Aerodeliria

Sano needs to be moved to 1st IMHO. You can teach him all the tricks in the bag, but he is not that agile. He could probably play first as well as Cron anyway with a little work. We were extremely weak at the corners and mediocre up the middle. It meant a lot of extra runners and free runs. Poor defense at the corners cost us a number of runs against the Yankees. You can say, "Good try," on that hot smash to third, but I'd rather say, "Nice double-play." We can move Gonzo to 3rd or go and get a Donaldson. Either scenario is fine with me, but I just can't see how Sano improves playing at 3rd. Good defense wins and loses games in the playoffs. The Astros played phenomenal defense in Game 6 against the Yankees. There were three truly stellar plays and almost two more (inches).

He looks like Baldelli's son.

I wasn't so concerned with who Baldelli brought in as much as I was concerned with when they were brought in. I am rock solid in my belief that all three starters were yanked too soon. We have now seen the nationals starters pitch 21.2 innings in three starts. Each pitcher threw +100 pitches in their starts for a total of 305 pitches. Compare that to the Twins. 11 innings and 213 pitches. We are not the Yankees, but we tried to play the Yankees game. Berrios in game one. Not being hit hard, but some mental and physical errors led to three runs. If anything, it seemed like he had settled in. He was still throwing +95 on the radar gun, which seems to be the measure of whether or not Berrios is doing well or not. Dobnak had a rough first inning, but didn't get a couple of calls in the third inning and had been very good in such situations throughout his 'short' career as was mentioned by John Smoltz. (BTW, I am normally irritated by most former ball player hired as color guys because they tend to make overly dramatic, polarizing statements about players, but I though Smoltz was so good that I wanted the Twins to hire him to help with the pitching staff.) I just wanted Dobnak to face one more batter to see if he would continue his success in such situations. The game certainly was not out of hand at that point, but Duffey assured that it would be after a few more pitches. I won't fight to the death on this one, but I still think it was too early. Odorizzi was the most baffling as he seemed to be cruising. Only 82 pitches and he gets the hook? (I honestly don't think it would have mattered by the third game because the Twins were completely humiliated by that game, but still, I'd like to think the team would somehow rise up and start fighting back.) Also, I agree with rv78. It seems that the analytics so heavily vetted during the season, suddenly was of little importance to Baldelli. I'm not sure why. I'll put it down to first playoffs jitters.

Of course, if you can get a stud starter, you have to take him. It changes the outlook for the entire year; however, getting one is another matter. The Twins don't have a sparkling history when it comes to landing a stud.

I agree that this may be the way things go, but personally, I'd swap Gibson and Cron. I complained about Gibson as much as anyone, but the guy still has skills--hidden somewhere in that damaged body and mind. I just envision some weird scenario playing out in my mind whereby he ends up in NY, gets healthy and gets 16 wins for their team (including two against the Twins, of course).

I rather play Gonzales at first than Cron. He probably won't hit quite as many home runs, but it's hard to imagine him missing/dropping throws to first base, and over a full season, he would have a higher OBP than Cron. One would also avoid the righty/lefty conundrum that always becomes a point of discussion with Cron.

I disagree about Arraez, he had one bad play that arguably could have been caught by Rosario coming in on the bloop, but he also came up with some clutch hitting. On the throw to first, it was low but it wasn't even in the dirt, so that was completely on Cron. You have to catch that!!!!! On the remainder of the complaints, I agree. I was worried by Cron's inability to catch non-perfect throws to first and wanted Gonzales on the infield instead. Use Cron as a pinch-hitter against lefties, but his defense is just not good enough for playoff baseball to be on the field for the whole game IMHO. I've already ranted long enough about pulling Berrios out, so I'll just leave it at that.

It was like I was in the twilight zone to be honest. The crazy thing is that it seemed like Rocco was trying to mimic Boone and the Yankees' strategy. Pulling a pitcher after five is the Yankees' strategy because they have a very experienced bullpen. This what they do. We don't have to follow suit. Just because Boone pulled Paxton after five, we have to pull Berrios to match this move? Despite having a bit of trouble locating his curve, Berrios' fastball still had plenty of pop. He was still throwing 95+ in his final inning, and he had only give up one earned run and only two balls had been hit hard. Isn't this a case where you apply the vaunted metrics? Berrios is still hitting 95+ and getting swinging strikes; he's only given one earned run, so let's pull him???...I wouldn't have cared if he had thrown 108 pitches if he was still bringing it. My point is this: The Twins are not the Yankees and this notion that we can play like there is a tomorrow in the playoffs reminds me a lot of the mindset brought by Gardenhire. Berrios would not be an ace on many teams, but, for the time-being, he is the Twins' ace, so let him pitch until he starts getting hit. If we think back (way back) to 1987 and 1991, the starters in those games went as long as they could. It's different era, but the general principle should still apply IMHO. We lost the first game (which was sooooo winnable) by horrible game management and this set the tone for the next two games, whereby the process was repeated. Tom Kelly, for all of his weaknesses as a manager, knew how to manage the team in playoff games. Maybe a chat with him is in order? Let's see if we can get this figured out by next year. I love Rocco, but that was indefensible playoff management. OK, my rant is finished, but I'm still frustrated (apparently more than Rocco). Let the poison arrows fall from the skies.

Agreed! Although the throw was low, it wasn't even in the dirt. Cron is not adept at taking throws that are a bit off-target. It is why I preferred to have Gonzales at first and using Cron only as a pinch-hitter.

It's mind-boggling to me that Baldelli goes from his Joan of Arc patience with his starters to Captain Hook. As I can watch the games here in Japan on cable, I was a bit flummoxed at Baldelli's quick hook. Berrios was not getting hit hard IMHO and Dobnak wasn't even given a chance to work out of the jam despite his record of consistently managing such situations during the regular season. (I just wanted one more batter in the third inning. If you say he is your starter, there has to be a modicum of trust in his ability.)

I thought I read somewhere in TD a plea to attack the heart of the Yankee's lineup. I couldn't agree more--go right after them. Keep getting ahead in those counts. Make the Yankees beat you by swinging at pitches while they are behind in the count rather than ahead. If we can avoid the 3-0, 3-1 and 2-0 pitch counts, we'll be fine.

There are always unsung heroes who emerge in these kinds of series. My pick for an unsung hero is Jake Cave. He's been swinging the bat fairly well as of late and he has power to all fields.

If you want to take your vacation in Japan this year, you can come here and watch the game on TV via NHK on Saturday morning in your hotel room. The game will be broadcast live in two languages...just ask the staff to show you how to shut off the Japanese (unless you want to learn baseball lingo in Japanese). :-)

Great as always Nick! I optimistically mentioned that the Twins were capable of posting 92 wins....I guess they were capable. LOL... There were many big (good) surprises. Garver's and Kepler's home run ability, Cruz's performance in every batting statistic available. Sano's adjustment at the plate (I had serious doubts, but big brother took him under his wing (by all accounts)). Arraez coming up and literally taking the second base job through an outstanding approach at the plate.

It would have been nice to tie the Twins record for most wins, but I'll take the team home run record, especially because we beat those guys on the east coast. Now, let's see if we can do it our series. I'm surprisingly optimistic.

I really hope we are not thinking three-man rotation because I think that doesn't bode very well for Berrios the second time around, so I am hoping it is Berrios, Dobnak (just because I want the 'control' pitcher sandwiched), Odorizzi and then the bullpen game.

I agree-almost. I want Arraez's bat in the lineup no matter who is pitching because he can get walks. Schoop comes in as a pinch hitter or if we think his "D" is better than Arraez's, he comes in late to protect the lead.

I wouldn't discount Gregorious based upon how he has been hitting this season as a whole. He made mincemeat of Twins pitching this year again. Gregorius, who went 8 for 10 with 10 RBIs in his two starts (against the Twins), hit an RBI double to ignite a four-run second. Mike Tauchman added a two-run triple before the inning was over. Gregorius tacked on a two-run triple in the fourth and finished with three hits, one day after going 5 for 5 with seven RBIs (from a NY online news site). Make the determination based simply on who are the best pitchers available.

Hear, hear! Smeltzer throws strikes and Perez falls behind hitters.

Fun to watch those highlights!

What if we keep Telis and let Castro go?

Not only that, but there are times when the Twins really need someone to make contact and if you need that, you turn to Astudillo.

Whether he sinks or swims, he needs to get in the pool against THAT team, so he might just as well keep on throwing strikes. I saw some highlights against the Tigers (I know, I know). He had some of those hitters swinging at ghastly pitches outside of the zone. I mean this in a positive way. The hitters were completely fooled by the speed and movement. It was impressive. He got ahead of hitters and then had them swinging at his pitch of choice.

Why Dobnak and Smeltzer should be in every conversation when it comes to playing the Yankees is that they throw strikes. The Yankees have feasted off the Twins pitchers' falling behind in the count. It happened when we held a five-run lead against the Yankees this year (and lost) and more importantly, it happened in that demoralizing one-game playoff with the Yankees a couple of years back, where Santana, despite being given a 3-0 first inning lead, started every count at 3-0 or 2-0. The Yankees become quite human when they have to swing the bat.

Morris pitched that Game 7. He wins it by a nod IMHO.