rv78

Will miss Dick in the booth just as I did when Bert left. In my opinion and my ears, they still have not found anyone to replace Bert yet. Now Dick? Unfortunate for Twins fans and even more so for Dick.

Soto would be a fantastic addition but it'll never happen due to the Twins throwing money away. Between C4 and Buck it's hard to over-come a waste of nearly $50M per season when those 2 can barely hit their weight. That pretty much handcuffs the Twins for the next 5 years on bringing in someone of Soto's caliber. But it's always fun to have those dreams after drinking the Kool-Aid.

There comes a time when you have to cut bait with what is holding you back. Buxton is a prime example. He can't be counted on. I know he has a no trade clause but that doesn't mean a compromise can't be worked out. Polanco was one of my favorite Twins the past few seasons but he too is probably holding the success of this team back going forward, as is Kepler. Blocking the path of younger and better players that need playing time only pushes that newfound success down the road another year or two. The young guys need to play at the major league level and get experience if they are to be counted on in 2025, 2026 and beyond. Playing the guys that can't get the job done does nothing but extend being a "pretender" and not becoming an actual "contender". The Twins are flux with talented young players, especially hitters, that only need MLB playing time to become better. The more at bats that guys like Polanco, Kepler, Buxton, Taylor, (Gallo) take away from them only hurts the team in the long run. I'd rather see a committment to getting these guys experience than having them waste seasons in AAA even if it means a mediocre season. Yes the Twins won a playoff series this year. 87 regular season wins however is only 6 wins above a mediocre .500 season. Had it not been for 3 young players, Julien, Wallner and Lewis they probably wouldn't have been a .500 club. Anyone here who thinks the veteran hitters on this team are the answer, isn't seeing the big picture.

What a comfort it was to have Kirby and Torii in CF for all those years. Something Buck has never been able to provide and probably never will. With CF being such an important position to fill it's way past time for the Twins to find someone other than Buxton to take over that position on a full-time basis, not just as a backup or a year or two at a time. Taylor represents a punt if you want to call it that, at filling that spot. By now we all have heard that Lewis is NOT going to be playing CF. Who else in the organization can become a full-time CFer? Is there anyone? Martin maybe. Celestino? Probably not. Gordon? No way. Maybe E Rodriguez can become that guy but there is talk already of him being a corner outfielder as he matures and gets bigger. Jenkins possibly but he too is adding muscle and pounds and looking to be like Rodriguez. Plus he's a few years away. Can the FO work a trade? That might be the best option. We have plenty of other positions with lots of depth that could make that happen. Get er done.

Trade Polanco for pitching. Insert Lee. Delegate Buxton to the bench, he's only a part-time player anyway. Insert Martin. Say goodbye to Solano. Insert Severino. A 3 way win, win, win. The youth movement continues and the team gets better.

Replacing him is NOT complicated at all. If a Miranda isn't an option then using the $11M wasted on Gallo and the $2M used on Solano can bring in a $13M dollar player that would be much better than what that money was spent on last season.

It took a Batting Champion to bring Pablo Lopez to the Twins. I don't see any of the 3 you mentioned being of that value. Also, Arraez was expendable due to his lack of fielding ability at any significant position that the Twins didn't feel was already covered with another player that could play that position better. Jeffers, Castro and Larnach wouldn't bring a return like Arraez did even if you put all 3 together.

Lots of former Twins being thrown out there. Let's keep 'em that way. Maybe all of their brothers or cousins deserve a look tho.. Travis May is intriguing. Mitch Graver is an unknown. Jock Caved In and his buddy Jock Odor-izzi just stink. Miguel Stamos is looking for a new TV show. Aaron Ticks would just bug me. Kile Gibsen is no Kirk Gibson. Eddildo Escobar and Eddi Rosesarno can't come close to Everyday Eddie. La Tor-tuba some day, might come out of his shell and play Sweet Music with Frankie.

No. No. AND No. Why the love for washed up veterans? Gee, lets bring back Gallo too.

Another article about the problem the Twins have at the catcher position. I don't see having 2 quality catchers as a dilemma or his remaining $20M contract. If the Twins really need to cut payroll, why not an article about how they can get out of the Buxton or Correa contracts? Those 2 players were equally as bad this year as Vazquez was and cost CONSIDERABLY more.

Vazquez hit .223 this year. Now all of the sudden he's not worth $10M per year and people think he should be traded. Evidently his defense and dugout presence isn't worth anything. Correa hit .230 this year. He made $33.3M and almost everyone here thinks he's worth every cent he gets regardless of how bad he was offensively because he also plays great defense and is a leader in the clubhouse. I don't get it. Maybe my Kool-Aid didn't come from a Dior store.

HUH? Over-worked? Nearly every starting player in the lineup in 1991 played in more games than the players in 2023.

The only one I'm interested in keeping is Alcala. I liked Gordon but he doesn't bring enough to the table and Castro has earned/taken his spot on the roster. Moran and Henriquez are the only other two I would possibly consider if I didn't need room for someone else. The others are very replaceable with other players.

Shouldn't Miranda and Kirilloff both be healthy by Day 1 2024? There you have your righty/lefty combo that Rocco must implore at every whim. I can't see where at least one of the two won't be ready. MIranda is due every chance to get his job back either at 3B, 1B or some DHing verses any other option out there. Stay with the youngsters and build this team from within. The pieces are there. We don't need anymore over-priced veterans that get out-produced by the young players like we witnessed in 2023. (Yes, I'm referring to Gallo)

Seriously, comparing Rocco to past Managers is an exercise in foolishness. I see absolutely no correlation of managerial ability between Kelly, Gardenhire and Molitor to Rocco based on their W/L records. No one should. Different eras, different budgets, different players. We can agree the Twins played better the 2nd half of the season, due to what? A weaker schedule. Not necessarily better play. All Managers have to have good players to win. Rocco got those players this year. Does that make him a better Manager than he was when he didn't have the better players? Not likely. Would Kelly, Gardenhire. and Molitor have as good of a record as Rocco had they been given the same teams as Rocco? My guess it would have been better. The true test of how good a Manager is, is how he does with less, not more. Rocco has only lost when he has had less. Was Mike Krzyzewski a great basketball coach because he was good or because he had a stable full of All-Americans every year? The only thing Rocco has proven to this point is that he can win some games if he gets the right players. That doesn't automatically make him a "good manager". The bigger question is, did Rocco win as many games as he should have with what he was given. 87 wins in 2023. 78 wins in 2022. Was this team, with so much better health, an Ace pitcher, way more depth, a weaker division, a better team by only 9 games? Doesn't seem like it was enough of an improvement to me, Maybe throwing games away is not good managing.

The FO has to seriously look at the production they are getting from their veteran hitters. Or I should say "lack of production". Gallo and his $11M is gone. If not, the FO needs their heads examined and their behinds booted to the door. Let's all hope they learned their lesson signing a hitter that can't hit. Kepler is due a $10M option. I say save the money and give the job to any of the following, Castro, Larnach, Wallner, Kirilloff, Martin, Gordon. There's a savings of $20+M and you have 6 guys to pick from that will provide just as much run production or more for very little money. Let Polanco walk as well. His option is $10,5M and a combination, or one of Julien, Lewis, Lee can handle 2B. Unfortunately the Twins are tied to Buxton $15.1M and Correa $33.3M. Both mistakes by the FO as both are over-paid for what they provide offensively. Maybe they can be talked into waiving their no trade clauses but I doubt any other team would want them at the cost they are tied to. Sonny Gray got $12.7M so there's a chunk that is going away as well. The rest of the Twins roster is made up of relatively cheap players not named Pablo Lopez. Yes, some are due raises and they should also start to look at extending some of them with reasonable contracts as well. Jeffers for example. It's time to turn the page and start to lean on the youngsters. They're the main reason why the Twins made the playoffs in the first place.

I would say the biggest question is..... Are they going to get different hitting coaches or change their approach to hitting? If not, then it won't matter who plays where. Strikeouts in the lineup can come from any player regardless of which position they play. They've already proven that. Start with fixing the elephant in the room.

That's what separates the good Managers from the Rocco's. Rocco presumes failure based on analytics and he lets that be the basis for his decisions. Managers like Baker base decisions on actual game play that is occuring. Rocco can't even set a lineup using his best players without having lefty/righty splits influence the process. Showing and giving confidence in your players counts for something, but if your Manager says you're not playing because you can't hit leftys then the opportunity to prove him wrong never happens so the narrative never changes. Assuming Ryan was going to implode in the 3rd inning and at least 1 of the next 4, 5 or 6 pitchers you were going to use isn't, is foolish, especially when they are locked into facing 3 hitters and you can't make a change if they implode. Which is exactly what happened.

Vazquez had his worst year since 2018. Did his approach at the plate change? Was he asked to become a different hitter than he was in the past? Did he just have an off-year? His strikeout rate definitely went up. Maybe he was told to swing for the fences. We don't know, but it wouldn't surprise me. Seems like every other hitter on the Twins does just that with reckless abandon at the risk of striking out to the tune of another major league record. Is the Twins philosophy, hitting HR's aka 2019? Did the hitting coaches, Rudy Hernandez and David Popkins mess him up? Whatever the reason he didn't earn playing time over Jeffers, no matter how bad Jeffers played in the playoffs. There were off days for Jeffers to get a break. That is one platoon that didn't need to happen, unlike many that Rocco overdoes by not playing his best players as much as he should, throwing games away, somehow thinking that is best for the team. I don't care what anyone here thinks about throwing games away. It's wrong, it sends the wrong message to your players and your fans, that each game is NOT important, that it is alright to lose. If you send that message that a game isn't important then it doesn't take long for players to sense that 1 at bat here or there isn't important and all of the sudden players don't play up to their potential. They flail away at pitches they shouldn't be swinging at, they don't bother to foul off pitches to keep an at bat alive, They stand there and watch strike 3 go right down the middle. They just give in thinking, I'll get 'em the next time. Here we are as fans thinking, there's always next year. Same difference. Next year has been a long time since 1991. How many next years will it take? Many of you think this team is on the right course to win a Championship. But a lot has to change starting with the HR philosophy that has lead this team into being strikeout kings. The FO needs to stop wasting money on players that can't hit anything but HRs. Players that are always injured should be replaced permanently. You can't count on them when you need them. Veterans that are worse than the new young guys coming up need to be replaced permanently. They had their chance to produce and they continue to fail. Why keep giving them chances they don't deserve. A total youth movement needs to take place in 2024 to see what they've got. Otherwise it's likely they will just be spinning their wheels again come playoff time depending on guys like Kepler, Buxton, Polanco, Taylor, Correa, Farmer, Solano, Vazquez, Gallo, that either aren't even available to play or just simply can't get the job done.

Not sure you can give credit to Falvine for the "good coaches" just yet. If Rocco was so good why does he throw so many games away, costing the Twins wins and possibly a better post season position. How is The Hitting coach doing? Pretty lousy I'd say. Is Tingler really that good or did San Diego get rid of him because he wasn't good enough.Pretty sure the reason was they wanted something better. I would venture there are a lot better coaches, and Managers out there but they don't fit Falvines philosophy, which is obvious by now. All or nothing Hitting and spreadsheet Pitching, which means no feel for the game or the player. Just ask Joe Ryan and Sonny Gray.

If Maki is the reason for the better pitching then they need to find a different hitting coach, ASAP.

Another article to try to make Rocco look good. If pulling Ryan early because of his penchant to give up HR and the fear that the Astros would score too many runs against him, then why use Thielbar? His HR rate is worse than Joe Ryans. I can't justify the praise for one move and then not being critical of the other. Rocco isn't as good as you think he is.

You list 4 things but in all reality the only one that matters is the Twins couldn't get hits much less score when they needed to and that was due to their biggest flaw this season. Strikeouts. A couple of bad pitches wouldn't be impossible to over-come if the hitters could put the bat on the ball, get a hit, and score some runs.

Wow, let's pick on the rookie. How about Kepler who is making a ton more money than Lewis, has a ton more experience than Lewis and was worse? He ALSO had 7 K's and didn't account for a run in any way shape or form. NO HR, NO RUNS SCORED, NO RBI'S. Sure, Lewis had some bad at bats in critical situations but there were other guys in the lineup, like Kepler that contributed nothing in the way of run production.

That will take a totally different approach to what they have been doing offensively. The only way Rocco knows how to manage is when his players hit enough Home Runs to win. Manufacturing runs is not in his DNA. Good Luck hoping for a reduction in whiffs. The FO and Rocco see no problem with it.