Twins 2, Orioles 7: Stick a Fork in Them

I think the front office makes decent decisions given their constraints, but the on-field management is a big problem. Not that we have a perfect roster, but we could have had that wildcard spot. In other words, we need a new manager.

1 hour ago, Riverbrian said:

Look for Italian Restaurants specifically. 

They must have an Olive Garden somewhere.  

I would go to the local markets and purchase the food there.  I bet their Chef Boyardee is amazing.

Even when they were winning games and had a good record, they often seemed a little flat this year.   That is a bit true of last year as well, the pitching kept them in the race until the offense finally caught fire later in the season.

33 minutes ago, Parfigliano said:

Attendance will crater if they trade Pablo

Attendance will fall regardless. 

3 hours ago, Maybe Next Year said:

Funny- Cleveland's payroll is $30 million less than the Twins, Detroit's was $22 million less and KC's was $10 million less.  Gee, how did they all make the playoffs with such a low payroll?  This is proof it isn't just a spending issue- it's a front office and manager issue. The manager is horrible and the front office isn't much better. Time to clean house!

I haven't been a Rocco hater, but look at Detroits team.  Tarik Skubal and 25 other guys.  And A J Hinch.  

I don’t know exactly how to quantify it, but after taking in (in person, broadcast, online) most of the games this year (I’m retired), I’m puzzled to think of how an organization could get LESS on field performance than what we’ve seen, given the payroll and talent we have. I’ve voiced my great displeasure with the movement toward new analytics seemingly driving every lineup and on field decision. It’s producing a boring brand and is making it hard for me to get behind the players the way I’m used to. But beyond that, I’m still wondering if I’d have a better fan experience if I was watching an organization that was honestly trying to build towards something from the ground up. The apparent lack of emphasis on the basic fundamentals is appalling to me. I’d feel better about a massive housecleaning even if that meant being realistic about not having a championship type team next year. As it is, I feel like I’m being lied to by the organization with how things have played out. As far as Rocco, as far as I can tell he’s a high character, positive person. I liked him as a player with the Devil Rays, probably would love to have a beer with him. As a professional baseball manager, I’d look elsewhere for what I want our young players learning and growing with. Full disclosure - I’m not that fluent in pro sports financial analysis and frankly don’t have the energy for it. I love baseball, I’m a lifelong Twins fan, and just want pleasure/entertainment from the experience. 
I hope they accommodate that going forward. 

Just now, JD-TWINS said:

Mr. Upbeat in New York………

Sorry to tell it like it is. Unless something drastic is done, attendance will fall. I can lie if you'd prefer. 

This incompetent organization was expecting a rise in attendance after '23 and anyone paying attention knew that wasn't gonna happen. Came about 300,000 people short of projected, which has to be at least $15 million in game day revenue. 

And probably another $15 million next season.

Thank goodness they right sized by $30 million to save money! 

1 hour ago, lukeduke1980 said:

I haven't been a Rocco hater, but look at Detroits team.  Tarik Skubal and 25 other guys.  And A J Hinch.  

This just tells me you don't know anything about their team. 

Whats is incredible is they became just the second team to successfully utilize openers as a pitching strategy. Pretty cool if we're being honest. 

4 hours ago, Aggies7 said:

The entire organization needs to get back to teaching fundamentals. It was glaringly obvious that guys coming up from the minors were terrible at basic baseball skills, like baserunning and holding baserunners. Situational hitting. How could a guy like austin martin not be able to get a bunt down? I guess when you’re so obsessed with numbers you have less time for the basic stuff that’s won baseball games for 150 years. 

The powers that be (the FO and Rocco) won big in 2019 with the HR ball setting a MLB record. They've gone whole hog in that direction and now they are paying the price. You don't teach fundamentals, like baserunning, holding runners, sacrificing, bunting, situational hitting, opposite field hitting, etc, etc, if your only goal is to hit the ball as hard as you can, swinging for the fences. Without even checking, I'd be willing to bet the majority of the games they won were games they hit at least 1 HR or more, and the games they couldn't score enough to win, they didn't hit any. 

13 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

Funderburk is the only guy left that hadn’t thrown the two previous days consecutively.

Who cares? In June, sure. If you've given up? Sure. But if you're claiming to try to win the game, that's irrelevant. 

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

Now do one for Bailey Over, I mean Ober.

Sights set on next Oct-Ober

2 hours ago, bean5302 said:

No way. When the Pohlad's creak open the dusty wallets for any type of decent giveaway, they're gone 30+min before game time. Some gates run out 1+hrs before game time.

You got that right. I got an e-mail last night celebrating "Fan Appreciation Weekend" with a wheel to spin to win various prizes. Supposed to run through Sunday. I "clicked to win" about 1 pm today (Saturday) to get to the wheel and arrived at a page bannered with "This Promotion is Over"....

9 hours ago, CRF said:

Get ready for more of the same next season. Very disappointing.

I remember the 86 Twins.  They had a good core to start with. Guys like Hrbek , Gagne, Gary Gaetti, Viola , Burt Blyleven, etc ...In the off-season, acquired Gladden, Juan B, Jeff Reardon. We know how the story ends. 

Question is. Do we have a front office that has a clue about what moves to make? An owner that will prevent any possibly of acquiring a game changing FA? 

That's what kills any hope for me. 

22 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

You say attendance is poor, or going to drop, 3 times a day for last week ……, don’t recall a lot of posts nearly all season …….maybe I missed them but I’m on here every day so doubtful.

26,000 and change last night with the season essentially over from a competitive standpoint. People in MN will go out and watch Pro-sports - no matter which team, if they’re competitive. Twins will be competitive or better making nearly zero changes to pitching and only a handful toward refreshing the offense.

2 days ago I said any forecast of more than 2% increase over ‘23 draw of 1.97 million would have been careless with all the TV issues that came out of the Winter. I also said they wouldn’t be more than 35-70K light on attendance (using your $75/fan revenue number) that would result in a maximum shortfall of ($75 x 70,000) $5.25M max. …………my comments were in response to what you had called out ……… then, you gave my comments a thumbs up!!! Today you’re back at the chicken little attitude on attendance……let it go instead of acting like the definitive Nostradamus .

We were guessing. And the there was actual reporting. And now I'm guessing again. 

This is fun. This is supposed to be fun. 

16 minutes ago, JD-TWINS said:

It’s not irrelevant if guys aren’t going to be effective - it’s not fantasy baseball. I’m not concerned with innings for the year at this point but guys can’t throw 20 plus pitches 3 days in a row at the end of September. The announcers were discussing the topic from 2nd inning forward ……,”pen is extremely short tonight”. Sure 2-3 of those guys were available if absolutely needed but not with 14 outs to go.

I don't take their word seriously. Pitchers can pitch three days in a row if needed. Rocco didn't think it was needed, cause he'd given up. But we all had so, makes sense. 

3 hours ago, ashbury said:

Now do one for Bailey Over, I mean Ober.

How about... you've been Rocco Rolled!

14 hours ago, cmoss84 said:

Was thinking the exact same thing. 

If they fire everyone, does that get fans off of their back and buy them time to not spend money?

It shouldn’t, but it probably will here.  Getting any sort of real criticism/tough questions out of the local media isn’t going to happen.  And. There’s too many fans that are content spending $300 to hang out in nice summer weather with no regard for the product.  There’s never a real consequence.

That’s the thing.  This is the absolute easiest market to run a sports franchise, and the current ownership group still can’t get out of their own way.

All it takes is throwing the fan base a meager bone once in a while.  Sign Carlos Correa at a discount when nobody else wanted him, and they have NPCs on places like this doing their best to drag anyone that dares criticize their spending policies for the next decade.

I just heard a few stats on a podcast.  This team has won 90 games twice since target field opened.  It’s managed one play-in tournament win against an equally inept franchise in the last 25 years (and we had fans celebrating like we won’t back to back World Series).  The current FO was brought in under the pretenses of building a pithing pipeline.  This team still can’t pitch a lick and they’re nearly a decade into their administration.  There’s still a subset of people that will die on the hill of this franchises proven loser of a team building strategy.

I recently saw someone defending on the basis of the strong farm system, which is mind blowing.  They just had Jenkins, a top 5 prospect fall into their lap.  What else have they done?  They didn’t want to pony up for Greene so took Lewis, who may never play a full season in his career, and frankly, is not that good (can’t play defense, can’t run, and we’ve just recently discovered, isnt a world beater at the plate either).  They’ve burned first round pick after first round pick on slugging DH types that never materialize.

Frankly, I don’t care what ownership does this offseason.  I can tell you it won’t be enough.  It never has been, and never will be.  They don’t care.  Their ultimate goal is to do just enough to con the fans.  Not an inch more.  This is 100% hopeless.  Last year was the absolute ceiling for this franchise.  And, considering the pop-up of the Royals and Tigers this year, we’re not seeing that again for a very long time.

Last thing.  Can everyone that doesn’t understand accounting quit with the “what do you want them to do, take a loss?  It’s a business.”  Do you really think they’re losing money?   Amazon has a run an operating loss every year of their existence.  How’s Jeff Bezos doing?  They’re still making out like bandits financially, so let’s quit with the nonsense that they can’t afford this or that.

This franchise needs a real, competent business man running the ship.  Someone that understands return in investment and long-term positioning.  These trust funders in place now have been led to believe that’s them.  They were born on third base and think they hit a triple.  Then, while pretending they know how to run the bases, they got picked off.