Guardians 5, Twins 4: New Look, Same Struggles as the Twins Lose Again in Cleveland

Bader, Buxton, Kiersey (or maybe Martin) in the OF and those two lazy singles aren't falling against Ohl in the 8th. Just can't have 2 slow (or slow to get a jump) OF's out there.

The missed opportunities have been frequent the past two seasons no matter who is wearing a Twins uniform. That strikes me as the root of the team's problems as much as anything else.

So I find it pointless to allocate blame for this among the Pohlads, Derek Falvey and Rocco Baldelli. This rudderless refrain will continue until ALL of them depart the stage. Nothing will change until the club is sold.

Ohl pitched pretty good. The left hand batters hit pretty bad as they can't lay off the diving curveballs at their feet. The toughest out last night was Austin Martin and he went 3-5. So Rocco sat him today, wasted him as a pinch runner and we had to endure Kiersey trying to do anything but have to swing at a major league pitch. And defensively Clemens should be at 2B and Julien at 1B.

18 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

How is Kiersey even on this roster? Or Gasper?

They’re tanking

I agree it's the same struggles, but at the very least the team has played hard the last two days. They just aren't  good. But imo playing hard is at least an improvement. 

21 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

How is Kiersey even on this roster? Or Gasper?

yeah this is tanking. I do understand the strategy of Julien being up. Try to see if he can improve his game and see if another team will cough up a prospect in November. But the truth is it's too late, that ship sailed and they missed it. Kiersey, Gasper, Fitzgerald etc are the tank crew.

But yeah they could still tank by having Eeles up and playing. At least we'd see what we have if they did. That would be my choice. But they have their own ideas.

42 minutes ago, Aggies7 said:

100 losses is a very, very real possibility. Where are 12 wins coming from ?

Checking Tankathon every week now to see how badly the Twins have to play to increase their lottery odds. 

30 minutes ago, Mike Sixel said:

How is Kiersey even on this roster? Or Gasper?

Both of these players were on the opening day roster. That's why no one should be surprised how this season went. 

22 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

As good as Painter!!!

Weren't you just mocking someone else for building a strawman? Name a single person that's EVER said that. 

Just now, The Great Hambino said:

All so they can draft a kid underslot that they would've gotten later anyway, just so they can show everyone how smart they are. 

This could be a time spent gathering important information on the young guys on the fringe.  Young hitters learning to adjust to major league pitching.  Hell, use a few rotation slots to piggyback some young starters.  Give them 4 innings each, not like they'd let them throw more than that anyway.  Could be a creative way to lessen the load on the bullpen you don't have.  The ones that show promise can be developed as starters.  The ones that don't can drop their worst pitch and crank up the heater to reinvent themselves as an actual bullpen piece.

But no, more important to improve your chances at the #1 pick by 2.3%

I understand the frustration, but were you disappointed in the Cheap Pohalds with the Walker Jenkins pick? Or the Royce Lewis pick? 

This was discussed in a different thread but there is some negative incentives to bring up players that you perceive as your future too. For example Luke Keaschall is better served to stay in AAA through this month for one reason - if he retains rookie status and makes the opening day roster next year and stays on the major league roster the Twins get an additional pick between the 1st and 2nd rounds. That's true for the likes of Rodriguez and any other prospect that hasn't met rookie minimums yet. 

28 minutes ago, sweetmusicviola16 said:

but at the very least the team has played hard the last two days

Julien admiring his non-HR instead of legging out a triple? Larnach jogging the bases like it's an NFL walkthrough? 

There are still a few players who need their attitude adjusted, ideally via DFA.

51 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

On the bright side Ohl saved the bullpen for tomorrow's game.🥴

Baldelli finally used long relief. Ohl isn't my favorite pitcher, but we really need a long RP, I'd prefer Sands but we are short on higher leverage BP. 

4 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

 Not gonna name names but it rhymes with Munson.

 

Fair! I'll let them be on their own island lol 

8 minutes ago, shimrod said:

Julien admiring his non-HR instead of legging out a triple? Larnach jogging the bases like it's an NFL walkthrough? 

There are still a few players who need their attitude adjusted, ideally via DFA.

We're seeing the last we're going to of Julien no doubt. As for Larnach hopefully he can play well enough these last two months to have some trade value, at least as an add on in a trade. otherwise he'll be non tendered. I guess I'm choosing to try to get something positive out of the situation we're in. To me this is a little remindful of 1982. Terrible team but the end for that team was a couple of WS.

Games are won & lost in the margins. You might have OK pitching, even OK offense, but have poor defense & poor fundamentals, forget it. If you don't develop bunting, don't expect your players to bunt. Keirsey should have been sent down to AAA a long time ago so he could have been called up at this time. After sitting for an awful long time & when he finally played, he miraculously had a good game & then he was benched. Why not let him ride his good fortune? Martin had a good game & he sits. Julien isn't a 2Bman & he's not hitting, why is he playing every day?

2 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Games are won & lost in the margins. You might have OK pitching, even OK offense, but have poor defense & poor fundamentals. If you don't develop bunting, don't expect your players to bunt. Keirsey should have been sent down to AAA a long time ago so he could have been called up at this time. After sitting for an awful long time & when he finally played, he miraculously had a good game & then he was benched. Why not let him ride his good fortune? Martin had a good game & he sits. Julien isn't a 2Bman & he's not hitting, why is he playing every day?

Martin should be playing the next 50 games. Find out what you have for crying out loud.

6 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

Games are won & lost in the margins. You might have OK pitching, even OK offense, but have poor defense & poor fundamentals. If you don't develop bunting, don't expect your players to bunt. Keirsey should have been sent down to AAA a long time ago so he could have been called up at this time. After sitting for an awful long time & when he finally played, he miraculously had a good game & then he was benched. Why not let him ride his good fortune? Martin had a good game & he sits. Julien isn't a 2Bman & he's not hitting, why is he playing every day?

And I still believe that Martin has some of the same stuff that some of those 1982 guys had. Intangibles that can't be measured. He should be given the chance to prove it on a team that has nothing to lose by giving him a chance.