Riverbrian

I take full responsibility.

We are 100% on the same page.

Yes, you would take the blame but you might be inclined to not rely on their counsel the next time in an attempt to not make the same mistake again. The front office can and should take the blame but they also need to correct it for the future. Although... I've said this many times... I have no idea who is suggesting what. So this all goes strictly into the hypothetical pile.

It's the same page thing that has me the most perplexed. If the roles are sharply defined. If the GM is in charge of the roster and the manager manages the provided roster. There has to be communication at every step of the process between them. A GM can't independently trade Jose Berrios for Paul Goldschmidt only to find that the manager doesn't believe in Paul Goldschmidt and won't play him. That would be giving away Berrios. They say decisions are done by committee... I believe them.

It was I that brought up Morrison and Buxton... To be clear... I don't recall you ever bringing up Morrison and Buxton.

I'll take command every time but a guy with stuff can work on command and improve it with better mechanics. I think it's much harder to improve your stuff. So I always look for the guy with stuff first. Gonsalves doesn't seem to have a lot of room for error if he doesn't hit his spots. If Stewart doesn't hit his spots... his stuff can still turn it into a weak grounder. He has a lot of movement on that fastball.

Obviously way too early to make any determinations but after two starts. I like Kohl Stewart’s stuff and I am concerned about Gonsalves’s stuff. Plenty of time for my mind to be changed. Keep giving them opportunity.

I can tolerate mistakes. I can’t tolerate doubling down on the mistake. If Grossman was selected to make the 25 man. He should have played more with Morrison and Buxton both playing extremely bad. If Grossman isn’t good enough to play in front of that type of performance... then I’m extremely disappointed with the entire room.

Yeah but none of that stuff fits with my joke.

I look at this way. A baseball front office runs much differently than how I run my fantasy baseball team. I am willing to bet my house that Terry Ryan authorized the signing of players that he has never seen on the advice of someone else. I believe I'll still be living in my house because I've heard him on the radio say that he hadn't seen a player before he was added to the roster so it's a pretty safe bet for me. I've heard Falvey say that they take a committee approach to decisions and I got to believe that Molitor is part of that committee. If a manager says I want this guy and the GM says... No. That is the beginning of the end and I imagine the same goes in reverse. We all saw what happened when Philip Seymour Hoffman wouldn't play Scott Hatteberg. Hoffman was out and his next movie only did 28 Million at the box office.

Understood... I've often said... you gotta look at the people who hire the people. Still not comfortable with the word "stuck".

Can you be sure that Molitor wasn't in the room advocating Grossman on the roster? I can't... so I'm not comfortable with "stuck". I'd like to blame Molitor or the front office for everything but I can't be sure where the decisions we see are coming from.

Our... Kopech is right handed and Rodon is left handed.

I agree. I've wanted the Twins to get bullpen serious for quite some time. No sense getting bullpen serious when someone in the room is recommending Belisle and someone is riding three guys with the same numbers as three other guys that he is shy about using.

Self Inflicted Old School

I agree I do not know who is making the decisions, who are the advocates and who are the dissenters, who are the loud voices in the room and who are the quiet ones but all of those people you list have jobs with important duties and are no doubt a part of any equation. I can only assume Molitor because the Twins were doing the same crap in 2016 and Molitor is the only common denominator in 2016 and 2018 and he has the type of role that would normally influence player usage. However, in the end... If you got a problem. You start by focusing on the people who hire the people.

Better options?... How bout Equal options? Because we had plenty of equal options, just go ahead and pick one. Just so I'm better understood. BTW... I am not making an "overuse" claim... Others are. It's possible that overuse factored in to the June versions of Pressly and Reed, however, everybody has different thresholds that I am not privy to. My point is simple... We didn't have a single reliever that was better than the other relievers all year. So if relievers were indeed overused... why were they? You are asking me to name someone better... I can't... but, I'll return the question to you... Can you name someone better? Look at the numbers... you can't either.

I'm not knocking Pressly but Reed went sour and stayed sour for quite some time. Hildenberger has been really sour lately and he is currently getting more save chances than the others. They were not the best relievers that he had. They were the best relievers according to him and those relievers made him look like he doesn't know what he is talking about.

Do we not have anyone else to turn to... or do we not turn to them? If you compare the stats of Reed and Magill there is no CURRENT statistical reason to trust Reed over Magill. It is Magill with the better numbers. So why did Molitor trust Reed and not trust Magill? Reed went belly up on us for a long stretch. Molitor's solution to that was to keep handing Reed the ball in key situations and say I trust you. My point is: If you are going to overuse a bullpen arm... I get the temptation to do so. BUT... that overused arm better have Adam Ottovino type production otherwise you are wasting average production from the back end of the pen in order to overuse below average production from the front end like we did with Reed. This hard headed, stubborn, Hubris that makes a manager think: Reed is my set up guy, Magill is my long guy regardless of the results and this has hurt us. Molitor is too slow to adjust to the changing conditions and I hold him responsible for it. If you want to play Morrison every day... OK... but Morrison needs to produce like an every day player. If you want Reed to be your main set up guy... OK... but he has to deserve the job. If they don't... then a manager must adjust and it shouldn't take 3 months to come to these conclusions. Molitor might as well make out his lineup cards for all 162 games on March 28th and put his feet up for the year and see where fate takes the team because it's out of his control. This is my issue with Molitor... He stuck with the players and I'm not buying the argument that we had nobody else. Every single player on the roster had the ability to out produce Morrison. Every single pitcher on the roster had the ability to out produce what Reed was doing. I know most of the TD Crew doesn't like Grossman. However... Grossman was out performing Morrison and Buxton and Molitor chose Morrison and Buxton... Now we have Austin out performing Grossman and he is choosing Grossman. It's like he is playing the guy producing less on purpose just to drive me crazy... Like he is waiting until someone (Austin) actually out performs Grossman before he gives Grossman playing time. He does the same stuff in the bullpen.

I'm a big fan of out of the box thinking. We are not going to win the world series. Try new concepts. Seth... You should start your own club. The "Piggyback" or "Dual Starter" Club.

Here's another thing. Now that Grossman is back. Is Austin going to be limited to facing left handed pitchers? 3 games into the return of Grossman it looks that way. I don't mind players sitting on occasion and I don't mind Grossman playing but if Grossman is going to take the LIONS SHARE of Austin's playing time... I'm... I'm... not sure what to say. I know i'm not going to be able to defend it. Tyler Austin's OPS the past 15 days is 1.049 so yeah... umm... I got nothing.

When it comes to bullpen usage. I get the temptation to overuse certain relievers. If a guy is lights out, a manager is gonna want that guy with the ball in his hand. So I can forgive Molitor for this. However... my question is gonna be... which of our overused guys has been lights out? If you got Andrew Miller.. the manager is gonna want to use him. If you have Adam Ottovino... the manager is gonna want to use him. Dellin Betances... the manager is gonna want to use him. Managers may overuse these guys because they want batters out and those guys get batters out fairly consistently. Our overused guys... Are nothing like these guys. I was all for signing Addison Reed but when he is being overused and his production is 4 blown saves, 4.53 ERA, 1.43 WHIP and a 7.5 K/9, you gotta wonder why. Trevor Hildenberger... I like Hildy... I do. But he is overused with a 4.48 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and a 8.5 K/9. If a reliever is gonna be over used... His production needs to be better than the guys who are not getting used and this is isn't the case. These guys are not Andrew Miller but Molitor plays them like they are and it has cost us games. Molitor stays with his guys until it's too late. His bullpen management is just like his lineup management. Assign roles, lock them down, throw away the key and finally when it gets unbearable after a couple of months... starting looking for the key.

I like to think of myself as somewhat reasonable and I really try not to talk in absolutes when I'm standing hip deep in nuance, so I'm hoping that I'm not giving the impression that I think new school managers are guaranteed playoff teams every year. Maddon's 100 loss year aside... I prefer the new school manager over the old school manager every day of the week and twice on Sunday. There is no doubt that Baker had a much better year in 2017 than Martinez had this year. I still prefer the Martinez style or what I assume is the Martinez style because of his place in the Maddon tree. I did ask Counsell... BTW... He told me to let you know that you spelled his name wrong. He also said that you are right, Managers are always happy with talent infusions but he also thinks it is important to not go down with the ship when the talent isn't performing, he says it is ok to play Ryan Braun less when players pulled off the waiver wire like Jesus Aguilar are playing better. He says it is OK to play Jonathan Schoop less, if it isn't working out. I was also amazed that my call went straight through to him at 5 in the morning.

I'm lumping Molitor in with the old school managers. He goes in the same bucket as Mattingly, Baker, Hurdle, Bochy, Showalter, Gibbons, Gardenhire, Renteria and Scioscia. That may be an impressive group of managers with a lot of major league experience but, those guys aren't the ones I would choose to lead my team. Give me a Maddon, Roberts, Counsell, Martinez, Cash, Hinch, Bannister or Kapler new school type.

Garver... I've been asking for his playing time. I'm getting it and I guess I gotta take what comes with that. Wow... It's like his brain just went to sleep. I'm not angry... It made me laugh.