tony&rodney

The Rays are more in tune with the game than any team in baseball and because they lack money they adjust on the fly. This means building a stronger bullpen because they feel their middle infielders strength can handle dealing Adames. FWIW, BTV is nonsense numbers.

This was a big point many of us tried to make last winter. Unfortunately, the Twins didn't feel any urgency to build a bullpen with today's rules and we don't know why those decisions were made.

The extra innings high school rules lead to high school play. Real tough to be a baseball fan with the current leadership at the top in MLB.

Tough one .... again ....

I too want to see Buxton, and I also want to see Kirilloff and Larnach spray the ball around the diamond. After reading criticisms that Larnach couldn't pull the ball he looks pretty good, if not a little too pull conscious.

Individuals may say that a team will not part with a true top prospect for Buxton or Berrios, but until the GMs talk we will never know. The Rays are gutsy and maybe foolish. They traded the voice of their team for relief pitching. The Rays have middle infielders in spades. Three deep at SS and adding pitchers. ... could be a magic move for Tampa Bay. I'm hoping to see both Berrios and Buxton with the Twins for a half dozen more years, but if they must trade look for players like C. J. Abrams, Austin Martin, and other real prospects.

Not even remotely a soccer fan, however, the game at the top level (think Europe or World Cup)) is super athletic and tough. I would say it has some resemblance to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Duffey? If he wanted to make a point, he should have hit him in the ankle. The Twins should have let someone else pitch too. Thielbar was available I think. Colome too. Not a bright moment for the Twins either way.

Since I have no live friendships with any of the current Twins, I like them all and hope they are successful in their careers and beyond. That is a fan viewpoint. No use in any fashion to judge their personhood without real knowledge of who they are as humans. As a critical fan, however, my observations questioned the Twins offseason strategy from November. Bullpens, in the current game, are very critical to success. Is it possible that a total lockdown bullpen would have completely changed the course of the season early on and then help to maintain a positive course? This was a profound misjudgment on the management. Then, all pitchers need to know they can burry the ball in the dirt at any time, particularly with a runner on 3B. Rortvedt was just sent down and he is the only catcher the Twins have who blocked balls and received low pitches gracefully. As a former pitcher, this is a real downer, a real bad downer. Throwing to a catcher instead of a DH is a world of difference for a pitcher. The difference is understated. For evidence - Drew Butera is still in the major leagues; he is a catcher. Next, players out of position are doomed to fail. If a utility player like Chris Taylor, Marwin, or the best ever, Cesar Tovar, can play a different position every day and play it above average we should be aware of their rare talent. Sano was a disaster in RF and Arraez is suffering at the plate when he plays LF. He comes in on singles or balls hit in front of him safely with great enthusiasm and skill, but anything airbornes is traumatic. Finally, the swings that are all identical for too many players is out of touch. Hitting the ball on the nose is an accomplishment that each batter should aspire to in every at bat. The Twins give away way too many at bats and flail helplessly at times, seemingly paying no attention to how the opposing pitcher is attacking them. We don't need more homeruns, we need more bat on the ball. It was really interesting to hear Rod Carew talk about the shift, bunting, line drives, and swing path during the third inning of the Angel's broadcast Thursday. Rod was as smart of a baseball player that lived in my lifetime. Tonight the Twins begin their drive for the pennant.

The solution is to run off 15 wins in a row.

The Twins hit homeruns in bunches in 2019 and did enough last year to win the division. However, the AL Central was putrid in 2019 and not so good last year. When a team puts their players in positions to fail (Sano, Garver, Astudillo, Arraez), there will predictably be some problems. Nobody expected the current result but poor defense and a weak bullpen will not work if the starting staff go four innings and don't strike out people. I am surprised at the complete breakdown that is currently in progress and felt three weeks ago like a turn toward even baseball would happen with this team. Sadly, that did not occur. The owners and management need to sit down pretty soon to develop a better plan because hoping that 2021 is an outlier with their current players won't work. Personally, I defer to managements final decisions unless they crash and burn. This is to remain optimistic, not because I'm a fair-weather fan. I have followed every Twins team from April of 1961. The current team has serious deficiencies, most notably fundamental play, the bullpen and defense. When Sano played RF a few years ago, I cringed on every ball hit his way. Poor Arraez has let the embarassment of his LF maneuverings affect his hitting. Decisions will need to be made and no player is off the table. The Yankees haven't been in a World Series since 2009. San Diego has put a ton of chips forward in the last year. Toronto has a pretty exciting team. Perhaps it is the Twins opportunity to harvest those systems young prospects. While it doesn't feel like any Twins player's value is particularly high at the moment, another GM may see the chance to land Berrios, Buxton, Arraez, Kepler, or others as beneficial. Right now, the games don't seem like an outlier.

You cannot have a DH catch and a 2B play LF. The pitcher is afraid to throw in the dirt and routine fly balls score three. There are some decisions to be made.

The curse of worshipping analytics. The Twins bet on thumping with multiple DHs at the expense of an all around sound defense and a bullpen.

Sam Hentges is pitching for Cleveland.

True

No doubt there are connections between poor defense, poor pitching, and the hitting but it should not really make a huge difference. Baseball is a game of dealing with failure and frustration and the mental preparation to avoid the pitfall of giving in because your pitchers are struggling and the defense prone to mistakes is a constant battle. The best players separate and focus, and a key job of a hitting coach is reminders of that.

Hard to blame the coaches but difficult to understand why bunting isn't a matter of routine practice. Once upon a time Barry Bonds would place two cones on the field and begin batting practice by executing a series of perfect bunts to each side very close to the cones before he proceeded to bash line drives all over the field. No doubt there was quite a bit of practice to get to that point of expertise and he didn't bunt in games, but it may have increased bat control. I don'y know what the Twins do and am not advocating for more bunts. When the topic of hitting coaches is presented I wonder how much time and practice is spent on bat to ball skills. A personal frustration of mine while watching some of the Twins bat is there insistence on the same swing path no matter the pitch or location, predictable going back to the dugout on three pitches. My guess is that the coaches make suggestions and present information which the player then either tries to use or doesn't. This matter of a batting coach and their influence/ effectiveness is certainly worthy and i hope the Twins are looking into every nook and cranny for improvements.

Look, the rookie should have run it back to 3B. I was too protective to deflect/ask for team communication, although that is not a bad thing. Rortvedt made a mistake, but so did the umpire and ultimately the out call should have been made when Donaldson casually tagged Andrus. The best college teams are at a rookie level and the best MLB players are not above making some bad mistakes. But, nobody really has any authority to make the little league comparison unless they have played a good amount of time at the highest level. In that situation, Andrus would find it easy to fool any player below the MLB level, but he might not get the same call from every umpire. I hope Garver hits 35 homeruns, but he should not be catching. The pitchers throw differently to the rookie and Jeffers. So, the Twins need Rortvedt and he will remember that play. There is another game tomorrow.

I believe the umpire did assume but we don't know. Umpires are human and mistakes happen but unless the umpire believed Andrus was pushed and the umpire did not assume there should have been a review on the basis of not seeing the play. There were so many mistakes and Rortveldt made a fundamental error in throwing the ball at all. Still, right now he is our only catcher. We can see that the pitchers will not throw the ball low in the zone often enough to Garver won't be caught. I'm not a fan of obvious flops.

The Twins have plenty of problems, it is true. MLB has more problems, many more. The umpires are struggling more than I can recall in my lifetime and the number of errors from NYC umpires have piled up even with totally conclusive evidence. Additionally, from high school rules in doubleheaders to Covid 19 rules in extra innings to a lack of clarity on what is or is not reason to go to the headset, MLB is deeply flawed. This follows a winter where DH "discussions", among other problems, were fumbled. The real error on the rundown was a failure of a teammate to VERY loudly yell for Rortveldt to just hold the ball and run Andrus to 3B where another runner created an automatic out. The Twins did not communicate at all on that play. Lastly, you can see Andrus laughing and demonstrating how he acted his way to a poor call. There was no interference, only incidental contact on the grass. It was a poor call and the Oakland announcers felt that too and just called it smart baseball and poor umpiring. None of this excuses the Twins poor play. Garver is not a catcher for starters. Terry Francona would never put him behind the plate. If Kirilloff cannot come back and Buxton is out for a long spell games like the recent debacles will continue to occur. Outside of some changes the Twins will need to crush every game to have a chance with their current defense.

That felt good and we stayed tuned too. Really happy for Sano.

Polanco, Arraez, Kepler, and Rogers have the greatest value not counting rookies/prospects. Berrios and Buxton are behind that trio and Robles might interest a couple of teams. Cruz might help a few teams but Donaldson has too much money coming in the next few years. Simmons might bring a low prospect but the Angels let him go for reason. Garver and Sano are only useful at DH if they find their bats. Perhaps if the NL adds the DH, they might have value. The Twins built their team to mash and they are not hitting.

Sano cracks me up. He had his big foot totally on top of the base.

Thought the Twins might look to speed, defense, and a possibly improved hitting by Whitefield when Cave went down. I hope he keeps improving and have to believe he was a better choice for a 4th OF than Refsnyder.

Berrios is good, enough said. He won't throw shutouts very often, but does usually give the team a shot. He should not be throwing to 1B with an inflexible Sano there and we just saw that Refsnyder is not an excellent outfielder (frozen by a linedrive that was 3-4 steps in front of him. Twins need to hit.

Cave didn't hurt the Twins too much because he really didn't touch the ball very much. Sorry to see Cave hurt and I hope he recovers and plays MLB again. Garver does hurt the Twins. He is a very poor catcher and really struggles to hit. A catcher impacts the game more than a shortstop or centerfielder. Butera is still playing because he can catch. Cleveland uses catchers behind the plate. Right now, Rortveldt is the only catcher on the team. I would love to see Garver recover and hit 35 homeruns but not while catching.