Giants 4, Twins 3: As Bad As It Gets?

Walks, walks, walks.  Pitching staff self-destructed again.  Ugh.

Well it looks like Ryan will have Duran to back him up. Not sure why he didn't pitch today. But Lopez is starting to worry me just like he did the second half of last year. With all the young prospects no one the major league roster with the exception of Lewis. I'm really curious how the lineup will look tomorrow. But something's got to change. Last year. We at least made it to the All-Star game before fading

I'm not a doctor, but isn't one's heel close to one's ankle? 

6 minutes ago, BD57 said:

Walks, walks, walks.  Pitching staff self-destructed again. Bats failed to deliver.  Double ugh.

Fixed yer post. ☹️

This thread is going to be a cesspool of negativity but I want to point out that while a bunch of different relievers have had their hand in blowing leads lately, Duran has pitched just 5 times in the month of May (without giving up any runs other than a Manfred Man).

This is a case where Rocco's managing is actually way too traditional and he can't seem to imagine anything other than a traditional closer role.

Duran obviously isn't going to save any game all by himself, but when the team is scuffling it seems like one solution would be to try to get one of the best relievers in baseball involved earlier in the game before you have a chance to blow it and maybe have a chance to tack on.

Anyway, enough of the negativity for me, I'm going to try to do something more fun.

41 minutes ago, Steven Trefz said:

Conforto struck again

13 minutes ago, 2wins87 said:

This thread is going to be a cesspool of negativity

For some idiotic reason I thought literally distancing myself from the Twins by driving to Springfield, Mo (from KC area) to see the Wind Surge open their series against the Cards AA team, might be the tonic for some good fortune.

Well, not only did the Twins gag away ANOTHER game courtesy of Lopez and the offense's continued futility, but I see our collection of misfit hitters whiffed 11 more times tonight while drawing 1 walk.  For those keeping track, our #1 rank in whiffs is holding strong.  Now 485 in 49 games.  Just brutal. 

My plan to distant myself from the big league club in hope of seeing the Wind Surge play well (ie score runs with timely hitting) by putting the ball in play turned out as well as believing the Twins would get multiple KEY hits with the bases loaded.

Not only did that fail to happen as the Surge were hammered 8-3, but Brooks Lee took an 0-4 --failing to get the ball out of the infield.  Surge hitters channeled the "bad jujo" of the parent club by whiffing 13 times with every hitter in the lineup taking a hard left turn exit back to the dugout.

Can't wait for ANOTHER exciting day of Twins/Surge baseball tomorrow.

4 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

To answer the headline question….it can get much worse. 4 months left of this. Things really didn’t fall apart until well into June/July last year.

Agree 100%---------It can absolutely get worse.  Imagine how quickly this team will plummet if two of Gray, Lopez, Ryan or Ober have a lengthy DL stint.  

Positivity, eh? Okay. Maybe Las Vegas would be interested in having the Twins instead?

22 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

12 outs needed to be made. Say duran gets the 6th and maybe 7th. Lopez and (?) are going to have to get the last 6 outs. Lopez and jax have been bad for a month. Stewart has been good but playing high above his career average. Moran is hit/miss. The weaker guys (aka everyone except duran) are going to have to pitch. You don’t trust them in the 6/7 but you trust them in 8/9? If they’re going to blow the lead, I’d heck of a lot rather blow it before the 8th inning. That way you could maybe run your strategy a bit differently than if you fall behind in the 9th. Plus, I believe it’s a mental letdown to blow a 9th inning lead. Rarely do I see the home team score in the bottom after blowing a 9th inning lead. Plus I like duran for a possible 10th inning with the manfred rule, being a high strikeout guy.

We’re just arguing about chair placement on the titanic at the end of the day. You can’t have one trustworthy guy in the bullpen. It’s just never going to work. It looked good early on with thielbar and lopez, but it’s reverted to form. Can’t have a bullpen with one solid reliever.

The problem with the unwillingness to move him up is that you open yourself to a couple of risks…

1) you end up without a save opportunity and pitch him in low leverage…or…

2) you end up without a save situation and don’t pitch him at all

And that’s what’s been happening…Duran has fewer innings and fewer batters faced than (more than) half the bullpen. Rocco has pitched his best pitcher less than his other pitchers…all while the club has been stacking up losses. He wants to stick with his plans/wishes/hopes regardless of how events actually unfold. It’s a pattern.

Having said all that, the offense is the main problem.

2 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

I just think you can’t hide the bad guys.

Agreed. But if I were to TRY…I wouldn’t do it by hiding my good guy 😉

These players are getting paid professional  money  but aren't delivering a professional product except for the starting pitching ...

Maybe pitching is where you want to spend your dollars ( bullpen )  ...

Now if we only had a consistent hitting team that can have patience and possibly walk , single  , double or get on base any way you can ...

HIT THEM WHERE THEY AINT ...

Yes hitting homeruns is where they ain't  , Someone please tell these players and coaches there is plenty of grass for the ball to fall for hits too ... 

Something needs to change , this just isn't good baseball  ...

We fired the trainer after 2022 , but retained all of our coaches , and now extended  our manager WHAT A CROCK  ...

Our window of opportunity is closing  on us pretty quickly  ...

3 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

To answer the headline question….it can get much worse. 4 months left of this. Things really didn’t fall apart until well into June/July last year.

Aye.  And I might add, aye yai yai....

Well, it seems the Twinks have established a similar pattern to the Vikings 1-2-3-kick:  starter pitches his guts out, guys fail to hit and back him up, bullpen comes in and blows it.  The end.  We still might stagger to the Central title by default, for the usual one-and-done playoff experience. (Again, Viking-like.)

It's the bad team mantra, of choosing one guy to suck each night, and which hitter or hitters are going to make a mockery of their $$$ contracts.  (*cough* Correa* cough*)

Over here on this side of the globe,  I'm thankful that it's exam time at school and lots to do, and I don't have to worry about following any Twins games that come on around 7 or 8 AM.  I can just check the bad news later. 

If Professor Baldelli wasn't so bad, he would be funny. His holding the other teams down stuff is nuts. The Twins cannot hit the ball at this moment. Plate discipline is poor. Fielding has been fair. Risk taking is minimal. However, a different line-up every day shows a creative side of the leader.... he does not take the field but if he were he would be shuffled around the batting order or sitting when he is on a hot streak. Difficult enough to overcome as a player. His job is to orchestrate and motivate. I do not believe the guy could motivate a snail to be slow. Love the team. Go Twins!

This team has no leaders. Not necessarily in the terms of players on the field but in front office, management, and coaching. Tony Robbins would be dog- faced if he spent a day in the dugout with Baldelli. Get rid of him, and this team would go on a win steak not seen since 91. 

FFS, is Rocco wearing his pyjamas in the top photo?  No wonder they lost, he must have been asleep.

Jeepers, guy, you're in a Major League dugout.  Maybe dress the part instead of looking like a slob who just got off his couch.

8 hours ago, BD57 said:

Walks, walks, walks.  Pitching staff self-destructed again.  Ugh.

Totally agree. It's one thing if the hitters earn their way on base, but if your pitchers can't or won't throw strikes, that's like some kind of emotional hangup. I say that because if you remove the game pressure, pretty much all these guys can throw strike after strike. 

8 hours ago, BD57 said:

Walks, walks, walks.  Pitching staff self-destructed again.  Ugh.

Blaming this on the pitching staff? The pitching staff? 

That's like blaming global warming on someone who lights a candle. The problem with this team is that they cannot hit. This is a bad hitting team. The pitching has been fine. 

I think we can safely say it was a team effort.

This is a .500...or possibly below that...team. They can't hit consistently, and they have a very shaky pen. The starting pitchers have been great, but that might be hard to continue thru an entire season. You're just not going to win games on a consistent basis, when you score 1, 2, or 3 runs a game. It's not going to happen. I'm not smart enough to come up with a solution, but this team isn't going anywhere as it's constructed right now. 

It's amusing that one of these AL Central teams is going to get home field advantage in a playoff series.

This team very well could be in 2nd or 3rd place by end of May and snowball to KC level by July.  Team as a whole has no plate discipline to put any pressure on opposing pitchers or their defense.  Swing and miss or caught looking, Twins are excellent at it.  Managerial musical chairs of a lineup day in and day out is quite laughable.

Bullpen pitches in tight sphincter moments every game and with no rest for the weary or room to give up a one or two runs.  

We have 13 batters and 0 Hitters on this team. Blind squirrel finds a nut every now and then, so maybe we have one good hitter in each game, but I'd be hard pressed to find one.  485K's on the year confirms he have plenty of swingers.

The Moran experiment, when will we move on from this guy?  Not soon enough.