umterp23

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.

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

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.

$10MM per year roadblock with Vazquez contract will be a problem. Jeffers has adjusted quite nicely and has a solid game all around. Nice problem to have with AAA guy waiting in the wings due to an injury

Camera showed him glancing as he was about 5 strides to the bag and everyone thinks he dogged it out of the box and not running hard. Glance sure, but the odds of beating out a 102.4 barreled ball as the catchphrase goes when you are 6'-4" 235 lb catcher is a blink of an eye close. The fault we could have is that he was aggressive on first pitch fastball down and in vs something a little more over the plate. Not sure the last time I saw him swing at a 1st pitch but I haven't watched every single game of his career. Last man to bat gets all the blame but Jeffers to me has shown he has matured as a batter. Other than Lewis' one hit, Jeffers had the best at bats as a collective in the game. Single first at bat 102.2 off the bat. Drew a walk instead of chasing a couple close pitches in 2nd at bat. 3rd at bat fought off a couple pitches and got hanging slider low and hit it a mile high straight up. Pretty sure Jeffers loves playing the game and was aggressive on 1st pitch in the 9th inning which anyone could say after Castro gets beaned on a sweeper aka as a slider but hey sweeper new catchphrase of '23. I'd say yes. Does Correa, Buxton, Larnach, get the same question walking down the hallway when they K as much as they do, can't hit with runners in position to score or just are hurt to often to play the game the "love". Jeffers is the least of my concern at the moment. FO and their moves and non-moves and Baldelli having no gut clue on managing a game is more concerning. Imagine if Wallner was demoted and Kepler, if still on the team was your bench player to get a lefty vs righty in that moment. But no, we had a Garlick pinch hit for Kirilloff who is batting near .300 and promptly K's and looks awful. So much for the presumed "Lefty Masher". Last guy left on the bench was paper bag hitting Vasquez who not sure has hit a ball over 100mph yet this year. If he grounded into Jeffers DP swing he would be 1/2 way down the line. Tough night for sure, could have stole the game. Love your commentary but one swing and a glance is the biggest issue on this team.

One could argue on Arraez did we get enough impact value in the trade? Lopez in April, yes seemed so. 2 young guys in minors, TBD.

Commentary on Arraez at the time of the trade was he didn't have an everyday position on defense, So yes, still stand by he wasn't a guaranteed starter on defense with the guys that I mentioned. Bad knees, didn't have great range with the ban on shift positioning. Doesn't mean he isn't a great bat to have but he isn't the cog that we were going to be successful with. He lead the AL in batting last year and where did that get us? Didn't win the division, didn't make the playoffs. He is good, not questioning that. We needed pitching and we made the deal. Right, wrong or indifferent - he was viewed as a spare part by FO with young guys on the horizon that are deemed to be better.

Another would of, could of, should of article about Arraez. Great for him that he is hitting .400 at this point of the year. Let's not forget when this trade was made, we had no position for Arraez in the lineup on the defensive side. He was not going to play 1st with Kiriloff & Gallo there. He was not going to play 2nd with Polanco He was not going to play 3rd with Miranda being the heir apparent and how did that work out for us? Great, Farmer held serve until Lewis was ready. He wasn't going to be DH, because FO already promised Buxton to that role due to his always broken, never 100% body. So, one .400 guy isn't changing this offense for one simple reason, we would need 5 other guys to hit behind him consistently. We don't have that. We have 8 other guys who swing the bat. We rarely move guys over, hit behind guys, protect with 2 strikes kind of guys. Arraez isn't a base stealer, doesn't have great power but can pop one out every once in a blue moon. Pitching has put us in the position we are in to date this year and I don't think Arraez gives us but 1 or 2 more wins to our total and that is a maybe. Happy for him, but he isn't here, so time to move on.

Rays are the best team in baseball. So, yes result was to be expected and the Twins have their faults. All stats lead to a slow death by 1,500 K's the rest of the year, but everyone has to play the Rays. So good for us to get this over with early in June

completely empty must have a new definition. granted it shouldn't be this bad, but I get your point

I'd give up Miranda in a heartbeat since he has no defensive position and give up a high AA/AAA Pitching arm. Pretty sure not enough but poke the bear. Austin Martin? Woods-Richardson? Are they fits here?

Wallner vs Kepler, and Twins chose Kepler and sent Wallner down vs keeping Wallner and putting Kepler on the bench as utility. Roster crunch sure but Gallo went IL, should be putting Buxton or Correa on IL to get them rest vs having one/two bench players while we wait for "Super Stars" to show up. Wallner has nothing left to really prove at AAA, let him earn his learn or fly in RF.

What I find interesting is that they gave up on Garver at age 32 but signed Vazquez at 32 for $10MM a year. Yes needed a catcher but it does appear to be an severe overpay at the moment. Last 8 games is 2 wins and 6 losses as the starting catcher. Jeffers is 5-0 in his last 8 as the starter.

simulated of course... Miranda may be one hit wonder and he really has no defensive position. Celestino isn't a full time CF. Pagan isn't a good sweetener but can't hurt. If they want lanarch, would do that as well. Just don't buy that he is a good fit for us long term.

Spot on Riverbrian, spot on.... Correa told Buxton be the DH. Buxton told Correa swing and miss like Sano. They traded frequent mall shopping buyers cards for cologne all while laughing when they get their direct deposit of a paycheck each month. Turning it on. Correa 0-5 in Twins win vs Astros with Lewis and Jeffers being clutch. Buxton not in the lineup for the win, but I heard he is on pace for appearing in 90% of the games this year! Whoop-de-do. Almost $45MM a year for these two and we have to allow them to play themselves into better shape into June each year. What a bad commentary of let's write another feel good article and would of, could of. Can't wait to see the next Arraez article.

Buxton is breaking out as an everyday DH and, more importantly, staying in the lineup with a relatively outstanding bill of health as evidenced by his ability to play in 90% of games so far this season. One of the funniest parts of the article, comparing Buxton to full time DH's and saying he is breaking out! Breaking out the K stick is more like it. FO didn't sign him long term to be a full time DH. He has better chance of getting hurt at DH as he does playing in the field. Playing in the field, running, throwing the ball and mentally staying in the game keeps your body loose and muscles engaged. Walking to the plate and 45 seconds later coming back to dugout is not influencing the game. On pace for 90% of the games this year is so false of a statistically measure of his importance. 4 at bats that may last 5 minutes if he never touches first base and 150 minute ballgame and he influences the game 0.0333% of his appearances. Game changer of a player, absolutely not day in and day out. He is doing his best Sano impersonation. So let's say he rips a double down the line in his last at bat of the game after sitting the bench for 2 hours, good chance he can pull a hammy and break a finger with his ugly sliding techniques. DH is tougher than playing the field due to lack of concentration by watching the game vs playing a full game. 90% pace is a kids participation trophy at best

If Maeda comes back soon enough, send him to the bullpen. Allow him to get back up to strength vs 3-4 inning start in the rotation.

One game doesn't make a season, but it does initiate confidence for Julien, Castro & Wallner. So let's say we need bullpen help at the deadline and these guys are continuing really good play, do we dangle Miranda, Larnach, Pagan and Jorge Lopez to see what we can grab? Not opposed to it but Twins have to be in win-now playoff mode. Just me enjoying a Sunday morning thinking out loud

%'s to describe something over 100% is worthless. The max you give on any given day is guess what 100%, not anything over that. Plain and simple if he confident and ready to go, then he is 100%. If not, then he can say less than 100%. Glorified % doesn't mean anything. If he is ready, throw him in the lineup.

I would part ways with Miranda in a heartbeat. His defense is offensive and his offense is just as offensive. He doesn't have a home defensively and with Buxton being full time DH, where does he fit long term. Not sure he does. Miranda, Kepler and Lopez for Hader? not sure it is enticing enough. Throw in Wood-Richardson as well.