Orioles 4, Twins 2: Sweeping Away the Misery

This isn't the latest gif, but sometimes you just have to express how you feel.

36 minutes ago, LA VIkes Fan said:

Bad loss. Griffin Jax is a good reliever but a lousy closer. He stunk at it last year and he stinking at it this year. He's a good seventh and eighth inning reliever and that's where he should stay. Whatever it is a closer needs to be successful in high stress situations he just doesn't have.

I think that the best closers types on this roster are Brock Stewart and Louie Varland. Send Bowers to the DFA wire or send Funderburk down, call up SWR to take the fifth spot in the rotation and put Louie in the bullpen to close.

I have no solutions to offer for this lineup other than Miranda, Jeffers, and Martin should be playing every day and perhaps hitting next to each other. They are the only three that don't look completely overmatched at the plate with the possible exception of Julien, and Margot can at least draw the occasional walk. Any thought that Miranda doesn't field well enough to play needs to go out the window because he's one of the few guys who seems to be able to actually hit major league pitching. If it were up to me, I would strongly consider putting out a lineup for the next game that went Martin, Julian, Jeffers, Miranda, Buxton, Margot, and it doesn't really matter after that because all the rest of them stink.

I’d move Buxton down and take Castro out. I’d really start to value OB and contact at this point if I were Rocco. 

Twins were outed in this series.  They were out pitched, out hit, out homered, out hustled, out played, and out managed.  Other than that they were great.

Just overall this team needs new ownership that willing to spend money,redo the front office all way to player development cause who is ever in charge in that department needs to be shown the door never come back they suck at their job

11 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

I don't know how Baltimore got to be so good. I've been reliably told that organizational rebuilds don't work.

The key is good player evaluations & development, which many organizations don't do well, rebuild or not. 

4 minutes ago, Doctor Gast said:

The key is good player evaluations & development, which many organizations don't do well, rebuild or not. 

This exactly,

Both Baltimore and Minnesota evaluated Jorge Lopez, Yennier Cano, Cade Povich and Tyler Wells. Minnesota also evaluated Lewis Thorpe.

Baltimore went 4-4.  Minnesota went 0-5.

Great job by Lopez, a game we should have won. A pitcher that our LH hitters should have unloaded on! Lack of clutch hitting or even hitting period! 

28 minutes ago, Whitey333 said:

Twins were outed in this series.  They were out pitched, out hit, out homered, out hustled, out played, and out managed.  Other than that they were great.

There isn’t really much else to say. I didn’t expect them to go and win this series at Baltimore, but overall they don’t even resemble a serious Major League Baseball team, starting at the top. Their off-season made the team worse/less resilient while Cleveland, Detroit and even KC could honestly say they improved. I’m just looking to stay ahead of Chicago at this point. 

I’m done hearing about bad luck and injuries; they are a 4th place team in a lousy division. The managers effectiveness is commensurate with the rest of the organization. If he were let go it’s not like there would be teams lining up to hire him. But he does the bidding of the FO, so he’s golden as long as there’s no changes there. 

Twins led the league in SO last year. Instead of changing the hitting coaches they opted to bring in Santana and Margot? Not a good plan. As has been said here by others, this FO doesn’t like to admit mistakes, so don’t expect coaching changes anytime soon. 
There is always the notion that pitchers are ahead of hitters early in the season, but that hasn’t slowed down Twins opponents. The coach should be able to help these guys make simple adjustments and improve. Seems like a lot of the hitters trying to pull low/outside pitches that they’re pulling off of and striking out. 
Then you have the brilliant manager. Pulling López at 87 pitches?! This team badly needed to salvage a win. That’s supposed to be the job of the ace: stop the losing streak! Rocco wants to save him for something else.
It’s terrible to watch these futile hitters waste good pitching performances, or the fielders kick the ball around, or good pitchers make an occasional mistake and blow it. Bottom line is Twins are going to have to score more than two runs a game! Tom Kelley used to say that 4 runs should win the game if the pitching and defense were big league caliber. Looks like the Twins have a ways to go.

Hendo can hit, but the arm? Nada.

Doesn't that feel better?

Encouraging start by Pablo…and against a legit lineup.

Any scenario that has the Twins surviving and eventually thriving includes Pablo being consistently good. Maybe this is the start of at least that part of it.

MLB Power Ranking

#29.  Twins

#30.  Chicago White Sox

As I was saying...

2 hours ago, MMMordabito said:

This exactly,

Both Baltimore and Minnesota evaluated Jorge Lopez, Yennier Cano, Cade Povich and Tyler Wells. Minnesota also evaluated Lewis Thorpe.

Baltimore went 4-4.  Minnesota went 0-5.

Bingo

At this rate it is going to be a VERY long season.😒

1 minute ago, Verified Member said:

Do you suppose the hitting coaches are actively trying to do to Julien what they did to Austin Martin and turn him into a power hitter at the expense of contact, or is he just not swinging at strikes? I do not understand how both he and Wallner got so bad, really beyond bad this year so far.

The majority of the teams players are beyond bad this year, so far.

1 hour ago, Hubie29 said:

MLB Power Ranking

#29.  Twins

#30.  Chicago White Sox

Unfortunately, those rankings are accurate and an indictment on how inept the front office and manager are. If the Pohland's have no interest in fielding a competitive MLB ball team,  please sell... there are a lot of rich people out there that would bring accountability and establish some hope and excitement, instead of the excuses in why payroll needed to be slashed. 

I don't watch the games because striking out 33% of at-bats is too painful to watch. I do look at highlights (or lowlights) in most summaries and had to re-watch one of the three k's our leadoff hitters showcased today. After my old-school non-sabermetrics viewing, I deduced his bat path went from the top of his left shoe to directly over his right shoulder. I'm pretty sure this path wouldn't even work for shoveling, let alone hitting a 90mph spherical object. Not too mention he walked back to the dugout carrying his shoes because he swung out of them on a two strike count.

I'm pretty sure the leadoff hitter is supposed to be a catalyst for the team. In the Twins case, it's proving true.

My brother told me a guy he knows said, "Twins aren't that bad. They just need some better pitchers and hitters."

Not sure how to reply to that...