Jeff D.

Arraez just hits. Buxton great catch. Twins aren't the only bad baserunners. Twins starter doing great gets pulled early again. No boots. A few guys did well drawing walks. Surprise of evening was Jeffers actually throwing someone out. Finally a few runs in the 10th resulting in a win. GO TWINS!

A win is a win! Great to see that we are about 15 wins better than the same time last year. The hitting machine Arraez just keeps going. Gray is starting to feel like a pitcher that can consistently go through at least 5-6 innings and hopefully that will continue to be built upon. We are beginning to look like a team that lies dormant often for innings and then rises up and strikes like a snake or lightning bolt. It makes for a very tense watch as a fan. You must admit, this team has some grit. I am not a fan of our manager and the massive analytics approach. I believe we have to shore up the catching (defense, throws, batting) particularly from Jeffers and the obvious bullpen issues must be strengthened. We are hitting the hot months of the season, and this will test the rebound ability and stamina of this team. I am surprised more fans are not showing up at Target Field. We are in first and the weather has been superb for games. The race with Cleveland is going to be wild and a rollercoaster. The team seems to have great chemistry and genuinely seems to build off each other's talents. Keep it going Twins! Twins Geezer... out!

A sad loss for the Twins! This one is on Baldelli. He has a habit (and it is a habit), of forcing his analytic will into game situations, when wisdom and insight may serve better. Pagan is his latest habit. I used to be Duffey. It ended in a loss when a win was all but assured. Jeffers played a crucial role with his passed ball. He is just not a great catcher to have on a team. He should have caught that ball. But, that is the game.....we lost. Gotta win tomorrow! Go Twins! Twins Geezer.... out!

Twins minors seem to be getting very loaded up with talented multi-positional players with youth and pop! The future looks pretty bright right now. With the number of injuries and re-injuries the call ups that the Twins have made the last couple of years have really served the organization very well. Plus, it provides the fans with some early peeks at what may be to come! Go Twins! Twins Geezer.... out!

Personally, I would like to see the Twins try to keep the guy. He has added great value to this team in not just his play. You can see the difference when the team in in the dugout or at inning endings or game endings. It could be Donaldson being gone, I can see that, but where a minus occurs a plus also occurs. There seems to be very good chemistry with the infield. My wishful thinking is, he is signed and decides to stay because he likes the pay and the place. We move Sano, Kepler and another of our many outfielders for a top tier pitcher (probably won't happen) or another solid, proven bullpen ace. Maeda will return, Gray shows more upside than not, Ryan is very good, Archer may have potential, Bundy has the stuff but needs consistency and Smeltzer has been a pleasant surprise! We have a couple of others that could fit in also. A wild card may be the next pitching coach decision. A solid starter would really give us a rotation that needs consistency. It has been pretty good this year in a broader view. Kepler in the outfield and his pop from time to time but he is only a .245 hitter. Other teams would like to have him. If Sano is part of a trade with him, it could be interesting. The Twins need to answer the question of Larnach and Kariloff once and for all. Buxton could go or stay. Teams would love him and he is now 28 and more or less a part time fielder with a nagging tendonitis issue. We have a number of other outfielders that have played this year and frankly, they all look pretty good. Who knows what will happen? But I would like to see Correa with this team. Twins Geezer... out!

I agree and have felt this way since Professor Baldelli began his run at the helm. I'd like to see the team take more risks during game, (Not Tommy Watson type risks!) like more steal attempts, hit and run, sacrifice bunts, squeeze plays, delayed steals. Yesterday, a Rockies player almost walked to second from first after a foul ball was caught and no one covered second. Smart ball, advancing a runner with no one doing anything other than a baserunner using his head. Awareness! Risk! Go for it! Our team is pretty good. It's our approach to leading the game strategy that I believe, is flat. Go Twins! Twins Geezer ... out!

This will be short. Hopefully it will be read by at least one person. When I was a kid, my buddy and I had an uncountable number of wiffle ball games in his family yard. This greatly upset his mother as there were left and right-handed batters spots where we place home plate that would no longer grow grass. Lawn chairs would be set up for the infielders. Hitting a ball to them would be an out except if really laced and it bounced away as in real ball and would be designated an error or hit. Natural growth would provide boundaries, garages, power lines would provide walls or designate if it was a double or homer and a few other designated spots would be ground rules. We chose lineups from the Big Red Machine or the Boston Red Sox, or Twins. Whatever team we chose, we had to bat in the same left or right or switch as the real player. We had hours of fun and lively debates and did this for years. All for free. Competition was fierce. I've been a Twins fan from a little tyke when they moved here. I have and will always love the team. Still get that joy when they win and suffer in the losses. Watching the Twins in the last 3-4 years has been a perseverance exercise. We have one approach to games. Make good bat to ball contact. I think 2019 the Year of the Bomba set in place a bad habit. It was fun during this, but we lost in our small playoff appearance. We continue to swing either early and fail to take looks at pitches or really have great at bats in some games. What seems to be missing is risk. What seems to be missing is small ball. What seems to be missing is imagination or creativity in finding ways to win. We just seem to endure exactly the same game approach every game. The above is only my opinion. No analytics. No last 10 game stuff. Just a fan reacting to years of watching this lovely game called baseball. We are slipping right now and hopefully can rebound and put distance between the Guardians and White Sox. Without some flexibility and alterations in our approach we are not even going to make the playoffs. Even though we just won over the Rockies 6-0 with great pitching. Cleveland waits for us. I believe that my buddy and I had more flexibility in our wiffle ball games than our Twins show today. We don't have Yogi, Dick Williams, Earl Weaver or Sparky Anderson in our dugout. They are long gone, and their style of leadership is as well. Twins Geezer....out!

One of our wealth areas is that we have people that can play first and a couple of them can play OF pretty well also. IMHO, we have some guys that are younger with great possibilities that we have never really answered the question about. It is one of our few areas where we have flexibility. Two of our OF positions are tied up that prevent us from answering the question by having them play a full year in the spots. Buxton ties up one of the spots and is high paid with part time abilities/status. The other is Kepler, a great RF but career .245 hitter with pop, prone to pull hitting. We unloaded a fan favorite, albeit an inconsistent LF in Eddie R. I belive it is time for us to see if either could be a trade along with Sano for some pitching and then firmly use Miranda, Kirilloff and Larnach with Celestino, Gordon and Garlik somewhere in the mix. This does imply keeping our IF players (as difficult as it may be to secure Carrea, we should) and making sure Arraez remains in the lineup daily. My Twins Geezer two cents! By today's standard that probably is worth $10.00! Go Twins!

I was actually hoping they could bring in Urshela from second, which they failed to do. The most incredible part of the game was Smith getting out of the bases loaded jam with no outs! WOW! GO TWINS! Twins Geezer out!

You last sentence says it all. At the moment it was taking place I was not enthralled....however the key to all this is the dugout leader. They have Francona, we have Professor Baldelli. That is all. Twins Geezer - out!

Good call out on the Twins taking pitches. It may seem they don't due to their inconsistency from game to game. Too bad Polanco was not in the lineup. Hope his return is on the horizon. Thanks for the information. GO TWINS! Twins Geezer out!

Well it isn't this! As much as I love the Twins (and bundt cake too), it drives me to frustration when small ball could be used but isn't. With a number of terrible at bats in the losing effort against the dreaded Cleveland team, we proved we can swing and miss, but alas, cannot bunt. I would agree that when you have your meat of the lineup coming to bat with men on first and second perhaps a bunt may be the last approach to be used. My issue with that would be when we have attempted the Twins way, which seems to be trying the launching pad approach and have very little outcome from it, I continue to see zero variation from our dugout, juice spitting, fearless leader. Ultimately it is up to the players to earn their pay and unleash their skill sets. However, our leader has made it pretty publicly known that he has a game plan and will generally stick with it. Ozzie G. called us the "piranha's" and that was worn as a badge of honor all the way into October failure. But it was our badge of honor and a wonderful compliment. I am hearing all the stuff about Professor Baldelli being the fourth winningest manager in baseball. Well Twins fans who may read this, how does this feel? We had a pretty good lead a couple week back, and now we do not. I'll be cheering the rest of the way and eat my cake and enjoy it, Go Twins! The Geezer

Wow are you spot on! This screams simplicity and frustration. I glows like a scoreboard when I watch the Twins. I had a post a few days back about the top three worst characteristics of this team that will keep us from winning the division. About how we will be haunted by them. I'm not sure I have the hang of this site yet as few pay attention to me and that is fine. I will begin in A and hopefully get to the biggies as I catch on. But your sentence "Outside of Arraez, nobody really makes the pitcher WORK on a consistent basis.", is so very accurate. Celestino will often work the count and actually get rewards. Buxton leads the pack with inconsistency and somehow the fans think he is a superhero! Most of our hitters are capable of working counts. Few of them do with consistency. This will cost us. IMHO believe that our manager sets the tone with his inflexibility once a game has begun. He is really flexible with his batting orders however! Nice simple posting! Kudo's! GO Twins! Twins Geezer out!

Twins Geezer here.... Enjoyed the read and viewpoint! I believe we have a good team. Possibly play off worthy. But here are my top three concerns: 1. We get shutout every 7 games. 2. We have a domino type team. Meaning, we seem to follow the leader in our hitting approach. Leaving runners in scoring positions is boggling. (Last night was nice to see!) 3. An inability to alter our game approach during a game. We almost never try and vary our approach in a game where we have not scored by the fourth or fifth inning to spark offense. Hit and run, bunting, suicide bunts, stealing, double steals, small ball. Arizona showed it's ability for big ball hitting and incredible talent at small ball in game one of this series. The set mentality of Professor Baldelli is tattooed all over this concern. I am a die-hard Twins fan, I am not concerned we will fend off Cleveland unless we really pay attention to these three characteristics. I also am an unpaid armchair manager! GO TWINS!

Twins Geezer here! Another one of those perplexing games that begins with the Twins tearing the cover off the ball, scoring very little, leaving men stranded, bats going silent and ending with a big L. Not sure about much, but the Twins continue to have a couple of very bad habits. The first, I have brought up before. About every 7 games, we score no runs and look like we have been hit by a Voodoo curse. The second is mentioned in my opening sentence. This one is very concerning. This is going to keep us from winning the division. As much as I hate to say it and I will cheer for them the rest of the season, the Twins will not win the Central. This team has the inability to change game strategies during the game. If you watched Arizona last night, they began with power, then added small ball with great effectiveness and used speed to crush the Twins. A couple of different team characteristics on display with skill in the game. What did the Twins do? Hit the ball very hard, had their starter struggling with very little (seemingly so) engagement by our manager until he looked like he had been pummeled by Mike Tyson in his prime, and left runners in scoring positions with consistency. This was an ugly game by our fearless ball club. These games happen with some regularity, and I believe, IMHO, that this is going to continue because our dugout leader has this "set game plan" locked in his cranium under that Twins cap perched on his head, while he stares with zero expression while spitting on the field. Another loss of a type we seem to have a habit with. It will keep us from the division title as much as I hate to say it. Go Twins, The Geezer

Good thought-provoking stuff! I'm not sure what the Twins should do as they have tremendous options to think through. I know that if it were me, (IMHO), I would not have Kepler with the team next season. I would answer the question and have Larnach, Kiriloff and Buxton or Lewis in the OF. This would keep Lewis as either OF or SS (depending on his healing progress). Celestino is/would be a great back up. I like what I have seen from Arraez as far as learning and improving at 1st base and though he is not a natural there, the guy can play about anywhere, but you must have his bat in our lineup! Urshela is a keeper. Would love Correa around but probably unlikely after this year. Polanco is a clutch hitter with runners in scoring position and is fairly good at second. Garlick and Kepler can produce and should be attractive to other teams. We need to continue to improve the pitching. They might get us some. Buxton would get us more. The risk with Buxton is losing his defensive capabilities and his power in the line-up. I think the Twins could do pretty well without him while getting a lot in return. But.....I would only move him to the National League. With playing every team in the coming years, this could sting us for a few games each year. But, hey, it has happened before. Maybe Miranda can learn to catch........I don't have any more right answers or wrong than anyone else here. What we do know is Miranda has upward trajectory and is young. But hey, Arraez is only 25, is versatile and can hit with the best. An interesting conundrum to have. GO TWINS!

This team has a bad habit that will hurt us more going into July and August. About every 6 games, we are shut out. The strangest characteristic for me of our beloved Twins is what I call the domino effect. When we have gone through the lineup at least one time with no noticeable threat of scoring or even hits at times, there is a great possibility of the domino of flatness cascades through the entire team. We seem to have little ability to fire up during games like this. The leader of the team in the dugout seems to just handle things exactly as any other game. Get the next guy up to the plate. Rotate a pitcher after the fourth or fifth. Etc., etc. IMHO as a geezer, I would enjoy the Professor Baldelli or some human being in a Twins uniform do SOMETHING to ignite the team, even if it fails. Try swiping a base, try getting brushed by a pitch, brush back a hitter (we actually do that unintentionally), try hit and run and so on. That is really one of my top peeves. Otherwise, we have a pretty good team. We cannot continue the trend of being shut out every 6-7 games. Cleveland is sneaking up! GO TWINS!

All Star Team voting is here. VOTE IN ARRAEZ!!!!!!!! That is all! Resume normal activity. (I feel like Napolean Dynamite here!) The Geezer

Enjoyed the read. I am old enough to have been a Twins fan throughout the whole of Carew's time with the Twins. I remember watching him and going nuts when he would swipe home! Arraez is not gifted with the speed that Carew had, but one element that gets incredibly overlooked is his energy level. It is simply light years beyond any Twins teammates. Just watching him take at bats is usually worth highlight reels. He is our spark plug. He loves playing the game and it shows. His ability to see the ball to the bat is about as good as I have ever seen. All-star team all the way. Thanks for the article. The Geezer

As a kid I would set up dominoes on end and create curves and straight runs, and figures then topple them. When I made an error and the dominoes failed to continue dropping, I would simply readjust that one domino and let it rip again.... It seems weird that the Twins go through these games where they start out blistering hot and then a switch goes off and they just lock up. It happened again. The dominoes did not continue to complete the run. We are a good team. We are not a championship team yet. The Yanks (damn them) drilled us again. Relief pitching failed, fielding failed, manager failed to grasp how to lead. We lost another game where we got the fans believing and like a great magician, we were left wondering..... "How did they do that!?" Dominoes were easier.....GO TWINS!

It is not fast enough for me to see Professor Baldelli move to another school.....You are spot on!

I am not sure he deliberately did this. My take is Baldelli has no idea that he is doing these things. I maintain, (and have since about 2 months into his first year), that this fearless dugout leader cannot make a decision without a spreadsheet. I would guess he has a sheet that projects his meals too! While he did get tossed, which requires the him to actually speak, the damage had been done. The Duff had struck like a rattlesnake. Boom and the game was lost. On the bright side....it was fun watching the Yanks try to catch balls and seeing Polanco and Arraez continue to make meaningful contact. Max (I cannot go to Canada) actually looked pretty good. GO TWINS!