Riverbrian

Buxton sitting for the 2nd straight day? I haven't heard of any injury. Anybody heard anything?

I am happy. I have no complaint with when he has utilized a pinch hitter, I have no complaint with when he didn't utilize a pinch hitter. I have no complaint with his pinch running or defensive replacement moves. And I really love the spacing of left handers on the lineup card. The removal of this simple philosophy has opened doors. After two years of complaining about the utilization of left handers. I currently have no complaints. Just a lingering lament of the two years of development lost in regards to Wallner, Larnach and Julien. This much needed adjustment can pave the way for Emma and Jenkins in the future. Paving the way for Emma and Jenkins will pave the way for not needing a Margot in the future. Not needing a Margot in the future can pave the way to signing a significant free agent in the future as opposed to the low level free agent. This adjustment can curb the urge to looking specifically for right handed bats in a right handed pitching world. It can open the doors to having more left handed hitters on the roster.

It's good to see. Taking the extra base gets runners in scoring position and produces runs. When your power isn't there, it's good to have another club in your bag for run production. The roster still isn't built for this sort of thing and still requires some adjustment but the progress is noted and appreciated. Going to 1st to 3rd is probably bigger than stolen bases but stolen bases are now a thing after many years of not being a thing. In 2022 before the rule changes. The Rangers led baseball with 128 stolen bags. The Twins were last with 38. In 2023 the first year of the rule change. The Reds led the league with 190 Bags. The Twins were 23rd with 86 bags. Willi Castro was the primary difference with 33 stolen bases. Last year... the 2nd year of the rule change. The Nats led the league with 223, The Twins were last with 65. Willi Castro is the primary reason for the rise in 2023 and the drop in 2024. He stole 33 bases in 2023... Just 14 in 2024.

Getting the catching spot out of the way. The Catching position has been a strict 50-50 rotation between Jeffers and Vazquez occupying one spot in the daily lineup. With the other 8 spots: In the 8 games since April 1 when Julien was healthy enough to play. The following 7 players have started at least 7 out of those 8 games. Wallner, Correa, Buxton, Larnach, France, Castro, Julien. At this point... I'm going to assume that they are primary starters that get an occasional day off. Larnach and Correa have started all 8 games, the rest have started 7 of the 8. With those 7 identified as primary starters and the two players dedicated to the catching position. That will account for the utilization of 9 of the 13 players and primarily cover 8 of the 9 daily lineup positions. That leaves 4 players (Bader, Miranda, Gasper and Kiersay) for 1 open lineup spot plus fill in work. One open spot per game creates 8 starting opportunities for those 4 players. 5 of the primary 7 resting one game creates 5 more starting opportunities for those 4 players for a total of 13. Those 13 starting opportunities for those 4 have been divided up this way: Bader 6 (This makes him one start short of the group of players I have in the primary 7). MIranda 4 (Trusted Back Up) Gasper 2 (not trusted yet) Keirsay 1 (Pinch Running Defensive OF specialist) At this point... I think we have a severe curbing of the strict platoon philosophy and this makes me very happy. The platoon philosophy has been replaced by a primary starting lineup that has Bader the #9 guy and therefore the most likely to yield some playing time for Miranda and the others.

It certainly leaves questions behind. Is this why he was acquired? Is this why he was rostered? Is this Gasper utilization an example of the adherence to the platoon dictating roster construction?

You guys did notice the "...rightfully so". part? I know that they are not going anywhere... that was the point. These are the players that the team is sending up to the plate. This isn't a 1 game thing... this is an 11 game thing. The players we are primarily utilizing are the ones that got to fix this. Pointing fingers is not pointless. That would make it just fingers.

No I'm not suggesting that. I'm simply posting. What are you suggesting?

I knew that Gasper was going to be taken to task this morning on Twinsdaily... and... well... rightfully so. He hasn't impressed thus far. Not really close to impressing actually. No hard contact that I've noticed at the plate thus far. It's early yet but he really hasn't come close to impressing thus far. However... Perspective is necessary. Gasper has only had 15 Plate Appearances. 15 PA's is not the reason we are struggling right now. Let's be clear... Buxton, Correa, France and Larnach lead the team in plate appearances. Those 4 total 168 plate appearances. Those 168 plate appearances have produced 29 hits and 9 walks. That's a collective .182 average. That's a collective .226 OBP. 10 Extra base hits and only 1 home run. The highest batting average of the group is .229 (Larnach). The highest OBP of that group is .300 (Larnach). The highest slug of the group is .293 (Buxton). Right now Harrison Bader is the only player who looks like he was ready to start the season and he is in a rotation of sorts. Wallner and Castro have been decent. Everybody else... Not so much. It's been a bad group slump to start this season. Anyway... I'm not looking at Gasper right now. I'm looking squarely at Correa and Buxton. Those two need to get it going before 3 wins and 8 losses turns to 4 wins and 12 losses.

Just plain ole bad baseball being played by our local 9. This team has to get this team out of of this thing. This isn't an individual problem... this is an entire team that has played bad baseball for the first 11 games of the season. Only this team can determine how the next 11 games are going to go. Would you like to make a couple of errors and survive? Sorry you can't make a couple of errors and survive because there is no margin for error being created by our offense. The offense is really really bad right now. I understand that Ragans is pretty good... when I say the offense has been bad... it has nothing to do with Ragans... It's been 11 games bad. Power? Nope we are tied for last in team home runs. 6 of them total. Harrison Bader has half of them. Speed? Nope... 5 stolen bases. OK... no power... no speed. Then we must be a station to station team full of vets who know how to keep that line moving and produce runs. Nope... tied for last out of all 30 teams with a team OBP of .264 This team came out of spring training playing bad baseball. They and only they can pull themselves out of this. I hope they start pulling.

I was thinking the same thing. Another interesting lineup note from tonight. Brooks Lee playing 2B for St. Paul.

Interesting lineup today against the talented lefty Cole Ragans. Both Larnach and Julien in the lineup. Gasper at 2B over Julien in the DH spot. Wallner, Castro, Keirsay and Vazquez start on the bench. Haven't heard of any injury reports regarding Castro.

I appreciate this article. Right or Wrong... the Twins will tell us how they rank players by utilization. It's important to watch. After watching utilization for the past few years... I'm pretty sure that Rocco locks in for the long haul. We will learn as the season progresses if he is still locked in. Typically... there isn't much a higher ranked player can do to lose time and there is very little a lower ranked player can do to gain time... change adjustments are typically injury related.

He has had a nice start to the season. He is one of a very few players who are positively contributing to the baseball team at the moment. I hope he continues. This team needs the help. Heart and Soul? I sure hope not. He is signed to a 1 year deal with a 2nd year mutual option that we won't be able to afford if he ends being our heart and soul in 2025.

I'm not arguing. I'm certainly not advocating that Kiersay displace anyone. However, Just pointing out that it's hard to show anything with 16 scattered AB's in the majors. As for the coaching staff observing his abilities for years. Same coaching staff and front office that let Brent Rooker go for almost nothing. I'm not knocking their abilities. They do this for a living, they have to draw hard lines on thin margins due to roster space limitations. But I'll need to be forgiven for not trusting them entirely. Not them or any front office for that matter.

Understood but I'll say that 2024 is review mirror. 2025 is a small sample size. We have additions and subtractions (not a lot but enough to be context changing) and so do all the opponents that we face. When I become disenchanted. I won't be targeting Rocco. I'll be targeting the front office. The front office hired Rocco and the front office put the players on the field. If the manager is blowing it... the front office is the ones to do something about it. Am I disenchanted? Not yet but getting closer because I have developed development concerns. When Dombroski was fired by the Red Sox in September 2019. They had just won a world series in 2018 but they had a bloated pay roll and a farm system that Dombroski had drained. Our front office was in place at this time. Since then... the Red Sox farm system has risen from near the bottom to near the top. The Red Sox currently have 15 Pre-Arb players on the 26 man roster. The Twins have 9. Bottom line: The Twins are going with primarily experienced guys to compete with. It better work. If it doesn't... I'm not going to blame Rocco. I'll be looking at the people who hired him and staffed this club with low cost vets. My development concerns are years in the making so I hear you. But... right now... 10 games is too soon in regards to 2025.

It's 10 games. Small sample size. Those 10 games tho... Not good. League average OPS is .705 so far this year. It was .711 in 2024. The Twins have only 3 players above that MLB average thus far: Bader .988, Wallner .895 and Castro .774 Our 4th highest OPS over these 10 games belongs to Larnach at .564. The quick math on that. The Twins have 10 players who are at least 141 points behind league average. 257 out of 363 plate appearances handled by players who are at least .141 point behind league average. Don't look at the bottom of the OPS rankings. 47 Million dollar sitting at the bottom. On the pitching side. 4.08 is the league average ERA so far this year. Our team ERA is 4.92 which ranks 25th out of 30 teams. Again... small sample size. Too soon to panic. The numbers can't stay this bad forever... at sometime there will be improvement to move those numbers up. The team has to turn it around. They will have to get started on this turnaround against Cole Ragans. Ragans is the 2nd left handed starter we have faced this year. Martin Perez was the first. The Twins are still looking for their first hit against a left handed starter. We paid for veteran talent. I'm ready for that veteran talent to lead us out of this.

There wasn't any argument so it must have struck Perez. I just struggle to see the contact on the Twins.TV replay. Erceg spiked that curveball hard off the plate. His two seamer has some serious movement. Erceg has some incredible stuff. He will be a free agent in 2030. He will be a problem for us for awhile.

I honestly couldn't tell if it struck Perez first. If it didn't... that's a HBP. Nobody was arguing so... Perez must have made contact with it.

It can still be a hit by pitch if it bounces.

Can any rule experts explain why that isn't a hit by pitch. Did it bounce off Perez and then strike Buxton?

I thought Thursday was interesting. With the Twins down 5-2... in the 7th inning. Miranda pinch hit for Julien against King This occurred with two out and nobody on base. Hoping to start a two out rally. In the 9th... Yep Larnach to the plate against Hader. Gasper and Vazquez were available to pinch hit. Rocco stayed with Larnach. There was one out and nobody on base. Defensive substitutions appear to be the more popular than the pinch hit so far this year. With a 6-1 lead on Saturday.. pinch hitting wasn't critical so just one pinch hit move made. 8th inning at the DH position with Gasper pinch hitting for Julien to face the left handed Okert. After Larnach faced Gusto in the 7th. Bader entered the game for Larnach in LF as a defensive replacement on Saturday. Yesterday... with the score 7-5 in the 7th inning. France and Miranda entered as defensive replacements for Julien and Gasper. Castro shifted from 3B to 2B to shoe horn the defensive changes in. In the 8th Inning Keirsay entered as a pinch runner for Wallner.

Julien was ill and did not start in the first 4 games. He has now made 5 starts in a row. Primarily at the expense of Miranda playing time. Bader is in a play 2 sit 1 pattern. Doesn't mean he is in a play 2 sit 1 pattern but his playing time over the first 9 games is a play 2 sit 1 pattern. Miranda might be in a play 1 sit 2 pattern and would link with Bader.

Develop or Die. Important for the teams that have money as well. The Red Sox currently have 15 pre-arb players on their roster. The Twins have 9. Margot was not good. The need for a Margot is ten times worse.

Miranda in... Bader out. Chief earns another point with another Julien start.

That always seems to be the case with Miranda. He has these stretches of hitting good and these stretches of hitting bad and when he is hitting bad... he chases crap. If the could take a discipline pill daily. Look out.