DET 5, MIN 2: Bulldog Berrios and the Addison Reed Experience

Hosken Bombo Disco, on 14 Jun 2018 - 1:03 PM, said:

Really disappointing response by Molitor.

"Had a chance to hold a lead, I get all that, but gotta have more offense." Well, 2-1 games are worth winning, too. Just my opinion. If he wants 7-10 runs every night he should quit and join a softball league.

Well said!

I've been a big fan of Molitor for a very long time, but he threw the offense under the bus to protect his decision to bring in Reed? It's Reed's job to protect the lead, not give up four runs and expect the offense to score five in the ninth.

For those of you still keeping score at home...

 

Grossman and Wilson are still inexplicably on this team....sigh.....

Neither one of those 2 have anything to do with our current woes. Those keeping score at home would do well to see if Polanco and Buxton can match their second halves last season.

Mauer, Wade, Gordon, Astudillo and Sawyer should be up. Grossman should be released. Sano, Wilson, Garver and LaMarre should be demoted. 

Who are Astudillo and Sawyer? 

Who are Astudillo and Sawyer? 

Rochester catchers who have been hitting well

Regardless of the offense, they had the lead after 7. Molitor chooses to give it to Reed. Keeps doing the same thing and expects different results. 5 out of the last 6, now, isn't it? Hello Magill. Stick a fork in Reed. This is sickening.

Yeah, I have defended the MOY all season, but I can't understand letting Magill, who has been effective,  linger on the bench while Reed is off his game. Molly is overusing Pressley, Reed and Hildy.  He needs to learn to adjust to performance and stop being so rigid in his thinking. We have several other guys in the pen. Molly is signalling he doesn't have confidence in anyone else. That's bogus. But I am trying to stay positive.

I'm positive its bogus. 

I also wanted to mention...last night's top of the 8th was why you put the contact play on. Escobar's at third, with one out. Sano hits a chopper that the pitcher doesn't field cleanly. If Escobar is running on contact, as he should be in every case IMO, he scores easily.

 

Instead, he's left standing at third as Sano is thrown out, and now there's two out and you need a hit (or mistake) to score him.

 

Sometimes you lose that gamble, and Escobar gets thrown out at the plate. But it's a much better gamble than waiting for a 2 out hit.

 

Another mark in the "against" column when judging Molitor, IMO.

A contact play with a hit back to the mound (which is what Sano did) gets you out at home.  This one got through, but I have lost runs doing exactly what you suggested more than once.

I think it is pretty obvious that Falvey wanted someone other than Molitor from day one but was then hamstrung by Jim Pohlad’s comments. I further suspect that the extension was more Pohlad than Falvey.

So, now it is (IMO) a battle about control. If Pohlad wants to run the team his way (eg country club rules), I think Falvey and Levine will walk away. If Pohlad truly wants Falvine making decisions in the best interest of the organization, he’ll allow them to do just that. Including firing Molitor.

Obviously, Pohlad will have to sign off on the decision, but I can definitely seeing Falvey (maybe not Levine so much) saying to Pohlad, “Well, we tried it with your guy and here we are. Again. So, decision time sir. Do you want Molitor or me?”

The Pohlads are absentee owners. I doubt they could answer the one question required to become a member here. By the way, I been following the game for over 50 years. Could you explain to me and the board, WTF   country club rules are and why the doom and gloomers on the board, continue to accuse our favorite team of this practice?

I think it is pretty obvious that Falvey wanted someone other than Molitor from day one but was then hamstrung by Jim Pohlad’s comments. I further suspect that the extension was more Pohlad than Falvey.

So, now it is (IMO) a battle about control. If Pohlad wants to run the team his way (eg country club rules), I think Falvey and Levine will walk away. If Pohlad truly wants Falvine making decisions in the best interest of the organization, he’ll allow them to do just that. Including firing Molitor.

Obviously, Pohlad will have to sign off on the decision, but I can definitely seeing Falvey (maybe not Levine so much) saying to Pohlad, “Well, we tried it with your guy and here we are. Again. So, decision time sir. Do you want Molitor or me?”

I remember suggesting Red Dawg as manager. He was available. Also, if they had let Gardy go a little earlier Tito Francona was available. 

Just an observation; Dougie has the Toledo Mud Hens in first place in the AAA International League. Too bad he wasn't good enough for AA ball with the Twins. We just might have had an in-house replacement for Molly.

IMO giving up 0-2 hits isn’t “unfortunate.” It’s an indication of poor “stuff,” poor location, and/or poor pitch selection.

I didn’t view last night as at all unlucky. It was more of the same. Too many 90 MPH fastballs in very bad locations.

Really?  The league average in 0-2 counts over the last few years is like .150.  Even if you take out the K's, the average is around .300.  The Tigers hit .600 and four were ground balls.  

Otherwise, why is Victor Reyes with all his bat control and directional hitting prowess batting 9th on a mail-it-in franchise's lineup?

Again, I'm not advocating for the reliability of Addison Reed right now, but if one of those ground balls goes to the right or left a couple feet, it's a completely different outing.

The bigger problems in the game were going 0 for Farmer/Verhagen and not getting Escobar in from 3rd.

Poor Robbie...taking the heat for Buxton's failure to perform and/or stay healthy, FO unwillingness to put (presumably) more talented prospects under the harsh glare of the major-league spotlight, and the manager's inability to consistently use him appropriately.

Having said that...and to be fair, he's also under performed against his own utility-player standard.  But when we're moaning about Robbie, who are we really frustrated with?  I'll continue to pull for Robbie...from what little can be determined by watching games, he seems like a good teammate...and I'll continue to hope we see less of him in the future.

I remember suggesting Red Dawg as manager. He was available. Also, if they had let Gardy go a little earlier Tito Francona was available. 

or Torey Lovullo. He's done pretty well with the Diamondbacks. That was the guy i was pulling for from the original three candidates. Although Doug Mientkiewicz would have been okay as well. When the Twins announced Molitor's selection i was not super thrilled.  

Really disappointing response by Molitor.

"Had a chance to hold a lead, I get all that, but gotta have more offense." Well, 2-1 games are worth winning, too. Just my opinion. If he wants 7-10 runs every night he should quit and join a softball league. Sorry about the negativity.

I get the frustration, but it seems like every game is 3-2 or 2-1. They need to be able to win games 9-2 or 7-3 against lesser pitching. Outside of Berrios' complete game last week, they haven't played those types of games. They haven't lost a game by more than 3 runs in almost a month. Their run differential is world's ahead of where it was last year at this time. There are too many games of that nature where they can't come up clutch. The reason that Reed and Pressly have been overworked is because every game is close. Win an occasional game by an 8-3 score and they might start getting an occasional game off.