Greglw3

think he would if promised by Falvey, no pre-planned or any time interference, i.e. let me do what I did in Tampa. I heard he wants to manage again under those conditions but Falvey probably won’t call him.

I like your plan with all the hirings but I think the most important influence would be Rod Carew! Wallner is unusable anywhere, IMO, if he doesn’t start making better contact, stop swinging from the hips constantly and put the ball in play more often. I totally discount wRC+ and OPS+ in his case because those stats are biased very strongly in his direction, ignoring the .204 batting average and the historic low of about 40 RBIs on 22 HRs, which indicate aside from the HR (which were not as a group as impactful to games as Clemens’) means for the whole season, he drove in roughly 5-10 runs on SF, Groundout, 1B, 2B, 3B, BB, HBP. All the while making no attempt at adjusting his approach to mitigate the massive holes in his strike zone. I think he’s a big risk for a team looking to clean house, start over, new approach, different direction, etc. I’d rather try Gabriel Gonzalez there, if he has a good spring due to his monster offensive numbers at 3 levels in 2025. Or sign a 1B who hits like Binentendi in or near his prime. Every position is crucial to fixing this severe offensive problem the Twins have.

Weeks would be a good selection for giving the team a good direction, I think!

I’d choose Joe Maddon, arguably the most effective manager and strategist in MLB over the last 30 years (only Francona and Leyland in his class and neither a likely candidate). It would have to come with a promise from Falvey that he would give Maddon full reign in decision making. Maddon’s formidable abilities as a manager who runs a game extremely well, and as a tactician would be a big improvement over Rocco’s often head scratching decisions. A Google search got me this: Joe Maddon has a strong case for the Baseball Hall of Fame, primarily due to his 2008 World Series win with the Chicago Cubs after a 108-year drought, two World Series appearances, three Manager of the Year awards, and success turning around the Tampa Bay Rays

I agree about the changes to the 13 position players. The Twins need to get back to their roots and have a good hitting team. The farm system offers hope in combination with maybe two trades or free agents. Only sure things for me are Buxton, Keaschall, Lewis and Martin, maybe Jeffers. I had heard that the running game thing emanated from Jayce Tingler going to Baldelli and suggesting it. I hope they keep that up and find a lineup that can win in multiple ways rather than the wait for the HR approach they’ve embraced since the intoxication of 2019! And a really good manager capable of being on top of in game management, strategy and hopefully more stable lineups.

I rooted for Outman like nobody’s business but he just didn’t hit. I think he has to be cut loose even though he showed flashes of defense, speed and power but he hit below .200. Kody Clemens hit .215 and Wallner .204 and was historically inept in driving in runs. For Outman, but all these guys, a 26 man roster spot over Jenkins, G. Gonzalez (possibly the Twins best hitting prospect), Fedko, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Hendry Mendez, Kaelen Culpepper, Allen Roden or a possible traded-for hitter that hits .280-.290 isn’t warranted IMO. I even still think Eddie Julien has a chance. Maybe somewhere else. I think the Twins offense has been a chronic limiting factor for most of the last 5 years with way too many sub .200 hitters and low .200s hitters. I just don’t think you can win that way.. I think the pitching with Lopez, Ryan, Woods Richardson, Abel, Taj Bradley, Andrew Morris is way ahead of the offense which is a five alarm fire. The 8 hitting prospects I named are very exciting, IMO, and I would try as many of them as necessary around Buxton. I think the risk at this critical juncture in Twins history with Larnach and Wallner’s mediocrity and ineptitude respectively is not worth it. I could possibly see retaining Outman at AAA and if he could fight his way back and excel, great.

Bring back Andy McPhail!!! Best was GM ever by a landslide.

And therein lies the rest of the problem with the Twins hierarchy.... short of the "damn we failed to contract the team" Pohlads.

Joe Maddon would be the best on field tactician and run a game by far better than Rocco. Must add hitting but Madden is in a small group of 3 living managers who would instantly solve the myriad quirky ways Baldelli managed games including his lineups. Terry Francona (not available), Jim Leyland (too old??) and Joe Maddon. For me, he way he managed the Rays was flat out intimidating as his opponent. Excellence to the core.

The above league average hitter shows the weakness and depth of the flaw of the OPS+ stat, which rewards hitters with a high slugging percentage very disproportionately vs a play who can really hit, like Austin Martin or Luke Keaschall. I watch all the games, have a long history following the Twins and for a key cog in a team’s batting order, that was one of the worst offensive season’s in Twins history. I’ve never seen a player with a bigger hole in his swing than Wallner and he made no attempt to adjust but soon from the heals all season long. Bringing back Larnach and Wallner would conjure up the old saying, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. I don’ thin the Twins can take that risk. I agree a trade for a .280+ hitter with .360+ on base skills would be a good start to fixing this long broken offense. Plus we have Walker Jenkins, Gabriel Gonzalez (who hit .300 at all levels this year for a cumulative .329), Kyler Fedko, Emmanuel Rodriguez at AAA who I would start developing over the two incumbents who haven’t worked out if you’re a team aiming for excellence. They also have 21 year old Hendry Mendez, acquired in the Bader trade, who hit very well at Wichita, well over .300. And we have Kaelen Culpepper. Allen Roden may pan out. Even though I really rooted for him, Outman looks iffy, at best, but I’d still bring him to spring training. If the Pohlads would step aside and new owners replace the inept Falvey and fire Baldelli and his coaching staff, a significant turnaround could be possible.

I’d say, acknowledging that this is a very painful period in Twins history, equaled only by Calvin Griffith’s mass exodus allowed in the 70s, that it is a good thing. I firmly believe that being a fan that gets the most out of fandom is sticking with it through thick and thin, which I’ve done from 1964-5 until today, having seen my first Twins game as an exhibition game in 1964 as an 8 year old at Tinker Field in Orlando. Despite the painful periods, there’s been a lot of highs. Rod Carew and his 4 seasons of .350 - .388 averages in a 5 year period. Joe Mauer in his prime. The incomparable Herb Carneal. Roy Smalley’s color commentary. Getting to watch the brilliant Gene Mauch. Loving Lyman Bostock. The 1977 team, the best offensive team I ever saw (and probably the worst pitching team). Even now, when the Twins seem to have no cohesive, winning approach to hitting at the MLB level, I enjoy Brooks Lee, Byron Buxton, Royce Lewis, Austin Martin, and very excited about: Gabriel Gonzalez, Walker Jenkins, Kyler Fedko, Kaelin Culpepper, Hendry Mendez, Ka’lai Rosario, maybe Gallagher and Armstrong, maybe Kendry Rojas and even possibly Aaron Sabato. Hoping for the best with Abel and Bradley. And I really love and believe in Zebby Matthews! I still watch every game, even though it can be very frustrating but I do see Lewis growing, Lee a few chases from being a good hitter. So, that’s my long winded endorsement for the value of hanging in there, as tough as that is!

I think WAR is a totally useless statistic and even Bill James agrees with me. It’s wildly flawed by including the advanced defensive metrics, which are a recent "experiment" that produces absurd evaluation after absurd evaluation. When Correa was having his best defensive season here, he ranked in the 18th percentile for OAA, one of the worst. Correa simply said, "of course I have a low outs above average, we have a flyball staff". My first clue was when 2019 Eddie Rosario had a 0.9 WAR. On further research, I found that his WAR was 3.1 but the formula subtracted all but 0.9 for some dubious, neophyte defensive metrics that attempt to measure the impossible - a players range, arm and all the other nuanced factors that go into making a good defensive player. I’ll take a scouts (especially a cross section of scouts) evaluation any day, using the 20 to 80 scale on myriad factors. The other weird thing is Wins against Replacement. Who is this fictitious player? Is it someone on the players team who would be next in line? Or a AAA player? It’s so nebulous on its face. And crazily enough, I’m not sure if it was Rosario or not but I looked at the same player and he had a full 1.0 difference in his WAR from one publisher of WAR to another.

Don't forget the 77 Twins had one of the worst pitching staffs ever assembled, which is why their .282 team batting average was a huge factor in them finishing 7 games above .500. My main point is, it doesn’t have to be Arraez but the Twins have to stop fielding teams with as many as 5 .220 or below hitters. I especially like Gonzalez and Culpepper and Jenkins is maybe a little behind them.

Lies, damned lies and statistics and I got an A in every statistics class I ever took, including some pretty intense stuff in Predictive Analytics at Northwestern. Arraez hit .354 for a whole MLB season with a .393 OBP, .861 OPS. OPS and OPS+ are both distorted by SLG% and those who play the role of setup man, leadoff or #2 hitters don’t need to hit with power. OPS or OPS+ should never be one size fits all statistics. WHo’s the last player in baseball that hit .354 for a whole season? Focusing in 2025 with a month left is very misleading. Arraez full season batting averages are .334, .321, .294, .316, .354, .314, .299, .318 and the partial .283. Luis Arraez has a lifetime batting average of .316, vastly better than any of the current Twins and they’re all of the same generation. Lifetime .363 on base %. I would underscore the failure of the SABR descendent statistics with those claiming Matt Wallner is an above average hitter, hitting about .210 with tons of runners stranded due to his rarely connecting bat and ball. Someone just told me that, that Wallner is an above average hitter. These horrible statistics that require nuance to properly interpret them are misleading a lot of people. Wallner illustrates the folly of OPS+, a very biased stat for HR hitters, with his historic 20 HR and 35 RBIs. As Corey Provus mentioned that’s the lowest RBI total for 20 HR since the advent of the RBI stat in 1920. 15 solo HR, mostly worthless. With the other 5 being at least 2 run HR, he must have about 8-10 RBI on non-HRs, a truly horrible record. .209 average, almost no ability to drive in any meaningful runs and he has a OPS+ of 120! The formula ignores context, even as extreme as Wallner's and as such is laughable to me. My point is in 2025, Luis Arraez has 49 Runs Batted in, RBIs, 14 more than Matt Wallner. To score runs, you have to have hitters capable of driving in runs. Even Brooks Lee has 56 RBIs to Wallner’s 35 RBIs. Power is overrated. The Twins have proven that over the last 5 years. The resulting low batting averages have killed the Twins offenses, Max Kepler, Jake Cave, Kody Clemens, Matt Wallner, Michael A. Taylor, Christian Vazquez all hurting the Twins. I’d like to see Gabriel Gonzalez who’s hit .300 at 3 levels this year get a chance as well as Kaelen Culpepper, Kyler Fedko, And Hendry Mendez with Jenkins when he’s ready. The Twins need to expunge all the low batting averages and replace them with situationally adaptable hitters.

Very well written and long live batting average and RBIs!!! Maybe you have to have experienced it, but my beloved 1977 Twins with batting averages of .388 (Carew), .336 (Bostock), .338 (Glenn Adams) and .302 (Hisle) taught me the value of a team of hitters who could hit for high batting averages and the HRs in that group were 14, 14, 10?, 28. Triples were off the charts with Carew 14 and Bostock 12. Speed and the ability to manipulate the bat of those 1977 players is like Arraez for his career. They called Carew’s ba, 'The Magic Wand'! I’d prefer any of those guys to 2025 Wallner with all the K and low batting average and unprecedented 20 HR with only 35 RBIs!!! What, maybe 8-10 RBIs all year sans HR???!!!

Bill James wrote an article in November of 2021 where he completely picked apart WAR with an intelligent and systematic analysis. It’s a wildly flawed statistic and should never be applied to two totally different types of players. In fact, it shouldn’t be used at all. Bill James concluded that instead of WAR, it should be known as WAG for wild ass guess. Read his article. Yes, the Twins should bring back Luis Arraez. A 3 time batting titlest is just what the Twins need. They’d score a lot more runs with his low strikeout, high contact approach.

I’d like to see Gabriel Gonzalez, who’s risen all 3 levels this year and Fedko.

Its a sad commentary on the Twins organizational OF depth and attention to offense in their scouting, trading and free agency when a .209 hitter who routinely whiffs on 95 mph major league fastballs and has the horrific production stat of 16 HR and 28 RBIs could be the #2 depth option. I’d rather bring up Jenkins, Fedko or Gonzalez than give away an out almost 80% of ABs to the other team. Wallner should be held to the same standard as everyone else and have to perform to stay in the major leagues. If he can right himself in the minors like he has before, then he should return.

You can have the player with 16 HR, 28 RBIs and routinely swings and misses at 95 mph fastballs. You say outs should not be wasted but by sending a .208 hitter to the plate you’re giving the other team an automatic out almost 80% of the time. What do you think it means that Brooks Lee has a 53-28 RBI advantage over Wallner (when Wallner should be driving in runs)? As Justin Morneau often says, the object of the game is to score more runs and somebody has to drive them in. Clearly some players approach is much better than others. It’s a skill with an approach that needs to be used and it’s not relentlessly striking out and hitting .209. Honestly, Matt Wallner should not be in the Major Leagues right now. Even his home runs are much less on the clutch side than even his fellow .209 hitter Kody Clemens, who has a knack for driving in runs and makes contact with 95 mph fastballs. I’d replace him with Fedko or Gonzalez, even Walker Jenkins who, in truth is probably ready now just as Gaetti, Bush, Laudner, Hrbek were all ready when called up from A and AA in early 80s.

Not so hilarious if you think the totally biased statistic toward power hitters is more indicative of the offensive value of Lee vs. Wallner. I’ll never go for a .211 hitter. Surest way to losing there is. By your theory, Joey Gallo’s .177, nearly 50% strikeout season was worth more than Lee’s 2025. I agree about the chasing. But I think Lee will work through it and improve. If Wallner figures it out, he’s got a chance to be a big asset. I grew up on strong offensive Twins teams, Oliva, Allison, Tovar, Carew, Killebrew, Steve Braun, Jim Holt, Larry Hisle, Lyman Bostock, Bobby Darwin, Roy Smalley, Mickey Hatcher. That’s why I have no patience for hitters with Jake Cave, Max Kepler, Matt Wallner, Joey Gallo batting averages. I like Clemens but quite sadly, a .210 batting average is not going to make it. I think the future is bright. I like Jenkins, Gonzalez, Hendry Mendez for the Wind Surge who is hitting .375 since joining them, Kyler Fedko and Culpepper. I think 70% Lewis will be a force. Allen Roden has the right resume and showed flashes of a multi tool player, but an incomplete for now Pitching is the key to winning but a team can negate that with a hapless offense filled with .150, .198, .210 and .220 batting averages. Those spots need to be corrected if at all possible. Falvey’s done a less than stellar job of that but I think they could well be on the precipice of a good offense.

Yes, I think Brooks Lee leads Matt Wallner 52-28 in RBIs! That is very significant on both sides. Lee does have a problem occasionally chasing pitcher’s pitches and I think it’s probably related to the adrenaline rush he gets when he hits a home run. That’s Lee’s assignment. Spray the ball around and hit maybe 16-20 HR and play great SS. As Bob Casey would say, "Chasing is not permitted at Target Field. Nooooo CHASING!" Just keep growing. Wallner is closer to the Miranda black hole in space, IMO. His approach is awful and the occasional bomb not worth all the strikeouts. Cody Clemens is another one, the HR are not worth the low batting average. The Twins have made an art of concocting inept offenses with myriad low batting averages for too many years now. I think by their trades and guys like Jenkins, Culpepper, Gonzalez they may have seen the light.

I agree with this. For me, while Jenkins is a very exciting prospect, I think Keaschall has passed Jenkins. If Keaschall is eligible, he’s my #1 prospect. If he’s not, it’s then Jenkins->Culpepper. From there, I’m liking Abel, Hendry Mendez, Tait, Kyler Fedko, Prielipp, Kendry Rojas and Gabriel Gonzalez not necessarily in that order. Sleeper is Ryan Gallagher.

You may be right but I hate it when that happens!

I do like Clemens and his clutch propensity and I root hard for him, but I have a deep aversion to .218ish batting averages. I don’t think you can win that way.

They need to finish the job. Still way too many .190, .215 hitters in the Twins lineup. I don’t think Larnach is part of the solution nor certainly are Clemens, Gasper, and pains me to say Keirsey, touch and go on Julien. Martin is a keeper but why did Rocco bench him after he went 3 for 5 in his 1st game? Consistently terrible managing for years. Players I would like to see on the 26 man and/or back in the lineup ASAP are Buxton and Keaschall. Then, Gabriel Gonzalez may well be ready to hit more than some of the dead weight offense still left over. And possibly, give Sabato a shot at 1B. Kyler Fedko may well be worth a look. And I would not rule out Culpepper and Jenkins as they are part of the future and are tearing up AA. Rodriguez is anybody’s guess due to chronic injury.