Minnesota's Sunday Night Massacre is What They Deserved

At the end of the game, the ESPN announcer said the Twins pitching was not bad, but had two pitches that put the game away.

Lack of hitting except by France and Bader plus Vazquez walk , were the only offensive plus things; the so called best of the Twins batters, did not earn their titles that day.

There are a lot of things to complain about with the Twins. Boy, oh boy, are there a lot of of things...

But...

Getting run over by the best pitcher on the planet is not one of them. Skubal does this to every team, good or bad. Go find another hill to plant your flag on.

21 minutes ago, Matt Braun said:

Ultimately, there's little about this game that tells us anything we didn't already know about this team. The organization is dogged by a glacial conservatism inherent in the front office's nature, amplified by ownership's sudden purse-closing following the 2023 season. In recent years, they've rarely come out ahead of the curve. Instead, they've chosen to sit and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait, and wait for... something. Perfect health? Perhaps a silver-bullet prospect? A high-interest account to mature, so they can sign someone for more than $4 million? Who knows. In their stead, the team has been overtaken, and thoroughly overmatched by the class of the AL. Sunday was the perfect example of their failures. 

 

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The Tigers 3 highest paid players account for $65M in payroll.  The Twins top 3 Cost $74M.  The Tigers and Twins have almost exactly the same payroll.  Their spending for the last few years has outpaced the rest of the division.  The complaints about spending are misguided and worn out.  Their current failure is a combination of Ober's sudden ineffectiveness, Correa's mediocre play, and Pablo's injury.  It also does not help that Lewis, Julien and Miranda turned into pumpkins.

Great article.  Very truthful.  The Tigers as a team and organization far outclass the Twins.  We knew it was coming.  Twins got embarrassed by a very good pitcher and team.

Skubal has 5 starts of 7+ IP and 3 or fewer hits allowed, 7 starts of 6+ IP and 0 runs allowed, 10 starts of 6+ IP and 1 run or less, 10 QS, and 5 starts with 10+ K's, the Twins are far from the first team to be "massacred" by Skubal.

2 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

As I noted in the game thread, we played the role of "Washington Generals."

Or the very capable Kenny Jaye. 

I understand the frustration, Matt. In fact, I share it. But calling Sunday night's game a massacre that they deserved, is a somewhat spiteful comment, imo.

If we didn't have to face Skubal or if the BP was depleted, we could have come back & won that game. I don't consider it as a massacre. But the only reason we were on Sunday-nite baseball for the 1st time for a very long time was that Skubal was pitching & we weren't embarrassed was a plus for me.

33 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

I’m holding out for Baron von Raschke.

The CLAW!!!

THIS is what we NEED:

2 hours ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Wow, a Kenny Jaye reference. I should be embarrassed that I know exactly who you're talking about, but I'm not. By the way, the very capable Kenny Jaye was originally "Sodbuster" Kenny Jaye.  

I see the Twins more as Nick Bockwinkel or Billy Robinson - good, but never quite good enough. Maybe someday we can be Verne Gagne or the Crusher. There's always hope. 

Good call on the Sodbuster - I forgot that part. 

It wasn't a massacre but it wasn't a good outcome by our hitters , the game was as expected , skubal pitched a gem ...

Our hitters looked foolish and helped skubal out on some bad choices to swing on pitches they couldn't handle  , paddack did okay , alot better than his previous 2 starts ...

Detroit is a talented team , playing well with young and old players , they rose to a good team last year and made a wild card appearance , added some off season help and has risen to the top of the central easily enough  ...

We are exactly who we are , good pitching but terrible offense and days where defense doesn't show up ...

We are the Minnesota possums , WE PLAY DEAD AT HOME AND GET KILLED ON THE ROAD  ...

I watch Kirby pitch last night for Seattle,  he threw everything on the outside edge of the plate , everything because the Royals made no adjustments to hit the ball to the opposite field , the Royals only managed 3 hits against Kirby  , the point is you have to make adjustments to how the pitcher is pitching  , where has the learning curve gone for hitting to the opposite field  ...

Skubal may be the best pitcher in the game. He isn’t as great as the Twins all right handed line up made him look. That was his second best performance of the year according to game score.

2 hours ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Sunday night's game was a stark comparison between a very well run organization and a very poorly run organization. Similar payrolls, managers with similar game management philosophies, both top 10 farm systems, both mid-market and AL Central. One team ascending, the other in a steep decline.

Over the last 10 seasons the Tigers have had a win percentage of .44 or 71 wins.  The Twins are at .494 or 80 wins so you appear to be influenced by recency bias.  The Tigers have done a little better job of drafting and one draft pick (Skubal) can make a world of difference.  The other big difference is that the Twins are getting nothing out of Lewis who was a 1/1 pick.  A year ago nobody would have complained about that pick and hopefully we won't be remorseful a year from now.  All that aside, the are now good after absolutely sucking for a decade so we should at least recognize a more macro view.  

2 hours ago, NotAboutWinning said:

Sunday night's game was a stark comparison between a very well run organization and a very poorly run organization. Similar payrolls, managers with similar game management philosophies, both top 10 farm systems, both mid-market and AL Central. One team ascending, the other in a steep decline.

It was a team with a true top level pitcher, and nothing more.

It was not a blow-out like earlier games, which did show  serious Twins problems.

9 hours ago, Fire Dan Gladden said:

There are a lot of things to complain about with the Twins. Boy, oh boy, are there a lot of of things...

But...

Getting run over by the best pitcher on the planet is not one of them. Skubal does this to every team, good or bad. Go find another hill to plant your flag on.

This was as good an example of what's wrong with the Twins as any.  The ABs weren't competitive. Skubal wasn't saved by low BABIP.

And here's the thing.  When the Twins hitters are seemingly good/competent and when they're bad, they have no idea how to approach the really good pitchers.  It's been that way this whole century and has led to playoff embarrassments.  Except for maybe Gausman.

So by upvoting this, you're basically hiding your head in the sand.  Another excuse.  What does it matter which pitcher's on the mound?  Yeah, you're going to do worse against a Skubal, but that doesn't mean you should be non-competitive if you are a playoff team.  And if you're not a playoff team, well, maybe that's the point of the article.

Fewest hits allowed in any start this season.

Tied for the most Ks in any game (GC vs. Cleveland) this season.

Yeah sorry but that wasn't just a run-of-the-mill Skubal game guys. Be honest, for those of you waiving the performance away as this club running into a good pitcher, did you actually watch the game? Those ABs weren't even competitive. That's a massacre....