Tigers 7, Twins 1: Ryan Has One Awful Inning, Detroit Breaks Open Early

The game of adjustments  ....

Baseball is a game of adjustments  and the twins  batters just don't seem to get it and maybe the plan the FO and manager have don't get it either ...

We went against  the opener  , adjustment 1 ...

Went went against  2nd pitcher , adjustment 2 and had some success  ...

We went against 4 other pitchers and adjustments  3 through 6 ...

Rocco says the players don't need infield and batting practice so long as the players are prepared to play , they may take the field but they sure don't come to play  ...

To my knowledge we have played 3 games that the other team has sent an opener  in to start a game and we have lost all 3 games  , not sure this is correct  on openers because I was out of town  for some weekend series  , cubbies , cleveland  and others ... 

3 losses to the team that starts an opener against us , did the players prepare themselves mentally  for these games , did they look over Rocco stats sheets on each pitcher to see what they throw and where they throw it ...

Are they prepared for adjustments in situational hitting with runners on base  , the answer is obviously  a no ...

no because there is no consistency to their preparation of the daily game and it shows on a daily basis from one game to the next , they get lucky once in a blue moon and score a crooked number by hitting a few homeruns  , rest of the game  they can't seem to string any hits together to score any runs , can't even hit a sacrifice fly with bases loaded and no outs , can't seem to hit the pitch to the opposite fields , the list goes on and on ...

can't wait until Lee gets here and starts hitting the gaps for doubles , doubles have been way down  for the twins hitters , ( when was the last time we had a player hit 40 doubles in a season ) ...

People are saying strikeouts,  batting averages don't matter , if you don't make contact  it definitely matters ... 

Whatever happed to the purist form of baseball in hitting , we have the purists form of pitchers and it is being wasted on mediocrity  hitting ...

The strikeouts gotta go ...

This ball club needs an enema!

Make some moves and shake it up.

Out: Falvey, Rocco, Kepler, Castro, Pagan, J Lopez (IL)

In: Levine, Toby G, Larnach, Wallner, Funderburk, Maeda

I’m beginning to think that hitters who have a superior understanding/recognition of the strike zone are at a disadvantage. They might as well hack at those pitches two - six inches off the plate if those very clearly balls are going to be called strikes anyway.  

Halfway to the sweep of the Detroit series!

Buxton is back in the lineup, but at this point you have to wonder how that is even helping. 

It was an ugly game.

Big Money offensive players aren't getting the job done in any shape of reliability.  

Stuck in contracts with Big 3 who aren't doing much to "lead" this team: 

'23 salaries on multi-year contracts: Correa $33MM Buxton $15MM, Vazquez $10MM ... this group went 1 for 11 with 5 K's.  

'23 salaries on final year they should be a twin: Gallon $11MM, Kepler $8.5MM with Gallo going 1 for 3 and Kepler didn't even play (not a bad thing).

Combined with these guys they make up 50.74% of the team payroll.  Gallo is what we thought we would get, so not surprised there except sucks to pay him $11MM for a .196 K/HR guy. 

Buxton, injury prone on team friendly deal who has lingering knee, ribs ailments.  Knee should have bene addressed off-season as he is hurting the team more than helping. I don't want to hear or praise how they are bubble wrapping this guy and he will play in over 120 games this year.  He is appearing in that amount of games has influenced the game for about 4 minutes per game.  Must be exhausting walking up to bat and walking back to the dugout.

Correa has to be laughing at the steal of paycheck he is earning at the moment. 

$10MM per year to Vazquez at age 32 for a "great" game caller and no hard contact guy.  Sure 2 rings but I just don't see the influence he has on the team. 8 prior seasons he made $20MM and we want to pay him $30MM for 3 years where he is aging on the downside of his career at catcher position.  Yeah us

Kepler didn't even play las night, enough said about dead pull hitter who can't beat the non-shift defense. 

Time to jettison some dead money is now, starting with Kepler.  Trade him for a low level prospect at best or just plain DFA the guy.  Don't care that he plays decent defense at this stage in his lackluster career, give the spot to others and let it roll.

Go Twins

12 minutes ago, mikelink45 said:

We seem to have a pattern of winning against good teams and then dropping the opportunity against bad teams.  Detroit should have been where we begin to separate, now we are back to 500 and hope to leave 2 games over like we started.  How do we turn this around?  Ryan was my top hope, Gallo and Correa are with Ryan in the bottom WPA - Correa has to step up and stay hot for the rest of the season.  Gallo (you know he is at the bottom for me all the time).  

Who is hot?  We need some consistency.

Yes, consistency sure would be nice, at least consistency of the quality variety. I'm sure many of us were salivating at the prospect of facing the Tigers this weekend ... and now?

35 minutes ago, davidborton said:

Actually, Twins are 12-16 against clubs with .500 or greater records.

Always one person who tries to confuse the conversation with facts.

When Salono over ran 3rd base this one was over. Arraez had almost as many hits today as this whole team,he went 5-5 with everyone's favorite a homerun. I have decided to go watch some little league games,they will be much more fun. Maybe a strike out vest is needed to get things around.

1 hour ago, Doctor Wu said:

Buxton is back in the lineup, but at this point you have to wonder how that is even helping. 

It’s not. Clearly not at the plate and he isn’t even allowed to play in the field. 

In order to get any value out of Buxton they need to play him in center field and slide Tayler to Right.  That would not only give the Twins the best defensive outfield possible but open up the DH to someone who can make solid contact.  Matt Wallner comes to mind.

7 hours ago, howeda7 said:

Make some moves and shake it up.

Out: Falvey, Rocco, Kepler, Castro, Pagan, J Lopez (IL)

In: Levine, Toby G, Larnach, Wallner, Funderburk, Maeda

What has Toby done for us? It doesn't appear to me that the guys coming up are prepared fundamentally. I don't think Toby is the answer. 

Juliens error. Scored a hit. And it was an error in 2 ways. #1 cutting in front of Correa and taking his momentum towards 3rd base and #2 botching the play. And Solano getting caught at 3rd potentially taking away a crooked number. Not saying they would have won with the way they hit, but it sure didn't help

As goes Correa and Buck, so will go the team. 

Buck is simply not a good option for a permanent DH. 

If he remains a permanent DH, his contract is absolutely NOT team friendly anymore because of the downstream effects it has on positional and lineup flexibility.

I'm not even convinced that he will be the best permanent DH option by the end of the year (looking at you Julian)

When the 2 highest paid players  go 0-8 and Buck strikes out 3 times the Twins will not win many games. Really sad watching the two high paid players not getting even 1 hit. Two good teams walked away from Correa, but Rocco wanted him back and that shows his lack of judgement.

OBI  

One Bad Inning. 

2 hours ago, D.C Twins said:

As goes Correa and Buck, so will go the team. 

Buck is simply not a good option for a permanent DH. 

If he remains a permanent DH, his contract is absolutely NOT team friendly anymore because of the downstream effects it has on positional and lineup flexibility.

I'm not even convinced that he will be the best permanent DH option by the end of the year (looking at you Julian)

I know you like Julien as a hitter  and not so much as a 2nd baseman  , Julien bat has done well in a small sample  ,,, 

I hope his defense  does get better  after the jitters subsides  , what would you think of a veteran  of Polanco as a DH ,,,

I think Polanco for sure would be better than Buxton as DH and maybe would help him stay healthy  , I posted this during spring training  of my thoughts  ...

6 hours ago, Doctor Wu said:

Buxton is back in the lineup, but at this point you have to wonder how that is even helping. 

It's not and it might even be a negative, given his performance.

16 hours ago, joefish said:

What has Toby done for us? It doesn't appear to me that the guys coming up are prepared fundamentally. I don't think Toby is the answer. 

He might not be the long-term answer but he's the most logical internal candidate for the rest of the season. 

1 hour ago, howeda7 said:

He might not be the long-term answer but he's the most logical internal candidate for the rest of the season. 

No, the most logical assumption is that those speculating that Ron's son will be managing the Twins this season are just wasting their time. Rocco is not getting fired during this season. It's not happening.