Riverbrian

That makes sense. Help me with this one. Killer Queen by Queen. "To avoid complications... she never kept the same address". Wouldn't changing addresses cause more complication?

Brewers will take that trade. They owe Yelich 26 million a year for the next 6 years.

15 men on a dead man's chest. Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum. How big was this dead guys chest?

Captain Morgan Rum and Pepsi. And Ice of course Of course I used the Ice for my foot. Just dipped it in the drink Many may think that is gross but my foot tastes great now.

I was just making a Captain Coke for the game. Dropped the bottle of Coke on my foot. It hurt... had to limp back to the living room. Clearly not a soft drink.

Erickson Smirickson 😁

Ryan... Gray and Rain we pray! Viola... Blyleven and rain by Eleven. Morris and Tapani... and... Umm... This one is hard... How did we win in 1991?

If I had to guess... his bat just advanced quicker than his glove did. Doesn't mean that the glove won't catch up. I'm Mr. Flexibility... I like the idea of them playing everywhere to open up more doors to walk through and not close doors for others. Right now... his 2B needs work and I'm guessing 1B is the most open door for him at the moment.

It wasn't a mistake at the time but maybe it is at the moment. His ability to play CF is such a major component in his value. If he can't return to playing CF... Instead of being a solution he becomes something that needs to be overcome. Buxton is currently bottlenecking multiple positions and players by removing the DH as an option for playing time for others and forcing the team to play players in the OF to cover that maybe shouldn't. To simplify... look at it this way. Which is better? Buxton in CF, Taylor in RF and Julien at DH or Taylor in CF, Kepler in RF and Buxton at DH On top of that... If Buxton isn't hitting as a DH and let's face it... He has been in a pretty deep slump. You end up with DH not being what it could be, CF not being what it could be, RF or LF not being what it could be and all of those positions are hard to fix now. It could be said... that Kepler is being kept a float by Buxton at DH and it could be said that this corner OF log jam is being jammed up by Buxton at DH. This ain't good and Buxton is at the center of it all by not being at the center of it all in the outfield.

This is the main problem. Based on the production. They shouldn't be having a hard time

I won't get into the Varland thing that others are. You were making a point and I understand your point. I also agree that Pagan is not the reason we are .500. However... If he can't be trusted for close and late innings... Like you suggest... He has no place on this roster. He is an expiring contract. If the Twins keep him on the roster for low leverage and he gets beat in high leverage again and again because he is the only guy available. The front office can't justify it with... well... he was only supposed to be low leverage. They won't be able to justify letting a guy hurt us this year when he won't be back next year. I say the opposite... I say if the front office continues to believe in this guy... then damn it... believe in this guy... THROW HIM HIGH LEVERAGE. You either believe in him or you don't. He helps us this year or he doesn't help us at all because he's gone next year. If he requires fixing before he sees high leverage... you are fixing a guy on an expiring contract. Dear Front Office... If you like him... fine... put your money where your mouth is. Tick Tick Tick

I love his Swing. He has incredible bat speed yet still smooth. I think he's a can't miss at the plate. That swing is too good. I think he needs a bigger glove to play 1B. Kirilloff can help our OF hit better.

It will be interesting to see how Rocco approaches Corbin Burnes tomorrow night. He is a right handed pitcher and his career splits are close to Neutral. Exceptional pitcher against both sides of the plate. vs. LHB - .216/.289./.339 vs. RHB - .203/.263/.334 This Year However: vs. LHB - .159/.247/.217 vs. RHB - .238/.304/.420 His ERA at 3.36 is up slightly this year. The guy has been in the 2 ERA range for the past 3 years. His strikeouts are down significantly this year. 75 K's in 77 innings this year Compared to 2022: 243 K's in 202 Innings 2021: 234 K's in 167 Innings He's been a little more vulnerable this year compared to past years and it's the right handed batter that is causing that little window of vulnerability. It'll be interesting to see how Rocco reacts to the opposite splits that Burnes is producing. Could he start more right handers against Burnes. There is no doubt that Rocco matches up on the split data. We will have to wait and see... One thing is for certain... Burnes K rate is down... but the Twins may be the remedy for that.

For many years... I have consistently ignored WAR F or B or any letter because of it's over weighting of zone rating metrics. Especially in the OF... The routine play makes up a large majority of the chances. The Non-Routine plays occurs once every 3 games and that one non-routine play can be influenced by where you are standing in the OF. From those non-routine plays that occur 1 every 3 games on average. A player can be a negative hitter yet plus WAR and Max Kepler can be presented as one of the greatest of all time. This is overweighting the defensive data crammed into the statistic. This article has confirmed that I have been correct to ignore that stat and I will continue to do so. Meanwhile... one of the best Twins outfielders of all time will be signing a minor league contract next year.

On June 3rd... Joey Gallo was placed on the DL and Kyle Garlick was called up. Who knows what the intention of the front office was but it was assumed and justified by some on TD that it was a just a temp job with Trevor Larnach coming off the Disabled List so therefore OK. Trevor Larnach was indeed activated while Byron Buxton was placed on the DL so Garlick has remained on the 26 man roster. It's been 8 games now. Kyle Garlick has had 11 AB's total in those 8 games. One Hit, No Walks and 5 Strikeouts. Max Kepler over those 8 games... 21 ABs - '3 hits, for a .142 BA - 1 walk and 1 Home run which was nice. Not only is Kepler continuing to struggle... but competition for his spot is being held away from him by management in favor of short side platoon matchups. If you do a sort right now for the last 15 days... You will see that Wallner has one more hit than Garlick does. Wallner is listed as 2 for 2... Garlick 1 for 11. That's kind of amusing. BTW... Larnach has 3 hits and 8 K's since his return... I don't mind this as much as Kepler because Larnach will be back next year. Kepler won't be. I continue to ask... what are we doing? We have completely wasted an opportunity to see if Wallner could be a better hitter than Kepler and Larnach. Especially if Buxton is out of the DH spot. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Left handed batters facing left handed pitchers still draws an extreme reaction to the lineup card and it's the primary source of all pinch hitting moves as Rocco continues with strict adherence of not wanting lefties facing lefties and continues to not mind righties facing righties as much other than Garlick. So we need to watch the lefty count of our upcoming opponents since it is without a doubt clear that this is an unbreakable rule for Rocco. The Brewers have one left handed pitcher in the lineup. A relief pitcher by the name of Hoby Milner. Good time for Gallo to replace Garlick for the Brewers match up. Who plays RF between Kepler and Larnach with Gallo I assume claiming LF. Is Solano out as the DH when Gallo arrives so Larnach can DH and Kepler in RF and both playing in all of their left handedness despite numbers that suggest that neither is doing much against any hand. Either way... When Buxton comes back... without any other injury. Kepler and Larnach are probably the 26 man decision to make room for when Buxton comes back. The Tigers series makes sense for the activation of the right handed Buxton (If he can be activated) in the platoon split world we live in and Garlick back in AAA. The Tigers have two left handed starters and they are scheduled for Thursday and Friday back to back. Matthew Boyd and Joey Wentz plus the Tigers have 3 left handed members of the bullpen in Shreve, Holton and Alexander. To matchup against Boyd and Wentz. Buxton DH, Catcher, Solano 1B, Farmer 2B, Lewis 3B, Correa SS, Taylor CF and Castro in LF or RF. Oh No... Someone will have to be left handed and start against a lefty with Garlick gone. Unless Rocco put Jeffers out in the OF. 😎 The Tigers will have the ability to left right left right Rocco until he is dizzy. Larnach is probably the guy who goes down for Buxton because I don't see them tagging Kepler with a DFA just to keep Larnach up with his 3 hits and 8 strikeouts. The Red Sox are next... We should miss the lefty Paxton so it will be 4 right handed starters with two lefties in the bullpen (Bernadino and Jacques) for the 4 games series. If nobody gets hurt... We will have 4 pure left handed bats on the roster,,, potentially down to 3 by the 20th when Julien is sent back to AAA for the returning Polanco who is eligible for return on the 20th. Let's see what happens.

Why would anyone stop believing in a first place team in June? I'll be here until the end. Fix the offense please.

I refuse to be bummed out by this loss. I'm actually happy because it has been the offense keeping me up at night. They took down a real good starter this afternoon. Keep it up! Been watching a lot of baseball over the years. I've seen blown leads before... I'll see a blown lead again. I'm sure. Pagan... what can I say... He's on the roster. You can't hide players that are on the roster. If you have to hide them... they shouldn't be on the roster because you can't hide them. Duran, Stewart and Deleon were not available. Moran and Jax have already pitched in the game. You have the 8th and 9th to cover. You can't hide players on the roster.

And just to show it can be done... We will have two left handed catchers. I'm excited.

Yeah... I'm not happy about losing Lewis to another Kirilloff but the good news is that another Kirilloff took out Kepler.

Lewis was sent down to the minors to make room for the 12 other Kirilloffs coming in. 😉

The Dodgers can and do buy almost anybody they want and somehow still find the space to utilize talented 600K players. It makes them bullet proof. They are going to be incredible next year with Ohtani on the roster. Roberts is the perfect manager for Shohei. Yeah... I'm calling it. Shohei to the Dodgers. 🤑 The White Sox try to buy players but can't produce the 600K talent to supplement those players so if those expensive players get hurt or go 2023 Correa on you they crash and burn. If they do get a Tatis in their system... they trade them for Peavy's. They will rebuild again... they may even move Eloy to help restock the currently not very good system. It may happen soon because they have 5 pending free agents and around 67 Million in Club Options to make a decision on this off season. They either have to be big free agent players this off-season to try again or big sellers to rebuild again. If they don't make the playoffs... why would you jump off that cliff again. Cleveland... They don't try to buy anything... they have left themselves with no choice but to develop 600k talent and they do. Opportunity is a funny thing... you can trip over guys that Keith Law missed from time to time just by providing opportunity. They have a total of 7 players without options. The rest can be moved to Columbus if they can't get the job done in Cleveland. The Guardians never have to go down with the ship. Kirilloff in my opinion... Is the best hitter on this team right now. I don't know if he will be in July or August but right now I'd take 13 Kirilloffs and we'd be impossible to beat. Even if one of those Kirilloffs had to play SS.

How does that old joke go. Excuse me Sir... How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Process... Lots of process. Something like that.

I believe the number one job of any front office is increasing the value of players. Many will argue that winning is the number one job. I think the winning part will follow if you can increase value significantly. I supported Terry Ryan for many years... finally stopped that support when the Twins went through a long stretch of consistent high draft picks and almost no development. We were out of contention at the trade deadline and nobody of value to trade to help rebuild the club and perhaps even worse... they were not calling anybody up who would provide future value. I watched the White Sox rebuild almost on the fly by trading talent that other teams wanted... I looked around the Twins roster for players that might bring in a Moncada and Kopech type prospects and we had nobody close... matter of fact we have had nobody close to that sort of trade value for years. I watched the Dodgers graduate young players to the majors and still have a handful of scary prospects waiting in line despite drafting in the 20's every year. I checked out the Twins roster for players who might be a Buehler type and there were none to be found and I checked year after year. I watched the Braves bring up Freeman, Acuna, Albies, Riley, Swanson, Harris and I looked around our team and I couldn't find a single one of these guys. I believe that the Twins organization was in pretty bad shape when Falvey and Lavine took over because of what I am saying above about the very little development taking place. I believe that 2020 was a major development road block for a team trying to get back into the development race. I really like the way the pitching is starting to flow in. I believe it is a great sign of success that we didn't have to sign a Bundy or Archer this year and I believe that having to sign Bundy's and Archers just slow down the development by standing in their way. I believe that Lewis, Kirilloff, Julien could be great major league players. I really really like Julien, that swing is beautiful. I still believe in Miranda but I think we have the offensive equivalent of Bundy and Archer standing in the way of some of them at the moment. I believe that teams like the Twins have to have significant contributions from major league minimum talent to have sustainable success. No matter how hard I'm crying about our current offense... and no matter how hard I question Rocco's strict implementation of the platoon. I am not calling for anyone's head because the organization is in much better shape today. They all have my support and constructive criticisms. If I pull the plug on that support... it will be because of development. I'm not there yet. I do agree with you... If we had a team full of average players, we would be alright. It's the really bad players walking past the lineup card because they know they are on it that kill your team. I hope to see more of your posts.

That is correct... I was none of those things. Not quite $300K maybe $3.50 an hour but I did manage to save $1,000 to buy with a shiny red 77 Bonneville with the odometer turned over. Not bad for a teenager although obviously bought with blood money because someone had to endure a wet seat. I was able to purchase this car because my manager didn't fire me. I showed up on time, I didn't call in sick and I cleared the tables. The guy who was demanding my head while saying he would never come back to this restaurant again unless I was fired... had no idea who I was or if I had cleared hundreds of tables without incident.

I would have preferred the headline to read "Bats Wake Up Late".