Riverbrian

Injuries happen every year. Yeah... This year has been bad. Perhaps the baddest of all of them. But Injuries were bad last year and the year before that and the year before that. My personal feelings are: Injuries are never a valid excuse.

Choosing lesser players will consistently kill your team. I don't know if Wallner is a better player but you have to find out because based on actual performance with the chips down, the players in front shouldn't be in front of anyone. Louie Varland pitched very very well in his debut. He should be making his next start tomorrow night or Wednesday night at the latest. He won't because we have committed to multiple pitchers with ERA's over 4 (by quite some distance) instead.

13/8 = 1.62 162/1.62 = 1 error every 100 games 22/3 = 7.33 162/7.33 = 1 error every 22 games While you wait 22 games for that Wallner error to occur. Max Kepler is hitting .227 while slugging .348 Jake Cave is starting in CF Kyle Garlick hasn't been allowed to hit righthanders for 4 years Gilberto Celestino... during a pennant chase... can't remember how many outs there are despite being one of the rare baserunners that the team produced during an awful offensive stretch... not to mention Celestino somehow has a lower OPS than Kepler, which is hard to do. Wallner is 24.7 years old. Wallner will need to be added to the 40 man in December The law firm of Hamilton, Hamilton and Palacios are on the 26 man roster and none of them are playing during a time when we are desperate for ANYONE to PLAY DECENTLY. Obviously we have 26 man space plus 40 man space. AND... AND... It is important to note that they were just swept by a team featuring 7 rookie hitters out of 14 hitters on the roster. In conclusion... Defense better not be the reason.

If all those If's happen. You are still tethered to a boat load of other "Ifs" that would require a much longer article to cover. Ifs that also include each opponent and the boat load of their own Ifs that they bring with them. Can they be as good as anyone in a short series? If... things go right for them... Yeah! ?

Ifs occur in any article that is set in the future. ?

I think Davey is touching Mickey, which has led to Mickey touching Peter. Michael has a hat on.

Infinite Amount of Monkeys with an infinite amount of time making infinite amount of gifs. gif

He's good I hope he stays healthy and remains in the rotation for a long time.

I just want to applaud the typing of "Rimshot gif" instead of... you know... attaching a gif.

He Did 2019 - Oklahoma City vs RHP 234 AB's - 19HR - ..308/.374/.637 vs LHP 99 AB's - 8HR - .292/.364/.708 2018 - Tulsa/Oklahoma City vs RHP 297 AB's - 15HR - .259/.289/.478 vs LHP 105 AB's - 7 HR - .257/.313/.514 2017 - Tulsa vs RHP - 255 AB's - 14HR - .246/.333/.478 vs LHP - 61 AB's - 4HR - .246/.314/.475 There is nothing in his minor league stats that says platoon. He came up in the Dodger organization and was called up in 2019 with the following list of outfielders in front of him: Cody Bellinger - OPS 1.035 Joc Pederson - OPS .876 Alex Verdugo - OPS .817 AJ Pollack - OPS. 795 Chris Taylor - OPS .794 Kike Hernandez - OPS .715 Playing time was obviously tough to find and he was strictly platooned for a total of 15 games. In 2020 Alex Verdugo was replaced by Mookie Betts while the other 5 remained. Kyle was out of options and DFA'd... he was picked up by the Phillies and was given 22 AB's, hitting .136 and released while the minor leagues were shut down. In 2021... The Twins signed him and kept platooning him despite Jake Cave bringing a hot OPS of . 541. He had been a platoon expert for 15 games with the Dodgers. Yet... Somehow Branded. In 2022... The Twins kept platooning him. The same eyeballs that decided he should be platooned because of some undemonstrated lack of ability to hit RHP are the same eyeballs who decided that Jake Cave could hit RHP despite a .541 OPS saying that he couldn't. Same eyeballs who decided to ride with Martin Perez over Randy Dobnak in September 2019 only to pull the plug on Perez right before the playoff roster was to be set and finally commit to Dobnak in the playoffs. Same eyeballs who chose half a season of Matt Belisle instead of 6 years of Nick Anderson. I am pro front office... they know 200 times more than I do... But they are not infallible. If they were infallible... we wouldn't be worried about the Guardians and White Sox right now. In 2022... Kepler was not good enough to keep the bat out of Garlick's Right handed hands and now we need Kyle Garlick to do something that he wasn't allowed to do. Why wasn't he allowed? Strict adherence to the platoon concept? Jake Cave?

He probably is just a platoon guy. 18 AB's vs. RH's in 2019 with the Dodgers 8 AB's in 2020 with the Phillies. 40 AB's vs RH's in 2021 with the Twins Now 67 AB's vs RH's this year. I would never make a declarative statement on sample sizes like those and I'm pretty sure that nobody should. Someone decided that he was a Koala Bear and fed him nothing but eucalyptus for 4 years. That mold has been setting for quite some time. Meanwhile... in 2022... the guy getting those left handed swings... is worse.

My jokes worked better in the 60's... That's for sure. ?

I'll agree with you if the left handed hitting options were indeed playing like better options against RH pitching. If they are not demonstrably better options... all you have accomplished is give all the playing time to someone (someones) who is (are) not playing better at the expense of someone you will eventually need due to "not much Rocco can do" during a September pennant race. Unfortunately you have been starving that person that you end up predictably needing due to the injuries that occur every year without fail.

Sometimes Humor has a point and Sometimes it doesn't. And obviously sometimes Humor goes down swinging on 3 straight pitches. ?

Kyle Garlick is the most under appreciated player on this team. He leads the team in OPS (.835) and yet Rocco can't seem to get PLATOON out of his head and apparently it doesn't matter how many people get hurt or struggle. OPS Vs. RH Garlick - .734 - 57 AB's Cave - .730 - 54 AB's Larnach - .711 - 113 AB's Kepler - .680 - 277 AB's Kirilloff - .680 - 120 AB's Celestino -.673 - 150 AB's I am very pro front office and I remain supportive of Rocco because we all make mistakes in life. However, if you consider the injuries that we have had, we have certainly reached the point where the Twins need to take responsibility for intentionally putting Garlick to sleep due to stubborn adherence to unfair type casting. With all the injuries and Max Kepler's continued weak performance, there is no justification for it. Garlick is at the top of the list of who Falvey, Lavine and Baldelli under appreciates while Garlick is also on the top of the team's OPS and SLG list.

And those guys drank until 6am before a 1PM start, they played through ring worm and still managed to hit 85 mph fastballs.

Does anyone remember a year that injuries were not a major story.

Agree that the jury is still out. It used to be Smith, Duffey, Thornburg and Pagan in high leverage. I hope the jury considers this when sequestered. ?

I'm not comparing Jorge Lopez to Josh Hader but Josh hasn't exactly been lights out for San Diego since the trade. We needed bullpen help badly and the front office went out and got bullpen help. We are better team with him. The rest is just the circumstances of having to face teams that are trying to beat you every at-bat.

Personally, I wouldn't let "Some guy on Twitter" fool you. But, that's just me. ?

You make a good point although, players like Gordon are like water. They fill in the low spots. Not many have played RF apart from Kepler. Urshela has been healthy and Miranda has been demanding AB's so 3B is pretty well covered. The low spots have been LF and CF because of health issues so that is where Gordon spends the majority of his time. However, Gordon has been performed well enough to ask the question... If LF and CF were healthy with Buxton and Kirilloff or whoever, Would you play Gordon over Kepler. Gordon is earning that consideration, while Kepler is earning the right to be challenged for it.

He wasn't a left fielder or centerfielder prior to becoming a left fielder and centerfielder. ?

If you had to choose between Gordon and Kepler. Who would you choose? Nick Gordon's performance has made this a legitimate question.

I wanted 3 arms... I got 3 arms. I would have like a power bat rental like Mancini or Bell. I'll be OK. Kudo's to the front office.

I understand why this is a conversation but I really don't understand why this should be a conversation. As long as the front office and Rocco are on the same page... He isn't going anywhere. Insubordination is the only thing that would cost him his job. If you have a complaint about Rocco's managing... Identify the proper target and that would be his immediate supervisors... the front office. They are not keeping a manager who isn't reading and executing from the same playbook. They are not going to hire a rogue manager... I'll bet with anyone that Rocco isn't rogue. Personally, I have no problems with the front office. This decision belongs to them.