Riverbrian

This subject is obviously close to my heart. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it. 1. The platoon advantage is real. It's harder for hitters to hit against the same hand. 2. This is the first year that the front office set the roster with the intention of extreme platooning. The extreme platooning started during the season last year with the arrival of the young left-handed hitters.... Julien, Kirilloff and Wallner but the roster out of spring training wasn't set for this purpose... it became a necessity when they decided to shelter the youngsters. 3, It worked last year... I didn't like it but the Twins offense got some decent miles out of it and it was the performance of the young left handed hitters that helped us immensely last year. They covered for poor performance from or the absence of big guns like Correa, Buxton, Gallo and Lewis. Here are the problems with it: 1. While the platoon advantage is real. Julien may never have a reverse split because the platoon advantage is real but that doesn't mean that gap can't be closed through exposure. If Julien has an OPS of .800 against RHP and a .500 OPS against LHP... that's bad but if he can raise that OPS against left handers to .700 through exposure. You have an every day player that doesn't require a guy who hits .750 against left handers to handcuff to. 2. It created an inflated impression of what the kids were capable of. Julien had nice numbers last year... so did Wallner. Would the numbers have been so nice if they had to absorb left handed pitching. Probably not but the lack of exposure and therefore lack of development against left handed pitching is an interstate that has no exit ramp. In order to maintain this philosophy you have to staff your roster with the right handed hitting equivalent. This leads to point #3. 3. In order to set your opening day roster to this operational style. It requires you use up your extra position player inventory on players who hit left handers decently but don't hit right handers very well to fill the short side of the platoon. If you commit to this... it requires that you sign Luplow's... trade for Margots... Pay 6 million to Farmer... these guys are short side platoon guys because... they don't hit righties very well and they become your extra inventory of players and the guys they turn to when injuries or poor performance occur. 4. If the Margot's and Farmers of the world hit righties well... and also lit up lefties. They wouldn't be short side platoon. They would play every day. You have to purposely go out and sign guys who can't hit righties just to keep the platoon operational and after the 1 year deal is done... they got to find more the following year to keep playing this game. The only way to get out of this cycle is to find left handed hitters who can hit left handed pitching and you are not going to find those guys when you consistently don't let them be those guys. It's an endless cycle. 5. Perhaps the worst part on the development side is this... When Austin Martin is called up... He goes into a short side spot. How does Austin Martin develop at the major league level waiting for a left hander to come around. Bottom line... this extreme platooning makes it hard to develop players while they are being strip mined for parts. The Twins CAN'T survive without development. We will not spend the money necessary to become self sufficient without a properly functioning farm system. The team will constantly be signing low level free agents to fill out the roster. 6. Setting up your roster this way... Only works if everybody stays healthy. That never happens. It only works if the players perform at the level expected. Many times... they just don't. 7. By playing the platoon advantage to the extreme like the Twins do... they have actually turned it into a disadvantage because the real split they need to focus on is this. 75% of pitchers are right handers. They are rostering players to attack the 25% leaving the 75% vulnerable because your extra players who need to step in when injuries occur or poor performance occurs are not equipped to take on that 75%. If they want to play the platoon advantage. MORE LEFT HANDERS in the lineup. Attack the 75% and let them improve against the 25%. Don't get me started about pinch hitting for a guy in the 3rd inning like last year. OMG... that is simply not sensible. I've said this before... but... it's the number one issue with the Twins in my opinion... Even if it works just a little bit.

The Kids eat less

It could be potentially the most disruptive thing... Not that disruption is a bad thing in my opinion. It would be one less left hander on the team and Miranda doesn't pair well with Santana since Santana is strongest from the right side of the plate. I don't think this way but the Twins sure seem to. The least disruptive path... Is sending Miranda down or cutting Margot.

I'll throw Ted a bone and say this: The ability to keep the pipeline producing does indeed soften the blow of losing Steer and CES. If you keep producing talented prospects it allows you to be more comfortable trading prospects. However... I will quickly take that bone away by saying that the club will always be better off if they have Steer, CES and Keaschall in the same organization.

I certainly wasn't a Captain of the offseason Farmer fan club. I was scared off by the membership dues. With that said... Farmer by himself was not a concern for me. I liked him on the team last year. I was a Private First Class in the Farmer getting a 2024 roster spot makes sense club. Now... but to be clear. Not having a problem with Farmer individually doesn't mean I'm not a 4 Star General in the Farmer plus Santana plus Margot is a ****ing problem club. The money spent on Farmer matters when the club is cutting payroll... the money only doesn't matter if you are just going to spend it on Tim Anderson as you use for an example. The money spent on Polanco matters when you are cutting budget. The money doesn't matter if you are just going to spend the Polanco money on DeSclafini, Santana and Margot. What's that old saying. A million here and a million there and pretty soon you are talking about real money. Those three together add up to real money and those three together loosen those budget constraints above the Tim Anderson level. Your talk of the Farmer Floor does scare me a little. Especially when you combine the Farmer floor with your last sentence. When you type "outside of Miranda". It reads like Miranda is the exception and that you can't count on the kids. When I type Miranda... he would be an example of why you don't settle for the Farmer floor. Those are pretty dramatic differences in sentiment and the opposite point of view towards young talent. Even if Miranda is an exception... that exception is here and we will have to send him down If we remain healthy when Lewis is called up because the Farmer floor is just fine. We could keep Miranda up and send Julien down to make some room for Lewis but that makes the Farmer floor full time at 2B and that creates another problem. Farmer doesn't handcuff to Castro or Santana... those two hit left handers best. After you look up and down the roster you come to the realization that Farmer only handcuffs to Julien. That ties Farmer to Julien... So... if Julien is sent down... Farmer is either the guy entirely or not the guy at all as Castro becomes the full time 2B with Julien out. Farmer isn't the savior to a Julien injury or demotion... he becomes pointless without Julien. Jeffers is the DH handcuff against lefties. Unless Farmer plays OF as you suggest... then you can handcuff him to Larnach or Kepler but... isn't that Margot's job? Farmer only ties to Julien. As I bring all this crap up... it's only temporary because injuries will change everything eventually and that's why they most likely won't cut Farmer, Margot or Santana to make room for Lewis. So Miranda... just might be sent down. Farmer has historically not hit RH pitching. 32 AB's a month is not going to rapidly repair the optics of his numbers. In the meantime... Much like the farmers I hear complaining every morning drinking coffee at the Nordhem Cafe in Karlstad... there will be continuous Farmer complaints on TD.

I just looked up the recipe for that and recipe clearly includes Vodka. So... now I have to explain to people that I had to buy Vodka in order to make Gin. I'm not prepared for the follow up question that will surely be... Why didn't you just buy Gin?

I have been reduced to waiting for a highlight to appear on MLB.com one inning later... just to watch a 15 second commercial before a 20 second clip. It feels like I'm drinking windshield wiper fluid because of prohibition.

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.