Muppet

It has not been Margot's year yet. But he is on the team, and until he isn't we can hope that he turns it around. Many others on the team have completely turned it around, so we know it is possible. Over the past 10 games Farmer has a slash line of .412 .500 . 647 1.147 after accumulating a slash line up to that point of .064 .200 .085 .285. Over the past 10 games Carlos Santana, while still no superstar, is hitting better. Kepler, who has been mostly terrible in the first half of every season is currently a rock star in right field. In the last 10 games Vazquez is hitting almost 300 and is a great defensive catcher and game caller. Yes Margot is the lone player who hasn't turned it around lately. On the plus side, as a departure from last year when they trotted out Gallo to bat first over and over and over again, they are now using Margot sparingly (not that Gallo and Margot are perfect comps or anything). Margot's even gotten a couple odd RBIs lately. Things right now that are more important and interesting than how bad Margot sucks: 1. Kyle Farmer is tearing it up after having an absolutely terrible start 2. SWR seems to be a much better MLB pitcher than an MiLB pitcher and is currently one of the most important rotation pieces that is performing much better than those previously occupying the hole he is plugging (i.e. Varland and DeSclafani). The rotation depth chart essentially ended BEFORE SWR and he is more than holding it all up. 3. Trevor Larnach and Jose Miranda, both of whom I had written off as ever being viable Twins players are playing like All Stars. 4. When Buxton went down, instead of clutching our collective pearls in despair, we all just shrugged it off as we all knew that Austin Martin could just come up and fill in. 5. While Austin Martin is filling in for Buxton, we can use Margot as a defensive replacement in late innings to slightly improve the outfield defense. So Margot isn't completely useless (though obviously still not optimal). Margot will be off the team when his time comes. Until then, I don't mind him being the only mostly worthless position player.

MLB Radio also give you the chance to work on your Spanish with ES broadcasts. I might not know what is going on, but I DID learn what ponches and bombas were...I think...

I sure hope these hot flashes with players like Miranda and Larnach continue when they play teams not named the White Sox.

Alcala is up

It might be nice to have an option to mute people for a set number of days (1 week?). That way I won't shut people out forever if they are just having an overly-emotional baseball day rather than just here to post endless complainey rants about their least favorite managers and owners.

Hey guys. The game is on! Let's In Play Run(s) this up!

A turnaround starts with one win. All those crappy bats can only really get better, right? Let's consider this one Opening Day.

Believe it or not, the inning has started and there are still no outs.

The bullpen is the strength of this team.

TODAY is the day they turn it around. Like magic, everyone will find their swings. Twins win 16-4. Led by Larnach.

Yes. This prediction quickly did not age well.

There's a team in Arizona?

Baily Ober will be in the top 3 of AL Cy Young votes.

This has to be a misprint. It says Buxton is leading off.

Looks like he has had 1 full year in the minors. My guess is that it would be better for his psychological and physical development to have another great year in the minors rather than a terrible year in the majors (which would be a distinct possibility). If Julien and Lewis continue to crush it in 24, and Lee has a better year in the minors, perhaps he is the piece that brings us our ace starter for the postseason. After all, it is hard to deny he is being blocked by three potential all star, hopefully MVP caliber infielders. One thing that I do seem to notice, though, that would support bringing him up early is that players don't seem to have a lot of time in the majors before people start talking about them as aging race horses. If he has his rookie year at 25, sophomore slump at 26, starts hitting his stride at 27 and 28 then by the time he should be in his peak he'll already be in the 'he's slowing down' 'his glove won't be as flashy anymore' or 'if he can stay healthy' category.

I'm hopeful but skeptical. Wallner might be a sophomore slump candidate. One thing I notice on his stat sheet is that he faced a lot of pretty bad teams. While the Twins have to beat the bad teams too, I'd still like to see a more ABs against teams that are better than AAAA. He DID dominate in his 9 PAs against the Blue Jays though.

I think this is precisely the idea that is up for debate now, which his why it would be interesting to see advanced metrics around this point somehow. IF increases in strikeouts is due to increased hitter patience and increases in strikeouts are also tied to increases in home runs, then perhaps increases in strikeouts are just different ways to get outs. Are more strikeouts tied to more runs overall? It is possible, which I think would be unfortunate because that would lead to more boring baseball. I like seeing people run from 2nd to 3rd on groundouts and people advance on pop outs, etc... But maybe, in total, those runners score less than they would with the 20% increase in team home runs making increased strikeouts a moot point. I'm sure none of this really matters. In 10 years we'll all be watching AI generated games with non-real people producing results via algorithmic calculations with fake human robots announcing "in play, run" in place of real announcers. Happy Monday to you too.

I have heard that a strikeout is just an out... but I'd bet if I knew where to look I could find the stats to examine this more closely. Is there a productive out stat? Something that measures the net movement of baserunners with batted outs? Maybe multiple stats where some measure rbis on outs (or sacrafices - sac squeeze/sac fly); others measuring runs moved up that eventually scored; and another stat that just measures runs moved up in s and non-s positions... All -DPs. It would be an interesting addition to a slash line that helps measure the difference between someone who can be clutch in less-than-two-out situations compared to someone like Correa who just hit into a DP whenever there was someone on first. Then again, there is such a things as too much information.

Margot hit .173 with 2 outs, but .336 with 0 outs. Heh... A new leadoff guy? Last year he also hit slightly better with RISP (.293) and a bit over .300 in ABs that were 'late or close' though both likely had too few PAs to be significant. (Those stats did not hold up over his career) Here's to hoping for a career year out of Margot!

Hell's yeah. Throw me on the small lump of fans that don't care about Sonny Gray or payroll. I'm more excited about this team than I was last year at this time. Last year was the first year I was excited about this team since Mauer and Morneau were coming off MVP seasons. This is the perfect time to think of every players ceilings and not their floors. We can replace Sonny Gray with Bailey Ober, Pablo Lopez, and Joe Ryan getting even better and Paddack and DeSclafani having successful returns from injury. The combo of Julien and Lewis remind me of a time when Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla or McGwire and Canseco were ready to define a team for years to come (though hopefully in the Twins case it works out much better in the end). The rest of the diamond is stacked. Really stacked. Not a single Gallo in the group. This is gonna be a great year. I'm gonna call it. Bailey Ober gets Cy Young votes this year.

No better time to be optimistic than before the first game.

I'd like to add to this that there is a decent chance that one or more from the list of Kirilloff, Wallner (yes Wallner..im not fully sold yet), Miranda, Vazquez, and Larnach makes significant sustained improvement. And those that don't can be quickly dumped back to AAA (in most cases) without giving them 100s of ABs that they'd give to a worthless player that they paid millions to acquire. With a healthy Correa and (supposedly) Buxton, along with Royce Lewis, and a Gallo sized hole filled with at minimum, mediocrity, they are already a much better team than they were at the start of the 2023 season.

As the season has not yet started and anything is possible, I am looking forward to a much improved lineup with Buxton and Correa fully recovered and a continuation of Julien's OBP and Royce Lewis vying for an MVP. Pablo will be solid, Paddack will impress, and Ryan might grow up a bit and get his jitters out. Maybe if Ober wins 15 and keeps his season ERA below 3.33 people will finally stop underestimating him. I expect nothing out of Varland or DeScalfini as starters, but with better offense I'm hoping it won't matter. Be patient is the correct move. This team is better than they were last year if the old guard gets healthy and Royce/Julien maintain their dominance. There is a lot of room for continued improvement with they young players they already have.

The Sonny Gray experience has shown that great pitching won't win if the team is on the wrong side of a 1-0 game. They need more bats.

I hope Gordon has a breakout year. He was never going to get a good opportunity on the Twins.