Week in Review: Beautiful Weather, Ugly Baseball

9 hours ago, Otwins said:

How long before the Twins consider a managerial change if the poor play continues and ticket sales lag.

With the Nephew in charge?  2026 at the earliest. By that time, none of our elite prospects will have come close to attaining their potential.

45 minutes ago, Otwins said:

How long before the Twins consider a managerial change if the poor play continues and ticket sales lag.

Many managers might flee in terror at the thought of having to coach this lineup to somehow hit consistently, and cringe at playing Russian Roulette with this bargain basement back end of a bullpen.  It'd be interesting to see what Dusty, Tito, Counsell or Snitker could do in this clubhouse, but if the results were close to what we see now, we also shouldn't be surprised. 
Blame Rocco all you want, but he's stuck with a bunch of kids who are literally brilliant one day and complete knuckleheads the next.  When they ain't hurt, that is.  ☹️

Buxton bat leadoff, he'll have less pressure

It's 2022 all over again. Twins slowly sinking, no fire, no life, in an unbelievably winnable division. A few of us are still in denial, concocting wishful ideas like "If Kirilloff and Larnach just string together some good at-bats and stay healthy...." or "When Correa and Buxton heat up this team is going to be dangerous"... 

Alas, it appears most of us know by now that this is not a very good team and a turnaround is unlikely. We have seen with our own eyes that they're horrible to watch, the offense is incredibly anemic and there's no help in sight. 

The only "win" we can hope for is that this team doesn't do something horrific like trade Royce Lewis or Brooks Lee for JD Martinez at the break. We can't have any more Trevor Mahle trades that strip the farm system to help a big league club that's clearly not going anywhere. 

I wish I had more hope, but these past 1.5 years have clearly done a number on my psyche. Reading the rest of these comments I don't think I'm alone. Sad times! 

4 hours ago, h2oface said:

I want to add Joe Ryan as a highlight. Joe Cool just keeps on pitching so very well.

And it seems that Pablo Lopez gets off the hook here, but he has become a major disappointment, especially for what the FO gave up to get him, and since signing his extension. It would be nice to see him perform. He is currently our #4 or even #5 starter.

Sad, but true. Ober, and maybe Varland > Lopez.  And to think it was only by the accident of injuries that Ober and Varland are getting their shot and showing their true talent.  If Mahle and Maeda were “healthy” they’d still be in the rotation regardless of how they were pitching. Just like several of our position players keeping the valuable ABs and innings away from our chomping at the bit prospects.

Games are hard to watch right now the past few games when they get 2-3 runs behind in the early innings you can pretty much count them out.  I'll say this they have me conditioned! Very gloomy outlook at the present.

Need to have big week!!! If slide continues Detroit will take over division. Twins have too much talent to be this bad. But not getting hits in with bases loaded no outs/1 out and not getting any runs has cost them. Extremely difficult to watch them as well cheer for them. Need to get it together asap!

53 minutes ago, Nashvilletwin said:

Sad, but true. Ober, and maybe Varland > Lopez.  And to think it was only by the accident of injuries that Ober and Varland are getting their shot and showing their true talent.  If Mahle and Maeda were “healthy” they’d still be in the rotation regardless of how they were pitching. Just like several of our position players keeping the valuable ABs and innings away from our chomping at the bit prospects.

So true about Ober and Varland. I get the Mahle over Varland angle... but Ober clearly was better than Maeda coming out of spring. 

I don't know how other organizations operate but rewarding underperforming veterans for their mediocre/awful play has been a trademark for this team for a long time. We send down Wallner and keep Solano on the roster for Kepler and his uninspiring and lackluster play. Everyone knew what the results would be in signing Gallo and keeping Kepler... an absolute disaster. The FO has setup the homerun or bust approach. This offense is unwatchable. Have they won a game after trailing after the 5th inning? Seriously, they have zero fight. 

All of this with one of the better rotations in baseball. Is it the players or the manager that deserve the criticism for the play the last month and a half. Zero emotion, lack of execution and situational awareness, poor defense at the worst time, cannot hit with the bases loaded, BP meltdowns, it goes on and on. I guess you cannot fire the underperforming players so it is the manager that should take the heat. I cannot believe his contract is fully guaranteed, something needs to change soon and if it doesn't in the next two weeks brining in a different manager with new approaches should be considered.     

If the plan last winter was to have Taylor in CF and Buxton as a DH, then the Twins are a handicapped team. MAT is a fine centerfielder and excellent base runner,  Kansas City did not trade him for salary relief or because the prospects they acquired are so promising. They did not need a reserve outfielder. The Twins need to figure out a configuration which makes sense in the field. They have their best outfielder as a DH, their best first baseman playing outfield, and some good DH guys playing in the field. The Twins have lost four series in a row and are 10-14 going into Houston before they come home to play four games versus Cleveland. These next seven somehow seem pretty important. Maybe the Twins can figure out where their players should play.

We see all the talk by the media and the manager about the teams hitting woes.  Well they have these guys that can hit but are iffy fielders.  I for one would take an error now and then and give up some defense for any player that could hit .260 and K less than 2-3 times per game.  I'd like to hear the crack of the bat vs the who-o-o-o-o-o-sh of strike 3 yer out, twice an inning! 

Can someone here explain hitting to me.  I played baseball as a high schooler and couldn't hit very well; bunting, and opposite field  punch shot,  and run like crazy.  But I grew to be able to see a strike vs. a ball.  I don't understand the twins batting woes.  Seems to me every batter gets the "one pitch to hit" and 100% are either taken for a strike (72%) or swung on and missed (28%).  Ninety three mile per hour fastball "middle -  middle", as Dan Gladden would say, and nobody hits it, except the other team.  I've seen a lot of hitters put together a really good at bat where they foul off "nasty pitches", but those hitters are on the other team.  Farmer is typical, he shakes his head at a pitch 1/2 inch outside being called strike three and then next at bat swings at a curve 3 feet outside.  What is the conversation between Buxton and the hitting coach when he strikes out over and over again.  Is he really another Sano?

It's an oasis in the desert  , a complete mirage ...

Another week of extremely weak performers  but again starting pitching has been the highlight of the season so far ...

The extention of the manager was not the motivation this team needed  , we will never  win with this manager who can't motivate this team to a 10 game or more  winning streak   , we are living on the mirage of 2019 that he can be a winning manager when the players had career years  ...

3 hours ago, Maybebaby said:

Games are hard to watch right now the past few games when they get 2-3 runs behind in the early innings you can pretty much count them out.  I'll say this they have me conditioned! Very gloomy outlook at the present.

I flipped the game on right at the moment Kirk's ducksnort "double" barely eluded Kirilloff's glove giving the Jays a 2-0 lead in the 2nd inning.  Said at the time, "well, the way we hit, this games over."  Sadly, I was right.

9 hours ago, Otwins said:

How long before the Twins consider a managerial change if the poor play continues and ticket sales lag.

The Twins front office just extended his contract so they would look foolish if they replaced him, but they looked foolish when they extended him.

8 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Many managers might flee in terror at the thought of having to coach this lineup to somehow hit consistently, and cringe at playing Russian Roulette with this bargain basement back end of a bullpen.  It'd be interesting to see what Dusty, Tito, Counsell or Snitker could do in this clubhouse, but if the results were close to what we see now, we also shouldn't be surprised. 
Blame Rocco all you want, but he's stuck with a bunch of kids who are literally brilliant one day and complete knuckleheads the next.  When they ain't hurt, that is.  ☹️

The team really needs leadership and it just doesn't seem like Rocco can provide it plus no player seems like a leader. The 2 high paid players should be expected to provide leadership, but have not shown any leadership due to poor hitting. Buck is really a part time player and Correa is hitting about .200.

13 hours ago, VivaBomboRivera! said:

Many managers might flee in terror at the thought of having to coach this lineup to somehow hit consistently, and cringe at playing Russian Roulette with this bargain basement back end of a bullpen.  It'd be interesting to see what Dusty, Tito, Counsell or Snitker could do in this clubhouse, but if the results were close to what we see now, we also shouldn't be surprised. 
Blame Rocco all you want, but he's stuck with a bunch of kids who are literally brilliant one day and complete knuckleheads the next.  When they ain't hurt, that is.  ☹️

They weren't like that in the minors and many of them start off solid in the bigs. His philosophy of home run or bust kills these kids. Top teams in the league make contact. We're the worst at it. That's only partially a player issue. 

Tigers in the playoffs would be a fun story. I'm rooting against the Twins at this point.

3 hours ago, BsuNemo said:

His philosophy of home run or bust kills these kids.

How do we know this is "his philosophy?"  Is that the way he played the game? His career numbers don't really point to that approach.

8 hours ago, John Belinski said:

The team really needs leadership and it just doesn't seem like Rocco can provide it plus no player seems like a leader. The 2 high paid players should be expected to provide leadership, but have not shown any leadership due to poor hitting.

Perhaps we should be careful in judging how much leadership this team has since none of us are present in the clubhouse (and elsewhere) when the doors are closed (that said, _everyone_ could tell the White Sox had a leadership problem last year 😉).

Hitting the ball well is just hitting the ball well.  An example of leadership is Correa keeping his head up and playing magnificent defense every damn day in spite of his present difficulties in the batter's box. 

11 hours ago, mikelink45 said:

I think Gray is our number one and wonder why we have not extended him.

Ummmm, because he wants to test the market?

But seriously, if the Twins were trying to engage Gray in extension talks right now, they certainly wouldn't be talking about it, and _we_ would be the very last people to know.