Riverbrian

Yep exactly And in most cases... that small window gets shut by his superiors while a player is half way in the window with a 26 man roster spot. I'd like the team to roster players that they believe in. If they don't believe in them. Don't roster them. BTW... Here's another small sample interesting point. Please take note that I said small sample before I typed interesting point. Fedko has made 4 starts. The Twins are 3-1 in those games. They got clobbered 12-3 by the Dodgers in the one loss so I'm not sure that his presence in a lineup as been detriment despite his 0-17 start to his scattered opportunity small sample career. I get it... The Twins are currently the top offense in the American League. In the past 30 days the Twins have had a full lineup of players who are doing quite well. Larnach, Bell and Buxton all have an OPS over 1,000 in the past 30 days. Caratini, Keaschall, Clemens, Lewis, Lee and... and Alex Jackson all have an OPS over .800 in the past 30 days. Kriedler has a decent .749 OPS in the past 30 days. That's 10 players who deserve to play with a lineup card that holds 9 over the past 30 days. Martin and Gray have not been performing and Fedko is not allowed to perform. If I was the manager... I'd be letting those hitting keep hitting. I get it. However, things are going to change and you gotta prepare for the change that is going to come. Buxton... is he hurt? WIll Larnach get hurt? Clemens? Do they all of sudden turn to Fedko with the Buxton injury? Hope those 17 AB's have prepared him for that? I also think it's quite possible that any of those 10 players go in the tank for a stretch because baseball is baseball and it roller coasters every single year. The next 30 days could be the Mariners current 30 days with a team OPS of .631... With Dominic Canzone the top dog on the team with a .961 OPS. BTW... The Twins are 3rd in Team OPS over the past 30 days with a team .830. As amazing as the Twins have been over the past 30 days. The Rockies and Marlins are #1 and #2. How many of Karros, Rumfield, McCarthy, Carrigg, Goodman, Sullivan, Moniak, Johnston and Sterlin Thompson are outliers? How many of Stowers, Lopez, Pauley, Mack, Hernandez, Esteury Ruiz (Who has been passed around from organization to organization), Caissie, Hicks and Sanoja are outliers? I don't know but all of the players listed are out playing Cal Raleigh and Julio Rodriguez over the past 30 days. But... somehow... we know who should get the window shut on them. I sure don't know. I will raise my hand and state... I don't know.

Alright... here we go again. I've gotten myself into a position where folks will get the impression that I'm a Fedko fan and I'm going to be forced to take a pro-Fedko position. LET ME BE CLEAR... I'm not heading down that rabbit hole again. Let me be clear... I'm not pro or anti-Fedko. I have no idea. And let me be clear. You don't either. There is a high probability that Fedko will be a below average player if given the opportunity to be a below average player but it sure appears that he won't be allowed to become even below average. The only thing that I will bet the house, wife and kids on is this: Kyler Fedko will not make it if he is just another pinch running, late inning defensive specialist and if that's the case... GET HIM OFF THE ROSTER NOW!!! It isn't necessary to draw hard lines on what could be very thin margins but these lines are drawn because a line has to be drawn somewhere. In this particular category... That's all we have are outliers. Every single Kody Clemens is an outlier. BTW... Can we add Kriedler to the outlier category? It's a miracle that there are outliers to be found at all. Let me ask you a question. These outliers that you speak of... this grouping of players. Who belongs in this outlier grouping? Is it a talent issue that grants you membership? Does Clemens get to be an outlier because he sucks? Are they outliers because AJ Hinch force fed the new big money free agent Javier Baez 590 PA's and the 30 year old vet Jonathan Schoop 510 PA's and the 28 year Jaimer Candelario 429 PA's and the former 1st pick overall Spencer Torkelson 404 PA's in 2022. BTW... Can we add Willi Castro to this outlier group along Kriedler and Clemens. Willi got 392 PA's on this 66-96 Detroit Tigers team and was DFA'd for his efforts. How do you get into this outlier category or grouping? Is it because... they sucked and suddenly started not sucking or is it possible that Rob Thomsen liked Bryce Harper better? Maybe Thomsen liked Schwarber, Bohm and Bryson Stott better? Never mind that Bryson Stott has never really hit the ball in his life but he got 571 plate appearances. Would Clemens be an outlier if he started with the Twins 1 for 10 in 2025? I doubt it. Some players get chance after chance. Most players have to perform immediately,,, like RIGHT NOW to get another chance. Clemens get to be an outlier because he went 8 for 18 after sitting for two weeks while the Twins auditioned Jonah Bride after half the team got hurt. Yeah he's an outlier. Of course he is. A miracle had to happen for him to be an outlier. But... Let me be clear... I'm not going to get painted into some Pro Fedko Corner. HarmonKO3 is making valid points.

For those reading along. Please consider that the Baseball Savant Page copied and pasted is for 17 AB's at the MLB Level in 2026... 17 AB's that occurred over a stretch of 18 baseball games. Just out of curiosity. How did Kody Clemens look... in let's say 2024 at the age of 28?

Cleveland is going to have a lot to say in regards to weather we are buyers or sellers. They will play 7 games in July. Currently 3 games behind them. Come July 24 how far will be behind them? Or ahead of them?

Some are allowed to compete. Some are not.

IMO... What you are tracking provides perspective. The Marlins and Cards are doing pretty good with those zeroes. The Marlins currently have 13 position players who are all pre-arb and 10 pitchers who are pre-arb for 23 out of 26. The Cards are running 20 pre-arb players out of 26. The Dodgers indeed have 13 vet players that will be back and the cheapest of those 13 is Max Muncy at 10 Million. 13 players that they spent 337 million on in 2026. That's 26 million per. 61 million spent on the rest of the roster which we know is needed for at least 13 players to fill out a 26 man. So just using the other 13 roster spots for the math is 4.69 per. Of our 3 players. Only two Lopez and Buxton make more than Max Muncy and Lopez has been no benefit to us at all. Those three will combine for 43 million next year at 14.3 million per. With an estimated payroll of 107. 64 million to fill the other 23 spots at 2.78 per. The Dodgers are buying more free agents and spending more per free agent and they are spending more on per roster filler because they have less roster to fill. The Twins can spend more but they will never close the gap of the big spenders. They will never be able to keep up in free agency. Free agency to the Twins means leftovers. We can't rely on the free agent left overs to survive. The Twins must develop or die.

July 4 - Right Handed Starter - Brendan Beck - Won - 11 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 5 RH 2 Switch 2 LH Record vs Right Handed Starters - 33-31 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 5.03 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ July 5 - Left Handed Starter - Ryan Weathers - Won - 6 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 5 RH - 3 Switch - 1 LH Record vs Left Handed Starters - 11-16 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.63

As much as I harp on my pet topics and will continue to. Overall, I've actually been happy with how Shelton has been utilizing almost the entire roster and I agree with you... The offense has been strong. Shelton has been much better than Baldelli in my opinion. The sending down of Lewis and Wallner down, the shift to Martin and the shift away from Martin, along with the movement of Keaschall is showing me a little more management flexibility in regards to rewarding the players that are actually getting the job done. Kriedler has been a nice offensive surprise... much like Clemens was last year. You can find players that can do the job that nobody expected to do the job. You just let those who are actually hitting keep hitting. My only complaint is going to be the short side platooning of two individuals and that complaint is a result of my strong opposition to the strip mining of developing players like Martin and Fedko.

Last Game Right Handed Starter July 3 - Garrit Cole - Loss - 2 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 3 RH 3 Switch 3 LH Season Record vs RH Starters: 32-31 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.94 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Accumulated Stats vs Left Handed Starters Season Record vs LH Starters: 10-16 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.58

When you gut your bullpen and don't commit the resources to fix it... you are left with a lot of tryouts and those tryouts will result in some discovery. I'm enjoying the transition of Andrew Morris to the pen and I am hopeful that we have developing bullpen arm for the future. I really like what I'm seeing out of Gomez. The return of Cole Sands will be a plus. The rest of them... success and failure in doses and leaves the impression that the bullpen isn't deep enough and lacking enough late inning options and that isn't a good combination. If the Twins are still in contention at the deadline. I'd expect them to add bullpen arms. If they are looking at good arms with years of service left. Who knows what it will cost but we can look at the returns for Duran, Jax and Varland as a guide for what it will cost in terms of prospects to acquire younger power arms with years of service remaining. Nearly every contending team will be looking for bullpen arms to bolster for the stretch run and that will drive up the price on rentals as well. I always assume that most GM's are pretty disciplined so the price shouldn't go through the roof but there will be competition for any decent bullpen arm rental. Do we have a prospect that we are willing to part with that the trading team will like over the prospects that other teams are willing to part with. This is subjective and dependent on the team we are trading with. We won't give up Jenkins for a rental. Winokur for example... would we give him up? Will some team like Brandon Winokur... again for example. If we have a Bad July and the team is not in contention. It's a completely different discussion. If Ryan, Jeffers, Bell get moved. I think it's fair to ask that a decent young bullpen arm be included in the deal. I do not expect a Bad July. The bullpen certainly needs to be overcome but the team is hitting and producing runs. Our starting pitching has some depth to keep us in games. As much as I talk about it... I think Derek Shelton has done a good job of utilizing the roster. I think the Twins will hit the deadline in search of bullpen help because I believe they will be in contention. That's going to bug some folks on Twinsdaily. Myself... I may not agree with the go for it declaration that was made during the offseason. However... Since they declared they are going for it. I do expect them to go for it if in contention. I would not want my front office wishy washy even if I disagree.

Austin Martin lost his starting job on June 9. He has started 7 out of 21 games since. In consideration of his performance lately... two games a week is about right. Luke Keaschall is our new RF. Austin earned opportunity and then he dropped that opportunity. The Twins played Wallner every day in April. Matt had an OPS of .544 in April. They sent Wallner down... handed the job to Martin and Austin produced an OPS of .588 in May after producing a .892 OPS in April. Now in June... Luke Keaschall is the new starting RF. Keaschall has produced a .648 OPS in June and that is lower than his .662 season. There was an unusual amount of left handed starters deployed against us in April so it disguised Martins short side platoon role with the club but Wallner sucked while Martin was getting on base almost 50% of the time. He earned a shot and then he blew his opportunity. If the Twins intend to utilize Austin Martin as a short side platoon going forward. He doesn't matter... he will be little help today and little help tomorrow. Developing short side platoons is a complete waste of time and limited space. Before you send Austin down to burn his last option. Fedko is first because despite our RF production he isn't being utilized at all.

Last Game Right Handed Starter July 1 - Tatsuya Imai - Won - 8 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 3 RH 3 Switch 3 LH Season Record vs RH Starters: 32-30 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.98 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Accumulated Stats vs Left Handed Starters Season Record vs LH Starters: 10-16 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.58

I can't assume that Fedko was available but have heard nothing stating he wasn't available. We can assume Buxton was not available and that leaves you three bench options. We know that Keaschall pinch hit for Larnach with one out and nobody on base in the 7th. This occurred with two more innings to go... down by two and a reasonable certainty that Josh Hader would close the 9th. We also know that after Larnach was removed from the game. Left Handers Clemens and Gray were still in the lineup. With Keaschall pinch hitting for Larnach in the 7th. He is down to two pinch hitting options for Gray. Jackson and Fedko were the available options. Jackson has been decent this year in 45 AB's. However oddly and in a small sample... Jackson's success this year has been against right handers not left handers. His career splits over 487 AB's are poor against right handers and left handers but better against right handers. Jackson does have 162 PA's against lefties and while Fedko has 4 PA's. So... I can't blame him for going with experience. Even if the other guy isn't very experienced at all. However... facing lefties is what Fedko was brought up to do. If Fedko isn't the choice over Jackson... What is Fedko here to do? If they should tie or take the lead in the 9th. The future moves when presented with these two choices. Jackson replaces Gray by going to catcher... Caratini goes to 1B, Lewis goes to 3B and Lee to SS. Fedko pinch hitting for Gray would be Fedko to CF... Kreidler to SS. The Fedko sub is also stronger defensively. If he wasn't injured or ill. We can all remove Fedko from our list of players who might be able to help us in the future.

Unless Kyler was ill or injured. The manager choosing Alex Jackson to pinch hit for Tristan Gray against the left handed Hader means that Kyler Fedko can be sent back down to AAA. We will face three left handers in a row. July 4, 5 and 7 so Fedko may get a 3 game run but he isn't getting anything to prepare for it.

Last Game Right Handed Starter June 30 - Mike Burrows - Loss - 4 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 3 RH 3 Switch 3 LH Season Record vs RH Starters: 31-30 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.93 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Accumulated Stats vs Left Handed Starters Season Record vs LH Starters: 10-16 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.58