cHawk

I do not want a reunion with Simmons. Iglesias is interesting. His Whiff% and K% has been Top 20 Percentile throughout his career and he has good speed. He is on the wrong side of 30 tho. I would be careful about signing him, although I think it’s an option. Not interested in Galvis. He seems rather mediocre. I, like many, do not want Polanco at SS. His defense is awful. Of those options, Iglesias looks like the best option. There may be other options that I haven’t gotten to.

I really don’t get/like the idea that the team would’ve done better had Baldelli put in a different pitcher with a 7+ ERA. You might as well leave him out there to eat innings if the game is out of reach.

With the Buxton turmoil recently and much of the negative eye on the FO, there hasn’t been much talk about Baldelli. However, Baldelli has received just as much heat from this site over the past 7 months as the FO has. I’ve touched on Baldelli before in this thread, but that was incredibly one sided toward Baldelli and I never really talked about some of my criticisms toward Baldelli. Also, that was written in May. It is now November. Time has passed and we have more to look at. Baldelli now has his first losing season. I’m going to look at some of the things I think make Baldelli the right guy for this team and I’m also going to look at some of the things I think make Baldelli not the right guy for this team. Why he’s the right man for this team The Twins had a real clunker of a season in 2018. Paul Molitor was fired as a result, and Baldelli was hired. Many other changes were made to the coaching staff as well. In 2019, the team looked much better and played really well throughout the year, en route to 101 wins. The team simply played much better under Baldelli, which implies good things about the manager. Even if you include the awful 2021 season, the team has averaged 88.6 wins per season (162 games) throughout three years under Baldelli. That’s better than any season they had from 2011-2018. This might not look like much in terms of the things going for Baldelli, but the case here is that it doesn’t need much explanation. Why he’s not the right man for this team My first critique of Baldelli is that his team, particularly in 2021, looked poorly prepared. IMO, it hasn’t been talked enough how much this team struggled with the fundamentals of baseball. Failing to make the most basic of plays. I watched every game through late May (after May not every game, but most games) and I saw this team fail at the fundamentals, comedically at times. This could be attributed towards a coaching staff as a whole, but Baldelli is a pretty big part of that. I talked about how the team performed better under Baldelli in the Pros section, but there are times where I wonder if Baldelli is getting less out of his team than the sum of its parts. To me, the biggest example of this is the 2020 Wild Card Series against the Astros. The Twins were favored to win, but they didn’t even show up to the ballpark. They lost the series without a single victory. Many on this site lamented about poor relief work, and while I agree that the bullpen was not good, you can’t overlook the fact that this team scored 2 runs in 2 games against a pitching staff composed entirely of Zack Greinke, Ryan Pressly, and a bunch of rookies. The Twins offense was underwhelming in 2020, but they were at least competent, especially at home. This is not a case of an incapable lineup being exposed, this is a case of everyone performing well below their talent level in a situation of high magnitude. It’s been obvious since January of 2020 that Mike Zimmer would consistently get less out of his Vikings than the sum of their parts, and I’m wondering if the same thing is happening with Baldelli. The 2020 Wild Card Series isn’t the only example of this, I also think that parts of the 2021 season are an example. This team had dog**** offensive performance after dog**** offensive performance for much of the beginning of the season, with the occasional 12-run blow-up. All and all, those are my thoughts about Baldelli. What do I think his future should be on the Twins? As of right now, IDK. I want to say he would be on the hot seat for 2022 but right now, next season is on the FO. They need to untangle themselves with the Buxton situation and fill out a pitching staff. If they can do that, Baldelli should then be on the hot seat at the start of the season. But if they can’t and decide to punt 2022, it wouldn’t be Baldelli’s fault if the team doesn’t do well. That was a lot. I think I’m going to go eat a cookie now.

The difference with Berrios is he clearly expressed he had no interest in remaining with the Twins. Buxton has expressed he wants to remain with the Twins. Big difference there.

The tough thing is that there really wasn’t anything wrong with the Simmons signing on paper last year. NOBODY predicted he would be that bad (if you did, then props to you). The more I think about the Segura idea, the more it makes sense to me. He’s been a pretty solid player over the last five years. I’d be fine with it. He would be cheaper than the big names in the FA market, so the Twins could allocate that money more towards the (many) holes in the pitching staff. That being said, IDK what the Twins would give up for him. That’s the hard part.

Not particularly ecstatic about this hire. That being said, it does fill a need. Losing Mike Bell really seemed to hurt this team, and Tingler (from what I’ve heard from Padres fans) is more suitable as a bench coach than a manager. I’m fine with it.

Ugh. Please no.

Does it depend on what’s in the burrito?

If he’s available at $5M/year, don’t even bother, given what happened with Colóme. He had 0.6 WAR over 25 IP last year (proportionally, 1.4 WAR over 60 IP). $8M • 1.4 = $11M. That’s the probable price tag for him. We don’t know this…none of us can predict the future

I blame a lot of this season on the players, as they are the ones who are getting paid Millions and they aren’t performing, but this team wasn’t exactly set for success with the starting rotation the FO put together.

The tough thing is that you don’t know how many games he’s going to play. He’s only had one (1) season where he’s played 100+ games. You know how good he is going to be when healthy: One of the best players in baseball. In 2021, he put up 4.2 WAR in 61 games. Over a 162 game season, that’s a ridiculous 11.1 WAR. (That tells me that his 2021 success wouldn’t be sustainable over a full season) That being said, he’s going to be a Mike Trout-type player when healthy. If you extend him, you should make the base 60 games/year, which would be about $25M/year. So, I would do 4 years/$100M with incentives galore.

No question you should resign one of your few talented RPs.

You’re entitled to your own opinion. That being said, I disagree. It seems lazy to simply say, “If he were going to, he would’ve.” I don’t think it’s fair at all to say that there’s a 0% chance Buxton signs an extension here. Has he indicated he wants out? I haven’t heard anything. Why the FO waited so long to extend him isn’t hard to figure out. He has had one (1) season where he’s played 100+ games. Staying on the field has been a continuous problem for him. It’s so inconsistent that it would IMO be a bad decision to hastily hand him a 5 year/$125M deal. It’s incredibly risky. I wouldn’t advise it. Also, 0% chance of filling the holes in the pitching staff? Why? Why can’t they sign the bullpen arms and starters they need? Their pitching pipeline will also starting producing more next year (hopefully). This sounds more like an, “I don’t trust the FO to fill the holes,” rather than an, “I don’t think it’s physically possible for them to fill the holes.”

Resigning Buxton and fixing the rotation should come before a SS if they really want to get back in this thing. As for the SS market, IDK. Baez, Correa, and Seager aren’t coming here. Not interested in Story. Maybe look at Semien? If none of those work than go with Arraez and Polanco at 2B and SS.

That trade is disgusting. I’d be happy to see Levine dismissed if they make that trade.

I disagree, I think the Red Sox will give them a fight.

Welp, I was 1 for 2 on my Wild Card picks and 2 for 4 on my Division Series picks. Let’s do the Championship Series’ now. Once again, take these with a grain of salt. ALCS (C as in ”Cheaters”): Boston Red Sox vs. Houston Astros If you told me at the beginning of the year that the Red Sox would make the ALCS I would’ve laughed at you. Yet here they are. This matchup looks like a pretty good one. Both teams have great lineups that both hit for a high average and score a lot of runs. However, I do look back at the Division Series with the Red Sox and the Rays and I see how their bullpen has coughed up late inning leads in back-to-back games. That raises a few questions. On the other side, the Astros bullpen has been better at protecting leads. This should be a really good series but I think that the bullpens will make the difference of who’s moving on here. Prediction: Astros win in 7 games NLCS: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves We see a rematch of last year’s NLCS this year. LA and Atlanta. Both teams have highly capable offenses that should match up well with each other. Both teams also have competent pitching staffs. But I have to say that the advantage in the pitching goes to the Dodgers, because they have both the better #1 Starter and the better #2 Starter (Scherzer>Morton and Buehler>Fried). The Dodgers will be a far tougher test for the Braves than the Brewers. Their pitching staff is just as good (and the Brewers pitching staff did hold Atlanta to 3 runs/game last series) but their lineup is far better. The primary reason the Brewers lost is because nobody in their lineup was able to step up. So, if the Dodgers can consistently put up 4+ runs/game in this series, they’ll win the series. What are the odds of that happening? Pretty high I’d say, they’re the Dodgers! Prediction; Dodgers win in 5 games I’ll do my World Series predictions when it comes around. Please give me your feedback on how right or wrong I am!

*Barring a miraculous three-in-a-row run, the Central division winner will bow out quickly for the fifth year in a row* FTFY

I’m sorry but I don’t agree with any of this. He was not the main reason for the early collapse of anywhere close to it. The Twins faltered early on because of two things: 1. Colome blowing saves and the rest of the pitching staff sucking 2. Simmons giving the team COVID Neither of those two things are Baldelli’s fault. The FO is the one who signed Colome and designated him as their closer. Baldelli wasn’t the one who made that decision. If you want to argue he ruined Colome, how much do you think Baldelli actually coaches his pitchers? If he did it to any significant degree, they probably wouldn’t have a designated pitching coach. If you think they ruined Colome, it’s not Baldelli’s fault. Stuck with Colome too long? He only stuck with him for 5 blown saves, y’all act like it’s 15 or 20. As for the pitching staff, I don’t think you understand the true ****tieness of the hand dealt to him. He was handed a rotation featuring JA Happ and Matt Shoemaker for 40% of the starts. Both aging #5-at-best starters at the time. The Twins didn’t “ruin” Happ and Shoemaker, they were simply bad pitchers. As for the bullpen he was dealt, you can say the same thing about Duffey at times, Rogers at times, Thielbar at times, etc. that I said about Colome. That’s on the pitching coach, not Baldelli. Also, Simmons. Not only did he post a -0.5 WAR on the season, but he also came to camp unvaccinated and he was the first one to catch COVID. That derailed the team quite a bit. Saying that he’s only good at giving interviews and nothing else is pretty unfair. Have you ever considered he played the game himself and was a very fundamentally sound player? We have seen problems with the fundamentals throughout the year, but that is attributed to a coaching staff as a whole, not just a manager. And I don’t think that Baldelli would have much to do with problems with the fundamentals, because that’s something he demonstrated he can do well.