Phillies 2, Twins 1: Simeon Woods Richardson Good, Rest of Team Bad in Fitting Game 162

[Jeff K]

I'm wondering if the Twins witnessed Kepler's final regular season home run.  That would be sppropriate as I can't see him with the Phillies next year, if anywhere.  Martin has been a nice bright spot and I like him as a 4th outfielder and depth at 2nd base.  While Larnach's hitting is decent, he is a pure DH.  The Twins MUST improve their defense and that leaves Larnach out.  Same for Wallner, who might still blossom, but somewhere else.  The Twins can't be haunted by the ghost of David Ortiz (dropping him) and fear what might happen.  They need to open up their outfield positions to the youngsters who have a nice upside and are better fielders.  

[mbuehrer68]

I would love to see an analysis of extra inning performance since they put the runner on 2nd base. We can never seem to score the runner from second and rarely bunt them over to start the inning. Outman was 100% going to strike out. That was inevitable. 

Getting that runner in seems like a true measure of A) your Manager and B) your hitting coach. 

We have been awful from the jump and I would love to see the numbers.

[jmlease1]

A very 2025 Twins end to the season. I just hope it's the end of the Genesis Cabrera Experience in MN. (He's been on 6 teams in the past 3 seasons and been acceptable for exactly one of them. Proof of the old saw that all you need is to be LH with a pulse to get a job in an MLB bullpen I guess)

SWR did quite well, and overall had another good season for the Twins. He's certainly viable as a back of the rotation guy and had a good september for a team in free-fall. 36 K's in 27 IP in September is nice to see, and he pitched some real gems against good teams this season. I've always liked him and if he can maintain his velocity and finish off more hitters consistently with that split-change he's got a bright future.

The lineup struggles already against LHP and without Buxton and Keaschall in there it was probably always going to be a long day, but maybe it helped solidify that Outman should not be back at least? It's one thing to give someone like Roden (who has options remaining) another look next season and another thing to bring back Outman who does not, and additionally looked worse than advertised in the field, while looking lost at the plate more often than not.

Nice to have Jeffers finish the season with 3 base knocks? Hope that wasn't his swan song too, but I have many fears about the Cheap Pohlads further tearing down the roster and no one should trust them at all with anything at this point.

There needs to be some substantive and significant changes made to this franchise (roster, development, business, PR, etc) and it feels like the only real change that will happen is to keep slashing payroll.

[Nshore]

What's really kind of scary is that before the trade deadline the Twins' braintrust looked at James Outman and said "He looks like a player who can help us".  Hard to fathom.  And these are the same people making the personnel decisions to remake the roster.

[Mike Sixel]

Larnach put up 0.2 fWAR this year. I hope that's not "solid" in the FO's mind. 

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, Nshore said:

What's really kind of scary is that before the trade deadline the Twins' braintrust looked at James Outman and said "He looks like a player who can help us".  Hard to fathom.  And these are the same people making the personnel decisions to remake the roster.

Terrifying. Truly. 

[Mike Sixel]

3 hours ago, Jeff K said:

I'm wondering if the Twins witnessed Kepler's final regular season home run.  That would be sppropriate as I can't see him with the Phillies next year, if anywhere.  Martin has been a nice bright spot and I like him as a 4th outfielder and depth at 2nd base.  While Larnach's hitting is decent, he is a pure DH.  The Twins MUST improve their defense and that leaves Larnach out.  Same for Wallner, who might still blossom, but somewhere else.  The Twins can't be haunted by the ghost of David Ortiz (dropping him) and fear what might happen.  They need to open up their outfield positions to the youngsters who have a nice upside and are better fielders.  

Kepler put up 3x as much fWAR as Larnach....and people want to keep Trevor.....

[Jeff K]

17 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

Kepler put up 3x as much fWAR as Larnach....and people want to keep Trevor.....

Not me.  And the Phillies have a higher standard than the Twins.