosken Bombo Disco said:

Look more at the raw baseball talent than the actual results.

I am.

They are one of the slowest and worst fielding teams. Fans like to ignore that type of baseball talent in favor of some offensive promise, but the Twins don't really even have that. 

[Larry Janisewski]

15 hours ago, thelanges5 said:

Only 3 teams worse than the Twins since June 1 - Nationals and Rockies are two of them. 
 

1-12 RISP, 8 LOB tonight; 0-5 RISP, 7 LOB last night. 2.3 run per game average in the past three. 

And sadly the Twins recently lost 2 of 3 to the Rockies and are in danger of doing the same vs the Nationals. The Nationals came into this series with the worst reliever ERA in MLB. The Twins have proceeded to score 1 run in 8.1 innings vs their relievers during the first 2 games of the series.

I was excited about the hitting coach change the Twins made after last season only to see more feudal hitting this season. I obviously isn't the hitting coaches fault. Time for some changes.

[Doctor Gast]

4 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

I was all fired up, hoping the Twins would wake up & go on a tear & put some of this trade talk behind us. But no, completely dead, like they have given up. Poor defense & terrible clutch hitting.

Tigers are swooning, like the Twins did last year. Twins need to do what the Tigers did last season. Shore up the rotation & catching & go for it. Get the players fired up. Where's the fire?

[David Maro]

The players are all freaking out wondering if they will be gone by Thursday. The problem is its time to show up and do something. This is the job of the manager and unfortunately they don't have one. You can trade this guy or that guy,but nothing will change. They only play homerun not baseball. 

Listening to the booth almost every time Corey P opens his mouth he's talking about the homerun. Time for a clean sweep from the FO all the way to the booth.

[Patzky]

5 hours ago, Doctor Gast said:

Tigers are swooning, like the Twins did last year. Twins need to do what the Tigers did last season. Shore up the rotation & catching & go for it. Get the players fired up. Where's the fire?

Wheres the Skubal?

[Doctor Gast]

55 minutes ago, Patzky said:

Wheres the Skubal?

I think he's on paternal leave too.

[Doctor Gast]

The rotation is in shambles. How can we expect to compete under these conditions? To depend on Adams? Where's our help after Lopez went down?

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Doctor Gast said:

The rotation is in shambles. How can we expect to compete under these conditions? To depend on Adams? Where's our help after Lopez went down?

And Ober and Festa. How deep do you think any team is in starting pitching that is good? You wanted a guy that just retired he's so bad.....

[Doctor Gast]

10 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

And Ober and Festa. How deep do you think any team is in starting pitching that is good? You wanted a guy that just retired he's so bad.....

I'm not like many who think that if a team looks good on paper, then we're good. Not looking at the underlying conditions. Yeah, we look good on paper. But ignore the fact that Ober started the season sicker than a dog & an impinged hip. Ryan was on the IL for the 2nd half of last season. Paddack has a history of arm problems  & is still recovering from TJ, we are too dependent on rookies SWR (who went down to AAA to find himself), Matthews, (was still on the IL) & Festa, (who quickly started the season with a fatigued arm) & very quickly it became obvious that we had nobody in AAA who resemble a SP that could come up. I looked at our rotation as fragile that needed to be properly managed

The last SP I'd thought would go down was Lopez. Yet he was our 1st real casualty. Red flags & alarms should have gone off but nothing, crickets. But hey, man, we still look good on paper. Our rotation became unraveled & we went into a swoon that we really haven't recovered from. Ryan has been steady, SWR & Festa have regained some of their footing & Paddack has pitched some good games here & there but where has that gotten us? To win games we have to have constant pitching & not have to put in a situation where we have to depend on an Adams. In the beginning of the season, I'm not only looking at past stats but look at the future condition of the rotation coming postseason. I'm not looking at how we look on paper but how many SPs we will have on IL & others who will be worn down that can't pitch quality innings come postseason.

I like to compare a person who focuses on past stats as a driver who drives a car & is always looking back & fail to see what's around & ahead of them. He's an accident ready to happen. Twins can look at the stats & say we look good on paper, we don't need anybody. They can look at  Kyle Gibson, who started the season w/o spring training & ramping up time, got thrown into the fire & unsurprisingly got burned; say he's bad not worth our time. & fail to see who he is & what he can do to help us. Gibson got some ramp up time at TB AAA & was very good, when he left to become a FA. Gibson isn't going to blow you away w/ his velo or stuff but he's going to give you steady veteran quality innings that the Twins needed. He's also give you that mentor that have been there & done that, that stabilizing presence to anchor the young SP when things start to unravel. Somebody to eat innings so nobody will get overextended. Gibson retired not because he thought he no longer had it but because of the teams like the Twins that felt they didn't need him.

I've been listening to Kyle Gibson on STL podcasts. Gibson is a good, very enjoyable to listen to & honest person. He said he was ready & able to pitch & that it wasn't the reason why he retired. Twins could have used him not only what he could do on the field but also his presence on the field, in the dugout & in the clubhouse. Gibson has always been well like by Twins players, which goes beyond stats.