Mark G

I can only speak for myself, and I never intend to offend, but I come here to escape the political/social divisive stuff and just toss the ball around, so to speak. Why you chose this forum for this subject is not only confounding, but disappointing. I will part now and leave it to others to decide. Take care, TD folks.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, the game of baseball accepted 2 positions with little offense, as long as their defense was stellar; SS and catcher (occasionally, if you could afford it, center field). If your defense was strong up the middle, I mean really strong up the middle, you leaned on your corners for offense. If you look at the Twins when Vas, CC, Buck, and a decent 2nd baseman are in the lineup, I would consider us very strong up the middle defensively. Buck is certainly capable of giving us the offense, but lately the rest of the quartet has been down. Are our corners able to make up for it? If not, there is always the option of finding corners who hit rather than prioritizing offense up the middle. I don't mind Vas behind the plate; as the article said, the pitchers have always seemed to trust him. I don't know how much longer he will hold up as a major league catcher, but if he would take a pay cut (a considerable pay cut?) I would not be upset if we brought him back for another year or two. Either that or make the trade necessary to bring in a long term solution, something this FO has not been willing and/or able to do so far. Something tells me I am going to be a majority of one on this, so I will duck now. 😵

I am starting to think more and more that a good chunk of it was the covid years. 2020 was a huge loss for a lot of teams in all sports; I wouldn't doubt it if we took a bath then as well. 2021 was better, but still a loser, I would bet. Now, having said that, I doubt all 425 mil was that, but I wonder if a really good chunk of it was.

After Bailey's last start I think a lot of us were anticipating him being put on the IL for a little while. Last night showed hope, but 4 runs in 5 2/3 innings is still worrisome. I assume he is not injured, or he wouldn't have gone out there last night, so I am looking forward to his next start to see if this is really a step in the right direction. As for the offense.........do they even have a direction? 🫤

Someone in FL wants to buy a team, and they are willing to pay the asking price to get a team. Someone in MN (maybe) wants to buy a team, and they may not be willing to pay the asking price as it stands now. As I taught my kids growing up: what is anything worth? Whatever someone else is willing to pay for it at the time it is for sale. TB found someone willing to pay; so far the Twins haven't. To me, that is the sole difference in the "value" of each team. As soon as someone decides owning the Twins are worth what the Pohlads are asking, it will be worth 1.7b; until then it is only worth what some IS willing to pay. RCB is right on; pop the popcorn and watch the show. 🫠

A stadium can be built. (Whispering) If you build it, they will come.

Okay, everyone, I apologize for opening my big mouth. 😉 I was commenting on the game I saw yesterday, and you all were commenting on the game you saw yesterday; although I do wonder at times if we were watching the same game. 🧐 The 3 points that appear to be the main points of contention, and there is nothing wrong with contention, it makes me think, are the decision to pull SWR so early, using Doran in the 9th, and the Altuve at bat. It is my contention that riding SWR longer would have saved us from having to use Doran after pitching yesterday and he didn't appear sharp. Others think I am full of it. That's okay. As for the Altuve at bat, yes he looked like a busher swinging at strike 2; he definitely got fooled and looked bad, But the last pitch he didn't get fooled at all. He saw the runner take off, and he followed the pitch all the way. He knew it was outside and he could have taken it for ball 4, or he could try to protect the runner. He chose the latter and it happened to work out for him. That is the game I saw. Apparently there was another game on the same channel, one that I did not see. And that's okay, too. I don't believe that plan A being 3-5 pitchers going 150 games a year (or more in extra innings), with the occasional game of only 2-3, is a good plan, not with this team. Ipso facto, I believe we should have rode SWR longer and gone with the guys in the pen who were fresh. Others think Plan A should always be plan A, or so it appears to me. And one or two games will never prove which is the better philosophy. That's why the debate exists, and that is okay too.

No, please......another 70 or 80 posts on the benefits/harm of pinch hitting? I will start babbling. 🤭

I keep reading this, and I just can't agree. I said it as I saw him coming in, and I am still saying it; Duran should not have been plan A at any point. We had a starter pitching the best game of his career, maybe, and 3 or 4 horses in the pen that had more than enough rest to get us through without having to go the route we did. Duran had thrown 20 pitches the day before, most of them stressful pitches, and he did not look all that sharp. Extra innings, sure, they would all have to be on deck depending on how many, but plan A being the 9th no matter what? Shouldn't have been. But that is just me, I guess.

Or was it aggressive baseball, which sometimes goes your way just for that reason? 😏 Also yes.

No, I don't think he intended to hit a dribbler; I got the distinct impression he was simply trying to protect the runner stealing 3rd by making contact of some kind. Imagine that. Aggressive base running and making contact, thereby protecting the runner. Why didn't we think of that? Oh. wait........we did.........and chose not to. Was it a bad at bat that just happened to go your way? Or was it aggressive baseball, which sometimes goes your way just for that reason? 😏

I don't know, I think I would beg to differ. First, I don't think SWR was struggling as much as you make out. I was the one who started the thread about being pulled after 5 innings, one hit, 53 pitches; I still believe he was having a great game and we should have ridden that horse a little longer before starting a long line of RP's because, as I said earlier, all it takes is one of them to not be on that day. You can only run out 3-5 RP's every game for so long before one (or more) of them gives it up. As for everyone in the pen being available except Jax, Sands hadn't pitched in 2 days, Varland and Stewart in 3, and Coulombe in 1. Duran had thrown 20 pitches the day before, most of them pretty stressful and he didn't get the job done. Even at the time I was hoping he would not be used; this isn't Monday morning QBing, Would it have worked out differently if SWR had gone longer? Neither one of us can prove a negative, because he didn't, and now we will never know. But choosing to do a bullpen game from the 6th inning on, knowing you will have to rely on every one of the guys you roll out there to be perfect, at best is no better than riding a starter who is having the best game of the year so far. And what a lot of us are thinking is this is the MO of this team and we can't (at least I can't) figure out why. Absolutely, we only scored 1 run in 10 innings, and the defense let us down (again!). But why didn't Vas bunt? Why was Castro in that position in the first place? Why wasn't SWR allowed to pitch his game? And why was Duran allowed to lose the lead after going so long the day before and appearing a little off even then? There is a difference between criticizing and critiquing. It is a fine line, I know, but I do try the best I can to remember it. But there are also times that they can, and should, be combined. Is this one of those times? I will let others decide for themselves, but I think this is one of those times. Yes, the players have to do the playing, but Rocco really needs to reassess an awful lot of how he manages game by game, inning by inning, situation by situation, and putting the players in position to play their best. This team will never reach the potential it may or may not have as long as Rocco is managing it. That is my critique and my criticism. And I hate even thinking it, much less saying it. Anyway, that's my story and I'm stickin to it. 😏

Maybe the guys are watching Lewis keep getting injured running hard to first base and figure better safe than sorry. 😏

You're right. One more inning wouldn't have made much of a difference. But I wasn't thinking only one more.

I screamed at the TV in that moment. A 1.93 hitter facing the ace reliever with a 1.50 ERA. Let's see........guy on 2nd, no out, and the top of the order coming up after Vas. Even Cory talked about how the Twins have had only one SH the entire season, right after Vas never even tried to advance the runner. At some point.........aarrrggggg 😣

Well, you know the old saying, "it's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it". So I will be the one. 5 innings of shutout ball, 1 hit, and only 53 pitches. Then Rocco pulls the plug again, and the parade of RP's start. As I have said until you all are tired of reading it, all it takes is one in the bunch to not be on that day and........🤕 SWR didn't just deserve a better fate, he deserved the chance to decide his own fate. I just can't stand this anymore.......🤢 Someone shut me up, please.......😷

I don't know. With the article TD put out a few days ago about our outfield depth being one of our strengths, do we really want another depth OF? Cody might very well be right about his analysis, and I don't see a dramatically big downside, but another OF? If it is as cheap as a 5th or 6th round draft pick and a little bit of cash (or something just as cheap), make an offer and take a flier. Otherwise, do we really want another project OF?

I have begun to be a Cubs fan of sorts. I love the fact that Thielbar is doing well and I hope he can have one more day in the sun come October. 🫠

An article on another site reported this is the 2nd injury for Lewis this year running to 1st base. It noted a lot of his injuries throughout his career have been in his "lower body". That sounds somewhat ominous for his career going forward. If you are injury prone by just running, and the game of baseball requires a pretty fair amount of running, there is a problem. I did a quick google on his injury history and it showed 9 injuries from 2022 to now; 7 of them lower body (legs). 🤕 ` One has to wonder if he will ever play a full season. Hopefully they can come up with a therapy regimen that will help him. He is a hell of a talent.

And Coulombe lost his 0.00 ERA. 😥

I would guess that the coaches and trainers are evaluating Ober as we speak as to whether we can keep running him out there or shut him down for awhile. If the decision is to put him on the shelf I would be in favor of a veteran arm to go with the young ones we will put in for the unknown future, depending on the cost, of course. If nothing else he could share some experience with the younger ones and eat some innings that the pen doesn't need to eat.

I concur. We should have learned our lesson by now; you just can't use Bride for more than one inning at a time. 🤭

It wasn't too many years ago that I was reading regularly about our great infield depth; this year we had to sign Ty France and Kody Clemens to hold down the fort. Recently I have read even more about the great pitching depth we have, especially starters (and I use that term loosely); we are now talking about possibly trading for pitching. And now, we have come full circle, as several years ago we were talking about our great........wait for it.......outfield, and now we have great depth where? I don't besmirch the article, or Chris laying out just what kind of depth we have. I just have to smile every time I hear about what great depth we have at certain positions; it just seems to be kind of a musical chairs type circle. 🫠. (and, yes, if someone is willing, use it to get some pitching)

I was wondering the same thing myself. We used to have this discussion back when TK was manager and he would rarely argue with the umpires and almost never got tossed. Subconsciously umpires might just go with the path of least resistance when it comes to a really close call going either way. I am curious if that were to be taken into consideration game by game, pitch by pitch, and who the opposing manager was each time. Good take.

I couldn't agree more. Because I couldn't care less about the meaningless stats. I guess they have to fill the air with something. 🙄