Muppet

Let's wait a year. If this Matt Borgschulte guy ends up being magic and is able to fix Larnach, Miranda, Lee, Lewis, Julian, and Wallner and turn them back into the players they were when they were in the minors .... Then we can have hope that the next wave of prospects aren't going to turn into pumpkins as soon as they say "I don't do slumps." But for now, I'd hate to have any of those guys locked up for 4-6 years and millions of $s.

Anyone else watching Unstable on netflix? I'm seeing an uncanny resemblance to the twins (on Unstable, not the baseball team).

I got into baseball as a kid because I could watch it on TV. Maybe, ... put baseball games back on TV, or streaming services that kids can access.

Soooo….what’s the catch?

I'd rather see him transition into closer and wait until there is a hole in the rotation to figure out how to plug the hole.

I don't think it is a difference of opinion, I think it is a desperation. This team has no chance to replace a majority of their underwhelming underperforming players. All of their prospects are up, and there's nothing left for the next few years. For me, I don't think the talent level is there. They will ONLY win if most of the current roster steps it up several notches. They might get some good almost-ready prospects by trading away Ober and Ryan, but I don't think those prospects would lead to winning seasons in a few years unless they have big name players to replace Correa and Buxton when their contracts are up. It's a tight spot. Even with new owners they probably can't afford to buy a winning team.

Not saying it's the right move, but It is salary they won't be able to dump.

First off, other than pick the linup card, send in pinch hitters, and change pitchers, I'm not sure I really know what the manager does. I've never seen the inside of a clubhouse. I've never heard whether or not the manager forces players to work on XYZ skills or taking extra batting practices from same side pitchers throwing XYZ types of pitches. But 2 things strike me. 1. I think this team was WAYYYY overrated from the start. I think the Twins' good record early on came as they were very good at cleaning up against bad teams. I did a little calculating. They went 33 and 11 against the 8 worst teams in the league and 7 and 23 against the 8 best teams in the league. For the most part, most of those games all occurred before their slide in September. Mostly their hitting was terrible. I still hold out that while their pitching wasn't great, it wasn't their weak spot. I think if they had magically brought in Ohtanhi (as a pitcher) at the trade deadline, they'd be out of the playoffs by now. 2. Wouldn't it be the responsibility of the coaches to help batters and pitchers improve and work on their stamina to play throughout the whole year? Wouldn't it make more sense to demand their heads for allowing Julien, Lewis, Larnach, etc.. to flail away rather than getting pissed at Rocco for sometimes playing Margot instead of Larnach? Who knows, maybe Larnach had diarrhea that day. I do like how the Tigers have made it this far with a bunch of no names and rookies. For now, I'll be rooting for them. Till next year....

You think you don't like Rocco. Wait until we get a few games in with next year's new manager.

At this point I would be disappointed in Major League Baseball if the twins manage to make the post season.

The AL Wild Card is a portkey straight to Voldermort and Detroit is the only team that doesn't know this. If they find out soon, there is just enough time for them to force the Twins into the Wild Card should the Twins accidentally win one more game.

Well, now he has that complete and utter implosion on the most important game of the year out of the way. Now there's nothing holding him back.

If the Tigers continue on their 7-3 pace over the rest of the season, the Twins will only have to win 5 of their remaining 13. Can they do it? We shall wait and see.

Ump is minor league. Wasn't even called up to replace Angel Hernandez. Maybe when Phil Cuzzi retires, this guy will be called up as his replacement.

When Margot wins the Twins win.

Well thanks for your willingness to let me experiment with parsing the numbers in ways that help me tell stories to myself. I'd suggest that with 83 games where the Twins have scored more than 3 runs that this IS the mean and further variance should be expected to remain close to 76% (of games won with 3+ runs). I am having issues with the league this year because it seems to me that there are far more awful teams than normal and fewer really good teams than normal. So when we look at the numbers as stated in baseball reference they aren't telling the full story. The Twins are doing great against some teams and racking up huge runs in many games. But when they play the above average teams they are more likely to not be able to push those runs through. Yes I realize pitching numbers are bad, but when you are blowing a team out, you are more free to use your Funderburks, Sands, Okerts, etc.. and can withstand giving up more runs. My whole point is that while they could definitely use better pithing (who couldn't), when they are actually losing games it is more often because the opposing team has figured out a way to make batter after batter sit down. Ultimately, I don't think that adding one marginally better pitcher or hitter to the team would make too much a difference if they don't first figure out how other teams are able to exploit their hitting weaknesses and make the necessary adjustments. If they can do THAT, they'll be able to get far into the playoffs.

Same goes for the Cubs.

In defense of Watkins. He used to be T (capital T) Terrible years ago. He's gotten to be decent enough that you don't even know he's there now. And for Larnach... well, if they win today, we can forgive a little mental error.... just learn from it and don't let it happen again. If they lose....? Off with his head.

And yet they have the highest win percentage than other AL teams when they score more than 2 runs in a game. Which is exactly why you have to look deeper into the numbers to figure out what is going on. When they beat the Rockies 20-2 for example, it only counts as one win.

As everyone continues to boil and simmer over the inability of ownership to pick up a top line starter or a left handed reliever, I posit that the biggest area of need is offense. Of course there have occasionally been times when the Okerts, Funderburks, or Thielbars of the team have given up large masses of runs in an inning blowing a game. I'd also note that Duran's ERA is unreasonably high for a closer. But when scoring 3 or more runs, the Twins fare better than all of the top 9 teams in the AL. I had a little fun with spreadsheets and looked at the teams in the AL with the most wins. Gu2 Lu2 wu2 wO2 w l T G3+ W%3+ mn 30 30 0 59 59 48 107 77 0.766 sea 40 35 5 52 57 53 110 70 0.743 cle 30 28 2 64 66 52 118 88 0.727 bal 26 22 4 61 65 45 110 84 0.726 hou 31 30 1 55 56 52 108 77 0.714 bos 31 28 3 54 57 50 107 76 0.711 kcr 31 26 5 56 61 49 110 79 0.709 tbr 40 33 7 48 55 53 108 68 0.706 nyy 26 20 6 59 65 45 110 84 0.702 (Gu2 = games under 2 runs; Lu2 Losses with under 2 runs; wu2 wins under 2 runs; w02 wins over 2 runs; w wins; l losses; t total games; G3+ games over 3 runs w%3+ win pct over 3 runs) First, the Twins are unique among the group in that they have zero wins when scoring 2 runs or fewer. Conversely, they have the highest win percentage when scoring more than 3 runs at 76.6% of games won. To me that suggests that, despite the numbers (and without spending another hour looking into the stats more deeply), the Twins really have been holding it together on the mound. Yes a left handed reliever that can get 1-2 extra wins over the remainder of the season would be great, but having fewer games with anemic offense would win more games. So here's to getting past the boring trade deadline and hoping for offensive surges, improvements from the bottom of the barrel, and healthful and continued returns from the likes of Correa, Miranda, and Lewis, etc... IF they make it to the playoffs, anything is possible. If they continue to lay offensive eggs, we'll just have to move on.... pick up a new hobby, or get into hockey or something. Who knows, maybe if Pablo gets his old mojo back, they'll even win a couple of 2-1 games.

This team isn't good enough that one above average player they would get in trade would push them over the edge. If they want to make a playoff run they need all of their hitters to be able to perform when not playing the White Sox, As, and Rockies. Everyone has inflated numbers due to playing terrible teams for most of the year. They can do it, but everyone will have to hit better. Weirder things have happened. No amount of Kikuchi would fix this team.

People are mad they didn't get a pitcher. But most of the time when they lose it is because they can't score more than 2 runs. Even good pitchers give up on average of 3+ runs per game. This team is not currently good enough to make a playoff run and no trade will change that. Hopefully by the time October rolls around they are on a good roll and everyone is clicking. Only then will they have a chance... but in baseball, everything is possible. So let's watch them start now by destroying the Mets.

Festa might give up 5 or 6 runs, but I'll never blame pitchers for the loss when the offense refuses to score more than a run or two.

And Kepler looks to have survived the last 10 trade deadlines.

A warm body for a guy who can't hit in High A. A decent move if you don't trust anyone in St. Paul to fill in as needed. Can't be any worse than Okert or Thielbar have been. I'm not going to lose sleep over this one. More excited to see Dobby back actually.