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    The 5 Most Telling Quotes from Derek Shelton's Introductory Presser

    As expected, there wasn't much substantive insight to be gleaned from Derek Shelton's words as the Twins introduced him as their 15th manager. But what he was unwilling to say spoke volumes.

    Nick Nelson
    Image courtesy of Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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    By now we've become accustomed to public-facing words from Minnesota Twins leadership that are long on jargon but short on substance. So that's where expectations were set heading into Tuesday's press conference introducing Derek Shelton as the club's new manager. 

    To his credit, Shelton kept the first part in check, answering questions succinctly in a quick session that ran less than 30 minutes front to back. But alas, there wasn't much substance to be found in Shelton's responses from reporters who pressed him on what he'll do differently as Twins managers, and why fans should believe in better days ahead.

    There is more insight to be drawn from what Shelton didn't say — flat-out refused to say, really — than the few things he did emphasize, which on their own rung pretty hollow. Here are five quotes from the presser that I found especially striking, and why. 

    "Attention to detail and fundamentals are extremely, extremely important to me ... There is no detail that's too small."

    He's singing the right notes, given how much frustration had mounted with the Twins' sloppy play by the end of the Rocco Baldelli era. But in his only major-league stop as a manager so far, attention to detail was not a strength of Shelton's teams. "Constant struggles with fundamentals" was cited by Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as a primary downfall of the Pirates under Shelton. That doesn't necessarily mean it was the manager's fault, but Shelton hasn't shown any demonstrable ability to elevate decision-making and execution in a poor fundamental bunch, which these Twins have proven to be.

    "We're gonna have to continue to work in that market of growing, competing, developing."

    This came as part of an answer from Shelton on what he sees as the Twins' strengths. First he mentioned the "good starting pitching group" (which ranked 23rd in the majors in ERA this year) and Byron Buxton (conspicuously the only specific player h named). Then he pointed to the standout farm system, portraying internal development as the "market" in which the Twins must operate — an interesting word choice. And again, this is the same market Pittsburgh was operating in while failing miserably under his watch. 

    "I think we'll get into that more, as we go through. I think that's something that as we talked about there was clarity, but it's also going to be a group that's going to learn and grow, but yeah, I think we'll probably get into that more as we continue to go."

    To me, this was the flashing red-light moment of the entire press conference. Shelton was asked by one reporter if the front office pitched a vision to him for how they planned to turn the team around, and what the near future held in store. He gave a fairly long-winded answer about the complete transparency he was given, and how everything was on the table, but failed to elaborate. Moments later, another reporter followed up asking directly: What did they say? Shelton responded with the laughably evasive answer above, firmly asserting that he fully knows of the team's intentions but is unwilling to peep a word about them, even directionally. And I think we can all put two and two together on why that would be the case.

    "Excitement about the young group we have. Excitement about the pitching group we have."

    These are the two things Shelton led with when asked to give Twins fans a reason to feel enthused about this team. And it's one of those answers that just completely falls flat. Why would we feel excited about the young talent that we've been watching flounder over the past two seasons? Why would we feel excited about a pitching staff that just had its bullpen wiped out, with underwhelming initial returns from the deadline? Maybe it's a question with no satisfying honest answer to be given, but I fear this is a preview of the empty youth-based vision that will be pitched to fans on a further whittled down roster in 2026. 

    "I'm not using the term rebuild. People are always gonna go to a certain term, but I think we're gonna develop young players."

    So, he's not using the term because he doesn't like it, that's more or less what fans can expect. Got it.

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    9 minutes ago, mnfireman said:

    On any given day, playoffs included, the lack of fundamentals at the MLB level can by seen from any team; bad secondary leads, overthrows to the cut-off man, not knowing the count/how many outs, inability to sacrifice bunt, etc...

    Absolutely

    Every game I've watched perhaps at least once per game there is a fundamental issue from either squad.

    We all notice them when they happen. We also tend to take for granted the many many times that the fundamentals are executed correctly. 

    Players should know the fundamentals by the time they reach the majors. 

    Doesn't mean they will execute them perfectly at all times. The Gophers are pretty fundamentally sound at the college level. It's isn't unreasonable to expect your high school team to play with decent enough fundamentals. 

    After having fundamentals drilled into you at High School, College, The Minor Leagues.

    They should have a pretty clear understanding when they reach the majors. 

     

    14 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

    Absolutely

    Every game I've watched perhaps at least once per game there is a fundamental issue from either squad.

    We all notice them when they happen. We also tend to take for granted the many many times that the fundamentals are executed correctly. 

    Players should know the fundamentals by the time they reach the majors. 

    Doesn't mean they will execute them perfectly at all times. The Gophers are pretty fundamentally sound at the college level. It's isn't unreasonable to expect your high school team to play with decent enough fundamentals. 

    After having fundamentals drilled into you at High School, College, The Minor Leagues.

    They should have a pretty clear understanding when they reach the majors. 

     

    And was there actually ever a time when this wasn’t the case? Players are not machines, as much as we like to pretend that they are.

    40 minutes ago, Craig Arko said:

    And was there actually ever a time when this wasn’t the case? Players are not machines, as much as we like to pretend that they are.

    To me... It's kind of like those family discussions around the Thanksgiving table.  

    Nobody sits around talking about the thousands of times that I parked the car successfully in the garage without incident. 

    They like to bring up that one time I drove the car through the garage door. I kind of lost my fundamentals on that one. 

    The garage story is told every year. It has been told so often that my Turkey taste buds have been conditioned to think that the turkey tastes different if nobody is around to tell the story while I'm eating it.    

    My wife likes to focus on the couple of times that I accidentally tipped my glass of grape juice over onto our white carpet in the living room. When it happens, it's quite tramatic for her and she blurts out that I spill all the time. She isn't even considering the millions of times that I successfully lifted the glass to my face and drank from it without incident.

    It doesn't matter... she is convinced that I have a fundamental problem reaching for that glass. She stares at me if I bring a beer into the living room and suggests I sit in the kitchen and drink my beer.    

    Once you hit a garage door and spill purple juice. People start to question your fundamentals because each fundamental mistake is loud. 

    The Twins certainly spilled some grape juice the last couple of years. Do they know the fundamentals? I'll bet they do. Did they execute every time?: No they do not. How do they compare to other teams? No idea... However... I also see the other teams do some dumb things.    

    21 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

    To me... It's kind of like those family discussions around the Thanksgiving table.  

    Nobody sits around talking about the thousands of times that I parked the car successfully in the garage without incident. 

    They like to bring up that one time I drove the car through the garage door. I kind of lost my fundamentals on that one. 

    The garage story is told every year. It has been told so often that my Turkey taste buds have been conditioned to think that the turkey tastes different if nobody is around to tell the story while I'm eating it.    

    My wife likes to focus on the couple of times that I accidentally tipped my glass of grape juice over onto our white carpet in the living room. When it happens, it's quite tramatic for her and she blurts out that I spill all the time. She isn't even considering the millions of times that I successfully lifted the glass to my face and drank from it without incident.

    It doesn't matter... she is convinced that I have a fundamental problem reaching for that glass. She stares at me if I bring a beer into the living room and suggests I sit in the kitchen and drink my beer.    

    Once you hit a garage door and spill purple juice. People start to question your fundamentals because each fundamental mistake is loud. 

    The Twins certainly spilled some grape juice the last couple of years. Do they know the fundamentals? I'll bet they do. Did they execute every time?: No they do not. How do they compare to other teams? No idea... However... I also see the other teams do some dumb things.    

    And this should have been Shelton’s statement at the presser.

    11 hours ago, JADBP said:

    Yeah...this will substantially improve the value of the Twins franchise....like, REALLY???  Are the Pohlad's really believing the insanity of this plan?  Strip out all of the value of the team so it is more attractive to potential buyers?  That's your plan?  That's how you are going to sell the team for MORE money?  OMG the absolute stupidity is frightening!

     

    Welcome to another episode of Are You Smarter Than A Billionaire?

    game-show-background-2550-x-1650-37ixulc

    4 hours ago, The Great Hambino said:

    A general plan actually exists.  I highly doubt hearing more complete unknowns made Shelton really want this job.

    The fact that he’s unemployed and in extreme low demand is what made Shelton want the job. Also, I doubt that Shelton is worried about sullying his major league winning percentage, since it can’t possibly go much lower than it already is. Even if Shelton didn’t believe a word Falvey said in the interview, he still takes the job and says what he said at the presser, because…why wouldn’t he.

    The presser was a nonevent. Nothing at all to be gleaned good or bad, IMO. Still, they made sure to spin with misleading phrases like “young players”, when the current major league roster is, in fact, NOT young relative to the majority of the league. Transparency would have had Falvey and Shelton referring to “bad” or “flawed” players, not young players.




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