Aerodeliria

I concur. He just needs a bit more confidence to throw strikes. His stuff plays, but when he keeps falling behind in the counts, he ends up in hot water.

I'm only talking about at the deadline. I didn't agree with the Arraez for Lopez trade, but I didn't think we were getting damaged goods. Many of the other trades you mentioned, I was in favor of. But yes something was wrong with Dyson and that's who jumped to mind. I still believe that's why SF kept pushing him (remember the Twins wanted someone else but SF insisted it was Dyson or nobody).

They seem to trade for injury prone pitchers at the deadline in the hopes of getting lucky...maybe they need to rethink their approach.

IMHO, he uses the ground to push the ball back into his glove. I think if the ground is used in any manner (even a little), it would be considered a trap. I'm happy it was called an out, but it sure looks like he used the ground to push the ball back into his glove. (I confess that the details of the rulebook on that point are beyond my pay grade, but my guess would be that leather has to remain between the ground and the ball at all times.)

It wasn't challenged, was it? It was clear that he actually trapped it before it popped up in to the air. That was a huge break.

Unless it's Kirilloff, the Twins won't have a .280 let alone a .300 hitter by season's end, but that's not my biggest complaint. It's the seven games that have been lost or frittered away because of mental mistakes and/or errors. Even in today's 4-3 win over the Padres, Correa made a mental error by watching his fly ball (thinking it was gone) in lieu of hustling out of the box, so he ended up with a double instead of a triple, so he gets thrown out at home on the base hit and Gallo makes a bad throw, which put the Twins in a tough spot. Poor focus is one element that can be addressed. Some of these players could do with a bit of Tom Kelly love, which means you sit at the start of the next game.

It may be a plan, but it uses two positions up, which reduces what one can do in the field and for the lineup. Can he make it to August without getting shut down? We're only six weeks in and everything is still smelling like roses, but we've seen that movie too. If Buxton happens to stub his toe rounding first, what has been gained?

...it might snow...it's possible...

The title should be: The hits keep just not coming, but there are errors aplently to make up for it!

Again, the errors and the mental errors have cost the Twins another game or at least contributed to the loss. My biggest fear about trading away Arraez was that the Twins really didn't have a proven consistent hitter in the lineup, but these errors are even more deflating. That is the seventh game where errors either cost the Twins the game or contributed to the loss (letting the game get out of hand).

I concur wholeheartedly. Of the 280 players with at least 70 PAs, Nick Gordon ranks 275 for drawing walks. A player like Nick Gordon can make contact on all kinds of pitches, but can he produce hits? Very few players can swing at poor pitches and get positive results consistently. Kirby Puckett was one of those rare cases, but I think for Nick Gordon to survive, he needs much more plate discipline.

I'm not sure what a pull percentage refers to and how it is calculated. It certainly doesn't mean that Kepler is hitting 60% of the pitches the other way. However it is calculated, I think my recollection is correct. There was an attempt at some point to try to get Kepler to hit the ball more up the middle and to left center because he was having such a difficult time hitting left handers who were pounding the outside part of the plate against him. Correct me if I am wrong, but I remember commentators discussing it on one my my rare occasions to actually watch a Twins game on TV (maybe it wasn't 2019?). In any case, he has not been effective against lefties despite his HR against Cleveland. Since 2021: Ave: .190. OBP: 283 SLG: .292 (against lefties) Am I wrong about this? (I'm not being sardonic here. I am really curious.)

My sentiments exactly...especially lack of focus on the defensive side.

I've been sort of 'meh' on Kepler for quite a while. I remember in 2019, the hitting coaches were trying to get Kepler to hit to center and somewhat to the left side. It appeared to be working. At some point after that, this idea was trashed for some reason and he reverted to dead pull hitting once again. It's a pity because I thought he would eventually be a about a .270 hitter and hit about 25 home runs each year. His defending has also dropped off a bit as well, but he's much better than the alternatives.

Four ⭐⭐⭐⭐ review!

Nick Gordon for all of his charisma is a hitter with poor plate discipline and in the field, a jack of all trades, but really a master of none of them--except maybe 2nd. Unfortunately for Nick, these types of players are available if not in spades at least in clubs. I don't see the downside to DFAing him at this point because even as trade bait, what would you get in return?

Even if Maeda returns after the 15 day IL, they need to pay closer attention to his form. Clearly something was askance in his delivery to the plate in his last appearance. I don't want Mahle to be indefinitely injured because then I'll start imagining that the Reds screwed us just like the Giants did with Dyson...

Hard pass on all of these options. Correa will make people forget their complaints once the weather warms. We have short memories. We're flush with starters? We just lost two of them and Lopez has looked shaky in consecutive starts.

Dittos!

Good win! I hope Mahle not on the IL for an extended period of time. Starters are dropping like flies. BTW, I noticed that the Royals pitchers did not throw a single fastball to Miranda. Maybe the MLB rumor mill says he can only hit fastballs well? Has anyone heard anything about this?

I think we have short memories if we say that Maeda has been trash since returning. He struck out nine in 5 & 1/3 against the Marlins in his first outing. Unfortunately, the Twins couldn't muster a run in that game. I think it's much more plausible that he is actually injured and at the very least be put on the 10/15-day IR or even the 60 if it's the elbow problem.

He has two wins against the Empire. I give him a deep bow just for that alone.

I finally figured out what fantasy baseball is. Don't wake me up please.

I like their chances...even though I often complain. I am eating a plate of crow here because I really didn't believe that Baldelli would let starters come close to hitting 100 pitches...he seems to have abandoned the idea that twice through the opposing team's line-up means that the pitcher probably needs to come out if there is even a whiff of trouble. Granted, the starting pitching quality is looking pretty good. The pitching looks good-to-go for now--the bullpen could be better, but I am not complaining yet. I looked again at the games against the Yankees. No walks again today. That's how we can beat them. In the four wins, I think we have issued two walks. In the one big loss, six walks. As for the hitting, it has kind of been all or nothing. I am still high on Larnach because he gets on base even when he is slumping a bit. I have been all in on Gallo as soon as we grabbed him. He's good on defense and he gets a ton of walks. He is also still feared by opposing pitchers, and when he does get a pitch he can handle, it usually means 'runs.' I can live with the strikeouts. Michael Taylor has performed better than expected and has surprised me with his power. Is he good at bunting? I'd like to see him on 1st base more often because he seems to be an exceptional base-runner. Correa has been disappointing thus far, but he did almost single-handedly win that second game in the Death Star. I recall that he also started very slowly last year (maybe not this slow, but slow). It's good to have Polanco's bat back in the line-up. The catchers have over-performed at the plate. Miranda has not looked good; neither has Gordon; and neither has Kepler. Buxton has been hit and miss, but he hasn't been sidelined, so maybe this strange experiment is working (but I still think it's very strange). Overall, the defense has been better than I expected it would be, but Miranda still looks a bit shakey at 3rd (better than last year?), and amazingly, Kepler hasn't been that sharp in right field. Polanco is a sub-par infielder, but we hate to lose his bat, so we live with it. At least he's not at SS. So, I think the outlook is upbeat. We're going to need someone who can get on base more consistently; otherwise, we live and die by the HR, but 14-10 and taking out the Yankees? I would have never predicted the latter. April has been good indeed! That's my two-yen's worth.

Pretty ugly stuff, but the Twins stayed the course. Gray was (is?) a stud.