tony&rodney

It CAN be hard to watch. The pitchers all throw as hard as the guys in MLB but they don't know where the ball is going. The fields are really nice but not as nice as MLB. Baseball takes focus and youth are more likely to be thinking about hitting than fielding. Even the best gloves cannot field their way to the big leagues. So the minor leagues is a progression of learning with many mistakes with occasional instances of pure brilliance. The box scores and statistics don't exactly tell us much information that helps a fan identify who is or isn't a player nearly as much as watching the games.

This was my exact thought. The article, with videos and comparisons, is excellent. All of the data and defensive statistics can be somewhat useful but we have seen this with our eyes and Byron Buxton is still a good centerfielder, just not elite. The Twins need him healthy. The problems everywhere else are eye-popping. Sadly, we even see less than stellar fielding from our pitchers. Baseball is a tough game when only one of your nine defenders reaches the average level.

Popped off bag on slide.

Well, the Twins did trade Polanco who had better production at times both before and after he was traded than Lewis is ever likely to reach. I wasn't opposed to trading Polanco. It is about the return. Also I was open to the options of selling high on Julien and Lewis in 2023 as a possible course of action. Luis Arraez won a batting title and was traded for Pablo Lopez. Morneau? That was a silly add-on. You might have melted if Julien and Lewis were traded in 2023 but others may have been ok. The trick is to look for possibilities now or in late July or in October/November. Every team has to consider their options. Do the Twins have a player that cannot be traded because it would hurt the team? I can answer that only if I know the return.

This is what the front office designed. We get to watch it. The pitchers are not helped out by the poor defense either, so it is what it is. If Rojas (wild thing) and Morris are capable of pitching three times a week in one inning stints, there may be an answer. David Festa may join the bullpen in June. The is a few good arms. No secret that the bullpen was going to be a tough watch. Hard to blame players doing the best they can given their experience and current level of expertise. The lack of decent gloves and lousy bats are more concerning to me.

Royce, along with Julien, should have been traded in October of 2023. Their value was high. Here we are .... end of April in 2026 and we are still wishing for luck.

Wasn't talking to you.

Interesting comment. Julien seemed to draw interest on TD. I was hoping the Twins could trade Julien at the close of the 2023 season. I took a beating on TD for defending him the last two years. I have a hard time differentiating Julien from Clemens, Gray, Lee, Lewis, and other crappy Twins infielders. Julien took a whooping from the comments on this site and none of those players did anything to distinguish themselves above Julien. Lewis in particular has received a ton of love. Currently, Luke Keaschall is a favored player who is really struggling. I think it is too early to pass much judgment on Keaschall, but his defense is not very good and the bat is having a rough start. I'm keeping Keaschall to see what he can do but it was always interesting for me to read the venom towards Julien when he was probably better than the host of guys getting more credit from an objective viewpoint. Still, I did see the Twins as benefitting from trading Julien after the 2023 season, so it isn't like I was a fan of his future as a Twin. His value in October of 2023 was reasonable and his future as a regular for a good team seemed low to me. I still wonder why Julien lit up Twins Daily with his play. He hasn't been the worst defensive player in the last few years to play for the Twins. His practice of taking strike three was maddening but not exactly as mind boggling as a few other guys with their wild swings. His running style, haircut, and the way he wore his hat were all a bit quirky but that should not have been a tipping point. To be clear, I'm not calling out your comment but just seeing Julien's name reminded me of how easily a fan base can adopt or decide against any player and that is interesting to me.

The time for roster decisions was last October and November. The Twins sat on their hands for three years. In a month or two, maybe longer, there will be change if the current group continues the struggles. This team is doing better than most of us expected and is the most interesting group in a few years. I'm preaching patience until the club wakes up from its DK dream/nightmare and moves forward with several changes.

Have to agree that the top hitters are more difficult to find in the depths of the draft, whereas good pitching does exists in many rounds. Thus, Cholowsky, Emerson, or Lackey seem like the best choices at this time. A college bat may be ready in a couple of years. The #3 pick will be very important to the Twins roster fix.

The Twins need to find out what they have in Austin Martin. He has improved as an outfielder, but one wonders whether he can play all over the field. Right now his bat should be in the lineup every game because he is a headache for opposing pitchers as he drives up the pitch count.

I'm in agreement with this thought. If the Twins feel that David Festa needs to throw fewer innings, use him as a relief pitcher. My only question is how easily does his arm recover from throwing? Can Festa pitch one inning every other day or on back to back days from time to time? I guess we shall find out pretty soon. He could be ready in a couple of weeks.

Another really tough loss but also another game where the team played hard. No doubt the missed chances with so many runners on base is a drag. I did wonder once whether Caratini would pinch hit for Keaschall because Luke is fighting himself a bit. In a game where the Mets scored 10 runs there was some good pitching. Ryan clearly struggled but hung in there despite giving up seven runs. Morris looked really strong. He had better velocity and movement than on Sunday. Big pitch to get the pop up for the second out. I guess it was expected for Shelton to go to Banda. It was the correct decision, but he can't walk Pham. The Twins will need to find out whether Banda is going to still be around later so it makes sense to use him. Martin actually came relatively close to catching up with the early double off the wall. Keep Austin in the lineup.

Prielipp, Morris, and Rojas have been fun to watch. They each have good stuff and can still improve quite a bit with more consistent command. I'm wondering if these three are better off learning in AAA or MLB, but I could easily support either position depending on what the Twins specifically do with each of them.

No reason to have angst over Wallner, Lee, or Lewis. That ship sailed when theTwins decided to keep them each of the last three offseasons. The direction and unbalanced roster hopeful that gloves wouldn't matter and these guys would be good was the gamble. Now we live with it a little longer, maybe the rest of the year. No use in blaming the players. They are doing their best, but their gloves and bats are not up to par. It is what it is. Change will happen down the road. The Twins are playing harder (imo) this year and I can appreciate that effort. The talent lags a bit.

Twins batters need a better approach tomorrow.

The pitching was good. Nice grab and throw by Larnach. Defense, especially Lewis and Wallner hurt again. Hitting doesn't work. Tough game. I'm guessing mid May is as early as the Twins will seek change for position side and maybe as late as mid June. A team as poor on defense as the Twins is going to have to scrap to win 75 games if the pitching is great. It has been better than expected thus far. The bats are not there and I'm wondering if they will be down the line. I'm hoping for anything from any of Wallner, Lewis, and Lee but not expecting anything. Keaschall needs to relax because it looks like he is pushing too hard as opposed to just trying to hit line drives.

Decent back end rotation guy.

Sweet win for Twins after McLean looked like he was invincible. Good play by Larnach in LF. You have to give credit to Outman with his stolen base and great job to beat the throw on the bunt. Wallner fought for that walk. Don't forget that except for one bad pitch, SWR kept the team in the game. I have to admit that both Lewis and Lee were disappointing.

The roster construction has been frustrating for three years. It seemed like change would happen after the season. October and November were ripe opportunities to take a few gambles. Nothing. Crickets. Then in mid December, Tom Pohlad pushed his kid brother aside and we still really have no idea what occurred. Once the 2026 season began the roster was still a mess and so here we are. Most MLB teams do not shift away from players very quickly until at least mid May and often June arrives before changes take place. Maybe there is a reason to IL Wallner. I don't know how badly his ribs are hurting. While I'm completely open to anything that improves team performance overall, I'm thinking that the passengers on the ship will stay until May 12. Until then perhaps the Twins can field better, run the bases more aggressively, have good plate appearances, and eliminate mental mistakes.

Good call/correction. My bad.

A brief reminder to alert you that every single baseball player ever was once a rookie and all of them had a first game. Don't worry, everything will be ok. It's no big deal. It's just life.

Rojas for Abel and I'm guessing Prielipp for Banda dependent on how Tuesday and/or Wednesday go. Lewis comes back and it it is a wild guess who goes down or maybe Matt Wallner hits the IL list. The Twins might be a little queazy about putting Ryan Kreidler at shortstop and sitting Brooks Lee. The pitchers could use a little break on all of the bleeders leaking through the infield. It is defensible for the Twins to ride the current roster for another three weeks, but we cannot know the dynamics behind the scenes. Perhaps one of Tom Pohlad or Derek Shelton are becoming impatient with the missed plays and mistakes. Poor plate appearances are among the mistakes being evaluated. I'm a little surprised that Austin Martin does not get full regular status but then again he has made more than a few mental errors on the bases and in the field. The shortstop has to be screaming where the throw needs to go even if Martin should know his play before the ball is hit.

When Emmanuel Rodriguez is promoted to the Twins roster, he needs to play 5-6 times per week and get at least a two month run to acclimate to MLB pitching. By the end of 2026 we should know if ER is going to be a regular outfielder for the Twins. Seems like the team might wait until early to mid May though.

Pop ups four times before a ground ball out his last time up in yesterday's game. Keaschall is fighting it all over. Baseball is so tough. Sure hope he doesn't get Juliened.