jmlease1

when you've decided the manager must go, every decision point is an opportunity to pile on; consistency in arguments is not required.

I'm not going to worry about his attitude & body language too much at this point. He's still so young and this is part of what the minors are for: iron out some of the professionalism you need in MLB and I think he'll get there. The error wasn't great, but I think he'll learn from it. Nice to see Urbina have a good game. He had a pretty slow start to the season, but maybe his bat is starting to heat up.

Nice win. Good to see Kenta Maeda looking healthy and locked in; 8 Ks in 5 innings is impressive. Royce Lewis is playing very well right now, and it's so fun to see. He's had such a tough journey with the injuries, and it's awesome to see him getting to play and let his talent and skill shine. He's probably going to need to be a little more selective at the plate eventually as pitchers start to react to him, but right now he's bashing it, so roll on Royce! The umpiring continues to frustrate. Really tired of seeing Kirilloff get screwed on a bad call (he's gotten nailed more than any other Twin it seems like) and Michael A. Taylor isn't a complainer so him getting tossed says something. I'm more than ready for the electronic strike zone.

E-Rod really showing why he's considered a top 50 prospect in all of baseball. I'd say he's feeling recovered from the injury! He's having a dominant stretch right now: in the last month he's got an OPS of .975 and as many walks as Ks. He's showing better control at the plate and it's great to see how much contact he's making, because the ball is exploding off his bat.

I'm trying to think of a more frustrating player than Kepler. He's been pretty useless this season, and coming under fire from all sides this season. So of course, he's had a good week at the plate and a nice last two weeks out there. But his defense has slid, I don't expect this little hot streak to last for long, and he's going to drive us all crazy at least until the trade deadline or until he gets hurt again. (I guess it's a blessing that he tells management every time he gets nicked up and goes on the injured list without a fight?) They should have moved on from him in the offseason. Sigh.

I don't mind them signing him to a minor league deal to see if he has anything left. The rotation is still solid, but having another potential veteran depth option if a significant injury hits us can't hurt. As long as there's no guarantee of a MLB shot, then sure. Don't think this hurts anything, and maybe a few guys can learn something from the crafty veteran in the minors while he's in Saint Paul.

I don't mind them signing him to a minor league deal to see if he has anything left. The rotation is still solid, but having another potential veteran depth option if a significant injury hits us can't hurt. As long as there's no guarantee of a MLB shot, then sure. Don't think this hurts anything, and maybe a few guys can learn something from the crafty veteran in the minors while he's in Saint Paul.

Love me some Joe Ryan. He was masterful today, and it was fun to watch. Really nice win today. Hopefully this is the team getting back on track and we'll see this continue. Offense and pitching showed up at the same time, and that was great. Can't say it's a bad thing at all for the bullpen to get a day off.

Schobel was just drafted in 2022 and is in high A at 22. By your formulation basically every college player we draft has to start their career in AA or they don't matter. This is Schobel's first season in full-year baseball, starting at Cedar Rapids is just fine. Everyone wants "difference makers" but age doesn't decide that, and I'd rather the team make decisions about where to place a player be done based on their individualized development track, not their age.

Yep, he's definitely on a roll in June. He's still so young, so it's great to see him back on track and looking recovered from the injury. Schobel is on a heater right now, and could get an early promotion too. He's improved every month at the plate and looking like a dangerous player. It'll be interesting to see how he does when he faces more advanced pitchers, but nice to see a 2nd round pick doing well early. Really nice wave of position players at Cedar Rapids right now: Rosario, Rodriguez, Schobel, Cossetti, and Cardenas are all looking good, and there's still tons of potential in Urbina, Salas, and Miller. (I'm not sure how Morales fits in; at 24 and repeating a level he needs to be crushing it...but catchers often develop later) But there's a ton of talent on that roster and players that are going to be pushing for promotion.

Prices are higher, parking is harder? They still seem to be doing fine for AAA. Congrats to Balazovic for making it to MLB and having a good first outing. He's had a long and complicated road, and it's good to see him doing well especially after the messy spring training.

Do the Twins intend to stretch Raya out at all this season? I'm all for being cautious with a young pitcher coming off an injury, but 47 pitches? At some point you have to let a starter throw 75 and start finding out what you really have in a guy. It's the middle of June, not April.

hard to know with a guy like this. Maybe he just needed the development time and could be an asset in MLB. Maybe he's a AAAA player who can nuke AAA pitching but will get pushed around by MLB. It'll be interesting to see if he gets an opportunity. It's always one of the hard calls, whether you can count on players like this to be our depth layer in AAA as a hedge against injury. Maybe he's figured something out that lets him make enough contact to let his power stroke play, but he was doing this in Wichita last season and then kinda stunk when he got promoted. He's hammering the ball right now, making good contact, drawing walks, and doing everything right at the plate...but his overall AAA slash line is good not "you must allow him to play in MLB NOW". It would be great if he turns out to be a late-bloomer, though!

Pick one argument, eh? First you want him to manage the team, then you want him to not touch the lineup (I assume you meant lineup rather than roster?).

I think doing a concert series like this is a great use of Target Field and a smart promotion by the Twins. I think it's cool that they're trying a range of options for shows to appeal to different fans, and I hope everyone had a great time.

and positional flexibility. the only spot on the dirt Kepler can play is 1B. Castro can actually play a passable SS in a pinch. I don't want to make a bigger deal out of Willi Castro than we need to; he should be a minor part of the team. He's got utility, and more utility than someone like Kepler does at this point, sadly. But sending him down for a week probably won't make much difference...and shouldn't. I increasingly like Castro as a 26th man; he's been doing all the things you need from that spot: playing wherever we need a guy, giving you a speed option in late games, etc. But he's also going to be overstretched as a starter, and will have weeks where he couldn't hit water if he fell out of a @&%#% boat.

I assumed that since he only went 2 innings that he would be available to pitch 2-3 innings again on Friday and they are looking at keeping Winder as a part of the bullpen until Thielbar or someone is ready to come back. not unreasonable since Moran (who has been pretty effective this season since April until yesterday's shocker) and Pagan can both go multiple innings.

Look, it's possible you're right and Sonny Gray is mad at the Twins, doesn't like Rocco, thinks the designs they have for him are wrong, doesn't trust Maki, is sick of the whole thing and wants out, whatever. (I don't believe there's good information to prove it, however) But if Sonny Gray thinks he's going to go to another team and suddenly they're going to be letting him go 7-8 innings on the regular, throwing 110+ pitches, etc then he's dreaming. How many teams are out there that see a starter at 90+ pitches through 5 and think "sure, he's probably got another 1-2 innings in him" any longer? At least in June, anyways. (playoffs might be different) Pretty much everyone thinks Gray is gone after this season, but that's because he's pitching well enough to command a very nice multi-year contract, and the Twins are unlikely to go 3-4 years for a player entering his age-34 season at $20M AAV, especially when they can get a compensatory pick for him by making the QO (which they would be happy to pay if he accepted). It's not because they think Sonny Gray hates it here. It's about the money, the contract length, and the draft pick.

I don't think it's obvious at all. Gray is feisty, a competitor, and never wants to come out of a game, especially if he's been struggling a bit. Whether he has a personal issue with Rocco or Maki or the front office or whomever is total guesswork right now, and might always be. he's not taking personal shots at anyone, we're not seeing blind quotes or any of the old "sources behind the scenes say" stuff to suggest that there's a real conflict or a problem there. I think Gray is just a little different cat than some: he's direct, pretty honest, and very very competitive. but he also seems like a good teammate who doesn't go after guys in the press (whether it's management or players) just because he's mad.

I think that's right. And they definitely assumed some risk in bullpen construction this season, going into the season expecting to get value out of Alcala (who unfortunately has not really come back after his lost season), Lopez (who has really struggled lately, and sadly looks like someone we just bought high on), Thielbar (who has been out with injury for 5 weeks now), and Pagan (whom no one outside of the Twins organization really trusts), and Sands (who was more lucky than good before also getting hurt). That's probably too many questions to have in your bullpen going into a season, even for a team that's shown they can find guys like Brock Stewart as the season goes along. but it's also hard to find reliable consistent relievers in MLB, which is one of the reasons the Twins haven't been interested in spending a lot on the free agent market for relievers. (Some of us, including me, wanted the Twins to consider a reunion with Trevor May: he's been awful. or Taylor Rogers, who was bad last year, good the year before, bad the year before that and is good again this year...but would you want to be on the hook for 2 more years at $12M per?) But at the end of the day, I don't think there's all that much in any "conflict" between Rocco and Sonny. Gray wants to stay in the game; he always wants to stay in the game. Rocco will take it into account, and might give him more rope than a younger pitcher, but is also looking at the the game in hand and the season as a whole. He's not going to burn 2 weeks of Sonny Gray starts for an extra inning (managing injury risk is the managers job, and we've seen that you can't always trust players on this stuff) and he's going to expect every player on the roster to do their job. Gray's really competitive, and he's going to be mad about coming out (and I'd be willing to bet one of the reasons he was maybe a little more fired up was he was mad at himself for walking 3 guys in the inning) and he's not afraid to show it. Rocco also isn't afraid to push back, and isn't going to back down. No one's calling anyone any names or anything.

I'm really confused why you think changing the manager will significantly cut down on the hitter's strikeouts. A new manager isn't swinging the bat. Twins pitching was bad last night, and it sucked. They let a meh Tigers squad feel hope instead of stomping on their faces. Gray did not have it and was fighting his command. I get there are those who thought he should have gotten a chance to get it back in the 5th, but he did nothing in the 4th to show he should. 3 walks in an inning is pretty bad, and it's not like he was getting squeezed by the ump. Moran couldn't hold it down, and Lopez let them tack on extras in the 9th which technically didn't change the outcome but sure felt like they put it out of reach. Just not a good night for the pitching staff outside of Pagan (man, that feels weird to type). Offense was a bit toothless last night outside of the 2nd, but Boyd did a good job hitting the zone. Got to re-set for Friday and put this one behind them.

These 4 game sets are something. sweep it and you're off to the races and thrilled. 3-1 and you're still feeling very good about things, but you only net 2 games. 2-2 and you're frustrated and disappointed, 1-3 and you're ticked off and wondering what's wrong with the team, and if you get swept you're heating the tar, plucking the feathers, sharpening the pitchforks, and lighting the torches. I'd love to see the offense really get on a roll here, the bullpen to settle down, and the starting pitching to keep rolling. this is the perfect time to punch the Tigers in the mouth and send them to the beach early in the year.

Cossetti is an interesting prospect. He's unlikely to make any national lists (too old, no pedigree, etc) but catchers sometimes develop later and if he can keep hitting as he advances through the minors and stick at catcher as a good receiver back there he could get very interesting. Took Mitch Garver a while to make it to the majors, but that worked out pretty well for the Twins. Soularie is having a decent season at AA as well. I think if he's going to K this much that he's going to need to show most consistent pop in his bat, but it'll be fun to see where he finishes the year. He struggled at the plate last season, so it's nice to see him doing better even after moving up a level again. I would like Brooks Lee to keep pushing the average up, but it's good to see him knocking doubles out there. I'll be interested to see how his splits wind up by the end of the season; so far he's been significantly better hitting from the left side; if he can tick up the OBP and SLG a bit from the right I'll be feeling more confident about his ability to be weapon from both sides of the plate in the future.

Value play. Reardon was the closer on a championship squad and got the job done. Aguilera & Nathan were both better, but you had to find savings somewhere because of the $$ restrictions in this scenario. felt like the drop off to some other positions was higher. Give me another $2-4 to work with and I'm probably looking a lot harder at Aggie or Nathan.

Interesting list and there's definitely some value plays. My first cut at this put me $2 over which forced some hard sacrifices. But here's where I landed with this tight budget: P - Johan Santana $3 C - Joe Mauer $5 1B - Justin Morneau $3 2B - Brian Dozier $2 SS - Cristian Guzman $1 3B - Corey Koskie $4 LF - Shane Mack $3 CF - Kirrrrrrrrrbeeeeeee Puckett $5 RF - Michael Cuddyer $2 DH - Jim Thome $3 CL - Jeff Reardon $2 Best value plays: Brian Dozier and Jeff Reardon for $2, Johan Santana for $3. Toughest cut for me: dropped Hrbek.