umterp23

Polanco has 2 errors in 29 games at 2nd, Julien as 2 errors in 31 games. Not sure the article commentary of "frankly not been good" applies. He makes plays, flashy no, but makes plays. Trade Polanco and rotate Julien and Farmer at 2nd base and Julien can DH when Buxton goes on IL with exhaustion or neck injury from staring at the Jumbotron after walking back to the dugout. Polanco's body is failing him more than ever this year, can't hurt to ship him out along with Miranda to see what you can get. I don't see either one of them giving us much down the stretch

15MM guarantee you will never bat below 4th in the lineup is back in the lineup. $10MM guarantee gets you every other game behind the dish regardless of how "great" you can call a game. Castro gets the nod due to switch "hitting" ability to go to the plate. Bring up Wallner to watch how not to hit from the corner outfield spot tutorial underway. Sure hope Ryan throws a gem of a game so we don't have to sweat out a medium to high scoring affair.

At what point did Rocco really think Duran could go two innings again vs the O's? Didn't work out for the good guys in Baltimore last weekend and yet Statistical or Maniacal Rocco sent him back out there again. Vazquez calling for curveball after curveball back to back innings and O's weren't looking heater. Poor execution all around. Correa looking to be hero when very easily could have be a leader and bunted runner to 2nd in the 8th. Man on 2nd with one out but $33MM double play batter Correa proves otherwise. Bullpen usage for 3 days including off day of 21 pitches going into last night. I don't care if Duran is "stretched out" to be ready, you burned him for Saturday. Offense was offensive again, but at least they only struck out 8x's this go around. Julien almost the hero on broken bat high foul ball, but not to be

Some are better but superior is strong reference: Vazquez .989 fielding % 6 errors 5 double plays 2 pass balls 18 assists 10 caught stealing Jeffers .994 fielding %. 2 errors 3 double plays 3 pass balls 13 assists 8 caught stealing Jeffers has improved on both sides of the plate. Vazquez is superior in salary though!

Problem is the same answer is super vague. Until he is fully healthy is not an answer. It is like the NFL/NHL player reports because they have to say something, lower body injury. Sprinting on every single ball in play isn't really true for CF. 1st reaction to batted ball, I get. I played CF and corner OF all through college and yes there is reaction time to batted ball but no one is sprinting on everytime, just doesn't happen. Buxton by not playing defense has a trickle down effect on the lineup. Full buxton helps other parts of lineup and role players can be role players.

Lopez/Jeffers were in sync resulting in CG. The shutout was icing on the cake with some nice plays in the field. Jeffers sure has held his own from the catching side of things, calling really good games and bringing some offense to the table. Keep hearing Buxton isn't healthy to play CF, but looks like fine scoring/run from 1st on bloop double dine the line to RF. Sure wish FO and Rocco can explain why he isn't healthy to play some defense. Let's hope coming out of the break we see a full Buxton vs 25% version we get at DH

Early poster had Vazquez playing 1st so they could be bring up Carmago to rotate with Jeffers. Vazquez, my point is why would put him at 1st.

I'm not sure what the infatuation would be for Gordon. Castro gives you a lot of flexibility as a 4th OF, has speed, decent defense no matter where you put him and is a switch hitter. Gordon is very one dimensional compared to Castro. Castro shouldn't be everyday guy unless he is spelling multiple guys in a week. Definitely move Kepler, Gallo and possible Lopez if he doesn't perform after taking a mental break for a reset. Do we really want Vazquez as a backup 1b. Miranda before Vazquez if he stays up. If you move Gallo, Kiriloff gets more run in the OF and then Miranda has an option. Solano shouldn't be an everyday player Polanco is the wild card on Julien/Farmer rotation in the infield

So can the staff at the ASG break, seems like that is where this is headed

Disagree on Pitchers choice. The catchers have caught all of them, If that is the logic, then Jeffers should have caught Ryan since they were fantastic in complete game vs Tigers. Yes, the tigers I get it but you still have to execute. Ryan was overflowing with praise on Jeffers during post game on him calling the game.

Can't imagine there will be any moves on off day that are published. They have until late tomorrow afternoon to report the transactions, but doesn't mean parts aren't moving. Gallo, Kepler need to be jettisoned but $19.5MM combined isn't something mgmt has been willing to eat and DFA off the table. They should but no in their DNA to admit we don't know what we are doing. So many options but they chose to sign Gallo. April huge surprise, rest of the year, we are getting what we knew we were paying for. MAT, nice get for back up role only, but they chose to bubble wrap Buxton and MAT has to play almost everyday. OUCH Solano, 35 year old vet, once a week starter that has proven some worth even though he is playing way too much Polanco, injury prone lake Buxton as of late, doesn't help anyone but Julien has stepped up show some bat skills and isn't the worst thing defensively. solid stat line, 114 AB's .263 avg and 12 of 30 hits are extra base hits. (44K's though but he is like most of our hitters in that category). Defensively only 2 errors in 77 chances with 47 assists, so not sold he can't play Defense yet. Only played in 28 games in the field. let's not crucify him yet. Vazquez - $10MM on calls a great game an has 2 championship rings. $30MM contract at starting at age 32 year. Twins jettisoned Garver prior to age 32 (proved to be right choice) but Vazquez getting 3 year deal to catch? Doesn't make sense. Jeffers has been very solid and has been a good all-around catcher this year. Buxton - DH... body is broken and if he can run the bases when he actually hits the ball, should be playing anywhere in the OF. He isn't an elite player and that we are paying $15MM for. DH isn't it and not what we should be accepting. Trickle down effect has watching MAT and Castro man the position and while admirable, aren't the guys for the future. Larnach and Kiriloff, not sold on them being stalwarts in the lineup. Team is a wreck. By all-star break we will be 2nd or 3rd place at best and at that point. I'd be in sell/dfa mode and build for '24

Rocco has not once played a catcher the day after a night game this but chose to do with Vazquez when Jeffers has been on a heater. Yes, Jeffers went 0 for 3 Monday but 2 of 3 outs were over 100mph batted balls. Buxton, isn't a good DH. DH is a mental game and adjustments. If he isn't healthy after all the bubble wrap protection they have given him, put him on the IL. Get him back after ASG and play in the field. If he can sprint on ground outs to first, he can sprint in the field. Time to rip off the bandaid and play him for what we pay him. With his at bats, he should be bottom half of the order. Dead pull that K's almost 40% of time. Is that why we paid him $15MM?

Vazquez $10MM per/yr and $15MM for Buxton. Money buys you at bats regardless of performance

The talk about joy and love for the game, really easy as a brave to have joy and love when you are the best team in National League, hands down and running right with Rays as best overall. When you win, there is joy and love for the game. When you don't, there is no joy in Mudville. Twins have issues in this lineup for sure and all have been stated to unleash our venting fury. Lineup needs changes, personnel needs changes plain and not so simple. Correa and Buxton will never bat in bottom half of lineup, regardless of how piss poor they are at the plate. Correa, Buxton, Kepler, Vasquez ($66.976MM in salary this year) go 1 for 15 !! only one not to hit into double play was Buxton and they only had 3 K's (so only bright spot if you can call it one).

Buxton 4th. He must have a clause in his contract that says that is the lowest he can swing and miss in the lineup. 5 tool guy is down to a 1 tool guy and his too is with a plastic hammer for a bat. Bremer will most likely say even though he can't play in the field, he can still run and steal bases. Don't want to hear it, if he can do that, he can play in the field. Last 15 games is batting a whopping .111 with 21 K's in 45 AB's. Kepler, 5th. Time to move on from him as well, but FO sure won't give up on $8.5MM defensive skill set with horrific offensive skills. Read a stat that said the shift ban has helped lefty batters by about 10-15% success rate. Kepler must not have listened to that stat as his career avg is .231 and he is .204 after being at .180 and some change over a week ago.

Game of inches, feet and luck of batted balls is the Twins in games like this. Gallo does enough with 98mph heater for homer and 1 run lead. Julien two base hits were both "barreled" of 80mph for bloop base hits. Hit'em where they aint worked for him. Jeffers two "BARRELED" outs were both 100mph with liner to 2nd baseball after almost taking pitchers head off and Rosario making a really nice sliding catch in the 8th. If Rosario misses, Jeffers on 2nd, Julien and AK would have produced a run and outcome might have been different. Game of inches for Jeffers but nothing to show for it. Buxton is "hurting" this team with how fragile he is. Twins have tried to bubble wrap him for protection and we still get fragile version of glorified Lee Majors "15" million dollar man. Put the dude on IL and get him back after All-Star break. Correa, good defense, not clutch with the bat.

Yankees jettisoned Aaron Hicks and O's sure made that look like a good move to have him playing since Mullins had to go on IL. $11MM Gallo, $8.5MM Kepler, Garlick $750K, for a corner outfield of 2 lefties a "lefty masher" and we are in the position of wold of, could of for DH for the Pirates. Twins knew at that time Buxton was going to be DH and Cutch was better off going back to where he started. Let's move on Give me Wallner & Larnach and let the other lefties enjoy early retirement from Twins.

Badoo caught lighting in a bottle his rookie season as there wasn't a good book on him for opposing pitchers. Now we see the real Badoo since he has generated a large enough sampling on how to attack him. We really didn't lose on not protecting him.

So I truly do laugh at the Rocco "Buxton is no where close to playing in the field" which requires running and throwing a baseball. So Bremer recaps the interview portion while buxton walks to 1st Base. He then says Buxton can still run and steal bases even though he isn't in the field. So, begs to question, if he can "run and steal bases" why the bleepity bleep can't he play defense in CF? Maybe since he isn't use to be on base much in the last month he is out of shape. What bunch of horse crap Rocco feeds the spineless media to not call him out on anything he says. Other than that, Go Twins!

No need to demote Lewis at this time. The way the Twins are trending as a team in the crappiest division in baseball, the trade deadline we could be moving more pieces out/off the team that will allow all the young guys to be on the roster together. I'm more excited about that then anything else at this point. Slow death by 1,000 statistical paper cuts is upon us.

The automatic $48MM 3 & 4 hitters in the lineup spot game after game after game who are more like 5, 6 or 7hole hitters

Big Money offensive players aren't getting the job done in any shape of reliability. Stuck in contracts with Big 3 who aren't doing much to "lead" this team: '23 salaries on multi-year contracts: Correa $33MM Buxton $15MM, Vazquez $10MM ... this group went 1 for 11 with 5 K's. '23 salaries on final year they should be a twin: Gallon $11MM, Kepler $8.5MM with Gallo going 1 for 3 and Kepler didn't even play (not a bad thing). Combined with these guys they make up 50.74% of the team payroll. Gallo is what we thought we would get, so not surprised there except sucks to pay him $11MM for a .196 K/HR guy. Buxton, injury prone on team friendly deal who has lingering knee, ribs ailments. Knee should have bene addressed off-season as he is hurting the team more than helping. I don't want to hear or praise how they are bubble wrapping this guy and he will play in over 120 games this year. He is appearing in that amount of games has influenced the game for about 4 minutes per game. Must be exhausting walking up to bat and walking back to the dugout. Correa has to be laughing at the steal of paycheck he is earning at the moment. $10MM per year to Vazquez at age 32 for a "great" game caller and no hard contact guy. Sure 2 rings but I just don't see the influence he has on the team. 8 prior seasons he made $20MM and we want to pay him $30MM for 3 years where he is aging on the downside of his career at catcher position. Yeah us Kepler didn't even play las night, enough said about dead pull hitter who can't beat the non-shift defense. Time to jettison some dead money is now, starting with Kepler. Trade him for a low level prospect at best or just plain DFA the guy. Don't care that he plays decent defense at this stage in his lackluster career, give the spot to others and let it roll. Go Twins

The battle of the .191's in the lineup today. Who has a better day?

Thought I heard Bremer on air the other night say that left handed pull hitters on avg saw an increase of 12 points to their batting avg with the new shift ban rules. I guess Kepler thought it meant -12 points as he is solidly below the dreaded Mendoza line at .191. But people say he is a great clubhouse leader. Time to bench the guy but that won't happen

Kyle Garlick "The Lefty Masher" is not good at all. Can't hit righties, can't hit lefties, but still on the team and bats 3rd. Roster moves I would make: Larnach & Gordon for Ruiz. Gordon, nice story but we don't need a light weight multi-position player and isn't long term. Larnach known as a great hitter in college hasn't put it together at MLB level. Taylor here next year and part of longer term plan? I don't think so. Kepler is a 4th OF on any team and those trading for him don't need to and give up anything on equal value. His value is all time low and will only go lower that he is playing. Love to move him but just don't see it happening for good value back unless you package him with Miranda that as no defensive position in the infield and is he a good DH option? Miranda isn't going to a starting fixture in the field in '24 and years after. Not if Buxton is your full time DH this year or future years to come. Have we soured on Lopez in the pen. Could that sweeten the pot for someone who needs a right arm in pen. Next 45 days or so should be interesting, especially if we can build a 5-10 game lead in the central, hell any lead in the central will make this interesting.