tony&rodney

Perhaps an unpopular take, but the Twins seem to be working hard. Right now the bats are just not able to score runs and the defense is about what can be expected for a team built for offense. I'm a little amazed that some folks were not able to appreciate that Simeon Woods Richardson pitched a pretty tough game. An average defense and he only gives up 2 runs. Finally, Kansas City is a pretty good team. Line up the Twins and Royals position by position and pick your team. Did you pick 2 or 3 Twins? Weight shifts to Pablo tomorrow but I'm giving SWR a big hand for tonight.

Yes, I know. The failure to give errors on 3/4 of all errors means earned runs and fewer errors, making the pitcher look less capable and the fielder looking better. Unless one actually watches the games it is nearly impossible to understand the game from the box score. There was a time when errors were charged. Bobby Witt Jr. is arguably the best shortstop in baseball today. He is fantastic. He had 705 assists in the last 2 years and only 27 errors. Zoilo Versalles was the AL MVP in 1965 with 487 assists and 39 errors. Ozzie Smith put up crazy numbers and was given a pile of errors. The fields are better today and I'm not judging Bobby Baseball, but it is relatively safe to suggest that errors were once commonly given where today there needs to be a clear egregious physical mistake to rate an error.

ERA and errors statistics are not really legitimate as seen in inning one.

Bader is a good centerfielder. not so much a good left fielder. Kind of feel sorry for him out there. Guess it is all the Twins got.

There is not a need to replace any players. The players on the roster need to make the plays and perform. No offense to either the suggestions or the players but the three noted are lesser options that the current guys. When and if the time comes for wholesale changes, the Twins will need to make significant trades and promote prospects. Does anyone see that occurring? I don't see that happening. The team is still expecting to win half or better of their games. Is it too early to be pessimistic for the Twins to be a contending team? That elusive opportunity dissolved several years ago when the current roster plans were birthed by the current front office. The Twins can potentially still contend in the AL Central and 84 wins is still a reasonable forecast.

Nobody needs to be sent down. The 4 available relievers are plenty adequate. Panic is not much of a plan. Going forward the Twins will need to think about where Paddack realistically fits, but Falvey won't allow that change yet. Falvey sets the roster, Baldelli decides who plays.

A while back there was some discussion of how many batted balls that should be outs actually wound up as base hits or errors. Well today was a game lost because of well below average defense. It is easy to see the number of runs scored and conclude the pitchers didn't do their jobs. That is only partially true. You can tick the box that puts this loss down to the defense.

Twins fans need to find some hope somewhere. The infield has Carlos Correa and a band of maybe can get betters. Line them up however you want: France, Gasper, Miranda, Julien, Castro, Lee, and Lewis. We can pick the 1B, 2B, and 3B out of a hat and be as correct as spending days searching for the right combination. Most people will automatically choose Lewis and even Lee because they were high draft choices and are identified as more valuable. Lewis does promise more but his availability and performance are no guarantee. Eventually it just comes down to who can deliver average or above average results at the plate and in the field. Those who suggest one or two are better than than another are merely toying with small sets of numbers and their own bias. None of these players has proven themselves as full time MLB players who deserve their name in the lineup for 2025 yet. Perhaps the Twins need to force the issue by identifying who is the starter at each position and remove the others via trades. Of course the time for that decision was each of the last two winters. The Twins are in a tough position because these players all take the field with less than full confidence from management. Lewis is likely an exception. Julien is the whipping boy of the group. Edouard must eliminate the demons of doubt if he is to have any success. Despite my concerns about Julien, the Twins will struggle more if he does not produce. I do think that Julien will lose his roster spot if he doesn't hit before Lee and Lewis return to the team, which won't be a positive move for the team. The front office designed this mess and I believe the team needs Julien to rule again in order to have a good year. While I hope it happens, I'm not putting much faith in it because I don't see Baldelli giving Julien the run he needs.

Personally, I love Keaschall's approach at the plate, but he has been swinging and missing a ton. Thus far he and Rodriguez look like they are trying to pull most everything into the third deck. They should both, hopefully, settle down.

Sounds like people believe that Royce Lewis is the only chance the Twins have. Where does Royce rank among AL Central third baseman? In a draft for the 2025 season, what players would you choose in which order to play third base for your team?

Yikes.

Festa had a very difficult time putting batters away. Tons of foul balls. Tough game for the Saints batters as well. Weather is ridiculous this time of year. I chuckled seeing the looks on the faces of the players (both teams).

The front office sat around and waited to sign or trade for an aging veteran or two the last couple of years. There were opportunities and it is hard to believe that no organization in baseball is willing to work out transactions with the Twins. So, here we are with the same team speed, below average defense, and iffy bats. Transactions/trades are difficult but rolling back the same team is tough too. I guess we just wait for a sale of the team when the house gets cleaned out.

Finding joy in someone's failure is a strange condition, one I cannot relate to.

If Walker can just let the game come to him, he will be a star. The swing is gold. Yes, people have said the swing looks very similar to Joe Mauer. Mauer didn't press or get too excited. He just hit a ton of line drives. I sure hope Jenkins stays healthy and thrives in baseball.

Great trade because it has generated a ton of articles and comments about Margot. Who even knew Margot would ever be that important in Twins history?

I can't exactly disagree with you on this but will suggest that Cleveland focuses on defense. We had this discussion a bit in March and someone would actually have to watch and code every game to find a decent way to judge the importance of defense. It would be more acceptable to have a handful of people watching a game and coming to an agreement on every play. Would that even work? I'm not a fan of the plethora of numbers inputted by a host of people as accurate of much because what is the chance that two, much less several dozen, people see the exact same play the same, especially when these guys collect their information from different places and in wildly different manners. I coded two games to start the year and the Twins rated very poor in the field but decided no way would I keep that up. So it is complicated. Yesterday, less than stellar defense allowed 3 runs to score (balk, infield in, misjudged fly ball). Even there, someone would argue. However, you are correct because the Twins not scoring pretty much means a loss most of the time. time for the offense to step up. Maybe the Twins should get players who are top defenders at every position who also win silver sluggers for their position.

Varland gave up a run because Bader took a few steps back and couldn't get a read on a fly ball out. Bader is a good outfielder but he is new to the corner outfield. He is playing fine, but no run scores if that simple fly ball is caught. Varland may not pan out as a relief pitcher but I'm guessing about 29 other teams would love to have him. On a similar note, Ryan gives up 2 runs on a single with the infield in on the grass in the 4th inning. I guess Rocco already knew the Twins were not going to score again but watching other games across baseball there aren't any other teams using that practice, at least in my SSS of a couple dozen games. The blame goes to Ryan for the balk but it might be an idea to concede a run in the early innings in a belief, perhaps false, that the Twins might score some runs.

Looked like Ryan wasn't settled on what to throw and he began his motion as he tried to step off. Brutal balk. I don't think Jeffers and Ryan seemed on the same page at times. Would have liked to see Jeffers call time there but Ryan takes the credit for the balk. A missed pitch to Walker and the balk were about it. Twins pitchers were good.

Real bad. He must have lost the ball for couple seconds.

Nevermind. stringer bell answered. Rocco does not think the Twins can score two more runs.

4th inning ... why is the infield in?

No, it was leaked nonsense. Happens.

Yes, I did. I watch too much milb. I'm in favor of using the ABS system full time. The reason I dislike the two challenges system is because we see a pile of bad calls after a team runs out of challenges. Last night McCusker had two bad calls against him in the same at bat. My suggestion if the ABS is not used at all is to grade the umpires and have a system of rewards in place for the best umpires and retrain or demote those umpires not doing a decent job. FWIW, I believe challenges calling for video reviews should be changed as well. I would allow 10 seconds for a challenge and allow 30 seconds for the review once the guys in New York have the video up. The 3-5 minute reviews are tedious.

Sad to say, but Miranda has looked bad thus far. Hopefully he hits starting today.