tony&rodney

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.

Everyone loves a good rumor. I'm going to call b.s., however, on the $1.5 B offer for the Twins rumor and wonder how serious or at what price the Ishbia's were even interested in the Twins. The Twins market is tough and going to get much tougher in this economy. People might have to wait four years before the team sells. Now someone buying the White Sox. That has promise; big city that loves sports. I can buy that idea.

Whenever I watch the Twins play, I must confess that I never think about the Pohlads. Yesterday, I was watching both the Saints and the Twins (mostly the Saints during their innings 1-7) and never thought about who owns the Saints. Sometimes I wonder how the Twins roster was configured but I'm pretty sure the owners are out of the loop on that. I do hope the Twins ownership quandary is resolved in the best interest of many people's mental health.

Morris looked pretty good. He seemed like he was working on cutters and a few other pitches. The clippers couldn't do anything with his fastball, which was at 97 several times. Austin and Emmanuel seemed like they were trying too hard; over-swinging. Too many batters left on base and empty at bats. McCusker hit a couple very hard. I'm not liking the ABS challenge system at all. Either use it all the time or dump it altogether. I know ... 3 games in is a quick call.

60s. Hope the Twins don't expect that tropical weather in Minnesota.

Agree that Cartaya needs to work on his swing. He does seem to be improving on recognizing pitches compared to when I watched him a few times last season. Time will tell with his bat. On the other hand, Cartaya looks pretty good behind the plate. He is quick blocking the ball. Cartaya is still young and if he can improve just a bit he has an MLB future.

Austin Martin had a couple of highlight plays in leftfield. Keaschall looked fine at second base considering the time off from field play in games. He did get hit on his hand but there wasn't a report during the game. Matthews looked really good and it seemed like he was using a few pitches to work on getting swings out of the zone. Much like Festa last week, Matthews could have gone 8 innings. It makes some sense to pull him early in consideration of a promotion by May. Tough to judge Adams because there was such a significant difference in stuff compared to Zebby, but Adams pitched well.

The composition of the team is awkward at best. The general consensus is that the Twins plan on bashing the ball around the park for extra base hits and winning with power and good pitching. The pitching, despite a couple of fails early, should be good. The bats look weak thus far, something that can change today. The defense and team speed is deplorable though and will cost the Twins in more than just a few games. Looking at the roster position by position one must be openly biased to find more than a few positives. My love for how consistently Correa manages to make perfect throws to first base does not mean he is in the running as a top shortstop. He is good, not excellent. Buxton has lost his aggressiveness in centerfield. He no longer rates among the top centerfielders, but he is still good. Bader has been pretty good as a centerfielder in the past. I'm not ready to comment on his play in the corners, having seen nothing to date which qualifies as noteworthy. The remaining 10 position players are all below average on their good days. This is a fair synopsis of the team. What should be done? Can change occur without a change in front office and management? Based strictly on the record of the current group, the answer is no. The pile needs to be moved out. Now can people change? Yes, we always look positively for hope in the future. The air was putrid in Pittsburgh and Lake Erie was dead. Pittsburgh is clean now and Lake Erie is famous for walleye fishing. But then again, there are renewed calls that coal is best and polluted waters are necessary for industry. Things can and do change. What are the odds that our front office and management adopt a Kevin Cash or Terry Francona style of player/play? In October of 2023 the Twins had just won a short playoff series, a number of their players were overrated, and the time to trade was ripe. Instead everyone became saturated with talk about the Pohlads and payroll while opportunities were passed by in favor of rolling it back. 2024 came and went with a decline in value to several formerly coveted players. The team made a decision to roll it back. So here we are, hoping for 84 wins after a rough start to the season. Change happens. It cannot be stopped. Will Falvey and Baldelli change? I hope so, but I'm keeping my money in my pocket.

Understood and understandable. The team needs to sell and a clean sweep follows. In the meantime, Festa was fun to watch last week. Tampa Bay plays some real baseball. Every aspect of the game is possible within any one of their games. Also, the Rockies have great gloves at 1B, 3B, SS, and CF with average or better guys at all other positions. They are decided underdogs but were fun to watch. That is how I'm biding my time.