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tony&rodney

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Everything posted by tony&rodney

  1. tony&rodney
    When I saw the article headline, this was exactly my first thought. Toronto is a great city with passionate fans who pack the stadium for every game. Varland is in a good place. The Twins? Rojas has a shot at being a big piece of the future. There is plenty to like about his talent. I'm not as excited by Roden. The trades last July were quite drastic but following up with a few more solid trades would have been my preferred move. It didn't happen though, which slows down the rebuild. It will be interesting to see how the front office moves in the next six months. The Twins have some pieces and there should be opportunities to improve and balance the roster. For now Twins fans will need to be patient. Wins could be tough to come by but the process of improvement has started. Most of us were surprised to see Varland traded. It's done and now we will hope Jojas turns into a valuable player.
  2. tony&rodney
    Agree the bullpen needs to be improved and I have (to the point of being obnoxious) pushed the necessity of better gloves for at least three years. The poor defense has a direct effect on a bullpen that cannot strike out batters out. Despite watching or listening to most games every year, I was pretty down on the Twins the last few years and did not see a team that was ticking up even when the record was decent. For whatever reason I see positives in this 2026 team. There is work to do. It will be interesting to see how the front office moves forward. There was almost no moves last winter. Tough to improve without trading players. Free agency is not a cure-all.
  3. tony&rodney
    I'm feeling more optimistic about the Twins today than I did in late March. The players are busting it and doing what they can to make the plays they are capable of making given their talent. The mental mistakes have been decreased quite a bit from the last two years and even from early in April when they won more games. The starting pitching looks very promising. Taj Bradley was still very good in the 7th inning. Credit to Shelton for letting him pitch. Well conditioned pitchers who throw easy can go past 110 pitches. Taj had great stuff right through the last batter. Give Seattle some credit for hitting (4 hits) and battling a tough arm. Perhaps as sonn as May or June there may be some new players in uniform. A regular playing in the infield and another in the outfield plus maybe three arms could give the Twins a big boost. I can hang in and wait until the troops arrive. This team is more fun than the last two years.
  4. 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.
  5. tony&rodney
    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.
  6. tony&rodney
    Popped off bag on slide.
  7. tony&rodney
    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.
  8. tony&rodney
    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.
  9. tony&rodney
    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.
  10. tony&rodney
    Wasn't talking to you.
  11. tony&rodney
    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.
  12. tony&rodney
    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.
  13. tony&rodney
    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.
  14. tony&rodney
    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.
  15. tony&rodney
    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.
  16. tony&rodney
    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.
  17. tony&rodney
    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.
  18. tony&rodney
    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.
  19. tony&rodney
    Twins batters need a better approach tomorrow.
  20. tony&rodney
    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.
  21. tony&rodney
    Decent back end rotation guy.
  22. tony&rodney
    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.
  23. tony&rodney
    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.
  24. tony&rodney
    Good call/correction. My bad.
  25. tony&rodney
    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.
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