jmlease1

LOL, Austin Martin has been one of our best hitters? I'm rooting for the guy, but he's got an OPS of .686 since returning to the Twins after his injury. He's got a career OPS+ of 89, and his OPS+ in 2025 is 86. There are things to criticize Baldelli over, and it's more than fair to be saying it's time for a different manager after 7 years and missing the playoffs in 4 of the past 5...but making stuff up because you hate the manager really needs to stop around here.

Can we stop with the Sonny Gray nonsense? He left because St. L offered him a lot more money and it put him closer to his home. Berrios wouldn't sign an extension because he wanted more money/years than the Twins were willing to pay, not because he "hated" Rocco. Find me ONE pitcher who left because he didn't like the manager, with actual proof, not just things you've inferred because YOU don't like the manager. I'm pretty sure Sonny Gray has never wanted to come out of a game in his entire life, even if he'd given up 9 runs and couldn't throw a strike. So either he's hated every manager he's ever played for, or this is all just nonsense. BTW, his last season in MN, where he was the runner up for the AL Cy Young, Gray averaged 5.75 innings per start. In St. Louis the next season it was 5.92. This season it's 5.62. Does he hate Marmol now too?

Premier FA aren't going to look at MN as an attractive landing spot because the Pohlads are unlikely to issue a payroll that will accommodate their salary demands. They'll be able to sign free agents if they're willing to pay them. That's the basic reality with pro sports. Some teams have an advantage because playing in a bigger market is more attractive to many FA, but at the end of the day the biggest advantage those bigger markets have is their payroll. When things are evened out more (like the NFL) small markets have no trouble signing free agents so long as they pay them. Green Bay has no trouble signing people in the NFL. Hell, even a gross franchise with a disgusting racist owner and a lengthy track record of incompetence like the Clippers (Sterling Era) were still able to sign FA's...when they paid them. Players want to get paid (as they should). Meet their price and you can sign them. Don't and they'll go elsewhere.

They talked about this on the broadcast; apparently Buxton doesn't like it. It's something that he's not comfortable with. :shrug: (I'll expect the people screaming either about how much Buxton is paid and/or blaming this on Rocco being a bad manager in 3...2...1...)

The good thing about Pohlad ownership has been that they don't tend to pretend they know baseball well enough to interfere with the day to day baseball decisions, screw around with the manager or try to act like a de facto GM. The bad thing about the Pohlad ownership is almost every other business decision beyond getting Target Field build has been either wrong or poorly executed. Maybe you'd prefer to blame that all on Dave St. Peter, but I'd say the massive bungling of their media rights and reach is on ownership and hasn't just been a 1-time thing. The stunning tone-deafness at multiple points is on ownership. Joe Pohlad almost certainly is a baseball fan in a way that no other member of the family is. Which is a good thing...except for the fact that he hasn't shown any actually competence/success in his time as the family's ownership representative...and still has to answer to the rest of the clan (Jim still represents the team to the league, and it's not like this transaction has increased Joe's share of the team where he individually controls a chunk of it; it's still just part of the Pohlad companies). On the one hand, we're being asked to hope that he'll be able to convince the family of more investment in the team. On the other hand, we're running the risk that the 3rd generation rich kid is going to try and involve himself more on the baseball side to try and prove himself. The reporting says that the capital investment is going to pay down debt...but no one knows how much of that debt will get paid down, and we never will because they will never ever open their books to an independent evaluator that's allowed to speak publicly. And what about the Pohlad ownership should make anyone trust them at their word? And even if they're clearing their debt service off the operating costs, they're exactly the sort of owners that will just replace that with the money owed to Correa for the next 3 seasons, and keep payroll low for 2026 with the anticipation of lockout in 2027. The apparent business decisions of the Pohlad Family in relationship to the Twins after getting Target Field built (utilizing public financing and a lot of public funds) have given me nothing to believe we should be ok with them continuing to own the team.

Kind of loss that's representative of the Twins season: good enough to win, but managed to lose. They did a pretty good job against Skubal, who is a beast, and exactly the kind of pitcher capable to annihilating the Twins lineup. And yet they battled well against him. Ober was...ok? The 2-run homer was disappointing, and right now Ober seems to have these stretches where he just loses it for a bit and starts getting hit in an inning. But the changeup looked good and he overall looked more like the pitcher we've seen most of his Twins career against a good lineup. But the difference between being good and meh is whether or not you can finish off innings, and Ober couldn;t do it in the 4th. Very good game by Julien; 2 hits vs a LHP? First dinger Skubal has given up to a LH all season? That's good work, and he played a more than credible 1B. He hasn't been hitting enough in august and needs a lot more games like this or he's going to push himself out of any Twins plans (which I'm sure is what many around here are hoping for...)

Dan Barreiro burner account has just entered the chat.

I think you meant, "Mr. Ishbia"...

It's always going to be a threat when you have owners like the Pohlads. Is it likely, or the biggest threat to Twins fandom? No, but it's always going to be lurking. Stadium situations are usually the biggest impetus driving relocation, and the Twins status is still pretty good on that one.

people need to stop putting Wallner in the same group with Larnach. Wallner has been a much more productive hitter, and it's simply not close. Stylistically they might be similar but, Wallner's got a career OPS+ of 131; Larnach is at 99. Wallner has an OPS+ of 116 this season in a down year for him; Larnach's career high is 116.

Pohlads exited the banks years ago as well. If anything, the primary family business these days is commercial real estate, which is going through some real struggles as an industry. But they're diversified as well. The Twins are probably the single biggest, saleable asset though. "Stability" was a poor term for what we're likely to see for Twins leadership: stagnation is a better term at this point. I can respect loyalty and there is something to be said for not being reactionary in your decision-making for sports franchises; we've seen many times in pro sports how teams get sunk by wild/impulsive moves (are things going well for the Phoenix Suns?). And stable organizations tend to do better over the long term, and can often bring sustained success. But you also can't get complacent. You have to recognize when things are going in the wrong direction or when new voices are needed. And the Pohlads have pretty consistently shown complacency since '86. The only real instances of them being somewhat aggressive is moving out Bill Smith (who had a bunch of notable and high profile fails) and Molitor (who still got 4 full seasons). I don't have the hate or contempt for Falvey that some do around here, but he's had 9 years, and instead of getting us to sustainable winning, they've missed the playoffs 4 of the last 5 seasons and are back in a rebuild. Twins may not be losing 90+ games like they did in the late 90's or early '10s, but there's been a lot of mediocrity. They haven't developed enough hitters, even if the pitching pipeline that some like to mock constantly is actually looking pretty deep and strong. I don't have the hate or contempt for Rocco (and I refuse to make up stuff about him like some people do pretty consistently) than many around here do, but they've missed the playoffs 4 of the last 5 seasons and he's had 7 seasons to lead the squad. It's more than fair to say it's time for someone else to get a turn at the tiller. But it seems like we won't get that, and expectations appear to have been drastically lowered by ownership, back to the bad old days. Ownership is responsible for setting expectations of the baseball staff. They're responsible for making smart business decisions, and putting together a competent business operation to market the team and grow the fanbase. The Pohlad Family is a failure at that, and their version of "stability" is a continuation of that kind of failure.

Not the best day from the top prospects in the system! It'll happen. Good to see Eeles having some good days, but his OBP is still higher than his slugging for the season, and until he starts showing that he's got a little more pop back in his bat I don't see him as being an option beyond a reserve utility guy. The OPS he's carrying right now is not impressive in the international league. Have to wonder if the knee is still bothering him a bit in recovery and whether or not he'll be able to build back a stronger base to hit from. I was slightly less outraged by trading away Brock Stewart than many, simply because he's not a player you can realistically count on as a bullpen building block, but that doesn't mean I'm sold on Outman. He's going to have to do quite a bit more to convince me he can be part of anything here. That said, it would be hilarious if the Twins are able to "fix" him, considering how some people think the Dodgers are so great at player development that you shouldn't even consider someone they want to get rid of... Nice start by Langenberg. He had an awful start to the season but has looked substantially better in the last month. Still a long way to go for him, IMHO: the walk rates simply have to come down. He's only had 4 games this season where he was under 2 walks (out of 19) and even in this more recent and improved stretch he's handed out 2 free passes in each of the last 5. But it looks like he's starting to figure some things out. Good for DeBarge to have a couple of good games; really hope he can finish strong because he's been pretty rough for the past few months and right now we've seen the bad hitter for more games than the good one this season.

It's not that we hate wins, it's just the pitcher wins as a stat don't really tell you all that much about how good they are. I'm perfectly happy to have Joe Ryan rack up win after win, it's just not how I'm going to evaluate his individual season. I'm much more interested in his ERA, his xFIP, his WHIP, his HR/9, etc to compare how dominant he's been in relation to the rest of the league and how successful he's been as an individual.

Listen, I hope you're right. But why on earth should any Twins fan trust that the Pohlads won't stick the knife in us? Ryan is exactly the kind of player the team should be extending and making the foundation of their pitching staff, so I expect he'll get dealt for prospects as the world's most tone-deaf ownership tries to sell us that we should be happy about it. A really nice win. I hate the Yankees. I still hate them more than the Pohlads, but the gap has closed significantly. Buxton is having an excellent season. So fun to watch. Glad he's got a no trade, because they would have sold him and his very reasonable contract off too.

I can't wait to see who the limited partners are. Would love to know who thinks being partners with the Pohlads on baseball is a good plan. And definitely would like to know how much of a stake they're getting and whether any of it will be paying down the debt on the team (seems highly unlikely). This feels entirely like a way for the Pohlad family to get a cash infusion for themselves without having to fight MLB about debt rules while retaining control over everything. There's nothing so far that suggests anything good for the franchise or fans. One of the worst possible results I can think of. Even if Falvey and company get fired...who wants Joe Effing Pohlad hiring the next guy to run the ship? Hells bells that seems like a disaster, especially since it sounds like Joe thinks he knows what he's doing, despite sucking at everything so far.

I believe this is the best outcome for Joe, who otherwise was never, ever going to be a significant player in any MLB franchise ever again. This might (ugh) allow him to essentially stay as the principal decision-maker in ownership. A horrific outcome, and massive kick in the nuts to Twins fans.

Just made it easy for me to not get tickets for next season.

Fedko could certainly be taken in the Rule V, especially if he's had a good run at AAA. Someone like him doesn't get picked when they're in AA or lower because the chance they're ready to contribute is simply lower and without playing a premier defensive position, you can't really commit the roster spot. But if you're a team like the Rockies, you would absolutely look very hard at a guy like Kyler Fedko in the Rule V because you might be able to throw him out in the field to start the season and see if you have something at very low risk. Here's hoping Fedko does enough in AAA to make it a real consideration for the Twins. I'm still not sure he can be a real MLB hitter (the power has been inconsistent until this season and he's historically not had the kind of BA you'd expect to see from a real prospect either) but maybe this is the season he figured something significant out and it's changed his profile. Bohorquez did great. When he's not giving up too many free passes, his stuff really plays. Nice to see him off to a good start in Cedar Rapids. He's still got quite a way to go, but there might be something there, and he'll battle to get on the Twins top prospects list. Nice to see DeBarge get a couple of hits. He's really been scrabbling the last couple of months, with all the pop in his bat vanishing and he simply wasn't performing well at the plate. The SB's are neat, but aggressive runners can rack them up in A-ball. As was noted elsewhere: Ed Julien racked up 34 steals and was only caught 5 times in A-ball, and he's not exactly a speedster. DeBarge needs to hit or the steals won't matter much. Hopefully he finishes the season strong.

Awful game by the Twins. might not have gotten shutout, somehow...but might have been the worst loss of the season. Absolutely dreadful. 11 free passes from Adams and Hatch? That's horrific. 1 hit? That's all we got, 1 goddamn hit? I'm glad I had plans and missed this abomination. Rotten performance against the team I hate the most. Hells, bells it wasn't even over quickly with all those walks (2:52? Ew.) Hope the guys can throw it away and not completely suck in the last game of the series.

I wouldn't mind seeing Keaschall get some time in the leadoff spot; he does seem to have a lot of good skills for it, which would also allow Buxton to drop into the 3rd spot and maybe have more runners on base when he clouts a dinger. Martin is a fair pick, and so is Buxton (who enjoys it and is kind of Rickey-esque in the role). Nice to actually have good options that have some speed, as opposed to ones who are just high OBP dudes. It'd be nice to have a LH or switch hitter that could slot in between Keachall & Buxton in the 2-hole. Maybe someone from the pool of Lee, Roden, Gasper, and Julien will show out in the last chunk of the season. (Clemens feels like a better fit lower in the lineup and Larnach is a DP waiting to happen too often I think, and Wallner should be hitting cleanup I think) Maybe next season it looks something like this: Keaschall Rodriguez Buxton Wallner Lewis Clemens Jeffers DH/OF To Be Named Later Lee Maybe Roden grabs the last spot, maybe Larnach is back, maybe someone else steps up (a resurgent Julien, a bit unlikely but still possible, or Fedko gets a shot...god forbid they sign a real FA) We'd need to see better health from Rodriguez & Lewis (and I'd have no complaints if GG claimed a spot on the roster and pushed Wallner to a DH role, or if Culpepper pushed Lee to the bench, but who knows right now) but if the younger guys are performing it could get to be a difficult lineup to navigate, with good balance and better speed than what we've been used to.

Neither Wallner nor Julien made the top 100 lists. Miranda barely cracked a top 100 list in one season. It's not a great track record, but you're underrating Wallner and his career 132 OPS+. Larnach is a platoon outfielder. Lewis Royce has tons and tons of injuries, but still looks like he can be a quality starter. Rodriguez is yet to be determined; still plenty young, but also constantly dealing with injuries. notably, Kirilloff, Miranda, Gordon, Lewis, and Rodriguez have all had significant injury issues. The inference here is that the Twins made bad decisions on all these players and/or failed to develop them, but for half the list injury issues have derailed their careers in some way. None of these guys had a discernible history of injuries when selected (none of them were guys like Preilipp...or even Keaschall, who was known to have a elbow issue that would need to be addressed). Are you saying the Twins should have known that these guys would all get hurt?

I think there's some real possibilities here with the lineup, but let's not have blinders on to the risks of making Culpepper the starting SS out the gate, etc. Maybe he's ready to hit in MLB in 2026, maybe not but it's a real risk to go that direction. Clemens is ok as a transition 1B; he's been doing well this season, and you have to like his gamer attitude along with the increased power production, but I'd be concerned that teams are going to be able to put a book on him together after seeing 400 ABs of him swinging out of his shoes to hit homers this year and m=reduce his effectiveness significantly. I'm already kind of Out on Outman, and while Roden might be an acceptable 4th OF if he shows he can handle CF well down the stretch and actually hit like a MLB player...he's not there yet. Basically this bench looks terrible outside of Brooks Lee (who adds much more defensively than offensively at this point, though I still have hope for his bat and his floor is reasonable), which is pretty risky when relying on a lot of rookies + Keaschall and a return to form from Lewis to carry the load. The upside is there, but the risk is high. The pitching staff is where I really disagree. I don't think Matthews, Festa, SWR, and Ober are all getting moved into the bullpen for 2026, nor does it make all that much sense to do so just to slot in Bradley & Abel. (It's also notable this piece has the Twins carrying 14 pitchers, which they aren't allowed to do...) Total agree with above that no team is going to take their 6th-9th starters and slot them all into the bullpen, either. Ober is almost certainly in the rotation next season. The bullpen needs work and reinforcements from beyond just the organization. While Raya might be an option to transition, it's not like he's had a good season in limited innings. Adams is showing enough to suggest that he could be a middle relief type who can give multiple innings, but this team is woefully short on guys that would handle higher leverage. Preilipp has the talent for it, but also has the talent to start. Lewis doesn't really have the pitch mix to make sense as a reliever, outside of maybe being a bulk inning guy. Sands has taken a step back this season and looks like a typical reliever in that you'll never be sure which guy you'll get in a season. And the real issue continues to be ownership, because if the damn Pohlads keep the team, I'm quite certain they'll dump Pablo for salary relief, and I wouldn't be shocked at all if Ryan follows him out the door (even though Ryan should be someone you're trying to extend) because the cheap Pohlads are going to make sure they maximize their profits on their way out the door until they get the price they want. Jeffers probably goes too. They won't be in the Oakland situation of needing to reach a salary floor because even the union will give them a pass for one season; Oakland paid no one for years. They'll let the Twins payroll fall to the bottom for at least one year, especially while the team is being sold. The good news is there's still talent on the roster and in the high minors that could make this a short turnaround. But there's risk in it and as long as the Pohlads have the team, there's even more risk that anyone making over $5M without a no-trade clause could be heading for the door, which takes away guys that have more proven track records to support the younger players. I'm excited by what guys like Culpepper & Jenkins can bring, along with other young/younger hitters, and there's a lot of starting pitching depth, along with high-end talent there. But the bullpen is a disaster zone that will not get fixed by just dropping the possibly worst starters into the 'pen in 2026. Sell the team. Please, sell the team!

It's great to see him doing well at AAA so far, but it would also be the first time he hasn't needed to repeat a level to find success in his pro career. At a certain point you have to ask how much of his success is beating up on younger players? It's great that he earned his way up to AAA, and he might be a useful player who can play corner OF/1B/DH...but it's hard to see him as a prospect at his age with inconsistent power and a relatively low BA in the minors. But maybe he's finally putting it all together? If nothing else, he should be good organizational depth. Let's hope he continues to hit well for the rest of the season at AAA.

Please stay healthy. That's my biggest hope on all three of these guys. (especially Jenkins, who has gotten dinged a couple of times already in his career) Wouldn't mind at all seeing Culpepper and/or Jenkins get some run in AAA to finish the season: the performance has merited it for sure. I think both are in spring training next season and not just to get a taste of what big league spring training is like, but as guys who can earn a spot. Regardless of how that goes, I'm pretty confident we'll see them at Target Field in 2026 before midseason. An OF of Buxton, Wallner, and Jenkins is pretty exciting to think about (and E-Rod or GG pushing Wallner to DH through performance would also be exciting) and an infield featuring Culpepper, Lewis, and Keaschall is also exciting. Here's hoping the team is sold soon.

I mean, he struck out looking. Better trade him. :rolls eyes: I hate the Yankees. Sick of losing to them all the damn time. They're not even playing that well, and they smoked us last night. Ugh! Zebby...did a lot of good things, but 3 dingers, even if they're solo shots is not great. One of the things I'm looking at with the young starters is what they're doing when they get to a 2-strike count on a hitter and what they're doing to finish them off. My frustration is when it's 0-2 or 1-2, a pitcher's count, and our guy throws an uncompetitive pitch. Saw that a few times from Zebby where he had them on the ropes and let them off the hook and gave them a chance to reset and grind the AB by throwing a breaking ball that was nowhere near the plate. Feel like that has to be the next step to correct? Offense was pretty somnolent. Warren looked like he was going to rack up a bazillion K's early and it set the tone.