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One problem is that both Kyles play at least as much against righties as lefties. New Kyle had more than twice as many at bats against righties. If he ends up playing most days,.... bad news. I'd prefer Urshela's glove and bat next door at third. But... this is the modern era and we need to have almost completely new teams every year... so it goes.

I hope they look first for a great pitching coach and a trainer. Otherwise they'll spend a ton of money for a guy that gets injured after 6 starts and all the other pitchers will be overworked with sub-par stuff.

Cave will be an All Star next year.

Exactly. I think the front office should hire me right away. I have more tricks like this up my sleeve.

With an OPS of .644, Jake Cave is more than half as good as Judge (1.111), but is much much cheaper than half of Judge's salary. If we got two Jake Caves then their combined OPS would be 1.288. What a deal! Think of the money they'll save!

Ok. I've had plenty of time to go through the five stages of grief. Now that I'm out at the other end, I'm going to just say it. All things considered, this was a pretty good season. The Twins were a good team. Not a great team and not a terrible team. Sure they didn't win the division or a wild card spot, but the only reason anyone expected them to win in the first place was because the Guardians and White Sox were also not very good teams. We had times where the bullpen was great before it collapsed from overuse and regression to the mean. There were times when the starting pitching was better than expected before everyone got injured one by one. We had Ryan flashing elite stuff here and there. We had interesting experimentation with how to manipulate a pitching staff to compete with better pitching teams elsewhere by limiting starters (though this obviously didn't work as there were no innings-eaters to back them up and they ended up blowing through bullpen pieces... and keeping with the plan well past its utility... but... oh well... we got to see exactly how and why the plan imploded). Arraez broke out. Correa was fun to watch. Buxton had what most could consider a career year with just several dozen at bats. We got to see the potential in AK, Trevor Larnach, Miranda, and others. And I think they even beat the Yankees once or twice (though I could be misremembering). No the Twins didn't make the playoffs. And no... they weren't a great team. I'm not sure they would have made the playoffs with Polonco, Buxton, Kepler, et al in the lineup every day either. Baseball is fun. It has to be fun when the team sucks too. Otherwise you'll be disappointed almost every year no matter what team you're rooting for. I blame everyone's expectations. They lost. But the season is over. Let's move on.

Seems to me they should gamble bigger on coaches, trainers, and team psychologists.

He'll be fired by the Twins. Next year, he'll be picked up by the Tigers... or maybe the Pirates... and lead that team to win the World Series.

I stand by my words from April 4. Those of you who put in wagers, prepare to pay out big.

Many times in the past couple of years I had hoped that he'd get traded to a team that will play him more, appreciate him, and let him develop. He seems to have always been a bit of an afterthought here. I would imagine he'd get a few extra years playing MLB if he played somewhere else. This guy is a gamer. He's always one of the first to slap someone's hand when they score that tight run. He's always full of energy in the bench. He'd probably be more likely to get a hit with two outs and a runner on second than half the team. But everyone has always been quick to find reasons to hate on him.

Think of the prospect haul the Twins could get if they traded Correa, Buxton, AND Arraez!

There are times when they don't steal that make no sense... like when there are two outs and Arraez (who until recently is unlikely to hit anything but a single) is up. Get the guy on second and give Arraez the chance for an RBI. If they guy is caught stealing, Arraez leads off the next inning. But in a lot of cases... with Buxton at least, I think they assume a good hit can score him from first. So there is no sense in risking his knees or getting him out at second.

This stat would be more useful with a time scale. I feel like they have picked up on driving in their runs over the pat dozen or so games compared to early in the season.

Furthermore, in most instances the Twins have shown that they are far more likely to score zero runs in these situations.

"Donaldson allegedly called Anderson "Jackie," a reference to Jackie Robinson, that he thought was an inside joke between the two players." Donaldson didn't think this was an inside joke. And I'm a bit disgusted at the media reports that gave him inches of space allowing him to make this allegation. Donaldson and Anderson aren't friends. They don't joke around. Dondaldson is attempting to gaslight the press into thinking that this is just on-field chatter and not blatant racist harassment. The Twins would have been better off without him ever playing on the team. They might not have been good last year, but I'd be willing to bet they'd be a lot better than they were. Who hasn't experienced a toxic work or school environment at least once in their lives? You know what that does to your morale. He probably had one or two other sidekicks egging him on too. Combine that with a losing record, these guys were probably just hoping for the season to end faster, or that they'd get traded. The Yankees can keep him. Better yet, they could just DFA him. They'd probably be a better team.

All true, but I don’t see how the Yankees and Astros are supposed to get better over the season when virtually every team they play is worse than them. The twins have a lot of opportunity to improve with the lot they currently have. It’s a tortoise and hare situation. Except that in the twins case, the hare beats them in the playoffs every single time.

They don't have a playoff team yet. But some of these guys tend to heat up late in the season. If those players don't get going, they'll need 2 or 3 pitchers the caliber of Clayton Kershaw who can consistently hold opposing teams to 0 or 1 run if they want to make it anywhere in the playoffs.

I won't ever blame the pitchers for losing the game when the offense only scores 2 runs. Don't care if it is 3-2 or 13-2.

Whoops. Sorry. Can't delete extra posts.

Also... The Twins are going to really need that slight defensive upgrade they get with Correa back when they are going to score 2 or (now) fewer runs per game.

Also... The Twins are going to really need that slight defensive upgrade they get with Correa back when they are going to score 2 or (now) fewer runs per game.

On the radio broadcast last night, I heard Gladden say "People think that when you are 0 for 17, that you are a terrible player. On the contrary, if you are 0-17 that means you are great. That means people believe in you (Miranda dribbles a weak grounder to SS)... Make that 0-18." Well. At least the Twins still have their great rookie infielder.

Because Lewis is speed on the bases and is good to have with Arraez at the plate. Also, though he has hit well so far, he doesn't have enough experience yet to show he is consistently a .300 hitter. Why Miranda is within the first six... I have no idea. Because he has to hit somewhere and there are already a lot of bad hitters on the team?

I like to think the schedule loaded with highly beatable teams gives the Twins an opportunity to train, practice, and get better. By the time they need to face good teams, they'll be ready to rock. Those who aren't injured anyway.

Absolutely. I grew up on the 80's Cardinals. Though that is one extreme of running and small ball, I think that the Twins are losing out on a big potential to increase their game by outright ignoring that side of things. Sano is tied for first with stolen bases. For a team that is in the top 5% of GIDP, it is not much of a risk to try to swipe a few.