Greglw3

I agree, a pitcher of Ryan’s caliber only comes along once in a decade or once in a generation. The Twins are now getting passable offense with Carson McCusker, Emmanuel Rodriguez, Jeferson Morales (in my top 20), Brooks Lee (still maturing), Luke Keaschall, Kaelen Culpepper, Walker Jenkins and Kyle DeBarge all possible reinforcements. With a big 3 of the dominant Pablo Lopez, the dominant Joe Ryan and the near dominant Baily Ober. That’s 3 huge pieces toward a WS champion. If Paddack continues as against SF (a big if, maybe), and Richardson stays himself., the current rotation can win with average to slightly above average hitting. The Twins shouldn’t break up that big 3 which is potentially a big 3 to take them to the WS, possibly 3 sub 3.00 starters. What would help even more is not subtracting Ryan but adding Zebby Matthews if he can dominate in the Bigs, then you’ve got a legitimate WS contender, if a few things improve for the offense.

Seems Larnach was worse than Keirsey after 150 MLB AB and had to be sent down because he struck ut on any breaking stuff. Rodney could do it. Add in the 4 bases he’s stolen too. Slow starts to MB careers are very common, Torri Hunter, Matt Wallner and I remember the great all-star, gold glove, Chisox 3rd baseman Robin Ventura starting his career something like 1 for 42. Did you see Keirsey’s spectacular catch the other day. Stole a hit, same as getting one. so 7 bases, 2 singles, 4 stolen bases and 1 theft.

Yes, that was a very good move. One of his best, post 2018-19.

But Falvey still says to this day, "I have a ton of faith in the players in that locker room". Well there’s the problem. Falvey needs to enroll in a Strat-O-Matic league with sharp managers to learn the type of players it takes to win and the type of attentive, responsive, yes, aggressive managing it takes to win. Or he could watch film of the great tactician, Gene Mauch, who I consider the best Twins manager ever and one of the greatest managers in baseball history. Watch the whole 1976 or 1977 seasons and see what a GREAT manager looks like.

Your article is so on point that there’s little I can add. Any daily Twins fan mesmerized by all the .150s and .180s, .210s in the lineup day after day, could use 3rd grade math to see that lineup was going to be a drag. And the bench with all .1xx batting averages. That’s why the Keaschall injury was so heartbreaking. He and Lewis could have given a big jump. I’d strongly consider bringing up McCusker. Larnach is barely passable. Or start and outfield of Bader, Buxton and Keirsey and have the best defensive OF in baseball and give Keirsey his first sustained (200 AB) to see if that .300 hitter is still in there. But fly Rodney Cline out to help him with his bunting with the goal of 20 bunt hits the rest of the season. And set a goal of 100 stolen bases for Bader, Buxton and Keirsey the rest of the year. Shake it up! Let’s go!

A new manager might not run the stupid contact play into rally killing out after rally killing out. He/she might not play the infield in all the doggone time, giving up extra runs like early in today’s Boston game. He might not leave in struggling starters to give up 8-10 runs, thus giving up games that might have been salvaged and take out pitchers who have 7 IP 2 only to have the bullpen blow it. I think they may well start winning more games with an experienced baseball man. Could they have had Francona this last offseason?

What struck me as totally mind boggling is Falvey says he still has a tone of belief in the guys in that locker room, essentially the same team that has gone 26-47 last year til now. So tired of his excuse making, stonewalling and cluelessness. At least this year after a typically rotten offseason, he’s promoted Keaschall and acquired Bride and Clemens. He’s had this team 8 years and here we are losing record save one season where he actually tried in the offseason 2018-2019.

Luke Keaschall THE MAN! I haven’t been so impressed with a prospect since I guess, Royce Lewis!Walker Jenkins Hurry back, my man! I need to have my Rod Carew withdrawal symptoms satiated someday soon!Emmanuel Rodriguez Somewhat disappointing first 65 AB this year but I’m going by all the overwhelming plaudits from the experts. The season is young.Carson McCusker He’s hitting at a supreme level at AAA. He could force his way onto the Twins.Connor Prielipp Finally healthy. I took heart in his 3 shutout innings the other day. Love his BB to K ratio and WHIP. Almost 2 Ks per inning???!!! Hopefully he could come fast.Gabriel Gonzalez Somewhat intriguing and hopeful for me and his CR start is a pretty good one. As a fan of high batting averages and on base percentages I like the .368 he has. AT least this week!Kyle DeBarge Very impressive start at CR and only 21. A lot to like about Kyle DeBarge!Kaelen Culpepper A very good looking prospect. All signs point upward!Andrew Morris Rough start with IP to H and WHIP but hopefully dueling Zebby for top pitching callup soon.Ricardo Olivar Impressive track record, very nice start to 2025. A candidate for a guy when he reaches the majors of the well word but significant phrase "he’s hit everywhere he’s been" or "all he does is hit"Billy Amick Dang! Looks like a young Wade Boggs! Crazy good offensive stats in multiple years including this one. How long does A ball hold him?Tanner Schobel I liked what I saw in spring training and he’s playing pretty well at Wichita.Dasan Hill Only 19, 3+ years younger than those he’s playing with and a small sample dominant start to the season. Rubel Cespedes I probably have him higher than anybody but I’ve liked him ever since I became exposed to him repeatedly on TF’s minor league videos and he’s still doing pretty darn well with 15 RBIs in 60+ AB!Jeferson Morales Impressed mightily in broadcast spring training games. Impressed with a Catcher’s triple in St. Paul. The jury’s out but my eyes were opened.Brandon Winokur A bit disappointing so far except for the 11 BB in 75 AB.Danny De Andrade I like his OBP! Kinda low BAs but he’s only 21 and looked pretty steady in spring training!CJ Culpepper Uh, what is his injury? Because he’s pitched pretty darn well so far!DaShawn Keirsey Jr A personal favorite. Every out at the MLB level feels like a kick in the gut. Jury’s still out. I think the Twins should fly Rod Carew in and work with Keirsey on his bunting. Seriously! 30 bunt hits would boost that average and allow him to swipe bases. He looks like a guy with elite speed that is gonna outrun the ball most of the time on steals.Charlee Soto Performance way behind the hype so far Not a shred of evidence that Raya’s a top prospect. 3.5 innings per start over a long period of time is the ultimate head scratcher. And he’s off to a horrific start in 2025. Keaschall moves to the top of the list with his scintillating performance for the Twins. He looks like a future star and maybe a current one depending on the adjustment game. I’m excited by Walker Jenkins when he plays which is starting to fall into the Buxton, Lewis zone, unfortunately. His projections are just what the Twins need. They need a .300 hitter in their lineup badly! I went with players who are showing real promise. I would have probably put Zebby Mathews as the #1 pitching prospect in the system. Morris, yes, but the out of whack WHIP worries. Jose Rodriguez has a long way to go, right now I’d be hard pressed to bet on him.

Quality human being who donated his early Angels salary to charity because he felt so sheepish about his slow start!

That’s so off!!! The 1977 Twins had no pitching except their ace Dave Goltz. Look it up! With the 2024 Twins pitching staff, that 1977 team would have won 100 games or more.

Disagree. Show me 3 seasons of accomplishment from Tovar, Versalles or Cuddyer that equal the very lofty .318 batting average that Bostock had in his 3 seasons, punctuated by 62 extra base hits in a season. You’re basically penalizing Lyman for getting killed or being forced out of Minnesota by a super cheap owner paying him $20,000 for one of the best offensive seasons in Twins history. With the talent he had, he likely would have put up several more great seasons for the Twins if not for the (Corey Provus) aforementioned super-cheap owner who made no attempt to pay or retain any of his stars after the reserve clause died.

Maybe, but he was as a hitter what he was. It might be instructive to find the list of other players that averaged .318 over 3 consecutive years with one team and had over 600 plate appearances in 2 of them in the decade of the 1970s. Did the assassins bullet that killed him do anything to diminish the immense talent he had? And he had no choice to leave via free agency considering he played for an owner that, after the reserve clause was nullified, never, ever made any attempt to re-sign any player of value including Dave Goltz, Danny Ford, Rod Carew, Lyman Bostock, Larry Hisle, Tom Burgmeier, Bill Campbell, Gary Ward, Bert Blyleven.

I think it was really up to the all time king of cheapskates, Calvin Griffith. Had he retained Carew, Bostock (for only 500K for gosh sakes), Hisle, Bill Campbell, Tom Burgmeier, Adams, Cubbage, Dave Goltz and continued to build pitching, he would have made up those modest salaries in attendance and concessions, parking etc. To be paying Bostock $20,000 in one of the finest offensive seasons of the 1970s puts the onus on Calvin, not Lyman.

I don’t think Luis Arraez was ever a defensive wizard, or had a line like 36 doubles, 12 triples and 14 Hr = 62 extra base hits. Nor had 90 RBIs. Nor did he ever hit for Bostock’s averages of .323 and .336 in his two prime years. The unfortunate part is we’ll never know if the career trajectory that Lyman had established from 24-27 would have carried through. I think it would have but there we have it. Keep in mind that Kirby Puckett was cut a lot of slack in being elected to Cooperstown with an involuntary shortened career. For me, Lyman Bostock was one of the best hitters in Twins history. Yes, I love high batting averages (just look at the current Twins .198, .198, .220, .160, .218, .241, .245, etc. and you’ll understand why). The Twins current batting averages just listed can never, ever yield a winning team in any era. The 1977 Twins with Carew .388, Bostock .336, Adams .338, Hisle .302 by definition leads to runs in droves and winning, even with a sorry pitching staff. That team had a .282 team average. That’s fun!!! The other 70s Twins teams that I grew up on always hit with guys like Tony Oliva, Rod Carew, Steve Braun, Steve Brye, Roy Smalley, Mickey Hatcher, Glenn Adams, Ken Landreaux, Jim Holt, Bobby Darwin. I truly believe that Lyman Bostock, for the 4 years and, if he had lived, was a better hitter than Michael Cuddyer, Versalles and Tovar. And they all deserve their HOF status.

He was a gem! Oh, if I could go back, take the pen from Calvin and sign those two guys Carew and Bostock and Hisle, Bill Campbell, Danny Ford and Glenn Adams!

Just a comparison of lifetime batting average for players who are in the Twins Hall of Fame. Cesar Tovar: Twins lifetime batting average = .281 Michael Cuddyer: Twins lifetime batting average = .272 Zolio Versalles: Twins lifetime batting average = .250 Lyman Bostock: Twins lifetime batting average = .318 Bostock outhit 3 bona fide Twins Hall of Famers by 37, 46, 68 points respectively, an average of 50.33 batting average points per player for 3 existing THOFers!

In my opinion, Lyman Bostock deserves to be in the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame. I just became aware that he isn’t and felt a wave of incredulity come over me when I first thought about it. The only reason I can think of is that his career with the Twins was cut short by Calvin Griffith’s mind boggling penuriousness (he paid Bostock $20,000 in 1977 for what might had been an MVP season but for Rod Carew’s actual .388 MVP season). And another owner, Gene Autry, of the Angels signed him to a contract of around $500,000/yr for 5 years, 25 times what Griffith was paying him. One way to evaluate Bostock might be to conclude that he only played 4 seasons and to use SABR stats to evaluate him, which wouldn’t be fair. One thing I know, was that if Bostock could bring that 1977 season to the Twins now, they’d be a much better team! Bostock averaged .318 (.31755) for his Twins career. He lead off his Twins career with a .282 batting average, which wasn’t suggestive of the explosive hitter to come in the next two years in which he average, .323 and .336. I can’t prove it but I would ask other Twins fans who saw him play to chime in. I believe Bostock was very likely headed to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown before being tragically murdered after his 4th season. Imagine, this hitter, in the 3 hole for the 2025 Twins: .336 average with 36 doubles, 12 triples and 14 HRs with 90 RBIs. Add 660 plate appearances, 16 stolen bases, a .389 on base percentage and a .508 slugging percentage and you have one of the finest offensive seasons I’ve ever seen! I’m attaching the article I wrote for the Twins player project, which shows the very famous 19-12 win over the White Sox, which I listened to on the radio from my birthplace in Toledo, Ohio. Notice Bostock batted leadoff. in this days obviating the need for gaudy power stats. Bostock average 605 plate appearances for the last 3 years of his career, 2 with the Twins, 1 with the Angels. The mind blowing thing to consider is that Bostock put up that career .318 Twins average at the ages of 24, 25, and 26, before the advent of what is generally considered a baseball players prime year of 27. Bostock’s life was ended at 27 years old and he finished his career with a .311 average. This is the Google AI overview commenting on Lyman Bostock’s defensive ability: "Lyman Bostock was known for his exceptional defensive skills, particularly in center field, being described as one of the finest defensive outfielders in baseball. He was a multi-faceted player with speed and strong defensive abilities" It’s time to put Lyman Bostock into the Twins baseball Hall of Fame, post haste! Greg Allen

Alliterate brother!

Put quite simply, we’re getting Nootbarred! Time to let DaShawn play and see if his speed can remind us why it’s not OK for one team to have the Cardinals speed and their opponent very little.

I've experienced a 99% decline in dustups since leaving Twitter. Very refreshing! Surprised to see a little dustup but no comment, I haven’t read all the posts!

I was fine with the lineup but not necessarily the order. Wasn’t sure if it would be Gasper or Castro at 2B. Now if Pablo can avoid that one bad inning!

I had it too, then noticed all my data was gone, email, phone, etc. Re-filled that and restarted the computer and now have the honor of a rain delay screen. That’s progress!

Oooh! That’s a baseball nightmare!

Rain! A radar site said 61 minutes of rain which would put it about 4:30 CT? Does this match what anybody else is hearing

So home run hitting is more important now (I say it isn’t) because you could smoke cigarettes on the field? Same game. Twins need to, and, to Rocco’s credit, are changing their approach. A team needs about 3 power hitters, ideally, then higher average, higher on base guys, perhaps with moderate power sprinkled in to the other 6 slots. Stolen base ability a bonus. Twins got run of the field in the late innings last year by teams like Tampa Bay, Royals, Guardians.