Twins GFP

Attendance is down. Team support is down. Gee, I wonder why? Somebody tell me why I, as a fan, am supposed to care more about the Twins product then the individuals that actually own the product?

Thank you for the article. Really well written and a different narrative then we have seen lately about the Twins being in a pennant race. Many people are quick to blame the FO (they spend the moneslightly exceedy!) over Ownership for the current problems. I need to remind people of a few things: - Injuries plagued this team consistently all year. - Castro, Wallner, Miranda, Larnach, even Santana and the Jeffers/Vazquez combination exceeded all expectations this year. - Buxton and Correa were back to elite form when on the field (regardless of your usage opinions. Outside of his recent slump, the same can be said of Lewis. - Ober and Ryan met or exceeded expectations this year. SWR definitely exceeded expectations this year. Sands and Alcala came back from the dead. Jax turned the corner from good to one of the better relievers in baseball. I say this not to cherry pick the success stories. Lopez took a step back. Margot, Kepler. Farmer, and Thielbar did not perform to expectations. But player-by-player, this team exceeded expectations. Where they failed was the lack of spending on depth. When vets went down or stunk (Paddack, Okert Jackson) and the injuries started to pile up on the core players, the Twins had no option but to go with the youth. When the younger players (Varland, Festa, Matthews, Martin, Lee, Julien, Kiriloff) failed, the Twins had no choice but to keep running them out there because ownership gave the FO no money to work with. Enjoy the high stakes games now, because when the season is over and the Twins do not make the playoffs, the blame squarely on ownership.

Ummm... considering the window is small, and the concern about load management has to do with playing in "meaningful" games and innings, yeah 4 games should about cover it. How many more games do you want them to play before you change your mind? Considering there is only 6 games left, not much room left to change your opinion

A week ago I would have agreed. As they have both played the last four games, the narrative appears to have changed.

@Brock Beauchamp FYI - I do not know what timeline they have given you, but the ad is still attacking with a vengeance. I "X" out of it and it pops up again 20 seconds later...

Yeah... I think this issue/complaint needs to die. Both Correa and Buxton have played in the last 4 games including both ends of Sunday's doubleheader. Any load management concerns are gone. On to bigger problems...

That's right everyone! Support and invest in the Twins just as much as ownership has this year!

The saying goes: Jack of all trades, master of none. The positive is positional flexibility. The negative is the lack of defensive quality. The Twins currently prefer the former over the latter. This issue alone may be the strongest reason to bring Carlos Santana back next year.

They should have put Alcala in to pitch the 10th. Oh,,, wait. OH, WAIT! THEY HELD! THE BULLPEN REALLY HELD!

Please Stu, I need you to go back to writing satire. The factual articles are too painful to read.

This article could have been written in one paragraph: The Twins were not allowed to spend any substantive money at the deadline. They players the team would have wanted to trade had no trade value. They could not move valuable pieces as they were in a pennant race. We are now seeing the results of that mess.

They should have put Alcala in to pitch the 10th. Oh... wait.

They should have put in Alcala in the 10th. oh.... wait.

Last year, after being trusted enough to be the starter the Twins moved on from Geo, Miranda had 40 games of a wonderful .211/.263/.303 before he was sent back down to the minors. After 40 pedestrian games in AAA, he became injured. The Twins had so much faith in him that he started this year in AAA. Throw out the rose colored glasses. I am hopeful he will be a solid piece going forward, just not yet 100% convinced

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Miranda was given the reigns once and failed miserable. A few good months of play does not make him 100% reliable in my book. There still needs to be some on-field insurance for him.

@Brock Beauchamp https://fly2pie.com/?utm_source=padsquad&utm_medium=native&utm_term=&utm_content=banner&utm_campaign=everyone_loves_pie

How disappointing is it that money has become a major point of discussion for a $5 million dollar player... Even with payroll constraints, he should be a lock to come back in the $5-6 million range. Even if they convert him to a platoon player, he would be worth it, with a cost low enough to dump if need be. Miranda can not be trusted long term (yet). Lewis is Buxton 2.0 with the injury risk. Not going to even acknowledge Julien or Kiriloff playing 1B. Unless they can find a true upgrade at 1B, resigning Santana at a similar salary is not a luxury, but a requirement.

Baseball has become a game of torque. Max effort on everything shoulders and elbows for pitchers, max effort on core and joints for batters. Like football in the sense that everyone knows the concussion risk now and weighs the risk/reward on their bodies, so do mlb players. How do you regulate individual effort and physical stress? You can't. No matter what rules they try to implement regarding usage, it will not matter. I think we are near the top of the velocity range for pitchers. Batters will ultimately adjust and better learn how to hit these pitches. Then what? Location and deception will need to come back into vogue. Pitchers will need to pitch again instead of throw.

With many options to watch games online in a not-quite-legal manner, I would think the Twins would be looking for ways to make it easier, not harder. The teams with low regional tv revenue should really stop being so short sighted and work together with MLB on a national agreement. The tv revenue can't be much lower than it is now, and it would only work to increase their fanbase.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! So many people like Gadden (for the life of me I have no clue why) that I was feeling lonely. My biggest issue is that I have no clue what is happening when he is announcing. He does not know how to describe action in any context.

You bring many valid points. I agree the "playoffs" have already started. No matter what decision they make (play/sit) there is risk. Risk of keeping them part-time or losing them entirely. It will be interesting to watch if they can/will increase their workload as time goes on. Another game lost in the WC race today could really force the issue.

See above. It pops up every 2-3 minutes, even after I close it and do not change screens.

See above

I am going to change the discussion a bit as using percentages doesn't seem to be adequately addressing the main point. Buxton and Correa were activated because the team felt that, whatever their health condition is, they were a better option then running out the 4A guys that are not producing. Yes, there is a balance of getting the innings they can, while still trying to keep them on the field. That means sitting. Buxton and Correa have looked pretty "normal" when they have played, but we do not know the specifics it takes to get them physically on the field, nor the after affects of playing. My best guess is that they are healthy, but not healthy enough that a flare up could happen if they overfatigue themselves, or push it to the limit. That would indicate the reason for not playing every day. Not knowing specifics makes it hard to fully understand the balancing act. There are currently 12 games left in the season. If I have to choose between Kiersey/Castillo types playing all 12 games, or Correa/Buxton playing 7 games while being available to PH the other 5, I choose the latter. I would also anticipate that the odds of them playing more or all games go dramatically higher the closer we get to the end of season and playoffs.