Greglw3

Yes, I agree, which is why I mentioned Kopech and Bailey Ober as the top options. I agree the others like Bowman, etc. are, like you said, small changes around the margins but worth taking as a secondary step since they’re likely to be better than some of the truly awful 7-9 ERA guys we’re using. If they really wanted to get serious, they could go out and make a trade with all minor leaguers available except Rojas and Walker Jenkins, who is getting closer and closer!

I think Lee has stabilized significantly in the last 10 games or so defensively, especially turning double plays. Keaschall has had some misadventures but I see some stabilization from him over the last week. With Lewis, he seems to be sporadic, playing a little better defensively lately but truthfully, Tristan Gray is a better player offensively and defensively than Lewis, at least for now. The overarching problem is a historically bad bullpen. I’ve been following the Twins since a little boy in 1965 and this is by far the worst bullpen ever. The only rival to it was when Ron Davis was the closer and blowing games left and right. I wonder if Kopech is healthy enough to close. If so, they should go out and spend the money on him. Or if he’s not healthy, go with a rotation of Ryan, Bradley, Abel, Prielipp, maybe Morris or Festa and have Bailey Ober close games. Ober could pitch 2 inning saves and would be the quality of a real major league closer. Bowman has a 1.65 ERA at St. Paul and Kendry Rojas 1.32 AAA, 0.00 Twins. Roa unscored upon in 3 innings and 0.67 WHIP. Garcia isn’t going to work and Taylor Rogers probably not either. Banda not working out. It’s high time for Jeremy Zoll and Tom Pohlad to swing into action. Not another day with this bullpen!

I’ve heard references to Cal Raleigh’s offensive season in 2025 being the greatest offensive season for a Catcher in Baseball History. I respectfully disagree. Cal Raleigh’s batting average, OBP, Slugging percentage and OPS were: Average- .247, OBP- .359, Slg - .589, OPS - .948 26 year old Joe Mauer had the greatest offensive season of any catcher in baseball. Average - .365, OBP - .444 Slg - .587 OPS 1.031 Despite all Raleigh’s Home Runs, Mauer lead in batting average by a staggering 118 points, his .365 was objectively the highest single season batting average for a catcher in baseball history. Moneyball, on base pct., that which makes Austin Martin the Twins best offensive player on April 29, 2026. Mauer again leads by an overwhelming 85 points in on base percentage. Slugging percentage is a virtual wash. And Mauer leads in OPS by a decisive 83 points. Joe Mauer had the greatest offensive season for a Catcher in major league history. Can someone find a pic of Joe Mauer to head this blog? I’m not sure how to retrieve one from the Twins Daily library and don’t like to go fishing for a non-copyrighted photo on the internet. Thanks!

Buxton is way above an average center fielder at this point, if for no other reason that he is still as good as anybody in baseball at running down would be hits in the gaps. Still in the 99th - 100th percentile.

Yet another shining example of the ineptitude and misleading nature of a wide array of recently minted statistics. There are so many frequently quoted and frequently worthless or very misleading statistics out there. How many of the people revealing these shocking "truths" actually watch every game? Yes, for any student of the game and its history, the eye test IS valuable. The human brain is a wondrous thing! It started for me when someone said that advanced defensive metrics showed Carlos Correa as a below average SS, when he was having a spectacular defensive season, from range to extremely low errors, to a cannon arm that recorded myriad outs that would not have been outs by any other SS. I’ve watched shortstops from Ozzie Smith all the way through til today and it was clear that Correa was performing as a SS at a level very close to Ozzie Smith, the best defensive SS of my lifetime. Many other veteran observers marveled almost daily about Correa’s defense, including Roy Smalley, who is one of the most knowledgeable people alive about the game of baseball. So, someone says Correa is below average and the brilliant fielding (that year for sure) Gio Urshela is below average too. I read on Twins Daily that for the year that Correa was staggeringly great, Outs Above Average had him in the 18th percentile (higher is better). Total and complete nonsense. The original case, hotly debated in Twins Territory, that made me sour on one newer statistic, WAR, was the 2019 Eddie Rosario case. The year he hit 31 or 32 homers, had 109 RBIs, besting Nelson Cruz on his own team, and around a .274 batting average. He also threw out runners, including one that won a game at the plate. So, I hear a lot of folks saying that Eddie Rosario was a below average left fielder. My first reaction was, "that’s crazy". I did some research on WAR and the first thing I found that blew me away was that two prominent statistical sources had him a full WAR win apart!. What kind of a statistic is that? I’d never heard from one outlet that Rosario had 90 RBIs and another outlet that he had 120 RBIs. A statistic is supposed to measure something empirically quantifiable. Strike 1. Then I discovered that Rosario’s WAR had been calculated as 3.1 by one of those outlets but that with his defense considered, it was 0.9. There is no way that a player can play defense at a level that takes away 75% of his stellar value from being a premium offensive player, and definitely not Rosario circa 2019. Strike 2. Then I read a very thoughtful, logically built out and well explained article in November of 2021, by none other than Bill James, which systematically showed with examples and calculations that he and the rest of the SABR pioneers, though curious and well intentioned, had missed badly with WAR. He said it should be renamed WAG, for Wild Ass Guess. WAR had little to no value. Strike 3. The response I got on Twitter was not, OK, I’ll read the article with an open mind and see if it has value, but "Bill James is a bitter old man". On what basis were these claims made? Advanced defensive metrics, which as far as I know, have never undergone the scientific method of a hypothesis, comparative z-test or t-test at 95% confidence on the bell shaped curve, statistical critique and peer review, etc. There has never been any proof that any of these relatively newly minted statistics have any validity at all yet people put blind faith in stats such as WAR, OPS+, Outs above average (pure garbage stat), zone rating and on and on and on. Does it take advanced statistics to know that Michael Jordan was a great player? No, almost all of the talk of him as GOAT is based on the eye test. The eye test and watching every game a player plays beats all these counter-intuitive stats, in my opinion. I have some criticisms of Buxton’s game, mainly chasing too many pitches, which leads to some pretty brutal slumps but he always seems to come out of them and get ridiculously hot. I’ve watched every game except being blacked out in Nashville from Reds games (huh?) where I listened and I see Buxton making diving catches and routinely running down balls in the gap that most cf would not get to. I think he may have lost a smidge defensively but the analogy would be geez, Jordan has averaged 30 points a game for his whole career and now, at age 32, he’s only getting 28.7 ppg. The 66th percentile for Buxton, that was brought up on the broadcast justifiably got guffaws. From all the Twins baseball I watch, I’d say 95th to 98th percentile.

E Rodriguez defense in LF over Larnach is a big improvement and Austin Martin in RF over Wallner in RF is a big improvement plus Gray over Lewis at 3rd would represent some def. improvement and Culpepper would likely be an improvement def. over Keaschall at 2B. Plus the offense would improve markedly with Martin full time over Wallners .180 avg and avalanche of strikeouts, and E-Rod instead of Clemens would be an offensive advantage. So is all that defensive and offensive benefit outweighed by what Larnach may offer defensively at 1B? lF

I had hoped Zoll sans Falvey would be a bit more proactive and aggressive. It’s clearly time to draw the line in the sand with Wallner, Clemens, Lewis, Keaschall, Outman with options and DFAs. Let E-Rod, Culpepper and others have a go at it.

Mentioned as drags on the offense were Wallner, Clemens, Outman and Keashcall, which is true and also add Lewis, who looks totally lost and inept at the plate as a 5th ineffective bat and Byron Buxton is a bit better but carrying a low batting average. Bell and Caratini are regressing. The best hitters are Martin (by a mile), Lee (lately coming on) and Tristan Gray. Jeffers has been acceptable too. The biggest drag IMO is Wallner, who I’d replace now with Emmanuel Rodriguez. Keaschall probably needs to be sent down for a while and tough as it is, Clemens probably released. And Outman released. Lewis probably needs to be sent down and instructed sternly about stopping the relentless HR hunting and chasing of bad pitches and start learning how to really hit, up the middle, to right field. I think he was seduced by all those early home runs which has completely messed up his approach. I’d probably go with a revamped, forward looking lineup (until and if any trades can be made) of: LF - E. Rodriguez (G. Gonzalez or Fedko vs L) CF - Buxton RF - A. Martin 3B - Tristan Gray SS - B. Lee 2B - Kaelen Culpepper 1B - Larnach (Caratini/Jeffers vs L) C-Jeffers/Caratini DH - Bell/Caratini/Jeffers This isn’t perfect but could eliminate the .100 club hitters from the lineup, add a bit more speed in E-Rod and Culpepper)

The offense is again a big problem. SO why we’re playing strikeout king and .187 hitter Matt Wallner regularly, Kody Clemens at about .150 on a fairly regular basis is beyond me. Royce Lewis seems absolutely clueless about what it take to be a good hitter in the majors. He needs to call Rod Carew and have a talk. Keaschall’s sophomore slump is unfortunate but I think he’s probably got the best chance to recover. Seems Emmanual Rodriguez might be the most ready now. Call him up and send Wallner down. It may be better to play Tristan Gray at 3rd vs R than Lewis. He’s clearly a better hitter than Lewis now. Keep an eye on Jenkins and G Gonzalez with his developing power. And Outman is not gonna help with 2 hits every 25 games. The long shot might be calling up Hendry Mendez, he’s killing it in Wichita!

I think the original commenter who said "of course he’s hurt, it’s the Twins", wasn’t blaming the Twins, but merely making a fatalistic observation from a fan that loves his team but is bewildered at all the obstacles they have faced in recent years. Just the two cheap ownership groups in Griffith and Pohlad have been enough of a drag with nothing else considered for this near original Twins fan. Only the reserve clause covered up the effects of that cheapness and allowed Calvin to operate a somewhat successful franchise until free agency started Then heartbreak of a kind far more staggering than anything with the Pohlads ensued, with the franchise losing an unbelievable amount of talent in a short time. Nothing can surpass losing Blyleven, Bill Campbell, Dan Ford, Gary Ward, Carew, Bostock, Hisle and Dave Goltz in a very short time.

He was just about the brightest light in the whole organization. Now, definitely sign Giolito ASAP, you truly can never have too much pitching. This is a severe bummer! Double and Triple Ughh!

Kendry Rojas, 0.00 ERA and upper 90s fastball and good breaking stuff and Prielipp both have been called up. Now call up E-Rod or Roden for an optioned Wallner and I would call up Kaelen Culpepper, who plays an excellent SS and can hit and option Lee. They need a RHB to platoon in RF for Wallner, Roden or Rodriguez - permanently if Wallner and until Roden or Rodriguez can be eased into exposure to some lefties. Canha was released but I don’t know if he has enough left to be a platoon vs L, maybe Fedko or G. Gonzalez or scout around baseball and get a platoon bat for Rf. It’s working well in LF. They could still sign Giolito.

The truth is they don’t have anyone even close to a legitimate closer or even a reliable setup man. Jeremy Zoll needs to get on the phone. He does have an option left and they should call up Roden or Emmanuel Rodriguez and possibly trade for a right HB to platoon in RF or call up Fedko or Gonzalez only to hit vs lefties. Wallner is even worse than last year, very close to inept.

I hoped for more but when they decided to improve on the 92 loss team, plagued by inept offense, by using the exact same outfield against righties, which problematically includes a lifetime .241 hitter, who is not athletic and is plodding, and a hitter coming off a .202 season, who recorded the least RBIs of any 22 home run hitter in the history of baseball (since RBIs have been measured) and demoted the athletic and fast Austin Martin to a platoon player - I was aghast and I expect little. Why Larnach and Wallner and their extremely limiting toolsets are up and .560 OBP, 300+ hitting Alan Roden is down is maddening. And why Kaelen Culpepper isn’t up with this totally lifeless offense is frustrating. Culpepper oozes talent!!! They’d be better off with Culpepper at SS and Tristan Gray at 3B. The burden of proof is on Lewis and Lee and neither show a good professional hitting approach at the plate. And why Is James Outman up when he’s being used like Keirsey Jr. was last year? Sure keep all your speed vs righties on the bench and your most talented players in AAA. E-Rod might be able to help too.

I remember Bob Gorinski, Mark Funderburk, Randy Bass, the hot shot draftee Mike Sodders all the next great power hope that couldn’t make contact enough, although Funderburk was jettisoned with a .296 MLB average, not many PA. I saw him play and he could hit titanic home runs.