The 5 Most Telling Quotes from Derek Shelton's Introductory Presser

[mnfireman]

On 11/5/2025 at 5:59 AM, Riverbrian said:

Fundamentals should not be an issue at the major league level. 

On any given day, playoffs included, the lack of fundamentals at the MLB level can by seen from any team; bad secondary leads, overthrows to the cut-off man, not knowing the count/how many outs, inability to sacrifice bunt, etc...

[Riverbrian]

9 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

On any given day, playoffs included, the lack of fundamentals at the MLB level can by seen from any team; bad secondary leads, overthrows to the cut-off man, not knowing the count/how many outs, inability to sacrifice bunt, etc...

Absolutely

Every game I've watched perhaps at least once per game there is a fundamental issue from either squad.

We all notice them when they happen. We also tend to take for granted the many many times that the fundamentals are executed correctly. 

Players should know the fundamentals by the time they reach the majors. 

Doesn't mean they will execute them perfectly at all times. The Gophers are pretty fundamentally sound at the college level. It's isn't unreasonable to expect your high school team to play with decent enough fundamentals. 

After having fundamentals drilled into you at High School, College, The Minor Leagues.

They should have a pretty clear understanding when they reach the majors. 

 

[Craig Arko]

14 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Absolutely

Every game I've watched perhaps at least once per game there is a fundamental issue from either squad.

We all notice them when they happen. We also tend to take for granted the many many times that the fundamentals are executed correctly. 

Players should know the fundamentals by the time they reach the majors. 

Doesn't mean they will execute them perfectly at all times. The Gophers are pretty fundamentally sound at the college level. It's isn't unreasonable to expect your high school team to play with decent enough fundamentals. 

After having fundamentals drilled into you at High School, College, The Minor Leagues.

They should have a pretty clear understanding when they reach the majors. 

 

And was there actually ever a time when this wasn’t the case? Players are not machines, as much as we like to pretend that they are.

[Riverbrian]

40 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

And was there actually ever a time when this wasn’t the case? Players are not machines, as much as we like to pretend that they are.

To me... It's kind of like those family discussions around the Thanksgiving table.  

Nobody sits around talking about the thousands of times that I parked the car successfully in the garage without incident. 

They like to bring up that one time I drove the car through the garage door. I kind of lost my fundamentals on that one. 

The garage story is told every year. It has been told so often that my Turkey taste buds have been conditioned to think that the turkey tastes different if nobody is around to tell the story while I'm eating it.    

My wife likes to focus on the couple of times that I accidentally tipped my glass of grape juice over onto our white carpet in the living room. When it happens, it's quite tramatic for her and she blurts out that I spill all the time. She isn't even considering the millions of times that I successfully lifted the glass to my face and drank from it without incident.

It doesn't matter... she is convinced that I have a fundamental problem reaching for that glass. She stares at me if I bring a beer into the living room and suggests I sit in the kitchen and drink my beer.    

Once you hit a garage door and spill purple juice. People start to question your fundamentals because each fundamental mistake is loud. 

The Twins certainly spilled some grape juice the last couple of years. Do they know the fundamentals? I'll bet they do. Did they execute every time?: No they do not. How do they compare to other teams? No idea... However... I also see the other teams do some dumb things.    

[Craig Arko]

21 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

To me... It's kind of like those family discussions around the Thanksgiving table.  

Nobody sits around talking about the thousands of times that I parked the car successfully in the garage without incident. 

They like to bring up that one time I drove the car through the garage door. I kind of lost my fundamentals on that one. 

The garage story is told every year. It has been told so often that my Turkey taste buds have been conditioned to think that the turkey tastes different if nobody is around to tell the story while I'm eating it.    

My wife likes to focus on the couple of times that I accidentally tipped my glass of grape juice over onto our white carpet in the living room. When it happens, it's quite tramatic for her and she blurts out that I spill all the time. She isn't even considering the millions of times that I successfully lifted the glass to my face and drank from it without incident.

It doesn't matter... she is convinced that I have a fundamental problem reaching for that glass. She stares at me if I bring a beer into the living room and suggests I sit in the kitchen and drink my beer.    

Once you hit a garage door and spill purple juice. People start to question your fundamentals because each fundamental mistake is loud. 

The Twins certainly spilled some grape juice the last couple of years. Do they know the fundamentals? I'll bet they do. Did they execute every time?: No they do not. How do they compare to other teams? No idea... However... I also see the other teams do some dumb things.    

And this should have been Shelton’s statement at the presser.

[MGX]

Seems like a big over reaction to introductory press conference. Maybe we should allow him to manage for a season before passing judgement.

This is about what I expected in an introductory press conference.

 

[ashbury]

11 hours ago, JADBP said:

Yeah...this will substantially improve the value of the Twins franchise....like, REALLY???  Are the Pohlad's really believing the insanity of this plan?  Strip out all of the value of the team so it is more attractive to potential buyers?  That's your plan?  That's how you are going to sell the team for MORE money?  OMG the absolute stupidity is frightening!

 

Welcome to another episode of Are You Smarter Than A Billionaire?

[jkcarew]

4 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

A general plan actually exists.  I highly doubt hearing more complete unknowns made Shelton really want this job.

The fact that he’s unemployed and in extreme low demand is what made Shelton want the job. Also, I doubt that Shelton is worried about sullying his major league winning percentage, since it can’t possibly go much lower than it already is. Even if Shelton didn’t believe a word Falvey said in the interview, he still takes the job and says what he said at the presser, because…why wouldn’t he.

The presser was a nonevent. Nothing at all to be gleaned good or bad, IMO. Still, they made sure to spin with misleading phrases like “young players”, when the current major league roster is, in fact, NOT young relative to the majority of the league. Transparency would have had Falvey and Shelton referring to “bad” or “flawed” players, not young players.