h2oface

What happened to him? The last 10th Inning Stretch post is march 15, 2019.....

We already know a 6 run lead in the 7th isn't enough.... or a 3 run in the ninth.

Looks like keeping Baldelli out of the game as much as possible is the key to success. Lots of runs, and no pressure on the pen. Can they do that every game?

Once he got the coaches out of his head....... success. Listen to yourself. Perhaps more should. That is why folks saying that the hitting happening right now is because of a coach seems far fetched. I doubt it. Coaches can be a valuable asset. But they can also be washed up dreamers that just want to be a part of the game that they were never good enough to excel at, and want to hang around. "I could never do it, but let me tell you how....."

This from an article on the MLB page.... "But the Twins actually led the AL with a 42 percent hard-hit rate entering Tuesday, and their average exit velocity of 89.7 mph was second only to the Blue Jays. But the results haven’t followed -- just ask Kirilloff, who entered the game 1-for-18 but was hitting the ball well enough for a .293 expected batting average and an expected slugging percentage of .608, per Statcast." This is where baseball has gone. All this expected crap to try to make it acceptable to lose. Whoppee. Wining the hard-hit rate stat sheet. Expected means nothing in the win and loss columns. Actual means everything.

This is more the Maeda that you will see. But 6 homers in 2 games? I hope not that. Last year was a lucky hot streak. Still can't believe how people were anointing him ace and even how the management took away Berrios' opening day start for 2 hot months from the new guy. Relief. Both Thielbar and Alcala come in and can't get the first batter out. Thielbar just throws it right down the middle and it only took one pitch. Free Colome. Release him immediately. Can you imagine being a teammate and having to look at him everyday? Torture. I'm not a bandwagon guy. I hated the signing.

Arraez can get some timely hits, but man, is he a liability in the field. The big loss to Oakland with the throw from 3rd, and this game the horrible pull up on a catchable ball in left field that cost a run. Astudillo is a liability in the field anywhere you put him. Having utility that can't really play the position(s) you put them in that well is not a path to victory.

FO hires are not Twins' loyalists. They really don't care that much about the team, except as a stepping stone and to make money. I can't believe how folks can get to be such apologists about their hired gun execs. We are the ones that care about our team. Self assigned and for free. Levine has been here some 5 years (I think) and has not presented us with one great pitching prospect that has stuck and become a star. Not helped build a team that has won 1 playoff game (0-6). So personally, I don't really care what happens, except fixing the bullpen immediately if not sooner. I don't care who does it.

World Series? World Series? WORLD SERIES?!?!?! This team has only one team with a worse record than them in MLB! Folks really drank the kool-aid about this team being so good. And not just here. Baseball fans everywhere..... power rankings, etc.... Fools all.

More than one poster has kept defending the pen with the probability of the runner on second scoring being 1.058 or something like that. So what. Then why can't we score? (I guess we did one out of 5 because of Buxton's homer, which Colome found a way to let 3 runs in instead of just one). 2-12. Just keep doing the same thing, Baldelli, and expect different results.

This season and the .500 play in 2020 after the first 12 or so games, shows you even more why you DO mortgage your future and go for it by trading prospects (that never seem to come to fruition on the Twins) for the pitching ace and the special rentals or high cost player(s) in 2019. That season is now wasted with another pathetic playoff sweep, followed by 2020 playoff sweep, and now the window is slamming shut, and we have prospects with fading value, and can't hit or star on the mound when they are brought up. I would take a championship every ten years and 5 horrible seasons, than 5 horrible seasons anyway AND sweeps in the playoffs while thinking the prospect train will save you in the next year or two. When the future is now, it is prudent to not pass the close.

Both teams played on the same field and in the same conditions. Exactly.

2-11 in last 13. Totally wasting Buxton's start. ST set the tone. So many so cocky about how good this team was. Talk is so cheap. 2-11! Wow.

Maeda was never that good, except for occassional spurts. Like the 2 month one last year. That was very nice, but he just isn't what so many kept pencilling him in as for this year and beyond. He won't be this bad, but be thankful when he has a run of a couple of months. Even Nolasco had runs of a couple of months. I guess it looked a lot longer last year, because 2 months was a whole season. But best if the team doesn't plan or be fooled that Maeda is an Ace, and go get one!!

Trailing in the ALC? That is kind. How about last place in the American League, and 1/2 game from the worst record in Major League Baseball!

I agree with all the OP's 3 questionable moves. Especially taking Donaldson out of the game. I was even more disappointed to hear Baldelli say he would do it again in the post game. Live and not learn. Process. Bend the Knee to the Almighty Process. The forces where slapping him in the face with the consequences, and he is not listening. As for Colome (and Robles, too)...... since the signing(s), I have been hoping it would not lose us too many games. I fear it will. Watching Baldelli keep going to Colome is like watching Molitor keep putting Perkins in that September of 2015. You can quote all the career stats you want. Last season.... the last two seasons.... whatever. Be my pest. When it's over it is over. The White Sox saw it, apparently first and wouldn't resign him, and the 28 other teams passed too, but not us. Got him on the cheap. Seriously, nobody wanted to see Baldelli manage the pen so that Colome became his "only option" at the end of this game. It didn't have to be, but he made it be. Just because the FO gave him Colome doesn't mean he needs to keep putting him in to lose games. When it's over it's over. It seams clear to everyone but Baldelli, who like Molitor with Perkins, just keeps putting Colome in the situation to lose the games. And in this case, forget about the 10th. He should have done his job in the 9th, when he hit the first batter he faced, and that was the runner that scored and blew the lead to close it out in regulation! But alas, he cannot do the job anymore. Colome is toast.

A lot of players start slow at the beginning of the season, unfortunately. Rooker always has since I have been following him. Jeffers was up last season with a head of steam, instead of starting in the show against much better pitching at the beginning of the year to get going. Good springs can mean continued success, but not always as the calendar turns. I don't see the depth that others do. I am not seeing a savior. I am seeing a Sano that is regressing, an Astudillo that is getting totally over used, and no real current option in left field. COVID has invaded, and I bet it gets worse before it gets better. Baldelli needs to keep the best players he has in the game, and stop the ridiculous over managing.

What get's buried in this travesty is Maeda. So many put it down in ink that Maeda was now an Ace. Two months of a the hottest streak of his career, and that would be Maeda forever. Well, at least for this year. That, I think, was foolish, or at least overly optimistic. Berrios was even trashed for the 2 month new guy when it came to opening day start! I think you are going to see that 2 months is not the future standard. He might get hot for a spell this year, too, but Maeda is a bargain first, and whatever we get toward the Ace is a bonus.

Absolutely. And that is why it makes it so astounding that he took the performing 3rd baseman out of the game in extras, the one we paid so much for, exactly for the big moments and the big games, the one who is fianally able to play and be there, when you need the defense the most, especially with a runner on second. Absolutely. They need to perform. They need to be still in the game and not pulled, to perform.

Sure. Don't walk two and it doesn't matter, and you win the game. It works both ways, I agree. All the events were pathetic.

Berrios "deGrom'ed". We finally had Donaldson, Cruz, and Buxton all in the same lineup.... twice... but they went 3/16 and contributed to the "deGrom'ing" of Berrios. In 3 starts, including getting bombed by Arizona, Luzardo came into the game with and 8.31 ERA and a .328 average against. But the Twins made him look like a Cy Young winner, and all on 65 pitches n 5.1! I need a break.

Looks like the Angels are playing today. At least we didn't infect them, too. Hopefully.

This team didn't hit last year (except for Cruz, and even he cooled toward the end of the year, and Buxton, when he was able to play), it didn't hit during ST, and it isn't hitting now. So many chose to disregard the performance of last year and ST and considered it meaningless. I would have been surprised if they just turned it on like a switch. The bullpen decisions I hated, and even more now. This FO did little but stand pat, or make this team OLDER. It is a long season (maybe). I hope they figure it out. But I am not optimistic. I think they are totally wasting the current window, and need to bring on the youth, and make quick decisions about their bullpen mess. Or..... just trade the youth or let them go to other teams that don't keep them buried in the minors...... yubbaa dubbaa baddoo.

Nothing like just giving up. I had an offer to go to the game today. And with Buxton out, and who is scheduled to pitch today, could not do it. I just can't bring myself to watch this team live right now. I made the right choice.

The only way to stop this hope to cheat the call .... called pitch framing.... is to use the cameras and call more accurate and consistent strike zones. As long as it is in the plate umpires domain, this needless movement of the glove will continue, and the actual job of the catcher - to catch the ball - will be muddled by trying to fool the umpire, or to just hope the pitch isn't one of the 15% they will call wrong. It really is ridiculous that this continues. When the change finally happens, and it will happen, we will see other talents be refined that make the game better, such as pick off throws of all kinds. Until then, the "cheat the call" MO will continue, and some will call it a talent.