tony&rodney

Good game all around. Julien leads off, hits home runs, makes all of the plays, and what will this mean going forward.

I'm not seeing that yet. More importantly, there should be communication that makes these decisions. The constant reliance on four innings from the bullpen will never work long term. Relievers are all failed starters. I do agree that a starter should be pulled if they have lost their stuff, but this 3rd time/ 4th time nonsense doesn't cut it. All comments above irrelevant because Varland is in now. I wish the Twins, who make so many comments post game, will not their reasons for pulling Ober, Ryan, Festa, and SWR.

0-12 now, but the comment was posted as Kerry Carpenter was walking to the plate. The catcher, pitching coach, players, and managers along with the starting pitcher should have an idea when their stuff is going downhill. Ober, SWR, Ryan, and Lopez should all be good for 100-110 pitches if they are throwing well. It is mid April and these guys are built up at this time.

If the Twins starters have to throw shutouts or keep it to 3 runs or less in every start, it is going to be a long season.

this is where Baldelli has lifted SWR and Festa.

Julien will lead the Twins.

The Masters? UFC?

Simeon to the rescue.

No way to know what Brooks Lee will do in the MLB lineup. He has really only had a couple of good swings for the Saints this year. He has looked good in the field, but very, very slow on the bases. Maybe he has been playing carefully in order to go easy on his back. The two guys who look good are Keaschall, shifting between 2B and DH, and Carson McCusker in the corner outfield. I really doubt we will see Keaschall until May and Carson is not on the 40 person roster. The Twins may be holding on to Gasper because Jeffers was hurt Friday night. Can't think why else.

Said this elsewhere, would people be calling for the Vikings head coach to be fired if they lost their first game playing poorly and were behind by a 7 points in the third quarter of the second game of the year. Maybe. FWIW, I'm not a football fan, so I don't know how it works. The Twins are down. They still have not played 10% of the schedule. Atlanta is in last place, and the Angels are in first place. I'm not enamored of how the team was put together, three years running now. This is the team Falvey put together. Baldelli, Maki, and the trainers did not choose this team. My biggest complaint is the style of play but the team still has plenty of opportunities to find a winning path. The pitching staff is good. If the Twins can play just slightly below average defense and hit, they should be better ...... soon.

So I don't know what experiences you have had at any level with baseball, but there are some really good baseball minds who have worked below the MLB level all the way down to high school. I know a couple of people (former MLB players) who named a manager they had below the professional level as the best they ever had in their experience. It is a long season. I'm not a football fan but 2 losses to start the year in the NFL doesn't mean it is time to forfeit all hope.

The offense is not keeping it together. Wallner had a very slow transfer and release a couple of years ago and had made some gains, but he is a guy teams run on because he negates the arm with the extra movement/slowness.

This is an ongoing speculative matter. Last night there was a comment that Lewis is doing some baseball activities and is expected to begin a rehab in early May. Based on nothing but prior experiences, we should not look for Royce until Memorial Day weekend. Maybe we are all surprised with an earlier return though. I know the Twins are also being careful with Luke Keaschall and Emmanuel Rodriguez, but at some time the Twins may be forced to play somebody who might provide offense and have a chance at playing in the field too.

Curious what other people think who have watched the games that Brooks Lee has played for St. Paul. What did you see? I thought Lee had a few good swings but he mostly looks tentative. In the field, Lee is pretty smooth yet I cannot tell if he is just really measured or moving carefully. His throws are solid if looking like he doesn't want to test his arm strength. On the bases, Lee is shockingly slow. In sum, I don't see Lee helping on offense but he has sure hands and will make all of the routine plays, which could certainly help. I don't think his body seems ready for dives or ranging plays. An example .... the ball up the middle that kicked off the mound and handcuffed Julien last night .... Lee might field that ball but has no play. My thoughts are that the Twins are making the correct decision in taking it slow with Brooks Lee. I'm simply basing this on how tentative he looks as compared to Spring Training or last year before his back problems flared up. Back to the top, I'm curious what others saw.

Luke Keaschall had his best game yet at the plate. Carson McCusker hits the ball really hard. He did whiff his last time up, swinging a little too hard. I think he wants to hit it over 120 mph, like Jac Cagliaone.

Yah, i should not have commented. I'm a slow learner, but out now.

You have zero credibility if you are choosing either of France or Gasper above Julien for second base. Just in the last few days Edouard has made a number of plays that neither of them could ever even attempt. France is a first baseman FWIW and Gasper is a DH and emergency player at multiple positions. While I have never met Julien, he clearly has hurt you in some way. Get well and wish the Twins well.

Maybe you didn't see the play. India ranged far to his left and deflected the ball. It was a routine 6-3 play for Bobby Baseball. FWIW, his first hit was also on an error but after a long deliberation it was ruled a hit. God bless Mickey Gasper. He was one of Falvey's big trades this winter so he has to get his at bats for a while. Seems like a humble, hard working guy and I hope he goes 5-5 tonight. We all will cheer him on, but I don't think any other teams are calling about him.

Using the current roster, who would you suggest the Twins use at second base?

The metrics are largely fictitious to me. Why? Because there are many instances when I am watching a game where a routine ground ball or an easy pop up or a fly ball drop which results in runs. The official scorer rules "no play" if it was in foul territory and most commonly awards a base hit if the ball is in fair territory. This has most often gone well beyond what would be a normal play for an MLB player. Since this occurs with such frequency in games I actually witness, it makes it difficult to know what goes on in the games I don't see. I get the fascination with numbers and this is just my response to what seems like an unfair tilt against pitchers and in favor of poor defenders. There was some conversation related to how often balls drop in the outfield with an adequate fielder versus a poor one just before the season started this year. Some people suggested it occurred once or twice a week at most. Just for kicks, I charted a few games. A couple were Twins games and three were other games not involving the Twins. It was in the first week, so weather may be seen as an excuse but 3-5 hits were awarded in each game. I gave up keeping track. Even in minor league games you can see some obvious doubles that should have been F9 (fly out to right fielder). I understand others see plays differently but pitchers must tear their hair out at times. Maybe not the Twins pitchers though because they throw the ball around pretty commonly. Oh well, let's get those bats going and score 6-10 runs per night.

Julien and Royce Lewis were my choices to trade after the 2023 season. My goal was for the Twins to maximize the value of these two players. Alas, much of the value is now lost. I'm not giving up on Julien as a useful player. We should have an answer by June. Agree with your thoughts. Does the author know that a number of people on Twins Daily cannot sleep at night knowing Julien is still on the team? When I saw this article I laughed because it surely triggered a few guys. I'm not sure how Gasper became a darling or how Julien became the whipping boy. The best were several comments blaming him for decrepit play at second base the other day when he wasn't even playing second base. BTW, this has happened several times. Julien is living in people's heads. The Twins could sure use some good batsmen.

Personally I see no future in trying to understand whatever Baldelli is thinking. Mostly, I also attempt to stay away from second guessing him as well but pulling Ober was something beyond acceptance.

Festa will need to be sharper with his pitches tonight than he was in his last outing for the Saints and he is sure capable of a very good start.

I'm an old man. When I go to a Twins game these days it is either people wanting to go with me because they know I have been an insane fan since 1961 or I go alone. The games with other people are free. When I go myself I buy a standing room only ticket. I don't usually drink or eat anything. When I go to the movie i buy a ticket, Dots, popcorn, and coke. So Twins games cost me less than the movies. Oh, parking. I almost always find somewhere free but have paid $10-12 to park. Safety? I feel as safe walking around the North Loop as i do walking around Lake Harriet or walking around St. Cloud or Rochester. Des Moines, Iowa is scarier to me than Minneapolis. I live in the sticks where I might see my neighbors once a week. Safety is pretty much an internal thought. Warehouse district? I remember when I delivered steel trusses to the galvanizer shop in the 1970s. Target Field isn't surrounded by warehouses or I am totally oblivious, which is possible. The Twins compete for entertainment dollars. Weather, an exciting team, and creative marketing will bring in crowds. My youngest son and many of his friends go to a number of games every year with friends. They have a good time. My son played high school baseball but has never listened to a game on the radio or watched a game on TV that I have seen or heard. If you asked him who Gasper was, he wouldn't know. Marketing, good weather, and an exciting team will bring in the fans.

Unless Ober told Maki or Baldelli that he was finished, it is simply folly to construct veins of excuses to remove Ober from the game. Ask yourself - is Ober a max effort pitcher? Does his velocity create outs? If you answer either of those questions with a yes, you have created your own excuse. My experience watching Ober is that he thrives on pitch selection mixed with hitting locations. Ober is easily capable of 100+ pitches, especially when one considers the weather. It doesn't make any difference if Ober was going to face the top of the lineup a fourth time. He was totally in control of the game. The Royals hitters were all happy and energized when they didn't see him walk out to the mound for the 7th inning. There was no data on yesterday's game when the decision was made to pull Ober. I have enormous confidence in the bullpen. The Twins have a good pitching staff. The offense is not producing runs and most of the bats are feeling for the ball unsuccessfully. None of that has anything to do with pulling Ober at 73 pitches in a game he totally controlled. Now I will repeat the caveat of whether Ober said anything to Maki or Baldelli. Did he?