Greglw3

I decidedly do not believe in the WAR statistic. I agree with Bill James that it should be WAG for Wild Ass Guess. I don’t think Correa has had a bad year. For most of the year, he was sensational defensively. Just about as dominant as Buxton when he was hitting .160 some yrs ago. The batting average and plate discipline is disappointing but he still hit 18 HR as a SS and leads the team in RBIs. The problem may be that you believe in WAR more than RBIs and I believe in RBIs more than WAR. Justin Morneau has basically defended RBIs as important on air. I’d agree not Correa’s best season but still amazing when playing with a nasty case of plantar fasciitis. I don’t think you or I or probably even Rocco Baldelli understand why the injury affected his hitting and fielding radically differently. I know it didn’t affect that many hits-and-runs saving cannon of an arm.

Yes, it’s affected hs hitting but not his defense. Anybody can see that. And there are no SS in the minor leagues who are within 10,000 miles of Correa not any in MLB who are of the impact def. he is. Just his gun arm turns double plays no one else could turn and myriad close plays at 1st into outs. Plus radically low errors for a SS. The ANdrelton Simmons comparison is beyond absurd. I suspect you don’t watch all the games. As for Roy Smalley, it’s not just him but I saw Roy Smaley’swhole career w Twins, listen to him on TV and oh, the brilliant Gene Mauch who was listed as 25th greatest manager of all time is Roy’s Uncle. Roy was a SS and has a brilliant baseball mind.

Very little discussion here about Correa’s spectacular defense this year and please don’t quote me those totally absurd "advanced defensive metrics". Everyone who has watched all the games including Roy Smalley, scouts, announcers and fellow players know that Correa has been a huge defensive force.

I’d keep Gordon and grab Grichuk off waivers from the Angels and option or DFA Luplow and DFA Gallo

Yes! I remember Dear Mr. Fantasy although my first thorough and deeply satisfying immersion into Traffic was 'Low Spark of High Heel Boys'. What a great album, especially the title track was pure genius! I think I’ve definitely gravitated toward some of what I think is a really good AAA batch of hitters because the Twins hitting has been so bad this year, on balance. I remember listening to Herb Carneal through much of the 70’s and they would usually have a team batting average in the low .270s with guys like Carew, Braun, Holt, Oliva, Darwin then the incredible 1977 Twins who I want to say had a team batting average of .282. Compared to .239 this year. I saw some significant footage of DaShawn Keirsey, Jr. and he looks like he has a real nice swing like a Randy Bush, Jim Eisenreich or Edouard Julien. If I was them, I’d at least call him up in September. I still remember the episode of Coggins and Bumbry in Baltimore!

Rod Carew 1977 by a landslide.

Tell that to Julien, Lewis and Wallner. And Kirby Puckett who was hitting upper .230s to low .240s before his Gallup from Toledo to Twins when I lived in Toledo. My point is Joey Gallo is not the Major League either. Look up Rich Coggins and Al Bumbry who were called up by the Orioles when they were going nowhere and they both hit around .330, at least for awhile and the Orioles rallied big time.

Good point on Kirilloff if he can get his wrist/shoulder healthy for an extended period of time. I just wanted to get two talented hitters in with a shortage of positions. Yes, for right now, thus Buxton and Kirilloff displaced and I’m still not an overall believer in Kepler and surely not Gallo. I do like high average guys and high on-base guys (moneyball) mixed with a few power hitters and a Tony O type guy would count toward that.

I made this out for what would have most upside and current value. Buxton has been a big drag on the offense and he can’t plY in the field and majority of time injured. Will that change? I hope so.

With Julien, Wallner and Lewis breathing life into a listless offense recently, I thought ahead to the possibilities of even more help from St. Paul and a much more robust offense with several high on base guys mixed with power and potential high batting averages. Here’s what I came up with. 2B Julien .OBP .386 CF Martin OBP .377 3B Lewis AVg. .343 OBP .380 SS Correa All World Defense and 15 HR now is best I can do C Jeffers Protection for Correa RF Wallner OBP .341 SLG .523 LF B. Lee Potential high average and X Base hits 1B C Williams OBP .369 19 HR DH Prato Avg. .312 OBP .465 SLG .578 What do you think?

I’d be in favor of calling him up. He was impressive late last year.

It is a fact that Rocco has run out lineups recently with 5 hitters <= .234 and 7 hitters low .240s or below. So that would buttress your theory Mr. Gladden! The real question is why have we been carrying a .180ish hitter as a regular in the lineup all season?

While Souhan has a point, in that if the Twins get into the playoffs, its not unthinkable that they could get on a roll with Lopez, Gray, Maeda/Ober, maybe Ryan if he gets healthy. That analogy is good. Where the analogy isn’t so good centers around 2 key points and a minor one: 1- The Twins OF of Gladden, Puckett and Brunanskey was far superior to the low batting average OF of the 2023 Twins. I’d say the same about the IF of Gaetti, Smalley, Lombardozzi and Hrbek but Julian and Lewis are seriously mitigating that difference but still... You could even give the Catcher win to the 2023 Twins. 2- I think a lot of people are not aware of this but when the Twins clinched the division, they were 85-72, 13 games over .500. I followed that team extremely closely. At that pace they would have won 88 games. Might have won 90. TK decided to play virtual spring training lineups for ALL of the remaining 5 games. I must have been a cork sniffer 'cause I was very disappointed in that because I thought it would stain the reputation of a very good team, a possible 90 win team and it has. When he compares the 85 wins to the 84 wins, I call foul for the reasons described above. 3- The minor point is that Les Straker was not a horrible pitcher with around a 4.5 ERA and actually gave up 5 less hits than IP. Andy MacPhail did a better job of supplementing the bullpen than Falvey has although that could be arguable. The ERAs of the bullpen don’t blow one away but additions of Berenguer and Reardon were key. I’m not buying his article although I just read the start of it and your description of it. The Twins offense has been badly mismanaged both in the offseason and at the trade deadline. The bullpen, obviously lacking was not addressed. So, frankly Twins fans do have something to snoot about. Again, the mitigation is the astonishing ascendance of Julien and Lewis, who we knew was great. Counterbalancing that, the FO deserves credit for putting together a rotation of Lopez, Gray, Ryan, Maeda, Ober, Varland and I suppose Mahle, I feel like I might be missing somebody but the point is the same. I also feel that Rocco Baldelli has made big strides as a manager in several different areas, bunting, safety squeezing, stealing and platooning to help win games that the one-dimensional approach wouldn’t have. I was a critic of his but have to give him credit where credit is due. If things come together, as Lopez seems to be gathering more and more steam, Gray keeps his ERA around 3 and if Duran comes back strong and Jax pitches really well and even Pagan (that blow 'em away inning recently, good old country hardball, was extremely impressive and called to mind Goose Gossage and Mark Littel of the Royals. Maybe Ober or Maeda or Ryan steps up big as the 3rd cog, that’s the strength of Souhan’s argument.

Julien has now been playing well at 2B. Improving rapidly. No need for a move.

I have to agree with you about the offensive part of the game and Polanco of Julien should probably bat leadoff. I have no insight aside from the plantar fasciitis but wonder if the defect to the right ankle area that the Giants and the Mets were so deeply concerned about is affecting him. He’s chasing a lot, just showing no command of the strike zone. Such a contrast to Julien. The only thing I’d submit is that Correa’s defense has been superb, back to platinum glove level (I don’t give any credence to the new wave defensive metrics, I trust my observation of the game and the observations of baseball people that I trust). I think Correa has saved numerous base hits with his defense but then basically completely offset that value with he meager offense. Maybe in the playoffs behind a Pablo Lopez and Sonny Gray it will swing to his defense doing far more good than his offense bad.

Except Gladden is far better than Gallo, Puckett is worlds better than MAT and Brunansky is light years better than Kepler. I maintain that aside from Buxton and Correa, the Twins OF construction coming into 2023 was a colossal mistake and misjudgment and is the weakness on the team costing them from going 10 games over .500 and higher. The FO blew it in the offseason and now blew it again. I’d rather them play Andrew Stevenson or DaShawn Kersey than Gallo but there he is and now Rocco is starting to have to hide him to help the team.

AGree with calling up Stevenson and putting him in cf.

It's great when you can pick out one number to take down a player. Are you aware that OPS+ unfairly heavily favors power hitters like Gallo with a .183 average. Castro is hitting 60 points above that, has 21 steals and can bunt and bring home crucial runs that win games. You can have Gallo’s 20 extra OPS+ points but Willi Castro is more athletic that Gallo, gets many more hits and steals infinitely more bases. He can bunt, squeeze which Gallo can’t. Plus Castro is super versatile and plays very good defense. Speed never slumps. I’ll take Willi Castro every day of the week, OPS+ be damned.

I think there are 3 players not including Larnach in the lineup that could help the Twins and one of them plays cf and is having a monster season.

Really good thoughts! A functioning Buxton in CF, a returned Lewis, a Polanco at 80% and importantly the bright, emerging hitter in Julien, would be like making a trade. I still think Wallner or Stevenson or Williams or perhaps DaShawn Kiersey should get a shot but we’ll see.

Whether one thinks Stevenson can’t do well for the Twins because he’s 29 and therefore not a prospect. Facts: He is hitting .321, 100 points above Taylor, He has 31 stolen bases in 274 AB, half a season, or an MLB pace around 62 SB. He has 63 runs in half a season, a .400 OBP and a .907 OPS. What more do they want a guy to do to earn a chance? Are we keeping guys like this and Wallner down because the front office screwed up ROYALLY in going into the season with Gallo and Kepler as full timers. Its just inexcusable to me and why the first firing would be Falvey. Where does the buck stop? Anywhere?

That's the most right on response I can think of!

Good article Seth, make that great article! Lots of good tidbits and the one from Doug Mientkiewic (sp?) is really fun. It just sounds like a killer first three picks. Can’t wait to start following them! Walker Jenkins sounds really exciting and I saw footage of him driving the ball to all fields. It sounds like all 3 could make it to the majors!

Here here!

I totally agree. To go through the offseason and eschew so many good hitters and assemble what may be the worst hitting OF in BB history .192, .215, .198 represents gross incompetence. I would change the FO, the manager and several players right now. That Falvey has allowed this to drag on this long is a complete disgrace. .192, .215, .198. Maybe they should have been forced to look at their Strat-O-Matic cards to see just how lousy they were in comparison to a normal player.