Ranking the 4 Biggest First-Half Disappointments for the Minnesota Twins

Julien is fielding at a .932 fielding rate for the Saints, with a 30 percent K rate; hopefully , long, long time, if ever he is called back.

The Twins will regret, especially Gardenhire, the loss of Kemp who is .976 at 2nd base and is hitting .276 with a 13 percent K rate.

I would probably give Royce Lewis honorable mention. When he has been in uniform, he has been great. The problem is he hasn't been in uniform that often.

3 minutes ago, Patzky said:

I also present the top 4 Glad We Cut Ties list..

4. Jordan Balazovic. Yeah we have still have implosions but nothing like his..

3. Jorge Polanco. Injured and ineffective in Seattle. M's fans are not pleased.

2. Michael A. Taylor. Can't help but love the guy but he's not an impact player in Pittsburgh.

1. Kenta Maeda. Nick of time.. although he had a great bullpen appearance just before the break.

 

Sad about Polanco; Taylor seems to have peak and low seasons, we got him at a peak. This year he is at a low.

3 minutes ago, minman1982 said:

I would probably give Royce Lewis honorable mention. When he has been in uniform, he has been great. The problem is he hasn't been in uniform that often.

Lewis had a nasty slump before he went out this time; he has never played long enough to show if he is a flash in the pan or not.

3. Jorge Polanco. Injured and ineffective in Seattle. M's fans are not pleased.

2. Michael A. Taylor. Can't help but love the guy but he's not an impact player in Pittsburgh.

1. Kenta Maeda. Nick of time.. although he had a great bullpen appearance just before the break.

Agree 100%.  Here's something that rarely is discussed:  making the right non-move. Wow, people were upset that we did not bring some of these people back.  The Twins got a ton of abuse (including on these boards) about that.  But they were absolutely positively right on all three of these.  The offseason was not perfect.  But it would have been a heck of a lot worse if we had not done the Polanco trade and had re-upped with Taylor and Maeda.

Caleb Thielbar is the highest paid member of the bullpen and he had a really bad first half of the season.

21 minutes ago, bean5302 said:

For those folks wondering what the heck xERA is, it's based on xwOBA. Pablo Lopez never seems to perform up to his sparkly expected metrics. Some pitchers outperform expectations consistently (Verlander) and some underperform (Lopez).

And sometimes Lopez looks like a #1 pitcher.   

I enjoyed this analysis Cody.  I found it to be perfectly cromulent.

Left handed reliever group as a whole. 

1 hour ago, thelanges5 said:

Left handed reliever group as a whole. 

It's weird to me that they only carried 1 LHP in most of the LOOGY era, but carry more now. 

Eh, that's baseball in 2024 as compared to 2012, I guess.

Before reading this article I had

1. AK-19
2. E. Julien
3. K. Farmer
4. ???

C. Vasquez - has improved dramatically since the beginning of the season
P. Lopez - similar to last year, but I feel he is still a bit off.
 

I like your article Cody, in how you also added optimism along with your disappointments. But in your statement about Kiriloff.

"Offensively, he struggled to find the swing that had made him one of the organization’s top prospects."

To start the season Kiriloff was our top hitter until he got hurt, which correlates to when he started his slump. So he had found his swing, the problem was that he was put in a situation to get hurt & never said anything (which IMO understandable). So the solution isn't him getting his swing back it's keeping him healthy after the ordeal he has been put through. Put him at 1B/DH & keep him there as originally planned.

I don't get the pessimism.

My 4 biggest disappoints are Wallner, Julien, AK and Lopez, with Lewis as Honorable mention (only because of injuries again)

If a player hits .223 with a OPS of .598 and then  .196/.514 really a big disappointment or just a bit under what was a expected?

6 hours ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Blaming Kirilloff's injuries on him playing the OF is one of the weirder narratives you continue to try and push. 

Kirilloff is a player I had high expections for.   I'm not going to pretend to know the whole story, but playing with an unreported injury (to the team) while underperforming is selfish.   Perhaps I have my facts incorrect, but that's what it looks like from what I've read.

17 hours ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

Blaming Kirilloff's injuries on him playing the OF is one of the weirder narratives you continue to try and push. 

Thank you, coming from you it's a compliment. But for others who are reading this. Let me give you an example for a reference point to help you to put it into perspective: When Lewis needs a physical break from 3B & to keep his bat in the lineup, do they put him in the OF? I hope your answer is no. they'd put him at DH or if he can play 1B & Santana isn't there, they'd play him at 1B, for any amount of time. Why? Because OF is a much more physically demanding position than 1B/ DH. During the offseason before Kiriloff even started his initial conditioning in Jan. Twins stated that (due to 2 consectitive years of wrist surgeries & last year shoulder surgery) they'd restrict him to only 1B/ DH duties. Why? because 1B/ DH duties are much less demanding on his body (that spent 3 yrs, of surgeries, recovery & lack of muscle strength the follows surgery & lack of playing time) than OF. To begin the season Kiriloff's bat was hot & they needed him to more often than the shared time at DH.  Their Santana was at 1B so they were willing to sacrifice Kiriloff in the OF. Could he eventually suffer from soft-tissue injury just playing 1B/ DH? maybe but if they committed to Kiriloff 1B/ DH from the beginning, his injury would be greatly delayed, less serious & he wouldn't have to feel the need to play hurt to keep his job & aggravating the problem. Meaning less down time & less negative hype.

I don't call observing, rationalize & come to a conclusion that doesn't fit in the social media box as weird. I call it common sense. Majority of social media purpose is to endocrinate people with whatever means to their agenda, mine here at TD is try to get people to think & come to their own conclusion. You don't see me follow people that don't agree with me, so I can smash the dislike button & try to discredit them anyway I can. I leave them to their own opinions. But if they comment on my statement, I will respond if there is any sanity to it.

On 7/17/2024 at 10:41 AM, bean5302 said:

For those folks wondering what the heck xERA is, it's based on xwOBA. Pablo Lopez never seems to perform up to his sparkly expected metrics. Some pitchers outperform expectations consistently (Verlander) and some underperform (Lopez).

That's why they're useless. 

On 7/17/2024 at 11:02 AM, Hawkeye Bean Counter said:

And sometimes Lopez looks like a #1 pitcher.   

Whos not being paid to look like a #1 pitcher sometimes. And it's not every 3rd or 4th start where he's not good. Instead, it's the opposite. Every 3rd or 4th start he might throw a gem. And the ACE hype Train starts rolling along.

15 hours ago, CCHOF5yearstoolate said:

This is pure, unadulterated conjecture. You have so many of these weird narratives that you push and push and push, very rarely do they ever pan out and yet you still manage to push them with all the confidence in the world when it's obvious you cannot possibly know the truth of the matter.

Posting weird conspiracy theories like this one and that Polanco wasn't performing well to start the year because he was "sad about being traded" isn't common sense.

The irony of this statement is killing me though hahaha

Don't forget the Noah Miller trade. Destined to be better than Ozzie. Ozzie Nelson maybe. And how many great young hitters who've been ruined by Twins coaching philosophy.  Yet it somehow hasn't affected others. Like Kirilloff. Whom he loves but still spells his name wrong.