Dodecahedron

We may want to note that the A's are on a 10-game winning streak and allowed 2 runs in the past 5 games with 4 shutouts. Sometimes the story is not just about the Twins.

OK, some of the players on this team have a 6-game playoff losing streak, or 2 years. Sounds fair, I can take your word on that.

There may not be anyone in the dugout from the Tom Kelly/Andy MacPhail era anymore, but there also isn't anyone in the dugout from the Gardenhire era either. Besides, the topic is the 6-10 start, not the playoffs. I should have added a disclaimer to my comment, because I knew someone would respond with a quip about performance in the playoffs. Anyway, I suppose we could start dismantling the team as many are suggesting, but I'm not sure how swapping out major league players with prospects improves the team's chances of turning things around. If "spring training stats don't mean anything" then one would think any early-season small sample size doesn't mean anything either.

Seeing a lot of confirmation bias going on here. Don't forget, the 1991 Twins started the season at 2-9 and later at 4-10. They were under .500 on June 1st. With the unbalanced schedule, the Twins just need to win against teams in the division to make the playoffs. This will happen. This isn't the first Twins team to struggle against the AL East and AL West. In other words, breathe.

I can only go by where I am. Here, we only exited Phase 1A (healthcare workers) the last week of February. Phase 1B (elderly and high risk) was nowhere near done before the federal government opened it up to everyone on the 16th. My county was going as fast as it could, but they were having trouble getting enough doses. As of this week, it's available everywhere around here because pharmacies are offering it to everyone over 16. My appointment is on Friday. My mother-in-law, who is 77 and has severe lung problems, only got a dose after I called to complain a few weeks ago. Granted, if you know Illinois, you know that Chicago gets first dibs on every resource the state has, and I'm in a neighboring county.

Ron Davis had 14 blown saves and 11 losses in 1984, including two blown saves in the last week of the season, and the Twins finished 3 games short of the division crown. Granted, they were not likely to get past Detroit in the playoffs. Billy Gardner was the manager in '84, and he did not know how to use his bullpen. Davis was often called up to close the game in the 8th, even when he was not playing well. '84 isn't 100% on Davis, but 50% is bad enough. Davis put up worse numbers in 1986, though he was not "the closer" for long. He had a high profile meltdown very early in the season during a television interview, where he fought back tears while saying he had never pitched worse in his life, and from then on he did not appear in high-leverage situations. By the time Tom Kelly took over the team near the end of '86, Davis had been traded. Davis was under a lot of pressure as he was always expected by the media to be elite. By all accounts, he was a good guy who had too much on his shoulders. He did not perform well in high pressure situations, and the Twins managers of the era (Gardner and Mauch) were just not good at reading that sort of thing. If Gardenhire had kept Hawkins as the closer for five years longer than he did, the results would have been similar. The Twins got a lot of prospects when they traded Davis, which shows that people thought he could pitch in spite of his results. Reardon came on in '87. He struggled most of the year, but down the stretch he was suddenly able to throw Blyleven's magical curveball, and the rest his history. Reardon's performance did not come back down to earth for another five years.

How? The vaccine was only available when the season started. All teams are following the same protocols as defined by the MLB. The Twins had an anti-vaxxer (or something) and an outbreak started almost immediately. People who are anti-vaccine are also usually anti-mask, etc., thus they tend to engage in riskier behaviors. This was a predictable outcome. Inexcusable? Maybe, but it's difficult to pin the blame on the Twins organization. The Twins were doing everything they could, and even made the vaccine available before the general public had access to vaccine. No word on how the MLB or the team were able to jump ahead in line. Maybe that's inexcusable too.

Until the Twins feel their outbreak is under control, they should not call up anyone who is a part of their future. No Kiriloff, etc. Call up the riffraff to fill in and take the losses for a couple of weeks, don't mess with the team's future plans just to win 1 or 2 more games in April. As for Dobnak, we all know he's not a bullpen guy. Dobnak's problem is the manager putting him in the wrong role. If he needs to be in the minors to start games, they should put him in the minors until a starting spot opens up with the club. As for Garlick, his role is the #4 outfielder and he's doing fine in that role. He can pinch run, pinch hit, start games, end games, and otherwise fill in when required.

I always felt that if Nick Gordon ever plays regularly for the Twins, it's a catastrophic sign. He has never been a good defender nor a good hitter. I think the only reason the Twins keep him in the middle infield is his whiffle-bat won't play anywhere else, but his middle infield defense will never be good enough to start in the MLB. Gordon has played plenty of reps at both SS and 2B and the results have always been what the OP witnessed. In fact, most of his games have been at SS. His defensive metrics at both positions are very similar.

I was looking at the roster a few days ago, and I was surprised at how many players came via free agency or trade. Most of them did not cost more than home-grown talent at the same caliber would have cost, and many of the players fill significant voids on the roster. I am happy the narrative of spending a dollar in free agency is nothing more than being one dollar closer to bankruptcy died a quiet death.

Only 18 hitters in baseball history have achieved the triple crown and only 1 since 1967. Buxton is more likely to be struck by lightning.

Shame about the Covid outbreak. For those who had Covid, we know it makes us feel like we aged 5-10 years. Let's keep our fingers crossed that it does not affect the Twins players the same way. For most of us, five years means a bigger belly, being tired, having to work-out harder while it being much harder to do so, and being a tad dumber. No big deal. Five years in baseball terms is the difference between being a player in his prime and retirement. Although some are raising the red flag on the season, the Twins are performing well overall. There are some valid complaints, but overall the Twins had a good start. The W-L could be better, but if they keep playing the way they have been, the W-L record will take care of itself.

I am a huge fan of Dobnak, but he would be my last option to put in as a closer. I don't think I would use him as a set-up man either. He would be the #3 starter on my roster. It would be his job to lose. Granted, Baldelli does not seem to believe in specialists for the 8th and 9th innings. Even still, his job as manager is to know where to put players so they can succeed. For position players, that's easy. For pitchers, not so much, but Dobnak seems like one of the easier pitchers to place given his repertoire.

I think the only people who think Dobnak is a reliever is Baldelli and probably the Twins pitching coaches. Even if he can perform well as a reliever, he's certainly not a closer.

Ah, too bad. He will be sick for 2 days and be in mandatory isolation on the Covid-IL for at least 10 days, followed by more testing and a physical before he can return. According to MLB rules, the post-covid physical will include a heart-stress test, which you probably know* is not fun at all. If he had gotten the vaccine, he may not have had to sit around for 8 days doing nothing and would not have had to go through all the doctors prodding at him for another few days, and instead could have had fun travelling with his teammates and playing baseball. *Heart stress tests are an exercise where you work your heart to the maximum, then hold your breath and sit as still as possible so the doctor(s) can read your heart rate. As you might imagine, holding your breath and sitting still when your body most needs oxygen not much fun.

Kudos to Baddoo for teeing off on an 85mph meatball from Odorizzi. I admit, this gave me flashbacks of the footage of ByungHo Park teeing off on those in the KBO. Let's hope Odorizzi tosses a few of those to Sano later in the year. Too bad about Simmons. We all hope his symptoms remain mild. He sent out that tweet only a couple of weeks ago. I don't understand the "personal reasons" thing. The whole "Give me liberty of give me death!" line being directed toward a virus seems like a strange decision, given that the virus has no ears and does not care.

I am saying I would not make Astudillo's weight the story. It's not the story.

Polanco is in the middle of his 5+ year contract. He is not going anywhere, and in any case the Twins should work with people and not just drop them off on the side of the highway. (Not that this article is suggesting anything like that, I am predicting where this discussion will go.) Yes, he should be batting lower in the order and he should not be starting every game until he figures things out. I'm sure the Twins are working with him.

If you ran a survey on the most popular and/or most known players in Twins history, most people would list Puckett and Killebrew in the top 3, if not the top 2. Most of us remember Puckett's "bubble butt" rounding the bases in his prime, and Killebrew was a very big guy in his day. Heck, Babe Ruth was a big guy too. He is said to have weighed 260 pounds, with very thin arms and legs, or "toothpicks on a piano."

Astudillo has done amazing things in the MLB. He hasn't unlocked anything! Flavors of the month usually don't do jaw-dropping things for ~3 years. He is the most exciting "replacement-level" player we will ever see in our lifetimes. The Twins hit the jackpot for the last spot on the roster. His yearly WAR may hover around zero, but his entertainment value is in the stratosphere. Besides, any positive WAR from the last spot on the roster is a bonus.

I guess the only thing to say is Sano is starting the year as most of us thought he would. This won't be much of a story unless he is still struggling in another 6-8 weeks. Nothing can be done about it, he isn't going anywhere. My condolences on your grandma.

The thing about Buxton is his approach at the plate looks the same. He did not reinvent the wheel, so he might not regress. He is seeing the ball better and his timing is better. When he was struggling before, to an outside observer it seemed like he just wasn't seeing the ball.

I have not seen such negativity about a team doing well since the yahoo forums 10-12 years ago. I will admit, this is slightly less annoying than the throngs of people in the following years saying Terry Ryan was doing a good job after he came back. Less annoying or not, it's equally daft. It's a long season. Baseball players are streaky, almost all players are mediocre or bad for at least a month or two over the course of a season. If the Twins were 2-5, then there'd be something to gripe about. The Twins losses have been close, and the Twins are doing a good job plating runs. The starting pitching is playing as well as I expected them to (which is to say, much better than most others expected). I agree that a couple of the losses, if not most or even all of them, seem to be due to Baldelli's midgame decisions. I'm not sure if he is executing a pre-game plan, and thus not analyzing the game as it unfolds, or if he is very poor at analyzing what is going on. Either way, his decisions border on being bizarre. Molitor may have been bad at knowing when to make pitching changes, but he would never march Dobnak out to close a game. Twice. And I like Dobnak!

In the mid-90s, I found a full set of the 91 Twins team in a bargain bucket in Dallas.

I must have missed that. He is a worse defender and a less consistent hitter. The dinger rate is similar. Sano drives cars and lives in houses that are 100x better, I guess. I seem to recall fans having heart attacks at the very idea of Vargas manning first base. We have someone worse over there now and we're OK with it. And heck, we don't even want to talk about it. Both the Twins and the fans have inconsistencies in the treatment of Vargas and Sano.