Riverbrian

I'd start the slump on July 31 which is the day after his walk off grand slam home run. I'd say it was 12 games in duration. The slump dropped his OPS from .793 to .740. He was 5 for 47 over these 12 games with only 1 extra base hit which was a game tying dinger off of Misiorowski in the series finale against the Brewers.

He's had a nice last 4 games so we need the counter article. The article could be titled: Kody Clemens Major Roadblock Cleared - Career Year Resumes

I am a card carrying Kody Clemens Fan. He plays hard and decently at any position needed and he's building a career right before our eyes... if we will let him. He's fun to watch play baseball. Any plans for 2027 have to include a good dose of Kody. He is a 26 man spot covered. I'm going to keep saying this over and over again until people see his value. 40 Home Runs is nothing to sneeze at.

I've seen all 30 parks and San Diego is my favorite. Weather will be fantastic because it almost always is. The Gaslamp district near Petco is a great hangout area and the Stadium is interesting and beautiful. Go Twins... Burn that place down!

Dear Derek Shelton Please take this momentum with you to San Diego. Sincerly, Riverbrian

Last Game Right Hander Starter August 19 - AJ Smith-Shawver - Won - 6 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 4 RH 3 Switch 2 LH Season Record vs RH Starters: 46-42 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.75 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Season Record vs LH Starters: 17-23 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.35

After the Phillies series. Twins Fans said "See they can't beat the good teams". After the Braves Series. Braves Fans said "You can't get swept by Minnesota". This is baseball... It's been this way for years. Our Twins just played a major role in tightening up that NL East all by themselves. Put the uniform on and play ball because anybody can beat anybody on any given night.

Love the positivity. We find enough negative on this board to focus on. There will always be negative to feed these mills. I like a nice positive post such as this.

You just catch up when you can. They will keep for a day or a weekend. I keep a daily Win/Loss tracking sheet and you just catch up when you can. In the end odds are odds but the data has value when you track the movement daily with your own data entry watching the wheels turn in real time. I will have no doubt in my mind that you will be/are someone who will have more perspective on what two games out on September 12th actually means because of the work you are putting in. And I appreciate your sharing it.

I'll check this thread daily.

Last Game Right Handed Starter August 18 - Tyler Mahle - Won - 4 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 4 RH 2 Switch 3 LH Season Record vs RH Starters: 45-42 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.74 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Record vs LH Starters: 17-23 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.35

I'm not ready for that. Although I'd love Larnach 36 out of 36 which means against every lefty just out of spite.

In order to get closer to the same page there is a clarification necessary. On one side you have playing every single day and on the other side of the coin you have sitting and never playing. The majority of the possibilities are on a scale in between those extremes. Do you have Larnach, Buxton, Keaschall and Bell playing every single game for the next 36? Those 4 are my choices as well for the primary playing time but I just don't have them necessary in the lineup every single day. Buxton... Yes... Every day please but his health might require some rest. Everyone else though. One game a week from each will provide competition, it will provide the opportunity to build that exposure and see if he Roden can help us come playoff time. Buxton Health, Larnach Platoon, Keaschall for defensive purposes and Bell for being average is enough reason for them to cough up a game a week without really taxing our win loss chances. I did notice that you were kind of enough during our discussion to not point out that... Yes... I was talking hot and cold streaks in regards to playing time allocation while also arguing for playing time for a player like Roden who's surface stats say cold streak. That may seem North and South Polish but it's really not. I'm not ready to bench anyone yet. But yes... We are getting down to the nitty gritty and the go to lineup will need to be condensed as we go along. Today we can start with Jackson he's not necessary at all. Tomorrow who knows but I'm not ready to bench Roden or Kriedler yet.

I think the next off-season will be interesting. We will have 7 returning players who will be in their last year. 4 of them in the starting rotation with Ryan, Lopez, Ober and Kramer. Hoffman and Banda in the bullpen and then there is Larnach. What will the front office do? I have no idea? Would I do? I have no idea either. In it's simplest form... I'm always most interested in players that will be back the following year and would like to get something for players before they walk for nothing. However, the teams that you are able to trade them to are teams that consider themselves contenders and I assume the Twins will consider themselves contenders in the off-season so therefore not willing to cash them in. Starting with the 4 in the rotation. That's a lot of arms coming out of the rotation and I don't think they can move everyone. At this point... Might as well keep Ryan and Lopez and build around them. Hoffman and Banda can hang around if we want them. We need capable bullpen arms. Larnach... I'll be ready to consider a deal. Last off-season... I wasn't... this off-season... I will be.

I'm not saying he will pinch hit. I'm saying I can see it crossing their minds. With 4 lefties in the pen... managers are going to be able to left... right... left us if they want. Larnach pinch hits for Kriedler and here comes that lefty to face Larnach with the game tied. Going to need a right handed bat since Larnach has been absolutely removed from any consideration of facing a left hander let alone a tie game in the 9th. In the 9 games after the Jackson call up. 4 of the starters will be left handed to go along 4 Braves, 4 Padres and 3 A's lefties in the bullpen. The portsiders are coming for a stretch. A counter punch to the counter punch may be necessary and that's the minimal role that justifies his contract being purchased again. Your second paragraph... I would never take that as a shot at me since I go to bed each night and wake up each morning thinking exactly what you are saying.

My guess is that Jackson was the choice because they are (like Chia Pet and I have been discussing) going to reduce the utilization going forward and go with the guys who have gotten them there. Therefore turning the 13th spot into a very specific role. IE Pinch Runner for Jeffers or Caratini when they reach base in the 8th inning. I also think that 4 lefty relievers in the Braves and Padres bullpen is a factor even though Jackson's small sample success has come against right handers. I also think it's possible that they don't feel that the other outfield options are ready yet or it's also possible that they don't see a left handed Wallner or Jenkins as a adequate replacement for a right handed Martin in how the team is constructed. I can squint and justify it... but I still don't like it. My personal choice would have been Wallner but that would have just started the Wallner attackers to attack. I'd like to see if he still has a .894 OPS stretch in there somewhere. It kept us a float in 2023.

I hope you know that I respect you... always have. You are a sharp poster and always have been so please excuse me if I ask that we try not to make our points on the extreme edges. I've never known you to do that. If we are going to have this discussion on the extremes ignoring the miles of nuance in between... I'd say something like OK... Got it... Set it and Forget it... There is no need for Shelton to have daily meetings to put together a lineup. It's done we got our guys they can all walk past the lineup card now without checking. No need for further adjustment. But... I'm not going to do that because I don't think that is what you are saying but these discussions will go off the rails when the extremes are thrown out to counter points. I get the nuance in regards to hot and cold streaks. Yes... if you could time them, you'd be a very successful manager much like an investor would be rich if he could time the market. It's hard because a hot streak can turn into cold on a dime... but I know you know what a hot streak is and what a cold streak is so please don't ask me if Trevor Larnach is out of his cold streak because of 4 hits in 3 games. At that point the discussion is no longer honest and it becomes pointless real fast. wOBA is your preferred stat and you are using 300 PA's as a qualifier. That's fine and yes in that regard... You can add Royce and Kody because they are also above league average and just mere points behind Bell. If you include Jeffers who is just 45 PA's short. That's 7 players above league average. And that leaves us with Lee a little below and whoever is going to end up playing SS. Overall it's pretty impressive that we have 7 players above average and that's a good thing and perhaps it's why we are still in this thing with our pitching being questionable. However... here's the problem. We have a total of 9 players who reached 300 PA's... 10 if you make the number 255 to include the top Dog Jeffers. Lee Martin and Caratini are the other 3 that have surpassed 255 PA's but are below league average wOBA. Sure looks like we settled on a lineup 300 PA's ago. Players need to continue the journey toward 300. I'm not ready to declare anything yet. This lineup is too average to settle in my opinion. And I hope you know that I spent the off-season fiercely defending Larnach against what seemed like the majority of this community and I still do. I'm certainly not going to turn on him now when he has been a major contributor to this contending team. He's cooled down... He can certainly heat up again... even with 36 games remaining.

Playoff odds are subjective. They very from individual. I've never looked at playoff odds and given them strong consideration. The playoffs are just plain hard no matter how you slice it or how loaded your team is. Get in and play and whatever happens happens. We always tend to justify our opinions in the end anyway. The Brewers get knocked out and many will say... see told you they were not a playoff team. The D-Backs will reach the finals and many will say. That's the exception not the rule. We've seen the #1 seed get knocked out in 3. 12 teams get in. 1 gets out alive. Who wins it? We will have to find out but we've seen 6 seeds go far in baseball just like we've seen it in Hockey and all sports for that matter. We've seen Kershaw suck in the playoffs and David Freese and David Eckstein become the heroes. It can't be predicted. Evan Carter sparks happen quite frequently. I spend a lot of time looking at all 30 teams. There are quite a few young sparks happening right now. Benge is starting to become something. Bolte is looking good. Cole Carrigg looks like he could join other young Rockies into the future. Who is Esmerlyn Valdez? Who is Waldschmidt? Pedro Ramirez? Crawford is starting to get it done in Philly. Mesa in TB who is that guy? Who names their Kid Abimelic... I don't know but he's had an impressive debut to his career. Lombard is being counted on at Yankee stadium. Cleveland is going after it with Genoa bouncing around the infield and playing where he is needed and playing well. McAdoo in Toronto! I though he played Basketball. Joshua Baez made the newspaper with a 1 game debut spark and who knows how the next two months go. The Red Sox got real hot and it was Monasterio holding down the fort at SS in Boston during that winning streak. Evan Carter since has become a question mark but most recently we saw Julien and Wallner provide a much needed spark in 2023. Not useful now but incredibly useful at the moment back in 2023. In regards to Jenkins... I don't know. He could be the Evan Carter type spark. I'm not knocking him but I'm more of pecking order guy. I'd rather they work with players already on the 40 man then leap frog Jenkins to start his clock early but I will give him the benefit of the doubt and believe he could be a spark.

It seems that we are far off... but I don't think we are far off. Like I said earlier. I agree we are hitting the stretch run and it's OK to start whittling down a bit but I do question if we have indeed found the 9 guys. I openly question exactly who are the lesser players and that includes Roden. I don't assume that Jenkins or Erod or Wallner is going to be another level above Roden no matter how many articles say he's not and neither of those 3 matter much if the OF is locked for the stretch run anyway. Roden doesn't look lost to me no matter what his small sample surface stats are saying. He looks like a player that isn't chasing and making contact. If he starts tonight and goes 3 for 3 his surface stats are going to look real nice. Roden should be allowed the opportunity to get hot just like Lewis was allowed to and Keaschall was allowed to.

I love this quote so I use it often. Every team wins 54 and every team loses 54... it's the other 54 games that matter. We were actually 54-54 at one time and that makes us 7 and 11 in those games that matter. Nothing a 15 game winning streak won't solve.

I don't and there are two primary reasons. 1. Injuries are going to occur. You and I both know that. We don't know who will get hurt but I assume that both of us... if forced to bet... would take the over on zero injuries occurring between now and the end of September. You don't put Roden on ice so you can everyday 3 just to have 1 or 2 of those 3 break a bone for the final week of the season when we are 1 game out of the playoffs heading into San Francisco for the final 6 games of the year... not to mention the playoffs if we survive it all. We also still don't know if we want Roden to be that guy if/when that scenario occurs and it probably will occur. Is Buxton hurt right now? 2. Hot Streaks become Cold streaks and Cold Streaks become hot streaks. Locking now? Don't get me wrong based on recent hotness and coldness. I'd like to see Lewis, Keaschall and Bell in the lineup almost every day at the moment because they seem to seeing the ball real good. Larnach, Clemens, Caratini and Kriedler not so much. I'll leave Buxton out of that group although he hasn't been good of late... But I ask again... Is he hurt right now? I don't know if he is or isn't and I'll also ask could these 7 players reverse? Yes they can... maybe they won't? Some may some may not but yes they can. I think they need to ride the hot hands when hot but it's too soon to say Eureka and lock into something that may not be there on September 20th.

I've been a utilize all 13 guys guy for quite some time. Still am... Probably will always be. I do agree that as the season starts to enter a stretch run you should be able to label your key guys to over utilize for that stretch run. The thing is... I'm not so sure that we have identified those guys. Still got a lot of average on our roster claiming the playing time. I also agree that this may not be the time to force a Jenkins call up. but I do recognize that a Evan Carter type spark is also possible from a Jenkins or an Erod.

Last Game Left Handed Starter August 17 - Martin Perez - Won - 4 Runs Scored Lineup Composition: 5 RH 2 Switch 2 LH Season Record vs LH Starters: 17-23 Season Average Runs Scored vs LH Starters: 4.35 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Season Record vs RH Starters: 44-42 Season Average Runs Scored vs RH Starters: 4.74

I don't like it either

They had Martin for that role.