Riverbrian

Yet we still have the TIEBREAKER over all 3 teams we are competing with.

He has options... He has service time. He costs the minimum to the bottom line. He has a career .347 OBP - Major League Average this year is .312 He has a career .753 OPS - Major League Average this year is .712 He is still above average after having what most would consider... a rather crappy year. This isn't a guy you just toss aside. What the hell are we talking about?

Yep There is no need to wait for the actual playoffs. The Twins are in the playoffs right now. They have been in the playoffs for quite some time. I'll contend that the Twins were in the playoffs starting September 6th with that 3 game series that Kansas City swept. People like to look back at the 18 game playoff losing streak with fondness. That 18 game playoff losing streak is history. It no longer matters. The 5-12 Record so far this year IN THE PLAYOFFS is much more concerning.

Veteran lineup in place last night. The guys who have been there... done that. Here is your service time report brought to you by Boeing. Boeing making airplanes since 1916. We've been there... done that. Margot 7.012 Correa 8.119 Buxton 7.160 Santana 13.115 Lewis 1.142 Farmer 5.129 Jeffers 3.089 Miranda 1.118 Castro 4.017 That's 7 players who have been there... done that. We got two games to make up in 5 games. Someone may want to ask the hypnotist to snap their fingers. Or at least call Cher

Batting order? Seriously? What's that you say Sundance? You can't swim. It's the fall that'll Kill Ya.

I agree with this. But I have to add a twist. If you haven't been doing it all year. Right Now would be a horrible time to start doing it.

If I were inclined to place blame. I'm not... but if I were inclined. Roster construction is where I point my finger. In consideration of the roster construction and the importance of the game... It isn't an easy decision for Rocco. All season long the team has treated our left handed hitters like a virus when facing left handed pitching with Margot and Farmer the prescribed penicillin. Not so much so on the mound. On the mound it's been much different. We staff all right handed starters while our left handed relievers have basically underwhelmed. Okert gone, Funderburk demoted. Leaving only Thielbar. Bottom Line: This is why Cole Irvin booted Alcala off the roster. To come in with his 0.78 WHIP against left handed hitters. Here's the problem chasing this split. They face more right handers. Just like Margot and Farmer... these specialists end up facing the wrong side of the spreadsheet more often than they face the correct side. This is a problem and also a firm argument against rostering these specialists... or worse yet... creating career long specialists out of your young developing talent. The Orioles are not releasing Cole Irvin with those numbers against lefties. The problem is that they can't keep him away from righties. His OPS against Right handers is .942. He faced Right Handers 370 Times and he faced Left Handers 117 times. 370 to 117 basically shows the difference of the amount of right handed hitters compared to left handed hitters across the league because Cole Irvin made 16 starts this year. He wasn't a reliever... he pitched in 25 games for the Orioles... 16 of those were starts. A lefty reliever like Caleb Thielbar is closer to 50-50. He has faced right handers 111 times and left handers 96 times. Not many Managers are going to stack up their lefties in a neat pile for Thielbar or Irvin to come mow down. The Red Sox started 5 lefties and one switch hitter against Zebby. Occupying 1,3,5,6(Switch),7 and 8. If Irvin was going to be deployed. The Spot for Irvin's deployment would have been at the 5 spot. He could face Casas, Sogaard, Abreu and Valdez and then called it a day. I think the article is correct. Irvin's job was to get Duran and probably sit down after that with Sands taking over the 6th. Once he failed to do that. They immediately lost the split advantage because the next guy was right handed. Irvin couldn't have been worse. He walked the two lefties he was needed to face. After the 5th was completed. There was that bunch of lefties to start the 6th. So... Again Rocco played the percentages and left him on the mound. Which included plunking a left handed batter. The final scorecard for Irvin and the 4 lefties he faced. Walk, Walk, Out, Hit Batter. That's a far cry from his 0.78 WHIP. He didn't do what he was brought here to do. I like the idea that Ashbury floated. Let Zebby face one more hitter in Duran. Bring a right hander in to face. Right Left Right... Then go with Irvin or Thielbar for Left Switch Left Left. But... Whatever... Duran is pretty scary and you are trying to win a ball game. I'm not going to pile on Rocco. The Front Office on the other hand. Yeah... this is where the root of the problem is. Stop wasting roster spots on specialists. Bring in guys that get people out. You are not bullpen serious as long as you try to dance your way through with these specialists. One more thing... This is why Buyers Buy at the deadline. AJ Puk for example is the left hander you are looking for. Tanner Scott is the guy you are looking for when Duran is in the batters box.

For clarification. This injury excuse is being presented to the public for consumption by? The club? Rocco? Royce? Reporter? Nobody of relevance?

I haven't heard anything about him battling a current injury. It is certainly possible that I've missed it. Where is this being reported?

Yes It's bizarre and I've noticed it since his arrival. It was working for awhile so I didn't worry about it. Now... well... I don't know. His timing appears to be off.

Can range metrics be trusted in a small sample? How many routine plays compared to rangy plays occurred for each individual during this smaller sample? Just asking for a friend.

6 games to go. I've looked around the room and I'm choosing to hang out with you.

When it comes to predictions. You are a better man than I.

That was indeed a curious decision. Another consideration was why not Jeffers since Margot pinch hit for Vazquez. I'm not sure I understand either but perhaps this was a gut move. Maybe... Just guessing... Maybe Rocco thinks that first hit has to come some time. Maybe he thinks that Margot can't possibly go 0 for the season. Maybe he thinks that Margot is so due that the due is leaking out of his shoes and makes a squishing sound when he walks. That's all I can come with. Because Margot was a surprise to me as well.

Especially with what has been a draft focus on power.

Then you still look for a first baseman who can play. And then you look at your roster and be thankful that you have Correa, Lee, Lewis and Keaschall to cover the rest of the infield.

As I watched this latest Cleveland series. One thing kept hitting me over the head. Actually it is something that has been hitting me over the head since the two pickoff attempt rule and the extra inches added to the bag.... but it was something that was really hitting me over the head this week. STEALING is back and a part of this game. It isn't back for the Twins but Cleveland sure seems to be taking advantage. The Twins are last in baseball with 64 swipes which is exactly how many bases Elly De La Cruz has. Could you imagine if your entire team hit as many home runs as Aaron Judge has. That's how far down we are on the spectrum. A single player is producing as much as the entire team does. There have been 1,851 bases stolen in 2024 so far. This is back to the level it was at in 1980's. Back when Tim Raines was raining down. I remember when I used to say things like... it's nice to have a patient Joe Mauer hitting after Carlos Gomez so Gomez could go take a bag. Teams will go up and down offensively throughout a season. When a team goes through those teamwide slumps were they just are not producing... The theft of a bag can produce a run when we struggle to produce them in the traditional way. Speed never sleeps is what I heard someone say. Can't remember who. It might have Usain Bolt or Herschal Walker or somebody like that. When they put together the 2025 roster in the off-season. I am hopeful that they work on trying to balance the roster out a bit by adding some base stealers and then... of course... letting them do just that. Adding another club to the bag when needed... creating another way to win a game when needed. Just go get that Ohtani guy whoever he is... 51 bags is pretty good. He might help.

I wouldn't be regretting it. And I wasn't sure I wanted Kikuchi in the first place.

It wasn't the bullpens finest hour. In my opinion... Bullpens are Martha and the Vandelas. There is nowhere to run... Nowhere to hide from leverage. Bullpens need to be 7 deep. It doesn't take money but you need a bullpen full of arms with stuff. The good thing is that most teams are in the same boat. Bullpens are gassed or with arms with tanks that shouldn't get fuel in the first place across the league.

I've seen enough comebacks and I've seen enough rallies to never feel good or bad in September or June. I'm just plain nerves regardless knowing each pitch and each AB matters. However, what you are describing is how you are feeling because I never allowed my nerves to feel like the Twins had no chance. Although I admit not feeling confident whenever Clase hit the rubber. What you are saying sounds like the typical Lions fan I was hanging out with in Michigan back in 2015. I was at a party on a Thursday night in Grand Rapids. I was surrounded by Lions Fans. The Lions were playing the Packers and everybody was negative before the game began and I was just laughing and shaking my head at them wondering how they get up in the morning. It was sometime in the 3rd quarter. The Lions were up 20-0 and all the Lions Fans were saying "****ing Lions" here we go again every time they gained only two yards on the ground despite being up by 20. Then the Packers started to come back. The groaning got worse as they got closer. It's late in the 4th quarter... Detroit is up 23-14. They are still convinced they are going to lose. Green Bay scores to make it 23-21 around the two minute mark and doesn't onside. Everyone is pissed. The Lions ran a bunch of clock off before punting. Green Bay had the ball on maybe the 20 yard line and about 20 seconds left. The first passes are incomplete. On third and ten from the 20... THEY ARE STILL CONVINCED THAT THEY ARE GOING TO LOSE. Finally... I say something "I don't get this at all. Green Bay has no timeouts... No Time and 80 yards to cover. The Odds are probably 99.9% that you are going to win this game and you are already acting like you are going to lose". They responded with... Brian... You are not from Michigan... It's been this way forever. We are going to lose". 3rd and Ten maybe 80 yards from the goal line. Rodgers completes a pass and they lateral it around backwards... about the same distance of the completed pass. Maybe 5 seconds left when Detroit gets hit with a penalty... Facemask? maybe. The Lions fans look at me and say... "See... Told Ya... This is what it's like to be Lions Fan". And I'm like... "The Packers can only Hail Mary this thing". Which is exactly what the Packers did!!! The moral to this story Chief... For Gods sake... Quit acting like a Lions Fan!!!

I will not... I am fully aware what happened in those 26 games. Those games are history. They got us where we are right now but today they don't matter anymore. Sequencing (hot and cold streaks) are going to happen in a 162 game schedule. Controlling when they happen is impossible. The Astros started the season 7-19. Put a fork in them. Then won 5 of their next 6 games. Then dropped their next 4 games to go 12 and 24. They played slightly over .500 ball before rolling 7 wins in a row to reach .500 for the first time on June 26th and continued on to a 13-2 stretch before the Twins took two games in a row from them. When October 30th rolls around. None of those streaks for the Astros matter. Hot or Cold they are history. They are 0-0 and looking at the Twins, Tigers, Royals or Mariners in the opposing dugout at Minute Maid Park. You won't get me to bet one red cent on who is going to win that game or the next one. Right now the Twins are 0-0 with 9 games to go. So are the Tigers.

I understand that an L is an L. However, the Twins just played 4 games against Cleveland. Every game was inches apart. Runs were 13 a piece for the 4 game series. Again... I understand that an L is an L. The games didn't turn out the way we wanted or needed but it's not like the Twins were not inches from any of those games. These were extremely tense nail biting games where nobody in Minnesota or Ohio felt comfortable for 38 innings and you are saying that they are going to get swept by the Astros anyway. A team that has 3 more wins than the Twins have over 153 games out of 162.

I honestly stopped looking at the schedule in an attempt to figure out who has the best chances. Been watching Septembers for decades and I see absolutely no evidence that wishing for certain matchups matters at all. Baseball has never been that cut and dried. It's September 20th. (My birthday today BTW). Everything that has happened from September 19th and prior no longer matters. The Tigers going 26-10 since August 11th has no effect on what will happen today and tomorrow. The Twins going 10-20 since August 18th does not effect what will happen today and tomorrow. Today is a new day. The Past is the Past. The next 9 games will decide this thing and then the buzzer goes off. Every year... I've asked for baseball to matter in September. Boy Oh Boy... Does it matter this year. 😎

I agree. I could watch Correa play SS all day long. Hit it the ball his way... Out will be made. His arm strength is pretty special. That's why... I'm not even thinking about moving him anywhere. Wallner and Lewis have become the must watch AB's for me. Can't really say that about anybody else. Even with the lengthy Lewis slump... I'm not going to the fridge when he's up. I know that Lewis has a specialness that will be evident again when his timing returns. I'll add Wallner's Arm to your list. Every time the ball hits that RF wall... I'm wondering if the runner is going for two. Normally a ball striking a wall means extra bases so this isn't something that I would typically wonder about until Wallner showed up. Wallner has taught me not to take that double for granted. I really appreciate Santana's play at 1B. Not just the scoops... I think a lot of 1B across the league can make those scoops. It's the scoops plus the 38 year old guy diving to snare a hot shot and the very smooth underhand flip to the pitcher that I've seen quite a few times from Santana. His defense has been first rate. I'm fan of Byron across the board. The baserunning, the defense and the ability to hit the ball 450 feet. Although I would trade distance on some of those homers for a better OBP. Duran's heater is eye popping and same with Jax when he combines it with that slider. Lopez and Ober... it's the changeup for both of them that I like watching. Joe Ryan I like watching because for the life of me... I don't know how he does it but... he does it. GO TWINS!!!