Royals 4, Twins 3: Duffey Implodes as Twins Waste Winnable Game

Yep. better fire the manager. that'll fix everything. I'm sure someone from this board is ready to step in and will make no mistakes, and all the second-guessing will go away.

wait...

I'm sorry, I just get tired of every decision that Rocco or the team makes being described as "inexcusable". 

Duffey looked really rough last night, like he was pitching batting practice. His command is off, and he's hanging his breaking balls, and KC made him pay. It's a reminder why relievers, outside of the absolute best of them, are generally pretty fungible. You can be great for 2 seasons and heading for the cut line 2 years later. I hope he gets it together, but if he hangs that curve over the heart of the plate he's not getting anyone out. (It's not that there's no bite on it, it's the location. He just can't start it letter-high, center of the plate and not expect it to get killed. I'm sure he knows that too, so clearly he's having problems locating the pitch)

On the bright side, Archer looks healthy and his stuff is nasty.  He literally had no spring training so I'm optimistic.

Twins fans who are interested in watching a competitive team in 2022 will likely have a fair idea of the direction by June and certainly by the All Star Game. Many others, based on posts during the past several months, will look to the next five years and the minor leaguers as they support some ideal of asset management and responsible spending for small market teams. 

Today looks cloudy for the Twins and sunny for a few prospects, so it becomes a matter of which one supports. I am still hoping that Buxton and Kirilloff find themselves in the lineup 5-6 times every week. It is a long season and the better players need to show themselves sooner than later. Rocco? I just wish he would be less visible because he has bad luck.

I know garlic is great on spaghetti...or is it just the thick bread mom used to dip in butter and cover in the stuff...but I'm beginning to wonder just what kind of pictures of who Garlick must have??

I'll give Rocco the three strike approach on this but he's down to one left after the following moves

In the Boston Massacre game (have to name the seldom seen offensive production) Rocco goes against the late inning defensive replacement plan and inserts his favorite vegetable (look it up) to put the game further out of reach due to a poor matchup (I believe he managed to produce the same True outcome...K'd) and then we got to see Devers hit a 300 foot moon shot that bounces off the top of the fence for a HR off Duran...now if it's the top of the Green Monster...ok...tough break...this was the top of the RF fence Pesky Pole area which is about 3'6" high...where's the RF in all of this? Right up against the wall ready to make the HR robbing catch? Yes...unfortunately...he was about 6 feet off on where the ball hit the fence and bounced over...I'm thinking Kepler might have had that one but he was moved to CF I believe

Strike 2 - Maybe we can call this the "I could never get a hit off of Flash" game or the "Elementary Dear Watkins" of to just "The Duff"...as noted above Flash the 3rd makes an adjustment to getting blown away by two high fastballs to triple on the next high fastball...while it was nice to see a professional hitter adjust within an AB and win...I can only surmise that Gordon was making the other guys look bad so he needed a calm down on the bench moment so we could watch some Ratcher and Clank action for half the game in RF...haven't checked the box score but I don't think we had much productivity at the plate from that spot in the lineup

So the count is in the Sano-hole 0-2 and here's hoping Rocco passes on the garlic this time and maybe shortens up and lines a triple to the gap

1 hour ago, ashbury said:

Redeploy Tommy, at the very least.

I propose a swap of positions with Conger...I can't imagine a former catcher ever thinking of sending himself home with no outs and a piano waiting 30 feet down the line

rv78 said: "Pulling Gordon for Garlick shows the Manager has no feel for the game but strickly makes every move based on analytics. If the Bomba squad doesn't reappear and the Twins end up needing to win based on Rocco's decisions they are doomed."

That can't be better said to describe the hitting side.  It's so good I love it for it's beauty and hate it because it takes all the fun out of it.  It's that plain and simple.

12 hours ago, glunn said:

I wish that Rocco had put in Pagan instead of Duffey and  kept Gordon in the game.  

Ditto Glunn those plus burning 5 short RPs every game, he going burn out whatever high leverage RPs we have and sending Sanchez home w/ nobody out was a bad coaching. Duffy needs to be removed from any high leverage situation until he finds himself and not doubled down like he did w/ Colume.

Gordon should've been left in the game especially since he hit that triple. Any possible slight advantage that Baldelli thinks that Garlick had over Gordon is lost and then some when you look at the disadvantage of Garlick's defense.

Bright spots were that Arraez looked seviceable at 1B, Smith was spectacular. Also this was like a ST game for Archer to improved his slider. He had some problems w/ his control but was able to get some extra SOs with his slider besides adding velo to his FB. His endurance will reach 5 innings soon enough. We need Buxton bat.

7 hours ago, PDX Twin said:

The rational choice is to bet against your favorite team. It diversifies your risk. If your team wins, you're happy about it. If your team loses, you are happy about winning the bet. 

Oh I have been betting against them too... Doing much better in those games!

12 hours ago, bighat said:

Twins have now had both Sano and Sanchez called out at home with less than 2 outs this year. Maybe the 3rd base coach should stop sending our big men home? I don't mind being aggressive, but maybe pick your spots.

I thought Sano was thrown out with two outs, in which case I had no problem with him being sent.

Which of us is remembering that correctly?

Regarding the Sano play, he probably would have scored if he had not slowed down so much as he was approaching 3B.

The Sanchez send last night was really stupid. The top of the lineup was coming up with no outs. You may not even send Polanco on that play, much less Sanchez.