Fire Dan Gladden

I realize this is a line of a discussion dragging us away from Royce Lewis, but I do want to respond to this. You talk about the general state of today's media as it's a good thing. The hot-take approach only feeds to divisiveness among people today. We see that here in the TD comments. Very little civil discourse, everything is attack, terminate, demand change. We need it yesterday and it better be "my way because my way is right". People watch SAS because he is a joke and everyone knows it. He is an accident on the freeway, everybody has to look. It is like watching a sitcom claiming to be news. TD chooses to post 5-10 pieces of content per day. Nobody is forcing them. This is the business model they have chosen. It started smaller, with more... affection for each article they posted. That is what brought readers like myself here. Now we get 7 articles a day retreading the same talking points. I have to hunt and fish through the repetitiveness, the hot-takes, (not to mention the unending stream of pop-up advertising) to find an article of substance. A study was done on Twitter a few years ago: Of all the users on Twitter, less than .2% were vocal active users. Every reaction to Twitter responses was pandering to less than .2% of the Twitter population, yet everyone treated this like general consensus. The vocal majority is not the same as the majority. I guess it really depends on what you are trying to achieve. I understand there is a fine line between providing quality content and pandering to the masses. FOX News and MSNBC may make money, but they are also the primary reasons contributing to all the hate in the country. If TD continues to go down this path, and chooses to follow the FOX News / MSNBC approach of less quality and more rousting just to provide content, I can think of at least one reader they will lose.

If anyone can give a truly honest answer to this question, they would be the highest paid coach in all of baseball. The MLB landscape is littered with players that were either bad or middling in multiple locations before showing up somewhere and killing it. Most top players can transcend organizations as their skills are strong. Many players need to be in the right culture, with the right attitude, and the right voices in their ear to be successful. Some AAA coach tells them to throw a new pitch that becomes electric or to change their hand placement on the bat to swing smoother. Hindsight is always 20/20 in these situations. Turn the page and move on.

Did Twins Daily hire Stephen A. Smith? Has this website resorted to the hot-takes of ESPN to draw in viewers? Six games, 25 AB end everything is settled??? Why are we even seeing these types of articles? I expect better...

As the general public doesn't really know what is happening here, I am not ready to write this off. There my be something that can be fixed in the offseason. This needs to play out a little bit longer...

If both of them can continue to meet the expectations, stay healthy, and help stabilize this lineup, things might take off...

Starting to get some Shannon Stewart vibes from Royce Lewis. Let's hope he can be that same catalyst and keep this offense moving in the right direction.

My Rankings, with the % chance they get in: 1) Gray - 100% 2) Ryan - 95% 3) Duran - 60% 4) TC Bear - <1% 5) Anderson De La Rosa - <1% 6) Any other player or coach on the Twins roster - 0%

If the SP continues to be torrid, then they really have a chance. Playoffs are all about pitching. With all the off days during the playoffs, the bullpen really gets narrowed down to about 3 guys. This may not be a popular opinion, but if the SP stays in the top 3 in MLB, and the Twins make the playoffs, they have about as good a chance as anybody to advance and win it all.

Maybe my expectations have been lowered too much, but at least I know what is happening when Atteberry is on the mic.

Now if only this would rollover to the radio staff and they could replace their current color man with Kris Atteberry...

You rarely see these types of changes happen midseason, especially with teams that are contending. If they do make a change, it will probably wait to the offseason.

If by disappointing you mean expectations, then there may be a talking point. If by disappointing you mean bad, we only need to go back to 2011-2016 to find some really bad lineups. You could also look at the mid 90's as well...

Best hope at the moment: Royce Lewis = Shannon Stewart

Doc, I was thinking the powder blues would be worth at least 10 wins. Easily my favorite uniform of them all... There is still plenty of time to right the wrongs with this team. Just two things need to happen: 1) Win this hum drum division. 2) Be healthy and rolling come September.

Now there is an article title nobody expected to see this year...

I wonder who the Twins deem "untouchable" in the organization? Is Miranda truly untouchable? Lee? Lewis? With the excess of upper tier middle infield prospects in the organization, would they be more willing to move some of these pieces? A move for any of the three mentioned would need to have an implied contract extension worked out. This current regime does not gut the farm for rentals, nor should they. The Burnes possibility would need to be discussed in the context of Sonny Gray re-signing with the Twins next year.

The thing about the bases loaded numbers: A quick burst of hits, like say 6 in a row with the bases loaded starts to make the overall numbers more palatable. One of the issues with a smaller sample size and the difference 5-8% statistically ginormous. Interesting comment on the quick hook with relievers who do not have their stuff. When a starter doesn't have his stuff, the general consensus around here is to let them "battle through it".

Kiriloff should be protected. TBO I was a little surprised he was not given more time in the minors, considering how much time he has missed and how unsure they still have to be about the wrist. (I am not going to argue medical semantics here, this is relatively uncharted territory for this type of injury). That being said, this could easily be the reason why he is playing so many "half-games".

The numbers are bad, but as a collective group you will see a regression to the mean as time goes on. It is inevitable.

If the big team looses faith in any of the current guys (the big team losing faith, not the mob), I think you could realistically see about any one of those mentioned coming up and getting an opportunity. The general volatility of relief pitching and situational decisions could mean callups for guys you don't expect.

While I tend to be optimistic, if Ryan and Gray continue to pitch this way for the rest of the year, they would be putting up historic level numbers. Gray's season would be top 45 ever, with Ryan right outside the top 100. We can always dream...

Too bad voting doesn't end 1/4 of the way through the season. Very happy Gray and Ryan are off to strong starts. We know there will be some regression, let's hope it isn't too drastic.

Not sliding the goalposts, but not 100% sure he warrants the vitriol. Jax, Moran, Alcala have all been equal or worse to Pagan this season, but the mobs do not attack them like they do Pagan. I am all for improving the team. I am not saying that Pagan is the second coming of Joe Nathan. However, I do believe that the amount of hate and vitriol being pushed at him is much more than is warranted right now.

Don't bring logic to this discussion. I was looking at the same information. He has essentially had two really bad outings all year, but otherwise has been pretty solid. Lots of vitriol here. I think that Pagan could roll of 25 IP of perfect pitching and most of the fans would still be calling for his head. Lots of Ron Davis vibes here... Anybody know what kind of clubhouse guy he is? Anybody stop to think that innings may not be the only reason he is on the roster?

Any team in the majors have "real" bullpen depth past three guys? If so, I would bet that number is less than 3.