tony&rodney

Maeda has a contract that is focused on innings pitched and games started for income. Neither applies to the postseason. Maeda is a good pitcher and should be very useful in the bullpen in October.

Edouard Julien is real firebrand for controversy on Twins Daily. The conversations, disagreements, and occasional volatile reactions have been interesting this summer. My own take is that Julien is an exciting talent who is exceedingly inexperienced for a MLB player. He has also been a critical part of this 2023 Twins team. This has been chronicled. What seems to be creating controversy regarding Julien is: 1. his fielding 2. his batting approach 3. being pinch hit for. Julien is unfinished as a defensive player. He is much improved since the start of the year with fair lateral skills. Edouard looks awkward at times and is a hesitant fielder whose transfers are less than smooth. The facts are that he makes most of the plays. Still, viewers are somewhat queasy whenever Julien is involved in a defensive play. This seems understandable but doesn't mean that one cannot acknowledge that Eddie is getting better with his glove. Julien is the anti-Guerrero Sr. Edouard is not ever going to successfully hit pitches out of the strike zone. Thus he is super selective, perhaps to a fault. I would like to see Julien swing more on 3-0 and 3-1 counts as well. I feel he guesses at times in those counts. As far as the called strike three pitches, I'm willing to bet that two thirds of those pitches were balls. Finally, Julien will grow into being more successful in certain counts as he becomes more comfortable and learns the pitchers; he is still an inexperienced rookie. Finally, there are the annoying times when Julien has been lifted for a pinch hitter. He does struggle against left-handed arms and he is inexperienced. It makes sense to sit Julien at times. I believe that Julien will get more opportunities next season. The specific use of Vazquez for Julien yesterday seemed confounding. There may have been other items involved that we are not privy to as fans. Julien messed up when he took that 3-2 pitch down the middle with Farmer on the move. Edouard does not just take a fastball in the middle of the zone in any count unless he is totally fooled and a run and hit play requires the hitter to swing at anything close. Missed signs are a just cause to be lifted in a subsequent at bat. Either way , we don't know and it is best to not rush to judgment. Julien has created plenty of controversy this season in any event. Hopefully his leg heals and he goes on a tear in October.

Julien is an inexperienced baseball player, having played professionally only in 2021 and 2022 before this season. There is plenty of reason to believe that he can improve as a baseball player. The splits are rough for Julien this year and I agree with others that he begins to receive more opportunities next year versus lefties. It should be noted that platoon baseball is often a good decision. While we will likely never know exactly why Baldelli used Vazquez yesterday instead of just letting Julien hit, it is at least plausible that it may have been a consequence of his previous at bat. Julien took a pitch fully in the strike zone on a run and hit leaving Farmer as an easy out at second base. It is possible Baldelli wanted to send a message when he pulled Julien; we just don't know.

Good content. Loved the conversation. David Festa has looked tremendous in various starts. His stuff seems top shelf, although he still looks like he is working on command and control as well as endurance. Festa also looks like he needs to eat a few pizzas. Does he have a 29 inch waist? Where do you see Festa in the realm of pitching prospects? What is his timeline?

I think you meant to put a comment in the game thread. I did not comment on Jax. No problem though. FWIW, Jax did not throw a single fastball to Arozarena. Arozarena hit a sweeper for the home run.

This makes me recall Gaetti's comment about how difficult it is to play baseball when one is clutching their throat with both hands. Gaetti was the ultimate gamer and understood what it was like to be a young player in a pennant race.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Julien is really good about not swinging out of the zone and taking close pitches, some of which are strikes. However, the 3-2 pitch was fully in the zone and Farmer was not stealing but going on a run and hit play. In that case Julien must swing. The failure is cause for him to be pinch hit for in the ninth inning, even by Vazquez. Julien needs to take the sequence of events to heart and reply appropriately.

I believe others do disagree, including Baldelli. Baseball has a long drawn out season that includes numerous substitutions and player usages that seem at odds with what makes sense to one person or another. A guy like Paul Molitor has forgotten more about baseball than the entire collective understanding of the game of Twins Daily readers, which naturally includes me as well. We are actually likely to know more about running a Fortune 500 company than how to manage an MLB team. Sometimes it seems that some baseball fans are more attuned to football and the immediacy of wins each week than the slog of a long season. I don't follow football at all so maybe that is a bad comparison and I don't mean to offend anyone at all. Baseball is different in how a team (manager/front office) needs to view the larger picture. MLB is totally different than the minors, college, or amateur ball. Heck college is more like town ball than professional baseball. Despite playing and managing hundreds of games I can confidently say that I am in no position to suggest what a MLB manager should or should not do in any given situation. Of course I have my opinions but these are just for entertainment purposes. Nobody is going to pay me millions to make a decision on managing a MLB team. It is best to just enjoy the competition and entertainment. Arozarena hit a monster home run and Tampa Bay won. The Twins had their chances. Tampa Bay had their chances. Each team made a few mistakes too. It was a competitive game. There is another game tomorrow. The Twins really should put their feet down on the White Sox.

Woe, woe - slow down. It's just a single game and our entertainment. Relax, it's happy hour.

Jax has a good slider but doesn't trust his fastball enough.

ouch

Thielbar cannot be a fun at bat. Nice inning.

Julien fouled off the pitch he was looking for and was then totally fooled by the strike three pitch - it happens; good pitch.

Max Kepler is a different player in the second half. He looked so unhappy the last several years and in the first half. Something changed and it is impossible (for me) to know. What is pretty clear is that the current version of Max Kepler is a terrific player.

Julien swung at a pitch on the edge ... and missed and then took a couple of close pitches before taking ball four. I wish he could hit line drives on the first pitch but man it is fun to watch him work the pitcher.

Sort of a funny game thus far. Some mistakes, some good hitting, and some missed chances. Wonder if the Twins can pick up the intensity a bit through the remainder of the game.

The Twins will not even think for one minute about picking up Polanco's contract; it is a sure thing. Teams around baseball have a high opinion on Jorge. Polanco has tremendous value for the Twins but not enough future value to be a part of a major trade to acquire pitching. Think about the Arraez-Lopez trade to have a guess at who might be valued if the Twins attempt to find a team to replicate that transaction. I would be shocked if Polanco was not still with the Twins in 2024. I do think the Twins will try to trade Farmer for an arm, similar to how Kyle was acquired last offseason.

Baseball is a difficult job which holds very little permanence to all but the stars. The promise of making a large salary creates stupendous competition. Larnach had some opportunities but none that allowed him any status to play through poor performance. Both injuries and the previously discussed holes in his batting profile made him easy to send to AAA. I hope Trevor Larnach gets a chance with another MLB team, similar to the chances afforded to Brent Rooker. He doesn't have much value right now and may only be a throw-in if the Twins can swing a trade. Larnach has made a tidy pile of earnings from his job, however, and should be able to live comfortably if baseball no longer is a viable profession for him. There is more than an even chance that Larnach is able to play baseball for another decade though, so I'm not too worried about him. He just hasn't worked out as a Twin.

Emmanuel Rodriguez is ice cold right now. The Kernels need him to reset before Thursday night.

I agree totally. Sure there are times a pitcher is giving up line drive after line drive and the manager should get out of the dugout faster. Tonight was a good example of how a great pitch can get golfed for a go ahead two run home run. Littell made his pitch, but Castro hit it. The players know when to tip their caps and when they made a mistake. Julien and Pinto hits pitches that both Littell and Ryan would like back. Lowe looked pretty confident versus Ryan and Baldelli made the call for Varland. Today it worked, but managing is tricky.

This Twins team competes. They are moving away from the .500 mark and playing more consistent baseball. Joe Ryan was tough out on the mound and Varland, Thielbar, and Duran sure closed the game neatly. Littell looked very unpredictable and only was beat by Castro launching a down and away pitcher's pitch that followed a battle by Kepler to reach base. Maybe Julien saw the ball better tonight. It was sure nice to see him get a hit before he added another walk. Even the struggling Wallner had some fun finally. He sure looked relieved to hit the ball and showed off some speed on the hustle double. Good game for the Twins against a very good Tampa Bay team.

The options for Jorge Polanco are a bargain unless he is suddenly beset by injuries that reduce his availability to much less than it has been this year. On one hand you have a 10 year average that is good and easily worth his contract. On the other hand Polanco could have a resurgence of health and production to near 2021 levels. In either case, Jorge is valuable. I'm not too sure how much trade value Polanco has in terms of bringing back a player that makes a difference. The Twins do not need to trade a player of Polanco's talents for a lower tier prospect because the team is focused on winning. If the team were to totally tank, as it did last season, a trade would make sense. The larger recurring question relates to how other teams view various players within the Twins system and how willing a team would be to part ways with a talented player in order to ostensibly improve their own team. This was the crux of the Marlins-Twins trade last offseason; a trade that benefitted both teams. I'm not sure Polanco works in that scenario, but others may.

Unless Polanco suffers an unfortunate injury at some point from now until the end of the Twins season, there is no way that the team passes on the option. There are many variables, but Jorge as the most valuable Twin for 2024 and 2025 is still real. Health is the ticket. Will Polanco (or any player really) be fully healthy the remainder of this year and then through next season?

Julien is a rookie. If you take all the rookies off of the Twins roster, what then?

Did you miss the 9 walks or the long at bats. Those make a huge difference towards the quality of pitches that the batters see who follow Julien. He needs to hit better, he is inexperienced, but he is still providing opportunities for the team to score runs.