rv78

I would say Ryan's numbers are skewed a bit due to Rocco keeping him in the game against San Diego when he gave up 10 runs.

Have not seen any MLB player play for free, ever. Nothing is free. To clarify more, his bat is no better than Cave or Contreras, All he brings is more speed to the outfield. If it's for defensive purposes in the 8th and 9th innings then his impact on the team will be minimal. Especially since you should have the lead late in games before you start substituting players for defensive purposes. Rocco will use him like any other player. If he takes at bats away from Cave or Kepler then it's no big loss. If it's for Celestino, Garlick or Gordon then it's bad management.

Outside of some defensive speed he isn't any better than Cave. Another dumpster dive by the FO.

Looks like the Twins have found their man to carry them on his back for the rest of the season. The blind squirrel, normally known as Jake Cave, gets the big hit again today. How many acorns can this guy find before they send him back to AAA. I'm guessing they'll sign him to a huge contract extension thinking his usual 0-fers must have been flukes.

Finally! Rocco gets a game he knows how to manage. Finally! Rocco uses his pitchers effectively. Only took 120+ games and an 8 run lead for him to do so. Finally! Kepler played the game from where he belongs and the Twins get some offensive production from right-field.

The top 3 late inning arms will only be needed if the Twins have a lead. Man are you optimistic!

Rocco has 4 outfielders on the roster. Kepler, Celestino, Cave and Gordon. He has no excuse putting an infielder, Beckham, in the outfield under those situations. That's on Rocco. Half the lineup being minor leaguers is due to injuries. Problem is, even the major leaguers aren't playing worth a crap.

If I were the Twins I would opt out. He's not worth $35M. The only way I would keep him was on a 4 or 5 year deal at $20-$25M per year, which would be less money per season but more overall. I don't think he'd take that offer. Besides, with Lewis possibly ready to go in 2023 I'd have to wonder if he wouldn't be the better option and use the money elsewhere.

To all you Rocco lovers out there... Can you tell me why he plays Beckham in the outfield or why he plays Beckham anywhere? The Alvarez single or double or whatever the official scorer wants to call it in the 6th inning was not a hit. It was a misplay (ERROR) by Beckham who misjudged the ball. Rocco has to be one of the worst Managers this team has ever had. Just because a guy hits right-handed doesn't mean he is your best option to play against a left-handed pitcher. Yet that is the only reason I can come up with why Rocco puts a guy who can't hit and can't play in the outfield, in the outfield. If your choice is Beckham or Cave, two guys who can't hit, at the very least play the guy who can play defense at the position your filling.

We are looking forward to next season already? Might as well.

Listless performance again offensively. It's a broken record. Does Rocco know what constitutes a mound visit? It's only the umpires responsibility to signal when you made one, they did. Pay attention Rocco. Even if you Rocco missed it, you should have known you made a visit when you stepped on the mound. Isn't there anyone in the minors that is better than Jake Cave? If not, this organization is in serious trouble tong-term.

On the hitting side, you'll need replacements for everyone except Arraez, Miranda and Gordon. Larnach would help if it means less Cave. I'm not a fan of Garlick who can only get a hit against leftys. That still means Kepler plays against rightys so there's no improvement there. The Pitching reinforcements you name won't make a difference if you can't score. Dobnak is AAA material. Ober is not much better than Bundy or Archer who have actually been pitching better as of late. I have not heard if Winder will even be available to pitch this season anymore. Maeda will be relagated to the bullpen and to expect a lot of help from a guy coming off TJ surgery could be a huge mistake. I think the team in September will be pretty much the same team as it is now. Unless we see more injuries, which would result in seeing even more AAA players that aren't good enough to be here in the first place.

Where's Kansas City when you need 'em? Oh yeah, just got done playing them. Got lucky winning game 1 against the Ranger scoring only 2 runs. Last night the Rangers gifted the Twins all 3 runs or they wouldn't have scored even 1. The 3, 4, and 5 hitters went a combined 0-13 with 2 walks. That's not going to win anyone many games. Rocco makes a good move pinch hitting for Cave in the 7th, Urshela hits a lead-off double and then Rocco does nothing to try to advance the runner to third. A sac bunt with no outs is the proper move. Evidently Rocco can't make more than 1 strategic move at a time. He's still waiting for the HR. Sorry Rocco, the Bomba Squad is long gone. You have to manage now.

I am all for signing him to a long term deal but I would make it incentive heavy. In fact, the only long term deal I would make with any player would have incentives tied to it. Too many players get a big contract and then regress in performance. Sano is the biggest contract mistake made lately that cost $9.25M this year and a buyout of another $2.75M just so they don't have to pay him $14M next year.

Can you believe it? It's really hard to fathom. How is it possible? No way should this happen. Daniel Lynch went 6 innings for KC even though he was behind 4-0 and retired all 7 batters he faced the 3rd time through the lineup. It's totally inconceivable, unbelievable, and remarkable. He could never pitch for the Twins.

Gordon, Celestino, Contreras can all play besides Buxton and Kepler. Cave is not a "required" option due to injuries.

A blind squirrel saw him pitch an effective 5 innings against Detroit. It was a miracle! Jake Cave hit a HR against the BlueJays. Let's play him as much as possible since he found an acorn, but Sanchez? Absolutely not!

Twins are 10-10 so far against Cleveland and Chicago. Even with the addition of Mahle, Fulmer and Lopez the chances of going more than .500 will be a stretch. Their playoff chances start tonight against KC. If they play Cle and Chi even up and go less than .500 to Hou, NYY, Bos and SF they better play their tails off against KC, Det, Ana and Tex. Not going to take long to see if they have any fight left in 'em.

Enlighten me how pitching poorly for the Nationals affects how he pitches for the Twins? I haven't seen it yet. So yeah, let's not even try.

Then we can assume the use of Archer to this point is a large sample size and ignoring the results are, in my words, either insanity or stupidity. All I am asking for is for them to TRY something different. It's not complicated, if something isn't working, sane and smart people do exactly that. Sanchez has played 1 game for the Twins this season. He threw 81 pitches over 5 innings. giving up 4 hits and 2 runs. I guess that is not worthy of another chance but Archer not being able to pitch more than 4 innings is? The Twins way is to use every player that costs them the most money regardless of how they perform. That is why they continually give Sano chances, and now Kepler and guys like Pagan and Archer and even up to the breaking point of insanity, Duffey. Meanwhile guys that are young and/or cheap get used sparingly unless it's to replace an injured veteran even when they out-perform those veterans. Gordon wouldn't be getting much playing time if there wouldn't be so many injuries to the outfielders. Miranda would probably still be in AAA if Sano was healthy. Kepler still gets to play even though his production lately and really all season has been fair to poor. They signed Correa thinking Lewis wasn't ready, yet he proved them wrong when he got the chance. Too many times this organization doesn't move on soon enough from the veterans that just can't get the job done. This season proves it.

Where's the Bomba Squad when you need them Mr Baldelli? Easy MOY award for Baldelli when the team sets a record for HR. Not so easy when they don't. FYI Mr Baldelli, you actually have to manage games now. How's your "Plan" going? Good Managers make adjustments to "Plans" to win games. Poor Managers don't. I could point to mistakes made in almost every game this year with the most obvious ones being setting lineups to managing the pitching staff. Both have been laughable. April and May the Twins were lucky, it has caught up to them in June, July and August. I'm pretty sure the games in September won't mean much unless the "Plan" changes within the next week or two and that will be the only way there will be playoff games in October. Just looking at Sunday's game I believe it was the first time all year that both Arraez and Correa hit in front of Buxton. Polanco should have been there too with Buxton batting 4th. How many times has Buck hit leadoff with no one on base ahead of him? Lots. Result = Solo HR. Yesterday with 1 guy on ahead of him = 2 runs. DOUBLE the run production. Amazing how simple it is. Yes they still lost but the "Plan" used for most of the season would have been 1 run scored for the game. How many games is Archer going to be allowed to start when he will only go 4 innings? Evidently the answer is, all of them. How about moving him to the bullpen and make him a 2-3 inning reliever, DFA Pagan and promote Aaron Sanchez to start in his spot in the rotation. At least TRY something different to fix the current problem. They say doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results is insanity. Before it becomes insanity, it's stupidity. Anyone here able to figure out why they lost the game Saturday when the bullpen imploded? 95% of you can but the Manager can't or just refuses to believe it. How many times does he have to see, even his best relievers blow games, because he uses them on back to back days. Anyone can tell you that using a pitcher on two consecutive days is a recipe for disaster but he refuses to look at those numbers. Very few pitchers are capable of being as effective the 2nd day as they were the day before. And like so many others here have said, the more pitchers you use the better chance you have of having at least one of them going out there and NOT being effective. It's just simple odds... and again numbers that Rocco ignores. Friday could and should have been Mahle for 7, Fulmer in the 8th and Duran in the 9th. Saturday could and should have been Bundy for 6, Theilbar in the 7th, Jax in the 8th and Lopez in the 9th. Sunday could and should have been Sanchez for 5, Megill and Archer for the 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th. If they would have gotten the lead back then he would have had a fresh Duran for the 9th. The constant underuse of the starters and overuse of the bullpen maybe worked to some extent in April and May when the bullpen pitchers weren't gassed from overuse but it's more than obvious that it has caught up with them and with 2 new arms acquired at the deadline, Rocco will burn them out as well.

Kudos to Bundy. Should have went 6 or 7 and quite possibly even more. Will never get the chance with the current Manager who's in love with his imploding bullpen. Offense is what it is, pathetic. Can't get more than 2 guys to hit in the same game when it counts. Archer for 4 innings today and 6 relievers. Use the get-away lineup today and rest Buxton, Correa and Arraez. Gotta stick to the "Plan".

And lost in there is that up 3-0 in the seventh was a perfect time to get Fulmer back on the horse after a loss on Wednesday night. Using this ideology, you could argue that he should have all of his worst pitchers throw as soon as possible after losing a game or a poor performance. I wonder how many more games Pagan and Duffey would have been used in? Mahle is a workhorse. His stats show he is better third time thru the lineup than 2nd time thru. At 86 pitches, 1 more inning would have been Adell, Walsh and Stassi. who hadn't gotten a hit off of him previously. At the very least Rocco should have sent him out to start the 7th.

Being as efficient as possible with your pitchers is very important, especially when you only have a limited number of bullpen guys you can count on over a 2 or 3 day span. Which is how it is. Saving even just 1 inning from your bullpen whenever possible should be important. Sure they were rested. But just like us, Rocco doesn't know what tomorrow or the next day will bring. Instead he chooses not to look/plan ahead and use pitchers, especially starters, to their fullest. That's probably the #1 reason why the bullpen has been in shambles this entire season. He had been relying on one of the teams weakest assets to carry them almost every game up to the trade deadline. That is poor managing. Now overusing the better assests he has in Fulmer, Duran and Lopez for the rest of the season, will also be poor managing.

Yeah, nothing speaks like confidence knowing your Manager will let you pitch as long as you are capable of doing the job. All good pitchers get out of jams all the time. Issuing a leadoff walk followed by 2 outs and then a double and the 3rd out of the inning does not constitute struggling. It shows the ability to get out of trouble. Using 1 less pitcher from the bullpen when you had the chance NOT to, only makes the bullpen stronger the next couple days. His head would be in an even better place if his Manager showed the confidence in him to go 7 innings, not 6. So if the Saturday and Sunday games are close in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings and Fulmer, Duran and Lopez all get used again Saturday they likely won't be available for Sunday. If they end up losing Sunday because Rocco didn't have even 1 them available, remind me it wasn't Rocco's fault.