Twins 1, White Sox 4: Little Good on the South Side of Chicago

[Mike Sixel]

1 hour ago, 1985Fan said:

We should pass judgement on the idea that calling up prospects during a playoff chase to give the “team a jolt to the offense” as I read here so many times. It’s unfair to Jenkins and others. And it doesn’t work. Prospects need time to figure out MLB pitching, if they ever do figure it out. No guarantees they turn into All Stars or ROY either. 

Like Culpeper has? Lots of playoff teams are calling up rookies after the deadline. 

[LA Vikes Fan]

Buxton falling off the table offensively since the injury has really killed the lineup. We just don’t have a good number 3 or number 4 hitter that we can build around. We have some good complementary lineup pieces, but we don’t have the consistent high average, good power run producers. Not sure if that guy is available as a free agent either and it will be a while before any of the young players are ready to be that kind of player. Keaschall is closest, but he profiles better as a  leadoff hitter than as a middle of the order guy. That’s why I wonder when people here talk about sending him back to AAA or putting him on the bench. Keaschall is the best hitter with the highest upside we have and he has to play every day for us to have any chance to field a competitive lineup. Clemens and Lee can be 6 or 7 hole guys, Culpepper looks like a #2 hitter in the making and a healthy Buxton can be one of the three middle of the order guys. We just don’t have the other two and we need at least one to be a competitive offense. Lewis is a real question mark and everybody else is unproven. Tough jigsaw puzzle for next year.

[1985Fan]

1 minute ago, Mike Sixel said:

Like Culpeper has? Lots of playoff teams are calling up rookies after the deadline. 

He may have given the offense a small spark on call up, but it certainly wasn’t a jolt. They’re not winning a lot of games with both rookies in the lineup. I’m not blaming either player, but I wasn’t expecting great things either, which seemed to be the expectation of people here. Thats my point. If the team is going to rely on prospects to come up and push the team into the playoffs, that’s not realistic. 

[Major League Ready]

5 minutes ago, 1985Fan said:

He may have given the offense a small spark on call up, but it certainly wasn’t a jolt. They’re not winning a lot of games with both rookies in the lineup. I’m not blaming either player, but I wasn’t expecting great things either, which seemed to be the expectation of people here. Thats my point. If the team is going to rely on prospects to come up and push the team into the playoffs, that’s not realistic. 

Culpepper has been the 2nd best hitter on the team since coming up.  Ryan Jeffers has been the only tenured player to be slightly above average.  The problem is the tenured players have been mediocre or bad in the case of Buxton / Larnach.

[Linus]

18 minutes ago, LA Vikes Fan said:

Buxton falling off the table offensively since the injury has really killed the lineup. We just don’t have a good number 3 or number 4 hitter that we can build around. We have some good complementary lineup pieces, but we don’t have the consistent high average, good power run producers. Not sure if that guy is available as a free agent either and it will be a while before any of the young players are ready to be that kind of player. Keaschall is closest, but he profiles better as a  leadoff hitter than as a middle of the order guy. That’s why I wonder when people here talk about sending him back to AAA or putting him on the bench. Keaschall is the best hitter with the highest upside we have and he has to play every day for us to have any chance to field a competitive lineup. Clemens and Lee can be 6 or 7 hole guys, Culpepper looks like a #2 hitter in the making and a healthy Buxton can be one of the three middle of the order guys. We just don’t have the other two and we need at least one to be a competitive offense. Lewis is a real question mark and everybody else is unproven. Tough jigsaw puzzle for next year.

I think your assessment of the needs in the lineup are spot on. We also need to improve the defense at the same time - a tough jigsaw puzzle indeed. 

[David Maro]

With this season over why is Buxton still with the team when he should be looking into the surgery he needs. Why do players wait for seasons end when they could have the required surgery. He is not going to make a difference in the end result.

[Patzky]

1 hour ago, D.C Twins said:

Just wanted to add that the south side Chicago comments were made when the original article title had North-Side for those confused this AM :)

Good good Leroy Brown.

[Patzky]

4 minutes ago, Linus said:

I think your assessment of the needs in the lineup are spot on. We also need to improve the defense at the same time - a tough jigsaw puzzle indeed. 

I do like a Keaschall Culpepper Lackey Jenkins Clemens top of the lineup in a year or so.

[Mike Sixel]

55 minutes ago, Patzky said:

I do like a Keaschall Culpepper Lackey Jenkins Clemens top of the lineup in a year or so.

I'll be shocked if Clemens is on the roster in two years. Houston will be near the top of the order though. 

[Hunter4848]

2 hours ago, 1985Fan said:

We should pass judgement on the idea that calling up prospects during a playoff chase to give the “team a jolt to the offense” as I read here so many times. It’s unfair to Jenkins and others. And it doesn’t work. Prospects need time to figure out MLB pitching, if they ever do figure it out. No guarantees they turn into All Stars or ROY either. 

What playoff race?! The Twins are trash.

The rookies have been better than the alternatives...

[Patzky]

42 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'll be shocked if Clemens is on the roster in two years. Houston will be near the top of the order though. 

I expect he will be. He's the Willi Castro we won't give away, with more power.

[Saxophone Joe]

What happened to the TD chatter about not calling up Jenkins sooner possibly costing the Twins a playoff spot? 

[Wedman13]

4 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

What happened to the TD chatter about not calling up Jenkins sooner possibly costing the Twins a playoff spot? 

Some pretty short memories.  It was all the chatter 3 weeks ago,

[Mike Sixel]

6 minutes ago, Saxophone Joe said:

What happened to the TD chatter about not calling up Jenkins sooner possibly costing the Twins a playoff spot? 

I mean, we don't know. But sure, he's not been good so far, but then, neither was Larnach. 

I just wanted him up to adjust this year.... Not next year, hopefully. 

[Saxophone Joe]

The real question is: Did getting rid of Mickey Gasper cost the Twins a playoff spot?

*only half-joking*

Sure could’ve used that insane OPS in August! 

[Coach]

4 hours ago, HarmonK03 said:

Buxton was not willing to be traded at the deadline, why keep beating this dead horse.

I am going to be hated for this but, why would Buck give up an easy gig where he is not held accountable, and people still make him feel appreciated.  

[Coach]

2 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I'll be shocked if Clemens is on the roster in two years. Houston will be near the top of the order though. 

Good call, but I see Houston down in the order when the lineup turns over.  Speed at the end, and beginning

[Coach]

5 hours ago, DJL44 said:

Who is passing judgement? Byron Buxton struggled in his first major league games. So did many, many other successful players. Rookies who come up and perform immediately are the exception.

Buxton is still struggling.  Set your watch by it.

[Coach]

4 hours ago, HarmonK03 said:

Buxton was not willing to be traded at the deadline, why keep beating this dead horse.

Give Buxton credit, he knows when he's got a good thing going!

[Parfigliano]

7 hours ago, DJL44 said:

It should not surprise anyone. A rookie struggling in their first major league games is the most likely scenario.

Jenkins needs to trust in himself and learn from every AB.

[Parfigliano]

6 hours ago, LastOnePicked said:

This is how middling teams remain middling teams - I think this is precisely where Tom Pohlad's offseason indecision is going to leave this team for years to come.

The only hope now is to bring in some incredible coaching/development talent. But Tom won't have a clue who those people are in MLB or MiLB.

New front office.

[Parfigliano]

6 hours ago, David Maro said:

Glad football is back because the Twins season has ended!!

Bring on the puck.

[h2oface]

Lots of broken records this time of year. And I don’t mean numbers or music. I mean opinions. 

[h2oface]

20 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Jenkins needs to trust in himself and learn from every AB.

I hope he was watching Vargas actually swing (and homer) on the low questionable strike instead of watching it for called strike three twice. A lot of our guys like to stare at strike three hoping for a walk. That’s a bad trait to pick up. 

[Hunter4848]

1 hour ago, Coach said:

I am going to be hated for this but, why would Buck give up an easy gig where he is not held accountable, and people still make him feel appreciated.  

This is spot on. No pressure or accountability, why would he want to leave?!

[ashbury]

3 hours ago, Saxophone Joe said:

What happened to the TD chatter about not calling up Jenkins sooner possibly costing the Twins a playoff spot? 

3 hours ago, Mike Sixel said:

I mean, we don't know. But sure, he's not been good so far, but then, neither was Larnach. 

I just wanted him up to adjust this year.... Not next year, hopefully. 

Well, that's the source of the disconnect.  Bear with me here.  In the Buxton thread I took issue with an oblique mention of Jenkins, and you (Mike) took issue with that, and it didn't feel germane enough in a Buxton thread to pursue.  See, if a Pohlad Du Jour had asked me way back at the beginning of this past off-season, I would have said, bring up the kids as soon as they are reasonably ready - the idea of contending in '26 was beyond hope.  And they would have parted ways with me, just as they did with Falvey for what I presume to be similar reasons.  Pohlad wanted to compete.  So my pre-season forecast was even more pessimistic than the mainstream - I think I said 61-101, not because of a sheer lack of talent but because I expected underperformance by some players and injury to others - impossible to predict in specific players but hard to avoid as a full group - and that the pitching staff in particular would collapse.  Underperformance (Wallner and Lewis in April for example) and injury (Lopez even before the season could start, Abel, and others) did indeed occur - and yet the team has managed to hover near .500, just below but never like I thought it would.  Position players like Clemens have overperformed my own expectations, likewise some of the pitchers.  But anyway we don't GET to say, tank 2026 and maybe 2027 in order to get the kids experience - ownership has had their say.  When there are articles or user posts suggesting "they waited too long to bring up Jenkins", it's in the context of the plan ownership put in place to compete - and the early performance by Jenkins does nothing to say that bring him up sooner would have addressed THAT.  What's best for Jenkins (bring him up as soon as he was recovered from early-season injury) isn't necessarily best for ownership's plan (compete this year).  To mention Jenkins yet again in the context of the Buxton hip injury is just irrelevant, unsupported by the (very small sample) of his major league performance so far.

Lotta verbiage - sorry - but the topic doesn't admit to simple solutions like many posters want.