Azviking101

I do like it. Petty was a long way out and the overall value gives the twins a win here. But they have to sign some players through free agency as well. You cannot just build a team through trades alone

For a guy whose ceiling is number 1 starter, 2 years at 22 million per is not. The Pohlad's have gotten in your head exactly the way they intended to if you think that way.

With Rodon now gone, I truly don't understand the direction of the organization. Last year sucked and Falvine came out and said "we don't want that again. We plan to compete this year" MLB added one more playoff team to each conference and the Twins have done nothing. With such a great FA pitching market, this seeemed like an easy year to get competitive again, but all impact starters are gone now. I know they could improve over trade, but I just don't understand why any team would rather trade away talent for talent instead of just spending money. Payroll is what, 75 million right now? This has the makings of a very frustrating and disappointing season for fans. If nothing changes, I hope attendance is terrible this year and that the Pohlad's pockets hurt. There's literally no excuse anymore.

I guess I don’t understand why the twins are more willing to trade major/minor league talent for pitching instead of just spending money and losing no talent? This was the best free agent pitcher year I remember and they didn’t even try. While I am happy baseball is back I’m not spending money to watch the twins if the pitching roster doesn’t improve dramatically in the next 3 weeks.

I just cannot believe that they and some fans think that they can field a solid rotation of Ryan, Ober, Bundy, Balazovic, Winder, Duran etc. It's more than likely that more than half of these guys are total busts or back of the rotation/bullpen guys. Most pitching prospects don't make it, and the Twins success numbers are worse than most. Ryan looked good in a tiny sample, but the guy throws 90% fastballs under 93 MPH. I know his release is weird, but how long until other teams catch on and crush him? I liked Ober, but at best he's a number 3. I just don't expect much from these prospects and until things change and they start to come around, I'm under the assumption that most of them are going to struggle at the MLB level this year.

I wasn't aware his fastball velocity was only 90 nowadays. Thought he still was in the mid 90s

They need more. No doubt about that, BUT Nobody wanted Robbie Ray last year. Look at his 2019 numbers when you get a moment, And he won the damn Cy Young. Nobody wanted Kevin Gausman after his 2018 abomination and he was a front runner for that. Both just got massive contracts. Bundy has that talent. Former top 10 prospec who came from an Orioles organization that failed pitchers like Arrieta and Gausman. He showed massive potential last year and then fizzled this year. Look at the reclamation projects the Giants and Braves had last year that brought them to the best record and WS title respectively. They each had numerous. No this can't be all they do, There have to be big signings as well, but if you can't see the potential here then I am sorry.

I'm just confused about this team's overall unwillingness to pay pitchers. And this is obviously assuming they don't get Stroman or Rodon. Obviously many people see pitchers as more of a risk because of injury issues, but they gave Donaldson and Buxton 100m. They're as injury prone as anyone. Berrios was too much of a risk because he wanted to test the market, but he didn't and signed a reasonable deal. The FA market was as good this year as it's been for a while and guys like Ray and Gausman got reasonable contracts. Even if the Twins trade for someone big that just continunes to prove they won't give big money to pitchers because they'll trade them away before they're due for an extension. This discussion includes expensive relievers as well. I could understand this if they were like Cleveland, Oakland, Tampa and really really good at developing pitching talent, but they've always been among the worst teams at doing this. Of course they've brought in multiple staff from Tampa and Cleveland so these guys likely believe they can do this, but at some point they need to stop kidding themselves because it has yet to happen. Also, until this past draft, the new regime has not drafted pitching in the first or second rounds. I'm just so confused what their plan has been for pitching. They don't draft it, they don't sign free agents and they won't extend players they might trade for. Relying on 8th rounders being diamonds in the rough and guys like Rich Hill or JA Happ will never win anything. Ryan, Balazovic, Duran are nice, but they're no scouts think they're going to be aces. Could they become that? Maybe, but nobody has ever thought that. Their actions just don't make any sense to me.

Sadly I will be negative until they do something to change that. No faith over here

I tend to agree on the Arraez thing. He's also extremely overmatched by lefties. Career SLG under .300 against them. .734 OPS and everyone screams that he's one of the best hitters they've ever seen. He's so close to Ben Revere just with no speed and better walk numbers. Revere had almost 5 consecutive .300 seasons with .298 being the only one of those years under .300.

Now correct me if I am wrong, because I did not watch the game, but I've heard others mention that John Smoltz in the booth had mentioned that he was shaking his arm after 6 or 7 consecutive pitches and that it was very easy to see something was wrong and that no one from the Twins dugout came out to check on him. If true, this is ridiculous. If Smoltz notices then every coach on the Twins should have noticed. Are the coaches just sleepwalking through the remainder of the season?

Sure, but he was completely obliterated by the Royals, Tigers and Mariners (3 of the top 10 worst offenses in baseball in 4 of his last 8 Twins starts. I just don't trust the Twins braintrust anymore. After trading away guys like Wade and Gil etc and dumping Wisler who's been dominant again with the Rays. The Giants told him stop throwing the Slider so much and the Rays let him do what he did so well last year. They just continue to make terrible decisions and free agents they sign come in and have the worst season of their careers.

Tiny sample size, but in 2 starts with the Cardinals, Happ 11 innings, 6 Hits, 3 ERs. Maybe Shoemaker has a point about the over reliance on analytics. Curious to see if the Giants bring him up at some point this season.

I honestly think the Twins ownership is terrified to give away money to tell someone to leave. I think they want to milk any sort of productivity possible out of these guys. There's no other way to explain guys like Shoemaker and Happ (still no clue how they got someone to trade for him) and now Simmons being on the roster as long as they have.

It's time for him to go after his latest twitter post today. His views are completely contradictory of the organizations. These posts all came after he caused the Covid shutdown as OP mentioned. This has to be the last straw with him. If they don't DFA him today, then they won't.

At two separate points in the season this year (not early either) the Twins have had two different pitchers be dead last in ERA among MLB. It's not the fact that Shoemaker and Happ have been so awful that floors me the most, it's that management and coaching just won't seem to give up on them. They just can't handle the idea of losing a few million dollars. This alone should cause people to be weary of management. This team is still run by penny pinchers and the Pohlad's are a very large part of that issue.

Only if they cut Rocco too

I guess good that you're a Minnesota fan then, This mindset though is the reason why Minnesota teams and ownership has been able to get away with mediocrity for so long. They utilize "Minnesota Nice" to their advantage

They would have won if Rocco utilized the rest of his pen instead of having relievers Burrows and Minaya throw 108 pitches combined.

I'm sorry that you've become so numb to Minnesota teams losing that a few HRs are a "fun time". Any Twins fan could have managed that pitching staff to a win today.

So they're thinking of trading Duffey, Coloumbe and Thielbar? Why is it that Rocco yanks starters so quickly when pitching well, but relievers can go out and throw 30, 40, sometimes 50 pitches and that's not an issue? The way he manages a game is so inconsistent. If I was a hitter on that team right now I would be pissed at Rocco right now. He did not try and win this game today, And they should have. Polanco's HR should have been a walkoff. I don't understand how we're supposed to have fun when we have a manager who seems to daily make in game decisions that hurt the team's chances to win games.

Send Rocco with Happ on that boat

I had my issues with Gardy. I had my issues with Molitor. I can't begin to explain how many issues I have with Rocco. I can't speak for anything outside of in-game managerial decisions as well as roster management, but he makes decisions that no manager in the world would make. Rocco will not bring this team to a championship. It's completely blasphemous how dumb he is. Throughout my life as a Minnesota sports fan, I don't think there's been any manager less qualified to be a manager in my life. I honestly believe that many die hard fans would in game manage this team better than Rocco can. You can't sit their and tell me no one should have been warming in that situation. You can't tell me that a tired Minaya is a better option than Duffey, Coloumbe and Thielbar.

How can anyone possibly be happy with Rocco anymore? How can anyone think he's the guy to lead this team to a championship? Everyone saw that coming. Off day tomorrow and no one is even warming. Way to basically tell your hitters you don't care.

How can there be no activity in the pen? It's an off day tomorrow.