Royals 13, Twins 9: Can't Blame It on the Rain, as Twins Rally Late but Fall to Royals

No need to Panic at 1-4?

Let the Shelton hire play it's way out?

The beard trim looks like he did it himself in a mirror?

Does MLB have any say in the appearance/presentation of a MLB Manager?

7 hours ago, JD-TWINS said:

Gotta say, I am a bit concerned (bad weather tonight!) that a Team gets 9 walks when trailing the entire game……….seems a bit passive

Passive is an appropriate criticism.  This team needs more fire and passion.

As part of my lent sacrifice, I watched most of the game last night. Our infield defense was really bad. It did not help Ryan at all. 

I'm ready to just let the ABS call balls and strikes. Terrible game by the home ump (crew chief no less).  The majority of the bad calls went against the Twins which matches my recollection from last year when there was no recourse. 

Perkins noted that with a large lead in bad weather the umps are incentivized to expand the strike zone and get the game over with. Without ABS challenges keeping at bats alive the Twins are blown out last night and never get within striking distance. 

If the Twins had lost another early challenge we would have seen a completely different game.

Umpires are supposed to call them as they see them, not based on who's playing and game conditions. If they can't do that (and they aren't) then let objective technology keep the playing field even for both batters and pitchers. We have the technology to maintain a consistent strike zone. Just use it. 

EDIT: Some might argue the playing conditions explain the missed ball and strike calls. If so that's one more reason to take that burden off the umpire and let the technology do the job properly.

42 minutes ago, shimrod said:

I'm ready to just let the ABS call balls and strikes. Terrible game by the home ump (crew chief no less).  The majority of the bad calls went against the Twins which matches my recollection from last year when there was no recourse. 

Perkins noted that with a large lead in bad weather the umps are incentivized to expand the strike zone and get the game over with. Without ABS challenges keeping at bats alive the Twins are blown out last night and never get within striking distance. 

If the Twins had lost another early challenge we would have seen a completely different game.

Umpires are supposed to call them as they see them, not based on who's playing and game conditions. If they can't do that (and they aren't) then let objective technology keep the playing field even for both batters and pitchers. We have the technology to maintain a consistent strike zone. Just use it. 

EDIT: Some might argue the playing conditions explain the missed ball and strike calls. If so that's one more reason to take that burden off the umpire and let the technology do the job properly.

I've been saying this for years.  The Umps behind the plate are too inconsistent and some of them are downright bad at defining the strike zone consistently with their calls.  Just switch over already and be done with it.  

1 hour ago, Lasorda_This_Out said:

No need to Panic at 1-4?

Let the Shelton hire play it's way out?

 

 

This is a 90 to 100 loss team, no question about it in my head.  Gonna be a LONG season.

Ridiculous conditions for a game. When Royce Lewis looked up to find a pop up and saw only the rain pouring into his eyes they should have suspended the game. I am shocked there were no injuries. Lousy night for everyone, including the Kansas City fans who deserved a better experience for their ticket price.

5 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

The biggest takeaway for me is Wallner - I don't mean his challenge - it is obvious he does not know a strike zone and his ability to stand and watch a third strike go by seems like a good ticket for a bench seat. 

It appeared to me he knew those were strikes. I think he's using the technique often discussed by Morneau. "Have a plan". If the pitcher doesn't throw what Wallner is planning on he just freezes. 

The plan with two strikes needs to include protecting the zone even if the pitcher throws a fastball instead of the slider you were expecting. Jeffers shows the ability to choke up and protect the plate. Wallner seems content to swing for the fences if he guesses right and strike out if he doesn't. 

Rare Joe Ryan dud. Kent and Laweryson didn’t do anything to indicate they should move up in the bullpen pecking order.

It was nice to see some better plate appearances from guys at the end even if they were against some low-leverage relievers.

So far, either the bats have showed up, or the pitching has showed up, but not both so far. Even in the win, the team scored 4 runs on 4 hits, so the offense really didn't show up. I am still far more concerned about the bats than the pitching, as this was trending to be the 4th game in 5 tries with 5 or fewer total hits before the offense picked up against some weaker relievers.

1 hour ago, Doctor Wu said:

Passive is an appropriate criticism.  This team needs more fire and passion.

And ability and talent.  

7 minutes ago, shimrod said:

It appeared to me he knew those were strikes. I think he's using the technique often discussed by Morneau. "Have a plan". If the pitcher doesn't throw what Wallner is planning on he just freezes. 

The plan with two strikes needs to include protecting the zone even if the pitcher throws a fastball instead of the slider you were expecting. Jeffers shows the ability to choke up and protect the plate. Wallner seems content to swing for the fences if he guesses right and strike out if he doesn't. 

I swear the only one with a consistent approach in the batters box right now is Martin. Tough, meaningful plate appearances. Gives me hope. 

Rough one for Ryan: 9 hits, 5 runs, and only 4 innings doesn't exactly position the team to win. Laweryson and Kent didn't do much to put the fire out either. And the with the offense mostly taking a nap until the 7th, it was a pretty ugly night.

Hard to recall the last time the Twins drew 9 walks and struggled, but there it was.

Good to see Bell get on the board with a dinger, and I like seeing Martin continuing to do Martin stuff by getting on base.

I agree that Wallner needs to have his ABS privileges suspended for a bit. I disagree that Wallner doesn't know the strike zone: dude draws way too many walks to not know the zone, but that doesn't mean he's going to be good at knowing when to challenge a call or that he might not go on tilt about one and need to be reigned back in from challenging. It's going to be interesting to see how teams handle ABS challenges. Catchers are clearly the best at it, unsurprisingly. Pitchers are bad at it, and hitters are somewhere in the middle, with some guys good or great at spotting one and others legends in their own minds.

Not sure Shelton has the best handle on this aspect yet; I mean, he tried arguing an ABS call, which was just silly.

Lewis face flop on the infield fly summizes the Twins!  Ugly!!!!

It is not much of a consolation but the Twins are playing as hard as they can. When the team is playing just match up the opponents lineup position by position to the Twins and ask yourself who you would pick.  It isn't pretty. 

Things can change but it may be a while.

Isn't 13 a football score!! This has become can't watch at this time,even the ace looked bad.

The twins are consistently competitive at losing ...

The ownership is consistently competitive at throwing us a bunch of B.S. ...