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They’d have a chance if they started that 10 game streak yesterday

For all the Rocco haters, just note that Francona left the derailed train wreck Stephan in just long enough to blow the entire season for the Guardians.

I'm not too familiar with non-twins players, so I don't have a feel for who they might have received in a trade. But I would wager that whatever 2 pitchers they could have gotten for whatever trade pieces they had available would not have been impactful enough to make a huge difference. If they consider that Madea, Ober, Keuchel, Varland, and Winder are in the bullpen during the playoffs, then a trade would have just sacrificed members of the somewhat thin group of prospects without actually improving the pen that much. The bullpen isn't always great, and a couple more mediocre arms wouldn't change much.

Interesting indeed. I would conclude (falsely in floro’s case) that giving up multiple runs in an inning would be indicative of a mop up position. It would seem that in a high leverage position one run would be often as bad as several runs as it would often be the run that ends in a blown save.

So he has only given up runs in 2 of 11 outings for the Twins. Not bad. He could be the closer.

Sure. They should add him to the bullpen. Then there will be one more pitcher to share the blame as blown saves mount.

Pinch hitting Luplow for Gallo is almost comical. Prove me wrong Luplow

Wouldn't it be nice to see Solano and Correa's spots switched in the batting order Right now both Polanco and Solano hit in front of people who are almost guaranteed to not get a hit. If they were switched, there would be a 40% chance that Polanco's double would have come with someone on base.

I'm not concerned about who is ultimately 'better.' Not everyone can be a power hitter, situational hitter, high obp hitter, etc... I'm more concerned with how you try to make sure you have Arraez (or maybe in the 2023 Twins case, Solano) have a chance to get on base before someone like Jeffers comes to bat and NOT before someone like Correa comes to bat and guarantees a double play.

I’m picking Gallo. He has to hit SOMETIME.

Then you’ve missed the point. They are a different team in the past 50 games than the first 50. (Roughly speaking )

You'll forgive me for screwing it up. They've changed the postseason calendar, rules, format, etc... seemingly about 30 times since I was young.

To my eyes, this team looks significantly different than it did back before they had that team meeting. Just a note on the average 5 runs per game, it is the standard deviation that has changed. It has gotten smaller. It is much more likely now that they score between 4-6 runs per game than before when they'd score 10 one game, then 1 or 2 for the next two. Nearly the same avg runs per game, but much higher likelihood for more wins. But on the field, Kepler is killing it; Jeffers is doing great; Buxton's dead weight has been on the IL; Miranda and Larnach's bats have been replaced with Julien and Lewis. Gallo is sitting on the bench more; MAT has become a power supply with an OPS of .889 in August. The starting pitching is still showing signs of brilliance. Joe Ryan had his time off to recover from the 8-9 blown games where he stunk do to injury, Kuechel is pairing well with Ober (if only Ober can keep the runs down), Few complaints with Madea, Grey, Lopez. The bullpen still stinks, but now we actually get to blame the losses on them. Before, it didn't matter how bad they stunk because there was no way the team could win with 1-2 runs per game. But I'm actually feeling better about the bullpen. I'm hoping a little more rest for Duran can fix him a bit. I'm thinking Jax is hopefully able to get some better luck back. Thielbar seems to have good numbers, even though whenever I tune in he's giving up runs. Winder has the ability to come out of nowhere and throw 4 scoreless innings. BUT soon we'll be able to have Ober and/or Madea or Ryan in the bullpen. And we might be getting back Brock Stewart. If we are able to bring back an injured bullpen piece and move a starter or two to the back end when it matters (i,e, the playoffs) then the front office essentially achieved what everyone hoped they'd do (add 2 mediocre+ bullpen pieces) without giving up a single prospect. Also a good thing Kepler and Pagan didn't get dumped. All of this is happening against some of the better (not best) teams in the league. They're beating teams like Seattle, Texas, Arizona, Philadelphia and having competitive losses against other good teams rather than always getting blown away. Call me crazy, but I'm thinking this team not only looks better than the first half team, but they have the depth and consistency that could (gulp) win a game or more in the post season. This team is.... good!

After watching the reply, it didn't look intentional to me. Maybe Dunnings apparent dissatisfaction with the pitch was an act, but given that Gallo was up next, I don't think we can assume it was totally accidental. Yes Gallo can hit home runs once in awhile, but the chances are much higher that you get out of the inning quickly pitching to Gallo compared to Jeffers. So, to get to Gallo, you can either intentionally walk Jeffers, or just plunk him.

I've never met any these guys so I wouldn't have a clue about whether they are infantile brats or responsible well-adjusted gents. But in the 2020's almost everyone gets traded, DFA'd, not resigned, etc... at some point, so if you can't get over that you're going to have a hard career. Also, right or wrong, plucking Garver made sense as he was the other team's catcher and Jeffers was the one who got hit first. He should have been expecting it.

...AND its over. Never felt so good to lose a game. Finally this nightmare ends.

Before the AS break, I wouldn't have even had the opportunity to blame this game on the crappy bullpen. It would be 6-1 or 6-0. Now, since this team is actually turning around, this loss (if it turns out that way) is totally the fault of Pagan et al. What a luxury!

Yay! Only 19 outs to go! (Plus extras)

Not looking good. But it seems that could have been a lot worse. Let's steady the horse and keep this a game.

Hard to say if the Twins 'won' this trade. Arraez was underappreciated as a Twin. His hit tool was never good enough for many of us. If he were on THIS year's Twins, he might have helped a little, but most games would have been lost anyway as there would never have been anyone on base for him to drive in, or he would have been left on base by Gallo, Buxton, Kepler, et al. as they struck out with him waiting on 2nd. With a Winder or Varland filling that last rotation spot if we didn't have Lopez, we might have lost 4-5 more games than we have. I'm not digging into the stats right now, but I'm going to guess that most games won where Lopez pitched were only wone by a run or two. At the end, if Arraez keeps up this pace for his career, he'll end up in the Hall of Fame. Lopez will end up in the Hall of Very Good.

No. If the Twins win the world series 4 games to 1 it will be Rocco's fault that they lost one. But really, I think things are going well. The season seems to be taking a turn. Not just in games won, but the team is evolving. Julien, Wallner, Lewis, and AK jumping in and rocking it. They play to the teams strengths with great starting pitching and really good defense. They are heavily using platoons to help all of the lower people on the lineup shine as well as they can (knowing that they aren't superstars in the first place). Their patience is allowing people like Griffin Jax and (gulp) P*g*n get sturdy legs under them. For a team that has zero superstars, being in first place -- even in a terrible division-- indicates that management and the front office is doing a lot better than anyone gives them credit. Yes Gallo hits as well as I would, Buxton has laid an egg, Correa is having a terrible year, Kepler has been terrible for 75% of the season, there isn't enough relief pitching, blah, blah, blah... but this team, when they make it to the playoffs, might have a couple of surprises to pull out.

All the teams know that the AL Central crown is a portkey that will take them straight to Voldemort.

If you haven't noticed that the Twins heavily use platoons are you even a fan? Is it so terrible to use a guy who rocks against left handed pitchers, but struggles against righties in situations where he'll mostly hit against lefties? If he joined the team he'd immediately be the batting leader ahead of Correa, not because he's a great hitter, but because he'd be one of the few people on the team who has enough ABs to qualify. So yes, I'd use him in a platoon role. And the Twins would be better off.

This is the Twins. Why is that so surprising?

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