Riverbrian

Walmart employees at Target Field. Ouch!

100% Tanner Scott would be my dream addition. I'd even roll the dice on Puk.

2023 OPS .789 which is higher than what Santana currently has in 2024. I wouldn't have bet on a .583 in July for Jorge. He has sat the last three games for Seattle. Dylan Moore appears to be the new guy at 2B... they may have run out of patience and I don't blame them. In the off-season if given the choice between Polanco and Santana. I would have chosen Polanco without second thought every day of the week.

About 6:30AM yesterday morning. I was thinking that Miranda might make history today. It was also Pablo Lopez bobblehead day. I had no plans so I checked the Minneapolis forecast. 10% chance of rain. Spur of the moment... I got up... poured coffee into my travel mug and I drove the 4.5 hours to Target field. I didn't pack a thing. Walked through the gates at 11:57AM. They were already out of bobble heads so I turned around and went home. Just kidding They were out of bobbleheads but I stayed and I was in attendance to watch Miranda make history. As an extra bonus for my efforts... I saw the very first MLB home run of Brooks Lee. I saw the very first dinger from Byron Buxton in Detroit back in 2015. I can add Brooks Lee to that list. After the game... I went to Portillos in Maple Grove for the Italian Beef. Then drove back home for 4.5 hours. Arriving around 9pm. Good Day. A bobble head would have made it perfect.

My comment wasn't a manager criticism per se. It was an 8 run deficit. All managers do it... it's time to put in the scrubs. My problem is having scrubs... who the manager just identified by garbage time play. The quote was bull. I agree with you that Rocco can't say the truth... which was... we were out of it so I'm putting in the scrubs. And... I'm saying... if you have scrubs that you need to get 1 AB in a blow out. Get them off the roster. As good as the offense is doing in comparison with other teams around the league. We still have some guys who have been average to below average that could still use some pushing. Kepler and Larnach have been OK. Yet they have not been so good that they have to be in the lineup every day. They haven't been so good that we can just sit back and say... it's cool. They haven't been so good that they shouldn't be challenged for playing time. They could use players pushing them... not players who Rocco has to get 1 AB when it safe to do so. Farmer and Martin are not pushing anyone... or allowed to push anyone... they need to be fed a single AB when it's safe... Rocco identified them by sending them out in garbage time... so get them off the roster.

Since this has resurfaced. I was never a Santana hater... nor a Farmer Hater or even a Margot hater. However... What I questioned was... Even concerned about... was... letting Polanco go and then spending the money saved on Desclafini, Santana and Margot. How do I feel now? Well the loss of Polanco hasn't been a need for concern based on what he has done thus far in Seattle and Santana has turned into a nice signing. With Santana replacing what I thought Polanco would be just fine. I'll lay off Santana but I remain concerned about Margot and Farmer. That concern that remains with me... has been softened by an offense that seems to be thriving just fine. However... I do not believe that Margot or Farmer has helped the thriving.

I don't care about Miranda getting taken out in a 8 run game but his quote is respectfully ********. There was 1 out in the ninth after Margot led off the inning with an out. Miranda and Santana were the guys to get off their feet... not because they were the most tired but because they followed Margot in the batting order in a lost cause. That's why... It was safe to play Martin and Farmer and throw them an AB when it doesn't matter and Miranda and Santana just happened to be the next two spots in the batting order before the curtain comes down. If the game was tied... If it wasn't an 8 run deficit. Miranda and Santana would have hit in the 9th while Martin and Farmer stay on the bench. This doesn't tell me "they've been on their feet for a while. No reason not to get them off". This tells me that the manager he's trying to get a stupid AB for guys at the bottom of his bench. When a manager does that sort of thing... He's hanging a neon sign around the player that says it's best to play these guys when it doesn't matter. If the Manager is doing that sort of thing to a player. The player needs to be replaced on the roster. It's time to send Martin down and it's time to cut Farmer.

I am OK with that. These young players are still trying to define what group they are classified into.

Agreed. Fastball's in the 100's with movement, breaking pitches in the 90's. Babe Ruth didn't have to face this stuff from the 5th guy in a bullpen. They would have sang songs about Ben Joyce if he was doing what he is doing today in 1984. It's a whole new world. Hitters need to be better because the pitching is better. I'm not going to spend a lot of research time on it because... C'mon... no one should have to because what you are saying is obvious. I'll just attach the link to an article that states: 69 Pitches total were thrown over 100 MPH in 2008 8 Years later 1,419 Pitches thrown over 100 MPH in 2016 I don't have numbers for 2024 but I'm going to assume it's higher than 2016. Here's the link in need of a fresher link https://medium.com/@douns2/mlb-100-mph-plus-pitches-from-2008-2016-40354616024e

The strange thing with his injuries are they lack any kind of trauma. He wasn't struck by a fastball, he didn't collide with the wall or a player, he didn't strike the ground sliding for a base or diving for a ball. The two injuries this season have come from simply running. Even his knee injury making that catch out in CF May, 2022 lacked direct contact to his right knee that was injured. It was the left side of his body that absorbed the contact with the wall. His right leg appeared to be in the air when he made contact with his left side. https://www.mlb.com/video/sonny-gray-in-play-out-s-to-emmanuel-rivera

For proof... Ask him if he has ever been to Hawaii or anywhere in Polynesia. If he hasn't been to Hawaii... or the South Pacific.... You got him. To my knowledge... Hawaii is the only place where "poiing" is happening. For example... Nobody is poiing is Hibbing or or Brookings.

Back to the subject of this article: I'm assuming more data to be collected between now and October and I also assume that data will play a role in off-season decisions. I have no expectation that major free agents will be coming so next years roster but there are a lot of left handed hitters for consideration. This means that a couple of cheap Margot and Farmer type free agents will need to take a couple of the roster spots of players being penciled into slots.

Only the front office knows for sure but I believe that Santana was brought in for full time duty against both left and right handers. 2 are catchers, 6 are platooned... that leaves 5 players had to be chosen for duty against both left hander and right handed starting pitchers. Probably: Julien/Farmer - 2B Kirilloff/Margot - DH Wallner/Castro - LF This is my assumption so FWIW of course. If it wasn't Santana for full time duty then it was Castro. He would be the only other option. I don't believe Castro was the choice. First off... if it's Castro where does he play full time? Remember this is when the season started with everyone healthy. If the plan was to set up Kirilloff and Santana as the 1B platoon. Possibly: Kirilloff/Santana - 1B Julien/Farmer - 2B Wallner/Margot - LF The option position full time position is now DH for Castro. We could shift Wallner/Margot to DH platoon and give Castro LF full time? Or we could just rotate players through the DH spot moving Castro to fill in every vacated spot and doing that every day. I just don't see any of that likely coming out of spring training. Here's what we know: (Coming out of spring training healthy) 1. Jeffers and Vazquez were going to be the catcher rotation and they both hit right handed 2. Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner were not going to be in the lineup against left handed starters. 3. Margot and Farmer (Castro) were not going to be starting against right handed starters. 4. Correa, Buxton, Lewis, Kepler were going to be playing against both hands. That's 11 players roles accounted for out of the 13 that headed north out of Florida. The other two left to be accounted for are the switch hitters Santana and Castro. One of them has to go into group 3 and one of them has to go into group 4 and both are candidates. I believe it was Santana to play every day because: 1. Castro was an obvious candidate to move around to get extra AB's against Right Handers because he could fill in wherever needed when Buxton and others needed maintenance days. 2. Santana had the better overall offensive stats in 2023. Of course... we will never know... only the front office knows because everything changed 2 AB's into the season when Royce Lewis went down. Which then required both Santana and Castro go into group 4. The only clues we have and they are not rock solid clues was provided by the opening day lineup against left handed starter Cole Ragans. 1. Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner did not start so group 2 seems to be accurate. 2. Margot started at DH, Farmer started at 2B, Castro started in LF and Santana started at 1B. 3. Santana batted 5th while the bottom of the order was Farmer 7th, Castro 8th and Margot 9th. 4. Game two on March 30th against Right Handed starter. Lewis is out. Martin is called up. Kepler fouled a ball of his foot game one and is not in the lineup against a RH. Kirilloff starts in LF, Julien starts at 2B and Wallner starts in RF. Castro is now at 3B and Santana starts at 1B. 5. Farmer, Margot and Martin are on the bench. Martin is used as a pinch runner while Farmer and Margot are used as pinch hitters for our left handed problem children. 6. Game three against a right handed starter. Same lineup as game two. With Lewis getting hurt early. We don't know who was chosen to be the every day player coming out of spring training between Santana and Castro. I'm going with Santana. As the season as progressed and performance decisions have changed the off-season plan. Larnach replaced Wallner in group two, Kepler replaced Julien in group two and it seems like Martin has replaced Kirilloff in Group two. Meanwhile Castro and Santana lead the team in AB's by a fairly large margin. Injuries and poor performance have certainly caused an adjustment on the fly which have certainly messed up the carefully laid plans of the off-season.

You are correct... Berrios was the ranked #19 on the MLB prospect list in 2016. 2nd ranked on the Twins after Byron Buxton. He had some real nice numbers in AAA and AA. ERA below 3.00 on the farm in 2014 and 2015. Berrios was much more bally-hooed and deservedly so. All of that and he still struggled. I believe Wabene is making that point.

Sir... You took my words and mixed a lot of them.

I love debuts

We are currently not balanced properly. We have over addressed our ability to handle left handed pitching that comprise only 25% of MLB pitchers. It's working... we are ranked 2nd in OPS. We need to prioritize the 75% of pitchers who throw right handed. We need more left handed hitters who hit right handers to find the proper balance. Kyle Farmer is taking up a roster spot with .534 OPS against Right Handed pitchers over 66 AB's against RH. Farmer has 59 AB's vs Left Handers which is less AB's against left handers if my math is correct. Manual Margot is taking up a roster spot with a .476 OPS against Right Handed pitchers over 92 AB's. Margot has 76 AB's vs Left Handers. Which is also less if my math is correct. Both Margot and Farmer have been healthy and on the roster for the month of June. In June - Margot had 56 AB's and Farmer had 32. To compare and contrast June usage... Willi Castro had 102 AB's in month of June. Under utilized guys who can't hit right handers are a waste of roster space. Replace them with left handed hitters.... Attack the 75% of pitching instead of attacking the 25% In Elementary school we were all taught the importance of balanced diet from the 4 food groups. The Twins are not balanced. You are what you eat. Keep Wallner

If they didn't try to upgrade the offense last year with one of the best starting rotations in team history. I'm not sure why they would do it this year. If I had to guess... I don't have to... but I'm going to anyway. If I had to guess... I think the budget was a problem at last years trade deadline and I think the budget was a problem this off-season and in consideration of the money due in raises next year... I assume that the budget is still a challenge to navigate. I still believe (with no inside information) that the Twins spent the Correa money on Vazquez and Gallo therefore blowing the available budget when Correa signed with the Giants. When Correa came back around. They had to spend money they didn't really have anymore. It's been "right-sizing" since then. Just a guess but it seems to make sense to me.

"As of the time of this writing, they are 17-2 vs CHW, COL, LAA, OAK. These are 4 of the 5 worst teams in baseball. They are 25-33 against everyone else". Better still - The Twins are 18-2 vs CHW, COL, LAA, Oak as of this writing. Compared to the rest of the American League vs those same 4 teams: Los Angeles Ang: 3-0 Houston 15-5 Seattle: 12-4 Toronto: 9-3 Kansas City: 13-5 Baltimore: 9-4 Boston: 9-4 New York Y: 7-3 Chicago WS: 2-1 Cleveland: 15-8 Tampa: 10-9 Detroit: 7-6 Texas: 5-8 Oakland: 2-4 Why is everyone else in the American League not as good as the Twins?

On Kepler... I'm staying out of it. I advocated releasing him last June and he was one of the hottest hitters in baseball in the 2nd half. Not going to do it this time. Although... I will say this... It would be in Max's best interest to become one of the hottest hitters in baseball in the 2nd half again this year. His performance will have dollar signs attached to it with his pending free agency this off-season.

Since April 27 - Farmer's OPS .717 - wRC+ 111 Since May 1 - Farmer's OPS .652 - wRC+ 93 Average? Not Average? I'll let others debate the 2024 Farmer definition. One thing is pretty clear in my mind. Farmer certainly isn't pushing anyone on the roster. 65 AB's in two months. He ain't pushing anyone. Kepler could use some pushing. Since May 1 his OPS is .713. Since June 1 it's .517

I'm with String... The thing that matters in my mind is how often will he get to show that good bat against left handed pitching? I don't like burning up roster spots this way.

It was easy enough to do. Here's a photo of my new living room set up. My wife wants to change the cord colors to match the carpet and drapes.

On baseball forums such as these. You are allowed to suggest Polanco for Gilbert straight up and be angry with the Twins for not getting it done.

I come by it honestly, I grew up on Little John Court just off of Robin Hood Drive. Yes... that was the actually Court Name that I grew up on.