wavedog

Fun watching Ober pitch - Correa got us on the board!

Taylor has good value as a 4th outfielder/defensive sub and pinch runner. Unfortunately the team is not using him in that role - he has played in the most games of any position player this year. I'll say one thing for him unique to this team - he can stay healthy - well at least until we overexpose him and wear him out.

A couple of observations: Can't say this with certainty but I believe if Royce Lewis had not been called up and playing this week we would be 1-3 instead of 3-1 and not feeling quite as good. Love the spark, attitude and talent he brings to the team! Glad he did not get hurt trying to catch that pop-up - held my breath a minute. We can all point to various player stats as to player value but I am glad Castro was batting with the bases loaded in the 9th and not Gallo. Shout out to Pagan and Jax for shutting down the Guardians - especially Pagan who I have been a harsh critic of. Maybe best to stick pitching him in games we are trailing and not leading. Jax also looked very good. Can't believe Buxton can find a way to get hurt DHing only - not his fault tough to get a pitch in the ribs. Maybe we try a few more games resting Correa, Buxton and Kepler and get Wallner up here while he is hot.

I certainly think we could ramp up Buxton playing CF once a series to give Taylor a rest. I mean is he going to DH full-time this season? He is a great defensive CF can he not play twice a week? With Solano on the roster I would prefer to see Julien come up especially if Polanco is dinged up.

Not sure why you bring in Pagan to a high leverage situation like that.

Lose Pagan

Unbelievable - walk in another run this series

Perfect throw by Vazquez - nice tag by Correa as well. OK bats - let's wake-up!

It is the correct move if they think playing regular in AAA will help Miranda the most and get his batting approach back in line rather than working it out in the majors. I would have DFA'd Solano but not opposed to this approach - kicks the can down the road on the DFA which can happen if Miranda lights it up in AAA

Frustrating to watch bad fundamental baseball - just not playing smart. Team has been in a funk (with the exception of pitching) for the past week - I was hoping the day off would help them reset but we are returning to some of the frustrations we have seen in recent years in poor fundamental play and hitting woes. Hello Manager and coaches - please help the players! A couple of notes: Every time Jax comes in this year seems like the wheels fall of - combination of dinky hits, walks and errors lead to runs. Last night - thought he could have made a better play on Kirilloff's throw and the error should have been on him - then he walked a batter - then weird throwing error not sure if Vazquez should have thrown but the ball was there for Miranda to catch Horrible at-bats - we are swinging at balls and watching strikes and seems like we are trying to hit 6-run Home runs each time up. Really impressed with Taylor - solid defense and he takes good at-bats. He is not the best hitter but he can bunt, run and patiently take the ball the other way. I also like Kirilloff's approach at the plate. Don't know what the heck is going on with Correa but he is absolutely a black hole in the offense the past week - needs a day off. I am pretty confident he will be back to his numbers by year end. Hopefully it is not too late by the time he kicks in. His defense is still solid. Need to see more Jeffers now and maybe less Vazquez for the short-term. I would bring Farmer up and DFA Solano - seen enough of Solano's defense

Nice job of hitting there Polanco!

I think we will need all the runs we can get - nice job Gordon

Useless for us to start with a live runner on 2nd in extra innings - might as well put a statue out on the base.

Yay Correa! On the board!

Plenty of opportunity to bring Kirilloff up

Great instructional on how to get swept in a series by a lousy team.

Too bad for Pagan that Chang couldn't bat 3 times in a row. I think we have seen enough of Pagan - time for a DFA

There is no one I enjoyed batting more than Luis Arraez and I will certainly miss watching him play for the Twins but I like this trade. We are selling high and I do worry about Arraez durability which his knees, in addition although his defense was good at first he was playing out of position. I was kind of wondering if we would move Polanco and shift Arraez to 2nd. In any case, I like all 3 players we received in the deal. We get a starting pitcher for at least 2 years and you can never have enough pitching and while very young - like the prospects we got with some speed and plate discipline - not close to Luis Arraez plate discipline for sure but better than we are used to seeing from others here. Interested to see how many games Kiriloff will be able to start at 1B and who might share the position with him - Miranda with Farmer playing 3B when Miranda plays 1B?

Good Topic - you wrote what I have been thinking! The analytics they are looking at likely show bunting, stealing bases and baserunning are not the smart percentage play and certainly if don't practice and try to perfect them and play players with speed then that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Watching last year I do not remember seeing many hit and runs either which is one reason why we were at the top of grounding into Double Plays. I believe from my point of view their hitting philosophy is try to maximize hitting the ball the hardest each plate appearance and that will pay more dividends than doing a lot of little things (bunting, stealing, hit and run). It was very frustrating last year watching us give up outs on the bases while the opposition was doing the opposite to us on the bases. I have not seen any moves that would change that philosophy this offseason so expect more of the same next year - I hope I am wrong.

Who needs Correa when you have Joey Gallo? lol! Offseason is not done yet of course but my excitement level for this season is about as low as it was in the late 90's. Hard to envision being competitive and if everything does fall right the highest bar would be winning the weak Central and getting swept in the first round. I have a dream scenario for the 2nd half of the 2023 season that would get me re-energized in the Twins Lewis is at SS, Martin in OF, Miranda rotating at 3B/DH, Arraez rotating at 1B/DH, Kirilloff at 1B/OF, Buxton is healthy, Vazquez/Jeffers healthy. Gallo has had a great first half and we trade him to the Mets for a pitching prospect. We either have extended from the group Maeda/Gray/Mahle (hoping at least 2 out of the 3 stay healthy) the ones we like to keep using the funds we have not spent this offseason and traded who we don't want to sign for young starting pitching prospects. We teach and emphasize sound fundamental baseball play. They had Game #7 review of the 1991 World Series this week on the MLB network and I re-watched it. It was refreshing to watch all the little plays the Twins executed so well in that game.

I guess we know the Twins weren't even the 2nd choice now. Wonder if they reached out to the Twins or not. Looks like he will be playing 3B now as well with Lindor at short

Does not check any of the boxes for what we need. With the exception of Vazquez what a nightmare of an offseason so far and they are paying $11M for this. The one positive in signing Gallo is the shift ban but that may not matter if he strikeouts half the time. Honestly I would have rather kept Urshela 10 times over and for less money

Well, when we signed Correa last year I told myself I would enjoy watching his one season with the Twins and then be prepared for him to move on to greener pastures. Still this news is disappointing as I thought we had a chance to sign him. I did enjoy watching his one season with us solid defense and hitting - great teammate - but now we move on. I can't see these big contracts playing out well in the long run but as everyone has said the rich teams can afford to take the hit. I kind of view his deal as a 7 yr $50M per year deal as I see him with about 7 solid full seasons out of the 13. How many 35+ year old shortstops are out there? And once you get the big guaranteed money does that take some of the edge off? Your 35 year old self can change from your 28 year old self.

Short answer, I hope so - he does have the skill of hitting left-handers but falls short on hitting right-handers and playing defense. Plus there are the age and injury concerns that have been brought up. Ideally I would like to find a Right-Hand (real requirement is an OF that can hit Left-handers) good-fielding OF that can play CF-RF. That way they can start in RF spelling Kepler and also back up CF when Buxton is out to provide a Right-hand option. I really wanted that this past off-season but we did not acquire an asset like that and kept Garlick. If we keep Garlick it should be on a minors deal and he should be removed from the 40-man roster.

I would take this year over last year for sure. It is very disheartening maybe more than frustrating to be eliminated from playoff contention by the end of April. I had modest expectations for this year - I had the Twins for 79 wins finishing way behind the Sox so being in a pennant race is a nice surprise. In addition to the items listed in the article other frustrating items are being non-competitive against the very top teams, lack of fundamentals in particular baserunning and situational hitting. A lot of positives though - Arraez as a top hitter, solid play at SS and at the plate from Correa, Urshela is a solid player, development and emergence of Miranda and Gordon. Gray, Ryan and Bundy have been solid pitchers and Duran has been great in the bullpen and I will throw in Jax as well. Also have had fewer frustrating at-bats from Sano this year compared to last year. Can't say the same for Kepler and Sanchez at-bats.