Twins Youth Burning Them at the Worst Time

2 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Two options... 

Overreact to a couple of bad games against strong teams, or show those guys you believe in them and their future in this organization. 

Reason #8942 why I hate the playoffs... everything gets overanalyzed and blown way out of proportion. A two-game slump... and its the end of the world. 

Of note - Solano pinch-hit for Kirilloff with a right-hander on the mound. That's probably a sign of things to come tomorrow, maybe. Wallner didn't and worked two really good plate appearances. 

I hope not. Go with the guys that got you there. Stick to the platooning, and go from there. Wallner, Kirilloff, Lewis, Julien... all a big part of the Twins future, and that's a good thing. Stand by them. Or don't, that's the purpose of having all this depth. Try to live another day and get to a Verlander-Lopez game 5... that's the goal at this point. 

But against Urquidy, do you want them to go with Solano at 1st, Farmer at 3rd, Castro in LF with Taylor in CF. Could have Vazquez catch, and let Jeffers DH?

So you have Lewis sitting?

15 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Two options... 

Overreact to a couple of bad games against strong teams, or show those guys you believe in them and their future in this organization. 

Reason #8942 why I hate the playoffs... everything gets overanalyzed and blown way out of proportion. A two-game slump... and its the end of the world. 

Of note - Solano pinch-hit for Kirilloff with a right-hander on the mound. That's probably a sign of things to come tomorrow, maybe. Wallner didn't and worked two really good plate appearances. 

I hope not. Go with the guys that got you there. Stick to the platooning, and go from there. Wallner, Kirilloff, Lewis, Julien... all a big part of the Twins future, and that's a good thing. Stand by them. Or don't, that's the purpose of having all this depth. Try to live another day and get to a Verlander-Lopez game 5... that's the goal at this point. 

But against Urquidy, do you want them to go with Solano at 1st, Farmer at 3rd, Castro in LF with Taylor in CF. Could have Vazquez catch, and let Jeffers DH?

IMHO, the platooning can be debated...the defense cannot. Although we cannot play the 'what if' game effectively, the first inning looks far different with one on and two outs vs, two on and one out...

2 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

Two options... 

Overreact to a couple of bad games against strong teams, or show those guys you believe in them and their future in this organization. 

Reason #8942 why I hate the playoffs... everything gets overanalyzed and blown way out of proportion. A two-game slump... and its the end of the world. 

Of note - Solano pinch-hit for Kirilloff with a right-hander on the mound. That's probably a sign of things to come tomorrow, maybe. Wallner didn't and worked two really good plate appearances. 

I hope not. Go with the guys that got you there. Stick to the platooning, and go from there. Wallner, Kirilloff, Lewis, Julien... all a big part of the Twins future, and that's a good thing. Stand by them. Or don't, that's the purpose of having all this depth. Try to live another day and get to a Verlander-Lopez game 5... that's the goal at this point. 

But against Urquidy, do you want them to go with Solano at 1st, Farmer at 3rd, Castro in LF with Taylor in CF. Could have Vazquez catch, and let Jeffers DH?

You hate the playoffs because players get criticized for not performing and/or praised for performing?  Couldn’t you turn that around and say the regular season too large a sample size?  Not predictive as to how a player will perform in a highly stressful playoff environment.  

I mean, this is what they play the regular season for.  This is when playing baseball matters, not some random Tuesday evening in June against the Kansas City Royals in front of 2,500 people.

A 2 game slump?  Collectively going 2 for a million with RISP isn’t a slump.  Striking out in embarrassing fashion every time you step to the plate in that situation isn’t a slump.  We saw them do that all season.  Granted, it’s not just “youth,” (Kirilloff and Wallner), it’s the whole group (except Correa). It’s institutional.

I can’t disagree more with this notion that it’s somehow a role of the dice.  Kirilloff and Wallner just happened to roll craps.

Some people can perform in stressful situations.  Some lock up and get lost in the moment.   There’s a reason you see the same guys perform in these situations year after year.  There’s a reason this franchise lost 18 straight playoff games, at 6 trillion to 1 odds of happening.  It’s not luck if the draw.  There’s not an alternate universe where they don’t “slump” and beat the Astros yesterday based on some extrapolation of regular season, low leverage, statistics.  It’s a team of superior fortitude willing against a lesser.

Also, we’re not talking about Mike Trout having a couple bad playoff games, here.  These are players that have shown significant warts in the regular season, and they’re getting put under a microscope against the best team when it matters.  You don’t get 162 chances.

I guess I’ll just agree to disagree with the sentiment that they have to keep rolling the dice with these guys until they maybe win the lottery.  That lets people off the hook.  That discredits the people can get the job done.  That attitude is what lost us 18 straight playoff game.  I don’t just shrug my shoulders, chalk it up to some higher power randomly rationing luck, and continue the death march. You keep working and searching until you find the right formula to succeed.  If that’s at some kids expense that couldn’t hack it when it mattered, so be it.  This isn’t the YMCA summer league where everyone makes the team and gets a popsicle after, win or lose.  We’re talking about the highest level of professional baseball, here.  People win and lose.  Feelings get hurt. 

Seth,

Why is it either/or: “over react or go with …”? You have stacked the deck in your analysis. Any change in the line up involving not starting one of the rookies is an “over reaction”? A manager’s job is to put the best combination of players in the line up on any given day. The roster size allows for inter-changeability based on performance, peaking and declining, degrees of injuries (players are always battling some degree of injury), regression, experience, poise, and mojo (to name a few factors). You can certainly say “I prefer that Baldelli starts the same line up because Houston’s pitcher is a righty.” That is fair enough. But, are others who want line up changes irrationally over reacting?

This is a team that's pressing during at bats with runners in scoring position. Errors are going to happen and there were multiple opportunities to make up for it. I'm more worried about Kirolloff's (and most everyone else's) bat that his glove at this point.

6 hours ago, SwainZag said:

The Astros have one of the most playoff experienced core group of guys you will likely find out there.  Experience and being around guys who have routinely played in big games matters.  They haven't missed an ALCS since 2016, while this years team doesn't seem as strong, they still have some damn talented players.

For the Twins you have a lot of guys playing in big games in the firs time in their career.  I'm sure the butterflies are there, I am sure some are feeling more pressure than usual, I really think it comes with the territory.  I do think a lot of guys pressed today.  Huge win Sunday, home crowd and they got punched in the mouth out of the gates and never recovered.

Re-group, hope the jitters of the big time game go away and lace up the spikes tomorrow.  You can't teach experience.

Very true. This is the post-season and we are playing a very good team with lots of experience and confidence. It ain't gonna be easy. It's not like a series with the Royals Most "experts" are picking the Astros to prevail, but I still think we got a shot. Got to keep focused and confident. 

What's that saying in sports - something about needing to lose before you can win. Twins' young guys are going through it right now. Thought Correa would be enough to get them across the finish line - and he still might be - but if you Kirilloff, Julien, Lewis, Jeffers and Wallner learning on the job in October. Not an easy thing to do.

The youth got you to the post season, and sadly they have not stepped up in the post season.  Lewis did in first round, but Astros clearly have a plan right now for him, and that is throw outside with pitches moving off the zone. I have not had a chance to watch every at bat, because of work, but we knew if the kids struggled we would be in trouble. 

Still got one more loss this round, hopefully we can rally today put on a good showing and return to Houston Friday. The amount of men left on base has been crazy and the amount of double plays.  Hopefully, the guys can figure out what Houston's plan for them have been and make the adjustments. 

TWINS rookies are getting some very valuable experience in these playoffs, just enough to realize that they need to play better if they really want to win.

Hope they can send it back to Houston and experience a really big game against a really good team.

As it is, I remember a lot of games this year -- I mean many -- where the offense left runners all over the bases by striking out in huge numbers.  Twins did set a record for Ks this year.  They are playing true to form so far.

I'm in no hurry to complain or criticize Kirilloff or Walner's performance after the last two games. Springer and Varsho were 0-7 in game 1 of the Wild card round. Do you bench them for game 2? No of course not. The Astro are going to score runs, an extra out don't help, but 5 walks off of Javier and no runs scored is the bigger issue. Much like game 1, a couple of timely hits instead of double plays or K's and it's a completely different game. Sure, Kirilloff and Walner are part of that. Gray and Ober giving up 6 homers in 8.1 innings seems like a bigger issue to me and I wouldn't bench/skip either of them if the Twins make it out of this round.

Go with what got you here. Don't overthink it. ASK Toronto fans how that can work out...

The simple truth is the Astros are a much better team than the Twins.  And it shows.  Unfortunately last nights game became an embarrassment and a somewhat closer view of Twins baseball.  The Twi s play in a bad division that doesn't provide much opportunity to grow the team.  Twins continue to strike out at an alarming, almost laughable rate.  The lack of plate discipline and ability or even willingness to adjust during an at bat to the situation has been evident all year.  This team has many holes in it and needs more than a tweak to improve next year or even to maintain the status quo.  Sonny Gray, a big contributer this year, probably pitched his last game as a Twin.  Many others entering free agency.  I'm sure the FO is going to blame everything on the unavailability of Buxton and Gallo, two of the most automatic outs on the team.  Yes the rookies MUST step up.  They look way overmatched.

Are the Astros truly a much better than the Twins?  Astros are probably more balanced than the Twins but I wouldn't go truly a much better team.  We did win 4 out of 6 in regular season, and now 1-2 in post season.  Playoff experience sure, they have it, Twins don't but we aren't dead in the water yet.  9-1 blowout loss makes it look bad on paper but other games have been quite even.  

Take the week division off narrative off the table.  Astros/Rangers both won 90 games.  Twins won season series over both of them.  AL East considered the strongest of all divisions got blanked in the playoffs 0-7.  Throw records and standings out the window come playoffs and you get hot, you advance.  

Twins need to get hot or at least very warm tonight to move to a game 5.  We will learn a bit more of what we have tonight on the mental makeup of this team.  Score early and pressure eases a bit to add on during the game.

If the Twins lose today they'll have a .500 record in the postseason.