Riverbrian

I'm going to keep watching along with you. Being a baseball fan like yourself. We have learned to manage failures as they come across. We've seen a cookie crumb on the floor on occasion and we will see more in the future. We still like Cookies.

1. Bad teams win 4 games out of 10. -- 65-97 (They got to beat someone to win 4 out of 10). 2. Average teams win 5 out of 10 -- 81-81 Record 3. Great teams lose 4 games out of 10 -- 97-65 Record (They got to lose to someone to lose 4 out of 10) The margins are thin and there are no absolutes from day to day. Sometimes a baseball bloops in and sometimes a rocket off the bat is caught. Any thought that these are teams that we should beat and these are teams that we should lose to ignores decades upon decades of the 3 points above being absolute reality. You got to strap it on and compete every day because everybody is capable of beating you on any given day and they often do. Or as Squirrel put it... It's the way the cookie crumbles. 😀

I don't remember the inning or even the context as I post this morning. But... Last night... I watched Kepler pull up on a foul ball that landed not that far from his upright feet. To be fair... He ran a long way... and I do believe that he ran full speed for a long way as far as I could tell. But, I believe that he could have gotten to the baseball if he dove for the baseball at the end of that journey. The ball was in foul territory... there was no danger of a hit occurring. Yet... I remember thinking a little more effort could have at least put a glove on that ball. I remember thinking that a young pitcher like Varland could have used the support... the out. This morning... I'm wondering. When is the last time you've seen an OF lay themselves out for a ball? I honestly can't remember the last time. I'm hoping that my memory is faulty.

YO HEY! I'm on this island to. I brought you a Papaya last night. What's this alone stuff?

Joe Ryan: If his velocity dropped that much and it did... You take him out. Maybe he is tired... maybe he is hurt. Don't know why it dropped but his velocity really dropped. If a manager doesn't take him out at that time... it would be irresponsible. Take him out just in case he is tired or hurt. This is what you have bullpen for. Brock Stewart: The guy was striking out two batters an inning in AAA. We need more high leverage guys in the bullpen, we are not going to be able to just Lopez, Thielbar, Jax and Duran our way through all 162 games this season. I don't understand how others don't understand this. Stewart struggled with his control last night but his stuff was moving pretty good and you can see why he was striking out two batters an inning in St. Paul. I'm glad that Rocco turned to him last night and asked him to perform and I hope he does it again. We need a 5th guy and 6th guy in the bullpen that Rocco can turn to with the game on the line. Duran: No idea... won't pretend to know. Perhaps he was saving him for a save situation. I don't know if he was warming up in 10th at all or if it was Thielbar all the way. Perhaps... Perhaps... Perhaps... I have no idea and I don't care. The bullpen that he utilized are doing well and good choices for the situation we were in. If Duran shuts them down in the 9th or the 10th instead of Stewart or Thielbar... Who throws the 11th? It was a road game. If I want to throw blame around (I don't) for a close game loss in game 30 of a 162 game season. I'm looking at those people who were swinging the bats. They were not good and Chicago pitching was not that great.

Agreed that time will tell with Rooker. However... I'd guess the limited roster spots and the choices that result from those limitations would be the most obvious answer to his bouncing around and not so much an indictment on Rooker. Teams have to make roster space decisions all the time and sometimes they get it wrong because those margins are very thin. The Padres moved Rooker after they acquired Soto and Bell. There was no space for a Rooker. The Royals... Well... They seem committed to Isbel and they are going to let him .211 his way until he proves them right. They seem committed to Dozier and they look like they are going to let him .236 until he proves them right. The Royals made a choice. Time will tell. I think you could also say that If Seth Brown was healthy... Rooker probably wouldn't be getting the chance to hit 9 home runs for Oakland so it's not like Oakland knew either. Last year... Rooker hit .289 with 28 bombs in the minors and he hit 29 bombs between the Twins and AAA the year before that. His hitting didn't just blossom in Oakland. He got his name on a lineup card. Good for him. The Royals went with Isbel, Bradley and the Franimal. Time will tell if that was a good decision or not. In the meantime... the guy they didn't choose hit 9 bombs in a month elsewhere.

The highways are littered with Colabello's. Maybe Rooker is a flash in a pan. OK... but let's not diminish what a month of 9 home runs can do for a club. It's ok to let a flash in the pan flash. It can be helpful.

Expanded chasing is what I would call it. Way too much of it in the game. That strikeout on a 3-2 pitch by Vazquez in the 10th was a fastball across his eyeballs... Maybe a foot high. Runner on 2nd... leading off the 10th... is a key moment. We haven't faced a left handed starter since Nestor on Tuesday and we are not scheduled to face a left hander until Logan Allen on Saturday. There is no sense looking to Jeffers, Solano, Castro or Gordon for help... they are not playing. It's up to Buxton, Polanco, Correa, Larnach, Miranda, Kepler, Gallo, Vazquez and Taylor to hit. They don't appear to have any internal competition at the moment... So it's up to them.

Never!!!

1. Going back full circle to the original post that started the Gordon at 3B discussion. The 3B rotation is stopping Kirilloff IFGordon can't fill in for Farmer when Farmer fills in for Correa or Miranda when either of them are placed on the DL. LOL... You gotta go back about 5 pages to find the original post that started this. 2. I love the analogy because Dan Marino is like 80 years old now. It's too late... I've already branded Kepler as a me first glider... this can't be repaired. This is what happens on social media. 3. 🥶 4. I'm a simple guy. If you are going to prevent playing time for others. You better be killing it. It's also clear that I am much more defensively adventurous. I want to find some .900 OPS guys.

1. Your final question leads us back. "Why would you do it if you have better options". To find better options... Like potentially Kirilloff. 2. So Anthony Richardson over Dan Marino is what you are saying. BTW... You are making it really hard to like Kepler. A me first glider is what you are describing. 3. 🤡 4. I think it comes down to our definitions of every day guy. Logan Morrison played every day... he was an every day guy. In my context... he is not an every day guy. Max Kepler was an every day guy last year... In my context... he was not an every day guy.

1. To me that's a different subject. Once they were out of contention and selling... Simmons remaining to play SS for those two months served no purpose whatsoever. We were out and he wasn't coming back. Those two months with Simmons could have been spent on getting Gordon playing time or Riddle or Lin... or whoever. I don't care who... Simmons was just taking up valuable space at that point. Anybody who might be with the organization next year would have been fine with me. Simmons equaled no future benefit to the club. That's a different subject and I will go on record that I didn't like it. Anyway... I think the Twins have moved off of Gordon as a FULL TIME SS, I won't argue that. But, right now... Gordon isn't a FULL TIME anything. We are talking about occasional work at 3B. Which I am willing to bet... He could do without the walls caving in. Since his appearance on the 26 man roster in 2021. He has played SS in 33 games (including two games this year) starting 15 of them. The Walls didn't cave in and they wouldn't at 3B either. Maybe the Twins have transitioned him to other positions but he has still found his way back to the left side of the diamond. 2. I'm scared to go here. I'm hoping and praying that you are not going to quote Zone Metrics because I don't trust UZR because of the flooding of the routine play, which requires an incredibly large sample size in order to stabilize the effect of a non-routine play. He wasn't terrible as a CF in my opinion. He just wasn't as Good as Buxton. The Twins do play Gordon out in CF... Is Gordon better then Kepler in CF? Is the sample size big enough to make that determination? 3. 🤧 (Just choosing random emoji's that I never get a chance to use). 4. I wouldn't use the absolute "Never" on the Rays. They've had Kiermeier for quite some time to play the majority of CF and he is pretty good at it... But over the years you will find Avisail Garcia, Austin Meadows, Tommy Pham, Johnny Field, Randy Arozarena and Vidal Brujan listed as having played CF. Let's just compromise and put Buxton back in CF so we don't have to worry about utilizing CF in my devious plan to give playing time to Kirilloff and others simoultaneously. We could use the DH instead... like normal folks. On the rest... we are getting deep into the weeds. I'm not talking about name recoginition... I'm talking about actual performance. I believe it is possible to have 11 guys and 2 catchers who deserve every day playing time because they are performing. You will never get there if average play or below average can't yield playing time to others who might be better.

1. Would you go into the 2021 off season with Nick Gordon as your SS? I wouldn't have... At that point he was a light hitting minor league player with one option remaining and zero MLB AB's. That would be incredibly reckless because we were all speculating if Gordon was even worth a roster spot. Besides Simmons pushing Gordon down the defensive spectrum would be understandable in consideration of Simmons impeccable defensive reputation. 2. Max Kepler making role demands for his comfort is like Billy Squier with a contract rider that stipulates that the Shooting Star Casino ship in living palm trees for his January Thursday night performance in Mahnomen. 3. OK 4. First... Check the Roster resource last 6 lineup playing time distribution again. All 6 games were against right handers. Yes they platoon but there are no platoon splits on it. The Rays have 10 players out of 11 who are performing like Max Kepler is since April 16 and you say he deserves every day playing time... right now based on that. It is possible to have 13 players who deserve to play every day.

BTW... The Beauty of TD is: Posters like - Glunn, MLR, Jorgenswest, Stringer Bell, Ashbury, Mike Sixel, Swainzag, 9 of 12, Arko, Doc Bauer, the Rally goat, Wabene, Wsnydes, Dr. Gast, Rosterman, Tony Rodney, Squirrel, JD in Capital Letters, Vanimal, LA Law dude, Chief, Nicksapurpleguy and you of course. I've missed a bunch of others but these are some of the posters who I know have game even if I disagree.

1. Or you could read Gordon moving down the defensive spectrum as the presence of Correa and Polanco, throw in Arraez last year. 2B got a little crowded but as soon as Polanco was hurt and Arraez was playing 1B. It was Gordon at 2B to finish out the year. It was Gordon who started at 2B while Polanco was out this year. I believe his move to the OF was exactly how you get a ball player into the game when a position is a little crowded. I wouldn't hold it against him. 2. This is potentially the last year of Kepler in a Twins uniform. You can't discount the possibility of the Twins declining that 10 million dollar club option and you also can't discount the possibility of Kepler signing a minor league contract somewhere afterwards. He needs a big year. I'm not personally aware of his dislike for playing CF but he is in no position to not like something. He's should be fighting for his major league life. He needs to like wherever he can help the team and therefore help himself in the process. 3. Kepler is in a nice streak... I hope he continues. He had a nice streak last year... he didn't continue. Kepler is still wait and see with me. He had two back to back bad years. Kepler and Pagan are in the same boat with me. I'm not proposing that he be benched at that moment. Unless... he refuses to play CF when asked. 😀 4. Wait... you didn't use a 4 for your final paragraph. Here are a couple of links. Here is a 23-6 team that has 9 (maybe 10) of 11 players performing at a level deserving of every day playing time and two catchers for 13. https://www.mlb.com/rays/stats/ops?playerPool=ALL Take a look at the playing time distribution. Take a look at the names. Apart from Franco and Arozarena... none of them showed up on the Florida beaches with every day playing time expectation. https://www.fangraphs.com/roster-resource/depth-charts/rays I also love that the current starting rotation consists of 3 but that is just a side note. Will the Rays be there in the end? It's a long season... there are twists and turns to come... it remains to be seen. However, I believe with all my heart... This is how you find 26 guys who can play. The Rays would never take the numbers Max Kepler provides and keep Josh Lowe in Durham... or Luke Raley or Manual Margot. It is absolutely possible to find 13 guys who deserve to play and it should be the goal of every team to do so. It's hard to do but it can be done but it can't be done if Kepler is an every day designation.

You are right... it is certainly much more complicated than 5 guys for 4 positions. As always... your opinions are well thought out but you do have concerns or qualifications that are not mine. 😉 1. Miranda isn't good enough defensively at 3B to be concerned with whatever discrepancy's you feel Gordon has defensively at the position. Gordon was a SS, Moved to 2b and then to the OF. That's a ball player... He can play 3B... I'll bet on it. 2. Kepler has played CF for us in the past. He's fine. It's an unnecessary restriction to say you want him nowhere near that position. 3. Gallo deserves all the playing time he can handle at this point. Gallo has been incredible in a Twins uniform thus far. Love watching him play every game. I hope he just keeps going and going. Larnach and Kepler. They have been average at best. You don't lock in on average. I won't argue that Larnach and Kepler deserve playing time... but they don't deserve the playing time that Gallo is earning right now. They can yield here and there. Perhaps the big difference between your thoughts and mine is this. I do believe that you can find 13 players who deserve every day playing time but you will never get there if Kepler and Larnach are performing good enough to stop you from trying to get there or if you think the defensive drop off between Miranda and Gordon or Taylor and Kepler can't be over come. 😉

I know my opinions can be outside of the box that most opinions are stored but In my opinion of course... He does not have to sit on the bench. Nobody has to sit excessively on the bench. Granted... it becomes a lot easier for Rocco if Buxton could play a little CF instead of clogging up the DH spot but even with Buxton in the DH nearly every day. Kirilloff, Gallo, Larnach, Kepler and Taylor are 5 guys who take up 4 positions that can absorb Kirilloff playing time. That's one guy sitting every 5th game to keep everyone decently active and that is if all things are equal. If they are not equal... like Gallo is playing well above average baseball. You can adjust the playing time ratio in Gallo's favor accordingly. If Kirilloff starts knocking the ball around the park, you can adjust that playing time ratio accordingly in Kirilloff's favor and what you end up with is the player or players who are not playing that well... playing less. Right now... with the exception of Gallo... none of those players are playing at the level of "We can't sit them one day". I know that Kepler has heated up in the last 11 games to raise that batting average from the .091 it was on April 16th but Kepler isn't Mike Trout yet. The team doesn't fall apart with him taking a day on the bench every 5th game. Kepler or Gallo can play CF for a day so Taylor can sit every 5th game or so. Nobody ever has to excessively sit if they deserve to be out there. Kepler, Taylor, Larnach are doing alright but they are not performing at Eureka levels to stop looking. On the subject of Gordon... If they don't trust Gordon on the left side of the infield then his value is further diminished. Castro is now more valuable than Gordon in that scenario. They are comfortable with Gordon at 2B, LF and CF. Castro plays all of those positions. So what value does Gordon have? On top of that, Gordon is sitting vs. right handers, Castro is at least playing vs left handers. Castro is a short side platoon and pinch runner. That type of guy barely has value. If Castro is more valuable than Gordon is. They need to move on from Gordon... He is not worth worrying about anymore. Run him through waivers. If Castro is more valuable than Gordon is... Gordon would be an extreme waste of a 26 man roster spot. Wasting a 26 man spot is a part of the reason keeping Kirilloff off the 26 man roster. I can't ever justify wasting a roster spot because we don't have 9 lock down the lineup card and throw away the key guys. No team has that. Keep looking for better. Never stop. BTW... I think Gordon should get more opportunity. I wouldn't toss him out just yet but you can't be afraid to play him at 3B on occasion. And everything gets a lot easier to manage if they would just let Buxton play some CF.

The Twins have the flexibility to make Kirilloff the call up for any position player that goes on the DL... Besides Catcher of course. If it's Correa or Miranda going on the DL... Call up Kirilloff. Gordon can slide into a Farmer or Solano role while Farmer or Solano can slide into a Correa or Miranda or Polanco role.

If he can play in St. Paul and he is playing in St. Paul. He can play in Minneapolis. Same amount of physical activity. The Twins don't need to wait and see if he can play 7 days a week. If he can play 5 days a week in St. Paul... He can play 5 days in Minneapolis. Alex has one option left and it has just been used. You are not going to be able to correct service time next year so I guess it's OK to be patient with him, while getting his service time underneath super two. Next year Alex will be in the same out of options boat as Nick Gordon. The minors will no longer be an option for Alex. It's sink or swim time. He will have to win himself a major league job so I wouldn't wait too long to get him up here. The more MLB AB's this year will be important for his sink or swim moment next year. I'll let them wait for a couple of weeks. Once Super Two is safely in the rear view mirror... it's time to get him to the bigs immediately.

He does if the Brewers don't want him exposed to other teams. He was taken off our 40 man roster on the 25th to give Brock Stewart a spot. Teams have 7 days I believe to make a deal and get something in return before the player is exposed to other teams for free. The Brewers gave up something for him... Don't know what... may not be much... but the Brewers gave up something to keep him from being exposed to other teams. He has options so the Brewers can stash him in the minor leagues but he must occupy a 40 man spot or they can't hold him.

Opportunity is necessary for a Rooker or a Yennier Cano to happen. With opportunity, these type of stories happen all the time. Jake Burger, Connor Joe, Edward Oliveras, Mauricio Dubon. These stories happen all the time. It's why granting every day playing time to someone with an OPS in the sixes and just handing a rotation spot for a pitcher with a 5 plus ERA is the biggest mistake a club can make. The teams don't know who the next Rooker, Cedric Mullins, Joey Meneses, Jose Altuve is.

Megill becomes the 13th relief pitcher on the Brewers 40 man roster.

I'd like to see Kirilloff up sooner rather than later because I'm HOPING his offensive ability would provide a boost while I have no idea if his offensive ability would provide that boost. However... based upon the service time numbers... I could certainly justify keeping him in St. Paul for just long enough before we find out. A key consideration is that he has just one option remaining so this is the last year that his service time can be shrunk down below the threshold. Stringer... I know you understand but others may think that I'm talking about service time manipulation. I want to be clear... I am. These are the rules set forth in the recent collective bargaining agreement. The rules that determine how all 32 teams operate. The CBA makes it beneficial for clubs to make these types of considerations and operate accordingly. The rest of the teams are going to do the same, therefore it would be a disadvantage not to. I assume that the super two status won't matter that much financially unless Kirilloff is a superstar. I like the idea of planning for the possibility that he is a future superstar.... just in case.

Reasonable guess by me but if it was the price is right. I wouldn't be running on to the stage.