Winning again

[Monkeypaws]

I was kind of pumped thinking the Twins had locked up a top 5 draft pick before the All-Star break.

 

Now they are playing great defense, getting some clutch hits, some quality starts, and look like a ball club again.

 

At the end of the day, I'll take a Twins win over a loss, but given the quality you find at the top of the draft, I do regret that we will probably move up the standings a bit.

 

Better to be really good or really bad, that is the question?

 

It seems mediocrity breeds mediocrity.

[howieramone1406390264]

Always best to win.

[old nurse]

Although the who sucks worse than the Astro's contest is not one you want to win, the race to the bottom will get a little more weitd once teams start packing it in. The White Sox quit first so they may win the race. It is way to early to figure the final alignment of the top 10.

[whosafraidofluigirussolo]

I think this "debate" has played out more than once on these forums already. No professional sports team tries to lose except in the very few cases like the Black Sox that are taken as beyond the pale and fundamentally unsportsmanlike.

 

There is room for a team to compete and try to win while still doing things like: knowing that it isn't as good as other teams; giving playing time to unproven players as an investment in the future; making trades that weaken the current team to the potential benefit of the future team. A higher draft pick can and, I think, should be part of the calculation - in that it's one more incentive for a team's management to be realistic about not contending in the present and thinking toward the future.

 

I think a lot of the supposed debate over rooting for the Twins to lose has mistaken an enthusiastic attitude about these kinds of sacrificing-present-for-future moves for an enthusiasm for a strategy of losing. I personally am all about the former; I don't think there's anything wrong with fans cheering losses in the middle of an already-lost season, either, if the losses go along with that future focus and rebuilding process. Anyone who does certainly has to know that the people actually playing and managing the games will never actually punt a season as a strategy ever.

[TheLeviathan]

Things might change if we can pull off a few trades in the next week. Which I've built several shrines for already.

 

You should too.

[DaveW]

I would

Like to see the twins get around 78 wins in order to gain some momentum going into next season. Much easier to add 8-12 wins for next year than adding 20-30 wins if you lose 100 games again.

[Benchwarmerjim]

they way I look at it is that the Twins are going to need to upper tier free agents to fill out a good pitching staff and fill in some holes in the lineup. Better to win and make to team look competitive to those players than it is to lose and gain 3 or 4 draft slots for a player that is 4 years away.

 

not that I am against high end draft picks. We got some of those the last few years. Now lets win some playoff games.

[howieramone1406390264]

I would

Like to see the twins get around 78 wins in order to gain some momentum going into next season. Much easier to add 8-12 wins for next year than adding 20-30 wins if you lose 100 games again.

I agree. A couple of these guys are starting to look like they belong and plenty of time for another one or two. We rebuilding or as Terry Ryan would say, it's a transitional year. Things look so much better than they did a year ago and I'm starting to think they will make at least a small incremental step before the season ends. We all know the cavalry is on the way.

[E. Andrew]

Among the many things that make baseball and hockey my favorite sports is the fact that there is very little incentive to tank. Especially in baseball, the draft is a crap-shoot. Yes, talent is more likely to be found at the top, but in my opinion, you never have to be concerned with whether or not your favorite baseball or hockey team is trying to win.

[Danchat]

Look, the Twins can't continue this winning. The starting pitching is flukey and the hitting has so many minor leaguers batting. We are going to go on another downward slope like the last one soon. It's just inevitable. We are experiencing the "up" in the roller coaster. The down is coming.

[drjim]

There is nothing wrong with winning if it is primarily guys who will be on the team next year or guys who are getting an extended look to see where they fit in.

 

This is primarily the case and should be even more so once the trade deadline passes and some of the AAA guys come back up.

[Hugh Morris]

Look, the Twins can't continue this winning. The starting pitching is flukey and the hitting has so many minor leaguers batting. We are going to go on another downward slope like the last one soon. It's just inevitable. We are experiencing the "up" in the roller coaster. The down is coming.

 

Look at the schedule again. The Twins aren't as bad as they looked leading into the break when they ran up against New York, Toronto (easily Minnesota's biggest matchup problem in the league, with the way they're constructed) and they're not as good as they're going to look in this stretch-where outside of one series with Detroit, the closest thing to a "real team" they play is Cleveland. They've looked all season like a team capable of beating up on bad teams and getting slaughtered by the good ones. It's a real friendly month+ stretch for the former, and it's mostly out of the way for the latter.

[beckmt]

Key is they are facing teams that are not great in hitting for this period. Twins starting pitching will look better against those teams. I am more interested in how the starting pitching does against teams that can hit. Agree with prior poster that the Twins will have to invest in FA pitching next year to take the next step. And yes team outlook does not an affect on where FA's want to go. Remember TR's comment last year the Twins could not get players to take their money

[cmb0252]

Patience is a virtue. This is a bad team and we need to focus on the future. I don't need moral victories. The only difference between 85 loses and 95 loses is where you draft. While winning a hand full of games is nice it doesn't help a team get better. We need to trade who we can and make room for the guys in AAA.

[raindog]

Twins are only 11 games out of the wildcard, guys! We can do this!

[Thegrin]

Forget the draft picks. We get what we get. Win Twins!

[JB_Iowa]

All I know is that I said they'd be lucky to get 7 or 8 wins in July and they've gotten 9 with a chance for more. I'm surprised and pleased to see them bounce back from the first week of the month.

[Joe A. Preusser]

I would

Like to see the twins get around 78 wins in order to gain some momentum going into next season. Much easier to add 8-12 wins for next year than adding 20-30 wins if you lose 100 games again.

 

Agreed. Winning begets more winning, losing begets more losing. Play every game to win, draft status be damned. Play the next wave of talent if you want to maneuver for draft status, but still cherish every win you get in a losing season.

 

I remember a couple years back when the TWolves had Mark Madsen take all those 3s in the last game of the year in order to purposely tank the game. I have never been so ashamed of or embarrassed by a Minnesota sports franchise. If I had been a paying customer at that game I would have thrown my beer onto the court and walked out.

[Dman]

I think we are getting really close to fielding a pretty good team. Would like one last crack at a top five spot in the draft before we never see the bottom again for hopefully the next 10 years or so.

[James]

Personally, I hope that the Twins win at least 73 games this year. That's the magic number to win $100 from my buddy (a White Sox fan). There is good logic behind the arguments for continuing to win and continuing to lose. It's all been said many times on this forum.

 

I will say this, watching a team that is winning is more fun than watching a losing team. I have enjoyed watching this team a lot more this year than I have the previous two years. You can see flashes of good baseball in some of the younger guys, which is was all I was hoping for this year. But either way, I don't think they Twins are really going to win enough to push themselves out of a top 10 draft pick next year.

[Monkeypaws]

I think we are getting really close to fielding a pretty good team. Would like one last crack at a top five spot in the draft before we never see the bottom again for hopefully the next 10 years or so.

 

Yes! As long as we're slumming, let's do it up right!

 

Just kidding, but only in part - I want the Twins to win every game, but to me a close loss where they play well is almost as good at this point.

 

Since i started this thread, the Twins have played some good ball, and still sit at #5 in the draft order.

 

More of the same please!

 

I agree with Dman, this is probably our last chance to grab a consensus top guy at the draft for a number of years (hopefully). If you are playing good ball, knowing you are in a rebuild , all is well and good, kind of 2013 in a nutshell for me.

 

Better than 2012 by a mile.