h2oface

Garcia fits right in. 3 inherited runners with one out. That's a tough spot, for sure, but the visitor here did the worst job. All three runners scored. Maeda lost it, sure, but it looks like maybe for the next season as well..... forearm tightness is TJs child. That was the last we will see of Kenta for the season, and my bet is most of next, if not all. Donaldson has lost his thirst for the big hit. Walks are a part of his game, but to have two strikes on you (and not just today with the bases loaded in the 5th), time after time, he will take that close pitch instead of protecting the plate and fouling it off or putting it into play. With the bases loaded, you cannot hunt the walk, especially with the count 1-2. The team needs you to at least protect the plate and not just watch it (and he watched 2 in a row for 2 called strikes). And they were both even strikes. He looked foolish whining . I hate watching Luke Voit. Team after team. Players after players. This Yankee thing for the Twins is downright sickening. I hope the game doesn't get rained out tomorrow, and Gil shoves it down the FO's throat and shuts us out, and Cave starts and wears the golden sombero. A showcase of their choices. They deserve it.

I watched those Olympic games Ryan pitched live.... they started at 3am in California. They should just bring the guy up and let him rip. He was classic cool. And when he got the plate umpire to fist bump him between innings..... some kind of kool.

Watch the next two days get rained out, and the whole pitching fiasco wasn't even necessary. No need to give Maeda extra rest and then match him up with Cole. Why not give us a better chance to win and match him up with a different pitcher? If you are going to give games away, Baldelli, you may as well give away one you would probable lose even with your best lineup and starting pitcher (that the team has left, anyway).

Using heart is a bit cliche, and I am guilty, as the heart never thinks, feels, or believes. But that is what is common practice to use in situations like this. Desire and heart. The will to be. The fire in the heart. It certainly helps that body parts can do what the brain tells them to do, that is for sure. Pain is a mother.

All those predictive group think stats to site his failures, and how he is finished........ and it is his heart that wins out. Imagine that. The intangible is still the most important thing.

I am the last guy that wants to run a team like a fantasy/video game. I hate both and participate in neither. But many on this site do like to think that way, I agree. One season signings already know that they are there for one season. Not news. I read MLBTradeRumors daily, and the Twins are not even close to some of the teams and the moves being made. All teams are quick to pull the trigger in those cases, and should, I think. I never liked Colome, and never liked the signing, and if it wasn't for him blowing so many games for the whole first half of the seaon, Berrios and Cruz would still be on the team. Those are the guys that the FO played fantasy/video games with. Our long term guys. The last nine outings for Colome before this doesn't make up for the whole half season, so saying "1 bad outing" is ignoring the total of his sad contribution to this team. As for these guys are human - I agree, and feel for all the teammates that had to suffer through Colome blowing game after game after game this year. 25 of them to one of Colome. Polanco could easily move to short for the last 6 weeks, and we could have Miranda and his two hits a game on the team taking third and Arraez second, and it would make the team better for the coming season. Plus, Gordon should get some time there in the last 6 weeks. The FO already totally gave up on the season, so no need to not see what we have, and I don't mean the AAAA filler, but prospects running out of time and options. I know many like Pineda, but I don't see a PED convicted out of shape vet that takes forever to throw the next pitch as an inspiration and mentor to younger pitchers. And he is probably out for the rest of the season anyway. I hope the FO learned to go for a better pitching staff than they went for this off season. I seriously doubt that other players would feel that the Twins are too quick to cut the chord. They all saw how long they kept giving Shoemaker and Happ opportunities - way longer than they deserved. The fans deserve better than inning's eaters. They deserve upgrades, from the farm, and from free agency and trades. Not lateral moves, but upgrades. Pineda will not be signed by a contender, but by a team that doesn't expect to win. You watch. If the Twins resign him, that is not a good direction.

Some can't help but to fansplain. I agree with you. You said something simple, and the rest was projection. Colome spiked like 3 in a row, with each one getting worse. This new sitting down on the job that our catchers (and others) are doing is not helping. I called the WP on the game thread. I knew it was coming. It was Colome pitching.

Thorpe can play ball in Australia. He will be home, and near parents and family. Past history shows that is what he needs. I never saw the "stuff" that others keep talking about, and certainly never in a MLB game. They have held roster spots for him while letting guys not Baddoo, Ynoa, Anderson, Littell, and others go. Time is up. He can't even throw in the 90s now. Time is up. Colome, Simmons, and Pineda? Time to move on. This team does not need rental place holders. All will be free agents. Best of luck to them. Time to move on.

No. And neither can Tyler Duffey. He was a lot better when he weighed about 30 pounds less.

Captain Jax will get you high tonight And take you to your special island Captain Jax will get you by tonight Just a little push, and you'll be smilin'

Best way to score is to ignore Tony 'Rally Killer' Diaz, and head for home.

Middle or back of rotation. Serviceable strike-thrower. Add innings eater. Crafty. Etc. Etc. I get all that. And those terms always make me cringe. Especially if it is what one choses to fill their rotation with instead of young pitchers from the farm that could be so much better with time instead of just the same consistent innings eater, a term that one in baseball uses when they can't come up with anything better to say and want to be nice. I just want the Twins to shoot higher than to consistantly be all that. And I don't believe that inspiration comes from out of shape vets with a record that includes PED suspension.

I hope that is the last time Pineda takes the mound as a Twin. I don't wish him ill will, I just am tired of watching him pitch - the pace, the hat adjustments, and the homers. I am sure he will find another home, but probably not on a contender, and if we are a contender, it shouldn't be here, either. We have to look for better to be better. Pineda is filler, and always has been filler, in my book. And I am really tired of Thorpe and his lost velocity. I want to see Joe Ryan. I have seen Thorpe way too much already. Why is it that we always take all this time with the minor league pitchers that don't even have high ceilings? Over and over they are the next up it seems. Guys like Canterino will never be able to field a hit ball they way he finishes. Why can't pitchers end their wind up like Jim Kaat and Greg Maddux did?

"His <Rooker> power is not in doubt, but a .252 on-base percentage ain't gonna cut it, especially when you factor in the total absence of defensive value." I do give him credit for that incredible diving catch on Saturday. I guess one can't really say total absence of defensive value.

I must be as dumb as you. But of course, I don't think you are dumb, or the way you communicated was dumb. Well thought out and to the point. We are allowed to break things down in discussion, Good points and post.

The offense is fine? Have you seen the batting averages of the lineups these days. Low .200s or less except for a couple players..... It certainly isn't "fine", and could be a ton better, especially if they are to compete for the playoffs.

Ahhhh, stats. My point basically was, without wasting the time to look it up and going from memory, was that for much of the season they were barely a .500 team. So I did waste the time to see how much I misremembered. On August 5, after a quick start, and they were 10-2. 8 games over .500 On August 2`1 they were 17-10, 7 games over. On August 29th, they were 20-14, 6 games over, and passed by both Chicago and Cleveland. On August 31 they were 20-16, 4 games over. On September 10 they were 27-18, 9 games over. On September 18 they were 31-22, 9 games over, and still 3 games behind Chicago. On September 23, they were 35-22, and a season high 13 games over .500, and back in the division lead by .5 game. On September 27, and the short season end, they were 36-24, 12 games over .500, and barely won the division by 1 game over Cleveland and Chicago. Soooooooooooo, the point was, without looking up the exact dates and records, that they were barely a .500 team after a fast start. From August 5 to September 27, they were barely a .500 team, with much of it a below .500 team. They gained a total of 4 games on .500 from August 5 to September 27. Sorry I misrembered the dates a little bit. I think we both have found stats to back up our points. Gotta love statistics eh? And that was some fine snark - "but I don't recall September occurring before August." Well played.

True, and some of them, like the Giants, are tapping into that instead of the Cleveland and Texas orgs....

But yet, the Dodgers and the Rays seem to do it with a lot lower draft picks every year...... but easier? probably. Seems the guys that go through the Tampa FO system do well when they leave. Giants haven't taken long to rise to the top, either.

Looking back at this........ is real depressing.

"And in any case, Falvey wasn't really hired to sign pitchers. He was hired to develop them." I don't agree. This is semantics. They go hand in hand. If you trade for prospect pitching, that has been partially developed in other orgs, you can't really take complete credit for developing them. That is just about all the pitching in the pipeline. Traded for prospect pitching. Every FO is hired to sign pitchers. Prospects and free agents. These guys were not only about developing, but identifying! It seems, with the success of those they let go or traded away for virtually nothing, and the failures of those they have chosen to fill immediate needs, they could get better at identifying. A lot better.

Expected. That might be the biggest problem. They expected to be good, and seemed to ignore the last 4o days, over half, of the short 2020 season, in which they were barely a .500 team, and moving downward, both at the plate and on the mound. And they went 0-3 (0-6 total) in the playoffs. That continued this year, and there was no upgrade in any of the pitching. Horrible choices. Horrible. And Burrows on the mound.... for 2 innings yesterday! Still making them.

But their pen was one of the best ever, especially the 7/8/9th inning guys. No ace(s) and horrible pen is what the story is here. How is that working for you?

They judged Rooker and Larnach to be ahead of Baddoo in the depth chart. Baddoo became expendable to them. Big mistake. We have a whole set of new players that are not so young, but still strike out about 50% of the time. When hitting (not strikeouts) is their calling card, and they can't hit, and they suck in the field...... it will not make for a better team. I hope they all get it together. We don't need a team of poor fielding striking out .200 (if we are lucky) batters. But that is what we are looking at.

I can't not know Tony "Rally Killer" Diaz at third. He either holds the fast runner, or sends the slow one. And forget about a runner from first scoring on a double. "Rally Killer" will tackle him if he has to, but he won't let him try to score. That is why I liked Eddie. He would occasionally just ignore Diaz and pretend he didn't see him.... and score!