Riverbrian

The Rockies farm system has not developed enough talented players. Young talent struggling combined with young talent that other teams don't want to acquire is a bad situation. It's going to take a long time to dig yourself out of that hole. Just ask the Angels.

7 Straight games that Kepler has been on the bench against a left hander. To state the obvious... Kepler is a platoon player.

Lynch is no Singer He's a guitarist. 80's Dokken reference for those who watched that sail right over their head.

I don't want react harshly to his current numbers. There is a lot of season left. I'm willing to see what happens to Cedric Mullins and Paul Goldschmidt over the course of the season. I'm willing to see what happens to Jorge Polanco and I'm willing to see what happens to Carlos Santana and Kyle Farmer. There are a lot of players around the league that are under performing... players that can pull it together and be a plus player by years end. Some won't of course but there is a lot more to go. I liked Farmer last year and I really didn't have a problem with him coming back but my problem is the same problem I had in the off-season and that is the overall roster commitment to the short side. The commitment of millions of dollars that we didn't have to Farmer, Margot and Santana just to keep Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner away from the left hander was only going to put you into this situation when things don't go as planned. Farmer has never been strong against right handed pitching, Margot has never been strong against right handed pitching, Santana hasn't been strong against right handed pitching lately. If they are not hitting left handed pitching... Oops... Because it's a long shot that his work against right handers is going to make it (pardon the pun) right. I don't have a problem with Farmer directly but I have a problem with his group of players that we overstaffed the roster with and this is the price you pay for it.

Kyle Farmer career splits: OPS VS RH - .654 OPS VS LH - .799 If he doesn't hit left handed pitching... Oops.

I will always be a Twins fan. It's my level of Twins Fan that is at risk here. Granted... my level of Twins fan is pretty high in comparison so I have a long way to fall just to become an average fan. Before all of this... I would have picked up whatever package necessary to watch the Twins nightly. After all of this... NOT picking up whatever package necessary to watch the Twins is quite possible. I guess... I've already fallen quite a distance and the Twins haven't started to inflate that giant airbag below me. They are not even talking about the airbag.

Whatever happened in the offices of 1 Twins way... I can't be sure. Regardless of what happened in those meetings and regardless of whose voice led the way to the current location. I have no problem pointing the finger at Joe Pohlad since he is in charge of the operation. Was it an MLB Directive? Was it a short term money grab? Was it because they ran out of time to get the real plan together? I don't know but I care and Joe is in charge. Right now... PR/Legal is obviously telling them to stay silent on the subject because they have been silent on the subject. Crickets in the background silent. I have seen no comments from those who should be commenting on behalf of the Twins organization. I know we will eat alive any comments thrown out there but if there was ever a time to stand and speak... this would be that time.

I can buy an MLB.com account. And it would work great if I want to watch the other 29 teams. However, I won't be able to watch the Twins on it because it will be blacked out in Twins Territory.

Catching is expensive to acquire. Christian was traded to the Astros for the 28th and 29th prospects in the Astros system. A rental for 3 months in August, September and October to backup light hitting Martin Maldanado cost two top 30 prospects albeit on the lower end of the top 30. Lower end or not... One of those prospects ended up being what we know today as Wilyer Abreu who is looking like a decent major league ball player for the Red Sox this year. Catching is expensive to acquire. With . 680 career OPS and a defensive reputation and the most recent job as a backup to Martin Maldanado... the weakest hitting catcher in the world -- The Twins signed him to a 30 million dollar deal over 3 years. I'll say it again. Catching is expensive to acquire. The Twins will always be better off growing their own and selling catching to take advantage of this unique consistent market overpay. Because they failed to develop catching. Or more specifically... because they didn't have the patience or didn't believe in Jeffers. They had to pay for it. This is the result. Now Vazquez will hold a 30 million dollar back up job in Minnesota which will delay the development of the next in line. Catching is expensive to acquire. Grow it. Unclog that pipeline.

The last sentence of the article says it all. "Bankruptcy is bankruptcy. It goes at it's own pace". The Diamondbacks, Rockies and Padres games are being broadcast by MLB. The Twins sold exclusive rights to a company in bankruptcy proceedings THIS OFF SEASON. MLB may not be able to fix this and therefore the Twins may not be able to fix this. However... it isn't lost on me that the Twins signed the agreement to a company in bankruptcy proceedings and an expiring contract with the primary carriage.

Can't rule out the Twins saying that they are going back to cable next year and going back to cable for me will require a guy coming to house. My wife will make me clean up the living room in preparation for his visit. I really don't want to do that. 55+ demographics can be difficult that way in regard to change. 😄

With the way the Twins platoon. At Minimum the Twins need 4 players who will play every day and that is if the Twins continue to use Jeffers as the DH against left handers. If they don't... the Twins will need 5 players who play every day against both left handers and right handers. We can safely say that Lewis, Correa and Buxton are 3 of those spots next year. Who gets the 4th spot or the 5th spot. Will it be Kepler? If it's Kepler does it requires another Santana type signing because I'm pretty sure that the Twins are not going to offer a 21 million dollar QO plus another player to play every day unless it's a Santana type signing and most of us don't want that again. With Jeffers handling DH Duties against Left Handers. That adds up to 4 left handers to platoon and 3 right handers to platoon plus two catchers for a total of 9 roster spots. That leaves 4 roster spots for everyday players against both hands. If Jeffers doesn't DH against left handers... that adds up to 3 left handers to platoon and 3 right handers to handcuff to them for a total of 8 roster spots and that leaves 5 every day players for a total of 13 roster spots. Right now... as of May 29th 2024... Kepler doesn't have an every day spot. Kepler is being platooned. This discussion requires attention to how Kepler is currently being utilized.

I don't know a lot about Fubo. I will certainly consider Fubo if it is indeed the vehicle for Twins broadcasts into the future but to my knowledge Fubo is getting the broadcast from Bally and I don't think the Twins will be tied to Bally next year and beyond... therefore I'm not sure where that will leave Fubo next year and I don't want to go through this redesign process again for a temporary fix. Who knows... maybe when this said and done... baseball is back on cable next year. I need to know what they are going to do before I redesign things. Cutting the cord will be a major redesign in our household. My wife also gets a vote. Baseball is important to me... not so much for her. Cutting the cord requires agreement between us and planning so we don't lose programming we want in the pursuit of one product. We only have one cable provider where I live so I'm at the mercy of Comcast/Midco for cable. I do believe that I will drop cable over this but not until I know where the Twins will be and how much? And the how much is something that I will certainly factor in. If the Twins are hoping to get a higher dollar amount from me next year... they won't the longer this drags out. I'm learning to live without the Twins RIGHT NOW! watching Netflix I also need to know how much for the other options that I want (not many) and the options that my wife wants. Once the Twins are settled... I can take a serious look at cutting that cord and redesign that package/budget allocation including my internet provider. For now... I'm just not going to give an extra $79 a month because three large corporations are playing a game of chicken with me. I could care less about Comcast/Midco or Diamond Sports Group. They can all go bankrupt and go away for all I care. What I do care about it is the Twins... My Twins... although that level of care will wane as this drags out. How the Twins allowed themselves to get into this position is shocking. Why baseball hasn't addressed this before now is sad. In the meantime. We wait for the courts? As I learn how little I care for the other channels that I get.

How much money do you want to spend on a platoon player? How much should you spend on a platoon player? For 21 million... couldn't we get a player that plays every day? Max Kepler is not facing left handers. Like the article states. Joc Pederson is your current comp. Joc got a QO with the Giants. Many were shocked he received a QO. No surprise that he took the QO. After the QO. Joc signed a two year deal with the D-backs. Actually a 1 year deal at 9.5M because there is a mutual option at 14 million and mutual options are typically not exercised, A QO at 21 million? With our budget constraints? What are we talking about?

Understood but I'm hesitant to add because this isn't my fault. I chose cable so I could watch my Twins. I paid my cable bill... I paid my money to watch the Twins! I don't feel like paying an extra $79 a month because I'm caught in the middle of people fighting over my money. When the Twins finally fix this and provide a viable option for watching with prices listed on the menu... that is when I will decide weather I pick up the option... weather I cut the cord... weather I decide to read books. For this year... I'm going to look at that message posted on Channel 623 until I reach the point of realization that I don't NEED to watch the Twins anymore. In other words... the Twins may have a new plan next year and I may not care.

I don't know about fired immediately but yeah... they shouldn't send Miranda down. Figure it out... let's try to keep the best bats batting. See if we can create some cushion for our pitching staff.

I know there are Twins fans in Iowa who don't feel sorry for me. Welcome to the club is what most are likely saying. However... I still can't watch my Twins and this is getting beyond ridiculous because it appears that it isn't ending any time soon. Reports are that the two sides are not even looking at each other in some sort of pointless stand still while all parties are attempting to solve this through the courts which should take forever and a day. MLB to my knowledge has asked the court to hasten the bankruptcy. Diamond recently asked the court for a 41 day extension. This really sucks!!!

Santana, Farmer, Vazquez and Margot are struggling against right handed pitching. I believe they can get better against right handers but I don't believe they will be better enough because there isn't any recent history that they can hit right handed hitting better enough. When we are completely healthy we can hide those 4. When we are not healthy... we can't. IMO... We have gone from decent depth to health vulnerable as a result. Unfortunately... I'm pretty sure that Miranda will be sent down if we are healthy when Lewis returns just to keep the above 4 on the roster to face those left handers who throw 25% of the time. Money was spent on them, they will not be just tossed aside. This will marginalize the uptick that the return of Lewis provides because of instead of Lewis replacing one of our worst hitters (Margot). He will replace one of our better hitters (Miranda). Replacing Margot is how it should work. Always cull from the bottom. This is where the extreme platooning and the need to roster below average hitters against right handed pitchers punches you in the face. The only solution to keeping Miranda up, culling the worst hitter on the team (Margot) and keeping this platoon system intact requires 1. Pulling Jeffers out of DH'ing and making him the two start guy to a 2 to 1 catching rotation with Vazquez regardless of what hand is throwing. 2. Returning Kepler to full Time vs both left handers and right handers 3. Making Castro a short side platoon with Larnach in LF 4. Miranda stays full time playing 1B against RH's and DH'ing against left handers. That would create: DH Kirilloff/Miranda C - Jeffers and Vazquez 2 to 1 1B- Miranda/Santana 2B - Julien/Farmer 3B - Lewis SS - Correa LF - Larnach/Castro CF - Buxton RF - Kepler Player Roles Recap: Every Day Players - Lewis, Correa, Buxton, Kepler and Miranda Platoon Players vs RH - Kirilloff, Julien and Larnach Platoon Players vs LH - Santana, Farmer and Castro Catchers - Jeffers and Vazquez I hope that Miranda stays and Margot goes. Lewis really improves the offense this way by replacing a bad hitter with a real good hitter. Lewis replacing Miranda is just trading a good hitter for a better hitter. The team would be better with Lewis and Miranda than it is with Lewis and Margot.

In all honesty... I would load up on left handers for two reasons. Bring in 3 or 4 more. A. Rocco and the front office wouldn't be able to hand cuff enough right handers to sit more than 4 left handers on the roster. This would force them to let some of our young lefties establish an actual track record against lefties. Gain experience... Get better. B. And this is the biggest reason why I'd load up on left handed hitters. If you really want to play the platoon split to your advantage... forget about these Julien/Farmer handcuffs. Focus on the real disparity in the platoon split advantage. 75% of pitchers are right handed... if you want to play the advantage... load up and attack that 3 to 1 advantage. Load up on lefties for the 75% percent and take your chances against the 25%. Committing limited dollars to Margot and Farmer for 25% of the pitchers and committing limited roster space to Margot and Farmer to face 25% of the pitchers is bad allocation. Margot and Farmer don't hit right handers that well and they haven't for a fairly long career but they get roster spots end up facing more right handers than left handers just so that 25% is covered. If you want to get the most out of the platoon split. More left handers... lots of them. It's a 3 to 1 advantage.

I agree with you 100% Yet.. In the meantime.

Near Future: I don't expect the roster to remain healthy before Royce Lewis gets back. Someone is going to the IL... Don't know who but someone always does so there is decent sized probability that a hard decision doesn't have to made on Miranda. If the team remains healthy and Royce comes back. I don't believe that a vet will be released to clear 26 man space so it comes down to those with options. Miranda, Larnach, Kirilloff, Julien. Longer Term Future: Short Side Platoon. Unless he starts hitting like an every day guy or the Twins change operational style.

The 20-26 Cardinals just swept the 29-15 Orioles. The 10-31 Marlins have won 7 of their last 10. The 8-28 Rockies won 7 games in a row last week. This is how baseball seasons work. Bad Teams are not that bad and good teams are not that good. Anybody can beat anybody.

I might have some fun if I was allowed to be ChatGPT for a day.